Spoiler Alert with this sticker:
"I am trying not to die out here!" Young Ollie on the team radio during the stormy race!
Welcome back, Zoomies! We only have four races to go in this 2024 season, an this week we are in Rio de Janeiro, where we will have a sprint race for points, Red Bull and Max have already been hit with a five grid place penalty for the GP due to using a sixth new engine now two over the four limit, and Mercedes makes it official, letting the world know what HAS ben known, just that Mercedes has now said Lewis Hamilton will not be part of the team after this season. A key note on that is will Hamilton obey team rules and let his current teammate, George Russell, be "lead driver" for these last four races? Hmm... Also, with the Sao Paulo GP, Aston-Martin's Lance Stroll is racing in in his 164th GP, which makes him the top Canadien to race in the F1 Grand Prix!
First our team/driver graphic!
and the two newish drivers who filled seats:
Liam Lawson replacing Riccardo at RB
Franco Colapinto replacing Sargent at Williams
P1: 60 minutes. Sun is out and 78 degrees in Sao Paulo; the 2.6 mile track has been resurfaced, so that will be new for the drivers this year, and 15 turns total. Lots of fans here from Argentina for this race for their "home" driver, Colapinto! We find out that Haas Kevin Magnussen is ill, and will NOT race in the Practice session nor the Sprint races; Ollie Bearman will take his place for those races, and see if Mags can return for GP qualifying. Every team running on medium tyres except RB, who are starting on soft tyres. No incidents, but a lot of drivers are complaining how bumpy the resurfaced track is! so onto Sprint qualifying!
Driver Eye Candy! He's adorable, short, is a world class chef off the track, and has a potty mouth that would make a battleship of sailors blush- It's RB's Yuki Tsunoda!
Don't let that smile fool you! He is ruthless out on the track!
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.
SQ1: 12 minutes. First two qualis, drivers are required to run on medium tyres. No incidents, so your bottom 5 for the Sprint are: Alonso and Stroll of Aston-Martin, Zhou of Sauber, Ocon of Alpine, and Tsunoda of RB. SQ2: 10 minutes: No incidents, other than Perez bring told to box on his last lap, which cost him (he was NOT happy!). So next bottom 5 are: Perez of Red Bull, Hamilton of Mercedes, Colapinto of Williams, Bottas of Sauber and Hulkenberg of Haas.
SQ3: Eight minutes on soft tyres for Sprint pole and top ten grid placement. Clouds have rolled in, 20 degree drop from earlier today, majorly overcast, and possible showers and winds increasing. No incidents, so your Pole leader is Piastri, with his McLaren teammate Norris 2nd, LeClerc of Ferrari, 3rd, Verstappen of Red Bull 4th (first time in six Sprint races Max will NOT be on pole position!), Sainz of Ferrari, 5th, Russell of Mercedes, 6th, Gasly of Alpine, 7th, Lawson of RB, 8th, Albon of Williams, 9th, and Ollie Bearman of Haas in 10th!
Sprint Race: 24 laps. All drivers on medium tyres. Clear skies. the top eight get points from 8 points to 1 point. Lights Out for Sprint, and after two laps, the top eight holding their position! Fourteen laps in of 24, and it's a four car race between the starting top four, with just to seconds separating 1st and 4th! Lap 18 sees Max overtake Charles for 3rd! McLaren strategy is for Lando to overtake Oscar on the last lap, if they both can hold off Max, for Lando to get those valuable Driver Championship points. Lap 22 finds Haas Hulkenberg go off-track due to an exhaust issue, bringing out a yellow flag. McLaren, not wanting to take a chance with a potential safety car, has made the swap, with Lando now in the lead, and Oscar in 2nd Max in 3rd. And a good strategy that was, as a virtual safety car went up, meaning drivers had to hold their positions as they kept driving, so when the green flag came up on the last lap, Max made a charge at Oscar, who barely held him off, allowing McLaren to have both drivers, Oscar and Sprint race winner Lando, to finish 1-2 in a Sprint race! If this recap didn't make this obvious, Oscar really won this race, but abided by team orders to give Lando the win. Max, 3rd, both Ferrari's in 4th and 5th, Russell in 5th, Gasly 7th, and Perez, who fought hard to climb up to grab the last single point in 8th! Update: On that run Max made on Oscar in the last lap, the stewards (judges) have ruled that was a no-no, and Max was hit with a five second PENALTY, which dropped Max off the podium, and raised Charles LeClerc to 3rd, Max now 4th in the Sprint race final.
