Sunday Musings: I'm Back and so is the EPL

Back to posting on the blog after a short Summer break.  Needed some time off and a couple of trips, but now that school is back in session, so is the blog.  And good timing too.  While the F1 season is still on its on summer break, this weekend the English Premiere League season started which means my beloved Liverpool is back in action.  More on that later.  First, coffee.

The team behind Greenway Coffee owns one of my favorite coffee shops in Houston, Blacksmith Coffee.  I've known that team for a long time, and even once upon a time many many moons ago hosted a beer education class at their home.  This particular coffee is their Contemporary Blend, kind of their everyday blend. Nothing crazy, but just a beautiful roast and blend of beans from around the world.  A smooth fruit forward chocolatey cup.  You can't go wrong with it at all.

Recommendations

As I mentioned before F1 is still out on their summer break, however, there is a new F1 book out. Grand Prix the Illustrated History of F1 by Will Buxton has recently been released. If you've ever seen the Netflix series Drive to Survive, or watched any F1 Televesion than you are VERY familiar with Mr. Buxton.  His sense of humor and level of detail shine in the book, as do the amazing illustrations.  It's a great book that goes into good detail on rules and regulations, as well as a decade by decade review of F1's history.  While some of it is very basic and most F1 watchers would know it, some of the details were new to me and some of the history especially the stuff back in the 50s and 60s was extremely interesting.  Worth a pick up should you see it in your local book shop.

EPL

The Reds are back, but they aren't the same Reds of the last few season.  The change starts at the top of course.  Long time manager Jurgen Klopp has stepped away and new manager Arne Slot has taken the reigns.  While Liverpool hasn't picked up anyone over the summer break there is still some time before the 30 August deadline so I won't go into a full predictions yet.  That being said with Arne at the top, he has made some significant changes.  Out is Clops standards format of play and in its place is a 4-5-1 that puts more emphasis on a single striker.  How will that play out, only time will tell.  To open the season up they played newly promoted Ipswich Town. As has been the case in recent years, the Reds started off slow, you could tell that they were still getting used to the new formations and how Arne called a match.  The first half was very uneventful, with a few chances here and there, but nothing that was a sure footed fire at the net.  However that all changed after half time.  Slot made some adjustments, and team started to gel.  Diego Jota scored first at the 60th minute with a beautiful shot.  However, it was seeing Liverpool legend Mo Salah score at the 65th minute that put a huge grin on my face.  Without his familiar flowing hair, Salah made a now familiar goal, and a record 9th season in a row where he has scored in the first game of the season.  Mo looked truly happy out on the pitch, so here's hoping that he sticks around at least another season.  While LFC should have easily beaten Ipswich, Arne Slot becomes the first LFC manager to win his debut, so it wasn't a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination.  I have hope that LFC can finish near the top of the table this year.  Not predicting a League win, but at the top, and maybe a trophy in one of the other tournaments they will compete in would be a great way to kick off the Arne Slot era.

Sunday Musings and Hungarian GP

 

After a week off we are back to a Sunday Race Day, and all such days must start with a good cup of coffee.  This weeks coffee is from Corvus out of Denver, CO.  Called Dead Reckoning their seasonal blend, with beans from Ethiopia and Central America.  This is a dark chocolate bomb.  Lots of bitter dark chocolate, blueberries, mild sweetness.  Delicious pour over cup.  

Formula One

We are officially into the second half of the season with the Hungarian GP.  The weekend started off with a wild and somewhat wet Free Practice session and qualifying.  Team McLaren ended up locking out the front row with Norris and Piastri P1 and P2 respectfully.  Red Bull Driver Perez continues top force RB to question if he should be their driver next season by spinning off and not getting out of Q1 yet again. More shocking was that Mercedes driver George Russell didn’t get out of Q1 either.  Once again this is a great opportunity for the McLaren team to chew up some of the gap between them and RB at the top of the constructors cup.

Race Day didn’t start the way I wanted it too with the McLaren team feverishly working on Norris’s car while it was sitting on the grid before the formation lap as he complained of an issue with the throttle.  It looks like the McLaren engineers were able to make the fixes they needed to and get the car buttoned back up just in time for the race to start.  

