Following the postponement of the session from Saturday, there were numerous dramas during Sunday morning’s qualifying right until the final Q3 segment, in which two heavy crashes for Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon disrupted running. This left just over three minutes on the clock – and seven cars in the running – for the final top 10 shootout.
Despite continued tricky conditions, Norris surged through to claim pole position with a lap of 1m 23.405s, putting him 0.173s clear of Mercedes’ George Russell in second. Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, enjoyed his best-ever qualifying to take third for RB, the Japanese driver set to line up alongside Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in fourth.
Alonso and Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10, with Alonso having been unable to continue following his incident while Stroll did not participate in Q3 after suffering a crash of his own at the end of Q2.
There was drama in the final moments of Q1 as Norris just managed to get through – which subsequently pushed out Lewis Hamilton, leaving the Mercedes driver down in P16.
Haas had a tricky session, with substitute Oliver Bearman and team mate Nico Hulkenberg failing to make the cut in 17th and 19th. Williams’s Franco Colapinto also exited in 18th, having earlier crashed into the barriers which left him unable to continue, and Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu rounded out the pack in 20th place.
The chaos started before the event had even got under way after Lance Stroll spun off during the formation lap, leading to some confusion over the aborted start procedure as pole-sitter Lando Norris led a number of cars away while others stayed on the grid, meaning that Norris, George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson will be investigated after the race for a start procedure infringement.
When the Grand Prix did begin, Russell enjoyed a stronger launch and led from Norris while Verstappen worked his way through the pack in the early stages. As the event unfolded amid changing levels of rainfall, a red flag was thrown on Lap 32 following a crash for Franco Colapinto in the Williams – shortly after Russell and Norris had lost out by pitting just as a Virtual Safety Car period ended.
This meant that Esteban Ocon was leading from Verstappen and Pierre Gasly when the race resumed with a little over half distance remaining. But after another restart – following a Safety Car appearance due to a crash for Carlos Sainz – Verstappen surged into the lead and from there looked untouchable, the world champion going on to take the chequered flag with a margin of 19.477s.
it ended up being a chaotic race from start to finish with multiple drivers crashing out a various points during the race and there came a point where Williams’ Alex Albon was unable to race at all becuase of the damage done to his car during the qualifying sessions.
Nobody expected Alpine to be up on the podium with a two-three finish which takes them above rival team Haas in the constructors championship.
A chaotic but exciting and eventful race from start to finish and I wouldn’t change anything.
The 2024 season will enter into its closing stages with a final triple header of races, beginning with the Las Vegas Grand Prix on the weekend of November 21-24.
Part of this post was taken from F1.com
Published in F1
