Hadjar, having got his Racing Bull into a starting position of 11th, just outside the top 10, spun on the formation lap and knocked his rear wing almost off. That was one rookie out of the race. He had a little cry at the side of the track. Still crying as he got back to the pit, Lewis Hamilton's dad smelt a whiff of publicity and greeted the greeting boy to put a hand on his shoulder.
At the end of the 2nd formulation lap, it was time to go for real. Lawson and Bearman were making starts from the pit lane but it seemed a safer option on this day. Norris was quick to start pulling out a lead, with no spray in his face. Verstappen overtook Piastri for 2nd but before the 1st lap was complete the second rookie of the day exited the running. Doohan spun his car, losing it and dragging the car backwards down a wall, which immediately triggered the medical car and thus the Safety Car. LeClerc had made up 2 places in his Ferrari.
Under the Safety Car, last year's winner and new-to-Williams, Sainz, spun his car, also into the wall. He blamed it on a "torque surge". It was a comfortable 6 laps for Norris before they went racing again. As it hadn't actually rained for a while, the next challenge would be deciding when to change to slick tyres.
Another rookie, Antonelli, also spun but managed to regain the track unscathed. Most overtakes were made when the driver in front made a mistake. Piastri was able to get 2nd back off Verstappen when he went too close to the curb.
The best radio of the race, and probably of the season, will go to Ferrari. When LeClerc radioed in to complain (there was a lot of complaining on the red radio) that his seat was full of water, was there a leak? His engineer said: "That will be water." He commented that those were "words of wisdom".
On Lap 34 another old timer, crashed, the oldest of timers, Alonso, again scraping it down the wall and the Safety Car came out. A lot of drivers pitted immediately but not the 2 McLarens in the lead at the time. There was a 2nd tranche after. Everyone went to dry tyres apart from both Haas. After a few laps though and with McLaren having discussed the weather and decided that maybe they should put on intermediate tyres, Haas came in and put on dry tyres. Clearly no one knew what the weather was going to do.
Back to the rookies, previously unmentioned Bortoleto, was awarded a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release.
The rain came suddenly out of nowhere. Initially it looked like the 2 McLarens out front had come together as we cut to them both running and wide and spinning. Verstappen took the lead. It became clear that this was the rain hitting the track. Norris pitted and many others followed him. Piastri, however, was beached on the grass. With the crowd roaring him on, he did everything he could to try and get back on the track by rocking backwards and forwards until he got purchase. Luckily, he was right in front of the pit lane entrance. Verstappen would have to do another lap before he pitted but he was not in the lead but was told to stay out. That looked a good move but then we saw how much it was raining at the end of the lap and he only just made it back safely into the pit.
Both Ferraris were left out on dry tyres. A Safety Car came out to give them a free stop if they wanted it as 2 rookies, Bortoleto and Lawson came to a stop at the side of the track, having spun in the wet conditions. The scarlet cars did choose to come in for a change of tyres. Hamilton had said it was "dangerous" to stay out on dry tyres, which made it almost obligatory for his team to bring him in. Having been reasonably polite over the radio so far, this was his most pointed barb at the time, that they pitted him at the wrong time.
Whilst the camera was trained on drivers overtaking Gasly and pushing him out of the top 10, Antonelli was pushing Albon for 4th place. With 2 laps to go, the world was watching Norris and Verstappen battle for 1st place but behind them Anontelli took Albon. It was announced that the rookie was going to be investigated for an unsafe release at the same time. He was given 5 seconds., all Albon needed to do was stay within that parameter. It was close but they finished Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Albon, Antonelli, Stroll (a quiet points finish), Hulkenberg (a great climb from the back of the grid), LeClerc, Piastri and Hamilton to finish the points. Outside were Gasly, Tsunoda (who deserved points for that race), Ocon and Bearman.
Russell had a very quiet race for 3rd place and a podium; it almost fell into his hands although he must have handled the wet conditions well. It's tough having your first Formula 1 race in the wet. There were 6 retirements with 14 cars finishing, including 2 rookies, 1 in the points and 1 not. Antontelli started 16th and finished 5th, which was outstanding. With the point for fastest lap now gone, I think the FIA should now bring in my old scoring system of giving a point to the driver who makes up the most places from their starting grid place.
4 different teams in the top 4 also holds promise for the season.
In other news, Mick Schumacher has been replaced standing next to Toto Wolff by Valteri Bottas, who is also trying to look very serious during the job.
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