Yesterday’s qualifying saw two red flags, when both Williams cars hit the tyre wall in two separate Q2 incidents.
Grid: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, GIO, OCO, ALO, RIC, RUS, STR, NOR, TSU, VET, KUB, SCH, MAZ, LAT*, PER*
*LAT had a gearbox change so he starts from the pit lane; PER has a new power unit
Green light; cars (except LAT and PER) can make their way to the grid
Air temperature 21°C; track 35°C
VER leads the grid around on the formation lap
The top 10 are all on the soft tyres they used in Q2; RUS, NOR, SCH and LAT on mediums; PER on hard tyres; everyone else on softs
01/72: VER leads into turn 1
02: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, RIC, GIO, RUS, STR, NOR, TSU, VET, KUB, MAZ, SCH, PER, LAT
03: VER fastest lap 1:14.978
Radio from RUS reporting that RIC is dropping oil
04: VER f/lap 1:14.813
05/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, RIC, GIO, RUS, STR, NOR, TSU, VET, KUB, MAZ, PER, SCH, LAT
DRS enabled
SCH pits; new nose; swaps mediums for new softs
ALO goes high through the banked Turn 3; his teammate takes a lower line and nearly catches him
06: Radio from HAM, “These tyres. I’m going to struggle to keep this pace.”
OCO tells his team that ALO is much slower (i.e. tell him to let me pass)
08: Ferrari tell SAI, “Plan B”
09 PER pits; replaces his hard tyres with mediums
10/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, RIC, GIO
HAM 1:14.750
Radio for VER telling him HAM switching to 2-stop strategy
11: VER picks up his pace – will he 2-stop too
VET pits
PER (P19) f/lap 1:14.596
12: STR tucked up behind RUS
13: VER’s lead almost 3sec
14: LAT makes the first on-track pass, taking P16 from MAZ
15/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, RIC, GIO, RUS, STR, NOR, TSU, KUB, LAT, MAZ, PER, VET, SCH
16: PER takes P17 from MAZ
19: PER inside LAT for P16
HAM struggling to hear Bono on the radio
20/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, RIC, GIO
VER laps MAZ (P18)
PER past KUB for P15
21: HAM pits; mediums go on; front-right was a bit slow; rejoins P3
22: VER pits; mediums; rejoins P2
23: HAM has closed the gap to VER to 2secs
HAM f/lap 1:13.757
24: PER closing on TSU; dives inside into the chicane; takes P14
25/72: BOT, VER, HAM, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, RIC, GIO
LAT pits
GAS pits from P4; mediums go on; rejoins P7
VET takes P17 from MAZ
26: Radio from BOT, “Tyres are definitely dropping a bit more. I guess they can do a bit more.”
Yes, they have to do a bit more as BOT’s on a 1-stop strategy
27: HAM closing on VER, 1.5sec gap
Radio for VER telling him the gap and pace of BOT, “It’s critical to catch and pass, if we can”
28: VER seems to be hanging back from the dirty air behind BOT
29: GIO, RUS and STR all pit
Radio for BOT, “This is for the race win”
30/72: BOT, VER, HAM, LEC, SAI, GAS, ALO, OCO, RIC, NOR
VER within DRS range of BOT
31: VER easily passes BOT to take P1
BOT lets HAM take P2
RIC pits
32: BOT pits from P3; mediums go on; rejoins still P3
SAI pits; hard tyres go on
33: VER opening a gap over HAM
35/72: 5sec penalty for RUS for speeding in the pit lane
LEC pits; hard tyres, same as teammate SAI
36 = half distance
37: VET lost the rear into Turn 3 as he looked to pass LAT; half-spin
BOT arrives in Turn 3 as VET is across the track; finds space behind the Aston Martin
39: HAM laps PER
40/72: HAM pits; scrubbed mediums go on; rejoins in the middle of the RIC-RUS-STR battle
41: VER pits; new hard tyres
HAM setting purple sector times
42: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, NOR, PER, ALO, OCO
HAM f/lap 1:13.292
43: VER’s lead ~3sec
MAZ pits; retires
NOR pits from P7; rejoins P11 right behind RIC
45/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, PER, ALO, OCO, RIC, NOR, RUS, STR, TSU, LAT, VET, GIO, KUB, SCH; out: MAZ
46: HAM on the radio still complaining about pitting too soon
47: RIC lets NOR take P10
48: ALO on PER’s tail
Radio from HAM, “I’m not going to make it to the end on these tyres”
49: PER pits from P7; hard tyres; rejoins P12 in the middle of the RUS-STR battle
50/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, NOR, PER, RIC, RUS, STR, LAT, GIO
HAM f/lap 1:13.124
PER passes RIC for P10
TSU pits; retires
SCH makes a mess of the chicane, cuts across the gravel trap
51: HAM just under 3sec behind VER
53: HAM now under 2.5sec back; is he planning to stop again?