Driver Eye Candy: I was surprised how many pix I could find of Yuki shirtless, or less!
GP Q1: Later Saturday afternoon, and the skies have opened up, as it is pouring rain, with lightning and the track is FLOODED, so a delay at the very least! Mental note to self: do NOT attend the Brazil GP! After two hours, FIA called for postponing GP Qualifying till Sunday- one of those rare F1 times where GP Qualifying and the Grand Prix will be on the same day....if the weather cooperates! This was a first for me, so basically my brain broke with the big question- How will the qualifying be "laid out"?
GP Q1- Take Two: Brain rebooted after the glitch of having a race postponed on me! FIA has decide to use the Sprint Qualifying lineup as the Grand Prix grid set-up for Grand Prix Qualifying. It has been raining heavily off and on in Sao Paulo since Saturday evening, and the same was expected for Sunday. The track is wet, so teams/drivers will use the Intermediate tyres, which is for light rain, and if it does rain again, teams will probably switch to the Wet tyres. (that's what they're called!). I would bet good money we get a safety car and/or red flags today with the weather conditions being so brutal. Oh, over 290K GP fans have attended the sessions over the weekend...hearty Brazilians!
I did not get to see the qualifying rounds, but after several wipeouts by drivers on the wet service, this is your starting grid for the Grand Prix:
Insert Update: After seeing video highlights of qualifying, there were FIVE red flags, as both Aston-Martin's hit the wall, Alonso and Stroll, Sainz, and both Williams cars, Colapinto and Albon, who REALLY smashed up his car good. So after all that, my exhausted fingers typed out the GP starting grid for you! F1 starting grid: 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos- Sao Paulo, Brazil
1. Lando Norris McLaren 2. George Russell Mercedes
3. Yuki Tsunoda VCARB. 4. Esteban Ocon Alpine
5. Liam Lawson VCARB 6. Charles Leclerc Ferrari
8. Oscar Piastri McLaren 9. Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
10. Lance Stroll Aston Martin 11. Valtteri Bottas Sauber
12. Sergio Perez Red Bull 13. Pierre Gasly Alpine
14. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes. 15. Oliver Bearman Haas
17. Max Verstappen Red Bull* 16. Franco Colapinto Williams
18. Nico Hulkenberg Haas 19. Zhou Guanyu Sauber
Pit lane – Carlos Sainz (New PU and gearbox)
Albon of Williams out of GP after one of his crashes.DNF Max serving the 5 grid penalty at 17th for new engine upgrade.
Brazil Grand Prix: As the drivers take their formation lap on the sick track, Aston-Martin's Lance Stroll locks up his rear breaks, off into the grass he goes- Embarrassing! Stroll is out (DNF), so 18 drivers on the grid, and we have an ABORTED START (legal in Brazil!), and it's just a mess as Norris is under investigation for potential defying the the aborted start, (he wasn't the only one!).
After a ten minute delay to sort out the above mess, it's finally LIGHTS OUT, and Russell is able to get the jump on Norris for the lead, with Tsunoda holding 3rd, and Ocon 4th. Hamilton jumps up four spots to 10th, Verstappen SIX spots to 11th; all this on the first lap!
Lap 8 has Colapinto getting a tap from young Ollie Bearman (racing in his first wet conditions race GP), and Ollie gets a 10 second PENALTY which he will serve on his pit stop.
Lap 24, and same drivers are holding their positions from 1st to 4th. Verstappen now in 6th, Hamilton has fallen back to 13th, The teams/drivers have been alerted that basically a monsoon is heading their way in the next few laps, so now it's timing as to when to pit and change over to the sturdier WET tyres. LeClerc pits first, and he changes over to a new set of Intermediates! WTH??
Fine! My excuse to get a Miranda Priestly quote in here- but reverse accurate!
