What a race! Lets dive right in!!!

Qualifying

Qualifying was smooth for McLaren. Norris set a great time, and Piastri placed between Norris and Verstappen. A late red flag gave everyone one more lap, but no one improved their times. Ricciardo ended up with a better position than Tsunoda.

Race

McLaren had a strong start, with Piastri getting off the line better than Norris and passing him into the first corner. Max Verstappen went off track and took second place. He thought he didn’t need to give the position back, but after an FIA investigation RedBull advised Verstappen to give the position back. Verstappen wasn’t happy with this decision. Lewis Hamilton gained a crucial position at the start.Hamilton managed to get a place at the start which was crucial for his race

Stint 1

The top five runners opted for the medium tires to start on however there were a few drivers in there which went for the soft. This would be the Aston Martins, Magnussen and Albon. Russell, Perez and Gasly all went for the hard. Medium was the best tire of the start on however split strategies came into play especially for Perez and Russell. It also allowed teams to estimate the useful life of that hard tire for their front running drivers.

As the stint developed the McLaren out front were pulling away with good speed however the fight between the the third place on the podium was starting to open up.

Stint 2

Hamilton was the first of the top runners to pit, switching to hard tires. Norris had to react to cover Hamilton, and Piastri stayed out for one more lap. Red Bull left Verstappen out longer. Mercedes pulled off the undercut successfully, creating a gap over Verstappen, who had to work hard to catch up to Hamilton.

The McLarens at the front were four seconds ahead of Norris, who was three seconds ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen remained a threat, especially if a safety car came into play.

Lap 35 is where the Hamilton and Verstappen fight starts to build. Verstappen ends up being within DRS range and pushing on that home straight into corner 1. On this lap in corner 1, Hamilton has a slight lock up of the car leaving him vulnerable for the attack until corner 2. Max ended up shooting too deep in the corner 2 going off track meaning Hamilton crucially kept the position. All the while the McLaren are massively pulling away.

Verstappen couldn’t pass Hamilton for the rest of the stint. Hamilton pitted for new tires on lap 41, followed by Leclerc, who chose mediums.

Now, the next stint is where things get spicy!

Stint 3

Leclerc had a chance to challenge Hamilton with fresher tires, but he needed them to last 28 laps. McLaren decided to pit Norris first, covering off Hamilton. Piastri stayed out but was supposed to swap places with Norris later. Norris managed to undercut Piastri due to the pit stops.

Verstappen staying out so long meant that he was actually undercut by Hamilton and the Ferrari. Due to this, Verstappen forgot the definition of tyre management. He came out pushing those tires to the max, pun not intended. He was pushing so hard his engineer commented on it and he got what can only be described as a very childish response

It wasn’t until lap 54 that we saw Verstappen overtake Leclerc allowing him to then pursue third place and the Mercedes. Meanwhile, while all this was happening, Norris what was extending his lead. What was initially only a second gap now extended to 3 1/2 seconds. This was also partly due to Piastri going into the gravel. This ended up in Lando Norris getting on the team radio and the engineers telling him not to push so hard on the tires in the event of the safety car and to remember that he is to swap positions with Piastri. The way Norris was driving throughout the last 10 laps it didn’t look like he was going to switch.

Verstappen was still pushing to try and take over the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton all the way up until the incident. After pushing and trying to get that overtake, Verstappen went back into his old ways sending it on the inside and hoping for the best. Max locks up the car into corner 1 as Lewis is turning which caused his rear end to go up in the air as they collided. This could’ve been way more severe however Hamilton was lucky enough to end up without a puncture or broken wing. This did however ruin Red bulls chance for a podium. I seem to remember Max saying after the Austrian GP that you can’t just send the car up the inside. He must have a black kettle in his house.

Norris’s race was now about maintaining his position. With Verstappen no longer a threat, McLaren asked Norris to let Piastri pass. He resisted and told them he needs to close up the gap first. This caused a lot of friction on the radio. Norris finally did so on lap 68.

If you saw my Twitter post, you know that I guessed the will be 7 winners after this race. Piastri only went and did it!

This is a great scenario for McLaren in 1st and 2nd as Verstappen was 5th and Perez was 7th. This gave McLaren a massive boost in the constructors championship. It is still a long shot in the drivers championship and especially given that Norris did not get the 25 points.

Summary

Overall, this is a really good race, especially for a race that is notoriously boring and hard to overtake. There are several overtakes a lot of battling. The fact that the fields closing up is great this season. It is a shame that it started off dominant as we could have had a genuine driver competition for world champion.

Watch Highlights Here

Standings

The constructors is where things are starting to get very interesting. McLaren have closed the gap to 51 point overtaking Ferrari. Norris is creeping toward Verstappen however Max is still over 3 races ahead. With Belgium being a sprint race weekend there is extra points on the table for McLaren.

Next Race

Belgian GP - Race Preview will be Sent Tomorrow Morning!

Lights Out!

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