For tires today, this is the softest range that can be used.  With the heat of the track will be interesting to see what impacts this has on strategy.  Most of the top cars were on Medium tires with a few in the second half of the top 10 chose soft tires to start the race.

Lights Out! Great start by mMcLaren three wide on first turn,  but Verstappen goes wide, Norris falls to third, with max going ahead.  Max should have to give up that spot due to Max going wide and taking a place while he was off track.  Piastri doing well in P1.  

Finally at lap 4 Max lets Lando pass him to take the spot back, but as Versappen is want to do as soon as he can he tries to use DRS to pass Norris but he is able to keep Max back.

By Lap 7 Norris had gotten enough space between him and Max that Verstappen could no longer use DRS.

The top 10 drivers started pitting around lap 8, meaning this race is probably going to be a 2 stop race. Most of there drivers switching to hard tires during this initial pit.

Lando in P2 pitted at Lap 18 switching form Medium tires to Hard.  Good 2.8s pit stop.  He comes out in P5, put into a good position.  McLaren called Piastri in to pit the next lap again switching to hard tires with a 2.5s stop.  Piastri came out ahead of Norris in P4.  This back to back pit put Verstappen in P1, who has yet to pit along with the two Ferrari drivers who are in P2 and P3.

Verstappen and Sainz pitted at lap 22.  Verstappen got a 3s pit stop.  Max goes out in P5, with LeClerc who stayed out in P1 followed by the two McLaren drivers.  LeClerc pitted at lap 23 and came out in P5.

Alpine driver Gasly got called into box at lap 34 to retire the car and is out of the Hungarian GP.

P3 driver Hamilton takes his second pit stop at Lap 41 as does LeClerc, both had pit stops under 3s.  Hamilton come out P5 and LeClerc in P6.  Hamilton on his second set of Hard tires and the Ferrari driver switched to medium tires.

Norris being called into the pits at Lap 45.  Goes in at P2, good pit stop at 2.3s and a switch to Medium tires.  He comes out at P4 ahead of Hamilton.  Great job by the McLaren team as everyone ahead of Norris hasn’t had their second pit stop.

Piastri called into pit at lap 47, as is Sainz.  Good pit stoppage by McLaren at 2.9S switching to   medium tires coming out at P3.  Norris in P2, Oscar in P3 both behind Max who hasn’t pitted.

Max pitted at Lap 50, good pit stop at 2.3s switching to Medium tires.  Max comes out at P5 behind Hamilton and LeClerc.  

20 Laps to go Norris in P1, Piastri in P2, Hamilton in P3, Leclere in P4 and then Max in p5, all on Medium tires except Hamilton who is on Hard tires.

After the last pit, McLaren gave orders for Norris to allow Oscar to pass him when he got close.  Piastri never really did, with Norris opening up an almost 6 second gap on his McLaren Team mate.  The Team radios got very awkward as the laps counted down to the end of the race with the team principal ordering Lando to slow down for Oscar to get back into 1st.  I don’t get why McLaren was this adamant about Oscar getting P1 when Lando is in a fight for the championship.  Eventually Lando let Oscar pass on the straightaway which allowed Oscar to get his first win, and McLaren getting P1 and P2 and Hamilton getting his 200th podium.  Earlier Verstappen who was battling Hamilton for P3, tried to pass the Mercedes driver, but locked up and almost crashed with Hamilton. He recovered, but will be facing a penalty after the race. 

On the team radio, Oscar sounded very subdued on the radio for his first win.  

Exciting race and the 7th different winner of the season.

Does Zak brown get another tattoo?  He has gotten tattoos each time one his drivers gets a win (first with Ricciardo, then with Norris).

Current Constructors Standings:  Red Bull 389; McLaren 338; Ferrari 322; Mercedes 241

Current Drivers Standings: Verstappen 265; Norris 189; LeClerc 162; Sainz 154; Piastri 149

A quick note that these numbers could change if Verstappen gets penalized for his contact with Hamilton at the end of the race.  Perez falls to 7th behind Hamilton, and my guess is that he will be behind Russell after Spa.  How does RB stay with Perez when he will be in P8 at the summer break?

