#Verstappen #Alonso #furious #Saturdays #news
News summary
Sunday, May 5, 2024, 07:05
Verstappen won both the sprint race and the time trial ahead of Leclerc in Miami, Alonso got stuck, Ricciardo went from heaven to hell in a few hours. This happened on Saturday.
Two F1 events were organized today, as first the sprint race of the Miami Grand Prix, and then a few hours later the qualifying session for the Sunday Grand Prix in Florida. There were no surprises, at least at the front: Max Verstappen was able to win in both sessions.
Verstappen’s sprint ahead of Leclerc and Perez
In the sprint race, the world champion took a start-to-finish victory, although he was slightly attacked by Charles Leclerc, who started next to him at the first corner, but the Red Bull star repelled this attempt and kept his rival at arm’s length from then on. He couldn’t carve out a big advantage, but overall he won without question, Leclerc was second without question, and Sergio Perez was able to take the bottom step of the podium. One of the main stories of the sprint was given by Daniel Ricciardo, who started from fourth place, was temporarily ahead of Perez in third place, and finally finished fourth after showing great defenses and scored his first points of the year with a bravura performance. Ricciardo’s review can be read here!
The other big story was that of Kevin Magnussen, who racked up plenty of penalties for his consistently erratic defense against Lewis Hamilton to hold off the seven-time world champion. In addition, Magnussen said that he directly broke all existing rules for the sake of the team, for which he was later summoned by the stewards for possible unsportsmanlike behavior. Magnussen’s statement (which triggered this) can be read here, and why the Dane hasn’t received further penalties yet, can be found by clicking here.
And the third story is related to the mentioned Hamilton, who caused a mass accident at the start, or at least took part in it, for which he was not punished in the end: Lando Norris and Lance Stroll were eliminated here, but Fernando Alonso’s race was also ruined, who subsequently stated that, that Hamilton is not punished because he is not Spanish. Alonso also repeated the same after the time trial, and even added that he also wants to talk to the FIA ​​president about it also in order to protect the future Spanish racing generation. At that time, even the two-time world champion did not even know that Aston Martin’s Chinese defense was finally rejected, after they found their new evidence to be new and relevant, but not significant – details here.
The summary and final result of the sprint race can be read here!
Verstappen also took the pole
A few hours after the sprint and the subsequent declaration dumping, it was necessary to get back in the car, and the time trial that determined the starting order of Sunday’s grand prix could come. There was no big change at the front either: Verstappen still took pole position and Leclerc took second, so much changed that Carlos Sainz put together a better lap and came in third, ahead of Perez, the two McLarens and the two Mercedes. Fernando Alonso qualified only in 15th place and caused one of the great disappointments of the qualifier, and the other was Ricciardo, who after Friday’s 4th starting grid was now eliminated in Q1 and only got the 18th starting place.
The summary and final result of the time trial can be found here!
By the way, Leclerc expects that they will manage to squeeze Verstappen, as the tires on Ferrari and Red Bull wore to a similar extent in the sprint race, he exactly hoped that he and Sainz would be right behind the Dutchman, so that they could tactically put pressure on the world champion. They are confident in their race pace, which Sainz also agreed with, adding that he can start from the cleaner curve and they want to embarrass the Dutchman in the first corner.
McLaren messed up the settings: according to Lando Norris, they changed the car before qualifying, but they went in the wrong direction, that’s why they suffered more and only finished fifth in qualifying. He wishes they could roll these things back, but they can’t touch the car until the race, so you have to make the most of it.
Mercedes denies it
Toto Wolff denies writing to the FIA ​​asking for special permission for Andrea Kimi Antonelli to make his F1 debut before his 18th birthday in August. “We didn’t bring up the concession and we have clearly stated from the beginning that we are not seeking to do so. I don’t know where this conviction comes from that Mercedes wants to push this forward. Kimi has to focus on the F2 season and he knows it. Everything else is just rumors that keep circulating and are factually wrong. He is Prema’s F2 driver, that’s what he does and that’s what we all focus on. I think that this concession issue gained traction because more and more people were flirting with the idea. But for our part, we have never driven this,” added the first man of Mercedes.
According to McLaren boss Zak Brown, the number of resumes coming to them from Red Bull has increased recently, and he expects Adrian Newey’s departure to be just the first domino for the energy drinkers, but quite a few will be leaving Milton Keynes soon. But they don’t want to attack Newey. His statement can be found in this article! On the part of Williams, on the other hand, team boss James Vowles admitted that they have easy consultations with the specialist.
Michelisz on the podium, French success in the ERC
Let’s mention two more international series after the F1 news: Norbert Michelisz maintained his lead at the top of the TCR World Tour standings with one podium finish from two races (details at this link), while Yoann Bonato won ahead of Mathieu Franceschi in the Canary Islands race of the Ralli-Eb, making it a double French victory, and Franceschi also took the lead in the championship ahead of defending champion Hayden Paddon.
After Miklós Csomós and Attila Nagy’s huge accident yesterday, László Martin and Viktor Bán fell among the Hungarian pairs, their run was also ended by a house wall, but luckily they didn’t have any problems. Patrik Herczig and Kristóf Varga finished the competition in 8th place in the ERC Junior evaluation.
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