Tag Archives: Lando Norris

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Results & aftermath

Leclerc finally breaks through at home GP to take victory in Monaco; Piastri P2, Sainz P3 & Norris P4 in all-Ferrari vs McLaren competition

After years of bad luck, self-inflicted mistakes and ever-building pressure, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finally broke through to take a comprehensive victory at his home race at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday. The Monegasque ran from pole to the checkers, maintaining first place the whole while on this legendarily difficult to overtake street circuit, where the top cars in the world have been racing since 1929. With qualifying of supreme importance here, it became a two team battle between Ferrari and McLaren, with the four drivers finishing where they started — Leclerc in P1 and his Scuderia stablemate Carlos Sainz in P3 and the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri in P2 and Lando Norris in P4. Red Bull were uncharacteristically not a factor here, as Max Verstappen held station to also come home where he started in P6. His unlucky teammate Sergio Perez was wiped out on the opening lap in a contretemps with the overly ambitious Haas of Kevin Magnussen that also took out the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg when the melee had concluded.

That large multi-car shunt led to a lengthy Red Flag period necessitated by an extensive cleanup of the rather large debris field of broken Red Bull and Haas bits strewn across the entirety of Beau Rivage. It also enabled Sainz, who suffered a puncture after wheel to wheel contact dicing with Piastri at the start, to save his race. The Ferrari mechanics were able to perform repairs to the Spaniard’s car with no time penalty and the restart would be in the exact order of the race start due to the Red Flag being thrown without even a full first sector being run. Unfortunately, it also gave all the teams a free change of tires, which negated any future requirement to pit for a change of Pirelli compounds, as per the rules. This meant that the front four could run a slow, tire management pace without consequences or need for any strategy calls that might have spiced up the action. But that’s Monaco — a race that is usually greater on pageantry, pomp, historical significance and prestige than in actual racing action. Nevertheless, no one can take away the pure joy of Leclerc’s boyhood dream coming true in front of his hometown fans, including Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene, who both participated in the ebullient, champagne-drenched podium ceremonies for the local boy made good.

As he was after qualifying, Dutch points leader Verstappen ended up sandwiched between the two Mercedes, with George Russell coming home in P5 and Lewis Hamilton in P7. Even with both Verstappen and Hamilton being tow of the very few to pit to get off the Mediums and back onto the Hards for their final stints, it did nothing to really shake up their respective races. Rounding out the top ten, Yuki Tsunoda claimed P8 for RB Honda, Alexander Albon was P9 for Williams and Pierre Gasly claimed his first point of the year in P10. Gasly finishing at all was impressive considering he came together with teammate Esteban Ocon on the opening lap. Ocon went airborne and was knocked out of the race, earning the wrath of his team boss in an unusually harsh public rebuke.

Top 10 finishers of the Monaco GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 78 2:23:15.554 25
2 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 78 +7.152s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 78 +7.585s 15
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 78 +8.650s 12
5 63 George Russell MERCEDES 78 +13.309s 10
6 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 78 +13.853s 8
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 78 +14.908s 7
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 77 +1 lap 4
9 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 77 +1 lap 2
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 77 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time, as the teams cross the Atlantic again and return to wide open racing with the Canadian Grand Prix. Can Red Bull and Verstappen get their mojo back on the high speed straights of Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve or have Ferrari and McLaren truly made inroads to make this a genuine three-team championship battle? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Qualifying results

Leclerc claims pole for hometown Grand Prix, pipping P2 Piastri; Sainz P3 on good day for Ferrari; Red Bull struggle with Verstappen only sixth fastest, Perez out in Q1

With the Memorial Day holiday weekend upon us, that means the return of the venerable Monaco Grand Prix, the crown jewel of the Formula 1 season. On this most unique of street circuits, the tightest and slowest on the F1 calendar, Red Bull’s usual straightline & DRS advantages were utterly neutralized during Saturday qualifying, as championship points leader Max Verstappen could do no better than P6 and Sergi Perez was unceremoniously bounced in Q1 with only the eighteenth fast time in the twenty car field. That left the door wide open for Ferrari and McLaren and the Scuderia’s Charles Leclerc came flying through it with a final lap good enough for pole at his home race. The Monegasque Leclerc bested the P2 McLaren of young Oliver Piastri, as well as his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who will start tomorrow’s race from P3 on the grid. Piastri’s McLaren stablemate Lando Norris, who is on his own fine run of form, will line up along Sainz on the second row in P4.

