So much for Mercedes’ prospects of fighting for a fourth victory of the season today.
After Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had arguably both missed out on beating Max Verstappen to take pole in Friday’s sprint qualifying session for different reasons, everything fell apart for them on Saturday.
First, Russell fell backwards in the sprint race while Hamilton struggled with a car problem which developed on the formation lap. Then any hope of bouncing back for when it mattered most in the grand prix appeared to be lost when Hamilton crashed out – figuratively – in Q1 before Russell crashed out – literally – at the end of Q3.
As such, it’s easy to assume that the intrigue for the fight for victory will be centred around the two drivers on the front row – Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, the two drivers who are at the top of the championship standings and have the most victories of any this season. However, there’s plenty of reason to think that Ferrari will be joining the party on Sunday.
One of Verstappen’s criticisms of sprint races is how they take away a lot of the mystery and intrigue ahead of a grand prix. As relatively eventful as Saturday’s sprint was, it certainly appeared to do just that.
The Red Bull driver had enough pace to stay out of reach of Norris who faded over the 19 laps with his tyres wearing. But once the Ferrari pair had cleared Russell and assumed third and fourth, Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc were both able to post lap times equal to and quicker than the two leaders ahead until catching Norris on the final lap.
“I’m probably most concerned about Ferrari’s race pace,” admitted McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. “Just based on the sprint race – the tyres seemed to get stronger in the race. I think it’s going to be a bit of a slugfest.”
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Having beaten his team mate for the second session of the day on Saturday, third-placed Sainz was clearly brimming with confidence as he looked forward to the grand prix.
“I think for sure we’re going into tomorrow with the target of winning the race,” Sainz said. “But at the same time, we are lowering expectations because we know that our rivals must have learned a lot from the sprint and will put together a better package. That means we probably won’t have so much of an advantage.”
After Norris took dominant victories in both Zandvoort…
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