New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nWith overtaking difficult at Circuit Zandvoort, Norris should be favourite to make it two wins from two \u2014 and not a moment too soon if he wants to defend his title.<\/p>\n
But after fading badly in the sprint, dropping from second to third and almost to fourth in a handful of laps as his rear tyres gave up, Norris doesn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t have the pace in general, especially the slow-speed corners,\u201d he said after the short race. \u201cWe just struggle so much compared to the others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing we can do. It\u2019s just the car is very good in high speed and it\u2019s just nowhere near good enough in slow speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to keep up was very difficult. I can\u2019t over-push in high speed during the race, and therefore we can\u2019t optimise our strengths and more of our weaknesses show, and therefore the pace was not good enough today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he squeezed enough extra from the car to turn his Friday 0.041s deficit into a 0.102s advantage, he saw no reason to think that turnaround would translate to better race pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly [worried],\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve not changed those things. The car is still not our car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly the best in high speed, no doubt \u2014 or I have the biggest balls, I don\u2019t know! \u2014 but it\u2019s very, very strong there, and in low speed we just really still struggle too much to be confident about everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely made maybe a little bit of progress, but it\u2019s still going to be the trickier side of things tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri gave a similar impression \u2014 happy with his one-lap pace but cautious about predicting the race outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve been a lot happier this weekend,\u201d he said after qualifying -0.142 off pole. \u201cEspecially over one lap, I feel things have come a lot more naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not having to try and chase my tail to really find a lot of progress. That\u2019s been nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we\u2019re a bit stronger [in the race]. The sprint wasn\u2019t great in terms of race pace, so hopefully we\u2019re a bit stronger there, but we\u2019ll have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not unusual for Norris to play down his chances, and he knows that track position will give him a strong chance to win \u2014 just as Piastri had a shot at beating him in Budapest after taking the lead on the first lap.<\/p>\n
But in this instance even Russell knows Norris is speaking the truth.<\/p>\n
Kostecki Sets the Pace at Ipswich | 00:58<\/p>\n
RUSSELL CONFIDENT BEHIND NORRIS \u2014 AND AHEAD OF ANTONELLI<\/p>\n
Russell\u2019s positive reset is moving at pace on this side of the midseason break. He converted sprint pole to victory with ease, and though he missed out on pole position for the grand prix, the Briton seemed completely unperturbed \u2014 confident, even.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re in a great place, to be honest,\u201d he enthused. \u201cObviously we\u2019ve got Kimi [Antonelli] and me in P2 and P3, so it gives us a bit of an opportunity to put Lando under a bit of pressure strategically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we probably have a slightly faster race car than those guys. I think, as Lando said, they look very strong in the high-speed corners, and on a track like this with high tyre degradation, you can\u2019t really utilise that performance as much in the race because it just puts too much stress in the tyres, so I think it will come towards us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell was also buoyed by Ferrari flopping to fifth and sixth after having looked very competitive in the sprint.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more than that, though, is that this was another session he finished ahead of teammate Antonelli.<\/p>\n
Russell was dominated by Antonelli in the first half of the season, and though he chipped away at his points deficit in the sprint, the margin is still a foreboding 53 points with 11 or 12 grands prix remaining, including today\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
The road back is long, but it starts with being competitive relative to the teenager sharing his garage \u2014 and he\u2019s been on the front foot all weekend in that regard.<\/p>\n
But he also acknowledged that he\u2019s been stronger than Antonelli all season in sprint races \u2014 he has three sprint poles and a pair of wins, while Antonelli has none of either \u2014 and that speed doesn\u2019t count for much without execution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results haven\u2019t been there, but I think the underlying performance hasn\u2019t been as bad as the results have probably shown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just going to take it race by race. I\u2019m not going to come away from this weekend and say all issues are resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut after the break, I just feel way more relaxed. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve got anything to lose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure\u2019s off. I\u2019m just going to go out, enjoy it, and I don\u2019t even really feel in a fight.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The title is] not mine to lose, it\u2019s mine to gain. That\u2019s the mentality I\u2019ve got, and I feel it\u2019s going to help me. I\u2019m just enjoying driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
HE STAYS! Max inks new Red Bull deal | 01:13<\/p>\n
ANTONELLI\u2019S \u2018WAKE-UP CALL\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time this season Russell has attempted explicitly to pile the pressure onto his teammate. In what\u2019s so far been a losing battle, attempting to exploit Antonelli\u2019s young age and inexperience might be the only weapon he has to fight back \u2014 not that it\u2019s looked effective at any point.<\/p>\n
Antonelli has already proved more than capable of bouncing back from setbacks, whether self-imposed or wrought by unreliability and external circumstances.<\/p>\n
And though we\u2019ve become accustomed to Antonelli beating Russell, it\u2019s far from unusual for the opposite to happen.<\/p>\n
Antonelli is up on Russell 7-5 in grand prix qualifying this season and has never outqualified his teammate more than three grands prix in a row. That head-to-head count tightens to 9-8 when including sprint qualifying.<\/p>\n
You could therefore hardly call his 0.031s defeat to his teammate a turning of the tide of itself. You could hardly even call it unusual.<\/p>\n
But both his qualifying performances this weekend were scrappy.<\/p>\n
He damaged his car in the gravel in SQ1 on Friday, inflating his margin to Russell, and then me made a mistake at the first turn of his final Q3 lap on Saturday. It cost him 0.3s, but he managed to earn almost all of that time back over the rest of the lap \u2014 in fact he was fractionally ahead of Russell out of the final corner but ran out of battery quicker, dropping him behind.<\/p>\n
