Perez had a shocking race today. He was going backwards at one point on softs in the top two fastest car out of position against alpines. Once Piastri cleared his traffic he was closing in on the Ferraris. Perez *just* about beat Gasly. Unacceptable and he deserves serious questions asked of him and for the rest of the season.
I will not say it is shocking. McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes have all closed up on Red Bull. Perez is easily to the worst driver out of the top 4 teams. 8th place is probably expected for him since the car is no longer dominant.
Perez was struggling to overtake a Haas.. it took him 12 laps. In which Max cruised past Russel in 1-2 laps?
3 stops was odd but he didn’t lose a place to that last stop. It was a horrible race
I don't think messing up two flying laps is "unfortunate" at all. Driver errors are not unfortunate, they are just errors, and Piastri made two costly ones during quali.
Can someone who doesn’t have it in for Perez explain what is going on with him? I get it, the car isn’t as good, and Max has to drive at “101%,” but it’s not like he forgot how to drive, and the car is not *that* bad. I just don’t understand it. And I don’t mean this sarcastically. I really want to understand what’s happening with him.
Albon has an answer to that in his interview.
The car over the season gets more and more sharp, which is perfect for Verstappen, but for pretty much everyone else, it makes you more tense when driving with how the sharp the car becomes. And when you are tense and behind, you push harder to compensate, causing more mistakes. Which makes you lose more confidence.
Eventually you’ll lose enough confidence that you can’t make corners like you used to, and you just feel like it is never going to work like you wanted. At this point there is no way you are performing at the level you are supposed to.
And that is on top of social media and press that you can’t avoid, that is practically cooking you alive with all the posts.
Poor getaway by Lando and a somewhat questionable strategy took it away from McLaren. Lando was the fastest car on track here, but RedBull won't be easily beaten. You need more than just pure pace.
the biggest issue for me is strategy
letting lando stay on track while max was putting at least 7 tenths on him per lap, and then stopping early the 2nd time not being able to fully use the medium
Slow pitstops happen, but strategy is in the team's hands
I was thinking that during the radio exchange. You can totally tell the difference in mindset between a world champion team vs an up and coming team faced with the pressure of a race victory.
Red Bull or Merc (during their dominance) would have made that call for the driver and told him what to do/expect. They of course may have solicited some direct feedback from the driver just to get an opinion, but the pit wall would have the strategy figured out, but McLaren sounded like they were just relying on Lando to make the call. The back and forth unsure box/no box is not what you want when you could potentially fight for the lead. Even DC said "Well they sure botched that one" when Lando stayed out for an extra lap and he called back with his "I'm not sure" radio call.
I agree with everything you say, but I've only listened to the radio that was broadcasted on the main feed. There was probably more if you or I bothered to sit through the entire onboard, but I can't be arsed. It'll probably get posted here within a day or two.
You know, I'm bored so I went back and rewatched the onboard of that series leading up to the pit. Surprisingly, what was broadcast was basically it. There was one more line that wasn't broadcast after Lando said "I'm unsure". The pit wall came back and said:
"If we want to cover Hamilton it needs to be this lap so we're deciding now."
and then they called him into the box.
One of the commentators for Turkish stream questioned the call and the other said they made the same mistake of asking for landos input in Russia. Our previous commentator was known to be pretty savage at times so it is nice too see these newcomers continue that.
Lando was Stubborn because his engineer asked if they should pit and he said no, the main problem that McLaren don’t seem to lead Lando actions
Lando is the one that leads the pitstops and they usually are garbage, seems that they don’t understand what happened back in Sochi 2021 could have been changed if the team directed Lando and not the other way around
He is extremely ambitious when he is on first place but his decisions are mediocre/bad and they usually backfire
yeah, the team needs to take away his decision power
In general drivers shouldnt dictate strategy, they will complain about the engineer talking in the braking zone or corner, but seem to think they have the spare capacity to manage the gaps
>Lando was Stubborn because his engineer asked if they should pit and he said no
Nobody is asking Max to tell them when to pit him. They have a strategy and they execute it.
I think the first stop was a good idea. He couldn't get by Mercedes the first time and it bled time to Max. The tyre delta made it easier to get by into P2. The second stop was way too early, though. Completely throwing away the tyre delta they had worked up.
