VERSTAPPIE NEWS BULLETIN - 3rd EDITION
qualified eleventh (persistent problems with downshifting all through fp &both q1+q2; car has understeer but also oversteers in corner entry)
medium tyre start (two-stop plan, hards next, everyone but bottas on same strategy)
held position at the start; up to p9 in two laps, overtaking occon and hadjar
brief lap two battle with hadjar who tries to gain position back, gets alongside quickly, max keeps ahead
into p8 on lap five, gasly ahead. ~0.5 gap which we struggle to close, car significantly lacking pace compared to alpine.
lap sixteen norris (ahead) pits and we artificially gain track position, lap eighteen leclerc (also ahead) does the same. p6, gap to gasly 5.8
piastri comes through pits and comes out behind us but overtakes again easily
bearman has a bad crash on lap twenty-two (he's okay). safety car. we take the free pit along with the rest of the field (onto hards as planned). exit pits in p8.
safety car ends lap twenty-seven. right at restart we pressure gasly, coming alongside twice, but gasly peels away on pace without even having to really defend.
max is able to keep the gap close (~1.4) for eight-ish laps but we drop away on every straight, no opportunity to overtake, and then gasly's gone into the distance again.
lap fourty-nine max claws past pierre for roughly one eighteen-hundredth of a second but ofc this used all our battery and then gasly retakes. max waves as he passes... we're cooked. pierregatory.
max attempts last second overtake attempt on final straight and the car locks up :]
teammate: qualified p8, finished p12.
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
ellievsbear
vaporwave
romaincrisis
gummygunk
snowghoul
