A fresh upgrade package from Mercedes headlines developments being introduced ahead of the summer break at the Belgian Grand Prix. Looking to continue its recent momentum that has led to it winning two of the past three races – and score podiums on …
A fresh upgrade package from Mercedes headlines developments being introduced ahead of the summer break at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Looking to continue its recent momentum that has led to it winning two of the past three races — and score podiums on five consecutive weekends — Mercedes has a new diffuser and floor edge that both include an increase in downforce, while an updated beam wing and halo reduces drag, and a tweak to the front wing is designed to balance the car in a lower-downforce configuration.
Ferrari similarly has a lower-downforce rear wing that comes with a front wing change for balance reasons, while McLaren’s circuit-specific rear wing and beam wing tweaks are paired with updated rear brake ducts. At Haas and RB there are the same rear wing and beam wing developments, but the latter also has changes to the winglets on the rear corner.
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Alpine follows Mercedes in introducing an upgrade package, with a new front wing, engine cover, beam wing, rear wing, rear brake duct and mirror design. The new parts are a combination of low-downforce configurations and overall development to improve airflow.
The other team to deliver new parts this weekend is Stake. The Sauber-run team has developed new floor fences to increase local load, as well as front and rear wings. A more efficient beam wing has also been introduced, and changes to the geometry of the mirrors is designed to improve flow quality to the rear end of the car.
Red Bull, Aston Martin and Williams are the only teams not to submit any updates at Spa-Francorchamps, with Red Bull expected to revert to its Silverstone specification of car as its Hungary upgrade is designed specifically for high-downforce venues.
Daniel Ricciardo says he was angered by the strategy RB put him on in the Hungarian Grand Prix and then a lack of apology that followed the checkered flag. RB started last Sunday’s race with both cars in the top 10, Ricciardo ninth ahead of teammate …
Daniel Ricciardo says he was angered by the strategy RB put him on in the Hungarian Grand Prix and then a lack of apology that followed the checkered flag.
RB started last Sunday’s race with both cars in the top 10, Ricciardo ninth ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Both drivers started on medium tires and were jumped by Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen off the line, but Ricciardo was called into the pits on lap 7 — one lap after Albon and Magnussen — to fit hard tires and emerged behind both once again, limiting him to 12th at the finish.
“You don’t want to pull into the pits,” Ricciardo (pictured above with team principal Laurent Mekies) said of the early pit stop. “You get the call and you know that this isn’t the thing to do, but you get the call late and there’s no time to question it. Because then if you miss a lap then it’s even worse.
“But as soon as I pulled in, the cars on softs had pulled in, we’re on a medium, let’s go. Let’s use our clear air, use the pace we’ve got, and then we come out in traffic and it’s just DRS train, and for what? We’re all then on the same tire… That was one of the worst ones that I’ve had in 250-something races — that was a long old frustrating race where I just had a lot of anger.
“We talk about strategies and that… but two cars jumped us at the start with a soft tire. That’s fine, let them go. They pit and we follow them. To then just be on their strategy… We would have had clear air and a chance to [score], I think, from what I understand of Yuki’s race.
“Honestly, I was expecting more. On the in-lap I was waiting for, ‘Sorry. We f****d up.’ And I didn’t get it. So, that made me even more angry.”
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Tsunoda did not make his first pit stop for another 22 laps, going on to finish ninth on a one-stop strategy. Ricciardo says the timing of the result was particularly painful, having highlighted the importance of the two races before the summer break for his future.
“That’s the thing — I feel like we’ve taken ourselves out of the race so early and then we’re expected to fight a car that’s coming a second a lap quicker on newer tires and it’s, ‘What do you want me to do?’
“We just made it so difficult for ourselves when we had pace and we could have just stayed out in clear air, stayed calm and do what we’d done all weekend. We did a race but we didn’t do a race, if you know what I mean. We were just driving around.”
Race stewards have opted to take no further action after the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Verstappen was attempting to overtake Hamilton down the inside into Turn 1, but locked up as the pair …
Race stewards have opted to take no further action after the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was attempting to overtake Hamilton down the inside into Turn 1, but locked up as the pair approached the corner and his left rear hit Hamilton’s front right. The Red Bull was launched into the air by the contact and Verstappen felt Hamilton had moved under braking, but the stewards disagreed, despite making a note of the Mercedes driver’s involvement.