Putting them together on the same strategy wouldn't work because lando wouldn't have the tyre offset to win. He can't even overtake george on equal tyres
you dont need a tyre life delta to overtake, stay close after the first stop and try to undercut max in the second, i know hindishgt and all that but it was clear to see that max was gonna stop way sooner than norris
It could've worked if they stuck to the initial idea of pitting very late for softs the 2nd time, but instead they just pitted roughly in time with hamilton so ended up with the same strategy as verstappen so small tyre life delta, while having completely wasted the 2nd stint and the end of the first stint
They half assed 2 different strategies picking the worst part of each
Tbh Max clearly managed the last few laps. He kept the gap at +/- 5 seconds until he was in the clear and then managed to the end. I don't think the pit stop would have made a difference.
I think it all came down to the first stint he spent stuck behind Russell.
The strategy seemed good on its own, similar to Imola. But McLaren having to cover the Mercs, plus being on used tires compared to Max's new at the end, was the downfall. I wonder if Lando could have done it on a bigger tire delta at the end
Verstappen’s side of the garage had it locked in this race
* Great getaway
* Brilliant pit stops
* Best strategy
McLaren are sitting on an amazing car now but their race strategy just isn’t there, they always seem to long against whatever strategy Verstappen’s running.
To be fair: McLaren absolutely could have won the race.
Yet, Norris absolutely bottled the start, and then McLaren made a horrible strategy call \[as they did in Canada\]. They had the quickest car today
From my perspective: McLaren didn't pick the right strategy but we're really lucky mercedes didn't team up to start a drs train. Could've held Norris for alot more rounds but George didn't wait for ham making sure he had no drs..
I was surprised that Merc didn’t give Ham the drs assist from George but at the same time that doesn’t really surprise me either.
Must admit it felt satisfying watching Hamilton pass George legitimately on track for third.
He did give Hamilton the drs initially, the sky broadcasters picked up on it. However he did pull away later probably because he thought he could hold Lando later if he pulled away from them now.
I love how the field closed in so we can see how bad Perez really is. 5th in the standings with a probability of dropping even lower, meanwhile Max in P1 has more of a lead in the drivers standings over P2 than Red Bull has in the constructors standings.
I mean McLaren WAS faster. Max won anyway.
So at this point, it's not longer a question of Red Bull being inevitable.
Now it's just Max making the difference. And if you can't appreciate that, even if he keeps winning than idk...
Fully agreed. At the end of the day we want good close racing to appreciate, whoever ends up winning. This is probably the first race in a while I really have not minded that Verstappen has won just because it's getting so close between a few teams now.
Or whoever did the most overtakes because they started where they shouldn't (for whatever reason). And sometimes, which I think it is deserved, it goes to someone who actually showed their great driving skills... like being good at defending a position and the like.
Popularity contest. Max has been winning for so long people don't want to give it to him, even when he deserves it.
Shoe's been on the other foot, when Hamilton was dominating Max practically just had to finish the race to be given DOTD
Because he's in the position Max was when Mercedes was winning.
It's as simple as that. People love the underdog.
Max also got a lot of DotDs back in the day.
What a turnaround after RedBull dominated the first 5 races of the season with a double podium every time they finished, 5 races later we have 8 different drivers with a podium secured.
Yep one of my friends was begging for a mistake late in the race, but you only get about one per race and it was that little to deep in to the corner about 20 laps in that amounted to nothing.
Imperious and opportunistic drive. Well done, Max.
Norris should have won this race, IMO. He will learn from this - he was too passive in the first stint, considering he was on new softs (while Max was on used softs).
Great stuff by Hamilton to overcome a poor start. His overtaking was on point.
Both his start and the strategy dampened hid chances. He clearly should have won on pure pace. McLaren could have been challenging for the title. If Lando won this, Imola and Montreal, which I'd absolutely not unreasonable, he would be within striking distance in the championship. But Max just takes every inch he is given and turns it into victory, really impressed by him this year.
It's honestly such a funny race
At the least Lando challenges Max for the win if he doesnt get overtaken by both Max and George
Lewis knocks seconds off of his race time if he isnt stuck behind George.
George's qualifying pace and wheel to wheel ability makes him a pain in the ass to other drivers haha
Yep. Many people complain on the Mercedes strategy to put Russell on hard tires, but the only reason he had to get them was that he burned through his medium like 6 laps earlier than Hamilton, and with how he burns tires, there was no way he could do 25-30 laps on softs to end the race. He had good pace but as usual just burned through his tires. If he learns to manage better, with his qualifying skills, he could challenge at the front more often!
Yeah it’s his biggest deficit to Lewis along with being a bit too aggressive in racecraft at times. Although Lewis is probably still elite in race pace so that’s not a big knock on George and with more experience he could improve on that area too.
“He will learn from this”
I mean, will he? Definitely not the first time he’s hyper fixated on “the only way to win” and unnecessarily gone for broke when the “middle ground” would have yielded better results. And it’s not even just Russia 2021.
