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2024 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Results & aftermath

Sainz surges to epic victory in Oz after Verstappen’s mechanical failure on Lap 4; Leclerc second for a Ferrari 1-2; Norris P3 & Piastri P4 for McLaren; Perez P5 in lone surviving Red Bull, as Mercedes suffer double DNF

In his first race back after missing the Saudi Arabian GP two weeks ago with appendicitis surgery, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz demonstrated epic grit and determination, as well as superb skill, to take an amazing victory in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix. Sainz was undeniably helped by the stunning mechanical failure of Max Verstappen’s normally bulletproof Red Bull on only Lap 4 of this 58-lap event at the beautiful Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne. Verstappen’s RB20 suffered a terminal brake issue at the right rear that actually exploded the wheel as he pulled into the pits to retire the car. It was the first DNF for the flying Dutchman in 43 races, the last one ironically also occurring here in 2022. Nevertheless, the Ferraris had genuine pace and Sainz appeared up for the challenge of a mano-a-mano battle even had Verstappen not been so unlucky, and the Spaniard rapidly proved the class of the field in the three-time champion’s absence. Even his teammate, Charles Leclerc, couldn’t really challenge Sainz’s pace at the front and when the race was ended under a Virtual Safety Car due to George Russels’s dramatic late race crash, it was a Ferrari 1-2 highlighted by a remarkably gutsy performance from Sainz, a man only recently returned from a hospital bed and certainly unable to train for the Grand Prix weekend as he normally would. While Albert Park seems particularly well suited to Ferrari’s cars every time they visit Down Under, F1 fans will hope that the Prancing Horses’ dominance on Sunday was a harbinger for more good things to come in 2024 vis a vis a genuine fight with Red Bull. And for Sainz personally, who was let go by the Scuderia for next year in favor of Lewis Hamilton, it was certainly one of the finest advertisements any free agent pilot has offered prospective future employers in the F1 paddock.

Team McLaren had the second best day amongst the constructors under the sunny Melbourne skies. With Lando Norris starting from P3 on the grid and teammate Oliver Piastri P5 at his home GP, Norris was able to retain that final podium spot when the checkers flew, while Piastri improved to a P4 finish. While they never really had the pace to challenge Leclerc once the Monegasque had cleared Norris via a one-lap undercut on the first pit sequence early on, they did manage to keep the lone surviving Red Bull of Sergio Peres well and truly behind Piastri in the final third of the race. Perez was hampered by a 3-place grid penalty after he was adjudged to have impeded Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg during Saturday qualifying, dropping him to a P6 starting position. While he did make up one position, it appeared his Red Bull suffered with tire degradation and dropped off on pace later in the tire stints. With Verstappen’s shocking DNF and Perez only able to gather 10 points for the team with his P5 finish, it was a rare lost weekend for usually imperious Red Bull.

Perhaps they can take solace in the fact that their old nemesis, the Mercedes factory team, had an even worse Australian excursion. First, Lewis Hamilton, who was looking very racy in the early going, suffered an abrupt engine failure on Lap 17. Then, to add salt to the Silver Arrows’ wounds, George Russell suffered a lurid penultimate lap crash while in pursuit of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for P6.  After the race, the stewards handed Alonso a 20-second penalty for erratic driving, deciding that the veteran two-time champ had slowed excessively through the tricky Turn 6-Turn 7 complex and forcing Russell to have to abruptly hit the brakes and change his line. That sent Russell’s Merc skidding through the gravel trap there at a high rate of knots, breaking the front suspension and eventually pitching the Briton’s Silver Arrow across the track and laying on its side. Thankfully, Russell came out of it unscathed but Alonso’s subsequent demotion from P6 to P8 was cold comfort to team Mercedes, which scored zero points for all their efforts coming in to the weekend. Team principal Toto Wolf will need an extra bottle of Maalox while he marinates on this bitter turn of events for the next fortnight.

Alonso’s Aston teammate Lance Stroll was elevated to P6 and the RB Honda of Yuki Tsunoda got P7 thanks to the naughty Spaniard’s penalty. And Haas had a splendid day, scoring points with both cars after Nico Hulkenberg in P9 and Kevin Magnussen in P10 were both able to overtake the lone Williams of Alexander Albon in crunch time. In an effort to score points, Williams had decided to allow Albon to run Logan Sargeant’s car after Albon binned his irreperably during Friday practice. But with Albon not finding the pace to come home in the points, the maneuver led to nothing more than bruised feelings for the already under the gun Sargeant.

