Formula 1: Lando Norris wins sprint pole in China in crazy qualifying
Adaptation Friday. It was the first day of the Chinese Grand Prix. Fifth day of the 75th Formula 1 season. With the World Championship returning to Shanghai, a location it has not visited since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, drivers and teams have had to work on the Asian circuit in many aspects from scratch. They weren’t getting ready yet, and if something was missing… It started to rain in the sprint qualifying!
There were several obstacles that the main characters encountered on the Chinese path. First of all, the format of the weekend, as the calendar compiled by the FIA and F1 chose the Shanghai circuit for the first of six scheduled sprints. Thus, the only free practice of the weekend was too short for teams and riders to get detailed information about the route. The 2019 remote visit was on different types of cars, some drivers had never been there, and no matter how many simulators are used, drawing conclusions from reality is important. So with a few twists and turns and a crazy result, with Lance Stroll in front, two Ferraris behind and Haas in contention, practice was completed and everything was ready for the sprint classification.
There is a rather large detail in the middle. Presumably According to the Grand Prix organization, the Shanghai track has been repaired. However, the job was to coat it with a layer of resin paint to cover the small stones that had come off.. Thus, asphalt was also in hieroglyphs. And if there was one thing missing from all this, it was rain for the third quarter of the sprint classification. And adapt again.
If on the dry track the drivers and teams had little information about the Chinese track, then on the wet track they had no idea at all. And yes, it’s absolute madness. The wet track made the cars dance; no one could go for grey. Even the most decorated ones could not do this. Max Verstappen went out on his first attempt. In the second, driving with his fingertips and maximizing the accelerator, he drove well, keeping his Red Bull on the asphalt until… The last curve. The Dutchman is out again. Only in the third round did he manage to set a record. No one was saved. There, Lewis Hamilton was walking outside the track, a little further. Charles Leclerc spins and hits the wall… No one was safe from visiting the outer part of the track.
In the middle there are regulators sports stewards have not stopped asking drivers to take time off for exceeding limits. They didn’t gain even a tenth, having gone 20 or 30 meters off the track and jumping over the gravel. Rules are rules, but sometimes… And this is where Lando Norris came up with his rules. But his registration was taken away. The Englishman McLaren was not afraid and went for more. Again forward and again girls from the FIA. Hamilton, showing that the talent is intact, and since the track is impossible, he purely showed with his wrist that his Mercedes is not working, but it is working. He had pole, he was already enjoying it, the team was already celebrating and… The FIA girls went back to Norris once, who finally took pole for the sprint.
When the traffic lights go out and the sprint begins, Lando better not even look back, because he will have 12 world titles behind him: Hamilton will close the first row, and the second will be Alonso and Verstappen.
SPRINT QUALIFICATION RESULT
Adaptation Friday has passed and the same Saturday will come. Because Race pace is a mystery to almost everyone, because there was no practice on which it could be deeply tested. And, in addition, a new format for the Saturday sprint will be launched: first a short race (it is a third of the length of the main race), and three hours later the classification for Sunday will take place. Of course, if a driver takes too many risks and crashes his car, he may be left out of qualifying, which will create the competition grid that awards the most points. Would it be a good idea to travel a bit and take care of yourself? This is possible, especially if it rains, as announced.