Mercedes having their customary annual shocker this weekend then.

 

Lucky in the sense that there's at least a Sprint to amend things somewhat!

Perez Q3 times removed and fastest Q2 time deleted so moves down to 13th. A very odd situation, watching it live it seemed blindingly obvious he'd gone off track and I was amazed it wasn't deleted instantly. Feel a bit for Gasly who'd have at least got ahead of Hamilton if allowed into Q3.

Yep agreed there. Made no sense they were immediate to delete everyone else's track limit infringements but didn't bother with Perez. Denied Gasly the chance to fight for a potential top 5.

Edited July 9, 20223 yr by Dobbo.

Austria Review

 

Best driver: Leclerc [finally a clean weekend and he put in a spectacular drive]

Worst driver: Tsunoda [a few options here but his pace was absolutely nowhere, Gasly a close runner-up here]

Best team: Mercedes [once again, they're getting both cars to the finish]

Worst team: Alpha Tauri [absolute shitshow from them this weekend]

Best overtake: Leclerc on Verstappen #1 [bravo :clap:]

Worst overtake: Sainz on Russell [shouldn't have been allowed to keep this place on lap 1]

Best moment: That brief 5-way battle in the midfield [really did look like a go-kart race on an f1 track!]

Worst moment: Sainz's car catching on fire [this was not a nice watch at all]

Best thing about the race: Ferrari showed they actually had a car to challenge Red Bull for wins again

Worst thing about the race: The stewards - stop penalising these turn 4 accidents, YOU CAN NOT OVERTAKE AROUND THE OUTSIDE THERE

 

And the race in a sentence: Leclerc is well and truly back, Sainz must have had a heart attack

Austria Review

 

Best driver:

Worst driver:

Best team:

Worst team:

Best overtake:

Worst overtake:

Best moment:

Worst moment:

Best thing about the race:

Worst thing about the race:

 

And the race in a sentence:

I only saw the race highlights and missed everything so this is based on the race only

 

 

Austria Review

 

Best driver: Leclerc

Worst driver: Latifi - not even shown and then he was out

Best team: Haas

Worst team: Probably Aplha Tauri

Best overtake: Norris (I think) passing the Alpine and spmeone else in one attempt

Worst overtake: I guess Perez on Russell, but it was clearly down to Russell not yielding when he should (by now) know better

Best moment: Alonso gives Tsunoda a telling off

Worst moment: When Sainz couldn't exit his burning car without it rolling backwards, whilst the marshals seemed slow to react

Best thing about the race: Keeps the title fight going for now

Worst thing about the race: The abuse some fans were subject to

 

And the race in a sentence: Solid race with Leclerc both unlucky and lucky in equal measure

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by Severin

That fire was scary, the marshalls were too slow

Ferrari cars run but are too inconsitent

I will be incredibly surprised if both Ferraris and both RBs finish the race.

Something break on the car or was that driver error?

Charles Leclerc has retired in three of the 12 races so far this season.

 

He was leading every one of them.

It seems like the mercs are struggling to make their tyres work...

This is Perez chance.

Sainz is told he has a 5 second stop/go penalty. He corrects his team, confirming it is not a stop/go penalty. Ferrari really trying everything to not score points today.

Ferrari continue to throw away. Hard to see how Verstappen can lose this now, with such a lead he doesn't really need to take risks.

 

Mercedes have, in a way, been excellent this year. They've got the maximum at nearly every race and their only retirement has been Russell's Silverstone crash. Hamilton with the same number of podiums as Leclerc :mellow:

The true difference in the title fight is down to the drivers. The Red Bull cars have had more mechanical failures than Ferrari, with Leclerc actually still managing to win with a non terminal problem whereas Verstappen came 7th. On the drivers' side both Carlos and most importantly Charles have thrown away points all by themselves whilst running healthy cars. Neither Red Bull driver has done that.

but wasn't it a car problem today?

but wasn't it a car problem today?

Charles put it in the wall all by himself and he and Ferrari have both confirmed it.

 

https://www.racefans.net/2022/07/24/no-link...roblem-ferrari/

yes but that's not what he said when the accident happened...

He was referring to the fact he couldn't reverse out of the wall when he mentioned the throttle. That was a massive schoolboy error, it seems whenever it's not the car or the team it's him. A litany of failures all season. Have to laugh that Mercedes are only 40 points behind in the Constructor's standings now, wouldn't rule them out overtaking them after the summer break!

 

Other than Max cruising to an unchallenged win, that was another decent race at Paul Ricard. Russell catching Perez napping at the VSC restart was tasty.

yes but that's not what he said when the accident happened...

Always be wary of the radio they play on the TV channels. It's often out of sync with the action and not the whole picture. Dobbo's reply is exactly what Charles was referring to.

 

Also I have to say the Sky commentary yesterday was appalling. Crofty is becoming more and more error prone to the point that it's like he's trying to emulate Murray Walker but lacking any of the charm and Paul Di Resta wasn't much more accurate. His analysis was fine but car recognition was all over the place for the pair of them. I was exasperatedly, correcting them both so often I felt like James Hunt must've done with Murray. Reminded me how much we really miss him

Brundle is such a huge miss when he's not there. It really was the B-team for Sky this weekend. My preferred lineup is Karun, Jenson and Naomi, and I'll take Johnny and Damon but Di Resta, Davidson and Rosberg on the same weekend? Eurgh