Top 10 finishers of the Australian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 58 1:20:26.843 25
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 58 +2.366s 19
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +5.904s 15
4 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +35.770s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 58 +56.309s 10
6 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 58 +93.222s 8
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 58 +95.601s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 58 +100.992s 4
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 58 +104.553s 2
10 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 57 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks’ time with an uncharacteristically early visit to Japan’s fabled Suzuka International Racing Course. Verstappen and Red Bull will be itching for redemption and a return to their usual winning ways, while Ferrari and Sainz will be hoping to ride their Aussie high to even greater heights in Japan. Hope to see you then to find out how it all plays out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Qualifying results

Verstappen earns third consecutive pole to start season, Perez P3 for Red Bull; Sainz returns from illness to post impressive P2 time for Ferrari in Oz; Hamilton knocked out in Q2

Formula 1 returned to its regularly scheduled Saturday Qualifying on a beautifully sunny afternoon at the super fast Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Australia after two races run on Saturdays to start the 2024 season. And while the extra week off between race weekends didn’t exactly slow down Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen, who continued his torrid start by taking his third consecutive pole when all was said and done, it did lead to some positive signs for the Ferrari team in their quest to close the gap to the reigning Constructors’ and Drivers’ champions. Most hearteningly, the Scuderia’s veteran number two, Carlos Sainz, made his return from the appendectomy that had kept the Spaniard out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix two weeks ago. And not only was Sainz fit enough to compete but he also laid down a mighty impressive final lap of his own to slot in at P2 on the grid alongside the pole-sitting Verstappen to start tomorrow’s race. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez set the third fastest time of the day, while Sainz’s Scuderia stablemate, Charles Leclerc, abandoned his final quali lap and had to settle for P5.

Leclerc was sandwiched by the two McLaren’s of native Melbourne son Oscar Piastri and Englishman Lando Norris in P4 and P6 respectively. McLaren now seem to be the third best team in the paddock behind Red Bull and Ferrari, as Mercedes’ mediocrity to begin 2024 continued to manifest itself here in Round 3. For all his efforts, George Russell could do no better than P7, while Silver Arrow teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered the ignominy of getting bounced out in Q2 for the first time in Oz since 2010. Hamilton’s Benz looked a real handful and he will have to work hard come Sunday to score points starting from down in P11 with a lot of fairly evenly matched equipment in front of him. That said, Yuki Tsunoda perhaps over-performed in his RB Honda to grab P8 on the day, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso likely had room for improvement after only taking P9 and P10 on the grid respectively. Alonso, in particular, made a hash of his Q3 session with a lurid off track excursion through the gravel at Turn 6. Only the Spanish two-time champion’s cat-like reflexes saved what could have been a major shunt at one of the circuit’s trickier sections.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Australian GP:

1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:16.819 1:16.387 1:15.915 21
2 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:16.731 1:16.189 1:16.185 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:16.805 1:16.631 1:16.274 22
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:17.430 1:16.750 1:16.315 19
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:16.984 1:16.304 1:16.435 20
6 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:17.369 1:16.601 1:16.572 18
7 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:17.062 1:16.901 1:16.724 23
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:17.356 1:16.791 1:16.788 18
9 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:17.376 1:16.780 1:17.072 23
10 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:16.991 1:16.710 1:17.552 21

Continue reading →

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Results & aftermath

Verstappen romps to second consecutive victory in Round 2; Perez takes second for Red Bull 1-2; Leclerc P3 & pinch-hitting rookie Bearman a solid P7 to Ferrari’s delight

Despite having only two rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 season done and dusted, it’s already clear that is going to take an act of force majeure to prevent Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen from romping to his third consecutive Championship. This stark reality was sharply illustrated during Saturday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Verstappen scurried away from the pole and then played hide & seek with the other 19 cars for the rest of the race. While teammate Sergio Perez was able to improve on his P3 grid position by passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for second place early on, and then holding on to that prime podium spot to make it a Red Bull 1-2, he still ended up trailing the flying Dutchman by 13.6 seconds when the checkers flew at this tight and treacherous harborside street circuit.

Despite seeing Leclerc lose a position from his starting spot, Ferrari left Jeddah very happy with their points haul on the day. Facing the abrupt loss of their usual number two, Carlos Sainz, to an appendectomy on Friday, development driver Oliver Bearman was drafted from his F2 seat and thrown into the deep end of a Formula 1 race weekend. Facing the bleak prospect of potentially only one car scoring points in Sainz’s absence, Bearman instead acquitted himself well, first by qualifying in P11 on Friday. He then improved on that effort with a very professional race effort that saw him take advantage of his Prancing Horse’s natural pace advantage to get ahead of a slew of more experienced drivers in inferior equipment. Credit to the young Briton for keeping his car in one piece and for executing his overtakes with aggression if not always the utmost finesse. In any event, by the time the 50 laps of the Grand Prix had wound down, Bearman had worked his way up to a satisfying P7 points-scoring finish in his F1 debut. With Leclerc running a lonely race after Perez’s early pass nevertheless coming home on the podium in P3, it was all smiles in the Ferrari garage on what could have been a disastrous weekend. Barring any more health issues, Sainz should return to his seat at the next race weekend two weeks form now in Australia. But Bearman certainly did his future F1 prospects no harm with his confident and productive effort for the Scuderia on Saturday in Saudi Arabia.

