Follow all of the action as Australian star Oscar Piastri attempts to hunt down Max Verstappen, while countryman Jack Doohan looks to keep his F1 dream alive.
Follow all of the action as Australian star Oscar Piastri attempts to hunt down Max Verstappen, while countryman Jack Doohan looks to keep his F1 dream alive.
We know that McLaren treat Norris and Piastri like they’re co-No.1 drivers… but what do they do here? With Piastri gaining on Norris, and getting closer to DRS overtaking range, will Norris make life slightly easier for him, or will he fight it out?
Both drivers are free to fight for position – as long as they don’t damage each other’s, and therefore the team’s, races. “Papaya rules”.
Just like that, teams across pit lane are telling their drivers to swap positions on track (where possible) to the advantage of their teams.
Suzuka can be the kind of track – with only one DRS zone – at which overtaking after closely following the car in front can be particularly difficult.
On the Sky coverage, the question has been asked: With Norris struggling to make headway into overtaking Verstappen for the race lead, should he let Piastri slingshot past?
Alpine have already told Gasly and Doohan to swap positions, and likewise Haas with Bearman and Ocon.
RUNNING ORDER AFTER LAP 35
Verstappen
Norris (1.5 sec behind)
Piastri (1.3 behind Norris)
Now that the race order is correcting itself, given the run of pit stops, Verstappen, Norris and Piastri are back to first, second and third on the track.
It’s now Piastri who’s making the best use of his hard tyres, setting the fastest lap of the race.
Norris’ team have relayed the bad news to him: The stewards won’t take any action against Verstappen, which means, is Norris was told over his radio: “We’ll just have to overtake him on the track”.
Interestingly, Norris has been told he’s doing a better job of looking after his tyres than Verstappen is.
Lando Norris has gone onto the grass at the end of the pit lane!
He regained control of his car, but he’s already complained on the radio that Verstappen (who had a slower than expected stop) forced him off the track as they rejoined the race.
The Sky replays show that Verstappen maintained his line, and Norris simply ran out of space. The end of the pit lane isn’t wide enough for two cars side-by-side.
The stewards have said there’ll be no further investigation.
RUNNING ORDER AFTER LAP 25
Antonelli
Hamilton
Hadjar
Verstappen (pitted)
Norris (pitted)
Piastri (pitted)
Piastri had been complaining of tyre wear, so he’s pitted at the end of lap 20.
Could this be to cover off George Russell (who’d just pitted) behind him?
Piastri is back into ninth in the running order, but with fresh hard rubber. Lewis Hamilton, in fifth, is also on hard tyres but out of sequence.
The McLaren engineers have told Norris, and even Piastri, that their main loss to the race-leading Verstappen is into the hairpin (given the way Verstappen handles that corner).
Norris had been told over the radio to pit to overtake Verstappen in the pits, but that didn’t fool anyone – he’s stayed out and behind the Dutch star.
The next radio message to Norris? “This pace is really strong – keep it up.”
RUNNING ORDER, LAP 19
Verstappen
Norris
Piastri
Leclerc
Russell
Jack Doohan has pitted on to the hard tyres after started on the softer compound. Interestingly, his lasted 15 laps. Lance Stroll’s? Just 10.
Speaking of tyres, Carlos Sainz had a rear lock-up heading into the chicane – again showing just how hard these cars are to handle in the colder than expected conditions, where it’s that much harder to maintain heat in the tyres.
Piastri has set the fastest lap of the race and continues to make real inroads into his teammate Lando Norris in second.
The complicating factor, though, is that both of them have complained about their rear tyre grip.
Norris’ engineer has said the tyres aren’t graining, but instead spoke about the lack of track temperature being the main factor.
RUNNING ORDER ON LAP 12
Verstappen
Norris
Piastri
Leclerc
Russell
Antonelli
Hamilton
Hadjar
Albon
Bearman
After starting on the softer tyres from the back of the grid, Lance Stroll has already pitted them to get rid of them on lap 10. Look for him to stay on a one-stop strategy now, if he can.
Meanwhile, Alex Albon has blown up big-time on his team radio about his own gear shifts (a similar problem to the one Verstappen had) – complaining to his engineer that the problem has become worse with a pre-race change the team made.
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