Well, it basically went as expected. Another dominant RB 1-2, with Max breaking Vettel’s record and taking 10 wins in a row. At this rate, he’ll probably break his own season record of 15 wins before the end of the year.
Happy for Carlos on his first podium of the year, he did a great job holding up Max at the start and ran a strong race from there. Good job by Alex to finish P7 in the end.
Absolute disaster for Alpain, yikes.
The whole team has been a mess recently. Underpowered engine, mediocre and very inconsistent car, and absolute chaos in terms of management. The only stable, good thing about the team is their driver lineup, which also could’ve been Alonso and Piastri if they hadn’t screwed that one up.
A few weeks ago I rewatched the 2020 Monza race (absolute classic), and I remember Crofty saying the Renault was one of the fastest cars in a straight line. Was this more to do with their aero setup than the engine?
Toto on Max’s record: “It’s for Wikipedia, and nobody reads that anyway”.
Yeah, apparently Mercedes won 8 WCC and 7 WDC in a row, but that’s all for Wikipedia, and nobody reads that anyway.
Hamilton’s 103 wins? Nah, all for Wikipedia, and nobody reads that anyway.
It’s clear they’re just salty and jealous. You can guarantee if Lewis had won ten in a row, they’d be celebrating for weeks.
Practice and qualifying was a very interesting turn of events. Ferrari seem to be by far the strongest on this track. Russell and Norris in the mix as well.
RB is obviously the big story here, and to say I’m shocked would be an understatement. It looked like they would be a bit weaker after FP1 and FP2, but not to this extent. We know their car is better in the race than quali, but it’s never been like this. Max has always been able to consistently fight for pole. To be knocked out in Q2 by LIAM LAWSON in the Red Bull B-team is just unbelievable.
Their race pace should be miles better than over one lap but starting from P11 and P13 on a track like Marina Bay is going to be challenging. Ferrari’s tire deg is also terrible so this could be a big opportunity for Merc and especially Russell, who seems to be the stronger of the pair this weekend.
Nasty crash for Stroll, good to see he’s okay. Someone should’ve told him the crashgate thing is for the race, though.
Great session for Haas, very curious how they do tomorrow. They tend to be pretty decent in quali especially with Hulk but like Ferrari, their deg is absolutely horrendous. Maybe this could be their race with both cars in Q3.
Great job by Lawson, I would be shocked if this man doesn’t have a seat next year. He has proven he has the talent to drive full-time in F1 and he should absolutely get the AT seat.
Very interesting day, a lot of questions to be answered soon. Let’s see what happens.
What a race!
No kidding! Masterclass from Carlos. Managed the entire race like a champion. Good job by Norris and Hamilton as well.
What the hell was that from Russell? Absolutely cracked under pressure. Not the first time either.
Fantastic drive from Max, dude went from 18s behind Charles to almost passing him in a matter of 4-5 laps. Really great job.
Lawson really deserves that AT seat next year, he has proven to be a contender for the RB seat in the future which Yuki has failed to do, despite good performance. RB doesn’t need a midfielder. Great drive from him to score points in his 3rd race.
Very good, underrated drive from Gasly. He’s definitely been very strong this year. Shame for Esteban as he was doing very well.
What an insane race. Love to see it. Especially as a Ferrari fan. Sainz has looked incredible since Zandvoort. That was an absolute champion’s drive today.
Pretty accurate…
I assume that’s F1 fantasy?
Btw what a lap! Fell asleep last night during FP3 to wake up to that!? Incredible.
No, it’s the constructors standings on the F1 website. Dunno if they changed it back yet.
Seems like I missed quite a session but I wasn’t about to throw away sleep to watch it live. Good job by Piastri, he’s having a great season. It seems the move to McLaren was the right one.
Speaking of which, did you see what he posted on Twitter after his contract extension? “Stress free contract announcement like always”. Absolutely savage.
Good to see Tsunoda in Q3 at home too. I hope he has a good weekend, same with Liam.
That Aston Martin is getting worse every race, at this point they’ll be lucky to hang onto 4th. I can’t remember the last time a car got so bad over the course of a season.
