Tag Archives: Pierre Gasly

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Qatar — Results & aftermath

Verstappen cruises to victory while chaos envelopes rest of field; Leclerc earns P2 ahead of Piastri as Ferrari close the gap to McLaren

A week after clinching his fourth consecutive Drivers’ title in Las Vegas, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen showed no signs of resting on his laurels at Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix. Peeved about being penalized one grid spot for an incident with Mercedes’ George Russell during Saturday qualifying, Verstappen launched off the line like a man possessed when the lights went out to start the race. He quickly made short work of the pole-sitting Russell, exacting his desert vengeance swiftly while steaming into Turn 1. Russell also lost a position to McLaren’s Lando Norris, dropping the lead Silver Arrow down to P3 with less than a third of lap yet run. Meanwhile, there was carnage at the back of the pack, with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg losing traction and ping-ponging off Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and rookie Franco Colapinto’s Williams. While Hulkenberg was able to drive away from the accident from the large runoff area at the apex of Turn 1 with only a puncture, Ocon and Colapinto were not as fortunate and a Safety Car was deployed to retrieve both stricken cars.

It was a quick clean up and the race restarted towards the end of Lap 4, Verstappen quickly pulling a decent gap over the pursuing P2 McLaren of Norris. Once again, there was contact towards the rear, with the RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson and the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas all making contact with one another but all three also able to continue. Lawson was eventually penalized 10-seconds for causing that collision and then the stewards also busted Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton for jumping the start, earning the seven-time champ a 5-second penalty. With all of the top contenders running slightly longer on their starting sets of Medium Pirelli tires due to that early Safety Car period, Russell became the first of the top ten to pit for fresh rubber on Lap 24, perhaps feeling the heat from the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri behind him and angling for an undercut advantage. But that gambit came to less than nothing when the Silver Arrows mechanics uncharacteristically botched the stop with a sticky rear right tire, leaving Russell helplessly stationary for an excruciating 7-seconds. When Russell rejoined on his new set of Hard compound tires, he found himself down in P11, behind several ostensibly slower cars and with a lot of work to do to pull himself back into the serious points.

The race began to get downright bizarre on Lap 30 of the 57-Lap contest from Losail International Circuit when a wing mirror from Alexander Albon’s Williams fell off and lay stationary just before the end of the start-finish straight. While double yellow flags were deployed in that sector, the race director inexplicably did not deploy a Safety Car to retrieve the errant mirror and lap after lap the cars had to try and tiptoe around that dangerous bit of debris. On Lap 33, however, Bottas ran over it, sending shards of glass and carbon fiber across the track surface. On Lap 34, Hamilton and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz both sustained punctured tires as a result of running over that debris. On Lap 35, the Safety Car was finally deployed to clean up the jagged mess but it was far too late for those already disadvantaged by it. To make matters worse, Norris had failed to lift for the double yellows in that area while in hot pursuit of Verstappen a little earlier. The Dutchman immediately took notice and so too did the stewards, who soon announced they were investigating the McLaren man’s potential infraction.

When things had been cleaned up and the race restarted on Lap 39, it was once again Verstappen and Norris battling it out at the front, the Englishman getting much closer this time and running side by side with the Red Bull before backing out of the effort and living to fight another day, But once again there was trouble at the back, as the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez spun violently and ended up unable to continue, as did Hulkenberg, who got beached in one of the gravel traps. It was another terrible day for Perez, who seems more than likely to lose his Red Bull seat due to his horrid drop in form in the second half of the season, which has cost the team dearly in their hopes of repeating as Constructors’ champs. When the race restarted once more on Lap 42, Verstappen swanned away this time, while Norris found himself under attack by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. While Norris was able to hold the Prancing Horse off to maintain second place, on Lap 45 the hammer dropped and Norris was assessed a race altering 10-second stop/go penalty, which relegated him to last of the runners in P15 when he emerged from the pits. Hamilton also received a second penalty, this time a drive through for speeding in the pits earlier, adding insult to injury for the proud Englishman on a day where nothing went right for him and he would score no points.