Mercedes had decent if not spectacular pace on the streets of the principality, with George Russell once again out-qualifying his more senior Silver Arrow teamate Lewis Hamilton, P5 to P7, effectively making the frustrated P6 Verstappen the meat in a Mercedes sandwich. Rounding out the top 10 qualifiers, Yuki Tsunoda was P8 for RB Honda, Alexander Albon hauled his Williams up to P9 and Pierre Gasly did well to hustle his usually poky Alpine into P10.

To 10 qualifiers for the Monaco GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:11.584 1:10.825 1:10.270 26
2 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:11.500 1:10.756 1:10.424 24
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:11.543 1:11.075 1:10.518 28
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:11.760 1:10.732 1:10.542 27
5 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:11.492 1:10.929 1:10.543 28
6 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:11.711 1:10.745 1:10.567 28
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:11.528 1:11.056 1:10.621 28
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:11.852 1:11.106 1:10.858 25
9 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:11.623 1:11.216 1:10.948 29
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 1:11.714 1:10.896 1:11.311 30

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 9 am Eastern here in the States. With Red Bull on the back foot on a very difficult to pass circuit, this could end up a Ferrari-McLaren duel amongst the top four starters, with Leclerc inspired to fend off Piastri and take victory at his prestigious home race. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna — Qualifying results

Verstappen holds off surging McLaren to take pole at Imola; Piastri qualifies P2 but served 3-place grid penalty, Norris P3; Leclerc P4, Sainz P5, disappointing the tifosi

Faced with the rapidly improving McLarens starting to fill up his rearview mirrors in 2024 and just a fortnight removed from being beaten out fair & square for the win in Miami by Lando Norris, Red Bull and Max Verstappen seemed on the back foot for much of the three practice sessions here at Imola for the return of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after a year’s hiatus. But, as team Red Bull and their Flying Dutchman have done so often in their rise to the pinnacle of Formula 1 over the past three-and-a-half years, Verstappen pulled a flier out of the bag when it mattered most during Saturday qualifying. While it was a razor thin margin, Verstappen hooked up all three sectors of this old school 4.9 km track to pip McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by a minuscule .074 seconds. The second McLaren of Norris set the third fastest time in Q3 but will start alongside Verstappen on the front row after Piastri was penalized three grid spots for impeding Haas’s Kevin Magnussen during Q1. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez had another perplexingly mediocre effort in quali and was bounced out in Q2 with only the eleventh quickest lap in that session.

There were a lot of expectations on Ferreri between some significant technical upgrades and being on home soil in front of the rabidly patriotic tifosi at the namesake Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. But in qualifying, at least, it all ended up a bit disappointingly for the Scuderia, with Charles Leclerc only good enough for P4 and Sainz struggling even more so on his way to a distant P5, nearly three-tenths off his Monegasque teammate’s pace. Mercedes continued their underwhelming ways this year, with George Russell once again out-qualifying Lewis Hamilton, P6 to P8. Yuki Tsunoda split the Silver Arrows with an impressive final lap good enough for P7, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo continued to get to grips with the RB Honda en route to P9 on the grid. Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg made it into Q3 yet again and earned P10 for tomorrow’s GP start.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Emilia-Romagna GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:15.762 1:15.176 1:14.746 18
2 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:15.940 1:15.407 1:14.820 15
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:15.915 1:15.371 1:14.837 19
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:15.823 1:15.328 1:14.970 21
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:16.015 1:15.512 1:15.233 20
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:16.107 1:15.671 1:15.234 18
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:15.894 1:15.358 1:15.465 15
8 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:16.604 1:15.677 1:15.504 20
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo RB HONDA RBPT 1:16.060 1:15.691 1:15.674 15
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 1:15.841 1:15.569 1:15.980 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9 am Eastern here in the States. With McLaren hot on the heels of Red Bulls usually supreme pace and Ferrari desperate to produce a result on Italian soil, Verstappen could have his hands full, not to mention the abundant gravel traps here at Imola potentially provoking Safety Car & Red Flag periods to introduce further unpredictability. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Miami — Results & aftermath

McLaren’s Norris earns maiden win in Miami with brilliant drive & a little luck; Verstappen relegated to rare P2 in fair fight, Leclerc P3 for Ferrari

