Italy GP Race Report

The first abomination in the Italian race was the new build-up feature "Gigs on the Grid", which Sky were clearly as obliged to broadcast as the national anthem.  Let's hope this was a trial and the feedback reflects the enjoyment no one derived from it.

The grid had had a glow-up since Qualifying.  Alonso and Lawson would be starting from the pits, having changed power units and Albon and Antonelli had done the same but would start at the back of the grid.  Piastri had received a three place penalty for impeding during his trauma-filled Qualifying.

Gasly made an amazing start but behind him the Ferraris were pushing hard.  They lost out to Russell, Leclerc and Hamilton were too close to each other.  It was too much too soon and the Brit was forced into the gravel. The McLarens pushed forwards.  Before the end of the first lap Russell was close behind Gasly and pushing to get past, he did it the next time they went down the home straight.  Leclerc snuck through behind him but Gasly was able to gather some electrical energy to get second back.  Antonelli had already made it up to 13th in an ominous sign.  All the drivers were running close and easily able to overtake each other.  At the end of the that second lap, Leclerc went off at speed sideways and incredibly heavily into the tyre wall.  With Hamilton in eighth, it was an awful start for Ferrari.   The Safety Car quickly became a Red Flag as the tyre barrier needed a lot of work to fix it.  Where was Mater to tow the car away?

It would have been nice of Liberty Media to put up the restart line-up on screen, as the glare of the hot Italian sun meant it was hard to see the liveries.  It would have helped Tsunoda too as he went into the wrong spot.

This time Russell's start was excellent and Gasly was still behind.  Colapinto was somehow third, I'm not sure how that happened although Verstappen was close as well.  The Alpine was out to impress Briatore and went for the overtake him and then go over the gravel but managed to get himself back on track.    Antonelli was in eighth.  We wondered how long all these frantic overtakes would last before things settled down into a procession like all the races at the start of the year when everyone was adjusting to the new regulation cars.  

By the tenth lap, a fifth of the way through, Gasly was dropping back quickly.  The top ten were Russell with Verstappen close behind, Hamilton, Piastri, Antonelli, Gasly, Norris, Linblad, Tsunoda and Bearman.  The other Red Bull was Lawson in eleventh.  It still seemed that there were any number of drivers who could win the thing.  For example, no sooner was this noted than the podium changed to Verstappen, Russell, Piastri.

The next phase of the race would see a Mercedes one-two in front with Antonelli being told to race clean but on the main straight he got past for the lead and the crowds roared gently.  Verstappen was waiting in the background to see what would happen.  There was no shot of Toto Wolff gripping his monitor with white knuckles.

With Alonso pitting to retire earlier, Aston Martin radioed Stroll to tell him to pull over as he would need to retire due to a hydraulics issue.  Of course he Strolled it up by pulling off the track but not right off to make it easy for everyone.  Virtual Safety Car conditions were brought on.  Antonelli and Verstappen pitted but not Russell.

Just as it looked like Russell had finally lined everything up in order to win a race, it was announced that he was being investigated for failing to lift under a Yellow Flag.  There would be no further action though, so perhaps?  The next obstacle was that Antonelli caught him up with five laps to go.  It was scrappy, Russell locked up into a corner; he was saved when Antonelli went wide and into the gravel.  It gave the older man a lap or so reprieve.  Antonelli took the lead of lap 50 of 53.  He was able to pull away with fresher tyres.  

Now our attention was on whether Norris would get past Piastri for fourth place.  Verstappen seemed safe in third.  It finished thus.  The competition was on, up and down the pack, throughout the race and at last the new regulations seem to be paying off for the spectator.

The second and final abomination was David Coulthard quoting LL Cool J during the post-race interviews.  Not sure why Russell was booed as he went on to the podium, Antonelli shook his hand to try and mitigate it.  Antonelli got a trophy of stacking cups, he'll enjoy playing with those.  There won't be long for the twenty-year old to celebrate as we are racing at a brand new track next weekend in Madrid.  In my mind, he isn't old enough to drink.  I'm sure some good, wholesome fun will happen in Italy before the circus moves to Spain.

Italy GP Qualifying Report

What could be more interesting at the Monza race than whether the Italians were supporting Ferrari or world championship leader (and Italian) Antonelli?  I suspect they will support whoever wins.  The media were devoting a lot of time and discussion to this.  I was more interested to see Lightning McQueen on track (as Mr Pitstop Princess keeps saying, it should have been Francesco Bernoulli IYKYK).