Sunday Musings, Silverstone and Music inspired coffee

 

Anyone reading this here blog knows I drink coffee from Texas primarily.  There are a ton of good roasters in this state so I enjoy getting to try the different roasters out.  However, every once in a while I'll get introduced to something new and get excited about it.  This is one of those days.  Corvus Roasters is from Denver, CO a city I am very familiar with, but haven't had coffee from them.  This coffee is a very special single origin made in celebration of Nathaniel Hawthorne's newest album.  From El Salvador, this is a naturally processed coffee.  I brewed using my French Press.  Makes a wonderful floral cup, citrus, some tea like qualities as well. Beautiful vibrant cup that absolutely sparkles.  This is tremendous, will have to search out more from Corvus.

Speaking of Nathaniel Hawthorne, his newest album is my recommendation this week.  Another great album by a tremendously talented band and the soulful singing of Hawthorne.  Fantastic lyrics, great music that just makes you want to dance.  His last few albums have all been tremendous.  Go pick this up.

Formula 1

F1 hits the middle point of the season as they arrive at Silverstone for the British GP.  The 12th race of the season promises to be an exciting race.

It was a good start to the weekend for the Papaya team.  McLaren looked strong through the practice session with at least one of their drivers in the top 3 for each of the 3 sessions.  For qualifying, Norris had a little skid during his out lap which kept him from getting pole, but it did lead to an all British top 3 with Russell, Hamilton, and Norris at P1-3.

Ferrari struggled, with LeClerc being out of the top 10. Perez was also out of the top 10 too not getting through Q2 and then due to penalties from the previous race starting at the back of the grid.

For the race the tires were the hardest three to choose from and most of the cars started on medium tires.  Start to the race was uneventful, although Lando got driven outside the track, and Verstappen passed him.  Gasly was our first retirement out by lap 3.

It being the British GP, rain was always a possibility and the team radios reported rain would be coming soon at areas of the track.

Norris drove past Versrtappen in lap 16, and got back into P3.  Just brilliant racing.

Norris's passing opened up the flood gates and lost of passing started occurring as rain started lightly falling at lap 17.

Also Piastri passes Verstappen up into P4.  The Red Bull car just doest have the pace.

The cars are starting to show the impact of the track getting wetter.

Norris passes Russell in lap 19 up into P2.

Norris passing Hamilton on lap 20 and up into the lead!

Piastri makes a brilliant pass of Russell into P3.

Some tremendous driving by both McLaren drivers.

Ferrari called LeClerc into pit at lap 20 to switch to intermediate’s.

Piastri drives past Hamilton into P2 so both drivers up at the top.

Around lap 24 the track was dry enough to enable DRS again.  The drivers may have weathered the wet and may not need to switch tires.  But that was short lived as DRS was once again disabled a couple of laps later as it started to get wet

Verstappen getting called into the pits at lap 27, along with Sainz.  Both the Mercedes and McLaren cars stayed out.

The track is starting to get a little wetter, the Papaya team should pit at the next lap.

Norris pitting lap 27.  Piastri stayed out, and both Mercedes drivers pitted

Norris came outing P2 so it was good decision, for when Piastri pits to change to inters Norris will be back in P1.

Piastri comes in at lap 29, unfortunately comes out in P6.  Tough decision, not sure what the right call was.  If both drivers came in at the same time, it may have slowed the pit down where Norris wouldn’t have come out in P1.

The track is causing the drivers some issues.  The track has wet areas, but not enough to cool down the intermediate tires, so when they are on the drier portions of the track they are wearing out much faster than anticipated with Hamilton and Verstappen both complaining that their tires are falling apart. However the track just isn’t dry enough to get slicks back on.

Suddenly and unexpectedly Mercedes has to retire Russell at lap 34.  

Report came from the pit reports that there was an issue with the water coolant system.

Sun really coming gout at lap 37, track should dry out quickly. When will they go into to get slicks and will they be able to switch to soft?

