Hamilton and Mercedes showed that you can't make any mistakes if you hope to beat them.
Max drove well today and it was the strategy that beat them. Minor fumble on the tire stop but it was only 1.7 seconds although it felt like about 20. Mercedes- having the option to make the call from 2nd, didn't hurt as well as a teammate that was close enough to have factored in at the time.
Bottas later lowered his bargaining position and future reliability as a loyal soldier. He just didn't have the speed in spite of being close. He got held up at the beginning due to the Ferrari but couldn't close it up to Lewis or Max when needed and they were pacing themselves while he was in clean air.
Red Bull still doesn't have a consistent #2 and that hurts them. Perez needs to continue to raise his game since he's not doing that much (any) better than his recent predecessors at this point. Bottas also has his issues but he's closer on raw speed to his teammate and usually starts closer to the front. Sometimes at the front.
Really close racing for tenth at the end.
Front of the midfield seems to change each race but it's so close that a small improvement makes a big difference.
Nikita Mazepin- Pastor Maldonado without the occasional speed. Gets noticed for all the wrong reasons.
Mick is quietly moving forward and making fewer mistakes and clearly faster than Mazepin. All he can really do at this time. By year end I suspect Alfa may be replacing two drivers.
Track limits need to have a better way to be determined. Monaco, for all it's other faults, does that clearly.

Another disappointing race.

Anyone but Chinstrap.

Yeah... ***sigh***

Toto Wolff won that race.

Might as well give Hamilton and Mercedes the trophies now. The Red Bull challenge doesn’t really exist. It’s definitely closer than in previous years and won’t be over as soon in previous years, but the endpoint will be the same.

The McLaren and Ferrari fight for best of the rest will be tight and for Constructors may be decided by the second drivers. Right now, Leclerc and Norris are carrying the loads for their teams.

Alpine and AT look OK, but I think they will be fighting over 5th and 6th with no chance to go any higher. Don’t see Aston Martin beating either team.

Alfa Romeo, Williams, and Haas are still back markers, with the only difference being that Williams handed off the dumpster fire crown to Haas this year.

To Williams credit. GR seems to be pushing that car higher than it seems to deserve to be.

Watching the race today, I did notice that LH & VB were, at one point, holding the same gap to MV & CL, respectively. The MB just doesn't work well in turbulent air.

The midfield is again the most exciting part of the race, lots of tight fights going on, mid-race, down there.

No idea how they'll do, but the McLaren will look badass at Monaco:

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
No idea how they'll do, but the McLaren will look badass at Monaco:

Don’t care how they will look, just hope they are quick. Monaco is a procession after qualifying every year, so they better get it together for quali. Love Monaco, really don’t enjoy the race.

The Gulf MCL looks phenomenal, IMO. Shame it's a one-off livery.

Norris looking good so far. Ricciardo struggling a bit more but his quick laps were compromised by traffic.
Ferrari's 1 & 2 but it's just practice. Still good to see them running better this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQb0VROLSU

Speaking of traffic, Q 1 will be crazy based on what it looked like in traffic on Thursday.
If you want to see someone earning their money, watch the in-car video of cars trying to weave their way through slow cars that are warming up while others are going full speed, all between those guardrails.
Crappy place for a real race but an incredible setting.

https://www.boatinternational....and-prix-yachts-2021

Agreed Q1, and maybe even Q2 are going to be nuts, I expect a parking lot around Rascasse.

With the size of the cars now, passing is quite a feat.

If the results from Q3 stand, then we're going to have an interesting race tomorrow.

1 Charles LECLERC 1:10.346
2 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.230
3 Valtteri BOTTAS +0.255
4 Carlos SAINZ +0.265
5 Lando NORRIS +0.274
6 Pierre GASLY +0.554
7 Lewis HAMILTON +0.749
8 Sebastian VETTEL +1.073
9 Sergio PEREZ +1.227
10 Antonio GIOVINAZZI +1.433
11 Esteban OCON - -
12 Daniel RICCIARDO - -
13 Lance STROLL - -
14 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN - -
15 George RUSSELL - -
16 Yuki TSUNODA - -
17 Fernando ALONSO - -
18 Nicholas LATIFI - -
19 Nikita MAZEPIN - -
20 Mick SCHUMACHER - -

Only issue is that Leclerc did the best time and crashed over by the swimming pool chicane and brought out a red flag at the end. It wasn't a Michael Schumacher deal where he just parked his Ferrari at La Rasscass and got out. There is some serious damage to Leclerc's right front and his front wing. Is the FIA going to let this stand?

