Hello, MiniFans! The city that never sleeps has opened its streets again for us, although the welcome hasn’t exactly been warm. After not very productive free practice sessions on Friday, Saturday saw the rain coming as the sun went down,, adding a coplex layer to manage for the teams. With the championship battle still up in the air, the conditions weren’t exactly ideal for a controlled qualifying session, opening up options and possibly dangerous scenarios.
Aston Martin was first in line in the pitlane, leading a long queue of waiting cars to kick off Q1. While everyone else had chosen intermediates, they had been a bit more conservative, choosing the full wets. The decision was surprising only at the very start: as soon as a few corners had gone by, it was clear they had made the better choice. They were the only ones who managed to finish their lap without trouble, whereas even Verstappen could not get a grip on his car in intermediates. Every other driver quickly asked for the same tyre, very carefully trying to make it to the pits to get the full wets.
The fastest time set from the beginning was Alonso’s, having lapped the track a full half minute slower than last year’s pole, a clear sign of how much water was on track. Drivers were doing their best, trying to warm up their tyres to gain even the slightest bit of grip, but the yellow flag was a constant due to cars needing to use the asphalt runoffs. Despite all this, the cars weren’t touching the walls (save for a small wall touch from Bearman due to the runoff being too slippery to fully stop the Haas) among the position swap chaos. The only exception was Albon, whose car buckled and slammed into the wall with his front right, luckily being able to make it into the pits and avoid a red flag in the last handful of seconds. The eliminated drivers in Q1 were Albon (P16), Antonelli (P17), Bortoleto (P18), Tsunoda (P19) and Hamilton (P20).
The start of Q2 was delayed a few minutes to take care of the where Albon had kissed the wall, but that didn’t deter drivers from lining up with the clock still ticking down. Full wets were still the norm, as the cold night wasn’t exactly letting the trsck surface dry out, even if the amount of surface water had lowered. Norris led the first charge, but with the cars not visiting the pitlane for tyre changes, he didn’t last too long on top.
A bit of a dry line was starting to take shape, specially in some parts of the track, which was all Stroll and Aston Martin needed to fit a set of intermediates among a sea of full wets that were still working superbly. While every rival was piling lap after lap, managing to even get a bit of a break in between the fast ones to charge batteries and take care of the tyres, Stroll was getting ready for just one try towards the end. The bravery didn’t quite reflect on the result, as despite managing to keep the car in the proper line, his time did not improve and he crossed the line without lowering his time. However, his feat posed an important question, as teams were left to work out how they were going to tackle the last session. The eliminated drivers in Q2 were Hulkenberg (P11), Stroll (P12), Ocon (P13), Bearman (P14) and Colapinto (P15).
Stroll’s intermediate tyres run might not have been enough for him to get into Q3, but it guided those who did make it through. Teams adopted the green tyres for the first time as drivers tentatively took their first laps on a track far from dry, but not drenched anymore.The title contenders were carefully putting their laps in, while the rest were taking more risks. Both Sainz and the RBs were managing to stay at the top, surpassing half the remaining cars in an attempt to start as high up as possible, taking advantage of the chaos, but it still wasn’t over.
After having topped the sheets in Q1 and Q2, Russell locked in once again to climb back up from a ninth place, but he couldn’t close a lap good enough to beat the top three of Norris, Verstappen and an incredibly impressive Sainz. Piastri, as it’s becoming usual in the last handful of races, couldn’t quite match his teammate, having to resign himself to a fifth place that would force him to put everything on track on Sunday to try and keep jis championship hopes open.
The conditions were very difficult to manage from the start, with rain having stopped but its consequences still very present. The cold and very wet track posed a very important risk to manage, but the drivers didn’t back down, still giving their all to try and cut down just a few more thousandths. Mistakes were rampant, but also saves, with hands controlling sliding cars to keep them from touching the walls. The circumstances forced the title contenders to lock in to avoid a disaster, which they managed in a better or worse way, but they weren’t the only ones who managed an impressive result. Sainz managed a very sought after third place, comfortable in his Williams and once again beating the team that threw him out for a seven-time world champion who hasn’t yet fully grasped the red car. Despite everything that went on, nothing is yet written in stone and Sunday still needs to hand out its veredict.
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