Hamilton coming into pit at lap 39. As is verstappen.  Hamilton on Soft and Verstappen on Hard.  Interesting strategy.

Piastri pitting too switching to new mediums.

Norris pitting on lap 40, switching to soft tires.  Comes out in P2 behind Hamilton.

Verstappen in P3 and Piastri in P4.

Norris was passed by Max in lap 48.  Dang it.  The soft tires just aren’t holding up.

What a tremendous race.  A ton of passing, great and not so great strategies that had true real impact on the race and the championship. I am not sure you could have asked for more.

Hamilton gets his first win since 2021, Norris gets P3, and with Norris and Piastri both doing well, McLaren will continue to climb closer to Red Bull in the constructors championship.

Half way through the season here is where we are in the standings:

Drivers Championship:  Verstappen 255; Norris 171; LeClerc 150; Sainz; Piastri 125

Constructors Championship:  Red Bull 373; Ferrari 302; McLaren 295; Mercedes 221

Some quick hit thoughts and predictions after making it halfway through the season.

1) Verstappen will win the championship.  It may be closer than anyone thought it would be, but Max will end the season on top.

2) Redbull will NOT win the constructors.  McLaren will.  After the next race, McLaren will be in second place and by the end of the season they will at the top.

3) Not only will Ferrari not finish in 2nd place in the constructors cup, I think there is a good chance Mercedes passes them.

4) Ferrari will continue to rue the day they have gotten rid of Sainz, as LeClerc will continue to struggle the second half of the season.

5) Speaking of struggling, RB will announce that Perez is being demoted next season to their second team, and either promote Ricciardo, or maybe, just maybe sign Sainz (although I think this is highly unlikely).

Sunday Musings, and Formula one thoughts

 

Another week another F1 race as we enter the second week of a triple header.  But before the race one must have coffee.  This weeks coffee comes from Houston roaster Ten Fold which I have talked about before.  I have really enjoyed all their coffees and this one was no different.  This coffee is a single estate from Burundi, and is absolutely beautiful in a pour over.  Vibrant, bright, acidity, white grapes, fruity, almost floral notes.  Not quite tea like, but nuanced and layered.  Just lovely.

No real recommendations this week, so let's jump into the race.

Formula One

This week the paddock traveled to Austria and the Red Bull Ring.  The home race for the two Red Bull owned teams.  It was a good start to the weekend, as the McLaren team did very well the first couple of days, finishing 2 and 3 in the sprint race getting them much needed points, but unfortunately Max finished in P1 extending his lead at the top of the championship.  For qualifying both McLarens looked like they were in P2 and 3, but Piastri had a track limits violation so fell to P7.

As for the race itself, it was a hell of a race by the time the checkered flag flew.  Initially all cars were on Medium tires and it started without incident. Max in the lead with Norris chasing him.  Although the LeClerc Ferrari sustained some front wing damage on the first lap and had to pit for a quick change out and he fell to P19.

After about lap 20 drivers started to pit switching to hard tires, Norris and Verstappen both pitted in lap 24 going to Hard tires.

Piastri moved into P1 since he hadn’t pitted, but ended up being called to Box Box at last 25 allowing Max and Lando back into P1 and P2 respectfully.  Oscar came out in P6.

Both Perez and Hamilton were given 5 second penalties for separate pit lane incidents, but that ended up not playing much a role in the race itself. 

Even though Norris has gotten fasted lap, Verstappen continues to open a gap leading by almost 8 seconds by lap 34.  However, by around lap 45 Norris seemed to start gaining on Max, whether this is a tire wear issue or something else was unclear, but Norris had narrowed the gap to 6.4 seconds.

Another round of pits happened at this time as well, Sainz pitting at lap 48 Piastri moving up to P3 as Hamilton complained about tire wear. Verstappen and Norris both pit again at lap 52.

McLaren had a much much better pit than Red Bull as they struggled with a tire change.  A large pit different  of 2.9 seconds to 6.5.  Now Norris is now only 2 seconds behind the leader

Even after pitting Verstappen complains about no grip, Norris is well within DRS zone at lap 57, and starts to make some moves, he made an attempt to pass but went off track so Max remained in the lead.