Not everyone did well in the first Qualifying session.  Alonso was out of his car before the time was up, shaking his head in frustration.  Piastri went wide off the corner on his final push lap.  Tsunoda's car was only just ready in time but he couldn't put a lap together.  The drivers out were Tsunoda, Albon (who has a grid penalty anyway), Bottas, Perez (we've stopped hearing that Cadillac are shopping for a replacement for the Finn), Alonso and Stroll.  After finding some form at recent races, Aston Martin seem to have lost it all.  Gasly was the fastest!

Piastri kept being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the second session: he nearly held up Lawson, he was investigated for a pit lane infringement.  There was too much traffic on the track.  Antonelli took his rightful (?) place as the fastest driver despite giving a tow to his team mate.  Out went Bortoleto, Bearman, Hulkenberg, Lawson (the victim of traffic), Sainz and Ocon.  Hamilton scraped through in tenth.

By the time the cars came out for the final Qualifying session, it looked like no one had learnt anything from earlier on.  There was traffic and argy-bargy in the pit lane.  The set of timed laps were set and nothing unusual happened, then the drivers went again.  Piastri went off across a corner again and lost his lap time and meant he wasn't able to give Norris the slip stream.  In the dying seconds, as it looked like Russell was going to take a predestined pole, Gasly put in the fastest lap.  He couldn't believe it as the team went wild in the garage.   Russell said it was "a bit messy" and unhappy with the team's strategy.  Behind them was Piastri (unbelievably), Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen, Antonelli, Colapinto, Norrs and Linblad.  A really good show for Alpine and a shame that Briatore will get the credit for it; still in a weekend where everyone is celebrating Schumacher perhaps he should share a little of the limelight.

Having won the race at Monza before, this was still Gasly's first pole position ever which doesn't seem right.  We had the regular F1 farce of a native carrying out the interviews and everyone had to speak English.  Gasly asked to give his second comment in Italian, "prego" was the answer and he spoke well; perhaps this is his pitch for a Ferrari seat or perhaps he just wants to get away from the track alive.  Russell gave this a big round of applause.

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Netherlands GP Race Report

At last our prayers were answered and it started raining in Zandvoort before the race started.  The drivers went to the grid on Intermediate wet tyres.  It stopped though.  Would there be a tricky transition for drivers between wet and dry tyres or would the track be back to normal before they needed to?  Before we got to find out a woman sang the national anthem in a dress with black pointy shoulders and black pointy breasts and a train approximately 100 metres long that celebrated the history of the track.  It was Madonna meets Mansell.

So, with all the excitement, the tyres were revealed and...it was dry tyres.  It was still looked a little bit hairy on certain corners but it was lights off and away we go.  Mercedes poor starts let Russell down again and Antonelli got ahead of him but Norris was away in the lead.  The final corner looked to be the wettest part of the track, the rear end of the cars on the high camber were sliding around.  And so, at the end of the first lap, Verstappen lost it and went hard into the wall and sprayed Bortoleto with his debris.  Verstappen seemed the most unlikely driver to make this error although if he had qualified better then he would not have been in the middle of it all.  The mistake was perhaps inevitable wherever he was.  He hung his head as the medical car collected him.  The race was stopped.  It was preposterous that no other drivers were caught up in it as they were all racing so close together.

In the midst of it the incident, Ocon overtook Albon and then Bortoleto did a full 360 degree spin with Hulkenberg's reflexes causing him to dart to one side to miss it through the smoke from the tyres.  Linblad and Colapinto were both under investigation for overtaking under Yellow Flags.

With the cars stopped in the pit lane, the drivers could stretch their legs and the techno music was switched on.  Eventually there was going to be a second dry standing start.

There was a mix-up in the pitlane and some drivers were held back by a red light or flag which meant Norris would get to the front of the grid a very long time before the back of the pack.  To make matters worse, Bearman pulled over to the side of the track as his power unit failed.  I am getting to grips with calling it a power unit and not an engine.  I wonder when we will all have power units rather than engines in our cars just like we got ABS and then F1 outlawed it?

An extra formation lap was needed to clear away Bearman's Haas.

Now the Mercedes made a great start and Antonelli got past Norris.  Russell's start was pretty good too but he fell back as Piastri somehow got past him.  They followed each other around for a dozen laps and then Russell was the first of the front runners to pit.  It was a bold move but he was under pressure from Leclerc.  Piastri responded but was given a five second plus pit stop from his team so it didn't work out well at all and Russell took his place back.  Antonelli was the next driver to pit closely followed by Norris, Leclerc and Lawson.  Hamilton took the lead of the race, I bet he was hoping that was the moment Kim decided to switch on the telly to check in on him - who are we kidding?  She is never going to watch a race.

