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Tag: F1 Analysis
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Max Verstappen suffers second retirement in three races: F1 race analysis
By Malhaar Khaladkar
Charles Leclerc took his and Ferrari’s second victory of the season as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished P2 after his teammate Max Verstappen retired midway through the race, second such retirement in three races. Mercedes new boy George Russell achieved his first podium for the German team by finishing P3.
New Delhi, 12th April 2022: Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen shared the front row again after the Bahrain grand prix with Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez as the rear gunner for the Dutchman. After an absence of two seasons, the Australian grand prix got underway with everyone getting away fairly cleanly.
Both Mercedes gained positions as Lewis Hamilton dove down inside of Perez to run in P3. Meanwhile, teammate George Russell went past Lando Norris’ McLaren. Sainz who had had a lowly qualifying on Saturday, starting the race in P9, chose the hard tyres whereas the majority of the grid went with medium tyres. The Spaniard suffered a slow start, dropping to P14 by lap 2. On lap 2, he tried to get past Zhou Guanyu at the fast turn 9 chicane. As a result he went off track, spun and beached his car into the gravel, marking his first retirement of the season. A safety car was called out.
As the safety car was called in on lap 7, Perez was right on the gearbox of Hamilton. By Lap 10, using the Red Bull’s superior pace he the Mexican was able to get past the 7-time world champion to run in P3. Behind, Russell was running in P5 followed by Norris and teammate Daniel Ricciardo in P6 and P7 respectively.
Both Red Bull cars struggled on the mediums with tyre graining as Verstappen fell away from Leclerc and Hamilton closed up, almost within a second of Perez. Verstappen was called into the pits for hard tyres on lap 18 with Perez doing the same on lap 20. Leclerc and Hamilton pitted on lap 22, for hard tyres as well. While Leclerc emerged in a comfortable lead, Hamilton emerged just under a second ahead of Perez on colder tyres. Perez made full use of the situation in getting past Hamilton for the second time.
The situation could not have been worse for Hamilton as a safety car was called out just after Perez went past, this time due to Sebastian Vettel spinning his Aston Martin into a barrier. This allowed Russell to pit under the safety car and emerge in P3, ahead of Perez and Hamilton.
The racing resumed on lap 27 with everyone on hard tyres, drivers like Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon were yet to pit, running in the top 10. Leclerc had a shaky start as Verstappen drew alongside but the Ferrari driver managed to hold on in the lead. Meanwhile, Perez attempted to get past Russell for P3 which he succeeded on lap 36. Russell tried to defend but had no answer for the Red Bull’s pace. Ahead Leclerc was leading by 5s over Verstappen with both of them trading fastest laps in the process.
Gremlins struck Verstappen as he pulled over on lap 39 with smoke billowing from his RB18. This was his second DNF in three races and his championship hopes took a deeper dent. This allowed Leclerc to cruise to victory and take home an additional point for the fastest lap.
Leclerc won his second race of the season as Perez gave achieved another podium for Red Bull while Russell bagged his first podium for Mercedes in P3. Hamilton was unfortunate with the timing of the safety car so had to settle for P4. McLaren duo of Norris and Ricciardo finished in P5 and P6 respectively. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished in P7 ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in P8 and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in P9. Alex Albon put in a mammoth 57 lap (out of 58 laps) stint on the hard tyresto get first point of the season for Williams.
Rookie Zhou Guanyu just missed out on points ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P12, who finished in points position but lost it due to a 5-second time penalty given to him for weaving on the straights. Both Haas cars finished out of the points, Mick Schumacher in P13 and Magnussen in P14. Yuki Tsunoda could only manage P15 for AlphaTauri, with Williams’ Nicholas Latifi finishing in P16. Alonso was the last of the finishers in P17. Verstappen, Vettel and Sainz were the three cars unable to finish the race.
Ferrari looked dominant in Australia, especially when it came to race pace. Even though they suffered more porpoising compared to the first two rounds, Red Bull could not match their pace. Had Sainz not had the problems suffered in qualifying he might have been second behind Leclerc in the world championship. Red Bull lacked pace, even to the Mercedes at certain points in the race. Majority of the blame lies with the set-up direction they chose. They opted to protect rear tyres compared to the front. As a result the front tyres suffered graining and the car lacked overall pace. Compounded with Verstappen’s DNF they have a steep mountain to climb if they want to be back in the championship battle. Mercedes struggled in qualifying but made a positive improvement in race pace. They were outqualified by McLaren and should have been by Alpine as well had Alonso not crashed in Q3. Race pace wise it was positive as once tyres phased in they had similar pace to the Red Bull cars.
