Tag: Russell

Categories
F1 2024 Season

2024 Canadian Grand Prix

Qualifying

George Russell took his first pole position this season, with Max Verstappen matching his time in qualifying, followed by both McLarens. Both Aston Martin cars made it through into Q3 for the first time since Australia, qualifying P6 and P9. After the incident in Monaco, Ocon was given a 5-place grid penalty, resulting in a P20 start.

Image Credit: reddit.com
Race

Both Sauber drivers started from the pit lane due to a change in their wing set up. All the teams started the race on the intermediate tyres, except for the Haas cars. 

As the lights went out, George Russell took the lead. Further down the field, Lewis Hamilton overtook Daniel Ricciardo. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both ran wide in lap one. Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly made contact, causing Gasly to fall down the leaderboard.

Image Credit: motorsport.com

Within three laps, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen both made up ten places, landing themselves in P9 and P4 at the end of lap 3.

At the start of lap four, Leclerc’s engineer reported a potential engine problems for the Ferrari.

Hulkenberg was 1.6 seconds faster than the race leader going into lap five. The other Haas sat the fastest lap. 

With only six laps raced, the yellow flag was waved. Logan Sargeant locked up going into turn six, however, he was quick to rejoin the race. 

On lap seven, the Mercedes of George Russell set the fastest lap. However, it was more bad news for Leclerc as he continued to suffer with more issues. Russell pushed the Mercedes to set another fastest time on lap eight. Magnussen took to the pits for intermediate tyres and came out behind Yuki Tsunoda after an 8.6 second pit stop. Daniel Ricciardo was noted by race control for a jump start. Between lap nine and twelve, the fastest laps set swapped between Verstappen and Lando Norris, with Norris setting a lap time of 1:28.032.

Lap 13 saw disappointment after disappointment. As the circuit started to dry up, Hulkenberg started to fall back and Ricciardo was given a five second penalty for his start. 

Image Credit: pitpass.com

Russell was still leading the race by lap 14, followed by Verstappen. The McLaren of Norris was 4.8 seconds behind Verstappen, however he was able to cut the time between them down to less than one second within three laps. That same lap Verstappen locked up, allowing Norris to gain on the Red Bull.

The McLarens, who were currently P3 and P4, were building their speed continuously, setting the fastest lap time constantly, finishing with Oscar Piastri setting a lap time of 1:25.976. 

20 laps in, we saw Norris overtake the world champion with ease. The following lap, Hamilton set the fastest lap with a time of 1:25.298. With a mistake made by Russel, Norris and Verstappen took the opportunity to overtake and Norris took the lead.

Norris extended the gap between himself and Verstappen and continued setting fastest lap times. He lapped Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu on lap 24, making the interval between him and the Red Bull over ten seconds.

Image credit: motorsport.com

The yellow flags were waved for the second time for Sargeant after he collided with the wall. The safety car was released just after Norris passed the pit entrance, allowing everyone behind him to pit. When Verstappen left the pits, the time difference between him and Norris was around 30 seconds. As Norris entered the pits to put a fresh set of inters on, the gap had closed, leading to him rejoining the race just ahead of his teammate, Piastri. After the multiple issues, Leclerc headed into the pits, luckily for him, after a 2.41 second pitstop, he was able to fix the problem.

The safety car went in on lap 30, and Verstappen kept the lead after the restart.

Magnussen started the second round of pit stops, with pitting on lap 41. The following lap, Leclerc and Valterri Bottas entered the pits, however, only the Sauber driver existed. Leclerc was told to retire the car due to the problems he faced earlier in the race. 

Sainz, Perez and Ricciardo pitted on lap 44, with Piastri, Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon pitting the following lap. Verstappen and Russell pit on lap 46. And Norris, after setting another fastest lap, pitted on lap 47.

The next couple laps saw the close battle between Norris and Russell with both of them overtaking each other, though Norris takes the final overtake retaking P2.

Lap 53 saw Sainz and Albon crash, and Perez taking to the pits. All three of them retired from the race on lap 54 as the safety car was deployed, making it a double DNF for both Williams and Ferrari. Under the safety car, both Mercedes drivers pitted for mediums. After the safety car ended, the leaderboard stayed the same.

Image credit: fia.com

After DRS was enabled in lap 60, the overtaking started to happen in the following laps. Ocon was able to pass Tsunoda, and Russell took Piastri for P3. However a lap later, Russell and Piastri made contact, enabling Piastri and Hamilton to overtake Russell. Hamilton makes one of the final overtakes in Piastri to take P3.

