The second qualifying session of the F1 weekend was held in Baku. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the fastest again. Valtteri Bottas remained in the first section, ranking 17th.
The first time trial of a sprint race in history was run in Formula One. In Saturday afternoon’s sprint race, the winner of yesterday’s time trials, Ferrari, took the pole Charles Leclerc. Second and third went to Red Bull drivers, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
Alfa Romeo Valtteri Bottas was the 17th
The first part of qualifying was interrupted a little early by red flags, when Williams’ American rookie driver Logan Sargeant drove out. Alfa Romeo remained in the first section Zhou Guanyu and Bottas, AlphaTaurin Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries and Alpine Pierre Gasly.
In sprint time trials, the first section lasts only 12 minutes, the second ten and the third eight minutes. Bottas was only able to drive one lap before Sargeant’s pit stop interrupted the session.
Sargeant was 11th in the opening segment, but the car was in bad shape, so naturally he couldn’t drive in the second segment.
McLaren were eliminated in the second section Oscar PiastriHaasin Nico Hulkenbergof Alpine Esteban OconHaasin Kevin Magnussen and Sargeant.
In the last section, Leclerc managed to drive the fastest time, although he later spun into the embankment.
New format
The sprint race will be run in connection with a total of six F1 weekends this season. The first one is now in Baku, Azerbaijan. This week, the International Automobile Federation FIA announced significant changes to the format.
Read more: A historic renewal in Formula 1 – no less than two time trials will be held this coming weekend
Summing up, the changes made the schedule of the sprint race weekends such that free practices and time trials were run on Friday, which determined the starting order for Sunday’s competition. On Friday, Leclerc drove to the pole ahead of Verstappen and Perez. Bottas was 14th.
Previously, Friday’s time trials determined the order for Saturday’s sprint, which decided the starting order for Sunday’s race. Now Saturday’s free practice was canceled and instead came the time trial of the sprint race. In the sprint race, points are still awarded to the best eight, but it no longer affects the starting order of Sunday’s race.
The aim of the changes is to make drivers dare to drive more seriously in sprints. In the past, sprint races have been criticized for the fact that the drivers do not dare to take risks in them considering the layout of the main race.
Tire screeching
The changes also immediately caused a small-scale rule and tire uproar. The teams must use new medium tires in the first and second sections of the sprint time trial, and new soft tires in the final section.
However, this gave the opportunity for a little tactic. The rules did not dictate that the teams had to save fresh, soft tires for the sprint qualifying. Therefore, those teams who think that they will stay in the first or second section anyway, can use all their soft tires during Friday.
According to Autosport (you switch to another service) On Friday, the FIA tried to make a last-minute change to the rules – so that the teams would have to save soft tires for Saturday’s sprint time trial – but the rule change did not get enough teams behind it.
This is how McLaren’s work Lando Norris and AlphaTaurin Yuki Tsunoda. They did not have new soft tires for Saturday’s sprint time trial, as they used them on Friday. Norris made it to the final section of the sprint time trial, but was tenth as he was unable to take the track again.
On Friday, the tactics worked. Norris was seventh and Tsunoda eighth in the time trial of the actual race.
The 17-lap sprint race will be run on Saturday at 16:30 and the actual competition on Sunday at 14:00.