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China: pre-qualifying 2024

  It’s been a while, but finally we return to Hell. I do not refer to China, which is back on the calendar after several years, but the nonsense of the sprint race which has been inflicted on this event. The schedule has been rejigged for the cashgrabsprint this time around, with Fridays featuring the only practice and sprint qualifying, Saturdays hosting the sprint race and qualifying for the actual race, and Sundays seeing the race proper. A notable feature of the Chinese circuit is that it has an enormous straight, and another pretty long one. Williams may be happy. I suspect Mercedes will not be. This will also make the challenge for overcoming Red Bull that much harder for the chasing pack. Stroll was quickest in practice, ahead of Piastri by a third of a second. The Aussie was barely ahead of Verstappen, with a similarly tight margin to Perez meaning Piastri to Perez were covered by a tenth. Hulkenberg was next, albeit four-tenths down the road, and two-hundredths ahead of team
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Japan: pre-race 2024

  Qualifying was surprisingly tight at the sharp end, but we’ll see if things are closer in the race than has typically been the case so far this year. Q1 saw drivers from five different teams all say goodbye to qualifying, with Zhou Guanyu slowest again, and Gasly, Magnussen, and Sargeant all unable to proceed. The shocker was Stroll, fastest of those eliminated, whose team mate Alonso was faster than everyone but Verstappen at the time of the Canadian’s failure. Stroll has had a mostly decent start to the season but this was not a good moment. Q2 Ocon was delighted to reach the middle session but ended up the slowest chap in it. Hulkenberg, Bottas, and Albon all left at this stage, as Ricciardo (though he was just barely beaten by Tsunoda). The Japanese driver is having a splendid start to the season. Q3 saw Verstappen nab pole again, but Perez was less than a tenth behind to lock out the front row for Red Bull. Very good driving all session long from the Mexican. The second row is
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Japan: pre-qualifying 2024

  Another race weekend, another Williams crash in practice. This time it was Sargeant. This event brought out red flags in first practice, and worries regarding the chassis. The times for FP1 were very much business as usual, with Verstappen leading Perez, then Sainz, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Alonso, Piastri, Tsunoda and Norris. FP2 was rain-afflicted, as the rest of the weekend may be. Most of the running was intermediate with dry tyres going on only towards the very end. Only 13 drivers posted a time, with Piastri quickest, half a second ahead of Hamilton and four seconds ahead of Leclerc.   Given lack of running and potential for rain, I’m not betting on qualifying. Qualifying starts at 7am UK time, with the race beginning at 6am.   Morris Dancer
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