The 2023 F1 Season may have ended a while ago, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve the most comprehensive summary of the season that was with our Full 2023 F1 Season Review.
Much like Netflix our Full 2023 F1 Season Review comes well after the season finishes, and we’re hoping to get 0.000001% of that audience. We’d argue our review is better, but expecting very few to agree.
Our Full 2023 F1 Season Review covers every race, by basically re-running all of our race reviews from the 2023 F1 season. Those that we compiled with as much care as possible watching live at the ungodly hours that most Grands Prix air on our side of the globe. What is below is what we wrote at the time, too lazy to re-do much. Except for a little spelli checking.
There’s our popular Laps that Mattered review of the race, where only the choicest cuts and stinging criticisms make the grade. Then we rate the drivers and the race itself, plus throw is some barely interesting stats of every race.
So sit back and get ready for the ride and give yourself an hour or so.
The Gurgler’s Full 2023 F1 Season Review
The 2023 F1 season has kicked off with Max Verstappen winning the opening Grand Prix and an ominous sign for the season ahead with a Red Bull 1-2. Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin was a welcome surprise. Our summary covers the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Result and as much of the action from the race so you don’t have to.
2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – F1 is back, and so it appears is the Red Bull dominance, with that team taking the top two qualifying positions and looking mighty strong. But behind them the chasing pack now seems to include Aston Martin along with Ferrari and Mercedes, but will they too far back to make any difference? The sandbags are officially off as the F1 season gets underway……
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PER LEC PER ALO RUS HAM STR OCO HUL
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Verstappen gets off the line great, so do the Ferraris and not Perez and so Verstappen pushes the entire grid to the right but stays in front into the first corner. Behind him there’s sparks a-plenty and potentially a clash between the Aston Martin. They drop to 7th and 9th but there appears to be no damage, amazingly so as Lance Stroll appears to forget to brake for turn three. No damage anywhere else, to disappoint those who like a first lap prang. Big winners of the first lap are Leclerc, Hamilton and Bottas.
ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI HAM RUS ALO BOT STR NOR
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen is already three and a half seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, with the race result appearing to be sorted already. Unless there’s an introduction of some rain, sandstorm, or sabotage. Behind him, it’s the standard aero-affecting just over a second gap between all the cars.
ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI HAM RUS ALO BOT STR OCO
Lap 9 – This 1am kick off is starting to hurt already. Same detail as the last entry with Verstappen 6.3 seconds ahead. Except the drinks taken to stay awake are wearing off. For something interesting in this part of the world, Daniel Riccardo’s replacement Oscar Piastri is going slightly better than Ricciardo did last year. He qualified 18th and is currently running 16th – Lando Norris is 12th and falls to dead last when pitting a few laps later.
Lap 12 – The question of which car is fastest? Mercedes and Aston Martin is being answered with Alonso all over the rear end of the Mercedes and looking to overtake.
Lap 13 – Great battle between Alonso and Russell ends with Alonso squeezing past Russell for 5th after turn three.
Lap 14 – Both the Ferraris have pit now, leaving the Red Bulls to do whatever they want. And Max Verstappen decides to pit a lap later, leaving his beloved team mate in the lead.
Lap 16 – What was that about Oscar Piastri? Nothing. He is retired by his team after previous tinkering didn’t work. Lando Norris isn’t far behind, and pits on lap 19.
Lap 18 – Perez is the final front runner to pit. He rejoins third.
ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI HAM ALO RUS BOT STR ALB
Lap 20 – Max Verstappen chats to his team over the radio about some dodgy downshifts on his car. Which is a worry for the rest of the grid, he’s more than ten seconds ahead of second place now, imagine if the car is trouble free.
Lap 24 – Forget about first, we at least have a battle for second looming. Sergio Perez closing up on Charles Leclerc. Perez gets past a lap later, but not without a bit of fight from Leclerc who pushes back hard for a bit, but then like most people watching the race, are resigned to Red Bull winning everything.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAIN HAM ALO RUS STR BOT ALB
Lap 28 – Esteban Ocon is being investigated for another Stop/Go penalty. First was for incorrect grid position, then another one for not doing that penalty properly, now for Pit Lane speeding. Amazingly, he is still not last, there’s a pair of Haas-holes behind him.
Lap 29 – It’s halfway, and that second half can come soon enough. Max Verstappen is 13 seconds ahead of Perez, who is five + second in front of Charles Leclerc. Noteworthy is rookie Logan Sargeant is in the top 10.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAI HAM ALO RUS STR SAR ZHO
Lap 34 – The next round of pitstops have begun, which breaks up the 2am long blinks. Verstappen pits on lap 37 to complete the front runners.
Lap 37 – Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are battling for 5th. Alonso gets in front, only for Hamilton to take back his opportunity. A few laps later and Alonso takes Hamilton for good, on the inside of the track’s tightest corner where overtaking rarely happens. And, Sainz is only a few seconds up the road. Perhaps this Aston Martin is the dark horse after all.
Lap 41 – Charles Leclerc is Out!!! The Ferrari pulls over to the edge of the track and the Virtual Safety Car is deployed. Poor Charles. And poor F1 fans. We needed a strong Ferrari to push the Red Bulls.
ORDER – VER PER SAI ALO HAM STR RUS BOT ALB GAS
Lap 43 – Esteban Ocon’s miserable Grand Prix finally ends in the pitlane.
Lap 44 – Alonso is now right on Carlos Sainz’s tail. Sainz is on the radio saying if he defends too much his tyres won’t make the race end. They almost collide on lap 45 as an out-of-shape Alonso drives so close to the Ferrari. Half a lap later, the Aston Martin is ahead and on the podium.
Lap 48 – Lewis Hamilton continues to chase Carlos Sainz for 4th. But the gap and effort seem static at his stage,
Lap 53 – Unless there are some more car failures, or Lewis Hamilton has a crack, we’ve probably seen the last of the action.
Last lap – The TV cameras pick up Max Verstappen with two laps to go, and hang around long enough to see him start 2023 much like most of 2022 – with a win. He is trailed home by his team mate Sergio Perez, but the big new is Fernando Alonso coming home third.
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – FERNANDO ALONSO
OK, so he didn’t win, but he was sensational in the Aston Martin, fully justifying the move from Alpine. The car was mega in the second half of the race as he overtook the Mercedes and Ferraris.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Can confirm he was at the Grand Prix, but you wouldn’t know for the ease of his victory.
SERGIO PEREZ – Sort of a ditto to Max Verstappen.
LANCE STROLL – Decent effort to be racing at all after his bike accident which was looking like keeping him out.
VALTTERI BOTTAS – Another anonymous performance from Bottas, but unlike his Nottas Mercedes days, this is a good thing. 8th place is good enough for the start of the season.
PIERRE GASLY – From last to 9th is a quality drive.
ALEX ALBON – Remember when a point for Williams was big news, Alex Albon has made it less so, and here’s another point.
THE GRAPE-EST – ESTEBAN OCON
No less than three Stop / Go penalties, and eventually retired on lap 42. Meanwhile, new team mate Gasly goes from last to 9th.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – And he thought 2022 was disappointing.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Qualified 18th, and despite some OK progress during the race, suffered a DNF.
CHARLES LECLERC – Not the best start to a season. Car is slower than Red Bull. And perhaps Aston Martin. A DNF doesn’t help either. At least Ferrari didn’t have a chance to stuff the strategy.
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 10 / 10
The first trace of the year is important to see the cars finally in action without sandbags and talk. Red Bull look even better than last year, and Aston Martin have joined the other top three teams. At least.
ON TRACK ACTION – 3/10
Pretty dull race, with only Fernando Alonso’s race being anything worth getting excited about.
ENDING 2 / 10
Depends how far back we go, if you include Alonso’s charge. We didn’t and the last few laps we pretty dull.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
The first race is always exciting, and the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. But it was a pretty boring race.
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The 2023 F1 season continues with Sergio Perez winning the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix and our summary covers the 2023 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix Result where Max Verstappen had to work harder than usual without the full reward.
Setting the scene – With Max Verstappen’s car failure in Q2 keeping him to 15th on the grid, it has opened up the race like one couldn’t have imagined after most of the weekend before Q2. Perez did the job is securing pole with a worrying margin to the rest, and despite the lowly starting slot Max Verstappen is still second favourite. Alonso seems the nearest challenger, and there’s always a doubt over Sergio Perez under pressure. As for strategy buffs, most drivers are on the Medium tyre except for Lewis Hamilton (Hard) and Charles Leclerc (Soft). Plenty awaits on the fastest street track in the world, although we feel there’s some debate over how much of a street track this is. Perhaps the city is a real life Fast and the Furious.
GRID (Starting Order) – PER ALO RUS SAI STR OCO HAM PIA GAS HUL — (LEC 12th – VER 15th)
Lap 1 – Sergio Perez makes an ordinary start and Fernando Alonso powers past, not after Perez tries a little squeeze into the pit wall. Stroll goes around the outside of Sainz halfway around the lap making it some kind of start for the Aston Martins. Further back Oscar Piastri proves there’s no luck for Australian McLaren drivers as he reports damage on his car. and later pits. For the record Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen both climb three spots on the opening lap.
ORDER – ALO PER RUS STR SAI OCO HAM GAS LEC ZHO
Lap 3 – McLaren’s bad luck continues in 2023 with Lando Norris in the pit lane just after Oscar Piastri pits. They are now 19th and 20th and not a single Ricciardo around to blame it on. Further ahead Max Verstappen has actually lost a place from lap one and is now behind a pair of Haasholes in Hulkenberg and Magnussen.
Lap 4 – Sergio Perez spoils the party by overtaking Fernando Alonso into turn one. Given the pace of the Red Bull, fans will have to sweat on that Perez will bin it somewhere for this not to be a Stroll in the park. Pardon the pun. Although given Lance Stroll crashes a bit, perhaps a Stroll in the park would be exciting.
Lap 7 – Charles Leclerc gets by Pierre Gasly for 8th place and has Lewis Hamilton just ahead. Max Verstappen has passed the pair of Haasholes and is 11th, and 10th by the time this we finished typing this paragraph. At the front, which is usually where Max is, Sergio Perez is being kept honest by Fernando Alonso and is only eight tenths of a second behind still. Note that someone found Haasholes funny last race, so we will reuse until they say it isn’t funny.
ORDER – PER ALO RUS STR SAI OCO HAM LEC GAS VER
Lap 9 – Lewis Hamilton in trouble with the stewards for weaving on the straight. Well he does like his fashion doesn’t he? Cue some moaning about no grip after Charles Leclerc gets by, and the fact he’s on the hardest possible tyre and no one else is. Making him even more miserable is Max Verstappen getting past on Lap 11. Without incident.
Lap 13 – Charles Leclerc is using the soft tyre well as he passes Ocon for 6th and is now four seconds behind team mate Carlos Sainz despite starting eight grid slots apart. Sainz being told to pit which makes life easy for Leclerc. Max Verstappen overtakes Ocon too, leaving Leclerc and Verstappen just a few seconds apart.
Lap 14 – Lance Stroll pits for new tyres and Sainz doesn’t despite our earlier message. Who knows if that was a Ferrari trick to Aston Martin, or that Ferrari only broadcast that to the TV Coverage and forgot to tell Carlos. Given their strategy in 2022 you can’t rule anything out. He pits on lap 16 and clears Lance Stroll, so we may eat our words. For now.
Lap 17 – Charles Leclerc smells Max Verstappen closing in and pits. He also clears Lance Stroll, so double box ticking for Ferrari. Yellow flags are out and they are because of a broken down Aston Martin. One remembers a crash-inspired win for Alonso over a decade ago for Renault. Surely not…..
Lap 18 – SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED – So now it’s a matter of who pits and who doesn’t. The leaders do of course, and the order stays the same, well sort of. Max Verstappen is the big winner, getting his first stop after Ferraris took one under racing laps. And Yuki Tsunoda, who we almost forgot was in the race, he’s 8th.
ORDER – PER ALO RUS VER SAI HAM LEC TSU OCO GAS
Lap 21 – RACE RESTARTS – Perez backs up the field massively but zooms off just in time to give himself some clear air. No change or crashing, which is mildly disappointing if we’re honest. Although Max Verstappen looks very keen to steal some places ahead of him. So does Lewis Hamilton who successfully steals 5th from Carlos Sainz i na nice move.
Lap 23 – Max Verstappen looks a little tentative in wanting to get past George Russell. Maybe that’s because George Russell has a bit of history of crashing into people then blaming the other driver. Not this time, Max breezes past Russell before the end of the lap.
Lap 25 – Verstappen breezes past Fernando Alonso too. His team mate is just under six seconds up the road. So let’s see how much of that Brazil 2022 hate is left. It’s our big hope for some excitement.
Lap 27 – Ironically, Alex Albon’s Williams looks to be running out of power, because his team is sponsored by Duracell if you’re wondering what the gag was.
Lap 28 – Max Verstappen making small inroads into Sergio Perez’s lead, but not much. Still 5.1 seconds behind. A closer intra team battle is the Mercedes duo battling for fourth. They could be due a team morale busting clash.
ORDER – PER VER ALO RUS HAM SAI LEC OCO GAS TSU
Lap 36 – If you’re wondering about the lack of typing, it’s because there’s a lack of action. This is symbolized by a Williams of Logan Sargeant being the focal point of the coverage in his battle for 12th. There’s Charles Leclerc whining to his team about Ferrari’s current position. And an Alfa Romeo pit. Max Verstappen is gaining about a tenth of a second per lap, which means this race will need another 45 laps for him to pass Perez. And after getting up at 3am to watch this, we ain’t hanging around for another 40 laps.
Lap 38 – Max Verstappen is on the radio complaining about his driveshaft. Now this could be interesting given his DNF from qualifying. Might explain why he isn’t catching Sergio Perez. The Mexican extends two fingers to his team mate with a new fastest lap.
Lap 42 – Max Verstappen’s car is still going, as is the race without much action now. The TV is still showing Logan Sargeant, but now for the battle between the back of the grid cars of the race. Lando Norris got a sniff of an overtake down the pit straight, but the McLaren looks to be towing a couple of imaginary elephants and he has no straight line speed.
Lap 46 – Nice overtaking battle between Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda for the final championship point. It goes to the Haas driver.
Last lap – Max Verstappen looks to return the two fingers and steal the fastest lap on the last lap. There’s nothing else happening, so why not. Sergio Perez cruises to victory and leads a Red Bull 1-2. There are only 15 seconds ahead of third placed Fernando Alonso this time. Alonso stays more than five seconds ahead of George Russell, which may be important if a potential five second penalty is applied.
THE GREAT-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
Pretty hard to have a better race. Your team mate and closest rival bombs out of qualifying with car troubles. Perez takes pole position, regains the lead quickly after initially falling behind, led with ease, held fastest lap for a lot of the race.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 15th to 2nd is a decent damage control result. Car troubles aside, he probably would have won this race by a Time Zone.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Best of the rest all weekend, but missed his chance at pole position after Max Verstappen’s issue. Although, the Aston Martin and Alonso aren’t that good yet.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Despite suffering first lap damage and having to pit, thereby relegating him to a back of the field kind of evening, he made Q3 in qualifying and out-qualified his team mate. HE also overtakes his team mate and another car towards the end of the race. Some kind of achievement, and a small glimpse of his powers. The McLaren is still shit though.
MERCEDES – Look to be ahead of Ferrari and not far off the ASton Martin pace. Things looked much worse after Bahrain,
THE GRAPE-EST – LANCE STROLL
More for the back luck than bad driving. Although out-qualified by his team mate, few expect him to. Did well to overtake Carlos Sainz early on too. But he lost a lot of good points with car failure, so will be the most disappointed by the result.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – One wonders if he will be at McLaren in 2024, as battling at the very back of the field is well below where his talents deserve.
CHARLES LECLERC – After making great progress from a lowly 12th starting slot, he went nowhere after his pitstop and complained to his team about the current situation.
VALTTERI BOTTAS – Lost places on the start as per usual, then spent the race right at the back of the field. And even more obscure.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 10
Early days, but this race did prove that the Red Bull isn’t bulletproof. And that Sergio Perez is quite capable. He will need to be if there’s a drivers championship in this season.
ON TRACK ACTION – 4/10
An exciting enough opening few laps, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc coming back through the field, but not much at all after the Safety Car. So we scored it 4/5 for the first half of the race and 0/5 for the second half.
ENDING 1 / 10
Not much happening at all. With a battle for 15th, 10th and maybe Max Verstappen’s car potentially breaking down.
OVERALL RATING 10 / 30
Was it worth getting up at 3am for? Of course. Will we watch it again. Shit no.
2023 SEASON PROGRESS
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The 2023 F1 season has continued down under with Max Verstappen winning an incident filled Australian Grand Prix that needed multiple restarts and had moments of controversy.
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen still took pole, but it was a closer run thing more than we’ve seen so far in 2023 with the Mercedes getting close-ish. It was Perez’s turn this race to miss out in qualifying, and this one was his fault as he slid off the track in Q2. He starts from the pitlane too, to make his job even harder. Fernando Alonso looked to be the nearest challenger but fell short and started 4th, but is strong in the race. And for local hopes the McLaren looks slow again and Piastri starts from 15th.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER RUS HAM ALO SAI STR LEC ALB GAS HUL
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away slow, George Russell gets away well and takes first place into the first corner. More misery for Verstappen as Lewis Hamilton gets by him into turn three. Mercedes 1-2. Behind them bad news for Charles Leclerc who is going backwards into the gravel trap – looks like he was tapped by Lance Stroll. Ferrari win the other battle as Alonso is overtaken by Carlos Sainz, and Alex Albon was the other benefactor. Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez pit for new tyres which will have to last the race.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Max Verstappen is complaining about Lewis Hamilton pushing him off on the first lap. Let’s hope he takes his revenge on track.
ORDER – RUS HAM VER SAI ALO ALB STR GAS HUL TSU
Lap 3 – SAFETY CAR LEAVES
No change among the front runners as the race resumes. Mercedes seem quick enough for now for keeping Verstappen behind.
Lap 7 – George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen all close together and the DRS keeping the battle alive. Alex Albon wastes his 6th position and bins in at turn six big time, into the barrier and half back on track. What a shame, he was looking at a big haul O points.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 8 – George Russell pits and so does Carlos Sainz, so strategy is now split and what a mixed up order we have.
ORDER – HAM VER ALO STR GAS HUL RUS TSU NOR PIA
RACE RED FLAGGED
George Russell completely screwed by the Red Flag. Now he is 7th but all the cars in front get a free pit stop. What is it with a Williams driver stuffing up a Mercedes driver…..
Big winners are Lewis Hamilton (who spent the Safety Car lap moaning about being screwed over himself), Max Verstappen (2nd) and the McLarens who are now 9th and 10th.
RACE RESUMES – Drivers waste lap 9 to get back to the grid. Although, there was nearly a massive pile up at the back of the grid as cars slowed for the restart lap.
Lap 10 – Lewis Hamilton gets away well, Max Verstappen slowish again and Alonso threatens to steal second. Bit of argy-bargy further back involving an Alpha Tauri who falls off the track but resumes. He clipped Esteban Ocon.
ORDER – HAM VER ALO GAS RUS STR HUL TSU NOR SAI
Lap 12 – Max Verstappen breezes past Lewis Hamitlon with DRS and takes the lead. Too easy. This exhibit is closed now. Unless Red Bull have a reliability problem. Which they might. Over dramatic? Max Verstappen is 2.6 seconds ahead after just one tour.
Lap 13 – George Russell gets past Gasly with some ease for 4th. Replays show Perez gets past a Williams for 15th. Who cares. He gets past Magnussen two laps later 14th, and I still don’t care. He acquires 13th on Lap 16. Hmmmmmm, nope, still don’t care.
Lap 16 – Oscar Piastri is 1tth. That is all.
ORDER – VER HAM ALO RUS GAS SAI STR HUL NOR TSU
Lap 18 – Poor George Russell. He crosses the line with his car on fire. He parks it in the middle of the pitlane exit, which is probably dangerous.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED AND STOPS A LAP OR TWO LATER
Lap 21 – A check on the front now, Verstappen is three seconds in front of Lewis Hamilton with Alonso another few seconds behind.
Lap 22 – We may have been a little harsh on Sergio Perez, he is racing well and up to 10th. Good on him. But maybe he shouldn’t suck in qualifying. Or maybe we should shut up, he’s up to 9th a lap later.
Lap 25 – Carlos Sainz finally gets past Pierre Gasly at turn three in a nice move.
Lap 27 – Some solid midfield racing between Ocon and Piastri which sadly for local fans, and muppets living in rubbish bins, ends up in Ocon’s favour. Ocon breezes by Tsunoda for 10th at the same spot a lap later.
ORDER – VER HAM ALO SAI GAS STR HUL NOR PER OCO
Lap 30 – Oscar Piastri takes Tsunoda for 11th, just a place away from a maiden point.
Lap 33 – Sergio Perez sets fatest lap as he charges through the field. Alonso closes in on Lewis Hamilton in within 1.5 seconds. 2023 killjoy Max Verstappen is nearly nine seconds ahead. Lewis Hamilton is moaning on the radio about the Aston Martin strategy.
Lap 40 – Everyone seems to be worried about tyres, which means the last five laps has been a mixture of drivers complaints on the radio, and theories being offered on strategy. Apparently they’ll make the end, which means probably little action for another ten laps.
ORDER – VER HAM ALO SAI GAS STR HUL NOR PER OCO
Lap 43 – At last, some action. Sergio Perez overtakes Lando Norris before the sweepers on the back straight. He’s now chasing Nico Hulkenberg for 7th. Which would be a shame as Hulkenberg has finished 7th in four of his last five Australian Grands Prix. It is a shame as Perez gets past the next lap. Lando Norris looks like spoiling that party further by stealing 8th.
Lap 47 – Max Verstappen drops three second to Lewis Hamilton as he runs off the track at the second last corner. There’s hope for this race yet.
Lap 49 – Disgraceful pun from F1 commentator David Croft after the TV coverage pans to Kylie Minogue.
Lap 51 – Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg providing the lat race entertainment with a fine scrap for 8th. Hulkenberg’s defending is quite robust, but effective. For a while. Lando Norris gets by on Lap 52 at the third last corner, which isn’t a usual place for overtaking. Probably the last of the action for the day, but good stuff.
Lap 53 – Bugger all movement at the front of the field. Max Verstappen maintains his post error eight seconds gap, and the other front running cars are maintaining big enough gaps.
Lap 54 – Kevin Magnussen’s tyre blows, or falls off the wheel and is lying in the middle of the track. Late race safety car? Revenge for Lewis Hamilton? Yessssssssssssssss.
Replays show Magnussen running into the wall on the exit of turn two. Failure or because of the crash? Chicken or egg? So many things to think about.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Will any of the front runners put? Probably not. Some of the midfield runners do. But………..
RED FLAG AGAIN………
Everyone gets to change their tyres again and we’ll have a two lap showcase for the win.
Will there be a crash? Will we see hate between Verstappen and Hamilton? Can Alonso Bradbury his way to the win? Will Perez slide off the track? All those questions and more will be answered in the next five minutes.
Lap 56 – The cars make it around the lap.
Lap 57 – So a third start it is and Max Verstappen outdrags Lewis Hamitlon to the first corner, and then chaos.
Carlos Sainz tips Fernando Alonso into a spin which then causes chain reaction to absolute shenanigans. Gasly runs wide then rejoins just in time to smash his team mate into the wall. An Alpha Tauri is off. A Williams is off. Alonso and Stroll drop to 11th and 12th. Lance Stroll runs off the track.
RED FLAG AGAIN. SURELY THIS IS IT?
But the cars are still lined up with drivers in them. Are these idiots really going to start this race for one lap behind a safety car. Surely not. Although, this is the FIA.
Do the Dagwood Dog salespeople have that much pull to keep the crowd there to sell excess stock they would normally have to throw out.
A Mexican wave breaks out, well the crowd have to do something.
So, the FIA say the race will restart. But the FIA says Alonso must move back to third, and cars are in the order for when the previous red flag came out. Well, except for the cars which crashed. To drive one lap behind the safety car. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz gets a five second penalty he can’t defend behind the safety car.
What a joke.
We preferred a scenario which saw the results stand and Sainz penalised and Hulkenberg promoted to third. Love the Hulk.
RACE RESTARTS
Last lap – The cars drive behind the safety car for one lap. Nice one.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Takes pole, wins the race amid chaos behind. That’s after missing the start and dropping back early. Luck on his side today. Team mate well behind. Championship lead extended.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Looked like a bad weekend coming up for Lewis. Outqualified by his tea mate. Seemingly on the wrong strategy to after the Safety Car. But then came the Red Flag, which left him second, and then his team mate retired with an engine failure. Solid result.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Another high quality weekend for Alonso and Aston Martin. Got lucky with the FIA ruling after the final Red Flag. Could have been in the Grape category if not for that after being punted off by Carlos Sainz.
LANDO NORRIS / OSCAR PIASTRI – Points for the McLaren drivers against the odds. First ever points for Piastri, and a good drive from Norris as ever.
NICO HULKENBERG – Proves he has still got it with a solid weekend of Q3 qualification and ran 7th for most of the race before dropping during the race. Ended up 4th after the last restart, which could have seen him secure a first podium if Carlos Sainz was penalised (which he should).
YUKI TSUNODA – The race’s Steven Bradbury with points from nowhere.
THE GRAPE-EST – GEORGE RUSSELL
Led the race on lap one after a great start, but it went down hill from there. Pit under the Alex Albon safety car, then trumped when a Safety Car became a Red Flag, meaning his pit stop was a complete waste except for lowering his position. Then after recovering from 7th to 4th after the resumption, his engine catches on fire.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Ordinary qualifying, punted off on the first lap. Yeah, not a great race.
ALPINE – Not a bad weekend right up until the final restart when the two drivers ran into each other, costing them a massive amount of points.
FIA – Final safety car / red flag / restart was a joke.
CARLOS SAINZ – Stuffed his race by running into Alonso at the final restart. Got a five second penalty whilst waiting for the last restart.
ALEX ALBON – Threw away a huge result for him and Williams.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6 / 10
Red Bull are fast, Mercedes and Aston Martin next best. Perhaps Mercedes being quicker than before has season importance. But Max did it easy really.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
Plenty of action early. A few Red Flag restarts. The last of which causing complete chaos. Only scores an eight for the boring laps later in the mid to late stages of the race where tyres were being saved. Like when Manchester City stop playing when they go 2 goals up.
ENDING 9 / 10
Nothing like a two lap showcase and mega pile up to finish a race. Again would have scored higher if not for the FIA shenanigans in delaying the end.
OVERALL RATING 23 / 30
A race full of incidents and too many red flags. It would have rated higher if not for the farcical end to the race.
2023 SEASON PROGRESS
2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary
Setting the scene – Charles Leclerc doubled down on his mai nrace pole position by taking the top grid spot for the Sprint Race too. That’s after binning it on his final laps of the Sprint Shootout. Red Bulls are right there, so it will be a decent battle for a while. Mercedes look to be faster than the Aston Martins for now. Interest is whether having the separate sprint qualifying and no follow on effects for the main race will make much difference to the racing. If the first F2 race of the weekend is anything to go by – then yes.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC PER VER RUS SAI HAM ALB ALO STR NOR
Lap 1 – Charles Leclerc gets away from 1st grid slot good enough to stay ahead of Sergio Perez. Max Verstappen and George Russell battle closely over third place and the Mercedes driver gets him into turn three, there looks to be contact but both seem OK. Further around the lap there’s a loose wheel and an Alpha Tauri with only three wheels. Poor Yuki Tsunoda who had a great weekend up to that point.
Lap 2 – Debris and a Wheel on the track is surely dangerous enough for the stewards to bring out the Safety Car, although there is no rain…..
VIRTUAL THEN PROPER SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – LEC PER RUS VER SAI HAM ALO ALB NOR STR
Meanwhile Max Verstappen is on the radio and the blub about being driven into by George Russell, which is a little pot kettle given his driving over the years, with Lewis Hamilton that is. Maybe it’s just a Mercedes thing, as Max seems to be able to race other cars no problem. Meanwhile, you just know it won’t be George Russell’s fault. Never is.
SAFETY CAR EXITS
ORDER – LEC PER VER RUS SAI ALO HAM ALB STR NOR
Lap 6 – After what seems like an eternity the race gets back underway. Leclerc leads Perez still, but Max Verstappen retakes third from George Russell. Fernando Alonso sneaks by Lewis Hamilton for sixth which sucks for Lewis as he looked likely to take fifth from Sainz not lose sixth to Alonso.
ORDER – LEC PER VER RUS SAI ALO HAM ALB STR NOR
Lap 8 – Sergio Perez overtakes Charles Leclerc for the lead into Turn 1. DRS helps, and now Max Verstappen is closing in too to ruin those good Ferrari vibes, or the hopes that Red Bull won’t win everything this season.
Lap 9 – Oscar Piastri overtakes his team mate for 10th. Great for the Australian, and we guess 10th and 11th is a decent improvement on their worst of 2023.
