‘What the f***?’: F1 rocked by absolute mayhem in Spain
One of the wildest days Formula 1 has seen in recent years has seen penalties, teammate clashes and a humiliation for Ferrari.
There has been absolute mayhem in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix with the grid order only being finalised hours after the final session.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen will start Sunday night’s Grand Prix from pole position, but the world champion was still involved in some of the wild drama that unfolded at the Circuit de Catalunya
In an incident-packed day of qualifying Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell came together in a bizarre clash, while Ferrari suffered the humiliation of seeing Charles Leclerc failing to progress from the first qualifying session and will start the race from 19th.
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Red Bull driver Sergio Perez also bizarrely failed to progress through to the top ten.
On the other side of the garage, Verstappen was more than 0.4 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, while McLaren star Lando Norris stunned the grid to finish third.
Aussie Oscar Piastri also impressed and will start from ninth on the grid.
Piastri is one of several drivers to have benefited from Pierre Gasly’s manic driving which saw the Alpine driver summoned to the stewards for two separate incidents.
The French driver had finished fourth in qualifying, but will start from 10th as a result of two three-point penalties.
First Carlos Sainz claimed he was impeded by Gasly at the final corner before Gasly was again accused of blocking Verstappen late in the session.
Verstappen was heard saying on team radio: “What the f***? He doesn’t move.”
Fernando Alonso was one of those that witnessed the incident and even commented on his team’s radio that there had been a “big impeding” from Gasly on Verstappen.
Gasly was also whacked for doing a similar job on Sainz.
Sainz said: “He should get a penalty for that. I had to lift in the middle of a high-speed corner”.
The earlier drama surrounded Leclerc’s unexplained nightmare - just 12 months after he took pole position in qualifying for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
“It was his first first session elimination in 83 Grands Prix since the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix. “We are out, right? Unbelievable,” he said, having grumbled out a lack of rear end grip.
Later, he added: “I don’t have the answer for now... the left corners are undriveable. We need to analyse and understand it... No grip at all.”
Mercedes was able to regroup from early drama which saw Lewis Hamilton and George Russell come together.
It was a miserable day for Russell as he also failed to progress beyond Q2. He also appeared to be the one at fault for the collision with Hamilton and was seen pulling across and damaging his front wing in the closing laps.
Russell, who admitted his error and apologised, was added to the list for stewards’ investigations.
Asked what had gone wrong for him, Russell said: “Everything. I’m not sure why... Straight out of the box, in run one, I just had no grip in the tyres.
“I was really struggling and the car started to bounce a lot in the high-speed corners, so I couldn’t take the corner flat-out when we were doing so this morning.”
Of his incident, when he pulled across Hamilton as he accelerated to pass him, he admitted he did not see him.
“I wasn’t even aware he was there,” he said. “I started my lap, trying to take a slipstream from (Carlos) Sainz and fortunately nothing bad happened.”
Hamilton, however, was smiling at the end of the day after pushing his Mercedes to finish fifth. He has been promoted onto the second row because of Gasly’s penalties.
The seven-time champion, who had feared he would struggle to make the top ten after Friday’s practice sessions, said he had felt he was a man on a mission when he woke up in the morning.
“I’m absolutely shocked,” he said. “It was a real surprise to see us so far up at the front and to see us competing for, ultimately, the front row.
“But we did some great work overnight with the analysis and I did a lot of work to try and figure out where we can find the time.
“I knew when I woke up this morning that I was on a mission, but I didn’t expect us to be fighting for the front row.
“The car really came alive today. A big thank-you to everyone back at the factory because it does show that we are progressing. Today, I really enjoyed driving the car.”
It was the 24th pole position of his career for Verstappen.
“Not bad,” said Verstappen, with his customary understatement. “It’s very nice to come here and get my first pole. I like the circuit and I have a lot of good memories here.”
Spanish GP Qualifying Result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
3) Lando Norris, McLaren
4) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
5) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
6) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
7) Nico Hulkenberg, Haas
8) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
9) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
10) Pierre Gasly, Alpine*
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