Isn't that entire thing stuck in Porridge car a large part why bottas was so slow? I remember a year or so ago and Mercedes had a tiny bit missing from Lewis floor and they claimed it cost him half a second a lap or something ridiculous. A large part like this in comparison is like dragging a parachute behind the car then. And VSC. He wouldn't have won. Oh well. Another insignificant race. Glad I turned off early.
Mclaren really lucked out by that safety car and being the only midfield team to finish both cars. Double points finishes will be crucial for all the mid field teams going forward.
Another excellent race from Hamilton, once more proving he is a master of tyre management. Mercedes didn't put a foot wrong at this GP, gathering maximum points whilst their opposition collapsed. Ricciardo proves that he could be a top contender in future at McLaren with Mercedes power. The Renault revival never ceases to surprise me. Ocon though ... Disastrous race for Red Bull: Albon completely messed up and Verstappen victim of tyre failure. Was the tyre strategy wrong at RB or did Max picked up some debris? McLaren and Racing Point are going backwards at this end of season.
Well done Mercedes team. A true winning organization. No equal currently. --Kyvat is the Driver of the Day. Tough and fair driving to P4 --Bottas did well with such damage --LH has the luck but the skill to take advantage and make few major mistakes Honda need more power and reliability to compete. Aero from RedBull will never be enough to win and gain both titles. Ferrari are slowly moving forward. Vettel needs to be parked after he pays back all his salary. They should put another driver in and simply end the relationship. Vettel needs to moved out before Turkey. Its over. End it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Racing Point need 1 new driver. They are being very foolish by releasing Perez. They have not mastered strategy and tactics. They are under-performing when they should be a dominant P3. Renault are showing how to compete to Racing Point. For me Renault with Ricci are the team of the year. Well done!!!!!!!!!
Bottas damage was from Vettel car piece - https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/153227/bottas-no-time-to-avoid-debris-that-wrecked-imola-gp Valtteri Bottas said he had no chance to avoid the debris that got lodged under his Mercedes at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and wrecked his Formula 1 victory hopes. The Finn had qualified on pole for F1's first visit to Imola since 2006 and kept the lead at the start, appearing comfortable out front early on from Red Bull's Max Verstappen. However, on the second lap at the Tosa hairpin, he struck a broken endplate piece from Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari, which had come off when the German collided with Kevin Magnussen on the first lap. Bottas explained afterwards that he had aimed to run over the debris straight on, and so avoid the risk of a puncture, but the carbon shard got lodged under the Finn's car and caused damage to his floor and cost him aerodynamic performance that helped a long-run Lewis Hamilton to overcut him after his switch to hard tyres. "The start was good, and that was one of the main things to get right today," said Bottas. "On lap two, suddenly out of turn seven, there was debris. I didn't have time to avoid it. I aimed in the middle of the car at least, and tried not to run over that with the tyres. "But obviously it caused some damage or something which made the car quite tricky to drive." Image Unavailable, Please Login
Again, Ferrari is doing everything possible to keep their cars away from the front. Early stop for Charles. Lousy stop for Seb. No SC stop for Charles ... setting him up for Perez. * (* Okay, they probably didn't expect Perez to pit from 3rd, but everyone behind Charles came in for tires.) And I'd have thought Leclerc had ample opportunities to challenge Ricardo ... but he never did. And that VSC just while Ham was in the pits .... and then off before anyone else could pit? A cynic might call that race "scripted".
Well, today he would had a good points position if it was not for the bad pit stop. Hopefully he can score regularly because we're struggling to keep Alpha Tauri behind.
I must say it's an agreable surprise to see them doing so well now. But Ricciardo is leaving and Ocon is not that good, so the future isn't rosy for Renault..