My favorite time of the year is here, the weather is getting a little cooler and its EPL season is starting, while the Formula 1 season heads into the final stretch with a finish that promises to end in an epic fashion, but more on that in a bit. First up coffee.
This weeks beans come from Houston roaster Slowpokes. A mexican origin medium roasted coffee, I used my typical pour over method. It produced chocolatey notes with notes of red pepper, and a mild sweet vanilla note. A lovely cup to start the day.
Recommendation:
One of my all time favorite TV shows is West Wing. Regardless of where you lie on the political spectrum this show highlights the best of politics and where I think we would love politics to be, not in the gutter where it currently resides. There is new book titled What’s Next that documents behinds the scenes of this fantastic show, giving insight into how the show came to be as well as highlighting some specific episodes and honoring the late great John Spencer. Its a fantastic book written by two people who were actually in the show: Melissa Fitzgerald (she played CJ’s assistant Carol Fitzpatrick) and Marcy McCormack (she played Deputy NSA Kate Harper).
Formula 1
We’re at the temple of speed this week! The Italian Grand Prix at Monza! A great start to the weekend with both McLaren drivers starting at the front of the grid. Surprisingly both Red Bull Drivers struggled during qualifying and started further back at 7th and 8th. This is the 5th different pole sitter at Monza in the last 5 years. Hopefully Lando can break the curse as the previous 5 pole sitters failed to win. One big change to this weeks lineup is that Williams have made a switch in drivers. Sitting Sargent (rumor is he may be done for the year) and replacing him with Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto.
Most of the drivers are starting today’s race on the Medium compound tire, hoping for a one stop, means they need to get to around lap 20 or 22 before changing. A few drivers chose the hard compound tires, including the two Red Bull drivers.
Norris got a slightly pour start but recovered and stayed in the lead. Russell went off track at the first turn, however a few turns later both Piastri and LeClerc passed Norris and once again he won’t finish the first lap in first when he sits on the pole. Seemed to get a little chippy between the papaya drivers. Let’s see how this develops over the race.
First retired car was Tsunoda in lap 8.
Russell who had received some damage to his front wing at the beginning of the race was asked to pit at lap 12 to change out his front wing. He chose to switch tires, from Medium to Hard. Will be interesting to see if he can make it a one stop race changing tires out this early.
Norris called into the pits at lap 15 to undercut LeClerc, a nice quick stop of 2.2 seconds. Norris went in at P3 and came out at P9. With Norris on hard tires he should be able to finish the race without another stop.
Piastri called into the pits at lap 16, this will put Sainz in first with the Red Bull drivers in P2 and P3 since they started on Hard Tires. Piastri came out in P4 ahead of his teammate.
The pit strategy could be the deciding factor in how the drivers finish the race. When and where the Red Bull drivers pit could lead to them being out of the top 5.
Ferrari Driver Sainz who was in P1 pitted at Lap 20, came out in P6 leaving the Red Bull drivers in P1 and P2.
Verstappen is called into the pits at lap 22 to go from Hards to Mediums. I don’t see how he does a one stop race with Medium tires, that doesn’t seem like he will be able to get to the end of the race. He could do a two stop race and switch to soft tires at the end to get more speed.
And he stayed on Hard Tires, so definitely doing a two stop race.
Norris was told that he is allowed to race Oscar, so as we go forward in this race, things could get interesting. By lap 24, Team Papaya is back in P1 and P2 with Norris gaining on his teammate. Although it does seem that Norris for whatever reason doesn’t have the pace of his teammate. Norris got almost within a second of his papaya partner, but Piastri quickly seemed to separate himself and got the gap over 2 seconds.
Norris is struggling today, his tires aren[t holding up and he is falling back further behind his teammate and has allowed LeClerc to climb back to him who is putting a ton of pressure on him.
Norris pitted at lap 33, not a great pit stop that put him in P6 in between the two Red Bull drivers. He switched to new hard tires, so his previous tires were old which makes sense now with how little he ended up getting out of the old tires.
Piastri called to pit at lap 39 and stayed on hard tires, but not a great pit. He came out in P3 ahead of Red Bull driver Verstappen with Norris also on his tail.
Both Ferrari drivers are in P1 and P2, but they have only pitted once and I don’t believe they will be able to make it to the end without another pit.
Lap 41, Norris passes Verstappen into P4 now behind his teammate and Ferrari still in the lead
Verstappen pitted at lap 42 going to Medium tires, he went in at P5 and acme out in P6 behind Hamilton.
Lap 45 Piastri passed Sainz and moved into P2, can Norris get up there and McLaren get a double podium finish? There are 7 laps left, Push push push!
Lando passes Sainz in lap 48 up into P3.
An outstanding race, Ferrari winning at Monza is always cool to see, with LeClerc ending the race in P1. He raced a fantastic race, I honestly wasn’t sure he could hold on with doing a one stop strategy. McLaren gets a double podium allowing them to eat into the leads in both the driver championship and the constructors championship. Norris also got the fastest lap which gives him an additional point to eat into Verstappens lead who finished back in P6. While some will say that McLaren had the wrong strategy, I am not sure I agree. Their strategy was consistent with most of the other teams, honestly I think this was Ferrari’s day and they got a little lucky. LeClerc’s tires looked like trash at the finish, and Sainz had nothing left and fell back to both Piastri and Norris. There was a good chance that LeClerc wasn’t going to make it, and if he hadn’t McLaren would have looked like geniuses. LeClerc played the role of ultimate tire whisperer today, but it very easily could have gone poorly for Ferrari.
Quick notes:
Drivers Championship standings: Verstappen - 303; Norris - 241; LeClerc - 217; Pastri - 197; Sainz - 184. Getting tight at the top with Norris only 62 points behind the leader. There are enough races left that he can continue to chip away and win the championship.
Constructors Championship: Red Bull - 446; McLaren - 438; Ferrari - 407; Mercedes - 292. Its turning into a 3 team race with team Papaya only 8 points behind Red Bull and Ferrari less than 40 points behind. My bold prediction is that McLaren passes Red Bull at the next GP in two weeks at Azerbaijan and that Ferrari will pass them shortly thereafter. Red Bull will end up finishing 3rd in the constructors cup something no one would have predicted at the start of the season.
Kevin Magnussen was penalized once again which put him over the limit in a 12 month period meaning he is out for the next race.
Liverpool
Match 3 of the new season pits the Reds against their hated rivals ManU at the historic Old Trafford pitch. The Third match for new manager Slot and he is leading his unit against a team they must win against to show they are a team to be worried about. The lineup for today is consistent to where what they have put out so far this season. They have shifted away from Klopps format and are in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Jota at the top and Diaz, Szoboaszlai, and Salah backing him up.
Liverpool in their Whites while ManU plays in their Red kit.
Liverpool’s TAA scores within 6 minutes, the ball barely getting over the line, but a fantastic start for the reds. Unfortunately, the goal was called offside not because TAA was offisde, but because the ball hit Salah who was. The score was reset to 0—0.
25 minutes into the match and it remains deadlocked. ManU is taking ownership of the match with a hefty lead in possession at 63%, more passes, but LFC has more shots on target. LFC defense is doing well. A strong D is a mark of Slots teams in the past, but their offense continues to struggle to take control of a match.
At the 34th minute Diaz makes a fantastic header into the back of the net! This one is going to stick as he was fully on sides. Sloppy pass from ManU that was intercepted by Liverpool, and Salah got the assist with a lovely pass to Diaz who knocked it in with his noggin.
ManU’s Martinez picked up the first yellow card when he took down Szoboazlai in a ridiculously aggressive manner that raised VVD’s ire. Could have been worse than a yellow, he got lucky.
Luis Diaz takes another great pass from Salah and one times it into the net at the end the 1st minute. Diaz is on fire this season and Salah is really stepping up to be the set up man this season.
5 minutes of stoppage time is announced to end the half, let’s see if LFC can get another score before they head into the locker room.
The first half ends with LFC up 2 - 0 against ManU. Possession has evened out more compared to what it was earlier in match with United only up 51% to 49%. LFC is really taking charge of the match, and with their penchant for halftime adjustments I expect more of the same in the second half.
Right at the start of the first half, Jota and ManU player Mazroui come together and the United player goes down. He laid on the pitch for quite sometime as the trainers check him out. Eventually at minute 50 he got up and moved to the sidelines and play restarted.
In the 54th minute VVD gets a Yellow Card for fouling Man U player Bruno Fernandez. It didn’t look like a major foul as VVD just stuck his leg out and Fernandez tripped over it.
LFC drove quickly back and Salah got his goal at Old Trafford for the 7th consecutive time. LFC up 3 to nil against their rivals and the mood couldn’t be worse at Old Trafford.
ManU player De Ligt received a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Diaz in the 64th minute. Honestly it could have been a red. It was a reckless cleat up tackle.
5 minutes of extra time added to finish the match. Liverpool remains up 3-0 and has done a great job of holding off any attempt by ManU to make a drive and score. Their defense is so far ahead of where it has been in the last couple of seasons.
Liverpool gets a much needed win and a clean sheet for Allison. So far a great start to the season under new manager Slot.
Amazing to see ManU fans exiting the stadium with 10 to 15 minutes left in the match. They are abandoning their team already. While I have no love for ManU its amazing how far the United owners the Glazers have gone to disenfranchise their loyal fanbase. They have driven a once proud franchise into consistent mediocrity.
After the match Liverpool and Man City sit atop the EPL standings. Both with perfect records and similar goal differential.
