Belgium GP Qualifying Report

It had been a rainy weekend so far and the Qualifying sessions were too.

There was a queue of cars to leave the pits with two thirds of the cars getting out quickly.  Different teams had different forecasts though and McLaren thought the rain was coming soonest.  This meant that the cars out first were clearing away the rainwater for others.  The track started to dry off.  Piastri took the fastest lap.  Zhou went out last with his team mate commendably finishing 12th.  Predictably Sargeant was 19th, then Tsunoda, who would be starting at the back of the grid anyway.  The two Haas, both drivers now confirmed as departing the team at the end of the season, were 16th and 17th.

The second session was drier but with conditions changing ever so slightly to mix up the order.  Out went Albon, Gasly, Ricciardo, Bottas and Strolll (who had to have his car rebuilt after a big off in practice).

The drivers went into the third session also unsure what the weather would throw at them.  Slowly, everyone made their best laps and then again.  Verstappen took, what feels like, a comeback pole; although he will be starting 10 places back after taking new parts for his car.  LeClerc pulled out an excellent lap to come in second and Perez finally showed a bit of pace and was third.  Behind them was Hamilton, Norris, Piastri, Russell, Sainz, Alonso and Ocon.

Despite starting second, Perez still could tell his interviewer that he could win the race from that position.  Has he lost all confidence?

Hungary GP Race Report

Going to the grid, Norris, the pole sitter, had a gremlin with his throttle.  It was a mechanical problem and tricky to fix on the grid.  Luckily, it was fixed and he headed into the race on an equal footing to the others.

Everyone got off the starting grid well.  McLaren will need to question their strategy, allowing their drivers to race from the start allowed Verstappen to draw alongside them and they went into the corner three abreast.  Verstappen was run off the track and pushed back in front of Norris.  Norris had lost his first place to Piastri, Verstappen and Hamilton.  He was quickly back past the Mercedes and on the radio to complain about the Red Bull.  The McLarens battling each other had allowed Verstappen to get a slip stream from them.  He was persuaded finally to give the place back.

There were some pit stops.  There was talk of undercuts and overcuts.  Verstappen moaned about his car, which is what he does when he is not in a clear and confident lead.

By the half point, Ricciardo had stopped twice and was running at the back, Albon was complaining as Williams flip-flopped between strategies, Russel had got to seventh and Piastri was holding the lead.

Hamilton had a good battle with his old nemesis Verstappen, with Hamilton holding third place.

McLaren were struggling to persuade Norris to give first place back to Piastri; he replied to his engineer that they should have pitted Piastri before him.  It seemed that they had agreed a team situation based on whoever entered the first corner first, which seems silly and liked they didn't learn anything from the bad old Red Bull days of Vettel and Webber.

It was all kicking off in the last ten laps.  Norris continued his battle with the team; making some very harsh comments.  Behind them Verstappen was trying to battle forwards and took a big risk going down the inside of Hamilton and up and over his car and off.  Verstappen had also been complaining bitterly about every choice his team had made.  JB, his engineer, told him that he wouldn't discuss it over the radio as it was "childish".  The stewards decided it was a racing incident.

The McLaren team radio got incredibly cringe-worthy and with two laps to go, he slowed down dramatically and let Piastri through to first place.  The team also needs to learn from how Red Bull handled things over the radio.

The audience was voted Piastri as Driver of the Day; there is clearly a lot of world wide support for team orders.  He didn't sound very emotional over the radio; pre-arranged race wins aren't the most satisfying.

Hamilton took third, ahead of the Ferraris of LeClerc behind him and Sainz in sixth; how will he reflect on his 2025 team switch over the summer break.  Verstappen held fifth.  Perez made it up to seventh and Russell up to eighth.  Tsunoda and Stroll completed the top ten, just ahead of the their team mates.

The most enjoyable thing about this race was the team radio.  Verstappen continues to blame his team when they cannot deliver the perfect car from him.  He does this much more than anyone else ever did.  Hamilton could throw his toys out of the pram and LeClerc will tell Ferrari when they have let him down and usually they have.