Lap 10 – Lando Norris pits to go to the back of the field. Not sure if that is related to being overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg before that stop.
Lap 12 – Lance Stroll overtakes Alex Albon for the final sprint point. Albon has impressed this weekend. There was also a radio message to Valtteri Bottas from his team, and we briefly realised he is actually in this race.
Lap 16 – If you’re wondering where the update is, there isn’t one. Not much has happened, so one could argue that the changes sort of haven’t worked. Maybe it’s the track, the drivers, the teams telling them to behave (which Christian Horner admitted to in a pre-race interview) or a combination. Driver don’t want to ruin their Sunday on Saturday.
If you want to see how a proper sprint race works, check out the F2 maniacs.
Final Lap – Sergio Perez does it easy in the end and wins the Sprint Race from Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. The main point of interest is after the race as Vertappen and Russell exchange words and differing views over their clash. Without knowing officially, it won’t be George Russell’s fault.
| Pos | Driver | Time |
| 1 | Sergio PEREZ | 17 Laps |
| 2 | Charles LECLERC | 4.463 behind |
| 3 | Max VERSTAPPEN | 5.065 behind |
| 4 | George RUSSELL | 8.532 behind |
| 5 | Carlos SAINZ | 10.388 behind |
| 6 | Fernando ALONSO | 11.613 behind |
| 7 | Lewis HAMILTON | 16.503 behind |
| 8 | Lance STROLL | 18.417 behind |
| 9 | Alexander Albon | 21.757 behind |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | 22.851 behind |
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | 27.990 behind |
| 12 | Guanyu Zhou | 34.602 behind |
| 13 | Pierre GASLY | 36.918 behind |
| 14 | Nyck de Vries | 41.626 behind |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | 48.587 behind |
| 16 | Valtteri BOTTAS | 49.917 behind |
| 17 | Lando NORRIS | 51.104 behind |
| 18 | Esteban OCON | 1:00.621 behind |
| DNF | Yuki TSUNODA | DNF Lap 6 |
| DNF | Logan Sargeant | DNS |
2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Sergio Perez got the win the Sprint Race yesterday as the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc settled for second after Perez breezed by after the Safety Car. Max Verstappen came third and had a post race blow up with George Russell after they clashed, so it is a shame they are far apart for the main race. Not a bad national anthem effort from Azerbaijan either. If you’re into that sort of thing.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC VER PER SAI HAM ALO NOR TSU STR PIA
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Charles Leclerc makes a OK start and keeps first, the short run to the first corner and no DRS helps. The two Red Bulls also get off the line well and maintain their positions. Lance Stroll and George Russell were the drivers on the move moving up two places each. Not much action elsewhere is a start that was duller than expected or hoped for. Replays show a little bump and grind in the midfield. Although once the DRS kicks in this race might get interesting. Or Max Verstappen will clear Charles Leclerc like a rocket and disappear.
ORDER – LEC VER PER SAI HAM ALO STR NOR RUS TSU
Lap 4 – Max Verstappen breezes by Charles Leclerc going past the pits going into the first corner. Well that was fun while it lasted.
Lap 5 – Charles Leclerc holds off the inevitable for another lap as Sergio Perez stalks the Ferrari using DRS. A little further back Carlos Sainz seems to be holding up the upper midfield Mercedes and Aston Martin cars.
Lap 6 – The inevitable was delayed for just one lap and Sergio Perez takes Charles Leclerc’s second place. With the competitive part of the race over for 1st and 2nd we will have to settle for a decent six car battle for third.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAI HAM ALO STR NOR RUS TSU
Lap 7 – After the Aston Martins agree not to attack each other via radio, there are signs that tyres are already starting to go off. Which could provide some welcome entertainment. In fact, the pit stops start on Lap 7, with some midfield maestros.
Lap 10 – Lewis Hamilton is the first of anyone notable to pit for tyres, which releases the Aston Martins to have a little fun. Meanwhile at the front Perez and Verstappen are very close together – within a tenth and DRS ready.
Yellow Flag in Sector 1 & 2 with an Alpha Tauri stranded near but not into a wall. Max Verstappen pits and Perez does not. Safety Car is called after Max has come in. Will this suit Verstappen or Perez. Could also suit Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso and Stroll.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 11 – Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll and Russell pit. Verstappen falls to third behind Perez and Leclerc who were able to pit quickly. The biggest losers aside from Verstappen were Hamilton and Norris who pits before the Yellow Flag. By the way the Alpha Tauri which binned it was Nyck de Vries.
One wonders if the Sergio Perez release in front of Leclerc will get looked at by Stewards. Same for Lance Stroll’s stroll into the pitlane to avoid stacking.
ORDER – PER LEC VER SAI ALO RUS STR OCO* HUL* HAM
(*) No Pit Stop
Lap 14 – RACE RESUMES
Safety Car leaves and Perez keeps his first place. A few corners later Verstappen steals Leclerc’s second place. A few corners later Fernando Alonso surprises his countryman Sainz with the sneakiest of overtakes in an unlikely place for fourth. Lewis Hamilton has gained two places for those in the market for Ham News, he is now 8th. Then 7th as he passes his team mate at the beginning of lap 15.
ORDER – PER VER LEC ALO SAI STR HAM RUS OCO HAM
Lap 17 – Lance Stroll clips the wall but continues for now. And the Stewards are looking into that Sergio Perez pit lane release. Almost clipping a wall was Kevin Magnussen’s Haas who does well not to bin it into turn one.
Lap 19 – A quick check on the race’s most anonymous drivers. Oscar Piastri is 13th, and the Alfa Romeos are 17th and 19th.
Lap 20 – Lance Stroll makes a small mistake and eventually loses his sixth place to Lewis Hamilton. Further ahead, Perez’s lead over Verstappen is staying at just over a second. Charles Leclerc is seven second behind that, meaning the next best car in the race is a second a lap slower. There’s your 2023 outlook for competition.
Lap 23 – The TV Coverage is starting to discuss tyre strategies and who can make it to the finish or not. Like us, they are probably just waiting for the next driver to bin it into the wall for a Safety Car. We say it will be either Stroll or Sargeant.
Lap 26 – Yep, we sure are into the dull stage of the race with a few laps of Esteban Ocon holding up a train of cars from 9th to 15th. Nico Hulkenberg (10th and the main challenger) brushes the wall, but continues.
Lap 29 – Sergio Perez is all of a sudden an extra second in front of Max Verstappen at the front. Some radio comms highlights Verstappen is struggling with something on his car that we can’t nor won’t explain due to lack of knowledge. Sergio Perez sets fastest lap on lap 30 just to rub his nose in it. Verstappen takes it back a lap later.
ORDER – PER VER LEC ALO SAI HAM STR RUS OCO HUL
Lap 31 – Alonso is catching Leclerc for third place and is almost within the DRS critical second.
Lap 33 – Pierre Gasly overtakes Valtteri Bottas for 18th. That’s second last v last. Bottas pits for a third time not long after. Perhaps he’s as bored as we are.
Lap 38 – Guanyu Zhou retires from the race. Can’t tell you what position it was but likely between who cares and doesn’t matter.
Lap 41 – Sergio Perez is over three seconds in front of his team mate, so that battle looks over, unless Perez pulls a piece on DNF magic out of his ar$e. Further back Alonso and Hamilton are both on the charge against Ferraris in front. Lewis Hamilton has been close to Carlos Sainz for some time now. One wonders if all those years being out in front in a Mercedes means that Hamilton is actually no good at overtaking?
Lap 46 – Lando Norris finally overtakes Nico Hulkenberg for 10th place after a good 30 laps or so behind him. Hulkenberg and Ocon (9th) have yet to stop and must before the race ends.
Lap 47 – Towards the front, all that’s left is for someone to do a glory run for fastest lap. George Russell’s race is the most irrelevant right now, so would be perfect candidate.
Lap 49 – Max Verstappen sets fastest lap, which should annoy his teammate a little.
Lap 50 – George Russell pits for soft tyres and a one lap blast for fastest lap.
Shambles in the pit lane as Esteban Ocon pits for his mandatory pit stop only to come across a crowd of photographers blocking the entry. The happy snappers are smart enough to get out of the way. Questions about safety will be asked, especially given the governing body are high on safety and low on drivers earrings.
Last lap – Sergio Perez wins the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, becoming the first driver to win this race a second time. His teammate isn’t too far back, but rarely pressured him after losing the lead thanks to the Safety Car. The Ferraris held on in front of fastest cars for a solid third and fifth finish. Perez seems as happy as an accountant who saves someone $15 on their tax return. Although sparks up on the podium.
FINAL ORDER – PER VER LEC ALO SAI HAM STR RUS NOR
THE GREAT-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
Takes the win in the Sprint Race and Proper Race, neither were from pole position, so needed more than just luck. He kept his team mate at bay for the race, after he did get lucky with the Safety Car. Closes the Championship lead too.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Two pole positions for main qualifying and the Sprint race show some speed is there for him and Ferrari. Usually just for street tracks these days. Third and best of the rest is all he could do. And did it so well.
FERNANDO ALONSO – No third this time, but fourth will be good enough for a season which has already surpassed expectations.
LANDO NORRIS – A few points would be welcome given he spent most of his race stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg.
THE GRAPE-EST – VALTTERI BOTTAS
Dead last and anonymous. One wonders how long he will put up with for ?
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – Becoming more irrelevant at Ferrari as the races wear on.
NYCK DE VRIES – Looking more like the F1 rookie this season than better than average driver we saw score a point on debut for Williams last season. Crashing the car will never help.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 10
Another Red Bull 1-2, which we guess we’ll get used to. Perez beating Verstappen does make it slightly more interesting than it normally would.
ON TRACK ACTION – 2/10
Dull as. Aside from the inevitable Red Bulls overtaking Charles Leclerc and a few minor place changes, there was bugger all overtaking or action. An extra point given for the Nyck de Vries crash which left us with the win defining Safety Car.
ENDING 2 / 10
A pass for 10th, and car thinking about pitting for the fastest lap. There wasn’t even a chance for a repeat of the Verstappen v Russell verbal fireworks.
OVERALL RATING 8 / 30
Could be worse, hoping it isn’t, otherwise we’ll barely stay awake. At least race was early. We guess we’re just disappointed that there was no action, because theBaku circuit promises so much, yet delivered so little.
Setting the scene – Charles Leclerc inadvertently spiced up the race by spinning into the barriers in qualifying, helped by the fact that Max Verstappen and himself stuffed their first laps too we have a mixed up grid. Sergio Perez (1st), Fernando Alonso (2nd) and Kevin Magnussen (4th) the big winners. Come Sunday and an overnight shower has washed away all the rubber making the track surface all new to the drivers, and throw in a decent breeze and the conditions could be tricky, especially off line. Which is not great for overtaking…..Off track the race had the usual awkward Martin Brundle gridwalk, which was livened up by Jackie Stewart being chased by security, sort of. The over-the-top driver introductions by LL Cool J and Will I Am conducting an orchestra was way over the top and so Miami Grand Prix. After caning this race in our prix-view we are hoping this race has some real excitement waiting…….
GRID (Starting Order) – PER ALO SAI MAG GAS RUS LEC OCO VER BOT
Lap 1 – Perez gets away well, Alonso well enough, and everyone behaves themselves into the first corner. Probably still gobsmacked at the pre-race entertainment. Gasly jumps into fourth, Magnussen falls backs, Leclerc is up a place and Max Verstappen finishes the first lap in 9th, where he started. Like a lot of Hollywood, Logan Sargeant pits at the end of the first lap for a new nose. A bit of a dull first lap, which is mildly disappointing.
ORDER – PER ALO SAI GAS RUS LEC MAG BOT VER OCO
Lap 3 – Kevin Magnussen overtakes Charles Leclerc for 6th, which is surprising, but then Leclerc overtakes him back which isn’t surprising. Lurking behind is Max Verstappen, and the cars go three wide into the pit straight and the Red Bull overtakes two cars at once to steal 6th. Super racing. Leclerc the loser as he falls to 8th and still behind Magnussen.
Lap 5 – The TV coverage shows replays of the start, and then you realise that Lewis Hamilton is in this race. He is currently outside the top ten in 13th and unhappy with his car after a little clash on the first lap. The McLarens have pit for new tyres, which puts them towards the back, where they will probably finish.
Lap 7 – Quick check at the front, and Sergio Perez is doing it pretty easy. Fernando Alonso is being harried a little by Carlos Sainz. Max Verstappen is on George Russell’s tail for 5th and is only a handful of seconds behind his leading tea mate.
ORDER – PER ALO SAI GAS RUS VER MAG LEC OCO BOT
Lap 9 – With DRS in full flow, Max Verstappen takes George Russell for 5th. Gasly not far ahead and Max gets him at the end of lap nine. Fernando Alonso’s Saturday prediction of being overtaken by Verstappen on Lap 25 may have been too conservative. George Russel also demotes Pierre Gasly a few corners later.
ORDER – PER ALO SAI VER RUS GAS MAG LEC OCO BOT
Lap 12 – Frustrated faster drivers watch now – Charles Leclerc can’t get past Kevin Magnussen for 7th, and he’d better watch out as Esteban Ocon behind him looks keen to pass them both. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile is still 13th, stuck behind a Bottas bus whose passengers include Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, and Guanyu Zhou. Entertainingly, the Magnussen Maxi Taxi is slowly falling back towards the Bottas bus, and F1 gridlock could be coming. Na, Kevin Magnussen pits on lap 15. Lewis Hamilton finally gains a place on lap 16, overtaking Alex Albon.
Lap 14 – Max Verstappen is up to third, cruising pass Carlos Sainz into the hairpin at the end of the lap. Too easy, that car is so fast. Alonso is next and that won’t take long.
Lap 15 – Max Verstappen takes Alonso for second a lap later, so not the lap 25 Fernando predicted, and probably hoped for. Sergio Perez is 3.6 seconds up the road. Let’s see just a little hate between the two Red Bull drivers for our entertainment. For interest Perez is on a Medium tyre and Max the hard one. So maybe Perez’s tyres will go off soon, but Max can’t pit too early. Pitstops for the other top ten cars starting to ramp up, so we’ll see how the order shapes up soon.
Lap 20 – Carlos Sainz, on new tyres after his pitstop, overtakes Lewis Hamilton for 6th. He pit from 4th when right on Alonso’s tail. Although a few laps later comes the message he is being investigated for speeding in the pit lane, that rarely doesn’t end in a penalty, so he has hurt himself badly there.
Lap 21 – Sergio Perez pits for new tyres, he rejoins in 4th, behind Ocon but in front of Carlos Sainz who just overtook Nico Hulkenberg for 5th. Perez gets past Ocon a lap later with ease. He is 13 seconds behind his team mate after the move.
Lap 25 – For any US fans we may have, an update for their driver Logan Sargeant. He is 20th and last and 24 seconds behind second last. For our Australian fans, Oscar Piastri is only one position better. McLarens and Australians simply don’t mix.
Time for an order further ahead now that most of the pit stops of the leading cars have been done. Not Max Verstappen in first though nor Esteban Ocon in third.
ORDER – VER PER OCO SAI ALO HAM HUL RUS TSU GAS
Lap 27 – Alonso overtakes his compatriot Sainz for a net third. Alonso takes Ocon two laps later for actual third.
Lap 29 – The Red Bulls are 16 seconds apart, with Max trying to push out a margin to be able to keep first after the pit stop. But he will pit for new medium tyres, so even if he falls behind Perez it won’t take long to overtake as Perez’s tyres will be used hard ones. Unless they clash, which will be fun for this race and the season. By lap 31 Perez has gained a second and a half. Max is told he can start to push by his team. By lap 33 the gap has extended between the pair.
Lap 34 – A bunch of cars racing for 9th including Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc in 12th. This race ain’t working out for him.
Lap 36 – The gap between the two Red Bulls remains static, which is some effort from Max Verstappen on 36 lap-old hard tyres. And it is at this point where we realise there have been no DNFs yet. Those first retirement gamblers are getting good show for coin today.
Lap 38 – George Russell looking kind of speedy, overtaking Carlos Sainz for fourth. Alonso is five second up the road.
Lap 39 – Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen swap places a few times, and Leclerc finally stays in front. For 9th. Not forgetting earlier in the race where the now-race leading Verstappen overtook them both in one move.
Lap 40 – Sergio Perez falling further behind Max Verstappen, meaning Max will probably be able to pit and not lose the lead.
Lap 43 – With only Max Verstappen the only car not to have pit, it’s time for an order.
ORDER – VER PER ALO RUS SAI GAS LEC MAG HAM OCO
Lap 46 – Max Verstappen pits from first, and he does fall behind his team mate Perez. They are just two seconds apart.
Lap 48 – Max Verstappen overtakes Sergio Perez for the lead. He tries down the back straight on lap 47 but Sergio Perez blocks him well enough. Not long after Max tries down the pit straight and gets past. Perez makes him work for it through first and second turns but Max is long gone a few corners later.
Lap 54 – The joust for first is sorted, all that remains are the cars who have disappointed this weekend – Leclerc, Hamilton, Gasly in a mini battle. Hamilton gets by Leclerc the next lap.
Last lap – Max Verstappen cruises to the win, with his team mate 5 second behind. Alonso is 20 seconds further down the road, proving that Red Bull is just too good.
FINAL ORDER – VER PER ALO RUS SAI HAM LEC GAS OCO MAG
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Caught out in qualifying by a poor first lap in Q3 and Leclerc’s crash, but carved through the field with ease. Found his way to the front easy enough, then kept his team mate at bay on harder, older tyres.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – Another heroic best of the rest performance.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Solid fourth position, and some good racing after his pitstop put him behind slower cars. Including his team mate.
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN – Fourth in qualifying and a point on race day is a good end result.
THE GRAPE-EST – CHARLES LECLERC
Rubbish weekend for Charles Leclerc. Street track specialist looked to potentially cause msichief in qualifying but spun into the barrier. Then spent a large chunk of the race behind the Haas of Kevin Magnussen around the edges of the top ten. A truly poor weekend.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Ended up in the points but tough going for long periods of the race. Seemed to be in 13th for a good half of the race. Good late overtaking made up for some of it. But still not where he wants to be.
CARLOS SAINZ – Could have been best of the rest, but underwhelmed. Under big pressure for his Ferrari seat you’d imagine.
SERGIO PEREZ – Harsh for taking pole and finishing second? The manner of the defeat to his team mate will hurt. Lost an opportunity given he started the race first and Verstappen 9th. Could have taken lead in Championship.
MCLAREN – Another terrible weekend. Lack of retirement means their positions are worse than usual in 17th and 19th.. Lando Norris must be sniffing out a change of scenery.
LOGAN SARGEANT – Dead last and well off the pace of second last. Which was only a McLaren.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6 / 10
Another season defining display of Red Bull dominance as it appears it is merely the order of the two driver to be sorted out in 2023, and today’s race hints that it will be Max’s season.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
Plenty of good overtaking throughout the field, which is a good effort on such a tight track. DRS balance seemed about right, and the mixed up grid did help.
ENDING 6 / 10
A pass for the lead, which was inevitable enough, but exciting for a lap or so.
OVERALL RATING 20 / 30
No rain, but no problem. A decent race helped by a mixed up grid. A magnificent driver from Max Verstappen. Some good racing up and down the grid, and a battle for the lead, of sorts.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen took pole position and his team mate binned it in Q1 and starts from the back of the field, so a dream scenario for the owner of the fastest car on the grid. But it’s not as dominant this weekend as others. It was a sensational qualifying session with a number of drivers genuinely a chance of pole. Fernando Alonso may feel robbed, but he’s still second and fast. Rain looks possible, hitting halfway through the race, which could liven up the race which is usually in full procession mode by then.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER ALO OCO SAI HAM LEC GAS RUS TSU NOR — PER (20th)
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Max Verstappen keeps the lead on F1’s shortest run to the first corner, and behind Alonso gets away well but not good enough to steal first, and he almost puts it into the wall on the outside of turn One. Nico Hulkenberg dares to overtake Lance Stroll into Mirabeau and they clash but continue. Replays show Stroll runs into Albon too. Stewards hand Hulkenberg a five second penalty a few laps later. Those wondering about Sergio Perez, he is 18th after the first lap after pitting with Hulkenberg and Zhou.
ORDER – VER ALO OCO SAI HAM LEC GAS RUS TSU NOR
Lap 3 – George Russell noted by stewards for starting in the wrong position, he’ll help himself to a penalty very soon. Nope, all good they say.
Lap 5 – Sergio Perez sets fastest lap from 18th place. His team mate Max Verstappen doesn’t need to, as he is a comfortable two seconds ahead of Alonso.
Lap 9 – If you want an idea of how fast the Red Bull is, Sergio Perez has already caught the cars in front of him despite a pit stop. That’s about 15 seconds or so in seven laps. Alternatively, Esteban Ocon’s race pace isn’t as good as qualifying form. He’s nine seconds behind Fernando Alonso.
ORDER – VER ALO OCO SAI HAM LEC GAS RUS TSU NOR (Copy/Paste at this stage)
Lap 10 – So we found this website – which forecasts a decent amount of rain around 4pm local time. Which is 45 minutes away. That will be welcome.
Lap 11 – Carlos Sainz has a go at Esteban Ocon for third into the harbour chicane. He mis-judges it and breaks his front wing. Better still, he didn’t pit to fix it and is continuing after the loose bit dropped off. Sainz’s pace is ok though, still within a second of Ocon with bits missing from the front wing. It looked a pretty amateur attempt from Carlos.
Lap 13 – Fernando Alonso is on the radio asking whether he has a puncture. The team says no, and let’s hope for the sake of the race it isn’t.
Lap 17 – Kevin Magnussen manages a clean overtake of Logan Sargeant into the Mirabeau corner for 15th. Sargeant has been an F1 pied piper for the last five to ten laps. Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez all join the party later in the lap. The American drops from 15th to 18th in one lap without spinning or going off. Replays show Valtteri Bottas overtaking Alex Albon for 13th. Nico Hulkenberg also gets past Sargeant a lap later. It’s an overtaking party and everyone’s invited except Williams.
Lap 21 – Going back to Alonso’s claim of a puncture, there appears to be something wrong as he is now ten seconds behind Max Verstappen and closer to Ocon than the leader.
Lap 27 – Even the drivers are getting bored, they are asking when the rain is coming over the radio. Meanwhile Max Verstappen is still way out in front (by 11 seconds), Alonso keeps sliding backwards, Sainz continues to drive with a damaged front wing, and the rest of the top ten are status quo. The position from the start not the overrated band.
ORDER – VER ALO OCO SAI HAM LEC GAS RUS TSU NOR (Copy/Paste at this stage)
Lap 31 – Max Verstappen sneaks up behind his team mate to lap him and his friends. He loses time to Alonso but will gain it when it’s the Aston Martin’s turn.
Lap 32 – Lewis Hamilton is the first top ten driver to pit for tyres. He drops from fifth to eighth. Ocon pits a lap later from third and rejoins 7th. Sainz joins the pitting party and stays in front of Hamilton. Ferrari didn’t change his front wing either. Other drivers/teams are hanging on for new tyres for now, maybe waiting for the rain?
ORDER – VER ALO LEC GAS RUS OCO SAI HAM TSU NOR
Lap 35 – Sergio Perez pits for a new front wing after running up the back of a Haas. Not one of his better weekends. Lance Stroll ran into a Haas as well but continues.
Lap 40 – Where’s that rain you ask? It’s coming we believe, but can it come before the top five cars have to pit? Like a parent promising a treat they have no intention on doing, the time for the rain keeps getting pushed back. Meanwhile we’ll keep ourselves amused with the continuing Stroll v Magnussen battle, where they touch at least once a lap.
Lap 45 – Charles Leclerc has given up on waiting for rain and pit for tyres. He comes out behind Lewis Hamilton. Gasly pits on lap 48 and comes out behind Leclerc.
Lap 50 – Red Bull radio saying drops of rain on the circuit around the group of corners before and after the hairpin. George Russell says spits of rain at turn three. Here we go…..
Lap 52 – Full on raining now. Cars struggling to stay on track. It’s all about the timing of getting to the pitlane, and if someone is brave/stupid enough to stay out. So far Stroll and Bottas pit.
Lap 53 – Conditions are slippery but not quite bad enough to change to wet tyres. It is at its worst around the hairpin where the cars are going around at walking pace.
Lap 55 – Fernando Alonso pits for more dry tyres. He’s not convinced. Esteban Ocon pits for…..wet tyres and so does Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez pits again. It is really wet in that hairpin section now. Carlos Sainz has gone off and falls behind his team mate.
Lap 56 – It’s properly raining now. Max Verstappen pits for inter wet tyres. Alonso looks to be on the wrong tyres. Alonso realises his mistake and puts for wets. Shame for him, if he takes wets he may well take the lead. Both Ferraris pit for wet tyres but sadly for Sainz they have to stack. That will hurt. Everyone on wet tyres now except Kevin Magnussen who must be mad or a genius. Replays show Max Verstappen clipped the barrier near the tunnel entrance.
ORDER – VER ALO OCO HAM RUS LEC GAS SAI TSU PIA
Lap 58 – Kevin Magnussen is into the barriers near the pit lane entry, but recovers to pit for wet tyres and goes off at turn one a few laps later. Logan Sargeant drives wide at the hairpin too. Perez makes his fourth pit stop for full wet tyres replays show why, he ran into the wall at the Swimming Pool.
Lap 61 – Fernando Alonso is catching Max Verstappen at over a second a lap, who looks to be struggling. To be fair everyone is. A lap later Max gain two seconds, so mini crisis over.
Lap 63 – Lance Stroll is the first retirement of the race. He has sort-of earned that with a number of clashes in the midfield.
Lap 65 – Max Verstappen holds a 19 second lead over Alonso and so that’s probably the race win sorted, unless Max gets bored. Alonso is equally comfortable in second now as well. The main battle is for third between Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton. George Russell isn’t far behind either but he has a five second penalty to serve for rejoining the track after going off like a Honda driver at a supermarket carpark. Yuki Tsunoda asked by team to find pace, a suggestion about braking is offered, the drivers asks whether his team are trying to crash him.
Lap 69 – McLaren heading for double points as Oscar Piastri overtakes Yuki Tsunoda for 10th like his team mate had done recently for 9th. Yuki Tsunoda goes off at Mirabeau a lap later losing more positions.
Lap 73 – Sergio Perez pits for what must be the fifth time, or maybe sixth. Not sure why, he loses track position, and can’t set a fastest lap due to the wet.
Lap 76 – McLarens are the fastest cars on the circuit late on, which is the opposite over the usual.
Last lap – Another master class from Max Verstappen who makes it all look easy. Not free from error, but he did enough again as always. Nearly half a minute in the end over Fernando Alonso, and Esteban Ocon completes the podium.
FINAL ORDER – VER ALO OCO HAM RUS LEC GAS SAI NOR PIA
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Pulled a mammoth final sector out of the fire in qualifying to snatch pole position. Dominated the race, made the right decisions. All the while, he team mate and championship rivals was weak as piss.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – So close, yet so far this weekend. Could have taken pole but fell just short. Could maybe have won the race, but pit for dry tyres a lap before he pit for wet tyres. But best of the rest again.
ESTEBAN OCON – Really good qualifying, and looked to be going backwards in the race. Came alive again in the wet and held on to his podium despite heavy pressure from Lewis Hamilton in the late stages of the race.
MERCEDES DRIVERS – A good race for both Hamilton and Russel in terms of they finished ahead of both Ferrari drivers. The newly re-worked car looks marginally faster than the previous model.
LANDO NORRIS – Drove pretty anonymous race before the rain, but 9th is a good reward.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Points in his first F1 race in Monaco. Was the fastest driver in the field late on. A reminder that he is actually quite good.
THE GRAPE-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
Putting it into the wall in Q1 ruined his weekend, and allowed his team mate and championship rival a free pass. Perez set a fastest lap early in the race, but any progress was ruined when he needed a pit stop for a new front wing around halfway.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LOGAN SARGEANT – Lost three places in one lap at one stage, eventually made his way to the back of the field.
LANCE STROLL – His dad may own the team, but that can’t help Stroll this weekend. Missed out in qualifying which left him in the lower midfield, and a stream of clashes meant he was nowhere near the top ten, all while his team mate was the second fastest car on the track.
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN – Stayed out on dry tyres too long, then went off on wet tyres which left him at the back of the field.
CARLOS SAINZ – Started fourth, finished eighth. Ran into Ocon which meant his front wing was less optimal than usual. Pit stop timing and a little adventure saw him fall down the field.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 7 / 10
Monaco is always important, as is the chunk of points Max Verstappen wraps up. One important season pointer is Sergio Perez’s performance. Showing that he may be quick and capable most of the time, but he is not up to a season long push for a title. The Championship battle looks more likely between Alonso and Verstappen.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
It was dull at times, but this is Monaco, so is to be expected. But the rain livened things with 20 or so laps to go. But there was enough clashing and midfield racing to keep us interested before the wet.
ENDING 8 / 10
Rain helped make the ending closer than it would have. Sadly the drivers are very professional these days, so there were very few mistakes. But is did mix up the end a bit.