McLaren had their best race weekend of the season so far, finishing best of the rest and entering Q3 with both cars. For the first time it looked McLaren had made progress with their car. Though, both drivers admitted that their car is “very track dependent” so repeat of such performances will be difficult. Alpine had a weekend of ‘what ifs’. Alonso had a great Q3 lap, almost challenging pole position before hydraulics failure resulted in a crash. According to the Spaniard Alpine were faster than Mercedes on race pace too, but safety cars ruined the strategy. They had a silver lining as Ocon managed to finish P7. Alfa Romeo showed impressive race pace once again as Bottas managed P8 while teammate Zhou just finished on the cusp of points. AlphaTauri managed to score points with Gasly but lacked the pace to match the Alpine and McLaren cars, with both cars unable to make it to Q3.
Williams did not have the qualifying or the race pace to challenge for points, but Albon managed to pull off a crazy strategy which resulted in P10. Haas struggled to covert their early season form into pace in Australia. They struggled for both qualifying and race pace. The team blamed it more on their setup issue rather than a natural pace deficit. It remains to be seen if they will recover back to form in Imola. Aston Martin had a dismal weekend with their cars crashing four times and achieving no points. Their car has balance issues which is making it difficult for them to extract the pace.
Saturday Qualifying results were:
P1: Charles Leclerc- 16 (Ferrari) P2: Max Verstappen- 1 (Red Bull) P3: Sergio Perez- 11 (Red Bull) P4: Lando Norris- 4 (McLaren) P5: Lewis Hamilton- 44 (Mercedes) P6: George Russell- 63 (Mercedes) P7: Daniel Ricciardo- 3 (McLaren) P8: Esteban Ocon- 31 (Alpine) P9: Carlos Sainz- 55 (Ferrari) P10: Fernando Alonso- 14 (Alpine) P11: Pierre Gasly- 10 (AlphaTauri) P12: Valtteri Bottas- 77 (Alfa Romeo) P13: Yuki Tsunoda- 22 (AlphaTauri) P14: Zhou Guanyu- 24 (Alfa Romeo) P15: Mick Schumacher- 47 (Haas) P16: Alex Albon- 23 (Williams) P17: Kevin Magnussen- 20 (Haas) P18: Sebastian Vettel- 5 (Aston Martin) P19: Nicholas Latifi- 6 (Williams) P20: Lance Stroll- 18 (Aston Martin) Note – Albon penalised three grid places for causing a collision at the previous round; disqualified from qualifying for a fuel infringement – races at stewards’ discretion. Stroll penalised three grid places for causing a collision during qualifying; failed to set a time within the Q1 107% requirement – races at stewards’ discretion.
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Hamilton achieves 150th points-finish; Bottas gets fastest lap and a point
Lewis Hamilton took his 97th career victory and second of the season ahead of chief title rival Max Verstappen in 2nd and Mercedes teammate and pole sitter Valtteri Bottas in 3rd. The race win also meant that Hamilton achieved points for the 150th time since joining Mercedes in 2013.
London, 3 May 2021: Lewis Hamilton passed Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas on track to take a well-managed victory with the latter two completing the podium, Bottas bagging an extra point for the fastest lap of the race. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez finished P4, his highest result since joining the Austrian squad. McLaren’s Lando Norris achieved P5, meaning he’s finished in the top 5 in all three races this season. Charles Leclerc brought home his Ferrari in P6 as Alpine achieved consecutive double points finishes with Esteban Ocon in P7 and Fernando Alonso in P8. Daniel Ricciardo recovered his McLaren to P9 after a disappointing qualifying with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz crossed the line in P11 due to a strategy mistake, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi. Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll finished P13 and P14 respectively for Aston Martin. Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda came home in P15. George Russell complained the Williams of being undrivable as he only managed P16 by the end of the chequered flag. Mick Schumacher overtook Williams’ Nicholas Latifi in the last stages of the race to finish P17. Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin finished last- P19 and the only retiree was Kimi Raikkonen.
The top four cars of Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen and Perez started on the medium tyres. The top 3 got off the line well as they maintained the order heading into the uphill turn 4, while Perez lost a position to Sainz. Behind Ocon had jumped Norris, but the Briton pulled off a move on the outside of turn 11 to regain his position. Ricciardo too had made up three positions from P16. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was trying to slipstream Alfa Romeo teammate Giovinazzi when he ran into the back of him, dislodging his front wing and going into the gravel at turn 1. This brought out the safety car.
Bottas did a brilliant restart on lap 7 as Hamilton was slow to react, eventually being overtaken by Verstappen for P2. Behind, Sainz made a mistake as he dropped to P6 and Norris passed Perez for P4. Perez complaining that the McLaren driver had passed him off the track.
Hamilton repaid the favour to Verstappen on lap 11, using DRS and sling shotting past the Dutchman in turn 1, with the Red Bull power unit unable to match Mercedes. With that Hamilton was on the gearbox of Bottas, eventually passing his teammate on lap 20 to take the lead. The running order now was Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen and Perez, albeit Perez far behind the top 3. Norris was best of the rest ahead of Sainz, Leclerc, Ocon, Gasly and Ricciardo.
