AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 2021

Original Race dates: Jul 2 - 4

Track: Red Bull Ring

This was a super exciting race that flew by with constant action and really great driving, people constantly challenging each other! Wow!

Free Practice 1

• Expecting 100,000 fans there this weekend! Most of them Maxy fans, yay!!

• Yikes they’re talking about Yuki needing a good race and how Gasly is making Yuki look even worse because Gasly is doing so fantastic

• Tsunoda in the gravel nine minutes into the session and Karun says it’s just unnecessary

• Lance spins

• Lance spins again and everyone is like ok what’s going on

• Kimi on a fast lap and Mazepin gets in his way on a corner and Kimi flips him off

• A lot if F2 drivers in for the session! Zhou was in for Alonso, Callum Ilott was in for Gio, and Roy Nissani was in for George Russell

• They were on a camera watching Charles drive and at the end, Charles waved at the camera and they figured out that he must’ve seen the giant tv screen as he was driving and everyone was so impressed and it was so cute

Free practice 2

• starts raining during the session

• Finally Hamilton goes off into the gravel during the rain and I always love that

Free Practice 3

• literally RIGHT when this broadcast started before they were even done with the opening stuff, they announced that Hamilton signed another 2 year contract NOOOOOOO so now we have to deal with 2 more years of him at minimum when there was a real chance he could leave. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up but ugh I am so disappointed. He’s never gonna leave. He will be 38 by the time this contract runs out. UGHHHHHHHHH

• I have SERIOUS issues with the commentators this session who start off by saying that they think that Charles should have gotten a penalty last race for the first lap hitting Gasly and it’s like they only cut to Charles or talk about him to be negative about him and I am so annoyed

• When Max goes out, the whole Dutch stand gets on their feet and sets off orange smoke and it’s just such a beautiful sight and you can almost hear the roar

• Yuki having some offs into the gravel

• Mazepin has some offs too of course

• Lots of new talk about contract renewals and rumors going around since this Hamilton deal changes everything

• Christian Horner says he thinks the contract talks with Perez will be short (in a good way)

Qualifying

• The Max fans are WILD and I am loving it! You can constantly hear their roaring and dancing!! Absolutely inspiring to see them all celebrating Max and that’s exactly what I need in this sport. It’s so beautiful, I’m going to cry

• Max does a beautiful out lap and first time in Q1 with everyone cheering and the whole place is full of orange

• Some people have had their laps deleted for track limits in Q1, including Gasly and a Leclerc

• Somehow Alonso jumped up to P3 in Q1 while Ocon is down in 17th and it’s just crazy, nobody knows how Alo got up there and Ocon just looks ridiculous

• This was a down to the wire Q1! Really awesome! Ended up with Ocon being out in Q1 for the second week in a row after Alo was awesome

• Out in Q1: Raikkonen, Ocon, Latifi, Schumacher and Mazepin

• High tension Q2!!

• GEORGE RUSSELL FINALLY MAKES IT INTO Q3 FOR THE FIRST TIME ON PACE!! So happy for Williams! This is huge for them! How awesome!!

• Unfortunately both Ferrari’s are out of Q2 because of their tire choice but go figure, they can’t strategize

• Alonso blocked by Seb to start his final lap and Alo is furious and Seb puts his hands up to say sorry but they think Seb will get a penalty for sure

• Out in Q2: Sainz, Leclerc, Ricciardo, Alonso and Gio

• Max sets an excellent first lap in Q3 and then Lando in second! Max doesn’t improve on his first lap and it looks like Lando is going to steal pole but then Max does a purple last sector and gets pole!! And everyone roars!

• Max on pole!!! Lando in second, Perez in third!! Officially no Mercedes in the post qualifying interviews and it’s one of the best and most exciting qualifyings ever!!

• Everyone cheers for all three boys who got the top three qualifying spots!

Race

• Seb got a penalty for getting in Alonso’s way during qualifying

• Ocon is starting right in the same row as Latifi how embarrassing

• Perez holds off Hamilton on the first lap and Max holds the lead

• Safety car by the end of the first lap because Estaban Ocon got squeezed by Gio and Schumacher and so he only made it like three corners HA how incredible

• I actually don’t this this one was Ocon’s fault because he had nowhere to go but I’m happy to blame him because I don’t like him

• On the safety car restart Perez pushes Lando off the track but then Lando pushes him back later onto the gravel and he loses six or seven places because of it. Perez says Norris pushed him off but it was just a mess and a racing incident

• Bottas got ahead on the restart but then when they cut back to them Lewis is back ahead. They are so not free to race

• Gio under investigation for overtaking before the safety car line and gets a five second time penalty

• Perez and Lando under investigation and Lando gets a five second Penalty which is ridiculous because it was just racing

• Yuki under investigation for crossing white line to pit entry and gets a five second time penalty

• Charles pulls a really great over under move to get past Perez into 6th

• Bot jumps Lando in the pits because Lando has to serve his time penalty

• Lando reports that Hamilton’s brakes look like they’re on fire

• 41/71 Charles catches Perez and tries to pass him but Perez drives right into him and pushes him off and Charles is angry

• Perez and Charles under investigation for Perez pushing Charles off and he’s given a five second time penalty oh my gosh

• Then Charles tries to go past Perez and he almost gets in the gravel again and Charles is furious

• Hamilton has damage from going over curbs which is great so then they give Bottas permission to race Hamilton. Disgusting

• Black and white flag for Mazepin for exceeding track limits

• Lando passes Hamilton for third on pure pace! Awesome!! After a penalty and everything

• Perez gets ANOTHER five second penalty for pushing Charles off the track AGAIN

• Lance stroll gets a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane

• Yuki gets ANOTHER 5 second time penalty for crossing the pit lane line AGAIN! Same thing!! Just like Perez has been penalized twice for the same thing twice this race! This race is outrageous for penalties! There’s been at least seven so far

• Kimi gets a black and white flag for track limits

• Charles gets close to the back of Daniel ricciardo but no contact fortunately in the battle for sixth

• Battle for tenth is Alonso trying to pass Russell and it’s heartbreaking when Alo passes him because once again George almost got his first point but not today

• Sainz gets past Daniel for sixth on the last lap and we are never gonna hear the end of it

• Vettel and Kimi hit each other and hit the gravel together on the last lap right when Max is going round the final corners and that scares me

• Perez finishes sixth even with two penalties, amazing

• MAX WINS YAAAAAAAY I haven’t seen this amount of frantic frenzied celebrations since Charles won at Monza! The whole Red Bull ring is full of orange smoke and it’s a complete frenzy, everyone roaring for Max, it’s truly and properly epic!!! These scenes are truly amazing

• Bottas in second and Lando in third!! And no Hamilton on the podium. AWESOME

STYRIAN GRAND PRIX 2021

Original dates: June 25 - 27, 2021 Track: Red Bull Ring

Free Practice 1

• Sainz slides on the pit straight and ends up backwards on the pit exit but no damage, just mechanical forced neutral or something and Bottas has to wait coming out of the pits

• A lot of spins but no damage

• Planning for rain this afternoon in FP2

• Kubica in for Kimi this session

Free Practice 2

• Latifi has a huge spin but doesn’t put it in the wall

• Mazepin in the gravel

• Gasly not out in this session at all because the team is investigating a sensor issue

• Bottas spins in the pit lane and manages not to hit anyone or anything somehow and they turn him around and he goes out again

Free Practice 3

• ohhhhh Bottas was given a three place grid penalty for that pit lane spin, that’s ridiculous

• Mazepin spins

• Lots of lap times deleted for track limits

• Max gets on the radio and says Hamilton is always in the way every time and it’s so true

• Red Bull’s first pole at their home circuit

Qualifying

• A lot of track evolution so exciting at the end to see who will make it into Q1

• out in Q1: Latifi, Ocon, Kimi, Lil Schumacher, Mazepin

• Out in Q2: Russell, Sainz, Ricciardo, Vettel and Gio

• The end of Q2 is especially tough because Norris, Daniel’s teammate, places second and Daniel is out near the back

• George Russell ALMOST got into Q3! Taken away at the last second

• Max on pole!! Bot in second but he will take that three place grid penalty and then Hamilton in third but will be second and then Lando

Race

• Bot starting with his grid penalty so he is relegated down from 2nd

• Yuki got a penalty for blocking Bottas in qualifying so he starts lower and that means George Russell starts from 10th even though he only qualified 11th

• Yuki Gio and Latifi have chaos in the back during the first lap

• Max keeps the lead after the first lap!!

• Charles has a damaged from wing and Gasly has a puncture after the first lap and Charles has to pit right away.

• Turns out Gasly hit Gio after the damage to hit tire from the first turn so then Gasly has even more damage and then he takes his car into the pit looking completely mangled and finally Gasly has to retire almost right away

• It was a wild first lap for Gasly and Charles

• Charles is still able to stay in the race only he has to pit right away so he is now down in the back after starting seventh

• Lando in third allows Perez and Bottas by which is the McLaren team’s plan to let the top two teams squabble amongst themselves without involving Lando who is mainly competing against Ferrari

• George Russell comes in for a pit stop and then it’s a super slow stop to fix a side pod issue and it’s even worse watching it because George was up in the points in 8th when this technical problem arose and now he’s down in 18 and he has to pit again immediately

• Perez has a slow stop! Noooo!!