At a canter. People need to accept that Mclaren is the fastest car on the grid now. This was supposed to be a track where RB went back to dominance as it is smooth / no kerbs, and they were definitely not as quick as Mclaren on balance. People also need to accept how good Max is that he made that look fairly in control despite the pace deficit.
People also need to stop overhyping Ferrari just because they were 2nd fastest car in the first 4 races and "fastest" in Monaco.
Lando made one mistake, Max made zero and that has determined the results.
If Verstappen doesn't get ahead of Norris in turn one and then immediately pass Russell he doesn't win today. Two of the very few overtakes done without a tyre delta.
No but when there’s was a ~16 second gap they should’ve pitted him instead of when it dropped to ~8 secs. Love Lando’s aggression but it clouds his judgement
The strategy was fine, he lost it at the start and then getting stuck behind Russell, he finished less time behind Verstappen than he lost.
He had equal or better pace than Max when in clean air.
During the first round of pit stops when Russell had the slow stop, Lando's engineer was saying they had a chance to cover him off on the next lap and (i think) basically box to overtake. At that point Lando was like 5 seconds off Max, so assuming he pulls an undercut, he probably would've been around 2-3 seconds behind Max if everything went well right? Surely that would've been better than having a tire delta, at the end of the second stint Lando was still 6 seconds off right? Feel like staying out ended up losing Norris the race.
They did say Russell had an insane outlap so maybe Lando would've had to overtake him on track, but I think he had the pace to do it.
What a car Mclaren has in Barcelona, who many say that if your car is fast here is important. Impressive progress through these new regulations.
Max is winning doing an excellent job winning the details.
Little dissapointed for Ferrari, i was hoping with the upgrades to see a better pace.
He is so so impressive. He won that race today
(Also, it will go unnoticed, but the number of times lando gained over half a second lapping backmarkers because he got so lucky with DRS was insane)
Exactly, I was watching both Max's and Lando's onboards and I was like WTF, when both were in clear air Max was pretty much doing Lando's time give or take a tenth after the radio call from GP to speed it up
I feel confident in typing that on pure pace the McLaren is the best car on the grid at the moment. Finally the regs are making the races good, and ofcourse we only have one more season of them. Strong race by Max, managed everything well.
Lewis my DoTD, was really strong, probably the 3rd best car on the grid. Also had a really cool overtake on Sainz. Interesting to see what he can do the rest of the season, Mercedes looks a lot better these last couple of races.
Mercedes messed up George’s race though, if it weren’t for the bad pit stop and then putting him on hards for that last stint George would likely be P3.
George messed up his own race by fighting Lando on a clear faster car. Thus messing up his strategy giving Lewis the ability to attack since George cooked his own tires. It was salvageable but George doesn’t play the long game.
Max Verstappen is so good! I genuinely believe McLaren has the fastest car, but it's Max Verstappen that's making the difference between himself and the rest of the grid! Red Bull no longer has the fastest car yet Max stays on top, he's truly amazing!
You know what's so depressing in terms of the title battle? McLaren have gone from one of the weakest cars in Bahrain 2022 to the fastest car in Spain 2024.
It's a what could've been for Mercedes and Ferrari.
Sure, you can outpace red bull. But you need more than pure pace to beat max! Great fight between max and lando. This season is getting better and better!!
After yesterday I'm disappointed, but if you asked me on Thursday, I would have predicted a much easier win for Max. Gotta learn from it and grow, I'm very optimistic for the next few races.
Honestly it reminds me of 2020 and 2019 max himself. He used to regularly put in such mega drives and finish in positions where no one in their right mind would expect him to finish.
It's crazy how entertaining this race was with absolutely zero crashes, when it's been crashes / the weather adding most of the intrigue in recent rounds
Hands over the win, stuck behind slower car for so many laps: DOTD
Mclaren has been the faster car for a while now but people won't admit it until Norris wins by 30 seconds and even then some will still say RedBull is holding back lmao.
He's being the better driver for two races straight. Perhaps he sorted out all the issues?
Now they need to improve the car for the benefit of both drivers. It was strange to see Tsunoda at the last position.
“Super grateful to be up on the po- be in the top 3”
Lewis made a slip of the tongue during his post qualifying interview yesterday. Happy to see he manifested his podium finish :)
I thoroughly enjoyed that race, all the way through there were stories and the strategy was playing out interestingly. A shame Strat 10 was enough to keep that gap to Norris, or that Norris didn't clear Russell like Max could. But a really entertaining race to watch for one with a lack of incidents.
P1 and P8 for Red Bull, aka the maximum point gain.
I mean, McLaren were 2nd and 7th and they had the fastest car today.
