New on RaceFans
- Live: 2023 Japanese Grand Prix
- Alonso “very proud” to maintain Q3 run at track team was “concerned about”
- Verstappen sitting pretty but unexpectedly hot track could cook up drama
- The “big step” AlphaTauri saw from Tsunoda which earned him a new deal
- Suzuka layout ‘punishes’ Mercedes’ weakness in high-speed corners
- Sainz blames late set-up change for qualifying performance at Japanese GP
- Russell admits he “took a step backwards” after Friday practice
- Steward’s admission Verstappen should have had penalty frustrates his rivals
- Perez admits he’s “two steps behind” after qualifying 0.7s off Verstappen at Suzuka
- No penalties for Leclerc, Bottas and Zhou for exceeding lap time limit
I’m hoping for an exciting race behind Max assuming he wins comfortably.
Pk
Nice lap for albon
Crossing the track. Hope the marshals told him it was oke
ups Lawson. Yeah oversteer snap like in practice, but ‘powering through’ isn’t always the smartest way to go.
Excelente
Fhf
Lol el mejor
Wow
The last half was great and so good to have a new winner :)
And Carlos… 10/10 he used to be a bit slower than Charles, tough more consistent, steady and less prone to silly mistakes. Well not anymore. He is the fastest Fezza now as well.
Not sure what to make of that, Lando not going for the win or him accepting 2nd and annoying the quicker cars behind
I’m fairly sure he was happy getting dragged along by Sainz, got him a podium that otherwise would have been very difficult.
Russell you @@#@##@# that podium was yours!!!!
They gave Russell the strategy and he did not maximize the pace. Hamilton was faster on that last and critical stint
Sainz 100% deserved that, what a measured drive throughout. Slow and steady yet somehow miles ahead of Leclerc still.
Perfect drive
Well done not-Max!
Well deserved on current form.
Oh Russell :(
oh dear oh dear. All that trundling round for nothing.
Sainz with the 1000iq driving.
Sainz gets driver of the day
How annoying for it is that Hamilton has been quicker in this part than Russell and he is behind for Mercedes
C’mon Gulf Racing! Where did he come from?
Never mind – he’s gone back there…
Respect to Max for driving like a true fighter.
Russell is not quick enough at this rate. Hamilton has been quicker than him now
It’s about * time Mercedes put them on an aggressive strategy
Could all be for nothing
I know it’s been said before but Ferrari really are unbelievably frustrating. A safety car of some kind safety car was coming, why not just give Charl a go? At least split.
Russel isn’t hanging around, should be doable if he dispatches each of the other three quickly.
I can’t see it happening if Sainz can preserve his tyres – like he has been doing all race.
I think if Russel is past Leclerc by the end of lap 54 then he’s got a cracking chance
*Crashing chance
Time for the Merc boys to impress if they can.
Mercedes did two cars Le than that Alonso stop!
Ocon goes to the metro again.
VSC :O
Perez should have crashed, not pitted…
Go Mclaren
Wow – Fernando just cracked 100 thousand miles in F1 races …. if I heard it right.
Top 4 looking quite tight
Be nice and let Sergio past Max.
You owe him that much.
So, hard strategy certainly not what Bottas needed to do, still to be decided on the Red Bulls.
Charl clearly never played F1 2010
Alonso forgot to rewatch 2008 SIngapore I guess and missed Rosberg getting a penalty for doing something like that :)
That should have been a VSC at most.
Oh well, all for George to do
Wow how did Leclerc manage to go to those 9s buffer to Sainz? Helps the doubble stack quite a bit.
right, by being waaaaayy slow, and overshooting the target. Clever man, lol/sob.
Max is risking it, but, it could be a genius move
SC seems unnecessary.
Showtime Car!
hi
Hello ;)
Chance of light rain!
Wetting our appetite?
I think Ferrari should have put Carlos onto the soft tyres and Charles on the Medium.
But that would have reduced the chances of Leclerc getting ahead of Russell which certainly helps Sainz to run the pace they want, while Leclerc is giving a bit of a backgunner/buffer.
Are they running at F2 pace to make up for the absence of F2 here?
Welcome to the Formula Pirelli tire management cruise.
This all seems very leisurely
I don’t think Hamilton needed to give the position back to Norris, he was ahead at the corner
Hope the Mercs don’t fight too hard
Yuki’s not having much luck…no laps at Monza, half a lap here.
Did Russell honestly ask if he was going to get the place back?
Looks like they gave it him
How on earth did he get away with that?
Whoa – Hammy is on it!
Ferrari going with split tyre strategy from the start it seems.
I predict a RUS win because Mercedes usually has better race pace, deg & don’t mess up with strategic calls.
That’s fair but the prancing horses could be interesting
Aston Martin will not catch up to Ferrari and Mercedes at this rate
I expected more from Fernando to be honest
Me too but Fred’s strongest suit was never qualifying. Let’s wait for tomorrow. A bit of rain might do the miracle, Fred is much better than the Fezzas in the wet. With the RBRs so far behind and a good bit of rain and changing conditions, Fred might just win this one, I am crossing my fingers.
Nice mix up at the front then :)
Hopefully Norris can nail it
So that’s what happens when Max doesn’t have the car underneath him… I guess the aero changes aren’t the reason?
