Manda Verstappen y Sainz quiere fiesta
The Italian Grand Prix has started, the final race of the European Formula 1 cycle, which from now on will travel to Asia and America to close a championship already decided in sports. Although that matters little to the Italian fan, who while waiting for a ‘winning machine’ from Ferrari with which to win the championship, is content with cheering on his team on the fastest circuit on the calendar with a good start since Friday and the tribute to victory in Le Mans with the change of color in the Maranello ones.
Both Sainz and Leclerc, who are new engines without sanction, as Hamilton and the two Red Bulls started hard and with Verstappen’s advantage over those from Maranello, which was maintained until the end of the session. Carlos did not like the rebound, and they quickly changed the car’s settings for the second part of the session, which started two tenths behind Leclerc, who also changed the settings of his car.” We have to be good at Monza, we have to go for the podium, the car is going well, it is aerodynamically efficient,” says Marc Gené, with a direct thread on the team radio. And as soon as the ‘set up’ changed, Carlos moved up to second, just half a tenth behind Verstappen and better than Checo. On his 29th birthday and with the memory of 2020 when he missed the victory with Gasly, or the podium last year with his great comeback, it is clear that Carlos is looking to give it his all here. And he has the curse of Monza, which underlines that in the last five years the winner of the previous edition has not repeated his victory…
Only Fernando Alonso got in the middle of all the guys with the hard ones with the medium ones, sixth, half a second behind Max in his first run, but thousandths better than Norris and his McLaren with the soft ones. It is estimated that there is four and a half tenths of a jump between each compound. Aston Martin dedicated the session to testing the new rear wing, not used in Canada and specific for Monza. Furthermore, they only used one set of media so as not to rush the expense since this weekend there are two fewer games due to that special classification on Saturday, and Pirelli has been very aggressive with the choice compared to last year. In fact, all the drivers economized their efforts and there was no flurry of laps on the track. The big news, the debut of Felipe Drugovich as Alonso’s partner at least in the first free practice, replacing Lance Stroll, who will continue with Alonso in 2024 as Mike Krack confirmed yesterday in the face of constant rumors.” Fernando’s ‘feedback’ is good, we have done a test with paint on the rear wing to see how it goes, something has been changed on the front, the angle, and so far everything is fine,” says Pedro de la Rosa, who hopes to see in the long afternoon runs the real degradation of the car’s tires since the medium that the Spaniard was using today was the soft one from last year, and they need more laps with this season’s ones, even softer than last year.
Going to a stop in the race seems like everyone’s goal, but we’ll see who can achieve it. And playing with the slipstreams, something that Ferrari tried, although it is not known who will have priority if the two drivers reach Q3…