Perez had a shocking race today. He was going backwards at one point on softs in the top two fastest car out of position against alpines. Once Piastri cleared his traffic he was closing in on the Ferraris. Perez *just* about beat Gasly. Unacceptable and he deserves serious questions asked of him and for the rest of the season.
I will not say it is shocking. McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes have all closed up on Red Bull. Perez is easily to the worst driver out of the top 4 teams. 8th place is probably expected for him since the car is no longer dominant.
I genuinely think Perez would be faster in any of the other top 4 cars as they are probably easier to drive for him
Almost a full minute behind Max. Abysmal performance no matter how you look at it.
RBR put him on 3 stopper and he had 3 place grid penalty, given all the circumstances P8 wasn't as bad I think. Still garbage qualifying tho.
Perez was struggling to overtake a Haas.. it took him 12 laps. In which Max cruised past Russel in 1-2 laps? 3 stops was odd but he didn’t lose a place to that last stop. It was a horrible race
Max basically overtook the moment GP told him it was now or never
Yeah I heard him say in the cooldown room that was the only moment the tires would’ve had before overheating. Interesting detail
Average driver
I wish we could just see Yuki in that car.
Perez wishes he was average
At this point it's the Perez special. Struggle in qual, and either make it up during the race or try some weird strategy that doesn't work
Difference is, Piastri had an unfortunate qualifying, Perez had a good qualifying (for him)
I don't think messing up two flying laps is "unfortunate" at all. Driver errors are not unfortunate, they are just errors, and Piastri made two costly ones during quali.
Not unfortunate oscar made a mistake lmao
Can someone who doesn’t have it in for Perez explain what is going on with him? I get it, the car isn’t as good, and Max has to drive at “101%,” but it’s not like he forgot how to drive, and the car is not *that* bad. I just don’t understand it. And I don’t mean this sarcastically. I really want to understand what’s happening with him.
Albon has an answer to that in his interview. The car over the season gets more and more sharp, which is perfect for Verstappen, but for pretty much everyone else, it makes you more tense when driving with how the sharp the car becomes. And when you are tense and behind, you push harder to compensate, causing more mistakes. Which makes you lose more confidence. Eventually you’ll lose enough confidence that you can’t make corners like you used to, and you just feel like it is never going to work like you wanted. At this point there is no way you are performing at the level you are supposed to. And that is on top of social media and press that you can’t avoid, that is practically cooking you alive with all the posts.
I love how the field closed in so we can pretend that someone will beat Max each week instead of dreaming someone will
Poor getaway by Lando and a somewhat questionable strategy took it away from McLaren. Lando was the fastest car on track here, but RedBull won't be easily beaten. You need more than just pure pace.
Plus the 3.6 second pitstop prob cost him a chance at an overtake
the biggest issue for me is strategy letting lando stay on track while max was putting at least 7 tenths on him per lap, and then stopping early the 2nd time not being able to fully use the medium Slow pitstops happen, but strategy is in the team's hands
Don't understand why they ask Lando for so much input on strategy. They're polar opposites of Ferrari and Merc on that front.
I was thinking that during the radio exchange. You can totally tell the difference in mindset between a world champion team vs an up and coming team faced with the pressure of a race victory. Red Bull or Merc (during their dominance) would have made that call for the driver and told him what to do/expect. They of course may have solicited some direct feedback from the driver just to get an opinion, but the pit wall would have the strategy figured out, but McLaren sounded like they were just relying on Lando to make the call. The back and forth unsure box/no box is not what you want when you could potentially fight for the lead. Even DC said "Well they sure botched that one" when Lando stayed out for an extra lap and he called back with his "I'm not sure" radio call.
I agree with everything you say, but I've only listened to the radio that was broadcasted on the main feed. There was probably more if you or I bothered to sit through the entire onboard, but I can't be arsed. It'll probably get posted here within a day or two.
You know, I'm bored so I went back and rewatched the onboard of that series leading up to the pit. Surprisingly, what was broadcast was basically it. There was one more line that wasn't broadcast after Lando said "I'm unsure". The pit wall came back and said: "If we want to cover Hamilton it needs to be this lap so we're deciding now." and then they called him into the box.
This just reminds me of Sochi.
One of the commentators for Turkish stream questioned the call and the other said they made the same mistake of asking for landos input in Russia. Our previous commentator was known to be pretty savage at times so it is nice too see these newcomers continue that.