“Car 1 approached the turn faster than on previous laps (due to DRS) and braked at the same point as previously,” the stewards’ decision read. “The driver of Car 1 argued that Car 44 was changing direction under braking. The driver of Car 44 stated that he was simply following his normal racing line (which was confirmed by examination of video and telemetry evidence of previous laps).
“It was clear that Car 1 locked up both front wheels on the approach to Turn 1 prior to any impact occurring but missing the normal cornering line for a typical overtaking maneuver.
“The driver of Car 44 stated that this was a racing incident, while the driver of Car 1 argued that this was a case of changing direction under braking.
“The Stewards do not consider this to be a typical case of ‘changing direction under braking’ although it is our determination that the driver of Car 44 could have done more to avoid the collision.
“Accordingly we determine that no driver was predominantly to blame and decide to take no further action.”
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Prior to the decision, Hamilton had already clarified his belief that it wasn’t a serious incident, but was unhappy with Verstappen’s claim of moving under braking.
“From what I can remember, obviously we passed a backmarker,” Hamilton said. “I got to the braking zone, and then Max appeared to overtake the car behind me, so I moved over to defend. I left enough room in the inside, but Max locked up, and he was going a different trajectory to me. I was going towards, around the corner, and he came shooting across.
“It felt like a racing incident. It’s easy to make mistakes like that, and so I don’t feel there should be any hostility. But of course, from his side, there always will be.”
Max Verstappen says any critics of his strong radio messages to Red Bull “can all f*** off” as he was left annoyed by the team’s strategic calls in the Hungarian Grand Prix. McLaren secured a one-two but Verstappen slipped from third on the grid to …
Max Verstappen says any critics of his strong radio messages to Red Bull “can all f*** off” as he was left annoyed by the team’s strategic calls in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
McLaren secured a one-two but Verstappen slipped from third on the grid to finish fifth, partly due to a late collision with Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen was having to try and pass Hamilton for third on the road having already cleared Charles Leclerc in the final stint, but was annoyed that Red Bull put him in positions to need to make overtakes and conceded track position twice through the pit stop phase.
“A tough [race], of course. We didn’t have the pace to fight McLaren today, but then I think we could still have had a P3,” Verstappen said. “But the wrong strategy calls put me on the back foot where I constantly had to fight people, try to overtake, but it didn’t work.
“It was really hot. As soon as you get close to cars, the tires overheat and basically all the advantage you have with the tires is not working anymore.
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“Of course I’m annoyed, but I’ve been annoyed before. Sometimes you press on the radio to voice your opinion and that’s what I did today. I’m hoping that maybe the second pit stop would be a better call, but it wasn’t. For me, that is not distracting when I’m driving. Of course I’m annoyed, but you also then focus back on what you have to do and that’s of course control the car.”
When it was put to Verstappen that some of his radio messages — including one to his race engineer that said, “No mate, don’t give me that bulls***. You guys gave me this f***ing strategy, OK? I’m trying to rescue what’s left. F*** sake” — were deemed by some as going too far and disrespecting the team, he replied: “They can all f*** off.”
Verstappen was also unhappy at the incident with Hamilton at Turn 1, saying it was a case of moving under braking, despite the stewards disagreeing and later taking no further action.
“I got a lot of s*** thrown at me in Austria where people say I’m moving on the braking, blah blah blah,” he said. “I’m positioning my car in the initial movement and then I keep it straight. But today, under braking, he just kept turning to the right, and that’s why I also locked up because I was going for the move, but I see the car on the outside just keeps coming at me. Otherwise, we would have crashed already before but I had to stop the car, and that’s why I had to lock up.”
Oscar Piastri says his first victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix will take time to sink in, but he never doubted Lando Norris would give the lead back to him before the end of the race. The start of the race saw Piastri overtake Norris to lead, and …
Oscar Piastri says his first victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix will take time to sink in, but he never doubted Lando Norris would give the lead back to him before the end of the race.
