Formula One: Oscar Piastri finished second as team McLaren secured a front row lockout in Qualifying at the Italian Moto GP.
McLaren secures front row lockout ! | 01:21It felt like an eternity, but for the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix in May, Ferrari is finally a winner in Formula 1 again — and what a way to break the drought.The car was on song. The strategy department was refreshingly bold. Charles Leclerc was typically excellent ahead of a solid Carlos Sainz .
While most of the new parts targeted Monza-specific performance, the overall package has lifted the car. Sainz, however, sees trends emerging in the car’s performances, and he’s given the team a three-race window to prove it’s really in the fight. “We had a big gap behind, and between us two cars there’s no risk,” Lando Norris told Sky Sports, recounting the moment Piastri passed him with a gutsy move into the Roggia chicane to take the lead. “I feel like he got way too close for comfort. We both easily could’ve been out in that corner if I’d braked one metre later.”“The papaya rules are: it’s your teammate, race them hard, race them clean, don’t touch,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown explained to Sky Sports. “That happened.
“I think Lando was probably caught by surprise with that move thinking, ‘Let’s just tuck into a one-two and see if we can pull a bit of a gap’, so it’s something we’ll discuss internally.” The context of this papaya pickle is McLaren attempting to walk a fine line between team orders and free racing. Norris losing ground to Leclerc on the first lap was potentially decisive, while McLaren’s decision to haul him in for a very early undercut, committing him to a two-stop strategy, certainly was.
At Monza, a totally different circuit to Zandvoort, which it dominated last weekend, this is immensely heartening in the championship context. Norris took eight points out of Verstappen to close his own deficit to 62 points — not as much as he would’ve expected on Sunday morning, but still on the right trajectory.
Verstappen finished an astounding 37.9 seconds off the lead in sixth, with only the damaged George Russell and lacklustre Pérez saving him the blushes of being the worst performer among the frontrunners. It was as grim a day as the team’s had since it’s oddly uncompetitive weekend in Singapore last year, though at least that was a clear aberration in an otherwise perfect season.You’d have to go back to 2020 to find a weekend as meritoriously bad as this.
“Me and Gasly had slight contact,” he told Sky Sports. “No damage on either car. No consequence in the race. We just had slight contact and missed the corner, and so what?“I saw Nico almost get thrown into the wall at 300 kilometres an hour by Ricciardo,” he said. “I’m not saying he did it on purpose, but he got five seconds and I got 10 seconds. It doesn’t add up at all.
Three-Way Championship Fight Way Points Austin Penalty Points North America George Russell Tyre Management Engine Problems Papaya Pickle Front-Row Lockouts Move Thinking Lando Norris Kevin Magnussen Europe Team Principal Papaya Tape Qualifying Session Northern America Papaya Rules Amber-Colour Regulations Sergio Pérez Texas Race Trim Driver Errors South-Eastern Asia Southern Europe Italy OPTIMISTIC DESPITE POINTS Two-Stop Strategy Gabriel BOUYS Pit Stop Slow Pit Stops Sky Sports Title Odds Fumbles Front-Row Lockout Singapore Team Orders Drama United States Of America Papaw Code Competitive Race Pace Fred Vasseur Agence France Presse Max Verstappen Race Ban Strategy Department Grid Penalties One-Four Finish Andrea Stella America Three-Race Window Championship Contention Unit Parts Points Finish Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz Championship Context Weekend Tyring Constructors Battle DESPITE POINTS FUMBLE Doing Mistake Strategy-Wise Pit Wall Disappointing Weekend Zak Brown Asia Race Weekend Positive Picture Front Row Lockout
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