What a mad race! Love to be a fly on the wall on the RBR debrief Pity for Bottas - I saw him run over that debris and started sucking my teeth.
Good results for Perez and LeClerc... Stroll and Hartley too tbf... Bad luck for Bottas... Lol at Vettel... WTF Red Bull and Grosjean
Well, that was interesting! Well done to Perez and Leclerc. Grosjean came over all Maldonardo as you do. Redbull though thats going to take some explaining!
RBR are going to have a cosy flight back. Yeah, debris takes out the race leader - not something that should happen.
Grosjean though - comedy gold. And moments later on the radio: "I think Ericson might have hit us" LOL
Grosjean trying to blame Ericsson for putting it in the wall behind the SC was HILARIOUS - next time he is going to blame the ghost of Senna. I doubt we'll see him on the grid next season, he's just nowhere. Super unlucky for Bottas, but I'm surprised he didn't see it on such a straight and open section of track, I could from waaay back on the replay. Ham at the top of the championship now, hopefully Mercedes don't get on top of their peaky performance issues and let him run away with it. Hulk and Baku really just don't get along, do they?! Could have been another potential podium wasted. Vettel trying to "do a Ricciardo" - stick to what you're good at, dude. RBR double DNF - this could seed some future fireworks later in the season. Shame though, the racing and position changes between them up to that point was great to watch. Alonso using those samurai Jedi skillz to drive a car with only 2 tires... On the same side of the car! Madness how he got that back to the pits. Great weekend for Leclerc, who was getting dangerously close to being humiliated by Ericsson up to now. Brendon Hartley is a perputal blue *** generotor. Vandoorne continuing to prove my theory that he is as boring in the car as he is out of it. Norris is counting down the days till the 2019 season starts and he gets a crack at it.
Having Alonso as your teammate like doesn't help but i'm not sure i've ever seen him in any of the pre/post race coverage... that or he's such a non-event of a person it just didn't register... You could probably point at any paddock rando and go 'that's Vandoorne' and most people would be none the wiser...
There is nothing to explain about the RBR crash. Verstappen did what is banned in rulebook, he moved twice. Time to throw a rulebook on him then, thus that means 3 penalty points at minimum.
Perez and Stroll called to the Stewards for 'illegally using DRS'... There was an issue with the detection point iirc so we shall see how that pans out...
What a race, which will probably become know as the battle of the bulls. I don't think anyone is particularly to blame for the crash. Max was drifting a bit right for the corner before reacting to Ricciardo and covering the inside. It wasn't like those moves he used to do, now banned, where he jinked one way then the other. It was a balls deep move by Ricciardo that didn't pay off.
Max needs his arse kicking so hard he hickups a blue racing boot up tomorrow. Whilst the end collision was 50/50 (max weaved about, Ricciardo let his frustration boil over) Max was so much slower than Ric he should have let Ric past and let his team mate go for a podium. Instead he defended so aggressively that he wrecked his own race, Ricciardo's race and then gets lucky with new tyres being a disadvantage for once. Then when Ric pulled in over a second during Max's outlap he wobbles around on the main straight like it's Formula 3, Ricciardo's had enough and just sends it, which turns out to be the wrong choice. Why RB didn't order him to let Ric past and play the averages would be beyond me if Max wasn't their pre-designated golden boy.
I had high hopes for Max but to be honest he's just getting annoying, he seems to be a bit of a try hard now. I agree though that was definitely a 50/50 event though.
I agree, the writing was on the wall, given how much closer they were getting every time 1 made a move on the other - after the rubber on rubber contact they should have looked at the sector times and moved whoever was faster in front (Ricciardo).
Given how close some cars were getting and/or how much the wind was throwing cars off... i'm surprised we didn't see more comings togethers and/or RoGro/hulkenberg-ing into the walls... IMO the situation with the wind and tyres show how narrow the operating window of an f1 car is and how quickly it goes to pot if you stray even a gnat's knacker out of that window.
Mclaren have now scored more points than all of 2017, still have a 100% finish record and a 87.5% points scoring record. Firing Tim Goss was completely unnecessary and harsh, he's built the most competitive Mclaren in years even if it does suck at qualifying for some reason.
Hamilton leading title race despite been basically poor all season outside of austrialia. says alot about this character really mr consistant he has been for ages constantly getting points. Max is stupid, World class at bumper cars. I will be shocked if he wins a drivers title.
I could see Hamilton taking the title this year through consistency rather than outright wins (Richard Burns 2001), It does look like Mercedes have created a car that's easier to drive than last years at the expense of outright speed though. Originally I was of the opinion that it was only a matter of time before Max would win the championship but the more I see the less convinced I am, yes he's fast, but without consistency, it'll mean nothing. The only way I really see him winning a championship is if he's ever in a position of no competition.
