In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas says he does not understand how Alfa Romeo team mate Zhou Guanyu managed to reach Q2 where he could not
In brief
Bottas amazed by Zhou escaping Q1
Bottas was the last car eliminated from Q1 in 16th place as team mate Zhou comfortably made it through into Q2 in tenth place before qualifying 13th on the grid.
After spinning in the early part of the first session, Bottas said Alfa Romeo struggled to find grip in the damp conditions.
“I think we just lacked a bit of pace and grip,” Bottas said in response to a question from RaceFans. “I don’t know how my team mate managed to get through – I didn’t feel like there was much more lap in terms of how much I was sliding and so on. It’s so different conditions for the tyre temperatures and everything that probably were not in the right window. So we need to have a look at it.”
Correa and Nissany hit by grip drop penalties
Multiple Formula 2 drivers received grid penalties for today’s feature race in Barcelona, after a dramatic sprint event yesterday.Juan Manuel Correa will start in 14th following a three-place grid drop for contact with Roman Stanek at turn one, while a five-place penalty for crashing into Jehan Daruvala now leaves Roy Nissany on the back-row after initially qualifying 16th.
In the final laps of the sprint race, Nissany locked up and ran straight into the side of Daruvala at the apex of turn ten. While stewards deemed Nissany “wholly responsible” for the incident, they found Correa to only be “predominantly at fault” for his collision.
Jaguar must ensure more team mate clashes can’t happen – Barclay
Jaguar Formula E team principal James Barclay says that his team need to ensure there can be no more clashes between drivers Sam Bird and Mitch Evans after Bird hit Evans during yesterday’s first Jakarta EPrix.
The pair were running in eighth and ninth in the final laps of yesterday’s race when Bird ran into the back of Evans into turn one, sending Evans spinning out of the race. It is the second time Bird has taken Evans out of a race this season, following their collision in India. Bird immediately apologised on his radio, and was penalised with a five-second post-race penalty by the stewards.
Barclay said that the team had immediately spoken with their drivers to address the clash after the race. “We managed that straight away,” he said. “We just need to focus forward now – there’s no point looking back. But for sure we need to ensure that we don’t let that happen.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Inside a Formula 1 Garage With Team Alpine (Boardroom)
"Roughly a half dozen Alpine crew members operate on each car with the deafening cacophony you’d expect in the most technical body shop you’ve ever seen. Another half dozen or so are looking at the aforementioned screens, assessing how each tweak impacts the rest of the vehicle. Others buzz in and out of the garage as crew members monitor equipment, clean the car, and even play around with dangerously cold containers of dry ice to cool the brakes labeled left and right."
Why Brands and Automakers Join Forces for Formula 1 Racing (Robb Report)
"I believe that F1 has completely evolved with the times, and this is reflected in its growing audience day by day. It’s an evolving sport where each year the rules are modified to meet the needs of the race as well as the expectations of the public, but also the cars. And especially the cars! "
Wehrlein praises Porsche's 'big turnaround' after Jakarta victory (Formula E)
"The last couple of races, we were not where we wanted to be. We did not score the points we wanted, and qualifying was a big issue. Today with P3, we qualified in the best position so far this season. The start was good, and we did the perfect thing strategy-wise. A big turnaround for us in the last couple of weeks. Thanks a lot to the team for all the hard work. Still, a long way to go."
Verschoor upbeat after ‘unusual’ Sprint race but outright pace remains a weakness (Formula 2)
"I really enjoyed that one! I was hoping for some rain before the race started. I don't think we were the fastest car out there, but I still managed to do a good race, so I'm really happy with that. A lot of things to improve for tomorrow. Even though we had only a few laps in the dry, I think that we need to work on some things"
Risking 'a crash for one extra point didn’t make sense,' Browning says (Formula Scout)
"I tried all I could, we definitely had a pace advantage at the start. It was quite sizable that I could go for the move and get alongside, but it wasn’t enough to seal the deal. I think we did all we could today. Zak did a good job with defending and ultimately it wasn’t worth me really pushing it through for one extra point."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
|@Max33Verstappen: "I think our next upgrade will be without sidepods and then everyone can copy that…" #F1 #SpanishGP #RaceFans
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 3, 2023
Good to see the #SpanishGP organisers have fixed their pesky traffic issues after over 30 years of hosting. Standstill traffic 6 minutes out of the track #F1 pic.twitter.com/nxA3Q3NIdI
— Claire Cottingham (@Cla_Cottingham) June 3, 2023
Best quali of the season so far finishing P7 🤘🏼Really happy about the great teamwork today in a tricky qualifying.. we'll start in a decent position and feel prepared to race hard tomorrow !!#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/N7ksppArwM
— Nico Hülkenberg (@HulkHulkenberg) June 3, 2023
After watching that onboard.. calling it, pole and win for @smclaughlin93. The penske shocks look absolutely spot on riding those bumps
— Stefan Wilson (@stef_wilson) June 3, 2023
Heartbreak for @nolan_siegel!
