2024 Formula 1 Season

2023-03-02 Bahrain Grand Prix

Track Info

• Bahrain International Circuit
• 3.36 miles

Tire Info

• C3, C2, C1
• Hardest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Windy conditions could unsettle the cars
• Track is cold — might lead to tire warmup issues
• Ferrari are the first out of the garages, on medium (C2) tires
• Alpine also go out on medium tires
• After the first set of fast laps, Carlos Sainz has gone fastest overall, with Max Verstappen second
• Lando Norris is 3rd fastest
• Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are both fairly far down, in 12th and 7th respectively
• Hamilton's Mercedes was sparking a lot the end of the main straight
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
• Awful qualifying for Alpine
• Mercedes don't look all that hot either, with Russell finishing Q1 in 8th and Lewis Hamilton in 10th

Q2

• McLarens go out on used soft tires
• Kevin Magnussen has his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits
• Verstappen goes 0.5 seconds than Perez, even though they both went out on new tires
• LeClerc goes fastest overall in Q2
• Mercedes still look like they're a bit off the pace, with Hamilton going 4th and Russell going 7th
• Nico Hulkenberg has a great lap, and gets into Q3
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas

Q3

• LeClerc looks quite fast, even though he's on used tires
• Fernando Alonso goes out for a single lap, and goes 3rd fastest
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  3. George Russell — Mercedes
  4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  5. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  7. Lando Norris — McLaren
  8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  9. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. George Russell — Mercedes
4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
5. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
7. Lando Norris — McLaren
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
12. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
13. Alex Albon — Williams
14. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
15. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
18. Logan Sargeant — Williams
19. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
20. Pierre Gasly — Alpine

• 57 laps
• DRS now available after lap 1, instead of after lap 3 in previous seasons
• All cars starting on soft tires
• 2 stops expected
• Lap 1
  • LeClerc challenges Verstappen into turn 1 but isn't able to overtake
  • Lance Stroll spins and falls into last place after a possible collision with Nico Hulkenberg
  • Nico Hulkenberg reports front wing damage
  • Sergio Perez passes Carlos Sainz for 4th
  • Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have moved up into 16th and 17th respectively
• Lap 2 — Nico Hulkenberg comes into the pits for a front wing change, and goes back out on hard tires
• Verstappen has pulled out of DRS range of Charles LeClerc
• Lap 3
  • Lando Norris passes Fernando Alonso for 6th
  • George Russell passes Charles LeClerc for 2nd
• Lap 5 — Piastri passes Alonso for 7th
• Lap 7 — Perez passes LeClerc for 3rd
• LeClerc is having trouble with lock-ups
• Lap 10
  • Hamilton passes Alonso for 8th
  • Logan Sargeant has gone off, but is able to recover and continue
• Lap 11 — Sainz has a good overtake on LeClerc to take 4th (that was a proper overtake, not team orders)
• Lap 12
  • LeClerc pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 14th
  • Russell pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 12th
• Lap 13
  • Sergio Perez pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 9th
  • Lewis Hamilton pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 12th
  • Oscar Piastri pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 11th
• Notably, George Russell has managed to hold a lead over Perez through the first round of pit stops
• Lap 14
  • Russell passes Ricciardo for 7th
  • Norris pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 9th, just ahead of Piastri
  • Perez passes Russell for 6th
  • Sainz pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 7th, just behind Charles LeClerc
  • LeClerc regains the place that he lost to Sainz after the first round of pit stops
• Lap 15 — Lewis Hamilton on the radio saying his battery system isn't charging
• Lap 16
  • Fernando Alonso pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 10th
  • Zhou Guanyu has made it up into 9th, after the first round of pit stops
• Lap 17 — Sainz re-passes LeClerc for 4th
• Lap 18
  • Verstappen pits and retains the lead
  • Sainz passes Russell for 3rd
• LeClerc is saying he's having brake issues — car is pulling right while braking
• Russell is complaining about overheating problems — might have a power unit issue as well
• Mercedes says that Hamilton's battery is fine; he just needs to back off and charge it more
• Russell is managing an engine issue
• Lap 23 — Both Mercedes told to lift and coast in order to prevent overheating
• Lap 25 — Hamilton reporting that his seat is broken
• Lap 32
  • Valteri Bottas has a very problematic pit stop — wheel nut issues cause a 52s pit stop
  • George Russell pits from 4th, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes out in 9th, behind Alonso
• Lap 34
  • Lando Norris pits from 5th, goes onto new hard tires and comes out in 8th, behind Alonso
  • Lewis Hamilton pits from 7th, goes onto new hard tires and comes out in 9th, behind Norris
  • George Russell passes Fernando Alonso for 6th
• Lap 35
  • LeClerc pits from 4th, goes onto new hard tires, and comes out in 6th, behind Alonso
  • Piastri pits from 5th, goes onto new hard tires, and comes out in 9th, just behind Hamilton
  • Piastri lost a place to Hamilton through the second round of pit stops
• Lap 36
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 3rd, goes onto new hard tires, and retains 3rd
  • LeClerc passes Alonso for 5th
• Lap 37
  • Lando Norris passes Fernando Alonso for 7th
  • Sergio Perez pits from 2nd, goes onto soft tires, and retains 2nd
    • Perez started the race on soft tires, and had to change them after 13 laps
    • There are 20 laps left in the race
    • However the car is lighter, now that it's burned off most of its fuel
  • Verstappen pits at the end of the lap, goes onto new soft tires, and keeps the lead
• Lap 39 — Hamilton passes Alonso for 7th
• Lap 40 — Piastri passes Alonso for 8th
• Lap 42 — Alonso pits from 9th, goes onto new hard tires, and comes out in 11th behind Zhou Guanyu
• Lap 44 — Alonso passes Zhou for 10th
• Lap 46 — Russell locks up and goes wide into turn 10, allowing LeClerc to pass him going into turn 11
• Tsunoda and Ricciardo are not happy with how the place swap at the end was conducted
• Kind of a boring race — Verstappen won by a comfortable margin again
• Didn't seem like anyone could challenge Red Bull
• Surprised to see Alpine performing so poorly — if it hadn't been for Logan Sargeant's lock-up and Bottas' extremely slow pit stop, they'd have been dead last

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Lando Norris — McLaren
7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
10. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
11. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
15. Alex Albon — Williams
16. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
17. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
18. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
19. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams

2024-03-09 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Jeddah Corniche
• 3.84 miles

Tire Info

• C4, C3, C2
• One step softer than at Bahrain

Qualifying

Q1

• Carlos Sainz is out for this race because of appendicitis surgery
• Ollie Bearman, Ferrari's reserve driver, is substituting
• Much less wind than in Bahrain
• Zhou Guanyu had a big accident in free practice, and he might be missing qualifying if his car cannot be repaired in time for him to set a lap in Q1
• Lewis Hamilton and George Russell set their first fast laps on medium tires
• Alonso sets a pretty fast time in the first set of laps
• Logan Sargeant might have been impeding Nico Hulkenberg
• Oscar Piastri glances the wall on his second lap, but that doesn't stop him from going fastest overall
• Aston Martin don't seem to be struggling as much here as they did in Bahrain
• Hamilton and Russell go back out on soft tires, as others have improved and the time they set on medium tires is no longer a sure bet to get them into Q2
  • Hamilton is 9th fastest on his second attempt
  • Russell is 4th fastest
• Zhou Guanyu made it out of the pits, but wasn't able to start his fast lap before qualifying ended
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Nico Hulkenberg pulls over and stops — says he's lost power
• Sector 1 has a yellow flag while Hulkenberg's car is cleared
• Session is red-flagged because Hulkenberg can't restart his car, 10:58 remains
• Red flag was pretty short, because Hulkenberg had managed to pull over before his car stopped, so it didn't take too long to clear his car from the track
• Alonso has a great first lap, places second, only 0.044 seconds behind Verstappen
• LeClerc goes third fastest, but he's on used tires
• Norris and Piastri set virtually identical times, and are 4th and 5th, respectively
• Yuki Tsunoda goes faster by almost half a second over Daniel Ricciardo
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Ollie Bearman — Ferrari
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas

Q3

• Verstappen and Perez are first and second after the first set of fast laps, with Alonso 3rd
• LeClerc can only manage 4th after he has a snap of oversteer in the final corner
• LeClerc's second lap is much better, and puts him in 2nd
• Mercedes have, just like this time last year, been outqualified by both of their customer teams
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  4. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  6. Lando Norris — McLaren
  7. George Russell — Mercedes
  8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  9. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  10. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
4. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Lando Norris — McLaren
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
9. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
10. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
11. Ollie Bearman — Ferrari
12. Alex Albon — Williams
13. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
14. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
15. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
18. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
19. Logan Sargeant — Williams
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

• 50 laps
• All cars starting on medium tires save for Ollie Bearman (Ferrari) and Valteri Bottas (Sauber)
• Pierre Gasly complaining of gearbox problems on the formation lap but is able to make it to his grid box for the start
• Lap 1
  • Seems like a clean start for everyone
  • LeClerc has a poor start and Perez is immediately fighting him for P2
  • Pierre Gasly pulls into the pits and retires with mechanical issues
• Lap 2
  • Piastri passes Alonso for 4th
  • Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman are fighting for P9, P10 and P11
  • Stroll passes Tsunoda for 9th
  • Bearman is all over the back of Tsunoda
• Lap 4 — Perez passes LeClerc for 2nd (the DRS is so effective on the Red Bull)
• Lap 6
  • Lance Stroll has a big lock-up and crashes!
  • Clipped the wall, which broke his front suspension, leading him to crash on the following corner
  • Safety car deployed
• Lap 7
  • Lots of pit stops under the safety car
    • Verstappen
    • Perez
    • Alonso
    • LeClerc
    • Bearman
    • Russell
    • Tsunoda
  • All pit for hard tires
  • The only two drivers in the top-10 who've stayed out are Hamilton and Norris
  • Norris is leading, Verstappen in 2nd and Hamilton in 3rd
  • Red Bull's pit crew were top notch, as usual, and Red Bull managed to change the tires on both its cars in the same lap
• The only cars which did not pit on lap 7-8 were
  • Lando Norris (leading)
  • Lewis Hamilton (3rd)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (8th)
  • Zhou Guanyu (10th)
• Lap 9 — Safety car ends
• Lap 10
  • Race resumes
  • Ollie Bearman passes Yuki Tsunoda for 11th
  • Alex Albon makes contact with Kevin Magnussen and takes front wing damage
• Lap 13
  • Verstappen passes Norris for the lead
  • Perez passes Hamilton for 3rd
• Lap 14 — Bearman passes Zhou for 10th
• Lap 15 — LeClerc passes Hamilton for 4th
• Sergio Perez gets a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release
• Kevin Magnussen gets a 10 second penalty for causing a collision with Alex Albon
• Lap 17 — Piastri is battling Hamilton for 5th
• Lap 18 — Perez passes Norris for 2nd
• Lap 21 — Bearman passes Hulkenberg for 9th (beautiful pass)
• Lap 22 — Good defending by Hamilton against Piastri, as he holds on to 5th
• Kevin Magnussen assessed another 10 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage
• Lap 27 — LeClerc passes Norris for 3rd
• Kevin Magnussen is doing a good job of holding up the cars behind him to allow his teammate to hold Nico Hulkenberg
• Lap 33 — Good pass by Alex Albon on Yuki Tsunoda for 14th
• Lap 34
  • Nico Hulkenberg pits from 10th, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 11th, behind Zhou Guanyu
  • However Zhou still has to pit, so Hulkenberg still has net 10th
• Lap 35 — Piastri passes Hamilton, but goes off track and has to give the place back
• Lap 37 — Hamilton pits from 5th, puts on soft tires, and comes out in 9th behind Bearman
• Lap 38 — Norris pits from 4th, puts on soft tires and comes out in 8th, behind Bearman, and crucially ahead of Hamilton
• Lap 42 — Zhou Guanyu pits from 10th, allowing Hulkenberg to move up into to the points
• Zhou Guanyu's car has a problem with the wheel nuts, just like Valteri Bottas' car last race
• Bearman manages to hold on to 7th on his debut race in F1

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
5. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Ollie Bearman — Ferrari
8. Lando Norris — McLaren
9. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. Alex Albon — Williams
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Logan Sargeant — Williams
15. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
16. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
17. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin (DNF)
20. Pierre Gasly — Alpine (DNF)

2024-03-24 Australian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Albert Park
• 3.27 miles

Tire Info

• C3, C4, C5
• Softest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Tire temperature management has been a problem in free practice
• Logan Sargeant will not be participating in qualifying or the race, because Alex Albon crashed during qualifying and Williams didn't bring a spare chassis
• That is extremely harsh for Logan and signals that he'll probably be out at the end of the season
• Track is dusty and slippery, which catches Alex Albon out on his first lap
• Track evolution is likely to be a factor
• The Ferraris look fast, with Charles LeClerc going fastest and Carlos Sainz going 2nd in the first set of fast laps
• Esteban Ocon brushes the tire barrier on his first fast lap and picks up a puncture. However he is able to return to the pits
• McLarens look quite quick as well, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris going 3rd and 4th, respectively on their 2nd fast laps
• Fernando Alonso goes fastest overall after his first fast lap, and surprisingly, Max Verstappen can't beat his time, ending up 2nd
• Carlos Sainz goes fastest in his 2nd lap, and this time LeClerc can't beat him
• Daniel Ricciardo loses his fast lap for a track limits violation, dropping him into the elimination zone
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

Q2

• Many cars going out on used tires
• Verstappen goes fastest after the first set of fast laps
• Oscar Piastri goes 2nd fastest on his first attempt in Q2
• Carlos Sainz goes fastest on his 2nd lap
• Yuki Tsunoda delivers an impressive final qualifying lap to get himself into Q3
• It's looking worse and worse for Daniel Ricciardo
• Lance Stroll, who looked to be eliminated also does a good job at the very end to get himself into Q3, knocking Lewis Hamilton out in the process
• It's kind of shocking to see Hamilton out in Q2 in Australia — normally he does quite well on this track
• From the replay, it looks like the Mercedes was very unstable — Hamilton was having to make a lot of corrections
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine

Q3

• Carlos Sainz puts in a quick lap, but Verstappen is still faster
• Fernando Alonso goes into the gravel on his first fast lap, but avoids crashing and manages to make it back to the pits
• Sainz and Verstappen are very closely matched on their second laps
• Sergio Perez has been doing a good job of making the case for why he should be allowed to continue at Red Bull next year
• Big contrast with Perez's performance from last year, where he crashed in Q1
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  4. Lando Norris — McLaren
  5. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  7. George Russell — Mercedes
  8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  9. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  10. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Sergio Perez — Red Bull (3-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying)
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
9. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
10. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
11. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
12. Alex Albon — Williams
13. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
14. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
17. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
18. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (pit lane start for a front-wing replacement)

• 58 laps
• Track temperatures are high
• Most cars are starting on medium tires
• One prominent exception is Lewis Hamilton who is starting on softs
• Fernando Alonso is starting on hards
• A two-stop strategy is expected, with the tire choices being medium - hard - hard for most
• Don't know what Mercedes is planning for Hamilton
• Lap 1
  • Clean start
  • Sainz attacks Verstappen into turn 1, but Verstappen manages to retain the lead
  • George Russell passes Sergio Perez for 6th
  • Hamilton passes Alonso, using the greater grip from the soft compound tires against the hards that Alonso is running
  • Lance Stroll passes Yuki Tsunoda for 8th
• Lap 2
  • Stroll is challenging Perez for 7th
  • Sainz passes Verstappen for the lead
  • Verstappen had a slide in turn 7-8 which allowed Sainz to get the jump on him
• Lap 4 — Verstappen's Red Bull is giving off a lot of smoke
• Lap 5
  • Verstappen reports a fire and pulls into the pits to retire the car
  • Looks like a brake fire on the right rear wheel
• Lap 8 — Lewis Hamilton pits from 9th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 14th
• Lap 9 — George Russell pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out 11th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Valteri Bottas has another wheel nut issue leading to a long pit stop
• Lap 10
  • Charles LeClerc pits from 3rd, switches to hard tires, and comes out in 7th, behind Gasly
  • Oscar Piastri pits from 4th, switches to hard tires and comes out in 8th, behind LeClerc
  • Both LeClerc and Piastri retain their lead over Russell in the first round of pit stops
• Lap 11 — LeClerc passes Gasly for 6th
• Lap 12
  • Piastri passes Gasly for 7th
  • LeClerc passes Hulkenberg for 5th
  • Piastri passes Hulkenberg for 6th
  • LeClerc and Piastri are making their way backup to their original spots
• Lap 15
  • Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, comes out in 5th, behind Piastri
  • Perez pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, comes out in 10th, behind Stroll
  • How did Perez end up so many places behind Norris, when they came in at basically the same time?
• Lap 16
  • Russell passes Gasly for 7th
  • Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 2nd, behind Alonso
• Lap 17
  • Hamilton has an engine failure, and a VSC is declared to allow marshals to clear his car from the track
  • Alonso gets a cheap pit stop under the VSC, goes onto medium tires (because he started on the hards) and comes out in 5th, behind Norris
• Lap 18
  • VSC ends
  • Perez passes Stroll for 7th
• Lap 21 — Perez passes Russell for 6th
• That was an easy pass
• Lap 26 — Good battle between Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg for 10th
• Lap 27 — Perez passes Alonso for 5th
• Lap 29 — Norris passes Piastri under team orders
• Norris has tires that are six laps younger than Piastri, so McLaren don't want Norris to lose that advantage being stuck behind Piastri who is having to manage his tires more than Norris
• Lap 35 — Charles LeClerc pits from 2nd, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes back out in 4th, ahead of Perez
• Lap 36 — Perez pits from 5th, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Yuki Tsunoda
• Lap 40 — Piastri pits from 3rd, goes onto new hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Alonso
• Lap 41
  • Lando Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto new hard tires and comes back out in 3rd, behind Charles LeClerc
  • Carlos Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto new hard tires and retains the lead
• Lap 42
  • Piastri passes Alonso for 4th
  • Alonso pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Sergio Perez
• Lap 46 — George Russell pits from 6th, goes onto a new set of hard tires and comes back out in 7th just behind Fernando Alonso
• Lap 54 — George Russell has caught up to within DRS range of Fernando Alonso
• Alonso has done a really good job of defending 6th place
• Lap 57
  • George Russell has a big crash!
  • VSC declared
  • Race ends under VSC
• Double DNF for Mercedes, and another race where Mercedes looked to be behind its own customers
• Cinderella result for Sainz, who comes back from surgery to win a race
• I wonder if Piastri would have been able to hold onto 3rd — would have been nice to see him on the podium at his home race
• Alonso picks up a 20s penalty for dangerous driving because he was found to have brake-tested George Russell and was held responsible for the crash

Results

1. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
5. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
6. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
7. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin (+20s penalty for potentially dangerous driving)
9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
10. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
11. Alex Albon — Williams
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
14. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
17. George Russell — Mercedes (DNF)
18. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes (DNF)
19. Max Verstappen — Red Bull (DNF)
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams (DNS)

2024-04-07 Japanese Grand Prix

Track Info

• Suzuka Circuit
• 3.6 miles

Tire Info

• C3, C2, C1
• Hardest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Tire wear likely to be an issue
• Suzuka is such a fun track to view from the onboard cameras
• Verstappen is very fast — 0.4s faster than Perez
• Ferrari don't look very fast — LeClerc is almost a full second behind Verstappen's time after the first fast lap,
• Hamilton and Russell both out-qualify LeClerc, with Hamilton leading Russell
• Alonso goes second fastest on his first qualifying lap
• Piastri was pretty quick too, qualifying ahead of both Mercedes and both Ferraris
• Norris has a bit of a drift in turn 16; first lap is good for 6th overall
• Lots of drivers having issues with rear-end instability, especially towards the end of the lap
• LeClerc is 4th on his second run
• Lots of drivers improve on their second laps, notably Valteri Bottas who places 8th on his second lap
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
• Very surprising to see Lance Stroll out in Q1, when Fernando Alonso was 2nd fastest in Q1
• Daniel Ricciardo is ahead of Yuki Tsunoda thus far

Q2

• Perez's first lap in Q2 is very close to Verstappen's, but Verstappen is still ahead
• Alonso goes third fastest (another pretty impressive lap from the Aston Martin)
• Hamilton is qualifying ahead of Russell once again, but both Mercedes are on used tires, and so place around 6th
• Sainz places ahead of LeClerc after LeClerc makes a small mistake in the final chicane
• Neither Mercedes nor Ferrari look all that impressive here; perhaps this could be Aston Martin or McLaren's time to shine
• Lewis Hamilton goes 3rd on his 2nd lap, placing ahead of both Norris and Alonso
• Russell goes 7th, but he was on used tires
• Tsunoda outqualifies Daniel Ricciardo in 10th — pushes Ricciardo out of Q3
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine

Q3

• Verstappen goes 0.5 sec faster than Hamilton in 2nd on his first fast lap
• Perez goes 2nd fastest, about three tenths down on Verstappen
• Alonso splits the Mercedes, going 4th on his first lap
• Norris goes onto the front row after his first fast lap, qualifying 0.1s ahead of Perez
• LeClerc only has one set of tires for Q3, after using up an extra set in Q1, and qualifies 7th
• Perez improves on his second fast lap and moves ahead of Norris into 2nd
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  3. Lando Norris — McLaren
  4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  5. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  8. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  9. George Russell — Mercedes
  10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
• Another qualifying session where Mercedes are behind both of their customer teams
• Lando Norris looks comfortable again
• Sergio Perez has done much better than he did last year so far

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
5. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
8. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
9. George Russell — Mercedes
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
12. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
13. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
17. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
18. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
19. Logan Sargeant — Williams
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

