Qatar: pre-sprint race 2023

 

Ah, the sprint bullshit. Almost missed qualifying this weekend (if Friday counts as the weekend).

Qualifying was notably for an extremely high degree of track evolution, somewhat comparable to a wet circuit with the proviso it was only ever an improvement (whereas rain can come back and slow down times again).

In Q1 we waved goodbye to Sargeant, Lawson, Magnussen, and Zhou Guanyu. And Stroll. The Canadian appeared to push a member of staff shortly after getting out of his car, and during an interview (which I hardly ever pay attention to) he was curt and monotone to a concerning degree. The pressure is very much telling.

Q2 was also highly competitive, and throughout the whole of qualifying many lap times were lost due to overstepping the white lines. Perez was the biggest scalp to fall this way, qualifying 13th, a place behind Sainz. Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, and Albon also departed at this stage.

In Q3 it was once again Verstappen who claimed pole, with Norris the closest. Until the Briton’s time was deleted for exceeding track limits, and the same thing happened on his second run. Piastri was likewise penalised. This then put the Mercedes pair (Russell leading) right behind Verstappen, with Norris lining up 10th and Piastri 6th. They should’ve been 2nd and 4th respectively.

Behind Hamilton was have Alonso (further highlighting the difference between him and Stroll) and Leclerc. Seventh to 9th are Gasly, Ocon, and a well-performing Bottas.

 

If you have a free bet then Russell or Piastri to ‘win’ (each way) the sprint qualifying at 21 is worth considering. Norris is 8, and that’s justified based on his proper qualifying performance but the downside is he had a lot of laps deleted, so you can make your own judgement there.

Personally, not betting on the sprint rubbish. I’ll watch it, and hope the McLarens are out of position to provide a useful guide for the actual race.

 

Morris Dancer

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