Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo could qualify only 13th and 18th respectively, and on Sunday the team rolled the dice and took a gamble – surprisingly perhaps with both cars – to start on medium tyres.
Lacking grip off the grid and around the opening lap, Norris and Ricciardo were fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. When they crossed the start/finish line for the first time, they had tumbled to 18th and last places.
From there it was always going to be a long evening, and by the end, some attrition ahead left them in 14th and 15th, with Ricciardo just ahead. Only Nicholas Latifi and Nico Hulkenberg, from the similarly struggling Williams and Aston Martin teams, were behind.
The build-up to the disastrous race weekend was the perfect storm that took place in the previous week’s test.
First, the team lost Ricciardo to COVID, which meant that the Australian missed a lot of priceless track time. Secondly, a brake cooling issue emerged that had not been apparent at…
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