Fernando Alonso’s inability to start the Formula 1 speed race was just a case of fortune that defined a driver’s Saturday result in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Six more riders stayed to count their blessings or to mourn the sprint, and some even found themselves on either side of the fortune in the Red Bull Ring.
ZHOU LUCKY TO BEGIN
First, a pilot who suffered almost the same fate as Alonso, without even reaching the start.
At the end of the training lap, Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo was remarkably detached from the rest of the field.
His engine was cut off as he approached the last corner, with the pace reduced to a crawl. He stopped in the middle of the track as the grid formed ahead in the distance. Zhou even went through the medical car while trying a sequence of engine restarts before starting up.
The good news is that when he got stuck in the middle of the track, the start was aborted and another training lap began. The bad news was that he would have to make the second attempt at the exit from the pitlane.
From then on, however, he put what team leader Fred Vasseur described with a bit of generosity as a “remarkable” recovery to make up for a gap with the rest of the group once he pitted and then went pass several cars to finish 14th.
“It was complicated just for the beginning,” Zhou said.
“Obviously I couldn’t start on the output grid due to a problem, the engine shut down right away, so I tried to put the switch on and it restarted, and nothing happened.
“I did four shutdown procedures and restarted it, so I lost all that distance at the exit.
“Everyone was waiting for the last corner and somehow my engine decided to shut down, very surprisingly.
“It’s the first time we’ve faced this problem, so we need to figure it out and make sure it doesn’t happen tomorrow.”
HAMILTON ‘SO MANY OTHERS’ AFTER TWO IMPACTS IN THE FIRST ROUND
Pierre Gasly’s wandering AlphaTauri made strong contact with the front right of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes towards the first corner after the start.
On the one hand this was unfortunate. On the other hand, it was a big impact, which could have easily broken the steering, suspension or wheel, but Hamilton could continue.
He described the car as “definitely not the same as in the morning, but could drive” and expressed his gratitude even for arriving on arrival, saying he was “so lucky”.
And while Gasly’s impact was a moment of obvious drama, moments later Hamilton had another lucky getaway. Sergio Pérez made an aggressive play between Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on braking for turn 4, cutting Hamilton’s car in the process.
If the couple had made more intense contact, the way Hamilton and Gasly did, the result could have been serious.
OCON ONLY “ONLY” FINISHED
Moments after crossing the line in a strong sixth position, Esteban Ocon has communicated by radio to his alpine team: “I have a problem, guys.”
In order to get back to the pits he said, “I’m not sure I can do that” and the response was, “Err, yes, we think I could fight there. Wait for advice, keep trying … Okay, stop the car, please stop it and turn it off. “
Ocon has stopped just halfway up the hill to turn 3, on the additional track that has been created for the new chicane on the MotoGP track. He then admitted that only “only” he reached the finish line.
“We had a problem, I don’t know exactly what it is,” Ocon said.
“But I felt the car hesitate a bit and after turn 1 it closed completely.
“Hopefully it’s not too big a problem.”
If the problem had been resolved earlier, it looks like Ocon would have lost three championship points and would have looked at a position on the grid about 12 places below Sunday’s grand prix.
GASLY THE ARCHITECT OF HIS FALL
A bewildered Gasly had no idea what happened in his 1st round clash with Hamilton. He only expressed his surprise to end up “facing the wrong path around the corner.”
Gasly was the architect of his own fall since he seemed to not realize he was moving to the left, he assumed he was far enough away from Hamilton, or he simply bet that Hamilton would move too (which was not the case). possible since there was a Williams). on the road).
Whatever the reason, Gasly did not have the necessary conscience. The result was another first-round clash in a speed race. “It’s clear that speed racing isn’t playing in our favor,” he lamented.
But at least he was lucky to continue. The success was great, but being thrown sideways in the middle of the pack in the race to the first corner is a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, Gasly lost all the other cars and was able to get started, even managed to pick up a few seats and finish 15th, despite significant damage, with “the entire left side of the car really broken and hung up.” , did not make a larger recovery possible.
TWO DRIVERS WHO JUST WANTED IT TO END
Gasly’s teammate, AlphaTauri Yuki Tsunoda, didn’t have the same complaints of a damaged car, but his outlook was equally bleak after the sprint.
Tsunoda said it was a “different level” how slow it was compared to other cars: “not even close” and “slower than Pierre, who had a lot of damage.”
He struggled with an unpredictable balance and felt that something was wrong even in FP2, but nothing that appeared in the data.
He left him hidden in nothing in the sprint, in which he only finished ahead of one driver: an equally frustrated Nicholas Latifi.
Driving the unupdated Williams, after rolling the dice and testing a set of softs, Latifi sounded like a man who just wanted the race to end.
In fact, he admitted that he just needs to get out of the way this weekend with a car that is simply not competitive enough before he hopefully gets his hands on the upgrade package for the next race in France.
“It doesn’t look really optimistic [the race] for me because the difference is huge, ”he said of Alex Albon’s improved car deficit.
“I think the rating was positive because it was exactly where I needed to be in relation to the disadvantages I have, the weight of the car and the upgrade package.
“But on this track he’s just waiting for next weekend, to be honest.”