That was absolutely thrilling at the end, fair play to Merc for throwing on the mediums and giving everyone that breathless finish. Poor error from George though, he's really being shown up this year considering how faultless he was last season (ironically it was Singapore last season too that was his only bad race).

 

Excellent race management from Sainz though all the way through. It was very reminiscent of a Formula E race with the leader intentionally keeping the pack bunched up close but that was the way to go at such a track.

Well done by Sainz. He may not be the fastest but he's one of the more intelligent drivers out there and he put it to good use yesterday. Since the break he's made Leclerc look pretty ordinary.

 

The end was reminiscent of the 1981 Spanish GP where Gilles Villeneuve held off four faster cars for about 65 laps.

Sainz has indeed been faultless in recent races, absolutely delighted he got the win and the way he drove was incredible to watch. A good race to watch, even when not much was happening it was still exciting with the anticipation that something could... so much better when these battles are for the lead.

How did Yuki stay at Alpha Tauri next season?

Lawson has tons of potential, it'll be such a shame if we have to wait until 2025 to see it again.

Verstappen did break a record in Suzuka. He has now won the last 13 grand prix that he has started from pole. The previous record was 12 by Michael Schumacher. The last time Verstappen started from pole and didn't win was Austria last year.

Congratulations to Oscar Piastri on his first podium in F1.

Could Red Bull loan Lawson to Williams if Sargeant doesn’t stay on?

quite the boring race I literally fell asleep :/

 

sure Sargeant cannot continue next year

Awesome to see Piastri with that first podium

I thought the race was among the better ones this year, quite a lot of action throughout the field.

 

Re Sargeant yep I agree he has to go now. He was acceptable for the first half of the season but since the break he's been literal garbage, like worse than Latifi levels. I imagine either Lawson or Schumacher will take the second seat next season if Williams are serious about moving forward.

 

And I always knew Piastri had the minerals (only Leclerc and Russell in recent years can stack up to his exemplary junior career) but to see just how comfortable he is now is seriously impressive.

Qatar holds a sprint race this year and just to really double down on what a terrible idea they are, there's the very real possibility of Verstappen being crowned WDC following. There would be no podium celebration, no champagne and, since it's not a race' he would technically match Schumacher's record of winning the title with 6 races left to go. Not only that he'd attain the unusual feat of winning the championship despite there being no race on that day.

 

Liberty's insistence on squeezing money out of 'the show' at every opportunity will see the years big commercial moments come with the least fanfare and on the part of a weekend with the lowest audience figures. It will also screw up the stats further and it was always going to happen sooner or later.

 

If I was Verstappen I'd be tempted to pull out of the sprint just to avoid this embarrassment (but then Checo will probably find a way to screw his own race up anyway)

I am intrigued now to see if anything will happen with Perez, Sargent or Stroll

 

All 3 are struggling and being demolished by their team mates

Stroll sure would be out if he was part of any other team

Stroll sure would be out if he was part of any other team

 

I thought he had turned a corner at certain parts of the season but this weekend was another shocker

Was listening to a podcast and they summed up the RB drivers perfectly. Perez made more mistakes in ONE race than Max has all season.

as with Stroll or Sargeant, really don't get how Perez can keep him seat

especially when they've been very strict with others in the past

and downgraded them quite fast and with no second chances

I suppose Perez hasn’t cost Red Bull the constructors

 

However Sargent and especially Stroll have pretty much destroyed the teams chances of achieving the constructors position they should be achieving (Aston Martin now a distant fourth and at risk of dropping to fifth in a car that could be 2nd)

I'd say Perez is pretty safe, he's done the bare minimum required. Nicked a couple of wins and is nowhere to challenging Max so there's no chance of a Lewis/Nico situation. They'll only think about switching him once the other teams catch up and Perez is finishing P6/P7 every week like Gasly and Albon were.

Yeah I think that Perez isn’t enough of a threat to Max to upset the garage which is enough while the car is strong and they have a dominant position

 

 

Be interesting to see how long they tolerate him if there are multiple cars challenging for the win on the regular