• 53 laps
• Track is much warmer than it was in qualifying
• Most cars are starting on the medium tires, but Fernando Alonso has an extra set of soft tires from qualifying and will be starting on those
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen gets away well from the start and comfortably holds the lead over Perez
  • Alonso attacks both Norris and Sainz, but they're able to fend off his challenge
  • This, in turn, allows Piastri to attack Alonso, and they have a running battle through the first lap
  • Ricciardo has a slightly slow start, and Albon moves up on the outside into Turn 2 and makes contact with him, and they both crash into the tire barrier
  • Race is red-flagged due to the damage to the barrier, which will require additional maintenance vehicles to fix
• The restart will be in race order, rather than returning to the original starting grid, since all the drivers were able to pass through the end of the first sector before the red flag was declared
• This is good news for Hulkenberg, who had gained two places off the start
• Both Mercedes are restarting on hard tires, while most of those around them have chosen to retain the mediums that they did the original start with
• Mercedes's strategy might be to do a one-stop race, using the fact that they have two sets of hard tires, while those around them will probably have to do two stops, since they have more medium tires and fewer hards
• Lap 3
  • Race restarts
  • Verstappen retains the lead again from the start
  • LeClerc passes Hamilton for 7th
  • Alonso is once again under attack from Piastri
  • Yuki Tsunoda passes George Russell for 9th
• Both Mercedes have lost a spot, but, in theory, they'll gain more by being able to do one fewer pit stop than everyone else
• Lap 5 — George Russell passes Yuki Tsunoda for 9th
• Nico Hulkenberg has lost a lot of places — was 10th at the restart, but is 17th by lap 5
• Lap 8 — Tsunoda pits from 10th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 16th, behind Valteri Bottas
• Lap 10 — George Russell complaining about vibrations in the steering wheel
• Fernando Alonso's soft tires are holding on well, with little drop-off in performance compared to the cars around him on medium tires
• Lap 11 — Lando Norris pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 10th, behind Lance Stroll
• Lap 13 — Piastri pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 12th, behind Logan Sargeant
• Lap 14
  • Piastri passes Sargeant for 11th
  • Russell passes Hamilton for 7th, under team orders
  • Zhou Guanyu pits again, and retires with a gearbox problem
  • Fernando Alonso pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 8th, behind Lance Stroll
    • More importantly, he comes out ahead of Oscar Piastri
• Lap 16
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 3rd, goes onto a new set of mediums, and comes out in 7th, behind Sergio Perez
  • Sergio Perez pits from 2nd, goes onto a new set of mediums, and comes out in 6th, behind Lando Norris
• Lando Norris has also managed to undercut Perez and Sainz by stopping earlier
• At this point, Russell and Hamilton are up into 3rd and 4th, respectively, because of the cars ahead of them coming in for pit stops
• By going onto a second set of mediums, both Red Bulls and Carlos Sainz have indicated that they're not planning on doing a medium-hard one-stop. Instead, they'll be doing a medium-medium-hard 2 stop, which Mercedes are trying to counter with their hard-hard one stop approach
• Lap 17
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto a new set of mediums and comes back out in 3rd, behind Russell
  • Norris passes Hamilton for 4th
  • Verstappen passes Russell for 2nd
  • Perez passes Hamilton for 5th
• Lap 18
  • Norris passes Russell for 3rd
  • Perez passes Russell for 4th
• Lap 19 — Sainz passes Hamilton for 6th
• Lap 21
  • Verstappen passes LeClerc for the lead
  • Sainz passes Russell for 5th
• Lewis is not happy with the one-stop strategy, and for good reason — neither Hamilton nor Russell were able to effectively defend against Perez, Norris, or Sainz on fresher tires
• All three of those cars will have to stop again, but it's not clear that they'll lose more time with the pit stops than the Mercedes cars will lose by having to go slow and conserve the tires
• The problem is that at this point, it might be too late to change strategies — if they stop now, they'll be in the worst of both worlds, having both track position and pit-stop advantage
• Lap 22 — Fernando Alonso passes Hamilton for 7th
• Lap 23
  • Perez passes Norris for 3rd
  • George Russell pits from 6th, goes onto a new set of hards and comes out in 9th, behind Piastri
• The really amazing thing is that LeClerc hasn't come in, even though he's on medium tires
• Lap 24 — Hamilton pits from 7th, goes onto a new set of hards and comes out in 9th, behind George Russell
• Now comes the interesting part — all the cars in front of the Mercedes, except perhaps LeClerc will have to pit again, but, in theory, the Mercedes can carry on til the end of the race
• So will the Mercedes fall too far behind? Will they get re-passed like they did after the first round of pit stops?
• Lap 26
  • Perez is battling LeClerc for 2nd
  • The amount of resistance LeClerc is able to put up is pretty amazing, given that he hasn't stopped, and therefore Perez is on much fresher tires
  • LeClerc goes wide and Perez is able to finally pass him for 2nd
  • Seems like LeClerc might have pushed the tires just a bit too far
• Lap 27
  • LeClerc pits from 3rd goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Piastri
  • Norris pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Russell
  • Russell managed to pass Norris in the pit stop, but we'll see if he's able to keep Norris behind on tires that are four laps older
• Lap 28 — Norris passes Russell for 7th
• LeClerc might be able to make the one-stop work, because the Ferrari just seems that fraction faster than the Mercedes
• Lap 33 — Piastri pits from 5th, goes onto a new set of hard tires, and comes back out in 9th, behind Hamilton
• Lap 34
  • Tsunoda passes Nico Hulkenberg for 10th, putting him into the points positions at his home race
  • Perez pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Norris
  • Fernando Alonso pits from 4th, goes onto a new set of hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Hamilton
• Seems like Norris undercut Perez again
• Lap 35
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 2nd, behind Sainz
  • Perez passes Norris for 4th
• Lap 36
  • Perez passes LeClerc for 3rd
  • Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Hamilton
• Now comes the interesting part, which is to see whether Sainz, Alonso and Piastri, all of whom have stopped twice, can pass Hamilton and Russell who are on a one-stop strategy
• Will also be interesting to see whether Sainz can pass LeClerc, under much the same scenario
• Lap 38
  • George Russell pits from 5th, goes onto (used?) medium tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Piastri
  • I'm confused — what happened to the one-stop?
  • Carlos Sainz passes Lewis Hamilton for 5th
• Lap 40 — Hamilton pits from 6th, goes onto used mediums and comes back out in 9th, behind Russell
• Lap 42 — Logan Sargeant goes off track at the second Degna, but is able to back out onto the racetrack and carry on
• Lap 44 — Sainz passes Norris for 4th
• No team orders — Sainz and LeClerc can race for the last podium place
• Lap 46 — Sainz passes LeClerc for 3rd
• Lap 50 — Russell challenges Piastri for 7th, but Piastri manages to hold on
• Alonso & Piastri are using the same strategy that Sainz & Norris used in Singapore last year, where Alonso backs off ever so slightly in front of the DRS detection zone to allow Piastri to get within 1 second, so he has DRS to defend against Russell
• Lap 52/53 — Piastri makes a small mistake into the chicane at the end of lap 52, which give Russell enough of an advantage to pass Piastri at the start of lap 53
• The one-stop strategy didn't really work out for Mercedes, and they had to abandon it at the end of the race
• However, one-stop did work out for Charles LeClerc, who finished fourth despite starting 8th

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Lando Norris — McLaren
6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
13. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
14. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
17. Logan Sargeant — Williams
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (DNF)
19. Daniel Ricciardo — RB (DNF)
20. Alex Albon — Williams (DNF)

2024-04-21 Chinese Grand Prix

Track Info

• Shanghai International Circuit
• 3.38 miles
• This is the first time I've seen this track; the turn 1-4 complex looks pretty interesting

Tire Info

• C4, C3, C2
• Middle of the range, same as Saudi Arabia, one step softer than at the Japanese Grand Prix

Sprint

Sprint Qualifying

SQ1

• 60% chance of rain
• Teams have only had 60 minutes of practice (which is normal on sprint weekends), so the performance of the tires will be less known
• All teams are forced to use medium tires for SQ1 and SQ2, just like last year
• Oscar Piastri and George Russell report rain very early in the session, before anyone's done a fast lap
• The Red Bulls are fast, as expected, but Sergio Perez manages to beat Max Verstappen by 0.3s after the first set of laps
• Lando Norris' second fast lap splits the Red Bulls, going 0.2s behind Perez
• The Mercedes look slow once again, with Hamilton and Russell only qualifying 12th and 13th respectively, in SQ1
• Despite some early reports, there wasn't enough rain to force a change of tires
• The grass caught fire on the outside of Turn 5, apparently due to the sparks coming off the car in that turn
• Eliminated in SQ1
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

SQ2

• Start of SQ2 was delayed by a few minutes to allow the fire to be put out
• Different teams are predicting the rain to arrive at different times, with the most pessimistic teams thinking that the rain will arrive at the end of the warmup lap
• There is a traffic jam in the pit lane as everyone rushes to get out ASAP to get a fast lap time on the board before the rain hits
• Red Bull take a risk by waiting until everyone has left before sending out Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez — if the rain comes earlier than expected, they might not have time to do a fast lap in dry conditions
• Red Bull do manage to get fast laps in before the rain arrives, with Verstappen going fastest, and Perez going 3rd
• McLaren look quick as well, with Piastri and Norris going 4th and 5th fastest, respectively
• LeClerc is second fastest after the first set of fast laps, but Sainz is only 6th
• Mercedes look slow, with Russell 11th and Hamilton 9th
• George Russell goes for a second fast lap, despite the rain having started
• However the intensifying rain forces him to abandon his effort and return to the pits
• Eliminated in SQ2
  • George Russell — Mercedes
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
• Zhou Guanyu has made it into SQ3, and is guaranteed a top-ten starting position in the sprint race, which has made the crowd very happy

SQ3

• Cars are going out on intermediate tires
• Cars are skidding even on their warm-up laps
• Charles LeClerc skids wide and hits the barrier, but manages to pull away and return to the racetrack
• Turn 6 is a spot where multiple cars are going wide, including Max Verstappen
• Perez goes fastest by over two seconds (!) as he's able to put some heat in his tires during the warm-up lap
• Verstappen was on quite a fast lap, but skidded wide at the final corner
• Hamilton and Alonso go fastest and second fastest, respectively at the very end of the session
• Verstappen's final lap puts him second fastest, ahead of Alonso, but Alonso replies at the very end of the session and regains 2nd place
• Lando Norris, whose lap time had been deleted for a possible track limits violation, has his lap time reinstated, which puts him back in pole position
• Another qualifying session where Carlos Sainz does better than Charles LeClerc
• Final top 10 sprint qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  3. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  7. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  9. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  10. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Sprint Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
3. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
7. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
10. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
11. George Russell — Mercedes
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
14. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
15. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
16. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
17. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
18. Alex Albon — Williams
19. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams

• 19 laps
• Conditions are dry
• Most cars are starting on medium tires, however, George Russell is starting on soft in an attempt to make up places early
• Lap 1
  • Hamilton challenges Norris immediately into turn 1
  • Norris runs wide into turn 3, allowing Hamilton to take the lead
  • Norris drops into 7th by the time he's able to rejoin the track
• Lap 3 — Max Verstappen is complaining about his hybrid system's battery going flat
• Lap 4 — Hamilton has pulled out of DRS range of Fernando Alonso
• Lap 7 — Verstappen passes Alonso for 2nd
• Lap 8 — Hamilton goes wide at turn 6 which allows Verstappen to close the gap substantially
• Lap 9 — Verstappen passes Hamilton for the lead (on the same corner that he passed Alonso for 2nd)
• Lap 15 — Alonso is under a huge amount of pressure from Sainz and Perez as he attempts to hold on for a podium place
• Lap 16
  • Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz have a running battle over several corners for 3rd, but Carlos eventually manages to pass Fernando for 3rd, touching wheels in the process
  • However, Alonso forces Sainz wide on the next corner, allowing him to re-pass Sainz
  • While all this was going on, though, Perez opportunistically passed both of them, taking third
  • Then Sainz passes Alonso again, as it becomes apparent that Alonso has picked up a puncture
• Lap 17
  • Sainz and LeClerc battle each other for 4th, with LeClerc eventually passing Sainz
  • Alonso pits and retires

Sprint Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Lando Norris — McLaren
7. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
8. George Russell — Mercedes
9. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
10. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
11. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
12. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
15. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
16. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
17. Alex Albon — Williams
18. Logan Sargeant — Williams
19. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
20. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin (DNF)

Qualifying

Q1

• Track is warmer than it was during sprint qualifying
• Yuki Tsunoda says that his DRS isn't working
• Carlos Sainz does his first fast lap on medium tires
• Alonso sets a fast lap, and even Verstappen isn't able to beat it on his first try
• Valteri Bottas is third fastest after his first lap
• The Sauber seems to have improved for this weekend, with Valteri Bottas 3rd and Zhou Guanyu 6th after the first set of fast laps
• Alex Albon goes 4th fastest (seems to be doing better than he did in SQ1)
• Oscar Piastri goes to the top with his first lap, beating both Alonso and Verstappen
• Sainz goes fastest as well, with his first attempt
• Sergio Perez's first lap puts him sixth, right behind where Verstappen has been bumped down to
• Lewis Hamilton has a big lock-up which costs him time, and he drops out in Q1 (huge difference from the sprint qualifying, where Hamilton qualified 2nd)
• Sergio Perez just barely makes it into Q2
• Zhou Guanyu is just barely eliminated in Q1
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

Q2

• Carlos Sainz has a huge spin at the end of his first lap, hits the barrier
• Red flag declared
• Sainz does manage to get his car going, and limps back to the pits, sans front wing
• The Ferrari looks remarkably intact; if there's no underlying damage, there's a very good chance that Sainz can go again
• The red flag helped Ferrari a lot by stopping the clock on qualifying
• Sainz's lap is good enough for 2nd, but he's pipped by Sergio Perez at the very end
• What a session for Sainz — huge crash, but then he goes back out there and still manages to beat LeClerc
• Valteri Bottas also has a good lap and manages to make it into Q3, in 10th
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Q3

• Alonso has an excellent first lap, going into 2nd place, behind Verstappen
• Lots of fast times at the end, with Sainz, LeClerc, Piastri and Norris all taking second place consecutively
• Max, is, of course, unchallenged in pole position
• Fernando re-takes 2nd on his second lap, but is bumped by Sergio Perez
• Ferrari didn't actually do all that well — are behind McLaren and Aston Martin in qualifying
• However Mercedes look even worse — George Russell was never a threat for the front two rows
• This qualifying session shows how, apart from Red Bull, the field is actually very very close — a tiny pace deficit is the difference between qualifying 2nd and qualifying 6th
• Yet another qualifying where Mercedes are behind their customers
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  3. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  4. Lando Norris — McLaren
  5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  8. George Russell — Mercedes
  9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  10. Valteri Bottas — Sauber

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
3. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
8. George Russell — Mercedes
9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
10. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
11. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
16. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
17. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
18. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
19. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams (pit lane start)

• 56 laps
• Most cars starting on the medium tire, but there are some who are starting on softs and Kevin Magnussen is starting on hards
• 2 pit stops expected
• Lap 1
  • Clean first lap
  • Alonso makes a big move on Perez right at the opening and takes 2nd place
  • That pass was a thing of beauty, probably will make the season highlights
  • George Russell passes both Ferraris and takes 6th
• Lap 3
  • Sergio Perez is within DRS range of Alonso
  • Verstappen is 2.6s in the lead
• Lap 5 — Perez passes Alonso for 2nd
• The question is, how much life did Alonso take out of his tires by battling Perez so hard at the beginning
• Lap 7 — Norris passes Alonso for 3rd
• Lap 9 — LeClerc has a nice pass over George Russell into 6th
• Lap 10
  • Russell is under pressure from Sainz going into Turn 1
  • Lots of cars towards the back making pit stops, including Lewis Hamilton
• Lap 12
  • LeClerc and Piastri almost come together as LeClerc passes Piastri for 5th
  • Alonso pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out behind Logan Sargeant in 10th
  • Russell pits from 7th, goes onto a fresh set of medium tires and comes back out behind Fernando Alonso in 11th
• Lap 13 — Hamilton passes Tsunoda for 15th
• Lap 14
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Sergio Perez pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out 6th, behind Carlos Sainz
• Lap 15 — Verstappen passes Piastri for 3rd
• Lap 16 — Verstappen passes LeClerc for 2nd
• All this time, Perez is still in 6th, behind Sainz
• Lap 17 — Oscar Piastri pits from 4th, goes onto a fresh set of medium tires, and comes back out in 9th, behind Lance Stroll
• Lap 18
  • Perez (finally) passes Sainz for 4th, as Sainz is called into the pits
  • Sainz pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 10th, behind Nico Hulkenberg
• LeClerc and Norris might be trying to make it a 1-stop race
• Lap 19
  • Carlos Sainz passes Nico Hulkenberg for 9th
  • Max Verstappen passes Lando Norris for the lead
• Lap 21
  • Valteri Bottas pulls over with a smoking engine
  • Carlos Sainz has a big lock-up as he attempts to pass Lance Stroll
• Lap 22
  • VSC declared
  • LeClerc pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Fernando Alonso
  • Norris was past the pit lane entry when the VSC was declared, and so is unable to pit this lap
• Lap 23
  • Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 3rd, behind Perez
  • Full safety car declared
  • Bottas' car was stuck in gear, which meant that the VSC was extended, allowing Norris to also pit under the VSC and retain track position over LeClerc
  • Verstappen pits for the 2nd time from the lead, goes onto fresh hard tires, and retains the lead
  • Sergio Perez pits for the 2nd time from 2nd, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires and comes back out in 4th, behind Charles LeClerc
  • Fernando Alonso pits for the 2nd time from 4th, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Carlos Sainz
• Red Bull chose to pit so soon again, because they want the freshest possible tires for the safety car restart
• I suspect that if the VSC had continued rather than a full safety car being declared, they wouldn't have stopped again, because in a VSC, the pack doesn't close up like it does under a full safety car
• Lap 25 — Oscar Piastri pits for the second time from 5th, under the safety car, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind George Russell
• Pitting this late under a safety car is a bit questionable, because with the pack bunched up, you lose track position, and everyone else has already done their pit stop
• Lap 26 — Safety car ends
• Lap 27
  • Racing resumes
  • Verstappen has an easy getaway
  • Norris does a good job of holding onto 2nd
  • LeClerc, Perez, and Sainz are all in the hunt for 3rd
  • Alonso is also pushing hard (as expected) on his soft tires, and passes Sainz for 5th
  • Lance Stroll runs right into the back of Daniel Ricciardo, before the restart
  • Yuki Tsunoda has major damage to his car, as Kevin Magnussen tries a very aggressive move into turn 1
  • Magnussen has a puncture and has to come back into the pits
  • Tsunoda pulls into the pits and retires
  • Safety car comes out again
• Is Ricciardo's car okay? It took a pretty hefty kick, right into the gearbox assembly
• Lap 31 — Safety car ends
• Lap 32
  • Racing resumes
  • Much more orderly restart than the last one
  • Alonso is immediately closing in on Perez for 4th
• Daniel Ricciardo has reported floor damage and is sliding backwards through the order
• Lap 34
  • Lance Stroll gets a 10s penalty for causing a collision
  • Daniel Ricciardo pits and retires
  • Double DNF for RB
  • Kevin Magnussen also gets a 10s penalty for causing a collision
• Alonso doesn't seem to be making much progress in his fight against Perez for 4th
• Lap 37 — Perez has closed to within DRS range of LeClerc
• Lap 39 — Perez passes LeClerc for 3rd
• Lap 44 — Fernando Alonso pits for the third time from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 12th, behind Albon
• The choice to go onto softs on lap 23 was a questionable one, and now Alonso is paying the price for that
• Lap 48
  • Alonso passes Nico Hulkenberg for 9th
  • Alonso has a big moment, going sideways has dips a wheel into the gravel on the last turn, but he manages to hold it together and retains his position
• Lap 49 — Alonso passes Hamilton for 8th
• Lap 50 — Alonso passes Piastri for 7th

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
12. Alex Albon — Williams
13. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
14. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
15. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
16. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
17. Logan Sargeant — Williams
18. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
19. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
20. Valteri Bottas — Sauber

2024-05-05 Miami Grand Prix

Track Info

• Miami International Autodrome
• 3.36 miles

Tire Info

• C4, C3, C2
• Same as in Shanghai

Sprint

Sprint Qualifying

SQ1

• Medium tires for all cars
• Track is hot
• Charles LeClerc is the first one out, because he had clutch problems in free practice
• LeClerc has to abandon his first lap after oversteering into Turn 7
• Verstappen posts the quickest time (only 0.08 seconds ahead of Perez, however)
• Oscar Piastri almost makes contact with the Sauber of Valteri Bottas — might be a penalty for Bottas for obstructing
• McLaren look fast, with Norris and Piastri setting the fastest and second fastest times respectively
• Aston Martin also look good, with Alonso in 3rd
• Eliminated in SQ1
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

SQ2

• Medium tires for all cars
• Perez has a pretty good first lap, going much faster than his first lap
• Mercedes are struggling once again, with Russell and Hamilton struggling to remain in the top 10
• Lots of cars clipping the wall on the outside of turn 16, but no one has suffered because of it yet
• Verstappen just does one lap, and is 4th fastest after he completes his lap
• Lando Norris is once again the fastest
• Perhaps Red Bull are conserving tires for the race?
• Disaster for Mercedes as both cars are eliminated in SQ2
• Daniel Ricciardo outqualifies Yuki Tsunoda once again and makes into SQ3 this time
• Eliminated in SQ2
  • George Russell — Mercedes
  • Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB

SQ3

• Soft tires for all cars
• Teams aren't confident that they can do two fast laps on a set of soft tires, so they're holding back and not leaving their garages right away
• Although Verstappen makes a mistake, he's still fast enough to take pole
• LeClerc has a great lap for 2nd place
• Daniel Ricciardo has a great sprint qualifying, coming in only a bit behind Sergio Perez, despite Perez driving the superior car
• Lando Norris had some possible issues with tire temperatures, which explains why he was so slow
• A bit surprising to see Lance Stroll ahead of Fernando Alonso
• McLaren looked much faster on the medium tires than they did on the softs
• Final top 10 sprint qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  4. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  7. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  9. Lando Norris — McLaren
  10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas

Sprint Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
4. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
7. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
9. Lando Norris — McLaren
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. George Russell — Mercedes
12. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
15. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
16. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
18. Logan Sargeant — Williams
19. Valteri Bottas — Sauber (3-place grid penalty for obstructing during sprint qualifying)
20. Alex Albon — Williams (pit-lane start because of car modifications outside parc ferme rules)

• 19 laps
• Most cars are starting on medium tires
• No pit stops expected
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen holds the lead
  • Perez challenges LeClerc for 2nd, but LeClerc holds onto the place and Perez loses a place to Ricciardo in the process
  • Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris all came together into the first corner, leading to Norris spinning out and retiring
  • Alonso picks up a puncture in the process
  • Alonso was squeezed between Hamilton and Stroll, made contact with Stroll and pushed Stroll into Norris
  • Man, what bad luck for Norris — he was least at fault, but received the most severe consequences
  • Safety car declared, cars will be diverted through the pit lane in order to avoid debris on track
• Lap 2
  • Lance Stroll pulls into the pits and retires as well
  • Alonso comes into the pits for a front wing change, and rejoins in last place
  • Safety car ends
• Lap 3 — Racing resumes
• Lap 5 — Perez re-passes Ricciardo for 3rd
• The Mercedes cars look awful — Hamilton is having trouble passing the Haas cars in 7th and 8th
• Lap 10 — Ricciardo has dropped out of DRS range of Perez, and is losing ground to Carlos Sainz
• Lap 11 — Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen make contact as they battle for 8th
• Lap 12 — Kevin Magnussen is assessed a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage for a previous incident where he cut the chicane in the process of avoiding oversteer
• Lap 14 — Hamilton and Magnussen are still battling for 8th, and, during another instance where Hamilton and Magnussen both go wide, Tsunoda is able to jump Hamilton for 9th
• Lap 15 — Hamilton passes Magnussen and is battle Tsunoda for 8th
• Lap 16 — Magnussen gets another 10s penalty for the incident where he forced Hamilton wide
• Lap 18 — Carlos Sainz and Ricciardo have been fighting for 4th pretty much the entire sprint, but Ricciardo has just managed to hold Sainz off thus far
• Lap 19 — Hamilton passes Tsunoda for 8th on the track
• Really good result for Ricciardo

Sprint Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
4. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
7. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
10. Logan Sargeant — Williams
11. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
12. George Russell — Mercedes
13. Alex Albon — Williams
14. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes (20s penalty for speeding in the pit lane behind the safety car)
17. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
18. Kevin Magnussen — Haas (3x 10s penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, 5s penalty for exceeding track limits)
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin (DNF)
20. Lando Norris — McLaren (DNF)

