Where is Bottas’ luck?
It was all about Lap 1 of the Grand Prix really, as it was so hard to overtake after that, and the pendulum kept swinging in what has been an incredible season of F1!
In hindsight, Red Bull should have been pleased to lock out the 2nd row of the grid in qualifying, as if they had got pole, with their lack of straight line speed, they surely would have been swamped down to Turn 1. Instead, though, it was Max who got the perfect slipstream, and out braked the Mercedes to get the lead. From then on, there was no stopping him, as he had the best pace by far out there. It is crazy to think that Verstappen is actually starting to dominate the championship, and if Baku and Hungary had gone differently, the title could be almost wrapped up! Perez drove his heart out, and did very well to pressurise Hamilton, but the dirty air was too much for him in the end. I am glad that Checo has turned a corner with the car, which has helped the team massively in the constructors’ standings. Even better, was seeing him on the podium at home, a well deserved one for a fan favourite driver.
It turns out it was a blip for Red Bull on Saturday, but you cannot write the rollercoaster of emotions that occurred in the Mercedes garage over those few days. The dejection of practice, and seemingly being nowhere, to all of a sudden get one over the rivals, and look to have a chance at the win, then for it all to go wrong in the 1st kilometre of racing, and lose even more points to Red Bull. They just lacked downforce all weekend it seems, as their straight line speed was mega, yet it was outweighed massively in the 2nd and 3rd sector. The season isn’t over; however, Mercedes needs to get winning soon to stop their run of titles ending! Lewis did what you expect of him really, by maximising what he had, and withstood the pressure from Perez. You have to feel for Bottas, who was brilliant in qualifying, for it all to come to nothing in the race, and be stuck behind the guy who took him out, for most of the race.
This race showed that AlphaTauri should at least be near to the battle for 3rd in the constructors, if they had got their act together sooner, and if Tsunoda had been able to deliver on his promise better. No one could lay a glove on Gasly in the race, as he continues to excel in F1. They were helped by the Honda being brilliant at altitude this weekend, although that car is clearly great overall too! Yuki was unlucky to get hit on Lap 1, especially given his pace all weekend.
Ferrari pretty much did what they set out to do in Mexico, as they surged ahead of McLaren, and build further towards 2022. Sainz got unlucky with the Turn 1 spin, in that he fell behind Leclerc, and had to use team orders to get by and try to attack Gasly, which came to nothing in the end. Ferrari do look like the favourites now for 3rd place.
It was an unfortunate mistake for Ricciardo to make into the 1st corner, as he locked up on the inside and ploughed into Bottas. It completely ruined all the good work he had done over the weekend, and should arguably have been a penalty. Norris did a solid job to fight from the back to score a point, but it was peanuts compared to their rivals!
Age was clearly on their side in this race, as the older statesmen of Vettel, Alonso and Raikkonen all managed to come away from here with points. They all had great pace, and weren’t holding anyone up, which for the Alfa Romeo is great news, given their toils this year. Alonso was able to go a race without causing any track limits controversy, which is equally impressive! Vettel was able to use the overcut to his advantage, as Giovinazzi got stuck behind traffic following his pitstop, which utterly ruined his race! Ocon and Stroll couldn’t reach the points from their lowly starting spots.
Haas had another difficult weekend, with Mick not able to keep up the promise he showed on Friday, before being taken out in Turn 1 in the race. As for Williams, they were nowhere too, which is unexpected for the team who have done so well on occasions this year! Can Brazil be a different story?
Sadly, we didn’t get a stunner on our return to the Mexican capital, however there is a better chance of some action at the iconic Interlagos circuit, and with the final sprint race of the year happening there, who knows what could happen! Can Max and Lewis keep their 100% record up, of coming together on the Sunday after the Sprint race?
-M
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