OVERALL RATING 23 / 30
A Monaco Grand Prix experience you could have guessed. Exciting opening laps, dull procession at times, rain teasing through the first hour then arriving to spice things up a little. If we’re honest, we were hoping for more chaos with the rain.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen took pole position and looks fast enough over the weekend to lap the entire field. Behind him it looks like real fun for second best. Helped by two of the biggest rivals to Max stuffing up qualifying again. Sergio Perez in 11th and Charles Leclerc didn’t get out of Q1 and starts 19th. Rain is possible, so is Max Verstappen disappearing into the distance, and similarly a surprise podium. Norris? Hulkenberg? Hamilton? Anything could happen, although you’ll probably need rain for that. But will probably end up a boring Red Bull 1-2.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER SAI NOR HAM STR OCO HUL ALO PIA GAS — PER (11th) — LEC (Pit Lane)
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Max Verstappen gets away well but is challenged by Carlos Sainz into the first corner and just stays ahead. Further back Brits Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris hit each other and Norris is the loser heading to the pits. Lance Stroll is the big mover with some brisk overtaking to get up to third. His team mate Alonso is up to 6th from 8th. Sergio Perez overtakes Piastri into the first corner of the 2nd lap. Pierre Gasly hands himself some more penalties by dropping from 10th to 15th. Charles Leclerc is ahead of only Lando Norris after three laps in a terrible start.
ORDER – VER SAI STR HAM OCO ALO RUS HUL ZHO PIA
Lap 4 – Lando Norris sets a pair of fastest laps at the back of the field. Ahead, not much else is happening. Max Verstappen is only 2.5 second ahead of second placed Sainz, which isn’t bad as there were fears Verstappen could lap the field.
Lap 6 – In a cars-that-stuffed-qualifying update – Sergio Perez takes Nico Hulkenberg for 9th. Charles Leclerc is up to 17th.
Lap 7 – George Russell tempts fate and overtakes home grown hero Fernando Alonso for 6th. Less dangerous for their health is Yuki Tsunoda overtaking Hulkenberg for 10th.
Lap 8 – It’s a two-for-one special for Mercedes overtaking Aston Martin when Lewis Hamilton steals third off Lance Stroll.
ORDER – VER SAI HAM STR OCO RUS ALO ZHO PER TSU
Lap 9 – DRS working a treat today as Sergio Perez climbs to 8th at the expense of Guanyu Zhou, who has been pretty solid up to that point. And Zhou pits at the end of the lap for tyres. Interesting. Well, interesting enough.
Lap 11 – Mercedes looking plenty quick right now, as George Russell takes Esteban Ocon for 5th.
Lap 14 – Esteban Ocon is the first of the semi-interesting drivers to pit for tyres. He comes out (13th) just in front of a scrap between Hulkenberg, Zhou and Tsunoda who are squabbling like seagulls over a chip for 14th. Stroll pits a lap later hoping to stay in front of Ocon, which he does.
Lap 17 – Carlos Sainz pits from second and questions his team’s call. Which is fair enough given he looked OK in second, and his team’s strategy decisions over the past few seasons could be described as anywhere between passable and bog ordinary. Sainz rejoins in 9th, behind his team mate on hard tyres and an even harder strategy. Charles Leclerc stops a lap later, which makes you wonder about the hard tyre strategy. Or any Ferrari strategy.
ORDER (with Pit Stop) – VER HAM RUS ALO PER PIA GAS (all 0) SAI STR OCO TSU (all 1)
Lap 20 – Alonso and Gasly pit. Alonso returns to the track in 10th, Gasly is 16th. Not sure how relevant Gasly’s 16th is. We’ll get back to you on that. Well he does set a fastest lap on lap 22.
Lap 22 – Exactly one-third distance and Max Verstappen is out in front by ten seconds to Lewis Hamilton. No rain yet or soon. So the race for first place is sorted then.
Lap 25 – Lewis Hamilton pits and falls behind Carlos Sainz for the race to net second. A lap later George Russell pits and falls behind Lance Stroll in 5th.
Lap 27 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead and returns into open space. That’s probably the hardest thing he will have to do today.
Lap 28 – Now you’re talking….George Russell radios in declaring rain at turn five. Looking down the pit straight – where the weather is coming from – and it’s looking darker. Oh, and Lewis Hamilton overtakes Carlos Sainz for second. For the record, no other talk of rain or evidence, so we presume George Russell was talking crap.
ORDER – VER HAM SAI RUS STR OCO TSU ALO PER ZHO
Lap 31 – Sergio Perez passes Fernando Alonso for 8th. Alonso is having the kind of mere mortal, ordinary race most expected at the start of the season.
Lap 33 – Sergio Perez is up to 7th, overtaking Yuki Tsunoda having another good weekend.
Lap 34 – Talking of good weekends, Max Verstappen is nearly 14 seconds ahead, and is continually extending the gap over Hamilton in second on hard tyres vs the medium tyres on the Mercedes.
Lap 35 – Russell passes Sainz for third in a really good move. Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg are the first drivers to make a second stop.
Lap 43 – Max Verstappen and Red Bull proving they are all human with the radio message saying Verstappen is really struggling with his tyres. He still extends his gap to second mind you. And he is lining up to lap 12th and 13th.
ORDER – VER HAM RUS PER ALO SAI STR OCO TSU ZHO
Lap 46 – Alonso pits, then Russell the next lap. Russell drops only to fourth, but Alonso is 10th. Max Verstappen gets a warning about track limits. And those rain clouds are getting darker but not appearing to be any closer.
Lap 51 – Alonso overtakes Ocon for 7th. Ocon nearly puts Alonso into the paddock as he swerves as the two cars go down the main straight.
Lap 53 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead. He was probably bored. Sergio Perez takes Carlos Sainz for fourth. He’s an outside chance of still finishing second. 12 seconds behind with 12 laps to go. Spoiler alert, he doesn’t do it.
Lap 62 – Just four laps to go, and you might be wondering where we have been. Well not much has happened. The big on track thing is Max Verstappen potentially getting penalised for exceeding track limits.
Last lap – Max Verstappen cruises to the win and extends his championship lead over everyone. Mercedes looked like they were heading in the right direction with 2nd and 3rd. Sergio Perez finishes fourth. No retirements after the 66 laps and 20 drivers, which is an outstanding effort, if only a little boring.
FINAL ORDER – VER HAM RUS PER SAI STR ALO OCO ZHO GAS
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Win, pole position, and fastest lap. We’re pretty sure he never gave up the lead either. What more do you want.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Was the dominant driver on this track a few years ago and showed glimpses of real speed this weekend. Second is a quality result.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Decent drive from 12th on the grid and grabs himself the final podium.
LANCE STROLL – Out-qualified and finished higher than his very accomplished team mate. A good comeback after his dodgems effort in Monaco.
GUANYU ZHOU – A very quiet, solid drive to 9th. In the top ten for most of the afternoon.
THE GRAPE-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Qualified third in a sensational effort. It all came to nil as he clashed with Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and he was at the back of the field or in the bottom few for large parts of the race.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Missed out in Q1 somehow, started from pit lane, and only climbed as far as 11th. Championship hopes over for him really.
SERGIO PEREZ – May have finished much higher than expected from his 11th grid slot, but despite the recovery, he shouldn’t be putting himself into the position of needing to fight through half the field if he is to be a serious Championship contender. Which he isn’t.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Possibly a bit harsh, but given his form in 2023 so far, and he was in his home country for the race, we’re sure he was aiming for higher.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6 / 10
Just another win from Max Verstappen, and a bump in the Championship standings as Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc stuff qualifying. The season is getting away from the other drivers.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6/10
DRS helped, but loads of overtaking into the first corner.
ENDING 3 / 10
Excitement limited to Sergio Perez nudging closer to the Mercedes, and Max Verstappen potentially getting a penalty getting a time penalty as he has exceeded track limits too much.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
A 50% race rating isn’t too bad for the Spanish Grand Prix. Even though there was bugger-all racing right at the front, the competitive groups of cars who aren’t Max Verstappen seems quite close and promising for the rest of the year ahead.
Setting the scene – Rain came during qualifying, but that didn’t change the usual pole position result as Max Verstappen ends up number one again. But behind him the weather mixed up the grid nicely. First of all Nico Hulkenberg pulled out a lap good enough for second place in Q3 in a fantastic result for car and driver, but he would only start in 5th due to penalties. In fact it was a qualifying session full of penalties, and a few hard luck stories. Pierre Gasly was looking fast but came across the final chicane filled with not one but two cars. Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda joined “The Hulk” in the penalty punishment pen.
Once again Fernando Alonso looked the most likely to challenge Max Verstappen, and he still might just do that on race day. The Mercedes look the next best car after Alonso-Max and hog the second row of the grid. Alpines and McLarens looked fast at times, but Oscar Piastri threw away an even better starting slot by spinning into the wall during Q3. And once again in 2023 both Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc choked in qualifying in Q2 failing to make it out. A session which was topped by Williams driver Alex Albon, who failed to set a lap in Q3 when red flagged by Piastri’s accident. Take a breath….here’s the race.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER ALO HAM RUS HUL OCO NOR PIA ALB LEC — PER (12th)
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away well from pole position and keeps his first position easily, Lewis Hamilton jumps Alonso into second and the rest of the field behave themselves through the first lap. Great battle between Sainz and Perez as they swap positions on the first tour of the circuit. Kevin Magnussen almost joins the party into the final chicane but somehow just avoids ramming Perez at a dangerous closing speed. He loses two spots cutting the chicane. But at the front, unless there’s an issue with the leading Red Bull, the race is for second.
ORDER – VER HAM ALO RUS OCO HUL PIA NOR LEC ALB
Lap 4 – TV coverage shows replay of Fernando Alonso hitting the wall. He keeps circulating for now and is chasing Lewis Hamilton hard. Not a great deal of love lost between the top three really.
Lap 6 – Qualifying star Nico Hulkenberg is starting to hold up the rest of the field from 6th onwards. This includes the McLarens who are looking quite good for a change, with Piastri ahead of Norris for now. Maybe if he can past soon there’s a big result coming for the rookie. Which he does at the beginning of lap 8 and by lap 9 is a second and a half up the road.
Lap 8 – Logan Sargeant stops out on circuit, and this time the car gives up before he gets a chance to run into something. A brief Virtual Safety Car ensues.
Lap 11 – Max Verstappen is on the radio announcing that he thinks he hit a bird. Maybe only Mother Nature can stop/sabotage Red Bull from winning in F1. And
Lap 12 – SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED – George Russell appears to have hit the wall, with his front wing looking like a drooping moustache, he did it at the chicane heading towards the hairpin. The top three cars pit. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso almost collide in the pit lane, and there could be trouble as Alonso had to brake to avoid an accident. Same with Lando Norris and Alex Albon too.
ORDER – VER HAM ALO LEC SAI PER MAG BOT OCO PIA
(Sainz to Bottas did not pit)
Lap 17 – SAFETY CAR ENDS – RACE RESUMES – nothing to report from the restart at the front. Further back Lando Norris steals 10th place from his team mare into the hairpin. Piastri loses another place a lap later by straight-lining the final chicane.
Lap 21 – Kevin Magnussen loses two place within a few hundred metres as Bottas gets past into the final chicane and Lando Norris into the first corner.
Lap 22 – Fernando Alonso passes Lewis Hamilton into the final chicane and hangs onto second place into the first corner thanks to DRS. Alonso does look the quicker of the two, and who knows, we might get a race for first after all.
ORDER – VER ALO HAM LEC SAI PER OCO BOT NOR MAG
Lap 29 – Bit of a lull in the racing as the TV cameras focus on the battle 11th and beyond. Fernando Alonso has pulled out a two-ish second lead to Lewis Hamilton but has failed to make any inroads into Max Verstappen. Although, he’s at least staying within the 3-4 second margin. Verstappen is complaining about tyres, so who knows, maybe there’s more to come. We’re going to check the weather radar just in case.
Lap 35 – Nyck de Vries and Kevin Magnussen battle for 12th into the first corner. They nearly clash and run wide into turn two which lets George Russell overtake them both. Yes, he did continue after hitting the wall. Not content with losing places, the two clash at the next corner, de Vries locking up and going straight on and Magnussen on the outside having no choice but to join him. They continue but fall back to second last and last. Some midfield cars pit, the Ferraris have still not. Sergio Perez did.
Lap 39 – Carlos Sainz makes the first Ferrari pit stop and comes out losing only his place to his team mate. Talking of team mates, Charles Leclerc does so a lap later. Sergio Perez overtakes Alex Albon for 6th. Oh, and Lando Norris get a five second penalty for going too slow when the safety car was called.
ORDER – VER ALO HAM LEC SAI PER ALB RUS OCO BOT
Lap 41 – Lewis Hamilton pits for new tyres, adding just a little spice to strategy for the cars ahead. Alonso responds a lap later and pits too. As does Max Verstappen lap after that. As you were then. For the record, Verstappen and Hamilton took Medium tyres while Alonso is on hard tyres.
Lap 50 – Fernando Alonso appears to be trying his best to create a battle for first chasing Max Verstappen and pulling away from Lewis Hamilton a few laps after the Mercedes driver sets a fastest lap. No changes to top ten since the Ferraris pit. Aside from the non existent battle for first, there’s a train forming behind Alex Albon in 7th going all the way to Lando Norris in 11th.
Lap 55 – George Russell slows and eventually retires, losing at least 8th place. A hangover from his crash into the wall earlier in the race.
Lap 59 – Lewis Hamilton has closed within 1.5 seconds of Fernando Alonso and is threatening a battle for second. But no doubt the wily Alonso has it under control. Actually no, the Mercedes team confirm via radio that Alonso has brake trouble. He needs to stay a second and more in front to avoid being swallowed by DRS.
Lap 64 – Lando Norris overtakes Valtteri Bottas for 9th. Lewis Hamilton has fallen 2.9 seconds behind Fernando Alonso, that battle appears over.
Lap 67 – Footage of the rear wing of Esteban Ocon wobbling like jelly. If that breaks on this circuit it will be quite the accident. Norris phones it in via radio in the hope that the stewards takes action.
Last lap – No dramas for Max Verstappen as he cruises to victory ten seconds or so in front of Alonso, Red Bull’s 100th of all time. Some action remained behind Alex Albon as he held on to 7th somehow under attack from two drivers into the final hairpin, Norris tried and failed to take Ocon into the final chicane. Lance Stroll swipes 9th from Bottas in the last few metres of the last lap.
FINAL ORDER – VER ALO HAM LEC SAI PER ALB OCO STR BOT
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Again he is the race’s greatest, but in fairness, he wins the race from pole and extends his championship lead and further crushes the spirit of his team mate.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – Again leading the challenge to Max Verstappen without actually challenging.
ALEX ALBON – Topped Q2 in qualifying and who knows for Q3 as he didn’t set a time. Raced well, holding onto 7th for a long time despite a long train behind him.
LANDO NORRIS – Raced well, despite losing points thanks to a five second penalty.
NICO HULKENBERG – Qualified second in the rain affected Q3 in proof he still has it. Sadly he started 5th due to a penalty and drifted back during the race, but still, second in a Haas is good stuff.
LEWIS HAMILTON – A solid weekend with a podium, but his Mercedes package is still not faster than Alonso, but potentially best of the rest team-wise.
THE GRAPE-EST – GEORGE RUSSELL
On track to challenge Alonso and Hamilton for a podium, hit the wall and dropped to the back of the field. Dragged himself into the points but ended up losing those as he had to retire on lap 55.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
SERGIO PEREZ – Normally a driver from 12th into XXth would be worth a good mention, but Perez’s continued failures in qualifying is costing him dear, stopping him competing right at the front. And costing the F1 fans any chance of a championship battle. And probably his seat for 2024.
LANCE STROLL – A disappointing home race for the Aston Martin driver, further compounded by the gap to his team mate at the front of the field. Had a great end to the race by taking 9th right on the finish line, but he’s a long way from Alonso, and if he had a different father might be under pressure for his drive. As it stands, he probably still is.
LOGAN SARGEANT – The race’s only retirement for most of the race, car failure this time, but 2023 hasn’t been too kind for the rookie.
NYCK DE VRIES – You wonder how much longer this rookie will get in the cut-throat world of Red Bull drivers. Looked OK for a while in the lower midfield but a clash with Kevin Magnussen saw him running last.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 10
Another win for Max Verstappen, which is the new standard for 2023, so nothing new here. Sergio Perez fails to get into Q3, which means the championship gap extends. Fernando Alonso tries hard but his Aston Martin isn’t quite good enough. More of the same – Verstappen extends gap.
ON TRACK ACTION – 4/10
A few decent overtakes here and there, and a few midfield trains, but overall quite dull. Or maybe we’re just disappointed as we expected more.
ENDING 5 / 10
Lewis Hamilton closing in on Fernando Alonso gave viewers something to follow in the last few laps, as did the occasional glimpse of the Albon train, which saw some great action on the last half of the last lap.
OVERALL RATING 12 / 30
Quite the dull race for Canada, and is probably scored worse than it should as we are quite disappointed. Little reward for getting up at 4am to watch live.
2023 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary
Setting the scene – So on the surface it’s Max Verstappen on pole position for the Sprint Race, business as usual? Well, yes, but behind it has been an ever-changing list of drivers battling for next best. A combination of tyre choices and times being deleted for going too far off line has mixed up the grid a little. Great jobs from Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg, but surely at least one of those two will fall back. Where are Mercedes you may ask? Well, Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in the first session, and George Russell was unable to set a time in the second session.
A few hours later and the race starts with a wet track and raining softly. Not too wet, wetter in some places than others, but wet enough for inters. The teams had to choose the tyres going onto the grid too. So a slightly mixed-up grid with some wet weather. This better be good, because it is set up to thrill. For second.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PER NOR HUL SAI ALO STR OCO LEC MAG
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away worse than Perez and the Mexican takes the lead into the first corner. Max dives on the inside of Perez into turn three and they both run wide, but Max retakes the lead. It also holds up Lando Norris who loses his spot to Nico Hulkenberg and others, the The Hulk steals second from Perez at the next corner. Big winners from lap one are Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon. Biggest losers are Sergio Perez and Lando Norris. Both of whom can thank Max Verstappen. The Mercedes drivers are up to 12th and 13th from 15th and 18th on the grid.
ORDER – VER HUL PER SAI STR ALO ALB OCO LEC NOR
Lap 3 – More good news for Haas as Kevin Magnussen nails George Russell for 11th, who we didn’t realise had gained an extra spot since last typing.
Lap 5 – Plenty of spray around as the track doesn’t appear to be getting any drier. Or wetter for that matter. As we say that, team radio from someone says more rain coming. At the front Max Verstappen is doing it easy in front of Nico Hulkenberg, who is doing it as easy in second. The cars are reasonably spread out on the whole as no driver dares too much, except for Lando Norris trying to take 9th from Charles Leclerc.
Lap 9 – Sergio Perez is now within a second of second, and looks like he is going to be the killjoy for all the Hulk fans. Of which there are many. And there should be. George Russell takes back 11th from Kevin Magnussen. Lewis Hamilton tries and fails and tries again and succeeds to repeat his team mate’s work a few laps later.
Lap 10 – Alonso’s team on the radio asking about dry tyres, and the Spaniard says yes. So hopefully some daring strategy to come.
Lap 12 – Nice battle between Hulkenberg and Perez eventually ends up in the Red Bull’s favour halfway around the lap around the outside. That leaves Carlos Sainz on his tail and looming to zoom past for third too. Which he does on lap 13.
ORDER – VER PER SAI HUL STR ALO ALB OCO LEC NOR
Lap 14 – An even better battle between Ocon, Leclerc and Norris continues to rage. Ocon is just holding on, and so is Leclerc who has been pressured by Lando Norris. The Mercedes duo are catching up too. Leclerc runs wide on the last corner on lap 15 and Norris takes 9th.
Lap 16 – George Russell is the first to pit for dry tyres. Why not, he probably wasn’t going to finish 8th and in the points. But there are just enough laps left to get the tyre switch to work.
Lap 17 – Nico Hulkenberg sadly continues to drop backwards. Losing 4th to Lance Stroll on lap 17. Then is instructed to pit. Throwing away points are Haas? Lewis Hamilton pits too. As do others that aren’t as important or likely to do something interesting.
Lap 19 – More cars pit – Leclerc, Tsunoda, Albon. For the record George Russell is up to 10th and Nico Hulkenberg is 9th. And 8th not long after when he passes Ocon. If many ahead of him pit, a first podium may be on here.
ORDER – VER PER SAI STR ALO OCO NOR HUL RUS GAS
Lap 20 – Four car battle for 11th between Albon, Russell, Leclerc and Bottas is plenty entertaining.
Lap 21 – George Russell – first to pit for dry tyres – sets fastest lap. Three laps left to make up some places.
Lap 23 – Nico Hulkenberg is flying and overtakes Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon in the closing laps, and gets within a second of the Aston Martins on the finishing line.
Final Lap – Max Verstappen wins with ease, a full 20 seconds and more ahead of his team mate by the end of the race. His move may have been a little rude n lap one, but you can’t deny his speed advantage. A very good podium for Carlos Sainz, who in sprint qualifying in one session had just one lap to nail a time due to losing time in the pits for brake problems. Aston Martins squabble over 4th but it is the boss’s son who gets the fourth place.
ORDER – VER PER SAI STR ALO HUL OCO RUS NOR HAM
| Pos | Drivers | Time |
| 1 | Max VERSTAPPEN | 24 Laps |
| 2 | Sergio PEREZ | 21.048 behind |
| 3 | Carlos SAINZ | 23.088 behind |
| 4 | Lance STROLL | 29.703 behind |
| 5 | Fernando ALONSO | 30.109 behind |
| 6 | Nico Hulkenberg | 31.297 behind |
| 7 | Esteban OCON | 36.602 behind |
| 8 | George RUSSELL | 36.611 behind |
| 9 | Lando NORRIS | 38.608 behind |
| 10 | Lewis HAMILTON | 46.375 behind |
| 11 | Oscar Piastri | 49.807 behind |
| 12 | Charles LECLERC | 50.789 behind |
| 13 | Alexander Albon | 52.848 behind |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | 56.593 behind |
| 15 | Pierre GASLY | 57.652 behind |
| 16 | Yuki TSUNODA | 64.822 behind |
| 17 | Nyck de Vries | 65.617 behind |
| 18 | Logan Sargeant | 66.059 behind |
| 19 | Guanyu Zhou | 70.825 behind |
| 20 | Valtteri BOTTAS | 76.435 behind |
2023 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen comes into the main race having dominated most of the weekend, and after his 20 second winning margin after just 24 laps of the Sprint Race is real concern for those who want a race. In fairness there probably will be, just behind him. Weather is fine, and doesn’t look like much chance of rain. But this is track where stuff does happen, looking at you Turn Three of the first lap. Not forgetting the grid is decided by Friday’s Qualifying session, not yesterday’s sprint race.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER LEC SAI NOR HAM STR ALO HUL GAS ALB — PER (15th)
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away well enough from pole position and keeps first. Leclerc challenges him into turn three and they almost touch. Leclerc tries again into turn four and falls short. Lewis Hamilton takes advantage of a Norris-Stroll scrap to take fourth. Alonso is ahead of Lance Stroll who was the biggest loser of the first lap. Well apart from Yuki Tsunoda who had to pit due to first lap damage. Probably caused by Kevin Magnussen who also pits. Replays show Tsunoda hits an Alpine instead. And he nearly ran into the back of a few cars into turn four but avoids that by going into the gravel at pace. The debris left all over the circuit brings out the Safety Car.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER LEC SAI HAM NOR ALO HUL STR GAS ALB
SAFETY CAR IN
Lap 4 – Max Verstappen gets the race back underway and he is out of danger going into turn three. In fact he is 1.2 seconds ahead after the first tour post Safety Car. Further back all the cars behave themselves on the restart.
Lap 8 – Interesting as the Ferraris are starting to battle on the track and on the team radio for second place, with Carlos Sainz looking the faster combo at the moment. With Verstappen 2.6 seconds up the road, they could do worse than give Sainz a crack at the leader by getting past Leclerc.
Lap 10 – If you’re wondering about Sergio Perez well he is racing side by side with George Russell for 11th in a very exciting battle. Perez eventually gets past and stays ahead. Still out of the points though, that’s why you don’t stuff qualifying, which Perez seems to be doing every second race this season. Although, he’s up to 9th a few laps later.
Lap 13 – Lewis Hamilton receives a warning from the stewards about track limits. Lando Norris in 5th (and right behind) has been complaining about Hamilton on the radio for a few laps. Hamilton responds to team advice about track limits by offering he’s struggling to keep the car on the track.
Lap 14 – Nico Hulkenberg retires with a smokey Haas. We’re not sure if it stinks as well. It stinks for him though, a good weekend ruined.
ORDER – VER LEC SAI HAM NOR ALO STR GAS PER ALB
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 15 – Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris pit. Other cars of lowering interest pit as well. Not the Red Bulls, Ferraris or Aston Martins. A double stack of Ferraris and Aston Martins pit the next lap.
Lap 16 – VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Cars battling everywhere as differing pit stop strategies means the field is quite mixed for now. Except for the front as Max Verstappen has it under control. But it does beg the question why he didn’t pit and everyone else around him did.
ORDER – VER LEC PER HAM SAI NOR ALO TSU GAS RUS
Lap 17 – Lewis Hamilton gets a five second penalty for track limits. And loses fourth place to Carlos Sainz a few laps later.
Lap 20 – Carlos Sainz gets past Sergio Perez with ease for third now. Further back the great racing for 10th to 15th rages on for our entertainment. Alex Albon is leading that for the time being.
Lap 23 – Carlos Sainz is warned about track limits and on his last chance. Reckon he’ll have a five second penalty anytime. Talking of penalties, Lewis Hamilton is trying to counter his five second time penalty by getting past Sergio Perez.
Lap 25 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead, Charles Leclerc gets past for the temporary lead, and even Carlos Sainz sneaks past into second. TV informs that Verstappen falling behind the Ferraris means that his 249 lap run of leading races has come to an end.
Lap 26 – It doesn’t take long, Max Verstappen burns past Carlos Sainz after turn three but before turn four. Leclerc is six seconds up the road.
Lap 28 – Further back Lando Norris gives Lewis Hamilton something extra to complain about to his team radio and overtakes him for fourth.
Lap 32 – It’s getting all Oprah Winfrey for track limits. Carlos Sainz gets a five second penalty, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon get warnings about five second penalties.
Lap 35 – Max Verstappen overtakes Charles Leclerc for the lead into turn three. Too easy that one. He even makes sure he doesn’t overtake before the DRS detection line so he keeps the DRS advantage after the corner. Double win for Red Bull as Sergio Perez takes 7th. Less elegant was Nyck de Vries forcing Kevin Magnussen off the road whilst trying to overtake. He gets a penalty for that one.
ORDER – VER LEC SAI NOR HAM ALO PER GAS RUS ALB
Lap 41 – The race has calmed down a bit now, with points of interest being the five drivers who have yet to serve their five second penalty, Sergio Perez chasing Fernando Alonso, and Lando Norris making a second pit stop. It’s all good though, gives us a chance to check The Ashes score. Which hurts a bit if you’re supporting Australia.
Lap 43 – Sergio Perez does overtake Alonso for sixth. Imagine what he could do if he qualified higher. In other Red Bull dominating-the-race news Max Verstappen is over ten seconds in front in the lead.
Lap 46 – Heavy hitters are starting their second pit stops. First Alonso then Carlos Sainz, who serves his five second penalty. Lando Norris punishes the penalty by overtaking him. It doesn’t last long. Half a lap later Norris is staring at the back of the Ferrari rear wing. Leclerc pits on lap 48 and drops from second to third.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAI NOR ALO HAM RUS STR GAS
Lap 50 – Just over 20 laps to go, and the TV Commentators are starting to talk rain. Yes please we say to the screen, expecting no reply.
Lap 54 – Yuki Tsunoda gets a ten second penalty, Further forward Lando Norris is putting Carlos Sainz under big pressure. This is for the final podium spot before Sergio Perez steals it towards the end. That might come earlier as he is close enough to Norris to overtake on lap 56, which he does into turn four.
Lap 59 – The Sainz-Perez battle is sensational. Perez edges ahead but Sainz keeps his foot in around the outside a number of times and stays in front. It goes for a few laps of the Austrian track.
Lap 62 – Sergio Perez finally gets past on the outside of turn four.
Lap 68 – A great battle for 16th is doing it’s best to keep us awake. Valtteri Bottas is winning that one for the time being.
Lap 70 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres, just so he can try and set fastest lap. What a risk in so many ways. And then not really, it is Max Verstappen after all.
Last lap – Max Verstappen flies around the final lap and gets the Fastest Lap he craved. And an extra point he doesn’t really need. Charles Leclerc secures Ferrari’s 800th podium in second, with Sergio Perez just avoiding a five second penalty to keep third. Alonso and the Aston Martins were kept a little quiet but double points for the team. Bad day for Haas as Magnussen finishes last and Nico Hulkenberg was the only DNF for the race.
