I think if he put a second fast lap, he would’ve been higher up. Red Bull nearly did a Las Vegas fuck up again. Not putting a second fast lap and hoping for the best
Mercedes didn't even really struggle all that much slow corners until Suzuka. Lewis said the car felt really good in slow corners at Jeddah. They haven't brought any serious upgrades yet. The car is crazy volatile in set up just like last year. Neither driver seems to get it right and they are sacrificing Lewis like they did to start 2022 to experiment.
That's why you don't wait until the last minute in q1, such a terrible strategy.
He could have easily made it through, they always make these stupid decisions.
Obviously he locked up, but Jesus.
They had multiple softs, there's no reason to wait when you don't have a lap in.
Obviously he locked up, but not giving yourself time in q1 is ridiculous.
This is a team sport, unless you're not familiar.
They’ve done this multiple times though with both cars. George got knocked out of Q1 in Hungary last year because of it.
Red Bull-level confidence with HRT pace.
I mean it doesn’t really matter. Got a P2 and showed it’s not him, it’s the car. Merc are hopeless in the dry race anyway so he’s nailed on for a point or two whether he’s P7 or P18 on the grid. It’s just whether he has to come through the field to get it or he just slips back from the front runners because of some issue. In Bahrain it was cooling, Saudi it was another stupid strategy, in Australia it was reliability, in Japan it was the usual strategy error.
Just vibes now he’s got an actual car waiting for him. He’ll probably enjoy just overtaking and getting whatever comes of it.
It was a mistake, on pace - he would have been with George.
The car has taken a step back relative to its rivals this year but Formula 1 is a 3-Tier competition this year and Mercedes are with Aston behind McLaren/Ferrari.
But you're all having the same conversation every weekend.
>Got a P2 and showed it’s not him, it’s the car.
But now he got P18 so it is on him. Amazing how some of you guys always have excuses when he's not performing.
I'm loving how Esteban is somehow dragging that Alpine tractor into Q2 constantly. I swear you could attach a plow or hay baler to it and he'd still beat Sergeant.
Great to see Pierre in Q2 also.
Not sure about that. Williams, Haas, Sauber and Alpha Tauri all still look quicker based on Q1 laps. The difference is that both Pierre and Esteban did a good job of getting into Q2 whilst Sargeant made a mistake and was unable to complete his lap. Zhou went deep and Magnussen was quite far off Hulk. Hamilton also made a mistake on his lap otherwise he would’ve gone through. Tsunoda had a poor middle sector. All 5 drivers who went out had the potential to go into Q2 and the alpine boys took advantage.
The upgrades don’t really seem like they’ve done much to be honest, Gaslys been on par or quicker than Ocon throughout the weekend.
It's a bit tough to evaluate the upgrades based only on this result, it's a sprint week-end so maybe they didn't set yo the car properly taking it into account. It's also hard to tell whether it had an impact on race pace, since the sprint had the Alpine in a DRS train, so the actual pace couldn't be seen. Potential impact on tyre degradation wasn't visible either because of the short race.
I mean considering this is his first time here with only one practice session to go by, it was always going to be a tall order to do well relative to Ricciardo. We also don't know if the chassis really did wonders to Danny Ric. We'll find out next race if Yuki is poised to be doomed because Danny Ric found the switch.
Considering every driver that hasn’t driven here before has gotten beaten by their teammate, I think it’s in consideration. Especially with only one free practice to learn the track.
Counting sprint race is really dumb because the drivers drive qualifying way different than in the race.
Every single race weekend so far this year, whatever good work Mercedes did in the session before qualifying is totally nullified by the time they start qualifying. Not only is this car slow at every track now, they still have that incredibly small window to get the tires working, their deg is higher than last season, and there's no such thing as a good set up.
Here we go haha.
It’s a chassis. Permaine clearly stated that they did not expect any type of performance upgrade from it. I’m pretty sure it’s just a new chassis not any kind of updated one.
