Howdy Zoomies! We are almost at the end of the season! Just two races left to decide the Constructors (team) Cup! Congrats to Max Verstappen for winning his 4th Drivers Cup in a row, and for Lando Norris for giving Max a battle for it right up to near the end of the season. It was definitely an exciting treat for us fans! Teaser alert for this read: Oh, what a messy Grand Prix, as you may have gathered from the headlines!.
Our driver's grid:
Plus the replacements:
Colapinto for Sargent at Williams Racing.
Lawson for Riccardo for RB Racing.
We have our last Sprint race of the season, and with McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari separated by a few points for the Constructor's Cup, every point counts! In the Sprint Race, only the top eight teams get points: 8 points for 1st, 1 point for eighth place.
Only news outside the track is that we may get an announcement this weekend about an 11th team being added to the grid for next season. (We didn't). Oh, and the driver eye candy for this race will be random- lets see what I come up with! :)
Starting with our first Random Driver Eye Candy!
Pierre has been on a streak at Alpine lately, will it carry thru to the final race this week?
Racing stuff now.
P1: 60 Minutes. The track in Lusail, Qatar is 3.66 miles long (that's one whole lap for one reader who inquired about lap times!) with 16 turns; It's 70 degrees and windy (22 MPH!) as the sun sets. It's a high speed surface, so a speedy track. No incidents, but I did notice how fast this track can be, as first laps were around 1:27, and ended around 1:20 when the one practice was done! A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.
Random Driver Eye Candy: Has a great sense of humor, can get a bit Italian spicy at times, but who can resist those LeClerc eyes? And is a great furbaby Daddy!
Time to go Sprinting for the last time this season! It's a gorgeous clear Friday night at the track, which is all lit up for night racing (whee!). Temps are in the high 60's and the winds have died down to just 12 MPH. Apparently audio problems in the Sky Sports Box as we can hear all the noises from the track, but no commentary! And they come on just in time as the drivers hit the track! SQ1:12 Minutes: No incidents, so your bottom 5 for Sprint are : Colapinto, Zhou, Ocon, Tsunoda and Perez (who will remind us he has a contract for his Red Bull seat in 2025!)
SQ2: 10 minutes. No incidents, so next bottom 5 for Sprint are: Magnussen, Stroll, Bottas, Albon and Alonso.
SQ3: Eight minutes for pole and grid position! No incidents (quiet so far this Qatar race!), so your top ten grid is: Norris on pole, Russell, 2nd, Piastri, 3rd, Sainz, 4th, LeClerc, 5th, Verstappen, 6th, Hamilton, 7th, Gasly 8th, Lawson, 9th, and Hulkenberg 10th. Update: Lawson exceeded track limits, so switch places with him and Hulkenberg.
Sprint Race: 19 laps. No mandatory pit stops. It's a clear, warm night at the track, winds are mild, and the crowd is ready! All drivers running on Medium tyres except for Sabers' Zhou, running on soft tyres...cuz...Sauber! Update from yesterday, is that since Red Bull with Perez and Williams with Colapinto doing some overnight upgrades, they will be starting from the pit lane. And it LIGHTS OUT (Sprint version!), and Lando charges ahead to take the lead, with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, leapfrogging George Russell for 2nd! By the end of the first lap, lots of movement in the back, as Max Verstappen drops to 9th, and Liam Lawson drops seven places, all the way back to 16th!
Lap 9 sees Verstappen overtake Gasly to snag 8th place (and is in the points), and Piastri and Russell having themselves a race for 2nd place, with Lando out in front, trying to give Oscar DRS when he can! Lap 12 sees some excellent offense (LeClerc) and defense driving skills (Hamilton) on turns 1 and 2, with both drivers tyre to tyre until LeClerc finally pulls away with the overtake for 5th, behind his teammate Sainz, as Russell and Piastri are still battling it out for 2nd, with Norris about 1.6 seconds in the lead! On the last lap (19), Russell takes one last go at Piastri, but Oscar is able to hold him off, and as Oscar head towards the finish line, his McLaren teammate Lando backs off to let Oscar Piastri win his 2nd Sprint Race in a row at Qatar! This was Lando's payback for when Lando gave up the lead to Oscar in Brazil per team orders! Now it's Team Papaya Harmony for McLaren, as both drivers snag a combined 15 points! Russell, 3rd, Sainz, 4th LeClerc, 5th (also fastest lap of the Sprint, and combined 10 points with that fastest lap for Ferrari), Hamilton, 6th, Hulkenberg, 7th and Verstappen, 8th.
