19/10/2024
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's Sprint the air temperature is 27 degrees C, while the track temperature is 42 degrees. It is bright, sunny and hot.
While Max Verstappen starts from pole it was interesting to note that on his fastest lap he wasn't quickest in any of the three sectors, while George Russell was only 0.012s behind.
Interestingly, the Mercedes pair appeared to be at sixes and sevens in practice but subsequently took a significant step forward when it mattered. Indeed, but for the yellow flag that followed Colapinto's off, Lewis Hamilton felt that pole was on the cards.
On the other hand, Ferrari, having looked strong in practice appeared to lose ground, while McLaren had a bit of a nightmare, with Lando Norris a quarter of a second off the pace and his teammate failing to make it out of SQ1 after having his time deleted.
While the drivers insist that it is Sunday that counts, this is not entirely true, for there are point available today, points which could prove every bit as vital as that 'lost' by Norris in Singapore.
Of particular interest yesterday were the Haas pair, who qualified sixth and eighth, while at Williams Colapinto is proving to be a very, very interesting prospect.
Other than Piastri starting from 16th, Perez starts 11th, which means that neither of the title contender has support. Furthermore, staring within 'the pack' both are open to incidents which could further compromise them on Sunday.
The pitlane opens and the drivers begin to head out, among them Piastri who runs wide in an effort to overtake Zhou. Last out are Verstappen and Colapinto.
Having made changes to his car overnight, Albon starts from the pitlane, the Thai having qualified 18th after a massive spin in SQ1 which ruined what would have been his best lap.
Pirelli expects that, as was the case last year, the medium will be the favourite tyre - last year only Sainz used the soft). On Sunday also, the medium will be the most used tyre, which explains why in free practice, with the exception of the Sauber duo, all the drivers used at least one set of hards.
All are starting on mediums, Tsunoda, Piastri, Ocon Zhou and Albon on fresh rubber.
Hey head off on the formation lap, all getting away, Verstappen leading the field for the first time since the Red Bull Ring.
Hamilton complains of a clicking noise from his front-right wheel when braking.
The grid forms.
They're away! Verstappen gets away well and moves to the inside to cover Turn 1. Behind Russell, Norris and the Ferraris are three abreast through the first corner, and as Russell struggles the McLaren is through while Leclerc and his teammate battle.
Russell tries to fight back but Norris is away and now the Mercedes is under pressure from the Ferraris.
As Alonso runs wide in Turn 4, Tsunoda and Magnussen are battling as now Leclerc passes the struggling Russell who subsequently retakes the position.
At the end of Lap 1, it's: Verstappen, Norris, Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg and Perez.
As Magnussen is told he's doing a "super job", the Ferrari pair are battling. Sainz passes his teammate but runs deep and loses the position.
Lap 2 sees Russell post a new fastest lap (38.542) as he seeks to close the 0.83s gap to Norris who is 0.85s down on Verstappen.
"We've got to try and come back on the others," warns Leclerc as he continues to battle his teammate.
Stroll is up to 12th, while his teammate is 16th, behind Piastri and Lawson.
Colapinto and Russell have times deleted after exceeding track limits.
Perez runs wide after almost tripping over the Magnussen/Tsunoda battle.
The Ferraris are side-by-side, Leclerc runs wide and his teammate is through. The Spaniard leaves Ferrari for Williams at season end so the gloves would appear to be off.
"Let's go and get them, guys," urges Sainz.
Just ahead, Russell is all over Norris and as the pair battle this plays into the hands of race leader Verstappen.
Norris is told that Verstappen is potentially damaging his rears a bit more that the McLaren.
Piastri has passed Gasly for 13th, as the Australian is noted for forcing another driver off track.
1.8s down on Leclerc in sixth, Hamilton is 6.1s clear of Magnussen.
Lawson and Alonso are battling for 16th, having been passed by Ocon in quick succession, while Hulkenberg has passed Tsunoda for 8th.
"Such an idiot," says Alonso of Lawson.
Sainz passes Russell for third as Leclerc closes in, the Mercedes drivers tyres clearly well past their best.
In clean air, Sainz goes quickest in S1.
"My front left is toast," warns Russell as he is passed by Leclerc.
As Piastri hassles Colapinto the Australian is handed a 5sd time penalty for forcing Gasly off track.
Lap 11 sees a new fastest lap from Leclerc (37.748) as he closes to within a second of his teammate.
2.2s down his title rival, Norris is told to manage his tyres.
Tsunoda catches Perez napping to claim 9th, however the Mexican fights back and retakes the position, the pair possibly fighting for a 2025 seat at Red Bull.
Piastri passes Colapinto for 11th and immediately starts to battle Tsunoda who is in no mood to yield.
Norris has slipped to 2.2s down on Verstappen and just 1.5s ahead of Sainz who still has Leclerc on his tail.
In his efforts to hold off Piastri, Tsunoda runs wide and is told to hand back the position. However, he shows no sign of doing so, insisting that the Australian forced him off.
Finally, on Lap 16, Piastri passes Tsunoda for 10th, as the stewards investigate the previous incident.
Gasly is shown the black and white flag for track limits violations.
"Just make sure you look after your car when racing," Hamilton is told as he closes to within a second of his teammate.
Meanwhile, Leclerc is just 0.5s down on his Ferrari teammate.
"Goes without saying, keep it nice and clean," Russell is warned as his teammate closes in.
Losing ground to the leader, Norris is under attack from the Ferrari pair.
"Don't talk to me in the braking zone," snaps Hamilton.
Verstappen starts the final lap and moments later Norris locks-up in Turn 1, allowing Sainz through.
Another lock-up from Norris, who has DRS from Sainz, sees Leclerc almost pass the McLaren, the pair almost colliding shortly after as the Briton struggles to control his car.
"Moving under braking," claims Leclerc. "We will complain about Norris," he is assured.
Verstappen takes the flag ahead of Sainz, Norris, Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Perez and Piastri.
Tsunoda is eleventh, ahead of Colapinto, Stroll, Gasly, Ocon, Lawson, Albon, Alonso, Zhou and Bottas.
Check out our Saturday gallery from COTA here.
If nothing else, today suggests, depending on any unforeseen issues in qualifying, that Ferrari will be the biggest challenge to Verstappen tomorrow, while McLaren and Mercedes clearly have issues.
"It was a good race," says Norris, "I'm pretty happy with how things ended up.
"I thought I could hang on to second," he adds, "but my front tyres were completely finished.
"A disappointing end but happy with the race result and a good amount of points."
"Honestly, those were fun battles," grins Sainz. "A good Sprint, we had a lot going on and towards the end I was starting to struggle with the tyres but I saw Lando struggling and I thought if I could get into DRS, I could get P2.
"Our pace was decent, which is encouraging for tomorrow."
It was not too bad, feels a bit like old times! I'm very happy with today. Finally we were racing again, normally we were looking back behind us but now we can do our own race. It's always a hectic weekend to get the car in the right window, so there is more pressure on delivering."
A disappoint end for Norris could become even more disappointing as the Briton is to be investigated for "driving erratically".