Max is ridiculous. 20+ sec ahead of his own teammate. Glad to see an RB 1-2, but still.
Wish it had rained more, though not sure that would have actually stopped Max marching on. Glad to see Norris recovered somewhat, though sucks Piastri went out. And glad to see Yuki in the points.
I don't think rain would have had any impact on the winner, especially since Max is fantastic in the rain, but with the amount of different strategies it would have made the rest of the field very exciting.
Gasly did a great first stint gambling on extending the Softs, had the rain forced Inters he'd have been in a great spot, for example.
Definitely not winning any prize for excitement... A bit annoyed with Piastri dropping out, would really like to see his performance in this race.... In the end it's another Redbull Sunday.
Piastri has potential to be one of the greats, but at the moment his tyre management is below average. That, combined with how slow the McLaren in a straight line, he would not have finished in the top 5.
Hopefully McLaren's new slim rear wing will work wonders in Monza.
I found it enormous fun, great overtakes, great midfield, Max beating his teammate by 15 sec, lots of struggles on tyres, Hamilton taking the fastest lap on fresh mediums, Max sending it from miles away on Leclerc, slight change of pace with the rain but overall small effect, except for Max almost spinning on Eau Rouge.
Not the best Spa edition ever, but as an attendee of the 2021 edition, certainly not the worst
Shame for Piastri, loved the GP Verstappen banter. Perez finally did what he was expected to do, at least. Albon shouldn’t have taken that third pit, imo.
Yeah I was watching it thinking that there's no way he's actually better than the rest of the grid with a performance like that. I get that you need a car and a driver in F1, but it really is kind of pathetic that he can just stumble to podium finishes like that.
Lawrence bottled his return, failing to capitalise on Laura's out-there predictions with even more out-there predictions himself, but Checo earns him a consolation point. Will makes a solid effort on his return.
Season standings at Summer Break
Pundit (appearances)
Points
Average
Laura (10)
27
2.70
Lawrence (9)
20
2.22
Will (7)
13
1.86
Jolyon (3)
13
4.33
Rosanna (2)
8
4.00
Alex (2)
6
3.00
Sam (2)
4
2.00
James (1)
4
4.00
Will's useful points haul pulls him up to 3rd equal (but 4th when taking average points per appearance into consideration). Laura making a decent start with her almost full season of appearances (contrasting with only making five appearances in 2022).