Fernando Alonso got his 98 podium after 7 years. And the championship fight continues to thrill us with Hamilton getting another win and Verstappen with a second place just behind the british.
Penalties were not lacking this weekend and those affected were Verstappen and Bottas for ignoring the yellow flags, something that benefited Gasly, Alonso and Norris who moved up positions. The biggest competition in this race was the tyres. There were two options: make 2 stops or make 1 but take care of the tyres. While some made a double stop, others decided to hold out as much as possible but not all did well and the clear example was Bottas who after doing a great race, had a puncture forcing him out.
The leaders had a race between the two of them and the fight was for third place. Perez had the podium in his hands but Red Bull’s strategy (which I still don’t understand) gave it to Alonso, who stretched his tyres as long as he could. And although the Mexican never stopped pushing, the VSC caused by Latifi gave Fernando an advantage to rest the tyres a bit which gave us moments of tension (a lot).
Great weekend for Alpine who is leaving with a podium and P5 for Ocon who had a great race and helped them secure that 5th place in the championship. Aston Martin also surprised with both drivers in top 10 and Stroll in p6, being his best position of the season.
Another good weekend for Ferrari with its two drivers summing good points, very good pit stops in a row and they leave with that third place secured. Mclaren closing bad this triple header. Norris was having a great weekend but in the final laps he had problems with the tyres that forced him into pits and went down to P9. Ricciardo was missing another weekend.
Great triple header closure. We thought the championship would be defined in these three races but on the contrary, it tightened more. Despite the small point difference between Red Bull and Mercedes, Hamilton’s car looks far superior to the Dutch’s and Red Bull’s strategies today cost them good points for the championship. Only 2 more races remain to reach the end of this season that continues to surprise us every race. First GP in Qatar that will be remembered a lot. Saudi Arabia is next.
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