The race leader slowed on the final 2 corners with a gearbox issue.#INDYNXT // #DetroitGP pic.twitter.com/fEmrYBPgX4
— INDY NXT (@INDYNXT) June 3, 2023
Mega congrats to Sebastian Wheldon on his first career car win!
Victory in Skip Barber today at @VIRNow! 👏👏#AllAndretti pic.twitter.com/pQamQOR16K
— Andretti Autosport (@FollowAndretti) June 3, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
With yet another pole position for Max Verstappen, @david-br believes the world champion is in a different league to anyone else on the grid at the moment…
Verstappen is becoming Ferrari/Schumacher-level untouchable, so way ahead, car and driver, that it’s actually difficult to gauge anything. A separate formula almost. Meanwhile everyone else seem increasingly bunched up. But until Mercedes can introduce a new chassis next year (and copy that really quite stunningly beautiful Red Bull floor), I can’t imagine them bothering Verstappen on the time sheets.
David BR
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Nathan Bradley, Alexf1Man and Sam Lotay!
On this day in motorsport
- 45 years ago today Lotus swept to a one-two in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, Mario Andretti leading Ronnie Peterson home
Jere (@jerejj)
4th June 2023, 5:31
Zhou just did better & COTD is probably right.
Finally, traffic issues indeed shouldn’t be a thing time & time again with circuits.
mc4ren (@mc4ren)
4th June 2023, 5:49
Traffic was again an issue, and actually this year is the worst I remember by far. Qualy was the las track event, it finished at about 5 PM local time. At 7:30 PM we were still inside the circuit roads. Absolute chaos.
mc4ren (@mc4ren)
4th June 2023, 11:35
Good old Fritz-Dieter Rencken suffering, too.
https://twitter.com/RacingLines/status/1665240946378780673
MichaelN
4th June 2023, 11:53
Having F1 as the last event isn’t the best idea, as that does tend to keep everyone in the stands and then leave at the same time. It wouldn’t make much sense to build infrastructure that has to be maintained all year for two days of peak traffic, so some delays are inevitable – especially when public transport is a poor alternative (according to Google Maps, the best option is a once-an-hour bus to Barcelona that’s a 30 minute walk away from the track; the circuit itself lists a train as an option that’s over 45 minutes walk away from the track).
Qeki (@qeki)
4th June 2023, 8:52
Would I want 20 Verstappens in ten different teams or would I want 20 similar cars driven by 20 different drivers. In any cases in todays world Verstappen would win. Well at least if he could be as familiar with that car as he is with Red Bull. But in the first case Verstappen would be last so that doesn’t happen in any other scenario.
In the latter case if all the cars would be Red Bulls then Red Bull would be last and that could happen in real life because in the other Red Bull we have Perez who is not as good as Verstappen. So I would take 20 Verstappens in 10 different teams just to witness 20+ double wins for the Red Bull pair of Verstappen – Verstappen but then the last place would be Verstappen – Verstappen in Williams.
baasbas
4th June 2023, 10:59
@qeki
Last Verstappen is still better than DNF-Verstappen in the Ferrari though…
David BR (@david-br)
4th June 2023, 13:27
Thanks for COTD. I think since Spa last year, Verstappen’s attitude (not driving as such) has switched from edgy challenger to 100% confident champion. Since then, he’s been mostly untouchable. Given Perez offers no real contest at most venues, it’s now just a question of how long the other teams take to catch up.