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2022 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Qualifying results

Leclerc recovers from spin to set blustering final lap, earn pole in Barcelona; P2 Verstappen thwarted by engine woes, Sainz P3 on good day for Ferrari

Amidst scorching hot conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc kept his cool. The F1 points leader recovered from a spin earlier in Q3 and, after a pit stop for fresh tires, went back out and laid down an untouchable lap that earned him pole as the checkers flew to end the final quali session. The Monegasque brought some heat of his own to this very familiar Spanish circuit, blistering the track to the tune of 1:18.750, a good quarter-second ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. While Leclerc, who at times this season has seemed be his own worst enemy in terms of unforced errors, showed good mental fortitude to recover from his clumsy spin and hook up that splendid pole lap, Verstappen was hamstrung in his efforts to respond when his DRS failed to open during his final hot lap, robbing the Dutchman of vital speed. Once again, the Red Bull showed a disconcerting fragility but on this day, at least, Ferrari’s lead driver did not.

Behind Verstappen, Leclerc’s stablemate, Carlos Sainz, earned cheers from his countrymen in the grandstands by setting the third fastest time in Q3. That made it a very promising day for Ferrari because Sergio Perez, the Red Bull number two, could hustle himself up to no better than P5 when time expired. That enabled George Russell to sneak his Mercedes into P4 with a sterling effort in what has not been an elite car to this point. So, Russell will line up alongside Sainz on the second row come Sunday, while his Silver Arrows teammate, Lewis Hamilton, qualified a respectable P6 and will be across from Perez on the third row. This circuit does seem to suit the porpoising-plagued Mercs but it is yet to be seen if they can covert that into a much needed positive double points result tomorrow or if they can really match the race pace of this year’s big dogs, Red Bull & Ferrari,  when the lights go out.

Rounding out the top ten qualifiers, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas continued to deliver the goods for his new team by setting the seventh fastest time. And team Haas had an excellent run, with Kevin Magnussen doing yeoman’s work for P8 and P10 Mick Schumacher getting into Q3 for the first time in his young career thanks to the McLaren of Lando Norris having his best lap in Q2 disqualified for exceeding track limits. Norris’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo flew the McLaren flag with a time good enough for P9 and look for the out-of-position P11 Norris to join him in rapid order tomorrow as he fights his way to the front.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Spanish Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:19.861 1:19.969 1:18.750 12
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:20.091 1:19.219 1:19.073 16
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:19.892 1:19.453 1:19.166 16
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:20.218 1:19.470 1:19.393 14
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:20.447 1:19.830 1:19.420 17
6 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:20.252 1:19.794 1:19.512 15
7 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:20.355 1:20.053 1:19.608 18
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:20.227 1:19.810 1:19.682 18
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:20.549 1:20.287 1:20.297 15
10 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 1:20.683 1:20.436 1:20.368 18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Miami — Results & aftermath

Red Bull’s Verstappen gets ahead early, survives late Safety Car to win in Miami; Ferrari consoled by Leclerc & Sainz P2, P3 finish

After muffing his challenge for pole during Saturday qualifying, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen resolved to fight his way to the front on Sunday at the inaugural Grand Prix of Miami. Starting from P3 on the grid behind the two Ferraris of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and his stablemate Carlos Sainz, Verstappen got away swiftly when the lights went out to start the race on this hot South Florida day, making quick work of Sainz going into Turn 1 on the opening lap and grabbing P2. Next, the Dutchman set his sights on Leclerc, his key rival this year, and the Red Bull showed that it had the legs on the Ferrari, at least on this temporary street circuit with not only tight and twisty corners and esses but also some long, high speed straights. By Lap 8, Verstappen’s RB18 was right on the gearbox of the Monegasque’s F1-75 and on Lap 9 Verstappen was able to pass the Prancing Horse easily with a probably too powerful DRS assist steaming by down the main straight to take the lead.