As for Norris, he desperately tried to get back into the points, his indiscretion costing the McLaren team in their fight against Ferrari for the all-important Constructors’ Championship. Leclerc was now firmly ensconced in P2 and ended up 6-seconds behind  the victorious Verstappen when the checkered flag flew, making it a very good day for the Scuderia and the Monegasque. Russell had seemingly recovered from his disastrous pit stop when he crossed the line in P3 but was assessed a 5-second time penalty for dropping back too far from the Safety Car during its final deployment. That promoted Piastri to the podium in P3, Russell being relegated to P4 on a frustrating day for the Briton. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had a superb drive to finish a very valuable P5, making the most of the rash of retirements and woes to other points contenders. Carlos Sainz further helped close Ferrari’s gap to McLaren to an eminently manageable 21-point deficit, while Norris clawed his back in the points with a late race pass on Bottas for P10 and also set the fastest lap en route to make it a pair on a day where much more seemed to be on the cards for him. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso gave a vintage effort to finish an impressive P7 in a car that was nowhere on the straights; Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu scored his and the team’s first points of the year with an excellent drive to finish P8; and the  lone surviving Haas of Kevin Magnussen also took valuable points in P9

Top 10 finishers of the Qatar GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

57

1:31:05.323

25

2

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

57

+6.031s

18

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

57

+6.819s

15

4

63

George Russell

Mercedes

57

+14.104s

12

5

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

57

+16.782s

10

6

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

57

+17.476s

8

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

57

+19.867s

6

8

24

Zhou Guanyu

Kick Sauber Ferrari

57

+25.360s

4

9

20

Kevin Magnussen

Haas Ferrari

57

+32.177s

2

10

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

57

+35.762s

2

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The 2024 season F1 finale is but a week away, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from the visually stunning Yas Marina Circuit. Hope to see you then for yet more fireworks before we draw the curtains on what has been an enthralling season of motor racing at the sport’s highest level!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Russell lays down dominant late lap for pole in Vegas while Hamilton struggles in P10; Ferrari’s Sainz P2, Gasly pulls P3 out of the bag for Alpine; Red Bull’s Verstappen only P5 as he closes in on fourth championship

Las Vegas Strip Circuit

Top 10 qualifiers for the Las Vegas GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:33.186

1:32.779

1:32.312

25

2

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

1:33.484

1:32.711

1:32.410

24

3

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

1:33.691

1:32.879

1:32.664

25

4

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:33.446

1:33.016

1:32.783

23

5

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:33.299

1:33.085

1:32.797

21

6

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:33.592

1:33.099

1:33.008

20

7

22

Yuki Tsunoda

RB Honda RBPT

1:33.789

1:33.089

1:33.029

25

8

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:33.450

1:33.024

1:33.033

21

9

27

Nico Hulkenberg

Haas Ferrari

1:33.920

1:33.114

1:33.062

17

10

44

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

1:33.225

1:32.567

1:48.106

24

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix starts bright and early beginning at 1 am Eastern on ESPN here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Verstappen can clinch or Norris can live to fight another day!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of São Paulo — Results & aftermath

Verstappen recovers from P17 start to take masterful victory in the rain at Interlagos; McLaren & P6 Norris miss out with pit strategy, as Alpine capitalize on chaos to score surprise double podium with Ocon & Gasly

It was a tale of two polar opposite moods for Red Bull’s points-leading Max Verstappen in the quest for his fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship and McLaren’s Lando Norris on his hunt for his first crown on a hectic, rain affected São Paulo Grand Prix. With Saturday qualifying postponed until Sunday due to torrential downpours, conditions were not that much better this morning, leading to multiple red flags and crashes. But it was also completed and set the race grid for just a little later in the day, with Norris soaring to take the pole while Verstappen was hampered by a red flag in Q2, thereby bounced in P12 and then handed a 5-spot grid penalty for engine component changes. That meant the Flying Dutchman was mired down in P17 to start the race, while his chief challenger started from P1. With the rain moderate on the formation lap,  Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll spun off the circuit, leading to confusion and a false start before the grid was reorganized for the proper beginning of the race. When the lights finally went off, Norris lost P1 to the ambitious Mercedes of George Russell, who made the superior getaway, while Verstappen set about picking off back markers and improving his position as much as possible. The modern Rainmaster did just that, and by Lap 11 he had already passed the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri for P7, with ambitions for even greater results.

The dilemma for all the drivers soon became when exactly to come in for fresh Pirelli wet weather tires. Ferrari were the first to pull the trigger, calling Charles Leclerc in for new Intermediates. While Norris debated making that move with his race engineer, the rain began intensifying again. When Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg brought out a Virtual Safety Car with a spin and temporarily getting stuck off track, both Norris and Russell pulled the trigger on their first pit stops. But Hulkenberg was quickly helped to get running again by the over eager marshals, for which the German was eventually black flagged from the race, and the VSC ended just as suddenly as it began, leaving Norris & Russell unable to take full advantage of the field’s previously reduced speed. With the rain now pelting down on Interlagos, a Safety Car was deployed on Lap 30 to slow things down to a safe pace. But very soon after rookie Franco Colapinto binned his Williams after hydroplaning, which brought out a Red Flag stoppage on Lap 32. Under Formula 1’s quirky rules, that meant that the entire field was entitled to a free change of tires while stationary in the pits, putting all those who had already stopped at a major disadvantage. 

For Verstappen, that was just the stroke of luck he needed and when the race resumed, he trailed only the unlikely leader, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Another Safety Car was deployed on Lap 43 when Carlos Sainz crashed his Ferrari, putting the Spaniard’s difficult weekend in Brazil out if its misery a week after his triumph in Mexico. When racing resumed on Lap 43, Verstappen got the jump on Ocon and took a lead he wouldn’t relinquish by the time the full 69-laps were in the books. Meanwhile, Norris ran wide on that same restart and found himself plummeting down to P7. Verstappen scampered away to the tune of an eventual 19.47-second final advantage over Ocon and took an astonishing win in São Paulo to earn his first victory since Round 10 in Spain back in June. But Norris was only able to gain one more place when all was said and done and finished P6. It was a huge shift in momentum back to Verstappen in the championship hunt and a blow to Norris, who now trails by 62-points with only  three races remaining. While the timing of the pit stop and the eventual Red Flag really hurt Norris, Verstappen made his own luck with a superb drive in the rain and an improbable and historic comeback victory after that lowly P17 start. This may well have been the race that ends up defining the 2024 season and secures Verstappen’s fourth consecutive title when the final story is written in the F1 history books.

Top 10 finishers of the São Paulo GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

69

2:06:54.430

26

2

31

Esteban Ocon

Alpine Renault

69

+19.477s

18

3

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

69

+22.532s

15

4

63

George Russell

Mercedes

69

+23.265s

12

5

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

69

+30.177s

10

6

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

69

+31.372s

8

7

22

Yuki Tsunoda

RB Honda RBPT

69

+42.056s

6

8

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

69

+44.943s

4

9

30

Liam Lawson

RB Honda RBPT

69

+50.452s

2

10

44

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

69

+50.753s

1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

After an absolutely bonkers conclusion in Brazil to a three races in a row triple header, the teams finally get a breather. The next race is three weeks hence, as the Formula 1 circus travels back to the United States for the Las Vegas Grand Prix under the gaudy lights of the strip and the Sphere. With momentum now swinging firmly back towards Verstappen after his heroics in São Paolo today, Norris and McLaren will look to regroup and get their man back into his now long shot Drivers’ Title hunt. Who knows how things will go in this most unpredictable Formula 1 season? But there is one sure thing — rain will definitely not be a factor in Vegas. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

Norris recovers from poor start to hammer Verstappen on home turf; Leclerc holds off Piastri for P3

In the halcyon days of Red Bull’s dominance, a bobble like the one McLaren’s pole-sitting Lando Norris made to start Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix would have relegated the young Briton to a second place start once Max Verstappen pounced to take the lead amidst the rolling dunes of Zandvoort. But such are the strides that McLaren and their young duo of drivers have made that Norris not only kept his cool after ceding the lead but then set himself to relentlessly closing down the race leading Red Bull in rather astonishingly rapid fashion. Proving that the pace advantage in Formula 1 no longer rests with Red Bull, McLaren’s main man hunted down Verstappen and re-passed the Dutchman in front of his home crowd with relative ease on Lap 18 of this 72-lap contest. Norris almost immediately scampered away out of DRS range and built enough of an advantage to withstand Verstappen’s attempt at an undercut on Lap 27, emerging from his only out stop of the race a lap later just under five-seconds ahead of the Flying Dutchman. After that, it was clear that the McLaren in Norris’s hands had the legs on Verstappen’s Red Bull, and Norris never faced a real challenge for the rest of the race. He subsequently earned his second F1 victory and second this season after breaking his duck in Miami, taking the checkered flag nearly 23-seconds ahead of the Red Bull runner-up.

