FERRARI STRAGEY CALLS HELPS TO GIVE VERSTAPPEN THE WIN AND ALL BUT SECURE THE DUTCHMAN’S SECOND DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
After a strange qualifying, that saw the Redbull cars down in 10th and 11th and George Russell taking his first pole in Formula 1, it promised to be a somewhat interesting start to the race.
As the lights went out it was important for Russell and Mercedes that they kept the Prancing Horses behind him, he came under pressure through the first few corners but kept the lead from Sainz. The Ferrari charge was neutralised when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed for debris in the track after Albon and Stroll made contact on the opening exchanges.
When the race restarted George Russell nailed the restart and had a good gap from the Ferrari pair, another cracking restart for the Mercedes driver. The early progress was unsurprisingly from the Redbull pair, who seemed to have cured the issues from qualifying, clearing Lando Norris and the Alpine pair, the reigning champion settled into fourth behind Sainz Leclerc and Russell.
As the front of the field settled down, attention turned to the mid pack, there was plenty of action in the early exchanges with Alonso in the Alpine not impressed with the sister Alpine car, coming onto the radio to make clear his thoughts on the move. It didn’t help when both cars ended up on the same piece of track after the pit-stops, the Alpines seemed intent to trip over each other, this allowed the McLaren of Danny Ricciardo to dive passed the both of them. An impressive pass from the Australian, not sure if Alonso would think the same!!
FERRARI STRATEGY AND VERSTAPPEN SPINS.
With some moisture in the air, making conditions a tad tricky, the next round of pit stops came along quick. Sainz inherited the lead from Leclerc who dived into the pits for his second stop to stick on the hard compound tire, a confusing decision, however one that Ferrari had no choice. This put the race firmly in the hands of Redbull, Verstappen didn’t take long to pass the Ferrari but then dropped it less than a lap later in a strange spin coming through the second to last corner, the Dutchman would only lose the lead and keep Perez behind him. This would only delay the inevitable as Verstappen would pass Leclerc within two laps. Another strange Ferrari strategy call, that is handing more points to Verstappen.
THE CLOSING STAGES
With all pit-stops all settled, the closing stages of the race were interesting, it was clear that at least six cars were all in with a chance of taking the win, the Mercedes cars finally getting involved in the battle, Verstappen taking first ahead of a wounded Leclerc thanks to the hard compound tire, Russell, Hamilton and Perez all waiting for the opportunity to jump closer the the win.
With 15 laps to go Leclerc and Ferrari abandoned the hard tire and jumped on the soft tire in an attempt to salvage something from the race. The Ferrari just didn’t have the pace on the soft tire, capping off a horrible race for them. With less than 10 laps to go, Lewis Hamilton finally passed Carlos Sainz to push the Ferrari’s out of the podium places, such was the pace of Lewis it didn’t take long for the 7-time champion to pass team-mate Russell into second.
The race could have been exciting when Bottas’s car ground to a halt, resulting in a VSC and the rain finally deciding to show up but alas it was all in vain as Verstappen tippy toed to the chequered flag to take an almost faultless win. The 2022 Drivers Championship is all but finished!!!