Source :- THE AGE NEWS
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The “unluckiest man in Formula 1”, as Fernando Alonso is being referred to this season, has been struck down again – forced to retire on lap 38 with what looks like engine failure.
That’s bitterly disappointing for the two-time world champion and Aston Martin star.
One, perhaps unintended, consequence of all these pit stops is that it’s forcing teams to favour one of their drivers over the other in their strategies.
That’s not unusual for the vast majority of the teams, but it is for McLaren – who’ve always maintained they have two No.1 drivers.
This is Norris’ race to control, and he should win this from here, but this is F1. Anything can still happen from here.
RACE ORDER ON LAP 37
- Norris
- Leclerc +5.5 sec
- Piastri +13.4
- Verstappen +15.3
- Hamilton +28
With the contending cars rapidly catching the back-markers, there’s yet more chaos unfolding with blue flags all over the place.
They mean the cars at the back have to let the car about to lap them past, but that’s not so easy around Monaco.
Humiliatingly for Mercedes and George Russell, he’s 12th and has already been lapped.
Verstappen’s early strategy to go long, pit after the other front-runners, and ideally set a fast pace in clear air to overtake the likes of Piastri has backfired.
McLaren star Oscar Piastri.Credit: AP
Piastri is back in front of him, and back into third, after banking some seriously quick times – including the fastest lap of the race so far.
- Verstappen (yet to pit)
- Norris +8 sec
- Leclerc
- Piastri
- Hamilton
“What’s the plan? Because that didn’t work very well.”
That was the radio message from Piastri to his team, who used him to try and create space for Norris earlier.
The problem for Piastri is the undercut move (pitting ahead of Leclerc to ideally set a blistering out-lap and then overtake him when Leclerc stops) didn’t work, and now he’s battling to keep pace with the Ferrari.
Norris has pitted, having set such a pace out front that he’s resumed in fourth. That’s imposing.
Piastri has pitted out of third, where he was keeping Verstappen at bay, and has inherited fourth (with Norris up to third) but he’s lost some valuable time in the pits with a clumsy stop.
Lando Norris and Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc.Credit: AP
Hamilton pitted slightly earlier at the end of lap 18. He’s now in fifth, having leapfrogged Isack Hadjar.
Verstappen leads the race, after Leclerc just pitted, but he’s yet to pit. Will he just stay out as long as possible and bank on making his first stop under a safety car?
Are the pit stops dominating the race already? It’s a question posed by Martin Brundle on the Sky coverage. This mandatory two-stop rule has caused all kinds of choas already, but is it too artificial?
- Norris
- Leclerc
- Piastri
- Verstappen
- Alonso
- Hamilton
- Ocon
- Hadjar
- Lawson
- Albon
We’ve been waiting for this (since last week, anyway).
Verstappen and Piastri have resumed hostilities on track, and Verstappen is fuming that he thinks Piastri was driving in a dangerous manner in front of him.
The thing is… there were still double yellow flags out there from the Gasly incident. Piastri has nothing to worry about, surely.
Gasly is struggling back to the pits on lap nine, having hit the wall after also spearing into the back of Tsunoda’s Red Bull, but he’s driving all the way back to the pits! That’s madness. The rule is that he has to park his car as soon as possible if that kind of impact happens.
There’s now debris all over the track. That’s a moment Alpine will want back.
Sky aired a short and sharp radio message from Tsunoda to his team: “Is he an idiot? What’s he doing?”
The fascinating thing now is that the pit entry is closed, too – so they can clear the debris left strewn everywhere by Gasly as he made his way back.