The start of the race saw Piastri overtake Norris to lead, and he maintained that position until the final round of pit stops, when McLaren stopped Norris first and he undercut his teammate. Norris was then told to give the place back and did so with three laps remaining, for Piastri to secure his debut grand prix victory following his Qatar Sprint win last year.
“I would say it is [what I hoped it would be] — I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet and I’m not really the kind of person to get overly emotional,” Piastri said. “So I don’t think you’re ever really going to see that from me, but no, it’s an incredible feeling. It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid.
“We’ve had a couple of opportunities through the last few races that we’ve come very close too, and now to make it happen is an incredible feeling. But I’m sure with more time… I think in Qatar last year, that didn’t fully sink in until probably the season ended. This will probably be a similar kind of feeling. It’s just quite a cool feeling, but quite hard to describe and know how to feel sometimes.”
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Norris pushed back on the team order to return the position to Piastri in the final stint before eventually doing so, but the Australian says he wasn’t worried that his teammate would defy the instruction.
“I don’t think I was really concerned. The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a safety car, then it would have taken the situation out of our hands,” he said. “But we’d spoken about it at the timing of the stop that we would sort it back out. I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando, that we would make that happen.
“I’m sure it’s something we’ll discuss as a team. The information I had at the time was Lando was boxing early to cover Lewis [Hamilton] and I was going long to cover Max [Verstappen], essentially, because I knew that he’d stopped later and I think we were just being very safe.
“Of course, that naturally gave Lando an undercut and maybe made things a little bit more complicated than it needed to be, but I’m sure that’s something we’ll go through.”
Oscar Piastri won his maiden grand prix in a controversial ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix after McLaren teammate Lando Norris slowed dramatically to hand him the lead with three laps to go. Piastri had controlled the first two-thirds of the race …
Oscar Piastri won his maiden grand prix in a controversial ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix after McLaren teammate Lando Norris slowed dramatically to hand him the lead with three laps to go.
Piastri had controlled the first two-thirds of the race after seizing first place from his pole-getting teammate with a better launch off the line, but the team had incidentally swapped their positions at the second pit stops in a bungled attempt to cover the threat of a Lewis Hamilton undercut from behind.
Hamilton stopped on lap 40, with Norris stopping on lap 45 and remaining ahead. But the undercut was powerful at the Hungaroring, and when Piastri stopped two laps later, he rejoined the race behind his teammate.
The lead driver is ordinarily given the rights to the first pit stop, and the Australian had been promised the positions would be swapped back before the end of the race in lieu, but Norris made clear immediately that he wasn’t interested in playing the team game.
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The Briton put his foot down, far exceeding the pace recommended to him by the team. His engineer, Will Joseph, implored him repeatedly to moderate his pace — ostensibly to manage the rubber to the end. Norris at first ignored the messages before eventually making clear that he intended to win the race.
“Tell him to catch me up then, please,” he said, arguing that he would have regardless pushed to capitalize on a mistake from Piastri in the middle stint, when he lost 3s running off the road at Turn 11.
The pleas from the pit wall became more urgent as Norris broke past the 5s barrier and the lap count ticked down.
“Lando, there are five laps to go,” Joseph told his driver. “The way to win a championship is not by yourself, it’s with the team. You’re going to need Oscar and you’re going to need the team.”
It took until the third-to-last lap for Norris to relent, dropping anchors on the main straight to theatrically wave his teammate into the lead. He briefly intimated that he would attempt to repass with DRS, but the lap count was against him, and Piastri was released to claim a victory that looked sure to be his before the second stops.
“Very, very special,” he said. “This has been the day I dreamt of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium.
“Obviously a bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in the right position at the start. Thank you to the team for an amazing effort and amazing car.
“It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren. I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity.”
Norris praised the team for delivering its first one-two finish since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix by dominant 12s margin but wouldn’t be drawn on his last-stint tactics.
“The team asked me to do it, so I did it, and that’s it,” he said. “An amazing day for us as a team. I think that’s the main thing.