Oscar Piastri, the junior member of McLaren’s team who was also a rookie last year but is now  now a second year driver to worth watching every GP, also had an excellent Saturday night on the banks of the Red Sea. The young Aussie had a race-long ding dong battle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, with the veteran seven-time champion holding off the young Aussie repeatedly by giving a defensive driving masterclass. Piastri had pitted early on Lap 8 under Safety Car conditions after Lance Stroll of Aston Martin clipped the wall with his front left and then went spearing into the opposite barriers at Turn 23 with a broken suspension. But both McLaren and Mercedes decided to split their strategies and Hamilton was told to stay out, as was Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris. Despite the fresher set of Hard Pirellis and his determination to haunt Hamilton’s gearbox, Piastri never could find a way by on track and only leapfrogged Lewis when he eventually pitted his Merc on Lap 37 to run the last of his race on Softs. Piastri was then free to fly as a result and Norris boxed a lap latter to deploy the same Medium-to-Soft alternate tire strategy, the latter coming out ahead of Hamilton and behind Bearman in P8. Despite Norris’s best efforts and the ostensible Soft tire advantage, the Hard-shod Bearman proved adept at holding off the McLaren for the remainder of the contest. With Bearman holding onto P7, Norris coming home P8 and Hamilton a rueful P9, Piastri bettered them all in P4, an outstanding effort by the young Aussie heading into his home race.

Fernando Alonso’s lone surviving Aston Martin salvaged P5 for the team, holding off the lead Mercedes of George Russell down the stretch. Russell finished P6, as once again Mercedes was lacking in both qualifying and real race pace compared to Ferrari and McLaren, not to mention Red Bull. Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg scored the final point in P10, in no small part to a brilliant team drive by the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen played moving roadblock for a passel of midfield cars with points aspirations, enabling teammate Hulkenberg to scamper away and build a pit-proof advantage for that eventual P10 finish.

Top 10 finishers of the Saudi Arabian GP:

1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 50 1:20:43.273 25
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 50 +13.643s 18
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 50 +18.639s 16
4 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 50 +32.007s 12
5 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 50 +35.759s 10
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 50 +39.936s 8
7 38 Oliver Bearman FERRARI 50 +42.679s 6
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 50 +45.708s 4
9 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 50 +47.391s 2
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 50 +76.996s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The teams and drivers now get a much needed rest after a breakneck start to the season — the next race is in a fortnight from Down Under, the Australian GP from the scenic Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park. Can Ferrari and Leclerc use the downtime to close the gap to the supreme Verstappen and Red Bull? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes first Jeddah pole, Perez P3 for Red Bull; Leclerc P2, rookie sub Bearman P11 for Ferrari; Alonso shines for Aston, McLaren in the hunt as Mercedes flounder

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen made it two pole positions on the trot to start his 2024 campaign, taking his first-ever pole at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Verstappen edged out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just a shade over three-tenths, the confined quarters of the Jeddah street course somewhat neutralizing the Red Bull’s usual pace advantage. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez notched P3, while Leclerc had a substitute stablemate in rookie Oliver Bearman, drafted into service right before Free Practice 3, when the ailing Carlos Sainz was forced to have surgery for appendicitis. Bearman, who had just taken pole for the F2 feature race, acquitted himself well after being thrown into the deep end of the motorsports pool, making it to Q2 and just missing out on the final qualifying session with the eleventh fastest time.

