Saudi Arabia GP Race Report

With Verstappen on pole, Piastri would be nipping at his heels and whether he would be the world championship leader at the end of the race was being highly predicted.  No one was interviewing Norris.  The other bet was how many Safety Cars there would be and whether the race would be stopped with a Red Flag.

Usher refused to speak to Martin on the Grid Walk; the Saudi money must be sufficient that slebs don't need to get any publicity from their appearance too.  Then his former boss Briatore didn't recognise him; he predicted that Gasly would finish in 6th.

The first Safety Car came quickly as Briatore's prediction came undone.  Verstappen only just held first place from Piastri and had to cut a corner to maintain it, he could possibly have argued that he was forced off the track.  Antonelli did something similar to Russell but clearly did not gain an advantage whether through poor driving or deliberate manoeuvre.  Behind them though Tsunoda and Gasly came together with the Red Bull spinning but was able to keep going in last place and the Alpine slammed into the wall and was out of the race.  However, once Tsunoda came into the pit to be checked out, it was decided to retire him.  Both drivers were equally to blame.

So early into the race, only three drivers took the cheap pit stop: Ocon, Bortoleto and Doohan.  They hoped to go to the end of this short race.

The restart was on Lap 3.  Verstappen backed them almost impossibly up and then sped away.  However, he was simultaneously handed a 5 second penalty for his earlier incident with Piastri.  Brundle was unhappy with this and thought he should have been made to give the place back.

In the Williams garage they were having to manage having two drivers nose to tail in the points.  In front of them Norris and Hamilton were fighting harder.  It would be lap 15 when the McLaren got past.

Approaching the middle of the race, teams were now playing chicken with their pit stops to see if there would be another Safety Car.  Piastri pitted to get some clean air and then Verstappen made his.  McLaren were slow though, negating the penalty.  Both Williams came out very far back.  On Lap 30 LeClerc finally came in from the lead to pit and came out in 5th, not too bad.  Next, it was Lap 34 when Norris pitted from the lead.  There was also the possibility that he went too fast in the pits, or some similar atrocity.

There was lots of overtaking on the street circuit, both at the front and the back of the grid with the rookies getting involved with each other.

Team orders started to come into play at the end of the race.  Ocon, on old tyres, had to let rookie Bearman through.  Sainz was instructed to let Albon into his DRS zone, to try and hold off rookie Hadjar.  Then rookie Bortoleto let Hulkenberg through, in the tense battle for 15th and 16th.

Piastri was moderately pleased with his win and points haul that took him into the lead of the championship.  Verstappen needs to moderate his aggressive driving choices if he is going to get the wins, although I suspect he will continue to blame the car.  LeClerc scored a creditable third.  Norris made up six places, the most of any driver, to finish fourth.  Russell, Antonelli and Hamilton were next, then the mini fight of Sainz, Albon and Hadjar.

As Piastri is now ten points ahead of Norris, I can see that this will end up as a Rosberg versus Hamilton battle, with Norris as Rosberg.  He will have to start sacrificing much more if he is going to achieve his world championship dream.

Verstappen made a short but smiley statement instead of being questioned during the pre-podium interview.  He did not want to defend his early, penalty-receiving move.  He will have to play it cooler if he wants a shot and maybe coach Yuki to support him.

Saudi Arabia GP Qualifying Report

Apart from exhaustion from a triple header, everyone was ready to go racing in Saudi Arabia.

The only drivers to hit the wall in the first session were Hadjar and Albon.  Verstappen was fastest, ahead of the two McLarens, Antonelli and Tsunoda.  Some people looked like they were sandbagging.  Out went the usual clutch of suspects: Stroll, Doohan, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Bortoleto.  The Williams wunderkind of last year had his first lap time deleted and spun into the path of Verstappen on his third.

There were no incidents in the second session.  Albon went out early for his second lap, to cover off any chance of it being red flagged or raining but it didn't pay off and he went out in 11th.  Behind him was Lawson, Alonso, Hadjar and Bearman.  Antonelli continues as the best-performing rookie but should with the equipment he has at his disposal.  Norris was fastest, followed by Verstappen and then Piastri.

The third and final session saw drivers out fairly early to get a lap in, which was a good idea as Norris went over a curb, which propelled him hard into the wall, putting him out of contention and red flagging the competition.  His team mate, Piastri, was just across the line to set his time; for the first time, we saw the Australian's eyes light up inside his helmet.

In the final shoot out, it was between Piastri and Verstappen only Russell put a corker of a lap in and nearly got in the way of things.  The Red Bull took it by one hundredth of a second from the McLaren, with the Mercedes in third.  Behind them was LeClerc (a good showing by the lead Ferrari), Antonelli (does Hamilton wish he'd stayed in that car now?), Sainz (yes, quicker in a Williams than in his old Ferrari seat), Hamilton, Tsunoda, Gasly (who had shown such promise in practice) and Norris with no time set at all.

