Virtually zero racing on track but quite a few events which led to multiple safety cars making this race pretty much a lottery. McLaren utter dominant. Had the race in control and yet a bitter sweet day. Oscar super composed as always and easily won the race. Nailed all the restarts so good job by him. Lando had 2nd in the bag. Was never going to challenge for the win at this track. Unfortunate mechanical failure takes him out of the race and a huge blow to his championship. Red Bull finishing 2nd shouldn't even be possible. Max overtaking Lando on the outside through the sand getting the car completely out of shape and still getting it done is one of the highlights of the year. Yuki couldn't make any progress on track regardless of tire advantage but managed to finish 9th. RB get an incredible podium from Isack Hadjar. He may have got luck with Lando's DNF, but he was in full control of 4th and absolutely deserved everything he got today. Incredible performance. Lawson, not so much. Track position is everything and he was stuck in traffic all day. He continues to have a reputation of getting into collision during wheel to wheel racing. Mercedes had a decent car. 4th place secured by Mr Complainer. He was honest that they didn't deserve 4th. Kimi made a mistake during an overtake attempt on Leclerc that was costly. He said post race he might not try to make that move again and I hope he rethinks that. 10 out of 10 times he should try that pass. If Sainz got a 10 second penalty for Lawson driving into him, Kimi probably should have got a 20 second penalty for taking Leclerc out of the race. Williams somehow get a great result from Albon. Another one to benefit from some lucky safety cars but he did have some decent pace. Sainz got absolutely hosed by the Stewards. 10 second penalty for a racing incident is insane. One could argue it was Lawson that was in the wrong. Haas get double points and a career best 6th by Bearman. Very bold strategy to not pit their cars during the first safety car but it proved to be the right call since track position is so important. Aston Martin lucked into a great day. Lance Stroll did absolutely nothing and fell into a really good points position. Though he was faster than Alonso in the end. Alonso had a miserable day and wouldn't have scored points if it wasn't for everyone else retiring. He was horrendous under braking. Alpine probably missed out on a good opportunity with all the retirements. Colapinto finished just outside of the points so likely won't get any praise from Flavio today. Gasly at times looked to be on route to score points and yet finished last of the running cars. Sauber just didn't have any pace. Nothing was going to save their day. Ferrari couldn't any worse. The car looked much more competitive in the race than it did all weekend. Leclerc looked faster than Russell and perhaps could make a charge at Hadjar if things aligned. Charles was unlucky having just made his pitstop and Hamilton bins his car to bring out a SC. Ultra aggressive pass on Russell which caused damage. Glad it was deemed a racing incident. He was probably right about pitting for softs being unnecessary since track position meant more than tires. Driver of the Day: Isack Hadjar. Controlled 4th all day against better cars. No mistakes and even looked faster than the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari. Ends up with a podium. Amazing
According to Mekies, Tsunoda changed the mapping to his car on the last pit stop. Tsunoda was complaining the car is slow and Mekies didn't want to elaborate on the FIA regulations on changing the engine mapping....so Tsunoda was handicapped to a certain degree on his last stint.
Awesome PRA as usual. Charles "...was probably right about pitting for softs being unnecessary since track position meant more than tires." After Lil' Kimi pitted, Chuck was in 5th position and: -1.8 seconds behind DRS of Hadjar +10.0 seconds ahead of DRS of Mr. Complainer +19.0 seconds of Lil' Kimi who would meet him shortly. ...with 20 laps to go. Everybody on H except the fresh S for Lil' Kimi. Where is the threat? Hadjar would be more likely to slide in the wake of Min (and Chuck catch him) than Mr. C would be to gain 0.5 second per lap EVERY lap to get into DRS behind Chuck. The only strategy threat to Chuck was SF. Chuck should unplug the radio and just drive.
Antonelli needs to moved on for a year. Not at all F1 ready compared to other rookies. Villeneuve explains this bluntly and concisely
Total and complete Rubbish. He made a small mistake that was costly. He's hardly a danger on track, clearly has speed. Whenever Villeneuve opens his mouth just turn volume to zero. He only ever goes against the grain so he can stand out with his continuous idiotic comments.
Hes not wrong at all. The Kimi is hype more than substance so far. Others have exhibited far more competence. Jos said Max needed his time at the Jr RedBull squad.
Villeneuve wants Antonelli removed from F1. Jos saying Max needed the time at STR. What is it that you're arguing now?
I agree. Kimi was heavily hyped and Toto pushed the narrative he was the next phenom. Of course Toto manages Kimi so he has a direct interest in hyping up the driver for numerous reasons. A rookie getting into a top team in an era when the second driver must perform is shocking. He didn't even impress in F2. 6th place and ready to drive for Mercedes? Okay. I'm not saying Kimi isn't F1 material, but he isn't delivering based on the hype. His trajectory is falling well short of Oscar Piastri's so far. Oscar was tipped as being the next big thing when he entered F1. I didn't believe the hype but he's improved tremendously and proved his worth. Is his a generational talent? No. He's winning in the best car against a teammate that is frankly overrated. But he is almost surely going to be the 2025 champion.
Interesting that nobody has discussed the possibility that Kimi did it on PURPOSE to PREVENT Charles from passing Mr. Complainer. Maybe didn't wreck him on purpose, but maybe raced him harder than he should have to slow him down. The wreck was just bad racecraft. /
