Azerbaijan GP Sprint Report

 The first event of the day was the Sprint Shootout - or qualifying for the sprint.  The biggest ask for the drivers was not to damage the car as there was almost no time between the qualifying and race to fix it and, because the engineers will be busy with the sprint race, then less time to fix the car before the main race on Sunday.

It's a shame the FIA didn't go for an old-skool one hour long "see what you can do?" session.  There was a step towards this by limiting cars to one tyre for the whole session, so drivers stayed out for the whole session.  Everyone managed to get through cleanly apart from Sargeant for Williams, who had the biggest wall-smash of the weekend.  If it was going to be anyone....He was also particularly slow in bringing his car to a stop.  With 25 seconds to go, the Red Flag meant the session was over.  With Sargeant actually through to Q2, there would be a free pass for someone to go through to Q3!  Both Alfa Romeos were out along with Tsunoda, Gasly (abysmal weekend so far) and De Vries.

With a few Yellow Flags, Sainz taking a trip off the track, we got through the second qualifying session without any Red Flags, which feels like all the drivers are making progress.  Piastri, Ocon and both Haas were out along with Sargeant and Albon made it through, showing that there is promise in the Williams car, they just need to pick a second driver who is as good as Albon or better.

Norris didn't have any soft tyres to participate in the final Qualifying session.  Somehow LeClerc went straight into the wall and still managed to keep his pole position ahead of Perez then Verstappen.  I don't know why the Red Flag wasn't out.  Russell managed 4th ahead of his team mate Hamilton in 6th.  Sainz was 5th and affected by his team mates crash.  Then Albon in the Williams, at last showing the pace promised.  Next the Aston Martins, who were suffering from a fault with the DRS opening of their wing, which would seriously hamper their progress up the grid and leadership boards.

There were questions whether his car could be fixed in time for the sprint race.

On after the Sprint Qualifying or Squint as I shall now be calling it, we moved on to the race.

Sargeant was not going to be able to race as his car couldn't be fixed, which could have cost Williams badly if they show strong.

It was a clean start, narrowly, I hadn't noticed how tight the corner was and close to a wall the track run off the start line.  Russell was passed Verstappen, who was very unhappy about it.  Then we saw a tyre rolling down the track; was it LeClerc with typical bad luck?  No Tsunoda.  A Virtual Safety Car was called for.  Then a Safety Car.  And the laps ticked away.  When they restarted, a few people were able to overtake the car ahead of them.  If you're Alonso, that was two cars.  Really it didn't take long for Perez to take the lead from LeClerc.  It didn't bode well for the main race.

Post-race, Verstappen was very unhappy with Russell leading to apologies for "language" and a slight storming off.

Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Report

Incredulously, the format of the sprint weekend was only decided when the teams had already arrived and started setting up at the track.  I can't imagine the rules of any other sport being decided so close to the event.  Previously, Qualifying on a Sprint weekend set the grid positions for the Sprint race, now it sets the grid positions for the actual race and the Sprint has it's own Qualifying.

There was only one Free Practice session, in which Gasly's car caught fire and it took both sides of the garage to fix ready to qualify.

Many Red Flags were predicted for the weekend and De Vries brought out the first one under competitive conditions, putting his Alpha Tauri nose-first into the wall.  This element of jeopardy and cars being trashed has highlighted Baku's unsuitability for being designated a sprint weekend.

The second Red Flag was for Gasly,  this time for smashing sideways into the wall.  I really don't know if this pressure enhances the event for spectators.  All the drivers were quizzed by the media this weekend for their feelings about the format change and Sainz summed it up - he'll do it if the spectators and media want it.

Everyone was out together to secure their places for the second Qualifying session.  Magnussen retired with a car problem.  Out he went with the crashed De Vries and Gasly, his team mate Hulkenberg and Zhou.