Qualifying

Q1

• Lots of cars going out on used soft tires, in order to get a better feel for how to set up the car with soft tires
• Verstappen is fast, as usual
• Sainz is faster than LeClerc after the first set of fast laps
• Hamilton goes 3rd fastest initially
• What happened to Ricciardo? He was so good in the sprint race, and then in qualifying, he was nowhere
• Pierre Gasly has a brilliant final lap and is 5th fastest
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Lando Norris goes out on medium tires, but it didn't really seem to be better
• Both Alpines and Aston Martins eliminated in Q2
• Hamilton's fastest time in Q2 puts him third, which much faster than he was in sprint qualifying, and much faster than George Russell
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin

Q3

• Lando Norris goes out on medium tires and goes third fastest on his first fast lap
• After the first set of fast laps
  • Verstappen is in first
  • LeClerc 2nd
  • Sainz 3rd
  • Perez 4th
• The Mercedes are in 6th and 7th, with Russell leading Hamilton
• For the final fast laps, the Mercedes come out on medium tires, while Norris switches back to the softs
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  4. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  5. Lando Norris — McLaren
  6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  7. George Russell — Mercedes
  8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
5. Lando Norris — McLaren
6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Logan Sargeant — Williams
18. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Daniel Ricciardo — RB (3-place grid penalty for overtaking under the safety car in Shanghai)

• 57 laps
• Most of the front-running cars are starting on medium tires, except for Lewis Hamilton, who's starting on hards
• Should be a one-stop race
• Hot track — drivers will need to pay extra attention to manage their tire temperatures
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen has a good start
  • Sainz gets a bit of a jump on LeClerc
  • Perez has a big lock-up going into turn 1 and almost takes out Sainz and Norris, but luckily manages not to hit anyone
  • Piastri jumps Sainz and Perez into 3rd
• Lap 2 — Nico Hulkenberg passes Lewis Hamilton for 7th (the hard tires are hurting Lewis's race pace at the beginning)
• Lap 4
  • Piastri is within DRS of LeClerc (but is he using up his tires too quickly? Tire management has been an ongoing concern with Piastri)
  • Piastri passes LeClerc for 2nd
• Lap 7
  • Sainz is asking to be let through past LeClerc in order to attack Piastri
  • Hamilton passes Hulkenberg for 7th
• Lap 8 — Hulkenberg re-passes Hamilton for 7th
• Lap 10 — Hamilton takes 7th again from Hulkenberg
• Lap 11 — Good fight between Russell and Hulkenberg for 8th
• Lap 12 — Russell passes Hulkenberg for 8th
• Lap 13
  • Hulkenberg pits from 9th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 15th
  • Lando Norris is challenging Sergio Perez for 5th
• Lap 15 — Red Bull tell Max Verstappen to speed up, in order to defend against Piastri
• Lap 18 — Perez pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 10th, behind Esteban Ocon
• Lap 20
  • LeClerc pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Lewis Hamilton
  • Perez passes Ocon for 9th, but loses a bit of time in the process which will hurt his fight against Norris
• Lap 21
  • LeClerc passes Hamilton for 5th
  • Verstappen hits a bollard and punts it onto the track
• Lap 23
  • VSC declared to allow the bollard to be cleared
  • However, both McLarens are too far away from the pit entrance to pit under the VSC
  • VSC ends on the same lap
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Norris
  • Piastri now has the race lead
• Lap 24
  • Good pass by Alonso on Gasly for 14th
  • Perez passes Tsunoda for 8th
• Lap 25 — Russell pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 12th, behind Esteban Ocon (pit stop was a bit slow — 3.1s)
• Lap 26 — George Russell passes Esteban Ocon for 11th
• Lap 27
  • Hamilton pits from 6th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Zhou Guanyu (a bit early — can the medium tires last another 30 laps?)
  • Norris has brought the gap to Sainz down from approximately 5 seconds to 1.8s
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Piastri
  • Oscar Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 4th, behind LeClerc
  • Lando Norris takes the lead
  • The undercut worked for LeClerc — he's remained ahead of Piastri after the pit stop
• Lap 28
  • George Russell passes Daniel Ricciardo for 10th
  • Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant are both in the wall
  • Safety car declared
  • This is so good for Lando Norris
  • Perez pits from 6th, switches back to medium tires and retains 6th, coming back out behind Carlos Sainz (that's the advantage of pitting at the start of a safety car)
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and retains the lead
• Lap 32 — Safety car ends
• Lap 33
  • Racing resumes
  • Verstappen immediately challenges Norris for the lead, but Norris manages to hold it
  • LeClerc and Piastri are fighting for 3rd
  • By the end of the lap, Norris is out of DRS range of Verstappen
• Lap 34
  • Sainz challenges Piastri for 4th, but Piastri fends him off
  • Hamilton passes Tsunoda for 7th
• Lap 39 — Piastri is doing a wonderful job defending against Sainz
• Lap 40
  • Sainz passes Piastri, Piastri comes back at him and takes the place back, but locks up going into Turn 1 and Sainz manages to take 4th
  • In the process Sainz clips Piastri's front wing, Piastri's front wing is damaged as a result
  • Then, later in the lap, Piastri is passed by both Perez and Hamilton, and drops into 7th, as Perez moves up into 5th and Hamilton into 6th
  • Piastri is asked to come in for a front wing replacement, and comes back out in last place
• Lap 44 — Norris has opened up a 4s gap over Verstappen
• Lap 46 — Fernando Alonso is challenging Esteban Ocon for 9th
• Lap 48 — After a good fight, Alonso takes 9th from Ocon
• Lap 54 — Alex Albon has a massive lock-up and goes off into the run-off area, but manages to keep from crashing
• Huge win for Lando Norris — I'm so happy to see him get his first win and break the duck of constantly getting podium places without a win
• Lewis Hamilton also had a good race — started 8th and finished 6th, and definitely looked to be the stronger Mercedes driver all throughout

Results

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
8. George Russell — Mercedes
9. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
14. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
15. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
18. Alex Albon — Williams
19. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams (DNF)

2024-05-19 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Track Info

• Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari
• Imola
• 3.05 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest tires

Qualifying

Q1

• Red Bull have had issues in free practice, and have been challenged by McLaren and Ferrari
• George Russell comes out on medium tires, as do both Ferraris
• LeClerc's first lap is enough for him to be in first place, even though he's on medium tires
• Albon was having a good lap, but went wide on turn 18 and hit the gravel, which compromised his lap time
• Verstappen's time puts him fastest, but Piastri manages to even faster still
• Alonso skids wide into the gravel in turn 5
• On the final lap, Nico Hulkenberg goes fastest overall
• Verstappen and LeClerc do manage to go faster than him
• LeClerc and Sainz, notably, used medium tires all through Q1 — gives them an extra set of new soft tires to use later in qualifying or perhaps in the race
• Alonso didn't really have a clean lap in qualifying — was struggling a lot with understeer
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin

Q2

• LeClerc is fastest after the first set of laps, with Verstappen 2nd followed by Piastri and Sainz
• Yuki Tsunoda goes 2nd fastest, setting a time faster than Max Verstappen
• Perez's lap is pretty slow, especially compared to Verstappen
• What happened to Perez — he was driving pretty well in Miami, but he seems to have no pace here
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Q3

• Verstappen and Norris are both quite quick in their first laps
• Piastri manages to beat Norris by a fraction with his second lap
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  3. Lando Norris — McLaren
  4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. George Russell — Mercedes
  7. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  9. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren (3-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen in qualifying)
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
9. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
12. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
18. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
19. Logan Sargeant — Williams
20. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin (pit lane start because of additional setup changes)

• 63 laps
• No rain forecast
• 1-stop race expected
• All cars starting on medium tires, with the exception of Perez who is starting on hard, and Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso who are starting on softs
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen holds on to the lead, Norris holds onto 2nd at the start
  • Hamilton has passed Tsunoda for 7th
  • Perez gains a place and is running in 10th by the end of the lap
  • Hulkenberg has also made up places and is running in 8th
• Lap 7 — Verstappen has opened a 2s lead on Norris
• Lap 8
  • Piastri is less than half a second behind Sainz, but Imola is a difficult circuit to overtake on
  • Alonso pits and switches his soft tires for hards (he wasn't making much of an impression on Sargeant ahead of him, so now the hope is that he can go much longer and make up places as others make pit stops)
• Lap 10
  • Alex Albon is running very slowly on track
  • Had just come in for a pit stop
  • Is reporting that one of his tires isn't on properly
  • Does manage to make it back to the pits and changes tires
• Lap 13 — Yuki Tsunoda pits from 9th, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 15th, behind Logan Sargeant
• Lap 14
  • Nico Hulkenberg pits from 8th goes onto hard tires and comes out in 15th, behind Yuki Tsunoda
  • Yuki Tsunoda has managed to pass Nico Hulkenberg through the pit stop
• Lap 18 — Perez has a lock-up going into turn 17 and loses over 5 seconds
• Lap 22 — George Russell pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires and comes out behind Esteban Ocon in 10th
• Lap 23
  • Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 7th, behind Sergio Perez
  • Alex Albon picks up a 10 second stop and go penalty for the issue with the loose wheel
• Lap 24
  • Oscar Piastri pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 8th, behind Lance Stroll
  • Lando Norris passes Sergio Perez for 5th
• Lap 25
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 4th, behind Lewis Hamilton
  • Piastri passes Stroll for 7th
  • LeClerc pits from the lead at the end of the lap, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 6th, behind Perez
  • Norris has managed to hold onto his net track position ahead of LeClerc through the pit stop
• Lap 27
  • LeClerc passes Perez for 5th
  • Piastri passes Perez for 6th
  • Carlos Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 6th, behind Sergio Perez
  • Lewis Hamilton pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Lance Stroll
• Lap 30
  • Carlos Sainz passes Sergio Perez for 5th
  • Piastri is almost within DRS range of LeClerc in 3rd
• Lap 31
  • Russell passes Perez for 6th
  • The hard tire strategy might not have been the right one for Perez
• Lap 36
  • Hamilton has caught up to Perez and is challenging him for 7th
  • Unlike the Ferrari of LeClerc and the McLaren of Piastri, Hamilton's Mercedes is having trouble passing Perez quickly, even though it's on much fresher tires
• Lap 37 — Hamilton passes Perez for 7th
• Lap 38
  • Perez pits from 7th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 11th behind Daniel Ricciardo
  • In theory, Perez should be able to pass Ricciardo, because Ricciardo has stopped much earlier and therefore Perez's tires are much newer
• Lap 39 — Perez passes Ricciardo for 10th
• Lap 40 — Perez passes Hulkenberg for 9th
• Lap 42
  • Perez passes Tsunoda for 8th
  • LeClerc has closed to within DRS range of Norris, in 2nd
• Lap 47 — LeClerc makes a mistake and has to cut the chicane on turn 14, loses a half second to Norris
• Lap 53
  • Russell pits again, from 6th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Hamilton
  • Mercedes were able to pit Russell again because Perez was almost 30 seconds behind Hamilton, which gave Mercedes the option of doing a pit stop without losing track position
• Lap 55 — Norris is closing in on Verstappen, who has been complaining about lack of grip, Norris is within 4 seconds of Verstappen
• Lap 56 — Norris is within 2 seconds of Verstappen
• Lap 63 — Verstappen wins, but by less then a second as Norris challenges him right to the end of the race
• Really nice to see another car challenging the Red Bull on performance over a race distance, not just a single lap

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
17. Logan Sargeant — Williams
18. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
19. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
20. Alex Albon — Williams (DNF)

2024-05-26 Monaco Grand Prix

Track Info

• Monte Carlo street circuit
• 2.073 miles (shortest track of the season)

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range, same as at Imola

Qualifying

Q1

• Track is very warm, which might affect tire life when doing multiple laps
• McLaren's Ayrton Senna inspired livery looks so cool
• Haas are fastest at the end of the first set of fast laps
• Oscar Piastri is also quick, going to the top of the board on his second lap
• Hamilton goes second fastest on his second lap
• LeClerc goes fastest overall on his second lap, but is beaten by George Russell
• Albon jumps up to fifth after a very good lap in the Williams
• Perez is in trouble, with his fastest lap only good for 14th, just barely keeping him out of the bottom 5
• Norris has left it until the very last minute to do his fast lap, leaving him vulnerable to yellow flags or red flags
• Norris goes 9th with his one lap, which should be sufficient to get him into Q2, especially given that most of the cars that would be a potential threat have already taken the checkered flag
• It's very surprising to see Alonso out in Q1, given how good the Aston Martin was at Monaco last year
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Verstappen is in the lead after the first few fast laps
• Albon doesn't look like he's going as fast in Q2 as he did in Q1, but there's still time for him to improve
• Piastri has gone fastest overall
• LeClerc is second fastest behind him, with Russell 3rd and Verstappen 4th
• Norris goes even faster than Piastri, making McLaren first and second with a little over two minutes left
• Alex Albon makes it into Q3, which is very important, especially here because if he has a top-10 position, he will likely be able to defend it
• Big opportunity for Williams to score some points
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas

Q3

• LeClerc takes provisional pole after the first set of fast laps, with Piastri 2nd and Verstappen 3rd
• Albon goes out of sync for his second lap and goes 7th fastest
• LeClerc's second lap is even faster than his first, and he strengthens his hold on pole position
• Piastri improves, but not enough to capture pole — still good for 2nd place, though
• Sainz and Norris take 3rd and 4th respectively
• Ferrari, McLaren fighting for the win at Monaco, just like the good old days
• No red flags at all during this qualifying — good job to all the drivers for not smashing their cars against the unforgiving Monaco barriers
• Oscar Piastri once again shows just how talented he is, especially in qualifying
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  4. Lando Norris — McLaren
  5. George Russell — Mercedes
  6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  9. Alex Albon — Williams
  10. Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Race

Starting Grid

1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
11. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
15. Logan Sargeant — Williams
16. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
17. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
19. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas (disqualified from qualifying for a rear wing infringement)
20. Kevin Magnussen — Haas (disqualified from qualifying for a rear wing infringement)

• 78 laps
• Both Ferraris and McLarens are starting on medium tires
• Mercedes are starting on hard tires
• Lap 1
  • LeClerc hangs onto the lead
  • Sainz challenges Piastri for 2nd, but Piastri manages to hold the position
  • Sainz has big lock-ups later in the lap and pulls aside with either a puncture or suspension damage from possible contact with Piastri
  • Race is red-flagged because of a crash at the back involving Perez and the two Haas cars
  • Perez was punted into the wall by Kevin Magnussen, and then bounced off the wall and hit Nico Hulkenberg/
  • Perez's car is completely wrecked — barely even looks like a car any more
  • Huge amount of debris on track too
  • Kevin Magnussen needs to read this
  • IMO they should penalize Kevin Magnussen for this, and make him sit out a race — that move was unnecessary and dangerous
  • While the Perez-Magnussen-Hulkenberg crash was going on, the two Alpine cars came together as well, resulting in Esteban Ocon's car going airborne as it made wheel-to-wheel contact with Pierre Gasly
  • Ocon also needs to read that comic
• Sainz has managed to get going again and is limping back to the pits under the red flag
• It will be interesting to see the restart order for the race, because Sainz might get his position back, since the cars hadn't finished the first sector when the Perez accident occurred
• This very early red flag screws over the cars who started on the hard tires
  • All cars have to use at least two out of the three compounds in a race
  • Those that started on the medium, can switch to the hards for free under the red flag and potentially make it to the end
  • But those who started on the hards will need to switch to either the mediums or softs at some point, but that switch will have to be in the race, not during the red flag, because medium tires can't make it to lap 78 from lap 1
• The official restart order gives Sainz his place back
• Sainz is so so very lucky
• Esteban Ocon will not be restarting the race as his car was too damaged by the crash with Pierre Gasly
• LeClerc, Piastri, Sainz and Norris have all switched from the mediums to the hards, which will hopefully allow them to go to the end without doing another pit stop
• Lap 2 — second formation lap
• Lap 3
  • Race restarts
  • LeClerc once again holds onto the lead, Piastri once again holds onto 2nd
  • Second restart is pretty clean, with perhaps some light incidental contact between Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly
• Lap 12 — All cars are managing their tires, even the ones on mediums, in the hopes that the tires will last til the end of the race
• Lap 14 — Oscar Piastri has closed up to approximately 0.6s behind Charles LeClerc
• I think I see what Piastri is trying to do here
• LeClerc doesn't actually want to drive fast
• LeClerc, Piastri, Sainz and Norris, all on hard tires, are pulling away from Russell who is having to drive extremely conservatively to try to preserve his medium tires for a full race distance
• However, LeClerc, at the head of that lead group, doesn't want to end up more than 25s or so ahead of Russell, because that will allow Piastri, Sainz, and Norris to pit and come at him with fresh tires later on
• So Piastri, in turn, is putting the pressure on LeClerc so that he does build up that gap, which will allow Piastri to pit and maybe try to overtake for the lead at the end of the race
• Lap 23 — Norris is now 12 seconds ahead of Russell, which will allow him to pit under a safety car and still come out ahead of Russell
• Lap 30 — Stroll is reporting graining on his left-front tire — needs to be careful to ensure that he can get those tires through to the end
• Lap 31 — Norris' pit wall reports that Sainz has left-front graining as well
• I wonder if Ferrari will think at some point that attempting to do the entire distance on hard tires is impossible, and therefore LeClerc and Sainz should push to build up as much of a lead over Russell as possible so that they can mitigate an undercut strategy by Norris or Piastri
• Lap 38 — Ferrari have told LeClerc to slow down, to prevent Norris from getting a 20 second gap over George Russell
• Lap 48 — Funny team radio between LeClerc and the Ferrari pit wall
• Lap 50
  • Lance Stroll, who had pit just three laps before, is reporting a puncture
  • Stroll's tire falls off the wheel just inside the pit lane, and avoids causing a safety car
• Lap 52 — Lewis Hamilton pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 7th
• Hamilton had a 45 second lead over Yuki Tsunoda, in 8th, so the pit stop cost him nothing
• Lap 53 — Verstappen pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th
• I think both Hamilton and Verstappen had plenty of life left in their tires, which is why Verstappen was able to do a fast lap to avoid losing track position to Hamilton through the pit stop
• This is because Russell is going very slowly to try to get to the end on a set of medium tires, which means that those behind him are also going slowly
• The question now is, what does Russell do? And how does that potentially cause a chain reaction among the leaders?
• Lap 56 — Russell is choosing to stay out and try to defend until the end
• Lap 57 — Hamilton and Verstappen are both pushing, running 2-3s per lap faster than Russell, with a roughly 8 second gap between Verstappen and Russell
• Lap 60 — Russell has closed the gap to Norris from around 19 seconds back down to 16, which would prevent Norris from doing a pit stop and retaining track position
• Lap 62 — Verstappen is within 1 second of Russell
• Lap 66 — Verstappen is still within 1 second of Russell, but Russell has managed to increase his pace and Verstappen doesn't have enough of an advantage to pass
• Russell was complaining earlier about being asked to drive so slowly, but it's paying off for him now
• The effect of Verstappen pushing Russell has been to lock in the top four, because now Russell is now only 14 seconds behind Norris and neither Norris nor Piastri can take a pit stop and retain track position
• Lap 71 — Carlos Sainz has closed to within 0.5 sec of Piastri
• Seems like Sainz has just a bit more life left in his tires than Piastri does, and is spending down that advantage to see if he can make an overtake in the final moments of the race
• Nice to see LeClerc finally win his home race
• Williams gets points!

Results

1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
11. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
14. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
15. Logan Sargeant — Williams
16. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
17. Esteban Ocon — Alpine (DNF)
18. Sergio Perez — Red Bull (DNF)
19. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas (DNF)
20. Kevin Magnussen — Haas (DNF)

2024-06-09 Canadian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Circuit - Gilles Villenueve, Montreal
• 2.71 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Weather is unsettled — has been raining earlier, could be raining during qualifying as well
• Track is cold — cars might require more than one warm-up lap
• Track evolution is likely to be a factor, with lots of cars improving
• Verstappen goes fastest overall
• Yuki Tsunoda goes 2nd fastest
• Hamilton goes faster than Russell
• McLarens are pretty quick
• Alex Albon goes 4th fastest in the Williams
• Logan Sargeant makes it out of Q1
• Tsunoda has been on fire in qualifying lately
• Perez eliminated in Q1 again — I wonder if Red Bull are regretting their decision to re-sign him and forego Carlos Sainz
• Kevin Magnussen did better in qualifying than Nico Hulkenberg this time
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Rain has started
• Most cars are going out to try to set a fast lap on slick tires before the track gets too wet
• Piastri has a very good first lap, goes 6/10s faster than everyone else
• Russell manages to beat Piastri
• Alex Albon is having car issues — possible cross-threaded wheel nut
• Tsunoda has another very good lap in Q2, placing 2nd overall behind Norris
• Hamilton goes fastest, but Russell beats his time on the next lap
• Albon takes Williams into Q3
• Both Ferraris eliminated in Q2 — huge reversal from Monaco, where LeClerc qualified on pole
• Questionable strategy choice from Ferrari, as they had their drivers go out on used soft tires, electing to conserve soft tires for Q3
• However, if rain is expected in Q3, why would you need to conserve slick tires?
• Mercedes are first and second fastest in Q2
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  • Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Q3

• Sun has come out — might not rain after all
• All cars out on used soft tires — indicates that the teams think the rain will not come in, and there will be time to do laps on new tires towards the end
• Russell and Hamilton go first and second respectively on their first fast laps
• On their second fast laps, the McLarens split the Mercedes, with Norris leading Piastri
• Verstappen sets the exact same time as Russell, who is in provisional pole, but is in 2nd because Russell set the time first
• The top 10 are very close
• Lewis Hamilton was just over 2​/10 behind Russell, and that dropped him into 7th
• Surprising to see Ricciardo outqualify Tsunoda, given how fast Tsunoda was in the previous race
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. George Russell — Mercedes
  2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  3. Lando Norris — McLaren
  4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  5. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  9. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  10. Alex Albon — Williams

Race

Starting Grid

1. George Russell — Mercedes
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
5. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
9. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
10. Alex Albon — Williams
11. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
12. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
13. Logan Sargeant — Williams
14. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
15. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
16. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
17. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
18. Esteban Ocon — Alpine (5-place grid penalty for colliding with Pierre Gasly in Monaco)
19. Valteri Bottas — Sauber (Pit lane start due to setup changes)
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (Pit lane start due to setup changes)