The first round of pit stops failed to change the equation and Verstappen swanned off into the distance, seemingly on his way to an easy victory. But on Lap 41 of this 57-lap contest AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, running off the pace after earlier contact, collided with the fast-running McLaren of Lando Norris, sending Norris’s car into a spin and crash that littered the track with debris and knocked the young Englishman out of the race. This brought out first a Virtual Safety Car and then the inevitable actual Safety Car since the area of the crash required extensive clean up. It was all Leclerc and Ferrari could have hoped for, as it erased Verstappen’s large lead and bunched the field up again behind the Safety Car. When the race restarted on Lap 47 Leclerc was able to stick with Verstappen, both of whom were on older Hard tires dating back to their first pit stops, and then hound the Dutch wunderkind for the next few laps. The Ferrari man was even within DRS range for a few laps but still could not execute the overtake, such was the all around strength of the Red Bull. With the last life of his tires burned off in that final frantic chase, Leclerc faded away over the last few laps and Verstappen came home the victor nearly four-seconds ahead of P2 Leclerc. To make matters even sweeter, Max also got the bonus point for the race’s fastest lap for the maximum 26 available on the day.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

But Ferrari still had to be pleased with not only Leclerc’s solid P2 but also Carlos Sainz ability to hold off the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and secure a P3 finish. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Miami — Qualifying results

Leclerc takes pole, Sainz P2 for Ferrari front row lockout at inaugural Miami GP; Verstappen fumbles late effort, settles for P3

The first-ever qualifying for the first-ever Miami Grand Prix and Round 5 of the F1 Championship  didn’t disappoint. Under the hot Florida sun on the Miami International Autodrome, temporarily laid out around the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium, drivers faced a steep learning curve on this brand new, tight and twisty 5.412 kilometer street circuit where one false move might put them into the foreboding and at times claustrophobic walls. Team Ferrari earned the highest grades this Saturday, with Charles Leclerc wringing the neck of his skittish Prancing Horse to take pole and teammate Carlos Sainz backing him up in P2. Leclerc benefitted not only from his own steady efforts at mastering this virgin circuit but also from his key championship rival’s untimely Q3 error. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, coming off a dominant race win two weeks ago in Emilia-Romagna, uncharacteristically muffed his final quali effort when he ran off the circuit with snap oversteer and was unable to mount another challenge to the day’s Ferrari dominance as time expired. Verstappen will start P3 on a track where overtaking offline looks to be nigh impossible. So the Dutch reigning world champ will be hoping for not only solid strategy form his team to leapfrog the two Ferraris ahead in the pits but also perhaps some further unforced errors by the Scuderia duo. With Sainz having not completed the first lap in the last two races and Leclerc blowing a certain P3 by overdriving and binning it into the wall at Imola last race, team Ferrari will be looking for their talented but mistake prone duo to perhaps dial it back a notch and drive a clean contest come Sunday to take the maximum possible points.

Verstappen’s Red Bull wingman Sergio Perez set a final fast lap good enough to line up alongside his team leader on the second row in P4. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas did yeoman’s work after he crashed out in Free Practice 1 on Friday, recovering all the way to set an excellent P5 time. That he bested his old Mercedes mate Lewis Hamilton by a position must have been extra pleasing. That said, Hamilton was probably satisfied to haul his twitchy Silver Arrow up to P6 on the grid, as his junior teammate George Russell struggled mightily with severe porpoising, that 2022 Mercedes bugaboo, and was unceremoniously bounced out in Q2. Russell will start way back in P12 and will be looking for strategic help and perhaps some inclement weather to fight his way forward on Sunday. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda acquitted themselves well in Miami, qualifying P7 and P9 respectively, while Lando Norris of McLaren and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin were their lone teams’ representatives to make it into Q3, with Norris willing himself up to P8 and Stroll rounding out the front of the grid in P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Miami GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:29.474 1:29.130 1:28.796 25
2 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:30.079 1:29.729 1:28.986 26
3 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:29.836 1:29.202 1:28.991 18
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:30.055 1:29.673 1:29.036 21
5 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:30.845 1:29.751 1:29.475 20
6 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:30.388 1:29.797 1:29.625 21
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:30.779 1:30.128 1:29.690 22
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.761 1:29.634 1:29.750 22
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:30.485 1:30.031 1:29.932 21
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:30.441 1:29.996 1:30.676 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 3:30 PM Eastern on ABC here in the States. Look for a real street fight in Miami with potential for several Safety Cars/Red Flags to shake up the order. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna — Results & aftermath

Red Bull rebound, romp to dominant Verstappen-Perez 1-2 at Imola; Leclerc throws away sure Ferrari podium with late spin gifting Norris P3

