Until tomorrow!
We have reached the end of today’s Formula 1 live ticker! Maria Reyer thanks you very much for your interest and now wishes you a good night. I would be happy if you check it out again tomorrow!
Photos: F1: French Grand Prix (Le Castellet) 2021
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Video: Leclerc vs. Räikkönen in Runde 50!
A former Ferrari world champion against the great Ferrari hope, this duel actually took place in lap 50 today. Kimi Raikkonen wanted a little too much in his Alfa Romeo …
By the way, for Alfa Romeo today everything went anything but as planned: Read here!
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Alonso: “Didn’t want to stop Esteban”
We haven’t heard from a driver from the top 10: Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was able to defend Alpine’s honor and take a few points with him in the home race on P8. “I started from ninth place and finished eighth. We ran the race well today. We finished ahead of both Ferraris and Aston Martin.”
What makes him particularly proud are his races. “That has been one of my strengths for 20 years!” Emphasizes the two-time world champion. He now feels more comfortable in the car, which also means that the starts are easier. “Then you slowly fall back to the position you deserved. That was in the first stint between P10 and P11, in the second stint between P8 and P9.”
On the pit radio you could also hear a discussion about a team order at Alpine, as Alonso had difficulties on the medium. He finally pitted on lap 18, Esteban Ocon only on lap 28. “We started on different tires, so there was a chance that we would meet.” Alonso admits: “Without Esteban behind me I could have stopped a few laps later. But we didn’t want to stop him.”
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Gasly: ”I’m a fair racer”
“That was tough racing,” commented Gasly on the duel with Norris. “You can’t expect that you can just go outside and the other guy won’t defend himself. I tried to defend cleanly. It’s a really difficult corner, very long,” he said.
“There is also a tailwind there, so it’s difficult to keep the car on the track.” Gasly also emphasizes: “I think I’m a fair racer. We dueled again on the next lap. This is racing.” He is satisfied with seventh place in the home race. “Today we were the fourth best car behind Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren.”
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Norris on Gasly: Exaggerated it a little
The duel between the two McLaren drivers shouldn’t be the only duel that the Brit complains about on the pit radio. Because after a bad start and a long first stint, he chased the midfield competition from lap 24 on fresh hard tires.
He literally flew through the field and dueled, among others, with Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri. “I finished ahead of him, so I’m happy. But I think he was a bit too energetic. You can certainly say that it was a ‘racing incident’, but he pushed me off quite a bit. That he And he went off the track himself, showing that he overdid it. “
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Norris about Ricciardo: “What is Daniel doing there?”
At Turn 4, the two McLaren drivers got a little too close for Lando Norris’ taste at the start of the race. Ricciardo pushed him off the track. “I would say it was racing,” he says when asked. It sounded a little different on the pit radio. (“What is Daniel doing there? He doesn’t leave me any space!”)
“That was energetic racing. He wouldn’t have me like that [abdrängen] have to. But nothing against Daniel. We just raced. “Norris also admits that he would have done the same thing in Ricciardo’s position.” I was just on the curb. If it had been asphalt, I wouldn’t have complained. “He doesn’t want to complain about it, but will talk to his team-mate about it.
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Ricciardo: “Can’t remember anything at all!”
“That was fun!” That’s the bottom line for Ferrari’s fiercest rival today: McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo got off well at the start and showed appealing overtaking maneuvers. “I can’t remember everything. That’s usually a good sign because it means that a lot has happened,” grinned the Australian.
He is particularly happy that he was able to fight a few duels, that is a satisfaction. “I was a little jealous when I watched Formula 3 this weekend, to be honest. The races were so exciting!” He had hoped to be able to drive an equally exciting race – and “at certain moments” it turned out that way.
Right at the start he tried on the outside lane – he learned from his start in 2019, he says. The fact that Ricciardo finished in P6 behind team mate Lando Norris does not frustrate him. Because overall he felt “much better” on the brakes and his self-confidence is slowly coming back. Only the weekend in Spain was a little better.
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Binotto: Why everything looked better on Friday
What does the Ferrari team boss have to say about this disappointing performance? “Not very much,” said Mattia Binotto at first in the media briefing in the evening. Then it took a little longer, after all, everyone wanted to know why the Scuderia did so badly today.
“We weren’t able to get the tires to work properly. The performance is strictly due to the tires.” Carlos Sainz adds: “We have too narrow a working window for the front tires.” The fast corners didn’t help the Ferrari at Le Castellet either, they demanded a lot from the tires.
Binotto also had to admit that Ferrari did not expect such a performance on Friday. “Today the track was slower, had less grip. Perhaps the rain made the track ‘greener’. As a result, we had less grip, we slipped more, which results in graining.”
What can Ferrari do now to get the problem under control? “We can maybe improve the situation, but not solve it. This would require changes to the hardware, the rims for example, but the regulations do not allow that.”
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