• 70 laps
• Damp track with drizzle, which means that cars will probably be starting on intermediate tires
• Might be switching to dry tires if the weather cooperates
• Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg are starting on full wet tires
• This is a gamble on the rain intensifying, because in damp conditions, the intermediate tires are both faster and last longer than full wet tires
• Lap 1
  • Clean start as everyone is careful to avoid sliding in the wet conditions
  • Russell holds the lead over Verstappen
  • Alonso and Hamilton pass Ricciardo who drops into 7th
  • Tsunoda has dropped two places into 10th
• Lap 2
  • Rain appears to have intensified as compared to the start of the race
  • Going to full wets appears to have paid off for Haas, as Kevin Magnussen is up into 8th place
  • Magnussen is up into 5th, as his full-wet tires give him more grip than everyone else on intermediate tires
• Lap 3 — Magnussen passes Piastri for 4th
• The question for Magnussen and Haas more generally is what happens when the rain stops?
• Lap 4 — Blue skies visible and the rain starts to ease up
• Lap 5
  • LeClerc informed that he has engine issues, but to keep pushing
  • As the rain eases up, the intermediate tires are starting to outpace the full-wets and Magnussen is no longer running much faster than the cars in front of him
  • He's gained a lot of track position, but to what end? He'll lose a lot of places when he has to pit to switch to inters
• Lap 6 — Logan Sargeant goes wide at turn 6, and has to do a 3-point turn to get back on track
• Lap 8 — Kevin Magnussen pits from 4th, goes onto intermediate tires and comes back out in 13th
• The pit stop was very long, 8.6s, because the crew weren't ready for him
• In theory, if the pit stop had gone as normal (between 2 and 3 seconds) Magnussen would have come out still in the top 10
• As it is, he only gained 1 place through his gamble on full-wet tires at the start of the race
• Lap 9
  • The sun is out and the racing line is drying out, but there are still a lot of puddles and damp patches off-line, which would make it very difficult to switch to slicks
  • Drivers are going off-line to find damp patches to cool the intermediate tires
• McLaren are saying that more rain will arrive around lap 33
• Lap 12 — Ricciardo passes Hulkenberg for 7th
• Hulkenberg is still on full-wet tires, and is going over 3 seconds a lap slower than those on the intermediate tires
• Lap 13 — Hulkenberg pits from 8th, goes onto inters, and rejoins in 18th
• Yeah, that gamble on full wets really didn't pay off for Haas — Magnussen only gained one place on net, and Hulkenberg actually lost a place
• Lap 14 — Track is drying out fairly quickly, prompting Russell to ask if a switch to slicks is viable, but he's told that more rain is incoming
• Lap 17 — Verstappen was catching Russell, but goes wide, allowing Russell to build up a bit of a gap and allowing Norris to close up a bit
• Lap 18
  • Track is sufficiently dry and DRS is enabled
  • Albon passes Tsunoda for 10th, but Tsunoda retakes the position later in the lap
• It's really tricky right now, because the track is pretty much dry on the racing line, but more rain is expected, so if anyone pits now, they'll have to pit again when the rain starts
• Drivers are being told to do their best to conserve the intermediates so they can go straight from old intermediates to new intermediates when the rain starts
• Lap 20 — Norris passes Verstappen for 2nd
• It's not often you see a Red Bull get passed like that — Norris made it look as effortless as one of Verstappen's own passes
• Lap 21
  • Norris passes Russell for the lead
  • Russell goes wide, and is also passed by Verstappen
• Lap 23 — Norris has opened up a 4 second lead over Verstappen
• Lap 25
  • Logan Sargeant hits the wall and wrecks his rear wing
  • Can't get his car restarted
  • Safety car declared
• Lap 26
  • Norris is too far ahead and misses the chance to pit
  • Verstappen pits from 2nd, goes onto fresh intermediates and comes back out in 2nd
  • Russell pits from 3rd, goes onto fresh intermediates and comes back out in 3rd
  • Piastri pits from 4th, goes onto fresh intermediates and comes back out in 4th
  • Alonso pits from 5th, goes onto fresh intermediates and comes back out in 6th
  • Hamilton pits from 6th, goes onto fresh intermediates and comes back out in 5th
  • Hamilton's pit crew did a better job, so Hamilton was able to jump Alonso in the pit stop
  • Norris pits at the end of the lap, goes onto fresh intermediates and comes back out in 3rd, behind Russell
  • The timing of the safety car gave Verstappen the lead
• Lap 29
  • Safety car comes in
  • Starting to rain again
  • LeClerc pits, goes onto hard tires, shuts down his engine and restarts it, in an attempt to clear the engine problems he's having, rejoin in 19th (19th is last because Sargeant has retired)
• Lap 30
  • Racing resumes
  • LeClerc is told that his engine issues are resolved, and that the period of rain should be brief, so hard tires are still a good option
• Lap 31 — Albon has a really good pass on both Ricciardo and Ocon in one corner and takes 9th
• Lap 32 — LeClerc pits from last place and goes onto intermediates
• Lap 35 — Rain has stopped and Lando Norris is already starting to seek out damp patches to cool the intermediate tires
• Lap 40 — DRS is re-enabled as the track has dried out once again
• Lap 41
  • Pierre Gasly pits from 14th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 18th
  • Skids wide coming out of the pits, because the pit lane is damp and his tires picked up quite a bit of water in the pit lane, but is able to carry on
• Lap 42 — Norris skids wide but doesn't lose his place
• Lap 43 — LeClerc pits and retires
• Lap 44 — Hamilton pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 10th, behind Albon
• Lap 45
  • Piastri pits from 4th, goes onto medium tires and retains 4th
  • Alonso pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 6th, behind Hamilton
  • Tsunoda pits from 6th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 7th, behind Alonso
  • Stroll pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Tsunoda
  • Ocon pits from 8th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Stroll
  • Albon pits from 9th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 10th, behind Ocon
  • At the end of the lap
    • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 2nd, behind Norris
    • George Russell pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 3rd, behind Verstappen
  • Lando Norris stays out and takes the lead
• Lewis Hamilton going in on the previous lap triggered a whole cascade of pit stops
• Interesting mix of medium and hard tires
• In theory both the medium and hard should be good until the end of the race, so which one a team chooses is dependent on driver preference and car characteristics
• Lap 47 — After doing two very fast laps, Norris comes in from the lead, goes onto medium tires, and although he rejoins the track ahead of Verstappen, Verstappen's warmer tires enable to pass Norris before Norris can get up to speed
• Lap 49 — Norris locks up, enabling Russell to pass him for 2nd
• Lap 51 — Russell skids wide, and Norris retakes 2nd
• Lap 53
  • Sergio Perez has also hit the wall and broken his rear wing, but unlike Logan Sargeant, he's managed to keep the car going and is limping back to the pits
  • Yellow flags in sector 2 because a piece of Perez's rear wing fell off onto the racetrack
• Lap 54
  • Alex Albon is in the wall and Carlos Sainz has skidded off onto the grass
  • Sainz went wide, hit a wet piece of track with slick tires and skidded around and tagged Albon
  • Safety car declared
  • I feel really bad for Albon — he was absolutely minding his own business when the Ferrari in front of him spun around and took him out
  • Russell pits from 3rd and goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 4th behind Piastri
  • Hamilton pits from pits from 5th and goes onto fresh hard tires, and retains his position
  • Carlos Sainz comes into the pits and retires
  • Oof, double DNF for Williams and Ferrari
• Lap 58 — Safety car ends
• Verstappen has the fastest car, but is complaining about suspension issue, the McLarens have track position, but older tires and the Mercedes are behind, but their tires are brand new and there's 12 laps to go
• What will help the McLarens is that, in a lot of places, the portion of the track that's dry is very narrow, so any car that's attempting to overtake will have to go onto damp road and will lose traction as a result
• Lap 59
  • Racing resumes
  • Verstappen manages the safety car restart well and quickly pulls out a 1.5s lead
• Lap 62
  • Esteban Ocon passes Yuki Tsunoda for 8th
  • Russell tries to overtake Piastri into the hairpin, but Piastri successfully defends
• Lap 63 — Russell tries to pass Piastri once again and they make contact, with Russell going off track as a result
• Lap 64 — Hamilton passes Russell as Russell recovers from going off track
• Lap 65 — Hamilton has an easy pass on Piastri for 3rd
• Lap 67
  • Russell passes Piastri for 4th
  • Tsunoda skids wide and is very fortunate to not have a crash as he spins back onto the racetrack
• Lap 69 — Russell and Hamilton are battling hard for the final podium place
• Great news for Lando — if Hamilton is defending against Russell, he's going to be able to catch up to Norris

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. George Russell — Mercedes
4. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
7. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
8. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
14. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari (DNF)
17. Alex Albon — Williams (DNF)
18. Sergio Perez — Red Bull (DNF)
19. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari (DNF)
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams (DNF)

2024-06-23 Spanish Grand Prix

Track Info

• Circuit de Cataluña (Barcelona)
• 2.89 miles

Tire Info

• C3, C2, C1
• Hardest in the range (the "soft" tire at this race is the same as the "hard" tire from Canada two weeks ago)

Qualifying

Q1

• Wind is expected to be a factor
• Lots of long fast corners on this track — will be a test for the high-speed handling characteristics of Mercedes
• Verstappen sets a very fast time on his first fast lap, 0.7s ahead of everyone else
• LeClerc beats Verstappen, however, by 0.04s
• Nico Hulkenberg also sets a pretty fast time in Q1, with his lap being 5th fastest at the time he set it
• Hamilton's second fast lap is fastest overall
• Surprising to see both RBs out in Q1 — they were supposed to have an upgrade for this race that would improve the competitiveness of their cars
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

Q2

• David Croft just said that Lance Stroll hasn't reached Q3 in any of the last 5 grand prix, but that seems to be wrong
• Lance Stroll reached Q3 in the previous grand prix in Canada
• Verstappen goes fastest overall after the first set of fast laps, with Norris 0.2s behind
• Very close between McLaren and Ferrari
• Hamilton and Russell both use additional sets of tires and set fast times, going second and third fastest overall
• This might disadvantage them in Q3, because they might only be able to do one fast lap on new tires
• Aston Martin have fallen off badly, going from being podium contenders to struggling to make it into the top 10 in qualifying
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q3

• Verstappen is the fastest after the first set of fast laps
• Lando Norris is second, with the Mercedes after him, followed by the Ferraris
• I really thought that Ferrari would do better here
• Oscar Piastri goes into the gravel in his one and only fast lap
• Lando Norris takes pole by 0.02s from Verstappen
• McLaren have improved so much over the past two years, going from a team that's lucky to get into Q3 to a team that's consistently fighting for poles and wins
• Really good qualifying for Alpine as well, with both cars making it nicely into the top 10
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  4. George Russell — Mercedes
  5. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  6. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  7. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  9. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  10. Oscar Piastri — McLaren

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
6. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
7. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
8. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
9. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
10. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
11. Sergio Perez — Red Bull (3-place grid penalty for driving with a broken rear wing in Canada)
12. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
13. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
14. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
17. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
18. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
19. Logan Sargeant — Williams
20. Alex Albon — Williams (pit lane start for new power unit)

• 66 laps
• All cars starting on soft tires, except for Alex Albon
• 2-stop strategy likely
  • Soft - medium - soft
  • Soft - hard - soft
• Lap 1
  • Clean start
  • Russell makes a brilliant pass from 3rd, taking the lead of the race into the first corner
  • Norris has to back out, allowing Verstappen to take 2nd
  • Oscar Piastri moves up a place, passing Esteban Ocon for 8th
  • Fernando Alonso has dropped two places into 12th
  • Sainz gets ahead of LeClerc
• Lap 3 — Verstappen gets past Russell and takes the lead
• Lap 10 — Piastri is challenging Gasly for 7th
• Lap 11 — A DRS train is building up behind George Russell and Verstappen is starting to pull away with the lead
• Lap 14
  • Esteban Ocon pits from 9th, goes onto medium tires and comes out in 14th, behind Logan Sargeant
  • Sergio Perez pits from 10th, goes onto another set of soft tires, and comes out in 15th, behind Esteban Ocon
• Lap 15
  • Pierre Gasly pits from 7th, goes onto medium tires and comes out in 13th behind Esteban Ocon
  • Gasly's pit stop was very slow — 6.7s stationary because the wheel nut for his right rear tire wouldn't come loose
• Lap 16
  • George Russell pits from 2nd, goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 8th, behind Fernando Alonso
  • Russell's pit stop was also slow, also had problems with the right-rear tire
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 9th, behind George Russell
• Lap 17
  • Hamilton pits from 3rd, goes onto medium tires and comes out in 9th, behind Fernando Alonso
  • Notably, Hamilton is now behind George Russell and Carlos Sainz, who have moved up into 6th and 7th respectively
  • Hamilton passes Alonso for 8th
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 4th, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Very fast stop from Red Bull — 1.9s
• Lap 19 — Hamilton passes Sainz for 6th
• Lap 21 — Verstappen passes Piastri for 3rd
• Lap 22 — Piastri pits from 4th, and comes back out in 11th, behind Nico Hulkenberg
• Lap 23
  • Piastri passes Hulkenberg for 10th
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Carlos Sainz
• Lap 24 — LeClerc pits from the lead, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Seems like most of the leading cars are going for a soft - medium - soft strategy
• Lap 27
  • Lando Norris passes Carlos Sainz for 4th
  • LeClerc passes Gasly for 6th
• Lap 28 — Piastri passes Perez for 9th
• Lap 29 — Piastri passes Ocon for 8th
• Lap 30 — Sergio Perez passes Ocon for 9th
• Lap 31 — Norris is challenging Hamilton for 3rd
• Lap 32 — Norris passes Hamilton for 3rd
• Lap 34 — Oscar Piastri passes Pierre Gasly for 7th
• Lap 35 — Good fight between Norris and Russell for 2nd, which Norris eventually wins by the end of the lap
• Lap 37
  • Russell pits for a second time from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Pierre Gasly
  • Carlos Sainz pits for a second time from 5th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 8th, behind George Russell
• Lap 38 — Russell passes Gasly for 6th
• Lap 41 — The gap from Verstappen to Norris has shrunk from approximately 9 seconds to just under 6 seconds
• Lap 44
  • Hamilton pits again from 3rd, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 3rd, behind Charles LeClerc
• Norris has the lead and did his first pit stop 6-laps after Verstappen, so he has 6 laps to hammer in some really fast lap times and see if he can retain track position
• Lap 46
  • Russell passes Piastri for 4th
  • Hamilton passes Sainz for 6th
• Lap 47
  • Oscar Piastri pits again from 5th, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Sergio Perez
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 2nd, behind Verstappen
  • Came out barely ahead of Russell in 3rd after a somewhat slow, 3.6s pit stop
• Lap 52 — Hamilton passes Russell for 3rd
• Those hard tires really haven't worked out for Russell
• Lap 55 — LeClerc passes Sainz for 5th (seems like it was team orders which makes sense, because LeClerc is on soft tires, and the soft tires are clearly superior at the end of this race)
• Not a great weekend for Aston Martin
• Daniel Ricciardo finished ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, but the RB wasn't very good this weekend either

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
6. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
7. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
13. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
14. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
15. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
18. Alex Albon — Williams
19. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
20. Logan Sargeant — Williams

2024-06-30 Austrian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Red Bull Ring
• 2.68 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Sprint

Sprint Qualifying

SQ1

• All cars required to go on new medium tires
• Lewis Hamilton has a big slide on his first fast lap, and goes into the gravel later on, leading to his lap time being deleted for violating track limits
• Track looks a bit dusty — track evolution might be a factor as cars clean the dust off the racing line
• Max Verstappen is the fastest through the first set of fast laps, with Russell second
• Alonso's first lap is only good for 14th, while Lance Stroll goes 5th
• This is interesting, because, thus far, Alonso has usually outqualified Stroll
• There is a lot of traffic, because this is a relatively short racetrack, so cars on fast laps are often finding cars on warm-up or cool-down laps ahead of them
• Surprising to see Alex Albon eliminated, while Logan Sargeant makes it through
• Also surprising to see Magnussen outqualify Hulkenberg
• Daniel Ricciardo was just barely behind Yuki Tsunoda, but that was enough to see him eliminated, as he went 16th while Yuki got 15th
• Hamilton is pretty lucky to make it through — his second lap was barely better than his first, but it was good enough for 13th
• I really like the revised gravel traps; it seems like they're doing their job of letting drivers know immediately when they've crossed track limits
• Eliminated in SQ1
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

SQ2

• All cars required to be out on new medium tires once again
• Perez is once again roughly half a second behind Verstappen, which is space that's being taken up by McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes
• Verstappen goes fastest once again, with Russell second
• Both Aston Martins eliminated in SQ2, while both Alpines make it into SQ3
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

SQ3

• All cars have to run soft tires, but they don't have to be brand new
• Cars are waiting until the very end of the session to do a single fast lap
• Charles LeClerc's engine goes into neutral in the pit lane because of anti-stall, costing him precious time — might not have enough time to get the tires warmed up properly on his out lap
• LeClerc doesn't make it to the line in time to set a fast lap
• Verstappen goes fastest, with the two McLarens just behind him
• Final top 10 sprint qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Lando Norris — McLaren
  3. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  4. George Russell — Mercedes
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  7. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  8. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  10. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari

Sprint Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
8. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
10. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
11. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
12. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
13. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
14. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
15. Logan Sargeant — Williams
16. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
17. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
18. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Alex Albon — Williams (pit lane start because of setup changes)

• 24 laps
• All cars are on medium tires
• No pit stops
• Aborted start — cars will go around for an extra formation lap
• Race distance reduced to 23 laps
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen has a clean getaway
  • Norris and Piastri fighting hard through the first part of the lap, but Norris manages to hold on to 2nd
  • Russell and Sainz fighting for 4th
  • Sainz passes Russell for 4th
  • Gasly drops to 11th, as Magnussen goes into 9th
• Lap 3 — Both McLarens are very close to Verstappen in the lead
• Lap 5
  • Norris passes Verstappen for the lead
  • Verstappen retakes the lead a corner later
  • Piastri passes Norris for 2nd as Verstappen retakes the lead
  • Thank you McLaren for not using team orders to make this race boring
• Lap 8 — Russell re-passes Sainz for 4th
• Lap 14 — Piastri has dropped out of DRS range of Verstappen, while Norris has closed to within DRS range of Piastri
• Lap 17 — The McLarens seem to be dropping back from Verstappen as they fight among themselves

Sprint Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
10. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
11. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
14. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
15. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
16. Logan Sargeant — Williams
17. Alex Albon — Williams
18. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
19. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Qualifying

Q1

• Most cars are out on used soft tires
• LeClerc goes fastest after the first set of fast laps, with Norris only 0.009 seconds behind him
• Piastri is also really close to Norris
• Russell, going a bit later, jumps to the top
• Albon's second fast lap is good for 8th (seems like he's managed to improve his car after having a fairly disastrous sprint qualifying)
• Lots of cars are going out for a second set of laps — McLaren think that track improvements mean that everyone below 3rd is vulnerable
• Hamilton, who was in the bottom 5, is 7th after going again on a brand new set of soft tires
• 7th isn't great but it should be enough to get him into Q2
• Both Saubers and both Williams eliminated in Q1
• Alonso barely squeaks into Q2
• Huge contrast from last year for Aston Martin, when both cars were comfortably into Q3, for both the grand prix and the sprint
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Verstappen goes almost a full second faster than LeClerc on his first lap to take first
• Perez is still worryingly far down the order, in 8th
• Aston Martin can't make it past Q2
• Nico Hulkenberg continues his good qualifying form by getting his Haas into the top 10
• Daniel Ricciardo outqualifies Yuki Tsunoda
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin

Q3

• Verstappen is fastest after the first fast laps, with the McLarens close behind
• Just like the sprint qualifying so far
• LeClerc goes into 3rd after his first fast lap, splitting the McLarens
• Hamilton can't do better than 5th on his first fast lap
• Russell pips LeClerc for 3rd on his first fast lap
• Verstappen looks like he has pole position locked, but there's an interesting battle to see who'll be alongside him on the front row
• Perez is a huge step behind Verstappen — over 1s
• Piastri goes 2nd fastest on his 2nd fast lap, as Verstappen improves over his provisional pole time to secure his place in first
• Norris beats Piastri's time to take 2nd
• LeClerc goes off the track on his second fast lap, after struggling with rear grip
• Hamilton qualifies 5th, but Russell beats both him and Carlos Sainz and takes 4th, pushing Sainz to 5th and Hamilton to 6th
• At the very end of qualifying, Piastri has his fast lap time deleted for exceeding track limits and drops into 7th
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Lando Norris — McLaren
  3. George Russell — Mercedes
  4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  5. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  7. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine

Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. George Russell — Mercedes
4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
5. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
7. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
11. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
14. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
15. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
16. Alex Albon — Williams
17. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
18. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
19. Logan Sargeant — Williams
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (pit lane start for setup changes)

