BarcelonaThe third race of the World Championship season confirms Ferrari’s good form. With Charles Leclerc as the undisputed leader in Formula 1 at the moment, the Monegasque has prevailed again in a day that his teammate Carlos Sainz has had all the bad luck in the classification. This Sunday’s race (7am, DAZN) will be a power struggle between Ferrari and Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc, from prince to king
The Ferrari driver is still firmly in the World Championship. The young Monegasque has achieved his eleventh ‘pole’ in Formula 1, second in the season in three races, to reaffirm himself as a candidate to win the title. After being the leader in the qualifying rounds, the ‘cavallino rampante’ has maintained good momentum in the final session and has set a stratospheric time away from his pursuer Max Verstappen. The two Red Bulls will escort him to the start with a knife between his teeth to snatch the lead of the race on the first corner. His teammate, Carlos Sainz, has not had a good time and will be ninth.
Latifi and the wall, a relationship too recurring
Again, Nicholas Latifi’s Williams hit the wall again, leaving his car shattered. The Canadian driver has a love-hate relationship with the walls of Formula 1 circuits. Last season was the surprise guest in the fight for the World Cup: his shock a few laps from the end gave the World Cup to Max Verstappen . In this campaign he has already hit the wall a couple of times in the three World Championships we have been running. Unfortunately for the budget of the English team, in the first round of qualifying, Latifi collided with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin as he tried to push him almost beyond the limits of the track and, again, he had to abandon .
The porpoise, the protagonist again in F1
After two Grand Prix, the third race of the World Championship once again puts the focus on the movement of cars and the well-being of the drivers inside the cars. Returns to Australia porpoising (literally, swimming like a porpoise): the effect that causes the suction that occurs between the asphalt and the cars by the short distance that is there and that makes the riders bounce inside the cars. They will have to take paracetamol again, which is necessary according to Fernando Alonso, as he said during the preseason when the effects had not yet been minimized, to reduce back pain.
“Ferdinand, no, Ferdinand”
The reliability of the Alpine has fallen to Australia. After a great classification by Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon (both have passed in Q3 without problems), the Asturian collided with seven minutes left to finish the final round to name the poleman. ‘The plan’ was bearing fruit, he was fighting the leading riders to set the fastest time, but his engine has said enough by shutting down in the middle of the turn. Alonso will start from tenth position, while his teammate will start in eighth.