'Fifteen laps until Santos starts to drop,' Leo noted. 'If I'm behind him at lap fifteen, I've done something wrong.'P3. Kimi Nakamura.
Quiet, precise, the Hitech car sitting in the procession with the specific, held energy of a machine whose driver had used the formation lap to read every ripple in the tarmac. Nakamura was not a flashy driver.
He would not make a dramatic move at Turn 1. He would not fight for a position that cost more tyre life than the position was worth. He would manage. He would be there at lap twenty running on rubber that was three percent less worn than everyone around him and he would use that three percent as surgical instrument.
Passing Nakamura cleanly required either a significant pace advantage or a mistake from the Japanese driver.
Leo had the pace advantage.
He didn't expect the mistake.
P4. Jamal Khalil.
