[imzahid]

I genuinely feel Bottas is surviving just because of the absolute supremacy of this Mercedes car. A youngster who has ZERO points this year shouldn't be giving him a run for his money provided the fact that he has been in the team for 4 years now! Another possibility is that George Russell is actually a better driver than the likes of Verstappen and Leclerc which, frankly, is absurd IMO. It's time for Merc to look for better drivers who can challenge Lewis (although I'm not sure whether they would be wanting that situation ).

[deetjohn]

That was a nice qualifying! Very good to see some very very close times from the top 3 and it is always relishing when someone puts a car where it doesn't belong. I just hope Charles is able to make it count in the race as well - he could really do with a good Sunday result.

And even if George wins today from his quite impressive P2 in an unknown Merc, I don't think he should replace Lewis. Lewis is Lewis! One of a kind really. And like with all racing drivers, many of us might appreciate everything that he is doing with these all conquering machines only after he is gone! Sure, he has lost of bit of his raw speed on Saturday, but he is truly a monster now on every other aspect of racing!

But it will be great if Mercedes can give George the second seat. For our sake at least! That will be a great line-up. But I don't think it is going to happen. It is very much Team Lewis now and I am not confident Mercedes is here in F1 for the long haul. So, why unsettle the apple cart??

And on the contract front, I can now see that perennial Bond villain Mr. Horner has now repeated what I posted on this thread yesterday. While he is playing games, I was just looking for some banter. Lewis is worth all the money he is asking for. In fact, I feel some of these gifted drivers are not getting their worth when I look at the other sport I love.

How is it fair to pay Lewis only 40 million or so when Barca can cough up 150 million for a certain Coutinho?? It is just one example but genuinely baffling!

PS: My secret wish is for Lewis to make a BIG fortune and buy my beloved club from the lousy Kroenkes.

[ecenandu]

Russel is good, but it is only Saturday, guys. How he drives on Sunday is what counts, let's wait and see. He is a talented driver no doubt, his record in the junior category shows it. He has won championships in his rookie years, a trait mark of special drivers.

[shibujp]

Russell and Leclerc were the standouts in qualifying. I kind of expected Russell to outqualify Bottas given his FP1 and FP2 performances. However it seems Bottas was holding back a bit and ultimately had the measure of his young counterpart.

The top three separated by a couple of hundred milliseconds is insane.

Leclerc qualifying the Ferrari at P4 was just fantastic. He immediately got out of the car and went to the pit wall taking no further part in qualifying clearly indicating that there was nothing more to eke out of the car or driver. Vettel while making it to Q2 was quite sedate in Q2 itself. Perhaps given the fact that he is using an older engine, race reliability might be been prioritized.

Perez continued with the "best of the rest" theme lining up in P5 behind Leclerc. He may make up a couple of place during the start given the fact that both Bottas and Verstappen have botched up starts in the last races. Critical race for Racing Point given that third place in constructor standing is so close and they did not pick up any points in the last race.

Kvyat out qualified Gasly which was a rare one. I think that Gasly has been kind of under delivering since his win in Monza.

Ocon, Norris and Albon have not has a great run, unable to pull themselves out of Q2.

Taking nothing away from Russell it also lends credibility to Verstappen's remark that 90% of the field would win in the Mercedes. Also given the contract negotiations with Hamilton, Russell's chance might also be strategic.

Not expecting a humdinger of a race or anything. Teams with a power deficit are going to be hobbled and with such a short lap time, perhaps and overcut or undercut would have more impact.

Drive on,
Shibu

[aim120]

Verstappen was asked in post qualifying press conference, whether it justifies paying Lewis that much compared to others newer driver. His answer was yes because under pressure he delivers and that's why he is a seven time world champion. Watch the post qualifying interview below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFV895InN_c

[ecenandu]

On the final Q3 run, Bottas was followed by Russel and then Verstappen. I believe the latter two got a good tow. Not sure whether it played a part in making their time more competitive.

If Verstappen gets a clean start, I believe he got a good chance for victory today.

[DeathPig]

Absolutely bonkers from Leclerc. The kid might be political, and know what to say and when to say it, but the way he put that Ferrari on P4 is something else. And the best part is, he uses a setup that gives him less downforce/drag affording him higher top speeds. I forgot who said this, but Leclerc has always been good at getting the car to turn around even when there's less grip. All the greats are good at multiple corrections mid-corner and Leclerc does something very similar as well.

Props to Russell. I'm not sure how far the tow helped him, but for what it's worth he showed his mettle and he deserves P2. He was also much quicker on the throttle than Bottas was after T1/T2, and he was apparently turning into T1 too early in T1 as he's used to the Williams. This does not suit the W11 which starts to understeer, making the change of direction slow. Yet, to prevail in all this with so much pressure/expectation and come out on P2 is nothing short of wonderful.