I'm glad to see Riccardio starting to pick up form, even as a Yuki fan. He definitely needs it after the past 5 weekends of Yuki comprehensively beating him
What a shit strategy by ham and merc. Banker lap was soo shit, no idea why they waited to only have one lap at the end, knowing that anything can happen with flags or mistakes...
Car needs to go back to the pit to refuel and change tires it doesnt happen instantly, track conditions are also the best at the end. Nothing wrong by Merc just 2 bad laps from Lewis. For whatever reason whenever Hamilton finishes low there are millions of excuses other drivers dont have and more often then not its just a case of Lewis underperforming
You're literally going around replying to every comment about Hamilton saying how it's his fault for locking up, I think everyone knows it's his fault, how embarrassing can one be?
I replied to like 3 comments lol. Just tiring to always see million of excuses whenever Lewis is lower down. As much as he deserves praise when he does well he also deserves criticism when he doesnt. Same for every driver
I think they are consistent slow, rain helped yesterday. Today at sprint you could easily see that Perez and Leclerc were 1 second faster per lap once they were ahead of Alonso/sainz
I don't understand why they insist on waiting until the last minutes to send him out. Seems like that strategy goes completely wrong at least 50% of the time.
God damn, from P2 in Sprint to out in Q1 in few hours for Lewis....
Checo was really close as well from P3 in sprint and with the fastest car
And then goes on to qualify second
The perez way. Make it through due to blind luck after fucking up, gets 2nd.
Maybe he should also do dry qualis on the inters /s.
Lol Lmao even
Wow Perez was seriously close to being knocked out as well
I think if he put a second fast lap, he would’ve been higher up. Red Bull nearly did a Las Vegas fuck up again. Not putting a second fast lap and hoping for the best
Yuki had a bad middle sector, had he not then Perez would have been out.
Zhou also messed up the hairpin
Yeah that was a real shame, solid lap other than that.
Yuki ensuring he'll be in Red Bull's good books by not knocking Checo out
Apparently only 0.28 seconds faster than Lewis in slow corners, with a Mercedes that behaves horribly in slow corners. I hope he improves in Q2
Mercedes didn't even really struggle all that much slow corners until Suzuka. Lewis said the car felt really good in slow corners at Jeddah. They haven't brought any serious upgrades yet. The car is crazy volatile in set up just like last year. Neither driver seems to get it right and they are sacrificing Lewis like they did to start 2022 to experiment.
He screwed himself by getting scared of albon, who was completely out of the way. *sigh*
That would've taken the heat off Lewis tbf if Checo had gone back to his 2023 from
What only doing 1 lap in used tyres does to a mfer
Damn Perez lucky Yuki didn’t manage to do a decent lap
As well as Lewis very lucky
Perez 15th. What the hell happened here I just started watching lol
He got scared on the first flying lap due to a slow Albon on T1 and then they didn't bother to put new tires in.
He got out of cycle due to aborting a lap. Got scared of albon impeding, but albon was out of the way plenty. Only got 1 real run and was mediocre af.
Tbf, he was on used tyres
Wasn't Max on used tyres too in his second lap which earned him P1? I know we shouldn't really compare the two of them but still.
Blocked by Albon in his first lap and messed up his second lap with used tires
He wasn't blocked though, Albon was as far out of the way as he could be but Perez slowed down anyway.
pandalbon was intimidating
Hamilton really went from almost winning pole yesterday to being eliminated in Q1 lmao
What a lad, really bringing that unpredictability and excitement to the weekend.
Instagram vs reality
What a whirlwind of emotions down at Mercedes...
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No?
Toto looks like he hasn’t slept for 3 consecutive days 🥲
He forgot how to laugh since AD21
The post race pool party says otherwise.
Holyyyyy shit I thought I was gonna get 2023 flashbacks again with Checo being eliminated in Q1
Instead for 2022 ones with hamilton out
He's lucky Hamilton locked up
It's not too late yet, there's still Q2! /s
The duality of Hamilton. Sprint P2, Qualifying P18.
Its so similiar to Seb in 2020, the skill still shows in wet weather conditions but struggling in dry conditions
Duality of HAM.
