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Something I've wanted to bring up but it keeps slipping my mind is Gasly's penalty for his first-lap contact with Alonso in Turkey. How was this more fault than Ricciardo's first-lap contact with Bottas in Mexico that did not get a penalty? And Gasly's incident was in the wet. I'm OK with the rules usually, but when they are applied in a seemingly inconsistent manner I take issue.

I commented after Turkey about this. How first-lap incidents like this are largely classified as 'racing incidents'. So why was Gasly penalized but not Ricciardo? I'd argue that Ricciardo had done more to cause his incident than Gasly did in his. Masi and F1 need to square this away and apply the rules evenly. That 5-second penalty for Gasly promoted Hamilton one spot in the final order too.

Weather is expected to be dry for the race on Sunday, with 40% chance of showers Friday and Saturday.

I took off work Saturday and will be able to watch the sprint race (if it's televised here).

I wonder if Hamilton and Verstappen will try to get to the end of the season on their current engine pool. I can't believe they'll push it so far, and if either, or both go for new power plants (and other components perhaps) it could have a drastic effect on the way this plays out. Not taking a new engine is really pushing it and tempting fate I think.

One possibly overlooked effect of sprint qualifying is it allows all drivers free tire choice for the grand prix. It doesn't get much mention, but this is potentially decisive, unless of course all opt for the same compound I suppose. But we might see a polesitter on hards for example, which won't happen in the other format. One more twist to what is a massive race in the title chase.

Interesting stat: This season Max has led 569 laps to Hamilton's 154.

OK, the business is at hand. FP1 then straight to qualifying. This format leaves the teams just one hour to nail their setup. They get a second chance tomorrow before the sprint race in FP2. But qualifying today will be on the back of a single practice. There were some logistics issues as the freight from Mexico for several teams was delayed, and all were saying it wouldn't affect their preparations, but F1 extended the curfew to give the teams more time to get sorted.

This an unbelievably tight championship, and this race is vital. I think I'll be feeling more pressure than Max will!

It just so happened that Interlagos came up in my F1 2021 season last night. I managed a victory, driving for Red Bull alongside Max. My fastest lap in the race was was a 1:10.1. I took pole as well, at 1:07.2, but a 10-place grid penalty for taking new components (control electronics) saw Leclerc lead from the lights. I expect that these drivers might outpace my results. Let's see.

FP1 shaping up well for Red Bull. They seemed to land in better shape setup-wise and went fastest early on. Ferrari look quick, and Merc have work to do.

I speculated earlier about how it seemed like Hamilton and Verstappen would not get through to the end of the season on their current engine pools, and just like that, Hamilton has had a new ICE fitted, and gets a 5-place grid penalty for Sunday's grand prix. It will not affect the sprint. I still expect Max to do the same before the end of the season, but Horner's saying they are good to go. We'll see. A big gap opened here in Brazil could nudge Red Bull to do it anyway to play it safe.

Speaking of the rest of the season, the new Jeddah track in Saudi Arabia is not even completed yet. How can this be so late in the game? Everyone is spewing assurances, but it seems madness to allow this. A track shouldn't be added to the calendar until a) it is done, and b) some other races have been run there as a dress rehearsal. Formula 1 may regret this. We shall see.

Hamilton uncorks a screamer near the end to top FP1 by three-tenths over Max. I suspect the Red Bulls have something left in the tank so to speak. We'll know more shortly with qualifying. Alpine looking strong here.

Hamilton showed plenty of pace through all sessions today and deservedly takes pole for the sprint race. Max second, Bottas third, Perez fourth.

Ferrari got the better of the Papaya boys today, but McLaren will line up both cars right behind both Ferraris. Gasly fast again, advantage Alpha Tauri in the battle for fifth in the constructors. Disappointing from Tsunoda.

I expect a complete kerfuffle tomorrow!

I just checked the current standings and Verstappen has a 19 point lead over Hamilton. How many races are left in the season?

Four.

Brazil
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Abu Dhabi

Hamilton under investigation for failing post-qualifying scrutineering in regards to DRS tolerances. If found in violation he could be relegated to a pitlane start.

And then there is this:

"The story then took another turn as at 10.30pm local time the stewards announced that they had summoned Max Verstappen and a Red Bull representative to appear before them at 9.30am local time on Saturday for an "alleged breach of Article 2.5.1 of the FIA International Sporting Code".