Apparently Leclerc might have a Yellow flag (Perez) investigation, ups. Well, that will be solid grounds for Ferrari to not have a 1-2 I suppose, as had to happen.
Time for Red Bull to sack Perez and replace him with Lawson.
lets goooo
Lawson in front of Max —- oh goodness me :O
Singapore has over the years been a solid ‘different picture’ race for season sweeping teams (think the various Merc. flukes there too) hasn’t it, proving why we want to keep it around.
Guess they might take the extra time to think about how they can improve front end bit, if it is solid enough they could even think to start from pitlane, given they are so slow now that even a SC in all the best circumstances (think 2008 but presumably with luck and w/o cheating because they aren’t stupip) probably wouldn’t hand Verstappen a win.
Thats Lawsons career over at AT then :)
Tsunoda was smart enough to abandon his lap, not to kick verstappen out
Not just in front, Lawson knocked out Max!! Would never think an AT might do it. There will be heck to pay I guess
I hope Russell is skilled and that is just not a pure qualifying setup
Mercedes waking up :)
Haha
These guys really want disaster here with their timing to do their laps
Those images from Verstappen’s car were pretty crazy there, who was it (before Verstappen had to move to the right to make space for flying Lawson?) that threaded in between the cars from the left to the outside of the final corner to get a good run to the end of the lap?
Goat Newey stats are unreal
Good thing Dad is worth $1.5 billion. Money lost behind sofa cushions enough to take care of that.
Go Lance.
Piastri has lost out due to that I think?
Hope he is ok, but Lance doesn’t deserve to be in F1
Wow, that is q1 done!
Tsunoda top – LOL :O
i like singapore the best
Qualy may well provide an upset, but I can’t honestly see anyone but Max winning tomorrow.
He may have more of a fight on his hands than usual but I wouldn’t bet against him just yet.
So since it’s tight at the top pole position is going to require something special
Hopefully, no more lizard invasions over the remaining sessions.
cool
Another lizard invasion & ironically Max referred to his 2016 encounter.
Hate in this site is beyond comprehensible to the point openly insulting people asking for violence. some fans are getting out of control. i dont know why admins allowing so much insult and violence inciting comments like this
Grats to Max. He has earned it.
Good to see Ferrari and Mercedes fighting.
I am blown away by young Mr Lawson.
Albon is my driver, think Rbr should’ve given him longer
Albon is rocking these days :)
albon easily the driver of the day
What a fight
Albon should have closed the door in same dirty style that Lewis did to Max in 2021. Utter disgust that Lewis once again gets away with hitting people, gain places and points doing so. Absolutely ridiculously
Oh please, enough I know dislike Lewis, if it’s any consolation he’ll probably end up 9th anyway
thanx to your prayers, ham kept his position. shimmy mlif
Albon is a pretty clean racer. That makes a huge difference between them.
Shocking to see Ferraris able to race each other, might be the first time since Pironi and Villeneuve
Will be an interesting last few laps
Disgraceful of the stewards – that should be 10 second penalty at least. Lewis gained so much more and ruined Piastri’s race same as he ruined Perez sprint race in Spa.
Come on, it is about the Untouchable One. It is astonishing enough that Sir gets a penalty after a trademark 4ss3s1n4t10n attempt. Of course it is a non-effectual penalty, what did you expect?
Lewis is really not able to race without hitting people, that absolutely was 100% Lewis fault. That should be a 10 second penalty or a stop and go penalty.
That’s not true, has had many battles cleanly
Last one of them was karting I reckon
Why not a 500 race ban? Retrospective I mean.
Think Ham was at fault
Yeah, from the replay. He moved right into Piastri, giving him less than a car’s width. Sadly if he gets penalised, it just means it’s damaged two drivers’ races rather than one
Oh man, who was at fault
Lawson will get a seat next year.
He should – I am totally impressed with the guy :)
This might get testy between the Ferraris for 3rd
Rbr have made a beast of a car
Max in a superior car makes the car look even better than it is I would say as well
Solid work from Sergio.
Leclerc does defend aggressively Hamilton knows first hand
This tyre ages don’t look right
They take into account how much tyres were used in qualifying – if they put on a used set, it starts at something like +3
That felt like the longest corner as Verstappen just edged past Sainz
Ferrari cannot mess this up on strategy
How much money have you got?
Wanna make a bet?
LOL ;)
Don’t get overexcited Max. Just wait for the right time.
Did Max actually back out?
Two or three races into the season, I wouldn’t have picked Albon and Williams to entertain us as much as they have done. It’s been so fun seeing them become a force from week to week.
51 Lap race.
So who guessed Sainz would lead three laps? 😉
(seriously, Verstappen has faith in his car, and has often played a patient game to stay safe at the start. If a gap doesn’t present itself, he may well wait a little. If he sees one, I suspect he’ll bite)
It sounds like there will be three Formation Laps starting at 15:20 local time.
So much easier for the race organisers when they can just drive a flat-bed truck to the car, load it up, and drive along the racetrack to the pits!
I wonder how long it would have taken to clear mid-race under a yellow?
There should be another Formation Lap so the cars can get ready for a standing start.