Ferrari blinked first as they brought in Sainz for medium tyre on lap 21. To cover Sainz, Norris and Ocon pitted on lap 22, McLaren opting for the medium tyres whereas Alpine choosing the hard tyres. Gasly pitted on lap 24, choosing mediums as well while Leclerc pitted a lap later changing from mediums to hard tyres.
Pirelli Graphic At the front of the field to undercut Bottas, Verstappen pitted on lap 35 for hard tyres. Bottas following suit the next lap came out just ahead of Verstappen but on colder tyres. As Bottas struggled for traction Verstappen with help of DRS moved ahead of the Finn before turn 5. Meanwhile race leader Hamilton pitted on lap 37 for hard tyres, emerging in P2 but having the net lead as Perez was yet to pit.
Behind the Leclerc passed Sainz on the instructions from Ferrari as the Spaniard struggled on the medium set of tyres. Ocon passed Sainz on lap 44. A fast-charging Alonso was flying on his set of the hard tyres as he passed Ricciardo and Sainz in quick succession to take P8. The final nail in the coffin came when Gasly passed Sainz dropping the Ferrari driver out of points.
Meanwhile, at the front Perez did a mammoth 51 lap stint on the medium tyres, eventually pitting for soft tyres in a bid to set the fastest lap of the race. Bottas was closing in on Verstappen but an exhaust sensor issue meant he suffered a power loss and lost 4s to the Red Bull. Bottas had enough of a gap to pit for soft tyres and emerge in front of Perez, in a bid to set the fastest lap. On lap 63 bolting on the softs the Finn set about going for the fastest lap point. Verstappen did the same thing next lap and although he did set the fastest lap due to track limits the time was deleted and the point went to Bottas.
With Hamilton’s second victory of the season, he now leads the championship by 8 points over Verstappen while Mercedes double podium means that they lead the constructor’s championship over Red Bull by 18 points. With 20 more races yet to come it is game on!
Pirelli Graphic Mercedes was the outright fastest car this weekend as can be seen in both qualifying and the race. It is not the case that Mercedes have brought upgrades but more of the circuit characteristics suiting the W12 compared to the Red Bull. Red Bull evidently struggled in the low grip of the Portimao circuit, especially in race trim. Red Bull brought some upgrades to their floor and bargeboard area which seemed to make gains for them. The picture between the top 2 will be clearer next time out in Barcelona which is a more conventional circuit.
McLaren once again were the best of the rest behind the top 2, though this time they had a less of an advantage over immediate rivals Ferrari. Ferrari will be happy to beat McLaren in qualifying, but they struggled in the race to manage the tyres, especially mediums. Once again, the caveat being that this race was an outlier in terms of surface grip being very low. Alpine will be positive about the aerodynamic package introduced in the last race at Imola, as they achieved double points finish. The A521 showing top 10 qualifying pace in the hands of Ocon as well. AlphaTauri lacked both qualifying and race pace to challenge any of the midfield cars with Gasly picking up a solitary point in P10. After showing promising pace in the opening two rounds of the season they will be looking to bounce back at Barcelona next week.
A safety car period at Round 3 at Portimao on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG F1 team image Aston Martin were nowhere near top 10 this weekend. Vettel impressed in qualifying as he reached Q3 but that pace disappeared come race day. Stroll’s car had some new aerodynamic parts, but it remains to be seen if they are enough to make a leap forward for the British racing team. Alfa Romeo were on the fringes of points once again but could not break through to top 10. With Raikkonen retiring they had one less car on the strategy side, but the potential is there to achieve points. Williams had a contrasting weekend with Russell showing blistering qualifying pace, starting P11. But the FW43B was edgy and undrivable on heavy fuel in the race. Williams need to sort out these unpredictable characteristics of the car if they are to achieve points in 2021. Haas had a positive weekend with Schumacher able to split the Williams in the race and both drivers able to complete the race without any major incidents.
Saturday Qualifying Results were:
P1: Valtteri Bottas- 77 (Mercedes) P2: Lewis Hamilton- 44 (Mercedes) P3: Max Verstappen- 33 (Red Bull) P4: Sergio Perez- 11 (Red Bull) P5: Carlos Sainz- 55 (Ferrari) P6: Esteban Ocon- 31 (Alpine) P7: Lando Norris- 4 (McLaren) P8: Charles Leclerc- 16 (Ferrari) P9: Pierre Gasly- 10 (AlphaTauri) P10: Sebastian Vettel- 5 (Aston Martin) P11: George Russell- 63 (Williams) P12: Antonio Giovinazzi- 99 (Alfa Romeo) P13: Fernando Alonso- 14 (Alpine) P14: Yuki Tsunoda- 22 (AlphaTauri) P15: Kimi Raikkonen- 7 (Alfa Romeo) P16: Daniel Ricciardo- 3 (McLaren) P17: Lance Stroll- 18 (Aston Martin) P18: Nicholas Latifi- 6 (Williams) P19: Mick Schumacher- 47 (Haas) P20: Nikita Mazepin- 9 (Haas)