After reliability woes cost them dearly in two of the young season’s first three races, team Red Bull came to Imola full of determination to put those issues behind them and enable their drivers to succeed to their full potential this weekend. By the end of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, aka Imola, on Sunday it was emphatically Mission Accomplished. After both cars failed to finish in Round 1 in Bahrain and their ace Max Verstappen also DNF’d in Round 3 in Australia due to mechanical issues, Verstappen’s car ran perfectly and he dominated this first Sprint weekend of the season. The Dutch master qualified P1 on Friday, fought back against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to win Saturday’s Sprint race and claim pole for the GP and then blistered the field for an easy win from the front on Sunday. Verstappen finished some 16.5-seconds ahead of his P2 teammate Sergio Perez, while also running the fastest lap of the race to earn the bonus point. So that made 26 points extracted from the race plus 8 for the Sprint win for a massive 34-point haul that enabled the flying Dutchman to vault back into the championship chase with his key rival this year, Leclerc. Ferrari and Leclerc also did their best to tighten things up through a series of unforced errors at the circuit named for their founder and his son, leading no doubt to brutal headlines in the Italian papers come Monday morning.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The first embarrassment for the fabled Scuderia from Maranello came on Lap 1 of the contest when the Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz and the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo collided going into Tamburello side by side. While Ricciardo was able to crawl away from the scene and restart, Sainz was beached in the gravel for the second straight race, following up his Lap 1 DNF in Australia with a Lap 1 DNF in Italy, a stunning string of disappointments for the Spaniard. While the team showed their faith in Sainz by signing him to a new 2-year contract in the weeks between the two races, it’s clear that he has got to settle down and get some results for Ferrari if they are to have a fighting shot to beat out ultra quick Red Bull for the Constructor’s title. Frankly, these serious lapses from such an experienced driver are a head scratcher and Carlos had better find his confidence and poise in a hurry.

But that wasn’t the only misfortune to befall mighty Ferrari in front of their home fans, the always passionate and vocal tifosi. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Results & aftermath

Leclerc romps to dominant win in Melbourne; Perez P2, Russell P3; Verstappen, Sainz DNF

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc absolutely dominated Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, winning the race handily after starting from pole and leaving even his closest pursuers far, far behind. The Monegasque’s pace in his Prancing Horse here at Albert Park was somewhat of a a surprise, because even after qualifying in the top spot on Saturday the savvy take around the paddock was that Red Bull would have the true race pace. But the famed Scuderia’s return to championship contending form after several years mired in mediocrity was confirmed in this first Aussie GP in two years, as neither the Red Bull of Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez could touch Leclerc on this day. In fact, Verstappen was forced to retire the car on Lap 39 of this 58-lap contest when his engine or hydraulic lines developed a leak leading to a small conflagration in the engine bay. The Dutch reigning world champion, who had been sitting comfortably in second during the race despite not being able to truly challenge Leclerc for victory, instead was forced to resign himself to his second DNF in three races to start the 2022 campaign. The Red Bull is certainly fast but reliability could well be its Achilles heal in what is shaping up to be a season long battle against Ferrari. That left it to Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez to fly the Red Bull team’s flag, which the Mexican did with aplomb by taking an easy P2 on the day, albeit over 20.5-seconds in arrears of Leclerc. To put the exclamation point on his performance, the Ferrari man also took the bonus point by setting race’s fastest lap, reaping the full 26 on a day when his key rival Verstappen scored a big fat zero.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

All was not totally sunshine and roses at the fabled Scuderia from Maranello, however. Their number two Carlos Sainz had a disastrous weekend, following his somewhat unlucky P9 qualifying when he and the team were caught out but a late Red Flag in Q3 with an early DNF on Sunday when the veteran Spaniard misjudged his braking going into Turn 10 on Lap 2, overshot and then beached himself in the gravel. So like Verstappen, Sainz failed to score for his team in Melbourne, as well, only in his case he barely notched any laps at all and it appeared to be entirely his fault. Sainz will probably not be happy that the next race is two week’s away, since he’ll have all that time to stew on what he freely admitted was a “disaster” of a GP weekend. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Results & aftermath

GAME ON: Verstappen strikes back for Round 2 victory in Saudi Arabia with late pass on P2 Leclerc; Sainz P3 & unlucky Perez P4, as 2022 appears to be two-team battle between Ferrari & Red Bull

