Hot on the heels of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix the F1 circus moves to Miami for the first of three(!) races in the States.
The Race Director’s Event Notes remind the teams “It is forbidden to climb on pit wall debris fence at any time”
Free Practice
- FP1: HUL spun into the tyre wall, causing a red flag
ALB almost lost the rear but recovered
DEV spun in Turn 12; he was under investigation for driving towards oncoming traffic (in order to spin around and rejoin) but was not penalised
It’s another tight, twisty track with some blind corners, leading to a few abandoned laps when a fast runner suddenly catches a slower-moving car - FP2: LEC locked up, slid across the runoff area and into the tyre wall; red flags
MAG spun and tapped the wall but it could so easily have been a big wipeout
VER complained about his headrest again, similar to Azerbaijan
PER was shown the black and white flag for cutting across the solid white line at the pit entry
ALO aborts a flying lap when he felt OCO was in the way; he got in a dig about Free Practice being “their [Alpine’s] moment”
RUS ran wide in Turn 11; spun it around to rejoin
After FP2 Aston Martin was fined a total of €500 for STR speeding in the pit lane twice - FP3: It was OCO’s turn to catch a slower car and abandon a quick lap
HUL had a big twitch in Turn 8 but collected up the Haas and continued
NOR had an even bigger fight with his McLaren through Turn 4
Red Bull released PER into the path of PIA (no penalty though)
ALB locked up and ran wide in the hairpin; he blamed his team for not reminding him to reset switches, “I did the whole lap in B-Mig1”
SAI, HAM and RUS each take their second ECU (of an allocation of two for the season)
Qualifying session 1 (Q1)
HAM nearly rear-ended a very slow MAG; HAM avoided the Haas but tapped the wall with his front wing
ZHO goes around the outside of a Ferrari, but then SAI suddenly sped up and squeezed the Alfa Romeo almost into the wall
AlphaTauri released a car almost into the side of HUL (no penalty)
RUS and HAM are in the dropzone as the chequered flag falls
Bottom 5 are: NOR, TSU, STR, PIA, SAR
Qualifying session 2
Haas release HUL into the path of ALO (no penalty)
RUS and HAM in the dropzone again as the chequered flag falls
RUS goes P9 but HAM can only manage P13
Middle of the grid: ALB, HUL, HAM, ZHO, DEV
Qualifying session 3
VER has a scruffy fast lap, abandons it
PER 1:26.841
OCO P2
RUS P2
ALO P2
GAS P3
MAG P3
LEC locks up; only P6
SAI P3
LEC loses the rear into Turn 7; across the runoff and into the tyre wall; red flag with 1:36 left of the session
Race control: Q3 will not be resumed – VER and BOT did not set a time
Front of the grid: PER, ALO, SAI, MAG, GAS, RUS, LEC, OCO, VER, BOT
Provisional grid: PER, ALO, SAI, MAG, GAS, RUS, LEC, OCO, VER, BOT, ALB, HUL, HAM, ZHO, DEV, NOR, TSU, STR, PIA, SAR
On to the pre-race… it’s all the cheesy excess you’d expect from the USA – blurgh!
Air temperature 27°C; track 34°C; humidity 60%
PER leads everyone away on the formation lap
Quite the mix of tyre choices: front 7 are all on mediums; OCO and VER on hards; BOT and ALB on mediums; HUL, HAM and ZHO on hards; DEV medium; NOR soft; TSU and STR hard; PIA soft; SAR medium
PER needs to slow down and bunch everyone up or he’ll have a long wait on the grid
01/57: DEV locks up into Turn 1; punts NOR wide; both continue
02: PER, ALO, SAI, GAS, RUS, LEC, MAG, BOT, VER, OCO, HUL, ALB, HAM, PIA, TSU, ZHO, STR, SAR, NOR, DEV
VER takes P8 from BOT
03: PER fastest lap 1:33.963
DRS now enabled
SAR pits; hard tyres replace the soft; new front wing; rejoins a long way back in P20
04: MAG challenges LEC for P6… but VER passes both of them
ALO f/lap 1:33.258
05/57: PER, ALO, SAI, GAS, RUS, VER, MAG, LEC, BOT, OCO; HAM still P13 but has DRS behind ALB
VER f/lap 1:32.935
06: VER f/lap 1:32.875
NOR pits; goes onto hard tyres
PIA pits too; hards go on
07: VER f/lap 1:32.753 – he’s got DRS behind RUS
OCO cut the chicane but avoided the walls
Radio from HAM concerned that “the car’s definitely not feeling great”; he’s told it’s probably just the wind
08: VER f/lap 1:32.555
HUL dives inside BOT for P10 but locks up and BOT goes ahead again
VER takes P6 from RUS
09: RUS also reporting that his Mercedes is sliding around and “big vibration on the brakes”
VER easily passes GAS
RUS also past GAS for P5
10/57: PER, ALO, SAI, VER, RUS, GAS, MAG, LEC, OCO, BOT; HAM still P13
12: PER f/lap 1:32.478
VER f/lap 1:32.251
13: VER closing on SAI, but the Ferrari has DRS behind ALO
LEC inside MAG for P7 but MAG fights back and reclaims the place
OCO is hot on LEC’s heels
14: VER f/lap 1:31.736
VER uses DRS for a pretty easy pass on SAI for P3
VER already has DRS behind ALO
15/57: PER, ALO, VER, SAI, RUS, GAS, LEC, OCO, BOT, HUL
MAG pits; hards go on; rejoins P17
VER now P2, just under 4sec behind PER
16: GAS, BOT and DEV all pit; all move to hard tyres
HAM finally passes ALB to take P9
Radio for PER telling him “the car behind is now Max” … are there team orders?