• 71 laps
• All cars starting on medium tires, except for Zhou Guanyu who starts on hards
• 2 stop strategy expected
• Bright, sunny and hot — overheating tires and brakes will be an issue throughout this race
• Low risk of rain, but windy, which could cause cars to go wide as they hit wind gusts
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen gets a good start
  • Norris holds onto second after a challenge off the line from Russell
  • Sainz is immediately under attack by Hamilton, who eventually does pass him for 4th
  • LeClerc and Piastri make contact, but manage to carry on
  • LeClerc loses part of his front wing in the process and has to pit for repairs
  • Sergio Perez makes up places and moves up into 6th
• Lap 2 — Verstappen has opened up a greater than 1 second lead over Norris, removing the threat of DRS
• Lap 3 — Hamilton passes Russell for 3rd, but Russell regains the position through the next DRS zone
• Lap 5 — A "DRS train" is starting to form behind George Russell, with Hamilton, Sainz, Perez and Piastri all within 1s of the car in front of them, respectively
• Lap 6 — Sainz passes Hamilton for 4th
• Lap 7
  • Hamilton attacks Sainz, trying to retake 4th, but is unsuccessful
  • Piastri has a good pass on Perez for 6th
• Lap 11/12 — The Haas cars come in for pit stops, with Kevin Magnussen going ahead of Nico Hulkenberg
• Are Haas trying for a three-stop race?
• Maybe they're thinking that they'll be able to put on some new soft tires at the end and gain positions when the cars around them are on worn-out hard tires
• Lap 15 — Towards the back, Albon, who'd just gone onto fresh hard tires, passes LeClerc for 18th
• This is interesting, because they're on the same tires — LeClerc switched to hard tires as part of the front wing change on lap 2, and Albon just pitted
• In theory the Ferrari should have just sped away from the Williams, but it couldn't
• Have LeClerc's tires fallen off that much in just 13 laps?
• Either LeClerc is carrying damage to his car or tire degradation is very high
• Lap 17 — LeClerc pits for the second time and goes back onto medium tires
• Lap 20 — Esteban Ocon pits from 8th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 17th, behind Alex Albon
• Lap 21 — Pierre Gasly pits from 8th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 16th, behind Esteban Ocon
• This could get spicy between them, as it did at Monaco
• Lap 22
  • Lewis Hamilton pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 6th, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Sergio Perez pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 9th, behind Kevin Magnussen
• Because of the pit stops ahead of them, the Haas cars have moved up into 7th and 8th, for Hulkenberg and Magnussen respectively
• I wouldn't expect them to hold that position, because cars that would have pit later will start passing them
• Lap 23
  • George Russell pits from 3rd, goes onto new medium tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind George Russell
  • Russell is able to go onto mediums for his second stint because Mercedes didn't use medium tires in free practice, preserving them for the race
  • That said, maybe a medium - hard - medium strategy would have been better — if the medium tires do have better performance than the hards, then having them at the end of the race might be more advantageous than using them in the middle of the race
• Lap 24
  • Max Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 2nd, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Lando Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 3rd, behind Max Verstappen
• Lap 25 — Lewis Hamilton gets a 5 second penalty for crossing the pit entry line twice when entering the pits
• What happened is that, as Hamilton was turning to enter the pits, the back end of his car stepped out, and in the process of correcting the slide one of his wheels went out past the pit entry line and then came back in
• Lap 26 — Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 6th, behind Lewis Hamilton
• Lap 28 — Sergio Perez passes Nico Hulkenberg for 7th
• The Haas cars are still in the points, in 8th and 9th for Hulkenberg and Magnussen, respectively
• That's pretty good — seems like that early pit stop is working out for them
• Lap 32 — Sergio Perez gets a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane
• Just like with Hamilton's penalty, there no room for interpretation on this one — either you're within the speed limit or you're not
• Lap 34 — Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are competing for 12th, but in the process, they're letting Fernando Alonso in 11th get away from them
• Lap 35
  • LeClerc pits for the third time from 18th, goes onto a set of used medium tires and comes out still in 18th
  • Ocon pushes forward, and passes Alonso for 11th
  • Gasly tries to pass both Alonso and Ocon at the same time, but is pushed wide and slots in behind Ocon
• Lap 38 — Daniel Ricciardo is doing a good job so far, just holding onto 10th and staying out of trouble
• Lap 39 — Kevin Magnussen comes in for a second pit stop from 9th, goes onto new hard tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Valteri Bottas
• I think the Haas cars are going to have to three stop — that second set of tires only lasted 28 laps, and there are 48 laps remaining
• Lap 40
  • Verstappen says that his tires have suddenly lost performance
  • Nico Hulkenberg pits from 8th, goes onto new hard tires, and comes out in 13th, behind Valteri Bottas
  • Notably, he is still ahead of Kevin Magnussen, in 14th
• Lap 41 — Pierre Gasly passes Esteban Ocon for 8th, after a multiple-lap battle
• Lap 43 — Pierre Gasly pits from 8th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Charles LeClerc
• Lap 44 — Esteban Ocon pits from 8th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 14th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Lap 46
  • Daniel Ricciardo is back up into 10th, regaining the place he had prior to his pit stop on lap 39
  • Russell pits for a second time from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Oscar Piastri
• Lap 48
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 3rd, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind George Russell
  • Did Sainz lose a place through the pit stops?
  • Piastri passes Hamilton for 3rd
• Lap 51
  • Pierre Gasly passes Charles LeClerc for 11th
  • Verstappen pits for the second time from the lead, has a slow pit stop (6.5 seconds), goes onto medium tires, and retains the lead
  • Norris pits for the second time from 2nd, goes onto medium tires and retains 2nd
• Lap 52
  • Max has a lock-up and nearly runs wide
  • That pit stop reduced Verstappen's lead from more than 6 seconds to less than 2 seconds
  • Still out of DRS range, though
  • Sergio Perez pits for the second time from 7th, also has a very slow pit stop — 8.5 seconds stationary, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 10th, behind Daniel Ricciardo
  • LeClerc pits for fourth time the from 12th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 18th, behind Valteri Bottas
• Lap 54
  • Lewis Hamilton pits for the second time from 3rd, serves his 5-second penalty, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 6th, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Lando Norris has closed to within DRS range of Max Verstappen
  • The Haas cars are in 7th and 8th, which is very nice for them
• Lap 55 — Norris has a lunge at Verstappen, but Verstappen successfully defends
• Lap 56 — Verstappen has regained a 1.2s lead, which puts Norris out of DRS range
• Lap 58
  • Norris is back within DRS range of Verstappen and is fighting him hard for the lead
  • Norris is shown a black-and-white warning for exceeding track limits — next time he exceeds track limits, it'll be a 5 second penalty
• Lap 59
  • Norris lunges at Verstappen, but goes off track and has to give the position back
  • Does this mean that Norris gets a 5 second penalty in addition, because he went off track?
  • Not that it matters — he has a 15 second lead over Russell
• Lap 61 — Norris attacks Verstappen again, and Verstappen once again maneuvers his car so that it's difficult for Norris to pass
• Lap 62 — Oscar Piastri has closed up within DRS range of Carlos Sainz, in 4th
• Lap 63
  • Norris attacks Verstappen again, and this time it's Verstappen who goes wide as he retains the lead
  • Verstappen should be forced to give the place to Norris, as he went off the track to retain the lead
• Lap 64
  • Norris attempts to pass Verstappen again and they make contact!
  • Verstappen's right rear tire is gone
  • Norris looks like he has a puncture as well
  • This is reminiscent of some of the fights that Verstappen had with Hamilton in 2021
• Lap 65
  • Russell takes the lead as both Verstappen and Norris limp back to the pits
  • Verstappen pits for the third time, goes onto soft tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Hamilton
  • Norris pits for the third time, and retires
  • Piastri passes Sainz for 2nd (this battle just got a lot more high-stakes now that Norris and Verstappen have been set back)
• Lap 66 — VSC declared to clean up the debris from the collision between Norris and Verstappen
• Lap 67
  • VSC ends
  • Verstappen gets a 10 sec. penalty for causing the collision with Norris
  • Not sure it'll matter, though, because Verstappen is 17 seconds ahead of Hulkenberg in 6th
• George Russell picks up a fortunate win, as Piastri is too far back too catch him
• Piastri gets another podium
• Really good result for Haas, with both cars finishing well inside the top 10

Results

1. George Russell — Mercedes
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
5. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
7. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
8. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
9. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
10. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
11. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
12. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
15. Alex Albon — Williams
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
18. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
19. Logan Sargeant — Williams
20. Lando Norris — McLaren (DNF)

2024-07-07 British Grand Prix

Track Info

• Silverstone
• 3.6 miles

Tire Info

• C3, C2, C1
• Hardest in the range (the soft tire here is the same as the hard tire last week in Austria)

Qualifying

Q1

• Track is damp from earlier rain
• 60% chance of rain during qualifying — cars might be back onto intermediate tires at some point, if it starts raining again
• All cars go out initially on intermediate tires
• However Valteri Bottas reports that there's a dry line forming even from cars taking their warm-up laps, implying that the transition to soft slick tires might not be too far away
• Track doesn't look very wet
• After the first set of fast laps, Verstappen is in first
• Norris has a big slide on his fast lap, but still gets second
• Mercedes are in 3rd and 4th, with Hamilton and Russell, respectively
• Charles LeClerc comes back into the pits and is the first to go out on slick tires
• Sergio Perez goes off and gets stuck in the gravel, necessitating a red flag
• Another awful qualifying for Perez
• Cars are queuing up to rejoin the track even though the green flag hasn't yet been waved, because teams want to get out and get a lap in before a possible rain shower
• However, before they can get out, it starts drizzling
• This means that all the drivers that queued up with soft tires, hoping to get a dry lap in might be disadvantaged
• The cars on soft tires are setting times that are multiple seconds faster than the times set on intermediates
• Verstappen goes into the gravel, but, unlike Perez, doesn't get stuck
• However, he might still be okay, as the increasing rain means that his initial time set on intermediate tires might be enough to just barely get him into Q2
• After a brief period of moderate rain, it lightens up considerably, and the track starts improving once again
• Lots of cars jumping around in the order, but Piastri seems consistently fast, regardless of the conditions
• Norris took a huge risk by not going out for a second lap after the red flag, but it paid off for him, as he doesn't drop below 13th, and makes it into Q2
• Hamilton and Russell are 1 and 2 respectively in Q1
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Q2

• Verstappen's first time in Q2 is only good for fourth
• Piastri's first Q2 time is good for fastest overall, but is pipped first by Carlos Sainz, and then by Lando Norris
• Hamilton's first fast lap is only good for 8th, but he improves to 3rd with his second attempt
• Russell's second attempt is only good for 9th
• Alex Albon makes it into the top 4
• Fernando Alonso goes fastest overall with his second fast lap
• Carlos Sainz takes the lead from Alonso
• LeClerc is really struggling out there
• Verstappen is also not that fast — while he will comfortably make into Q3, he hasn't ever set the fastest time
• Red Bull are reporting that Verstappen is slow because of floor damage he picked up by going into the gravel in Q1
• Nico Hulkenberg goes fastest overall (Hulkenberg proves that he's a brilliant qualifier, once again)
• In their final laps, Norris, Russell, Hamilton, go 1, 2, 3 respectively
• Russell had looked slower than Hamilton all through Q1 and through most of Q2, but he managed to beat him at the end there
• LeClerc is eliminated at the very end by Lance Stroll, who manages to capture 10th
• Another somewhat disappointing qualifying for Daniel Ricciardo — behind Tsunoda once again
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB

Q3

• Close battle between McLaren and Mercedes for pole position
• After the first set of fast laps, Russell is in pole, Norris is in 2nd, and Hamilton is in 3rd
• However Russell only leads Norris by 0.006 seconds
• Seems like the competitive order has closed up tremendously in 2024, with Red Bull no longer enjoying the clear dominance that it enjoyed in 2023
• I still think Verstappen will win the championship, but he'll actually have to work for it
• Also, with Perez underperforming and both Norris and Piastri consistently in the top 5, it's not clear that Red Bull will win the constructor's championship this year
• Hulkenberg's first fast lap is faster than Sainz's
• Yikes, Ferrari is getting beaten by a Haas
• Mercedes lock out the front row, with Russell beating Hamilton to pole
• Really good qualifying results as well for Nico Hulkenberg in sixth, and Alex Albon, in 9th
• It's an all-British top-3
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. George Russell — Mercedes
  2. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  3. Lando Norris — McLaren
  4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  8. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  9. Alex Albon — Williams
  10. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin

Race

Starting Grid

1. George Russell — Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
8. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
11. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
12. Logan Sargeant — Williams
13. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
14. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
15. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
18. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
19. Pierre Gasly — Alpine (grid penalty for component changes)
20. Sergio Perez — Red Bull (pit-lane start for new power unit)

• 52 laps
• One-stop race if it's dry, but rain is possible
• Pierre Gasly comes into the pits at the end of the formation lap after being informed there's an issue with his car and retires
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen gets past Norris for 3rd
  • Hulkenberg drops back into 9th
  • Albon has fallen way back, into 13th, behind Logan Sargeant, after making contact with Fernando Alonso
  • LeClerc has moved up 3 places, into 8th
• Lap 4
  • Russell has moved out of DRS range of Hamilton, and Hamilton, in turn is out of DRS range of Verstappen in 3rd
  • However, Norris is still in DRS range of Verstappen
• Race has settled down a bit as the leaders focus on maintaining their tires
• Lap 13 — LeClerc passes Stroll for 7th
• Lap 14 — Norris, who had fallen away a bit from Verstappen, is back within DRS range
• Lap 15
  • Light drizzle has started
  • Norris passes Verstappen for 3rd
  • That was a well-done pass
  • The McLaren just gets better and better, in comparison to the other cars, the longer it goes
• Lap 16 — Norris is already out of DRS range from Verstappen
• Lap 17 — Piastri passes Verstappen for 4th
• Lap 18
  • Rain is intensifying, but the track still might not be wet enough for intermediate tires
  • Hamilton passes Russell for the lead
• Lap 19
  • DRS disabled due to intensifying rain
  • As the rain continues to intensify, both of the Mercedes go off, allowing Norris to catch up to the back of George Russell
  • Norris passes Russell for 2nd
  • Cars aren't switching to intermediate tires because there are still parts of the track that are completely dry, which would tear up the intermediate tires
• The McLaren looks to have way more grip in damp conditions than either of the Mercedes or the Red Bull
• Lap 20
  • Norris passes Hamilton for the lead
  • Hamilton is now struggling for grip, which allows Russell and Piastri to catch up
  • Piastri passes Russell for 3rd
  • LeClerc pits from 7th, goes onto intermediate tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Daniel Ricciardo
  • Piastri passes Hamilton for 2nd
• Seems like Ferrari's call to pit for intermediates was premature — rain has slackened and the cars that remained on slick tires are significantly faster
• Lap 24 — The track has dried enough to re-enable DRS
• Lap 25 — LeClerc gets lapped by the leaders
• Lap 26 — DRS disabled once again due to rain
• Lap 27
  • Verstappen pits from 5th, goes onto intermediates and retains 5th
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 6th, goes onto intermediates and retains 6th
  • At the end of the lap, Norris pits from the lead, goes onto intermediates and comes back out in
  • Hamilton pits from 3rd, goes onto intermediates and retains 3rd
  • Russell pits from 4th, goes onto intermediates, and comes back out in 5th, behind Verstappen
  • Notably Piastri has been left out for another lap
• Mercedes had enough space between their cars to double-stack, McLaren did not, so that's why Piastri had to stay out an additional lap
• However, the double-stack wasn't cost-free for Mercedes — it put Russell behind Verstappen
• Lap 28 — Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto intermediates and comes back out in 6th, behind Sainz
• Piastri lost a lot of places by not coming in at the same time as Norris
• It's too wet for slick tires, but there's not enough water to keep the intermediate tires cool, so Verstappen is complaining about accelerated degradation on the intermediates
• Lap 32 — Hamilton has reported that it's stopped raining
• Given how short and low-intensity the burst of rain was, it's likely that the track will dry quickly
• The track is in a weird place, with parts that are completely dry, and parts that still have puddles on them — the wet parts are too wet for slick tires, and the dry parts are too dry for intermediates
• Lap 34 — Russell pits and retires with a car problem, possible coolant leak
• Lap 35 — 17 laps from the end, and Nico Hulkenberg is in 6th, good job to him
• Lap 37
  • Sun has come out
  • Hamilton has closed to within 2 seconds of Norris
• Lap 38
  • Hamilton pits from 2nd, goes onto soft tires and comes back out in 3rd, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Verstappen pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Lewis Hamilton
  • Piastri pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Max Verstappen
  • Norris stays out for an additional lap
• Lap 39
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 2nd, behind Hamilton
  • Sainz pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Piastri
• Lap 41 — DRS enabled
• Both Hamilton and Norris are on soft tires, which have more grip, but less endurance; meanwhile Verstappen is on the higher endurance hard tires, which means that he can start pushing right away and still have traction at the end of the race
• Lap 46 — Verstappen has reduced the gap to Norris from 4 seconds to just under 2 seconds
• Lap 47 — Verstappen is within DRS range of Norris
• Lap 48 — Verstappen passes Norris for 2nd
• Lap 51 — Carlos Sainz pits from 5th, goes onto soft tires, and comes back out in 5th
• Sainz was 27 seconds ahead of Hulkenberg in 6th, so taking an additional pit stop didn't cost him track position
• It seems like Norris was screwed by the decision to go to soft tires rather than mediums
• Another disastrous race for Sergio Perez

Results

1. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
7. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Logan Sargeant — Williams
12. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
15. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
16. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
17. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
19. George Russell — Mercedes (DNF)
20. Pierre Gasly — Alpine (DNS)

2024-07-21 Hungarian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Hungaroring
• 2.72 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Damp track due to rain that has just ended
• Qualifying expected to begin on intermediate tires, but will probably switch to slick tires at some point
• That's going to make things interesting — knowing when to switch tires will be key to ensuring that you make it into Q2 or Q3
• Track evolution will be significant — lap times will drop fast as the track dries out from all the cars running on it
• Most cars are coming out on soft tires, even though the track is still damp — think that the track will dry out quickly enough that running intermediate tires will be pointless
• Lewis Hamilton sets a fast time through the first set of fast laps, as do Carlos Sainz, and the two McLarens of Piastri and Norris
• George Russell's first fast lap is only good for 14th
• Logan Sargeant goes into the gravel, but manages to keep his car going and rejoins
• Russell improves to 11th with his second lap
• Still a fair way behind Hamilton, though
• Verstappen and Perez's fast laps are only good enough for 7th and 8th respectively
• Verstappen's second lap allows him to improve to 3rd, but Perez's second lap doesn't improve upon his first
• Sergio Perez crashes!
• Red flag declared to allow Perez's car to be cleared
• Oh boy, this is not looking good for Perez's career at Red Bull
• During the red flag, the rain starts again, and wets the track a bit more
• Sergio Perez, despite crashing, is actually not "out" in Q1, as he was 9th at the time he crashed
• In theory, if Red Bull can get his car fixed, he can participate in Q2, assuming the lap times don't improve
• This is highly unlikely, however, due to the severity of damage to his car
• Red-flag period ends, and 6:45 remains on the clock
• After the red-flag period ends, the track still looks pretty dry and both Saubers go out, as well as George Russell
• Valteri Bottas only needs to improve by a few hundredths of a second to get into Q2
• Bottas does improve, and moves up into 15th
• Russell improves from 14th to 10th
• It doesn't seem like the track lost as much grip as I thought it would due to the rain
• Daniel Ricciardo goes fastest overall with his fast lap at the very end
• Lots of cars are improving, which pushes Russell down into 17th and Perez into 16th, respectively
• Alpine chose not to go out for additional fast laps after the red flag, which is looking to be a huge mistake, as both of their cars are pushed into the bottom-5
• Valteri Bottas does improve and places 10th in his second fast lap
• Sergio Perez's lap time falls into the bottom 5, which means that even if Red Bull could have fixed his car, he would be out of Q2
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • George Russell — Mercedes
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Q2

• Verstappen goes fastest after the first few laps, but he's on new tires, while the Ferraris and Lewis Hamilton are both on used tires
• Oscar Piastri sets a time that's only .015s slower than Verstappen, on used tires
• Norris goes fastest on his second fast lap
• Hamilton struggles on his second fast lap, only managing 8th, and will decline as cars behind him potentially go faster, potentially putting him out
• Hamilton makes it into Q3 by 0.010s
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas

Q3

• After the first set of fast laps, Lando Norris is fastest, by 0.3s
• With a little over 6 minutes left, light rain starts once again
• However, as we saw in Q1, a bit of light rain doesn't necessarily mean that the session is over — the track is hot and dries very quickly
• Through the second set of fast laps, Piastri improves to 2nd, and Verstappen is in 3rd, and Norris retains pole
• Yuki Tsunoda crashes!
• Red flag declared
• 2:13 on the clock, which means there might be enough time for one final lap if the session resumes
• However, Verstappen gets out of his car — won't be participating when the session resumes
• Red Bull state that it's unlikely that they'll put in a faster time than they did, so they're sitting out the very end of qualifying
• Cars come out after the red flag, but there are few changes in position, other than Daniel Ricciardo going ahead of his teammate into 9th
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  3. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  5. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  8. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  9. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
5. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
8. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
9. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
13. Alex Albon — Williams
14. Logan Sargeant — Williams
15. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
16. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
17. George Russell — Mercedes
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
19. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
20. Pierre Gasly — Alpine (pit lane start for new power unit)

• 70 laps
• Weather is much warmer than during qualifying and track is much warmer, which could lead to accelerated tire wear
• 2-stop strategy likely, with most cars switching between medium and hard tires
• However, the Aston Martins are starting on soft tires, likely in an attempt to make up places before coming in for an early pit stop
• Lap 1
  • Piastri jumps Norris for the lead
  • Verstappen goes wide and rejoins in 2nd place, ahead of Norris
  • Will Verstappen be forced to give the place back, because he left the track and gained an advantage?
  • Hamilton passes Norris for 3rd, but Norris re-takes 3rd on the next corner
  • What an absolutely disastrous opening lap for Norris
• Lap 2 — Piastri has a 1.5 sec gap over Verstappen, putting him outside DRS range
• Lap 3 — Carlos Sainz, who had dropped back into 7th, behind Fernando Alonso, passes Alonso for 6th
• Lap 4 — Verstappen lets Norris retake 2nd
• Verstappen had to do that, because the incident had been referred to the stewards — it was likely that he'd have picked up a 10s penalty if he didn't give the place back
• Lap 7
  • Verstappen has dropped out of DRS range from Norris
  • A bunch of back-markers pit
• Lap 8
  • Fernando Alonso pits from 8th, goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 15th, behind Nico Hulkenberg
  • Daniel Ricciardo pits from 9th, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 17th, behind Alex Albon
  • Aston Martin might be trying a 3-stop strategy
  • On his out lap, Ricciardo is passed by Magnussen, who'd pit a lap earlier — Magnussen managed to pass Ricciardo with an undercut
• Lap 9 — Starting on the hard tires, George Russell is up into 10th
• Lap 15 — Lance Stroll pits from 7th, goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 16th, behind Magnussen
• Stroll's pit stop was slow (4 sec), which cost him at least one extra place as he was coming out
• Lap 17 — Hamilton pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Tsunoda
• Lap 18
  • Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 5th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Norris manages to stay ahead of Hamilton through the first set of pit stops — undercut didn't pay off for Hamilton
  • At the end of the lap, Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Sainz
  • Piastri retains his lead over Norris, and is still leading the race on net, because those ahead of him, Verstappen, LeClerc and Sainz have yet to make their first pit stops
• Lap 22
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Lewis Hamilton
  • Hamilton gained a place through the pit stops
  • Sainz pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 9th, behind Sergio Perez
• Notably, LeClerc hasn't pit, so he might be going for a one-stop strategy
• Lap 24
  • LeClerc pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Max Verstappen
  • Carlos Sainz passes Sergio Perez for 8th
  • Verstappen is rapidly catching up to Hamilton
• I don't think LeClerc either gained or lost places through the pit stop
• Piastri is now back in the lead, now that the lead group have all made their pit stops
• The commentators are suggesting that the speed difference between Hamilton and Verstappen is due to Verstappen having fresher tires, but Verstappen's tires are only 5 laps younger than Hamilton's — that doesn't seem like a huge difference, especially in Hungary, which has short laps
• Lap 25 — Sainz passes Russell for 7th
• Neither Russell nor Perez has pit, however, all the cars they were hoping to stay ahead of by going long have re-passed them after doing their pit stops
• Lap 26 — Sainz passes Tsunoda for 6th
• Lap 29 — Sergio Perez pits from 9th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 15th, behind Bottas
• Lap 30
  • Yuki Tsunoda pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 10th, behind Lance Stroll
  • This is important for George Russell, who had been stuck behind Tsunoda for pretty much the entire race — if he can put in some fast laps, then when he pits, he'll retain track position ahead of Tsunoda
  • Sergio Perez passes Valteri Bottas for 12th
• Lap 32 — Sergio Perez passes Kevin Magnussen for 11th
• Lap 33 — Perez passes Tsunoda for 10th
• Lap 34
  • Verstappen has caught up to Hamilton and is challenging him for 3rd
  • Russell pits from 7th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 11th, behind Yuki Tsunoda
• Lap 35
  • Hamilton locks up defending against Verstappen going into turn 1, which allows Verstappen to pass him going into turn 2
  • However Verstappen goes wide into turn 2, which allows Hamilton to regain the position
  • Lando Norris is slowly catching up to Oscar Piastri — has reduced the gap from 4.5 sec to 1.5 sec
• Lap 36 — Lewis Hamilton has moved out of DRS range from Verstappen
• Lap 38 — Alonso pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 13th, behind Daniel Ricciardo
• As Hamilton and Verstappen race each other, LeClerc has been quietly catching up to them — is now 1.5 sec behind Verstappen
• Hamilton is defending like Alonso in 2021
• Lap 40 — LeClerc is now within DRS range of Verstappen
• Lap 41
  • Hamilton pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • LeClerc pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Lewis Hamilton
  • Interesting tire choice from LeClerc — going to mediums means that he'll have less grip at the end of the race
• Lap 43 — LeClerc is within DRS range of Hamilton
• LeClerc is betting on passing Hamilton at the start of stint and then playing defense, much like Hamilton played defense against Verstappen, to hold on to the place at the end
• Lap 46
  • Lando Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Crucially, Norris retains his lead over Hamilton after the pit stop
• Lap 48
  • Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 3rd, behind Norris
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 3rd, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind LeClerc
  • McLaren tell Piastri to not worry about Norris being ahead of him after the pit stops, which implies that they'll use team orders to swap positions
  • Of course, whether they can do that depends on whether they're far enough ahead of Verstappen and​/or Hamilton to safely pull that off
• Lap 50
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 5th, behind LeClerc
  • Verstappen's tires are 9 laps younger than Hamilton and LeClerc's, and he has 20 laps to make up the gap
• It will be interesting to see whether Charles LeClerc can hold up Verstappen, or whether he lets Verstappen through to fight Hamilton
• Piastri is told that he needs to catch up to Norris before McLaren will order the swap
• Lap 56 — Verstappen has caught up to LeClerc, but LeClerc is managing to hold him off
• There are only 15 laps left — is there enough time left for Verstappen to pass both LeClerc and Hamilton?
• Lap 57 — Verstappen passes LeClerc for 4th
• Lap 61 — Verstappen has caught up to Hamilton, and is fighting him for 3rd
• Lap 63
  • Verstappen lunges at Hamilton, clips his front wheel and goes off towards the barrier!
  • In the process of rejoining, Verstappen gets passed by LeClerc
• Lap 66 — Norris has pulled out a 6 second gap over Piastri, despite being told that he needs to give up the lead
• Lap 68 — Norris moves aside and lets Piastri through
• Norris did the right thing… eventually
• Over the last three races, Lance Stroll has had better results than Fernando Alonso, which is surprising, given that, at the beginning of the season, Alonso held a fairly decisive advantage over Stroll