Albon... what to say. He has his own reasoning for why he was out in Q2, but to do that while your teammate is something of a blitz is just saddening. He is a good kid, has his heart in the right place, but sadly that is not the boxes which need to be ticked to be a competent Formula 1 driver. If Red Bull continue to go with him in 2021, they're shooting themselves in the foot. Without a competent second driver, Verstappen will be left without defence to perform any good strategy, something that the dream-team of Ricciardo-Max were able to provide Red Bull as they were both on the pace all the time.

We have to see if the Perez-Helmut conversation has brought out anything. Perez' family is here for the final race, and if he were retiring we'd know by now. I'm more inclined to believe that contract negotiations are on, but the numerous sponsors on both sides are clashing. Perez is a Mexican brand powerhouse, and Red Bull have a whole lot of competing brands themselves, on their cars.

[DeathPig]

What a race. After hearing the Indian anthem for Mahindra in FE, this is much sweeter. Daruvala you wonder, you did it! F2 race winner. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say my eyes glistened as I heard the anthem up there. Motorsports in India needs a big push to make it more mainstream/accepted, and Daruvala is doing what he needs to make it so. His start in F2 wasn't really good, but this is amazing. After podiums, a win at last!

And Mick. Though he screwed it up in Lap 1, he's finally done what was expected off of him. F3 champion, F2 champion, F1 driver. The Schumacher name is back on the sheets again, and he's done it right on his way here. Granted he might not have the raw pace that Lewis has shown, or indeed, his father has shown. But he's showing the same pattern of not being good in the first year, then really shining in the second. Plus, the F2 grid was really shaken up with the 18 inch tires, which effectively negated the learning that last year's drivers had.

[Darkviper]

Is anyone else extremely disappointed with Bottas? He’s been driving this car all season, Russel has only driven it for 1 race and he’s already in front of Bottas after turn 1.

At the time of writing this he’s also consistently setting the fastest lap and increasing the gap to Bottas.

Edit : Why did Mercedes double stack??
I leave for 10 minutes and Twitter is blowing up and I notice Mercedes is down the order.

On the bright side : I want to see Perez on the podium!

[PGNarain]

This is turning out to be a great race just when I thought it was all over. A disastrous pit stop by Mercedes and a safety car ensured the both the Mercedes Cars were down to 4 and 5 with Russell trailing

Hats off to Russell who is fighting his way back to the top and now in 2nd position but Perez won't let go of that lead easily with 10 laps and 2.5 seconds separating them!

[Darkviper]

This is so unpredictable! Russel gets a puncture, down in 14th at the time of writing this. He must be gutted, this was looking like an easy win for till Mercedes messed it up.

On the bright side, Perez in the lead! To think this man doesn’t even have a seat for 2021 yet.

[speedmiester]

What a race, what a race!!!!

Perez absolutely deserved this win after the disaster last week. What a drive by him to win from the last position at the start of the race. I am saying it again, if Perez is not on the grid next year, it's a huge loss for F1.

Great race by Ocon for his first podium.

Disaster by Mercedes, don't know what came over them for such a horrid pitstop and the subsequent bad luck for Russel with the puncture.

[PGNarain]

Sergio Perez it is.. wow, F1 drama at its best. Perez was LAST at lap 1 and goes onto win the race, his first career F1 win and that after 190 F1 starts and unfortunately when he doesn't even have a seat for the next season.

I can't help but think, this could have been Force India's first double podium and win!

[ach1lles]

What. A. Race. What a race, goddamn what a race. Russell barges in the door and joins Max & Leclerc. Give these guys the right car and watch them dominate. Or fight Lewis till he's there.
Absolute heartbreak for Russell. A blunder by the team, and then a puncture within the last ~10 minutes of the race, and he still manages to make up 7 places. I believe he would've won without the puncture.
Perez was masterful. He was plum last after the first lap. Someone better give him seat, and it better be Red Bull.
Bottas has to go. He's not (race) worthy of that car.
Ocon and Stroll did well too.
Also, half the tracks in the season should be cycled.
Oh this would've been so much fun with friends in a bar.

Edit: also Mick Schumacher is the 2020 F2 champ (in another absolute thriller). So, so exciting. The sport is in good hands.

[ninjatalli]

One thing is very clear is the Mercedes cars are miles ahead of the competition. No matter how good Russell is, a driver can't just do so well (not counting the result due to the puncture) on a completely different car after driving another team's car all year.

I sincerely hope the other teams pull up their socks and scale up their cars equal or better than Mercedes. That will heat up 2021 season for good.

And seriously, it's time Bottas got booted out. Heck, even Russell seems to be doing much better with the same car.