54: PER pushing RIC hard for P10
OCO harrying teammate ALO over P7
PER takes P10 from RIC
55/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, NOR, PER
Radio for HAM telling him to look after his tyres; HAM wants to challenge VER; Bono says ok
58: VER under 2sec ahead of HAM; BOT is over 15sec behind HAM
VER laps GIO (P15) as does HAM
60/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, NOR, PER
VER opening the gap a little as they deal with traffic
Radio from HAM, “These tyres are dropping off”
61: HAM 4sec behind VER – has he had to back off to save his tyres?
62: PER closing on NOR
63: PER takes a look but NOR keeps P9
64: VET takes P14 from GIO
65/72: VER, HAM, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, NOR, PER, RIC, RUS, STR, VET, GIO, LAT, KUB, SCH; out: TSU, MAZ
PER still on NOR’s tail
ALO closing on SAI
66: PER squeezes past NOR to take P9 – there was contact in Turn 3
VER laps GAS (P4)
Radio for BOT, “box, box, box” – are they going to take the fastest lap point from HAM?
68: BOT pits; slow stop
69: Radio for BOT telling him they’re not going for fastest lap; “Why not?”; “So HAM has a free stop at the end”
Radio from BOT, “So why did we pit then?”; “Safety precautions”
70/72: VER, HA, BOT, GAS, LEC, SAI, ALO, OCO, PER, NOR
BOT setting fastest sectors
Radio for BOT telling him to abort his fastest lap
Radio from HAM saying he needs that one point
71: BOT f/lap 1:12.549
So I guess that means BOT is leaving Mercedes
HAM pits; softs go on
72: The Dutch fans are setting off smoke around the track
Chequered flag
VER P1
HAM P2, f/lap 1:11.097
BOT P3
Anthems are taking much longer than usual
Interviews:
VER: “As you can hear already, it’s just incredible. Expectations were high going into the weekend, I’m so happy to win here. It’s such an amazing day, the whole crowd, incredible.”
HAM: “What a day, what a crowd! Max did a great job, congratulations to him. I gave it everything, they were just too quick for us. They had that upper edge, and it’s very hard to follow here. The last lap was one of the best parts of the race for me – single lap, low fuel. This is now one of my favourite tracks.”
BOT: “For me, pretty uneventful. We tried a one-stop, but at the end stopped for safety basically. As a team we got a lot of points.”
Toto Wolff: “I think we had a sniff of an undercut, but we didn’t time it right. We didn’t expect them to go on the hard tyre, we thought we were pushing them early onto the soft but it is what it is. The hard tyre was a gamble because none of us had really run it.”
GAS: “I’m really happy, pretty much the best we could hope for. The car seems to work everywhere in all conditions, dry, wet. It’s probably the best season the team has ever had.”
ALO: “We execute the strategy according to the feeling we had in the car. Aggressive on the first lap, we knew that was the big opportunity. Even overtaking Carlos on the last lap – we thought the Ferrari was a big jump [ahead]. Saturday I still miss some performance, but on Sunday I am enjoying more. Let’s see – Monza, should be another good atmosphere.”
Provisional result: VER, HAM*, BOT, GAS, LEC, ALO, SAI, PER, OCO, NOR; RIC, STR, VET, GIO, KUB, LAT, RUS, SCH
*HAM fastest lap
DNF: TSU, MAZ
Next weekend is the 3rd consecutive race; it’s the sprint format in Monza.
Quick update on the points: