SPANISH GRAND PRIX

Yeah, sorry, let me just wake up after that loooong nap which was the Spanish Grand Prix. Once again, not a very exciting race. That makes it three in a row, with China, Azerbaijan and Spain all being pretty much sleepers.

But I do have notes. You'll notice that my notes on the race are pretty short. That's not because I didn't take notes. It's just that there was that little going on.

Overall, it's the same old story. Mercedes wins the weekend, while Ferrari actively fumbles everything they've been given. The best thing that happened this weekend was that Max ended up with a podium for third. I am so happy for my team and for Max, but it also says a lot about how much we can hope for from Ferrari at the moment.

Here are my notes:

Free Practice 1 

- oh ok there’s a new team principal at McClaren, Andreas Seidl 

- Wow, why bring up Charles driver error at Baku right off the bat, rude 

- Renault is “underperforming” hahaha what an understatement 

- Bottas sliding around, almost hit by Max cause he was dawdling 

- There’s talk that Zandvoort will replace Barcelona next year

- Talking to the Ferrari Shell oil people about the new fuel they have and it felt like a cooking show

- Whenever they say the drivers ages, I feel so old 

- Grosjean off in the gravel but drove back on track 

- This discussion of lance stroll is so funny, everyone dancing around saying that he shouldn't be there

- Max’s car has a bad oil leak and it’s just leaking all over the floor of the car which they had to take off 

- Bottas also has an oil leak

- George Russell lost a mirror 

- Daniel has a 3 place grid penalty for taking out Kvyat last race 

- Lance Stroll went into the barrier right at the end of the session, hahahahahah that was so avoidable 

Free Practice 2

- Grosjean goes wide again across the same turn he went into gravel in in FP1 

- Martin Brundle says Pierre was hugging that curb like it was his favorite granny. Martin Brundle has the best comments

- Did Kmags just make a hand gesture at Charles?

- Bottas just did exactly what Stroll did in FP1 and Bottas totally got away with it

- Pierre blocked Daniel in a pretty rude way for no apparent reason 

Free Practice 3

- yikes it looks overcast, chance of rain 20% for this sesh (no rain actually happened)

- Cooler temps could help Ferrari with tire overheating in back tires (didn't pan out)

- we are reportedly going to Zandvoort next year 

- Seb spun 

- Bottas spun into gravel because of cold tires and it wasn’t a violent spin but they couldn’t get the car out and it was beached on gravel so it red flagged the sesh to pull the car out 

- Max went flying by Stroll who was in the flipping way, unbelievable 

- They are losing parts off these Williams left and right

- Ohhhh now George Russell was in the wall pretty far in the gravel, session red flagged

Quali 

- Hulkenburg spun and just barely tapped a wall and then he drove it out of the gravel with the wing dragging under the car and he's dragging damage all across the track. Now there’s gravel all over the circuit

- George Russell spins and almost hits Hulkenburg who was going back to the pits with his damage

 - Charles made a tiny mistake and it damaged a lot of the bottom of his car but he still got into Q3

- Q3 was horrible because Charles didn’t go out until 5 min left. They saved it until the last minute so they could repair the damage underneath the car from Q2 and he didn’t get a good time 

- Ultimately, it’s Bottas on pole, 2nd Ham, then Seb third, but Maxy is 4th and Charles is only 5th :’(

Pre-race 

- Jenson Button just walked up to Daniel and said “you’re my hero” which was awesome

- they just had the single most awkward interview I've ever seen with Neymar / Lewis's "best friend" .... his PR person is going to have a HUGE amount to do to explain that away

- They interviewed Kmags with a towel on his head, so things are getting increasingly absurd, which is wonderful

- When they talked to Max, he was so articulate and funny and mature 

Race 

- Lewis got the lead right away and it’s 33 Laps laters and nothing’s happened 

- “Chaos reigns” down at Ferrari who have been switching their drivers back and forth. Definitely spent 2-3 laps too long on both switches and have told their drivers conflicting information about which strategy they’re on. Shambles. So embarrassing 

- Lando Norris and Lance Stroll go out on turn 1 on lap 47, Lando did hit Stroll surprisingly. I totally thought it was going to be Lance's fault, but the replay made it clear it was actually Norris. Honestly, though, when we saw it was Stroll in the wall, everyone here just burst out laughing cause this is just getting ridiculous

- Now there’s a safety car so a bunch of people get tire changes and things are totally uncertain now 

- false alarm, nothing else happened. Pretty much nothing happened in this race. In the end, it was 1 - Ham 1, 2 - Bot 2, and then 3 - Max (!! Yay!)

It feels weird celebrating Max's podium, though, cause it was just such an uneventful race to watch. I really hope these get as exciting as I remember them being last year, because I think three boring races in a row is enough.

I'm sure there's much drama to come! Next stop, Monaco.