Norris did try another pass at lap 63, Verstappen goes off track and kept his lead, but I don't think he should have.  He should concede the position back just like Norris did earlier in the race.

For sure Norris is right at the line of exceeding track limits, but Verstappen is reverting to his old self, being overly aggressive and swerving, not maintaining his line which isn't legal either.

At lap 64 it all came to a head as Norris and Max collide each puncturing a tire, but Norris sustains some significant damage to his underside.  Russell takes the lead while both damaged cars limp back to the pits.  Verstappen is able to change out his tire, but Lando unfortunately has to retire his McLaren car.

Oscar moves up to P2 trying to make a move on Russell, Max is back in P5, and gets penalized for 10s, but that has no impact as he has a 15 second gap.

George Russel wins, Piastri gets P2 and Carols gets P3.  Norris for the first time this season gets a DNF.

The race was super frustrating as a McLaren fan.  Happy for Oscar, but dissapointed for Norris.  As stated earlier Norris was aggressively driving and you could mark him for exceeding track limits at times, but there is no question that Max was the cause for the incident.  There is a reason why Max was called Crashstappen in his early career, this is what he does.  We haven't seen it for a while since he has had such a lead on other teams, but once the pressure is on, he will crash other drivers, and make illegal moves on track.  It will be interesting to see if F1 does anything, but I won't hold my breath.

The Drivers Championship remains mostly the same: Verstappen 237l Norris 156; LeClerc 150; Sainz 135; Perez 118; Of note Oscar is right on Perez's heels with 112 points and I expect him to pass the Red Bull Driver next week.

The Constructors Championship standings: Red Bull 355; Ferrari 291; McLaren 268; Mercedes 196.

Sunday Musings and the Spanish GP

 

It's a race day!  My favorite day of the week, but before we get to that a few other things to write about.  Firstly coffee!  Today I am using beans from a bookstore, well kinda.  Iconic Houston book store, Murder by the Book purchased another iconic place, Houston's House of Beans which is next door.  House of Beans was probably Houston's first non chain coffee shop. They have been roasting and selling beans since 1973!  When the owners wanted to sell, their next door neighbors stepped up because what's better than a book and coffee.   Recently when I went in to the book store, I saw this specific blend, Brew-Dunnit and had to pick it up.  Mystery themed bag of beans, why not!  Made a pour over this morning, and this is a slightly darker roast than I normally brew.  But it's full of dark dried fruits, raisins, dark chocolate, cinnamon.  Some acidity, some sweetness.  Well balanced for a more darker roast.  Very enjoyable.

I have two recommendations today, the first is the book in the picture that I picked up during my visit to Murder by the book.  A fantastically fun thriller.  Imagine John Wick going to an AA type group for reformed assassins, and then having folks go after him, but he can't kill.  That's the book.  And it's a ton of fun, so highly recommend.

My second recommendation is a new documentary on Hulu, Brats.  The story of the 80's group of actors the Brat Pack.  Directed by brat pack member Andrew McCarthy it shows the impact that one single story and one label had on this group.  Some never got out from under being called brats and being labeled as not being serious actors.  As a child of the 80's this was really interesting and full of nostalgia.  Andrew did an outstanding job of directing and pulling in as many of the members and near members as he could.  Well done and worth a watch for sure.

Formula 1

This week the paddock went to Spain, specifically Barcelona for the Spanish GP.  The weekend started off well for McLaren as Norris captured pole position ahead of Verstappen.  Although it wasn’t a perfect day for the papaya team as Piastri was at P10.  But it still set the team up well for the race.  Unfortunately it was not a great start as Lando gets pushed to third with Russell and Verstappen crowding him out and the Mercedes driver jumping to first, Verstappen staying in second.  By lap 3 Max had passed Russell and moved into P1.  This stayed fairly consistent for the next handful of laps, Norris, stayed very close to Russell, with Verstappen able to open up a couple of seconds gap.

Around lap 16 drivers started to pit around lap 16.  At lap 18 Verstappen pitted allowing Norris to get back in P1.  The McLaren drivers waited as long as possible to pit, a very different strategy than other drivers.  Piastri ended up pitting at lap 22.  Went in at P4, went out at P11.