“I’m so happy. It’s been a long journey to get to achieving this on merit, and that’s exactly what we did today, and a long way clear of the rest, so we did it in style as well.”
Hamilton completed the podium for Mercedes after a race-long fiery duel with old title foe Max Verstappen, who spectacularly self-destructed as he grappled with a recalcitrant car.
Verstappen’s long day started with a long-way-around move at the start. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Verstappen’s difficult day started at the first corner, when he ran off the road at the first turn but rejoined second ahead of Norris. It took four laps for the team to tell him to give back the position, firing him up for the first time in what would prove a long afternoon of frustration.
The Dutchman railed against the balance of the car, the tires, the quality of his opponents’ racecraft and his team’s own strategy decisions, and eventually the bile began showing up on track, with lock-ups aplenty in his battle for position with Hamilton.
A late first pit stop dropped him to fourth behind the Briton, and after being unable to find a way past in the middle stint, a late second stop dropped him to fifth behind Charles Leclerc in pursuit of a better tire offset.
He made short work of the Ferrari, but Hamilton again proved obdurate. Eventually he tried breaking through with brute force, locking up into the first turn and making wheel-to-wheel contact that sent the RB20 high into the air and landing with a thud in the run-off zone.
MAX GOES FLYING!
Verstappen got past then locked up – he thinks Hamilton moved under braking!
Both cars were able to continue, Hamilton in third but Verstappen back down to fifth, but the Dutchman faces the threat of a penalty after a post-race stewards investigation.
“Obviously, the close battle we had at the end was a bit hair-raising,” Hamilton said. “But that’s motor racing. I’m really happy. I’m grateful for the points.”
Leclerc finished fourth after a strong launch got him ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, who took the flag sixth.
Sergio Perez recovered well from a 16th-place start to finish seventh, collecting six precious points on a tough day for Red Bull. George Russell, starting 17th, followed him home in eighth with a bonus point for fastest lap.
Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to execute a one-stop strategy, executing superbly to score two points for ninth place.
Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Aston Martin ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.
Daniel Ricciardo was rapid in the final stint but not fast enough to recover from two early pit stops that briefly dropped him to last in the middle of the race, finishing 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu.
Pierre Gasly was the race’s only retirement after a suspected hydraulics problem.
Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez were both defended by Daniel Ricciardo after their crashes in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Perez was first to go off with a heavy crash at Turn 8 during Q1 – ensuring he will start no higher than 16th on …
Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez were both defended by Daniel Ricciardo after their crashes in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Perez was first to go off with a heavy crash at Turn 8 during Q1 — ensuring he will start no higher than 16th on Sunday — before Tsunoda (pictured above) ran wide at Turn 5 and was launched into the barrier in Q3. Ricciardo says his RB teammate’s crash was mainly down to the punishing track layout on the outside of that corner, with what he believes were small moments having significant outcomes.
“I have not seen Checo’s yet — I saw the aftermath, but I honestly don’t even know what corner he went off on,” Ricciardo said. “So I haven’t seen that one. I just saw Yuki’s now. So a few of us on Thursday — the few that do a track walk — saw that the edge drops a lot. And we thought if you drop off a wheel there, it’s going to just skateboard and do literally what it did.
“So there’s just no margin for error on that corner. It was a big one. I mean, I saw him get out, so I think he’s OK, but obviously it’s completely destroyed the car. So I don’t think that is the nicest kind of run-off that they’ve created for us.
“Look. we’re pushing, it’s Q3. I’m not making an excuse for Yuki but that corner you just have no margin. You drop a wheel there and it’s game over. So that was that. And then Checo’s, I know that was probably when it was still a little bit damper, and these conditions you’ve got to send it and put it all on the line and small mistakes obviously have big consequences.
“So there’s a lot of pressure on, not only us as Red Bull right now but everyone in that situation. So everyone has moments but when you cross the line sometimes you’re just like, ‘Thank you!’”
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The focus on both drivers was due to speculation surrounding Perez’s future, with Red Bull understood to be set to analyze the situation during the summer break. With Ricciardo himself looking uncertain to remain with RB, he says he had given the next two rounds added importance.