Random Driver Eye Candy! This might be a surprise, but I just adore Yuki! while he may be the shortest driver on the circuit, he is quite funny, charming, can cook and swears a lot!
Onto GP Qualis- same rules as the Sprint Qualis: Three hours later, and its cool at 68 degrees, winds at 12 MPH and humidity at 60% at 9pm Qatar time!
Q1: 18 minutes. No incidents. Bottom five are: Ocon, Colapinto, Hulkenberg, Lawson and Albon. So both Williams cars starting in back of the grid on Sunday. Q2: 14 minutes. No incidents. Next bottom five are: Gasly, Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda and Stroll.
Q3: 12 minutes. For pole position and top ten grid placement! No incidents, so your pole position leader is Verstappen, then Russell, 2nd, Norris, 3rd, Paistri, 4th, LeClerc, 5th, Hamilton, 6th, Sainz, 7th, Alonso, 8th, Perez, 9th, and Magnussen in the 10th grid position for Sunday's Grand Prix! UPDATE: Max has been slapped with a one spot grid penalty, and swaps with Russell, who will now be on pole; apparently the stewards felt Max had slowed down on his lap, causing George, who was behind him, to serve left, costing George time. I'm sure that will fuel Max's attitude on Sunday! The sniping between Georgie and Max later in the night and GP race morning has been a bit spicy! How spicy? Max basically told George to Eff Off! here's the link to that story! (Always source when you can!) ! https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/dec/01/max-verstappen-accuses-george-russell-of-trying-to-screw-him-over-at-qatar-gp
Qatar GP: 57 laps. Gorgeous clear night skies, moderate temperature of 68 degrees, and winds at 12 MPH. Mother Nature has been consistent this weekend. One thing I should point out is besides the race at the top for the Constructors Cup, there is a mighty battle occurring among three teams for 6th place, which is worth 95 million! So keep an eye to see if Haas, RB, and Alpine finish in the top ten. McLaren needs just 15 points MORE than the Ferrari team to claim the Cup, btw. All drivers starting on Medium tyres, except for Hulkenberg, who is starting on Hard. With all that, it's LIGHTS OUT, and Max jumps ahead of Georgie on the first turn, as does Lando (McLaren fans holding their breath on that Lando move!) and the first lap isn't even halfway done, as we have a yellow safety car out due to a COLLISION at the back of the grid, with Ocon, Hulkenberg and.....wait for it....Colapinto! his third collision in four races; Williams 12th crash/collision of the season! Hulkenberg is able to roll out, but rear tyre is off the rim, so off to the paddock he will go to get that fixed. (I KNEW we were not going to get thru a whole weekend of having no incidents!). Drivers are okay, btw. On replay, it was Hulkenberg that bumped Ocon, who crashed into Colapinto and those two spun into the gravel. ALSO, Stroll and Albon banged wheels and spun off, and off to the paddock they go. Restart on Lap 5, and Max, Lando and Georgie maintain top 3, with Oscar overtaking LeClerc for 4th. (McLaren drivers just need to finish ahead of the Ferrari's!) , and BANG, we have Bottas and Lawson bumping and sliding off the gravel about three turns into this lap! (Will we get a completed lap in this race????!). Both cars are able to rejoin the track though! It's official: Both Williams Colapinto and Alpine's Ocon are out (DNF) of this race!
