Best Driver: Worst Driver: Luckiest Driver: Unluckiest Driver: Best Rookie/New Driver: Best Team: Surprise Team: Worst Team: Best Overtake: Most Surprising Result: Least Surprising Result: Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post in race thread: Race Rating: ?/10
Best Driver: Hamilton Worst Driver: Grosjean Luckiest Driver: Unluckiest Driver: Gasly/Hulkeberg Best Rookie/New Driver: Leclerc Best Team: Mercedes Surprise Team: none really Worst Team: Ferrari blew 2nd imo Best Overtake: Alonso aroud the outside of T3 Most Surprising Result: Least Surprising Result:Grosjean Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Dirty Air Special Mention: Verstappen, didn't touch anyone Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 4/10 It's the Spanish GP, it's more of a race than monaco is it's ony selling point.
Best Driver: Hamilton by far Worst Driver: Grosjean (allthough I can see what happened after KMAG did some weird move ahead) Luckiest Driver: Bottas gifted 2nd Unluckiest Driver: Hulk/Gasly Best Rookie/New Driver: Leclerc - Really turning into something promising. Best Team: Mercedes have taken a huge jump ahead (although the car didnt look much different so must be internal) Surprise Team: Worst Team: Ferrari - another race they have blown. Will not win championships if they bottle. Best Overtake: Alonso Most Surprising Result: Verstappen on the podium Least Surprising Result: Verstappen contact Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: mclaren claims this is the real car but didnt improve from 'last' car. Special Mention: KMAG had a lonely race for solid points Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 4/10 - what a bore...
Best Driver: Hamilton by a country mile Worst Driver: Grosjean For is error, but Stroll for being out qualified by such a margin Luckiest Driver: Bottas P2 Unluckiest Driver:Kimi Best Rookie/New Driver:Leclerc Best Team:Merc Surprise Team:Haas Worst Team: Williams Best Overtake: Vettel between the Haas and Bottas Most Surprising Result: Ferrari off the pace Least Surprising Result: Race winner from the front row Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 2/10
Best Driver: Hamilton - Was in beast mode Worst Driver: Grosjean - No one else stands out really Luckiest Driver: Alonso? Sure he made up loads of places in Grosjeans fog Unluckiest Driver: Hulk and Gasly had no chance, Kimi for getting the curse of number 2 driver Best Rookie/New Driver: Leclerc Best Team: Mercedes Surprise Team: Sauber Worst Team: left-field, but Red Bull. Heavy aero track but yet needed a spot of luck to get up there. Ok maybe not worse, but I hoped for better Best Overtake: I'd be genuinely shocked to hear there were any Most Surprising Result: Saubers going well Least Surprising Result: Front row winner Funniest moment: Ermmm.... Ricciardo spinning under the VSC and the feed completely missing it? Excuse of the week: 0.4mm Special Mention: Ericsson Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 0.4/10
When Bottas was freed from Vettel's wash he was lapping at the same pace as Hamilton, I think this was more a case of Mercedes having no peers rather than Hamilton being amazing. He got poll and had a good start, it would've been more interesting if Bottas had managed to stay ahead of Vettel into T1 as the Ferrari's and RBR's were way off pace.
Because of the engine regs, you'd have to think Hamilton was managing his pace once he had pulled out a decent lead. It's a shame drivers can't go flat out for a whole race anymore. If that were a Senna or Schumacher with a new engine each race they would have wanted to see how much they could win by just to rub it in. The top guys just can't do that anymore.
Best Driver: Hamilton. Worst Driver: Grosjean. Idiot. Luckiest Driver: Grosjean. After the smokescreen he provided for half the field, he should count himself lucky to be alive. Unluckiest Driver: Hulkenberg and Gasly. Hmm, then again, perhaps they are also candidates for 'luckiest'. Best Rookie/New Driver: Leclerc. Best Team: Mercedes. They rolled out the best car and capitalised fully. Furthermore, they were not thrown into a miscalculation on strategy, for once. Surprise Team: Ferrari dropped the ball. Worst Team: Williams. Best Overtake: Alonso made two good moves, BLS; after the Safety Car and then again after the VSC period. I think the best was around the outside of Leclerc. Most Surprising Result: Ferrari off the pace, with neither driver getting on the podium. Least Surprising Result: Not a particularly good race. And with the previously most exciting final turn having long ago been vandalised into something which looks grafted from the infield of Indianapolis, this venue (which really ought to be called 'Montmelo' rather than Barcelona – which 12 miles to the south) is one of the dullest circuits for fans. Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Grosjean may have had an excuse for losing grip and half-spinning; but he has no excuse whatsoever for flooring the throttle and veering back onto the track with loads of drivers jostling for position coming up directly behind. It is one of the most dangerous things I've seen a driver do since Schumacher playing chicken with other drivers after they've committed to pass (or parking on blind corners)… Wee Willie Winky Grosjean has exhausted his nine lives and needs to wake up – fast! Special Mention: Ericsson defended well for a couple of laps and almost looked like a racing driver. Race Rating: 4.24/10. As expected, not one of the best despite Grosjean trying to liven things up…
Ive just remembered my funniest moment. They played the Catalan national anthem after the Spanish anthem. the camera cut to Alonso and sainz who both looked very uncomfortable with it.
I watched Marc Priestly's VLOG . He said at first he thought the 3 place grid penalty for Monaco was harsh . He then said that RG actually told the Stewards he made a conscious decision to try and get to the other side of the track
Alonso is from north spain and Sainz is from Madrid I think. So probably didnt want to upset the majority of the Spanish public by respecting the catalan anthem.... They are both also Real Madrid fans
If Sirotkin got a 3 gird place penalty for the opening lap incident in Baku, then Grosjean can count himself very luck to only get 3 places for that. How the stewards can give the same penalty for two totally different incidents, and extremes, is nonsense. Grosjean could easily have let the car slide and turned off the opposite lock across to the other side once it became irrecoverable which would have left him on the outside of the track still. Absolute bullshit that he says whatever he did would have brought him back onto the track. I think he didn't want to apply the brakes as it would have meant an immediate pitstop to replace the flat-spots. there is no other logical reason for him to have done what he did. Should consider himself lucky he did not get a ban if he effectively admitted to putting his car in a dangerous place deliberately.
That's really the point isn't it, ASC. After running wide, the dangerous part of what then transpired was a conscious decision! It's clear when watching replays that he chose not to do the obvious thing (he had plenty of thinking time to stay clear of trouble and rejoin when safe to do so); and it's astonishing that an experienced driver should do this at any level, never mind F1. Try this on a simulator and 9 out of 10 times you'll be in the virtual medical centre… One can only guess that when back on track (which he should not have contemplated until later), he suddenly realised it was going wrong, panicked, and made an already dangerous situation far worse by flooring the throttle and creating a microclimate in the middle of the track, with oncoming, high-speed traffic just fractions of a second away! One thing's for sure: at some point during this 'Russian Roulette' manoeuvre, he must have realised his fate (and that of others) was no longer in his hands. –And yes, I agree; a race ban would not have been too harsh. The only thing I'm pleased about is that Grosjean was apparently honest about his stupidity.
Apparently in team radio that didn't make the broadcast, Hamilton was asked to turn the engine down once he'd built a sensible gap, and replied that he'd already done it 4 laps ago. Very comfortable race for him.