With Hamilton writing off his chances of besting Verstappen before the race, the worry was that this could be a dull race, with Verstappen taking the lead and maintaining it. My predictions were Verstappen for the win, with Hamilton and Norris on the podium. I thought that Norris would be the surprise winner. Little did I know...
Before the race began, Gasly came back to the pits, then his team mate Tsunoda. Tsunoda stayed in and never started. Gasly started and then came back in to retire. Sad times for Minardi at the their home track.
The start was thrilling, Hamilton went up to 3rd (but did he take a short cut?) and then back to 4th, Ricciardo went up to 1st with a storming start and Giovannizzi spun but kept going without his front wing.
Verstappen found it very hard to get close to Ricciardo, with the 1 second-ish gap getting a tiny bit more and less each time trap. Hamilton couldn't get close enough to Norris either. Overtaking is possible as Bottas showed coming up through the field and Latifi overtook Ocon - for a point! (Lost in the end.) Talking of Bottas, he was undertaking his new job induction at the back of the field after his grid penalty for taking a new engine.
Finally, the pit stops came. Red Bull played the dummy and Ricciardo came in to pit from the lead. The Aussie had to put in a stellar out lap as his former nemesis, Verstappen did not have the tires to fight back. He pitted the next lap and it was an 11.1 second shocker. Whilst all this was happening, Hamilton snuck by Norris. A few laps later and Hamilton pitted to change his hard tires, much earlier than expected. What was the point of taking the deficit at the start if you had no intention of running long? Ricciardo kept his lead with Hamilton rejoining the track close to Verstappen and then it got too close, with the pair taking each other out. Verstappen's tire grazed Hamilton's helmet and the Dutchman did briefly look into the Mercedes cockpit to check his adversary was alright. This continues the curse of the sprint, as the old proverb says "first you sprint, never shall you call it a race, for then you shall shunt". The Tfosi went wild. This brought out the safety car which gave the Ferraris and Bottas a free pit stop and both Williams were in points finishing places. At this point, Verstappen held the fastest lap...more later. Verstappen did get points, unlike Hamilton at this meet because of the sprint. So it has effected the championship.
At the restart, Ricciardo handled it well and kept his lead, LeClerc immediately lost second place to Norris then falling into Bottas' clutches. The battle continued, which kept the McLarens safe at the front. The advice to Ricciardo from his engineer was: "We think the best thing is to be as quick as we can until the end of the race."
With 12 laps to go team orders were issued in McLaren to hold position. Perez and Bottas continued to battle, trading third and the final podium spot. Mazepin then scored a 5 second penalty for...something..then his engine conked out and he pulled off to the side of the road. This brought out another safety car. Ultimately Bottas couldn't get past Perez but did got third place due to 5 second penalty for the Red Bull driver for gaining an advantage. It was smiled all round when the McLarens crossed the line in first and second.
Just to confirm that Driver of the Day, Ricciardo, could have got the win without team orders keeping Norris behind him, he also scored Fastest Lap. "For anyone who thought I'd left, I never left. I just moved to the side for a while." - Ricciardo
He didn't disappoint the broadcasters, finishing the podium celebrations with his trademark shoey. What Formula 1 really needs and what the new 2022 rules aim to bring about is more teams in contention for winning races and this race brought a new contender into the fore. A joyful day for McLaren and a much-needed day for F1 fans.
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