Drivers called this race “a fast Monaco”
Race Setup
- Hot day; hard to predict — had to look at other races to gauge what to expect
- Big unknowns going in: the start, and tire degradation
- Track has 22 turns overall
- Tire compounds were C4/C3/C2
- Most front-runners started on Mediums
Lap-by-Lap Key Moments
- Start: Carlos had a strong start, made contact with a Racing Bulls car
- Lap 1: Kimi ran off track twice in the first lap — messy opening corners
- Lap 1: Max forced Lewis off track; Lewis hit the wall
- Laps 1–3: Oscar picked up a busted front wing early on
- Lap 1 (fallout): Max had to hand position back to Lewis and get permission from Kimi too — dropped from 2nd to 4th because of the lap 1 incident with Lewis
- Lap 5: Lewis hit with a brake problem — lost all his positions, ran off track multiple times, no brakes. Stayed out an extra lap despite the team calling him in (reason unclear)
- Laps 7–9: Lando pulling away as leader — 4s gap at lap 7, 5s by lap 9
- Lap 13: Sainz and Alonso made contact
- Lap 14: Lance Stroll off track — lost his brakes
- Lap 15: Virtual Safety Car deployed — most of the field pitted for tires. Lando (leader) stayed out much longer before pitting
- Lap 15 (Lando’s stop): Pitted just after the VSC ended, so it was a green-flag stop — and it was slow (~7s, tire got stuck). Sparked debate: why pit right then, since it turned into a ~25s “cost” stop vs. the ~13s it should’ve been under caution
- Lap 30: Quiet stretch, nothing notable after the VSC
- Laps 44–46: Fight for P8–P10, Oscar trying to find a way past but not many options
- Lap 49: Charles finally pitted — his team had been holding out hoping for a caution/intervention that never came in time
Other notes
- A few cars clipped the wall at Turn 7, including Kimi and reportedly a McLaren Overall verdict: kind of a boring race
Classic Moment
- Someone asked Lando why he was drinking a Coke in the cooldown room. His response: “I just did a race, so I’m allowed to drink whatever I’d like.” The alleged issue is that Pepsi is F1’s official sponsor, while Monster (tied to Coke) sponsors McLaren.