In the endless pursuit of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, even marginal gains are achievements in themselves.
Although McLaren could not deny the world champions the top spot on the grid for Saturday morning’s 24-lap sprint race, they reinforced the fact that they are now the clear closest challengers to Red Bull. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured second on the grid, the latter rebounding immediately from a sub-par weekend in Spain.
The McLaren duo each had the benefit of the team’s new front wing design for Friday’s sprint qualifying session and they used it to be the closest to Verstappen.
“This is a position we can try and capitalise on and see if we can go for the win,” said team principal Andrea Stella after sprint qualifying.
“At the same time, we once again can see how tight the field is at the front. There’s really not much to pick between Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes, so we need to maximise the package, the driving, the execution and see what we can do tomorrow.”
But while McLaren seem to be in contention to challenge Verstappen in the sprint race with a keener eye on what will follow after, the two most experienced drivers in the field – Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – were left scratching their heads after relatively poor results on Friday. Hamilton suffered damage to his Mercedes’ floor after an unforced error into turn six left him running through the gravel, while Alonso was out-qualified by team mate Lance Stroll – an occurence which has become more frequent in recent rounds.
“It was tight as we knew [it would be] – and it’s going to be also the same tomorrow,” Alonso said after being eliminated from SQ2. “I think the race as well is going to be ultra-tight.
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“I think points are only for the top eight, so there’s not really anything to fight for tomorrow, but it’s always good info for the first stint of the race, because it’s just those 24 laps. So [there’s] something to learn for sure.”
Hamilton reached SQ3 but could only manage sixth ahead of Sergio Perez – whose only SQ3 run was compromised by traffic – the Alpine pair and Charles Leclerc, who did not set a time at all.
“I wasn’t in the mix at all, the whole session was pretty disastrous from my point,” Hamilton admitted. “I don’t think we had…
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