Italy: pre-qualifying 2020

Williams are no longer in F1. The family has stepped back from the team, marking an end, after this race weekend, to the days of individuals and families such as Sauber, Jordan, and Brabham. A rather sad day. They’d been down on their luck for a long time despite rare resurgences such as the 2012 Maldonado victory in Spain and a strong initial season under the new rules. Hiring Paddy Lowe managed to make the slowest team on the grid go backwards, and they’ve been propping up the table for some time now, but I can still remember the glory days of Damon Hill. The team remains and will stay under the Williams name, for now, at least.

Also, this weekend marks the end of engine mode changes, which may affect things a bit.

First practice had, shockingly, the Mercedes fastest. Bottas was top, a quarter second ahead of Hamilton, who had half a second over Albon. Kvyat was next, surprisingly, with Verstappen, Gasly, Perez, Norris, Ricciardo, and Sainz rounding out the top 10. Verstappen crashed about halfway through the session, nothing too serious.

Hamilton was faster than Bottas by a quarter of a second in the next session, with Norris this time being the chap half a second further back. Gasly, Verstappen, Sainz, Kvyat, Stroll, Leclerc, and Perez rounded out the top 10.

Be interesting to see how Mercedes, Honda, and Renault engines stack up. I’m firmly expecting Ferrari to struggle.

Third practice saw a red flag late on as Ricciardo’s car failed (looked like engine problems). A combination of that and the traffic jam (likely to feature in qualifying) meant that not everybody got in a fast lap. Nevertheless, for the sake of completeness, Bottas was fastest, two-tenths ahead of Sainz, who was a tenth up on Norris. Ricciardo was very close behind, and just barely faster than Hamilton and Verstappen. Albon, Ocon, Stroll, and Perez rounded out the top 10.

Nothing for pole tempted me, and with a ludicrous traffic jam entirely possible come qualifying I’m not inclined to bet.

Morris Dancer

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