Aston Martin found some pace after a disappointing effort in Bahrain last week and veteran Fernando Alonso wrung his car’s neck to the tune of the fourth best time in Q3. Teammate Lance Stroll couldn’t match the Spanish two-time champ’s speed and qualified a distant P10. Both of McLaren’s drivers showed fine pace, with Oscar Piastri just getting the better of teammate Lando Norris, P5 to P6. Mercedes, on the other hand, really struggled in quali trim, with George Russell only able to set the seventh fastest time and Lewis Hamilton searching for balance in the car down in P8 on the grid. Yuki Tsunoda excelled for the newly christened RB F1 team (formerly AlphaTauri, formerly Toro Rosso) with a sparkling final run that earned the fiery Japanese driver P9 for tomorrow’s race start.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Saudi Arabian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:28.171 1:28.033 1:27.472 18
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:28.318 1:28.112 1:27.791 23
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:28.638 1:28.467 1:27.807 19
4 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:28.706 1:28.122 1:27.846 17
5 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:28.755 1:28.343 1:28.089 22
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:28.805 1:28.479 1:28.132 22
7 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:28.749 1:28.448 1:28.316 22
8 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:28.994 1:28.606 1:28.460 24
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:28.988 1:28.564 1:28.547 18
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:28.250 1:28.578 1:28.572 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race, another Saturday special due to the upcoming Ramadan holiday, airs live beginning at Noon Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if the very tight and perilous quarters at Jeddah will throw up some real surprises!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Verstappen opens ’24 campaign with dominant win in Bahrain, Perez P2 as Red Bull remain car to beat; Sainz out-duels Ferrari teammate Leclerc for P3

If there were any illusions remaining from the preseason that another team and driver could truly challenge the Red Bull/Max Verstappen era of dominance that was ushered in with the ground effects spec in 2022, they were quickly shattered in Round 1 of 2024. With the 2024 season starting in Bahrain on Saturday, Verstappen simply picked up where he left off last year when he had one of the most supreme seasons in F1 history. The flying Dutchman led the race’s opening lap from the pole, holding off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into Turn 1, and then rapidly distanced the field in imperious fashion. By the time the 57 laps under the lights at Bahrain International Circuit were completed, he had led every lap, set the race’s fastest lap for the extra point and bested his second place teammate Sergio Perez by a whopping 22.457 seconds. With three consecutive Formula 1 World Championships under his belt, the smart money remains on Verstappen to rack up a fourth, which would tie Sebastian Vettel’s awesome title run with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013. While obviously you’ve got to hand it to a driver who is so superior to the rest of the field and so perfectly matched to his vehicle, another season of Verstappen and Red Bull crushing everyone without breaking a sweat is probably not what the Formula 1 brass — or the millions of viewers — really want to see. Still, with a new formula not scheduled to debut until 2026, it’s highly probable that, barring any sort of previously unforeseen reliability issues, it’s going to be the Max Verstappen show on most weekends the majority of the time. Get ready to hear a lot of the Dutch national anthem.

The real battles occurred for the places not on the top step and Perez was able to hold off Ferrari’s very game Carlos Sainz to make it a perfect Red Bull one-two on the day. The veteran Mexican pilot recovered from a subpar P5 qualifying effort to take the fight to George Russell’s Mercedes and the two Prancing Horses of Sainz and Charles Leclerc ahead of him. Despite running his final stint on the more delicate if faster Soft compound Pirellis, Perez was able to nurse his tires to the end and keep the Hard-shod Sainz behind him to earn second place. Nevertheless, it was a strong effort by the Spaniard as he embarks on his final season with Ferrari after being unceremoniously dumped by the Scuderia in favor of Lewis Hamilton for next year. Perhaps driving with a bit of chip on his shoulder from that surprising turn of events, Sainz made a couple off very aggressive passes on his teammate Leclerc, no team orders required, to secure that last spot on the podium. Despite being edged into fourth by his stablemate, Leclerc still had a solid effort in the newly redesigned Ferrari SF-24, particularly as he was plagued by brake or brake bias issues all race long that resulted in multiple lockups. These issues seemed to ease up for the Monegasque when he was not in the hot air of traffic and he was able to catch up and hound Russell into a mistake on Lap 46, overtaking as the Briton’s Silver Arrow slid off track at Turn 11, thereby locking down that P4 for keeps and the valuable 3-4 for Ferrari on the day.

Mercedes also had some technical issues related to overheating that dogged them early in the race in tight quarters but abated somewhat in clean air. Russell was able to keep Lando Norris’s McLaren behind him after Leclerc got by and came home a decent P5. Teammate Hamilton battled one or two gremlins of his own but improved on his poor P9 qualifying by two spots to take P7. Norris secured P6 and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri slotted in behind Hamilton in P8, essentially confirming that, with Red Bull not really in reach, the battle for second in the Constructors’ points will likely be a three-way battle between Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren. At least in this earliest of going, it looks like Aston Martin will not really be privy to that elite competition. After their blistering start to last year, the team plateaued around midway through 2023 and seem to have failed to develop during the offseason. Despite looking fairly quick in pre-season testing and the first qualifying effort of the year on Friday, Fernando Alonso could only muster a fairly distant P9 result, with teammate Lance Stroll backstopping him in P10. Stroll does deserve special mention for that otherwise pedestrian result because he not only started from twelfth on the grid but also need up facing the wrong way on the opening lap after tangling with the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg. So, a good recovery drive from the young Canadian but still, a 9-10 is not exactly where Aston dreamed they’d be today.