FINAL ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI NOR ALO HAM RUS GAS STR
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Yeah, yeah, our Driver of the race is as predictable and boring as the race results themselves. But how can you argue against a driver who literally came first in every single session of the 2023 F1 Austrian Grand Prix.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Back on the pace to a degree, or at least equal best of the rest behind Max Verstappen.
SERGIO PEREZ – Yes, his racing was great, with some great overtakes, and just the right strategy, but he doesn’t deserve driver of the race, because with his car he shouldn’t be missing Q3 as much as he does.
CARLOS SAINZ – His qualifying lap where his team sent him out with just one lap to do and nailed it showed the quality pace we don’t always see from the Spaniard. Drove a good race too.
LANDO NORRIS – A solid performer all weekend. His McLaren just being slightly shy of the Red Bull/Ferrari pace, but Norris outperformed as per usual. His team mate ran towards the back of the field for most of the race.
NICO HULKENBERG – A DNF is what we’d call great normally, but the Hulk was let down in the race by a car failure after shining in a lot of sessions over the weekend. So deserves a little something.
THE GRAPE-EST – YUKI TSUNODA
For his range of penalties received during the race to ruin his day. Went from the fringe of top ten toward back of the field. Although, a better finishing position than Oscar Piastri.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
VALTTERI BOTTAS – Valtteri Bottas used to take pole positions here and wins. Now he’s winning the four car battle for 16th.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Quite the distance behind in the race compared to his team mate (5th v 18th).
NYCK DE VRIES – Actually drove a good race to finish ahead of other cars in 15th. But he is coming under massive pressure to keep his drive. We reckon he’s done over the Summer break.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 10
A hint of a bit of pace from both Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez- our best chances of a challenge to Max Verstappen for the Championship. But ultimately, Verstappen is so much better, he can take a lazy pit stop on the second last lap to give himself a chance of Fastest Lap. So it is still season over, and a matter of which race will seal the Championship for Verstappen.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
Lots of action up and down the grid, mainly in the midfield, but still a pass for the lead. And the Sprint Race has plenty going for it too.
ENDING 6 / 10
The Sergio Perez – Carlos Sainz battle towards the end was great, if not long enough. There was some midfield racing to keep us engaged to the end. Plus the Max Verstappen Fastest Lap attempt was worth something.
OVERALL RATING 18 / 30
A good race overall, with some great racing. But overall it is the same old, same old, result with Max Verstappen and Red Bull winning. Accept that, and enjoy the rest appears to be a theme for the 2023 F1 season.
——————————————————————————————————
Setting the scene – Another qualifying, another Max Verstappen pole position. The changeable conditions caught a few out, but certainly not the World Championship leader. The big surprise from qualifying was the McLarens who ended up in second and third. Behind them is a pair of Ferraris and Mercedes, and the immensely impressive Alex Albon in the Williams. No surprise lately that Sergio Perez turned in another shocker and will start the race from 15th gird slot.
As for Raceday, the rain is holding off, so it is a dry race.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER NOR PIA LEC SAI RUS HAM ALB ALO GAS — PER (15th)
Lap 1 – Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen off the line and takes the lead of the race into the first sweeper to a huge roar of the crowd. Oscar Piastri is no shrinking violet either also trying to take on Verstappen halfway around the first lap but falling just short. Further back George Russell is the winner of the first lap getting ahead of Carlos Sainz, but fellow Brits Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon both drop places. No accidents or incidents as all the car make it around.
ORDER – NOR VER PIA LEC RUS SAI ALO HAM GAS ALB
Lap 3 – McLaren’s qualifying speed is no fluke as Norris manages to stay ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri isn’t falling away either in third if anything is edging further ahead of Charles Leclerc every lap. The home crowd are happy for now anyway – just a lazy 480,000 have attended this weekend at the British GP in a record.
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen risks being less popular in England than usual by overtaking Lando Norris for the lead down the Wellington straight.
Lap 6 – Decent battles everywhere in the top half. The top three are still reasonably close. The two Ferraris and George Russell are arguing over 4th and two of them nearly touch as Leclerc swerves under braking according to Russell. Lewis Hamilton is trying his best to take 7th from Alonso, which he manages on lap seven.
Lap 7 – Sergio Perez watch. The Mexican is currently 13th, stuck behind Ocon and Stroll which won’t be easy to progress. Ocon pits a few laps later and is the first retirement of the race.
Lap 12 – The field has settled down a bit, with Norris 1.8 seconds behind Verstappen and Piastri 1.5 seconds behind Norris. But that may change a little or a lot, depending on if that rain in the background comes via the circuit.
Lap 18 – Looks like the early racing promise has fizzled out and we are left with some strategy to liven things up. Charles Leclerc obliges by making a pit stop and drops from 4th to 12th.
Lap 20 – Quick check on the front and Max Verstappen is 4.4 seconds to Lando Norris who is around 2.5 seconds ahead of his team mate Oscar Piastri who is doing a great job.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA RUS SAI HAM ALO GAS PER
Lap 26 – TV Cameras show Charles Leclerc overtaking Lance Stroll for 11th. That’s how low on action the race feels right now.
Lap 29 – George Russell pits, as does Carlos Sainz. More to come surely. Yep, Piastri pits next lap and drops only to 6th. Imagine saying that about a McLaren – dropping to 6th after a pit stop.
Lap 31 – George Russell get his own supporting roar from the crowd as he passes Charles Leclerc for 7th.
Lap 33 – VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED / SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED – Kevin Magnussen’s Haas is smoking and stops on the track in a slightly dangerous position. So the drivers use it as a chance to pit. This includes race leader Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. The pitting later worked for that trio, as Lewis Hamilton comes out in front of Oscar Piastri and steals third and the others stay ahead of him.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM PIA RUS ALO SAI PER ALB LEC
Lap 37 – Geez this Safety Car is taking a while. It’s getting late here in Australia and we’ve already lost the Third Test of the Ashes series, so don’t have a distraction now.
Lap 39 – SAFETY CAR ENDING
Max Verstappen kills the restart as expected and has a huge gap straight away. Lewis Hamilton pressures Lando Norris for second, and there a bunch of evenly matched cars waiting for an incident.
Lap 40 – Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton race side-by-side an inch apart but Norris hangs on for now.
Lap 44 – Carlos Sainz loses a bunch of places in the top ten. First to Perez then Alex Albon, and his team mate.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM PIA RUS ALO PER ALB LEC SAI
Lap 46 – Sergio Perez will probably win the Driver of the Day, overtaking Alonso for 6th.
Lap 48 – The camera pans to Shakira talking to someone and not watching the race. Thanks.
Lap 49 – Lando Norris is given the black and white flag for keeping within the white lines. He could lose his hard work if penalised. So, let’s hope he can behave himself and get that podium he deserves.
Last lap – Max Verstappen does it easy, rarely bothered after the first few laps. Lewis Hamilton split the McLarens in an impressive showing for all levels of that sandwich.
FINAL ORDER – VER NOR HAM PIA RUS PER ALO ALB LEC SAI
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Took pole position for a brief moment on Saturday, and took first place in the race for a few laps on the Sunday for the race ended up second for both which is a huge step forward for McLaren. A podium at his home race is a prize he probably thought was out of reach given the McLaren’s pace in early races.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – Sensational third on the grid, and had decent pace in the race to stay with his team mate at the start. A welcome window into the Australian’s talent, which hasn’t been easy with that car.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Qualifying looked a little ordinary, but he came to live in the race and secured a home race podium alongside fellow Brit Lando Norris.
ALEX ALBON – Fast all weekend in most sessions, some feat in a Williams these days. Lost two spots on lap one and faded a little in the race, but overall is a driver on the up.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Oh, we almost forgot. Another win from pole position with fastest lap. Extended lead in the World Championship. It’s almost boring for him.
THE GRAPE-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
Another poor showing in qualifying saw him lining up 15th for the race. He then made slow progress through the field but eventually got points. He can’t claim to be a title challenger on current form. He can’t keep getting rewarded with Driver of the Race awards if he shouldn’t be there in the first place.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
NYCK DE VRIES – On notice to perform and then qualifies 19th, which wouldn’t please his bosses. Did OK during the race.
ESTEBAN OCON – First retirement of the race and a little under whelming in most sessions.
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN – Drove around the tail of the field for a lot of race, but his reasonably miserable race ended with a busted Haas.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 10
Another qualifying failure means the season itself is probably over for a Drivers Championship threat from Perez. But the silver lining to that is McLaren’s return to form is great for the Championship further back if it holds. So some importance.
ON TRACK ACTION – 4/10
Early laps promised so much, but ultimately the racing died down. A random fire in the Haas of Kevin Magnussen which was left on track saw a Safety Car deployed, and that bunched up the field nicely. Great battle between Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton after the Safety Car.
ENDING 6 / 10
The Kevin Magnussen Safety Car livened things up a bit later in the race which was welcome. It brought everyone together and created new opportunities for passing. Not that many happened, but it was still interesting.And the joy of McLaren’s improved result made staying up for the ending a little more worth it.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
Not a bad race but no classic. One to watch as a Mini next year before the 2024 race weekend. The initial battle for first was great, and there were a few good scraps elsewhere. But it wasn’t a classic race.
Setting the scene – The new qualifying rules of using a specified tyre in each Qualifying session has paid off with a reasonably mixed grid. Lewis Hamilton takes his first pole in a long time, breaking the Red Bull monopoly and seeing a first 1-2 with Max Verstappen since the infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Talking of fast cars, and not that Tracey Chapman song, the McLarens continue their resurgence in third and fourth. Guanyu Zhou is the big surprise with fifth on the grid, with Bottas in seventh also surprising. No surprise was Sergio Perez continuing a terrible weekend by qualifying 9th after crashing on his second lap of the weekend. Oh, and Daniel Ricciardo? Out-qualified team mate Yuki Tsunoda and made Q2. Solid.
But the mixed up grid, with Verstappen not on pole gives this race some pre-race excitement for a change in 2023.
Oh, and it is bloody hot. Tyre care is top priority.
GRID (Starting Order) – HAM VER NOR PIA ZHO LEC BOT ALO PER HUL – RIC (13th)
Lap 1 – Lewis Hamilton gets away OK from pole position but Max Verstappen gets away better and sneaks up the inside into turn one. They go a little wide which leaves an opportunity for Oscar Piastri to steal second from Hamilton and Norris gets by as well. Bad news for pole sitter Hamilton, great news for McLaren. There’s some first corner shenanigans involving a very slow-starting Guanyu Zhou and the returning Daniel Ricciardo. Zhou basically hits Ricciardo up the arse like a distracted driver texting. And the Alpines….. Gasly pits for damage and retires. Esteban Ocon retires a lap later. Replays show they ran into each other at the first corner. That’ll be a good debrief. Carlos Sainz is the big mover up to 6th from 11th.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR HAM LEC SAI ALO PER HUL STR
Lap 5 – It took a while to dissect those first lap replays. What a shame for Ricciardo fans. At the front Max Verstappen has already set a fastest lap and leads by a second and a half. Which means Piastri has some decent pace. Genuine one would say, and a reminder to all that there is more than one Australian in the race.
Lap 6 – Fernando Alonso battling with Sergio Perez for 7th. Alonso doing everything he can to keep the Mexican behind him. And succeeding. For a number of laps. Ahead, Carlos Sainz’s aggressive tyre selection is being held up by his team mate. And as for the qualifying surprise in Alfa Romeo? They started 5th and 7th and are currently 12th (Bottas) and 16th (Zhou).
Lap 8 – Perez gets past Alonso for 7th. In lower rung news Guanyu Zhou gets a five second penalty for the first lap buffoonery.
Lap 10 – A bunch of midfielders pit for new tyres. That’s about 10 laps earlier than the pre-race stats suggested. A slice of luck for Daniel Ricciardo as Yuki Tsunoda’s pit stop sees a delay on one of the tyres.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR HAM LEC SAI PER ALO HUL RUS
Lap 12 – The recently pitted Valetteri Bottas sets fastest lap. It may be the only interesting thing he does this race, so worth a highlight. Zhou sets fastest lap a lap or so later. He’s been too interesting this race already.
Lap 14 – Logan Sargeant pits. His tyres suffering altitude sickness from being lower midfield. He rejoins last and car balance returns.
Lap 17 – Lewis Hamilton pits from fourth and gets out in front of 9th placed Daniel Ricciardo. Carlos Sainz pitted two laps earlier and is behind Ricciardo. Lando Norris pits on lap 18 and stays ahead of Hamilton and George Russell.
Lap 20 – Oscar Piastri pits from second and loses the net second place to his team mate Lando Norris who gives him the old undercut. Bot hare behind the yet-to-pit Red Bulls and Alonso.
ORDER – VER PER ALO NOR PIA RUS HAM SAI STR LEC
Lap 23 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead. He stays first, and has done his stint on Medium Tyres. Fans wanting any other result than Verstappen 1st will need to start working on their voodoo dolls right now.
Lap 25 – Sergio Perez pits from second and ends up 7th, becoming a Red Bull in a prancing horse sandwich. Sounds like something you could get from Ikea. Only George Russell in the top cars yet to pit. He’s on a different strategy because he was eliminated in a different part of qualifying to the rest of the top ten (Q1).
ORDER – VER NOR PIA HAM RUS SAI PER LEC STR ALO
Lap 27 – Perez overtakes Carlos Sainz for 6th. A forceful move which probably saw one or both of them swear in Spanish. Charles Leclerc is looming behind now too for extra Sainz misery. Perez takes George Russell a lap later too.
Lap 32 – A quick check of The Ashes cricket shows that it is being delayed by rain. Perhaps we could swap weather conditions. Sergio Perez’s comeback drive from 9th on the grid is currently the highlight. Distracted by The Ashes non-play, we notice George Russell has pitted, and he has just set fastest lap. And it’s not even halfway yet. This race is going to be a struggle considering it has just shifted from Sunday to Monday in this part of the world.
Lap 42 – Our quick power nap was interrupted by Charles Leclerc complaining via radio about his team’s strategy calls. You’d wonder if he has a pre-prepared script. Meanwhile, further ahead Perez and Hamilton really battling for 4th position.It gets pretty close.
Lap 43 – Oscar Piastri has pit from third. Perez pits from fifth. Red Bull’s pit stop for Perez is quicker than a sneeze at 1.9 seconds. Both exit pits behind the Ferraris. Although Leclerc pits a lap later. Norris a lap after that. Can Piastri undercut him this time? No. Sainz pits the next lap, Ends up behind Leclerc.
ORDER – VER HAM NOR PIA PER RUS LEC SAI ALO STR
Lap 48 – Sergio Perez takes Oscar Piastri for 4th. The stewards have noted the move though, as Perez kind-of pushed Piastri onto the dirt.
Lap 53 – Where’s the race updates you ask? Well, the TV is showing Albon v Bottas for 11th. Nuff said.
Lap 58 – In another piece of English v Australia sporting rivalry going the English way, Lewis Hamilton overtakes Piastri for 4th.
Lap 64 – Max Verstappen is 25 seconds in front of second placed Lando Norris. Perez is closing on Lando Norris to sort out a Red Bull 1-2. A win would see them hold the record outright from most team wins in a row.
Lap 65 – George Russell takes 7th from Carlos Sainz despite the Ferrari driver driving like a drunk down the main straight with his swerving.
Lap 69 – So Sergio Perez’s charge to second has become a defence of third. Lewis Hamilton is catching him quickly but is running out of laps. Or lap, since the race is only 7- laps long.
Last lap – Max Verstappen wins with ease, untouched by rivals for the millionth time this season. Talking of millions, Red Bull have now broken the record for most consecutive team wins. They took that from McLaren (1988) who had another strong weekend – Lando Norris second and Oscar Piastri 5th. Good form from Lewis Hamilton means at least the battles fro second will be tight for the rest of the season.
FINAL ORDER – VER NOR PER HAM PIA LEC RUS SAI ALO STR
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
On a track that wasn’t meant to suit the Red Bulls, he did all right. Relegated to only second on the grid, he took the lead early and drove off into the sunset.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Took pole position for the first time in seasons, and drove well at a track where he has had a lot of success.
MCLARENS – That British Grand Prix pace has remained, and they are at least the third quickest car right now, if not second. Both drivers did an outstanding job is qualifying and race, with a second consecutive podium for Lando Norris and loads more points for Piastri.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Decent recovery drive from 18th to 8th, and ran much higher on the alternative strategy for a long time.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Steady and solid progress on his return to F1. The Alpha Tauri is pretty slow, but Ricciardo did well. Beat his team mate, but didn’t score points. This time.
THE GRAPE-EST – ALPINE
Qualifying 12th and 15th wasn’t too bad. Until you get involved in first corner shenanigans and both cars are out within two laps. How grape.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
SERGIO PEREZ – His great race result and drive may have saved face, but he left plenty of face in the barrier on Friday when he crashed on a wet track on his second lap at the race where he was under massive scrutiny after Daniel Ricciardo’s return. Qualifying 9th didn’t help either. The car should be second minimum in every session. It isn’t, so although his race here was great, his qualifying has cost fans a chance at a feisty intra-team championship battle.
CHARLES LECLERC – Busted for speeding in the pit lane, and penalised which ruined his race before his team got the chance to. You could probably group the Ferraris together for dropping to fourth fastest car, at best.
HAAS – Never before has a team gone so missing on race day.
THE 50-50 – GUANYU ZHOU
CHEERS – For the outstanding 5th place on the grid.
JEERS – For stuffing the start and wrecking his and Daniel Ricciardo’s race.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 10
More of the same wins from Red Bull which have become the staple diet of the 2023 season. The trial on specific tyres in qualifying seems to have worked, hence the score of five. A matter of when not if Max wins the title.
ON TRACK ACTION – 5/10
There were a few moves here and there throughout the race towards the front, but overall it was pretty dull. Sergio Perez’s move up the ladder was the highlight.
ENDING 5 / 10
With Sergio Perez on a crusade to make up lost time, he produced a few decent overtaking moves. Russell annoying Ferraris was also slightly fun. And could Daniel Ricciardo stay ahead of Yuki Tsunoda? Well, yes was the answer.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
An OK middling race of a little racing, a few charges from lower grid slots thanks to the new qualifying tyre restrictions. But still a Max Verstappen out in front and rarely challenged.
2023 Belgian F1 Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary
etting the scene – Just add water….another wet qualifying didn’t quite shake up the first place on the grid for the sprint race, but at least gap has closed and the queue for next best is ever-changing. For the record Max Verstappen took pole, but only by 0.011 seconds to Oscar Piastri. About the same distance further back is last year’s pole sitter Carlos Sainz in third and Charles Leclerc was fourth in a good day out for Ferrari. Sergio Perez disappointed with 8th. And a few drivers that could have caused some top ten sprint nuisance were wiped out by Lance Stroll’s early attempt on slick tyres on a wet track which ended Q2 a few minutes early.
So the rain returns for the Sprint Race delaying the start. Fair enough on safety grounds, but you do have to question why would you tempt fate with two race at the circuit famous for unpredictable weather. Especially given one race last two laps a few years ago. But it is sunny, which may helps us see some action. Hopefully.
Eventially, when the sprint race was scheduled to finish, the race starts….
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PIA SAI LEC NOR GAS HAM PER OCO RUS
Lap 0 – The race begins behind the safety car with five Formation laps as the drivers and officials try and work out how safe it is. As the safety car pulls away the cars bunch up and Max Verstappen flies away.
Lap 1 – Most of the field comes in for wet tyres before they cross the line for the restart including Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and more. Max Verstappen stays out with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and George Russell. Even Logan Sargeant staus out and is sixth from his unusually high grid slot of 13th. This could really work out for Oscar Piastri and the pitstop crew.
ORDER – VER LEC NOR OCO RUS SAR ALO TSU MAG ZHO – PIA (11th)
Lap 2 – Max Verstappen pits after building a four second lead on just the first lap. Will he get out in front of Piastri? The answer is Yesssssssss. Although with thanks to the F1 TV crew we actually missed the moment to see a Ferrari going slow in the pitlane. Absolute clowns. The cars that stayed out were all affected and dropped places, those that pit made good progress. A bad pitstop didn’t help Lando Norris. But Oscar Piastri leads his first grand prix, and his higher downforce setup will work a treat in these conditions.
ORDER – PIA VER GAS PER HAM SAI LEC NOR RIC OCO
Lap 3 – Max Verstappen hounds Oscar Piastri, but the rookie Australian is taking none of his crap for now. The TV coverage eventually shows the replay of Piastri taking the lead. Clowns.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 4 – Fernando Alonso is off the track and stuck in the gravel trap. This brings out the Safety Car. It was a beautifully choreographed double spin off the track for Alonso. Safety Car allows us to see another replay of Piastri taking the lead from the view of Verstappen’s car. Clowns.
SAFETY CAR EXITS
Lap 6– Piastri holds onto his lead from the restart but Max Verstappen is right on his tail and overtakes him on the Kemmel straight in the early part of the lap. Too easy really. That Red Bull is quick. No change for the rest of the top ten, although Lewis Hamilton attempted to overtake Sergio Perez on the inside of a 200 kmh+ corner, they touch but continue. By the time they make it to the first corner Hamilton gets past Perez. Before the next corner Sainz is past. Not long after Leclerc is by too. Half a lap later he slide off into the gravel but continues. Quality for Perez.
Lap 8 – Max Verstappen is three seconds ahead of Piastri, who looks comfortable enough in second. Lewis Hamilton continues to fly and is on Gasly’s tail. Coincidentally after Perez’s off, that means Daniel Ricciardo moves up into the points.
ORDER – VER PIA GAS HAM SAI LEC NOR RIC OCO RUS
Lap 9 – Gorge Russell and Esteban Ocon battle for 9th. Eventually Russell gets the place. In other news, Lewis Hamilton receives a five second penalty for his clash with Perez. Seems harsh. This will currently drop him to 7th.
Lap 10 – Another Ashes victory as English George Russell steals the final point from Australian Daniel Ricciardo. Lewis Hamilton is trying to get past Pierre Gasly to reduce the punishment of five seconds. The other cars around hope Gasly can hold him up and they can get within five seconds. Gasly holds on going into the final lap.
Final Lap – Max Verstappen cruises to victory, he really is the best out there. A good car helps. A good car also helps rookie Oscar Piastri shine in the wet and he takes second and well deserved. Joy to for Alpine as Pierre Gasly finishes third. Less joy for Lewis Hamilton who drops from 4th across the line to 7th for his “clash” with Perez. Speaking of which, not sure how bad that ended up. A quick look shows a DNF on lap 8.
ORDER – VER PIA GAS SAI LEC NOR HAM RUS OCO RIC
| Pos | Driver | Time |
| 1 | Max VERSTAPPEN | 11 Laps |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | + 6.677 behind |
| 3 | Pierre GASLY | + 10.733 behind |
| 4 | Carlos SAINZ | + 12.648 behind |
| 5 | Charles LECLERC | + 15.016 behind |
| 6 | Lando NORRIS | + 16.052 behind |
| 7 | Lewis HAMILTON | + 16.757 behind |
| 8 | George RUSSELL | + 16.822 behind |
| 9 | Esteban OCON | + 22.41 behind |
| 10 | Daniel RICCIARDO | + 22.806 behind |
| 11 | Lance STROLL | + 25.007 behind |
| 12 | Alexander Albon | + 26.303 behind |
| 13 | Valtteri BOTTAS | + 27.006 behind |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | + 32.986 behind |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | + 36.342 behind |
| 16 | Logan Sargeant | + 37.571 behind |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | + 37.827 behind |
| 18 | Yuki TSUNODA | + 39.267 behind |
| DNF | Sergio PEREZ | DNF Lap 8 |
| DNF | Fernando ALONSO | DNF Lap 2 |
2023 Belgian F1 Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Setting the scene – It’s dry, for now. And for a change Max Verstappen starts the race in 6th place after taking pole position but also taking a five place penalty for a gearbox change. That leaves Charles Leclerc on pole, and Sergio Perez beside him. The Mexican had a shocker in the sprint race yesterday, so will be keen to prove something. Perez’s combatant from the sprint race Lewis Hamilton will also be annoyed after receiving a five second penalty for hitting Perez in the sprint race and dropping from 4th to 7th. McLarens look quick and they sandwich Max Verstappen. One does wonder what lap, not if he will take the lead. Or perhaps, Max might find himself in first corner trouble that happens further back down the grid. We say lap eight is when he takes the lead.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC PER SAI HAM PIA VER NOR RUS ALO STR
Lap 1 – Good starts from the top two sees Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez through the first corner safely. Not so great start from Carlos Sainz leaves him open to attack from Oscar Piastri who has a mini lunge into the first corner but ends up with a broken front wing and drops dangerously down the field heading into Eau Rouge. Further up the straight Sergio Perez overtakes Charles Leclerc for the lead into Les Combes after the long straight, and does it easy. Max Verstappen takes advantage and is up to fourth behind Lewis Hamilton. That could be fun. Sainz has damage but stays out. Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon were the big first lap winners.
ORDER – PER LEC HAM VER SAI ALO NOR TSU STR ALB
Lap 2 – Oscar Piastri’s McLaren stops out on the track in a dangerous position in the last third of the track. It was due to damage in the first corner clash with Carlos Sainz, which on replay looks like the Ferrari driver’s fault. He locked up going into the first corner then jinked right and squeezed Piastri into the corner wall. A racing incident, but still unfortunate for the Australian. Carlos Sainz is suffering though, as the right hand side of his car is flapping around.
Lap 3 – Yuki Tsunoda continues his grand progress by overtaking Lando Norris for 7th. Alonso keeps hounding Carlos Sainz, which he manages to pass on lap four.
Lap 5 – Lando Norris loses places to Albon, Stroll and Russell and is 11th in a terrible race for McLaren. Their set up would be beneficial in the wet, but that may not help if he is dead last. At least he’ll have Daniel Ricciardo for company, like old times in 2021 and 2022.
Lap 6 – A bunch of midfielders and backmarkers put for new tyres, including Lando Norris. A bit further up the road Max Verstappen passes Lewis Hamilton for third. And boy was there some speed differential going into Les Combes. For the record, Verstappen is 3.5 second behind his team mate in the lead.
ORDER – PER LEC VER HAM ALO TSU ALB STR RUS SAI
Lap 8– Logan Sergeant overtakes Carlos Sainz, which is proof enough that he needs new tyres or he needs to retire his damaged car.
Lap 9 – Max Verstappen overtakes Charles Leclerc for second into the same corner as he did Lewis Hamilton on. With the same amount of pace from the long preceding straight. Perez is just three seconds up the road.
Lap 11 – A miserable race for McLaren continues, as Daniel Ricciardo overtakes the remaining car of Lando Norris for 14th. Alonso is the first of the top five to pit.
Lap 13 – Lewis Hamilton pits and remains fourth, he is racing Charles Leclerc for best of the non Red Bulls.
Lap 14 – Sergio Perez pits from the lead along with Charles Leclerc from 3rd. Just before the stops Max Verstappen is heard sort-of arguing with his team radio. Again. He had quite the dummy spit in qualifying on Saturday. A lap later his team radio discuss whether to wait for his pit stop for potential rain in ten minutes. Verstappen replies with he can’t see the radar, which is a fair enough point.
A quick check of the radar, and there’s no doubt it’s going to rain, in our opinion.
ORDER – PER VER LEC HAM STR RUS ALO GAS TSU ALB
Lap 16 – The Red Bulls are now close together with Max Verstappen sniffing all around the rear end of Perez. Which sounds worse than we meant it, but too lazy to change.
Lap 17 – Max Verstappen overtakes Sergio Perez for the lead, and does it easy too. He is on his way to an eighth straight win. A lap later he is one and a half second in front with a fastest lap. George Russell does an even better job getting past Lance Stroll for fifth.
Lap 18 – On go the rain jackets in the crowd, it is officially raining, and let the fun begin. This will work out nicely for the drivers who have not yet pit – Stroll, Gasly, Russell.
Lap 21– Max Verstappen radios to say it is raining down quite a bit now. So Aston Martin pit Lance Stroll for new dry weather tyres. Interesting. The track not quite being wet enough for Inter tyres. Max wasn’t lying either, replays shows his car weaving and shaking on the most dangerous part of the circuit. Good save, and Max might need a change of tyres and underpants at his next stop.
Lap 23 – George Russell pits as the rain is a little harder in pit lane and takes new dry tyres. That leaves just Pierre Gasly without a stop, which is all good if he wasn’;t overtaken by the impressive Yuki Tsunoda for sixth.
ORDER – VER PER LEC HAM ALO TSU GAS ALB OCO MAG
Lap 26 – The sun is shining, so the rain didn’t really affect too much in the end.
Lap 28– Lewis Hamilton pits, followed by Leclerc a lap later and they aren’t too far apart after the stops with an un-stopped Fernando Alonso in the group too. Sergio Perez pits on lap 30 and rejoins in second place. Alonso pits too and keeps fifth.