The FIA were trying out something new with the messages for viewers and letting us know who the last car across the line at the chequered flag was, which is fairly apparent anyway.   I wonder what else they'll come up with this season?

Bahrain GP Race Report

Other than both Mercedes being handed a one place grid penalty, there was nothing to report before the race started other than that Norris had cheered up.

On the softest tyres, Norris made it up to 3rd from 6th off the start, a little cheeriness goes a long way.  Russell got ahead of LeClerc for 2nd.  Gasly and Sainz were 5th and 6th.  LeClerc was playing the long game in medium tyres.  Bearman made up 5 places.  Verstappen,  Hamilton and Tsunoda remained in the doldrums at the bottom of the points.   

Then the stewards announced that Norris might have been out of position on the grid.  LeClerc had told his BFF Gasly that the Ferrari might be doing a one stop strategy.  It feels like when the competitor is your friend you should still keep schtum as he told the world over the radio.

We then saw a shot of Norris at the start and he was ahead of his slot, which would ruin his race potential.  He was given 5 seconds and told to get passed Russell.

There was plenty of overtaking.  Sainz battled to hold Hamilton behind him and needed DRS to get it done.

When the pit stops came up, it was tricky to find a clear window to bring cars out into, the field was very close together.  Red Bull had a problem with their traffic light hold and release system in the pits and lost out with both drivers.  LeClerc wanted to stay out longer but was overuled by Ferrari.   

By the time the second round of stops came, Ferrari were making up places.  Verstappen had an awful stop and came out in last place.  I'm sure Mrs Stroll will have taken a picture of the screen for the one and only time her son is ahead of the World Champion.

Verstappen and Sainz had a minor coming together and there was a little bit of carbon fibre debris left behind.  Stunningly, this triggered a full Safety Car.  This was just in time for most drivers to take a cheap pit stop.  A cynic would say it was done to affect the outcome of the race.  

This all meant there would be a restart.  Piastri managed to stay ahead but everyone behind him was fighting.  Russell held 2nd and the Ferraris got 3rd and 4th.  Lawson got a 5 second penalty for causing a collision but it really can't have been serious enough for that as it didn’t bring out a Safety Car. Sainz was retired after getting and serving a penalty because his car was too damaged. 

Russell had to reset his DRS settings, which sounded like an engineering ballache and technically challenging and then he was told he might lose his dash.  Lots of the cars seemed to be developing gremlins in Bahrain.  Then the Mercedes lost its gears.

Norris was pushing his way forward in the last laps; overtaking Hamilton by force, then LeClerc.  Because Russell was no longer being correctly and accurately timed, it wasn’t clear when he could use DRS or those (Norris) chasing him.  I would like to have seen Ron Dennis stood out with a stopwatch.  They fought until the bitter end.  Verstappen kept being shown the black and white flag for exceeding lap limits but went on to take Gasly for 6th place on the final lap.

Piastri said he would party to celebrate his victory that night; we can only imagine he had a late cola and risked the caffeine keeping him awake.  In fact, he said he wouldn’t go to the party. Russell's race was "tricky" and Norris found his "messy".  The cool down room was noisy with three geeks discussing the highlights they were shown and calling one driver a "muppet".

Norris left Bahrain, to prepare for the third race in three weeks, still as championship leader but if Piastri continues like this, he won't hold it for long.  It felt like Ferrari did well until you saw that they were behind at the end and they expressed their disappointment.

I watched this event on Channel 4 rather than Sky and whilst the presentation before and after the race is slick, the actual order of the race and timely provision of information was shockingly bad.  There was no word about why Russell suddenly went to last place for a couple of laps.  I didn't understand why Sainz had a penalty, I don’t know if they actually told us.  As it is highlights, surely there is ample opportunity to present the race in a logical manner?  They've really committed to supporting Bearman too.

These triple headers feel relentless and I think by the end of the year we will see some tired drivers and I wonder if it will effect championship ambitions.

Bahrain GP Qualifying Report

With turmoil in the FIA, Sainz bewildered by a hefty fine for a visit to the loo at the wrong time, Alonso's steering wheel fell off when he was out on the track during Practice. 

In the first Qualifying session, Verstappen was complaining about his car; it wasn't right.  The Red Bulls were not through as the final push started.  Albon was knocked out in the final seconds by Ocon and Hulkenberg, he was too cold.  Behind him was Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll and Bearman.  At the front was Norris and Hamilton.