Rosberg was probably the best person to host the post-race interview, as he is relentlessly upbeat and more focused on his performance and appearance than what the drivers are saying.  Hamilton did most of the talking in the cool down room.

Hungary GP Qualifying Report

With one week to go until the Summer break, the silly season was in full force.  It didn't feel like there was much more to say after Sir Lewis announced his departure from Mercedes to Ferrari.  However, Perez' Red Bull seat was being intensely discussed.  Bearman and Ocon look likely to be the next Haas line-up, with Magnussen having to look at Sargeant's Williams' seat.  Hulkenberg is off to Sauber/Audi (Saudi??) but his team mate is not yet confirmed.  

To more immediate problems, the weather was throwing itself about.  The pit lane was flooded earlier in the week, followed by 35 degree, or higher, heat for the Free Practice sessions.  As Qualifying began it started to rain again though and set-up for these conditions had not been explored.

Having put in a good first lap, better than Verstappen, Sargeant ran off the track, rattled along and went into the wall.  Just as Verstappen was complaining about tyre temperatures and being told by the team to stop talking over the radio about it, the rain started coming down again and caught his team mate out.  It was a biggish hit into the wall and Perez had to go to the medical centre.  Despite renewing his contract, this did nothing to stop the questions about his future.  As the session had been stopped and the track was no longer dry, once restarted the drivers were unlikely to find a quicker time and the bottom five drivers would probably be out.  Ricciardo had been having trouble with his brakes and was in danger.  

Despite doom predicted for those at the bottom, those drivers came out and the track was drier, hotter and quicker.  Ricciardo went fastest.  Out went Perez (predictably), then Russell (big scalp, hero to zero etc.), Zhou, Ocon and Gasly (a major mistake not sending either driver out by Alpine).  You have to be in it to win it.  I don't know why Russell both apologised and then discussed why the team didn't fuel the car for the whole session.

Most of the second session was fairly boring then all the bottom teams came out for a second push.  Hamilton was lucky not to be out but scraped through in tenth.  The Williams cars were too soon out and got pushed down into 13th and 14th as the track got quicker.  Hulkenberg was 11th, then Bottas, with Magnussen in 15th.  Sargeant blamed the traffic.

Once again, rain fell in the final session.  Teams had put in a quick lap already and Norris was sat in pole position.   Cars came out early for their final attempt.  Drivers were putting in quick laps in an effort to beat the clouds but then a yellow flag and then the session was stopped as Tsunoda had a big off, scooping through bollards, into the wall and over the grass.  Again, it was large enough that the medical car came out.

There was 2 minutes and 13 seconds to put in a suit for pole and 7 cars took the opportunity.  Piastri had been instructed not to go too slowly away from his position in the front of the queue; as the McLarens were then 1st and 2nd, they wanted to hold everyone up but without incurring any penalties.  Tsunoda wasn't able to go out again and Verstappen and Alonso chose not to, perhaps because they only had old tyres left.  Sainz did not get round to the start line in time and went into the pits.  Norris and several others aborted their laps. Ricciardo was the only person to better their time and took 9th.  Ahead of him was Stroll, Alonso, LeClerc, Hamilton, Sainz, Verstappen, with the McLarens taking the front row.  Norris was happy with his pole position.

If the weather is like this tomorrow, it will be a great race.  If teams mess up their strategies like today, it will be a great race.  If the McLarens are allowed to battle each other, it will be a great race.

GB GP Race Report

There was great enthusiasm for the three Brits in the top three grid places and also for the changeable weather before the race.  Russell came out with platitudes such as: "Teamwork makes the dream work."  And Hamilton spoke about the energy from the crowd.  He brought up England's win at the Euros and he should know how to use the crowd with eight British Grand Prix victories.

Perez decided to start from the pit lane and it appeared that Gasly would too but retired on the first lap.