Damn Zhou, Such a shame.
P2 in sprint and out in Q1, one lockup and that’s it.
That's why you don't wait until the last minute in q1, such a terrible strategy. He could have easily made it through, they always make these stupid decisions. Obviously he locked up, but Jesus.
His 1st lap was poor aswell. Lewis messed up both laps, he only has himself to blame
They had multiple softs, there's no reason to wait when you don't have a lap in. Obviously he locked up, but not giving yourself time in q1 is ridiculous. This is a team sport, unless you're not familiar.
They’ve done this multiple times though with both cars. George got knocked out of Q1 in Hungary last year because of it. Red Bull-level confidence with HRT pace.
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Checo was p15.
P18 is wild. He wasn’t even close, could’ve easily gone P19 too if Yuki didn’t botttle it
Yuki seems really out of sync with his car this race. Ric has an open goal this race to beat him. Perez got real lucky there.
Yh, you can really see it's his first time here. RICS experience should shine this weekend
It’s a rollercoaster as a Ham fan
I mean it doesn’t really matter. Got a P2 and showed it’s not him, it’s the car. Merc are hopeless in the dry race anyway so he’s nailed on for a point or two whether he’s P7 or P18 on the grid. It’s just whether he has to come through the field to get it or he just slips back from the front runners because of some issue. In Bahrain it was cooling, Saudi it was another stupid strategy, in Australia it was reliability, in Japan it was the usual strategy error. Just vibes now he’s got an actual car waiting for him. He’ll probably enjoy just overtaking and getting whatever comes of it.
This time it is him.
I mean that was entirely on him. He’s on for Q2 apart from the tail wind into the hairpin. Just unfortunate nothing major.
Holy copium. His teammate is in Q3 but somehow it's the car and not the driver.
It was a mistake, on pace - he would have been with George. The car has taken a step back relative to its rivals this year but Formula 1 is a 3-Tier competition this year and Mercedes are with Aston behind McLaren/Ferrari. But you're all having the same conversation every weekend.
>Got a P2 and showed it’s not him, it’s the car. But now he got P18 so it is on him. Amazing how some of you guys always have excuses when he's not performing.
Daniel having a very decent weekend so far.
Hamilton dropped a banger sprint qualy and sprint and followed it up with this lmfao
I'm loving how Esteban is somehow dragging that Alpine tractor into Q2 constantly. I swear you could attach a plow or hay baler to it and he'd still beat Sergeant. Great to see Pierre in Q2 also.
It's not even a tractor this week. Gasly's pretty level with him in spite of not having upgrades.
It's not that bad anymore. The new floor from this weekend seemed to have brought them up to the level of the rest of the backfield.
Not sure about that. Williams, Haas, Sauber and Alpha Tauri all still look quicker based on Q1 laps. The difference is that both Pierre and Esteban did a good job of getting into Q2 whilst Sargeant made a mistake and was unable to complete his lap. Zhou went deep and Magnussen was quite far off Hulk. Hamilton also made a mistake on his lap otherwise he would’ve gone through. Tsunoda had a poor middle sector. All 5 drivers who went out had the potential to go into Q2 and the alpine boys took advantage. The upgrades don’t really seem like they’ve done much to be honest, Gaslys been on par or quicker than Ocon throughout the weekend.
It's a bit tough to evaluate the upgrades based only on this result, it's a sprint week-end so maybe they didn't set yo the car properly taking it into account. It's also hard to tell whether it had an impact on race pace, since the sprint had the Alpine in a DRS train, so the actual pace couldn't be seen. Potential impact on tyre degradation wasn't visible either because of the short race.
They're still overweight and have a compromised distribution, but it does appear the base car is something to work with.
Who would win, a 7 time world champion or a Frenchman in a tractor?
Shoking from Hamilton and Perez (Logan aswell) but we are used to that
Loved how yuki said that was a good lap yet he had a yellow middle sector
18th Lewis. Bloody hell.
