Track Torque: Mad Max bins it, Lewis wins it
There's a long way to go but this season has already been an exciting one.
What a mess they made of it all at the Baku Track in Azerbaijan last Sunday with two safety car interventions needed.
The two men from Red Bull took each other out, leaving the pieces for the dustbin, while Sebastian Vettel, after an almost faultless race on his part, overdid it while braking for the tight left hand corner.
Vettel was going to retake the lead but instead put himself back into the fourth place in which he finished.
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Lewis Hamilton, in his Mercedes drove a faultless race, his luck held and he deserved the win, while his team mate Valtteri Bottas was the unlucky one to hit some debris with his tyre, which took him out.
It was a mess and not quite fair and just, but that is motor racing.
In terms of the championship titles, Ferrari lead the constructors while Hamilton has nudged ahead of Vettel in the drivers.
The Ricciardo-Verstappen incident had to happen after all their argy-bargy but it was hard to apportion blame for the final incident except to say that ‘Mad Max’ was more often the aggressor.
However, I still love his ability, determination and will to win.
After Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, who finished second in his Ferrari in the eventful race, came a delighted Sergio Perez into a podium spot in his Force India Merc. Both drivers were somewhat surprised.
Behind Vettel came a charged up Carlos Sainz in a very improved Renault.
Team mate Nico Hulkenberg had earlier also given a great display of good driving and great performance from his Renault before succumbing to a late brake into the barriers of this ever unforgiving street circuit.
Charles Leclerc gave us great entertainment with a very well-driven sixth place in the ever-so-smart looking Sauber Alfa Romeo.
It’s wonderful to see one of the smaller teams coming back so strongly. He was awarded driver of the day after giving Sauber their best finish in exactly 50 races.
Seventh to ninth were Fernando Alonso in the McLaren Renault followed by Lance Stroll in his Williams Mercedes and Stoffel Vandoorne in the second McLaren.
Next were Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasley who, after avoiding a monumental crash together, showed us again the potential of this year’s Honda engine.
The really big news after the race is that Red Bull are now in talks with Masahi Yamamoto for Honda engines to be used by both their teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, for next year.
If this happens I predict a really positive result for Honda and the two Red Bull teams, as firstly they now come second to Works Renault regarding latest engine supply and secondly because I believe that Adrian Newey and Yamamoto will work extremely well together.
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