With 4 laps left, the yellow flag waved for the last time after Tsunoda hit a bollard track marker. Hamilton set the final fastest lap of the race with a lap time of 1:15.074. Ricciardo was able to overtake the Alpine of Ocon for P8. And Russell came back for revenge, overtaking Piastri and a lap later, overtaking his teammate. The last overtake was made by Gasly with his teammate, Ocon.

Max Verstappen saw the chequered flag first, followed by Lando Norris and George Russell. The rest of the top ten was made up by Hamilton, Piastri, Alonso, Stroll, Ricciardo, Gasly and Ocon.

This is the first time Norris and Russell have shared a podium in Formula One. 

Written by Chloe. 

Featured Image credit: motorsport.com

Categories
F1 2023 Season

Azerbaijan 2023: Perez, King of the Streets

Race weekend recap

A new format for sprint race weekends was agreed, which would take effect from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Friday would see drivers participate in free practice 1 and qualifying for Sunday’s race. Saturday would be all about the sprint: the sprint shoutout was the qualifying session for the sprint race and mandated hard tyres for SQ1, medium tyres for SQ2 and soft tyres for SQ3 meant that some teams may have to prioritise qualifying for the main race.

Limited time in the only free practice session saw our usual trio of Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez. It was the beginning of a bad weekend for Pierre Gasly as his Alpine caught fire while Magnussen suffered a suspected fuel pressure problem.

Source: FormulaNerds.com

Friday’s qualifying session saw Charles Leclerc outpace the Red Bulls and claim pole position for Sunday’s race. In this qualifying session we witnessed Leclerc and Verstappen set identical times, as well as Stroll and Piastri. There were two red flags in the session when Gasly and De Vries were both caught out at separate occasions at Turn 3.

Top 10: Leclerc, Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Hamilton, Alonso, Norris, Tsunoda, Stroll, Piastri

Sprint shoutout

In the first part of the sprint shootout Sargeant had a run in with the barriers which ended his session early and disrupted it for others. The damage done to his car could not be repaired before the sprint race, so he did not participate.

Eliminated in SQ1: Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda, Gasly, De Vries

Both Aston Martins were struggling during the sprint shootout with DRS issues but survived and made it to SQ3. Piastri was unlucky and justed missed out in 11th.

Eliminated in SQ2: Piastri, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Magnussen, Sargeant

The inaugural sprint shoutout saw Leclerc take his second pole position of the weekend, really showing his pace against the Red Bulls. The Monegasque driver hit the barriers as he went to improve his time on his final flying lap but managed to keep his pole as neither Red Bull could outdo the Ferrari driver.

Top 10: Leclerc, Perez, Verstappen, Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, Albon, Alonso, Stroll, Norris

Source: Racingnews365.com

Sprint race

Some key points from the sprint race were the coming together of Verstappen and Russell and Perez’s first win of the weekend, showing just why he’s been dubbed “King of the Streets”.

Norris and Bottas were the only two drivers to choose soft tyres for the sprint, this seemed like it could have been a genius move at the start of the sprint but later turned out to be the exact opposite.

Verstappen could be heard over the radio, furious with Russell. Meanwhile, Tsunoda and De Vries also came together, with the Japanese driver losing a wheel when he hit the wall at Turn 13. AlphaTauri sent Tsunoda back out after he trundled back to the pits but a full safety car was then deployed as his damage was severe.

Source: PlanetF1.com

On the restart, Perez didn’t wait too long to get past Leclerc but the Monegasque driver did a good job in keeping Verstappen at bay to hold onto P2. Fernando Alonso finished between Sainz and Hamilton as he was opportunistic after the restart and overtook the seven time world champion. Stroll made a move on Albon towards the end of the sprint, claiming the final point available.

Top 8: Perez, Leclerc, Verstappen, Russell, Sainz, Alonso, Hamilton, Stroll

Race Review

Sergio Perez made it 2/2 wins over the weekend when he saw the chequered flags at the end of Lap 57 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He held his cool when teammate Max Verstappen tried his best to hunt him down and kept a safe distance between them. Though Perez benefitted from the timing of the safety car and Verstappen didn’t, the Mexican made the most of the opportunity to cement his desire for a title charge.

