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2024 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Results & aftermath

Verstappen & Red Bull return to winning ways with easy win at Suzuka, Perez P2; Sainz prevails over teammate Leclerc, P3 to P4, in strong performances for Ferrari

Two weeks after a shocking mechanical DNF in Australia, Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team were back in top form for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. Verstappen led the race from pole twice, the second time after a Lap 2 Red Flag, and gapped his game teammate Sergio Perez each time, steadily putting enough in the bank to come across the finish line of this 53-lap contest over twelve and a half seconds ahead of P2 Perez. For the Red Bull team, it was back to their usual recent supremacy at this highly technical circuit that really seems to suit their cars, making it three out of the last four Japanese GP that they’ve finished 1-2 at the figure eight Suzuka Circuit. For good measure, Verstappen also ended up setting the race’s fastest lap for the bonus point and a maximum of 26 on the day. It was still an encouraging day for Perez, who had to make several solid overtakes against other contenders after his two pit stops in order to secure that valuable second place and hopefully bodes well for the Mexican veteran’s renewed sense of confidence in the RB20.

Once it became clear that Red Bull were simply the class of the field again, the more intriguing  part of the race came down to who would score the last podium position and how the rest of the top ten would shake out. Ferrari once again looked like the closest thing to competition that Red Bull may have this season and the Scuderia braintrust effectively split their strategies between their drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. With Sainz, the last race winner in Melbourne, qualifying P4 but Leclerc mired down in P8 after a subpar quali effort on Saturday, the team went with a conventional tire strategy for Sainz and a roll of the dice for Leclerc. Sainz ran the standard two-stopper, going Medium Pirellis to Medium to Hard to finish the race, while Leclerc ran a long first stint on Mediums all the way to Lap 27 and then took his only set of Hards to the end. This not only allowed Sainz to better his starting position by one and get the Spaniard on the podium with a P3 finish but vaulted Leclerc, who drove superbly to hold onto that initial set of Mediums, all the way up to an eventual P4 finish. While Leclerc couldn’t hold off his teammate for that last podium spot late in the race, the Monegasque still prevailed over both McLarens on the day, the team that is really Ferrari’s true rival in race pace. So, the brass at Maranello should be well pleased by a rather excellent two race stretch, with Sainz and Lecerlc one-two in Australia and now three-four in Japan.

For McLaren, it ended up being more of a salvage what you can kind of day rather than competing for the podium, as the team have more recently come to expect. The race pace of the cars was definitely not as strong as the Prancing Horses here and Norris was easy meat for Sainz when the Spaniard passed him for third place on Lap 46, with Norris having locked up the prior lap. Similarly, McLaren teammate Oliver Pisatri also suffered with long run handling when he ran wide on the final lap heading into Turn 16, which enabled Mercedes’ George Russell to steal P7 from the young Aussie. While not a disaster by any means, with Norris finishing P4 and Piastri P8, team McLaren will be looking to improve when they unload in China in two weeks, such are the higher expectations they now have with their MCL38’s usual solid performance and their two young pilots’ excellent pace.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso tried to keep Piastri in position to defend himself from Russell’s ambitions, the wily Spanish veteran keeping the McLaren within DRS range and using Piastri as a blocker. In the end, Russell ran out of laps to make any headway on Alonso and the two-time champ scored Aston’s only points on the day with a fine P6 finish. With Russell locked in at P7 and Silver Arrows teammate Lewis Hamilton only able to take P9 when the checkers flew, there had to be some debate about the Mercedes pit wall’s decision to attempt a one-stopper after both switched to Hards from the Mediums under the Red Flag conditions. In the end, it probably wasn’t decisive either way even though the team was forced to bail on that strategy, with Russell getting rid of his aged Hards on Lap 38 in favor of Mediums to end the race and Hamilton following suit two laps later. Mercedes simply lack the pace of Ferrari, McLaren and certainly Red Bull so, Russell making that late race pass on Piastri was actually bettering expectations. There remains a lot of work to do for the once mighty Silver Arrows if they are going to get back to challenging for podiums let alone wins.

