Silver Arrows make it four, one twos in a row
Mercedes proved invincible at Baku last Sunday. Valtteri Bottas came back again for an exciting win from Lewis Hamilton with a nice tussle as they raced for the chequered flag together. At this stage of the game the Ferrari team just cannot get their act properly together with things going awry once Charles Leclerc had his accident in qualifying. He came back strongly in the race and led the race for some time before his tyre stop and Max Verstappen split a three, four position for Ferrari with Sebastian Vettel 3rd and Charles Leclerc 5th ahead and behind the Flying Dutchman!
The top five cars were very close together on performance with fastest laps attained by Bottas, Hamilton and Max Verstappen, several times.
In 6th and 9th position were the two very quick Racing Point’s powered by Mercedes engines driven by Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll while the two McLaren Renaults driven by Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris slotted in between in 7th and 8th place. They had a keen race long battle together. Kimi Raikkonen had a race of mixed fortunes but did well to end up as final man in the points in 10th spot. He still gives us some exciting viewing with very determined driving at all times in the quick and pretty Alfa Romeo.
In a fortnight’s time the Circus will commence it’s European leg at the famous Barcelona test track which is extremely challenging. This should see a host of upgrades coming to the cars which are then that much closer to their home bases. Besides Merc and Ferrari keeping each other on their toes, I have been very impressed with Honda’s performance at both Red Bull and Toro Rosso so far this season. They are hoping for another healthy jump in power at the Spanish track- it should be very interesting as most teams except perhaps for Williams who are in the doldrums are expected to do better. A Russian entrepreneur is said to be bidding for the wonderful old team from Grove!
Whatever happens depends on a much needed injection of cash and enthusiasm into this ailing British team.
Rod Kinsey
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