Formula Journal

George Russell had a better start than Oscar Piastri who was on pole, but Oscar maintained his position while Norris snuck in front of Russell. Both Ferrari’s made their way ahead of Max Verstappen, but unfortunately Charles and Lewis had a little ‘kiss’ leaving Charles’ front wing damaged. Charles managed to keep it together throughout the race with that front wing. On Lap 4 Fernando Alonso retired his car with a brake problem, unlucky for him, as he now hasn’t finished a race so far this season.

After 10 laps many drivers drove into the pits to change their tyres as they were degrading rapidly. Whilst drivers were going in and out of the pits, Alex Albon was left out in front and the birthday boy had a taste at what it was like to lead the race.

Lap 21 the Ferrari’s swapped giving Charles an opportunity to pass the drivers ahead. Lap 25 Oliver Bearman and Lance Stroll had a scrap which Ollie bowed out of and pitted. After Ollie pitted he was a machine tricking his rivals with a sneaky move around the hairpin, to which he’d say ‘Ciao’ on the radio.

Lap 43 we were wondering whether or not the hard tyres would make it to the end, for those who chose the one-stop strategy (which was a popular one). Meanwhile Max Verstappen had been pretty quiet throughout the race but he began picking up the pace, hunting down Charles Leclerc. Oscar kept it cool out in front but his teammate behind him in P2 was struggling with his tyres. Lap 53 was a game of cat and mouse between Max and Charles but Max managed his tyres better and quickly overtook Leclerc.

The last lap was full of suspense with Norris having brake failure and loosing time, which meant the gap between him and Russell, in P3, went from 7 seconds to 1 second. Lando managed to push his car across the line and survived to keep his position. The race finished a McLaren 1-2, Max finished 4th ahead of Leclerc, with Hamilton behind him, before their disqualification. Want to know why they were disqualified? Read my next post to find out.