RB Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda took the last point in P10 at his home race to the delight of his countrymen in the stands, a fine result for any Japanese driver and another indication that the talented Tsunoda is showing his improving skills on a weekly basis, even in a less than elite car. He was also aided in that eventual good result by a cracking pit stop by his mechanics on his final tire change, the RB beating out four other runners who had also stopped at the exact same time, netting him crucial track position that Tsunoda then converted into that valuable P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Japanese Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 53 1:54:23.566 26
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 53 +12.535s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +20.866s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +26.522s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +29.700s 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 53 +44.272s 8
7 63 George Russell MERCEDES 53 +45.951s 6
8 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +47.525s 4
9 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +48.626s 2
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 52 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks’ time — the return of the Chinese Grand Prix form the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time since 2019. Will this circuit be any less conducive to the seemingly unstoppable force that is Red Bull-Verstappen? Hope to see you then to find out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Qualifying results

Red Bull lock out front row at Suzuka as Verstappen barely pips game Perez; McLaren’s Norris gets the better of Ferrari’s Sainz for P3

Two weeks removed from his shocking early race mechanical DNF in Melbourne, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen seemed determined to reimpose his usual air of inevitability during Saturday Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Making an unusually early appearance on the F1 calendar and amidst cool and cloudy conditions at the fabled Suzuka International Racing Course, the Red Bulls were clearly the class of the field throughout practice and then further hammered home that fact once quali began in earnest. And this time, Verstappen’s teammate Sergo Perez also came to play, putting pressure on Max to up his game in order to earn the pole. In the end, the flying Dutchman succeeded, but only by beating out Perez by a scant .006 seconds, one of their closest qualifying duals since they’ve been Red Bull stablemates. With the RB20s race pace dominance readily apparent so far in 2024, fans will be hoping that Perez can hound Verstappen in tomorrow’s race with just as much elan as the veteran Mexican displayed today in qualifying.

Below those top two standouts, it was a fascinating battle for positions three through ten on the grid, featuring large gaps between teammates in ostensibly identical equipment. This often happens at the highly technical, figure-eight Suzuka Circuit, where hooking up a constant lap through all three sectors is highly demanding even to talented Formula 1 drivers. Excelling the best in a car not named Red Bull was McLaren’s Lando Norris, who bettered last race’s winner, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, P3 to P4. Still flying high from his amazing Aussie GP victory a fortnight ago, Sainz did take it to his Scuderia teammate, Charles Leclerc, who was forced to burn an extra set of Soft Pirellis to secure his transfer out of Q1. Leclerc was thereby disadvantaged by a lack of extra fresh sets in Q3 and could only run one hot lap, which netted him a lowly P8 starting position when all the other times were counted in the final session. Norris’s McLaren teammate and birthday boy Oscar Piastri faced no such tire disadvantage but was only able to qualify P6 after running his full Q3 program.

Fernando Alonso was the lone Aston Martin in the top ten, wringing the neck of his car to will himself all the way up to P5. This put the veteran two-time champ not only ahead of Piastri but also both Mercedes. After a disastrous zero points outing in Melbourne a fortnight ago, the Silver Arrows are still chasing pace, with Lewis Hamilton only able to mange a P7 time but still well ahead of his bewildered teammate, George Russell, who ended up mired down in P9. RB Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda delighted his countrymen in the stands by slotting in at P10 for his home race.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Japanese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:28.866 1:28.740 1:28.197 12
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:29.303 1:28.752 1:28.263 12
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:29.536 1:28.940 1:28.489 13
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:29.513 1:29.099 1:28.682 12
5 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:29.254 1:29.082 1:28.686 12
6 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:29.425 1:29.148 1:28.760 12
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:29.661 1:28.887 1:28.766 15
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:29.338 1:29.196 1:28.786 12
9 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:29.799 1:29.140 1:29.008 15
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:29.775 1:29.417 1:29.413 18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 1AM Eastern Sunday morning here in the States. With Suzuka looking uniquely suited to this year’s iteration of Red Bull, it should come down to an intra-team battle at Red Bull for the win. Can Perez finally make his mark on the 2024 campaign and get back to challenging Verstappen’s supremacy? Look forward to seeing you then to find out!

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

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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!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Verstappen picks up where he left off with first pole of 2024 in Bahrain; Leclerc edges Russel for second fastest; Hamilton & Perez adrift

The 2024 Formula 1 season officially kicked off with highly similar results to last year’s campaign as Red Bull’s defending three-time champion Max Verstappen once again blistered the field to take a relatively easy pole at the Bahrain International Circuit. With qualifying taking place on a rare Friday for the first two rounds of the season due to Saturday race days to accomodate the upcoming Ramadan holiday in the hosting Muslim countries, all the posing and posturing of pre-season testing and pre-qualifying practice was replace by the true test of which cars had the real pace. Once again it was the Red Bull in Verstappen’s capable hands that proved the rabbit all the others will have to chase this season. Verstappen bested the P2 of Charles Leclerc by a little over two-tenths and the typically fast-starting Monegasque was able to stay in front of George Russell’s Mercedes for P2 by a whisper thin .078 seconds. The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who was unceremoniously dumped for next year in favor of Lewis Hamilton in the offseason’s biggest shockwave, set the fourth fastest time, while Hamilton could muster no better than a lowly P9 on his final attempt. One wonders if all the upgrades will now go to Russell during the course of the season since Hamilton has one foot out the door and in archrival Ferrari’s camp.

