I think it was them trying to put together a good lap to get out of Q1. He was low in the order before going to the pit before the last push. That was about as much as I could surmise from the timing.
Now that was a great quali. Really impressed with McLaren again, almost felt like both drivers had a shot at pole, even. Piastri keeps delivering.
Disappointed in Perez again, but I guess he made it to Q3 at least. Still, if other teams are approaching RB he really can't afford to be qualifying 9th.
Aston Martin being nowhere really speaks volumes. This was supposed to be a strong track for them. It really is starting to look like they just spent their entire budget over the winter and simply can't afford any upgrades. Everyone else is moving forward and they're just standing dead still.
Very excited to see Hamilton on pole again finally and with McLaren looking fast and several drivers out of position this is looking like the setup for a great race. Especially with how hard it is to overtake here a Hamilton victory isn't impossible.
I dislike the loss of tire use stragity. I like that teams are forced to understand how to get the most out of their car on each compound. Practice is a little more important, teams can't just focus on max pace with softs and race pace on the different compounds.
You make a good point but the format made for a good quali. It’ll be interesting to see how teams find strategy in this new format. That’s the best part of rule changes to me. Just when teams are comfortable with what they know, you switch it up!
I was a little skeptical but I think it turned out pretty well too.
I'm optimistic for tomorrow, I think that's where we'll see the biggest difference with the new allocation. Hopefully there will more variety in strategy.
Does the forced tire compound per session mean that everyone starts the race with the same allocations too? Or are the practice sessions still up to the team?
In theory I don't think so since teams aren't forced to run and return a particular compound in each FP. But in practice teams will probably go into the race with roughly the same allocations.
Has anyone kept track of what the teams returned in each FP?