Formula 1
By Vlad Roman,
General Manager, Smart Games
After the Canadian Grand Prix the “big circus” returned to Europe, we had races almost every weekend… and what races!, four different winners, team orders, disqualifications, frustrations and joys.
The Spanish Grand Prix at the Barcelona circuit brought two firsts of the season, the first pole position for Lando Norris and the first podium for Lewis Hamilton.
Russell had a brilliant start, starting from P4 he overtook Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen in the first turn, however on lap 3, in the same turn 1 he had to give way to Max. After the first pit stop, Verstappen is in the lead, followed by Russell, Hamilton, Sainz and Norris who, helped by DRS, overtakes the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers in turn. Hamilton pitted for his second tire change 6 laps later than his teammate, installed software that helped him overtake George, so after eight months of abstinence he drank the F1 Ferrari sparkling wine Brut offered on the podium. Russel, Leclerc, Sainz, Piastri, Perez, Gasly and Ocon followed. A very good result for Alpine but disappointing for Perez who finished the race 59.5 seconds behind his Red Bull teammate.
At home of Red Bull the practice session, sprint qualifying, Sprint and grand prix qualifying were dominated by Max Verstappen, I don’t say Red Bull as Perez failed to finish better than 7th in any of the sessions.
The Grand Prix started with Verstappen – Norris on the front row, followed by Russell – Sainz on the second row and Hamilton – Leclerc on the third row.
Verstappen had a solid start from pole position and held first position for much of the race, the finish looked clear, but at the final pit stop on lap 52, a problem with the left rear wheel caused a long stop which reduced the gap to 2nd place to less than two seconds. Norris, on faster and faster laps, made several attempts to overtake his rival but on lap 64 contact between the two cars caused a puncture for Max plus a 10 second penalty and Lando’s retirement. Thus, Russell took over the leadership of the platoon and won the second race of his career in F1, Piastri brought a consolation to the McLaren team by ranking in 2nd place and Sainz completes the podium with the third position.
For the third consecutive weekend, Formula 1 heads to the United Kingdom at the legendary Silverstone circuit, home to the first Grand Prix in F1 history on 13 May 1950.
The first two practice sessions were dominated by McLaren for the third session to belong to the Mercedes team, likewise the qualifications had British drivers and Mercedes engines in the first 3 positions.
The race was crazy!… the start with Russell on pole followed by Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen was uneventful. Although in turn 4 Max overtakes Lando, he stays close to him only to regain his position 15 laps later. Rain sprinkles appear on lap 17 but that doesn’t stop Piastri from overtaking Verstappen or Hamilton from taking over the race lead from Russell. The two Britons at the front of the peloton go to the limit of their grip, both go wide out of the Abbey corner and Norris takes advantage and overtakes them to take the lead at the start of lap 20, Piastri does the same changing the order in the peloton – McLaren followed by Mercedes. Leclerc and Perez change on the intermediate but the inspired Hamilton refuses the change, only when the rain intensifies does Mercedes call both drivers to the pits unlike McLaren who only changed for Norris. After Russel’s retirement due to engine cooling problems they all stayed on intermediate tires until lap 39, Hamilton changed first from the leading peloton, followed by Max and Piastri, Lando stayed on the circuit for another fatal lap which saw him return to behind Lewis and later to give up 2nd position to Max as well. The first win of the season and a new record for Sir Lewis Hamilton – 9 titles at Silverstone!
Two weeks later the 13th stage in Hungary which took place on the Hungaroring near Budapest.
McLaren placed its drivers in the first two places followed by Verstappen, after a phenomenal start by Oscar Piastri we had 3 cars in a row at the entrance to the first corner, Max overtook the outside of the track and had to give up his place to Norris. After the first tire change the order in the race was Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz but the 2nd change started with an “undercut” by Norris which changed the order between the first two in the race, which is why made Oscar Piastri ask for the restoration of the original order. Unfortunately, there were a lot of negotiations on the radio between Norris and the pit crew, it’s hard to say what the initial agreements were, but it is certain that in the penultimate lap, after many pleas and veiled threats, Lando gave up the position to his colleague. The 2024 Formula 1 season has a 7th different winner – Oscar Piastri – first Formula 1 victory, although I for one would not want my first victory to be achieved in this way.
A much more interesting duel was fought for 3rd place between Lewis and Max, there were also many “post race” discussions about who was to blame, it is certain that after a late braking in the first corner Max went up with the rear left wheel over the tire Hamilton’s right front and was thrown off the track. Fortunately the only consequence of the incident was the loss of 4th position for Verstappen. For Hamilton – 200 podiums in Formula 1.
Before the summer break, a week after the Hungaroring, the Belgian Grand Prix took place at the longest circuit on the calendar, Spa-Francorchamps.
Although the winner of qualifying, Max started from P11 following the engine change penalty… still lucky to Yuki Tsunoda who received a 60 point penalty for changing several components on the RB Honda RBPT machine.
Leclerc, who started from pole, had a good start, he kept his position for the first two laps, being overtaken by a Hamilton who immediately passed Perez, so that once positioned at the head of the peloton, he only succumbed to the strategy of his colleague Russell, who made a only tire change. After all the drivers pitted for the second time, George found himself leading the field with hard tires used for 20 laps but with enough “life” in them to last another 14. Although he was losing half a second per lap Russell held his position until the end of the race while Leclerc relinquished the position to Piastri with eight laps to go. It was a dream podium for Mercedes, a well-deserved double, but the coup de grace came after the winning car was weighed, found to be 1.5 kilograms lighter than the minimum accepted weight and implicitly disqualified the winner. However, the victory remains for Mercedes, Hamilton is declared the winner, Piastri takes 2nd place and Leclerc advances to 3rd.
After the summer vacation we go to Verstappen’s home!
