Qualifying had been a mixed bag: Albon's position of 17th makes me start to be disappointed in him. However, it was looking as spicy as a hot wing at the front of the grid and there would definitely be some elbows out and other drivers holding their breath and just hoping to get through the start safely. All the discussion immediately after the first turn incident in the Sprint was that it had been a racing incident, that seemed to have changed to the blame being assigned to Hulkenberg and by the time the race had come around there were digs at Piastri.
Brundle's grid walk was unusual, if you caught it. He was made to do the first part with actor Glen Powell, who asked questions like: "What is a tyre?" and the straight was packed with people who all seemed to be paying punters rather than slebs. Apart from Shaboozey, who seemed, like Powell, to be omnipresent.
Disappointingly, it was a clean start, with Verstappen driving off into the distance. LeClerc overtook Norris, who had more reason to be cautious, on softer tyres, a Ferrari strategy that was well-thought out for a change. The pair battled hard for half of the race. Albon, at the back, collided with Bortoleto, Stroll was in the mix too. Hamilton and Piastri got past Russell and Bearman fell back.
The calm was short-lived and on lap seven, Antonelli and Sainz came together, putting the Williams out of the race; he was to be the only retiree. A Virtual Safety Car was put in place and Albon was the only driver to pit during it. If the whole Williams weekend wasn't such a shambles you might think it had been planned.
The thrilling prospect of track limits came into play fairly quickly (almost exciting as tyre strategy talk); Hadjar was shown the dreaded black and white flag (although I have never sighted it) for exceeding track limits sufficiently that if he did it again, he would get a five second penalty. He would be followed during the race by Norris, Albon and Bortoleto. No one actually was penalised though, which just goes to show that it is possible to stay within the white lines.
Ferrari fought hard to try and get LeClerc second place, boxing him ahead of Norris but in the end they had to settle for third. Bearman tried to bring in more interest by going wide and spewing up a plume of dust as he tried to overtake Tsunoda and spun himself.
With sixteen laps to go Norris's tyres started to go and it looked like the one battle on track was off but they came back to him and it was reignited. There was six laps to go and he got passed LeClerc with five to spare.
The race finished Verstappen (who we barely saw), Norris, LeClerc, Hamilton, Piastri, Russell, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Bearman and Alonso in the points positions. The fastest lap however went to Antonelli. Obviously all the talk now is of Verstappen winning the championship and whether McLaren will have to choose to back just one of their drivers. This will rumble, boringly, on.
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