Hi
Well that is one less car that Max has to worry about!
Oh, no – Tsunoda out?
He’s pulled up on the grass and says “engine failure” over team radio. Getting out of the car. Presume he gets DNF’d… there isn’t really time to recover and fix. Grid will do another formation lap
Formation Lap.
f14me
I expect Max to take the lead into Prima Variante or Della Roggia with the eventual top 5 being VER-PER-SAI-RUS-LEC
Hmm see the Ferrari drivers dropping off but going with your prediction
Max will win anyway.
Baring aliens etc he certainly will.
Nice to see at least some interest for a change though ;)
I thought Max had it there – LOL :)
Lewis lying once again.
Perez did nothing wrong and Lewis was maybe distracted but certainly not held up in any way.
Very poor first lap from Lewis in Q2.
Wake me up if Sir says something truthful
Come on Lewis – get your boot down :(
AM continue to embarrass themselves with excuses for Stroll.
Being out scored 168-47, every other driver would have been replaced mid-season.
I get it, Mike Krack has bills to pay so won’t say anything to upset Stroll Sr.
I suspect that may apply to a majority of the team :(
What’s worse, is F1 commentators and pundits know it but they too don’t want to upset Lawrence to the point they are blacklisted the way Red Bull did when Sky commentators made comments about Lewis being robbed of his 8th WDC Championship.
Nice from Lawson :)
Pole time: 1:19.711/QLF top 3: VER-NOR-LEC
Weird line by Checo
Sky’s ‘live’ broadcast running 20 minutes behind live timing. Not admitting anything!
really
Stroll already has an issue.
Weird clutch issues for both Alfa Romeo drivers.
Anyone gambling on Wets?
Nope
Rolling start, let’s make it as dull as possible and ensure golden boy wins.
Assuming Race Control had the all clear from the T1 repairs, and I don’t know if they did, but assuming that wasn’t the hold up I don’t see why we didn’t have a restart time 10 minutes ago…
I also don’t really see a reason for a rolling start? We’ve done standing starts in the rain, especially on inters, for a long time now and the rules say you should have a standing restart, unless conditions don’t allow for it. I don’t see why the conditions require a rolling start…
When does the farce restart?
Quarter past
I knew Alpine’s strategy with Ocon was a mistake as by the time full west would be warranted a red flag is guaranteed. So, putting him on wets was all risk, no reward.
The 10 minutes board should be out already.
And that shitty music plays loud during a sessions again.
So the pit lane order isn’t the race order? Albon keeps his top ten ?
Order for restart is 1, 14, 11, 10, 55; 44, 4, 63, 23 = Albon, 81; 31, 22, 18, 27; 77, 40, 20. Per announcement in live timing.
The race was red flagged a while ago.
I’m gonna maybe play devil’s advocate here and say the red flag was definitely the right decision. We’ve got a car in the barriers at a point where at least 4 cars have already gone off, while cars are on tyres that are not suitable for the conditions (I am of the opinion that this should normally be the teams’ issue to sort out, however safety must take priority). Zhou’s car is in an inherently dangerous position, and there was a high likelihood other cars could have ended up in them. Any other incident from there wouldn’t be an accident, it would be negligence.
I don’t like the fact that it’s a red flag, and I’m worried that this could once again get messy, but I think the RF is justified.
Several people have already said it’s justified with today’s cars and tires. The frustration is that we have cars and tires where it’s necessary: how has that happened, and what’s being done to change it?
I think the main issue today has been that the conditions were changing so quickly from lap to lap or even sector to sector, and thr forecasts have been very variable, that judging the conditions to fit the right tires was probably extremely difficult.
Restart order seems fair – basically the order before people pitted to Wets. Better this than red flagging a lap later and having half the drivers penalised for having pitted.
But they’ve got to figure out a way for 20 of the world’s best drivers to drive in the wet. We design car specs with overtaking in mind; we need to design car specs that can race safely in rain.
Wet tyres = red flag.
Red Flag for that!? I’m at the end of my tether with this clown “sport”
Nah, this one needed a red. Cars aquaplaning at the same point is about as dangerous as it gets. Even Lewis taking it easy couldn’t manage. This was getting into Bianchi territory. I don’t really want to see cars ploughing into Zhou for the sake of entertainment.
Those teams should be punished, by crashing, for being on wrong tyres. They could have stopped and changed but chose not to.
What’s the point of wet tyres!
I agree that they should be punished, however I don’t think some of them, especially Perez, would have been able to understand that they needed wet tyres before they got to turn 1. The weather was changing so quickly that I think people may not have been able able keep up.
And as Tommy C mentions, several cars aquaplaning at the same point as we saw happening, is about as dangerous as it gets. It was a key factor in Bianchi’s death. I agree with punishing teams for not being on the right tires, but I don’t think we should be putting drivers and marshalls at risk to do so.
Just realised this is very reminiscent of the 2007 European GP at the Nurburgring, another one where several cars aquaplaned, and also had a red flag
Lol. Not sure you ever really started with this sport if you didn’t obviously intuit that needed a red flag.
Bold of Verstappen and Alonso to turn down the wets. Most drivers would surely have lost time there.