That article states that "in the Parc Ferme, only the officials assigned may enter. No operation, checking, tuning or repair is allowed unless authorised by the same officials or by the applicable regulations."

Verstappen was seen approaching Hamilton's car in Parc Ferme after qualifying, with a video taken by a fan at the circuit apparently showing him touching the rear wing of the Mercedes - possibly the alleged breach for which he has been summoned.

It means both title contenders could face penalties this weekend, but no decisions will be made until Saturday."

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...ringement-in.2pDHh4Fu8pktfpdSrj6LDQ.html

I'm surprised there's been no ruling. They're saying it's to give Merc a chance to present their evidence. What does that mean? A caliper is all that's needed to see if the gap conforms or not. If it does, no issue. If it doesn't conform then it's a violation. What evidence could be brought to change this?

Not sure what could happen to Max. Parc Ferme rules are pretty clear.

Red Bull looking good in FP2. Hamilton had to revert to a different rear wing, and let's see how that affects his pace. I wonder why Bottas wouldn't fall afoul of the same issue? Maybe it was just a single wing that wasn't built to spec, and not a design thing.

The sprint race is shaping up to be a good one, but I hope we get some clarification on any penalties to be handed down.

WOW
Thar was a bit much wasn`t it?

Verstappen fined €50,000 for examining Hamilton's rear wing in Parc Ferme.

Rumours say Hamilton will be placed last in the sprint.

The expensive touch.

This is unbelievable.

Max got hit with the fine yes. It's pocket change, but you can't be touching the other guy's car I guess, in Parc Ferme, or any other time to avoid shady appearances..

Hamilton last on the grid in the sprint, plus his 5 place grid penalty Sunday. So even if he fights up to tenth in the sprint, he'll start 15th in the grand prix. He has the pace and skill to come through the field today (or he did with the impounded wing anyway), but it's only 100km so not much time of course.

I think it's clear from the video that Max didn't cause the issue, as some are claiming, he was just using his finger to judge the gap on his car, then Lewis'. The mystery is how or why was he even checking this? Did this have anything to do with the stewards investigating, or was he just seeing what the fuss behind the scenes might have been about?

This is a huge development in the title chase obviously. I'd rather not see it come down to off-track controversy though. But if Merc are outside technical compliance there should be a price to pay. This is a big price for a few mm. But that's Formula 1. I want to know the full story here.

The stewards are satisfied that the violation was not in the design, which means the wing is deformed or deflected in some way I suppose. The DRS employed gap is too wide, exceeding the maximum 85mm. Seems like it is just very unfortunate for Mercedes, and no sign of anything nefarious. Mercedes will not appeal, because to do so would have left Hamilton at the front of the sprint grid, and if he were subsequently DQ'd anyway it could have wiped his sprint and possibly even grand prix results. So they are forced to take it on the chin.

This hands a massive advantage to Max. Now he still needs to execute. A spin, crash, puncture or mechanical retirement will mean there's nothing gained at all, so he needs to get his head down and convert the opportunity handed to him. There little chance of Lewis scoring with a podium today, but it's not impossible. So Max could head to tomorrow 22 points clear and well up the road at the start of the race.

Part of me is happy with these events, and part of me wishes it had never happened. Max fan versus Formula 1 fan I guess.

Decent result for Max, not for Red Bull.

Hamilton's drive was brilliant. I would never have given him a chance to pass 15 cars in 24 laps. What a reply to his DQ.

Hamilton's wing failed by 0.2mm (0.00787402 inch).

Toto Wolff:

“I think how the process went from telling us, discovering that we've marginally failed the test, we are speaking 0.2 of a millimetre, to not allowing this to be fixed, like the normal protocol would be, but rather it being reported to the stewards, the bullet was out of the gun,” said Wolff.

“I think that put the stewards in a very difficult situation to come up with the right judgement. But, to be honest, until late this afternoon, we believed that it was okay.

“The wing was damaged. One side was okay, the middle was okay. The right side was not okay, and that means we actually had a performance disadvantage.

“So we thought that, in consideration of all these aspects, the FIA would say there was damage and therefore we weren't in breach of the regulations. They also said there was nothing that happened with intent from our side.

“But then we were reading disqualified, which honestly, I couldn't believe. I thought that [sporting director] Ron Meadows was making a joke when I saw the WhatsApp.

"So strange things happen. But you have to take it on the chin, and the last 60 minutes of motor racing, from Valtteri [Bottas] and from Lewis, brought all the enjoyment back with all of frustrations that happened before.”

