MorrisF1

I’d expected qualifying to be a five horse race but instead it ended up with rather bigger gaps than we’ve come to expect this year. Q1 featured a red flag from Gasly suffering what appears to be a hydraulic failure. Bortoleto, Stroll, Colapinto, Ocon and Gasly were eliminated at this stage. Not too unexpected, save for Bortoleto being outqualified by Hulkenberg for the first time in a long while. Q2 was a little delayed but when it was done we said goodbye to Hulkenberg, Albon, Sainz, Lawson, and Tsunoda. I think Hulkenberg did well to get so far up the grid, and the Williams was pushed to its potential but simply doesn’t gel with this circuit. Lawson and Tsunoda could’ve done better given how their team mates did. And so to Q3, which was feeling like it might be a Verstappen versus Mercedes battle. And so it was, with Russell putting in a cracking first lap to secure provisional pole. Verstappen could only get within a couple of tenths but had to settle for the runner-up spot. Pi...

In first practice Alonso was quickest, a tenth and a half ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen was a similar margin further back, a tenth ahead of Hamilton. Piastri was a thousandths off the Briton but two-tenths ahead of Norris, with Hadjar, Sainz, Tsunoda, and Ocon rounding out the top 10. Second practice was disrupted by two red flags caused by Russell and Lawson crashing out. Fastest in FP2 was Piastri, a tenth up on Hadjar. Verstappen and Alonso were one- and three-hundredths respectively behind the Frenchman. Then there was a huge three-tenths gap to Norris, who was followed by Stroll, Ocon, Sainz, Leclerc, and Hamilton. Practice also saw a pit lane crash when Ferrari sent out Leclerc directly into the path of Norris. Very much a case of incompetence from the pit crew. The penalty was just a fine, but if that had happened in qualifying or the race then a grid penalty would’ve been on the cards. In third practice we had another red flag courtesy of Liam Lawson crashing, again. Hamilto...