It was a tense and rather scary qualifying session in Saudi Arabia, which ended with a sort of shock pole sitter, although we should never have counted him out. Perez has been getting more and more comfortable with the team over his 18 months with them, and the fruits of that are really starting to come through now. The lap was just sublime, and with the help of their superior straight line speed, led him to his first ever pole. The race will be difficult for him, not only with the 2 Ferrari’s behind, but also with Safety Cars and Red Flags.
Having looked so strong all weekend, Ferrari came up slightly short, however, 2nd and 3rd leaves them in a strong position for the race. They also did have better race pace than Red Bull at Bahrain, which could transfer to here. Leclerc still has the edge over his teammate, but the gap has shrunk a lot, and could get spicy very soon. I still think that Ferrari have not turned their engines up fully yet, as has been suggested, which could be why they were beaten. They need to attack Perez quickly off the start, and take control of the race.
Alpine have had a stellar day, getting both cars well inside the top 10, and suggesting they could be best of the rest behind the top 3. This is really what they need to do, after all the hype they had around these new regulations. Ocon is starting to impress against Alonso, which will help his stock value to rise. Bottas and Gasly continue to make the most of what is under them, and will want to gain more points tomorrow, especially Gasly who lost out on them in Bahrain. Tsunoda was unlucky to miss qualifying, and Zhou did well given his lack of experience.
No one expected Mercedes to go backwards from Bahrain, the general feeling was that they would make steady gains towards the front. Instead, though, having fixed some of the bouncing, the car has found itself a very tight set up window, which Russell found, but not Hamilton. This left the past champion down in an unheard of 16th position on pure pace. I would be surprised if he stays there in the race, but points won’t be easy for him. Russell did all he could, and will try to save some face for the team.
After the highs of Bahrain, it was a blow for Haas today, as whilst 10th and 14th aren’t a terrible result, the crash that Mick endured was brutal. It is great to hear he is well, and hasn’t got any clear injuries. Hopefully he can race tomorrow, as his pace all weekend has been right there, if not ahead of Magnussen. Kevin couldn’t repeat his exploits in Bahrain again, although points are still possible.
McLaren look better, yet still not great, and they went backwards in the race last time out, which could happen again. Let’s hope it doesn’t, and that they have found the issues that plagued them. Aston Martin and Williams look to have set up camp at the back of the field, which will be gutting for both of them.
The race tomorrow will be all about survival, especially with these new cars. There are plenty of fascinating stories to follow, can Perez hold of the Ferrari’s, have Red Bull fixed the fuel issue, can Hamilton climb back through the field, and who can be best of the rest? On top of that, I bet some new ones will unfold when the lights go out!
Just wanted to close on a more sombre note, talking about the missile strike, and the aftermath. If it is true, that the drivers did not want to race, and were pressured by the Saudi government and team principals to race, that is appalling, and I hope F1 reconsiders its position going forwards. That may not be the case, but either way, they should not be racing in a country with that going on
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 