McLaren’s Lando Norris drove the race of his life at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, using his ever improving skills as a driver, the new upgrades on his MCL38 chassis and little bit of Safety Car luck to earn his maiden win in Formula 1 in spectacular fashion. Having knocked on the door with seven podiums over the course of a F1 career that began in the middle of the 2018 season, the 24-year-old Briton finally kicked down that barrier to take the top step of the podium ahead of the usually imperious Red Bull of Max Verstappen by an impressive 7.612 seconds. After coming a cropper on the first lap of Saturday’s Sprint race, Norris excelled in Sunday’s GP, even though he started from back in P5 on the grid. With Verstappen looking fully in control and en route to another easy win midway through this 57-lap contest, and teammate Oscar Piastri actually seeming the quicker car in the early going, Norris made his own luck by running an extra-long first stint on his initial Medium Pirelli tires. While some contenders pitted under a brief Virtual Safety Car deployed on Lap 23 to retrieve a loose bollard from the chicane that Verstappen had knocked onto the track a few laps earlier, including Max himself, the two McLarens were not in position to take the risk of the VSC ending while in the pits and stayed out. It proved to be a prescient decision.

When the action resumed at the end of that lap, Verstappen had been shuffled back to P4, with Piastri now in the lead, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in P2 and Norris in third. Piastri and Sainz then pitted under green flag conditions on Lap 28, both going from Mediums to Hards under the favored one-stop strategy, with Norris then inheriting the lead and presumably attempting a one-lap overcut strategy. But that plan paid even bigger dividends when the Haas of Kevin Magnussen came together with the Williams of local boy Logan Sargeant on the very same lap, spinning Sargent backwards into the barriers and disabling his car. A Safety Car to retrieve the stricken Williams was quickly deployed on Lap 29, enabling Norris to duck into the pits for the cheap stop under the full course yellow a lap later. Norris then reemerged still in the lead, setting up a showdown for the victory with Verstappen when the SC ended in the latter part of Lap 32. The pace in the McLaren being up to the challenge, Norris held off Verstappen with aplomb at the rolling the restart and then, to the capacity crowd’s astonishment, began pulling away from the flying Dutchman. With the tension and anticipation of something truly special unfolding as the laps wound down, Norris kept pulling away from Verstappen, who for once could do nothing to get back up to Norris and make a real challenge. Perhaps the Red Bull’s front wing was damaged from hitting that bollard or perhaps the McLaren in Norris’s hands truly had the legs on the RB20 on this day — or maybe little of both. But when the checkers flew it was an ecstatic Norris with that all important first Formula 1 victory to put McLaren back in the winners circle for the first time since 2021 and relegate the runaway championship favorite Verstappen to a wholly unaccustomed P2.

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2024 F1 Grand Prix of Miami — Qualifying results

Verstappen masters Miami for third consecutive pole there, sixth straight to open season; Leclerc closest contender in P2, Ferrari teammate Sainz P3, as Scuderia split Perez

Fresh off a Sprint win earlier on Saturday, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen continued his mastery of the Miami International Autodrome by taking his third consecutive pole there for Sunday”s Grand Prix. In the Miami GP’s three years of existence, Verstappen has dominated the tricky and perilous temporary street circuit created from the roads surrounding the NFL Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium. While other drivers white knuckled it through the course’s most narrow and technical switchback turns, the supremely confident Verstappen was left to wonder what all the fuss was about en route to setting his sixth pole on the trot to start what is shaping up to be a historically dominant 2024 campaign.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was his closest pursuer for one-lap pace despite suffering an ignominious spin-and-stall in Friday’s only practice, the rapidly improving Prancing Horse setting the second fastest time in the Monegasque’s hands. Teammate Carlos Sainz was third quickest on the day, relegating the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez to P4 on the grid and giving hope to the Scuderia faithful for a potential double podium finish come race day. McLaren ran decently while trying to master their new upgrades, with Lando Norris, who has the full new package qualifying P5 and teammate Oscar Piastri, who only has the partial kit, slotting in at P6.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Miami GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:27.689 1:27.566 1:27.241 18
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:28.081 1:27.533 1:27.382 21
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:27.937 1:27.941 1:27.455 21
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:27.772 1:27.839 1:27.460 18
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:27.913 1:27.871 1:27.594 21
6 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:28.032 1:27.721 1:27.675 19
7 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:28.159 1:28.095 1:28.067 21
8 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:28.167 1:27.697 1:28.107 21
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 1:28.383 1:28.200 1:28.146 21
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:28.324 1:28.167 1:28.192 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Sunday’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 4PM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!.

