By Joe Murphy
It’s another sprint race weekend in 2023 and the weather could play havoc with teams plans.
Max Verstappen, the current championship leader, takes a five-place grid penalty for a new gearbox. A year after he started 14th and won the event (he was leading after less than 8 laps), he’ll have to do it all again except this time between the McLaren’s, from 6th on the grid.
Charles Leclerc starts on pole for Sunday’s race with the other Red Bull car eught metres behind with Sergio Perez in second. Just behind this pair comes Hamilton’s Mercedes (subject to a post session investigation) and Carlos Sainz’ Ferrari.
The Sprint race could offer some brilliant racing around an iconic venue. Max will be eager to start on the front for this race, after earning that right on Friday evening before the aforementioned penalty. Instead, the Sprint qualifying will occur Saturday morning and they’ll have to do it all again in variable conditions. All expectations remain with Red Bull but there are hopes that Ferrari can at least challenge. So far, it appears as if this should be the every least of the expectations. A podium for at least on the the drivers is surely the minimum requirement now.
Oscar Piastri continued his fine form, out-qualifying his teammate whereas Aston Martin remained slightly off the pace but crucially ahead of Alpine, who sacked three key members of their team following back to back double DNF results at Silverstone and the Hungaroring.
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