A new season means new changes to adapt to. Can you remember that the pink-liveried Alpine is not a Force India car? Can you remember that Bottas has left Mercedes despite qualifying his Alfa Romeo in much the same position he would have been? Can you believe a Haas started 7th? Can you adapt to watching live TV were people are packed in together and not wearing masks?
Amazingly, they were all clean off the grid. Bottas went from 6th to 14th, Perez from 4th to 6th. Ricciardo had an awful start with sparks flying from the base of his car as he porpoised down the straight. Magnussen climbed to 5th from 7th and stayed with Hamilton.
The first round of pit stops came early. LeClerc came out right in front of Verstappen, from the lead. Despite the colder tyres, he was able to keep the lead too, for a lap anyway and then he took him, then the positions reversed again. And again and again. You can definitely race closely under these new design regulations. Bravo.
This was repeated after the second round of stops. Verstappen lost out again and came on the radio: "I took it slowly on the out lap and I will never ever do it again." This was just the start of the day's Dutch Rage.
Verstappen and Perez came in for a late third pit stop to put themselves firmly behind the two Ferraris, which was the strategy Sainz called for near the start of the race. Next thing we know, Verstappen is frantically radioing in about his tyre being heavy. As LeClerc looked safe again, 25 seconds ahead and 12 laps to go, Gasly's Alpha Tauri is spotted on fire at the side of the track. A Virtual Safety Car is announced, which would hopefully have kept Verstappen away from LeClerc but the the real version is called. LeClerc boxes.
LeClerc managed the restart much better than Verstappen, who did at least keep Sainz at bay, until there were three laps to go. Verstappen just couldn't keep his cool under mechanical pressure. Once Perez and several others passed him, he pitted to retire the car. Further bad luck for Perez as he seemed to be developing the same problem and battled to keep the beleaguered Hamilton behind him. The final lap arrived and the porpoising of Hamilton's car seemed to be saving Perez but his engine failed in the middle of the second corner. He spun and had to sit in the middle of the track, hoping nobody would hit him face on.
With catastrophic failure from Red Bull, Magnussen did finish 5th, Bottas 6th and Zhou scored points on his debut. In many ways, Mercedes got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.
In other good news, Ricciardo finished ahead of Norris, which should provide a small confidence boost, despite those positions being 14th and 15th. The Ferrari one-two was celebrated which some communication in Italian over the radio, which is fitting.
Will Red Bull (and Alpha Tauri) solve these engine and electrical issues soon or are they handing Ferrari an easy lead into the championship? Horner felt positive that he has a competitive car as they were running at the front, I would suggest a car that cannot finish a race is not a competitive car.
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