There were plenty of talking points up and down the grid during the Japanese Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen returned to winning ways for Red Bull Racing after his retirement in Australia and was followed over the line by teammate Sergio Perez.
Anthony Davidson was commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1 and reflecting on two race starts, one more dramatic than the other.
A frustrating start to the 2024 season continued for Daniel Ricciardo.
He collided with Alex Albon heading into turn three, failing to notice that the Thai driver was on his right-hand side.
Albon did try to pull out of the move but by then it was too late and he’ll be hoping his chassis isn’t too badly damaged with Williams still not having a spare.
The restart wasn’t as dramatic but one driver who benefitted from the chaos on lap one was sent tumbling down the order.
Nico Hulkenberg initially started the Japanese Grand Prix brilliantly but Anthony Davidson noticed his poor getaway the second time around.
After scoring points in back-to-back races, the German missed out by a narrow margin at Suzuka.
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Anthony Davidson left unimpressed by Nico Hulkenberg’s start during Japanese Grand Prix
It was a case of two very different race starts for the two Haas drivers.
Kevin Magnussen qualified five places behind his teammate on Saturday and witnessed the chaos unfold in front of him.
That didn’t stop him nearly collecting the other Williams of Logan Sargeant heading into the second section of the Esses.
Nico Hulkenberg has always been a strong qualifier than his teammate and showed that on Saturday.
He was very briefly running in the points after the red flag but he then gave himself plenty of work to do after the first set of corners.
Anthony Davidson was left disappointed with Hulkenberg after the first few laps of the Japanese Grand Prix.
The 36-year-old left himself with work to do but once again showed that Haas have a decent race car this year.
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Frustrating opening laps in Japan for Nico Hulkenberg
Watching back a replay of the start, Davidson said: “We saw that Zhou Guanyu was on the back of Kevin Magnussen but it was [Nico] Hulkenberg actually that dropped behind a lot of cars there and he’s behind Zhou Guanyu as well.
“So, I don’t know what happened to Hulkenberg there at the start but he’s still on the soft tyres but that’s a bit of a disaster, a turnaround compared to the start of the first one.”
David Croft added: “He just got really bogged down there and lost five or six places.”
Hulkenberg with a missed opportunity for Haas
While Davidson was left rueing Hulkenberg’s poor start on the medium tyres during the second restart at the Japanese Grand Prix, there were still positive signs for Ayao Komatsu’s team.
They were well in contention to score a point at the end of the race, finishing 11 behind the impressive Yuki Tsunoda.
The track was supposed to highlight one of the key weaknesses of Haas’s 2024 car.
Their tyre degradation was often terminal last season when they were challenging for points but has seriously improved this year.
Haas were expecting that to still be an issue this weekend, but Hulkenberg and Magnussen both proved that there are plenty of reasons to be positive for the American outfit this year.
The post ‘Bit of a disaster’: Anthony Davidson unimpressed with 36-year-old who got ‘bogged down’ during Japanese GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.