Ferrari’s Chalres Leclerc exceeded expectations by making a very good getaway of his own to start the race and then undercutting the field on Lap 25 to get track position on the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Lecerc was then able to hold off Piastri in the final stanza of the race to claim P3 and earn the last step on the podium. But with Piastri still coming home a solid P4 while Perez drifted to a rather desultory P6 finish, and combined with Norris’s maximum 26-points haul for not only winning but setting the fastest lap of the day, McLaren closed ground on Red Bull in the all-important Constructors’ Standings to the tune of a mere thirty-point deficit. Norris also sliced into Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ points, closing to within seventy with nine races remaining on the calendar. In a twist few would have predicted after the opening rounds of the 2024 season, Red Bull are now the ones chasing McLaren and hoping they can do just enough to hold off the papaya orange menace filling up their rearview mirrors in both title hunts.

Leclerc’s Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz did well to come home ahead of Perez in P5 after being hampered by limited running in practice and starting down in P10. Mercedes had a step back here after their strong run of results heading into the summer break, leaving the team scratching their heads over their relative lack of pace that saw George Russell only finish P7 after starting from fourth on the grid. Teammate Lewis Hamilton at least recovered somewhat from his lowly P14 starting position and came home in P8, cold if any comfort for driver and team. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had another solid drive to take valuable points in P9 and Fernando Alonso was the lone Aston Martin to score in P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

72

1:30:45.519

26

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

72

+22.896s

18

3

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

72

+25.439s

15

4

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

72

+27.337s

12

5

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

72

+32.137s

10

6

11

Sergio Perez

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

72

+39.542s

8

7

63

George Russell

Mercedes

72

+44.617s

6

8

44

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

72

+49.599s

4

9

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

71

+1 lap

2

10

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

71

+1 lap

1

Complete race results available via Formula.com.

The next tilt is in but a week’s time — the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed, Monza. While Ferrari would dearly like to take the honors for that race weekend, it’s now looking like a two team race between Red Bull and surging McLaren. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out on the fastest circuit in Formula 1!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

Norris claims authoritative pole over Verstappen at Zandvoort as F1 kicks back into gear; Piastri P3, Russell P4

Formula 1’s long summer break has come and gone, as the circus reopened for Round 15 of the 2024 World Championship at the small but technical Zadvoort Circuit amidst the dunes along the coast of the Netherlands. After nothing but wet practices on Friday and Saturday morning, Qualifying itself was dry and the cars finally got to show their speed. Looking tan, ready and rested, McLaren’s Lando Norris continued his run of good form by laying down a dominant lap to earn pole position during Qualifying for tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix, some four-tenths to the good of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the current points leader in the Drivers standings. Despite the throngs of orange-clad countrymen willing on the Dutch master from the stands, it was the papaya orange of Norris’s McLaren setting the pace when push came to shove. Adding to McLaren’s satisfaction, Oscar Piastri set the third fastest time, while Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez could only muster P5. Mercedes’ George Russell split those two and will line up alongside Piastri on the second row after claiming P4. But Silver Arrows teammate Lewis Hamilton, winner of two of the last three races prior to the break, had a bit of a disastrous day. First, the seven-time champion was bounced in Q2 after only being twelfth fastest in that session; then he was assessed a three-place grid penalty after being found guilty of impeding Perez in Q1. On a circuit where track position is king, Hamilton will really have to pull something out of the bag come race day now starting from a lowly fourteenth.

Charles Leclerc was the only Ferrari to make it into Q3 and will start P6 on Sunday, as teammate Carlos Sainz struggled with handling en route to an initial P11 grid spot. But Williams’ Alexander Albon, who had been looking good with the eighth fastest time at the end of quali, was DQ’d after the session due to a technical infraction on the floor of his car. That elevated not only Sainz into the top ten, but also promoted Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll to P8 on the grid, alongside his P7 teammate Fernando Alonso, and lifted Alpine’s Pierre Gasly up to P9.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.377

1:10.496

1:09.673

14

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:11.393

1:10.811

1:10.029

14

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.541

1:10.505

1:10.172

16

4

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:11.049

1:10.552

1:10.244

18

5

11

Sergio Perez

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:11.006

1:10.678

1:10.416

17

6

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:11.370

1:10.689

1:10.582

24

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:11.493

1:10.845

1:10.633

16

DQ

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

0

8

18

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:11.518

1:10.661

1:10.857

19

9

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

1:11.718

1:10.815

1:10.977

20

10

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

1:11.327

1:10.914

18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Revised grid taking into account multiple penalties is here.

