Push ‘em Back Carlos, Way Back!
Ah, doesn’t Singapore seem like such a long
time ago, Eh? Especially after that vengeful, utterly Dominant weekend Smackdown
MaxiMillions’ just Threw down upon us at Suzuka!
Although as I still, somewhat bask in the
afterglow, or is that Aspen Glow? Two immediate thoughts following the
Singapore Grand Prix came to mind. First I couldn’t even remember when I last “watched”,
Err listened to a Grand Prix? Which I believe it must have been the Canadian
Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles villeneive Wayback’ on Bloody June 18th!
Along with is it wrong to wanting the Pole
sitter to lead wire-to-wire? Especially after “Switching Off” from following
Formula 1 for two months for this very same reason. Ergo the MaxiMillions factor…
I’m a Huge Fan of Carlos Sainz, Jr. for several
reasons. As the Spaniard just seems to keep His Head down and get on with the
job without All of the wingeing the Brat Pack does! Not to mention He seems to
be treated like a Number Two driver at la Scuderia. Thus my desire for Carlos
to win from Pole at Singapore!
Not to mention how Uber’ refreshing it was for Verstappen
to not only not be a factor for the race win, along with barely being mentioned
during the broadcast. But the icing on the cake was Max being legitimately passed
on-track by five different drivers; George Russell, Lando Norris, Lewis
Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon when dropping back from second to
seventh!
Still don’t quite understand Sky Sports Pundits
Kroftie’, aka David Kroft and Martin BilyBob’ Brundle’s comments about Ferrari
sacrificing Leclerc to ensure a win when the Monegasque was dutifully following
Sainz in second place. Although may be this had something to do with Sainz
masterfully managing the gap, since I thought they said His lead was only
0.7-seconds ahead of Leclerc at this point of the race? As Leclerc was the only
driver in the Top-10 to start on Soft tyres vs. everbody else on mediums.
Although reportedly Ferrari told Leclerc first
they needed Him to drop behind by three seconds, and then further told Him they
needed it to be a five second gap.
On lap-20 the Safety Car came out for Williams
Logan Sargeant who Hit the wall! Seeing the leaders dive into the Pits, with
Ferrari and Mercedes Double Stacking their drivers, notably to Leclerc’s
detriment. While the two Red Bulls stayed out, seeing Max and Checo’ (Perez)
inherit P2-4.
Yet Sainz still led when the Safety Car pulled
off on lap-22 and began His Master Class performance of driving as slow as
possible to keep His lead, but preserve His Hard tyres, intending to nurse them
to the finish…
And then things got interesting when the
Virtual Safety Car (VCS) was deployed on lap-43 for Ocon’s smoking Alpine,
having limped off track. As Mercedes rolled the dice and decided to go for
broke! Pitting both drivers on lap-44 for fresh medium Pirelli rubber whilst
Sainz, Norris and Leclerc stayed on-track.
On lap-50 Carlos held a slim 1.3 second lead
ahead of Norris; 5.5 seconds on Scuderia teammate Leclerc, and 9.8 seconds over
Russell with Hamilton 12.6 seconds adrift. Yet the two Silver arrows were cutting
sizeable chunks of time each lap, with Russell and Hamilton some 1.5-2 seconds
quicker per lap! As believe it was lap-53 when I began crossing my fingers and chanting
Carlos! Since the Mercedes were ah-Comin’ Fast, and I really wanted Sainz to
win!
First Russell, and then Hamilton passed third
place Leclerc, whose tyres were shot. And that’s when it got Uber’ sstrange for
Mwah! As I unexpectedly began chanting Lando-Lando-Lando! Whom happens to be
one of the F1 Brat Pack members I dislike…
http://www.nofenders.net/2022/10/formula-ones-brat-pack-young-turks.html
As lap-59 of 62 saw Sainz holding a razor slim 0.7-second
lead over Norris. Who in turn was holding up Russell and Hamilton, with the top
four only 1.7 seconds adrift! As Norris masterfully held off Russell, with
Hamilton heard on His in-car radio telling George (Russell) to Hurry Up!
But it was all for naught, as Russell brushed
the wall on the final lap before crashing with Sainz leading Norris across the
stripe with Hamilton third. And it was interesting hearing Norris during the
podium interview repeatedly saying that Sainz had been generous with DRS, letting
Lando stay within the required one second gap to enable the Drag Reduction System
to work. Which the Englishman thought not only helped Him hold off Hamilton for
second, but helped Carlos win also…
Leclerc held onto fourth and Verstappen
finished fith. While I was most impressed with AlphaTauri rookie Liam Lawson
who finished an excellent ninth, scoring His maiden Formula 1 points in only
His third F1 race.
And with Lawson’s more experienced teammate
Yuki Tsunoda pulling off on lap-1, surely this just adds more pressure for AlphaTauri
to retain the Japanese driver next year…
Sainz definitely lived up to His nickname of “Smooth
Operator” by controlling the race while making His Hard Pirelli tyres last
42-laps! With Carlos popular win ending Verstappen’s consecutive win streak of
ten races, and Red Bull’s run of 15 consecutive W’s. While Carlos took His
second victory for Ferrari, and the Prancing Horse’s first W’ since Leclerc’s
win at Austria last July.
As now the $64k question is will Max go back to
dominating the remainder of the F1 calendar, or can Ferrari, McLaren and
Mercedes continue Harrying Verstappen and keep Red Bull off the top step of the
podium?
Hmm, why is that ‘Ol Supertramp song Dreamer, You know You’re A Dreamer popping into my Head right now?
