We thought Sainz would overtake Piastri off the start but contact was made and he was immediately off and out. LeClerc was chased by the McLaren instead. A Red Flag was called, which seemed extreme for a puncture. We then cut to a huge collision with Perez and both Haas, the blame wholly at Magnussen's door. The Red Bull was left as just a cockpit, no front wing, almost no wheels. Sainz limped back to the pits. It was a shame that it was so early in the race, first lap, which wouldn't shake things up much.
Whilst we watched lots of replays, the TV director found more footage of a third first lap incident where Ocon put an overly aggressive pass on his team mate, being propelled over and into him. Some team principals were going to have some heavy discussions with their drivers after the race.
There was some drama over whether the race would restart in the order it finished or in the order they started as it was a first lap incident. Those who started on the hard tyres would be massively disadvantaged as they would need to either run the whole race on medium tyres or make a pit stop, compared to those who started on the medium and could try to run the rest of the race on hards. It was eventually decided that they would restart in grid order minus those who didn't make it back to the pits unaided.
On the restart, everyone got away cleanly; in all fairness most of the liabilities were no longer racing (all eyes on Sargeant and Stroll!). From there on, everyone stayed in their order, whilst the commentators wondered if and how pit stops might affect things. Stroll was the first to pit but did not bring any excitement to the race until he got a puncture and the rubber completely came away.
Ocon meanwhile was causing some drama. He had been awarded a 5 place grid drop at the next race but his boss spoke to the press early and stated that strong words would be had, there would be consequences and a difficult decision would be made.
LeClerc and his radio went back and forth over which pace he should be sticking to and it was all about managing the race of other drivers. Hamilton asked his team why they didn't tell him the outlap after his stop was critical, I think, as a driver, you should consider each lap of a race critical.
We did see an overtake from Bottas on Sargeant, ironically he might be in that seat next year...if Sainz doesn't want it. Stroll was able to make two passes with soft tyres.
With four laps to go, LeClerc made a very cocky comment to his team, which seemed to doom him to a hard coming together with a wall. It then seemed entirely plausible that they would find Ferrari to have used the wrong fuel or a sprocket had been replaced incorrectly and he would be disqualified.
It was a great race for Ferrari, taking third two. And a great race for McLaren with 2nd and 4th. Leaving aside Perez, as normal, Verstappen held his 6th place, making it a bad race for Red Bull. Mercedes also held position and probably won't be happy with 5th and 7th. The final three points scorers will be feeling very pleased with themselves, Gasly, Albon and Tsunoda.
I'm really looking forward to replicating these vibes with Stroll in Canada next.
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