Tomorrow’s race amidst the dunes airs live on ESPN tomorrow starting at 9 am Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out of Norris can hold off Verstappen for another win and tighten up the championships even further and we fly into the second half of the season!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Results & aftermath

Russell gifted win after Verstappen & Norris tangle; Piastri’s lone surviving McLaren claims P2, Sainz P3; Verstappen finishes in P5 but Norris DNFs

A funny thing happened on the way to another Max Verstappen romp at his team’s own Red Bull Ring. A day after dominating the Saturday Sprint and earning pole for the Austrian Grand Prix, the smart money was on Verstappen’s dominating ways here in Spielberg, where he has won four of the last six contests, continuing come race day. And for two thirds of this 71-lap contest, that appeared to be the case. But, with the race evolving into a graduate level true tire strategy test for the engineers on this short, high-deg circuit, things began shifting away from the race leading Red Bull man when both he and the P2 McLaren of Lando Norris were called in on Lap 51 for their second and ostensibly final pit stop for fresh rubber. Both doffed their used Hard Pirelli tires and changed back to the Mediums, the compound they had both started the race on. But Verstappen’s pit crew had an uncharacteristically slow 6.5 -second stop after battling with a sticky left rear wheel, while Norris’s time stationary was the more typically crisp 2.9-seconds. Upon exiting the pits line to stern, Verstappen now saw his previous seven-second lead evaporate to just a touch more than a second over the pursuing McLaren. And pursue Norris did, quickly getting into DRS range and harassing the Dutch race leader over a multi-lap period.  Under that fierce pressure, Verstappen began to be ever more aggressive in defense, leading to multiple complaints from Norris back to his race engineer that the Red Bull was consistently moving in reaction to his lunges. Norris himself had already received the Black & White flag for track limits and eventually received a 5-second penalty after running wide trying an overtake on Verstappen on Lap 59. But that didn’t tame Norris’s aggression and confidence at all. With the two front runners dicing for the race win in ever more intense and physical manner as the laps wound down, something had to give. And on Lap 64, the seemingly inevitable contretemps finally happened.

Norris dove to the inside seeming into the always treacherous off-camber Turn 3 looking to make the race winning overtake. But Verstappen appeared to squeeze the McLaren at the apex and Norris’s from wing made contact with Verstappen’s rear left, damaging the rim and cutting down the Red Bull’s tire almost immediately. Despite his stricken state, Verstappen would not yield and let Norris through into the lead and the two touched again, with Norris picking up a puncture of his own to the rear right. Both the Red Bull and McLaren had to limp back to the pits, but the Red Bull was able to do a standard tire change to Softs, while Norris’s McLaren had been so badly damaged at both the front and by the tire carcass flailing the rear bodywork that the crestfallen Englishman was forced to retire the car. While Verstappen received a 10-second time penalty after the stewards determined he was at fault for that fateful contact between the top two contenders, the Dutch points leader was able to salvage P5 from of the ordeal, as well as set the fastest lap of the Grand Prix for an extra point on those fresh Softs. Norris, meanwhile, scored no points with his DNF, his dreams of victory going from within his grasp to ashes in his mouth in mere moments. Previously on very friendly terms, the way things went down in Austria this Sunday and with Norris’s pointed post-race comments putting all of the blame on the Red Bull ace, there’s likely to be a fairly serious cooling off in Verstappen and Norris’s bromance.

The late race chaos all redounded to the benefit of Mercedes’ George Russell, who went from plodding along in a safe and solitary third place to blowing by the two injured cars ahead and taking the lead on that fateful Lap 64. To quote the Englishman, he was more than happy to “pick up the pieces” and to be fair to him, Russell had run cleanly and quickly enough to be in a position to do so. The Mercedes factory team were jubilant at their good fortune and neither Russell nor the Silver Arrows brass seemed inclined to give the great gift win back. Picking up his teammate, the second and sole surviving McLaren of Oliver Piastri was not able to close enough on Russell for a final lunge but did come home an outstanding P2, though the young Aussie may be ruing having his best lap in qualifying deleted for track limits and being forced to start P7. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz also enjoyed his gift trip to the podium after inheriting P3. While the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton finished a distant P4 to add to the team’s unexpectedly large points haul, the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc could never quite recover from an opening lap kerfuffle with Piastri and Sergio Perez that necessitated a costly and interminable time in the pits for a front wing change so early in the race. The Monegasque finished an unlucky P11 outside the points despite about a zillion pit stops.