Results

1. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
6. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
7. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
8. George Russell — Mercedes
9. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
10. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
11. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Logan Sargeant — Williams
18. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Pierre Gasly — Alpine (DNF)

2024-07-28 Belgian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Spa Francorchamps
• 4.35 miles

Tire Info

• C4, C3, C2
• Middle of the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Intermediate tires might be required at the beginning of qualifying because of a damp track
• All of the initial cars are going out on intermediate tires
• More rain might be coming later
• Parts of the track look very wet
• Lots of spray getting kicked up by the cars
• If there's no more rain coming, times will improve rapidly as cars pull water off the track with the intermediate tires and start drying out the track
• Max Verstappen had the fastest time after the first set of fast laps, by a considerable margin
• However through the second set of fast laps, Piastri takes the fastest time, by almost half a second
• Verstappen retakes the fastest lap on his third attempt
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• After the first set of laps, the track is quite dry in places, possibly ready for slick tires
• Sergio Perez reports that the rain, which had been a mild drizzle at the start of Q2, is intensifying
• Perez just barely makes it into Q3
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin

Q3

• Verstappen goes fastest
• Perez is second after the first set of fast laps
• That's a better job in qualifying thus far than he's done in the past
• Rain had slackened a bit during the break between the qualifying sessions, but has intensified again
• The Ferraris do their first laps on used intermediates, but set times over a second behind Verstappen
• Sainz's Ferrari looks very squirrely coming out of the first few corners on his second fast lap
• LeClerc's second fast lap is very good, and he goes into 2nd
• Perez's qualifying result here is the best result he's had since the Miami grand prix in May
• I'm surprised that the McLarens weren't faster
• Lewis Hamilton also had a very good qualifying
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  3. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  4. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  5. Lando Norris — McLaren
  6. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  7. George Russell — Mercedes
  8. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  9. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine

Race

Starting Grid

1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
2. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
9. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
10. Alex Albon — Williams
11. Max Verstappen — Red Bull (grid penalty for new power unit)
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
15. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
16. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
17. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
18. Logan Sargeant — Williams
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (grid penalty)
20. Yuki Tsunoda — RB (grid penalty for new power unit)

• 44 laps
• Weather is sunny and warm, in contrast to qualifying which was cool and misty
• Most cars are starting on medium tires, apart from Carlos Sainz who is starting on hards
• Spa is such a beautiful track
• Lap 1
  • LeClerc has a good getaway and retains the lead
  • Hamilton is immediately battling Perez for 2nd, and passes him through Eau Rouge
  • Lando Norris put two tires into the gravel in the first corner, and loses three places in the process
  • Verstappen is already up into 9th, behind Albon in 8th, having cleared Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon
  • Verstappen passes Albon into the chicane and moves up into 8th
• Lap 2
  • Norris and Sainz are fighting fiercely for 6th place, but Sainz manages to hold on
  • However, this has allowed Verstappen to catch up to the pair
• Lap 3
  • Hamilton passes LeClerc for the lead
  • Zhou Guanyu's car suffers a mechanical failure and he's going very slowly
  • It seems like the pit wall were able to instruct Zhou on how to resolve the problem and he's gotten going again, in last place
• Lap 5 — Piastri challenges Perez for third, but Perez holds him off
• Lap 6 — Hamilton is out of DRS range of LeClerc
• Lap 7 — Zhou Guanyu's hydraulic problem reappears and he pulls into the pits and retires
• Lap 8 — Carlos Sainz has closed up to within DRS range of George Russell, in 5th
• Lap 11
  • Verstappen pits from 8th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 14th, behind George Russell
  • George Russell pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 13th, behind Yuki Tsunoda
  • Verstappen and Russell both pit early, to try to undercut Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, respectively
• Lap 12
  • Hamilton pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Esteban Ocon
  • Piastri pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 10th, behind George Russell
  • Perez pits from 3rd, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Lance Stroll
  • Seems like Piastri dropped behind Russell through the first set of pit stops
  • Piastri passes Russell into the Le Combe chicane and takes 9th
  • But pushing that hard so early might have hurt Piastri's tires
• Lap 13
  • LeClerc pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 5th, behind Lewis Hamilton
  • Hamilton retains the effective lead of the race, therefore, because everyone ahead of him still has to do their first pit stop
  • LeClerc also retains his position ahead of Perez
  • Stroll pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 19th
  • Kind of a disastrous pit stop for Stroll
  • Oscar Piastri passes Sergio Perez for 6th
• Lap 14 — Fernando Alonso pits from 3rd goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 13th, behind Daniel Ricciardo
• Lap 15
  • Alex Albon passes Yuki Tsunoda for 10th
  • Also, Nico Hulkenberg is 9th — always nice to see Haas in the points
  • Lando Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Max Verstappen
  • Verstappen has passed Norris through the first set of pit stops, but Norris has another set of hard tires, whereas Verstappen only has medium tires, so Norris might be able to stop earlier for his second pit stop
• Lap 20
  • Carlos Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto mediums, and comes out in 8th behind Lando Norris
  • I think Carlos Sainz's strategy, at this point, is to try to go for a one-stop strategy
  • If he does a conventional 2-stop strategy he'll lose a bunch of places because quite a lot of cars are within 1-pitstop of him, after he went longer (and slower) on the hard tires that he started the race with
  • So, in theory, everyone ahead of Sainz has to do one more pit stop while Sainz can go to the end on the set of medium tires that he just put on
• Lap 21
  • George Russell passes Sergio Perez for 4th
  • Now Verstappen is the car behind Perez
  • Red Bull are likely to use team orders to tell Perez to let Verstappen through, so that Verstappen doesn't lose time to Norris behind him
  • The contrast from 2023, where Verstappen started 13th, and 2022, where Verstappen started 6th, is huge — in both of those years, it looked absolutely inevitable that Verstappen would have the lead, and quickly at that
  • Whereas this year, Verstappen is actually having to fight cars one by one as he tries to work his way forwards
• Lap 22
  • Perez pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 8th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Perez had only done 10 laps or so on those tires
  • Did Red Bull need to pit Perez then, or did they pit him to get him out of Verstappen's way
  • Another explanation is that Red Bull wanted to use up their medium tires quickly, because, from looking at the performance of e.g. Hamilton and Norris, the best tire to be on is the hard
• Perez has managed to undercut George Russell, at least, and when George Russell pits, he'll come out behind Perez
• Lap 25
  • LeClerc pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 7th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Pit stop was a bit slow, but not catastrophically so — 3.4 sec
  • Given that Sainz might be doing a one-stop, LeClerc will have to pass Sainz on track in order to regain track position
• Lap 27
  • Lewis Hamilton pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 6th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Importantly, Hamilton has retained his lead over LeClerc through the second set of pit stops, even though LeClerc tried to undercut him by coming in a lap early
  • If Sainz can defend against Lewis Hamilton and enable LeClerc to get closer to Hamilton, that might be important for the end of the race
• Lap 29
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Max Verstappen
  • I thought Sainz was going for a one-stop, by pitting on lap 20
  • Carlos Sainz pitting frees Hamilton to extend his lead over LeClerc
  • Verstappen pits from 3rd, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 7th, behind Sergio Perez
  • Verstappen had done 11 laps on his first set of medium tires; he'll have to do 15 on his second set
  • Perez should let Verstappen through, and might play the team game by defending against Sainz
• Lap 30
  • Norris pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 7th, behind Max Verstappen, and ahead of Carlos Sainz
  • Norris hasn't managed to pass Verstappen through the second set of pit stops, because Verstappen stopped early and undercut Norris
  • However, Norris is on hard tires while Verstappen is on mediums, so Norris might be able to pass Verstappen on track towards the end of the race
  • Perez lets Verstappen pass him for 5th
• Lap 31
  • Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 4th behind Charles LeClerc
  • Piastri's pit stop was slow, 4.4 sec, because he almost overshot his pit box coming in
  • Crucially, Piastri manages to stay ahead of Verstappen through the second set of pit stops
  • Norris passes Perez for 6th
• Lap 32
  • Russell confirms that he's okay doing a one-stop
  • So this complicates Perez's strategy for passing Russell — if Russell isn't doing another pit stop, Perez will need to catch and pass him on track
  • Norris has caught up to within DRS range of Verstappen
• Lap 35 — Piastri attacks LeClerc but couldn't pull off the pass
• Lap 36 — Piastri passes LeClerc for 3rd
• Lap 39
  • Sainz passes Perez for 7th
  • Unlike in Hungary, where qualifying was bad, but in the race, Perez did okay, this time, Perez's qualifying was all right, but he's just sunk during the race
  • He's not making a great case for retaining his seat going into the summer break
  • Norris is within DRS range of Verstappen, in 5th, who, in turn, is within DRS range of LeClerc, in 4th
• Lap 41 — Mercedes tells Lewis Hamilton and George Russell that they're allowed to race each other for the lead
• Lap 42 — As Russell and Hamilton challenge each other for the lead, Piastri has closed the gap to Hamilton to 2.5 sec
• Russell holds off Hamilton at the very end to win on the track
• However, George Russell is disqualified for having a car below the minimum weight, and Hamilton inherits the win

Results

1. George Russell — Mercedes (disqualified due to having an underweight car)
2. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
3. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
6. Lando Norris — McLaren
7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
10. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
11. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
12. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
13. Alex Albon — Williams
14. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
15. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
18. Logan Sargeant — Williams
19. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (DNF)

2024-08-25 Dutch Grand Prix

Track Info

• Zandvoort Circuit
• 2.65 miles

Tire Info

• C3, C2, C1
• Hardest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• High winds are going to make it difficult to judge braking zones
• Rain earlier has cleaned the track, meaning that the track will grip up as cars lay rubber down
• Logan Sargeant is doubtful to participate, as he had a severe accident in Free Practice 3, damaging his car extensively
• The banking on Turn 1, "Tarzan", looks as spectacular as ever
• Hamilton and the two McLarens set the fastest times initially
• Max Verstappen's first fast lap is only good for 3rd, behind Hamilton and Norris
• This is quite a contrast from 2022 and 2023, where Verstappen was easily the fastest driver around this track
• The Ferraris don't look particularly impressive, with LeClerc in 7th and Sainz in 12th
• Pierre Gasly puts in a pretty good time, putting himself up into 5th
• The two Haas cars look impressive, with Magnussen in 6th and Hulkenberg in 8th
• Track evolution is significant, as, on their second laps, Russell, LeClerc, and Sainz all improve considerably
• Ricciardo is outqualified by Yuki Tsunoda in the RB intra-team rivalry
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
  • Logan Sargeant — Williams

Q2

• Rain possible, according to Red Bull
• The McLarens look quick once again, with Verstappen 3rd after the first set of fast laps
• Norris, Piastri and Russell are the top three fastest at the end of the session
• Lots of surprises in this qualifying session
  • Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz eliminated
  • Max Verstappen only goes 8th fastest
  • Sergio Perez goes faster than Verstappen, but is still only 5th fastest
  • Alex Albon makes it into Q3 — Really good news for Williams
  • Lance Stroll has a fairly standout performance, 4th fastest in this session
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  • Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas

Q3

• After the first set of fast laps, the two McLarens are fastest once again, with Verstappen in 3rd
• Russell is fourth after his first lap, and LeClerc gets bumped down into 5th as a result
• Verstappen improves on his second lap, but Norris improves even more to take pole
• McLaren are so back
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  3. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  4. George Russell — Mercedes
  5. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  8. Alex Albon — Williams
  9. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  10. Pierre Gasly — Alpine

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
8. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
10. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
11. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
12. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes (3-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez during qualifying)
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
18. Logan Sargeant — Williams
19. Alex Albon — Williams (disqualified from qualifying for having a car that's .3mm too wide)
20. Kevin Magnussen — Haas (pit lane start after taking a new power unit)

• 72 laps
• The top 10 are all starting on medium tires
• Hamilton is starting on soft tires and might be doing a 2-stop race
• Lap 1
  • Max Verstappen jumps ahead of Lando Norris at the start
  • George Russell passes Piastri for 3rd
  • LeClerc passes Perez for 5th and challenges Piastri for 4th, but is unable to pass Piastri
• Lap 2 — Hamilton has a good pass on Yuki Tsunoda for 12th
• Lap 3 — Verstappen is over 1 second ahead of Lando Norris
• Lap 5 — Piastri has remained within 1s of Russell in 3rd, but doesn't seem to be able to catch up enough to make an overtake attempt
• Lap 8
  • George Russell has pulled out of DRS range of Oscar Piastri
  • Charles LeClerc has caught back up to within DRS range of Oscar Piastri from behind
• Lap 10 — Hamilton passes Hulkenberg for 11th
• Lap 11 — Sainz has a great battle with Gasly for 7th, which he eventually wins after going through several corners wheel to wheel
• Lap 14 — Hamilton passes Stroll for 10th
• Lap 16 — Hamilton passes Alonso for 9th
• Lap 17 — Norris has caught up to Verstappen and is challenging him for the lead
• Lap 18 — Norris passes Verstappen for the lead
• Lap 20 — Verstappen is hanging onto Norris' tail, and the two of them are pulling away from George Russell in 3rd, who is now 5 sec behind
• Kind of reminiscent of the Austrian Grand Prix, only the positions are reversed
• Lap 22 — Norris has moved out of DRS range of Verstappen
• Lap 23 — Charles LeClerc is attacking Oscar Piastri for 4th
• Lap 24 — Lewis Hamilton pits from 9th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 16th, behind Yuki Tsunoda
• Hamilton made those soft tires he started on last a lot longer than expected — might be able to do a one-stop
• Lap 25 — Charles LeClerc pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 9th, behind Fernando Alonso
• Lap 26
  • George Russell pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 9th behind Fernando Alonso
  • LeClerc, crucially, has passed Alonso, which puts him ahead of Russell through the pit stops — good undercut from Ferrari
  • Lando Norris has opened a 4 sec. gap on Max Verstappen, as Verstappen is struggling with his tires
• Lap 27
  • Russell passes Alonso for 9th
  • Russell had to get that pass done ASAP, so he could go and chase his actual rival, LeClerc
• Lap 28 — Verstappen pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Carlos Sainz
• Lap 29
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 4th, behind Carlos Sainz
  • Crucially, Norris retains his lead over Verstappen
  • That 4 - 5 second lead that Norris pulled out over Verstappen stood him in good stead as, even though his pit stop was a bit slow, he still had enough of a cushion to hold the lead
  • LeClerc passes Gasly for 6th
  • Russell passes Gasly for 7th
• Lap 30
  • Perez pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Fernando Alonso
  • Perez had a slow pit stop — 4.4 sec
• Lap 31 — Carlos Sainz pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 9th, just behind Sergio Perez
• Lap 32 — Sergio Perez passes Fernando Alonso, who hasn't yet stopped, for 8th
• Lap 33 — Alonso pits from 9th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 15th, behind Valteri Bottas
• Lap 34 — Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind George Russell
• So that's it then, I don't think we'll see any more pit stops from the lead group, barring some unforeseen circumstance that results in a safety car
• Lap 35 — Norris has a 7.5 second lead over Verstappen
• Lap 40 — Piastri passes Russell for 4th (and made it look easy)
• Lap 45
  • Norris' lead is now over 10 sec
  • If you told me in 2023 that in 2024 we'd see a McLaren 10 sec ahead of Verstappen's Red Bull, I'd have laughed at you
  • Sainz is challenging Perez for 6th
• Lap 47 — Sainz passes Perez for 6th
• Lap 50 — Hamilton pits from 8th, goes onto soft tires, and retains 8th
• Hamilton had a 23 second lead over Hulkenberg in 9th, so he had nothing to lose by making the pit stop and getting some fresh soft tires to hopefully challenge Perez, just ahead of him in 7th
• Lap 52 — LeClerc has done a good job of retaining position ahead of Piastri, and, in the process is helping Verstappen hold onto 2nd
• Lap 56
  • Russell pits from 5th, goes onto used soft tires and comes back out in 7th, behind Sergio Perez
  • I'm not sure what the strategy is there — Russell has lost track position to both Sainz and Perez
• Lap 61 — Pierre Gasly passes Nico Hulkenberg for 9th
• Lap 64 — Fernando Alonso passes Nico Hulkenberg for 10th
• Lap 72 — Norris wins with over a 20 second lead over Verstappen
• Even in 2023 when Red Bull were dominating, they didn't often win by that kind of margin

Results

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
9. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
10. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Logan Sargeant — Williams
17. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
18. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
19. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

2024-09-01 Italian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Monza
• 3.59 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range
• The hard tire here is the same as the soft tire from the Dutch Grand Prix, last week

Qualifying

Q1

• Logan Sargeant was dropped by Williams after the Dutch Grand Prix and was replaced by Franco Colapinto
• Track is very hot, which will make managing tire temperatures over a qualifying lap challenging
• Carlos Sainz dips a tire into the gravel in his first fast lap, and loses a lot of time
• Norris has a good first lap, beating LeClerc and Verstappen for first
• Oscar Piastri locked his front tires going into turn 1, and, as a result, had to abort his first fast lap
• Sainz's second lap is much better and puts him into 3rd place, behind LeClerc
• As the cars file out for their second runs in Q1, Verstappen almost crashes into Piastri in the pit lane and McLaren are being investigated for an unsafe release
• Colapinto goes into the gravel on his fast lap
• Daniel Ricciardo outqualifies Yuki Tsunoda
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Franco Colapinto — Williams
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Ferrari do their first fast laps on used tires
• McLaren and Verstappen go out on new tires, and get the top 3 places, with Norris leading Piastri leading Verstappen
• On comparable tires, McLaren still look faster than Red Bull
• Hamilton goes fastest overall with his first fast lap
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine

Q3

• After the first set of fast laps, McLaren are fastest, with Norris leading Piastri for provisional pole
• Mercedes are next, with Russell leading Hamilton
• Ferrari come after them, with Sainz ahead of LeClerc
• Red Bull are fourth fastest, with Perez ahead of Verstappen
• Lots of surprises after the first flying laps of Q3 — did not expect to see Red Bull that far down, nor did I expect to see Perez ahead of Verstappen
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  3. George Russell — Mercedes
  4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  7. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  9. Alex Albon — Williams
  10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. George Russell — Mercedes
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
12. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
13. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
14. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
17. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
18. Franco Colapinto — Williams
19. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

• 53 laps
• Most cars are starting on medium tires, except for the Red Bulls, which are starting on hard
• That's an interesting choice, because the medium tire is considered the worse race tire — wears down a lot faster than the hard, but isn't that much faster
• So, assuming a one-stop strategy, the Red Bulls will be on medium tires when everyone else has switched to hards
• Lap 1
  • Norris covers off Piastri
  • Piastri blocks Russell
  • Russell has to go into the run-off area in turn 1 and concedes places as a result
  • Piastri takes the lead through the second chicane, and Norris loses out to both him and LeClerc
• Lap 3
  • Verstappen has moved up into 6th, while Russell has dropped back into 7th
  • Russell has front wing damage from a collision on the opening lap
  • LeClerc is still within 1 second of Piastri, but Piastri is beginning to pull away
• Lap 8 — Yuki Tsunoda retires with a mechanical issue
• Lap 11 — Perez passes Russell for 7th
• Lap 12 — Russell pits from 8th, switches to hard tires, changes his front wing and comes back out in 16th, behind Zhou Guanyu
• It's an early pit stop, but George should be able to go to the end on these tires, so as cars in front of him pit, he'll move up
• Lap 15
  • Norris pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 9th, behind Esteban Ocon
  • Norris is going for the undercut on LeClerc
• Lap 16
  • LeClerc pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 7th, behind Norris
  • Hamilton pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 10th, behind Stroll
  • The undercut worked for McLaren — Norris now has track position over LeClerc
• Lap 17
  • Piastri pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 4th, behind Sergio Perez
  • Notably, he remains ahead of Norris, in 6th
• These pit stops were quite early — will the leading cars be able to go to the end on the hard tires that they just put on?
• Lap 18
  • Albon pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 13th, behind Fernando Alonso
  • Hamilton passes Stroll for 8th
• Lap 20
  • Carlos Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind LeClerc
  • This is interesting from Sainz because earlier Sainz was saying that there's no way that the leaders would be able to go to the end on the hard tires they'd put on in lap 15-16
  • Sainz came in on lap 20, which is where the pre-race model says the first pit stop should have been for those running on medium tires
  • Sainz is betting that the modeling is correct, and the leaders will either have to go slow in order to conserve their tires or come in for a second pit stop
• Lap 23
  • Verstappen pits from the lead, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Esteban Ocon
  • Red Bull have committed to a 2-stop strategy
  • Verstappen had a slow pit stop — 6.2 sec. stationary
• Lap 24
  • Perez pits from the lead, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Verstappen
  • Kind of surprising that Perez didn't pass Verstappen through the pit stops, given that Perez's pit stop was normal and Verstappen's was slow
• Lap 33 — Norris pits again from 2nd, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Verstappen
• Lap 34
  • Russell pits again from 8th, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes back out in 12th, behind Daniel Ricciardo
  • Another slow pit stop — 4.2 sec. stationary
• Lap 36 — Sergio Perez pits again from 7th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 9th behind Alex Albon
• Lap 37
  • Sergio Perez and George Russell pass Alex Albon in the same corner
  • Perez moves up into 8th
  • Russell moves up into 9th
  • Albon drops into 10th
• Lap 38
  • Hamilton pits again from 4th, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires and comes back out in 6th, behind Lando Norris
  • Russell fights Perez for 8th, and eventually takes the place after a few corners
• Lap 39 — Piastri pits again from the lead, goes onto a fresh set of hard tires, and comes back out in 3rd behind Carlos Sainz
• Lap 40 — Norris is challenging Verstappen for 4th
• Lap 41
  • Norris passes Verstappen for 4th
  • This was less about passing Verstappen than about getting up the road to challenge Piastri and Sainz
  • Verstappen still needs to take another pit stop too
• I wonder if Sainz is still sticking with the one-stop strategy
• Lap 42 — Verstappen pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 6th, behind Hamilton
• Ferrari look like they're going for a one-stop strategy
• LeClerc's tires are really old — he pit on lap 16, and has stuck with the hard tires since
• Lap 44 — On the replay, LeClerc's tires look pretty worn
• Lap 45 — Piastri passes Sainz for 2nd
• Lap 48 — Norris passes Sainz for 3rd
• Lap 50 — LeClerc is 7 seconds in the lead, but his tires look so shredded
• Lap 53 — LeClerc wins with a one-stop strategy
• Ferrari leading McLaren — what a classic F1 podium