It was a clean getaway from the grid but Verstappen fought Norris hard to take third place.  Hulkenberg fell back in his Haas; the driver had caused a collision by re-entering the track into Alonso, who moved over and into Albon.  Albon came off the worst, although he would eventually get two points for Williams.

It took sixteen laps but Norris got back past Verstappen, just as the crowd started putting on their rain coats.  Piastri followed suit on the next lap.  There were huge cheers on the next lap, when Hamilton got past Russell for the lead.  The McLarens seemed to be coping with the drizzle better than the Mercedes, as the two leaders followed each other off the track.  Norris was able to overtake Russell from this.  It was an outright overtake with pace from Norris to take the lead from Hamilton; Piastri was able to go round the outside of Russell and Hamilton on the same lap.  DRS had been switched off because of the slipperiness on the straights, so the passes were outright.

LeClerc, Perez, Ocon and Zhou went early for Intermediate tyres.  In a few laps, LeClerc was lapped and then went off.

Halfway through the race when the rain came down heavily enough the drivers for both Mercedes and McLaren were too close to double stack.  Mercedes went for it but Norris came in and Piastri stayed out.  Verstappen also pitted and came out in between the Mercedes.  When Piastri did stop, he came out in sixth behind Sainz.

Before the rain cleared up, Russell had to retire with a water pressure issue.  He would be disappointed there wasn't enough water about on this of all days.

When it did clear up, most drivers came in quickly whilst McLaren and Norris were busy debating which sort of slick would be best and the team then served him a long stop.  He came out behind Hamilton.

With only three laps to go, Verstappen took second place from Norris and flew off to see if he could overtake Hamilton for the win.  It was the wrong tyre for McLaren to use, which was born out by Piastri's better use of the opposite choice, nearly taking the point for Fastest Lap until Sainz stole it at the very end.

With such a long wait since his last win, Hamilton was in tears in his helmet on the cool down lap.  Russell was right there in Parc Ferme, to be the first to stick his hand into the cockpit to congratulate his team mate.

The crowd seemed to enjoy the race and Silverstone brought what it usually brings, changeable conditions and the drivers that can make good decisions in a timely fashion benefited from that.  Let's hope Hungary does the same.

GB GP Qualifying Report

Sky TV's coverage opened with George Russell relaying how he has memorised the Silverstone circuit.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be impressive but I can do the same for my trip to work.

The first Qualifying session started on Intermediate tyres as it had been raining however, because that would be too interesting for F1 (F2 had a wet race), it dried up and people put on the Slick tyres.  Perez was caught out and beached his Red Bull in the gravel, which brought out a Red Flag.

When the drivers were allowed back out on the circuit, it started to rain, which was unexpected.  Verstappen and Magnussen were caught out and went over the gravel but managed to keep going.  Drivers put in lap after lap.  Then it started to dry up again.  I don't know what Incy Wincy Spider would have made of the situation.  Piastri had held the fastest lap but as the seconds ticked by, each car that crossed the line was quicker than the last.  Those who had chosen to stay in the pits, like Norris, could have been in danger.  Gasly was last but was going to be starting from the pits anyway.  Ahead of him was Perez, Ocon, Magnussen and Bottas.

It was a more straight forward second session, the excitement coming from Verstappen waiting until the very end before putting in a time that got him through to the final session. LeClerc pitted too soon, with other drivers still putting in quick laps.  Through went the Aston Martins, Albon and Hulkenberg.  Out went the Ferrari with Sargeant, Tsunoda, Zhou and Ricciardo.

Verstappen was carrying some damage from his off early in Qualifying.  With a minute to go, all ten drivers went out to put in their final push lap for pole.  Albon crossed the line first.  As the Mercedes went first with Russell and second with Hamilton, Norris went into the pits.  Several drivers couldn't find any more time.  Norris was third to make it a British top three at their home track.  Behind them was Verstappen, Piastri, Hulkenberg, Sainz (a poor showing all round for Ferrari), Stroll, Albon and Alonso.