After failing to finish in Round 1 of the 2022 Formula 1 season last week in Bahrain and starting from a disappointing P4 for this Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen received not only improved reliability but also the key breaks during the race to out-duel Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and take his first win of the season. Leclerc and Ferrari had been brilliant all day, using a devious head fake that lured the pole-sitting Red Bull of Sergio Perez into an early stop on Lap 16 while Leclerc stayed out despite team radio suggesting otherwise. It proved to be the first pivotal moment of an eventful race because Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed out on the very next lap and forced the deployment of a Safety Car. That allowed the rest of the field to come to the pits for cheap stops for fresh rubber while Perez had just completed his for the full fare. When everyone had cycled through behind the Safety Car, Leclerc now led the race, with Verstappen leapfrogging both Sainz and his teammate Perez for second, while Sainz and Perez squabbled over P3 and P4 respectively. At that point, it looked for all the world that Leclerc had the best car and he seemed to lead out Verstappen fairly easily once the race went back to green on Lap 21.

But the tricky and tight Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit was not done doling out surprises on the day and after twenty-six fairly straightforward laps with the main contenders staying in lockstep the proceedings were again interrupted. First, the Alpine of a hard charging Fernando Alonso lost power and slowed to a stop just in front of pit entry on Lap 37 and then the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo followed suit in practically the exact same area a lap later. This forced the race director not only to engage the Virtual Safety Car in order to retrieve the stranded pair of cars but also to keep the pits closed this time due to their proximate location. Interestingly, by the time the VSC ended on Lap 41 Verstappen had crept a little closer to Leclerc than he was able to at race pace and now only trailed the lead Prancing Horse by just under a second, the delta necessary to activate the Drag Reduction System in the rear wing. It also set things up for a grandstand finish between the two drivers, who so far have to be seen as the favorites for this year’s championship. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

Red Bull’s Perez snatches pole from Ferrari’s Leclerc at tricky Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit; Sainz P3, Verstappen P4; Hamilton shockingly knocked out in Q1; Schumacher airlifted to hospital after vicious Q2 shunt

On an incident-filled and frankly scary Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, it was Red Bull’s ostensible Number Two who managed to come out on top of the timing sheets. Veteran Sergio Perez bested not only his much more heralded teammate, Max Verstappen, but also both Ferraris, the team that looks most likely to challenge Red Bull for the big prizes this season. With a rebel drone strike on a nearby oil facility yesterday sending a a wave of unease through the paddock, the simmering tension was further compounded when Haas’s Mick Schumacher lost it during Q2 and suffered a vicious shunt  Turn 10 of this very tight and tricky Jeddah Conriche Street Circuit that shot him into one concrete barrier and then across to the other side of the track and down the road for quite some ways. While the Haas was completely destroyed, the car also did its part by breaking apart at the rear, as designed, thereby dissipating energy away from the driver. So, despite the massive impact, the initial medical reports on Schumacher were all positive and he was airlifted to hospital for precautionary reasons rather than emergency ones. However, the young German, who is trying to follow in his seven-time champion father Michael’s footsteps, was preemptively ruled out for the Grand Prix and it looks like Haas will only be fielding Kevin Magnussen’s car when the lights go out for tomorrow’s race. Magnussen kept his cool after his teammate’s disturbing crash and qualified P10.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Schumacher’s accident led to a lengthy Red Flag period with just under five minutes in Q2, both for Schumacher’s painfully slow extraction from his wrecked car and then for some serious track cleanup and barrier repair at the scene of the crash site. But the marshals and race directors did yeoman’s work and were able to get Quali back underway, leading to the all important top ten shootout in Q3. Ferrari had looked the strongest on overall one-lap pace through the race weekend so far, so it was no surprise to see Charles Leclerc, last week’s race winner and pole-sitter in Bahrain, lay down the quickest lap as the seconds ticked down in the final qualifying session. His teammate Carlos Sainz slotted in right behind him by a little over a tenth on his final lap, making it a provisional Ferrari front row lockout, But Perez had other ideas. The veteran pilot drove a flawless final lap, coming nerve wrakingly close to the barriers at times, but wringing the maximum speed out of the Red Bull to earn his first-ever Formula 1 pole and beat back the Ferrari challenge for today. Interestingly, his normally superlative teammate Verstappen struggled to get his Soft Pirelli tires into their optimal operational window durning a cool and breezy night in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and the Dutch reigning world champion could only muster the fourth fastest time. So it will be Perez and Leclerc on the front row and Sainz and Verstappen on row two, which should make for a really intriguing and likely contentious opening lap in tomorrow’s GP. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Leclerc victorious in season opener, Sainz P2 in promising start to 2022 campaign for Ferrari; disastrous late double DNF for Red Bull leads to podium for Mercedes’ Hamilton, P4 for Russell