Lap 33– Great battle between Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon. Gasly wins and gets 11th.
Lap 35 – Max Verstappen has a decent gap of 13 seconds over Perez, he has enough time to inquire about a potential pit stop. The team say no again. Maybe they need a holiday from each other in the next four week break of F1.
Lap 41 – A bit of midfield racing that is just keeping us awake to do this report. Max Verstappen is 19 seconds to the good out in front.
Lap 43 – Lewis Hamilton pits for the last lap to steal fastest lap away from Max Verstappen.
Last lap – Max Verstappen cruises to the win, with his team mate delivering a decent second place after leading in the early stages. Lewis Hamilton (4th) misses out on the podium but not Fastest Lap.
FINAL ORDER – VER PER LEC HAM ALO RUS NOR OCO STR TSU
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
An eighth win in a row, equaling a record set by Sebastian Vettel driving for the same team. Won the sprint race too, and got the main race chocolates from sixth on the grid. Extends the Championship lead, and breaks his team mate’s spirit just a little.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Not quite a Red Bull, but he did well to be best of the rest for the weekend, and avoided the kind of trouble his team mate found.
SERGIO PEREZ – A better Sunday all round for Sergio Perez, but still he is underwhelming at times, especially when the weather changes and he can’t keep up. Remains Bottas-level.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Another solid job for not much reward, except for his name right here.
YUKI TSUNODA – After an underwhelming Hungarian Grand Prix which coincided with the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the grid, the Japanese driver turned it around in Belgium. Raced in the top ten for the majority of the race, and was well ahead of his new team mate.
THE GRAPE-EST – OSCAR PIASTRI
More of a case of what could have been. After a glorious second place in the Sprint Race, his main race experience lasted less than lap. His car damaged in the first corner by Carlos Sainz. A real shame as this was his real breakthrough race for the season.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – Not too bad a weekend without being great prior to the race. Threw it away at the first corner and spent the rest of the race driving around with a damaged car.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Could have had a much better weekend, had he not had a time deleted for going over track limits. A real shame as he was well inside the elimination just before that lap was taken away.
WILLIAMS – Plenty of promise for Williams, and especially Alex Albon, but they ended up pointless, and almost a pointless race in general.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 10
The drivers championship is effectively over with only 3-4 disasters needed for Max Verstappen for anyone to get close enough. There’s still best of the rest up for grabs for the rest of the season. And suppose you could run a pool on which race Max wins the title
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 / 10
A first corner accident and some overtaking among the top five early in the race showed promise. There was some good midfield battling with drivers on different strategies and abilities. Rain came and went without any real effect. Shame.
ENDING 3 / 10
Not much happened late, some midfield battles and Lewis Hamilton pissing off Max Verstappen by stealing fastest lap.
OVERALL RATING 14 / 30
SUMMER BREAK
Setting the scene – Another wet qualifying, but again Max Verstappen takes pole position. But it is a harder battle than usual with the McLarens giving him the biggest challenge, and the highlight is Lando Norris on the front row. Alex Albon was a star, qualifying 4th. Lewis Hamilton missed Q3 and starts in the midfield.
And what better way to warm up for a Grand Prix than Andre Rieu. What a mix for Roy & HG to have F1, Max Verstappen and Andre Rieu together at least.
By the way, rain is possible, and looking more likely, just to spice up the race. Potentially 20 minutes into the race. Yes please.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER NOR RUS ALB ALO SAI PER PIA LEC SAR – HAM (12th)
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen and Lando Norris get off the line well and stay 1-2, behind them Fernando Alonso gains two positions by turn three getting in front of George Russell and Alex Albon. The cars all behave themselves going around the first part of the lap. But the rain is here before the lap is finished and it is quite hard in spots with spray being thrown up. Only a handful of drivers decide to pit – Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly the highest runners to pit. And can you believe it, but Ferrari don’t have tyres ready for Leclerc’s pit stop. They truly are the clowns of strategy.
ORDER – VER NOR ALO RUS ALB SAI PIA STR BOT HUL
Lap 2 – The track is getting wetter and Alonso has overtaken Lando Norris without us seeing. Sergio Perez’s pitstop seems to be paying off, as he was seven seconds quicker in one sector than Verstappen. But the rain is easing now. That doesn’t stop Max Verstappen pitting from the lead, joined by Fernando Alonso, leaving Lando Norris in front of a Grand Prix again.
Lap 3 – Norris’ lead is short-lived as George Russell overtakes him early on lap three. But Russell’s lead is also short-lived as Sergio Perez glides past halfway around the same lap. So much happening in such a short space of time. It’s hard to keep up with all the position changes, so we’ll offer up the order for now.
ORDER – PER RUS ZHO GAS VER LEC ALO ALB PIA NOR
Lap 4 – Lando Norris pits, and this might be too late as the earlier pitting drivers are massively quicker, and the rain is stopping. Guanyu Zhou is second proving the point.
Lap 6 – Max Verstappen overtakes Pierre Gasly for third on turn three. A lap later Verstappen gets past Zhou for second at the same spot. Which leaves him 11 seconds behind his team mate in first.
Lap 7 – Logan Sargeant, currently last, is lapped after just seven laps. Pointing out just how bad the strategy was to stay out on dry tyres. For now. Oh, and Max Verstappen was over four seconds a lap quicker than Perez.
ORDER – PER VER ZHO GAS ALO LEC SAI TSU MAG OCO
Lap 9 – Ferraris swap Leclerc and Sainz around in 6th/7th is a rare piece of strategy smarts. Gasly hounds Zhou for third place, but Alonso is lurking behind both of them.
Lap 10 – Oscar Piastri has pit for soft dry tyres and is quicker almost straight away. Lewis Hamilton changes tyres too along with Kevin Magnussen. Same with Zhou. And Alonso. Only the top four are on wet tyres.
Lap 12 – Three of the top four (not Perez) all pit for dry tyres. Ferrari also change Leclerc’s nose. Sergio Perez pits a lap later and loses the lead to Max Verstappen. Did Perez pitting a lap later mean that Red Bull purposely advantage their lead driver Max Verstappen. Perez asks the question over the radio. And is given a definitive yes. To be fair, given the season’s points tally, and Perez’s run of patchy / ordinary form at times, it is fair enough.
Lap 14 – Max Verstappen has a comfortable lead over Perez, and behind is a moving feast. And….there appears to be a few spots of ran again.
ORDER – VER PER ALO GAS SAI ZHO MAG PIA TSU OCO
Lap 16 – Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres, just as a Yellow Flag warning signals for Sector 2. This could be perfect timing for Oscar Piastri. Or not. And the yellow flag you ask? It was Logan Sargeant binning it at a decent speed. Shame for the American who threatened to break out of his regular mediocrity for 2023 by making Q3 in qualifying. Pierre Gasly is given a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That’s reasonably dumb, and a shame for him as he is currently fourth.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER PER ALO GAS SAI ZHO MAG ALB OCO TSU
Interesting to note that Alex Albon hasn’t pitted for tyres at all yet. Amazing.
SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 22 – Cars threaten to overtake each other in the top five straight after the Safety Car disappears, but stay as is. Kevin Magnussen falls down the order as the biggest losers of the restart. Alex Albon is a driver on the move.
Lap 26 – Oscar Piastri overtakes two cars in two laps. Lewis Hamilton makes an passing move a position ahead. Max Verstappen sets fastest lap of the race (for now) to eliminate any fun for competitors.
ORDER – VER PER ALO GAS SAI ALB OCO ZHO TSU MAG
Lap 30 – In tales of disappointment, Kevin Magnussen seems to be getting overtaken every second lap. And Charles Leclerc is down in 15th and being caught by 16th placed Nico Hulkenberg. Tsunoda overtakes Zhou for 8th. In tales of delight, Liam Lawson is doing a decent job in the Alpha Tauri. He may be last but is right on the tail of the cars in front. A train developing behind…Leclerc.
Lap 32 – A little pic of the radar on the pitlane screen shows rain is coming. Confirmed by radio. More action awaits, if you need more.
Lap 38 – Still no rain, but Guanyu Zhou decides to pit anyway. He drops to lower than Leclerc. Meanwhile at the front Max Verstappen is six seconds up the road.
Lap 42 – Ferrari put Charles Leclerc out of his misery and retire him due to damage on the car, which explains why he was so crap.
Lap 47 – The last few laps are about pitstops with Norris, Perez, Gasly, Ocon, Piastri and Hamilton all pitting, but looming large are some very dark clouds in the distance, and the wind direction is right for F1 chaos. So maybe not the time to change?
ORDER – VER ALO PER TSU SAI GAS RUS ALB HUL OCO
Lap 49 – All change for the podium as Carlos Sainz overtakes Yuki Tsunoda, and Fenando Alonso pit but there was an issue and it was a slow enough stop for Alonso to fall behind Sainz and Tsunoda for third. Although it doesn’t take long for Alonso to pass Tsunoda. Nor Gasly to go past too. And Alonso to get past Sainz for third. Oh, and Max Verstappen pitted. But that doesn’t matter unless Red Bull stuff the pit stop. Which they didn’t and don’t in general.
Lap 54 – Team radio advises Max Verstappen that rain is coming ten laps from the end and could be substantial.
Lap 60 – A moment worth watching is George Russell nearly losing it at high speed in front of his team mate. Doomsday rain predictions come thick and fast. Talking of thick and fast, Pierre Gasly passes Carlos Sainz for fourth.
Lap 61 – The rain is here….Sergio Perez has pit. As has Gasly, Sainz, Mercedes and McLarens.
Lap 62 – Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso pit a lap later, along with everyone else. Worth noting, Esteban Ocon is the only driver on the full wets, and the rain is due to get heavier. Interesting indeed.
ORDER – VER PER ALO GAS SAI HAM NOR ALB RUS PIA
Lap 63 – Sergio Perez slides off at turn one and loses second to Alonso. And the rain is teeming down. Ocon could be laughing just half a lap after moaning on his radio that the full wet was a bad idea. Zhou Guanyu is into the barriers at turn one at pace.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 64 – Max Verstappen pits for full wet and keeps lead. Sergio Perez enters the pit lane to change to full wets just as……
RED FLAG – RACE STOPPED
ORDER – VER ALO GAS SAI HAM PER NOR RUS ALB PIA
The Red Bull decision to pit Perez seems strange and almost unfair as there was no point after the Zhou crash with all the rain it was highly likely to red flag the race.
Not all is lost as the order is switched back to the lap prior when Perez was third.
And it’s a long time at this late an hour for a Red Flag restart.
RESTARTED ORDER – VER ALO PER GAS SAI HAM NOR RUS ALB PIA
RACE RESTARTS UNDER SAFETY CAR
Lap 67 – Race restarts for real as a rolling start. Max Verstappen banks up the field and we are away for a five lap burst. Alonso is harassing Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez gets a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane, making that stop just before the red flag plenty useless. George Russell makes his way to the pitlane, dropping out of the points with a puncture.
ORDER – VER ALO PER GAS SAI HAM NOR ALB PIA OCO
Lap 70 – Three laps to go, and to be honest it is a disappointing mix of competent driving and no overtaking.
Final Lap – Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz almost touch for 5th, but they don’t and Hamilton can’t manage to pass Sainz either. But at the front Max Verstappen defies all the chaos to win again, and it is a ninth win in a row. Fernando Alonso comes second in his best race in a while and Pierre Gasly steals third from Sergio Perez as his five second penalty is applied.
FINAL ORDER – VER ALO GAS PER SAI HAM NOR ALB PIA OCO
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
A little more action than he is used to this season, but he’s also used to winning which he does again. A win in front of his home crowd, and a record equaling winning streak of nine wins.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – A return to the best of the rest. And he looked quick and feisty as ever. Gave Vestappen plenty after the red flag.
PIERRE GASLY – A welcome return to good form, and he seems to enjoy the track after a fourth place in 2021 in an Alpha Tauri. An unexpected podium it has to be said.
CARLOS SAINZ – A decent day out for the Ferrari driver, and avoided the wheel-less pit stops and unreliability of the other Ferrari.
ALEX ALBON – Fourth on the grid, strong through Free Practice, ran strongly in the race, earned some points. Another quality weekend for Albon.
YUKI TSUNODA – Another good race for the Alpha Tauri driver, who ran in the top ten for a chunk of the race. A damaged front wing reduced his reward, but not the effort.
LIAM LAWSON – Considering he got next to no notice regarding driving an F1 car at a race weekend, and that qualifying was wet, he did a great job on debut, and certainly didn’t embarrass himself.
THE GRAPE-EST – DANIEL RICCIARDO
Broke his hand in qualifying just three races since his F1 return. Out of the next race, handing another driver an opportunity to snavel a 2024 drive ahead of him. Doing all this while trying to avoid crashing into his fellow countryman’s Piastri’s crash at turn three.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LOGAN SARGEANT – Made Q3 in qualifying in a timely boost for the confidence. Which was squashed when he was dead last in the race after being on the wrong strategy for tyres, and then spun off into the barriers.
CHARLES LECLERC – Pit stop without tyres? Check. Car not great and eventually retired due to damaged floor, which appears to be why he could barely keep in the front of the backmarkers.
LANDO NORRIS – After qualifying second, anything off the podium was a disappointment. He raced well, but poor initial strategy hurt him. If they do a better job early a podium was a certainty.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Race ruined at the end with a puncture, and was reasonably obscure before then.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 10
Max Verstappen was already a mile in front of the Driver’s Championship, and now he’s a mile and a bit in front. We guess the win means the potential race he could win the Championship would be a new record. The Red Bull 1-2 gives other teams the finger for any significant battle for the Constructors Championship too.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9/10
Almost more action in the first five laps than a lot of races won by Max Verstappen this season. It didn’t need a large amount of rain. Just any amount. The middle of the race was a little dull, hence why a perfect ten wasn’t handed out.
ENDING 7 / 10
A big rain storm dump a tonne of water onto the track to liven things up. Sadly it was too much as cars went off too easily and then Zhou’s crash brought out the red flag. Meaning a late finish for those not in Europe was even later.
OVERALL RATING 19 / 30
Setting the scene – So it’s not Max Verstappen or a Red Bull on pole position. It’s Carlos Sainz 1st with Max Verstappen second and Charles Leclerc third. Ferrari look to have plugged everything in, and made sure everything is working this weekend. It’s a big weekend after all in front of their excitable fans. Will they stop Red Bull setting a new record for most race wins in a row?
Most notable non top three effort comes from Alex Albon in the Williams, who qualifies sixth. Liam Lawson too does a fine job in his first proper race weekend by qualifying in 12th, just one place behind Yuki Tsunoda.
Sunday is not great for Yuki Tsunoda who retires on the formation lap. He parks the car on the side of the track which delays the start. First with another formation lap, then the cars come to a full stop. Is the race fully red flagged? The cars have stopped so need to be restarted. Which means all the mechanics need to rush back onto the pit straight again. But in true F1 style, the gate to allow the mechanics onto the track was closed meaning nothing happened for a few minutes. 20 minutes later the race starts again.
At least the race will be quick once it gets going. it barely takes an hour and a quarter under normal circumstances.
GRID (Starting Order) – SAI VER LEC RUS PER ALB PIA HAM NOR ALO
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Carlos Sainz gets away well and keeps Max Verstappen in second, Charles Leclerc keeps third but is under pressure from George Russell who is under pressure from Sergio Perez. All the drivers do their best work in surviving the first corner. Not much change in order with Oscar Piastri moving ahead of Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris swapping positions. Nico Hulkenberg is up to 10th from 13th.
ORDER – SAI VER LEC RUS PER PIA ALB NOR HAM HUL
Lap 2 – Alex Albon takes his sixth place back from Oscar Piastri into the second chicane.
Lap 4 – Max Verstappen sets a fastest lap just as DRS is allowed. Something will be needed as the field stretches out on a track that isn’t known for overtaking being too easy. No car is more than two second behind the car in front at this point.
Lap 6 – Verstappen tries around the outside of Carlos Sainz going into the first chicane. Sainz has none of it and closes the door a little not very politely but is fair. Max complains a little on radio. Classic Max and pot kettle given some of his defending of positions in the past.
ORDER – SAI VER LEC RUS PER ALB PIA NOR HAM HUL
Lap 10 – Max Verstappen, not used to losing, is on the blub on team radio about the top end speed of the Ferraris. He probably needs to be patient, as it appears that the Ferraris are eating up their tyres.
Lap 11 – Pierre Gasly makes the first pitstop for tyres. It is delayed a little with equipment not working. He rejoins last. Bad race for Alpine as both cars were cut in Q1. Guanyu Zhou is next in an rejoins second last. That is the extent of the action right now, reporting on a pitstop.
Lap 14 – Sergio Perez gets past George Russell into the first chicane but had to cut the chicane so then hands the place back before the second chicane. Looking at the replay, George Russell also cut the first chicane but not as badly as Perez.
Lap 15 – Max Verstappen gets past Carlos Sainz for the lead into the second chicane after an epic side by side battle for a third of a lap. Verstappen is one and a half seconds ahead after a lap and a half.
Lap 16 – Decent period for Red Bull as Sergio Perez makes a clean pass on George Russell into the first chicane. Further back Alex Albon pits from 6th and Lando Norris is complaining to his team his team mate being slower than him ahead.
ORDER – VER SAI LEC PER RUS PIA NOR HAM ALO BOT
Lap 20 – Carlos Sainz finally dumps his rubbish tyres for new boots. George Russell pits too. Both drivers come out behind Vallteri Bottas in 19th. Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc pit next lap. The two Ferrari drivers almost touch at the first chicane, Max Verstappen returns in 6th.
Lap 22 – Sergio Perez pits from the temporary lead an returns behind the Ferraris again. X
Lap 23 – The McLarens pit on consecutive laps with the order reversed to Norris’ advantage. Replays actually show a small collision between the McLaren drivers in the first chicane as Piastri rejoins. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen overtakes Lewis Hamilton for the lead, which effectively means race is over. Lewis Hamilton has yet to pit.
ORDER – VER HAM SAI LEC PER RUS ALB NOR PIA ALO
Lap 28 – Lewis Hamilton pits and rejoins behind Fernando Alonso in 10th. Hamilton takes Fernando Alonso for 9th.
Lap 30 – Just for fun Max Verstappen sets a fastest lap. And has a six second lead. Well that part of the race is over. Luckily the battle for second is a three-way fight between the two Ferraris and Sergio Perez is interesting. On lap 31 Perez and Leclerc almost touch. Perez is for sure faster, but just can’t get past.
Lap 32 – What would we know. Sergio Perez cruises past Charles Leclerc into the first chicane.
Lap 35 – There really isn’t much happening. It’s not that the cars aren’t close, but they look so unlikely to overtake, so we’ll add some filler with an order instead..
ORDER – VER SAI PER LEC RUS ALB NOR RIC HAM ALO
Lap 38 – Lando Norris finally gets past Alex Albon at the first chicane but cuts the chicane and gives the place back. Norris and Piastri keep hounding Albon to no result for a few laps. Lewis Hamilton is catching the McLarens now on his newer rubber.
Lap 40 – Max Verstappen is nine second in front of Carlos Sainz. Sergio Perez is right on Carlos Sainz’s tail are pressuring him, but the Ferrari holding on desperately. Leclerc is just behind waiting for scraps.
Lap 41 – Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri collide going into the second chicane. They were side by side from the first chicane. Hamilton appeared to cut across Piastri under braking, to which Piastri agreed over radio. The McLaren driver was the big losers, as his front wing was now broken and had to pit for a new one. He drops to 14th. The stewards agree too, Hamilton gets a five second penalty.
ORDER – VER SAI PER LEC RUS ALB NOR HAM ALO BOT
Lap 44 – Sainz v Perez rages on. Norris v Albon rages on.
Lap 45 – Perez looks to have overtaken Sainz for sure this time into the first chicane…..but no. The Red Bull cuts the chicane and has to hand back second place again. He’s getting pretty grumpy on the radio. Lewis Hamilton overtakes Lando Norris a lap after finding out about his five second penalty. He overtakes Albon on Lap 47 for sixth and has four laps left or so to make up the five second penalty.
Lap 46 – Sergio Perez finally overtakes Sainz for second. He immediately clears Sainz by a second a lap.
Lap 47 – Charles Leclerc gets past Carlos Sainz for third into the first chicane. Sainz fights back and re-takes his third place as both Ferraris nearly touch and both cut the second chicane. They continue to squabble over the final podium position to the end.
Final Lap – Charles Leclerc outbrakes himself going into the first chicane and with tyres smoking and squealing he almost rams up the back of his team mate, which would have embarrassing for the drivers, and potentially dangerous leaving the circuit from the fans. Meanwhile Max Verstappen does it easy at the front and wins a record tenth race in a row. All this on a circuit where they were meant to be a little more vulnerable.
FINAL ORDER – VER PER SAI LEC RUS HAM ALB NOR ALO BOT
THE GREAT-EST – ALEX ALBON
Max Verstappen wins everything, but not today. We give our driver of the race to the man who came 7th – Alex Albon. He keeps overachieving in the Williams, qualifying much higher than one would expect, and doesn’t fade away too badly in the races against much better cars. His defensive drive against Lando Norris was as good as Carlos Sainz who got Driver of the Day from the fans.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – Sensational pole position and a heroically defensive drive to keep the final podium position.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Had to be more patient than usual, and not on pole position, but the end result was another win, and a record setting tenth in a row.
LIAM LAWSON – Another solid outing for the stand-in Alpha Tauri driver.
THE GRAPE-EST – YUKI TSUNODA
When your car retires before the race start on the formation lap it doesn’t get much worse.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – A decent result ruined after contact with Lewis Hamilton.
CHARLES LECLERC – Possibly harsh, but second best to Carlos Sainz for Qualifying and the race. Would have taken Grape-est for the race if he ran into his team mate on the last lap like he nearly did.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 10
More of historic importance than this season as Max Verstappen takes a tenth straight win, setting a new record. Sergio Perez’s second place might see off anyone challenging for second place in the Championship.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9/10
Loads of battles raged throughout the race. A few clashes, a few penalties handed out, and a few overtakes within those battles.
ENDING 7 / 10
Good battles in the last few laps for third between the Ferrari drivers that almost ended in tears, and Lewis Hamilton was on a bit of a mission in the finals laps. For good and bad.
OVERALL RATING 21 / 30
Decent race with enough action to just keep you awake. Luckily it is the quickest race of the season.
Setting the scene – So Red Bull are human after all….Many thought Red Bull were playing when their pace was a little off on Friday but they bomb out in Q2 on genuine car troubles and a little spin for Sergio Perez, where hopefully Dr Marko can keep his “South American” to himself”. Ferraris looked quick and indeed Carlos Sainz continued to look the better of the two and took pole. George Russell split the red cars as he continues his upward curve. Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton are 4th and 5th and the whole top five are genuine winning chances.
A huge crash from Lance Stroll ended Q1 early, and cost Oscar Piastri the chance to shine. The southern hemisphere surprise were represented by Liam Lawson who made it all the way through to Q3 in the Alpha Tauri in just his third Grand Prix. What an unfortunate injury this might turn out for Daniel Ricciardo.
But Sunday is another day, and we await Red Bull’s performance. Perhaps this is the biggest sand-bagging effort of all time….
GRID (Starting Order) – SAI RUS LEC NOR HAM MAG ALO OCO HUL LAW
Lap 1 – Carlos Sainz gets away well and Charles Leclerc follow through into second. Further back the Mercedes squabble over third. Hamilton gets in front of George Russell by running off the track at turns 1/2. Alonso gets past Magnussen and Max Verstappen gains one place from Liam Lawson who dropped two spots. Oscar Piastri looked to have made contact in the midfield on the first lap. Sergio Perez remains 13th and Yuki Tsunoda continues his rotten reliability with a retirement before the first lap is completed after not even making the start of the recent Italian Grand Prix.
ORDER – SAI LEC HAM RUS NOR ALO OCO MAG HUL VER
Lap 2 – Hamilton let Russell by into third, to play it safe from getting any penalties. But it may not be all done and dusted as Lando Norris is on the radio complaining about Hamilton getting an advantage too. So Lewis may drop another place. In the meantime George Russell goes on to set fastest lap. An Alfa Romeo pits as well.
Lap 3 – If you needed an example of Red Bull’s struggles, Max Verstappen has got past just one Haas of Nico Hulkenberg for 9th and struggles for a little while to overtake the second of Kevin Magnussen. Max finally gets by on lap 6.
Lap 5 – Lewis Hamilton lets Lando Norris by into 4th, completing his punishment for running wide at the first corner on the first lap.
Lap 7 – Decent battle between Sergio Perez, who is struggling in the invincible Red Bull, Oscar Piastri and Alex Albon. At the front Ferrari are in control with Sainz comfortably staying around a second up on Charles Leclerc – who is on the soft tyres unlike the medium tyres of Sainz.
Lap 11 – Carlos Sainz slowly and surely extending his lead over Charles Leclerc to 1.6 seconds. All of the top five are similarly spaced at this stage of the race. It is hot, maybe some are saving energy. Upcoming pitstops and strategy going to be crucial.
ORDER – SAI LEC RUS NOR HAM ALO OCO VER MAG HUL
Lap 15 – Charles Leclerc starting to slip back to the Mercedes drivers and Lando Norris. Carlos Sainz is over two seconds ahead now. An undercut would be available, if any car wanted to pit at this stage. Max Verstappen still lies 8th and behind Esteban Ocon. Could be worse, Sergio Perez is still 13th. It’s all a bit static right now.
Lap 19 – Hold your surprise face, Logan Sargeant has run into the wall. Not much damage except for his front wing being under the car. Will this bring out a boredom busting Safety Car?
Yes.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 20 – Sainz pits. Leclerc pits but is doing the go-slow that pisses off the stewards. The rest of the top ten pit except for the wily Max Verstappen. Neither does Sergio Perez. Leclerc is held up at pit stop waiting for traffic, which lets Lando Norris past. Could be worse, penalty coming for Fernando Alonso for running wide out of pitlane then rejoining it to pit. Lots of action. And as a punter who put a sneaky bet on a Verstappen-Perez 1-2 @ $251 we are rubbing hands and licking lips.
ORDER – SAI VER RUS PER NOR LEC HAM ALO OCO BOT
Lap 23 – RACE RESUMES
Lap 23 / 24 – Red Bull’s do not have wings post Safety Car restart. George Russell gets by Verstappen for 2nd and Lando Norris overtakes Sergio Perez for fourth. Lewis Hamilton makes that another place half a lap later. Better still, Lando Norris gets by Max Verstappen for third. That Safety Car certainly livened things up. God bless the mild incompetence of Logan Sargeant.
ORDER – SAI RUS NOR VER HAM LEC PER ALO OCO MAG
Lap 27 – Lewis Hamilton breezes past Max Verstappen. Haven’t written that for a few seasons. At the front his team mate George Russell is hurrying up Carlos Sainz. A lap later Charles Leclerc get by Max Verstappen for sixth.
Lap 34 – After a quick unplanned nap, time to check in on the race. Sainz still leading from George Russell. Red Bulls still yet to pit and they continue to fall behind. Sixth and seventh their positions for the moment but Sergio Perez is being hounded by Fernando Alonso, and the Mexican nearly throws it into the wall.
Lap 37 – Nice sequence of passes between Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. Alonso the loser, Perez remains 7th. Ocon gains 7th a few laps later with a nice move. Alonso and Gasly join the party as well a few corners later. Perez pits at the end of lap 39. The Red Bull rejoins dead last.
Lap 41 – Max Verstappen finally pits for tyres. He rejoins in 15th place.
Lap 42 – The top five are all pretty close at this stage with track position being king. But there is still time for a Safety Car or pitstop strategy to ruin someone’s race. The second cars listed below most at risk for the sausage.
ORDER – SAI RUS NOR HAM LEC OCO ALO GAS PIA LAW
Lap 43 – Esteban Ocon pulls over with a broken car near turn two. Will this bring out a safety car? Sort of. It’s a Virtual Safety Car. The leaders missed the opportunity to pit
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED.
Alex Albon is the first driver to pit. One wonders why the second cars in that top five train didn’t pit. As now they are at risk of the dreaded double stack.
Ferrari don’t pit, Mercedes pit both as they double stack and nail both pitstops. Will this prove genius? They rejoin 4th and 5th in clear air on new tyres. Fernando Alonso takes a piece of the pitstop pie as well. Aston Martin stuff up the pitstop which wastes that then.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 45 – Virtual Safety Car ends, and the end result is that the Mercedes cars have dropped a few positions, but now have the fresh tyres, and the current top three need to nurse old tyres or risk falling behind with a pit stop. Fascinating.
ORDER – SAI NOR LEC RUS HAM GAS PIA LAW HUL ZHO
Lap 47 – George Russell sets fastest lap, just to prove that the end of the race is going to be interesting indeed.
Lap 48 – Max Verstappen overtakes Guanyu Zhou for 10th place. A lap later the Red Bull driver flies past Nico Hulkenberg. Talking of Red Bull drivers, a quick word for Liam Lawson, who is currently 8th. Doing a great job, and every successful lap throws another nail in the coffin of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull chances. Verstappen drops Lawson a place on lap 51 for that 8th place.
