A week after the certain loss of the world title of F1 in the view of Max Verstappenwho now no longer has the weight on his shoulders of fighting the best on the grid and he can’t beat despite driving the most consistent car, Lando Norris aim to bring your team together, McLarentowards a Builders title that is the box moving he has not achieved this since 1998. And so far, the Briton has not disappointed this time, taking advantage of his car’s speed to claim pole position in Friday’s sprint classification.
Lando was not surprised by Russell’s good performance in a Mercedes that works well in cold temperatures. The conditions of Las Vegas in Qatar were not repeated, but there were lower temperatures than in previous years. And in that context, George got the oil in another good turn to finish just 63 thousandths behind Lando and eventually passed the other McLaren, that of Oscar Piastri, who took third by 0.159.
Ferraris sink into soft rubber
It is expected that in that fight will be the Ferraris, the other candidates for the Constructors’ title that they need like water in May to end the drought that has lasted since 2008. That will save their time. And with two races remaining, 24 points behind those in orange, they have to fight in the short classification now, however, they know Lusail should be a more favorable circuit for McLaren.
Ferrari looks like they can compete because of their performance in the SQ1 and SQ2 with medium tires. QBut it puts the soft rubber on the SQ3 and the red cars fade into the Qatar night. There was something wrong with the settings of the Italian cars, with understeer in that final session. With no time to change anything in the pits, Carlos Sainz and Leclerc chose to stay on track to reduce weight as they burned fuel and attacked on the last lap, in the final moments.
There, Sainz once again overtook Charles Leclerc who ended up resenting the Spaniard in Las Vegas for being left behind. Carlos was 4th at 0″269 and Leclerc, 5th at 0″296 off the best.
Those from Maranello saved the tools, minimizing the losses, although it was not enough. This Saturday Norris can take the 8 points awarded to the sprint winner and the transalpines can distance themselves from the Constructorsthat Piastri chooses the 7 points of the second or the 6 given to the third. Sainz’s role could be crucial to try to take those points from Piastri by starting just behind. So was Russell’s in his fight with Norris, who often floundered from the start.
Sixth was Max Verstappen, 3 tenths off the best in a car that ended the year with many problems, a sign of the Dutchman’s tremendous success in securing his fourth title in this car. Things were worse for an almost doomed ‘Checo’ Pérez, who crashed out again in SQ1 to finish 16th.
Hamilton, 7th, again performed well below Russell a lap away and Gasly (8th), Húlkenberg (9th) and Albon rounded out the Top-10 close to Alonso.
Alonso, 11th
In one of the worst cars on the grid, Fernando Alonso once again attempted the near impossible. The man from Oviedo is only 40 thousandths away from entering the top 10 of the sprint classification. He tried everything, but finally he was left without a prize after finishing 11th. In the sprint race, points are awarded to the first 8 and the rider from Oviedo will try his luck, knowing that he will struggle to score this Saturday.
He has to prioritize the task of tuning his car for the match for Saturday’s long classification and understanding the behavior of his car and the tires for this Sunday’s race.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