The second Qualifying session was much more civilised, with all the drivers likely to crash already out.  The result was a bit of a shocker though, with both Williams out, having looked so promising, both McLarens through, having looked to unpromising, Ocon and Bottas, unsurprisingly and the Mercedes of Russell, just ahead of his team mate.  The team were unable to take advantage of their own engine power with customer teams able to.  Albon blamed Sainz, who had to reverse his car on the track.  The surprise driver through was Tsunoda.

There was huge relief for Ferrari in the end, with LeClerc able to take pole, ahead of Verstappen and then Perez.  And it was a dominant lap.  Sainz followed them, continuing to show that, despite being ahead in the championship, his team mate is the team's championship hope.  Hamilton beat Alonso, whose streak of top 3 finishes seems to be coming to a halt.  Ferrari and LeClerc were surprised with their result, establishing his reputation as the fastest driver over a single lap.

Even is Verstappen dominated the Sprint day, it left spectators some hope for race day.

Australia GP Race Report

The sun was shining in Melbourne, much the same as the rainy Qualifying session.  It was looking punchy at the sharp end of the grid with a lot of drivers with a lot to prove on lap 1.  Russell made an excellent start and took Verstappen immediately and Hamilton wasn't far behind.  He felt that Hamilton pushed him wide but ultimately, he was being very cautious, preserving his championship hopes over taking unnecessary first lap risks.  The Ferraris initially made a good start, punishing Alonso but Stroll was too close to LeClerc and, with nowhere to do, the Prancing Horse was into the gravel trap bringing out the Safety Car.  The first casualty.  A few drivers pitted with the aim of finishing the race on these new tires (if only they knew).

Having initially pulled away nearly a second from his team mate, Hamilton then caught Russell up quickly, as did Verstappen behind him.  Russell was told to manage his pace but then panicked as Hamilton was looking to attack.  Just as this three way battle was climaxing, Albon spins out of nowhere and into the tire barrier.  A heart-breaking shame but the Safety Car was out, lap 7 and the race was neutralised.  Russell and Sainz pitted for new tires, which Hamilton felt was a disadvantage to his strategy.  However, in F1, things can change in a moment.  The Red Flag was shown as there was too much debris and the tire wall needed repairing and the cars retired to the pits, meaning Russell was now 7th for quite a while.

As it was a Red Flag and the race stopped, the Safety Car took the cars round to the start line for a standing start, effectively another race start.  On the way, some drivers got very confused trying to stay behind each other and came to a bizarre stand still but this did seem to be investigated or commented on for the rest of the race.  Hamilton got away well, with Verstappen at bay and Alonso in third.  De Vries flew over the top of Ocon but kept the car on the track.  Russell in seventh had places to make up and he scythed through the pack and was in 4th a couple of laps later.  Perez however, who had started in his Red Bull garage, seemed to be struggling to cut through the back of the pack.  Unlike his team mate, who was soon past Hamilton.

Just as things were going so right for Russell, his car was on fire.  He better watch out or he'll one of those drivers like Webber, who just never have the luck.  Retiring it at the end of the pit lane, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed, which gave everyone some cooling off time.

Nothing dramatic happened for a while and teams debated what each other were doing with their tire strategy.  Gasly made his way towards the front and Perez got up to 9th.  Just when it seemed plain sailing to the chequered flag, Verstappen makes a large lock-up goes off the track and over the fields.  This must have given great hope to Hamilton and Alonso behind him.

Then the drama started again, with Magnussen losing a tire and damaging his suspension with 5 laps to go.  There was some confusion as to whether a Safety Car would be required but the marshals needed to pick up a tire from the track.  It looked like the race would finish under the Safety Car but the Race Directors wanted more drama than that and Red Flagged the race so that there would be a third start to the race.