In the first race of the 2022 Formula 1 season, team Ferrari proved that its early mastery of the new ground effect-dependent chassis and new engine specs was not a fluke. The famed Scuderia from Maranello, which suffered a prolonged period of mediocrity for much of the prior turbo-hybrid era, saw a spring resurgence as their blood red Prancing Horses finished one-two in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. Charles Leclerc, who clearly was the fastest man of the weekend, earned victory after starting from the pole, while his stablemate Carlos Sainz fought hard and took advantage of the terminal failures of both contending Red Bulls late in the race to come home a happy  P2. That marked the first one-two Ferrari finish in a GP since 2019 in Singapore when Sebastian Vettel led home Leclerc. While Leclerc was relatively dominant all day, he was effectively harassed by Verstappen’s Red Bull for the lead throughout, including a ding dong, see saw battle between the two after the first round of pit stops between Laps 16 and 20. Verstappen and his team made effective use of the undercut coming in a lap earlier than then Monegasque to gain track position on Leclerc, which led to several laps of Verstappen passing Leclerc going into Turn 1 and Leclerc snatching the lead back coming out of Turn 4, where the Ferrari’s excellence in the slow speed corners neutralized the Red Bull’s straight line pace advantage. After a period of holding stations and status quo for many laps after that while Verstappen bided his time, it looked like it would be game on again between the two contenders when a full Safety Car was deployed on Lap 46 of this 57-lap contest after Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri stopped on track and unceremoniously burst into flames. It proved to be a very bad omen for other Red Bull-engined cars.

With the field now bunched up again behind Leclerc after pretty much everyone dove to the pits for the cheap stop and a switch to the high performing Soft Pirelli tires to finish out the race, Leclerc’s advantage over Verstappen was reduced to less than a second. But by the time the Safety Car tucked in at the end of Lap 50, Verstappen had been on the radio complaining about a heavy feel to the steering, perhaps having something to do with the power steering hydraulics. Leclerc initiated the restart superbly and gapped Verstappen, although the Dutch reigning world champion still seemed able to stay on the lead Ferrari’s gearbox. But Verstappen’s radio messages to and from the pit wall kept getting more fraught and there was clearly trouble brewing in the car. Sure enough, on Lap 54 something in Verstappen’s engine let go and he was quickly overtaken by most of those behind him. Verstappen wound up limping his mount to the pits but the issue was terminal and he was forced to retire. Climbing out of the car in stunned disbelief as the race stormed to its conclusion without him was a sad way to begin the defense of his first championship.

Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Leclerc snatches pole for season opener, Sainz P3 in promising start for Ferrari; Red Bull’s reigning champ Verstappen qualifies P2, Hamilton only P5 as Mercedes struggle

The real beginning of Formula 1’s latest new era yielded a multitude of surprises, as the teams put the completely redesigned cars on display for the first time in earnest during Saturday Qualifying for tomorrow’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. With a radical new set of rules changing the look and design of the cars, most notably in cutting down on the complexity of the wings and exterior aero elements for less downforce but with a renewed emphasis on ground effects to stick the chassis to the road surface in exchange, it was the first opportunity to see which teams came out of the box strong and which still had work yet to do. And the answer appears to be that Ferrari has made the biggest improvements under the new regulations and the famed team from Maranello could well be geared up for a mano a mano brawl with Red Bull and their reigning champion, Max Verstappen, for the big prizes at the end of the year. Obviously, one swallow does not make a spring, but Charles Leclerc was able to put his blood red Prancing Horse on pole under the lights at the Bahrain International Circuit, besting Verstappen’s vaunted Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull RB18 at the line by a relatively hefty .123-seconds. Confirming the potential power of the new Ferrari design, Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz was also in contain for the pole, though in the end he slotted in at P3 just barely of Verstappen’s pace. Meanwhile, the Dutch champ’s Ref Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, looked set to reprise his pivotal wingman role once again in 2022, as the Mexican veteran could manage no better than the fourth fastest lap in the face of the Prancing Horses’ rediscovered competitiveness.