Charles Leclerc claimed Ferrari’s first podium of the season with a P3 finish. Unable to keep up with the pace of the Red Bulls, Leclerc settled for third, finishing over 20 seconds behind them. Sainz was off the pace too, playing catch up to his teammate all weekend as he finished 5th.

Source: CP24.com

Aston Martin will be happy with their weekend. After suffering with DRS issues over the weekend, a 4th and 7th place finish would be a nice chunk of points to reward the team’s hard work. Alonso did try to chase down Leclerc in the latter stages of the race but was unsuccessful in this attempt.

It was a relatively quiet weekend for Mercedes. Hamilton drove a solid race on Sunday, the aim to close in on Sainz but he was unable to perform an overtake. Russell, starting lower than he would’ve liked because of a poor qualifying session on Friday, brought home some points in P8.

McLaren had a positive Azerbaijan GP. Although there is still room for improvement, the team from Woking can be proud of their step forward. The car upgrades saw Norris take P9 and Piastri, who was ill for the majority of the weekend finished P11. Both played the long waiting game behind Ocon and Hulkenberg who pitted late in the race.

Tsunoda completed a very strong race with a points finish in P10. De Vries retired from the race after he crashed into the wall at Turn 5. For Williams, Albon was among the pack that finished close together missing out on points and Sargeant was one of the last of the finishers. In the Haas team, it was similar to Williams; in what was quite an uneventful race, Magnussen was sandwiched between Albon and Gasly while Hulkenberg finished just above Bottas who had a race to forget.

Tune in again next week as we head to Miami for round 5 of the 2023 Formula 1 Season.

Categories
F1 2022 Season

Brazil 2022- Not Just Mr Saturday

Race weekend review

Going into the weekend, the F1 community was still awaiting the announcement from Haas on who would partner Kevin Magnussen next season. A number of sources reported that the seat was already Hulkenburg’s and the announcement was the final piece of the puzzle. The opportunity for a reserve role in Mercedes may present itself to Schumacher if this is the case as Toto Wolff spoke highly of Schumacher in an interview recently.

Practice 1 &2

FP1 was of high importance as the drivers would only have one session to obtain the necessary data before Friday qualifying since it was a sprint race weekend. Perez, Leclerc and Verstappen were the top three, the smallest of margins between the trio. Lando Norris, after feeling unwell and missing media duties on Thursday, was out on track on Friday. FP2 on Saturday morning was a pretty standard session but it was the Alpine of Ocon who lead Perez and Russell on the time board.

Source: motorsport.com

Qualifying

The weather forecast had predicted some rain over the weekend but it was hard to tell for how long and how heavy it would be. Drivers were setting times on intermediates but in the latter part of Q1, Gasly was the first to switch to soft tyres when it was dry enough to do so; the others followed in pursuit. The drop zone was changing rapidly and it was a tense finish due to the constant improvement of times. Eliminated in Q1: Latifi, Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda, Schumacher

Clouds were still looming in Q2, everyone was trying set their times before the rain came down. Verstappen pipped Sainz to the top spot by 0.009s while there was joy in the Haas garage because Magnussen found himself in P7 and in Q3. Eliminated in Q2: Albon, Gasly, Vettel, Ricciardo, Stroll

In preparation for rain in the Q3, everyone chose slicks to run their first flying lap- except for Leclerc whose team put him in out on intermediates, but the rain hadn’t fallen yet. A mistake by Ferrari? He stayed out on those tyres to complete his lap, and Perez was behind the struggling Ferrari so his lap was compromised. Russell beached his Mercedes in the gravel and the red flag came out. Magnussen was on provisional pole. When the track was cleared, rain came down and inters were the only way to go; meaning that it was virtually impossible to beat Magnussen’s time. As drivers got out of their cars and time was running out, celebrations began in the Haas garage because the Dane, who had returned to F1 this year, was on course to take the first pole position of his career.

Top 10: Magnussen, Verstappen, Russell, Norris, Sainz*, Ocon, Alonso, Hamilton, Perez and Leclerc

*Taking a 5 place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for new engine components

Source: Pitpass.com via Sam BloxhamLAT Images

Sprint race

What tyres would be the most effective during the race? Softs or mediums? Red Bull and Verstappen thought different to most and wanted to have a fresh set softs for Sunday so he started on mediums. A good start from Magnussen saw him keep his lead into turn one ahead of Verstappen. Ocon and Alonso raced hard and had two incidents, one of them resulting in contact and the other was investigation after the sprint race which Alonso was later penalised for with a 5 second penalty.

