In the round-up: Alexander Albon says he could have done better in qualifying in Singapore.
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What they say
Albon qualified sixth, half a second slower than team mate Max Verstappen:It’s okay. It’s not great, though. I would want be doing better than that.
Obviously this track’s not easy. I think it’s maybe one of the tracks with the biggest gaps between drivers in a general sense.
The car went away from me a little bit until the last run in Q3. We did a couple of changes and it went a lot better. If I knew that before obviously I would have made the call earlier in the session by Q1 or Q2. Just kind of learning. It was good to experience but if I did it again I would have made a few changes.
The track was quite surprising it wasn’t quite as aggressive the track evolution like it has been in previous years. So it was not an easy session but in the end, [sixth], I would like to have been a bit quicker to be honest.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Snapshot
Colton Herta beat the IndyCar’s title contenders to pole position for today’s season finale at Laguna Seca. He’ll lined up on pole position ahead of Scott Dixon. Points leaders Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden line up in reverse championship order on row two followed by James Hinchclife and another title contender, Simon Pagenaud.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
That means @Charles_Leclerc now has the most pole position of any driver this year:
Leclerc 5
Hamilton 4
Bottas 4
Vettel 1
Verstappen 1https://t.co/gyZ4TkbZUK #F1 #SingaporeGP— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) September 21, 2019
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
"I think there was more in the package than what we got. We changed the car after yesterday, reverted to a lot of parts from the Melbourne-spec – on my side of the garage."
"Unfortunately, I took the chequered flag before opening my final lap. It’s a shame but that’s how it is."
A fraction short on Saturday in Singapore (Racing Point)
"It’s very unfortunate that I damaged the car in final practice. This circuit doesn’t allow a single mistake, but I made one."
Front-row start for Lewis in Singapore (Mercedes)
"We could have done a better job of giving our drivers good out-laps. We seemed to need a faster lap than the others to bring the tyres in but as soon as we left the garage we’d have a group of cars roll out in front of us and end up starting the lap with tyres that were out of the temperature window."
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Comment of the day
Is Daniel Ricciardo’s penalty too harsh?
I support a penalty no matter how small the infringement, but I don’t get it. If it was only on one lap that the infringement occurred, and all his other laps were fine and still enabled him to finish in the grid position he qualified in, then why the DQ?
To me it’s like someone exceeding track limits on one lap only but discounting all of their laps as a result.
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On this day in F1
- 45 years ago today Emerson Fittipaldi won the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of Clay Regazzoni, which meant the pair went into the final round tied for the lead of the championship
Scalextric (@scalextric)
22nd September 2019, 0:15
Race driver wants to be quicker. Film at 11.
Qeki (@qeki)
22nd September 2019, 10:18
We all do Alex. We all do
Andre Furtado
22nd September 2019, 1:07
Sadly he has been a disappointment. RedBu should bring Alonso back.
Brendon
22nd September 2019, 2:56
What?! Are you high?
RocketTankski
22nd September 2019, 11:35
RedBu should bring Fangio back.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd September 2019, 1:55
Leclerc has most poles ! ” Not bad for a number 2 driver”.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
22nd September 2019, 1:58
In reference to COTD.
It was DQ because it was a technical infringement & any infringement of the technical regulations in qualifying (Or the race for that matter) is an immediate Disqualification. It’s something that’s been a clear part of the regulations with a clearly defined penalty for I think a few decades now.
It’s the same reason you see drivers getting a DQ for tiny seemingly insignificant irregularities with bodywork dimensions & stuff. The sporting regulations have a more varied set of penalties with more leeway but the technical side is very strict in order to try & stop teams even thinking about trying something illegal. Theory been if you know it’s an instant DQ if you get caught your far less likely to try & remember a lot of that stuff was put together by guys like Charlie Whiting who skirted the rules quite a bit in the 70s/early 80s & therefore knew what teams would try & how best to deter them from trying it.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd September 2019, 2:03
DanRic’s dsq. I’m not going to complain about the application of the rules, but the rule itself makes a nonsense of the whole “F1 super efficient hybrid technology” thing, the cars have to carry around the weight of the hybrid components but are severely restricted in how much they can use it. It makes a mockery of the claim that F1 is a development series.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
22nd September 2019, 2:41
He may well have been if he’d left a bigger gap between himself and Max on his hot laps.
Every time they actually showed Max cross the line, his car was clearly in shot so he would have had to be in pretty dirty air for a lot of his lap.
Speaking of watching contenders cross the line how stupid were the directors following Perez for the final run in Q2 instead of the cars that were trying to stamp their authority at the front??
TFLB (@tflb)
22nd September 2019, 7:48
@dbradock not stupid at all. Perez was the closest car to getting out of Q2, which is the point of that session, so he was the most interesting car to watch at that point.
Paul
22nd September 2019, 3:26
None of the Red Bull drivers other than Verstappen have proven a good replacement for Ricciardo.
They really should look at hiring Hulkenberg and getting rid of one of the 3.
either that or start looking for a new Australian for the Red Bull Driver program. Clearly they need an Aussie in the second seat after the relative success of Webber and Ricciardo.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
22nd September 2019, 5:08
Red Bull have stuck to their guns and promoted from within and I think they should be applauded for that. Given the talent they have fought through it’s not been a bad formula either.
I think Albon shows promise. No he’s not a Max but then very very few drivers are. He seems to be ticking the right boxes in terms of his approach (it is after all his 3rd race in a car that is completely different to the one he started the season in and ran comfortably in the top 6 on one of the most difficult tracks of the season. I’ll reserve judgment until he gets through the next few races.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd September 2019, 8:38
Red Bull want the youngest talented drivers they can get, teens and pre-teens are the target market for the product that pays the bills.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd September 2019, 7:28
Kubica didn’t get flagged on the TV-graphics, though.
Regarding the COTD: The technical regulations are a bit different to the sporting regulations regarding the leeway-aspect as @gt-racer points out.
F1oSaurus (@)
22nd September 2019, 11:01
The COTD completely misses the point of the way these checks work though. The teams are supposed to keep a safety margin. Renault running their MGU-K too close to the limit gives them a continued benefit over the other teams.
Unless/until they get caught out. So now this happened and then they cry.