The summer break is over and F1 got down to business again. maybe some of the drivers had forgotten a few things whilst on holiday as we saw some real rookie mistakes and remember by the time you get to F1 you are not a rookie racer.
Alonso made a comment about the unpredictability of penalties, I think he's right and I think it spoils the racing although Hamilton seems to have played his get out of jail free card and his season is right back on track despite a fifty five place grid penalty in a twenty two car race. You have to wonder at the brains behind the sport!
I thought Ferrari had made a mistake putting Raikkonen back out a lap down, I'd have been tempted to save engine and gearbox given the penalties on offer for technical failures or shunts but safety cars and the red flag brought both Ferraris strongly back into play and a damage limiting double points finish, even if it wasn't worthy of their qualifying pace.
The mistakes began at the first corner, a place where you cannot win the race but you can sure as hell lose it as both Ferraris and one Red Bull were reminded. The only one blameless was Raikkonen. Its hard to feel sorry for a millionaire Ferrari driver, but, having out qualified Vettel he was in the best position he's been for a while and he goes well at Spa.
Its true that Max was not sliding, but he was up on the kerbs in a panic (my opinion) to make up for his tardy take off in front of a huge number of his fans. Vettel was more at fault BUT Max put himself in harms way. Vettel could not have known he was there, BUT he too should know better than to squeeze his own teammate, especially at such an early stage with little to gain and much to lose. The innocent paid the price as well as the guilty.
I'm a fan of Wehrlein and the heroic efforts of Manor, but I'm also a big fan of Button. Alonso admitted Button's the most complete team mate he's ever had and yet one always suspects that teams don't recognise his value fully. In a post accident interview Wehrlein talked about his 'bad luck'. Sorry mate, that wasn't luck, when you're behind people dicing anything can happen, you rear end the guy in front then you're not being sufficiently circumspect.
I imagine a gearbox failure is a gearbox failure even if someone has rear ended you, so I hope the damage to the McLaren is light and doesn't lead to a gearbox change, that would be injustice heaped on injustice.
One cannot comment on Spa without mention of the Magnussen crash. The car seemed to go light at the crest, well, that's physics, but why it was more twitchy on that particular lap is unclear. One has to suspect too much driver input, Raikkonen ran wide there but kept it pointing the right way. If it was driver error, as i suspect, luckily Magnussen will learn from it. In the 1970s he would not have had the opportunity to benefit.
If it was a car problem it will probably be discovered and corrected, at least the car protected him superbly despite the head restraint flying off in the huge impact. After that there was the safety car and then the red flag, by which time Raikkonen had unlapped himself, which led to a modest recompense come the end of the day.
That Mercedes still enjoy a huge advantage was underlined by Hamilton making it to the podium. Red Bull's Ricciardo did a great job and they look closer, but not enough to keep Mercedes honest, let alone race them. Ferrari may have closed the gap to Red Bull given Kimi's qualifying performance. I hope so and wish the prancing horse well next week in Monza. Maybe all the drivers will have their race heads back on by then! Messy and a predictable winner.
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