It was a doozy of a weekend for Aston Martin, who seem to have attracted a number of headlines. There was the Free Practice sessions with crashes for both drivers (one of whom doesn't seem quite right after his bought of Co-Vid) with Vettel then getting a fine for driving back to the pits on a moped, on the race track. Then Stroll ran into Latifi in his freshly rebuilt car in Qualifying. A triumph of Daddy's money over driving ability.
The biggest scalp in Q1 was Magnussen, no longer the comeback backmarker magician. There were no big surprises in Q2. The final Qualifying session was slightly disastrous. Alonso pushed too hard and had problems with his hydraulics and gears and DNF. There were 2 red flags (without Latifi even being on track). As Sainz was only able to take 9th, his Ferrari team mate LeClerc snatched pole from Verstappen.
The race promised excitement with the two rivals lined up next to each other on the grid. Hamilton made up 3 places off the grid, unfortunately Sainz spun on Lap 2 bringing out the Virtual Safety Car and then the real Safety Car. Albon did not pit under Safety Car conditions. I watched this race on Channel 4 and it speaks volume about the quality of the race that in a highlights format they chose to show the replay of the start 5 times from different driver perspectives rather than action on track. Verstappen was reminded that he is not allowed to draw alongside the leader of the Safety Car crocodile, very much a primary teacher shouting to walk single file in the corridor.
16 laps later, Vettel drove off the road bringing out another Safety Car, in the middle of a great battle between Hamilton and Perez. Albon did not pit under Safety Car conditions.
The battle between Verstappen and LeClerc simmered away throughout until weird noises and strange smells brought the Red Bull to a stop. A Virtual Safety Car was called again. The Dutchman is not going to keep his world title if Red Bull cannot achieve better than 1 in 3 race reliability. Albon did not pit. By this point I was very worried/confused. Albon was running in 7th, brilliant. Why hadn't he pitted? Is running two different tire compounds no longer a requirement? Is he waiting for another Safety Car? Surely his team mate, Latifi, could bring out another Safety Car? A startling brilliant strategy from Williams played out, earning them one point, as Albon pitted during the final lap to comply with regulations. Is Latifi's daddy going to start asking the team if the two men are driving the same car?
Hamilton appeared to blame Mercedes for putting him in a "really bad position" with Russell able to put under the Safety Car and Hamilton having unfortunately pitted just before the incident. He needs to find some way of driving a poor car well, as his team mate is second in the championship. Which, whilst being mathematically correct, does seem inherently wrong. Red Bull seem in danger of handing points over to Mercedes too often. Everyone was pleased to be in the Australian sun again, although questions were asked about the sustainability of travelling there and back for just one race and not stopping in somewhere local as well. With three races confirmed in America next year, I think we can see a winning sustainable format ahead...hold all the races in different states of America and call it a world championship. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
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