Every qualifying session to date this season has saw the HAAS newcomer involve himself in all sorts of controversy on track – Barcelona resulted in a penalty- another to add to the ongoing list, it seems.
The ‘gentleman’s agreement’ is so far, the main cause for Mazepin’s Q1 incidents – a mutual understanding between drivers that cars shouldn’t overtake on track before the final corner of a flying lap.
Last week’s incident saw him being passed by Tsunoda and Raikkonen as they headed to the pits. Mazepin got tangled up in Lando Norris, who was coming behind on a flying lap and giving it everything. The stewards found he had impeded him by pulling out and re-passing Tsunoda and Raikkonen instead of waiting for McLaren to overtake.
Norris said the run in “cost me quali today” as the wasted run, resulted in him having to go again.. using a set of tyres which he hoped to preserve for later in the session.
Due to this Nikita was given a three-place grid drop – but had qualified last (20th) initially, plus one point penalty on his superlicence. He also incurred one for not observing blue flags in last week’s Portuguese Grand Prix on Perez’s lap.
However, Mazepin insisted he had been trying his best in respecting the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ – which he thinks needs reviewing, regardless of him breaking the code many times
“Somebody asked about the gentlemen’s agreement into the last corner in Bahrain…. I think that was a very prime example of that not working in Formula 1,” said Mazepin during a video call when talking to Autosport.
“With the length of a car, which is two and a half metres, you just cannot put a third car there, and especially if the fourth car is arriving at full speed. So, I didn’t feel like boxing up behind was an option, because that would have left my rear end on the racing line.” He continued.
“The only option was to go, which I did. And yeah, unfortunately, it’s just all these things coming together.”
While it’s just another day at the office plus another one to forget, team-mate Mick Schumacher improved for the second weekend running by overtaking and beating Nicholas Latifi, the Williams driver during the Portugal Grand Prix.
Schumacher outqualified Latifi, starting 18th in today’s race – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
“We’re really happy, I think we obviously managed to put the car where we wanted to, the team and I have taken all the right steps,” said Schumacher of his performance.
Sources: McLaren and HAAS F1 official statements.
Headline image: HAAS F1 official Twitter