Stroll isn’t starting after his crash. As he did qualify the team can’t use a reserve driver. Only 19 cars on the grid.
Red Bull interestingly will take their starting positions, p11 & p13. I was expecting them to just replace a few things and take the penalty here. At least with one of the cars.
Carlooos!!!
Bloody brilliant race!!! My favourite best of the field driver takes the run away from Red Bull! Awesome!
In your opinion, if in the last five laps the positions between George and Lewis had been reversed, would Mercedes have won the race?
Oh George, what have you done??
He so deserved that podium. Must be gutted!
Would have been 2nd and 3rd at least. Whether there was enough time to get past Lando and also Carlos is a moot point.
Drove it into the wall. Pressure got to him. Must be gutted but its the difference between the top tier of very few drivers, and the rest of the still excellent, but not outstanding drivers.
I believe that Lewis could have won: in the last ten laps he was really on fire, and the difference with George was evident
Poor George, he’s almost in tears in the media pen. Great race though, by far the best of the season so far
Wondering how much it was pressure and not cause of following Norris so closely. Norris touched the wall and following the line could perhaps have caught him by surprise?
Possibly.
They were saying that his tyres looked a mess. So I suspect the chase and then following Norris closely played its part.
I enjoyed the race. Sport’s fun when you don’t know who will win. Amazing how close the field are although that seems to have been partly by design from Ferrari.
Amazing drives by Sainz, Hamilton & Verstappen.
6th (almost 5th) with such a dog of a car, starting 11th and a pitstop at just the wrong moment.
Hamilton showed he’s still the top driver we knew, racing elbows out and being faster than the teammate that outqualified him. I have no doubt he would have overtaken Russell barring the team forbidding him.
Sainz managed the race extremely well, keeping Norris within DRS (seemingly to the surprise of his team) was great thinking.
Carlos drove a great race, giving Lando DRS a genius decision. Because I think he prevented Merc from getting better than third.
Verstappen did well to get 5th.
I think Hamilton’s experience showed through in the way he looked after his tyres early on after the tyre change, when Russell didn’t, and it made all the difference in the last ten laps. Hamilton was held up by Russell who ultimately crashed out because his tyres were finished.
Vamos!
Given that the RB strategy was undone by the too-early safety car, I’d say he did VERY well.
Best race of the season. Riveting from start to finish.
To lessen congestion, Q1 could be split into Q1A and Q1B based on position in championship. Run the faster group second. Qualifying times considered across both sessions. Would be weird if it rained between the sessions, though.