Not much if any real passing. Will come down to the top 5-6 and a few things: Best start, no mistakes/crashes/damage to car, best pit stop. Otherwise a procession. Real racing/passing? Yeah not the track for this. Still fun.

Remember, DanielR won with a loss of 1/2 his horsepower and no one could make a pass. Speaking of DanielR…he needs to get his act together as Norris looks to be leaving him in the dust - McLaren need both those cars up front.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
If the results from Q3 stand, then we're going to have an interesting race tomorrow.

Only issue is that Leclerc did the best time and crashed over by the swimming pool chicane and brought out a red flag at the end. It wasn't a Michael Schumacher deal where he just parked his Ferrari at La Rasscass and got out. There is some serious damage to Leclerc's right front and his front wing. Is the FIA going to let this stand?

My guess is that it depends on what all needs replacing on the Ferrari.
If they don't have any penalty inducing damage/parts replacement, I don't see any reason he doesn't start on pole.

Further down, glad to see VB over LH.

LeClerc is a little scared he has some gearbox damage. I think he'd be OK for this race since he hasn't hit his gearbox limit. I do prefer the IndyCar rule that if you bring out a red flag during qualifying, you 2 fastest laps are deleted and you don't make it out of that qualifying session. It gives you more incentive to take care of your car and not to screw over anyone else.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
If the results from Q3 stand, then we're going to have an interesting race tomorrow.

1 Charles LECLERC 1:10.346
2 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.230
3 Valtteri BOTTAS +0.255
4 Carlos SAINZ +0.265
5 Lando NORRIS +0.274
6 Pierre GASLY +0.554
7 Lewis HAMILTON +0.749
8 Sebastian VETTEL +1.073
9 Sergio PEREZ +1.227
10 Antonio GIOVINAZZI +1.433
11 Esteban OCON - -
12 Daniel RICCIARDO - -
13 Lance STROLL - -
14 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN - -
15 George RUSSELL - -
16 Yuki TSUNODA - -
17 Fernando ALONSO - -
18 Nicholas LATIFI - -
19 Nikita MAZEPIN - -
20 Mick SCHUMACHER - -

Only issue is that Leclerc did the best time and crashed over by the swimming pool chicane and brought out a red flag at the end. It wasn't a Michael Schumacher deal where he just parked his Ferrari at La Rasscass and got out. There is some serious damage to Leclerc's right front and his front wing. Is the FIA going to let this stand?

Why would the FIA not let it stand? This certainly isn’t the first time it’s happened (and I’m not talking about the previous Schumacher incident). Many times over the years qualifying laps have been ruined by red and yellow flags in Q3. There is no rule that they could penalize Leclerc under. He may get knocked back if they have to change his gearbox, but that’s a consequence of the damage, not of causing a red flag. Even Max has said he’s gone off in the same place twice over the years. Stuff happens.

The gearbox replacement question is the only issue.
They are now saying they will decide in the morning so it must not be clear-cut damage, which is good news for Leclerc.
In any case, it's good to see Ferrari able to have a shot again and Lewis has a challenge on his hands tomorrow.
Perez again unable to improve on his predecessors.
Norris in with a chance.
I have no idea what the weather forecast is but a little rain would spice things up.

I’d be surprised if they didn’t change the gearbox since Ferrari already said they’d rather change it if there is any question about reliability. I think it would have to clear cut that there wasn’t any damage for them not to change it. They have to think about how a potential DNF would affect their battle with McLaren for third.

It’s good to see Sainz up there too, so even if Leclerc takes a gearbox, there will still be a Ferrari ahead of Norris, and with Ricardo not making it out if Q2, Ferrari could still come out ahead in the end.

Sad to see that Pérez still isn’t getting the job done for RBR.

And Ferrari has fucked it AGAIN. Leclerc WILL NOT start his home Grand Prix at Monaco because he has a broken drive shaft in the gearbox that Ferrari said was good last night.

I would say unfuckingbeliveable, but this is current day Ferrari we're talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
And Ferrari has fucked it AGAIN. Leclerc WILL NOT start his home Grand Prix at Monaco because he has a broken drive shaft in the gearbox that Ferrari said was good last night.

I would say unfuckingbeliveable, but this is current day Ferrari we're talking about.

Yep. After yesterday the team coming out and publicly saying they won’t take the risk, they do, and it bites them. Would have been better if they just kept their mouth shut.