At points, with so many safety cars and switches in position, it felt like an Indycar race, just with rain. I wouldn't want it every race, but to have changeable conditions, a bit of jeopardy with the run offs, lots of strategy to throw into the mix, and we had ourselves a great race. For me, the DRS overtakes at the end of the race tainted it a bit, in removing one DRS zone, they probably should have run the entire race without DRS.
The weekend was surrounded by some more odd events:
- Rich Energy are still on the Haas cars.
- A coach ran into and damaged the starting lights.
- A Renault truck spun off a motorway
Poor Alfa Romeo being disqualified after Kimi led Giovinazzi home to seventh and eighth placed finishes, with Kimi running highly all day with pretty good pace including some nice battles with Vettel. Kimi was lucky to keep it together having gone off at the turn 17/18. With that, the team drop to ninth in the Constructors' Championship.
It meant that Williams scored their first point. They are now the only two cars who have not had a DNF all season, but you've got to wonder if they should have taken the odd risk here or there to get into the points on such a topsy-turvy day. Russell was running ahead of Stroll and was asking to take a chance on slicks, but the team did not want to gamble and Stroll went on to a lot of points. A mistake in turn 2 let teammate Kubica through and end up earning a point. Very pleased for Kubica to get the point, although he's been outperformed by Russell all season. Sadly their heavily updated car doesn't seem to be getting them particularly closer to the midfield.
— a. (@RegularEra) July 28, 2019
Mercedes were in a celebratory mood, with a cool one-off livery, great 1950's team-wear, and a Grand Prix sponsored by them, but a slightly ill Hamilton went off twice, Bottas smashed the car in the race, the second crash this weekend, and their strategy was off, having been so reliably brilliant all season long. Their almost minute long pitstop was hilarious. Hamilton and Mercedes can afford the odd off weekend, but Bottas really needs to capitalise on these, as talks of Ocon are being brought higher up the agenda.
Ricciardo wasn't having all that great a day in the Renault before his retirement, but Hulkenberg was having his best race for ages. But, as usual, with a sniff of a podium finish, you guessed it, he binned it. I'd usually say that a podium for the German will never happen, but if I say that he's going to do it in Hungary.
Racing Point have been almost anonymous this season, with Perez, a usual shoe-in for a top finish on a chaotic day crashed out early in the race. The cameras caught a glimpse of Stroll spinning in the background of Norris's retirement, but he managed to get going though spending most of his time at the rear of the field. So with some fortune and good strategy calls, he led the race, for all of about three corners. He claims a podium finish was on the cards as he was running ahead of Kvyat, but it was a strong finish for what has been a pretty uninspiring season for the pink cars.
For me, Sainz was having a great race in the McLaren. He was never quite featured in the race, but he was always running well into the points, showed great pace at times and good racecraft, despite a lucky escape from a spin at turn 17/18 and deserved his fifth placed finish, adding more points to their solid fourth place in the Constructors' Championship. Sainz is also running away with best of the rest in the Drivers' Championship. Norris didn't seem to have the pace of Sainz all weekend, and ended up retiring fairly early on.
Haas needed some good news, and the downgrade seemed to be the answer for Grosjean at least, qualifying in sixth. But once again, the Haas bang wheels, to the fury of Steiner., but they both finished well in the points.
The star of Toro Rosso for me was Alex Albon, he was having a great race, and it was because he was running so well, and Kvyat so far down that their fortunes reversed at the final safety car. The only complaint for Alex's race was when he was challenging Lewis in the Mercedes, he was too kind and not ruthless enough which cost him momentum and a whole lot of positions. But it was new dad, Kvyat, who scored the podium. He's had a good season and kept it clean on his way to finish on the podium in a Toro Rosso, with two of the podium finishers running Honda engines.
Sister team Red Bull were enjoying a stronger weekend. Both cars had terrible starts, but that's turning out to be a blessing in disguise for Max as he drove extremely well, albeit with a minor spin, to almost cruise to victory on a day when his rivals all went off crashing their cars. Gasly had a much stronger qualifying, but his bad start got him caught in difficult battles that pegged his progress. It would have been a reasonable points finish had he not tagged Albon with a few laps to go, sending him out of the race. Marko said he expects 5 victories this season, which looked ambitious at best, but as Max and the chassis looking stronger and stronger, they might get there in 2019. Max, even in his spin, showed his class, lighting up the rear to get the car from a slide to a spin and then hammering the brakes to get it lined up. Brilliant.
Ferrari looked all out of sorts in qualifying with issues plaguing both drivers, despite possibly having a shot at pole position with Leclerc. Vettel had a great first lap, but as he said himself, he was running David Coulthard race, 'not spectacular, but quite fast'. He didn't really make that much progress mid-race, but he kept it clean through the treacherous conditions, he made good strategy calls, and he pulled off clean overtakes. DRS aided him for the final two to make the podium, but it was nice to see Vettel smile and be relatively back on form. He nearly lost it on the final lap, running wide and was quite pedestrian in the stadium section as Kvyat was right on his diffuser. Leclerc was in the mix all race having made progress from a tenth placed start. He was already over the limit a few times in turn 17, and on his third off there on slicks on a particularly wet and well rubbered drag strip, the car slid into the barriers ending his race. His disappointment drew back memories of Vettel's similarly clumsy off last year.
It was nice to see Mick Schumacher have a run out in the Ferrari F2004.
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