It’s a literal roller-coaster. What a mess lol, but I enjoy it tho.
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Man, Hamilton is the luckiest man on the track. He always get that one luck. Great race nonetheless.
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Yes, unfortunately.
This year he’s going for the 8th champion chip title.
Then the Mercedes era will also come to an end with the new rules it will be different.
(Historically there has never been such a thing that one manufacturer has dominated a whole era, and of course Black live matters from a sporting point of view).
I liked Mclaren very much today.
If Vettel was in it, he probably wouldn’t have had it so easy.
Perez would also have had a good chance.
It was a good race today.
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An good race. Shame Lando couldn’t get 2nd. A bit strange to put Lando on the soft, but i guess the soft tyre was need at the restart to put him in a position to fight for a podium, even though he would suffer a bit at the end.
Hope the indycar race about to start will be exciting as well…
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Man…this is going to go on all season 
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Fantastic race, hopefully they’ll all be fought this way. The race for the win was over at the start but up and down the grid it was mayhem. I’ve been harsh on Verstappen because he’s been quite the petulant child over the years but he’s matured and having “the” car this season has made him completely change his philosophy and think long term. Even in interviews he’s much more philosophical and knows he’s fighting for a championship for real this time.
The Merc is a difficult car to extract speed from this year and it’s why Bottas is struggling while Hamilton is barely managing to hold on to Verstappen. Qualifying yesterday was a fluke, but Bottas’ contract will not be renewed next year.
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NO intent to hijack the thread, not sure if there is enough interest to start a MotoGP thread but I had to mention that Marc Marquez made his first start in nearly a year after that horrendous crash and subsequent arm injury last season. To finish 7th at a track such as this one is nothing short of incredible. Here is the top 10 of a very enjoyable 3rd round today in Portugal:
1 20 Fabio QUARTARARO Monster Energy Yamaha
2 63 Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati Lenovo Team
3 36 Joan MIR Team SUZUKI ECSTAR
4 21 Franco MORBIDELLI Petronas Yamaha SRT
5 33 Brad BINDER Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
6 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
7 93 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team
8 73 Alex MARQUEZ LCR Honda CASTROL
9 23 Enea BASTIANINI Avintia Esponsorama
10 30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI LCR Honda IDEMITSU
That’s back-to-back wins for the 22 year-old Frenchman, who has been on a real tear as of late. It’s going to be a great season!
I would like this season to have Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris and Perez at least close to each other in terms of points. If they can all contribute the season will be fantastic.
Imola was not predicted to have many overtakes, the rain and incidents helped with the excitement but if this is an indication of the rest of the races then some of the tracks with more overtaking opportunity will be very enjoyable.
Good to see Marc Marquez back, but i think he did him self no favor by trying to return to racing the next weekend after having his accident. I think it is going to take a few races before he gets properly up to speed, as i understand his strengt in his arm is not there yet after the injury.
He had a fantastic start to the race today, but dropped back pretty soon. His racing might be a bit rusty, but i think mainly it is a physical thing for him at this stage. Going to be interesting to see what he can do after a few more races…
I agree. I know he said he “had to try” and I get it. The heart of a Champion. In the end it did hurt him. This thing was much worse than most even realize. I just hope he can stay healthy and have the impact on the championship we all know he can make.
Meanwhile, defending Champion Mir had a great ride today. Suzuki showed extremely well sans the unfortunate mistake by Alex Rins. And a great result for Aleix Espargaro aboard the Aprilia as well.
like that you see how pleased he was with the whole situation even with his mask on 
I have this race on the dvr but ran out of time yesterday. Seems I better give this one a look!
Yesterday’s race was well fought and solid strategy from Mercedes. I was won though through the first stint, Hamilton being able to go 5 laps longer on tires that he’d been following Verstappen about a second and a half out the whole stint. Verstappen clearly isn’t as gentle on his tires. Red Bull needed Perez driving car number 33 the second stint.
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Verstappen probably is a bit hard on his tiers, but it could also be a bit of difference in the way the cars use their tiers also. Hamliton on the other hand is usually very good at extending the life of his tiers. Thought it was a bit strange when Hamilton then darted into the pits for his second stop, but as soon as the difference in lap times after the pitstop started to show you could tell it probably was Hamiltons to loose…
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Watched it again today, had Verstappen stayed out another five laps or so, it would have swung Red Bull’s way.
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I feel Red Bulls strategy have been a little bit off Mercedes (although, when Mercedes does get it wrong, they usually get it really wrong)
That said, its probably easier to make good strategy if you have had the best car for the last few years, and also probably the best driver (even though i am not a Hamilton fan, i must admit that he damn good at winning races)
We may not see a Red Bull pole again this year in high downforce tracks.
Interesting. I wonder how much flex the regulations allow. RB may get spanked for this.
From technical analysis I’ve seen the movement is about 5cm and worth 3/10 on a lap. Some deflection is normal but that looks like the entire rear wing structure is dropping. You can use a fixed point like the tip of the shark fin to really get a good sense of how much it’s dipping.