Lando Norris and McLaren had put everything perfectly. Knowing that they were unlikely to keep their scandalous advantage of the Grand Prix of the Grand Prix FP3 when the track took place at 47 ° C and the others closed in the Saturday evening, they remained confident.
Norris was visibly led to the top of a wave of this one, who had so failed in Bahrain a week ago. Comfortably faster than the teammate Oscar Piastri since the start of the weekend, he was running beautifully here between the walls, not an inch of daylight between the flank of tires and the inflexible concrete, the car doing everything he asked for. What was a hard work and adrenaline for others seemed to be the game of the child. It was almost a trance. Maybe too much.
In FP3, they even planned how it was going to the first quarter, fueling the car for several laps on the same set of tires.
While everyone, even Piastri, did the conventional thing in the first quarter and ran a single flying turn, Norris was fed for two leaflets with a recharge time between the two. Indeed, he launched a few tenths of his first round. Thus, even with the tires beyond their best, it was 0.214 of anyone during these first races. This gave him the luxury of sitting the rest of the session.
Verstappen is removed and on a set of used tires went even faster, showing that the tracking accelerated as the temperatures had lowered and the more they went down, the more the Red Bull was going to be a threat.
In Q2, Norris again directed times after the first races (closely, from Verstappen) and remained again in the garage for the rest of the session. Verstappen was released again for a second round on a second -hand set, but this time could not improve. Piastri was 0.15 s drifting during the first Q2 races, but not entirely with the confidence of Norris, especially in the first two corners.
So everything was there for Norris in the third trimester. He just had to continue to overcome this wave, then see what the Red Bull could do – and perhaps also Mercedes by George Russell – while the track continued to cool down and the deficit of these cars with its narrowing.
Piastri was the first for the first races in the third trimester and had just dropped his knees while Norris crashed strongly in turn 5. Perhaps confidence had overturned excessive confidence, because he was subcontracting a little in turn 4, without kissing the wall of the apex as he had done and had tried to make his way, as if he could not do any harm.
It was at this point that reality bit with a snap in surveillance when the fronts finally grabbed, making it bounce on the opposite sidewalk and from there hard in the wall. Without time on the table.
In terms of championship, it was a disastrous error. But if there was an element of pressure, he came from Verstappen rather than his alleged rival Rival Piastri; That day, Norris had sought to manage his teammate.
With hindsight, perhaps sit on these second runs at the first sorting and Q2 had not been a good idea. Perhaps this had allowed Verstappen to get a better idea of the evolving track and refresh the margins he needed to find. But Norris’ decision came from confidence, having been the pacesetter throughout. This confidence was visible on the edge of the knife on which he was apparently if sitting.
The delay when they erased the disorder allowed the temperature of the track to lower. So the news kept improving for Verstappen – and for Russell in a Mercedes that really comes to life on a nice track. He had finished the first two sectors before the red flag and had a few hundredths in front of the place where Piastri had been at that time. Verstappen had been the last and he had barely started a hot turn while the red flags came out. So he had a set of softs almost unused plus a second brand new set – and there was in fact enough time to use them both.
He seemed to find time for himself of the additional race. So why not start again, suggested that his engineer Gianpiero Lambambiase? The timing would be super tight and this would involve feeding the car for two races, which gives about 0.15 seconds during the first round (with the tire set used). But Max bought it – and this Tour shaded the first series of Piastri by 0.001! Game on.
Obviously, Piastri and Russell would improve when they came out for their last points. But Verstappen too – and he has now had a more recent experience of the evolving track.
As they each carried out these last points, Verstappen was the fastest in the first sector, Russell in the second, Piastri in the third (the best McLaren control of rear temperatures). The final result put Verstappen on the post for the second time in three races, by a hundredth of a second on Piastri, who had dragged Norris with a few tenths everywhere.
Even Russell was only 0.1 s of Piastri and by ruining how he had not given himself the optimal race in the bend 1. Be too aggressive with the last part of his warm-up tower because he did not desperately want to make a tire error in turn 1 without a time on the plateau, he desperately lost a large part. Maybe more than 0.1 s. Pole had been achievable, he said later.
Verstappen, with this previous race, had been able to give it a full commitment to Tour 1 and was a complete 0.35 faster in sector one than during its first round. Piastri had found a similar sector a gain between his first race and second. Verstappen was also helped by a towing of the Yuki Tsunoda teammate at the start of the knees.
Norris had made the crucial error that you simply cannot do when Max Verstappen obtained the Red Bull in a sort of semi-competitive state. This was similar to Suzuka, where the faster McLaren driver (Piastri in Japan) who could have made a comfortable pole made a crucial error while the slower McLaren driver (Norris there, Piastri here) simply had the pace of overcoming the magic of Verstappen.
These achievements in a difficult car obviously give Verstappen a huge buzz. But he was as surprised as anyone. “The car really came to life in the night,” he said, after making big changes between Friday and Saturday, then registering on a configuration in FP3 which was calculated to bring a balance as the temperature dropped.
“The handle came to me. But no, we did not expect this. In FP3, the gap was massive. It just shows that the track is hot, all the other teams, except that McLaren lacks a lot of rhythms. Our tires overheat more than their … tracks where you need a lot of rotation in the middle of the corn and (that is) a big problem.
Russell echoes Verstappen’s thoughts: “Everyone except McLaren has trouble with the overheating of the tires and the more difficult the compound is difficult, the less they overheat. So you will see the greatest divergence of the sweetest tire.
“But even on the medium, there was a lot of degis on Friday. So when you arrive at the race, your tires start overheating and this is where McLaren will withdraw from the rest of us. So, if Oscar can go into the head, he will disappear. As in Bahrain. But if he does not do, that could be a good race.”
As for Norris, after such a devastating error? He will surely start on the hard tire, will run for a long time and hope for a safety car after the others opposed but before him.
