Despite securing the Constructor's Championship, all eyes remain on McLaren: how they treat their drivers and what role "Papaya Rules" will play in the final six races. On press day, Norris commented that there would be "repercussions" following his collision with his team mate at the last race. Cue speculation about what form this punishment might take. The team seemed to be finding it harder to provide a car that would stay out front of all the competition to allow their own brand of racing to play out.
The Sprint Qualifying had led to a promising line up for the Sprint (must keep reminding myself not to call it a race and slap my wrist when I do). Verstappen made a good start which meant he was well ahead of the carnage behind him. It was a Turn 1 racing incident but Piastri was definitely making a move to push at Norris and Hulkenberg had got himself into the thick of things without considering an exit plan. Norris and Piastri were immediately parked up at the side of the track, with the Brit securing quite a lot of damage, his wheel lying a long way from his car. Alonso was also out but somehow Hulkenberg carried on but didn't get back into a points paying position. The Safety Car was out for four of the nineteen laps.
The Stewards rightly judged it to be a racing incident but little was made that both Williams had managed to keep out of the mess, which was highly surprising for the team who seem to find a loss in even the most promising of situations. The question at the restart was whether Sainz could hold of his old team mate LeClerc to keep third position. It turned out the bigger question was whether LeClerc could stay in front of his current team mate and Hamilton took the position from him when he made a silly mistake. All of which benefitted Sainz.
Also largely unmentioned was Tsunoda's rise from the back of the grid to 7th after seven laps, a position he held until the end.
Halfway through the Sprint, Russell had one opportunity to overtake Verstappen for the win but it wasn't really there and didn't happen. They both went wide and off the track but nobody suffered for it. There were lots of incidents noted but not much followed up on; we shall see if this is the same during the race. The potential for drivers being penalised for leaving the track limits too often seems high.
With three laps to go, Stroll locked up at a corner and went straight into Ocon. He was waving an apology to the Haas driver before his car had even come to standstill. This meant that the Sprint finished under the Safety Car and Stroll was awarded a five place grid penalty for the Race (the actual race not the sprint race which is not a race but a sprint). Bearman did something or other to Antonelli (pushed him off the track or gained an advantage by leaving the track...) and was given a ten second penalty. As the cars were so bunched up in the finishing conditions, this meant that not only did Bearman fall back from his one point position but his classification was right at the end. Verstappen held his lead from start to finish, with Russell feeling he had done well to get second. Sainz was happy with third but we didn't get to hear about it. Off the podium (no, not a podium, a kind of standing hug) but in the points were Hamilton, LeClerc (who comes up as Charlotte Flair on subtitles, a merry distraction but it does mean you can't see what the Stewards are up to), Albon, Tsunoda and Antonelli.
Qualifying later in the day could not possibly be as interesting as the Sprint and lots of engineers and mechanics would be very busy fixing cars over their lunch break to ensure all drivers could get out.
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