Soon enough Verstappen, Russell and Sainz overtook Magnussen as the Dane struggled to keep up with the front runners. Stroll received a 10 second time penalty for a dangerous manoeuvre on his teammate, Vettel, which saw the German take to the grass.

By this stage, Magnussen had dropped down to P7 when Hamilton, Perez and Leclerc overtook him. At the front, Russell got past Verstappen for the lead on Lap 15, and not long after, Sainz passed the world champion too. But, there was contact between the pair which resulted in damage for the Red Bull, giving Hamilton the opportunity to overtake him too.

Source: Sportingnews.com

Leclerc managed to make his way up to P6 ahead of Norris and Magnussen who took the final sprint race point. Vettel and Gasly just missed out on points in 9th and 10th.

Top 8: Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Perez, Leclerc, Norris, Magnussen.

Race

George Russell became a Grand Prix race winner at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The young Brit kept his cool after the safety car restart and made his way to what was an emotional, well deserved victory. Contact with Verstappen at the start slightly hampered the 7x world champion’s race who started on the front row, but he made a fantastic recovery which saw him finish 1.5 seconds behind Russell; the first 1-2 of the season for Mercedes.

Carlos Sainz drove a solid race for Ferrari, starting 7th due to his grid penalty. The Spaniard overtook Perez after the safety car restart and was rewarded with the last podium place ahead of his teammate. Leclerc also had a very good race; contact with Norris saw him drop to the back of the grid at the start of the race but he stormed his way through the field to P4- he asked his team to swap him and Sainz around to help his championship fight for P2 but the team refused.

Source: Dknation.draftkings.com

It was not the best of weekends for Red Bull. They lacked the pace to keep up with Mercedes and Ferrari. Verstappen’s contact with Hamilton meant that the Dutchman needed to make his way through the field as he had dropped down several places after an impromptu pitstop along with a 5 second penalty for causing the collision. He finished the race in P6. Towards the end of the race, he overtook Perez on the quest to get by Leclerc and Alonso to help out Perez for P2 in the standings; but when asked to give back the position when he couldn’t get the job done, Verstappen didn’t and when questioned he responded with:

“Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stuck by it.”

– Max Verstappen on why he did not give back position to Perez at the Brazilian GP

Perez who was unhappy with his teammate finished in P7, losing points to Leclerc in their fight for P2, this means that they are level on 290 points going into the final race.

Alonso had a fantastic race, starting down in P18 and finishing in P5 ahead of the Red Bulls. Ocon was given the order not to fight Alonso who was on a different strategy to him, he managed to finish P8.

The Brazilian GP was a dismal weekend for McLaren. Ricciardo made contact with Magnussen, ending their races on Lap 1 and the Aussie also received a 3 place grid drop for the Abu Dhabi GP because of it. Norris received a 5 second time penalty for his contact with Leclerc but he found himself in a worse situation when he stopped with an issue in his car, resulting in a DNF for him and a safety car for the others.

Source: grandprix.com

Bottas was the leading Alfa Romeo driver, coming home with 2 points in P9, while Zhou missed out in P12. There were no points scored for Haas as Schumacher finished behind the Alfa Romeo in P12 and Magnussen DNFd.

Tsunoda and Gasly did not have good races either; Tsunoda’s pitlane start saw him finish P17, while Gasly was given a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pitlane and finished P14. Finally, Albon and Latifi completed the race in 15th and 16th for Williams.

The final race of the season is on Sunday in Abu Dhabi where we will bid an emotional farewell to some drivers…

Categories
F1 2022 Season

Hungary 2022- 10 to 1

Race weekend review

Last year Hungary gave us an epic race, Esteban Ocon claiming his first F1 win, Sebastian Vettel achieving a second podium for Aston Martin before being disqualified because of a lack of fuel and Lewis Hamilton coming through the field ultimately promoted to 2nd.

This year, F1 headed into the weekend after the shocking announcement that Sebastian Vettel would retire at the end of the season. The four time world champion made his announcement via Instagram on Thursday before speaking more on it during press conferences that same day. Many drivers spoke about the positive influence Sebastian had on the sport during his career.

Source: Reuters.com

Practice

In FP1, our trio of Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc were the front runners; it was also a good session for McLaren as their drivers were P4 and P8. Reserve driver Kubica took Bottas’ place in FP1, the first of the two to use the new floor for the car.

