The Friday in F1 Sao Paulo GP was not just the fight on track but off it too which is to spill out on Saturday as well.
The Friday in F1 Sao Paulo GP saw Lewis Hamilton taking on Max Verstappen, ending up fastest but the real drama started post-session when the FIA Technical Delegate referred the Brit’s car’s DRS to have failed the checks after qualifying.
After a lengthy discussions, the FIA has deferred the decision to Saturday morning while Verstappen was summoned for breaking parc-ferme rules when he was spotted touching Hamilton’s car. The results of both will be shared together most likely.
There’s multiple cases ongoing, one is Hamilton’s DRS failing the maximum distance test of 10mm-85mm, while the Dutchman is summoned for the above case. There’s another case from Red Bull against Mercedes for bendy rear wings which was pre-qualifying thing.
While this goes on – if they escape any penalty – Hamilton and Verstappen are set to start from the front row in the sprint race with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez also nearby, making it a straight on battle among the drivers.
Hamilton: “The first pole in a long time! Just a big, big thank you to all the team because they’ve been working flat out. It’s been so hard coming from the last race to here, taking the car apart and rebuilding it… just the man hours are insane but today was a really good qualifying session, I’m super happy with it. We’ve got the penalty on Sunday but we’ll give it everything we’ve got tomorrow, then I’ll do my best to try and get through the field. I don’t know what tomorrow will hold in the Sprint but I think the weather will perhaps be a bit better which will make it a little bit more difficult for everyone, but I feel really grateful. It’s crazy because it’s been a while, so it feels like the first.”
Verstappen: “It looked like it was a bit more tricky for us but I’m still happy of course to be in second. That’s a good position to start from. Of course you always want to be closer but sometimes you just have to be realistic and there was not much more in it. Not necessarily. They took a new engine so we know, of course, the first weekend they can definitely put a bit more power in it and around here that can make quite a bit of a difference with such few corners. Nothing shocking of course, I would have preferred to be ahead. All in all, to be second is good. There are not that many points to gain on Saturday so I just need to keep it clean because Sunday is way more important.”
Behind the top end F1 fight, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly got the last laugh in the fight behind with Ferrari managing to beat McLaren duo in the Top 10. The Italian outfit had enough to get ahead of the British team but they have another chance to get back.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso managed to find himself in Top 10, with Esteban Ocon just missing out but they are crucially behind AlphaTauri – at least Gasly – which is likely to help the Faenza-based outfit. Aston Martin too missed out on a Top 10 spot, with Lance Stroll not making it in Q2 even and was visibly angry.
Sainz: “I managed to hit the ground running on Friday. If you put this quali format at the beginning of the year, I would have struggled a bit more. But now at the end of the year, I felt like I was on top of it since FP1, which allowed me to put some good laps together in Q1, Q2 and get to Q3 and nail a good lap. It’s no surprise. They have a very strong car, they have been very quick all season, it’s just now they look to be finding the consistency they were maybe lacking at the beginning. And that car is seriously quick. We will try to beat it and try to keep improving because as Ferrari, we don’t want to be beaten by AlphaTauri even if we beat both McLarens.”
Norris: “I could say [I wanted more] but I think that would be slightly optimistic from where we were in FP1. I was 15th or 16th so it wasn’t looking too good, we were quite a long way off again. So we were confident we could make improvements but I don’t think we were as confident we could make it into Q3 as we did. We did honestly make some good improvements from FP1. I just couldn’t push on the car this morning, so we made it in a way which was easier to be able to push on it and push the braking and so on, and I think we took a very good step. Of course we’re not ahead of the Ferraris and that’s where we need and want to be, but to be right behind them is the best we could do, so I’m pretty happy with that.
“It’s our aim. A car that’s normally a little bit quicker, like the amount they were – which was just under a tenth – I think you have a decent chance to hold them off. If they were maybe two or three tenths ahead like they were in Mexico, that’s when you see the gap get much bigger in the race. So I think we’re in a good position. It’s a tricky first couple of corners and first lap here, as you saw [in 2019] anything can happen with the incidents and Safety Cars and so on, so optimistic and lap one is our aim to get ahead.”
Gasly: “I’m really, really happy. FP1 was quite difficult for me and I struggled a little bit in quali too, but every time I went out I managed to find a little bit more, playing with everything inside of the car and making small improvements each time we ran. I managed to put it all together when it counted and I think it was a really incredible lap in Q3 today, so I’m really pleased with that. It’s really amazing for us to be qualifying right behind Mercedes and Red Bull, it’s a critical moment in the championship and the team did a fantastic job today. Of course, it’s only Friday so we’ve got two more days, it’s going to be pretty intense, but we’ve put ourselves in the best place possible.”
Behind the mid-pack, Alfa Romeo, Williams and Haas didn’t make it through the Top 15. While the former made it into Q2, the latter two were knocked out in Q1 itself. Nicholas Latifi did manage to beat teammate George Russell, while Nikita Mazepin was left sad about not being able to improve on his final lap.
Russell: “It was not easy at all to be honest. Just couldn’t get the tyres working, the car working. Little bit gusty out there so didn’t really play in our favour and just wasn’t really feeling it to be honest. Nevertheless, Nicholas did a really good lap and was just ahead of me. As a team, we’re pretty off the pace this weekend. Three-tenths from Q2 – it’s only the second time in 19 races we’ve not been in Q2, so we need to find that form again. I mean… in Silverstone I went out and had the best quali, of the year and this is obviously the worst one of the year.”
Mazepin: “The tyres are on fire by the time you get to Turn 12 so everything you can gain or lose before the long straight really pays off or really hurts you. I just tried too hard and was too eager to get on the power with perhaps the rear grip not being there. The good thing is that I caught it, but the bad thing is I lost time. It’s what makes this format exciting, that’s why you see some mistakes because drivers like myself are more eager to try and explore things that I’ve never had the opportunity to do before.”
Here’s how F1 Sao Paulo GP qualifying panned out