Top 10 finishers of the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 57 1:31:44.742 26
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 57 +22.457s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 57 +25.110s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 57 +39.669s 12
5 63 George Russell MERCEDES 57 +46.788s 10
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 57 +48.458s 8
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 57 +50.324s 6
8 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 57 +56.082s 4
9 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 57 +74.887s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 57 +93.216s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time and it’ll be another Friday qualifying/Saturday race in Saudi Arabia to accommodate the upcoming Ramadan holiday. There won’t be any time to really upgrade the cars so, look for Red Bull & Verstappen to have another romp when the action in Round 2 gets underway, though the much tighter Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit could provide some more incidents than we saw in today’s Safety Car-free running. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas — Results & aftermath

Verstappen aces out Leclerc for win in action packed Las Vegas GP; Leclerc salvages P2 with last lap pass on Perez

Red Bull’s peerless Max verstappen continued his historic season by taking the win in the return of the Las Vegas Grand Prix after an absence of 41 years. But it was hardly smooth sailing for the already-crowned World Champion on the brand new and quite high speed Las Vegas Street Circuit. While Verstappen made his typically superior getaway to pass the pole-sitting Ferrari of Charles Leclerc at the start of the race steaming into Turn 1, he was adjudged a tad too forceful in pushing Leclerc’s Prancing Horse off the track and was eventually handed a 5-second time penalty. Meanwhile behind the skirmish at the front, a number off cars made minor contact as they got away and compressed under braking and the debris left behind prompted a quick Virtual Safety Car for cleanup. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso both ducked into the pits under that VSC for new front wings as a result of all that contact, which started when Alonso spun out on the slick surface. The race resumed on Lap 3 but was quickly halted again when something failed on the McLaren of Lando Norris and he went flying into the barriers in the runoff area at Turn 11. It was a heavy hit that required a full Safety Car for repairs and retrieval. Norris was eventually taken to hospital for observation but thanks fully released not long after.

The race resumed again at the end of Lap 6, with Verstappen managing the restart with aplomb but being told about the stewards’ judgement against him. With his initial set of Medium Pirellis already going off, however, Leclerc was actually able to re-pass Verstappen for the lead on Lap 16 without needing those 5-seconds, prompting the Red Bull braintrust to call their main man into the pits on the subsequent lap for a switch to fresh Hards and the serving of his sanction. Following him in were the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the sole surviving McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who had just made contact with each other. Hamilton got the worst of the exchange and had to limp in with a puncture but Piastri also needed repairs (although the young Aussie chose to stay on Hard tires meaning he still owed a mandatory pit stop later in the race) and both drivers lost valuable track position due to the incident. Continue reading →

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Sao Paulo — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes pole for Sao Paulo GP in rain-shortened qualifying; Leclerc P2 for Ferrari, Stroll a surprise P2 for Aston, as McLaren get caught out

With qualifying for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix taking place on Friday to accommodate the last Sprint Saturday of the season, some of the most ominous clouds imaginable rolled into Autódromo José Carlos Pace between Q2 & Q3. Sure enough, midway through that final quali session, it started chucking down rain onto the Interlagos circuit, bringing a premature end to the day’s efforts and scrambling the top ten for Sunday’s race. Of course, Max Verstappen and the Red Bull brain trust played things perfectly, getting their star pilot out as soon as the pit lane opens up for Q3. The Dutchman promptly set the fastest banker lap of what would be then only hot laps completed. Despite actually being a touch slower than his best effort in Q2, it was still good enough for pole when the session was Red Flagged and then quickly terminated. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari also did well to get out there and set a time good enough for P2 and a start on the grid right beside Verstappen. Aston Martin had a big rebound from their recent lackluster form and surprisingly it was the beleaguered Lance Stroll outpacing his more heralded teammate Fernando Alonso, P3 to P4 respectively. The Mercedes duo slotted in behind the Astons, with Lewis Hamilton wringing the neck of his unruly Silver Arrow to take the fifth fastest time of the session and George Russell* backstopping him in P7 [*Russell was later penalized two grid spots for “driving unnecessarily slowly and failing to follow Race Director’s instructions”.]