As Hungary was a track that would seem to suit Ferrari, it was no surprise that both cars were in the top 3 in FP2; the surprise was Lando Norris was the car to split the Ferraris, claiming P2 for the papaya team. Verstappen was P4, just ahead of the McLaren of Ricciardo in P5 and world champions Alonso and Vettel in P6 and 7. It was P8 and P11 for Mercedes, Hamilton found some traffic on his fast lap which cost him some time.

Source: crash.net

It rained on Saturday, so intermediate tyres were used in FP3 where we saw probably one of the most surprising finishes to a session. Williams had a 1 and 3 finish, Latifi in P1 and Albon in P3, with Leclerc squashed in between them. Vetstappen was P4, a further eight tenths back on Albon.

Sebastian Vettel finished ninth but crashed out towards the end of the session, which brought out a red flag. Aston Martin had to work hard to get his car ready on time for qualifying— and they did exactly that.

Qualifying

No rain for qualifying meant that racing would go back to normal in the order of things. The regular front runners of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari set times to keep them safe. A reoccurring sight was both Haas cars making it to Q2 but only one of the Aston Martin cars escaped elimination and it was Lance Stroll— Sebastian Vettel could only take P18, a result he was very unhappy with considering the teams hard work to get him back out in time.

Source: Dailystar.co.uk

There was more misfortune at AlphaTauri with both cars failing to escape danger—track limits saw Gasly’s time deleted and dropped him back down into the bottom five.

Eliminated in Q1: Tsunoda, Albon, Vettel, Gasly, Latifi

In Q2 Perez had his first lap time deleted for track limits, meaning an extra one was needed. It was later restored after review of the lap. This was unfortunately not enough to save the Mexican who was eliminated from Q2 as his time was not fast enough (by the smallest of margins); he later blamed traffic as the reason he missed out on the final qualifying session. Ricciardo’s P8 in Q2 meant that McLaren had another top 10 shootout with both cars.

Eliminated in Q2: Perez, Zhou, Magnussen, Stroll, Schumacher

For some people, Q3 did not go as planned. After first runs, Sainz was on provisional pole, ahead of an unexpected Russell and Leclerc. An angry Verstappen could only see 7th after his first run, complaining that there was a loss of power in his car which the team tried to fix.

Leclerc could not outdo his teammate who seemed set for his second pole position with another stellar lap, so he was to start the race from third. Although he did not set purple sector times, small improvements across the lap as a whole saw George Russell set the fastest time on the board, landing him a surprising first pole position.

Verstappens problems continued so he was stuck in 10th place, while Lewis Hamilton had an issue with DRS and he was left in seventh place.

The top 10: Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris, Ocon, Alonso, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Verstappen.

Source: Mark Sutton/ LAT Images via f1chronicle.com

Race report

You might be wondering, how on earth did the two Ferraris finish outside of the podium and how did Verstappen and Hamilton finish 1-2? Well, it was down to some brilliant pieces of strategy and some not so brilliant pieces of strategy.

Verstappen added another win to his tally at a race it almost didn’t seem like he was in contention to win. A brilliant strategy curated by Hannah Schmitz, Red Bull’s principal strategy engineer gave the Dutchman the means to take the victory. The reigning world champion started 10th and with a series of clever calls by Schmitz, the team did an undercut on Sainz and Verstappen made plenty of important overtakes which ultimately saw him victorious. In all of this, Verstappen managed to add a 360 spin into the mix and do his overtake on Leclerc once more. He now leads the championship by 80 points. Perez made up many places from his 11th place start, good overtaking skills and good strategy saw him finish P5.

Source: empowertrains.com

Mercedes for the first time this season saw their drivers take back to back double podiums, a huge improvement for the team considering that they felt they were very far behind their competitors. Hamilton went for the medium-medium soft strategy which allowed him to eventually over take Sainz and Russell in the latter part of the race and take second place for the second time in a row. Russell, the pole sitter went with the opposite strategy, soft-medium-medium which earned him another podium, finishing ahead of Sainz.

Source: arabnews.com

Questionable decisions cost Ferrari what should have been a 1-2 this weekend. The ongoing debate of strategy within the came has been a subject previously discussed by the media. With a more optimal strategy than his teammate, Sainz had a reasonable race but slow pit stops saw him only take P4 as the highest Ferrari finisher. Leclerc on the other hand, will be asking questions to the team supposed to help him challenge for the championship, what is the story with the bad strategy calls? He suffered from lack of grip and speed when the team chose to put him on hard tyres that were known to cause problems when he would’ve liked to stay on mediums longer and go on the same strategy as the others. He went to pits after a while, pitting for softs and finishing P6.