Laps 10-14: Stroll gets a 10 second PENALTY for his bumping into Albon, pits the car to serve that penalty (so it cannot be applied in next week's finale), and then Aston-Martin promptly retires his car (DNF). Lawson is hit with a 10 second PENALTY for his collision with Bottas! Stewards are busy, as they slap a 5 second PENALTY on Hamilton for a false start from the beginning of the race (it was CLOSE). Lap 24 finds Russell pitting to switch to the Hard tyres, and it did not go well, as it was a seven second pit stop (right rear was stubborn to come off), and now finds himself 11th on the grid. Lap 30 has someone's wing mirror (Albon's) in the middle of the first straight, and much debate as to how to handle this, yellow flag? safety car? This debate has gone on for at least 4 laps now, and Bottas just ran over it, obliterating it to shreds and leaving its debris on the track! Right after that, we have our "holy crap" moment, as both Hamilton and Sainz have a puncture in their tyres from that debris! Both drivers pit, Lewis serving his five-second penalty, and comes out in 16th. Sainz comes out in 10th. And NOW on Lap 36, FIA sends out the Safety Car, and just about every driver pits to change tyres, most of them to the Hards. That Safety Car should have been deployed about four laps ago! Lets see how his massive error by the FIA affects the rest of the race!
Our second restart of the race happens on Lap 39, and with all that chaos I just mentioned- the grid has had some changes: Verstappen still in the lead, Norris 2nd, LeClerc now in third, Piastri now in 4th, Perez in 5th, Gasly with a huge jump (using the safety car timing well!) in sixth, Russell back up to 7th, Sainz in 8th, Zhou (!!!!) in 9th, and Alonso 10th. Both Mercedes drivers chirping hard on the team radio how unhappy they are on the Hard tyres, with Lewis in 16th.
And off they go, and Lando give Max a good going on the first turn, but Max holds Lando off! Speaking of off, Perez car stalls, then get bumped off the track! and seconds later, as we hit Lap 40, Hulkenberg CRASHES into the barriers (he's okay!) , but guess who is back? Yep, ANOTHER Yellow Safety Car! Some drivers pit to change to Medium tyres (the Hard tyres not cutting it today on this track!), RB going on Softs. with both Perez and Hulkenberg out, that is FIVE drivers out of this race (Did Not Finish). Third restart on Lap 43, and it's a clean start with only Magnussen giving Albon a bump off of the track. The stewards have slapped Lando with a 10 second PENALTY for a stop/go infraction while under one of the yellow flags from earlier....AARRGH! (That just ruined my lovely steak n eggs meal I had earlier!). Lando pits to serve the penalty, and comes out dead last with 12 laps to go.
Random Driver Eye Candy! Y'all knew this was coming, especially after that penalty! Needed some Happy, Sexy Lando at this point!
Lap 48, and Hamilton gets ANOTHER PENALTY for pit lane infraction. Lewis drives into the pit lane to serve the penalty, but he has had enough of this race, telling the Mercedes team to "park the car", which they refuse. He is now in last place. Albon hit with a 10 second PENALTY for causing a collision- he should just pit now, and serve the penalty here, so its not applied in the final race next week! In these final laps, we have Sainz putting the pressure on Gasly for 5th, and Lando has done several overtakes to get to 11th, trying to get into the top 10 to at least get a point! Lando does get into 10th place, and Albon does the smart thing and pits to take the penalty today.
And after all that, Max wins the race by 6.5 seconds, LeClerc in 2nd, and Paistri in 3rd, Russell in 4th, Gasly in 5th, Sainz 6th, Alonso 7th, Zhou-8th, Magnussen 9th, and Lando Norris claws back to get the final point in 10th. Lando also picked up a point for fastest lap as well!
Notes: Zhou won Driver fan favorite of the day, as he picked up the very first points for Sauber this season! Happy for him!
Alonso ran a smart tyre race, sticking to the Mediums while others had switched to hard, and they found out, as the kids like to say! Gasly is having a great last quarter of a season for Alpine (all that shade I threw at that team motivated them!), picking up big points to put them in the lead for 6th place.
Only seven points separate Lando and Charles for 2nd in the Driver Cup standings! The Constructors Cup WILL be decided next week in Abu Dhabi, between McLaren and Ferrari; only 21 points separate the two teams...as they say in motorsports...LET'S GO! After FINALLY having a great race, I had to add Zhou Guanyu to this post. As his manager said after the race: "The rent was due, Zhou's cat was down to the last can of tuna, and Sauber pit crew deserved a bonus for this race!" F1 fans were really happy for him, as was I!
See all you Zoomies next weekend for the FINAL 2024 Grand Prix, airing on one of ESPN's channels here in the U.S.
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