The second session saw Ocon's push to get through being absolutely wasted as he went  immediately in the wall and the session was stopped with a Red Flag.  There were no surprises in the five that went out apart from Sainz, who was comfortably through in 7th.  It was Doohan, Hadjar, Hulkenberg, Alonso and Ocon.

It was harder for all in the final session, with the most pressure on Antontelli and Hamilton who had their first lap times deleted.  Whereas McLaren had been dominant in the first two sessions, Russell was a real contender now.  It was looking strong for him until Piastri did pull something out of the bag to take pole position and he could not be touched.  LeClerc wass third, Antonelli 4th, Gasly 5th.  If you're reading this and wondering where the championship contenders are: Norris 6th and Verstappen 7th.  Behind them were Sainz (finally outqualifying his team mate), Hamilton and Tsunoda.  LeClerc did not expect his place and was glad of the new tyres.  Russell thought it was the cooling track temperatures that helped.  Or were people just not as good?  Norris and Hamilton were both quick to blame themselves but Verstappen explained it away as something with the brakes.

Gasly was hoping that BFFs Lando and Max were going to fight with each other off the line but leave him out of it.  Mercedes were penalised for something administrative on Q2, where I think they released the drivers into the pit lane too early after the Red Flag.  They were each given a one place grid penalty.

If it doesn't turn out to be another dreary procession then it could be a spicy race.

Japan GP Race Report

The drivers were full of talk about how much fun driving at Suzuka is, the media commitments felt less of a burden and they were enjoying being on track.

Sainz had been given a three place grid penalty for impeding Hamilton, it had rained overnight and was cold for the start of the race: that was the pre-race news.  There would be no race news.

It was a clean start with Norris defending well from Piastri.  The top ten remained as they were but behind them there were overtakes a plenty.  Alonso got Gasly, Tsunoda took Lawson, Hulkenberg passed Sainz and Bortoleto, the great prodigy, fell back three places to last.

Stroll was the first to pit in the slow Aston Martin.  He went to the hard tyres and came out in last place.  Of the main runners, on the one stop race, Piastri came in first, followed by what was the top three.  Ferrari made very slow stop for LeClerc.  Norris and Verstappen nearly came together as they exited the pits, the McLaren going on to the grass.  They both blamed each other.  This meant that Antonelli was leading, followed by Hamilton, Hadjar and Albon.

There was so little to watch that we were given a shot of Gasly's mum watching the race.  She would have been disappointed to see the team orders which asked him to move over for Doohan.  It never happened though.

The top three pretty much held stations once all the pit stops had happened.  Behind them Antonelli put in a series of Fastest Laps.  Tsunoda was the Driver of the Day.  It was an easy win for Verstappen and an easily held second and third place for McLaren, Norris holding off Piastri.  Hadjar did well for 8th in his Racing Bull, followed by Albon and Bearman,  The rookies were doing well.  Alonso was just outside the points in 11th but his team mate was last.  Is this finally the year he gets sacked?  Tsunoda was 12th ahead of Lawson in 17th.

It was a very disappointing race, with little to no action.  At least we will be swiftly moving on to two more races in the next fortnight.

Japan GP Qualifying Report

Obviously all the talk at the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, home of Honda, was Tsunoda's move to Red Bull and Lawson's demotion to his seat at Racing Bulls after only two races.  Despite heavy online support from drivers current and old, this must have felt like an awful setback to the Kiwi.

As they went into the Qualifying sessions, grass fires had plagued the practice sessions.  Rain was forecast overnight though.  Doohan didn't shut his DRS during one practice session and had a 300kph crash.  He was winded but did not have concussion.  Villeneuve was very critical of this.

In the first Qualifying session, Antonelli was having problems getting his tyres up to temperature and Hadjar was in pain with the positioning of his seat belt.  It was tight at the bottom.  Out went Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Ocon, Doohan and Stroll.  A poor showing for the Aston Martin driver.  Antonelli got it together and proceeded in 8th.  Both Racing Bulls were through, which meant Lawson was able to get his Racing Bull out of the bottom five, when he couldn't do the same with his Red Bull.

With 8 minutes to go the second session was stopped because of a grass fire.  It was nip and tuck in the middle.  Out went Gasly, Sainz (with an investigation for impeding pending), Alonso, Lawson and the Tsunoda.  That will certainly put a smile on the faces of his supporters.

The final session was a battle between the two McLaren drivers and Verstappen, behind them it didn't seem to matter so much.  Verstappen snatched pole from Norris at the last second, behind them was Piastri who drove an awful first sector and couldn't make it up with two subsequent purple sectors.  To finish the top ten was LeClerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hadjar, Hamilton, Albon and Bearman.

I only noticed that the Red Bulls were in their white Honda livery for this race, so I had spent the whole time confusing them with their sister team.