I was wondering about that yellow flag but didn't find out the cause.

I doubt many if any were looking at that part of the race field at that point in the race.

Another clinical victory for Max, I guess, since he's out in front so much he doesn't actually appear on the broadcast I watch. If I saw his car for more than four minutes yesterday I'd be surprised. So judging by the margin of victory I'd say he probably drove it well haha. Clearly he's in the fastest car, but he is making that count. To illustrate how good he was, his fastest lap was 1.5 seconds faster than the second-best (Norris) and nearly 2 seconds faster than any other car.

Perez showed poor judgement with the attempt to go around Norris in turn 4. Too early to be trying something like that, and so hard to make it stick. But if you can get alongside you're then on the inside on the entrance to turn 5 so it can work.

As to the penalty-fest, that's not what I want to see. But my view is that if another car is alongside you must leave a lane. Norris' left front was on the red and white kerb on the exit and there was no track, let alone a lane. I don't see how anything else is acceptable, and the commentators in the broadcast felt it was hard racing and legit. I think the car on the inside must leave a car's width. This is nothing to do with it being a Red Bull, but just what is needed to ensure cars aren't pushed in to traps, walls and run-offs. The stewards seem to agree. No matter how harebrained, aggressive or stupid the other driver is, he has to be given room to stay on the track.

Ricciardo had a good run. I've been critical, but he looked good yesterday and scored the car and good points. McLaren need both cars in the mix and got that yesterday.

Alpha Tauri didn't justify my expectation. Maybe because they started on softs, but just a P9 after their excellent qualifying is a disappointment. Ferrari again did well. They'd love to be a little higher in the finishing order, but scoring both cars week in, week out is the primary objective as they try to hunt down the Mclarens. Still, they went backwards this week, with Lando's great drive to the podium. Lando's 101 points are not far away from both Ferrari's total of 122. If Ricciardo had hit the ground running this season McLaren would be out of sight.

Gutted for Russell, who came oh so close. His points are surely coming. Kimi nearly finished 11th, but didn't. Alonso scored, taking that point away from Williams, and he seems to be on a streak. Must be four or five races straight now. The Alpine is the best sounding car on the grid too.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will continue their immensely successful partnership in Formula 1 beyond this season, with the reigning seven-time world champion signing a two-year contract that will keep him in F1 with the Silver Arrows until at least the end of 2023.

It is the second contract Hamilton has done with Mercedes in six months, the Briton only putting pen to paper on his current one-year term a few weeks before pre-season testing began.

Both Hamilton and Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff were keen to avoid the contract saga dragging on again, so began talks much earlier and they were concluded within weeks before being announced on Saturday morning of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Yes, the rules require one to leave room for the car alongside but I think this is the first time I've watched it enforced that way. Usually if one car is ahead and on the racing line they can use the racing line and the other car needs to back out. Still you have to keep to the racing line.

As I showed in the video I posted above, Max did the very same thing to LeClerc in 2019 at the same track without penalty so why would anyone expect to be penalized. I think the stewards were made aware of that and as a result were forced to judge harshly rather than retract a penalty already given. Even Christian Horner indicated the outside car usually comes off worse in these situations when being interviewed during the race and made no mention of complaining to the stewards.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...hftpR0oSm.html


That article has a video of this incident. If you pause it at 53 seconds it shows Perez on the track side by side. At 54 seconds he is in the gravel and Lando's on the kerb, leaving no space at all. For my money it's a clear violation and the stewards got it right. Of course Perez did exactly the same thing to Leclerc later on and rightfully also got a penalty.


I also expect Mercedes to be stronger at Silverstone, but don't forget this race is sprint qualifying and then anything can happen and probably will.

Sure but Lando has the racing line and is ahead having outbraked Perez.

In this video at 12 seconds, Max has the racing line but isn't as far ahead. Max pushed LeClerc off the track to take the lead and was not penalized. I believe the stewards called this a racing incident so obviously there seems to be room for interpretation, or favoritism at red Bulls home track. The other consideration is at turn three there is a run off area which to me makes no difference. Getting pushed out of the track limits is getting pushed out of track limits. What if this was a street track with Armco for track limits?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/v...939848001.html

Okay! Lewis finds his legs again and Russell flies. I'm liking the trial format so far and can't wait to see the sprint tomorrow.

Great to see Williams in Q3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCiwg9QJywU

I like this format too. All the teams are scrambling a bit, which is good, and anything can happen in a sprint race and so theoretically the order could be quite shuffled. All it takes is one spin or trip trough the gravel to slide way down the order, and in a 100km race there's little time for recovery.

I want to see how it shakes out at all three venues, but so far I am liking what this format has brought to the division.

This may turn out to be the most interesting race so far this season.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) off line to win sprint.

https://i.postimg.cc/hGpQzy9C/Untitled22.jpg

Well done to Max. Perez kills them. Can't let that happen.


In the end I don't think there are too many surprises other than Perez. Biggest thing I take from it is Mercedes brought upgrades to Silverstone and they look to have narrowed the gap after Austria.



Maybe Sainz down in P11 is a bit of a surprise given the Fez pace through the practice sessions. Good result for McLaren. If anything sprint racing gives a better preview of race pace than standard qualifying does, so I think it may be easier to get a feel for things tomorrow as a result. But it's F1, and anything can, and does, happen.

F1 CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS
POS Team Points
1 Red Bull 289
2 Mercedes 245
3 McLaren 141
4 Ferrari 122
5 AlphaTauri 48
6 Aston Martin 44
7 Alpine 32
8 Alfa Romeo 2
9 Williams 0
10 Haas 0

F1 DRIVER STANDINGS

2021
POS Driver Team Points
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 185
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 152
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 104
4 Lando Norris McLaren 101
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 93
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 62
7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 60
8 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 40
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 39
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 30
11 Fernando Alonso Alpine 20
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 14
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine 12
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 9
15 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1
16 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1
17 George Russell Williams 0
18 Mick Schumacher Haas 0
19 Nikita Mazepin Haas 0
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 0