Lucky you. I’ll try to take a nap after work, and maybe getting my car washed. That’ll keep me up for the race. Suzuka is my favorite circuit outside of hot lapping Monaco, and the ring.
I think I have to agree. Love watching races on it, love driving on it in FM. It’s an incredible place, truly one of the best tracks on the calendar.
The race starts at 10:00 PM Saturday night for me. Works out pretty well.
I liked Alpine’s reply.
If only the Alpine team and car was as good as their Twitter admin…
12:00 AM here in Texas 
. If I see Max dominating it’s going to be another nap fest until something big happens or the race ends as usual. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I was waiting for someone, ANYONE to take down Hamilton. Vettel couldn’t do it in ‘17 and ‘18 and I was a sad boy. If I knew then what I know now I would’ve cheered for Rosberg in 2016 when I started tuning into F1, but that’s a debate for another day.
Hamilton will go down as top 5 all time, maybe even higher than that from what I’ve seen comparing him to the likes of Senna and Schumacher. He’s a true showman, more entertaining to watch than Max, and Schumi, up there with Senna. He was something else in qualifying.
I’m fine with dominance if it’s something like last season. Red Bull had by far the best car from Belgium onwards but Ferrari was still in contention for the odd win, Mercedes grabbed a win at Interlagos, and RB still had to actually fight. They weren’t winning by 30+ seconds.
Hopefully the race will be good, McLaren might have a big advantage up their sleeve over RB with strategy, so it could get very interesting.
Obviously another outstanding drive by Verstappen. Looks like Singapore was just a one-time thing, RB has bounced back.
Incredible job by Piastri, the first driver to score a podium in his Rookie season since, ironically, Lance Stroll in 2017. It really was a great drive too. The McLaren has been FAST recently so they might actually catch AM in the standings with how poor they’ve been if MCL keeps up this form.
Russell and Lewis gave us some great battles, IMO one of the closest and best teammate battles to watch on the grid. Say what you want about Lewis (trust me, I don’t like him either) but he puts it down where it matters as he’s still one of the best drivers on the grid this year.
It was fun to watch the ATs battle as well, it’s a real shame Lawson won’t be there next year, he deserves the seat for sure. I personally think the lineup should’ve been Danny and Liam, keep Danny there to test and see if he is a good replacement for Perez (who had another disaster of a race) and bring in Lawson to test as a future superstar driver. I like Yuki, he’s proven to be a good driver this season, but he’s not in contention for the main RB seat. He’s shown that he has great moments and can score some points when it counts, but he seems to have the ceiling of a decent midfielder. I don’t think he’ll ever be more than that. The Aston seat would’ve been great for him alongside Nando but as we know, Stroll has a lifetime contract and will never leave.
Speaking of Aston, great point @Banjacked8153, the loose rear wing is very concerning. Definitely something to look into and quickly, maybe while they’re looking into why the hell their car is so slow. Saw a post on Reddit yesterday comparing Vettel’s Q3 time last year at Suzuka in the AMR22 (1:30.554) versus Alonso’s Q3 time on Saturday (1:30.560). They really are going backwards.
Absolute disaster for Perez, I don’t even need to say more. Unbelievable. He’s getting really sloppy.
Fun race, some good action throughout. Nice to see Piastri get his first podium and congrats to RB on the Constructors’ Championship. Onto Qatar now.
Something I didn’t even realize is that Norris is now tied with Russell in the WDC. He’s had a great run of races lately, second in Singapore and now Japan.
Another very concerning thing for Red Bull is that Lewis is a mere 33 points behind Perez, which could be made up very quickly considering the tracks we have next. Mercedes won at Interlagos last year, they were very strong in Mexico and Austin as well. RB could have a real threat for second if Perez keeps having these horrendous races.
It’s just starting to look like more of a common trend. Remember Singapore? Basically just rammed into Yuki and Alex with very Russell-esque moves. Just need a “he just turned into me!” now.
It seems like he just expects to be let through by all backmarkers and midfielders because he drives the RB. And Perez should know, that KMag is the absolute last person who will let you through because your car is quicker. Hence all of the damage he picked up on Lap 1 last year from battling with Lewis and Max.