ITALIAN GRAND PRIX (#2 - MUGELLO)

Mugello will go down in history as one of the craziest races I've ever seen. Based on reactions from the F1 community, I think it's fair to say that everyone was shocked at what a crazy race was delivered.

Here are my notes from the weekend:

FP1

• Mugellooooooooooo

• Ferrari 1000 race weekend and they announced Seb is going to force India next year and now Perez is out of a seat. This is a MAJOR development

• Ferrari have the special colors and red safety car for the Ferrari’s thousandth race

• Grosjean and Perez almost collide and both blame each other

• Latifi got a fine for speeding in the pit lane last race and this is the first weekend they have new management at Williams which does not seem like a good first impression

• Latifi is the only one who had any problem this session and had a spin into the gravel

FP2

• Grosjean reports engine problems and he can see the battery not charging even though he just got a new engine

• Charles had a little spin into the gravel but he’s fine

• Lando has a big high speed crash but it’s not nearly as bad as it could have been and he’s okay but it red flagged the session

• Seb also has a little spin and yellow flag but no crash

• Kimi and Sergio Perez collide and Kimi gets knocked into the gravel and red flagged. Incident notes then investigated after the session

FP3

• Perez given a one place grid penalty for his crash with Kimi in FP2

• On the practice flying laps, Latifi is actually properly faster than Vettel by a tenth of a second

• Gasly has a little trip through the gravel but no damage, just a little oversteer

• At one point George Russell completely lost his break pedal and it’s still the new owners first weekend

Qualifying

• Out in Q1: Gasly, Gio, Russell, Latifi, KMags

• Kvyat has an off at the end of Q2 but keeps it on track

• Out in Q2: Norris, Kvyat, Kimi, Vettel and Grosjean

• Lando’s first time out in Q2 this season

• OCON pulls a yellow flag at the last minute in Q3 when Bottas was on a fast lap to beat Hamilton so it hamilton Bottas Max again

• So happy Perez beat Stroll this quali after Perez had the worst week ever

Race

• Bot gets ahead really well and is leading

• FOUR CORNERS AFTER START THERES MAYHEM and all the sudden Max is out, at least four cars were involved, Sainz spun around

• So Max lost power immediately and then got hit being super careful and got beached and the threw his steering wheel and he’s furious

• Gasly out right away too in the melee

• So Kimi hit Max but that was one of the strangest messiest first lap incidents I’ve ever seen

• safety car of course

• Charles is somehow in third after the whole start, he dodged all sorts of things and had lightning fast reactions and he’s incredible

• George Russell us right behind Ocon and says Ocon needs to pit because he can see and smell that he’s on fire

• A BIZARRE RACE RESTART WHICH RESULTS IN ONLY 13 CARS LEFT

• RED FLAG TO REMOVE FOUR CARS FROM THE PIT STRAIGHT WOW WHAT A MESS

• Looks like Sainz got his hand injured in that crash because it was so sudden

• I didn’t even see Latifi get out in the pit straight but he was also out

• Theyre putting as many parts back on the car as they can while the red flag

• This is utter insanity having never been here before created a super dangerous situation

• Just two huge clouds of smoke from the two huge incidents so far

• Sooooooo oh my gosh I can’t even begin to explain what’s happened by lap 8 and there’s just major stuff to clean up

• After no red flag for three years then we get two races back to back red flagged, last week at Monza too

• So the back of the pack jumped the restart, tossed Gio in the air, thank goodness he was knocked back down by Latifi’s car and then Sainz hit Gio and I’m just not even sure, you’re just going to have to go watch what happened with BOTH incidents so far

• There was dodging and weaving at the first safety car restart and everyone was trying to get a jump on each others and it resulted in the carnage

• Ocon retired during the red flag from the brakes thing

• Okay now they’re about to restart with a standing start

• Kimi has a terrible stop where the Jack man didn’t see that the back left was one and it ends up with a 12 second stop and it was a pit equipment malfunction

• Charles has a amazing drive even though he’s dropping back

• A lot of good passing going on

• Lots of pit around lap 30

• Bottas making a call and saying he wants the opposite tire of Hamilton to catch

• Bottas pits first citing safety since he’s saying he’s getting tire vibrations

• THIS THING WITH THE TIRES TO HAMILTON AND BOTTAS. Bottas radios in while in second saying to give him the opposite to whatever Hamilton gets so he can fight them. Then I said they’re going to pit Bottas first so that he can’t know what tire Lewis will be on. AND THEN THEY DID EXACTLY THAT, bringing in Bottas first for « safety » reasons, THIS IS NONSENSE, and then when Hamilton comes in they put him on the same hard tire. AHGGGGHH

• 44/59 puncture for Stroll and has a high impact crash, or a failure which has something to do with failure

• Bottas gets ahead with the safety car and then the safety car cuts off Hamilton so he is able to get in HIS pit stop which is RIDICULOUS and THEN ALL OF IT DOESNT MATTER BECAUSE THERES A SECOND RED FLAG TO CLEAN

• I REPEAT SECOND RED FLAG IN ONE RACE

• THEY STARTED CLEANING UP THE RACING POINT WHILE IT WAS STILL ON FIRE AND CHAOS

• JUST CHAOS

• THEY NEEDED A SECOND FIRE EXTINGUISHER FOR STROLLS CAR

• So it will be a second standing start race

• They let Kimi and Grosjean to the front of the queue to unlap themselves

• Now Kimi is under investigation for a late pit lane entry possibly after the pit was closed but who knows

• At the second standing restart, Hamilton keeps first, DANIEL sneaks into second because Bottas not getting off the line and Albon able to get into 4th past Perez. Somehow George Russell has dropped to the back in 12th

• Daniel passed again by Bottas for second

• Kimi gets a five second penalty for crossing line into pit penalty and Kimi is FURIOUS « FOR WHAT » on the radio

• 51/59 ALEX PASSES DANIEL FOR THIRD YESSSS

• In the end, Hamilton wins, Bot in second, ALEX GETS HIS FIRST PODIUM IN THIRD WOOOOO

• Oh yeah this was the first race where some fans were allowed in