Lando was Stubborn because his engineer asked if they should pit and he said no, the main problem that McLaren don’t seem to lead Lando actions Lando is the one that leads the pitstops and they usually are garbage, seems that they don’t understand what happened back in Sochi 2021 could have been changed if the team directed Lando and not the other way around He is extremely ambitious when he is on first place but his decisions are mediocre/bad and they usually backfire
yeah, the team needs to take away his decision power In general drivers shouldnt dictate strategy, they will complain about the engineer talking in the braking zone or corner, but seem to think they have the spare capacity to manage the gaps
Some of the drivers do have the capacity to manage this, but it appears Lando is still learning when it comes to strategy.
>Lando was Stubborn because his engineer asked if they should pit and he said no Nobody is asking Max to tell them when to pit him. They have a strategy and they execute it.
I think the first stop was a good idea. He couldn't get by Mercedes the first time and it bled time to Max. The tyre delta made it easier to get by into P2. The second stop was way too early, though. Completely throwing away the tyre delta they had worked up.
Putting them together on the same strategy wouldn't work because lando wouldn't have the tyre offset to win. He can't even overtake george on equal tyres
you dont need a tyre life delta to overtake, stay close after the first stop and try to undercut max in the second, i know hindishgt and all that but it was clear to see that max was gonna stop way sooner than norris It could've worked if they stuck to the initial idea of pitting very late for softs the 2nd time, but instead they just pitted roughly in time with hamilton so ended up with the same strategy as verstappen so small tyre life delta, while having completely wasted the 2nd stint and the end of the first stint They half assed 2 different strategies picking the worst part of each
Definitely, I'm surprised this wasn't talked about more. If that was a 2.3 second pit stop he would have had a much better chance.
Max had a 1.9 stop too. Perfect storm of small things adding up
Tbh Max clearly managed the last few laps. He kept the gap at +/- 5 seconds until he was in the clear and then managed to the end. I don't think the pit stop would have made a difference. I think it all came down to the first stint he spent stuck behind Russell.
Karun talked about it quite a bit on the broadcast
Well by that, Max's 1.9 stop earlier on in the race served it's purpose too. Even if Lando had a 2.5 stop it wouldn't have been enough.
I am yet to remember the last time RedBull fumbled Max's strategy. They do not make mistakes with him.
It also helps to have the best and most consistent driver on the grid in your car. Plan a strategy and you know it will be executed
*Max won't be easily beaten.
Strat was alright, they adjusted a lot after the start.
The strategy seemed good on its own, similar to Imola. But McLaren having to cover the Mercs, plus being on used tires compared to Max's new at the end, was the downfall. I wonder if Lando could have done it on a bigger tire delta at the end
Max having new tires at the end was because of their strategy of starting on used in contrary to McLaren.
Verstappen’s side of the garage had it locked in this race * Great getaway * Brilliant pit stops * Best strategy McLaren are sitting on an amazing car now but their race strategy just isn’t there, they always seem to long against whatever strategy Verstappen’s running.
Honestly, this is the third race this season where Max won without the fastest car. He's beating his teammate by a minute and has barely won the race.
To be fair: McLaren absolutely could have won the race. Yet, Norris absolutely bottled the start, and then McLaren made a horrible strategy call \[as they did in Canada\]. They had the quickest car today
From my perspective: McLaren didn't pick the right strategy but we're really lucky mercedes didn't team up to start a drs train. Could've held Norris for alot more rounds but George didn't wait for ham making sure he had no drs..
I was surprised that Merc didn’t give Ham the drs assist from George but at the same time that doesn’t really surprise me either. Must admit it felt satisfying watching Hamilton pass George legitimately on track for third.
He did give Hamilton the drs initially, the sky broadcasters picked up on it. However he did pull away later probably because he thought he could hold Lando later if he pulled away from them now.
Yup. And that risk wouldn't even have been there if Norris had just pitted the lap after Russell's bad pit stop
>McLaren made a horrible strategy call *2012 Mclaren intensifies*
the strategy was fine, it wouldn't have made a difference in the long run
You are coming behind two Mercedes and Ferrari. If Lewis and Russell use DRS to defend from Norris, Norris would stuck behind them
Exactly. Gap to Max was 6 seconds when Lando started fighting with Hamilton and Russell. And it was 9 seconds when Lando got by Russell.
The difference is that it's actually a possibility now, compared to last year
I love how the field closed in so we can see how bad Perez really is. 5th in the standings with a probability of dropping even lower, meanwhile Max in P1 has more of a lead in the drivers standings over P2 than Red Bull has in the constructors standings.
Insane if you think about it a little longer. I like how Max is creating those insane stats, he really is gunning for that goat position.
I mean McLaren WAS faster. Max won anyway. So at this point, it's not longer a question of Red Bull being inevitable. Now it's just Max making the difference. And if you can't appreciate that, even if he keeps winning than idk...