Lap 53 – Strategy working out for Mercedes now. George Russell hunts down Charles Leclerc and gets past after trailing for two-thirds of a lap. Lewis Hamilton also passes half a lap later. Lando Norris is six seconds up the road with nine laps to go. Leader Carlos Sainz is 1.3 second further up the road.
Lap 56 – Lando Norris pressures Carlos Sainz for first and gets within a second. Norris may be worried he’ll lose second, so why not go for victory? George Russell is within 2.4 seconds.
Lap 58 – Lando Norris is within DRS now which helps with attacking and defending. The two Mercedes are within a second too. Four laps to go and it is all to play for. Top four cars covered by less than two seconds.
Lap 60 – Carlos Sainz skips ahead slightly as George Russell tries and fails to get by Lando Norris who is holding on magnificently. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile is looking the better of the two Mercedes.
Lap 61 – The top four still all within DRS of each other with two laps to go. The Mercedes don’t look as quick as they did a few laps ago. Can’t see an order change from here. Perhaps an intra team crash at Mercedes.
Final Lap – The top four remain as they cross the line. But part way around the lap George Russell crashes!!!! This leaves Carlos Sainz in front as the Ferrari driver breaks the Red Bull streak. Lando Norris drove brilliantly to keep second and Lewis Hamilton looked feisty again in third. Further behind Max Verstappen almost stole fourth from Charles Leclerc on the line. Great recovery drive from Oscar Piastri and first ever points for Liam Lawson.
FINAL ORDER – SAI NOR HAM LEC VER GAS PIA PER LAW MAG
THE GREAT-EST – CARLOS SAINZ
A sensational win from pole position for the Ferrari driver who just about dominated the entire weekend. Held on at the end of the race under huge pressure.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Another outstanding weekend, qualifying in the top five, then driving a brilliant defensive race at the end to hold on to second place.
LIAM LAWSON – Made Q3 for the first time in his career, progressing for Q1 in his first race and Q2 in the second. Bumped Max Verstappen out of Q3 no less. He drove a really solid race, sitting in the top ten for much of the second half of the race. All this in his third Grand Prix and on one of the season’s toughest tracks.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Great return to form for Lewis Hamilton, who may have won this race if not stuck behind his team mate at the end.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Stuffed up by Lance Stroll’s crash in qualifying and nearly hit him as well, and was caught out by the timing with his first run in Q1 proving under the target. But a great Sunday saw the Australian end up in 7th place and a good bag of points. One wonders what could have happened if Lance Stroll did not crash.
THE GRAPE-EST – LANCE STROLL
Had to fight off rumours he was going to quit F1 for professional tennis, and turned an underwhelming weekend into a forgettable one with a huge shunt at the last corner in qualifying. The crash caused enough damage to Stroll that he sat our the race day. If his father didn’t own the team he’d be in trouble.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
YUKI TSUNODA – Broke down on the Formation Lap in Italy, and didn’t complete a full race lap in Singapore. Meanwhile, he has been out-qualified by a team mate in just his third race and less than ten sessions in an F1 car at the time of qualifying.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Was in the Honourable Mentions until he crashed out on the last lap.
CHARLES LECLERC – Beaten to pole position by his team mate. Beaten in the race by his team mate.
SERGIO PEREZ – Missed out on Q3 with a spin in qualifying. Circled around in 13th for a long time in the race. Was genuinely off the pace and terrible.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – His winning runs ends, as he becomes a bit player of a Grand Prix for the first time in a while. Never a factor in the race, and the car looked a handful in most sessions. In Singapore he was racing Alpines, not lapping them. But eventually finished fifth position and passed an Alpine.
ESTEBAN OCON – A decent race with a good overtake on Fernando Alonso all for nothing as his car packs it in.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 7 / 10
Red Bull are beatable after all, so maybe this Championship isn’t quite over yet. Ferrari and Carlos Sainz in particular look fast right now.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
Whilst overtaking was at a bi of a premium, there were plenty of battles and scuffles to keep one interested. A quick power nap by us means it wasn’t a 10/10.
ENDING 10 / 10
A four way battle for the lead, and one crashing out at the end to add some unexpected action. That’s worth a ten.
OVERALL RATING 25 / 30
A great race, and maybe it was the earlier time slot that helps for a good rating. But there was racing, tactics, luck and a fantastic ending.
Setting the scene – Wow, Max Verstappen is good. He takes pole with ease, proving Singapore was a blip, and that he is just a bit better than his team mate. McLaren look string and Oscar Piastri’s second on the grid on his track debut is almost as sensational, and certainly ticking a box for his recent contract extension. Further behind the rest are playing catch up, and in all likelihood are battling for scraps behind Verstappen and the McLarens. It’s a hard track to pass on, so star and strategy is critical, which is always a worry for Ferrari. But it’s a great track to watch the great cars and drivers do their thing.
On race day it is hotter than any other point of the weekend, so strategy and track position v undercut will be the big battles on track. Some drivers have opted for the harder tyre to start. But they will probably be too far behind the Red Bulls to make too much difference. It seems that just the margin of victory for Max is to be decided, but who knows, there’s barriers and average drivers to bring out an inconvenient Safety Car…..
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PIA NOR LEC PER SAI HAM RUS TSU ALO
Lap 1 – Pole sitter ax Verstappen gets away OK and pushes Piastri over to the side of the track on the right but that leaves a gap on the outside that Lando Norris almost fills but Verstappen holds his lead. That means the McLarens have now swapped positions. Ferraris almost touch. Lewis Hamilton almost goes off the track twice, once thanks to Sergio Perez who is having another grape weekend – he has his front wing changed under the Safety Car which will extend the thrashing his team mate will give him.
Further back there’s a clash between someone and someone as carbon fibre goes flying, it later revealed as Valtteri Nottas and Alex Albon – with the Williams driver lucky not to go flying. Liam Lawson threatens his popularity in Japan by getting past Yuki Tsunoda for 10th. Fernando Alonso is a winner, moving up to 6th from 10th.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC SAI ALO PER HAM RUS LAW
RACE RESUMES
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen opens up a handy gap as the race resumes and the field spreads out evenly. Except for Valtteri Bottas who is off at the hairpin – later replays show it was Logan Sargeant who bumped Nottas into the spin. Further around the Mercedes are battling for 7th with George Russell getting past the damaged Lewis Hamilton into the chicane, but Hamilton retaking the place on the following straight into the first corner.
Lap 7 – A window into the rest of the afternoon as Max Verstappen sets fastest lap on the first flying lap of the afternoon and is already more than two seconds up on Norris in second.
Lap 9 – Valtteri Bottas is the race’s first DNF. Logan Sargeant receives a five second penalty for his part of it. Sergio Perez gets a five second penalty himself for a Safety Car infringement.
Lap 12 – Fernando Alonso pits to replace his Soft tyres, but this should be interesting for strategy. Sergio Perez continues his ordinary, ordinary drive by T-Boning Kevin Magnussen into the hairpin. Perez will need a new front wing, and a brain. Magnussen simply loses places thanks to the incident before his car gradually would have on race day.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC SAI HAM RUS STR GAS OCO
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 14 – Oscar Piastri pits just as the Virtual Safety Car pits. This could be super handy for the Aussie. He comes out 8th, but is well placed against his top rivals. The VSC only last less than a lap meaning he has saved himself a little bit of time. Piastri wastes no time getting past Pierre Gasly for 7th a lap later.
VIRTUAL SAFETY ENDS ALREADY
Lap 15 – Sergio Perez retires his Red Bull. They had probably run out of front wings.
Lap 16 – The Mercedes are at it again, this time Lewis Hamilton pushes both cars off the track at the fast Spoon Curve, serving themselves both up some lost time.
Lap 17 – Max Verstappen pits, and his 2021 title rival Hamilton pits as well, but exits a full seven second behind Fernando Alonso – showing the benefit of pitting early. Verstappen exits 5th and in front of Piastri.
Lap 18 – Norris and Leclerc pits, and where will they exit, and is it too late? 7th and 9th is the answer with Alonso being the 8th placed meat, and gaining another spot from his early stop. Norris is now behind his team mate too.
Lap 19 – Sainz pits and exits behind his team mate overtaking Alonso for 6th. Leclerc also overtakes Esteban Ocon half a lap later. Max Verstappen re-takes the lead from George Russell who is yet to stop, and cranky at Lewis Hamilton pushing him off the track.
ORDER – VER RUS PIA NOR LEC OCO ALO SAI HAM TSU
Lap 22 – Lewis Hamilton overtakes Fernando Alonso into the fastest corner on the track in a super brave move, and a few corners later gets past an Alpine too. Carlos Sainz had previously demoted Alonso, leading him to complain about his strategy being like he was “fed to the lions”.
Lap 24 – George Russell discusses with his team over radio about a strategy change, meaning a one stop is on the cards. He currently holds the track position in second, but the faster McLarens are closing in. Making a liar of us, George Russell pits and rejoins in 9th. Speaking of McLarens – Lando Norris is asking to be let past Norris. And they battle it out for a few laps, to a rising temperature of Lando Norris’ radio messages.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR LEC SAI HAM OCO RUS ALO GAS
Lap 27 – Oscar Piastri finally lets past Lando Norris. They seem to be worried about George Russell’s one stop strategy. Not sure why, they are way quicker.
Lap 28 – Sergio Perez is back in his car, maybe as punishment for his crap race he is going to test stuff. Ted Kravitz suggests that Red Bull are re-starting Sergio Perez’s race to serve the penalty.
Lap 29 – First in-race mention in the commentary about the early viewing time for UK fans. To which we reply from the GMT +10 region to quit your griping. We get 2 day time grands prix a season, whilst every other is mid afternoon of prime time for UK/Europe. Try a 3am Brazilian Grand Prix season finale. Suck it up, we say.
Lap 31 – A rare sighting of Max Verstappen who is 14 seconds up the road from the McLarens for the record.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC SAI HAM RUS GAS ALO OCO
Lap 35 – Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are the first front runners to pit for a second time. Oscar Piastri does so a lap later, and needs to stay ahead of Leclerc, which he does, just, trimming his lead from five seconds to just over two.
Lap 37 – Lando Norris pits now, and his race is against George Russell, who won’t pit again. Russell manages to get ahead but Norris is close enough and has fresh tyres. It takes only a lap for Norris to get past, so no doubt George Russell will pit anyway late and set a pointless fastest lap. It could be worse, as Ferrari have stuffed Carlos Sainz’s race by leaving him out.
Lap 38 – Max Verstappen pits from first and exits first. Excitement for him is probably over for the rest of the race. Carlos Sainz pits a lap later from second and drops to 7th.
ORDER – VER NOR RUS PIA LEC HAM SAI ALO OCO GAS
Lap 40 – Oscar Piastri can see a first F1 podium in front of him in the shape of George Russell’s rear end. Much like a dirty perv on a train, he has a few looks without success. He gets by as lap 42 starts. But he’d better keep an eye on party pooper Charles Leclerc who isn’t too far behind.
Lap 43 – George Russell needs to keep Charles Leclerc behind now. Wonder how long before the Mercedes driver gives up and just tries to set another fastest lap. Leclerc finally gets past Russell at turn one on lap 45 in a great move around the outside. He is three seconds behind Piastri for the final podium spot.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC RUS HAM SAI ALO OCO GAS
Lap 47 – Decent battle between George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz for fifth. Russell is instructed by his team to let Hamilton past, Russell argues differently, Hamilton begs to differ and takes the position at the start of lap 49.
Lap 50 – Carlos Sainz overtakes George Russell anyway despite Mercedes claiming that the Hamilton swap was about protecting Russell from Sainz. Worked out well then.
Final Lap – Max Verstappen is found by the TV crews just in time to cruise to victory, and return F1 2023 to normal transmission. Red Bull wins the Constructor’s Championship too to add to the joy. McLarens follow the Red Bulls home with Piastri claiming his first podium with another excellent weekend. Ferrari and Mercedes pick up the scraps behind.
FINAL ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC HAM SAI RUS ALO OCO GAS
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Simply too good all weekend. Sue he has the fastest car, but he is also so fast, so consistent and too good. Withing smelling distance of the Championship now.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Quickly becoming best of the rest in most races and another solid one here. Outqualified by his team mate, he got the better of him on the start and for most of the race. Except the part where Piastri got in front thanks to a well timed pit stop, but they changed places to allow the faster Norris to protect his second place.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Qualified second in his race at the venue, out-qualifying his very well regarded team mate. Not quite as fast as Norris in the race, but claims a first podium in the process which he takes with his usual calmness.
LIAM LAWSON – Celebrates being overlooked for an Alpha Tauri or (insert new name here) drive for 2024 by finishing ahead of local hero Yuki Tsunoda in a minor up yours to Red Bull management.
THE GRAPE-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
Well beaten in qualifying, not great start as he clips Lewis Hamilton which requires a front wing change and change of end of the grid. He then gets a five second penalty for blasting out of the pits under the Safety Car and temporarily overtaking more cars than he should. Just another poor weekend in a season that is fast becoming rather underwhelming.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
VALTTERI BOTTAS-Involved in an accident on the first lap, then is hit by Logan Sargeant at the hairpin on the restart. Then retires his “undriveable” car a few laps later.
LANCE STROLL – Follows his Singapore Race no-start with a DNF and almost invisible weekend.
LOGAN SARGEANT – Big prang in qualifying, hits Bottas into retirement in the race. We wonder if he is signed for next season. Surely Williams will be having second thoughts.
HAAS – Continue their hopeless Sunday with a last and second last. Magnussen not helped after being punted by Perez during the race, but they are bad on race day.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 8 / 10
Red Bull win the Constructors Championship, and Max Verstappen is within a race weekend of the driver’s title.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6/10
Some good racing behind the dominant Red Bull of Max Verstappen, but not a classic.
ENDING 6 / 10
Good battles between George Russell and various cars as he fell backwards through the field in the final laps, to keep the viewers interested and disguising the Red Bull so far out in front again for a little while.
OVERALL RATING 20 / 30
A good but not great race. Helps that it is a rare daytime one for this side of the world. A first podium for an Australian makes it a little bit more special.
2023 Qatar F1 Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary
Setting the scene – Oscar Piastri continues his impressive recent run by taking the sprint race pole position ahead of his team mate in a super session for the McLarens. Max Verstappen is third and ready to pounce. He needs just three points to secure his third world championship. Both qualifying sessions have been all about the track limits and drivers having times taken off them. Hopefully that doesn’t ruin the race.
Lap 1 – Oscar Piastri converts his first pole position impressively into a first corner lead, behind him both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are squeezed out going into turn one by the rapid starting George Russell and Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc up as well. Verstappen is 5th and Norris 6th. Perez is another loser of the start down two positions. Liam Lawson is off into the gravel and out of the race. The race itself is put on hold as the Safety Car comes out.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – PIA RUS SAI LEC VER NOR ALO OCO HUL PER
SAFETY CAR EXITS
Lap 2 – Just the one lap behind the safety car, and Oscar Piastri just holds onto first despite loads of pressure from George Russell into the first corner. But a few corners later the Mercedes overtakes the McLaren for the lead as Piastri outbrakes himself slightly – possibly the difference between his soft tyres vs Piastri’s medium set. A ding dong battle between Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso ends up in Norris’ favour as Norris keeps 6th and Ocon steals 7th from Alonso. Logan Sargeant spins off into the gravel and seals another DNF. And another safety car. We can guarantee as least one of the Safety Car and Logan Sargeant will be on the grid next season.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – RUS PIA SAI LEC VER NOR OCO ALO HUL GAS
SAFETY CAR EXITS
Lap 7 – After what seems like a safety car period that went way too long, the race resumes. Carlos Sainz almost steals second from Piastri into the first corner, but the Australian does well to hold him off. Alonso takes his seventh lace back from Esteban Ocon. George Russell has given himself a handy greater than one second lead to stay out of DRS zone. The question is can his soft tyres hold on for the whole race against the mediums of McLaren and Red Bull. Speaking of those cars, they are in a less dominant 5th and 11th. Max Verstappen eyeing the long game of a 6th place that seals a championship.
Lap 9 – Max Verstappen proves he isn’t just hanging around by overtaking Charles Leclerc for 4th. The medium tyres are working now as Perez overtakes Gasly for 10th and Oscar Piastri sets fastest lap.
Lap 10 – The soft runners are going backwards now, well Carlos Sainz certainly is as Max Verstappen breezes by.
ORDER – RUS PIA VER SAI LEC NOR ALO OCO HUL PER
Lap 11 – Oscar Piastri overtakes George Russell down the main straight with his DRS and tyres helping to regain the lead. In more good news for McLaren Lando Norris gets by Charles Leclerc. Less successful is Sergio Perez who is in the gravel trying to overtake Nico Hulkenberg for 9th, that hands the World Championship to Max Verstappen without having to do anything. It probably also hands Sergio Perez’s 2024 Red Bull seat to anyone else the way he’s going. Esteban Ocon is in the gravel with Perez and it looks like Hulkenberg has escaped. Replays show that it was a racing incident of three cars alongside each other and the two outside ones squeezing the middle car to the inevitable outcome. If we were to apportion some blame, it was Ocon who should have given more room. Safety Car is out again. Piastri hoping this one lasts as long as possible.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – PIA RUS VER SAI NOR LEC ALO HAM GAS BOT
SAFETY CAR EXITS
Lap 15 – Safety car leaves giving us five laps to the chequered flag. Piastri just holds onto first place and carves out a second space by the end of the lap. Further back Charles Leclerc gets past Lando Norris.
Lap 16 – Max Verstappen passes George Russell for second place, and is hunting a sprint win to seal his championship. Piastri is 2.6 seconds up the road with four laps to go. Can the McLaren hold on.
Lap 17 – The gap from Piastri to Verstappen is down to 2.3 seconds, while Lando Norris retakes Leclerc for 5th and gets past Carlos Sainz for 4th a few corners later. Magnificent stuff. Further back Lewis Hamilton takes Pierre Gasly for 8th and Alex Albon sneaks into the top ten ahead of Valtteri Nottas.
Lap 18 – Two laps to go and the Piastri-Verstappen gaps in just under two seconds.Lewis Hamilton is up to 7th and harassing the Ferraris straight away.
Final Lap – Piastri heads into the final lap with a lead of two seconds or more. He needs to just keep going for a first win. Further back plenty happening, Lewis Hamilton gets past Leclerc. Alex Albon takes Fernando Alonso for 8th. But Oscar Piastri drives composed, and he holds off Max Verstappen with ease for his first win in F1 while Verstappen takes a third World Championship. Talking of third, Lando Norris makes it a decent sprint race for McLaren with a third place. It may be just a sprint race, but a decent first place for Oscar Piastri on a track he has never raced on.
ORDER – PIA VER NOR RUS HAM SAI LEC ALB ALO GAS
| Pos | Driver | Time |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | 19 Laps |
| 2 | Max VERSTAPPEN | 1.871 behind |
| 3 | Lando NORRIS | 8.497 behind |
| 4 | George RUSSELL | 11.036 behind |
| 5 | Lewis HAMILTON | 17.314 behind |
| 6 | Carlos SAINZ | 18.806 behind |
| 7 | Alexander Albon | 19.864 behind |
| 8 | Fernando ALONSO | 21.18 behind |
| 9 | Pierre GASLY | 21.742 behind |
| 10 | Valtteri BOTTAS | 22.208 behind |
| 11 | Yuki TSUNODA | 22.863 behind |
| 12 | Charles LECLERC | 24.86 behind |
| 13 | Kevin Magnussen | 24.97 behind |
| 14 | Guanyu Zhou | 26.868 behind |
| 15 | Lance STROLL | 29.523 behind |
| R | Nico Hulkenberg | DNF Lap 11 |
| R | Esteban OCON | DNF Lap 10 |
| R | Sergio PEREZ | DNF Lap 10 |
| R | Logan Sargeant | DNF Lap 2 |
| R | Liam Lawson | DNF Lap 1 |
2023 Qatar F1 Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Setting the scene – There’s still a race to be run after the excitement of Oscar Piastri’s first win in the Sprint Race yesterday, and even more importantly the third World Championship for Max Verstappen.
To ensure that the governing body aren’t forgotten, they have insisted before the race that no one can run more than 18 laps on a set of tyres, which could add a level of chaos to the race. It’s on safety grounds, but it sounds plenty stupid, and with one of the longest pit lanes on the calendar, we’re going to be be watching nothing but pit stops we fear.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER RUS HAM ALO LEC PIA GAS OCO BOT NOR — PER (PL)
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Max Verstappen gets away OK, Lewis Hamilton gets away better from third and he tries to get pass both Verstappen and George Russell around the outside only to clip his team mate, rip off his right rear wheel and send both him and Russell into a spin at turn one. Yesterday’s winner Oscar Piastri lucks in and is up to second from sixth. Further back there’s some swapping for minor positions and no trouble as the Safety Car is called upon.
It wasn’t a ridiculous move from Lewis Hamilton, and it looked like he had enough pace to get it done, he just needed to give George Russell more room and he might have taken first rather than be sitting out the rest of the Qatar Grand Prix. Disaster for Mercedes who had two cars in the top three and now have one who is last.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER PIA ALO LEC OCO NOR GAS TSU BOT HUL
Lap 4 – A bunch of lower midfield cars come in to pit, not sure how that works with the 18 lap rule for strategy. Also bad news coming for Nico Hulkenberg after the stewards advise they are looking at an incorrect starting procedure, which means penalty usually. And it does this time too, 10 second penalty.
RACE RESUMES
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen holds onto first place with a masterful restart, Oscar Piastri was a little slow but keeps second. Further back Sergio Perez and George Russell debate who should own 13th place, Perez looks to run Russell off the road. Could be interesting how these two come back through the field. Russell gets past a lap later.
Lap 8 – Replays shows Fernando Alonso running wide off one of the corners but keeps his position as the tyres wear off. But that highlights another problem – track limits. Which ruined a lot of qualifying laps, there’s five second penalties awaiting in the race for those who run wide too many times in the race.
Further ahead Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri are trading fastest laps. George Russell is up to 11th already, and looking fast, his first lap prang possibly costing us a battle at the front. We might still get one with Piastri though.
ORDER – VER PIA ALO LEC OCO NOR GAS HUL TSU ALB
Lap 12 – Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly become the first front runners to pit of what will be many, many pits tops. They drop from 3rd and 7th to 15th and 17th for reference. The pit stops and an overtake help George Russell jump up to 6th. Oscar Piastri pits from second a lap later and drops to 13th. So glad there’s going to be extra pit stops, so front runners are held up by midfield cars. Nice one FIA.
Lap 14 – Lando Norris pits from what was second and drops to 13th. Talking of second, George Russell is up to second after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg. He pits a lap later and rejoins 15th and has to do it all over again. Russell’s earlier sparring partner Sergio Perez has made it up to third place but he has to stop soon according to the 18 lap rule, like his team mate Verstappen in the lead too.
Lap 18 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead, which gives Alex Albon a nice moment s he takes the lead temporarily in his Williams. Further back Oscar Piastri is making light owrk of the midfield runners in the way of his net second place. He’s up to fourth now then second as those cars pit.
Lap 19 – Lando Norris overtakes Charles Leclerc for 6th, Lance Stroll lets Fernando Alonso past for fourth, and George Russell is up to 10th after another overtake.
ORDER – VER PIAS ALO BOT STR NOR LEC OCO GAS RUS
Lap 24 – George Russell continues to make progress through the field. Lando Norris is catching Fernando Alonso for third. Sergio Perez sets a who cares fastest lap from 9th. It disappears as Lando Norris updates the fastest lap as we type.
Lap 26 – Oscar Piastri is the first front runner to pit for a second stop. He rejoins 8th this time. Fernando Alonso pits a lap later, he did ask his team to fix an uncomfortable problem over the radio prior to stopping – the seat is burning his rear end. The team don’t seem to do anything to fix that in the two second he is stopped for. That could get interesting later.
Lap 29 – In good news for Lando Norris, he pits and get by Fernando Alonso for a net third and that means within a car of his team mate Piastri. Meanwhile Piastri takes a while and loses some time getting past Alex Albon for fourth. By lap 32 Norris is within five seconds of Piastri and that could get interesting soon, Norris sets fastest lap on lap 33.
Lap 33 – Fernando Alonso runs off the track at turn 15 and loses his position to Charles Leclerc in a moment of excitement. He rejoined pretty dangerously in front of Leclerc who overtook him anyway, but the way stewards have handed out punishment at this race weekend, he may have more misery coming.
Lap 35 – George Russell is up to fourth again with some more good overtaking. A sad case of what could have been for him today. His team say he can still finish fourth. Decent effort then.
Lap 38 – Ocon overtakes Vallteri Nottas for 7th as the final pit stops for everyone loom as the race enters the final 18 laps. Lando Norris within four second of his team mate in the battle for second place. Talking of second place, Sergio Perez gets a five second penalty for track limits. Solid weekend for the Red Bull driver who is lucky Lewis Hamilton crashed out in the hunt for second place in the Championship.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR RUS LEC ALO OCO BOT GAS STR
Lap 40 – The final pit stops begin in earnest. Not sure who Earnest is, or whether he wants any pit stops, but they are happening nonetheless.
Lap 41 – Logan Sargeant retires exhausted. WE won’t pick on him for that. It is a race in the middle of a desert.
Lap 44 – Oscar Piastri pits as his team mate closes within two seconds and sets fastest lap while Piastri pits. Piastri rejoins in the clear in fourth. Lando Norris pits a lap later and rejoins just as Oscar Piastri turns into the first corner, they are very close now. A decent battle looms for the last part of the race for second between the McLarens.
Lap 45 – Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly get five second penalties.
Lap 47 – McLaren tell Lando Norris to hold position, which Norris rightly questions why. They can race surely? Norris was the quicker of the two McLarens in the last stint. So we will see if he listens or not.
Lap 51 – George Russell pits from second and drops to fourth. He is now battling McLarens for the podium and has a fresh set of soft tyres on against the hard tyres for the McLarens.
Lap 54 – Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez battle for ninth place. Lance Stroll gets another penalty, so that’s sorted then. Wonder if Stroll will be as grumpy as he was in Friday’s press conference that found it’s way onto social media.
Lap 55 – Instead of George Russell catching the McLarens he is being caught by Charles Leclerc and there’s just enough time for the Ferrari to catch the Mercedes. Meanwhile Lando Norris proves a point and is within 1.5 seconds of his team mate.
Last lap – Somewhere out in the too distant future Max Verstappen cruises to victory – his 14th of the season no less. Less cruising than flying is Lando Norris who gets within a second of Oscar Piastri on the final lap, but the Australian seals his best ever proper race result with second. Another podium for Norris is still a good reward. George Russell recovers well to finish fourth and Leclerc has had a quiet run to fifth. We will wait on the final order with probably more penalties to be handed out based on the weekend so far.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER PIA NOR RUS LEC ALO OCO BOT PER ZHO
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
A third World Championship secured with second place in the Sprint Race. An almost invisible performance for first in the main race and yet another win.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – A sprint race win gives Piastri his first number one finish in his short F1 career, which he took with his usual amount of excitement, which is next to none. Drove a solid race on Sunday to get another podium with his usual calmness.
LANDO NORRIS – Was visibly disappointed after the sprint race where he watched his team mate win as he paid for qualifying mistakes. But climbed from 10th on the grid to the podium with another classy Sunday drive. Currently best of the non Verstappen drivers right now.
GEORGE RUSSELL – After dropping to the back of the field due to a clash with his team mate on lap one, Russell drove past a lot of cars, and ended up finishing fourth, showing enough pace for fans to be disappointed he didn’t get the chance to battle Verstappen for first and have a race at the front for a change.
ALFA ROMEO – Double points finish is timely at this end of the season..
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Just pips Sergio Perez for grape-est in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton makes a super start and tries to take first place in a double swoop around the outside of turn one, only to perform a double stuff up as he hits his team mate, loses a right rear wheel and forces his team mate into a spin. A shame as he looked fast, as did George Russell.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
SERGIO PEREZ – Another rubbish qualifying sees him stuck in the midfield during the race, and unlike George Russell, seems to struggle to make his way forward. Unlucky to have been taken out in the sprint race, but that’s what happens when you don’t qualify better. Basically wasting the Red Bull seat right now, a car capable of winning everything in the hands of Verstappen. Will be lucky to keep a hold of his drive for 2024 despite contract.
CARLOS SAINZ – A race winner not long ago, he didn’t even make the start of the Qatar Grand Prix.
NICO HULKENBERG – Taken out in sprint race after being sandwiched by Perez and Ocon. Took wrong grid slot for main race and got a ten second penalty. Not the luckiest F1 driver.
LOGAN SARGEANT – Spun off in the sprint race. Did OK in the main race, but ended up feeling poorly and had to retire. Not great when you’re trying to hang onto your seat for 2024.