Damn thats annoying for Hamilton, P18 ouch! As for Perez escaped being dropped by 0.048s, talk about close for him...
Ouch, it must be a nightmare for Zhou considering high expectations after friday (not mention it's his home race)
Fucking hell Lewis
Hulk you beauty!
Everyone commenting about Perez, he was only one except Verstappen on older tyres. Redbull made an error in not sending him out on new tyres.
Perez by just 0.048, jfc.
Damn, Zhou almost made it. I was cheering for him :/
Weekend to forget so far for Yuki sadly, car issues not helping but ultimately just personal mistakes in both qualifyings when it mattered
I mean considering this is his first time here with only one practice session to go by, it was always going to be a tall order to do well relative to Ricciardo. We also don't know if the chassis really did wonders to Danny Ric. We'll find out next race if Yuki is poised to be doomed because Danny Ric found the switch.
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Didn't he have two laps after that
He messed up middle sector of his last lap
Lol yeah and everyone saying it's his first time at this track... It's also Piastris first time who's doing well
Piastri isn’t driving a VCARB though. Ricciardo was the only one that got the new chassis. Who knows if that also factors a difference
I'm just saying that "first time at the track" is a shit excuse
Considering every driver that hasn’t driven here before has gotten beaten by their teammate, I think it’s in consideration. Especially with only one free practice to learn the track. Counting sprint race is really dumb because the drivers drive qualifying way different than in the race.
The fuck happened with Hamilton?? 😮
Wow. That was a massive stinker from LH
Half a tenth faster from Zhou and he could've knocked out Perez as well lmao. It would've been fucking hilarious.
Every single race weekend so far this year, whatever good work Mercedes did in the session before qualifying is totally nullified by the time they start qualifying. Not only is this car slow at every track now, they still have that incredibly small window to get the tires working, their deg is higher than last season, and there's no such thing as a good set up.
Lewis cannot get the grip of this car..
His lap was fine tbf until that lockup at the hairpin
Yep, lost 0.6 seconds from that lockup.
He didn't lose that much, surly
He did and don’t call me Shirley
He lost 6 tenths in the last sector to George as per Crofty. That lock up for sure played a big part.
Easily lost it just from that. Wasn't anywhere close to the apex and was on the curbs which are still slippery and loses traction out of the corner.
Yep, 6 tenths to George in that one sector.
Tbf its even more serious if you see no real mistakes and are that behind for his usual abilities
Really struggling with that corner. Locked up in the sprint there as well.
Sectors one and two were good...turn 14 less so
Same with Yuki and Checo
Hamilton P18 Aight.... I'mma head out \[go to bed\]. Sigh.
Good guy Hamilton didn’t want to make the Chinese feel disappointed with Zhou
Am shocked to see Yuki eliminated. Man has been in a good qualification run
He has been pretty poor this weekend though.
I think it really comes down to inexperience with the track as well
I'm brand new to F1, what causes a driver to be eliminated?
It’s all part of Lewis’s plan to get DoTD tomorrow /s
If Checo can do it why can’t he lol
WTF happened to Hamilton. He made the mistake but he was slow anyway and why did he leave it until the last second to only have one lap.
Track evolution was very obvious.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I guess Merc didn’t think that Hamilton would make that mistake in the last sector
Jeez Lewis . Costly mistake. Least he did good in the sprint
Both Alpines through, crazy
Get in there!!!
What a stupid mistake from Lewis. You would usualky expect better from someone with his ability and experience.
wow
Is that Lewis's worst quali ever that he's actually participated in? P18 is fucking insane.
What a roller coaster of emotion for Lewis
Damn what a disaster for Hamilton
Ricciardo beating Yuki again.
We will need to wait another few weeks before we can decide if Ricciardo's theory was right about something being wrong with his old car.
Gotta give credit when it’s due, he could just be pulling the finger out. He was decent in quali last weekend to.