While Perez had yet another underwhelming performance in the second Red Bull en route to a desultory P7 finish, it was something of a banner day for the Haas F1 team. Putting themselves in position to fully benefit from the misfortunes of others by being genuinely quick and having solid pit stops, Nico Hulkenberg rode the chaotic late race waves to an impressive P6 finish, while teammate Kevin Magnussen came home in P8. It was by far the best scoring day for Haas in 2024 and they’ll be hoping they can build on this improved performance at Silverstone next weekend. Rounding out the top ten, Daniel Ricciardo did yeoman’s work for RB Honda to finish P9, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly ascended to P10 upon Norris’s retirement.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 63 George Russell MERCEDES 71 1:24:22.798 25
2 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +1.906s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 71 +4.533s 15
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +23.142s 12
5 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 71 +37.253s 10
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 71 +54.088s 8
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 71 +54.672s 6
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 71 +60.355s 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo RB HONDA RBPT 71 +61.169s 2
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 71 +61.766s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, making it a grueling three Grand Prix in a row — the classic British GP from the legendary Silverstone airfield track. McLaren seem to have the pace to take it to Verstappen’s Red Bull but can they duke it out with the increasingly aggressive championship leader? And can once-mighty Mercedes take their improved performance and turn it into yet more good luck at their home circuit? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Results & aftermath

Verstappen takes victory in Spain after P2 Norris bobbles start; Hamilton earns first podium of season ahead of P4 Russell

To beat the best, you’ve got to execute flawlessly. McLaren and their star driver Lando Norris learned that age old lesson of sport again during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, as Norris’s promising pole start quickly unraveled when the young Briton bobbled his getaway as the lights went out to start the race. That slow start saw Norris quickly gobbled up by not only the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who started P2, but also the Mercedes of George Russell, whose impressive Turn 1 lunge from fourth overtook both Norris and Verstappen, as well as teammate Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen’s Red Bull showed immediately dominant race pace, however, keeping Norris behind easily and then gobbling up Russell for the lead of the Grand Prix on Lap 3. That was really the pivotal early sequence of this 66-lap contest at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. But McLaren tried to will their man back into the lead by running a longer first stint for Norris and hoping the overcut would prove powerful enough to make up for his opening lap error. So, when Verstappen came in for his first tire change on Lap 18, doffing his initial set of Soft Pirellis for Mediums, Norris stayed out for another five revolutions before coming in to make the identical switch. But the strategy didn’t really pay dividends, as Verstappen inherited the lead when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made his first stop, while Norris was forced to scythe his way through the likes of the second Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes of Hamilton simply to get up to P3 by Lap 32.

While Verstappen pumped in good laps at the front in clean air, Norris dispatched the over-achieving Russell in an epic back and forth pass, repass and pass back on Lap 35 while speeding through the twisty Turns 3-4-5 complex. Back in P2, Norris once again watched as the other main contenders made their second tire stops. First, Russell pitted on Lap 37, the Silver Arrows braintrust making the fateful decision to put him on Hards to finish out the race from that distance. But teammate Lewis Hamilton ran quite a bit longer and came in on Lap 45 to take Softs instead, the team liking his chances with only around 30 laps left to run. Verstappen then made his second stop, likewise ditching his Mediums for a new set of the Softs and a race to the finish on those better performing tires. Norris ran two laps longer after debating about staying out with his race engineer, following the same Medium to Soft pattern, albeit with a disappointingly slow 3.6-second stop. Nevertheless, Norris retained P2 on exit just ahead of Russell, even as Verstappen circulated back to the point. While Norris’s McLaren was able to cut into Verstappen’s lead as the laps wound down, it wasn’t nearly enough to prevent the Red Bull ace from notching his seventh win of 2024 out of ten rounds now run. Norris had to settle for setting the fastest lap en route to another second place, his impressive third P2 out of the last five races, not to mention his maiden win in Miami within that stretch. But in a sign of his and the team’s increased ambitions, he was left unsatisfied and rueing the chances lost at the start, the 2.21 second final deficit to Verstappen likely coming down to that poor initial getaway.