18: RUS and LEC pit; both go on to hards; they rejoin P12 and P15 respectively
HAM harrying HUL for P6
19: SAI all over ALO’s rear wing… but then he pits; rejoins P7
20/57: PER, VER, ALO, OCO, HUL, HAM, SAI, ALB, TSU, STR, ZHO, RUS, GAS, MAG, LEC, BOT, NOR, PIA, DEV, SAR
SAI inside HAM to take P6
21: PER pits; hards go on; rejoins P4
SAI inside HUL for P5, a copycat of his move on HAM
Incident involving SAI – speeding in the pit lane
22: Radio from VER, “upshifts are not that smooth”
PER storms past OCO for P3
23: PER f/lap 1:31.533
ALB pits from P9; hards; rejoins P17
SAI given 5sec penalty for speeding in the pit lane
Radio from RUS asking the team to check his front wing – did he tag the wall?
Incident involving STR and RUS noted – leaving the track and gaining an advantage
24: RUS takes P9 from STR
No further ingestion into STR/RUS
25/57: ALO pits from P3; hards; rejoins P5
PER f/lap 1:31.446
GAS takes P10 from STR
26: PER f/lap 1:31.444
Radio from STR begging his engineer to give him more info
27: RUS takes P8 from TSU
ALO all over SAI’s rear wing… and takes P4
28: ALO has DRS behind OCO
Half distance
29: ALO past OCO for P3
30/57: VER, PER, ALO, OCO, SAI, HAM, RUS, HUL, TSU, GAS
SAI takes P4 from OCO
Everyone running on hard tyres; those who started the race on hards will probably pit in about 10 laps
32: Radio for HAM telling him RUS is closing on him and basically says let him pass because they’re on different strategies
HAM says he won’t fight RUS but he won’t lift off
33: VER f/lap 1:31.293
RUS takes P6 from HAM and says thank you over the radio
ZHO’s the first to pit out of those who started on hard tyres; goes onto mediums
34: HUL pits for mediums
35/57: VER, PER, ALO, SAI, OCO, RUS, HAM, TSU, GAS, STR, MAG, LEC, BOT, ALB, NOR, HUL, ZHO, DEV, PIA, SAR
36: VER f/lap 1:31.225
RUS inside OCO to claim P5
37: PER f/lap 1:31.192 – he’s just under 16sec behind VER
LEC takes P11 from MAG
TSU pits from P8
MAG fights back and reclaims P8
HUL f/lap 1:30.901
RUS steals P4 from SAI (although SAI has 5sec penalty so RUS would already be classified ahead)
38: HAM pits; mediums go on; rejoins P13
LEC passes MAG again
39: VER told he’ll be 3sec behind PER when he pits, so VER needs to push on
40/57: VER, PER, ALO, RUS, SAI, OCO, GAS, STR, LEC, MAG
OCO pits from P6; mediums; rejoins P11
HAM passes ex-teammate BOT for P10
42: VER told he’ll be just ahead of PER once he pits
43: STR pits from P7; mediums; rejoins P15
Drivers are being told to “lift and coast” to conserve fuel
45/57: VER, PER, ALO, RUS, SAI, GAS, LEC, MAG, HAM, OCO, BOT, ALB, TSU, HUL, STR, NOR, ZHO, DEV, PIA, SAR
PER f/lap 1:30.897
46: VER pits from P1; mediums go on; clean but not super-fast stop; rejoins P2
47: VER has DRS behind PER
PER defends from his “teammate”
48: Side by side through Turn 1 but VER takes P1
49: VER f/lap 1:30.637
ALB defends P13 from STR but the Aston Martin goes ahead
50/57: VER, PER, ALO, RUS, SAI, GAS, LEC, HAM, OCO, MAG, BOT, TSU, STR, ALB, HUL, ZHO, NOR, DEV, PIA, SAR
TSU tucked up under BOT’s rear wing
51: TSU takes P11 from BOT
SAR posts a personal best lap time (1:32.384) despite being a lap down
52: STR squeezes BOT and takes P12
53: VER f/lap 1:30.372
54: HAM inside GAS for P7
Radio from RUS asking who he can see ahead of ALO; it’s SAR
55/57: VER, PER, ALO, RUS, SAI
HAM just finds room inside LEC to take P6
56: HAM is just over 14sec behind SAI so the penalty won’t switch them around
57/57: VER f/lap 1:29.708
VER takes the chequered flag
Red Bull mechanics hanging on the pit wall fencing – will they be penalised this time?
Provisional result: VER, PER, ALO, RUS, SAI, HAM, LEC, GAS, OCO, MAG; TSU, STR, BOT, ALB, HUL, ZHO, NOR, DEV, PIA, SAR
Fastest lap: VER
[2023 calendar and driver line-up]