Results

1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
5. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
7. George Russell — Mercedes
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
11. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
12. Franco Colapinto — Williams
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
15. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
20. Yuki Tsunoda — RB (DNF)

2024-09-15 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Track Info

• Baku street circuit
• 3.37 miles
• The "castle section" on this track is just so cool

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Oliver Bearman will be substituting for Kevin Magnussen this weekend after Kevin Magnussen was hit with a one-race ban for exceeding 12 penalty points on his license after a collision in Italy
• Mercedes go out on medium tires with both of their cars in Q1
• After the first fast laps, Perez is faster than Verstappen
• Colapinto also has a fairly good lap time after his first attempt, going ahead of Albon
• It looks like most cars can go for more than one push lap on a single set of soft tires
• Carlos Sainz causes a yellow-flag by going into the run-off area in turn 2, which requires him to reverse out onto the track
• Is able to continue on and the yellow flags are momentary
• Mercedes to soft tires for Russell and Hamilton's second set of laps
• Track evolution is a key factor, as many drivers have significant improvement towards the end of the session
• Very surprised to see Norris out in Q1, especially given that Piastri has the third fastest time
• Apparently Norris had to ease off because of a brief yellow flag caused by Ocon going off into a runoff area and that ruined his second lap
• Ocon is out in Q1 while his teammate, Pierre Gasly, has the fourth fastest time
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Lando Norris — McLaren
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Both Ferraris go out on used tires to begin with, in order to preserve soft tires for Q3
• Verstappen has the fastest time after the first set of fast laps
• Both Williams make it into Q3, thanks to Franco Colapinto
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Oliver Bearman — Haas
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin

Q3

• Piastri has a good first lap, even though he's on used tires
• Ferraris have the two fastest laps after the first flying laps, with LeClerc leading Sainz
• Perez is faster than Verstappen after the first laps, but both Red Bulls are in 5th and 6th
• After going into the pits, Alex Albon leaves with his airbox fan still in place!
• Oops!
• Williams have been noted for a potential unsafe release for letting Albon drive off with the airbox fan still attached
• This cost Albon a bunch of time, which might compromise his preparation for his final qualifying lap
• And indeed, Albon misses out on being able to set a final lap time at all, crossing the line after the checkered flag has been waved
• Weird own-goals aside, it's nice to see both Williams starting in the top 10
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  4. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  5. George Russell — Mercedes
  6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  9. Franco Colapinto — Williams
  10. Alex Albon — Williams

Race

Starting Grid

1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
8. Franco Colapinto — Williams
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Oliver Bearman — Haas
11. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
12. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
15. Lando Norris — McLaren
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (penalty for new engine)
18. Pierre Gasly — Alpine (disqualified from qualifying for his car breaching fuel flow limits)
19. Esteban Ocon — Alpine (pit-lane start for engine changes)
20. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes (pit-lane start for engine and setup changes)

• 51 laps
• Track is hotter than it was during qualifying
• Most cars in the top 10 are starting on medium tires, with the exception of Alex Albon, who is starting on hard tires
• Lando Norris is also starting on hard tires, hoping to make up places as cars ahead of him come in for pit stops
• One-stop strategy is expected to be the norm
• However if there's a safety car or virtual safety car, teams might choose to do an additional pit stop
• Lap 1
  • LeClerc manages to hold the lead into turn 1
  • Piastri manages to retain 2nd
  • It looked like another slow-ish start from Piastri's McLaren
  • McLaren have been having trouble with their launches all season
  • Through turn 2, Perez passes Sainz for 3rd
  • Verstappen passes Russell for 5th
  • Lando Norris has made up 2 places and is now in 13th
  • Lance Stroll has a puncture, but manages to make it back into the pits
• Lap 3 — Norris has a good pass on Tsunoda for 11th
• Lap 4 — Yuki Tsunoda moves aside and lets some cars through — might have a car problem
• It appears that Lance Stroll's puncture was caused by contact with Yuki Tsunoda, and, as a result, Tsunoda's car might also be damaged
• Lap 8 — Norris passes Bearman for 10th
• Lap 11
  • Franco Colapinto pits from 8th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 15th, behind Hamilton
  • That was quite an early pit stop for Williams
  • LeClerc has significantly extended his lead, and is now almost 4 seconds ahead of Piastri, in 2nd
• Lap 12
  • Fernando Alonso pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 14th, behind Hamilton
  • This preserves Alonso's track position ahead of Colapinto
  • Both Williams and Aston Martin might be trying for a 2-stop strategy
• Lap 13
  • Max Verstappen pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 10th, behind Daniel Ricciardo
  • George Russell pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 12th, behind Pierre Gasly
  • Lewis Hamilton pits from 13th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 17th, behind Esteban Ocon
• Lap 14 — Sergio Perez pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 6th, behind Lando Norris
• Norris has made up a lot of places as people ahead of him on the medium tires have pit, and now its up to him to go fast and hold onto that place when he has to pit later
• Lap 15
  • Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell go three-wide down the main straight as Ricciardo loses out to both Gasly and Russell
  • Russell passes Gasly for 9th on the next corner
  • Ricciardo drops into 11th
  • Norris has been told to defend against Perez to allow Piastri to pit and come out ahead of Perez
• Lap 16
  • Piastri pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 4th, behind Albon
  • Crucially, he remains ahead of Sergio Perez
  • Yuki Tsunoda retires, as the damage from his contact with Stroll was causing him to lose too much lap time
• Lap 17
  • LeClerc pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 2nd, behind Carlos Sainz
  • LeClerc retains the effective lead, because Sainz still has to do his pit stop
• Lap 18
  • Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 6th, behind Norris
  • Piastri passes Albon for 3rd
  • Notably, Perez is not able to pass Albon immediately after Piastri, which gives Piastri a bit of an advantage in their battle for 2nd
• Lap 19
  • Perez passes Albon for 3rd
  • However, it took about 1 lap longer than ideal, and this has allowed Piastri to build up a bit of a gap
  • Piastri has closed back up to within DRS range of LeClerc
  • Not sure this is actually an offensive measure by Piastri — Piastri might be trying to get a "tow" from LeClerc in order to build up his gap to Perez behind
• Lap 20
  • Piastri passes LeClerc for the lead
  • Okay, I was totally wrong, that was an attack by Piastri
  • The question is, does Piastri have the tires to pull this off, or has he overused his tires early in the stint and will get re-passed by LeClerc (and potentially Perez) towards the end of the race?
• Lap 23
  • Sainz passes Norris for 5th
  • Sainz has pit while Norris has not, so this gives Sainz track position over Norris
• Lap 24 — Sainz passes Albon for 4th
• Lap 25 — Verstappen is reporting issues with his brakes
• The front-running that went the longest on medium tire is Carlos Sainz, who pit on lap 18
• This means that the cars that started on hard tires have to get to about lap 30, at least, before they pit and switch to mediums
• The medium tires will last a bit longer at the end of the race, because cars will have burned off fuel and will therefore be lighter, but I don't think it'll make more than a 5 lap difference or so
• Lap 28
  • Norris and Verstappen are still stuck behind Alex Albon, who has yet to do his pit stop
  • Like I said above, Norris and Albon, who started on the hard tires, will have to make them last until about lap 30 before they can pit and switch to mediums
• Lap 29
  • LeClerc is closer to Piastri and attempts a pass, but Piastri is able to defend successfully
  • This is what I was wondering above with regards to Piastri overusing his tires — is Piastri having to drive slower now to conserve his tires?
• Lap 31 — LeClerc mounts another attack on Piastri for the lead, but still isn't able to pass into turn 1, and has to back off for another lap
• Piastri is doing a brilliant job of holding a roughly 0.7 gap on LeClerc — LeClerc can attack, but from that far back, he just doesn't have enough pace to pull off a pass
• Lap 32
  • Albon pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 11th, behind Nico Hulkenberg
  • This opens up the fight behind him, allowing Norris to push on
  • Russell attacks Verstappen for 6th, but is unable to pass
  • LeClerc mounts yet another attack on Piastri, but Piastri still holds onto the lead
  • Perez, after dropping back for a bit, has now closed back up to the rear of LeClerc
• Lap 34 — George Russell passes Verstappen for 6th
• Lap 36
  • Nico Hulkenberg passes Franco Colapinto for 9th
  • LeClerc has a big slide at the end of the castle section as he tries to remain close to Piastri
• Lap 37
  • Colapinto has let Albon through to take 10th, and Albon is challenging Hulkenberg for 9th
  • Oliver Bearman is challenging Franco Colapinto for 11th
• Lap 38
  • Norris pits from 5th, goes onto medium tires, and comes out in 7th, behind Verstappen
  • However, Verstappen pit on lap 13, so Norris has a significant tire advantage, even accounting for the fact that the medium tires wear faster than the hards
  • Albon passes Hulkenberg for 9th
• Lap 46 — Sainz is closing in on Perez for the last podium place
• Lap 47
  • Piastri has pulled out of DRS range of LeClerc
  • Could LeClerc have overused his tires?
• Lap 48
  • LeClerc is reporting that the grip has fallen away on the rear tires
  • Yes, LeClerc pushed too hard, starting at around lap 40, and as a result, his tires are cooked
  • LeClerc's challenge now is to try to hold onto 2nd against a resurgent Sergio Perez
  • Norris is in DRS range of Verstappen for 6th
• Lap 49 — Norris passes Verstappen for 6th
• Lap 50
  • Perez tries to pass LeClerc into turn 1
  • LeClerc defends and forces Perez wide
  • This allows Sainz to pass Perez
  • That was a brilliant job from LeClerc and Ferrari, going 2-against-1
  • Perez and Sainz make contact and crash
• Lap 51 — Race ends under the virtual safety car
• Russell moves up into 3rd after Perez and Sainz are out
• Very well deserved win for Piastri
• Importantly for the constructor's championship, both McLarens finish ahead of both Red Bulls

Results

1. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
2. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
3. George Russell — Mercedes
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
6. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
7. Alex Albon — Williams
8. Franco Colapinto — Williams
9. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
10. Oliver Bearman — Haas
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
14. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Sergio Perez — Red Bull (DNF)
18. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari (DNF)
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin (DNF)
20. Yuki Tsunoda — RB (DNF)

2024-09-22 Singapore Grand Prix

Track Info

• Marina Bay street circuit
• 3.06 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Overnight rain means that track evolution will be a factor
• After the first fast laps, Norris is fastest and Verstappen is second
• After his second fast lap, LeClerc takes the second fastest time, pushing Verstappen down to third
• However Verstappen improves later and retains 2nd
• Ferrari don't look that fast, with Sainz 6th and LeClerc 12th, but that might because they felt they were safe and didn't do additional laps like the rest
• Both Williams are in the top 10, which is nice to see
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Daniel Ricciardo — RB
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Lots of cars are sliding around, even the leaders, like Max Verstappen and Lando Norris
• Given how many near misses I've seen, it's a minor miracle that no one's crashed
• Perez is really slow
• Nico Hulkenberg makes it into Q3 once again
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Franco Colapinto — Williams
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  • Esteban Ocon — Haas

Q3

• Carlos Sainz crashes going into the final corner
• Session is red-flagged, and will resume after Sainz's car has been removed and the barriers have been repaired
• Sainz hadn't even started his fast lap at the point he crashed — he was coming around the final turn on his out lap
• Had slowed down considerably to let Piastri through on his fast lap, maybe that caused the tires to go cold
• After the red flag, Norris puts in a very fast time, taking pole
• LeClerc's Q3 time is deleted for exceeding track limits
• Nico Hulkenberg is in 6th — very good job from him
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  4. George Russell — Mercedes
  5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  9. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  10. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
8. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
9. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
10. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
11. Alex Albon — Williams
12. Franco Colapinto — Williams
13. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
14. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
17. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
18. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
19. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

• 62 laps
• Most cars are starting on the medium tires, except for Hamilton, who is starting on soft tires
• Hamilton is going for an aggressive strategy to get some overtaking done on lap 1 and secure track position
• 1-stop strategy expected, but safety cars could be a factor
• Lap 1
  • Norris retains his lead going into turn 1
  • Hamilton challenges Verstappen, but Verstappen manages to hold onto 2nd
  • Hulkenberg passes Piastri for 5th, but Piastri retakes 5th later in the lap
  • Sergio Perez makes up multiple places, moving up into 10th
  • Franco Colapinto moves up as well, into 9th
  • Alex Albon has dropped 4 places, into 15th
  • Charles LeClerc moves up 1 place into 8th
• Lap 2
  • Norris has pulled out of DRS range of Verstappen
  • Verstappen has pulled out of DRS range of Hamilton
• Lap 4 — It really looks like the soft tire was a bad choice for Hamilton — he's already almost 2 seconds behind Verstappen, and Russell is saying that he can go faster on medium tires than Hamilton can go on hards
• Lap 11 — Norris, in the lead, has pulled 5 seconds in front of Verstappen, in 2nd
• Lap 14 — Carlos Sainz pits from 12th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 18th, behind Valteri Bottas
• Lap 17 — Alex Albon pulls into the pits and retires as his car was overheating
• Lap 18 — Lewis Hamilton pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 13th, behind Kevin Magnussen
• Lap 20
  • Norris has a 13 second lead over Verstappen now
  • Hamilton passes Magnussen for 12th
• Lap 22
  • Sainz passes Stroll for 15th
  • Hamilton passes Ocon for 11th
• Lap 26
  • LeClerc passes Alonso for 6th
  • Alonso pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Lap 28 — George Russell pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Sergio Perez
• Notably, Russell is now ahead of Hamilton
• Lap 29
  • LeClerc passes Hulkenberg for 4th
  • Perez pits from 7th, goes onto hard tires, and comes out in 14th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Lap 30
  • Verstappen pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 4th, just behind LeClerc
  • Hulkenberg pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 11th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Lap 31
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and retains the lead
  • Verstappen passes LeClerc for 3rd
• Lap 37 — LeClerc pits from 4th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Fernando Alonso
• LeClerc comes out ahead of Hulkenberg
• Lap 38 — Oscar Piastri pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Lewis Hamilton
• Piastri is behind the two Mercedes, but he has a big tire advantage — 10 laps newer than Russell's and 20 laps newer than Hamilton's
• Lap 40 — Piastri passes Hamilton for 4th
• Lap 45 — Piastri passes Russell for 3rd
• Lap 50 — LeClerc passes Hamilton for 5th

Results

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
10. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
11. Franco Colapinto — Williams
12. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
18. Daniel Ricciardo — RB
19. Kevin Magnussen — Haas (DNF)
20. Alex Albon — Williams (DNF)

2024-10-20 United States Grand Prix

Track Info

• Circuit of the Americas
• 3.425 miles

Tire Info

• C4, C3, C2
• Middle of the range

Sprint

Sprint Qualifying

SQ1

• All cars required to go out on medium tires
• Liam Lawson replaces Daniel Ricciardo for the remainder of the season at RB
• Norris, LeClerc, and Hamilton all set fast times, going 3rd, 2nd and fastest overall respectively after their first fast laps
• Verstappen's first fast lap is only good for 10th
• Alex Albon has a spectacular 360° spin on his second fast lap, but doesn't crash
• Oscar Piastri loses his second fast lap and is eliminated as a result
• Eliminated in SQ1
  • Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

SQ2

• All cars required to use medium tires once again
• After the first set of fast laps, Sainz is fastest with Verstappen second and Hamilton third
• Sergio Perez's sole fast lap is only good for 10th, putting him in danger of being eliminated
• Both Haas cars are into SQ3, which guarantees them a start in the top 10 for the sprint
• Oof, Perez got outqualified by an RB
• To add insult to injury, Alonso has his fastest lap time deleted for exceeding track limits — not that it matters because it wasn't fast enough to get him into SQ3 anyway
• Eliminated in SQ2
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Liam Lawson — RB
  • Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin

SQ3

• All cars required to use soft tires
• Franco Colapinto has a spin that's very much like Albon's spin in SQ1
• However, Colapinto's spin was early in the lap, so he might be able to do another lap if his tires weren't too damaged
• Russell's one and only fast lap almost gets him pole position, until Verstappen beats it by 0.012 sec
• Quite good qualifying from Haas — 6th and 8th are both very good starting positions for them
• Final top 10 sprint qualifying order
  1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  2. George Russell — Mercedes
  3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  4. Lando Norris — McLaren
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  8. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  9. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  10. Franco Colapinto — Williams

Sprint Race

Starting Grid

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. George Russell — Mercedes
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
7. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
8. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
9. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
10. Franco Colapinto — Williams
11. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
15. Liam Lawson — RB
16. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
17. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
18. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Alex Albon — Williams (pit lane start)

• 19 laps
• All cars are starting on the medium tires
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen gets away cleanly and retains the lead
  • Russell bogs down a bit, and Lando Norris passes him for 2nd
  • LeClerc challenges Russell for the lead later in the lap, but Russell manages to hold on to the place
• Lap 2 — Sainz challenges LeClerc for 4th and takes the place momentarily, but LeClerc retakes the position on the next corner
• Lap 5
  • Verstappen has pulled out of DRS range from Lando Norris
  • Russell has closed on the back of Norris and is within half a second of him
  • Sainz passes LeClerc for 4th
• Lap 6 — Russell challenges Norris for 2nd, but Norris manages to hold on
• Lap 9 — Sainz passes Russell for 3rd
• Lap 10 — LeClerc passes Russell for 4th
• Russell must have cooked his tires at the beginning of the sprint, because neither Sainz nor LeClerc looked to have too much difficulty passing him
• Lap 13 — Good fight between Perez and Tsunoda for 9th
• Lap 16 — Piastri passes Tsunoda for 10th, after a long battle
• Lap 19 — Norris locks up on the final lap, allowing Sainz to take 2nd

Sprint Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
8. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
9. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
10. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
11. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
12. Franco Colapinto — Williams
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
15. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
16. Liam Lawson — RB
17. Alex Albon — Williams
18. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Valteri Bottas — Sauber

Qualifying

Q1

• Norris' first fast lap is good enough to top the leaderboard, with Sainz second
• LeClerc's first lap is only good enough for P5
• Verstappen beats Norris on his first lap
• LeClerc's lap time is deleted for exceeding track limits
• That's not really as much of a problem as it seems because LeClerc's lap probably wouldn't have been good enough to get him into Q2 anyway, as others around him would improve
• Nico Hulkenberg also sets a pretty fast time, going second fastest, just behind Verstappen
• Pierre Gasly goes fastest overall on his first attempt
• Track improvement appears to be a factor, even though it hasn't rained
• Tsunoda has two of his lap times deleted for exceeding track limits
• LeClerc's second attempt is fastest thus far
• Verstappen's second attempt beats LeClerc's and puts him at the top of the leaderboard once again
• Russell goes to P3 with his second fast lap
• Lewis Hamilton, however, has a poor second lap and can only make 16th
• This is the first time Hamilton has qualified outside the top 5 at Circuit of the Americas
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Alex Albon — Williams
  • Franco Colapinto — Williams
  • Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• Verstappen sets the fastest time once again with his first fast lap
• And that was on used tires, no less
• Pierre Gasly goes second fastest on his first attempt
• The Haas cars of Hulkenberg and Magnussen go 5th and 6th respectively
• Haas looked pretty competitive in the sprint race, and they still look competitive for main qualifying session
• Norris' first fast time beats Verstappen (but that was on new tires, whereas Verstappen's was on used)
• LeClerc's fastest lap is only good enough for P3, but it looks like LeClerc left some margin in order to ensure that he wouldn't exceed track limits
• Verstappen's second fast lap (presumably on new tires) puts him in the lead
• Sainz also has a good 2nd lap, and beats Norris' time for P2
• Kevin Magnussen goes P9 and pushes his teammate Nico Hulkenberg into the elimination zone
• That's surprising because Hulkenberg is usually better in qualifying than Magnussen
• Disappointing qualifying for RB, as they were hoping to get Tsunoda into Q3
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Liam Lawson — RB

Q3

• Lando Norris' first lap is very good and puts him in P1
• Verstappen can't beat Norris' lap on his first attempt
• Sergio Perez can only go P8 on his first lap
• George Russell crashes on his second attempt, causes a yellow flag
• The yellow flags cancel everyone else's lap times, ensuring that Norris gets pole position
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Lando Norris — McLaren
  2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  6. George Russell — Mercedes
  7. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  8. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  9. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  10. Sergio Perez — Red Bull

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
7. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
8. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
9. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
10. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
11. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
12. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
13. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
14. Alex Albon — Williams
15. Franco Colapinto — Williams
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
18. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (penalty for new engine components)
19. Liam Lawson — RB (grid penalty for new engine components)
20. George Russell — Mercedes (pit lane start)