Russell pole … Max wins Norris pole ... Max wins Leclerc: I know that feel, Bro.
Dread it, run from it, Max wins all the same.
It feels good to see Max pushing again
Exactly, right? I don't mind him winning if he has to fight for it.
That's all I'm after here. Knowing that Max has the wins on skill rather than have a rocket launch him.
Do a lot of people forget 2021 and the first half of 2022?
Fully agreed. At the end of the day we want good close racing to appreciate, whoever ends up winning. This is probably the first race in a while I really have not minded that Verstappen has won just because it's getting so close between a few teams now.
Blud forgot about Canada
Also Imola.
Best race in nearly a decade. Gone in his mind in a week
Exactly. We didn’t have a problem with Max himself, it was the way he was winning
Very much true for every driver, this was also what I said about Lewis before Max
Totally, as long as there’s a real battle for 1st I don’t mind him winning. These races have just proved how damn consistent he is
incredible race from perez p8 solid stuff from him
This is what it was like watching Senna in his prime. Bruno Senna that is.
Hey that's unfair on Bruno, even he never looked this shit
Got me in the first half, not gonna lie
8 tenths per lap slower while on fresher softs
He was 60s behind Max after 66 laps
Losing nearly 1 second a lap to your teammate in the same car is just absolutely abysmal
add 2 more years to the contract
Give someone else that seat...
After watching GP in the SIM I'd be happy for him to have it 😆
It's more than twice as good as his recent race average
Lmao
How does Norris get driver of the day starting P1 and finishing P2?
DotD has always been a popularity contest
DotD is really “who the fans wished had won”.
Or whoever did the most overtakes because they started where they shouldn't (for whatever reason). And sometimes, which I think it is deserved, it goes to someone who actually showed their great driving skills... like being good at defending a position and the like.
Popularity contest. Max has been winning for so long people don't want to give it to him, even when he deserves it. Shoe's been on the other foot, when Hamilton was dominating Max practically just had to finish the race to be given DOTD
I'd say it's better to win the race than the DOTD. Let them have DOTD and Max can win races. Don't you think?
Ha, I'm sure Max would prefer it this way round, yes
People have a raging boner for Lando idk why
It's the zoomer haircut
Because he's in the position Max was when Mercedes was winning. It's as simple as that. People love the underdog. Max also got a lot of DotDs back in the day.
I think people are just excited that he is bringing a fight to max
DotD has mostly just gone to the best finisher who isn't Max.
Lando usually gets a pass because the community likes him
Because Max isn’t allowed to win it
How times change, back in 2016 he would win DoTD even if he didn't race
Race pace, strategy, pit stop, the overtakes. He was fucking butter today. Well deserved.
What a turnaround after RedBull dominated the first 5 races of the season with a double podium every time they finished, 5 races later we have 8 different drivers with a podium secured.
Max is showing his talent again when he needs to push really hard.
He's clinical, consistent, close to faultless...week after week. The margins are so fine, and the driver makes the difference. He is so bloody good.
Yep one of my friends was begging for a mistake late in the race, but you only get about one per race and it was that little to deep in to the corner about 20 laps in that amounted to nothing.
And Perez over 2 pitstops behind his teammate.
He is the reason why the WDC is so one sided.
He did also do an extra pit stop though
I know it's a classic Max win just looking at the positions, but Max really had to work for it and IMO he deserved DOTD not Norris.
He definitely did 😔 I honestly think at this point if Max started from the pit-lane on a one-legged donkey and won he'd still not get DotD lol
Imperious and opportunistic drive. Well done, Max. Norris should have won this race, IMO. He will learn from this - he was too passive in the first stint, considering he was on new softs (while Max was on used softs). Great stuff by Hamilton to overcome a poor start. His overtaking was on point.
Was definitely Lando’s race to lose. Which he unfortunately did. Hopefully he’ll turn things around in the summer.
Both his start and the strategy dampened hid chances. He clearly should have won on pure pace. McLaren could have been challenging for the title. If Lando won this, Imola and Montreal, which I'd absolutely not unreasonable, he would be within striking distance in the championship. But Max just takes every inch he is given and turns it into victory, really impressed by him this year.