Russell’s driven brilliant today but was screwed over by the early strategy call. Interesting to see what he can do here from 9th with a fair run at last
Mercedes seem to have thrown their drivers under the bus today, some awful calls this race.
They’ve got to figure out a way for 20 of the world’s best drivers to drive in the wet. We design car specs with overtaking in mind; we need to design car specs that can race safely in rain.
Ocon on full wets?
You are on old tyres Tsunoda. Use your head for once
Alonso giving a 10/10 performance today
except there is -3 points penalty for wrong nationality
Lawson should feel happy enough with his performance.
He is keeping it on track in changeable conditions and isn’t often at the back of the field.
How on earth is Perez only 2 secs ahead of an Alpine?
Because he’s settled for 2nd and is pacing the tyre
Go Charles!
Go Charles!
Sargeant is going to get the big goodbye isn’t he?
Got to be close to the edge now. Wonder who’d get the nod to take his seat?
I suspect his grandpa gives Williams a significant amount of money.
LOL – names are bouncing up and down my timing screen like Yo-Yo’s ;)
This will be really interesting
Ferrari Vs Mercedes for pit stop screwing.
Ferrari not ready
Mercedes unwilling to run wet tyres in wet weather ……
So rain has stopped. No wonder some teams did not want to pit
Weather could change during the race making it interesting.
Weather could change during the race.
Good :)
Quick stop for Perez might help him
where can i see the live?
Rain :)
This will be interesting , is McLaren long run pace any good?
Toto said it might rain 20 minutes into the race.
It’s a shame we can’t give Max a 10 place grid penalty every race, he’s the dominant driver in the dominant car. Would make things a lot more interesting, especially at tracks like Zandvoort.
My top 5 prediction is VER-PER-NOR-RUS-ALO
No rain during the driver parade, but cloudy, so wet weather conditions are possible at some point, but hopefully, a wholly dry race or only light rain at max.
Norris 0.8 ahead of Piastri (so must have been quick), and Verstappen still 0.5 quicker than that. Probably a bit of the track coming to his car as it dried… but what a brilliant lap. Damnit: I wanted an upset
I think Charles is far too inconsistent, if McLaren can sort out their car they have much better drivers
That was getting so tasty – Verstappen a full second clear of Perez, and still behind the McLarens. Can’t believe we have another red flag. There won’t be time for many laps at the restart…
What a race we’d have if quali finished like this. Albon / Sargeant / Sainz / Russell… Verstappen down in seventh
Barely through to Q2 and out in 11th – Lewis and wet Zandvoort ain’t friends it seems.
Oddly Russell has been quick continuously today in the Mercedes in the wet.
Grats to Sargeant – first Q3 apperance :)
It’s such a shame he went off. Clearly part of that is inexperience, but pushing is how you learn, and I love the ambition.
Albon impressing
So much respect for Albon at the moment
Bit of a lottery at the moment
Terrible weather at the moment.
Rain or dry, another Max pole is probably incoming.
A bit hasty red this time.
Another red & Zhou also lost the rear quite easily.
Silly unforced error.
Disappointed for Daniel.
Of course, rain had to affect proceedings yet again.
Oh well, Qatar GP weekend at the very latest will be the next fully dry event.
& over speed approach, so he forgot to turn left.
Seemingly lack of concentration.
Weird error by Danny Ric
Looks like the McL in the wall distracted him
Aussies have practice racing together
Zach fucked up again. He lost Palou.
Not even mention Palou once, bunch of suckers.
Who comes first logan sargeant or liberty media?
I hate Sky. Imagine paying for this crap.
Good job Rachael.
What do the Vegas strip businesses say to Liberty Media? BITE ME? hahaha.
Sell it back to Bernie Eccelstone. Fucking Americans.
It’s that extra blonde hair dye weight.
Ant gets paid enough. He’s a retired racing driver don’t you know?
Did Helmet ever have the skill when he had both eyes though? I’m sure he was a worse Bond villain.
Yes Damon, you must savour it.
Damon Hill: “I’m gonna’ get in trouble with young people now” HAHAHAHA
What hair dye does Niko Hulkenberg use, my girlfriend wants to know…
We already know who’s going to win in Practice 1! Great job Ross Brawn & Pat Symonds.
Indycar is close to being as good as this IMO.
Imagine paying something like £30 a month and still happily put up with adverts, berks.
Morning Keith – the drop down menu under “F1” at the top of the page still shows Belgium and Hungary rather than Dutch GP – any chance of an update?
Damon Hill can’t even say anything any more, Sky have him on a short leesh.
Imagine spending money on this
At least they’re not all orange sheep
22 seconds difference between the Rbr drivers…
1.25 seconds per lap faster from the time Verstappen passed Perez.
To be fair to Perez, that’s less about a skill gap, and more about Verstappen refusing to play it safe or manage his tyres. One driver pushing flat-out, while the other played the percentages (as Leclerc and Alonso were doing behind him – not sure about Hamilton).
Tsunoda said you can’t score points here in an Alpha Tauri… If he scores and Ricci doesn’t I’d laugh.