• 56 laps
• 2 stop race expected
• Most cars are starting on medium tires, with some at the back starting on hards
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen attacks Norris into Turn 1, and they both go a bit wide
  • This allows LeClerc to charge up the middle and take the lead
  • Norris gets passed by LeClerc, Verstappen and Sainz and drops to 4th, just ahead of Piastri
  • Hamilton also has a good start, making it up to 12th by the end of the first lap
• Lap 2 — LeClerc is more than 1 second ahead of Verstappen, putting him outside of DRS range
• Lap 3
  • Hamilton goes off into the gravel and gets stuck
  • Safety car declared
• Lap 5 — Safety car ending
• Lap 6 — Racing resumes
• Lap 7
  • LeClerc has once again opened a > 1 second gap over Verstappen
  • Hulkenberg passes Alonso to go into the top 10
• Lap 9 — Carlos Sainz reports of power dropouts as he exits corners, and smells fuel
• Lap 17 — Perez (finally) passes Tsunoda for 8th
• Lap 18 — Kevin Magnussen pits from 7th, goes onto a new set of medium tires and comes back out in 17th, behind Alex Albon
• Lap 19
  • Good battle between Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda for 8th
  • Tsunoda pits from 8th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in
  • Gasly pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 16th, behind Kevin Magnussen
  • This means that Magnussen's undercut worked and he was able to pass Gasly by pitting earlier
• Lap 20 — LeClerc's lead over Verstappen is now 8 seconds
• Lap 22
  • George Russell passes Liam Lawson for 8th
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Crucially, Sainz manages to stay ahead of Perez, in the other Red Bull
• Lap 23 — Franco Colapinto passes Fernando Alonso for 10th
• Lap 26 — Verstappen pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Carlos Sainz
• Sainz successfully undercut Verstappen
• Lap 27
  • LeClerc pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 3rd, behind Oscar Piastri
  • Good 3-way fight between Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, and Alex Albon for positions 12th through 14th
  • Perez pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 11th behind Magnussen
• The McLarens are in the lead of the race, but they haven't stopped yet
• It's possible that McLaren are doing a one-stop strategy
• A one-stop strategy is also possible for LeClerc — lap 27 is late enough that it's just about possible if drives a bit slowly at the beginning to conserve the tires
• Lap 28 — Nico Hulkenberg pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 12th behind Esteban Ocon
• Notably, Hulkenberg has come out of the pits ahead of Gasly, in 13th
• Lap 29 — Perez passes Magnussen for 9th
• Lap 31
  • LeClerc passes Piastri for 2nd
  • This was an important pass because it means that Piastri is definitely behind LeClerc, as Piastri hasn't yet come in for a pit stop
  • Norris pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 5th, behind Verstappen
  • This gives LeClerc the lead once again
• If LeClerc manages to make the one-stop strategy work, then he should hold on to the lead from here on out and win the race
• Lap 32 — Piastri pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Norris
• George Russell and Liam Lawson, neither of whom have stopped, are also doing a one-stop strategy
• Lap 35 — Good battle between Franco Colapinto and Sergio Perez for 8th
• Colapinto hasn't stopped, and he's still managing to hold off Perez, even though Perez is in a Red Bull on relatively fresh tires
• Lap 37 — Liam Lawson pits from 7th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 12th, behind Pierre Gasly
• Lawson is out ahead of Tsunoda, and it's possible that Tsunoda will have to pit again, given that his first pit stop was on lap 19
• Lap 38 — Perez passes Colapinto for 8th (finally)
• Lap 39
  • Norris' gap to Verstappen has decreased from over 6 seconds to just a little over 2 seconds
  • Magnussen is urgently called into the pits, goes onto fresh medium tires and comes back out in 13th, behind Tsunoda
  • Not sure what the problem was, because the pit stop didn't seem to take much longer than a planned pit stop
• Lap 40
  • Colapinto finally pits, from 8th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 12th, behind Tsunoda
  • Colapinto passes Magnussen through the pit stop
• Lap 41
  • George Russell pits from 6th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 8th, behind Nico Hulkenberg
  • Russell's pit stop was slow because of 5 second time penalty he received for forcing another driver off the road
  • Yuki Tsunoda spins out and causes a momentary yellow flag before he's able to get going again
• Lap 44 — Norris is now within DRS range of Verstappen, in 3rd
• Lap 45 — Russell passes Hulkenberg for 7th
• Lap 50 — Good fight between Verstappen and Norris for 3rd
• Lap 52 — Norris passes Verstappen for 3rd, but goes off the track in the process
• Red Bull are claiming that Norris went off track and gained an advantage, while McLaren state that Norris was forced off by Verstappen
• Norris might also pick up a 5 second penalty for exceeding track limits too often
• Lap 56
  • Russell passes Perez for 6th
  • Norris is given a 5 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which puts him behind Verstappen at the finish line

Results

1. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
2. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
3. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
4. Lando Norris — McLaren
5. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
8. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
9. Liam Lawson — RB
10. Franco Colapinto — Williams
11. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
12. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
13. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
14. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
15. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
16. Alex Albon — Williams
17. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
18. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes (DNF)

2024-10-27 Mexico Grand Prix

Track Info

• Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
• 2.674 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Qualifying

Q1

• Track temperatures are high, which is expected to negatively impact tire performance over a qualifying lap
• Mexico City is at altitude, which means that cars will go faster, but will also have less downforce for braking and cornering
• Ferrari go out on medium tires for their first fast laps
• Sergio Perez's first fast lap is only good for 7th, which might not be good enough to make it into Q2, as other around him improve
• Lando Norris is also out on medium tires for his first fast lap, and goes fastest overall with his first fast lap
• Oscar Piastri also struggles, and only manages 8th on his first fast lap
• Verstappen takes P1 with his first fast lap (but he's on soft tires rather than medium, and his time was only 0.2s faster than Norris in 2nd)
• Nico Hulkenberg's first lap is 2nd fastest overall
• Track evolution appears to be a factor, just like it was in Austin, last week
• Most cars are going out for a second run on soft tires, including Lando Norris
• Kevin Magnussen's second lap is very good, as he goes fourth fastest
• Very surprised to see Perez and Piastri out in Q1
• Eliminated in Q1
  • Franco Colapinto — Williams
  • Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

Q2

• One interesting thing is that, just like in Austin, Hulkenberg is doing worse in qualifying than Magnussen
• Some clouds have moved in, shading the track and lowering the temperature
• Yuki Tsunoda crashes hard and causes a red flag
• Session is ended with roughly 10 seconds remaining
• Liam Lawson was on a fast lap behind Tsunoda, so in addition to denying himself a chance of getting out of Q2, he's also denied Lawson a chance to get into Q3
• Haas were lucky — Nico Hulkenberg crossed the line just a few seconds before Tsunoda had his crash; if he hadn't crossed the finish line, his lap would have been deleted
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Liam Lawson — RB
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber

Q3

• Start of Q3 is delayed in order to allow crews to repair the crash barriers that Tsunoda went into in Q2
• Verstappen has his first fast lap deleted for track limits, which gives Ferrari the front row after their fast laps
• Sainz has an excellent set of laps and takes pole position
• Verstappen does well with his second lap and takes second
• Lando Norris can only manage third
• And once again, Magnussen qualifies ahead of Hulkenberg
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  3. Lando Norris — McLaren
  4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  5. George Russell — Mercedes
  6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  7. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
  8. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  9. Alex Albon — Williams
  10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas

Race

Starting Grid

1. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
2. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
3. Lando Norris — McLaren
4. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
7. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
8. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
11. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
12. Liam Lawson — RB
13. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
14. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
15. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
16. Franco Colapinto — Williams
17. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
18. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Esteban Ocon — Alpine (pit lane start for new battery)

• 71 laps
• Most cars are starting on medium tires, but some at the back are starting on hard tires to run long
• Lap 1
  • Verstappen takes the lead
  • Norris challenges Sainz for 2nd
  • Yuki Tsunoda makes contact and crashes out
  • Hamilton has passed Russell for 5th
  • Albon has crashed out as well
  • Perez is up 5 places, into 13th
  • Safety car declared
• Lap 5 — Sergio Perez gets a 5 second penalty for being too far ahead in his pit box at the start of the race
• That's a pretty lenient penalty IMO
• Lap 6 — Safety car comes in
• Lap 7
  • Racing resumes
  • Verstappen opens a greater than 1 second gap over Sainz, putting himself out of DRS range
• Haas are doing really well so far — Magnussen has held on to 7th and Hulkenberg is up two places and is right behind him in 8th
• Lap 9 — Sainz passes Verstappen for the lead
• Lap 10
  • Norris attacks Verstappen for 2nd
  • Verstappen covers the inside line and Norris runs wide, but takes the place
  • Later on, both Norris and Verstappen run wide as Verstappen retakes 2nd
  • While Verstappen and Norris squabbled, LeClerc passed both of them and took 2nd
• Lap 12 — Perez passes Lance Stroll for 11th
• Lap 13 — Verstappen is given a 10 second penalty for running Norris off the road
• Lap 15 — Russell retakes 5th from Hamilton
• Lap 16 — Alonso pulls into the pits and retires from the race, reportedly with overheating brakes
• Lap 18
  • Lawson and Perez fight over 10th
  • Perez initially pulls ahead, but Lawson is able to force Perez wide on the next corner and retakes 10th
• Lap 20 — Verstappen is given a second 10 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage
• Verstappen forced Norris wide twice on lap 10, and the two incidents were treated as separate offenses
• Lap 25 — Piastri has passed Colapinto and Stroll for 11th
• Lap 26 — Verstappen pits from 3rd, serves his 20 second penalty, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Esteban Ocon
• Lap 29 — Lewis Hamilton pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires and comes out in 10th behind Franco Colapinto
• Lap 30
  • Nico Hulkenberg pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 14th, behind Pierre Gasly
  • Verstappen has recovered to 11th place
• Lap 31
  • Norris pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 4th behind George Russell
  • Norris pit now because Hamilton had pit two laps ago and McLaren didn't want to fall behind Hamilton's Mercedes after the pit stop
  • Hamilton passes Colapinto for 7th
  • Kevin Magnussen pits from 5th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 13th, behind Zhou Guanyu
  • Magnussen retains his lead over Hulkenberg through the pit stops
• Lap 32
  • LeClerc pits from 2nd, goes onto hard tires and retains 2nd
  • Russell pits from 3rd, goes onto hard tires and comes back out in 4th, behind Norris
  • Verstappen passes Bottas for 9th
• Lap 33
  • Sainz pits from the lead, goes onto hard tires and retains the lead
  • Russell passes Piastri for 5th
  • Russell passes Lawson for 4th
  • Neither Piastri nor Lawson have stopped, so passing them was rather easy for Russell
• Lap 34
  • Lawson is attacked by both Piastri and Hamilton, and loses out to both, dropping into 7th
  • Piastri moves up into 5th
  • Hamilton moves up into 6th
• Lap 35 — Hamilton passes Piastri for 5th
• Lap 36
  • Verstappen passes Colapinto for 8th
  • Kevin Magnussen passes Bottas for 10th
• Lap 37 — George Russell appears to have a damaged front wing, which explains why he's running slower than Hamilton now, even though he was running faster than Hamilton before his pit stop
• Lap 38
  • Verstappen passes Lawson for 7th
  • Hulkenberg passes Bottas for 11th
• Lap 40
  • Piastri pits from 6th, goes onto hard tires, and comes back out in 13th behind Ocon
  • Lawson pits from 8th, goes onto medium tires and comes back out in 17th behind Stroll
• Lap 43
  • Hulkenberg passes Colapinto for 8th
  • The Haas cars are now running 7th and 8th
• Lap 44
  • Gasly passes Bottas for 10th
  • Piastri passes Bottas for 11th
  • Piastri passes Gasly for 10th
• Lap 48 — Colapinto pits from 9th, goes onto medium tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Liam Lawson
• Lap 49 — Norris has reduced LeClerc's lead over him to less than 4 seconds
• Lap 56 — Norris is now less than 3 seconds behind LeClerc
• Lap 57 — Piastri passes Hulkenberg for 8th
• Lap 59 — Norris is now within 2 seconds of LeClerc
• Lap 62 — Norris is now within DRS range of LeClerc
• Lap 63
  • LeClerc skids wide and Norris passes for 2nd!
  • LeClerc was lucky that he didn't go into the wall
• Lap 65 — Russell and Hamilton battle for 4th
• Lap 66 — Hamilton passes Russell for 4th
• Lap 69
  • LeClerc pits from 3rd, goes onto soft tires, and retains 3rd
  • Pit stop was to put LeClerc on soft tires so that he could get the point for fastest lap
  • LeClerc has a 29 second advantage over Hamilton in 4th, so it's effectively a free pit stop for him

Results

1. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
5. George Russell — Mercedes
6. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
7. Kevin Magnussen — Haas
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
10. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
11. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
12. Franco Colapinto — Williams
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Liam Lawson — RB
17. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
18. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin (DNF)
19. Alex Albon — Williams (DNF)
20. Yuki Tsunoda — RB (DNF)

2024-11-03 Brazilian Grand Prix

Track Info

• Interlagos
• 2.68 miles

Tire Info

• C5, C4, C3
• Softest in the range

Sprint

Sprint Qualifying

SQ1

• All cars are required to use medium tires
• Cloudy, windy and rain is possible
• Oliver Bearman is substituting for Kevin Magnussen who is out with illness
• Track has been freshly resurfaced and has been little used prior to today, so track evolution will be a factor
• Even though the track has been resurfaced, it's still quite bumpy
• Oscar Piastri has a pretty strong first lap, and other drivers can't match him, even on their second attempts
• Bearman's second lap in qualifying is quite good, is 5th fastest overall
• Both Williams make it into SQ2
• Liam Lawson outqualifies Yuki Tsunoda, who is eliminated
• Eliminated in SQ1
  • Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
  • Esteban Ocon — Alpine
  • Yuki Tsunoda — RB
  • Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
  • Zhou Guanyu — Sauber

SQ2

• All cars required to use medium tires
• Increased risk of rain, so all cars are going for a lap immediately, so as to have a representative time on a dry track
• Norris sets a fast time once again
• Sergio Perez is outqualified by an RB once again
• Oliver Bearman did a great job — 7th fastest and easily gets into SQ3
• Eliminated in Q2
  • Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
  • Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
  • Sergio Perez — Red Bull
  • Franco Colapinto — Williams
  • Valteri Bottas — Sauber

SQ3

• All cars required to use soft tires
• Increased cloud cover means that the track is now 20°C cooler than it was for free practice
• McLaren and Williams go out early, but most cars are waiting until the end of the session to set their timesd
• Oliver Bearman had a lap good enough for 4th, but it was deleted for exceeding track limits
• Still, it's impressive that Bearman has gotten into the top 10 at all, especially given that his far more experienced teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, couldn't
• McLaren have been fast all through qualifying
• Final top 10 qualifying order
  1. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
  2. Lando Norris — McLaren
  3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
  4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
  5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
  6. George Russell — Mercedes
  7. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
  8. Liam Lawson — RB
  9. Alex Albon — Williams
  10. Oliver Bearman — Haas

Sprint Race

Starting Grid

1. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
2. Lando Norris — McLaren
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
8. Liam Lawson — RB
9. Alex Albon — Williams
10. Oliver Bearman — Haas
11. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
12. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
13. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
14. Franco Colapinto — Williams
15. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
16. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
17. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
18. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin (pit lane start for setup changes)
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin (pit lane start for setup changes)
20. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber (pit lane start for setup changes)

• 24 laps
• Lap 1
  • The McLarens get away well, with Piastri leading Norris
  • LeClerc and Verstappen hold onto 3rd and 4th respectively
  • Nico Hulkenberg moves up 3 places into 9th, ahead of Oliver Bearman
• Lap 3 — Verstappen is challenging LeClerc for 3rd, but LeClerc manages to hold the position
• Lap 6 — Perez has made up two places, and is challenging Bearman for 10th
• Lap 7 — Lando Norris has a bit of a slide which drops him out of DRS range of Oscar Piastri, in the lead and into DRS range of Charles LeClerc, in 3rd
• Lap 10
  • Bearman passes Hulkenberg for 9th
  • Perez passes Hulkenberg for 10th
  • Hulkenberg was late defending into one of the curves, which allowed both Bearman and Perez to pass him in rapid succession
• Lap 11 — Perez passes Bearman for 9th
• Lap 13 — Piastri is deliberately slowing down, under team orders, to ensure that Norris has DRS to help defend against LeClerc and Verstappen
• Lap 18
  • Verstappen passes LeClerc for 3rd
  • It's possible that LeClerc overdepleted his hybrid system attempting to chase after Norris, and, as a result, he was down on power which allowed Verstappen to pass him easily
• Lap 20 — Perez passes Lawson for 8th
• Hulkenberg's engine is smoky
• Lap 21
  • Nico Hulkenberg pulls over and retires with an exhaust issue, causing a yellow flag in sector 2
  • Hamilton passes Bearman for 11th
• Lap 22
  • Norris and Piastri swap positions
  • McLaren had to do it now, rather than waiting until the last lap of the race because, if for some reason a safety car or VSC were declared to allow Hulkenberg's car to be removed, overtaking would have been prohibited
  • However, by swapping positions, Piastri has become vulnerable to Verstappen
  • VSC is declared
• Lap 24 — VSC ends & racing resumes, but Verstappen is unable to pass Piastri on the last lap

Sprint Results

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
3. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
4. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
5. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari
6. George Russell — Mercedes
7. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
8. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
9. Liam Lawson — RB
10. Alex Albon — Williams
11. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
12. Franco Colapinto — Williams
13. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
14. Oliver Bearman — Haas
15. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
16. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
17. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
18. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
20. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas (DNF)

Qualifying

• Qualifying was postponed to Sunday morning and was not televised

Race

Starting Grid

1. Lando Norris — McLaren
2. George Russell — Mercedes
3. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
4. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
5. Liam Lawson — RB
6. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
7. Alex Albon — Williams (will not start)
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
10. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin
11. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
12. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
13. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
14. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
15. Oliver Bearman — Haas
16. Franco Colapinto — Williams
17. Max Verstappen — Red Bull (penalty for taking a new engine)
18. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas
19. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
20. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari (pit lane start)

• 71 laps
• All cars starting on intermediate tires because it is raining
• Lance Stroll skids wide on the formation lap and beaches his car in the gravel
• This delays the start of the race and necessitates a second formation lap, which reduces the number of racing laps by two, resulting in a 69 lap race
• Lap 1
  • Russell has a good start and takes the lead into the first corner
  • Sergio Perez spins, but manages to get back on the racetrack and continue in last place
  • Both Verstappen and Hamilton have a good first lap and end it in 11th and 10th, respectively
• Lap 2
  • Russell has opened a 1 second gap over Norris (not that it matters, because DRS is disabled for wet races)
  • Verstappen passes Hamilton for 10th
• Lap 3 — Carlos Sainz reports that the rain is intesifying at some portions along the track
• Lap 5 — Verstappen passes Gasly for 9th
• Lap 6 — Verstappen passes Alonso for 8th
• Lap 10 — Verstappen passes Piastri for 7th
• Lap 11 — Verstappen passes Lawson for 6th
• Lap 12 — Hamilton skids wide and goes into the grass, but is able to continue
• Lap 19
  • Verstappen's progress through the field has come to a pause, as he catches up with LeClerc, Ocon and Tsunoda, all of whom are battling for 3rd
  • Hamilton continues to struggle, getting passed first by Carlos Sainz and then Oliver Bearman as he drops into 15th
• Lap 22
  • Verstappen challenges LeClerc for 5th, but LeClerc is able to hold him off
  • Carlos Sainz skids and falls into 15th behind Oliver Bearman and Lewis Hamilton
• The fun thing about this race is that often you'll see cars slide a bit, and the car behind thinks there's an opportunity for an overtake, only to realize that the reason the car in front skidded a bit is because there's no grip in that part of the circuit
• Lap 25 — LeClerc pits from 5th, goes onto fresh intermediate tires, and comes back out in 13th, behind Lewis Hamilton
• Lap 26
  • Liam Lawson skids wide and drops from 6th to 9th
  • Nico Hulkenberg pits from 10th, goes onto fresh intermediate tires and comes back out in 17th, behind Valteri Bottas
• Lap 27
  • Rain has intensified considerably
  • Hulkenberg skids wide into turn 1 and beaches his car on a curb
  • How did he manage that?
  • Esteban Ocon passes Yuki Tsunoda for 3rd
• Lap 28
  • VSC declared to allow Hulkenberg's car to be cleared
  • Piastri pits from 7th, goes onto a fresh set of intermediates and comes back out in 9th, behind Charles LeClerc
  • Alonso pits from 8th, goes onto a fresh set of intermediates and comes back out in 10th, behind Piastri
  • Hamilton pits from 11th, goes onto a fresh set of intermediates and comes back out in 12th, behind Bottas
  • Carlos Sainz pits from 13th, goes onto a fresh set of intermediates and retains 13th
  • Oliver Bearman pits from 10th, goes onto a fresh set of intermediates and comes back out in 14th, behind Sainz
  • Sergio Perez pits from 14th, goes onto full wet tires, and comes back out in 15th, behind Bearman
  • Nico Hulkenberg has managed to get his car moving again and rejoins the track, which causes the VSC to end
  • George Russell pits from the lead, goes onto a fresh set of intermediate tires, and comes back out in 4th, behind Gasly
  • Lando Norris pits from 2nd, goes onto a fresh set of intermediate tires and comes back out in 5th, behind Russell
  • Tsunoda pits from 4th, goes onto full wets and comes back out in 6th, behind Norris
  • Lawson pits from 7th, goes onto full wets and comes back out in 12th, behind Hamilton
• Going onto the full wet tires is a gamble, but arguably a justified one in these conditions
• The risk is that it'll be like Haas in Canada, where they went to full wets and were hyper-fast when the track was soaking wet, but as soon as the rain slackened and the track started to dry out just a little bit, they fell back as fast as they shot forward
• Oscar Piastri gets a 10 second penalty for causing a collision
• Lap 30
  • Norris passes Russell for 4th
  • Safety car is deployed
• Lap 32 — Franco Colapinto crashes hard behind the safety car and a red flag is thrown
• This is great news for Esteban Ocon, who inherited the lead of the race when Norris and Russell pit on lap 28 after the VSC had ended
• Also great news for Verstappen in 2nd
• They can all change tires while the race is stopped
• Lap 33
  • Race resumes behind the safety car
  • Oliver Bearman skids wide onto the grass as does one of the Saubers
• Lap 34
  • Racing resumes
  • Esteban Ocon retains the lead
  • Norris goes wide towards the end of the lap and rejoins just ahead of George Russell
  • Russell passes Norris for 4th into the next corner
  • LeClerc also skids wide, but manages to hold 6th against a challenge from Piastri
• Lap 35 — Hamilton passes Alonso for 9th
• Lap 36 — Oliver Bearman has a big skid as he challenges Carlos Sainz for 13th, goes skidding off and taps the barrier but the crash isn't severe and he's able to continue
• Bearman is having a lot of adventures in this race
• Lap 39
  • Carlos Sainz has a big spin and goes into the barriers
  • Safety car deployed
  • Few cars pit because it's only been about 6 laps since the red flag
• During the safety car, the rain has stopped and the track appears to be starting to dry out a bit
• Lap 42 — Safety car ends
• Lap 43
  • Racing resumes
  • Verstappen passes Ocon for the lead into turn 1
  • Russell challenges Gasly for 3rd
  • LeClerc passes both Norris and Russell for 4th
  • Norris skids wide and drops into 7th, behind Piastri
  • Fernando Alonso goes wide later in the lap but is able to continue
• Lap 46 — Piastri swaps positions with Norris under team orders
• Lap 52
  • Piastri goes wide and almost skids off the track entirely but manages to recover just in time
  • Piastri's mistake gives Tsunoda a potential opportunity to pass, but before Tsunoda can take advantage, Piastri defends
• Lap 55
  • Perez challenges Lawson for 9th, but Lawson manages to hold the place
  • This allows Hamilton to challenge Perez for 10th
  • Perez goes wide at the next corner, which allows Hamilton to pass him for 10th
• Lap 59 — Perez has closed back up to Hamilton and is challenging him for 10th

Results

1. Max Verstappen — Red Bull
2. Esteban Ocon — Alpine
3. Pierre Gasly — Alpine
4. George Russell — Mercedes
5. Charles LeClerc — Ferrari
6. Lando Norris — McLaren
7. Yuki Tsunoda — RB
8. Oscar Piastri — McLaren
9. Liam Lawson — RB
10. Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
11. Sergio Perez — Red Bull
12. Oliver Bearman — Haas
13. Valteri Bottas — Sauber
14. Fernando Alonso — Aston Martin
15. Zhou Guanyu — Sauber
16. Carlos Sainz — Ferrari (DNF)
17. Franco Colapinto — Williams (DNF)
18. Alex Albon — Williams (DNS)
19. Lance Stroll — Aston Martin (DNS)
20. Nico Hulkenberg — Haas (Disqualified for receiving assistance in getting his car moving again)

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