So, Ferrari bounced back from the near total disaster at Imola, but it was Verstappen again taking the laurels. I don't think the Red Bull is the fastest car, it's at best level with Ferrari, but Max made the difference, yet again. He made all the crucial moves at the right time, kept his cool when it was needed, and gave it all, looking totally spent at the end of the race! That's what champions are made of. Pérez was less impressive, even before his problems - he was closer to Sainz than Max to Leclerc early on, then dropped away while his teammate took the lead, to come back with another attack, but never really looked like making the move. We don't know, however, how his race would have gone without the mechanical issue, so let's reserve judgement, but anyhow Red Bull continuing to have reliability issues doesn't bode well for Max: another zero score could be crucial if Ferrari continues to pile up points. But, will it be enough for the reds? Charles looked strong, particularly after the safety car, and this time he kept his nose clean, but pretty soon runner-up finishes will no longer suffice - he badly needs to defeat the world champion on the road! Sainz did a good job of putting his demons to rest, but there you are, he's already undisputed number two at the Scuderia.
As expected, Mercedes were back in the show position, but they really need to move forward soon if they want to have a say in the championship: Russell is already one win back of Verstappen in points, and Hamilton two. Lewis showed flashes of his former self, but lacked consistency and spirit. Twice I saw him running wide at corners when not involved in wheel-to-wheel combat, and while he was far from alone in that predicament (this
was a tricky track!), those unforced errors pile up in time lost due to tyres picking up rubber debris, and may well have contributed to him losing out to George, again. Russell was simply superb: from desperately defending 15th (!) in the opening stages from Alex Albon (of all people!), he used his hard tyres to good effect, making them last well into the second half of the race, which enabled him to profit from good fortune when it came his way. Apart from Max, he was my Driver of the Day.
McLaren had a miserable day, and will have to do some soul searching to rediscover form. That said, I'm still not sure whether Norris is extraordinarily good, or Ricciardo well past his sell-by-date. Maybe both? Alpine had a checkered day - Ocon did extremely well to recover from his practice woes, and for me was number three in excellence awards for the day (even before CLAP), but Alonso underperformed despite (or, maybe because of?) his aggressive driving style. I don't always agree with the penalties handed out (okay, actually I disagree most of the time), but his move on Gasly was certainly borderline at best. That said, Fernando was also effed up by a bad pit stop, so he deserves some consolation. Both McLaren and Alpine, however, were overshadowed once again by Alfa Romeo: Bottas had another very effective race, and with just a little bit of luck could have beaten one or even both Mercs. Too bad, Zhou was out so soon - again! He desperately needs to build confidence, and I'd really love to see what he's capable of in this car.
Alpha Tauri is slipping... and Gasly looked totally out of order in that crash! To his defence, he may have had an issue with the car thanks to Alonso's indiscretion a few laps earlier, as he was clearly struggling for several corners, but hitting Norris there was inexcusable! The team can ill afford to lose results like that, with the iffy Red Bull reliability at that, so crashes are really not the way forward. Both drivers are good, in my opinion, but they need to focus on points more, or the team could even lose out to Haas. I don't know wether Magnussen had a problem with this track, or Schumacher found it to his liking, either way it was Mick's day until... to his defence, he was on VERY old tyres at the time, and may have panicked with a strong result slowly beginning to slip through his fingers. Not good. Aston Martin, what can you say? Both cars did a pretty decent job of imitating Russell and Ocon, but they are still not very competitive. On another note, I get why y'all love to hate the boy with the silver spoon, but in my opinion, Stroll is a very decent driver - he clearly held the upper hand over Vettel all day (whether that amounts to much, is an entirely different question....). Albon flew well under the radar all day, but was there when the cheques were handed out, so good on him, but I can't really I say I noticed him much during the race. Latifi was... well, he
is Latifi, after all.
So, how was the race, overall. I think the track was not too bad, and the surface problems actually worked to good effect, making it easy for drivers to make small mistakes, which is the essence of good dices all through the field. Normally, today's cars are too perfect because of all the gizmos and driver coaching over the radio, which makes for processional racing all too often. Pit stops and safety car didn't have too much of an effect, and the three DRS zones didn't prove to be the overkill I half expected, so the distortion by show elements was pretty negligible. Or, maybe I'm just getting numb. Croft, the wanna-be commentator was awful, as usual, and at one time (I forgot about what) he gleefully showed his ignorance, he really doesn't know what he's talking about. And what sort of genius had the idea of having Willy Ribbs do the interviews after the race??? His questions were so dumb, they made even the stuff that usually emanates from his mouth sound smart
As for the rest, I don't care for (non-racing) celebs, so that stuff was pretty lost on me. And I don't care about fake marinas, either, I never even noticed it during the race - if they like it, who am I to criticise?