Free Practice The FP sessions were a proper jumble; much like pre-season testing, no real signs of the competitive order. V-CARB and McLaren topped FP1; Mercedes was fastest in FP2, and Ferrari and Red Bull FP3. Now that last FP session, with the benefit of hindsight, would sort of presage the race order, with Mercedes being jumbled up with McLaren. But the one constant, and the one that should’ve sounded alarm bells was the stunning lack of pace of the Alpines. All three sessions saw Ocon and Gasly occupying the bottom four positions on the grid (Gasly P16 in FP2). Qualifying Q1 Alpine dead last Sauber next up the list (Caveat being that race pace seemed significantly better) Sargeant out just ahead of Alpines amid complaints of traffic Q2 Leclerc tops the session Mercedes waited until the end of the session to set PBs Q3 Verstappen pole Leclerc two-tenths behind Russell P3 Both McLarens made Q3 Started 7th and 8th Hulk made Q3! → P10 starting spot Race Red Bull 1-2 (...again) Max wins by 22 seconds over Perez L1 T1 melee Stroll and Hulk got together before both being collected by Bottas Bottas had a 52s stop due to a stuck wheel nut Fireworks between VCARB drivers Team orders with less than 10 laps to go TSU fighting MAG for P12 Guanyu P11 after an alternate tire strategy Car Issues Mercedes with PU issues → Lewis and George with battery issues Williams (who uses Mercedes PUs) having overheating issues Sargeant had a steering wheel issue Lewis’ seat broke Leclerc struggling with braking issues Braking force not being evenly distributed across the front axle causing lockups The Alpine is dogshit slow → more technical departures Technical director Matt Harman and head of aero Dirk de Beer Post Race On the cooldown lap, Yuki divebombed Danny into T8 RIC: “What a fucking helmet” F1 News Cycle Update #2 Red Bull Racing/Christian Horner The Plot Thickens FIA Race Interference The Last Black Eye for F1’s Governing Body