Russell’s relatively early pit stop and the need to therefore put him on the Hards cost him at the end, as teammate Hamilton was able to overtake him on lap 52 and claim the last step on the podium in P3 as the checkers flew. Surprisingly, it was Hamilton’s first podium of the 2024 season, though with Mercedes’s improved performance of late, it likely won’t be the last. Russell had to settle for P4 but the Silver Arrows were comfortably ahead of the Ferraris all race long, a worrying development for the Scuderia. Charles Leclerc came home P5, passing Carlos Sainz via team orders on Lap 55 and leaving Sainz extra annoyed after he felt his teammate had treated him roughly earlier in the race. The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri finished P7 after starting in P9 and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez came home in P8 after his  penalty-effected P11 start. The two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished in P9 and P10 respectively, the team’s second double points finish in two races after an abysmal start to the year

Top 10 finishers of the Spanish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 66 1:28:20.227 25
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 66 +2.219s 19
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 66 +17.790s 15
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 66 +22.320s 12
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 66 +22.709s 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 66 +31.028s 8
7 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 66 +33.760s 6
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 66 +59.524s 4
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 66 +62.025s 2
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 66 +71.889s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the Austrian Grand Prix from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. While it may be Verstappen and the team’s home court, McLaren and Norris are still expecting big things as they continue to try and take the fight to the three-time World Champion. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Qualifying results

GAME ON: Norris bests Verstappen for pole in Barcelona; Mercedes out-qualify Ferrari

The beginning to the 2024 Formula 1 campaign seemed to promise only an inevitably dominant Max Verstappen march to a fourth consecutive Driver’s title. But things have gotten well and truly more complicated and interesting with emergence of McLaren’s Lando Norris as a genuine threat to the Red Bull ace’s imperial ambitions. Beginning in Round 5 in China, Norris has shown that he can essentially match Verstappen and the RB20’s pace, either in qualifying trim or at race pace. Norris beat out Verstappen fair and square for his maiden F1 win in Miami and finished P2 to Verstappen the race before in China and two of the three races after Miami, Emilia-Romagna and Canada. And two weeks after his excellent runner-up performance in Montreal, where victory was also within his reach if not for an ill-timed Safety Car, Norris showed his form and threat are no fluke by besting Verstappen in Saturday qualifying to earn pole for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. Norris put in a blistering last lap around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to surpass what appeared to be Verstappen’s supreme final time by 0.020-seconds. It was Norris’s second career pole in F1 and first since way back in 2021 at Sochi in Russia. The Lando-Max front row should make the opening lap of tomorrow’s Grand Prix must see TV, as two young pilots at the peak of their powers fight on even terms for what each hopes will be a statement win in Spain.

Which is not to say that the drivers behind that elite duo won’t also have something to say about the outcome of the race. Looking like their performance gains in Canada might just prove illusory after two desultory rounds of quali, the factory Mercedes team came alive in Q3. The Silver Arrows ambushed Ferrari with their pace improvement on the rubbered-in track, with Lewis Hamilton out-qualifying his younger teammate George Russell for a change, P3 to P4. With Mercedes thereby locking out the second row, Ferrari were surprised to find themselves relegated to row three, with Charles Lecerc earning P5 ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in P6. Alpine continued their momentum after their double points finish in Canada, with Pierre Gasly slotting in an impressive P7 ahead of teammate and archrival Esteban Ocon in P9. They sandwiched the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who sacrificed his chance of a higher placing when he helped out teammate Verstappen by giving him a tow in Q3. The team may be having second thoughts about that decision, because Verstappen would probably still have been P2 either way and Perez was then demoted to P11 on the grid due to having to serve his 3-spot penalty from Canada for choosing to drive his heavily damaged car back to the pits. While that promotes the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri to a P9 start, that will be cold comfort for the young Australian, who ran wide into the gravel on his final qualifying lap and therefore could not come close to matching teammate Norris’s pole time. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso qualified P11 but was elevated to P10 on the grid for his home race as a result of Perez’s penalty.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Spanish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:12.386 1:11.872 1:11.383 12
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:12.306 1:11.653 1:11.403 12
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:12.143 1:11.792 1:11.701 18
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:12.456 1:11.812 1:11.703 16
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:12.257 1:12.038 1:11.731 12
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:12.403 1:11.874 1:11.736 12
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 1:12.651 1:12.079 1:11.857 18
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:12.477 1:12.054 1:12.061 18
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:12.691 1:12.109 1:12.125 18
10 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:12.460 1:12.011 DNF 16

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9 am Eastern here in the States. Can Norris hold off Verstappen over the course of 66-laps and take a second victory at the Dutchman’s expense? Or will the Silver Arrows and Prancing Horses have a say in the outcome? Hope to see you then to find out!

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!