November 2, 2023
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| via fia.com |
*Cue the Mariachi F1 theme!* With a few collisions, Pierre Gasly in a wrestling mask, and many Día de los Muerto decorations, the Mexican Grand Prix finally gave us some of the action we have been looking for. Here is your 2023 Mexican Grand Prix Weekend Recap:
Free-Practice: October 27-28, 2023
Teams tested a new Pirelli prototype tire compound on Friday, but it didn’t seem to really impact the performances of the day. Verstappen topped all three practice sessions again, with his teammate Sergio Perez staying close behind in P3, P5, and then P3 again. Alex Albon showed off Williams’ new pace by going P2 in FP1 and FP3, splitting the Red Bulls. AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo were the other shock teams in the top 10, as Valtteri Bottas went P4 in FP2 and both AlphaTauris were in the top 10 of FP3. The McLarens and Ferraris continued to display some impressive pace while Mercedes seemed to struggle at first, failing to make it into the top ten during FP1. However, this could be attributed to one car being taken over by Mercedes junior driver Frederik Vesti. A number of junior drivers took part in FP1. Ollie Bearman, driving for Haas, went fastest of the newbies with P15 and was followed by Isack Hadjar (AlphaTauri; P17), Jack Doohan (Alpine; P18), Vesti (Mercedes; P19), and Theo Pourchaire (Alfa Romeo; P20). Unfortunately for Pourchaire, the Alfa Romeo had brake issues that forced him to end the session early.
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| Ollie Bearman hopping into the Haas @olliebearman instagram |
Qualifying: October 28, 2023
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| via Reddit |
Q1:
- Eliminated: Ocon (P16), Magnussen (P17), Stroll (P18), Norris (P19), Sargeant (P20)
- After the team wasted time by putting him on Mediums when the track temperature had dropped, Norris failed to set a good first lap on soft tires. On his final chance, Fernando Alonso spun and brought out yellow-flags, ending Norris’ Qualifying and leaving him at the back of the grid.
Q2:
- Eliminated: Gasly (P11), Hulkenberg (P12), Alonso (P13), Albon (P14), Tsunoda (P15)
- Sadly for Albon, his final lap time was deleted and pushed Zhou Guanyu into the top ten to make it two Alfas in Q3.
Q3:
- In a dramatic turn of events, Ferrari secured their first front row lock out since Monaco 2022! Charles Leclerc took pole ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz.
- Max Verstappen was left in P3 and, somehow, Daniel Ricciardo drove the wheels off of his AlphaTauri to qualify P4. The two ex-Red Bull teammates will be sharing the second row while hometown hero Perez starts in P5.
Race: October 29, 2023
Following power unit, gearbox and ancillary component changes, Yuki Tsunoda started the race from P19 while Sargeant started in P18 after being given a 10-place grid drop for overtaking under yellow-flag conditions. Stroll started from the pit lane due to changes made to his car under Parc Ferme conditions.
When the cars were brought out to the grid on Sunday afternoon, it became apparent that strategies were going to be close. Most drivers started on mediums while Albon and Ocon went for hard compound tires and Norris opted for softs, probably to get the best launch of the line when he started the race toward the back of the grid.
The start saw Verstappen get the jump on the Ferraris right off the bat, with his teammate following in suit to claim P3. However, when the top three went three-wide into Turn 1, Leclerc ran out of space to move and tagged Perez, sending him airborne and into the runoff area. Leclerc picked up front wing damage while Perez went back to the pits and retired from his home race. The front wing endplate of the Ferrari finally fell off a few laps later and a Virtual Safety Car was called for the Marshalls to clear it. When the race restarted, Verstappen had a 2 second lead ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, and Ricciardo.
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| Perez was sent airborne in a collision with Leclerc via skysports.com |
Around Lap 19, Verstappen became the first of the front runners to pit, coming out in P7 on hard tires. Hamilton pitted a little later, on Lap 25, after struggling to overtake Sainz for P3. Ferrari, however, didn’t respond immediately and waited until Lap 31 to pit Sainz. The Spaniard came out in P5, behind Hamilton, but had much fresher tires.
On Lap 33, Magnussen’s rear suspension broke and he lost control, spinning straight into the barrier. Thankfully, the Dane was quick to jump out of the heavily damaged car as it lit on fire a few moments later. The race was Red Flagged for the Marshalls to repair the barriers and recover the car.
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| Magnussen's rear suspension was destroyed via mirror.co.uk |
20 minutes later, the race resumed with a standing start. The grid was split between strategies, with Hamilton, Piastri, Russell, Hulkenberg, Norris, Albon, Ocon, and Sargeant starting on Mediums and the rest of the grid on Hards. Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, and Russell maintained their positions in the top 4 while Lando Norris, who had made his way up to P9 from the back of the grid, fell down to P14. Lucky for us McLaren fans, Norris had a “rocketship” of a car and was able to make his way back up to P10 by Lap 47.
On this same lap, Alonso retired from the race due to damage he picked up from driving over debris.
Similar to Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda had had one incredible recovery drive. But on Lap 49, it all went to waste when he turned in on Piastri in the fight for P7 and sent himself into a spin, dropping down to P12. Norris, however, wasn’t making mistakes. Overtaking left and right, he had swapped positions with his teammate by Lap 55 and on went on to overtake former teammate Daniel Ricciardo for P7 and George Russell for P5.
In the end, Verstappen took home his 16th win of the season, breaking his own record for wins in a single season. Hamilton came in P2 with pole-sitter Leclerc following behind in P3. The poor Monagasque has failed to capitalize and win from his last 11 pole position starts. Sainz, Norris, Russell, Piastri, Albon, and Ocon filling out the rest of the points paying positions.
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| Max Verstappen wearing the race winner's giant Sombrero + a very confused Charles Leclerc via efe.com |
In the final few laps of the race, Sargeant and Stroll joined Alonso, Magnussen, and Perez as the five DNFs of the race.
The results of the race affected a few championship battles. Hamilton’s podium puts him just 20 points behind Perez in the Drivers Championship, and Alonso’s DNF allowed Sainz to get equal with him. In the Constructors Championship, Ferrari is now just 22 points behind Mercedes and AlphaTauri has jumped from last to eighth with Ricciardo’s points haul. Considering how close all of the teams have gotten in the last few races, it looks like it will all come down to these last three weekends of the season.
I will be back tomorrow to prep you for the Brazilian Grand Prix!
- Divya
Where I got these
from: