Oh Formula 1, what are you like?
Sergio Perez won his first race as a Red Bull driver after a relatively calm race was turned on its hills during the latter stages which saw both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fail to score points. Verstappen losing the lead to a dramatic tyre failure, causing a red flag, as Hamilton locked up heading into turn one after the restart – leaving him down in 15th. Sebastian Vettel turned his 11th place grid slot into his first podium for the Aston Martin team, with Pierre Gasly seeing off Charles Leclerc for the podium.
Hamilton and Verstappen soared past pole man Leclerc during the opening laps, with Perez following suit. Red Bull were able to jump Hamilton with both of their cars during the pit stop window, meaning Verstappen had large portions of the race to control – and he was. Perez was doing the perfect job for Red Bull by keeping Hamilton behind.
Tyre blowouts were not in consideration for the teams during this weekend, but that changed. What happened with the Pirelli tyres is unacceptable. Drivers have complained about these 2021 tyres since day dot and the two blowouts produced zero warning to driver and team before explosion. Pirelli choosing to run the softer options of tyres has become a large talking point.
Shock in the remaining laps
A calm and controlled race was disrupted when the safety car was forced out during the mid stages of the race as Lance Stroll, who was 29 laps into his opening stint on the hards, suffered a tyre failure on the main straight at high speed – causing concern for many. Clearly, Stroll had suffered a left rear tyre failure out of the blue as he whacked the wall with a hefty impact, but was able to jump out the car. Verstappen executed the safety car restart perfectly and once again built a gap to his teammate behind – who was still holding off the Mercedes. Then, on lap 46 going onto 47 out of 51, Verstappen suffered the second tyre blowout of the race on the main straight at 200mph, throwing his Red Bull into the wall and out of the race, potentially lobbing his championship lead out of the window. This caused the final red flag of the weekend, and the race would restart with a standing start. A two lap sprint race was to be held. Hamilton launched off the line the best but accidently knocked a switch affecting his brakes, this left him severely locking up into turn one and waving goodbye to the points.
Both championship contenders scoring nothing. The racing gods were cruel to Verstappen, with Hamilton making a rare and uncharacteristic mistake.
After that, it was Perez’ to lose – finally Red Bull can attack with two cars. Vettel was able to promote himself up to second after the restart quite comfortably as he has also got to grips with his Aston Martin. His first podium of the season, and Aston Martin’s first podium in Formula 1. The German produced a very strong performance as he secured ‘The Driver of the Day’.
The battle for the podium was hot in the remaining laps. Gasly and Leclerc went wheel-to-wheel throughout the first sector of the final lap, giving it all for that third place, with McLaren’s Lando Norris waiting in the wings. Gasly came out on top of that battle to secure another podium for his Alpha Tauri team. Leclerc was able to hold Norris behind despite the McLaren driver slipstreaming him to the line.
Fernando Alonso scored his best result of the season so far in P6, and was able to take advantage of having a small sprint race. Before the red flag, Alonso was having a quiet day, trying a different strategy on the softs – which was not working. A full-attack mode Alonso was brilliant in the restart fighting his way to sixth, beating Yuki Tsunoda by three tenths over the line. Tsunoda who enjoyed a much-needed strong weekend, but does have his boss Franz Tost feeling anger towards with more radio outburst. Maybe telling a driver to push harder is not the smartest thing?
Carlos Sainz did not enjoy his day, as he finished 8th. His race was effectively thrown down the escape road at turn 8 on the first lap after his pit stop. A double front lock up sent the Ferrari man down the road, causing him to lose a bucket full of time. He still recovered to finish ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. An early move past his teammate Norris was the peak of the Aussie’s day. But he did score points in ninth.
Kimi Raikkonen led his teammate – Antonio Giovinazzi – over the line to secure his first points of the season, making it back-to-back point finishes for the Alfa Romeo team. Staggeringly, they fairly beat Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas over the line. Bottas’ 12th place finish put an end to his torrid weekend. Losing positions to Raikkonen into turn seven, whilst Giovinazzi got the job done into turn one.
The Haas duo finished with Schumacher leading Mazepin for 13th and 14th as they got close towards the end. Schumacher using the slipstream to pass his teammate on the run to the line on the final lap, but was left rather unhappy with the manner in which his teammate defended.
Williams endured a painful day with Nicholas Latifi being penalised due to very poor communication from his team during the red flag period. A 10 second stop-go penalty meant Latifi would finish in 16th, whereas George Russell suffered a technical failure on the way to the grid for the restart. They did however get further then Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who suffered a gearbox problem in the very early doors.
The championship was flipped, then flipped again
At one point, with five laps to go, Verstappen led Hamilton in the championship standings by 15 points. Two laps later, Hamilton led by 14 – then the gap remained the same. Unbelievable viewing towards the end of the race. The racing gods really do not want Verstappen to get his first back-to-back victories. The Constructors Championship also took a hit with Red Bull securing 25 points compared to Mercedes’ fat zero, extending their lead at the top of both tables heading into France.
The Motorsport Formula 