Towards the middle of the race there was an epic mid-field battle between five or six cars.  Halfway though all of Norris's promise was gone as first Leclerc then Hamilton got past him and he was back in sixth.  Both passes were nicely done, with Hamilton imitating his team mate.  It was also pointed out by the stewards that Piastri was driving erratically.

When the second round of pit stops were happening it was hard to see who was where in reality.  You would have thought the FIA could have tweaked the graphics to show this at this stage of the game.  Hamilton appeared to be leading the race from Antonelli but did he need another stop?  This was the subject of much debate between team and driver.  Norris, Russell, Leclerc and Piastri were behind them.  

A panicky Antonelli was on the radio asking how to manage the car on tyres that were not suiting it.  Norris took advantage and got past him.  On old tyres Hamilton could not defend the lead any longer and both Norris and Antonelli got past him.  Ocon pulled the other Haas onto the side of the track to retire and, just as those big overtakes had happened, the Virtual Safety Car was declared.  Hamilton was frustrated on the radio wondering whether and when he would get new tyres and then he was allowed to pit and get a cheap stop.  They double-stacked with Leclerc.  Piastri was nearly the only other car to pit under these conditions but then Antonelli came in when it was clear the marshals could not move the stricken Haas quickly.

With seven laps to go, Mercedes made the call for Russell to swap places and give Antonelli second place.  He questioned it but gave way swiftly.  It was a big demand of the teenager to make up the eleven second gap to Norris over seven laps and overtake him.  Hamilton was immediately preying on Russell and was on much fresher tyres.  Should they have made the switch right at the end?  Russell did some excellent defending but could he hold Hamilton off for three laps?  The question was deferred as a Virtual Safety Car was called in order for the marshals to collect debris from the track after the Williams drivers collided.  This was not the team unity that they had been presenting as part of their re-signing announcement.

With laps to go Colapinto, Lawson and Sainz were all given ten second penalties for one misdemeanour or the other.  Leclerc had caught up with Hamilton and Russell and nearly got too close to his team mate.  I don't know quite how it happened, when he took the lead again and why no one else got close but Norris won the race.  He thought the strategy won it for him.

There was a lot of outside influence in this race: long pit stops, two starts, mismanaged tyre strategies.  However the Sprint Qualifying, Sprint and Qualifying  promised a particularly dull race and it was actually full of carry on.

Piastri was sixth and not showing any of the spirit he brought to last season.  Hulkenberg scored points for Audi and, more surprisingly, Alonso scored points for Aston Martin.  At some point Stroll retired but nobody noticed or cared.  Tsunoda finished ahead of his team mate which was excellent going for a sub driver; I do think Red Bull were too quick to dispatch him from Formula 1.  Only sixteen cars finished the race, a high level of attrition and Norris looked very tired.

The points from the Sprint and third place promoted Russell to second place above Hamilton.  The problem will be that if Antonelli keeps on going at this pace and everyone else squabbles, the teenager will win the championship.  With back-to-back wins, Norris seems to have joined Hamilton and Russell as contenders.

Netherlands GP Qualifying Report

There was bad news at the start of Qualifying: there would not be any more rain over the race weekend.

With Aston Martin making improvements the floundering Williams may now struggle to make it out of the first Qualifying session.  There were no incidents or accidents and Piastri, last year's pole-sitter, was fastest.  In the end Albon went through but Sainz was out followed by Alonso, Stroll, Bearman, Bottas and Perez.  It was Ocon and the Audis that made great laps.   Tsunoda, standing in for Lawson, who is standing in for Hadjar, was seventh quickest and showing that he is getting to grips with the new regulation cars quickly.

The second session was as exciting as the first, in that it wasn't.  This time the McLaren of Norris was fastest.  Out went Gasly, Tsunoda (only two places behind his team mate), Hulkenberg, Colapinto (who could not put together a good lap), Ocon and Albon.

Then we were halfway through the final Qualifying session and rain came down.  Most drivers got out early and put in their hot lap.  Norris hit the sweet spot before the track became too wet.  For a minute we watched the clock tick down to zero with no one on track before pole was confirmed.  Norris took pole showing a true resurgence for McLaren.  Russell and Antonelli completed the top three.  Behind them were Piastri, Hamilton, LeClerc, Verstappen, Lawson, Bortoleto and Linblad.

I will make sure I have a crossword or two to complete during the race.  Or maybe a little Sunday snooze?