Lando pitted at Lap 23, in P1, good pit at 2.4 seconds came out at P6 just behind Sainz.

Lando doing a good job of climbing back up, and moved into P4 as of lap 27.  Piastri back in the points at P10.

Lando made an outstanding pass of Hamilton to get into P2, but Verstappen had opened up quite a gap, at this point it comes up to pitting strategy and tire management.

Based on lap times, it is obvious that the McLaren has pace as it consistently gains on Verstappen chipping away at the lead.  

Verstappen took his second pit stop at Lap 45, great pit stop at 2.8 seconds, switched to the soft tires that will need to last 21 laps.  The pit allowed Norris to move into P1.

Piastri takes his second pit at Lap 47, out at P8, with a new set of Soft tires.  Lando pitted at lap 48, he came in at P1. Unfortunately they had what looked like a slow pit stop at 3.6s, but he still was out at P2 ahead of Russell and Hamilton.   Gap to Verstappen is 8 seconds with less than 20 laps left.  Lando may have enough time to track down the Red Bull driver as he initially gained 1.5 seconds in the first couple of laps after the pit.

Over time however, the race balanced out and Norris wasn’t making as big of strides as he once was, only getting within a coupe of seconds of Verstappen, but couldn’t close the gap more than that even though he was constantly getting fastest lap.  I wouldn't say the race was boring, but there was a surprising lack of back and forth outside of around the pits.  Everyone finished the race and there wasn't a lot of thrilling over takes which I didn't expect.  

For the finish Verstappen gets P1, Norris gets P2, Hamilton, for the first time this year gets a podium finishing in P3.

The other Mclaren driver finished in P7.  So another race with double points, should help in constructors especially now that  Norris is now P2 in drivers championship.

So for the season the drivers championship looks like: Verstappen 219; Norris 150; LeClerc 148; Sainz 116.

Nice to see Lando for the first time in his career in second place in drivers championship.

Constructors Championship: Red Bull 330; Ferrari 270; McLaren 237; Mercedes 151

McLaren keeps slowly gaining on Ferrari and Red Bull, Its going to be a fun second half of the season.

Sunday Afternoon Musings

Posting a Sunday afternoon musings instead of Sunday morning due to the afternoon start of the Canadian Grand Prix.  But I still have to talk about this cup of coffee from Greater Goods that I had this morning.  Used my normal pour over method to make this cup and it was tremendous.  Strong flavors of peach tea throughout. Just tremendous. It is such a unique cup that it explodes with the tea flavors, bergamot, and then subtle notes of peach came underneath.  Lovely bright cup.  

I'll hold off on my recommendations as I plan to post that on my Instagram page tomorrow, a very specific book related recommendation so be on the look out for that.

Formula One

The Montreal GP weekend started off interestingly enough.  Not only did the newly signed to a long term contract RB Driver Perez fall out during Q1 for the second race in a row, but his teammate failed to top the pole and settled for P2.  Another surprise was both Ferrari drivers didn’t make it out of Q2.  Mercedes sat atop the Pole with Russell in P1, McLaren did well with Norris at P3 and Piastri at P5.  The biggest concern going into the actual race on Sunday though was the weather.  It had rained some during the practice session, and threatened during qualifying, but race day looked like it could be seriously affected by weather.

Both Sauber cars had to start from the pit lane due to having to fix some their cars after qualifying.  

The Grand prix started with some rain, with cars choosing to be on the intermediates except the Haas team that was full wet tires.

Surprisingly clean start to the race.  Shots of spray at the start, but through the first few turns the cars were able to stay clean and on the track.  Initially the HAAS decision to start on Wets seemed to be a good one as they climbed up the grid, both in the top 10 through the first few laps.

By Lap 5 the Ferrari paddock was reporting to LeClerc that they were seeing engine problems with the car.  Not clear on the issues, but they were working it, doesn’t sound like it will be a good day for the red team.