Wolff said that Mercedes had still been unable to conduct a detailed inspection of the rear wing to get to the bottom of what had caused the problem – but he says that visual indications point towards something untoward having happened in qualifying.

“We haven't got the wing back,” he said. “The wing stays with FIA all weekend, and we couldn't evaluate what the damage was beyond the visual look that our number one [mechanic] Nathan [Divey] had whilst the test was being performed. He came back and said something's broken because of the odd behaviour of the rear wing.”

More from Wolff. It's going to be interesting from here on in:

Mercedes has been unable to launch a detailed investigation in to what caused the problem, but believes some damage, potentially just a loose screw, triggered the issue.

Wolff is clear that, in the past, teams have been allowed to make repairs to broken car components in parc ferme conditions if problems surface that could trigger an inadvertent rules breach.

But he says that for some reason, the refusal of the FIA’s technical department to allow Mercedes to address the DRS damage post-session, and instead report the matter straight to the stewards, has resulted in a new protocol.

“I don't want to pick out any individuals, because everybody tries to do the best possible job in their role, but something went against the modus operandi in these last 24 hours,” said Wolff about the series of events that triggered Hamilton’s exclusion.

“It was either under pressure from other stakeholders, or just different, and if the modus operandi is different now, you maybe need to look at others also with a more strict eye and severe eye.

“I can tell you that, in the next few races, we're going to look at every single race part and race tape that's going to fall off a car and ask questions.”

Wolff is clear that the previous way of operating in F1, where broken aero components, bargeboards or floor bibs that could have triggered deflection test failures were taken into account, should no longer be accepted based on the Hamilton case.

“I think in a way there was a gentleman's agreement, if such a thing as a gentlemen's agreement exists in F1 because there ain't no gentlemen, but it doesn’t exist any more.

“You can have no millimetre of leniency of fixing things on a car. If it's broken, it's broken, you can't touch it. And this is how it's going to go this year.”

Wolff says the situation with the Mercedes rear wing especially annoys him because in the previous race in Mexico, Red Bull was allowed to make repairs to its rear wing when it discovered problems with them.

“You know, we've seen it with the Red Bull last weekend,” said Wolff. “We have had many bargeboards, or bib failures, that were being put back because the FIA has our CAD drawings, they have the wings.

“We wanted to leave the [Hamilton] wing with them so they can cut it in to 1000 pieces. We weren't allowed to look at the wing because it was simply damaged through the qualifying session and none of these arguments counted.”

He added: “ In the past, sometimes there was a common sense buffer that didn't exist yesterday or today. But it's all to the dot within the regulation. So you need to respect that.”

I don't know enough about the specifics to draw any real conclusion, but it all points to what I was talking about before, the even application of the rules. If you do that, the teams can't complain too much. If you give even the appearance of treating them differently, you get all this stuff.

Hamilton's blistering pace makes him a threat for the win today, even from tenth. If he can fly through the field like he did yesterday why not? But the cars in front now are faster than the ones he passed yesterday. As much as was made of Hamilton's pace, it shouldn't be lost that both Bottas and Verstappen checked out. They were just as fast as Hamilton, although not overtaking every lap. So what it comes down to is how fast Hamilton can get to the front. The longer it takes, the farther up the road the leaders will be, or at least that's what I expect.

The Key for Verstappen is to get past Bottas as quickly as possible. The first turn would do nicely, pull a reverse on what Bottas did to him yesterday. The longer Max sits behind the hotter his tires will get and the easier it will be for Lewis to catch him. Bottas has a crucial role to play, and Perez does too, as we can expect I think for him to be battling Hamilton on track before too long.

The race is a couple hours earlier in the day, and it looks on the broadcast as there isn't much cloud cover. The hotter the track, the more it favors Red Bull, based on the races so far.

And then of course anything can happen, but if all the cars avoid catastrophe I think it will be a great race. Looks like they're all on mediums at the front, but some still have their warmers on.

Disappointing race from my perspective, but a brilliant performance from Hamilton and Mercedes who shrug off everything that went against them this weekend. This was a race that Red Bull needed to extend their lead. Instead it closed, and that's ominous for the final three races from a Red Bull point of view. It's a good result from a neutral's perspective. McLaren have fallen off a cliff. Disappointing too, that the battle for third is no longer close.

For the first time this season I voted for Hamilton as driver of the day. How could I do otherwise? He deserved it today for how he drove all weekend long.

On to Qatar!