The inverse of Ferrari’s resurgent good fortune was the poor debut performance of the normally mighty Mercedes new W13 chassis. With the new ground effects also come new aero headaches and Mercedes have suffered from severe oscillations, aka “porpoising”, throughput testing and in these first days of practice. While the team’s braintrust were able to dial out some of that, especially on their seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton’s mount, Hamilton could still do no better than a P5 start for tomorrow’s race. To say the least, that is an unfamiliar position for the Briton, who frankly dominated the just completed hybrid era until the ascendence of Verstappen and his controversial championship-clinching win to end the 2021 campaign in Abu Dhabi last December. Worse still for the eight-time consecutive Constructors’ Champions, their new number two, England’s young George Russell, suffered the ignominy of qualifying down in P9, about where he would normally end up in the pokey Williams last year. If that wasn’t disheartening enough, the previous Merc second banana, Valtteri Bottas, out-qualified Russell in P6 with his new team, the Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo. In fact, Ferrari power looked like this first weekend’s winner already, with not only Bottas keeping his Q3 streak alive at Alfa but also Kevin Magnussen marking his return to F1 with a brilliant effort to capture P7 on the grid for perpetual back marker Haas despite battling hydraulic issues. and it was a very promising day for the Scuderia on the power plant front. On the other side off the engine equation, all four Mercedes-powered McLarens and Aston Martins failed to make it into the final qualifying round. Savvy veteran Fernando Alonso willed his Alpine Renault into P8 with a fine final effort while the Red Bull (Honda)-powered AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly struggled with overall handling rand could do no better than P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:31.471 1:30.932 1:30.558 15
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:31.785 1:30.757 1:30.681 14
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:31.567 1:30.787 1:30.687 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:32.311 1:31.008 1:30.921 18
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:32.285 1:31.048 1:31.238 17
6 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:31.919 1:31.717 1:31.560 15
7 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:31.955 1:31.461 1:31.808 12
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.346 1:31.621 1:32.195 14
9 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:32.269 1:31.252 1:32.216 17
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:32.096 1:31.635 1:32.338 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN here in the States beginning at 11AM Eastern here in the States. Can Ferrari set the pace over the course of a full Grand Prix or will Verstappen’s superlative skills where down the Prancing Horses and deny them victory? And just how much pain will Mercedes take tomorrow as the team focuses on early season damage limitation? Look forward to seeing you then to find out how it all shakes out in the 2022 opener!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Russia — Qualifying results

Norris earns surprise pole at Sochi in wet conditions; Sainz takes P2, Russell P3; Hamilton falls to P4 after late crash entering pits

With Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton’s chief rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, doomed to start last or nearly last in tomorrow’s Russian Grand Prix due to not only the Dutchman’s penalty for crashing into Hamilton two weeks ago at Monza but also his team’s decision to swap out Verstappen’s engine at track that doesn’t really suit them, Hamilton was looking to grab pole at the Sochi Autodrom and set himself up for maximum points for the race. However, the weather and a rare unforced error by the seven-time World Champion put paid to that plan. Somewhat stunningly, Hamilton found himself with only the fourth best time on the day, a fast lap he had set early in the final quali session while on the Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires after a day of rain here on the shores of the Black Sea. But the rain had stopped for long enough and the track had dried to such an extent by the start of Q3 that other team’s gambled on switching to slick tires in an effort to achieve a superior time to the one Hamilton set on the Inters. Williams’  George Russell was the first to commit, followed very shortly by all the other non-Mercedes drivers. And while at first it did not appear the risk was worth the reward, the circuit continued to improve and a true dry line had formed as the time wound down in Q3. That saw the Mercedes pit wall make a somewhat tardy call to bring their boys in and match the others’ strategies by throwing on some Soft Pirellis, too. However, Hamilton badly botched his pit entrance for the change, smacking the wall at pit in hard and essentially snapping his front wing in half. Not only did the team have to take much longer time than anticipated to give Hamilton a new wing but it also backed up his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who had to wait until those repairs to the team leader were made. By the time the Mercedes duo reemerged, the other runners had been able to get their tires heated up properly with several consecutive laps, something the two Silver Arrows no longer had the time to do.

This redounded to the benefit of several drivers not named Hamilton, as the normally superlative English hot shoe spun off track when trying to get something out of his cold tires and his earlier time on the treaded wet weather tires would have to be the one that stood. It only ended up being good enough for P4 on the grid, as first Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and then McLaren’s Lando Norris and Russell overhauled him. Continue reading →