Life is upside down. McLaren just dominated the sprint classification and signed a double in the weekend’s short race. Another orange feast is expected in qualifying for the Qatar GP this Saturday afternoon, a night in Lusail, but what happened on the track was nothing like what had been seen before. Everything has changed. There, a Verstappen who seemed sunk, with a car that suffered a lot in Qatar and where he was only 8th, the Dutchman took pole to everyone’s surprise.
“We have big problems this weekend. The car is not working. There is a disconnection between the middle and the end of the corner. There is no rhythm here, you kill the wheel and I think it is clear in the sprint race. . We can’t fix it this weekend. It’s something we have to look to fix for next year and now we have to deal with it in the best way possible,” said Max after the sprint race. But after changing the car settings, when it seems impossible, Verstappen and Red Bull rose from the ashes.
It was the first pole for Verstappen since the last Austrian F1 GP, 12 classifications after the achievement at the Red Bull Ring. The four-time champion took his 41st pole in F1Still 16 behind the fourth-placed driver with the most pole positions, Vettel’s 57.
The pole seems to have gone to George Russell who, after coming second in Friday’s short classification, launched after setting the best time in the first attempt in Q3. Max warned him by putting himself 45 thousandths behind, but in the last attempt, the Dutchman passed him and George could not beat the current champion.who achieved 2nd place to close out the first set of Sunday’s race.
And the McLarens? the big question They didn’t look good all session. They were expected to take a step forward in the final Q3, but Lando Norris again made a mistake on his first lap and Piastri had a poor lap. There was a second attempt where those from Woking managed to reduce the losss. Norris will start third after finishing 0.252 behind Verstappen and Piastri 4th at 0.309.
McLaren won the game against Ferrari in their match
McLaren’s priority was to increase its margin in the Constructors’ World Championship and at that point its result was positive as Ferrari, its rival in that fight, was left behind. Leclerc was 5th at 0.332 and Sainz 7th at 0.521, with Hamilton in sixth place between the two red cars. The Italians warned that they needed to improve to increase the temperature of the tires for one lap to aim for a good race result in a close fight, but they did not achieve it.
McLaren gained 6 points from Ferrarri in the sprint race and now the distance is 30 before a race where the English have everything they can to increase their margin for the last round of the season.
Alonso did it again: another miracle
Fernando Alonso, after finishing 11th in the short classification and the sprint race, said this weekend he had the 8th worst car and his real qualifying position should have been 17th. He says he hasn’t seen anything to improve that and a repeat of the 11th is almost unthinkable. Well, he achieved it with a festival of laps and an unexpected performance.
The man from Oviedo, with a car that has been one of the worst on the grid in previous races, once again got more juice than his Aston Martin really had from the start.
He went into Q2 with the sixth best time with a flip. That seemed like it should be his limit, but he returned to the top 10 with the 8th best time in Q2. with another masterful twist. And he closed out his big day by repeating that 8th best time in Q3, position in which he will start this Sundayknows that in the race his car always shows a worse version compared to the more competitive cars in the long run as in Pérez, who was 9th, or Magnussen, who was 10th.
Fernando put at least 7 tenths on his teammate Stroll, who fell in Q2 with 15th place. It says everything about the extra performance that Alonso got, as he did in many other classifications in the second part of this course.
Alonso once again took advantage of his rivals’ mistakes. Lawson, who had a better RB, fell to Q1. And Hülkenberg, with the better Haas, was 18th. Alpine also failed, with Ocon last and Gasly in 11th place. Alonso never made a mistake, he was always there. Excellent.
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.