LANCE STROLL – Held a particularly spiky press conference on Friday, and nothing else over the weekend would have made him happy. A few penalties in the race cost him points.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 10 / 10
Max Verstappen wins the Championship, so pretty definitive on that front. The battle for second will rage on after a shocker weekend from Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. Plus the battle between ASton Martin and McLaren get interesting after McLaren’s big weekend.
ON TRACK ACTION – 7 / 10
Some good racing as the many pitstops mandated by the FIA sees the order shaken up every now and again. George Russell in particular was busy, but most of the front runners had to do some overtaking for a change. Not Max Verstappen, who only had to lap cars, including his team mate.
ENDING 3 / 10
McLaren killed the ending a little by wanting their drivers to hold position in the closest battle on track. Not that Lando Norris followed completely. But not much else happening apart from more penalties handed out to midfield runners.
OVERALL RATING 20 / 30
Decent enough race, not sure if the 18 lap tyre mandate helped or hindered. But the early 3am timeslot for viewers in some parts of the world didn’t help. Nor does another MAx Verstappen win. McLaren at least made it interesting, as did the Mecedes drivers, one very briefly and one during most of the race.
2023 US F1 Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary
Setting the scene – Standard qualifying result for the sprint race with Max Verstappen taking pole, but the other cars seem closer. Ferrari look quick and in particular Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton looks sharp and has a great history here, and Lando Norris is always competitive. That’s your top four and the winner will come from that group.
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Max Verstappen gets away OK but so does Charles Leclerc and Verstappen pushes him almost off the track – and it’s a wide track going into the first turn. Verstappen retains first. Behind Lewis Hamilton takes advantage and steals second from the Ferrari. Further back Sainz pinches Norris’ 4th on his soft tyres (only driver to do so). No real drama or major position swapping further behind.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER HAM LEC SAI NOR PIA PER RUS GAS ALB
Lap 3 – Decent battle raging between Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez and George Russell for 6th. Perez possibly battling for his Red Bull career after yet another underwhelming qualifying for both the sprint and main race. Perez and Russell both overtake Piastri before the lap is done. Two laps later Pierre Gasly gets by too, and no points for Piastri. But the rookie McLaren held his own for sure. By the way, five second penalty for George Russell for his move on Piastri – going wide and gaining position.
Lap 4 – At the front for change anf there’s less than a second between Lewis Hamilton and Max Vestappen with the Mercedes looking quite good, and Hamilton is a track master. Maybe we’ll finally get the battle for first we’ve been craving for a while. Max Verstappen is on the radio complaining about driveability of his car too. Lewis radioes a bit later saying the Red Bull has run wide a few times. That was as close as Hamilton was going to get.
Lap 6 – Carlos Sainz’s soft tyres appear to be going off already and Lando Norris is all over him, but he can’t get past. He’d better hurry up as Sergio Perez is looming. Norris and Sainz swap positions and swap back on lap 8. They’re still going at it on lap 9, but the McLaren finally gets by on lap 10.
Lap 10 – Halfway point and the battle at the front is all but decided with Max Verstappen ahead by around three second and Charles Leclerc another three seconds or so behind that. With Norris in front of Sainz now, we’ll see if he can annoy the top three. Further back the Australians are putting the Down Under into Australian F1 drivers as Piastri is 10th (from 5th) and on his final warning for track limits, and Daniel Ricciardo is 13th (from 10th).
Lap 11 – Perez gets by Sainz for 5th, the Ferrari will be lucky to score points on these soft tyres.
ORDER – VER HAM LEC NOR PER SAI RUS GAS ALB PIA
Lap 13 – George Russell is right on Carlos Sainz’s tail, and he needs to get past to make up some ground for his five second penalty. Russell gets past into turn 1 on lap 14, but Sainz immediately takes him back. At least Russell didn’t turf him off this time, unlike last season’s lap 1.
Lap 15 – Max Verstappen is over five seconds in front of Lewis Hamilton, and only a mechanical failure can stop him now. And there have been very few of those this season. No real movement elsewhere in the top 10 either. One does wonder if these sprint races are worth it. We can sample the lack of racing once a weekend thanks.
Lap 17 – Lance Stroll retires from the sprint race with no brakes.
Lap 18 – George Russell is still behind Carlos Sainz, and behind him Alex Albon is trying to make up the time to steal the final point. He is six seconds behind and needs to be under five seconds.
Final Lap – Max Verstappen wins easily, nearly nine seconds in front, so at a click of half a second per lap or thereabouts. Lewis Hamilton looks best of the rest, which we’re not sure is that great a prize. Behind that Lando Norris did some damage to Leclerc’s lead, getting within a second by the end. George Russell’s penalty dropped him from 7th to 8th only.
ORDER – VER HAM LEC NOR PER SAI GAS RUS ALB PIA
| Pos | Driver | Car | Result / Gap | Points |
| 1 | Max VERSTAPPEN | Red Bull | 31:30:00 | 8 |
| 2 | Lewis HAMILTON | Mercedes | 9.465 behind | 7 |
| 3 | Charles LECLERC | Ferrari | 17.987 behind | 6 |
| 4 | Lando NORRIS | McLaren | 18.863 behind | 5 |
| 5 | Sergio PEREZ | Red Bull | 22.928 behind | 4 |
| 6 | Carlos SAINZ | Ferrari | 28.307 behind | 3 |
| 7 | Pierre GASLY | Alpine | 32.403 behind | 2 |
| 8 | George RUSSELL | Mercedes | 34.250 behind | 1 |
| 9 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 34.567 behind | |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 42.403 behind | |
| 11 | Esteban OCON | Alpine | 44.986 behind | |
| 12 | Daniel RICCIARDO | AlphaTauri | 45.509 behind | |
| 13 | Fernando ALONSO | Aston Martin | 49.086 behind | |
| 14 | Yuki TSUNODA | AlphaTauri | 49.733 behind | |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 56.650 behind | |
| 16 | Valtteri BOTTAS | Alfa Romeo | 1:04.401 behind | |
| 17 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1:07.972 behind | |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:11.122 behind | |
| 19 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:11.449 behind | |
| DNF | Lance STROLL | Aston Martin | DNF Lap 16 |
2023 US F1 Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen takes the sprint race with a dominant win, but he doesn’t get it all his own way on the Sunday for the main race as Charles Leclerc took pole position in Friday’s qualifying. Verstappen briefly took pole but the lap was removed and he ended up 6th. Ahead is a cavalcade of rivals, all with genuine chances of staying ahead of Max Verstappen for at least 10 laps. Lando Norris produced a super lap for second, and Lewis Hamilton looks a genuine chance to win as well from third. He has form in Austin. This could actually be one of the races of the season. Or Verstappen thrashes them and takes the lead within 15 laps.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC NOR HAM SAI RUS VER GAS OCO PER PIA
Lap 1 – Lando Norris gets away best and takes the lead into the first corner. Sainz makes it a Ferrari 2-3 by getting in front of Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen gains a spot at the expense of George Russell, but he is being harassed round the first lap by Oscar Piastri who has rocketed up from 10th on the grid. Big losers from the start was George Russell who dropped from 5th to 8th, Pierre Gasly who dropped the same amount of places from 7th and Perez who remains 9th, which won’t help.
ORDER – NOR LEC SAI HAM VER PIA OCO RUS PER GAS
Lap 2 – Lando Norris sets an early fastest lap and is 2.5 seconds in the lead heading into lap three. He looks determined to win today.
Lap 3 – Esteban Ocon appears to have a little bit of damage after first lap contact with Oscar Piastri. He is overtaken by George Russell and Sergio Perez and has a nice train behind him, including his team mate right behind and unhappy.
Lap 4 – Lewis Hamilton overtakes Carlos Sainz for third, and the Ferrari driver loses another place to Max Verstappen a lap later. For the record Verstappen is 5.5 seconds behind on lap 5 for those in a sweep for what lap he takes the lead.
Lap 6 – Lewis Hamilton is up into second place after an easy move on Charles Leclerc into the top hairpin. He is 3.2 seconds behind Lando Norris’ leading McLaren.
ORDER – NOR HAM LEC VER SAI PIA RUS PER GAS TSU
Lap 7 – Esteban Ocon retires from the US Grand Prix as relays show just how hard the contact was between him and Oscar Piastri. It was quite hard contact, which luckily for Piastri was Ocon’s left wheel into the McLaren sidepod, which is the best place to be hit if you must be hit by another driver, kin to a smack on the bottom really.
Lap 10 – Oscar Piastri has slowed with some car troubles and is out of the race. Just in case he can’t make it back to the pits a few midfield cars pit themselves in anticipation of a Safety Car. Piastri did make it back to the pits for a DNF. Maybe Piastri’s contact wasn’t so insignificant with Ocon.
Lap 11 – Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc briefly battle for third over a few corners, and the Red Bull comes out on top and is up to third. Leclerc didn’t give it up easily, but
Lap 14 – TV cameras are showing the battle for second last and last. Is that because the driver on the move is American Logan Sargeant who has yet to spin off, or is nothing else happening.
Lap 16 – Midfield check now, and Alpha Tauri are on for some good points with their drivers in 9th and 10th, Daniel Ricciardo doing well coming back from 14th starting spot. But they’ll need to keep an eye out for the two Aston Martin behind, who have made good progress from a pit lane start.
Lap 17 – Max Verstappen is the first front runner to stop for tyres. He comes out 9th in between two potential new team mates for 2024. Lando Norris pits a lap later and drops to 4th. Carlos Sainz is in too. So is Sergio Perez, but no one seems to care. Lewis Hamilton has yet to pit, and a radio message hints that he could be on a one stop race compared to the two stops the recent pit stop-ees appear to be on.
Lap 20 – Lewis Hamilton struggling on his tyres and has to pit, which he does on lap 20. He lost enough time on those older tyres to lose a place to Max Verstappen, and he may need to stick to the one stop to reverse that. Futher ahead Lando Norris overtakes George Russell for second, who finally pits at the end of lap 21. He wastes no time overtaking Gasly on his return to the track. Just Charles Leclerc of the front runners to pit now.
ORDER – LEC NOR VER HAM SAI PER RIC RUS GAS TSU
Lap 24 – Charles Leclerc pits from the lead, and he could pull off a decent one stop race, but is currently 6th. Lando Norris re-takes the lead and has a 2.5 second gap to Max Verstappen.
Lap 25 – Max Verstappen gains a second in one lap with his Medium tyres compared to Lando Norris’ hard tyres. A change of lead is now inevitable.
Lap 28 – Max Verstappen takes the lead from Lando Norris who puts up a token fight for a few corner. Who knows, strategy might play out in McLarens favour, if they are close enough to the Red Bull. Norris hangs onto Verstsppen’s tail for a few laps but eventually falls back.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM SAI PER LEC RUS GAS TSU ALO
Lap 34 – Lando Norris pits from second, he drops to 6th behind Charles Leclerc. Interesting period now with strategy. Will the Ferraris and Mercedes stick to one stop or modify it somehow. Will Red Bull cover the Lando Norris pit stop, or will they be too far in front? That final question is answered on the very next lap as Max Verstappen pits. The Red Bull just comes out in front of the McLaren, which is a shame for the neutral wanting a battle, but there’s still enough laps left.
Lap 38 – Lewis Hamilton pits, so no one stop strategy here. Meanwhile Max Verstappen overtakes Charles Leclerc into the first corner at the start of lap 39 which means he now takes the lead. Half a lap later Lando Norris is past the Ferrari too and maybe we will get a battle for the lead after all. And you can’t discount Lewis Hamilton on fresher Medium tyres vs the hard tyres of Norris and Verstappen.
ORDER – VER NOR LEC HAM SAI PER ALO STR RUS GAS
Lap 41 – Sergio Perez sets consecutive fastest laps just to let people know he is still in the race. That may well be true, but is inconsequential.
Lap 43 – Lewis Hamilton takes third from Charles Leclerc and with 12 laps to go is three seconds behind Lando Norris and five and a bit to Max Verstappen.
Lap 46 – Lewis Hamilton has set a fastest lap and is closing the gap slowly. 10 laps to go second is up for grabs, but first looks too far ahead.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM LEC SAI PER RUS GAS ALO TSU
Lap 49 – Hamilton spends lap 48 right on Lando Norris’ tail and he sweeps past the McLaren on the outside of turn two after Norris blocked him heading into braking for turn one. Sadly Verstappen is five seconds up the road with seven laps to go.
Lap 50 – The Ferraris are very close together debating 4th place. A late, intra-team clash would be funny. But sadly for fans wanting to see a little prang and the intra-team anger that follows, Leclerc lets Sainz past easily for fourth.
Lap 51 – Hamilton is within 4.6 seconds of Verstappen, but there’s not enough time or extra speed. Carlos Sainz sniffs out the podium of Lando Norris. He needs to make up five seconds in five laps.
Lap 53 – Sergio Perez gets past the struggling Leclerc for 5th. Further ahead Hamilton is within 4.3 seconds, but that’s not enough.
Lap 55 – Hamilton within 2.9 seconds now as Hamilton crosses the line and closing fast. Is there enough time left in Hamilton and the race itself. It’s down to 2.2 halfway around the lap.
Last lap – Less than two seconds between the first two cars s they cross the line for the last lap. Can Hamilton get within a second and get DRS? No is the answer and Max Verstappen wins his 50th Grand Prix. Hamilton did well to make a race of it, falling a couple laps short of making it a very close finish. Lando Norris gets a just reward with another podium.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER HAM NOR SAI PER LEC RUS GAS STR TSU
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Not the win, but two second places across the Sprint Race and on Sunday. He loves the track, and this race showed he still has the speed. A few more laps and he may have taken the win.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Decent weekend for Lando Norris with a 4th in the sprint race and he spent the first half of the race in front like someone who has done it forever. He’ll win a race soon, just not this season.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – A 50th race win, and a slightly more challenging one than usual coming from 6th place on the grid. Provided some entertainment with his grumpy radio messages with his team.
YUKI TSUNODA – A point for Tsunoda and Alpha Tauri. Not enough to move off the bottom of the championship, but welcome none-the-less.
LANCE STROLL – A couple of points for Stroll could shut people up about him for a race. Until he is a jerk next time.
THE GRAPE-EST – OSCAR PIASTRI
After sprint race win and podium at the previous race, he has a pointless weekend in Austin for the US F1 Grand Prix. Drops from 5th to 10th in the Sprint Race. Made a brilliant start to go from 10th to 6th in the main race, but there was contact with Esteban Ocon, which appears to have been fatal for his race chances as he retired reasonably early.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
ESTEBAN OCON – The other driver in that first lap incident, but had less to lose in comparison to Piastri after his previous grand prix.
SERGIO PEREZ – WE may be a bit hard on Sergio Perez, but he is really wasting one of the best F1 cars ever produced. He loses a few more points to Lewis Hamilton in the battle for second in the Championship.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Bad qualifying sees him start form the pitlane. A very good recovery drive on the Sunday to score points from a pit lane start, until he retired with a handful of laps to go.
CHARLES LECLERC – Sixth place after taking pole is more underwhelming than he could have imagined.
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 10
We’re not going to lie, we really don’t care about second place in the championship, but it was a decent race in that battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 / 10
Enough on track moves, even towards the front to make the race interesting enough. Tyre strategy adding another element. But the end result remains the same.
ENDING 6 / 10
Lewis Hamilton catching Max Verstappen at the end was exciting enough, but realistically never quite looked like he was going to get there.
OVERALL RATING 17 / 30
A good enough race, with enough action and decent time zone to keep fans awake. The other drivers are getting closer to Max Verstappen, so maybe there’s some big races ahead.
Setting the scene – It was a strange qualifying session, with Ferrari taking a 1-2 and locking out the front row of the grid. Max Verstappen wasn’t far away in third, which wouldn’t ‘t be far enough back to probably stop him winning the race. That would 40th place on the grid. Daniel Ricciardo was the star of qualifying, ended up 4th on the grid and was around the top in all sessions. Sergio Perez was out-qualified his current and potential future usurper. Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso were the back of the grid surprises, Norris with car problems, and Alonso with a car speed problem.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC SAI VER RIC PER HAM PIA RUS BOT
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen makes the best start from third and jumps to the inside line for the first corner, edging just in front of Charles Leclerc as they approach turn one, and then squeezing him towards the left. Sergio Perez makes a great start from fifth and is ready to swoop around the outside of Verstappen-Leclerc. But Verstappen squeezes Leclerc too far left and Perez is still trying around the outside and something has to give. The give is Sergio Perez whose car jumps in the air and flies off the road, his home race is officially ruined. Charles Leclerc has damage but continues and Verstappen leads. Again.
Further back Daniel Ricciardo holds onto fourth despite Hamilton being all over his rear end. Hulkenberg is a winner from the first lap going from 12th to 8th, the Valtteri Nottas less so. Lance Stroll started from pit lane so reduced his chances of not making it around the first lap.
ORDER – VER LEC SAI RIC HAM PIA RUS HUL GAS ZHO
Lap 2 – Red Bull pretend to make a pit stop, but alas it is the end for Sergio Perez, and he bashes his steering wheel in frustration. Poor guy, what a way to bow out of your home race. Can’t blame him for trying, but the punishment is severe. And not great while trying to hold onto second place in the Championship and the Red Bull drive.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 5 – Virtual Safety Car deployed to pick up some pieces of Charles Leclerc’s front wing after his clash with Sergio Perez. Hard to imagine there’s not more damage. Or that Ferrari haven’t stuffed his strategy yet. Give them time we say.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDED
Lap 6 – No change in position from lap one, which is good to allow us to catch up with writing this summary after the first corner crash. Not sure how Ricciardo is still ahead of Lewis Hamilton given the pressure. Under less pressure is Max Verstappen who is edging closer to two seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc in second.
Lap 10 – Not a lot of overtaking as yet, and there’s a couple on nice queues forming. Yuki Tsunoda went straight on a turn one trying to stay ahead of Kevin Magnussen for 13th.
Lap 11 – Lewis Hamilton eventually gets past the Alpha Tauri of Daniel Ricciardo
Lap 12 – Lando Norris pits for new tyres, getting rid of his softs, which may give him a tyre strategy advantage later. For now, Norris comes out of the pits in front of Yuki Tsunoda in 18th, although the Japanese driver had just set fastest lap after pitting earlier.
Lap 15 – Ferrari confirm via radio that they are going with Plan A. Which stands for Absolutely no chance of beating Max Verstappen, so just try and finish second. Missed by the TV cameras or by our ignorant asses was Alex Albon sneaking into the top ten at the expense of Zhou’s Alfa. Albon is up from 14th on the grid.
ORDER – VER LEC SAI HAM RIC PIA RUS HUL GAS ALB
Lap 17 – A point of interest is just how slow the Aston Martins are this race. Currently circulating in 15th and 16th with Stroll ahead of Alonso. Both are behind Logan Sargeant for context.
Lap 20 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead and rejoins in 7th. Safety first as Hulkenberg in 8th was nearly half a minute behind 7th after 20 laps. Closer together are Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, separated by less than a second battling for 2nd.
Lap 23 – Max Verstappen has already got past George Russell and Oscar Piastri. One wonders if he will re-take the lead on the road or will be helped by pit stops of rivals. Wouldn’t ‘t rule out the former.
Lap 28 – Pitstops begin for most of the top ten with Daniel Ricciardo happy dropping from 5th to 6th, George Russell less happy as he lands in the middle of the mid pack squabble.
Lap 29 – Max Verstappen breezes past Carlos Sainz for second place. he is eight seconds behind the leader Leclerc. Not for long as Leclerc pits.
Lap 31- Lando Norris overtakes Alex Albon for 8th. Decent effort from towards the bad of the grid.
Lap 33 – BIG CRASH. It’s Kevin Magnussen who has binned it into the wall. Not sure how but he did run wide on the final corner for the lap preceding the crash which was a bumpy ride. Car is stuffed, barrier is stuffed, and now the car is on fire. Replays show that the Haas just snapped out of control and appears something broke. It happened at the beginning of the esses, which is apt as S stands for the Haas is now Stuffed, and Sh!t my car is on fire. Kevin Magnussen is fine by the way but does spend some time in the medical centre.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
RACE RED FLAGGED
The race is stopped on lap 35, conveniently at half distance. They have to sticky tape the barrier and mop up after the fire.
The break in the race means refresh in strategy and tyres for all. So Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ pit stops are no advantage.
ORDER – VER LEC HAM SAI RIC PIA RUS TSU HUL NOR
RACE TO RESTART VIA STANDING START
A good mix of Hard and Medium tyres among the top ten, which gives hope for a decent end to this race.
Race to restart with a standing start, gives the other teams their last chance of annoying Max Verstappen and taking the race win. Or the lead for a lap or two.
RACE RESTARTS
Lap 36 – Leader Max Verstappen smashes the restart and is untouchable in front going into the first corner. Behind the Red Bull there’s so much weaving and changing sides of the track but it is Leclerc who keeps second, but Lewis Hamilton still looks keen to steal it. George Russell gains a couple of places from 7th to 5th at the expense of Australia. No accidents further back in the grid.
ORDER – VER LEC HAM SAI RUS RIC PIA TSU ALB HUL
Lap 38 – Good battle between Hamilton and Leclerc as a secondary battle between Sainz and Russell wages for the next rung of positions. Hamilton gets past on the next lap down the pit straight, with a plume of dust flying into the air as Leclerc pushes Hamilton to the very limit of the track, and beyond.
Lap 42 – The Alpha Tauris are starting to come alive. Daniel Ricciardo is now within a second of George Russell in 6th, and Yuki Tsunoda is 8th and looking equally fast and harassing Oscar Piastri. A haul of points is coming to take them off the bottom of the Constructor standings.
Lap 46 – Lando Norris is making a few moves now as he recovers from dropping down the field due to a poorly timed pitstop. Up to 12th on Lap 45, steals 11th on Lap 46, and inside the top ten a lap later. We bet Red Bull wish he were available for 2024.
Lap 48 – Oscar Piastri and Yuki Tsunoda keep fighting for 7th. Tsunoda tags Piastri with his right front wheel, and have seen those end in car failure in the past as was the force.
Lap 49 – Yuki Tsunoda tries again into turn one and he gets it even more wrong, running into the side of Oscar Piastri and spinning off across the grass at turn one. He continues but drops to 16th and end of points for him today.
Lap 51 – Max Verstappen leads by eight seconds. Just in case anyone was wondering. Talking of eighth, Lando Norris doesn’t appear to be wanting to hang around in eighth. He’s catching his teammate for seventh quickly, and then there’s nearly 20 laps to go further.
ORDER – VER HAM LEC SAI RUS RIC PIA NOR ALB HUL
Lap 57 – Lando Norris gets by Oscar Piastri who doesn’t make life very difficult. And Norris can hurt Australia once more as he closes in on Daniel Ricciardo.
Lap 58 – A funny moment as the two worst drivers in the field battle for 14th and Logan Sargeant goes off on the radio about Lance Stroll’s driving. In fairness, Logan Sargeant is slowly improving and Lance Stroll was driving like a jerk.
Lap 60 – Lando Norris gets by Daniel Riccardo for 6th, and they come very close to touching but don’t. Nice move around the outside. George Russell is less than four seconds up the road and then who knows. This McLaren is flying.
Lap 67 – An amazing drive form Lando Norris sees him overtake George Russell for 5th after a couple of laps trying. Meanwhile in a less successful piece of overtaking Lance Stroll is punted into a spin by Valtteri Bottas in the stadium section. Bottas gets five second penalty.
Lap 70 – Good battle between Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell.
Last lap – Max Verstappen wins by enough to secure a 16th win of the season in a predictable outcome for F1. Lewis Hamilton’s second is a good reward and she’s him edge closer to Perez’s second place in the Championships. Pole Sitter Charles Leclerc completes the podium. Lando Norris is the star driver of the day, and Daniel Ricciardo having the best weekend.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER HAM LEC SAI NOR RUS RIC PIA ALB OCO
THE GREAT-EST – DANIEL RICCIARDO
It may only have ended up in a P7 race result, but the overall theme is Daniel Ricciardo is back, and timely too, and almost rude to do it at the Mexican Grand Prix at the expense of Sergio Perez. Genuinely fast in qualifying, fourth on the grid could almost have been higher., and he scored his first points of the season.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Driver of the day really, but his fantastic day doesn’t have the future implications that Daniel Ricciardo’s weekend had. But what a drive from Norris from the further reaches of the grid to fifth and seeing off his teammate in the process.
CHARLES LECLERC – A surprise pole position wasn’t exactly turned into a stellar race result, but the pole works, and any result was a good thing after colliding with Sergio Perez at the first corner.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Another relatively easy win. Has won as many Grands Prix this season as the entire number of races in most seasons in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
LEWIS HAMILTON – A second consecutive race where he is second across the line. We presume he will keep this one, and he closes the gap on Sergio Perez for second in the Championship.
ALEX ALBON – Albon continues to shine in the Williams. Two more points and from 14th on the grid
THE GRAPE-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
Possibly the worst weekend for a driver for any team in 2023. Maybe not the weekend as a whole, but the end result. It wasn’t bad enough to be out-qualified by Daniel Ricciardo in the junior Red Bull car, but then to be wiped out at the first corner was crushing. And he looked so sad. We feel for him, but not enough to not give him the Grape-est at the Mexican Grand Prix.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN – Turned an anonymous lower midfield race into a must include in 6pm TV News Sports highlights with a show/race stopping prang into the wall. Car failure was the cause of spinning into the barriers.
FERNANDO ALONSO – The Aston Martin was ordinary all weekend and his race was ended early with a DNF.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 10
The battle for second opens up for Lewis Hamilton, and he closes within 20 points. But it is still only second, and who cares. We are more the vultures for who gets Perez’s 2024 drive.
ON TRACK ACTION – 7 / 10
A first corner clash was super interesting and a little sad for Sergio Perez. Another crash mid race from Kevin Magnussen stops the race too. But otherwise, the race had some good battles, with the halfway red flag lighting things up a bit. A good amount of racing behind the top three, but not enough to stop a few sleepy nods.
ENDING 5 / 10
Lando Norris made the ending mildly interesting as he climbed through the field. Daniel Ricciardo annoying George Russell at the end was also amusing.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
Same result, and the result didn’t really matter, but some great action in patches (including a first corner prang which saw Sergio Perez out) and a decent track to follow.
2023 Brazilian F1 Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary
Setting the scene – The final sprint race of the season is here, and let’s hope it is a good one, because they have been pretty dull and a waste of time to a degree. In good news for mixing it up Lando Norris took the sprint race pole from Max Verstappen, and it looked as if the top ten looks genuinely compeditive. The other big talking point of the session was the accident between Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso. Both appear to have made the start.
STARTING ORDER – NOR VER PER RUS HAM TSU LEC RIC SAI PIA
Lap 1 – Lando Norris is beaten off the line and into the first corner by Max Verstappen who takes his customary position. The cars behave themselves in the first corners – the dipping Senna S – and no accidents ensue. Lewis Hamilton gets past Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri runs wide at turn four. A little later around the first lap George Russell further demotes Lando Norris.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER RUS NOR HAM PER LEC TSU SAI RIC PIA
Lap 4 – Sergio Perez sails past Lewis Hamilton into the first corner like the Mercedes was standing still thanks to a good car and DRS. The latter helped Lewis Hamilton almost take the position back at the same place as the first lap, but then Charles Leclerc has sights on taking Lewis Hamilton is a nice three-way battle. This could be interesting with a train of cars behind.
Lap 5 – Lando Norris uses DRS to take back second place from George Russell. Max Verstappen and a first win isn’t too far up the road (1.5 seconds)
Lap 8 – Must be something wrong with the Mercedes race pace as Sergio Perez breezes past George Russell into the first corner, but Russell re-takes it a few corners later. But Lewis Hamilton has dropped to over two seconds behind Sergio Perez. Two laps later Perez overtakes Russell again and keeps the place.
ORDER – VER NOR PER RUS HAM LEC TSU SAI RIC PIA
Lap 11 – Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz swap positions then swap position again. Alonso battle Pierre Gasly for 11th in the same train of cars. Oscar Piastri is in the middle waiting for scraps.
Lap 15 – Ricciardo and Sainz repeat the dose as Riccairdo gets past into turn one and Sainz re-takes into turn four. Only problem this time for the Australian is his fellow Aussie steals his position halfway around the lap. The cheek of it. Behind that Alonso appears to have won his battle with Gasly.
ORDER – VER NOR PER RUS HAM LEC TSU SAI PIA RIC
Lap 16 – Away from trains and DRS, Lando Norris is catching Max Verstappen by a few tenths of a second a lap. Eight laps to go and 1.7 seconds the gap. Maths works out to excitement, but Max probably has something in the bag, and is just teasing Lando a bit. Maybe, but by lap 19 the gap is 2.4 seconds and race over.
Lap 21– Charles Leclerc takes fifth off Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda almost doubles the pain. Mercedes race pace isn’t good, which is a shame for the real race and those looking for a genuine challenge to the Red Bulls. Tsunoda does eventually get past Hamilton for 6th. And in more good Alpha Tauri news Daniel Ricciardo retakes his 9th position off Oscar Piastri. Pity 9th doesn’t score sprint race points.
