We started the weekend off with bad news for the Williams team. Alex Albon crashed out in FP1, resulting in him taking Logan Sargeant’s car and leaving the grid with 19 drivers.
During qualifying, the current champion took pole position, followed by Carlos Sainz. Sainz had taken a backseat for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to an appendicitis. Sergio Perez also took a hit to his qualifying position due to impeding Nico Hulkenberg, taking P6.
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As the lights go out, Verstappen takes the lead and everyone makes it through turn one. For the first time this season, on lap two, Sainz took the lead from Verstappen; resulting in Lando Norris being in the DRS zone of Verstappen by lap three.
However, Norris had no problem with taking P2 from Verstappen, as the Red Bull driver’s car started smoking. Verstappen entered the pit lane and his car shot a puff of dark smoke and flames from the rear right brake. The Red Bull pit crew were fast on the scene with the fire extinguishers. However, it resulted in the pole sitter being the first retirement of the race, and his first retirement in two years.
By lap six, we saw Daniel Ricciardo pit for a fresh set of hard tyres. Then Albon and Zhou Guanyu joined the chain of pit stops on the following lap. With more and more drivers finding the tyre degradation hard to deal with, the Mercedes drivers and Kevin Magnussen pitted.
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With a successful pitstop for Zhou, teammate Valtteri Bottas followed suit. However, the luck of the Sauber team had run out and the crew had difficulty with the wheel nuts, leaving him in the pits for 15-17 seconds.
On lap 11, Lewis Hamilton ran wide. Pierre Gasly, who started in P17, had made his way up to P6. However, entering lap 12, Oscar Piastri took the position. In the same lap, the young Aussie overtook Hulkenberg for P5.
With Sainz still in the lead on lap 13, Perez was heard over the radio saying that he “overdid it”, the same thing his team said before his eventual retirement. The following lap, both Norris and Perez pitted for the first time. As they both exited the pit lane, Norris came out behind his teammate and Perez came out behind Lance Stroll.
Image Credit: Pit Pass
With only 16 laps in, there was a second retirement of the race, this time from Lewis Hamilton. With complaints of engine failure, he pulled over to safety, triggering a virtual safety car.
Sainz decided to pit, allowing Fernando Alonso to take the lead. Alonso then followed suit on the next lap and, due to the push on the tyres and a quick pitstop, he was able to re-emerge into P5 with a set of mediums on.
Ocon pitted as well, however, as he entered the pit lane there was concern as the car started to release a bit of smoke due to a visor tear off being stuck in his brake duct. Despite this, he was sent back out.
As we hit lap 21, there was some battling between the remaining Red Bull and Mercedes for P6.
Further back in the midfield, Haas sent out team orders for Hulkenberg and Magnussen to switch places, as the German driver had better pace. The fan favourite, Ricciardo had made his way up the grid into P13 from the back.
Hitting the halfway point of the race, McLaren made a risky order for Piastri to let Norris past. With the previous battling of Perez and Alonso for P5, Perez was finally able to gain the position in turns eight and nine.
On lap 31, Ricciardo was back where he started. However, after a couple more laps, the next stint of pit stops started, with Leclerc in first due to complaints of the tyres wearing out too fast. He was able to emerge back in behind the Red Bull and Aston Martin, providing an amazing battle for fourth. Perez was the next in and, in typical Red Bull fashion, he was in and straight back out with no problems.
It was the Sauber of Zhou next in. He came into the pits in 11th position, but faced the same problem of a misfortune with the wheel nuts, resulting in him leaving the pits in last position and being lapped by Sainz. Bottas pitted on lap 38, and with all the luck Sauber needed, he was able to exit the pits with no problem. Lap 38 also saw Leclerc take the fastest lap.
40 laps in, McLaren brought Piastri in for his last pitstop of the race, leaving him ahead of Russell. The other McLaren driver followed suit the next lap, putting him into fourth, between Leclerc and Alonso.
Image Credit: Pit Pass
The race leader made his final pitstop on lap 42. Piastri put his fresh set of tyres to use with a clear overtake of Alonso, who would later pit that lap.
Venturing back into the midfield, Tsunoda pulled the same trick on old teammate Gasly for P9.
Lap 44 saw Bottas under investigation for a pit lane infringement. Piastri took the fastest lap on lap 45, however, teammate, Norris, soon took the title two laps later. On lap 48, Gasly ran across the pit lane entrance, resulting in an investigation. One lap later, he was given a five-second penalty. Norris outperformed himself, setting a new fastest lap of 1:19.915. More and more drivers had been lapped by race leader Sainz, and Aussie driver Daniel Ricciardo suffered this fate on lap 54.
Tensions had risen as the final pit stops had taken place, Sainz led the race with Leclerc five seconds behind him, and previous teammate, Norris, further down the field with a four-second gap.
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George Russell, who pitted with 10 laps remaining, pushed forward to catch up with Alonso and Perez. Russell was on fresher hard tyres, allowing him to shred the tyres as much as he wanted. He closed the gap between himself and Alonso rapidly. However, to his dismay, with a tricky corner ahead and a late break from Alonso, Russell pushed a bit too hard and crash. His crash resulted in his car being on its side in the middle of turn six, bringing out another virtual safety car on the last lap of the race.
Both the Ferrari and McLaren teams were seen cheering in the garages, as the chequered flag was waved for Sainz – taking the third win of his career. Leclerc and Norris would be the next to see the chequered flag, bringing home the first podium of the season for McLaren and the first double podium for Ferrari in 2024.
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Russell’s crash benefitted Stroll, Tsunoda, and the Haas drivers, promoting them into the points. Tsunoda achieved RB’s first points of the season. While Hulkenberg and Magnussen scored Haas’ first double points since July 2022.
After the spraying of champagne and debriefing between the teams and drivers, Alonso was hit with a 20-second penalty, resulting in Stroll and Tsunoda being promoted to P6 and P7.
Written by Chloe.
Featured Image Credit: AutoRacing1
The Fastest Sector 