Not much news since the Italian GP: 2023 schedule announced; ALB is back after his surgery.
No engine penalties (so far) but HAM has been summoned by the stewards for wearing his nose ring!
It’s been declared wet so everyone’s running on intermediate tyres
Air temperature 27°C; track 28°C; humidity 82%
Qualifying session 1 (Q1)
RUS 1:57.099
HAM 1:56.937
RUS 1:55.842
LEC 1:55.054
MAG locks up, runs wide, spins around and rejoins
HAM 1:54.689
VER 1:54.395
Brief yellow flag as ALB runs wide; recovers
LEC 1:54.222
Couple of pit stops; they’re sticking with inters
5mins left; bottom 5 are ALB, LAT, RIC, MAG, SCH – the Haas pair are yet to set a time
RIC P12, relegating TSU to P16
MAG P6, BOT P16
SCH P10, VET P16
BOT P10, GAS P16
HAM 1:53.161
ALB P16
Chequered flag; bottom 5 are ALB, GAS, VET, LAT, TSU
GAS P11, RIC P16
Yellow flag – ALO ran wide
TSU P8, SCH P16
VER 1:53.057
VET P11, RIC P16
SCH P14, BOT P16
Back of the grid: BOT, RIC, OCO, ALB, LAT
Qualifying session 2
GAS 1:54.368
NOR 1:53.995
LEC 1:52.343
(HAM P2)
(VER P2)
Radio from LEC, “The track looks dry” but also mentions some wet patches that are “risky”
SCH runs wide, spins around and rejoins
Radio from LEC asking to box for slicks
5mins left; bottom 5 are SCH, MAG, ZHO, RUS, TSU
LEC pits but they put more inters on
STR and VET take on soft slicks; ZHO makes it a trio on dry tyres
STR spins
RUS P7, VET P11
Chequered flag; bottom 5 are VET, SCH, MAG, ZHO, TSU
TSU P6, GAS P11
MAG P8, STR P11
SCH P13
GAS P7, RUS P11
Middle of the grid: RUS, STR, SCH, VET, ZHO
Qualifying session 3
Top 10 shootout is between LEC, HAM, VER, PER, ALO, SAI, GAS, TSU, NOR and MAG
Everyone’s starting Q3 on soft dry tyres for everyone except TSU and MSG who are still on inters
VER 1:56.940
TSU 1:55.170
SAI P3
NOR P3
PER P5
ALO P4
LEC P2
HAM 1:53.082
GAS P8
MAG pits for softs
VER P2
NOR P2
ALO 1:52.520
LEC 1:51.881
HAM 1:51.019
Yellow flags – GAS off at Turn 18; reverses back onto the track
VER P2
PER P3
2 mins left; order is HAM, VER, PER, LEC, SAI, ALO, NOR, MAG, TSU, GAS; they’re all on softs and presumably fueled to the end
ALO 1:50.737
LEC 1:49.412
Chequered flag
SAI P2
PER P2
NOR P4
HAM P3
Front of the grid: LEC, PER, HAM, SAI, ALO, NOR, GAS, VER, MAG, TSU
VER was suddenly told to box on his final lap; was he low on fuel? He’s furious at his team
Provisional grid: LEC, PER, HAM, SAI, ALO, NOR, GAS, VER, MAG, TSU, RUS, STR, SCH, VET, ZHO, BOT, RIC, OCO, ALB, LAT
“Confirmation that Guanyu Zhou remains at Alfa Romeo leaves just three vacancies on the 2023 F1 grid.”
https://www.pitpass.com/73688/Who-Goes-Where-2023
I said at the start of my notes “HAM has been summoned by the stewards for wearing his nose ring”…
The FIA article uses some interesting language, titled “Hamilton escapes penalty…” and then saying “Hamilton has avoided a penalty”, but in the details it says “doctors had advised him to leave the stud in” and that the FIA Deputy Medical Delegate agreed, so the stewards decided to take no further action.
Oh, but wait – the FIA can’t admit that they’re wrong, so they found a way to still make their point by fining Mercedes €25,000 (£22,000) for filling in a form incorrectly! What a joke!