• Because of Perez’s slow stop, Bottas pits again right away and is able to jump Perez in the pits

• 39/40 Ah NOO George Russell retires after doing a great race but the issue just was not fixable

• Slow end of the race mostly

• Perez almost catches Bottas for third on the last lap but is just out of time

• MAX WINS!!! Yayyyy! It’s the fourth race in a row Mercedes is winless!!

• So they’re doing this new driver of the day interview over the radio which I saw for the first time after last race in France and this week it’s Charles who raced his way through the field TWICE this race and finished servent! And when they talk to Charles he is surprisingly verbose and has a lot to say despite driving so much

FRENCH GRAND PRIX 2021

Here we are again at Circuit Paul Ricard! This one has a special place in my heart because my family and I got to go to this circuit in 2018. I know France isn't a popular track for people, and even though it gets a lot of flack, I love the way it looks and have great memories of it.

This was AWESOME this year because Max passed Lewis for the lead on the second to last lap and the celebrations were EPIC. And even better was that Perez was in third, up there on the podium with him teammate.

My notes from the weekend:

FP1 - didn’t watch

FP2 - didn’t watch

FP3

• There’s this super annoying pr stunt where they have ocon’s radio engineer get on and congratulate him on a contract renewal and ughhhh its so obvious

• Bot is using Hamilton’s old chassis and Hamilton is using one Hamilton was using end of last year/Bot up til this point and Hamilton is sucking

• I love Charles karting original replica helmet which he originally designed to reference his love of Spider-Man

Qualifying

• Like two minutes in Yuki Tsunoda throws a red flag already when we were all sure there would be no red flags. It didn’t look like an especially dangerous crash but

• On the last lap of Q1, Lil Schumacher crashes and it means a lot of people on their last lap chance to get through don’t get to finished their lap and it’s a SECOND red flag! Quick cleanup though

• Out in Q1, Latifi, Kimi, Stroll, Mazepin, and Tsunoda. Schumacher makes it to Q2 but they won’t be able to repair the crashes car in time to partake so only 14 cars will take part in Q2

• Out in Q2, Ocon, Vettel, Gio, Russell and Schumacher

• Lots of lap times being deleted in Q3

• Max on pole!! Hamilton in second, Bottas in third, Perez in fourth

• One of the only times that Sainz out qualified Charles

Race

• Tsunoda pit lane start for new floor and gearbox change

• Max keeps the lead through turn 1, but then has a huge slide before turn 2 and he has to counter steer and goes off the track and that allows Hamilton to get the lead. A pretty upsetting start.

• Mazepin knocked little shu off and it’s so so rude

• They are just in love with Esteban Ocon over there and there is literally no evidence why

• It’s really slippery out there compared to when they went to the grid

• Hamilton and everyone complaining about the tires not having grip or thinking they won’t last as long

• This race felt over right after Max went off at turn 2 right away and it wasn’t his fault but it is just exhausting to see Hamilton in the lead again

• 12/53 both Mclarens sail past Alonso and it’s great

• 15/53 Charles pits first because he’s done with the tires and the stop goes fine

• Daniel is doing well this race

• Max pits first and then Hamilton and even though Hamilton’s stop was a tenth faster than Max, MAX STILL gets ahead of Hamilton because of his great out lap!! An amazing undercut and things like this make it worth it

• Hamilton and Max are insisting this one stop race will have to be a two stop cause of unexpected deg but whoever pits first will get the advantage but lose track position so Max pits first which is good

• But now that Max lost position Hamilton is suddenly happy to stay out in the lead of course but fortunately Red Bull left our Perez for a one stop race and he can challenge if Hamilton doesn’t pit

• 44/53 Max easily gets past Bottas!!

• Bottas is suuuuper angry and swearing at the team like why didn’t anyone listen to me and he really did call it way ahead of time and he’s furious

• Max has to pass backmarker Ocon to get past Hamilton sshoooooottt

• Geez what did they do to Charles at ferrari this race goodness, he’s down in 16

• 49/53 YES Perez passes a furious Bottas into 3rd!

• 52/53 MAX PASSES LEWIS FOR THE LEAD AND HE MADE IT LOOKS EASY

• MAXY WINS and theres sooo much Red Bull celebrations!!

• Maxy wins the race, fastest lap AND driver of the day!!!! AMAZE

• Hamilton in second blahh, and PEREZ in third, YAYY