AtaraxiaWhere to start? This Grand Prix was an emotional rollercoaster. First, congratulations are in order for George Russell who snatched his second ever victory in Formula 1. But now, I would like to dig deeper into the Lando Norris/Max Verstappen.
I want to underline the fact that Lando Norris amazes me a little more with each Grand Prix that passes. His attitude of never giving up and his offensive strategy against his adversaries is impressive. Let’s also bring up the fact that the strategy McLaren has put into place has been wonderful. The idea of bringing Lando back to the pit at the same time as Max Verstappen, race leader at that time, to reduce the interval time has indeed allowed Lando to be extremely competitive with fresh tyres.
I also would like to bring up the five-second penalty given to Lando Norris during the race for out of limit passing which is, according to me, unjustified given the fact that Verstappen did not allow him to stay within the lines. Moreover, once he had successfully passed Verstappen, Norris conceded the first place back to Verstappen voluntarily because he perfectly well knew that this one was unruly.
According to me, Verstappen is grandly responsible for the end results of this Grand Prix. He was too often closing in on Norris even though the space was not allowing for it to happen this way which ended up by causing contact between the two cars and tyre rupture for both. This caused significant damage to the McLaren car, especially to the front of it and resulted in Lando Norris having to retire from the race. Norris really fought until the very end and greatly deserved a place on the podium instead of a DNF. Verstappen, on the other hand, finishes up this Grand Prix at the 5th place.
In second place, we find Oscar Piastri followed closely by Carlos Sainz in third place. These two also lead a tough battle throughout the whole race alongside the two Mercedes including Hamilton who ends up in fourth place. A remarkable performance this weekend : the two Haas cars are finally in the points half of the grid and finish up the race in 6th and 8th place.
On the opposite side of these successful performances, we have a huge disappointment this weekend for Charles Leclerc. As early as the first lap, he got called back into the pit. In total, the Monaco driver had to make no less than 4 pit stops. He was mainly in 18th place throughout the race but oscillated between the 11th and 20th places at times. He eventually finished up the race at the 11th place which constituted a beautiful come-back all things considered.
Between the race itself and the sprint, this weekend was high in colors. Next week will be held the Silverstone British Grand Prix which is already promised to be an eventful race with three pilots racing on home turf. All in all, this eventful weekend was full of promises but mainly the one to have more beautiful races to come with more powerful cars. For its first victory in a long time, Mercedes has seen a successful weekend full of satisfactions.
Here is a recap of the standings for this race as well as for drivers and constructors at this point of the season :
