F1. Let’s get straight to the final qualification session and start with a comparison of Verstappen and Hamilton. Max really had the pace all weekend so I guess he deserves the pole without a doubt but what a performance Lewis has put forth. Being on the back foot he managed to get all sectors and get so close to the pole.
It is the section from Turn 1 to Turn 3 where Max has his major advantage. Again we see Hamilton double pedaling!
The Ferraris had a good session. P5 and P6 is a strong result for the team.
It is interesting to see that Carlos had a better first half of the lap while Charles is faster at the second half (click here for the F1 Ferrari on board analysis) It is a wild guess as further look at the data from my side is needed but I sense that this might be a result of tyre overheating, but again take that more as a suggestion than as fact.
Overall decent session for Ricciardo especially compared to his teammate. However, if we align Daniel’s lap to that of Alonso, we can see how the Alpine’s driver is able to utilize the tyres more and achieve more lateral acceleration.
Daniel is gaining a lot on the straights and out of the corners. If you remember, a while ago we made gearing comparisons of all team and saw that Alpine F1 are running the longer gearing by quite some margin, wonder if that is why on this type of short-straiht circuit, where acceleration is dominant, they are lacking under acceleration.
As we can see from this estimation also, the cornering is not the strongest side of McLaren F1.
