This all led to a higgledy-piggledy grid, with four top placed drivers starting on softs which would give them a starting advantage over Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen. Gasly second, Alonso third and Norris fourth. The grid was also shambolic, plenty of slebs, with the new Brundle Mandate that they must give interviews. They didn't.
Alonso made a champion's start and it looked good.
On the first couple of laps, I realised Aston Martin really need to consider their paintwork next year as they look exactly like Mercedes at night races. Or Mercedes could go silver again. What if McLaren give up the papaya though... Then I realised that it was Bottas' Mercedes I was looking at back in 10th place.
By Lap 4, Verstappen had made third place from seventh. Really, you just had to consider the real race, the race for third place. By contrast, it was a poor opener for Bottas, in eleventh and out of the points, Wolff had to call him and tell him to "take these cars". By half way through both him and Perez had recovered themselves and made it to the sharp end of the action.
Then Bottas got a puncture. He was a good boy and went into the gravel trap and then brought a lot of gravel back onto track to spice things up a bit. The points haul for Mercedes disappeared. He did manage to get back to the pit for both tires and a new nose and came out in 14th having lost all he'd made up.
With Perez moving up through the pack, Alpine called Ocon to hold off Perez. Just as his team mate did for him to get his maiden win. I think he lasted a couple of seconds. If Alonso got on the podium, it would be all his own work.
With seven laps to go, everything heated up again. Norris came in for new tires as he suspected a puncture. He reported "a strange feeling" and his engineer replied that was just puberty. So the driver who started fourth became eleventh. David Beckham gave the McLaren pit stop a "wow". Gasly did two stops and ended up tenth, having started second. Bottas retired. Russell had to come in after losing his front wing and tires over the big curbs, was it worth the cost of a new front wing for the number of laps left. Just as he came out, his team mate also had a hard tire failure. Latifi radioed in to say that it gave no warning. I held my breath whether Alonso, a one stopper, could hold onto his third place and stand on the podium, with three laps to go he was 9 seconds ahead of Perez. Vestappen was holding fastest lap, for a point, and Bottas could no longer steal it from him.
With two laps to go, a Virtual Safety Car was brought out to clear Latifi's car off the track. This greatly helped Verstappen to hold onto fastest lap. He also pitted for new tires. Alonso didn't have to risk riding the curbs with his old, old tires. The pressure on Ocon in fifth from Stroll and Sainz was eased.
Lots of positive messages to Hamilton on his winning in lap. Toto telling him: "Let's go to Saudi Arabia". Yes. Most of the track will be doing that. For Alonso it was: "Ole, ole ole ole." Vestappen and Alonso clearly enjoyed racing in Qatar, perhaps they lose less sleep over human rights issues than Hamilton.
For a moment it seemed dubious whether the aged Alonso would remember the podium procedure. Cue Brundle and Crofty discussing geriatric podiums of the past. What could have been a very dull race was actually quite a hot one, the punctures and diverse tire strategy helping greatly. Two races go and it's all to play for. Apart from Ricciardo, who is now just playing for laughs.
No comments:
Post a Comment