The Sprint qualifying blessed us with a different grid for Sunday. After struggling for most part of the year, Daniel Ricciardo will start from the front row. He’ll fight for the first position with his old teammate, Max Verstappen who takes pole on the race day. Though Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas came first in the sprint, he’ll take position at the back of the grid. Having a hard time keeping up with what’s going on? Let us break it down for you. From what happened in the sprint qualifying to how the grid will be set in the Temple of Speed – Monza :
Hamilton with a poor start in Sprint
Lewis started from the second position but was on sixth before even reaching the first corner. All this due a poor start which cost him grid positions as well as points in the Drivers’ Championship.
“I just went too deep on the clutch, got too much wheelspin.” – Lewis Hamilton
He remained on the 5th position for all the 18 laps as Pierre Gasly who was ahead of him, went into the barriers. Though Lewis drove on the medium tyres, he struggled to get past the McLaren of Lando Norris who was on softs. The softs are supposed to lose pace after a certain time but Lando managed to keep Hamilton at bay.
“I think we were probably surprised that the soft tyre was as fast as it was.”, said Lewis.
Monza hope shatters for Gasly
Pierre Gasly who won at Monza last year crashed on Lap 1 at Curve Grande, bringing out a safety car. His start reflected his peak performance of this season, gaining on Lewis and Lando but soon it ended with a contact with Daniel Ricciardo.
“And yes, unfortunately there was this contact with Daniel and broke the front wing, and went straight to the wall as the front wing went under the car.”, he told an interviewer.
He’ll start from the back but who knows what the race brings for him. His 2020 Monza win was not a normal one either!
Perez and Stroll
A little happening at the Monza Sprint saw Red Bull’s Sergio Perez giving position to Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. This took place when Perez left the track due to lack of space but in doing so came out ahead of Stroll, hence gaining a position. Considered as an advantage, this position had to be given back.
Though incidences like these happen often in Formula 1, this gave the fans to listen to the conversations between Jonathan Wheatley (team manager at Red Bull) and Michael Masi. Later on, Perez gave the position at appropriate time with no further investigations needed.
Grid positions for Sunday
The positions at the end of Sprint and for the race is different which is due to the shift of Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas from the first to the last. This unfortunate luck for Bottas comes with the grid penalty that he’ll get as his power unit will change for the fourth time. There are no grid penalties till three times but with more than that a driver will find himself at the back of the grid. Due to this, every other driver will jump one place forward. Max Verstappen will take pole followed by the McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris respectively.
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