They had taken away his time for running wide at the last corner on the lap before the one in which he obtained his performance, but then the race direction gave him back the pole position. And so Lando Norris saw his start returned to the pole in the Sprint Shoot Out of the Chinese GP, causing many groans in the paddock. The Englishman from McLaren managed to lap in 1'57″940 with intermediate tires which were necessary due to a downpour of rain that suddenly wet the asphalt, taking over a second from Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and almost two seconds to Fernando Alonso, third with Aston Martin. Sidereal gaps, worthy of another era of F1.
But what happened to make the times worse by 22 seconds? Usually the gap between the slick tires and the wet tires is around ten seconds, while in Shanghai the gap was more than double. And what the experts expected happened, after seeing that the Chinese organizers had used liquid bitumen in the places where the asphalt had been bush-hammered. If the surface held up in the dry, in the wet the track became a real… bar of soap, triggering errors galore.
At the start, the drivers found themselves in very critical grip conditions because the intermediate tires didn't immediately warm up: Charles Leclerc knows something about this as he lost control at Turn 9 when he hit the barriers at low speed. The Monegasque managed to restart and return to the pits where he changed the front wing before returning to the track. It went well for him, but in the end he didn't go beyond seventh place which is disappointing for Ferrari's expectations.
McLaren will start from the front tomorrow in the race: Norris demonstrated his skills in controlling the low-grip MCL38. The Briton took away the pleasure of being ahead of everyone from Lewis Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion will be on the front row with a Mercedes that isn't worth that placement. Today the technical values have completely disappeared and the balancing skills of the pilots have emerged. Hamilton is second with Russell excluded in Q1!
In these conditions Fernando Alonso couldn't help but pull out his claws: the Asturian opens the second row with the AMR24, placing himself ahead of Max Verstappen with the Red Bull. The three-time world champion had all his times canceled before his last attempt due to long track limits, so he decided not to take too many risks to secure a time. Fourth place may suit him well considering that he has theoretically less competitive cars ahead of him if they were to race in the dry.
Carlos Sainz is fifth with Ferrari: the Spaniard did not seek the limit, preferring to settle for a safe placing, after his teammate's mistake. The Scuderia achieved less than the potential that the SF-24 could have expressed. Alongside the Madrilenian there will be Sergio Perez with the second Red Bull.
Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren is eighth: the young Australian leaves three seconds behind his teammate. Lots of stuff! Excellent performance from Sauber which brought two C44s into the Top 10. Valtteri Bottas was ninth ahead of Guanyu Zhou who deserved an ovation from the 50,000 Chinese in the stands.
In Q2 the drivers managed to close the first run on a dry track, while the drizzle affected the second part of the session which prevented those excluded from attempting a second run. The loser was George Russell with Mercedes, only 11th with the W15, just 38 thousandths behind from moving on to Q3. The Englishman preceded the two Haas of Kevin Magnussen who managed to prevail over Nico Hulkenberg by just 5 thousandths: the American team brought an important package of technical innovations which did not give a great result on this track with very limited grip.
Daniel Ricciardo finds his smile again despite finishing 14th: the Australian, having a new RB VCARB 01 chassis, managed to stay ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda. The pure performance counts for little, but the result is important because Daniel tries to defend his place, given that Helmut Marko has begun to question it, leaving the door open for Liam Lawson.
Lance Stroll disappoints with Aston Martin: the fastest of the only free practice session finished last in Q2 with 15th place, but the Canadian left one second off the top, more than five tenths behind Fernando Alonso. Obviously something didn't work…
Alpine continues to disappoint: the two A524s do not pass Q1, but the curious aspect that aggravates the situation is that Pierre Gasly with the standard version of the Enstone single-seater is 16th, ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon who was benefiting from a new fund which evidently has not borne fruit. The only consolation for the team directed by Bruno Famin is to have at least abandoned the last row: small consolation…
Not even the Williams are shining: if the last position of Logan Sargeant, once again subscribed to the role of closing the grid, is not surprising, the 18th place of Aexander Albon is certainly more surprising: the Anglo-Thai is faster than the American of just over a tenth, a sign that the potential of the FW46 is no longer sufficient to overcome the first trap. The Grove team does not yet have a spare chassis so the riders have been advised to avoid further accidents, after the damage they caused in the first part of the season.
Yuki Tsunoda bad: the Japanese Racing Bulls must have had some problems because he paid for a gap of half a second from Daniel Ricciardo, ending up only 19th, while the Japanese had always been very close to the Top 10.
#Shanghai #Norris #pole #wet #bitumen #lottery
