BRITISH GRAND PRIX (#2)

This weekend's British Grand Prix went way better than I could have ever dreamed. Last weekend was another Hamilton victory at Silverstone - big surprise - which I thought was inevitable.

I guess I just had to wait til the second British Grand Prix weekend for what I really wanted to see, which was Max Verstappen winning for his first time at Silverstone.

It was also so emotional to see them feature and celebrate the 70s anniversary of F1. I especially liked the graphics of the old races over the new Silverstone paddock. It was a moving testament to how much this sport has meant to people over the years and choked me up a bit.

After all the chat last weekend about Alex Albon's performance at Red Bull, it was delightful to watch him battle his way up the field today and prove to everyone why he deserves that Red Bull seat. I honestly think he is the ideal teammate for Max and is a great driver to boot. For anyone who doubts, I will direct their eyes to this race.

It was some tense moments there when it seemed like Mercedes was going to try to go to the end on those tires. In fact, this whole race was just riveting to watch.

My only regret this weekend was that Hulkenberg didn't get the podium I was hoping we would starting from 3rd, but I'm just happy he was there. He seemed in good spirits, especially considering all the Racing Point controversy swirling around the paddock this weekend with the FIA's ruling on the brake ducts.

I miss Hulk. He drove a great race and I hope he comes back to F1.

Another thought: how is Charles Leclerc still managing to get performance out of that car? It was heartwarming to hear him happy on the radio with fourth at the end of the race. He's a star.

Finally, I think I'll end this post with a quote from Martin Brundle's race commentary: "Have I mentioned it before? Thank goodness for Max Verstappen."

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Here are my race notes from the weekend...

FP1

- these tires are softer

- This is the 70th anniversary weekend they’re celebrating this race even though the original anniversary was in May 1950

- Nico Hulkenberg is still in for Perez this weekend because Perez is still out for COVID when the test came back this morning

- Renault’s protest came back from the FIA today about Racing Point and the FIA have fined them 400,000 euros and cost them 15 constructor points but they’re still allowed to use the brake ducts this year so what’s the point of all this

- Announced that Bottas has signed on for another year at Mercedes

- P1 10902

- Karun raving about how great of a job Charles did last weekend especially compared to his teammate Vettel

- This session is all about assessing the new tires this weekend

FP2

- Lando waving at one of the Red Bull’s as he goes by

- Gio, Stroll, Kimi, Sainz all have wobbles and go off track, like all the sudden it’s like what is everyone doing

- There’s some strange footage of a bunch of Mercedes people riding scooters

- This extensive discussion of why Alex Albon isn’t doing well enough is totally unmerited

- Yellow flag at the end of the session because Seb’s floor collapsed and caused oil to go everywhere right before Copse and his engine totally failed and there’s oil leaking out the bottom completely

- Seb looking under the car where he parked it and seeing the oil coming out

- Seb’s failure caused a virtual safety car and there’s oil all over the track and it seems like they’re going to end the session early cause here’s only minutes left and they do red flag it

- Weirdly Gio has stopped at turn 12 at the red flag so he must have went off or had a failure but he’s getting out of the car

FP3

- it’s a blustery day but really beautiful

- Just announced that other teams are appealing the decision about Racing Point’s punishment as not enough and it’s a crazy complicated and dramatic story

- Seb’s car destroyed itself last session so they took a new power unit and they changed Charles power unit too as a precaution but the real question is why are Ferrari’s cars self destructing

- So will both Ferrari’s take grid penalties in the race for changing power units then?

Qualifying

- Ocon got HUGELY in George Russell’s way in Q1 and the stewards are investigating it and it could mean a 3 place time penalty and Ocon seems to know he will get a penalty

- Kvyat’s last flying lap deleted from Q1 because of track limits and he was really upset at himself after

- Out in Q1: Kvyat, Kmags, Latifi, Gio and Kimi

- In Q2, Hulkenberg has a big off through a dust cloud but is fine

- Pierre has an off through the dust just like Hulk

- Out in Q2: Ocon, Vettel, Sainz, Grosjean, Russell

- Bottas on pole!!! Stole it from Hamilton, yes!!!

- Top 3 is Bottas, Hamilton and then HULK in third!

- This is a really interesting grid

Race

- Bottas keeps the lead at the start!

- Max gets past Hulk for third at the start

- Yellow flag because someone has spun and it’s SEB AGAIN having seemingly lost it completely on his own and miraculously not hit anyone even though he spun across the field almost hitting Sainz

- Albon goes in for a really early stop to change up the strategy

- Lando locks up going into the pits

- Max is giving Lewis the hardest time and I love it

- Max is going for it and he says he’s not going to drive like a grandma

- Kevin under investigation for hitting Latifi even though they’ve still kept running

- The tyres aren’t performing at all like they expected with the different compounds available this weekend and Max made a way better decision and the Mercedes have both pitted and wrecked their newer tires and Max is flying

- Sainz has a bizarre pit stop and almost hits Ocon on the way out

- Maxy pits and Bottas gets ahead and then Max passes him again in JUST ONE CORNER with his new tires

- Kevin gets a 5 second time penalty for hitting Latifi earlier

- Hamilton accusing Max of cheating and having less pressure in his tyres or something but that’s ridiculous

- Seb on the radio to Ferrari telling them calmly they know that they’ve messed up

- quick yellow flag when DANIEL spins to avoid Lando but keeps running

- They’re worried Hamilton will try to go to the end on a one stop but they can’t

- Hamilton May get a penalty for speeding in the pit lane

- Hamilton does get past Charles for third because Hamilton got new tires but Charles is still running a fantastic race

- Kevin Magnussen has to retire

- Hamilton passes Bottas for second because they gave Hamilton the preferential strategy at the cost of Bottas again

- MAX WINS AT SILVERSTONE

- And Charles is so happy about 4th too!

- Could not be more proud of Max, Charles, and Alex Albon this race