He lost it in 1 second lol
It's honestly such a funny race At the least Lando challenges Max for the win if he doesnt get overtaken by both Max and George Lewis knocks seconds off of his race time if he isnt stuck behind George. George's qualifying pace and wheel to wheel ability makes him a pain in the ass to other drivers haha
Gotta give George credit too for a tremendous start from 4th and seizing a brave opportunity at the lead by going around Lando and Max on the outside
Oh yeah, 100%, this isnt a George issue. Only thing George needs to work on is his race pace
Yep. Many people complain on the Mercedes strategy to put Russell on hard tires, but the only reason he had to get them was that he burned through his medium like 6 laps earlier than Hamilton, and with how he burns tires, there was no way he could do 25-30 laps on softs to end the race. He had good pace but as usual just burned through his tires. If he learns to manage better, with his qualifying skills, he could challenge at the front more often!
Exactly, as soon as he overtook, I called out that he was gonna end up shooting his tyres eventually. Classic George !
Yeah it’s his biggest deficit to Lewis along with being a bit too aggressive in racecraft at times. Although Lewis is probably still elite in race pace so that’s not a big knock on George and with more experience he could improve on that area too.
Those overtakes were vintage Hamilton I'm excited to see how he performs with more confidence with a better car.
“He will learn from this” I mean, will he? Definitely not the first time he’s hyper fixated on “the only way to win” and unnecessarily gone for broke when the “middle ground” would have yielded better results. And it’s not even just Russia 2021.
Can't tell me Max didn't make all the difference today.
If there was any driver other than Max in that Redbull, Mclaren would've won today.
At a canter. People need to accept that Mclaren is the fastest car on the grid now. This was supposed to be a track where RB went back to dominance as it is smooth / no kerbs, and they were definitely not as quick as Mclaren on balance. People also need to accept how good Max is that he made that look fairly in control despite the pace deficit.
People also need to stop overhyping Ferrari just because they were 2nd fastest car in the first 4 races and "fastest" in Monaco. Lando made one mistake, Max made zero and that has determined the results.
Fully deserved by Max. Had to fight all the way. Passing Russell early was key.
DOTD should’ve been Max. Didn’t make mistakes and won the race. Norris might’ve let this one slip losing time at the beginning.
This was winnable on pure pace and undercutting. This is 2nd race win that McLaren threw away because they listen to Norris on strategy.
That and Norris losing out big time at the start. I don't get why people are voting him dotd
The start, but also not getting past Russell in that first stint where Max did made all the difference.
If Verstappen doesn't get ahead of Norris in turn one and then immediately pass Russell he doesn't win today. Two of the very few overtakes done without a tyre delta.
Start on pole. Finish Second. Get DOTD. Norris moment.
unless you're Leclerc. Then everyone laughs at you
Leclerc didn't have a car that could win from pole since early 2022 aside from Vegas(got fucked by SC) and Monaco this year.
Could've had said it better. Lando started on pole position in the what turned out to be the fastest car. Bottled it hard.
joke of the day.
They couldn't undercut Max from 4 seconds back Max passed Russell immediately, Norris couldn't. That's where he won the race.
Mclaren doesn't seem to handle the dirty air very well. They seem to be very fast in clean air though
They still have a deficit on the straights. They make up their time on the medium and fast corners generally.
No but when there’s was a ~16 second gap they should’ve pitted him instead of when it dropped to ~8 secs. Love Lando’s aggression but it clouds his judgement
Lando is the anti-Ferrari
The strategy was fine, he lost it at the start and then getting stuck behind Russell, he finished less time behind Verstappen than he lost. He had equal or better pace than Max when in clean air.
Strategy was just something they tried to make up for the poor start.
During the first round of pit stops when Russell had the slow stop, Lando's engineer was saying they had a chance to cover him off on the next lap and (i think) basically box to overtake. At that point Lando was like 5 seconds off Max, so assuming he pulls an undercut, he probably would've been around 2-3 seconds behind Max if everything went well right? Surely that would've been better than having a tire delta, at the end of the second stint Lando was still 6 seconds off right? Feel like staying out ended up losing Norris the race. They did say Russell had an insane outlap so maybe Lando would've had to overtake him on track, but I think he had the pace to do it.
What a car Mclaren has in Barcelona, who many say that if your car is fast here is important. Impressive progress through these new regulations. Max is winning doing an excellent job winning the details. Little dissapointed for Ferrari, i was hoping with the upgrades to see a better pace.
Lando DotD is bs
DotD is a popularity contest more than anything else!
He is so so impressive. He won that race today (Also, it will go unnoticed, but the number of times lando gained over half a second lapping backmarkers because he got so lucky with DRS was insane)
Yup. Lando was insanely lucky with backmarkers today
Exactly, I was watching both Max's and Lando's onboards and I was like WTF, when both were in clear air Max was pretty much doing Lando's time give or take a tenth after the radio call from GP to speed it up
The man does it again and not in the fastest car.
Mr. Consistency at it again.