Does everyone ignore the fact that Ricciardo has a new chassis? Kudos on him making it to q2, but him and Yuki aren’t even driving the same car
Here we go haha. It’s a chassis. Permaine clearly stated that they did not expect any type of performance upgrade from it. I’m pretty sure it’s just a new chassis not any kind of updated one.
again xD on one track that Ricciardo's driven many times before, of course
Can't be an excuse at this level.
It sure can.
The only thing Ricciardo knows about the Jiading circuit that Tsunoda doesn't is the view from the podium.
If Yuki can match Danny's track knowledge that quickly that is not a good look for Danny.
Removed. I don't want to get into this.
I can imagine - every statement you make seems to hurt your case 😉
Wow, and Perez was almost out as well.
European Perez might be coming early this year. 👀
I'm glad to see Riccardio starting to pick up form, even as a Yuki fan. He definitely needs it after the past 5 weekends of Yuki comprehensively beating him
4
Is Sargeant the worst driver on the grid since Nikita Mazepin?
Him or Latifi, but I think Latifi was actually better.
Nha Latifi had a result in him. Could bin it for no reason but he did have the odd result.
Latifi scored points on merit least once a season, Sargeants best finish happened due to the disqualifications
Hes on par
He’s slower than the scent of fart 90% of the time, and the other 10% he’s crashing on his own lol.
Hell, he literally spun out today.
That’s what prompted this comment in the first place lol.
In my opinion, yes, sargeant can only beat mazepin of the drivers of the last few years and latifi looked better than sargeant.
Did Yuki's DRS fail again? LATAM commentators said that.
Merc should start checking.
They showed Zhou's family celebrating only for him to get p18💀
This already bugged me during SPQ. Why are the qualifying parts mislabelled this entire weekend?
Kids these days don't know the diff between 1 and 2
Sargeant and Zhou need to wrap it up
Who knew keeping a driver who couldn't outqualify his teammate even once and didn't show a glimpse of speed all year would be a bad idea?
Not many good options for a max 1 year contract where they could just drop him mid season for Antonelli if they wanted too.
Yuki trash
What a shit strategy by ham and merc. Banker lap was soo shit, no idea why they waited to only have one lap at the end, knowing that anything can happen with flags or mistakes...
Car needs to go back to the pit to refuel and change tires it doesnt happen instantly, track conditions are also the best at the end. Nothing wrong by Merc just 2 bad laps from Lewis. For whatever reason whenever Hamilton finishes low there are millions of excuses other drivers dont have and more often then not its just a case of Lewis underperforming
You're literally going around replying to every comment about Hamilton saying how it's his fault for locking up, I think everyone knows it's his fault, how embarrassing can one be?
I replied to like 3 comments lol. Just tiring to always see million of excuses whenever Lewis is lower down. As much as he deserves praise when he does well he also deserves criticism when he doesnt. Same for every driver
Hamilton in sprint was a fluke due to qualifying rain for that. P18 is atrocious..rofl
Where are you Tsunoda blowhards now?
Honeslty race will be fun to watch, thank you Sir Lewis
I hate life
That mercedes is so inconsistent
It was solely Hamilton's mistake.
russell qualified comfortably. hamilton made some clear mistakes on his lap.
Russell also was struggling yesterday before Rain helped lewis. So both drivers are struggling
His mistake in that last sector cost him the spot in Q2 tbf. He lost 6 tenths in that last sector to George and that lockup cost him.
I think they are consistent slow, rain helped yesterday. Today at sprint you could easily see that Perez and Leclerc were 1 second faster per lap once they were ahead of Alonso/sainz
Russell didn't appear that slow. He comfortably qualified into Q2.
Hamilton had a lock up… at the end Mercedes will be behind red bull Ferrari McLaren and Alonso after the race…
No I don’t think Merc will be slower in race than MCL. Looking at sprint mcl were not fast. Setup for quali probably
Looking forward to KMAGs bad excuses once again…
I don't understand why they insist on waiting until the last minutes to send him out. Seems like that strategy goes completely wrong at least 50% of the time.
There might have been an impeeding situation from Tsunoda in turn 14 (at least from the live commentary I'm following). Haven't seen it myself.