Mexican president’s son was right though, Red Bull always manage to have 1 driver so far ahead, remember back in the day with Vettel compared to Webber, “He’ll get protection as per usual”. I don’t believe those cars are equal. They proved it back in 2010 when they took Mark’s wing away and gave it to Seb. They’re probably better keeping it quiet these days.
Bit of sunshine now the summer break’s underway. A surprisingly dry race.
Why are we watching the Crapto.com War Against 16th?
Yuki would deserve this point.
Don’t see Ham catching Leclerc
I know it’s one of the longest tracks, but – we could be about to see no lapped cars despite no safety cars. How common is that?
Should have boxed Hamilton 4 laps ago and gone for it. Nothing to lose
Max is also borderline free stop territory now.
This Hamilton tire strategy will be interesting to see play out
It probably ends with the top six all running home on softs… unless the Mercedes comes alive on low fuel again and either Hamilton can target Leclerc, or Russell can target Alonso?
It would be so nice to see an Alonso or a Hamilton in that 2nd Red Bull today
Sainz out. I guess they’d kept him out in case he could gamble with an early siwtch in the rain – now that’s a damp squib, not point going round and round in last
That Norris corner overtake 😂👏
Has the cartoon rain cloud appeared above Sainz’s Ferrari yet? It was meant to 4 minutes ago.
Oh my Max saw his life flash before his eyes there
Seems very light rain for now, let see how it progresses.
Presumably Russell/Stroll/Gasly will jump as soon as it might be viable? That must have been the point of running their starting sets so long. Questions being ‘when’ and ‘can they make it work’…
Looks like I called that one wrong! It’s raining, but I guess they think it won’t need inters – or if it will, it’s at least 5-6 laps away
DRS shouldn’t be allowed at Spa
It isn’t even necessary. Verstappen on Perez – he lifted into La Source to line himself up perfectly for Eau Rouge; slipstreamed; was coming up anyway – without DRS, that might have been a really skilfull pass. With it, the skill was unnecessary.
Exactly, without DRS this race is way more entertaining. You need to work an opponent over 10 laps without mistakes. Pressure him or send your car in deep into a braking zone. DRS ruins real racing
With everyone on fresh mediums (except Stroll/Russell/Gasly) and rain expected in 10 minutes, we could see people really let rip on these tyres here — should give us a good idea of everyone’s true pace. Interesting that Verstappen didn’t have any more to give once Perez went in
The on screen graphics shows hard tyres for Alonso while he has mediums.
After 2 minutes it is fixed.
Come on rain, make this wretched DRS go away.
Don’t know if it’s just me, but this year I find the decision making on the FOM feed to be atrocious. Just the latest example: rather than show Verstappen chasing down Hamilton, they give us like 2 or 3 full laps of Sainz being passed repeatedly when we already know he’s a sitting duck – then they switch to Verstappen passing Hamilton at the very last second. Aaaaaargh. But it’s been a slew of things like that all season I find. They’re addicted to showing supposed ‘battles’ down the field. It’s all the for the sake of adhd Americans.
Or dumb euros operating the camera feeds
It’s frustrating as a fan when there is nothing a driver can do to defend. A lot of the overtakes are done with drs before they move even got to a corner. Absolutely nothing you can do to defend against it
I get why DRS was originally reduced, but overtaking is a lot easier this year and last… even if they won’t get rid of it, they should be drastically reducing the zones. Half each one and the quality of passes would improve overnight.
Not only did that 1st-corner collision eliminate Piastri and ruin Sainz’s race – having to overtake Sainz is spreading out the rest of the field and reducing the chance for racing. 8-second gap to Alonso, then 4-second to Tsunoda, then 3-second to Albon is a direct result of that holdup
Ocon and Bottas have just decided to pit rather than sit in the traffic. Interesting one
Come on Danny – give the Aussie fans something to cheer them up.
What happened to Ric that he’s last?
He went over the lines on his qualifying lap, and started at the back
Surprised VER can’t pass HAM
He will……
He did
… and done – very tidy
Piastri out :(
Gutted, was looking forward to seeing Oscar race. I thought Sainz was pushing his luck there at La Source.
Mediums for the drivers with barn doors or no straight line speed – makes some sense.
On what lap does Verstappen get past Perez? I’ll go with lap five.
Long lap so I’ll go with 3
A lot depends on how Max approaches the start / whether he sees a clear opportunity. The start is the most dangerous moment for him, and he has a fast enough car to be patient, so it’s possible he’ll bide his time: he’s done that a couple of times this year. But if the door is wide open like last week, of course he’ll take i
Wonderfully sung national anthem.
It made the Silverstone one sound better.
That’s the most amusing national anthem performance of the year. Or cringy.
Belgium’s own version of Elton John!
The drivers facial expressions were just as funny.
Hulkenberg already in trouble.
VER-PER-PIA is my podium prediction, but more importantly I hope rain won’t affect today’s proceedings to any extent.
That’s a terrible decision. It’s in the wet as well
Finishes 0.065 ahead of Russell
Shame to see Ricciardo out of the points – though you never quite know in these conditions
Perez is so bad it’s ridiculous
How embarrassing Perez is
Oh for crying out loud Perez. Just retire
Are we about to see Ricciardo go past him?