Losing out when the rains brought things to a premature end were team McLaren, which failed to put things together early in the going and were punished for it after showing what looked to be pole-challenging pace in Q1 and Q2. Lando Norris could manage no better than the seventh fastest time on the board, while Oscar Piastri had a spin on his only flying lap when the track just started to get wet and did not record a time. The impressive Australian rookie will be relegated to starting from tenth come race day, though look for both McLarens to aggressively fight their way towards the front with what should still be superior race pace to Mercedes and Aston Martin, and perhaps Ferrari, as well. Speaking of which, the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was a bit behind the eight ball all day long and could muster no better than a P8 time when all was said and done. Red Bull’s struggling Sergio Perez was similarly off his teammate’s pace and qualified back in P9. Perez will have his work cut out for him in the Grand Prix and must avoid being over-aggressive, as he was when he crashed out on Lap 1 in Mexico City last week. After fading so badly this year, Perez is frankly fighting to retain his Red Bull ride for 2024 and badly needs some sort of positive result from Sunday’s race.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Sao Paulo GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:10.436 1:10.162 1:10.727 18
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:10.472 1:10.303 1:11.021 18
3 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:10.551 1:10.375 1:11.344 16
4 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:10.557 1:10.237 1:11.387 18
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:10.604 1:10.266 1:11.469 21
6 63 George Russell* MERCEDES 1:10.340 1:10.316 1:11.590 21
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:10.623 1:10.021 1:11.987 13
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:10.624 1:10.254 1:11.989 20
9 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:10.668 1:10.219 1:12.321 17
10 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:10.519 1:10.330 DNF 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at Noon Eastern here in the States. Will more stormy weather play havoc with the Grand Prix or will it be simply smooth sailing for Verstappen as the flying Dutchman looks to extend his record win tally? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of the United States — Qualifying results

Leclerc bests Norris for USGP pole at COTA, Hamilton earns P3 for Sunday’s race; Verstappen drops from P1 to P6 after final lap deleted due to track limits violation

Formula 1 returned to the United States for the second of three planned visits in 2023, this time to the fantastic Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the United States Grand Prix. Round 19 was once again another frantic Sprint weekend for the second race in a row so, qualifying for Sunday’s race took place on Friday, while the Sprint Shootout qualifying and the Sprint will occur on Saturday. On the fast and flowing COTA in front of a packed house on a hot Texas day, it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who came away with pole for the actual race, once again excelling on a Sprint weekend. Leclerc was genuinely fast here but he also benefitted from a rare mistake by Max Verstappen late in Q3. The Red Bull ace, who has already been crowned World Champion with five races still to be run, was pushing hard on his final flying lap but overstepped track limits at Turn 19. So, while he crossed the line with the session’s fastest time unofficially, it was quickly deleted by the stewards for the infraction, plunging him back down the order based on his earlier official time. Unable to try again, Verstappen was eventually relegated to a P6 start for Sunday’s Grand Prix, an unenviable position even for the three-time champ on a circuit where no driver has won from below the front row.

That last, somewhat curious statistic must certainly cheer Leclerc, who is still seeking his first win of 2023, and it certainly also heartened McLaren’s Lando Norris, who ran a nice clean quali and slotted in across from Leclerc in P2, 0.13-seconds off the Monegasque’s pole-setting pace. Lewis Hamilton was also in the mix on a track where he always seems to thrive, wrestling his Mercedes to the third fastest Q3 lap, while teammate George Russell earned P5 on the grid by besting Verstappen’s previously set time. Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz split the Silver Arrows in P5 and the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon came home P7 and P8 respectively. Sergio Perez continued his recent slump in the second Red Bull and bewilderingly could only manage the ninth fastest time. Likewise, Oliver Piastri was not close to McLaren teammate Norris’s pace a fortnight after beating him out for P2 in the Qatar GP. Starting in P10, the talented young Aussie will have his work cut out for him to get back on the podium come race day in Austin.

Most significantly outside the top 10 qualifiers, Aston Martin’s second-half slide continued, as new “upgrades” for this weekend proved to be duds due to problems getting the cars on track in the only pre-qualifying practice session earlier in the day. Fernando Alonso failed to get to Q3 for the first time this year and was unceremoniously knocked out in Q1, along with troubled teammate Lance Stroll. Alonso will start the race a lowly P17 and Stroll, who is facing heaps of criticism for shoving his physio during qualifying in Qatar, will start P19. That leaves Aston Martin praying for at least some points from the Saturday Sprint, as they feel soaring McLaren’s hot breath on their necks for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship.

