Austria: pre-sprint idiocy 2023

 

Few things have put me off F1 more than the sprint race money-grubbing nonsense, with the exception of the rancid idea to have pretend qualifying for the pretend race.

As before when this cash-grabbing cretinism was imposed on the sport, I’m not watching the Saturday qualifying, and will catch the sprint race itself just to see how cars perform, which can be useful for Sunday’s actual race.

Qualifying (actual qualifying, for the proper race) was notable for countless drivers getting lap times deleted for exceeding track limits. Which is their own damned fault.

Q1 wasn’t too surprising, with Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Sargeant, Magnussen, and De Vries failing to escape.

Q2 saw a regular elimination: Perez. He had the pace, perhaps even to challenge for pole, but just couldn’t get in a lap time without it being deleted. Thus, the Mexican starts the race from 15th. Another big name to go was Russell, 11th, who just wasn’t fast enough. Between the two were Ocon, Piastri, and Bottas.

And so to Q3. Could anyone stop Verstappen?

No, in a word. He’d looked on for pole all day long and duly got it, with Leclerc joining him on the front row.

Nice day for Ferrari, even so, with Sainz leading row two ahead of Norris (his upgraded McLaren looked tasty throughout qualifying). Hamilton was next, followed by the Aston Martin duo, with Stroll (unusually) ahead of Alonso. Hulkenberg had another good qualifying to put his car in 8th, with Gasly and Albon bringing up the rear.

 

As I said, on pace, Perez could’ve been front row, maybe even leading. He’s 13, each way third the odds top 2, to either get pole for the sprint or to win the sprint race.

But he’s got to be able to get in a lap.

That extends to 14 with boost. Might be daft but his car has got the pace, so I’ve backed Perez each way at 14 to ‘win’ the sprint qualifying.

 

Morris Dancer

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