Sainz survived early contact with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon at the Nouvelle Chicane with minor front wing damage to keep the podium in sight through the opening half of the race.On lap 33 of 78, Ocon suffered a slow stop as he switched to fresh mediums, with Ferrari opting to pit Sainz on the following tour in an attempt to utilise the overcut and cover off Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who was …Keep reading
Initial drizzle in the second sector during the race’s second half bloomed into heavier rain, which prompted a series of cars to make the leap onto the intermediate tyre in a bid to anticipate worsening conditions.Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll led the switch, with Zhou Guanyu and Alex Albon following suit.Alonso subsequently made his first trip to the pitlane at the end of the 54th lap …Keep reading
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell bagged a 4-5 result to mark the debut of the heavily revised W14, which has now gained more conventional sidepods and new front suspension.While the positions were unchanged, Russell was hit with a five-second penalty for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner as he made contact with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez at Mirabeau.Although Hamilton had the pace in …Keep reading
Polesitter Verstappen had built a comfortable lead over second-placed Alonso, but with rain looming the Aston Martin driver enjoyed a strategic advantage by starting on the hard tyre, while Verstappen began to struggle on worn mediums.As the rain eventually hit and then intensified, Verstappen pitted on lap 56 of 78 for intermediates and managed to undo Alonso’s tyre advantage as well as the …Keep reading
Red Bull driver Verstappen surged to his third pole of 2023 by just 0.084s with a remarkable late effort to usurp Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who had until the dying moments of the session looked set to claim his first pole since Hockenheim 2012. At the circuit where pole position has more value than any other, due to the difficulty of overtaking at the Principality, Verstappen had …Keep reading
The Ferrari driver appeared to slow in the tunnel section as Norris’ rapid McLaren approached from behind on a flying lap in Q3, forcing him to take evasive action.Leclerc had been set to line up third for his home race, but will now drop to sixth. Norris will start 10th for Sunday’s race.The FIA stewards said Leclerc “had finished his final lap of Q3 and was in the Turn 4 through …Keep reading
Hamilton – who crashed in FP3 – got out of Q1 at the last minute with his final run, and the same thing happened as he made it out of Q2 with his last lap.In the final segment he earned sixth on the grid, with the potential to move up a place if third-placed Charles Leclerc receives a penalty for impeding.Hamilton also acknowledged that the upgrades Mercedes introduced to this weekend have …Keep reading
The Alpine driver stunned the paddock when he set a 1m11.553s effort with just a handful of minutes remaining in Q3 to take provisional pole.Ocon dropped to fourth following the final runs as eventual polesitter Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc all registered faster times. But he will be lifted to third, matching his career-best grid position, by Leclerc’s …Keep reading
The Red Bull driver made a successful swoop for pole in the dying stages of Q3 to deny Alonso the chance of a first F1 pole since 2012, using the final corners to overturn a deficit of two tenths accrued in the opening pair of sectors.Thanks to the vastly improved form of the Aston Martin team in 2023, Alonso has been able to consistently run at the front after years of struggling with …Keep reading
The Friday practice bragging rights ahead of Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix belonged to Max Verstappen, who headed FP2 while FP1 chart-topper Carlos Sainz crashed in the second session.Collecting a 1m12.462s despite none of his sector times being of sufficient quality to grace the timing boards in purple, Verstappen stitched together a consistent trio of splits to ensure he made the most of …Keep reading