Top 10 qualifiers for United States GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:36.061 1:35.004 1:34.723 21
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:35.110 1:35.441 1:34.853 20
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:35.091 1:35.240 1:34.862 18
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:35.824 1:35.302 1:34.945 18
5 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:36.165 1:35.606 1:35.079 18
6 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:35.346 1:35.008 1:35.081 18
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 1:36.158 1:35.496 1:35.089 19
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:36.131 1:35.413 1:35.154 21
9 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:35.989 1:35.679 1:35.173 17
10 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:36.064 1:35.576 1:35.467 20

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Sunday’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 3PM Eastern here in the States. With so many cars and drivers loving COTA’s unique challenges and showing genuine pace, and with Verstappen handicapped by a P6 grid position, it truly could be anyone’s race. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Qatar — Results & aftermath

Verstappen puts exclamation point on third championship with win in Qatar GP; Piastri, Norris P2 & P3 for high flying McLaren; Russell survives opening lap incident with teammate Hamilton, recovers to impressive P4 finish

After clinching his third consecutive Drivers’ World Championship by virtue of his second place finish in Saturday’s Sprint race, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen went out and put a further stamp on his dominant 2023 by winning the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday. Despite no longer needing the win, the flying Dutchman nevertheless put his head down during hot and humid evening conditions at Lusail International Circuit and held off the best efforts of the massively improved McLarens of Oliver Piastri and Lando Norris. In the end, it was Verstappen’s eye-popping fourteenth win of the season out of seventeen races run. That’s one behind his own record total from last year so, you can be sure he’ll be looking to exceed even that high bar with five more GP still to go. While Verstappen “only” won by 4.8 seconds over the impressive young Piastri, some of that close margin was undoubtedly due to Pirelli and the FIA mandating maximum 18-lap tire stints out of safety concerns for the durability of the rubber while being punished by the harsh curbs of Lusail, making for three to four stops durning the 57-lap contest, many more than a normal F1 race.

 

The dynamic McLaren duo of Piastri and Norris excelled during the race after starting from P6 and P10 respectively. They were aided in their podium pursuit by an opening lap incident between Mercedes teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton when the two collided while steaming into Turn 1. Hamilton, who would later accept the blame for  the collision, tried to force his way past Russell on the outside but there wasn’t enough room and Lewis bounced off his junior teammate, ending up beached in the gravel trap and without a rear right tire. While Hamilton was out on the spot, an exceedingly rare DNF for the seven-time champ, Russell was able to limp back to the pits for a new front wing under Safety Car conditions. That put the exasperated Englishman right at the back of the field. But Piastri was able to capitalize on the mayhem to make a passel of passes before the Lap 1 SC emerged and climbed all the way to P2. Norris was also ambitious and pushed himself to P6. With the McLaren pace advantage  now essentially second best in the field behind Red Bull due to their spectacular in season development, Piastri was able to keep a firm hold on P2 and Norris eventually hustled his way up to P3, where the talented young pair finished the race. It was the second consecutive double podium for the papaya-clad cars and also marked Piastri’s best ever F1 finish. It also elevated McLaren to a mere eleven points behind fading Aston Martin for fourth in the Constructors’ points.

With the help of some tough love from team boss Toto Wolff, Russell managed to get the better of his emotions after the unfortunate clash with Hamilton and then ran a really superb recovery race, maximizing the performance of his Hard tire stint in particular before switching to Softs to finish out the contest and securing a rather miraculous P4. Charles Leclerc was the lone Ferrari to start the race after a fuel leak was discovered on Carlos Sainz’s car  without enough time to repair it before the Formation Lap. While the Monegasque didn’t have the speed of the top four,  he kept it clean while others around him racked up track limits penalties in bunches and took P5 when all was said and done. Aston’s Fernando Alonso had an eventful race to say the least, surviving a hairy offtrack excursion on Lap 33 and then escaping with a post-race reprimand for unsafely rejoining the circuit rather than a time penalty. The Spanish two time champion was able to hang onto his unruly mount after that and survive for a decent P6 finish. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon drove well and aggressively to come home P7, while the two Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu both finished in the points for the first time this season, in P8 and P9 respectively. Zhou was helped to that result by multiple track limits penalties leading to demotions of his closest rivals, including the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who survived a whopping three 5-second penalties for repeatedly going over the white lines to take the last point in P10. It was a sloppy effort by the Mexican, whose season started out looking like a genuine threat to Max’s ambitions but has comprehensively devolved into a distant and not very persuasive second in the Drivers’ points.

