The fourth round of the championship served as a reminded that the championship is far from over. In fact, with 22 (or 23) rounds on the calendar, we’ve only just scratched the surface. But tension is building, and a spot of rain is always the key to shaking the grid up, which is certainly how we like to see it! Here are the report cards for Imola:
Top of the class:
Red Bull
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 1st | Sprint: 1st | Race: 1st (+FL)
The results speak for themselves, Verstappen was on a roll this weekend. Clearly, he was keen to maximize his points haul after two of the previous three weekends have been plagued by reliability issues.
Some points seemed to slip through his fingers at the start of the sprint, but he managed to retake the lead, becoming the first driver during a sprint to do so. During the race, the Dutchman looked pretty much untouchable, finishing ahead of the rest of the grid quite comfortably.
Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 7th | Sprint: 3rd | Race: 2nd
The other side of the Red Bull garage can be pretty chuffed with the outcome of their weekend as well. Initially, it seemed like the weather was going to throw a spanner in the works for Pérez, as his qualifying in the changeable conditions was below-par, but he made up for it in the sprint, allowing him to start the race in a position more suited to the Bulls. The Mexican then managed to nail the start, kept Leclerc at bay quite skilfully and later overtook the Monegasque again after a round of pitstops relegated him to third.
With an excellent weekend for Red Bull and a less fortunate outing for the prancing horses, they are closing the large points deficient rapidly, but we have to wait and see whether their reliability problems are truly sorted before we can actually establish whether the Championship battle (Driver’s and Constructor’s) will feature them as one of the main characters.
Lando Norris – Qualifying: 3rd | Sprint: 5th | Race: 3rd
One could argue that McLaren was simply lucky with the Friday conditions and got handed the third podium spot on Sunday on a silver platter, but I would like to politely disagree. At the start of the season the MCL36 looked to be the worst car on the grid, but it has been improving rapidly, and they have the results to show for it.
Sure, had it been a ‘conventional’ weekend, they wouldn’t have been able elbow their way up, but the truth of the matter is that Lando Norris was present and ready to pounce whenever it mattered, whilst so many of the competing teams and drivers were falling apart around him. So, this third place was well-deserved.
Aston Martin
Sebastian Vettel – Qualifying: 9th | Sprint: 13th | Race: 8th
Lance Stroll – Qualifying: 15th | Sprint: 15th | Race: 10th
If you still need proof of the fact that the new regulations are living up to their promise, then this is it. With Aston Martin’s point haul this weekend, all ten teams have scored points this season, and we’re only four races in. This was pretty much unimaginable in previous years.
Vettel’s early change from inters to slicks after a slippery start paid off, whilst Stroll’s point was earned by some impressive defending.
Also, Vettel’s qualifying performance certainly deserves some credit, getting the Aston Martin into Q3 seemed like an impossible thought considering how their season has gone. Don’t get them wrong though, the Silverstone team still know they have a lot of room for improvement going forward.
Then for honourable mentions: The first one of the day goes to George Russell, as he clearly outperformed his car by holding off Bottas to finish fourth. Next up is Yuki Tsunoda, as he outperformed his teammate at every turn. He also drove smartly to work his way up from 16th on Friday to 7th on Sunday. Last up is Kevin Magnussen, who managed to wrangle his Haas into shape to take home 9th whilst teammate Mick (mentioned later) clearly struggled more to squeeze a good result out of the car.
The Struggle Bus:
Ferrari
Charles Leclerc – Qualifying: 2nd | Sprint: 2nd | Race: 6th
Carlos Sainz – Qualifying: 10th | Sprint: 4th | Race: DNF
In true Ferrari Fashion, the Italian team failed to deliver in front of their home crowd. At this point I can do little else except for decide that it truly must be a curse of some sorts. Leclerc was on the ball the entire time, nipping at the heels of Max Verstappen whenever he got the chance.
As Charles Leclerc himself said, he ‘became too greedy at one point’, which caused him to throw away a third place as he spun on a wet patch whilst trying to catch out Sergio Pérez. With this unfortunate turn of events, the Scuderia has seen their points advantage diminish to just 11 points.
Sainz’s weekend didn’t get much better as his race lasted just two corners before being punted off at Variante Tamburello by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, although one could argue the Aussie wasn’t left with anywhere to go. The Spaniard just needs to move on from a second successive DNF.
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 13th | Sprint: 14th | Race: 13th
When your team principal comes on the radio to publicly apologise for the state of the car, you know that things have truly gone awry. Whilst Russell seemed to have made the car work for him, or at least manage a good result in spite of the car, our seven-time world champ wasn’t as fortunate. With failing to finish in the top ten in either qualifying or race, he had his worst weekend since the Belgian Grand Prix back in 2009.
What Hamilton did manage to do, was featuring as the main character of the race. With over 40 laps spent looking at the rear of Gasly’s Alpha Tauri, just inside the DRS zone but without the pace to overtake, their battle was the one to watch. We can only hope that Mercedes sorts out their porpoising issue soon, as Russell already complained about suffering from back and chest pains – although Ferrari suggests that’s not the biggest issue with the W13.
Daniel Ricciardo – Qualifying: 6th | Sprint: 6th | Race: 18th
Ricciardo certainly didn’t have a bad start to the weekend, but it all quickly unravelled on Sunday. After a promising start, his race effectively ended after a collision with Sainz at the first chicane. The collision was deemed a race incident, not surprising considering the tricky conditions and the fact that it happened on the very first lap, but after the race Daniel still popped into the Ferrari motorhome to apologise to Sainz.
The rest of his own race was pretty much ruined after the incident, as an early pit for slicks simply put him at the back of a DRS train. He ended up pitting three times only to finish last of the classified runners.
Then for dishonourable mentions: First up is Mick Schumacher. He impressed during the sprint, as he looked set to finish 10th, before faltering when it mattered most. Then during the race, an early spin at the Tamburello chicane dashed his hopes of scoring his first points in F1 once more. We can only hope that his race engineer had some uplifting words at the ready, so he can come back stronger in Miami.
The second dishonourable mention goes to Fernando Alonso, although his retirement from the race was due to no fault of his own. Contact with Schumacher severely damaged his sidepod, which later dramatically gave way whilst he was being overtaken by Hamilton. Another DNF for Alonso leaves him well adrift of teammate Esteban Ocon
The final dishonourable mentions goes to the red flags rules in qualifying. The conditions caused havoc as the session was red flagged a record-breaking 5 times, but one has to question the fairness of the rules. Both Magnussen and Norris caused stoppages in Q3, in other series (e.g. IndyCar) that would lead to their session times being deleted and would have relegated them to the back of the top 10. Instead, they were able to benefit from the stoppages to either set laps or keep hold of their grid position, which doesn’t seem fair.
The F1 circus will be back on the 8th of May for the Miami Grand Prix. Currently, the fake Marina seems to be the most-defining factor of the newest Grand Prix on the calendar, which I’m not sure is a good thing, but it does seem promising that they’re trying to make a spectacle out of it. Now we can only hope that the on-track spectacle is as good as it looks to be off-track. Be sure to tune in at 8:30 PM for the final verdict.