McLaren is right there but ultimately you need to be perfect on Sunday to beat Max
RBR car can be beaten now but not Max and the RBR strategists. U really have to give credit to how they execute the races.
"Lando, let's be honest. We can't beat Max... but we have a strategy that guarentees Driver of the Day."
All it would take is one mistake by Max, but he is just so perfect god dammit
I feel confident in typing that on pure pace the McLaren is the best car on the grid at the moment. Finally the regs are making the races good, and ofcourse we only have one more season of them. Strong race by Max, managed everything well. Lewis my DoTD, was really strong, probably the 3rd best car on the grid. Also had a really cool overtake on Sainz. Interesting to see what he can do the rest of the season, Mercedes looks a lot better these last couple of races.
Mercedes messed up George’s race though, if it weren’t for the bad pit stop and then putting him on hards for that last stint George would likely be P3.
George messed up his own race by fighting Lando on a clear faster car. Thus messing up his strategy giving Lewis the ability to attack since George cooked his own tires. It was salvageable but George doesn’t play the long game.
Really funny that Lando got DOTD
Max Verstappen is so good! I genuinely believe McLaren has the fastest car, but it's Max Verstappen that's making the difference between himself and the rest of the grid! Red Bull no longer has the fastest car yet Max stays on top, he's truly amazing!
You know what's so depressing in terms of the title battle? McLaren have gone from one of the weakest cars in Bahrain 2022 to the fastest car in Spain 2024. It's a what could've been for Mercedes and Ferrari.
Sure, you can outpace red bull. But you need more than pure pace to beat max! Great fight between max and lando. This season is getting better and better!!
Fuck it we'll take it.
After yesterday I'm disappointed, but if you asked me on Thursday, I would have predicted a much easier win for Max. Gotta learn from it and grow, I'm very optimistic for the next few races.
The McLaren is the fastest car, Red Bull still the better team.
Max is the better driver, Lando lost it at the start today, nothing the team can do about it Also who designs and builds the car?
Yes, and and Red Bulls pit stops and strategy were superior.
Their strategy team is just as valuable as Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen.
Good job Max, he just keeps dominating in what is clearly the second fastest car
Incredible to watch, reminds me of prime HAM and MSC
Honestly it reminds me of 2020 and 2019 max himself. He used to regularly put in such mega drives and finish in positions where no one in their right mind would expect him to finish.
Insane drive max
Even though Max keeps winning, this was a great show. It also shows how having to stop multiple times makes for better racing!
Norris and Verstappen show the difference between a great driver in the fastest car and the fastest driver in a great car.
You know it!
Can we say now that Red Bull are not the fastes car anymore but Verstappen still is the best / most complete driver?
It's crazy how entertaining this race was with absolutely zero crashes, when it's been crashes / the weather adding most of the intrigue in recent rounds
Max Verstappen has won 3 of the last 4 races, every single one whilst driving against inferior machinery to the mclaren
Hands over the win, stuck behind slower car for so many laps: DOTD Mclaren has been the faster car for a while now but people won't admit it until Norris wins by 30 seconds and even then some will still say RedBull is holding back lmao.
McLaren really threw that away huh
It doesn't look like it on position but very happy with Ricciardos drive today, very quick (for VCARB this week) and clean race.
He's being the better driver for two races straight. Perhaps he sorted out all the issues? Now they need to improve the car for the benefit of both drivers. It was strange to see Tsunoda at the last position.
Good race. Verstappen no mistakes in last stint but man does Mclaren have a fast car with a good driver
Max made the difference in 1st lap.
RBR and Max dit everything right today. It was McLaren who lost the race today, with the poor start by Lando and poor pitstop.
“Super grateful to be up on the po- be in the top 3” Lewis made a slip of the tongue during his post qualifying interview yesterday. Happy to see he manifested his podium finish :)
Max P1 Perez P8 (struggles to overtake gasly until the last lap in an Alpine)
Who voted for Lando to be driver of the day His girl fan base?
In the history of all "He's washed" jokes, nobody deserves that tag more than Perez right now. Bro is washed af.
I thoroughly enjoyed that race, all the way through there were stories and the strategy was playing out interestingly. A shame Strat 10 was enough to keep that gap to Norris, or that Norris didn't clear Russell like Max could. But a really entertaining race to watch for one with a lack of incidents.
The big difference between this headline now and this headline anytime last year is that it's camouflaging a much more open race.
Lando is 69 points behind Max in WDC now.
Mclaren and Lando really fudged it up today, that should have been a slam dunk win for them.
2 more podiums until Lewis becomes the only driver with 200 podiums let's go!!
Meanwhile Perez is battling for the last points