I'll have to dig again, but I saw news that Lewis removed all but the welded in nose stud, and was given a deadline by the FIA on that. Several sources reported that he removed all that he could.

Personally I think it's just a distraction and if the rule exists they should enforce it. It exists only for safety reasons, and if Lewis thinks that he is above the regs tell him to go pack sand. I'd have no problems if they just don't allow him to race. It's petty crap like this that sets a poor example for other drivers and makes him feel like he is above the regs.



As for qually, a fairly good session overall, with Ferrari keeping the upper hand but it seemed ever so slightly. Without the bobble Max might have got close to Leclerc, but I don't think he would have had a better time. Either way it's clear that Ferrari and RB are still the class of the field.

The swap in performance between Lewis and George makes me wonder if the car just runs that fine on a knife edge that the slightest setup issue makes the car hard to drive. It's not normal to see that much of a swing between the two cars and drivers on a team, and this is now two races it's happened. Either way, it seemed tough for Lewis to get up there to P6, and maybe George will do better with race pace and make up some positions. But Merc still seem to be in trouble either way.

I'm sure Valtteri is grinning ear to ear being ahead of Lewis in the Merc, and he put in a really solid performance to do it. The AR seemed decent, but that was unexpected. Then again, having both AT cars in the top 10 wasn't something I expected either. Norris made a good showing of the cars potential, and I hate to say it but I'm losing hope for Danny Ric, things just aren't working for him at the moment.

The track seemed to be getting faster and faster, so the race might give us some solid lap times. It still seems to have some tricky sections, and mistakes will be easy to make. It looks like it has the potential to be an interesting race.