That was a surprise. Ferrari didn't really mess anything up. Charles got hosed by pit lane traffic in the first SC. But the pit wall did tell him to keep 2-3 sec back from Carlos, and he didn't. The only change I might have made would have been to give the Chuck the option to come in for softs on the second SC. But 16 laps on softs is a reach for the Ferrari. Brilliant teamwork by the *former* teammates, Carlos and Norris. From the replay, it looks like the steering pushrod snapped on Russel's Merc when he tagged the wall. Lando said in the post-race that he tagged that wall a lap earlier. But he didn't break the McLaren. I'm wondering if Charles is having a morale problem. I was a fan of Carlos Sr in WRC. Now Carlos Jr is doing good in F1. Makes me feel old.
Which means absolutely nothing. He could have stayed closer but after the Mercs got by what would be the point?
Nope. 04 Charles Leclerc Ferrari SF-23 +21.177 1 05 Max Verstappen Red Bull Honda RBPT RB19 +21.441 1
I am here to enjoy this. Because it won’t happen again this year! FROZA FERRARI!!! VAMOS CARLOS!!!!! GRACI!!!!!!!
Subsequently increased it to 5 sec. The way things are currently double stacking can be used to impede a competitor. If GR's pit stop was slower CL would have waited even longer. An obvious bug in the regs.
I disagree. You bring in both you risk delay. We dont like over-regulation but we seem to want more for different cases. You should be released when its safe. Double stacking needs to be time correctly for efficient stops. You cannot regulate not letting others pass by because you want to stop both cars. Its a system that is not needing regulation I see. You stop both you absorb potential loss of time.
he's not saying that. He's (correctly) saying that with Merc double stacking, and George had an issue in his stop...Leclerc would sit there until george could move on and hamilton would stop blocking the exit.
What an AWESOME race that was! Absolutely top class action. This race has everything; multiple potential winners, safety cars, chaos, brilliant racing, the lot. This is what we would have had all season without Adrian Newey’s GOAT car design magic at RB. Congrats to Ferrari. How they managed to pull this off is a mystery as the usual strategic blunders were to be expected but never happened. Surely there will have to be an investigation into what went wrong. Congrats also to Carlos. First class race win today, He executed an excellent race craft/strategy to use Lando as an immovable barrier between himself and the flyjng Mercs. Let’s be clear, and give credit where it is due - Carlos had the 3rd best car by the end of the race with both Rus and Ham way way faster. Kudos to him. Surely the best win of his career so far.
Bravo to Carlos. He got everything out of the car that was possible. But if he had that one second of additional performance, I didn't see it on the track. His tires barely lasted to the last lap. In the second safety car, new mediums or softs would have given him a bigger edge. Charles should have had second...at the worst 3rd...but either he was pouting and didn't fight hard after the first safety car pit stop...and/or the team screwed up his pit stop, costing the team a 1, 2 sweep. We are so used to bad news, it is difficult to see hope for the near future...like the race in Japan. Lewis and George and Mercedes are fighting 100%...but I still feel we have their measure and can fight for second in the constructors championship...if the team makes the 100% effort.
Um, um, let's see ..... he was BEHIND Charles at the FINISH of the race. 5s, 1s, 0.264s, doesn't matter, it is still behind.
I didn't watch the race; I can't stand that circuit.. I am happy for Norris and McLaren, slowly moving to the front. The race was out of character for Red Bull; I don't know what happened this weekend. Liam Lawson seems to be the business; Alpha Tauri should keep him in that seat until the end of the season.
Would take some calculations to use it deliberately, but it's a definite loophole and less dangerous than staging a crash.
Packing up from the teams and track. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Finally a new race winner. Good battles on the last laps by Sainz, Norris, Russell and Hamilton. Too bad Russell cracked under pressure. Ocon was doing really good until bad luck came again.