I think Red Bull probably made the right call to let Perez have the first stop (and get up from 8th to 4th) at the cost of Verstappen (who fell from 1st to 2nd). More points overall – plus every chance Verstappen can take it back
Anyone else had an amazing sustainable brainwave, about wet tyres?
Set fire to them outside Greta Thunbergs house and film the resulting hilarity?
Commentators saying you have to switch tyre, and I agree – but I wonder whether for teams like Red Bull and Mercedes who’d need to double-stack, it would still be better to do 1 extra lap on wets; let everyone else trip over each other; then switch. Basically pull an overcut, made more powerful by everyone else needing to leave gaps for spray
Would be very F1 to run a sprint race behind a safety car just to say we had a sprint race.
Hopefully they’ll trust them to play in this hour gap we’re getting.
They’re currently thinking rain might stop around 20 past, then wait a bit, then start on wets behind a safety car. No guarantee, of course.
Rain has stopped; they’re drying the track; formation lap at 35 past
This is as much fun as waiting for a train.
For the record, I have raced at Spa in conditions worse than this. This is the difference between the way FIA handles F1 and WEC, and they way they handle laps lower level motorsports.
In case people haven’t noticed, the Sprint formation lap will commence at 17:05 local instead.
Thank you
Delayed again. Havent we been here before?
So close for Piastri! Great to see. Top 4 all within two tenths
Three offs in the same corner already.
Slick gamble failed in a big way, lol.
He was right.
It’s a good job Fernando loves him ;)
Ouch
Weird tactics by Haas that ultimately cost Hulkenberg.
They should’ve just completed the earlier flying laps to be safe.
The delay is down to concerns about visibility rather than actual track conditions.
Especially after the fatal accident in the F4 race a few weeks ago there has been an agreement between Drivers, Teams, Liberty, The circuit & the FIA to not take any risks if there is any concern about visibility this weekend.
They also took feedback after FP1 yesterday & asked drivers to try following another car at different parts of the track at different speeds & on different lines to get some data. After this they decided to be even more cautious than they were already planning to be because drivers said they were blind in the spray even when 3-4 seconds behind another car & even at slower speeds through the middle sector.
Spray has clearly always been an issue & likely always will be but there is now a feeling that the ground effect era cars have made that issue worse as they throw up more spray from under the cars the diffuser. There is also a feeling that while modern tires are better at dealing with water on the track due to dispersing more water than used to be the case that they are also making spray worse due to throwing up more water.
The test the FIA did after Silverstone with the spray guards wasn’t as effective as hoped so it’s not something they can introduce as soon as had been hoped as more work & testing needs to be done.
And BTW i’m not watching the coverage so can’t actually see what track conditions are like. Just passing on what i heard yesterday about the likelihood of delays.
That’s clearly the context, which is why I mentioned safety in my own comment, but for people watching the coverage + for commentators there in person, this was an overreaction.
“Don’t make us race when we can’t see cars in front” is fair, but no-one said “please wait until we can barely see any spray at all”.
Clearly the genius who thought ground effect cars would produce less spray never watched an airplane take off during foggy conditions.
Days like today, anyone who can see the queue in the pit lane exit has the best seat in the house
Finally some info on delayed start time.
Just start the session already. No rain anymore or at least not in the pit lane.
Is this what modern F1 has become? The worlds best drivers can’t drive on a moist racetrack meanwhile average people can drive in a snowstorm and not crash…
Mystifying. I get that racing in active rain and spray can be dangerous – but once that rain’s stopped, and the only problem is a damp track, they should be straight out.
Maybe the race personnel overslept and someone’s covering for them
What’s the delay? Ted just said the conditions are currently better than that start of qualifying yesterday
They love it.
Imagine paying for this.
I’ve seen this before. They just keep delaying it until it gets worse. Why do I even bother with this still? Has anyone seen how efficient they are in the NASCAR cup series?
What a joke.
Completely agree, why do we even bother?
Unsurprisingly delayed knowing today’s weather forecast.
Bugger – close to see VER out in Q2 + 5 place grid.
Would have made it entertaining to see him carve through the field in the race.
Phew – fun Q2 :)
Track limits going to be an annoyance again it seems :/
Is it still raining? How heavy?
Ten minute delay but they are out now.
Drying but for how long?
Still raining, so hopefully, qualifying won’t become a washout.
I just hope we get a genuine Qualy, even if it is a mixed up mess due to weather.
What a washout.
With what tyres Norris did this time? Rain or intermediates?
Intermediates
Perhaps Belgian GP should revert to the standard format for next season.
Would be nice
Specififcally because of high rain chance combined with a single practice session.
Rain, ofc.
Piastri is coming on well and Danny Ric hasn’t been a total disappointment.
The rest of it was a bit crud :/
As so often this year… if Verstappen weren’t here, this would be an all-time classic. Intrigue about Perez getting Norris for 1st; now Hamilton closing on Perez for 2nd; while Russell overtakes Sainz for 6th then hunts Leclerc for 5th, all while Leclerc closes on Piastri for 4th.
Now Perez has run out of steam as well.
Good lad George.
How many track limit penalties do we think we’re going to get post race this time? I’ve seen a lot of them at it again today.
