Sunday Musings, The Temple of Speed and Liverpool V ManU

 

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.  

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 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