Lap 6 one of the Williams cars wen toff track, but they were able to get back on which cleared the section specific yellow flag, and by lap 7 the sun started to come out which should help dry the track up.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen went into the pits in lap 8 to switch from full wets to intermediates.

Fellow Haas Driver Nico Hulkenburg pitted at last 13, which then caused both of the cars to fall out of the top 10.  

With the track drying DRS was finally enabled at lap 18.

Lap 21 Lando was able to use that DRS to bypass Verstappen and get into P2. And then a little later in that same lap Norris passed Russell to get into p1!  Lap 25 Logan Sargent went into the wall bringing out a yellow flag and then a safety car.  Unfortunately Norris’s pace was so quick that he couldn’t pit, but everyone behind him did pit, including his McLaren teammate Piastri.  Teams were putting on another set of Inters preparing for an additional rain storm that was forecasted to be coming shortly.  Norris pits on Lap 26 putting on Inters, unfortunately he came out in third behind Verstappen and Russell behind the safety card.

Reports of rain coming down again in lap 28.

Safety car out at lap 29.

By lap 36 it looked like the rain had passed.  The question will be how long will the intermediate tires last, and if the teams will need to pit again before the race ends after lap 70.  Intermediate tires don’t tend to last very long once they are on a dry track so the teams are going to have to use some interesting strategy as the race goes on.

Ferrari ended up retiring LeClerc’s car at lap 43.  A few cars started pitting to switch from inters to slicks.  I think it may be a couple of laps to early, but expect to see more cars pit by lap 46.

Hamilton came in at lap 44 to switch from inters to Mediums.

McLaren driver Piastri went in to pit at lap 45 and switched to mediums.

Verstappen who was in P1 was called into pit at lap 45, Russell followed him, but Norris stayed out which put him in P1.  Norris is being called to Box at the end of lap 47.  He is over 20 seconds ahead of P2 and could get out ahead if there is a good pit.  McLaren puts on medium tires, but Norris wasn’t able to stay ahead of Verstappen.  As of Lap 48, Verstappen is in P1, Norris in P2, Russell in P3 and Piastri in P4.  A little over 20 laps left, can Lando make a move on his Red Bull rival?

Unfortunately Russell passed Norris in lap 50, around the same time that Max started complaining of issues with his car.  At lap 51 Russell ran wide, blew across a curb and Norris was able to get P2 back.

Lap 54 it looks like Sainz and Alton made some contact and spun each other around brining out a yellow flag and a safety car.

Sainz ended up retiring shortly there after, Hamilton pitted and switched to hard tires, and Russell got Medium tires on, both hoping that it will help him make a move through the remainder of the race.

Safety car ended after lap 58.

After Piastri and Russell got into a skirmish, Hamilton ended up passing the McLaren driver in lap 66 and into P3.

A hard fought race by all the drivers, 5 drivers fell out due to crashes or mechanical problems, but Verstappen was able to get back on top, with Norris in P2 and Russell in P3, Piastri did well and finished P5.  Overall an exciting race after the bore that was Monaco a couple of weeks ago. The off and on rain lead to some great strategies being deployed by the different teams and made for some back and forth racing.  Overall a fun race and happy for team papaya.

Some additional thoughts:
1) I’ve said it all season, but I will say it again, I don’t understand Red Bull’s love of Perez.  He has shown that he is an OK driver when everything is working, but if he is challenged he falls apart. He could well be the reason they don’t win the constructors cup this year and they won’t win it next year because of him.  So why did they re-sign him?  Because he doesn’t threaten Verstappen, and Max’s weak ego who can’t handle being challenged by a teammate.

2) McLaren continues to show they are the second best team on the grid.  Yes Ferrari is ahead in the constructors championship, but by the end of the season McLaren will be head of them.  

3) Good to see Ricciardo finish in the points today at P8.

4) Aston Martin had a rare race this season with double points with their drivers finishing P7 and P6.

5) For the season the Drivers Championship looks like: Verstappen 295, LeClerc 138, Norris 131 Sainz 108, Perez 107

6) For the season the Constructors championship looks like: Red Bull 301, Ferrari 252, McLaren 212, Mercedes 124, Aston Martin 58