3/23/2023 0 Comments F1 2017 spain race![]() He kept his Ferrari nailed to the track while Verstappen and Carlos Sainz made errors and ran his own race out front thereafter – only for a power unit issue to curtail his day and cost him his championship lead as he heads home to Monaco, hoping to end a torrid spell of bad luck there. – JC Losers Charles Leclercīefore his retirement, Leclerc appeared to be on for the most comfortably victory of the 2022 season so far. It capped a good afternoon for Alpine, too, as Esteban Ocon’s drive to best-of-the-rest-of-the-rest behind Bottas, after a similarly no-nonsense rise into the points, gave him seventh. He said he’d need “one of those mega fantastic safety cars in the right moment” to get a couple of points, so his prospects looked even worse when Alpine elected to change his engine, sending him to the back of the grid.īut then came a classic Alonso drive with plenty of incisive overtaking that yielded the couple of points he thought was a fantasy. Fernando Alonso was surprised by Alpine’s tail-off in pace from Friday, where he was easily in the top 10, to Saturday, where even without a “misunderstanding” over how much time he had to start a lap that meant he was out in Q1 he felt 12th or 13th was the best on offer. ![]() What a difference a day – or two – makes. Precautionary given the heat, yes, but it still shows just how under the weather he was. Norris said on Saturday he’d been “suffering with my throat, and eyes, and seeing”, and come the end of the race he did not attend the media mixed zone so he could be seen by the team doctor. The McLaren looked a marginal Q3 car on Saturday, so that he just missed out on the top 10 – and even then only after a lap was deleted for track limits – wasn’t too bad a result, having also missed the FP2 long runs a day earlier after a costly trip through the gravel.īut in the race, he negotiated the start trouble, then picked off the cars he needed to in order to make his race – to the extent that McLaren felt it had “control” of its battle with the nearest cars and whether to stick on a two-stop or pit for a third time.Īll this while he was feeling far from well all weekend – with tonsillitis, according to team boss Andreas Seidl. – MB Lando NorrisĮighth place is by no means a headline result for McLaren, particularly as it had a sizeable upgrade package for Barcelona yet now seems to be adrift of Alfa Romeo in the pecking order and behind Alpine too, but in the context of the rest of Lando Norris’s weekend, it represented a good return. But in performance terms, this was a great weekend. Perhaps the outcome showed a lingering lack of strategic sharpness that will hurt when Alfa Romeo’s racing in such illustrious company. While fourth would’ve been outstanding, this is still a team that’s gone from just about scoring on occasion and often going out in Q1 to being sad when it finishes only sixth because a Mercedes and a Ferrari passed it late on. It’s a points loss that might hurt too – Alfa Romeo could be seven points behind fourth-placed McLaren in the championship now not 11, and nine clear of chasing Alpine not five.īut Alfa Romeo’s return to F1 respectability is not yet so well established that a sixth place feels disappointing. Given he’d spent the majority of the race in a pressure-free fourth place, Valtteri Bottas was right to sound peeved on team radio that Alfa Romeo sticking to a two-stop strategy left him only sixth at the end. In both pace and fighting spirit terms, Mercedes offered so much hope to its fans today. Though Russell looked like he would again be Mercedes’ hero with his gallant efforts to fend off the Red Bulls for a podium and then the race lead, Lewis Hamilton went from first-lap damage to intimating he ought to retire the car to a remarkable charge from a distant 19th to fourth before the water leak that dropped him to fifth. Still only third and fifth, and limping at the end with overheating cars, but Mercedes provided strong evidence in Spain that it’s back in business and both its drivers had a huge amount to be proud of. Red Bull made the tough but necessary call with Sergio Perez who did a stellar job to earn Red Bull’s second one-two of the season. It gives Verstappen the championship lead, and although in slightly fortuitous circumstances, considering Verstappen’s reliability-induced retirements from Bahrain and Australia, he’ll likely have little sympathy for Leclerc’s plight. His DRS woes during the multitude of laps he spent behind George Russell looked to further cement his loser status but then Leclerc retired and Verstappen fired in the fast laps on the soft tyres to ensure the victory was his – via a Red Bull team order that he probably didn’t need to overcome Sergio Perez.
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