Dominance is the order of the Day

 

If you thought last weekend was a dominating performance by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, boy oh boy you were wrong. 

Fastest lap after fastest lap, extending the lead further and further, untouchable till the very end; the Dutchman made it a Red Bull Ring double and his 3rd victory in a row. Their car is truly the dominant force in Formula 1 at the moment and nobody can even remotely compete with them - even the Silver Arrows. Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas had no answers for the dominance showed by the Red Bulls this weekend as their competition ended up being the McLaren of Lando Norris who had a sublime weekend it must be said. 

After qualifying in second place - his best ever in Formula 1 to date, Norris lost a couple of places to the Silver Arrows but was able to make up one of them - specifically that of Lewis Hamilton. The Brit had suffered damage to his floor on lap 29 before coming in for his pit stop, which meant that he was losing more than half a second a lap to the leader of the race which backed him up straight into Bottas and Norris allowing them to overtake him with ease. A painful sight for all the British and Hamilton fans who witnessed his deficit to Verstappen take another huge blow. He now sits 32 points behind the Dutchman - a significant amount after 9 races. 

Whilst Norris did take up the final place on the podium, he would have had that coveted second position had it not been for a 5-second penalty he incurred on lap 1. Going into turn 4 with Sergio Perez he kept the racing line in my opinion and Perez got too greedy resulting in him being pushed off the track into the gravel. This meant he fell back to 10th place and had his race ruined essentially. However, because of this, Lando received a 5-second penalty which he had to serve during his pit stop - thereby allowing the Merc of Valtteri Bottas to sail past with ease. From there it was a catch-up game which unfortunately was too tough. As soon as the McLaren came to within a second the dirty air made it impossible to follow. 

So it was Verstappen, Bottas, Norris followed by Hamilton. In 5th place, it was none other than Carlos Sainz himself. Starting the race on the hard tyre he put in a fantastic first stint lasting 50 laps which allowed him to have far fresher tyres at the end of the race to overtake his teammate Charles Leclerc, Ricciardo and come within 10 seconds of Perez who had a 10-second penalty for what is completely reckless driving as he pushed Leclerc wide on not one but 2 occasions whilst the Monegasque was attempting overtakes on the Mexican. Perez was lucky to take that 6th place with Ricciardo 7th, Leclerc 8th and Pierre Gasly with yet another points finish in 9th. It was Fernando Alonso who completed the final points positions with George Russel in 11th - 1 place away from his first points finish. I was genuinely gutted after Alonso passed him. The Brit has done everything to get that points finish and it's just been a matter of luck for him. Everybody in the F1 community truly wishes he gets that coveted points soon. Mr. Saturday will become Mr. Sunday I am calling it. 

Meanwhile behind Russel was a fight of 2 legends it must be said - Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikonnen. It did not end too well though with the pair crashing on the final lap. A shame for both as both their teams came home with 0 points this weekend. It was a weekend to forget for Esteban Ocon as well who failed to make Q3 on Saturday again and was sandwiched at the start of the race leading to a break in his front right suspension. Whilst it did bring out the safety car, that did not do much as most of the places remained the same. 

We head now into a week-long break after a triple header that some will remember (Red Bull, McLaren) and some will want to forget (Mercedes, Aston Martin). F1 comes home as Silverstone prepares to host the first-ever Grand Prix with a sprint qualifying to determine the race starting positions. It will be interesting to see if Mercedes can bring any more upgrades which could keep them in the title hunt. 14 races to go - it looks to all be going Red Bull's way. Who will be able to stop them? 

Congrats once again to Lando Norris, an incredible drive.