2024 F1 Grand Prix of China — Results & aftermath

Verstappen cruises to easy victory in chaotic Chinese GP; Norris keeps Perez behind to secure second place

Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen dominated the first Sprint Weekend of the Formula 1 season, winning the Sprint race on Saturday despite starting from 6th on the grid on that day, and then dominating Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix for an easy win at the Shanghai International Circuit. Starting from his accustomed pole position for the GP after bettering his teammate Sergio Perez in qualifying, Verstappen never really faced any challenge to his supremacy in Formula 1’s first race at this tricky and very technical track since 2019. Despite two lengthy Safety Car periods erasing his lead and allowing his competitors to pit cheaply, Verstappen restarted and drove away each time from the point without anyone else getting a sniff. In the end, the Dutch master claimed victory well over 13 seconds ahead of the P2 McLaren of Lando Norris. So long as his RB20 stays healthy, it’s hard to see how Verstappen doesn’t win his fourth Drivers’ title on the trot even though we are only five rounds into this planned 24-round season.

Norris did very well to come home ahead of Perez after starting from P4 on the grid, utilizing a long 22-lap first stint to overcut Perez, the Red Bull man choosing to only run to Lap 13 before doffing his Medium Pirellis in favor of the Hards. Then, despite pitting a lap later than several other frontrunners during a Virtual Safety Car period brought about to retrieve the stranded Sauber of Valtteri Bottas on Lap 22, the young Briton got a break when a full Safety Car was deployed, as the stricken Sauber proved recalcitrant. With Norris also guaranteed the cheap pit stop his rivals had already gotten, including Perez’s second stop, the McLaren mechanics did superb work on the tire change for Norris to cycle out P2 behind Verstappen. When another Safety Car quickly followed on Lap 27 due to debris from a multiple contacts on the restart, Norris and his pit wall braintrust decided to go for a one-stop strategy and ride his Hard tires to then end of this 56-lap contest. Perez would run his second set of Hard Pirellis to the end, as well, but the Mexican pilot lost valuable track position due to making two stops to Norris’s one, including his first user green flag condition. Perez fought his way all the way back up to P3 but stalled out there and Norris was the race’s runner up, his second podium finish of the season.

Ferrari ended up lacking a bit of pace here in Shanghai but still maximized what could have been a mediocre day, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz running a clean and smart race to finish P4 and P5 respectively. George Russell was the lead Mercedes in P6, while teammate Lewis Hamilton had a good recovery drive to come home in P9 despite starting from way back in P18 after a disastrous Saturday Qualifying. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was undone by his team’s strategic error to switch to Soft tires for his second stop during the initial VSC on lap 22. That decision backfired with the amount for subsequent Safety Car laps and not enough performance advantage to justify the move, necessitating a third stop for Alonso on Lap 44 and a run to the finish on fresh Mediums. The wily veteran was able to fight his way back up to P7 by the time the checkers flew but considering the Spaniard started third on the grid that result still had to come as a disappointment.

The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri suffered rear diffuser damage in a big concertina mash up during the first Safety Car restart and faded to a P8 finish, while Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg scored his fourth point of the year with another decent effort and a P10 result.

Top 10 finishers of the Chinese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 56 1:40:52.554 25
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 56 +13.773s 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 56 +19.160s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 56 +23.623s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 56 +33.983s 10
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 56 +38.724s 8
7 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 56 +43.414s 7
8 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 56 +56.198s 4
9 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 56 +57.986s 2
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 56 +60.476s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight in Miami, the first of three scheduled Grand Prix to be held in the USA this year. This was the race that vaulted Verstappen past Perez for good last year. Can anyone balk the three-time champ’s race to a fourth consecutive title this time in Florida? I wouldn’t bet on it but hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of China — Qualifying results

Verstappen claims 100th Red Bull pole in China ahead of P2 teammate Perez; Alonso excels for Aston in P3, McLaren’s Norris & Piastri P4 & P5; Hamilton bounced in Q1

Top 10 qualifiers for the Chinese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:34.742 1:33.794 1:33.660 18
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:35.457 1:34.026 1:33.982 19
3 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:35.116 1:34.652 1:34.148 15
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:34.842 1:34.460 1:34.165 15
5 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:35.014 1:34.659 1:34.273 16
6 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:34.797 1:34.399 1:34.289 20
7 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:34.970 1:34.368 1:34.297 17
8 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:35.084 1:34.609 1:34.433 20
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 1:35.068 1:34.667 1:34.604 21
10 77 Valtteri Bottas KICK SAUBER FERRARI 1:35.169 1:34.769 1:34.665 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 3AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out in the return of the Chinese Grand Prix!

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!