“I haven’t been told anything, but I’ve told myself if I can do it, go fast. You’ve got two races to give it hell. And that’s honestly not even with the idea of moving up, it’s even just trying to lock something in for next year.
“I intentionally came into the weekend telling myself that these two races could be two of the most important of not only my season but potentially my career. They haven’t specifically said anything to me but I’ve said enough to myself.”
For his part, Tsunoda thinks it was a combination of aspects that led to him going off track when on another occasion he could have continued with his lap.
“I felt, ‘Why didn’t it turn?’” Tsunoda said. “I didn’t feel like I was going to run wide there. Probably because I was on the limit in Q3, half of the tire went on the grass, but probably because it was wet it kind of exaggerated it and went wide.
“Until that corner, the lap felt great. I’m sorry because everyone in the team and myself deserve a higher position for all the work we’ve done. The car felt great, and the lap was solid, and I reckon it could’ve put us in a great position for tomorrow.”
Max Verstappen fears Red Bull is now chasing other teams rather than setting the pace more often than not, after qualifying third at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Red Bull won all but one of the races in 2023 but has already seen McLaren, Mercedes and …
Max Verstappen fears Red Bull is now chasing other teams rather than setting the pace more often than not, after qualifying third at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Red Bull won all but one of the races in 2023 but has already seen McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari pick up victories on five occasions so far this year, including in four of the past seven rounds. After being kept off the front row by the two McLarens in Budapest on Saturday, Verstappen says he’s enjoying the fights but feels Red Bull often finds itself playing catchup with at least one other team each weekend.
“I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition,” Verstappen said. “At the moment, I feel like we are chasing and having a few more difficult weekends, but I don’t back out of a fight. We’re just in a bit of a tricky situation, I guess.
“The whole weekend, I think we have been a little bit behind, and I think that was also the case in qualifying. I tried to make it as close as possible, but unfortunately just not enough. A bit difficult to pinpoint why that is.
“I would have liked a bit more grip, but it’s not there at the moment. P3 is still very close. I just hope that for tomorrow, of course, the car is good in the race, and at least that we can follow them and see what we can do there.
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Red Bull introduced an upgrade package at the Hungaroring this weekend, and Verstappen says he can feel an improvement from the new parts, but the end result shows where it stands in the pecking order.
“They work, but we’re still not first, right?” he said. “We need more, it’s as simple as that. I think looking back at my qualifying, I was very happy with the laps, but balance wise, everything is really on the edge. I’m pushing as hard as I can, and then you have little moments here and there.
“I feel like I probably push harder than I did last year, but [having these great lap times is just not coming anymore]. I guess it just means that we are a bit slower, so we have work to do, simple as that.”
Verstappen also explained why he climbed out of his car during the red flag in Q3, rather than joining the queue of cars trying to get out for one final run.
“I didn’t want to drive anymore. I had no tires, they were used, so I was never going to improve. There was no point for me to be in the pit lane waiting.”
Lando Norris says there is no added importance for McLaren to convert its front-row lockout at the Hungarian Grand Prix into victory. McLaren secured its first one-two in qualifying since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Norris edging out …
Lando Norris says there is no added importance for McLaren to convert its front-row lockout at the Hungarian Grand Prix into victory.
McLaren secured its first one-two in qualifying since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Norris edging out teammate Oscar Piastri by just 0.022s. The team looked quickest throughout the weekend as it tried to bounce back from the last race at Silverstone where strategic calls cost it a chance of victory with both cars, but Norris says that doesn’t increase the pressure to take the opportunity at the Hungaroring.
“Every single [qualifying] is important, every race is important,” Norris said. “It’s not [like] all of a sudden I need to do it and I need to prove my point; I don’t. We’ve done the best we could in every race. I think we’ve shown great pace and great opportunities, and I know we’ve missed out on some. We don’t need to get back into all of that stuff, but I would love to have a clean, strong weekend.
“From yesterday, already, we were very strong at the beginning in FP2, FP3, qualy now, so it would be nice just to have a nice Turn 1 and see what happens from there, but I’m not expecting it. I’m [still] expecting a difficult race with Oscar and Max [Verstappen] behind.