Final Lap – Max Verstappen does it easy out front after taking the lead at the first corner of the race. Another no cigar for Norris who has to take comfort with second place, again. A little joy for Sergio Perez with third, but he is a full nine seconds behind Norris at the chequered flag. Promising signs for tomorrow’s racing as the upper midfield has a decent amount of overtaking. But as for sprint races themselves after the sixth of six for the season, we say they are a waste of time.
ORDER -VER NOR PER RUS LEC TSU HAM SAI RIC PIA
| Pos | Driver | Car | Result / Gap | Points |
| 1 | Max VERSTAPPEN | Red Bull | 0:30:07 | 8 |
| 2 | Lando NORRIS | McLaren | 4.287 behind | 7 |
| 3 | Sergio PEREZ | Red Bull | 13.617 behind | 6 |
| 4 | George RUSSELL | Mercedes | 25.879 behind | 5 |
| 5 | Charles LECLERC | Ferrari | 28.560 behind | 4 |
| 6 | Yuki TSUNODA | AlphaTauri | 29.210 behind | 3 |
| 7 | Lewis HAMILTON | Mercedes | 34.726 behind | 2 |
| 8 | Carlos SAINZ | Ferrari | 35.106 behind | 1 |
| 9 | Daniel RICCIARDO | AlphaTauri | 35.303 behind | |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 38.219 behind | |
| 11 | Fernando ALONSO | Aston Martin | 39.061 behind | |
| 12 | Lance STROLL | Aston Martin | 39.478 behind | |
| 13 | Pierre GASLY | Alpine | 40.621 behind | |
| 14 | Esteban OCON | Alpine | 42.848 behind | |
| 15 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 43.394 behind | |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 56.507 behind | |
| 17 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 58.723 behind | |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 1:00.330 behind | |
| 19 | Valtteri BOTTAS | Alfa Romeo | 1:00.749 behind | |
| DNF | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:00.945 behind |
2023 Brazilian F1 Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Setting the scene – You almost forget the grid for the race as it was set on Friday, but Verstappen on pole shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Charles Leclerc is also becoming less surprising as Verstappen’s closer challenger with second on the grid. The two Aston Martins do well to secure the second row of the grid, with Lance Stroll an eyebrow raising third ahead of Fernando Alonso. Further back Sergio Perez does his chances of handing his Red Bull driver to someone else no harm by qualifying ninth. And the usual suspects make up the rest of the top ten.
Raceday is dry and full of excited fans, and a classic race awaits.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER LEC STR ALO HAM NOR SAI RUS PER PIA
Formation Lap – Charles Leclerc is into the barriers!!! The Ferrari driver has spun off in the midfield section of the lap into the barriers and he is out. It was a hydraulic failure that caused his wheels to lock and spin off, he confirmed in a post race interview. Bad news for him, the Ferrari is out before the race has started.
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Max Verstappen enjoys the extra room and zooms off into the distance and an easy lead into the first corner. Talking of zooming, Lando Norris rockets from sixth on the grid to take second into the first corner. The highly placed Aston Martin have a shocker off the line. But before those two leading cars have made it around the first corner there is bits of car flying and a few cars spinning into the wall.
Alex Albon gets squeezed as he approaches the first corner and is tagged on the back left by a Haas which then coincidentally spins him into the side of another Haas at pace, and both he and Magnussen fly into the barriers. Replays show that it was actually Magnussen and Albon who squeezed Nico Hulkenberg who then tipped Albon into Magnussen and those two ended up in the barriers. Replays also show that both Australian drivers were hit in the rear wing by cars/loose tyres. Both Piastri and Ricciardo’s teams are racing the clock under the red flag to get their cars back into the race.
The Safety Car is called before the cars have gone more than a few more corners.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM ALO STR RUS PER SAI OCO TSU
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED then RED FLAG – RACE STOPPED
After a long, half-hour break the race is set to resume. Looks like car affected by the first corner shenanigans are going to make the restart – Piastri, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg. The race will restart from a standing start after a casual formation lap. Wonder if a standing start is a good idea. Piastri and Ricciardo are a lap down for the record, having pit for repairs instead of following the safety car’s extra lap.
Lap 4 Restart- Max Verstappen makes no mistake from pole position and the field look like they tippy-toe through the first corners. Fernando Alonso isn’t dying wondering and overtakes Lewis Hamilton into turn four. Lance Stroll has another poor start and ends up 7th by the end of the first lap.
ORDER – VER NOR ALO HAM RUS PER STR SAI GAS OCO
Lap 6- Lando Norris sets fastest lap and sets about annoying Max Verstappen in front. He is within a second and really pressuring him. They are already 2.5 seconds ahead of Alonso in third.
Lap 8 – Lando Norris has a look into the first corner at Verstappen, then tries down the back straight and gets very close. We might actually have a genuine battle for the lead today. Na, a few laps later Verstappen has woken up and is two seconds up the road. Shame. There’s always the pit stops we guess.
Lap 10 – A bit of a train is forming behind Lewis Hamilton in fourth, with a bunch of cars well under a second of each other down to Esteban Ocon in 9th. This could get in interesting as frustration grows.
Lap 14 – Sergio Perez overtakes George Russell for fifth into the first corner, then just holds on as George Russell gets the reply of DRS down the back straight. It has ramifications for the battle for second in the Championship, with Hamilton now the next car ahead of Sergio Perez. But who really cares about second in the Championship at this stage. Unless it links to whether Perez keeps his seat or not. Which is very interesting.
Lap 18 – Sergio Perez seems to really care about that second place in the Championship and his Red Bull drive as he overtakes Lewis Hamilton in a neat move. As if almost in shame, Lewis Hamilton pits at the end of the lap for new tyres. And after spending a lot of time complaining about his team mate on the radio, George Russell pits the next lap. They drop to 10th and 11th.
ORDER – VER NOR ALO PER STR SAI GAS TSU HUL HAM
Lap 21 – Sergio Perez pits for new tyres too, but comes out in between the Mercedes, ruining half of his best work from before the stop. It only takes a few laps, but Sergio Perez gets by Hamilton on lap 23 in similar fashion to his pre pit stop moves.
Lap 26 – Fernando Alonso pits from third, as strategy becomes to focal point of the race. He comes out sixth and four seconds in front of Perez. Other top ten cars pit including Sainz and Tsunoda who come close to tangling in the pitlane as one stop and one leaves their stop. Could be unsafe release?
Lap 28 – The top two pit for new tyres on the same lap. They were 3.7 seconds apart when they pit, and a lap after the stops were 4.8 seconds apart. Well, that’s done and dusted then.
ORDER – VER NOR ALO PER STR HAM RUS SAI OCO BOT
Lap 31 – George Russell is all over the back of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and looking to get by, if he is allowed. Russell was quite feisty to his team mate earlier in the race, so probably doesn’t want to spend his race staring at the rear end of his team mate. Hamilton too was on the radio earlier advising of a problem with the car’s steering. Carlos Sainz is closing on both of them too.
Lap 35 – Carlos Sainz overtakes George Russell for 7th. Which should make the Mercedes driver happy. Double misery for Mercedes a few laps later as Hamilton loses 6th to Sainz down the back straight.
Lap 36 – In the Battle of Down Under – which refers to both the nationality of the two drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri and the fact they are dead last and re-started a lap behind – Ricciardo leads Piastri by less than a second now after the Alpha Tauri had been comfortably ahead for most of the race.
ORDER – VER NOR ALO PER STR SAI HAM RUS GAS TSU
Lap 41 – Valtteri Bottas retires his Alfa Romeo, joining his team mate who did the same earlier in the race. Not a great race.
Lap 43 – Pierre Gasly gets past George Russell easily into the first corner for 8th. The Mercedes really stink at the moment. He pits a few laps later, becoming the first top ten driver to do so. Hamilton, Perez and Gasly all join in the new tyre craze a lap later.
Lap 48 – Freshly tyred Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton make some moves on cars with older tyres ahead. Talking of Perez, Alonso responds to Perez’s pit stop and does so himself, staying ahead of the Red Bull by three seconds.
Lap 54 – Sergio Perez is closing in on Fernando Alonso for third, and likely to be the last major battle of the race to be decided. He sets fastest lap on lap 55 to get within DRS. Lap 59 and despite more DRS Alonso stays in front. Lap 63 and Perez is still fourth. Same on lap 67. Alonso is doing so well.
Lap 57 – Max Verstappen stops for tyres and leaves Lando Norris in the lead for a bit, which is nice of him. It lasts until lap 60 when Norris pits himself.
Lap 63 – Lando Norris’ McLaren comes alive with fastest laps on the new tyres, which is good enough to get on the TV Screens for what seems like the first time today. Norris has cut the lead from over ten seconds to eight by lap 66, but it won’t be enough to annoy Max Verstappen too much.
Lap 70 – Sergio Perez finally gets by Fernando Alonso for the final podium going into the first corner and hangs onto that as Alonso gets his DRS down the back straight.
Last lap – Max Verstappen crosses the line to win the Brazilian Grand Prix but the action is behind him. Fernando Alonso challenges Perez into the first corner and Perez runs a little wide leaving him vulnerable to Alonso with DRS down the back straight and the Aston Martin nails the Red Bull going into turn four. But it’s not over yet, Perez will have DRS for the final sweeping straight and the Red Bull is right on the tail of Alonso, pulls out of the slip stream and Alonso hangs on by 0.053 seconds. Lando Norris finished second by the way in between.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER NOR ALO PER STR SAI GAS HAM TSU OCO
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – FERNANDO ALONSO
A welcome return to form for Alonso. Qualified fourth for the main race. Made some nice early moves in the race and was in the top three for most of the race. His defence of third against Perez was quite heroic and he deserved the podium.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – A race win is surely coming soon. Maybe all he needs is a little more luck and a Max Verstappen DNF. A sprint race pole, a good sprint race result, followed up by second in the proper race after climbing from sixth to second at the start. All good stuff, but a win remains elusive for now.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Another win from pole position to go with a sprint win on the Saturday. But time to give best of the weekend to someone else.
LANCE STROLL – A solid fifth result on race day and very good third on the grid in qualifying despite fluffing both starts. Still looks like he’d rather be elsewhere though.
THE GRAPE-EST – ALEX ALBON / KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
Wiped out in the first corner mayhem, which they actually caused themselves by squeezing Nico Hulkenberg who then hit Albon, who then hit Magnussen. Not sure how they would have featured in the main race, probably scrapping for a point or 13th, but we’ll never know now.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI / DANIEL RICCIARDO – Both innocent victims of the opening accidents. Both breaking rear wings. Piastri hit by a car and Ricciardo hit by a flying tyre. At least it wasn’t a full wheel we guess. But because both cars stopped in the pits for repairs and didn’t do the second lap behind the safety car, they ended up a lap behind in the restart making their days a complete waste of time except for testing.
ALFA ROMEO – Another anonymous race broken up by the fact they both retired.
MERCEDES – After George Russell’s maiden win here last season, Mercedes probably liked their chances of being a dark horse here for the win again. Instead, they moaned their way to lower top ten finishes and looked ordinary.
SERGIO PEREZ – Some may say we are harsh, considering he climbed from 9th to 4th in the race, but he shouldn’t be qualifying his car ninth. He should have kept third after overtaking Alonso on the second last lap but couldn’t hold on. He shouldn’t be winning Driver of the Day awards for recovery drives. He should be qualifying second at a minimum and challenging for wins of actual races. He’s in one of the best cars in F1 history.
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 10
If further record-breaking win and second place in the Championship is your thing, then it was sort of important. For Perez’s second place in the Championship and keeping his seat for next year it was a good result with Hamilton falling further behind in the Championship with just two races to go.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9 / 10
First corner clash box checked. A car retiring before the race started was an additional bonus, and a shame it was a Ferrari and not a Red Bull. Loads of overtaking throughout the race and battle down the field except for first and second really. A classic old track made for overtaking though.
ENDING 5 / 10
It scored a 2/10 before the very last lap as Fernando Alonso retook his podium spot from Sergio Perez.
OVERALL RATING 18 / 30
Setting the scene – After a disastrous opening day with no FP1 and an FP2 that started at 2:30am, an hour after they kicked all the fans out, the weekend improved with a relatively normal qualifying. Normal for a street circuit with a Ferrari on pole – this time being Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz would have been second if not for a disgraceful ten place penalty imposed to fix his car after a manhole cover ripped it apart. Pure F1 for some teams to be selfish enough not to allow some special circumstances. Max Verstappen starts from second, Williams cars are 5th and 6th with Alonso, Hamilton, Perez and Sainz just behind. Short run to a first corner hairpin with some of the cars hidden around the corner at the start. Chaos awaits.
GRID (Starting Order) –LEC VER RUS GAS ALB SAR BOT MAG ALO HAM
Lap 1 – Charles Leclerc gets off the line poorly and Max Verstappen gets the jump. He dives down the inside and takes the lead and takes Charles Leclerc wide, it briefly leaves a gap for George Russell but it closes. Debatable whether Max will hold onto that lead. Further back Fernando Alonso spins, Carlos Sainz spins, among other cars. Alonso looked to have gone up the inside and dropped it, which caused him to spin into Valtteri Bottas. Which also caused Sergio Perez to ram the Alfa Romeo up the rear, explaining his broken front wing. Safety Car is good for catching up on first lap happening.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS GAS ALB SAR MAG OCO STR PER
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Marshalls need to clean up the pieces from the first corner clashes.
Sergio Perez pits for a new front wing, same with Fernando Alonso.
Lap 3 – RACE RESUMES
First lap shenanigans have seen Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll gain 8 and 10 places on the first lap.
BIG CRASH – Lando Norris is into the wall at the end of The Strip. Looks like something broke on his car as he loses it before the curved braking zone and he flies in the runoff area backwards into the wall. He’s OK, but there’s a large dent in the safety barrier.
FULL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz pit for new tyres. Good news for Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso too.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS GAS ALB SAR OCO MAG HUL TSU
Lap 7 – RACE RESUMES
Oscar Piastri grabs 10th place in the only movement after the Safety Car buggers off. It’s a Spain-off at the back of the field with Alonso v Sainz battle coming up Ferrari for now.
Lap 8 – Five second penalty for Max Verstappen for his first lap pass on Charles Leclerc. Without annoying our many Dutch fans, it is fair probably enough. And surely the Red Bull team would complain too if reversed. Maybe it’s harsh and we’re just looking for something to slow down the Red Bulls. Piastri is up to 9th as well and is the highest driver on the hard tyres. Interesting.
Lap 10 – Piastri and Magnussen swap 8th place, but it’s the Aussie who looks best and fast in a car that looked awful in qualifying. He takes and keeps 8th by the end of the lap. Hamilton overtakes Hulkenberg and Magnussen a lap later. Sainz passes Alonso. Plenty happening, and especially for the drivers on hard tyres.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS GAS ALB SAR OCO PIA HAM MAG
Lap 13 – Carlos Sainz told to cool his car down or they may retire it. Maybe Ferrari could ask the FIA to help them out with cooling their car. Jerks. Sainz and Alonso overtake Daniel Ricciardo who ends up 16th.
Lap 15 – Feeling the breath of Hamilton on his neck, Piastri makes a successful, late lunge on Logan Sargeant for 7th. This is after the American had lost 6th place to the speedy Alpine of Esteban Ocon. The speedier Alpine of Pierre Gasly is 4th and looking quite strong. Gasly moves up the 3rd as the first of the front runners – George Russell – pits.
Lap 16 – All of a sudden Charles Leclerc is right on Max Verstappen’s tail, Max explains his tyres are shot, and his team tell him to pit. But before he can lose the place in the pitlane Leclerc overtakes him at the end of the Strip. Verstappen pits, with Albon, Piastri. Lewis Hamilton says he has a puncture, caused by a tap with Piastri. He doesn’t get to pit and has to crawl around to the pits. His race is over effectively, which will annoy a lot of celebrities.
Lap 18 – More cars pit, leaving Leclerc and Ocon at the front without stopping and the sneaky Sergio Perez stealthing his way to third and has stopped. He moves up to second a lap later when he passes Ocon.
ORDER – LEC PER OCO STR SAI ALO ZHO RUS VER GAS
Lap 20 – Guess we’ll see how good Max Verstappen is with him currently in 9th after his pit stop and his team mate, a pair of Ferraris and Aston Martins plus George Russell ahead.
Lap 22 – Charles Leclerc pits from the lead and hands over to Sergio Perez, who has a solid eight second gap to Lance Stroll in second and Leclerc is another two seconds further back. Further back there’s a group of George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen for 5th. Verstappen passes Alonso and closes on Russell. They are 13 second behind Perez in the lead. And have caught Carlos Sainz.
Lap 24 – Carlos Sainz loses two places in half a lap as Russell and Verstappen promote themselves to 4th and 5th.
Lap 25 – Max Verstappen overtakes George Russell for 4th but there’s contact. Looks like the Red Bull front wing has been damaged. Verstappen claims Russell turned in on him. 50-50, Max looked far enough inside, but perhaps the lateness of the move surprised Russell. Either way Verstappen’s car is damaged.
Lap 26 – SAFETY CAR DELPOYED
The Safety Car is called upon to allow debris to be cleaned up, presumably from the previously mentioned clash, which gives those early pitting drivers another convenient stop. Perez is one, as is Carlos Sainz, but Charles Leclerc doesn’t and is first. Perez is second. It has certainly mixed up the order. Looks like Max Verstappen almost collided with Lance Stroll in the pit lane as they hurtled towards the exit. Busy few minutes.
ORDER – LEC PER GAS PIA VER OCO STR ALB RUS SAI
Lap 29 – RACE RESUMES
George Russell gets a penalty for the clash with Max Verstappen. But later around the lap Max Verstappen is under investigation for an unsafe release – refer above near miss with Stroll.
A great move from Oscar Piastri on Pierre Gasly for the podium. Not a bad effort from 19th on the grid. One more Safety Car may hand the Australian a very unlikely podium. Max Verstappen is fifth in an Alpine Sandwich, which sounds like some wanker dessert on Masterchef.
Lap 31 – DRS is now enabled and should see a little more action and less conversation. Max Verstappen, who has had plenty to say about this Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend, and none of it good, overtakes Gasly for fourth.
Lap 32 – Sergio Perez overtakes Charles Leclerc for the lead down the Strip. A race win is within reach if he can clear away from Max Verstappen in fourth and four-ish seconds behind. He makes that easier by passing Piastri for third.
Lap 34 – The Alpines race each other for 5th, with some nail-biting racing around the Vegas track. Ocon eventually takes it after an on-track swap meet.
ORDER – PER LEC VER PIA OCO GAS ALB STR RUS SAI
Lap 35 – Charles Leclerc overtakes Sergio Perez for the lead. How’s that, multiple lead changes and a Red Bull not in front. Woof. Max Verstappen doubles Perez’s misery a lap later with an easy overtake for second.
Lap 37 – Another lead change as Max Verstappen takes the lead off Charles Leclerc and knowing F1 in 2023 that will be the end of the fun.
Lap 40 – A quick dive into the midfield as Alex Albon loses multiple places in one slide in a corner. That’s Russell, Sainz, Alonso and Hamilton all scrapping over the crumbs of the top ten points.
ORDER – VER LEC PER PIA OCO GAS STR RUS SAI ALO
Lap 44 – Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres. His tyres must have been bad to throw away a fourth place. But maybe we will see one more piece of Pastry rising in the last few laps. He is 12th and just behind Albon, but that Williams is nine second behind 10th placed Hamilton. Seems a strange decision.
Lap 47 – Lewis Hamilton goes on a late race charge passing Gasly and Alonso to climb to 8th, which will become 7th when George Russell loses five seconds from a penalty.
Lap 48 – Charles Leclerc is closing on Sergio Perez to re-take his second place to give fans some late race action. But it might be too late.
Last lap – Max Verstappen cruises, as he is so used to in 2023. Charles Leclerc chases Sergio Perez for second and nails him at the last possible corner to do so. Wonderfully late dive, and second race in a row Perez has lost a place on the last lap. Further behind George Russell ends up fourth on the road but has five seconds applied to his time. Oscar Piastri takes 10th after his late pit stop.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER LEC PER OCO STR SAI HAM RUS ALO PIA
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Despite having plenty to say about the Las Vegas weekend, and none of it good, he still manages to win the race, just his 18th success of the season. And he had to battle for this one, instead of the usual take pole, hide from TV cameras, and win.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
SERGIO PEREZ – A reputation rebuilding race for the Mexican. Looked like business as usual after qualifying where he failed to make Q3, and then suffered damage as part of the first corner clashes, but that early stop and some good driving put him in the mix for a win before halfway. Couldn’t quite hold on for the win, but a good race overall. Last lap losing second place to Leclerc was underwhelming though.
CHARLES LECLERC – Another pole position, and another one not converted into a race win. But he was compeditive throughout the weekend. He just needs more street tracks and less Max Verstappen. Great last lap pass.
OSCAR PIASTRI – McLaren was hopeless in qualifying but the rookie Australian did himself proud running in the top ten for most of the race and fourth after the second safety car. A late pit stop cost him a bag O points but got one.
LANCE STROLL – A fine race from Lance Stroll. From the lower reaches of the grid to solid points. The early pitstop for tyres being his friend, but he raced well too.
ESTEBAN OCON – Another with good point scoring from a low grid position. And a sweet move on his team mate would have brought a smile to his dial as well.
THE GRAPE-EST – CARLOS SAINZ
The ten grid place penalty was absurd, then he is tangled up in first corner clashes too. A point scoring drive is a good end result, but he had the pace to run at the front and was unable to.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – Dropped it at the first corner and was behind the eight ball for the rest of the race.
FIA – Appalling Thursday.
HAAS – Good qualifying, their race car rhymes with their name.
ALPHA TAURI – Even worse.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 10
Prety important race if the battle for runners up is your thing. Big race from Sergio Perez and some bad luck for Lewis Hamilton has all but sorted the runners up tag.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9 / 10
First of all, we saw a pass for the lead, and Verstappen being the leader displaced. That was just before Verstappen’s first pit stop, and there were more later in the race. Amazing. Some first corner shenanigans always bumps up the score. Plenty of midfield moving and shaking after a bunch of fast cars were left at the back of the grid due to the first lap.
ENDING 7 / 10
Some good racing at the front and in the midfield, but the pass of Leclerc on Perez on the last lap was a real beaut, and livened up the usual procession to the finish line for Verstappen in front.
OVERALL RATING 19 / 30
So the race lived up to some of the hype with passing, and action from start to finish. It may just save this race in the future.
Setting the scene – It may have been another pole position for Max Verstappen, but qualifying has certainly got compeditive in the second half of the season. Charles Leclerc took second from Oscar Piastri in third, but Lando Norris looks lively and a mistake on his last lap hides true pace. Mercedes who ended up 4th and 11th look race ready. Carlos Sainz didn’t make it out of Q1, so his job is a harder one. It all looks promising, like a lot of grands prix in the second half of the season, but will probably end up a cruising Max Verstappen win, like a lot of grands prix in the second half of the season.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER LEC PIA RUS NOR TSU ALO HUL PER GAS
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen misses the start yet beat Charles Leclerc into turn one by going around the outside. Leclerc tries again down the back straight and he almost gets in front Verstappen shuts the door again. Lando Norris jumps George Russell to make it a McLaren 3-4. Further back Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton grab a few places at the expense of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg whose Haas race reverse has started early – 8th to 13th. No accidents which is good and a little disappointing.
ORDER – VER LEC PIAS NOR RUS TSU ALO GAS HAM PER
Lap 3 – DRS is available now but no change among the top cars, the gap teasing fans looking for a battle but not close enough for actual position swapping. Sergio Perez takes 9th from Lewis Hamilton which is of mild interest to few.
Lap 5 – Lando Norris asserts top dog status at McLaren and overtakes Oscar Piastri down the back straight. Norris has the pace to win this, a win is just two cars away.
Lap 6 – Kevin Magnussen pits for new tyres on only lap 6. That Haas really has become a pile of shite in races in the second half of the season. Or he’s on a 12 stop strategy.
Lap 9 – George Russell tries but is unable to get past Australian Oscar Piastri for fourth. Much like the Ashes and Cricket World Cup. If you overlook the British driver ahead in 2nd.
ORDER – VER LEC NOR PIA RUS TSU ALO GAS PER HAM
Lap 11 – George Russell gets past Piastri into the fast hairpin, just moments after the F1 coverage applauds Piastri’s great defending. Piastri is now under pressure from Yuki Tsunoda right away.
Lap 12 – Sergio Perez doing his thing, overtaking Pierre Gasly for 8th, after underwhelming in qualifying again. Fernando Alonso pit for the record, first car in the top ten to do so. May as well as a train was forming behind Gasly.
Lap 14 – Oscar Piastri pits for new boots, trying to cover Alonso and undercut the cars in front. Piastri comes out of the pits just in front of Alonso
Lap 15 – Lando Norris pits, George Russell pits. Lando Norris’ pitstop was twice as long as Russell’s and the Mercedes jumps the McLaren for now.
Lap 17 – Max Verstappen pits but Charles Leclerc stays out. The Red Bull comes out in 7th place such is the bunched field, behind Carlos Sainz who started 16th on the grid. Leclerc and Perez pit a lap later leaving Yuki Tsunoda to enjoy leading a race for the first time. Lance Stroll is second too
Lap 19 – Max Verstappen gets past Carlos Sainz and sets a new fastest lap just to let everyone know he’s still the fastest in the best car.
Lap 23 – Yuki Tsunoda’s fun ends as he pits from the lead. He drops down to 12th.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS NOR SAI PIA ALO PER RIC HAM
Lap 26 – We’ve missed Sergio Perez overtaking Fernando Alonso for 6th and the Mexican setting a fastest lap. Oh well. He probably get pass Piastri in the next lap or so too. Yeah Lap 29 does it.
Lap 30 – A lap after the halfway point and it looks like business as usual for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Max Verstappen is a comfortable six seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc. Russell and Norris have two seconds gaps to the cars in front and Sergio Perez is the main on the move. But it’s all academic for the race win. Why would the last race be any different when the guy leading has won 18/21 races this season.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS NOR PER PIA ALO HAM TSU STR
Lap 34 – Second pit stop seal has been broken for the top half of the race when Lando Norris gets some new rubber. Mercedes pit George Russell a lap later despite his insistence that his tyres were fine and he didn’t want to pit.
Lap 39 – After most of the leading cars pit – except the Rd Dulls – Yuki Tsunoda drops a few positions as Leclerc and Russell take away his temporary lofty position. One stop ain’t gonna work here.
Lap 47 – Sergio Perez battling for fourth is the closest battle among the top cars. Perez makes a late move after the back straight and they collide. Perez claims Norris turned in on him. Norris says Perez ran into him. orris keeps 4th for now. A lap later Sergio Perez takes fourth but the clash is under investigation.
Lap 53 – The stewards find in favour of Lando Norris and throw a five second penalty at Sergio Perez. Daniel Ricciardo moves up to 12th. While that isn’t usually interesting, in the battle with Williams for the team championship it is. If Ricciardo can get to 10th it will bring the teams together in the season standings.
Lap 55 – Sergio Perez is in a hurry after getting his penalty. He overtakes George Russell for third and has four laps to build a gap big enough to absorb the five second penalty.
Last lap – Sergio Perez’s efforts to finish on the podium are helped with Charles Leclerc letting the Red Bull past. But he finishes 3.9 seconds in front of George Russell so drops from 2nd to 4th. Lewis Hamilton passes Yuki Tsunoda and then has a big slide and hands the place back to Tsunoda. Oh, and Max Verstappen won easy.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER LEC RUS PER NOR PIA ALO TSU HAM STR
THE GREAT-EST – YUKI TSUNODA
Alpha Tauri cars don’t get to lead very often so Yuki Tsunoda getting a chance to do that is worth a lofty position in our great and grape. Qualified a career best 6th, and was a top ten car all race. Saved his best for last.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Win, pole position, fastest lap. A 19th win and yet another perfect grand prix haul sees him sign off a record-breaking season that will never happen again in style.
CHARLES LECLERC – Second best but solid enough for Charles Leclerc.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Good qualifying with 4th on the grid, and secures a podium, beating his seven-time World Champion team mate.
MCLAREN – Maybe not the best result they could hope for, but progress from the start of the season. Genuine fourth best car at minimum now.
THE GRAPE-EST – CARLOS SAINZ
Knocked out in Q1 which put him in a bad position for most of the race, and he was the race’s only DNF with a lap to go.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
WILLIAMS – Zero pace in the race. Logan Sargeant has a nervous off season wait to see if he returns in 2024.
HAAS – Another race of mildly promising qualifying followed by disappointing (at best) race.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 9 / 10
Battles for constructor positions are settled which is worth lots of money are settled in the final race.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 / 10
Decent action down the field, and even an opening lap tussle for the lead between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
ENDING 3 / 10
Sergio Perez needing to find five seconds gap to George Russell was the highlight in a quiet-ish end to the race. Either that or we napped through the good stuff.
OVERALL RATING 18 / 30
Not a bad race to end the season. A different winner or a better challenge would have been nice.
