Piastri opens up on "upsetting" and "bizarre" Alpine F1 behaviour Insanely messy situation. Feel for Piastri, think Otmar and Alpine handled this just about as badly as they could have.
Good of the Dutch fans to chuck flares on the track. Really been covering themselves in glory this year.
Yeah. Spoiled the end a bit. I think Max was probably clear, but Lewis had looked punchy throughout quali. Pace looked there to bug the Ferraris.
I think he screwed himself too. He was on for a good lap, maybe up to 3rd of 4th depending on Lewis’ lap.
Lewis really lost his rag with the team yesterday. I'm not sure what else the team could have done though. If he'd pitted when George did for softs, he'd have still only got second at best. The VSC and SC in particular just knackered the good strategy that Merc had run in terms of competing for the win. Even if they'd kept George out behind Lewis, I don't see that the result would have been a lot different. The cars on soft just had a way easier time after the restart. I wonder if it's starting to play on his mind that this is the first season where he might not grab a win.
I think it makes sense. Mercedes were caught cold with the VSC’s and SC’s. Russell felt that and called the switch to softs while Lewis seemed to trust the engineers. That bit of indecision from the Mercedes wall could have cost a podium for Lewis, I still don’t think Lewis wins if they had pitted for softs earlier in the SC, but it basically guaranteed that they didn’t win when Verstappen was the first with the softs on.
It's a shame that the VSC and SC messed it all up. Would have been really interesting to see if Max could get back past both Mercs having gone with the 2 stop strategy. He was so quick in the race. Not sure where the Ferrari pace went, given how close quali was. Also, I wonder if much will be made with all that weirdness with Yuki. Was very strange that he stopped out on track, no SC was thrown and so he slowly brings it back to the pits. He clearly thought he was getting out of the car, as I believe he'd undone his seatbelts, but they sent him back out anyway and this time told him to stop. That seems curious, given he'd safely managed to bring the car back already. Really not sure there whether it's safer to come back to the pits (keeping the marshals off the track) or risk something falling off the car. Just all seemed quite peculiar, at a time which would have been perfect for a full SC for Max as well...
It was ridiculous sending Yuki back out. He clearly knew something was wrong with the car, wrong enough to end a race.
Yeah, De Vries has shown there that Latifi (nice enough guy as he seems) is an utter waste of a seat. Bit of a bland race, but that's not unusual at Monza. Unless something crazy happens or the weather plays up, the racing there often gets a bit 2 by 2. Slightly concerned now that starting grids are going to be a mess of engine penalties. There's still 7 to go... Also, we're basically one Ferrari shitshow away from the title being mathematically done now as well. Seems ridiculous, given how the season started.