The first sprint of the year at the Formula 1 Rolex Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna provided an intense fight at the top and many others in the midfield – but who were the winners and losers of the race?
Alfa Romeo – A tale of two halves for Alfa Romeo as they had one driver scoring points – Bottas in P7 – and Zhou in the wall, leading to him starting tomorrow’s race last.
Williams – An all too familiar result for the Williams of recent years. Neither cars performed at all with them bringing up the rear, Albon ahead in P18 of Latifi in P19.
Red Bull – Another start, another issue for Red Bull – why can’t they start races? It didn’t matter much though as a after battle with Leclerc in the closing stages Verstappen took P1 (do we call it pole?). Perez also performed well with some great overtakes to take P3.
AlphaTauri – Tsunoda performed impressively in the Sprint making up places and only being a tenth behind a Mercedes, starting in P12. Gasly was less successful after a clash with Zhou and the resultant pit stop left him in P17.
McLaren – The change in McLaren’s fortunes seems to have stuck with both cars in the top ten. Norris lost places but was still P5 and Ricciardo made up places to join him on the third row in P6.
Alpine – More issues for the Frenchman left Ocon seriously behind his teammate in P16. Alonso was tantalising close to some points but failed to yield with P9.
Haas – Both of the Haas cars have made the top ten with Magnussen ahead in P8. He did lose places after an impressive starting position but it’s a serious improvement on last year. Schumacher moved up the field into P10 after overtaking fellow German Vettel.
Ferrari – The Tifosi were disappointed at the end after Leclerc lost his lead but Sainz’ charge probably made up for it. He charged through the field to P4 and will start directly behind his teammate in P2.
Aston Martin – For once this year, they aren’t the slowest team on the grid but neither driver made it to the points. Vettel battled Schumacher but came off worse ending the race in P13. Stroll didn’t do anything exciting and starts P15.
Mercedes – Oh how the mighty have fallen, if you’d have said last year that both Mercedes would be starting out of the top ten this season you’d have been laughed out of Brackley. But that is unfortunately what happened, both cars lost places on the opening lap and both drivers moved up one place over the race. Russell starts ahead in P11 with Hamilton in P14.
Did you enjoy the Sprint?
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Published in F1