Looks like Hamilton/Piastri and Russell/Sainz are both on the menu for the closing stages. Maybe Perez/Norris too
Hamilton/Piastri was unexpectedly easy
Piastri getting his first taste of racing at the front lmao
Piastri’s already 5 seconds behind Perez. I wonder whether he picked up dirt on his tyres / whether Hamilton will catch him as well? Perez isn’t going particularly quickly… Russell still has fastest lap
I wonder if he has damage, he’s dropping back alarmingly.
Didn’t even try to defend in the end. I suspect he’s just knackered his tyres, but it’s not the way he wanted his day to end
Norris / Piastri / Perez / Leclerc / Sainz / Alonso will be hoping to go to the end on these tyres… any changes will need to come on the track. Verstappen / Hamilton (soon) / Russell still to stop
I think they should put a set of S on Hamilton by lap 50 something
Fernando wants to get the Ferraris :)
Esteban Ocon had to go to the medical centre because of the collision.
That’s bad news :(.
Hope he is OK.
Hamilton inching closer to Russell. Not clear whether there’s a raw pace difference, or if Russell’s managing those (older) tires more – but it looks like they’ll clash before the next round of stops
Russell surely needs to go in now. Losing 1-2 seconds a lap to the people around him. Main thing he’s accomplishing is slowing the Ferraris and Perez
Poor piastri
It’s a shame to lose a position that way, but Norris drove the fastest lap of the race (and has kept setting them since) – sometimes, what can you do?
Give the driver in front the better strategy.
Nice work Ferrari …. good grief.
Verstappen setting himself up nicely for a free pitstop at the end for fastest lap.
Woo
Sainz planning to pit his Soft tyres rather than fight Perez – so Perez will be 6th soon. Sadly this means we don’t have any contests brewing. Possibly Russell hunting Hulk?
… and Hulk also pitted. Basically no contests developing at the moment
Perez on Alonso was indecent – Alonso just pulled to the side. I hope Perez has a good day today and can get his confidence back… he should be sparring with the McLarens right now
As someone said earlier, I think Mclaren have adapted to these new tyres better than most teams
Such a shame for the Alpines. Not a foot wrong, but both cars out anyway.
Both Alpines are out of the race.
Max is gone
Oh well …. come on Oscar :/
If Max just keeps it calm, he will get the chance to take the win.
Why am I hoping he won’t keep calm? ;P
Verstappen to take Hamilton out on the first lap.
VER-HAM-NOR-PIA-PER, but hopefully, a decently exciting race as Hungaroring has surprisingly often provided.
Can he convert to a win
No,
but it will be fun watching him try :)
I didn’t see a Mercedes pole coming & an intense ending generally.
3 thousandths.
That was close! And well done Zhou.
Nice work Hammy :)
Very tasty, nothing in it really
The McLarens look decent round here, unlike Williams who are down to earth with a bump after Silverstone.
Sainz & Alpine drivers are surprising Q2 eliminations.
Redbull sandbagging?
No
I think the tyre switch has made things interesting
Russell an early surprise elimination & Ricciardo out-qualified Tsunoda on first attempt. An intense Q1.
1:16.666/VER & I think Checo will fail to reach Q3 yet again.
If he fails to hit Q3 again, I expect no one at Red Bull to even talk to him anymore.
He has got to lift his game and soon IMO.
Missed P1 – how long until Perez crashes in P2 – I have a meeting to attend so I am hoping he gets it out of the way early on :)
Hopefully, Checo can stay on track in FP2 or at least for longer than four corners.
An inspired tactical decision leaves him 1 up on both Perez and Tsunoda😂
*Grrrr from Ricciardo
He got going again after all thanks to marshals.
Unfortunate that he got stuck when trying to get going, but quite easily lost the rear at corner exit.
Oh dear minus one ORBR and one Ferrari.
Perez crashed again…
I believe that Red Bull is thinking in replace him… here goes Ricciardo…
Rain intensifies.
Looks like he’s checked out now.
On the other hand he could just have been instructed to test the durability of the new upgrades. Wonder if they have spares.
Checo on the grass
Checo off on an out-lap, lol.
Just when he didn’t need an unforced error.
Max is funny it was tricky at the start but Rbr just far too strong
A good McJob well done. Proper teamwork, no bickering or dithering, and some brilliant defence by Norris after the showbiz restart.
Hard and fair no issues very happy with that
Very good job McLaren and their drivers!
Alonso v Albonso’s interesting – Aston are struggling for pace, even the one with a competent driver.
Norris has allowed Verstappen to go away
No one has been able to touch Verstappen this season, why do you think McLaren should? Hamilton couldn’t even pass a McLaren on hard compound, he wasn’t going to cause Verstappen any issues either.
McLaren have done a fantastic job with the car
Stroll saves the day for the Ferraris.
Norris costing Hamilton big time. I feel Hamilton has a slight shot at Verstappen here
He is losing time to Norris.
Interesting comment from Russell.
“That McLaren is so fast on the hards”
I think it’ll be Verstappen – Hamilton – Norris in this sprint race. Piastri will be working hard for his team…
Looks like Russell is more concerned with beating Hamilton
As well he should. George did everything better but was unfortunate with the VSC/SC timing
Why on earth have McLaren gone to hards?
