Simply Dominant
Max Verstappen was simply in a different league today. The Dutchman started the race from 14th and managed to win the race by just under 18 seconds. This result probably solidifies the fact that Verstappen will be a 2-time World Champions as he leads the championship by 93 points with only 8 races to go. I think he’s going to win the title in Japan which would be cool considering Red Bull’s link with Honda.
The biggest moment
The biggest moment of the race came on lap 1 when Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton collided. This was a big hit as Lewis’ car lifted off the ground and he ended up pulling to the side of the track before the end of the lap. This now means that not one driver has completed every lap this season. This for me, was 100% Lewis’s fault. Fernando was on the inside and Lewis didn’t leave him any space. It’s what you would normally call a rookie error. Fernando had slight damage for pretty much the whole of the race, but it didn’t end up costing him too bad. I genuinely think that Lewis was lucky to not receive a penalty for the next race but maybe they think him retiring in this race was enough of a punishment.
Standout drives in the race
In my driver ratings for this race, I gave 4 drivers a perfect score of 10. Obviously, one of them was the race winner. It was a good weekend for Alpine as both drivers scored a 10. Fernando drove superb, particularly given the damage that he had to run with and a P5 finish is his joint best result of the season. He also has finished in the points in the last 9 races, only Verstappen has a better streak. As for Esteban Ocon, the Frenchman started the race in 16th place and ended up finishing 7th. He pulled off two double overtakes today and he is really showing that he can be Alpine’s number 1 driver for the next few years. A perfect weekend for Esteban and for Alpine really. The last driver that I gave a 10 to is Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman was meant to start in P8 but he got screwed by an issue that forced him to start from the pitlane. He was then stuck in traffic for a while so the team pitted him earlier than most and his pace was so good, he managed to clear all of his competitors. This was Pierre’s and Alpha Tauri’s first points in 5 races so this was a positive day and a really impressive performance from a man who hasn’t been at his best so far this season. George Russell, Sebastian Vettel and Alex Albon all had really good races as well, but Russell and Albon made mistakes that potentially cost them a better position and in Vettel’s case, he screwed his teammate over which isn’t what you should be doing.
Drivers who had a horror race
3 Drivers received a rating of 1. Lewis Hamilton was one of them, but we’ve already discussed why this was. Daniel Ricciardo was really poor today. He started the race in P7, yet he finished in 15th place which is awful. It’s getting to the point where you wonder if other teams would even want Ricciardo at the team. The last driver to receive a 1 was Nicholas Latifi who was just really slow this weekend. To be so far off his teammate just isn’t acceptable and you wonder if his Formula 1 career is coming to an end. He also took Valtteri Bottas out of the race which only happened because Latifi spun. Both Haas drivers both had pretty poor weekends, but I think that that was more down to the car than them. Kevin Magnussen managed to beat his teammate, but he did start 6 places higher.
Overall Race Result and my rating
Max Verstappen: 10
Sergio Perez: 8
Carlos Sainz: 7
George Russell: 9
Fernando Alonso: 10
Charles Leclerc: 8
Esteban Ocon: 10
Sebastian Vettel: 9
Pierre Gasly: 10
Alex Albon: 8
Lance Stroll: 5
Lando Norris: 4
Yuki Tsunoda: 4
Zhou Guanyu: 4
Daniel Ricciardo: 1
Kevin Magnussen: 2
Mick Schumacher: 2
Nicholas Latifi: 1
Valtteri Bottas: -
Lewis Hamilton: 1
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