Prior to the race the Stewards made decisions to enforce penalties that could have huge impacts on the race, and even the championship. In qualifying, Gasly stopped on the side of the track on the main straight, after a couple of brief yellow flags popping up, it was shown as track safe and all lights were green. As it turns out, a Marshal had thrown a flag coming out of the last corner. Sainz goes through, but slows down in the last 10 meters of the track, Bottas goes through but apparently only 1 flag was waved, Verstappen goes through and apparently double yellows were waved. Result, 5 grid place for VER, 3 for BOT, and nothing for SAI. The fact that the race director ruled the track safe and green should have overruled the Marshal's, who are not trained FIA employees, instead are volunteers at each track. No penalties should have been given. But the inconsistencies of the Stewards and FIA continue to plague the sport.
Mercedes continue their dominance with Hamilton cruising to victory. Even if Max had started P2 I think it was impossible to beat that car in a fair fight. What's scary is Mercedes didn't have their fresh engine from Brazil, nor did they seem to be using their trick collapsible rear suspension, or the supposedly "illegal" rear wing. Mercedes must be feeling pretty confident going into the final 2 races. Poor Bottas can never seem to get any luck. The penalty is what it is, but Bottas has not been the best at starts this season, and his opening lap was dreadful. Fortunately the car was fast and he put himself in a position to fight for P3 until a sudden tire failure destroyed his race. Tough break.
Red Bull are at least continuing to fight with the equipment they have. The first few laps from Max were unbelievable and critical to his championship. Perez did a great job to fight back, but the strategy didn't fall his way in the end.
Alpine had an enormous day. Coming into the race tied with AlphaTauri, Alonso has a superb drive to finish P3, his first podium since 2014. Ocon definitely had a more difficult day and with some good fortune from other's misfortune, was able to finish a strong P5. That's big big points for the team and hopefully some encouragement heading into the final 2 races.
Aston Martin had a good bounce back weekend from Brazil. Stroll really did a very good job and got the most he could have out of the car. Vettel had troubles in the opening laps that put him back in pack but was able to grab that final point. So overall a good day for Aston Martin.
Ferrari had a rough weekend. After some very strong races, the Ferrari just didn't have the pace. Carlos got the maximum out of the car in qualifying, Leclerc had a cracked chassis which forced a change, but neither car was competitive in the race. It's not unreasonable to suspect the cooler track temps do not seem to favor Ferrari relative to their direct competitors. If this is true, then with the next two races being night races, Ferrari could have a challenging end to their season.
McLaren in the end had a rougher weekend to Ferrari. The car looked good, the power was good, and Lando was on form. Unfortunately for Norris, he was bit by a deflating tire and was forced to pit which cost him a lot of points. Unfortunately for the team, Ricciardo fell back to his early season struggles and just could not extract the speed from the car. It's a terrible day when they had the better package over Ferrari and still finish behind in points.
AlphaTauri must feel a bit gutted. Starting P2 and having perhaps the 3rd best car over the last two races, it looked good for a great result. Sadly the car just wasn't there in the race, especially on the hard tires. A better strategy perhaps could have got him points, but looking at Tsunoda who was looking good through practice, also had no fight. This suggests the car just didn't have the pace.
Alfa Romeo also didn't have the same pace as recent. Perhaps it's a case of the Mercedes and Alpine are able to extract more performance in the cooler, denser air than the Ferrari or Honda cars. Sadly, only two races left for Kimi and Gio.
Haas gets a nice 16th place with Schumacher. Of course that came at the bad luck of Williams, but recognize that Mick was a full lap ahead of Mazepin. As many bad weekends as Nikita has had this year, this was one of his worst in terms of just being slow.
Williams just looks off. The power unit is still great, and it's understandable that the team has stopped development a long time ago, but it just seems like the team is not putting any effort into these final races. George Russell can still put in impressive laps in qualifying, but prior to their tire problems was only about 4 seconds ahead of Latifi in the race. That doesn't appear to be the race performances required to challenge Hamilton next year.
Driver Of The Day: Max Verstappen. There was a strong case for Alonso, and Perez, but I give it to Max because despite a harsh penalty that dropped him down to P7 prior to the race, he didn't let it phase him and instead had an incredible start and wasted no time attacking Gasly and Alonso. Once in P2 he was the only guy that could remotely stay in touch with Hamilton. He built a gap big enough to give him the go at fastest lap, and that point could be crucial later on.
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