“Every one is important. Every time we’re trying to maximize every place, every point, and, yeah, the more we can try to get back on Max, the more we as a team can get on Red Bull and other constructors, the better. [There’s] no point or emphasis on trying to beat a particular someone or something. It’s just go out and do what we do because we’re doing a good job.”
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Norris believes the lower temperatures and light rain on Saturday actually played into McLaren’s hands despite its strong performance in the heat of Friday, but he feels the race pace will be competitive regardless of conditions.
“As confident, I think, as we have been for a while, like both qualy and races, we’ve been strong,” he said. “I think our bad one has been third or fourth, but our good ones have been chances to win. Definitely, once again, a good opportunity for that, for both of us and for us as a team to score some big points, and that’s our target tomorrow.”
Teammate Piastri says McLaren can make big ground in the constructors’ championship with a one-two result in the race, but is confident the two drivers can work effectively together while still fighting each other for the win.
“It’s cool to be here, especially when you get a result like this,” Piastri said. “I think [it’s] the first one-two in qualifying for McLaren for a very long time, so very happy. Of course, when I miss out by two hundredths, you think of all the little things you can do a bit better, but an amazing result for the team.
“We had a bit of a tricky day on my side yesterday, so it was nice to bounce back this morning, and then obviously this afternoon in qualy, it wasn’t easy. A lot of decisions on the fly, and to end up with both cars on the front row is an amazing result.
“Of course I want to get into the lead, but we have both cars on the front row. We’ve got a big task ahead of us trying to win this championship as a team, and we’ll be smart. We’ve got a very quick car. It’s been working extremely well this weekend, and we want to keep it one-two, and I think we’ll fight amongst ourselves for who gets one.”
Sergio Perez says he is “very sorry for letting my team down” after another crash in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but insists he will fight for his Red Bull future as that’s the example he wants to set to his children. Red Bull sources …
Sergio Perez says he is “very sorry for letting my team down” after another crash in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but insists he will fight for his Red Bull future as that’s the example he wants to set to his children.
Red Bull sources have suggested Perez’s seat will be assessed during the summer break after a dramatic downturn in form since the start of the European season back in May. Perez walked away from a heavy crash at Turn 8 after losing control of his car in damp conditions in Q1 at the Hungaroring, but says he is still relishing the challenge of trying to turn the situation around.
“I’m very sorry for letting my team down,” Perez said. “It hurts a lot as a driver when you let your team down, but I will not give up — I will really give my very best to turn this situation around and push as much as possible to get the constructors’ home.
“Like I said before, nothing changes — I’m not worried, I’m fully determined to turn my season around and to focus on my performance.
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“I was just on a good lap but in hindsight probably we didn’t need that lap. It’s something we will review, but I think these conditions can catch out anyone out there. But unfortunately it has been me two in a row.
“I’m determined to turn things around. It’s obviously quite hard to face all the media after these difficult moments but I think when we get back to it, it will be even sweeter.
“I’m really finding it… I wouldn’t say fun, I would say a challenge. It’s something that mentally is really tough and the easiest way would be just to give up after the career I’ve had, to just say it’s been enough, but it’s not what I want to teach my kids. It’s not what I want to show, this sort of character.
“I think it’s important to turn things around, get back to our form, because it was not that long ago, it’s just one after the other. You’ve seen it with many other drivers that they had difficult weekends but probably when you are at Red Bull it’s a lot more noticed. I just want to get back, and I will get back. I will not give up.”
Perez’s existing Q1 time was very nearly enough to get him through but he eventually dropped out in 16th place when the session resumed, and the 34-year-old says he believes he has the potential to still fight back into the points on Sunday.
“It’s something that was so hard to judge, the conditions,” he said. “It was raining harder but at the end you were not losing grip — I was improving my lap, so in hindsight when you look at it we were safe, we didn’t need to do that lap, but you always know a lot afterwards.
“It hurts that it happened again, especially in the run that I am going through, but yeah, I’m determined to turn this around because I believe that [I can].
“Yesterday we had a really good day, a very promising day, so I think we had very good information on the long run. So hopefully tomorrow we can have some really good pace to come through the field and score some points.”
