Last night I watch three hours of pure chaos and speed, drivers and the FIA are going to have a hard time trying to come up with another race this exciting. Max again got into his space ship and a certain point took a lead of 11 seconds make a mistake, spin and kept the lead by seven seconds. There were four red flags meaning the race restart four times, I get they trying to avoid what happen in Abu Dhabi between Verstappen and Hamilton and now they trying to be "fair" or may be create more content for Drive to Survive?? but its getting ridiculous to restart a race this many times and with two laps to go, third restart was on lap 57 of 58 to then penalize Sainz, it was the stupid idea of the FIA to restart the race at lap 57 that took race to the massive accident after the restart, I understand that Sainz start it basically but if they didn't took that dumb decision and stop the race then that last accident wouldn't happen.
I love how most of the race develop but that third restart could avoid a lot of things and Alpyne could even demand the FIA or F1 to exclude their car repairs from the budget cap because of their dumb idea of restarting the race with two laps to go.
Let me give you a tour of the events on this race lap by lap and restart by restart, there were so many surprises, at some point we even have a batmobile, at least look like one, on the race.
Now without Checo, Max is going to have a hard time on the start, the reason why is because he doesn't have anyone to help him cover, the RB19 is fast but the start has nothing to do, if Mercedes can keep up the pressure we probably have from three to five cars that Max has to worry about and that's including Checo, he wanted to be selfish then that's what he got, some agree that's part of been the champion.
Before the first lap was done he lost two positions to Russell and Hamilton.
This was a bad race for Ferrari over all, at least this time they didn't make any technical mistakes and their strategy was the correct one but Leclerc got push out out of the track on turn three by Lance Stroll, stewards decided it was a race accident and no penalty was granted to Stroll. There is bad luck and there are consecutive incidents, ever since Charles got in Ferrari there has been countless errors, mistakes and incidents that just hunt him, you will have to make a summary of all this to find out if he is just a bad driver, he could be fast but may be he is just not race material, this is just an assumption and my point is that no body can have this amount of "bad luck" there has to be an answer.
Carlos Sainz was doing a great race, a fourth place with four competitive cars around him, two Mercedes and a Red Bull in front and Alonso with Aston Martin going fifth, that was a great result for him and Ferrari but then after a red flag caused by Magnussen on lap 55, the FIA decides to restart the race for the third time, cars enter the pit on lap 57, on this third restart Sainz hits Alonso triggering multiple accidents around him, this cant be denied and some may say all other accidents wouldn't have happen if Sainz didn't touch Alonso but the FIA should not do a third restart with two laps to go considering the amount of incidents so far during the race.
The second incident early on the race, at lap seven, Albon loose the rear and goes into the gravel.
He tries to take the turn too tight and loose the rear making him go into the gravel and bang the car against the barrier, both front and rear of the car were damage and couldn't move by itself, he did great on Quali but there are cars and drivers that are not consistent when the race comes and always end up crashing or blowing up.
This incident cause another red flag and a few drivers got in before it was declare a red flag with the assumption the card could move by itself and both Russell and Sainz lost positions in track because then got in early to change tires to then find out the incident would end in a red flag, Russell was pissed about it. I don't think it was a bad strategy but they could also tell by the amount of gravel on track and that he crash the car, this would turn into a red flag.
The race restarts and we finally had a few laps without incidents and keep in mind "a few".
Max was so fast on the Red Bull that he fly by Hamilton on the DRS zone like it was nothing, it felt like Hamilton shut down the Mercedes and from there he just kept getting farther away, there was a point during the race that Max was over eleven seconds in front of Hamilton, if it continues like this then all Max need is for the Red Bull to be reliable to potential win most of the next race.
Lap 18, told you a few laps without incidents, when I saw this at first I laugh hard, it was Russell with the car on fire that look like the batmobile or a car out of Fast and Furious movie.
Another safety car, on my previous post I was speculating a safety car but this was ridiculous at this point, the race was constantly interrupted by safety car incidents, in this occasion the Mercedes of Russell blew up already on the third race of the year, I hope its not that they pushing the car too hard and it wont hold, something similar to Ferrari. Mercedes after finding out the mistakes their engineers did at the simulation, they can setup the car better and eventually push harder just as they did this race, it was a great race for Mercedes that could potentially get two drivers on the podium if Russell engine didn't blew up.
Three safety cars and this is not over.
Max was dominating the race with an iron fist, he event went for the fast lap with 10 laps to go like tire degradation was not a thing for the Red Bull, as he tries to go faster and faster with already 11 ahead of second place Hamilton, Max spins and continue the race with then 7 seconds ahead and I thought that was it Max wins but probably Alonso could push for the rest of the race and pass Hamilton, Alonso was 1.3 seconds behind but nop, another incident.
Kevin Magnussen on lap 55 hits the wall braking his rear suspension, the rear right tire came off during the crash and almost hit the Alpha Romeo behind him at the moment, he was 12 when he crash, when I saw this I said they going to end the race here or may be end it behind the safety car so people can see the cars, you know the type of parade so the viewers at the track can watch the cars, enjoy.
But the FIA got a call from Netflix, "WE NEED MORE CONTENT MORE DRAMA" , FIA decided to restart the race with two laps to go. Like it was not enough with amount of incidents, they want more.
Out of a roman arena came the third restart of the race with a massive amount of incident, from the early laps this race was surrounded by all types of incidents, lucky no body got hurt but some cars were destroyed.
If someone who have never watch a F1 race and knows nothing about the sport, watch this race as his first race ever probably would think that they have to ban this track, the stewards were putting drivers life at risk or the sport is just too risky, that person probably wouldn't enjoy the race.
With two laps to go the third restart comes in and Sainz hits Alonso, just a small touch that triggers a chain reaction, on this single image we have a minimum of four new incidents on track, four cars that either went out of track or spin.
Sainz went from fourth to twelve, because he receive a five second penalty during the restart after hitting Alonso, I think this is too hard of a penalty considering it end up been the two Alpyne who stop the race at the end.
Both Alpyne end up wrecked, after the restart Gasly was push out of track and when he got back end up with a lead against Ocon but the track is wide enough at that point for both to go through, Gasly didn't give Ocon enough space and both end up on the wall, Otmar try to make excuses for his drivers but I think he doesn't realize the time bomb he has on his hands with this pair or drivers, I sure this wont be their only incident during this season.
Alonso gets his third podium, another third place for a team that went from 0 to 100 real quick on this season, three third place is great.
Mercedes on this race perform outstanding if Russell engine didn't blow up, they were one and two at some point but eventually Max would run them over with the RB19 speed when DRS opens up, that DRS advantage still doesn't feel right, like is too much but may be there is nothing illegal about it.
Sergio Perez from last to fifth place is a great result for him, still early and close to Max on the season to keep fighting for the championship.
McLaren with the sixth and eight, great race for them, Piastri the local F1 rookie getting into the points, this two drivers Land and Piastri have a lot of potential its just the car that is not on point but they look good on this race, eventually got points because the two Alpyne crash but wining is wining.