Gasly and Perez had a collision early on, with the Red Bull going into the Alpine but it was disregarded as a first corner incident. LeClerc was told he had engine issues early on. The drivers were all disappointingly good in the wet weather; apart from Sargeant who went off when it was drying out.
Drivers started to slip and slide and Magnussen pitted for Intermediate tyres but his team weren't ready and the stop was hideously slow. Hulkenberg began to hold up a huge train of cars.
Ricciardo made a false start, invisible to the human eye and was given a 5 second penalty.
By Lap 20, DRS had been enabled and it was the McLarens who had the pace. Norris was passed Verstappen into second and Piastri set the fastest lap. The next lap, Norris was able to take the lead. Russell was caught out but swerved and came back into the path of Verstappen and had to pull back into third.
Finally, Sargeant had his prang on Lap 25. Teams were braced for a Safety Car and it was slow to be called. He was in the middle of the track and rain was due imminently, so cars came in but could they choose the correct tyre? Everyone chose Intermedite tyres. Norris was the big loser as karma meant he was past the pit lane entry when the Safety Car was called, meaning he came out in fourth from the lead.
Ferrari then decided to roll the dice and brought LeClerc in to perform some resets on his car and put on Slick tyres. He was tasked by his team to just keep it on the track through two minutes of rain. He came back into the pits to get Intermediate tyres and came out last.
Albon made what must be the overtake of the season, taking both Ricciardo and Ocon in one corner; threading his way between the cars.
Gasly was the next driver to try Slick tyres and went straight off. Finally LeClerc retired after a race to forget.
More dice were rolled when Norris went for the over-cut on Verstappen and Russell. LeClerc was shown gripped to the monitors in the garage. Unfortunately Norris's tyres were too cold and split them. Russell was able to get past fairly quickly, whilst Verstappen sped away. Drivers still slipped on the track and Russell gave the place back to Norris.
Further down the field, Perez lost grip and smashed his rear wing into the wall and had to limp back to the pits with it hanging off. This was investigated after the race. Whilst that was happening, Sainz lost control and spun across the track, taking out Albon. With Albon's car needing taken off the track, the Safety Car came out. Sainz made it back to the pits but retired there, which made it a double DNF for Ferrari. I think James Vowles will be ripping up any contract he had penned for Sainz.
The fight behind Verstappen continued. Piastri and Russell battled and the Mercedes lost out and was then taken by his team mate who came back into contention. The pole sitter was going backwards fast. Piastri was offered the chance to get past Norris by his team but told them he was too busy fighting, which you thought they should have been able to see.
At this point, Russell got past Piastri but Tsunoda had spun elsewhere, across the track and just avoided a huge collusion. It took him a minute to get going again. McLaren took to the radio to put in an unsubtle request for a Safety Car to clear the damage.
Russell and Hamilton raced to the end, with Russell putting in the overtake and no team orders other than to keep in clean and safe.
5 cars did not finish but Verstappen was bemused with his victory. He kept his racing clean and was happy to take the points and the top step. The next three drivers were all British, which is a strong showing. Norris was awarded Driver of the Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment