MorrisF1

I had a hard time picking what to pick, and in the end Ricciardo and Bottas had drastically different races. Happily, my bet was green. The track was wet at the start, with no rain and intermediate tyres the order of the day. Off the line it was all change, with Verstappen starting well and Leclerc losing out to not only Perez but Norris as well. Just behind, Sainz and Ricciardo tangled (racing incident, definitely not the Spaniard’s fault at all, small Ricciardo error) which put the Ferrari driver out and shoved the Aussie to the back of the grid. Bottas had to get out of it, which let past Russell (who had already had a fantastic start). Cue the safety car. After this there was much running on the inters as teams feared and suspected more rain was coming, and this meant it was some way before the first (and, for many, only) pit stops. Being at the back, Ricciardo swapped onto mediums first and found himself flying, prompting the whole field to do likewise. Perez came in...

So, the pointless exercise in cash-gouging mediocrity that is the sprint race has ended. I’ll be honest, it was pretty entertaining. The format remains ridiculous, however. Three chaps (Haas drivers plus Latifi) started on the medium tyres, and the only one who made it work really was Schumacher. Everyone else was on the softs. Off the line, Verstappen left the handbrake on and was easily passed by Leclerc (he came close to losing a spot to Norris as well, but managed to fend the Briton off). The Mercedes both went backwards, before a lap 1 safety car emerged after some Zhou-Gasly clumsiness put the Chinese out and the Frenchman into an emergency pit stop. When the safety car came in Leclerc was able to retain his lead and seemed set fair to extend his seemingly effortless title advantage over his rival. Further back, both Perez and Sainz were improving on lacklustre qualifying performances, to the detriment of McLaren primarily, ending up 3 rd and 4 th respectively. ...

 Ah, the sprint race, ruining weekends since 2021. This is, as usual, occurring between pretend qualifying and the pretend race, so we know the grid for the actual race. Why they don’t turn this needless additional event into a separate third driver championship or just ditch it is beyond me (well, that’s a lie. It’s money-grubbing). First practice had Leclerc dominant, almost a second ahead of Sainz. More than half a second further back was Verstappen, with Magnussen a second and a half down the road and half a second up on Schumacher. Perez, Alonso, and Vettel followed more closely, with Tsunoda and Russell rounding out the top 10. It’s worth noting Sainz has a new engine and practice was wet, with red flags and crashes and thus big gaps. Plus, times that may not be representative.   Qualifying ended up being something of a mostly wet farce, with a comical four red flags (give or take) and a run time that might be longer than the actual race. The first sessi...

Well, it’s been a few years but the race in Australia was both the least interesting and least profitable of the season so far. It wasn’t dire, but not a cracker by any stretch of the imagination. Also worth noting I made a mistake, Albon was only disqualified from, er, qualifying, not the whole race weekend. A few drivers, including Sainz and Alonso, started on the hard tyres, but most were on the medium. Off the line both Mercedes did well, Hamilton passing both Norris and Perez, while Ricciardo found himself behind Russell. Sainz had a dire start and a few laps later driver error put him into in a gravel trap and out of the race, bringing out the safety car. A weekend to forget for the Spaniard. Racing resumed and Leclerc handily fended off Verstappen. Perez, meanwhile, passed Hamilton with seeming ease (not at the restart but in normal racing). The pattern was essentially set, with a few notable shifts. Vettel made a mistake, hit the barriers, and went out, and Verstappen h...

Qualifying had two red flags, one needless, one lucky, and one of the top chaps out of kilter due to the latter. The Aston Martin chaps rushed to get both cars ready for the first session but it seemed they would only be able to get out Stroll. Yet when he and Latifi unnecessarily collided on slow laps it produced a red flag and sufficient delay for Vettel’s car to be fixed, just in time. He was only able to qualifying 18 th but will be promoted to 17 th due to Albon’s 3 place penalty for last race’s crash. Magnussen also failed to proceed, with Latifi and Stroll obviously also exiting at this stage. The second session had some surprising departures, with both Alfa Romeos going out, as did both AlphaTauris. Mick Schumacher was the slowest man in the session. Third practice saw a second red flag, Alonso crashing due to car failure (hydraulics/gears). The red flag robbed Sainz of a good time but Leclerc managed to squeeze over the line. Alonso himself might well have been on the fr...

And so we return to Oz for the first time in a few years. News broke between race weekends that another US venue, this time Las Vegas, will be crammed into an already overstuffed calendar next year, prompting fears of losing Spa and indifference to probably losing the French Grand Prix. Three races in a single country when we already have too many is ridiculous. Anyway, Australia means early hours, with qualifying at 7am tomorrow and the race at 6am on Sunday. I’m looking forward to finding out if I manage to get up on time for those. It also means the pre-qualifying tosh goes up early. Going into things my assumptions are: Ferrari faster than Red Bull McLaren boned Alfa Romeo tasty Mercedes further off the top two Alpine intriguing to watch   In first practice Sainz was half a second ahead of his team mate, who was followed closely by Perez with Verstappen next up. Norris, Ocon, and Hamilton, were next, with Ricciardo, Alonso, and Bottas rounding out the top 10. ...