Anyway, enough of Wolff, and enough of me. Luke McLaughlin’s qualifying report is here. Enjoy the rest of your day.
More on managing the pair. Wolff explains that he asked Alain Prost what went wrong with him. Ayrton Senna “and he said: ‘The team were never transparent. We never knew who is the loved child.’ I try to do the opposite. Pressure when pressure is necessary, and also the odd ‘Pull your finger out of your backside’. And on the other side, put my arm around them when they need the support.” He goes on to say that if either of them wins the title it will be great, Antonelli doing something never done before because of his age,. Russell much deserved after battling through. Wolff always comes across as very genuine.
Antonelli had a small power issue in the final sector. pushing the button too late, “but it was tiny”, says Toto.
Wolff on managing the pair: “I always try to be super-balanced. May the best man win.”
In Miami, Russell tried to copy Antonelli’s setup. It didn’t work, he has gone back to his own route.
Here’s Toto, asked about the difference between his two drivers. “Kimi is more brutal, George is more smooth.”
Naomi Schiff did not go back to the pole-sitter, so here’s some more from Russell’s first take. “The last few races, for numerous reasons, things haven’t quite been on our side. But I came into this weekend with just a clean slate, felt good,. just great to be on pole … I think it’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow. Lewis did an amazing job to get up there, that was a real surprise. We thought the fight was with ourselves and McLaren. And then Lewis has been really quick all this session. So I’m sure there’s going to be a fight on our hands.”
“All weekend we’ve been four tenths off. even with the upgrade … A big, big thank you to everyone back at Maranello.”
“ These guys did a great lap … Congrats to George.”
Hamilton beaming, joking. “It feels great to be up here with them. It’s been so difficult.” Missing FP1 hurt, he says. “P3 I was three tenths, four tenths off.”
Antonelli says: “It’s been a little bit of a difficult weekend.” First time he has not been on the front row this season.
Russell speaks. “It’s been a great weekend so far. I feel like my old self again … I came into this weekend with a clean slate. It’s great to be on a pole.”
1. Russell 2. Hamilton 3. Antonelli 4. Norris 5. Verstappen 6. Hadjar 7. Piastri 8. Lawson 9. Hülkenberg 10. Leclerc
Pick the bones out of that. Piastri wound up seventh, having been fastest before the red flag.
Russell cannot be beaten! Verstappen can only make fourth, and then Hamilton splits the two Mercedes, 0.064 behind Russell.
Antonelli fastest, then Russell takes it by 0.319! Norris third, Piastri fourth.
Antonelli, then Russell, then Norris powering through.
Norris resting. A gamble. We saw him pull it off on occasion last year, before he gained that world-champion serenity.
Hamilton on older tyres can only run sixth. Not a good day for either Ferrari.
Antonelli can’t beat the times set by Piastri and Verstappen, but Russell can.
Antonelli is the first man to go for a flying lap. on “half-used tyres” Brundle says, in light of the interruption.
And we are go for (I hope) the last time today.
Q3 will resume in a couple of minutes.
Brundle suspects driver error, but is not ruling out a power surge. Ferrari will be worried about the state of the car; remember in 2021 that Leclerc took pole in Monaco. a late crash meant he couldn’t race on the Sunday.
Hamilton ready to go, Leclerc’s side of the garage stunned.
That is a Ferrari out of qualifying. Piastri ran a 1:15.175, ahead of Verstappen by 0.152, and those are the only two with a time. There’s eight and a half minutes left when Q3 resumes.
A week after going out of his home grand prix, the Monegasque has hit the wall. “A huge impact,” says Brundle.
Leclerc crashes! Red flag!
OK, so Q3 is getting started, slowly. About a third of the session passed without interest.
Lance Stroll has been talking in the pit lane:
double quotation mark How was that? Not so good.” Anything tomorrow? “No, we need to wait for the upgrade package.” Holding pattern? “Pretty much.” How is that as a driver? “It is what it is, that’s how it goes.” First race outqualifying Fernando, mean anything? “No. I don’t care.” Mean more if you guys were at the front? “I don’t know. I don’t give a shit.”
That give me an idea for an F1 play: Waiting For the Upgrade Package, by Samuel Becketts Corner.
F1? Pfft. Endurance driving is where it’s at for Giles this weekend.
Giles Richards. our F1 correspondent, is off this weekend on his annual pilgrimage to Le Mans, so Luke McLaughlin is our man in Barcelona. Luke checks in from the circuit:
double quotation mark Yesterday a weekend preview piece was planned on Kimi Antonelli: several drivers spoke interestingly about him during the media day on Thursday, including Lando Norris. Charles Leclerc; all were generous in their praise. Then. at a Pirelli book launch on Friday, the former driver Nick Heidfeld praised the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, for his patience in nurturing the 19-year-old Italian. “If you look back last year. he was not always winning, not always as strong as he is now,” Heidfeld said. “But Toto gave him the space to grow and always protected him. He is paying that back now.” However, once news emerged of Alpine’s successful appeal against the Monaco pit-lane speeding penalties, the Antonelli idea went in the bin. it was all about the potential implications and possible counter-appeals following Pierre Gasly’s reinstatement to the Monaco podium. I arrived at the pleasantly hot track today wondering if that would again dominate the agenda, but all seems quiet for now,. with McLaren and Ferrari both looking highly competitive against Mercedes the stage is set for a fascinating conclusion to qualifying before the race tomorrow. Then again it seems that predicting anything in Formula One is unwise at best.
Out go Lindblad, Bortoleto, Colapinto, Gasly, Bearman and Sainz.
Hulkenberg, for now, sneaks into the top 10.
Piastri can only make sixth, and that is seventh when Norris comes through in fourth. That’s better for the world champion.
Once again the top men are staying in their hutches, five of the big seven,. the McLarens have had to go out.
What will the heavily fancied McLarens do? Norris was fastest in FP2 and Piastri second in FP3.
Bortoleto, Colapinto, Bearman, Gasly, Sainz and Hulkenberg in the drop zone. The Hulk broke track limits so has no time.
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