This, more than the results, is what Antonelli has taken away from the weekend so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel any extra pressure,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was a very good wake-up call this weekend that you can never lower your guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m driving more tense or anything, but I just feel this weekend is a good wake-up call, and to just again put things in the right place at the right time and just deliver the result when it counts.\u201d<\/p>\n
He made similar comments in Austria, when he was last beaten in qualifying by Russell. There he reflected that he \u201clowered the intensity a bit too much\u201d after feeling he had the weekend in hand after practice \u2014 he\u2019d become complacent, in other words.<\/p>\n
He outqualified Russell at the three subsequent races by an average of 0.4s and grew his championship advantage by 19 points.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this weekend will be a warning for both Mercedes drivers.<\/p>\n
Will Piastri close the gap to Lando? | 11:04<\/p>\n
FERRARI FLOPS DESPITE STRONG SPRINT<\/p>\n
Is that the sound coming out of the Ferrari title balloon?<\/p>\n
The Italian team underperformed in Hungary, where it was favourite to win \u2014 and should have had the pace to do so \u2014 but where it couldn\u2019t even get one of its drivers onto the podium.<\/p>\n
The Zandvoort layout should have suited the Ferrari car similarly, but then Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth, 0.331s off the pace, with teammate Charles Leclerc one place and 0.064s further back.<\/p>\n
On a weekend Ferrari brought more upgrades \u2014 though it is yet to introduce its new engine \u2014 the scarlet cars looked completely non-threatening.<\/p>\n
It was in equal parts dispiriting and surprising for the team. Leclerc had been in the mix for sprint pole on Friday, and despite being the only frontrunner to start on soft tyres in the sprint race, he was probably the closest match in pace to Russell, chasing him down \u2014 albeit in vain \u2014 in the final laps.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, mixed feelings,\u201d said Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur. \u201cI\u2019m a bit disappointed by the result of quali today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were targeting probably a bit better [considering] the pace that we had this morning in the race and the pace of the quali yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could\u2019ve done a better job today, but the race is tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor tomorrow everything is open. The start will be difficult, and then the strategy will be a challenge, but let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton and Leclerc offered vastly different takes on the qualifying result. Hamilton was encouraged by car changes that improved the balance and left him optimistic he could move forwards in the race. Leclerc felt like the car was behaving erratically and had stepped backwards from the sprint.<\/p>\n
Overtaking will be difficult \u2014 it always is at Zandvoort \u2014 and strategy will be key.<\/p>\n
On this front Ferrari might have an ace. It\u2019s the only frontrunning team to have saved a new set of softs for both drivers, and Leclerc proved in the sprint that the soft compound can be competitive \u2014 in fact his move on Norris for second place was one of only two overtakes after the first lap.<\/p>\n
The tyre delta could be decisive, with the race poised between one and two stops. Ferrari will have to play its cards right, but it has a chance to salvage a decent result ahead of its home Italian Grand Prix coming up next.<\/p>\n
Can Piastri claw back ground on Norris? | 02:30<\/p>\n
F1 MUST CHOOSE SPRINT DESTINATIONS CAREFULLY<\/p>\n
This is the final Dutch Grand Prix. Though the event has been a wild success since returning to the calendar in 2021, it does not attract any government funding, and with race host fees escalating, the private operators opted against betting that they could avoid the sort of financial ruination that has impacted other European circuits.<\/p>\n
In a bid to go out on a high, Zandvoort hosted its first and only sprint race this weekend.<\/p>\n
Though circuits bid for sprint races, Formula 1 says it also considers which venues are likely to produce great action for the 30-minute, no-strategy format.<\/p>\n
On paper the narrow, medium-speed seaside track isn\u2019t an obvious candidate for a short race given overtaking is typically difficult.<\/p>\n
It turns out that\u2019s the case in actuality too.<\/p>\n
There were only two genuine overtakes for the entire 24-lap soporific spectacle: Leclerc on Norris for second place and Fernando Alonso on Valtteri Bottas for 19th. Carlos Sainz also passed Nico H\u00fclkenberg early in the race, but the Audi driver was battling a car problem that sent him to his garage one lap later.<\/p>\n
Leclerc said his overtake was largely down to a difference in battery power.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere in Zandvoort it\u2019s close to impossible to overtake, and I could have never made the overtake if there wasn\u2019t a different deployment strategy between teams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Battery management is a legitimate strategic tool available to the drivers, but Leclerc also noted that by Sunday most teams have converged on similar battery usage, neutralising it as an overtaking aid to some extent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect big differences coming tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, throughout the season I think we\u2019ve seen the first two, three races there was a lot of action a bit everywhere because I think everybody was not so sure about what was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, again, everybody seems to converge more or less in the same place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell, who will be eyeing a victory chance, said only a big tyre delta \u2014 the difference between old and fresh tyres \u2014 will make overtaking possible.<\/p>\n
Difficulty overtaking doesn\u2019t make a bad track or even necessarily a bad grand prix spectacle. Pressure and strategy can fill in the gaps, and the tension of defending a lead can make a great race.<\/p>\n
But those factors largely don\u2019t apply in sprint races, which are explicitly about wheel-to-wheel action.<\/p>\n
Formula 1 has heavily hinted that next year will feature many more sprints \u2014 perhaps as many as 10 or 12 in a 24-round season.<\/p>\n
Zandvoort has proved \u2014 and Singapore, the last sprint of the year, will likely prove too \u2014 that the sport will have to be judicious in choosing the right venues to host the short race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has taken his second consecutive grand prix pole position, but the reigning world champion doesn\u2019t want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-865064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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