Red Bull is back on top! Although this race had safety cars, position battles and a lot of pit stops, Max Verstappen easily gained his 13th win of this season, also securing Red Bull's title as winners of the constructors championship. Another team who had a great week is McLaren, with Lando Norris landing this seasons 4th second place and their rookie driver Oscar Piastri finishing in p3, getting his first formula 1 podium!
It was a nerve wrecking race, starting off with contacts between several cars right as the lights went out, resulting in a safety car in the first lap. The second safety car came in lap 14, after a contact of Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen. Perez was forced to retire his car one lap later because of the damage suffered. Four other drivers, Bottas, Stroll, Sargeant and Albon, also had to give up the race due to damaged car parts.
Aside from these unlucky moments there were incredible position battles between both Mercedes drivers George Russel and Lewis Hamilton, as the latter fought to overtake his teammate because of a faster pace. A similar situation occurred between the McLaren drivers, Lando Norris being faster than Oscar Piastri, who did not want to give up his second place. In the final laps another position battle between George Russel, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz happened, the latter three wanting to overtake Russel, who was holding onto a fourth place. In the end he finished in p7, all three drivers managing to overtake him, taking advantage of his ageing tyres, as the young Mercedes driver only had one pit stop throughout the entire race, while everyone else pitted two or three times. Alonso finished behind him in place 8, followed by both Alpines, Ocon in 9 and Gasly in 10. Lawson finished in 11, closely in front of Tsunoda, who was racing in his home country this week. In p13 was Zhou Guanyu, p14 Hulkenberg and in p15 Magnussen.
It was an "incredible weekend", like Verstappen said in the press conference after the race, it being a "less stressful race", a "comfortable track to push the car" (Lando Norris) and a special podium Oscar Piastri "will never forget".
Now only six races are left in this season and every race weekend is incredible to follow. Qatar is next on the list with a very exciting track.
Picture credits & rights: f1, McLaren and red bull racing Instagram
Comments