Maybe the more mature Version 7.0 of Alonso will be a suitable replacement at Renault. He appears to be a positive in the process of development of the car and seems motivating to the team. We will see.
Unlucky Bottas. This one was there for the taking but in the end debris and poor driving cost the race. Ham once again showing that he has developed as a driver. He looked after his tyres in stint 1 and pushed hard enough to earn P1 vsc or not. Then he built a huge lead over Bot and had the race under control. Commanding victory from the soon to be 7 x Wdc. Another excellent performance from Ric. Gotta say, I’ve given him plenty of grief in the past but he is bringing it now and will do great in the superior Merc powered McLaren next year. Kvyat and Leclerc - solid again. Albon - singed his resignation today. No way back for him. He’s lost his mojo. Poor Russel - total rookie mistake and he will be kicking himself. Stroll - take a bow! Already the worst driver GOAT. Today he added assassin skills to his repertoire but skilfully managed to claim all the credit by announcing on the radio that he really is incompetent and forgot that cold brakes mean his car will need longer to slow down. He just gets better and better at being the worst...
Well, Hamilton’s 72 wins with Merc just equaled Schu’s with Ferrari... ...however, Schumacher wins came from 1996-2006. Hamilton’s came 2013-2020 so certainly the dominance has been sustained in a more compact period of time.
On the VSC...I saw it differently. Hamilton was in the midst of extending his first stint by 10 laps to give him a shot at the win. Ocon’s car goes down in flames. VSC is announced, giving Merc a chance to change strategies. Ham goes in with a 28+ second lead and comes out with a 3.5 second lead as a result of the shortest VSC I can remember to remove a downed vehicle (which was really good as it ultimately only cost Porridge & Max 1.5-2 secs). Bottas’ injured car allowed him to stretch that lead to 12+ seconds before Max had the tire failure.
Truth is even without the VSC hamilton would have win this race because his pace was far better than the damaged Bottas car.
Today all the Brit new boys were poor. Russel crashed all by himself. Albon spun all by himself. Norris didn’t really show up and got schooled by Sainz. All need to do better.
My driver of the day was Perez...and was there for the podium until the call was made to change tires under the safety car rather than hold track position. I don't think Ricardo could have gotten around him. If was obvious how are passing was, even with fresh tires. I don't see how the team can in any way justify keeping Stroll and dropping Perez. I can't see how they justify hiring Vettel to replace Perez. I guess that is what happens when the people who own/run the team, don't need to earn a living from doing so.
How can anyone look at these numbers and justify that the bottom three teams should even be on the same track and in the same race as the top seven. Maybe have wildcard qualifying races the week before and pick the top 4 finishers/cars to fatten up the grid and add some spice. But Alfa, Haas, and Williams are jokes.
This was WWE levels of race fixing. Not that it matters because the only guy that could've challenged was being held up by the lapdog in chief and his tyre exploded anyways...
Funny race fixing theory. Seb broke off a piece of his car to wreck the floor of Bottas car who slowed down Max to help Lewis, along with the safety car and FIA to help Lewis? Lewis can’t lose even when he doesn’t have to win. Lewis needed to finish 4th in the last 5 races, was just playing safe today and still ended up winning.
They drop people with the worst lap times in qualifying, maybe they should do the same with teams. Half way through the season the two bottom scoring teams are eliminated and cut from the grid. At the 3/4 point in the season, the next two lowest are dropped. For the final 1/4 of the season only the top six points scoring teams are racing for the championship. Keeps the track clear of back markers...and gives reason to try harder in every race.