Massive fumble from McLaren, they will be eaten up on restart.
Looks like I’m not getting that McLaren strategy call up any time soon.
I think Carlos also pitted too soon.
I’m not sure why Charles pitted so early.
Sorry, I think I mean Nico Hulkenberg.
Not sure about Sergio’s pass on Kevin Mag.
Dramatic Racing Sucks too strongly on the Welly Straight. Hope we get some rain and it’s turned off.
Maybe we would have a good race without DRS joke….
Lando hope and glory! Nice one!
Raining :) :) :)
Would also be good for both McLaren’s to finish on the podium, anyone know what McLaren long run pace is like?
This should be good, max will probably get the better start I hope Norris is aggressive
The national Anthem was God Save the King.
This so-called National Anthem’s an act of treason.
Impressive that Max is so cool and calm before the race that he’s happy to talk with Martin.
Norris pro
My top 5 predictions: VER-LEC-PER-SAI-NOR
More so, I truly hope the tightened security measures work against any possible track invasion attempts.
Yes. A fully green race in complete safety. Agree with you about the Ferraris, but Perez? He’ll be wanting an SC. All 3½ Brits between 3rd & 10th!
The first few minutes of the 6 Hours of Monza WEC race is one of the best adverts I’ve seen for blowing up the stupid first chicane there…
Imagine having to filter the sound so British fans don’t get called out on boo’ing a driver. Classic….
Very good qualifying by Mclaren.
Sorry J3D89 won’t let me use reply button.
Max hit pit wall exiting his box!
New front wing
Yay – Albon makes me look a fool and I love it :)
Some of your best work Max
What did he do?
Perez puts Kmag on his Christmas card list, or is he nu.pong the gun
Dammit – Albon at the back :(
A bad time to get your lap deleted.
The old guy is giving it some :)
*Bit off not ” of off”, sigh
Not off topic, but is Jackie
Stewart there or taking more recovery time?
“A 100% chance of rain”! This’ll be fun.
Probably another pole for Max, but if rain affects qualifying, Checo might struggle again.
Depending on track conditions, either the weekends fastest lap time or several seconds slower, difficult to envision this time.
Norris nearly turned into Ocon. Lack of spacial awareness stroke.
Leclerc even worse didn’t even try, lol.
Pointless risk-taking.
How did Piastri manage to miss the pit entry lane.
Rain has started.
Amater hour at Mclaren
amateur
No rain for now & track seems dry.
Perhaps F2 qualifying sessions should start half an hour earlier to give more lead time in case of a crash that causes barrier damage.
Delayed session start, presumably for something that happened in F2 qualifying.
Pedal cam is back.
Today the Overtake award goes to black and white flag! :-)
Unbelievable how these guys can drive at Monaco for 78 laps but these guys can’t keep it here for 71 laps
Both his driving and his behavior is pretty bad of Lewis in Austria.
He is beaten by slower cars and can’t even keep it on the track, within 15 laps he already had his track limit penalty.
What are the penalties for coming up with repeated cuts after the initial 5 seconds penalty?
These guys would not survive with these track limit rules at COTA and at Qatar
I can these penalties will cost them something really
Sainz did what Norris did last race and slowed so they could double stack the Ferraris.
And these MaFIA goons will get away with penalty from wimpy stewards.
What’s happening here?
We are following the F1 race in Austria ;P
I use the phrase “Race” lightly :)
No rain & my top 5 prediction: VER-LEC-HAM-SAI-ALO.
I’d predict Chrco within the top 5 if I were more confident about him climbing through the field despite probable DRS train effect.
Good sprint
yeah, these circumstances, and this track, can deliver nice racing. Solid Saturday from Sainz too.
Great race by Russel and great decision to pit for the slicks. Well done!
0.009s behind Ocon, so close. Hulkenberg also made the most of that whole sprint, and the softs, didn’t he!
Will it dry up enough to have pit stops?
I would be happier without the added randomness of the pit stops now, yet it was more amazing for me as a bit wet race.
Nah, the first podium will be a sprint podium for Hulkenberg?
How this would go down in history if it would be his only one? The first non-podiumist podiumist? Anyway, good luck to him!
Nice work from The Hulk :)
First wet sprint, some added excitement.
Sprint top 3 prediction: VER-PER-ALO
I suspect lower temps are the contributor to Ferrari’s surprising slowness.
Even Hulk out-qualified both of them.
Finally, a Q3 appearance for Checo.
Risky traffic again & weird situation for Hulk.
Great race
Intense Q1 with laps coming thick & fast.
I though medium was mandatory slick compound for SQ1 & 2.
Probably another VER pole anyway.
Unsurprisingly, wet track.
Ah, so close, would have been nice to see a Ferrari/Leclerc take pole from Verstappen. But, at least it seems the team is competitive on this track. Similar to McLaren/Norris (he’s been doing well here often!), which can’t be said for Mercedes I don’t think (how is it this keeps being a weak track for them for the last 10 or so years?).
Oh, and nicely done Stroll to put it to Alonso, finally again.
Perez : Oh no, not again
#h2g2
These guys would have been in real trouble if they were racing in F1 23
Inexcusable from Perez, such a waste in that car