Lap 28 finds the rain coming down hard, Ocon overtakes Tsunoda for 3rd, and we have a virtual safety car out as Hulkenberg beaches his car on turn 12! A great opportunity for the drivers to pit and change tyres, which some do! Hulkenberg is able to get back on track, Norris and Russell pits just as the green flag comes out, which was absolutely the worst time for that to happen for those two, strategy wise. Oh, and the stewards have noted that both Mercedes drivers did an illegal tyre pressure change before the 2nd start of the race! Perez, Lawson, and Tsunoda are the only ones who have come out on the WETS, and that may benefit him, because on TV, and even worse for the drivers, the rain is coming down so hard, you can barely see the cars! Piastri gets hit with a 10-second PENALTY for an elbows out collision with Lawson on Lap 26 (Piastri has already pitted)!
Lap 32 has Colapinto change tyres, comes out and immediately proceeds to crash his car into the wall at turn 10, destroying all of the drivers side (he's ok! Argentina fans, not so much!) and automatically bringing out the RED FLAG as that Williams car (an awful day for that team!) needs to be removed and the debris cleared. Strategy wise, this works out perfectly for the top three of Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly (who has jumped 10 spots to 3rd during this race!), as they get to change to a fresh set of tyres, as the rain is now only lightly falling. If you are thinking, "dang, this is a messy race!", you would be correct! There is going to be some SERIOUS discussion between the drivers and their team bosses, as it really should be the drivers call of when to pit or not vs a potential safety car/red flag, re: Norris and Russell.
Oh, Nico Hulkenberg has just been hit with the dreaded BLACK FLAG for getting assistance with getting his car off the track, and he is out of the race for that no-no.
After about 20 minutes, we are back to racing on Lap 33. Rain has stopped, and track is relatively dry. On a rolling start (following the safety car, till the safety car leaves the track, then the lead driver, in this case, Ocon, decides when to hit the gas to start racing), we have Bearman sliding off into the grass, rejoins track in last, then Norris swings wide on turn 10, and he drops back behind Russell, who is now in 4th, with Ocon, Verstappen, and Gasley in the lead. I should mention that while as I mentioned earlier, there is no rain, and the track is
relatively dry, there is a LOT of spray coming off the wheels of the drivers, making it difficult to see what's in front of you, as Ollie Bearman just found out on Lap 35 on Turn 7, spinning out on an unforced error, but he is able to to get back on track. (This is where Ollie's quote I posted at the beginning happened!).
Lap 40 sees Sainz losing control on Turn 8, and into the wall he goes! He is ok, but the car is done for the day, as the way too often yellow safety car is out again. Safety car zips away on Lap 42, and Verstappen overtakes Ocon for the lead on the restart, while Norris slides off and falls to 7th. So its Verstappen and the two Alpines, Ocon and Gasly in the top three!
Other than a good scrap between Lawson, Perez and Hamilton, not much changed in the remaining laps, and so Max Verstappen comes from 17th place to win the Brazil Grand Prix in what has been described as a master class of driving in rainy conditions, winning by a huge 19 seconds. Also, for all the shade I've thrown at Alpine this season, for them (Ocon, Gasly) to finish 2nd and 3rd, picking up 50 million dollars for their team, and having two French drivers finish on the podium since 1997, it was a good day for Alpine!
Max wins Driver of the Day from the fans, and gets an extra point for Fastest Lap of the Day.
Notes: After a most excellent day in the Sprint race, Lando and McLaren had a most terrible, awful Grand Prix Day, with Lando and Oscar finishing 6th and 7th. Max can seal up the Drivers Championship next race in Las Vegas. Lando and George both received a 5,000 Euros fine for the early start infringement on the restart! Both Mercedes drivers were fined 5,000 Euros each (actually the team eats the fine) for the tyre pressure infringement!
Kevin Magnussen was too ill to race on Sunday, so as expected, Ollie Bearman got his trial by rain GP start! I think Kevin was happy not to be in this race! I could've just posted this post in my Saturday Night LIve "Stefan" voice: "This race has EVERYTHING:
Constructers/Team Championship gets even tighter, with McLaren holding the lead, with Ferrari and Red Bull right behind!
A much needed break until the 23rd...Vegas, baby!
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