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.