It was a mixed day for McLaren, Norris claimed the bragging rights for best of the rest with his P7 in a quiet enough race but Ricciardo was left P15 after he received a five second time penalty for a collision with Magnussen earlier in the race.

Alpine did not lose any of their lead to their competitors in the constructors’ championship, scoring the same points as McLaren with eighth and ninth place; they also had a pretty quiet race.

Source: Totalmotorsport.com

Completing the top 10 was Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin, racing in Hungary for the last time. He had a very good race after his 18th place start, finishing in the points ahead of his teammate and almost catching Ocon at the very end. Stroll finished 11th, just outside of the points.

A good drive from Gasly saw him make up places from 19th to take P12; but, it was not so jolly on Tsunoda’s side of the garage as he finished last due to spin which left him at the back.

Zhou was a lot further behind Gasly in 13th, while Bottas retired from the race early with laps to go. For Haas it was not an eventful race, Schumacher was 14th and Magnussen 16th. Finally, Williams drivers were 17th and 18th, not a great day at the office for them.

It is now the summer break, with 4 weeks off from racing, it officially is the beginning of “silly season” where we await unexpected news about driver contracts and all sorts of crazy things. Keep updated by following The Fastest Sector on all social media platforms and the blog for more posts!

Categories
F1 2022 Season

Hamilton, Russell, Norris, and Silverstone: A Full English

The British Grand Prix is a staple in the F1 calendar, especially at the historic Silverstone Circuit.

This year was extra special as it featured 3 British drivers in top teams capable of competing for a podium or for some even a win.

Russell and Hamilton being the only all British driver pairing on the grid with Mercedes went into the weekend hoping to continue the momentum created from an electrifying weekend in Montreal, while Norris looked to bring McLaren back to the top of the grid with the current “Big Three”.

The weekend started off well for Hamilton finishing P2 in FP1while Russell and Norris struggled running only a combined 6 laps and neither recording a time.

FP2 saw Hamilton continue his successes from earlier in the morning and finishing in P2 yet again, Norris found his stride to end Friday running in P3 while Russell would settle for a respectable P8.

Saturday is where the big show truly begins, and with all 3 drivers finishing FP3 in the top 10 it looked promising for the home crowd for qualifying.

Quali saw all three Brits make it to Q3 despite the tricky conditions, but a mistake by Russell in the closing stages saw him finish quali in only P8 while Hamilton and Norris qualified in P5 and P6 respectively with less than a tenth separating them.

Sunday is where the points are scored though, and all three were in a prime position to score some especially with more controlled conditions.

When the five lights went off, we saw a tale of three races for each driver. Hamilton got off the line brilliantly, jumping Alonso and Leclerc for 3rd, Norris got a decent start and was able to pass Alonso and battle Perez until an incident that leads me to the final British driver.

Russell got off the line incredibly poorly, falling back on Latifi and Zhou before clipping the wheel of Gasly and spinning off into Zhou sending Zhou into the gravel and catch fence upside down and suffering a puncture himself before stopping the car and getting out to assist in recovering Zhou.

Despite Russell’s belief that he could get the car back to the pits under its own power, the Marshalls opted to tow it back meaning an end to his race and an end to his incredible streak of P5 or better performances this season in devastating fashion.

The rest of the race would see Norris put up a brilliant effort to finish P6 throughout all the chaos and pandemonium.

For Hamilton, the race was one of highs and lows, but mostly highs. A slow pitstop would mean he would lose out on the lead and even a podium in some eyes, but there is a reason he is seen as one of the greatest to ever do it, he just finds a way.

A late safety car would allow Hamilton to pit for new softs with very little to lose. The restart would allow Lewis to have an excellent look at the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who was running on much older hard tires, but with the raw pace of the Ferrari what would normally be a routine drs overtake would lead to some of the most brilliant racing we have seen in a very long time with the GOAT taking on the driver of tomorrow for a much-desired podium place. After about 7 laps of pure racing, Hamilton would get DRS and complete the move with enough time to pull away earning him a P3 in his home race to the delight of the amazing British fans.

Hope you enjoyed this piece about our lovely British drivers- make sure you show some love and tell us about your favourite moments of the drivers in the comment section.