2024-04-08 02:31:18
A new double from the Bulls, while Ricciardo’s problems are becoming more serious.
Starting blockage
As İdman.biz reports with reference to the “Championship”, after the hot and very unexpected result of the Australian Grand Prix, expectations for the race in Japan were increased. Adding to the intrigue was the fact that in training Red Bull was clearly inferior in racing pace to its main rivals from Ferrari and, possibly, McLaren, who were to start from the second row. Following the results of qualifying, the first row remained with the pilots of the Austrian team, and Verstappen won qualifying for the fifth time in a row, repeating his best result in his career. However, this time Perez fell behind Max on the only fast lap by negligible fractions of a second, so surprises could be expected in the race, at least in the first turn.
As a result, the start of the race turned out to be quite calm for the leaders; they retained their positions. There was a serious accident behind: Daniel Ricciardo hit Alex Albon with his rear wheel, and both flew into the safety barrier, literally smashing it. Both riders retired but were not injured. A red flag appeared over the track – the marshals needed time to repair the barrier.
After 25 minutes of standing, the second standing start was announced. And it went even calmer than the first one. The leaders again maintained their positions, and the peloton expanded quite quickly. Let’s just note the failure of Hulkenberg, who rolled back from 10th place to the very end.
The pilots who started on the soft decided to get rid of their soft sets by the eighth lap, but among the leaders only Fernando Alonso chose red headbands for the start. It is noteworthy that Alonso, unlike his colleagues in tactics, did not enter among the first. And among those who spent the first segment on the “medium”, Lando Norris got rid of it already on the 11th lap.
Soon Piastri also went to the pits, but Ferrari did not react to these pit stops. I lost the peloton and another car – Zhou had problems with the gearbox.
McLaren tried tactics…
As a result, both Sainz and Perez lost position after a pit stop to Lando Norris – the undercut worked. If Norris had not lost time behind Hamilton, he could have taken the lead in the race, but in the end he remained second, a couple of seconds behind Verstappen.
On the 21st lap, Max regained the lead, passing Charles Leclerc, who had not entered the pits at that time. Soon Sergio Perez dealt with Norris, regaining his nominal second position.
On the 27th lap, Leclerc finally dived into the pits, and Norris came to the second stop with him, and Lando ultimately was unable to get ahead of Charles. Due to the extended first segment, the Monegasque managed to win back several positions at once.
…But Ferrari was able to
Verstappen was already 10 seconds ahead of Perez at this point. Leclerc, after his only pit stop, was able to go a second faster than Perez per lap. On the 34th lap, Sergio Perez dived into the pits, returning to the track only fifth.
After a couple of laps, Perez easily dealt with Norris and began chasing Leclerc. Verstappen returned after his pit stop as a confident leader of the race.
Perez also dealt with Leclerc on the next lap, regaining his nominal second position. After the pit stop, Sainz found himself behind not only Leclerc and Norris, but also both Mercedes drivers.
With 10 laps to go, Sainz reached Norris on fresher tires. Sainz quite easily took advantage of the DRS zone and passed Norris, rushing in pursuit of teammate Charles Leclerc, who, like Norris, was on a more shabby hard court.
After three laps, Sainz passed Leclerc quite easily – Charles was told not to waste time fighting the Spaniard. Leclerc did not quite calmly let Carlos pass, leaving him the outer rather than the inner radius in the first turn, but even so Sainz easily passed the Monegasque, immediately after setting the best lap of the race.
On the last lap, George Russell managed to overcome Oscar Piastri in the battle for seventh position. Verstappen confidently brought the race to victory, which became his third of the season and 57th in his career. Perez finished second, completing the double for Red Bull. Carlos Sainz completed the top three, Charles Leclerc finished fourth – Ferrari’s tactics turned out to be beneficial for both drivers. The top five was eventually closed by Lando Norris – the undercut ultimately did not work at all for McLaren.
Alonso, Russell, Piastri, Hamilton and Tsunoda also finished in the top ten, delighting the home fans.
Formula 1 2024. Stage 4, Suzuka, Japan
Japanese Grand Prix. Race (53 laps, 307.471 km)
April 07, 2024, Sunday. 09:00
1 – Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:54:23.566
2 – Sergio Perez
Red Bull
+12.535
3 – Carlos Sainz Jr.
Scuderia Ferrari
+20.866
The race turned out to be quite interesting from a tactical point of view, but this time the result was more than expected. The Royal Race will now head to China for the first time since 2019 – the stage in Shanghai will take place in two weeks.
İdman.biz