Mercedes have switched to the hands for Lewis- might have a tough opening lap or two but his advantage might come later on
Race over. Max takes the lead. Applause for Logan Sargeant! The American makes an overtake on Pierre Gasly's Alpine and moves up to 13th place.
Ferrari have got a good car this year you know- tyre deg very good, balance very good. They just haven’t quite got the high speed performance of Max and Red Bull. If they can demonstrate a good upgrade pipeline we may actually get some racing at the front at some tracks. Ferrari should be incredible at Budapest and possibly Monaco/Singapore. Sainz is faster than Perez here though on same tyres and that bodes very well for the season. At least they’re forcing Max to be the difference maker which, love him or not, he very much is.
Hold station Ferrari We don`t want any coming together. Oh well, clean overtake. Charles didn`t make it hard for Carlos.
Stroll on the radio getting exasperated with straight line speed whilst he sits a mere 50 SECONDS behind his team mate
A tussle between the Mercedes of George Russell and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Almost like a Prost and Senna from 1989 GP at that chicane
was there much over taking? real over taking mind. I woke up, looked at time. checked sky sports. oh restart. watched thst and 3 laps and nobody was getting close to each other and went back to sleep. dominant 1/2 by red bull. the usual silly high jinks from Russell who would cry foul if touched himself. nowhere land for mercs as expected. no race pace for maccas which was disappointing
There were a couple down outside of T1 and I think it was Perez taking a couple of cars on the inner of 130R which was decent, albeit with huge over speed advantage. Dominant from Max, Ferrari were superb on tyre deg which meant they were not far off Perez and a better quali from Ferrari and I’d say he’d have been under pressure. The fact that Ferrari went very well on race day here bodes really well for their season- they have excellent low speed grip, they now have very good high speed performance (not quite at Red Bull level) and with two strong drivers if Checo does his usual fall of a cliff, Ferrari could yet be in the constructors fight. Macca had the pace but only in short stints- they chewed their tyres which was a real surprise actually. However the fact they’ve been beaten by Ferrari at a a McLaren-friendly track tells you that the Macca upgrades are gonna need to be very, very good if they want to fight for race wins. Mercedes still searching- they eliminated porpoising this weekend but it would take an enormous leap to start threatening race wins from where they are at. Hamilton very downbeat after the race despite his usual FP1 hopeful nonsense.
the macca tyre situation was as surprising as the ferrari tyre situation I guess. I do not believe any off the merc waffle. they only need run the car higher and softer to eliminate bouncing but they have to get there when doing so. they did nothing in the race. this was a red bull heartland track. the ferrari has to prove it at the bouncer **** tracks. but we are really talking about what comes after thr next upgrades as the season progresses. it's 3 1/2s for red bull. in the end that puts them in prime position between now and the summer to dominate and win everything early. we are seeing closer times but not an end to dominance. hence I'm not watching there. next one is the Chinese one and I can barely recall the track but it's also early in the morning..... Worth getting up for? we will see.
Similarly to you I’d forgotten the track just watched Bottas pole from 2019. There are some long hairpins which will massively hurt McLaren - they are nowhere on those elongated corners so I actually think they could take a beating from Alonso and the Mercs so end up P8/P9. Ferrari should be very strong where the car has to rotate when it’s slow and twisty, and their tyre strength should be a huge help to them as the front left takes a real beating. The challenge will be the long straights and the final corner where Red Bull will be incredibly strong. Interesting weekend that one and I think it could be closer there than here.
Have to say I quite enjoyed it. The mix of strategies shuffled drivers through the pack and whilst most overtakes were the result of tyre offsets there were quite a few battles that lasted several laps and overtakes in different spots. Having all three tyres being viable in the race adds a much needed variable and a proper track that rewards skill and punishes mistakes helps too. Although it probably wasn’t the fastest strategy, Leclerc drove very well to use the one stop to recover from his poor grid position. I’m not sure we’ve seen that from him before(?) and given that’s been Hamilton’s main strength for quite some time I’d think is something he’ll take a lot of confidence from for next year. I’ll have to go back through the lap charts to confirm, but it seemed like Perez got the better strategy today to keep him away from Ferrari and that cost Verstappen around 10s overall, so whilst the gap from last year has closed - even at a RedBull track, perhaps it’s not by as much as the headline figures suggest. McLaren never really had the long run pace to hold off Ferrari, so in that context Lando did what was expected, with Alonso being the biggest overachiever in an unspectacularly efficient drive. Some good signs at Mercedes - you always have to be careful with the narrative that is provided from the team radio that is used, but it did seem that Hamilton was thinking his way through the race for the first time in a while, he showed good teamwork, and it also might confirm that the car is easier to drive and it’s freeing up some spare mental capacity for him. Good from George to put a rubbish Saturday behind him quickly and he was rewarded having pressured Piastri into a mistake at the end. I’m pleased for Yuki that he got a point at his home race, he’s had a tough week and it was just reward. From the backmarkers, I’ll also note that Alpine do seem to be making some progress now, which rather spoils the comedy aspect, but is good from the sport’s point of view.
Have to say I was happy to watch the highlights only. I didn't watch Australia. With Max running away with it, I am bored. Pleased for Carlos, who I have been supporting for a couple of years now.