As he did in the second two-thirds of 2023, Sergio Perez again rather badly trailed Verstappen for pure pace and could only manage a time good enough for fifth on tomorrow’s grid. The ageless Fernando Alonso was solid in the Aston Martin for P6 and the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri set the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively. Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas rounded out the the top ten qualifiers and will start form P10 on the grid, just as he did in last year’s Bahrain season opener.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:30.031 1:29.374 1:29.179 17
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:30.243 1:29.165 1:29.407 19
3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:30.350 1:29.922 1:29.485 17
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:29.909 1:29.573 1:29.507 18
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:30.221 1:29.932 1:29.537 17
6 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:30.179 1:29.801 1:29.542 14
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.143 1:29.941 1:29.614 15
8 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.531 1:30.122 1:29.683 18
9 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:30.451 1:29.718 1:29.710 18
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 1:30.566 1:29.851 1:30.502 18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 10 AM Eastern on ESPN. Hope to see you then to find out if anyone can match this new year’s edition of Verstappen and Red Bull in race trim — I have my doubts!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Results & aftermath

Verstappen caps historic season with easy victory in Abu Dhabi; wins 19 out of 22 races in 2023; first driver to lead 1000 laps; Leclerc P2 but Russell’s elevation to third after Perez penalty plus Hamilton’s P9 finish earn Mercedes second in Constructors’

Red Bull’s supreme ace Max Verstappen ended his historically dominant 2023 campaign in Abu Dhabi the way he started it way back in early March in Bahrain — with a commanding and effortless win. Under the bright and colorful lights of the Yas Marina Circuit, Verstappen cruised from pole to the win in Sunday’s final Grand Prix of the year, with no other car and driver able to challenge the pace of the RB19 in his hands. Having already won his third consecutive title on a Sprint Saturday in Qatar six races ago, the flying Dutchman nevertheless put his foot down to storm his way to a remarkable 19 victories from 22 Grand Prix run this season. Only his teammate Sergio Perez, with two early season wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Singapore, were able to claim any other top steps on the podium this year. If all that’s not enough of a fitting symbol of his absolute dominance, Verstappen became the first driver in Formula 1 to lead 1000 total laps in a single season. Truly, superlatives get worn thin when describing the amazing year Max and Red Bull have had in 2023, and it will go down as one of the greatest by any team or driver in the sport’s history. It is certainly in the conversation with Lewis Hamilton’s glory days at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, Jim Clark at Lotus, Jackie Stewart at Terrell and Sebastian Vettel at this very same Red Bull team.

With the top spot on the podium essentially conceded once Verstappen nabbed pole for the race on Saturday, the real dramas took place behind the lead Red Bull. Chief among those was the battle between Ferrari and Mercedes for second place in the all-important Constructors’ standings. Continue reading →

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes pole for final race in Abu Dhabi, earns 12th of season; Leclerc fights back for P2; Piastri best McLaren in P3 as Norris slides down to P5

Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen took the final pole of the season with aplomb during the last Saturday Qualifying of 2023 for tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit. With nothing left to prove in his historically dominant World Championship campaign this year, Verstappen nevertheless outpaced the rest of the field to make it 12 total poles out of twenty-two race weekends. The flying Dutchman will go for his record-extending nineteenth victory of the season in Sunday evening’s Grand Prix under the futuristic light show of Yas Marina and it would be a brave man indeed who would bet against him.

The real battles in tomorrow’s race should be behind the now three-time champion, as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc pulled a scorching lap out of the bag at the death of Q3 to set the second fastest time and earn the right to start alongside Verstappen on the front row. That makes it five front row starts in a row for the Monegasque, including three poles, as Leclerc looks not only to end his year on a high note with another podium but also help pull the Scuderia ahead of mighty Mercedes for P2 in the all-important Constructors’ standings. But both Ferrari and Mercedes had only one car progress into the final Quali session, as George Russell outpaced teammate Lewis Hamilton to the tune of P4 to P11, while the second Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz had a disastrous effort that saw him bounced out in Q1 and starting tomorrow down in P16. Sainz had a heavy shunt in Free Practice 2 on Friday so perhaps his car is still ailing after the rebuild but certainly the Spaniard is also lacking for pace and confidence at this sneakily tricky track. Continue reading →