This time it was a classic Australian GP race start, with absolute carnage.  Alonso was the first to fall, tagged by Sainz, but managed to keep going.  His team mate Stroll seemed to just take himself out of the race but also kept going at the back.  Having had an amazing race, Gasly and Ocon took each other out, which is the Gallic coming to that everyone has been braced for since the partnership was announced.  Sargeant was also out in the Williams.  Verstappen held the lead as he had pointed right across the straight to block off Hamilton.  The whole thing was Red Flagged again.  For the second time the stewards were investigating  "the restart procedure".  It was a difficult decision to figure out how to fairly draw the race to a close.  The cars would restart in the same order that they started because they did not cross a sector line.  However, the Alpines could not start as the cars were not capable so they were taken out of the running order.  During the stoppage, Sainz was awarded, and told he was given, a 5 second penalty for his part in the ordeal.  He pleaded the case vociferously over the radio.  After the race he was so angry he couldn't give a coherent press briefing.

As the drivers had shown they cannot start a race in Melbourne safely, it was going to be a rolling start, with the drivers immediately finishing the race as they cross the line.  Only 12 cars finished, obviously with no Williams amongst them.  Points for both McLarens, ending a very grim era for them  and an unexpectedy points-scoring result for the home hero.  Even after the chequered flag there were incidents with Hulkenberg stopping on track but claiming 7th.

Verstappen was happy to have avoided all the drama (as he said: "We survived everything.")  and come home first and Hamilton was over the moon with second.  I think everyone would have liked to see Alonso on the top step but it was third for him.  David Coulthard didn't really know what to say on the podium interviews other than "that was crazy!".  Somehow Perez was voted Driver of the Day, maybe the time of the race is convenient in Mexico?  My vote went to Bert Mylander, the Safety Car driver, who did many more laps than some drivers.

Australia GP Qualifying Report

The big talking points going in to the weekend were: Perez and Verstappen have "made up" after disagreeing about Verstappen being the best driver in the team, Bottas getting his mullet trimmed, McLaren sacking a lead member of the team and there being a new Australian driver in Piastri racing at his home track.  Obviously, I am obligated to mention there being four seasons in one day in Melbourne.  

With a 90% chance of rain during Qualifying, Williams lined their cars up at the end of the pit lane very early.  It looked like a wasted opportunity, with Albon doing okay but Sargeant spinning.  However, as Perez has had a nightmare of a race weekend, he locked up, going straight and irrevocably into the gravel trap.  Apparently, it "was the same issue again".  All Williams (and Haas, McLaren, Alfa Romeos and Alpha Tauris) needed now was the rain to come on whilst the red flag was flying and they would all be through to Q2.  The rain never came and the only surprise car to go through to Q2 was Albon.  Home Hero, Piastri was out.

The hero of Q2 was Albon, who put in many laps and finished before many other drivers, so had to watch and see if anyone would set a quicker time and knock him out.  No one did and he was through.  Out went Ocon, Tsunoda, Norris, Gasly and De Vries.

In the final Qualifying session, Verstappen just could not find the pace and was down in 6th after the first round of hot laps.  He was leading the pack and jumped back up to pole with his second hot lap.  The countdown to the arrival of the rain had started but it was only due to arrive 1 minute before the end of the session.  I wish I could get similar forecasts on my whereabouts.  As everyone came back out, we found out that Verstappen was suffering from multiple technical problems.  Albon gave up and retired to the pits to watch the final showdown in comfort.  Even wounded, the Red Bull took pole position, with the surprise result of Russell and Hamilton behind them.  Further down were Alonso, Sainz, Stroll, LeClerc, Albon, Gasly and Hulkenberg.  Albon made the correct call not to waste any more tires.  Russell continues to outshine his world champion team mate.  Sainz was two places ahead of his team mate, who everyone feels should be challenging for the championship this year.

Verstappen was very happy, answering questions expansively.  Russell was full of congratulatory handshakes and waves to the crowd.  Hamilton and Alonso kept their helmets on and maintained a fast pace to their destinations.

90% chance of rain...my bahooky.  

What might happen in the race?  Hamilton and Russell take each other out?  Verstappen suffers a drive shaft failure?  Will Alonso win the race he's predicted to win at last?