Super Max! The Grand Slam Weekend.
What an incredible weekend for Max Verstappen and RedBull Racing. Max earned every single point possible. It was a mega Grand Slam. He won Pole Position in qualifying Friday, he took P1 in the sprint Saturday, and then won the race on Sunday along with taking the extra point for fastest lap. You literally cannot do anything more. And just like that he is back in the fight for the World Driver’s Championship. Not only on the scoreboard, but the momentum and moral shift in Redbull’s favor as well.
As a Redbull fan I loved to see it. It was a stellar weekend for Sergio Perez too. He qualified 7th, but then managed to finish the Sprint in P3, and then the Race in P2. Redbull’s car has some incoming improvements related to weight reduction. Is that a guaranteed pace increase going into Miami? Are the reliability issues behind them? I was happy to see the cars finish the race let alone take P1 & P2. Only time will tell and we have a two week break until Miami, but hot damn I couldn’t be more stoked for the upcoming Race weekend right here in my city.
Back to this weekend, I’ve heard some people complaining this was a boring race. While they’re not completely wrong, I’m here to say they are mostly wrong. Happy to see new fans watching the sport though and I can tell they’re new by claiming this was a boring race.
First off you should take the whole race weekend into account. Judge the race weekend, not just the race especially when it’s a sprint weekend. We had a Qualifying during the rain that was pure chaos. Loved it. We had a thrilling sprint race on Saturday with a hell of an ending. And as for the Grand Prix, was it the most insane race? No, it wasn’t, but it was far from boring –Daniel Riccardo taking out Sainz lap one. Alonso getting a hole in his car, spin out from Leclerc towards the end of the race. Among other notable events.
It’s also impossible to capture the tension created by the threat of rain during a race on a highlight real, but that uncertainty adds to the thrill. If you’ve seen enough races, you’ve seen what rain can do and how quickly it scrambles the grid. With the rain looming, pit stops and tire choice become gambles.
Imola is a notoriously tough track for overtaking and there was only one DRS zone. Due to the rain, it wasn’t activated until lap 34. It should have been activated sooner in my opinion which would have led to more overtaking. It is also tough to overtake when the racing line is dry and the rest of the track is wet. If you leave the racing line you enter wet track, and that’s dangerous. I was hoping for a good a good safety car to bunch everyone up again late in the race, and I was honestly surprised that it didn’t happen. Usually, you can count on Latifi for that. If Rebull wasn’t in the lead I would stared into the mirror and said “Latifi” three times. That’s how you spawn a safety car. (Use carefully!) Overall though it was still a decent race. We can talk about boring after Monaco.
-Chris A
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Bonus: Do drivers pee in their race suits? Yes, yes, they do.
See Standings below:
