When Dreams become Reality

 

A childhood dream, a once in a lifetime experience, a race like no other. Monza may have not had the Tifosi in their thousands this year, but that sure did not take away from the absolute banger of a race we witnessed. 

A quick message before I continue. I apologize to my readers for the lack of posts these past few weeks. Being a university student and a national athlete, work does pile up and I know that is no excuse for some exclusive content but unfortunately, that is the current situation I'm in. 

The 2020 season has followed a very similar pattern to that of the previous years. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes develop the best car, win the most races and do the double double over and over again. A testament to their incredible hard work and dedication, but let's be honest. That's not what we want. I'm sure for the boys from Brackley its ideal but at the pinnacle of motorsport, you do want some spice - a break from the norm. 

And that very spice came in a solid Nandos Extra Hot Peri-Peri sauce version at the Temple of Speed. You'd think that maybe Verstappen would have won a thriller battle with Lewis or Bottas reigned supreme finally with that Finnish finesse. But it was the man from France who took the chequered flag. And I'm not talking about Esteban Ocon or Romain Grosjean (although that would be a miracle of sorts), but it was none other than Pierre Gasly. 

From being demoted from Red Bull a year ago to taking his first victory in Formula 1, Gasly has had an incredible, inspiring journey to becoming the 109th Formula 1 driver to win a Grand Prix. A podium in Brazil last year, ousting Lewis Hamilton to the line, continuous points finishes, and a brilliant run of qualifying sessions put him on the radar as one of those drivers who has the fire within him to win. And what better way to do it than at your team's home race. 

A common sight at the start saw Hamilton get away and Valtteri falling behind to 6th. The McLaren's and boys from Renault capitalised on this and so did Stroll for Force India (call me old fashioned). Gasly, further back, entangled with Albon who found himself off the circuit at turn 1 and fell even further behind his already poor qualifying spot of 9th position. As the tension of the start subsided, Hamilton got into a groove opening up a 12-second gap in 17 laps over Carlos Sainz, a testament to Mercedes power. On the other side of the spectrum at Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel retired with brake failures before Charles Leclerc was involved in a spectacular crash at the barriers of Parabolica, bringing out the red flag, the first since Azerbaijan in 2017. 

Let's rewind a bit, before Leclerc's huge accident. Magnussen suffered from a mechanical failure bringing out the yellow flag and a safety car as he came to a stop right outside the pitlane. This rendered the pit lane closed. Whilst Mercedes are usually on the ball when it comes to in-race strategy, they ended up missing a full toss on middle stump as they pitted Hamilton, resulting in a 10 second stop/go penalty (essentially a 40 second slap to the face). 

A standing start after the crash barriers were fixed brought the entire field back together with the front five made up of Lewis (yet to serve his penalty), Stroll, Gasly, Raikonnen, and Giovanazzi. As the lights went out for the second time in the same race, there was a tussle for the podium positions. Hamilton pitted after the first lap after building a 2-second lead only to fall to 17th with a lot of ground to cover. Gasly made up places at the restart and took the lead from Hamilton till the end. 

The race win was not easy by any stretch with the McLaren of Carlos Sainz breathing heavily down his neck, separated by half a second at the line. As this tight battle progressed, Verstappen retired, Hamilton made it up to 7th, and Stroll took his 2nd podium. Brilliant points for Alpha Tauri, McLaren, and Force India this weekend - a weekend like no other.  

With Gasly becoming the first French Grand Prix winner since 1996, there's definitely plenty of hope for F1 in the years to come. 

Here's an interesting fact for you to ponder on: This was the first time a non-Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull driver won a race since Raikonnen did it in 2013 at the Australian Grand Prix. If that's not enough information for how badly dominated this sport is, I don't know what is. 

It's a 5 day break before we head to Mugello for hopefully another exciting race. Till then, keep an eye on Gasly's Instagram followers because that is one thing that will be skyrocketing up towards the moon.