Top 10 finishers of the Qatar GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 57 1:27:39.168 26
2 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 57 +4.833s 18
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 57 +5.969s 15
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 57 +34.119s 12
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 57 +38.976s 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 57 +49.032s 8
7 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 57 +62.390s 6
8 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 57 +66.563s 4
9 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 57 +76.127s 2
10 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 57 +80.181s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time as Formula 1 returns to the United States for a second time this year — the US Grand Prix from beautiful Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Can McLaren take the next step and knock Verstappen out of the top spot in a fair fight? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore — Qualifying results

SINGAPORE SHOCKER: Ferrari’s Sainz bests Mercedes’ Russell to take second consecutive pole, Leclerc P3; Red Bull find their bogey track as Verstappen & Perez knocked out in Q2

Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix delivered a true shocker, with Red Bull, Formula 1’s dominant team by far in 2023, finally finding their bogey track by suffering unexpectedly poor performance at the tight & treacherous Marina Bay Street Circuit. Struggling with their car’s aero handling at this relatively slow speed but high downforce track since the start of practice on Friday, the team was unable to make the necessary corrections in time and watched in disbelief as first Sergio Perez spun before being able to claw his way out of the bottom five in Q2 and then Max Verstappen, the runaway championship points leader to this point, crossed the line on his final Q2 lap with a time only good enough for P10 and with several runners behind him still on hot laps. The ignominy was complete when AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson, a raw rookie competing in only his third race weekend while subbing for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, bumped the Dutch Master down to P11 and out of qualifying. It was the first time since 2018 that neither Red Bull had advanced to Q3 and it puts the team’s 15-race winning streak, as well as Verstappen potentially extending his own record streak to 11 victories on the trot, in serious doubt at a confined circuit where passing is none too easy.

Red Bull’s first real speed bump of the season redounded to Ferrari’s success. Carlos Sainz was on his game all day, setting the pace throughout Q3 and then laying down a final last lap that withstood a very game challenge from Mercedes’ George Russell to secure pole by a whisper thin 0.072 seconds. It was the Spaniard’s second pole in a row after thrilling the fans in Monza two weeks ago. He will surely be hoping that Verstappen’s famed powers of recovery and miracle wins will be stymied come race day when the Dutchman has to fight his way up from P11 in what does not appear to be the fastest car on then track for once. Russell’s amazing final lap was obviously still good enough to secure an impressive P2 and a grid spot across from Sainz for tomorrow and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who had a few slight bobbles on his final effort that cost him, settled for P3. Ferrari have a real shot at the win tomorrow, which would be their first since 2019 when Sebastian Vettel led home Leclerc for a 1-2. The fact that long ago last win also came at Marina Bay Street Circuit will certainly buoy the team’s confidence, though they have got to avoid the sorts of unforced strategic, driver and pit execution errors that have plagued them for several years now.

McLaren’s Lando Norris, running upgrades on his car alone this weekend, was quite quick and able to secure P4 on the grid. Teammate Oscar Piastri’s quali effort were cut short by unluckily finding himself behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll when the Canadian driver crashed into the barriers quiet violently and brought out the Red Flag at the end of Q1. Stroll seemed OK, though his head appeared to take a wicked amount of lateral Gs on impact, but Piastri will now have to fight his way back to the points from down in P17 come tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton trailed his Silver Arrow teammate by quite a bit back in P5, while Kevin Magnussen had a spectacular effort for Hass, not only bettering teammate Nico Hulkenberg for the first time this year, P6 to P9, but also out-qualifying Aston ace Fernando Alonso. The veteran two-time champ could only muster the seventh best time in Q3, putting the team in a tough spot since Stroll will certainly struggle to score starting either last on the grid or from the pits (if in fact his car can even be rebuilt in time for the Grand Prix and he himself is healthy enough to go).

Rounding out the Top 10, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took a decent P8, encouraging enough after the team were nowhere in Monza two weeks ago. And Liam Lawson was content to have the tenth fastest time in Q3, having already been the driver to knock out mighty Max Verstappen earlier, which certainly put the young Kiwi’s name front and center in the driver sweepstakes for next year.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Singapore GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.339 1:31.439 1:30.984 20
2 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:32.331 1:31.743 1:31.056 17
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:32.406 1:32.012 1:31.063 21
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.483 1:31.951 1:31.270 20
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:32.651 1:32.019 1:31.485 16
6 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:32.242 1:31.892 1:31.575 21
7 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:32.584 1:31.835 1:31.615 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.369 1:32.089 1:31.673 18
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 1:32.100 1:31.994 1:31.808 21
10 40 Liam Lawson ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 1:32.215 1:32.166 1:32.268 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN & ESPN+ beginning at 8AM Eastern here in the States. The Singapore night race is one of the most visually spectacular on the calendar and this jumbled up grid could also make it one of the most dramatic. Hope to see you then to find out if Ferrari can end their victory drought of if Verstappen and team Red Bull have a miracle up their sleeves to keep their streaks going!