duh duh du duh
max verstappen
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Quali went pretty favorably with Oscar on pole and Max starting p3!!! However, Yuki Tsunoda is starting from the pitlane after his power unit was replaced and Lance Stroll did not participate in the race after extreme wrist pain.
Lando didn't have a great start, so Max was pretty easily able to get around him in the first corner. Oscar had a great starting and was able to starting pulling away!
Both mercedes had a horrible turn 1 with George falling behind both the Ferraris and Kimi needing to use the escape route.
Alex Albon and Liam Lawson had contract in turn one leaving Alex with front wing damage. Alex boxed lap 8 to replace his front wing. This was only the beginning of Liam absolutely terrorizing the grid this race.
By lap 8 Lewis was really struggling with his rear and Charles was putting him under a lot of pressure, and by lap 10 Ferrari gave team orders and positions where swapped.
There were a LOT of early pits this race with Alex, Ollie, Yuki, Nico, Carlos, and Pierre having pit by lap 11. Although both Alex and Yuki stopped to change front and rear wings respectively.
Very sadly, Lando was able to make it past Max by lap 13. Max honeslty had so little chance in that fight, his tires were much older and that Mclaren is a rocket ship honestly. Max ended up pitting on lap 14.
Fernandos bad luck continues as he made it out into the gravel during lap 13, however, he was able to safely rejoin again and no extra chaos was caused.
Max's early pit didn't hurt his to bad thankfully as he got back up to p3 by lap 19. And after both Mclarens pit Max is back in the lead by lap 22.
On lap 26, Alex and Liam have ANOTHER collision causing MORE front wing damage to Alex's front wing. As a result of this Alex is told on lap 27 to bring his car into the pit to retire his car. However, after being given a 10 second penalty for the collision with Liam he instead served the penalty and went out for one more lap before finally being put out of his misery.
Max took his second pit on lap 30 and was able to barely come out p4 in front of Lewis.
After taking out Alex, Liam moved on to his next target and made contact with Ollie on lap 31. Ollie was able to stay ahead of Liam though!
This entire race Liam was a absolute track terrorsit and honeslty I'm so here for it, truly making the races more entertaining. (I do wish he would not terrorize the drivers I'm fond of tho)
On lap 36 Max was able to get back around Charles into p3, this is where I really started giving into the hopium and thought a win was possible with a possible 2 stopper. I was very very wrong.
On lap 48 Sauber called team orders and swapped Gabi Bortoleto from p9 with Nico in p10. At first I was suspicious of this, however, this is probably ended up being the best decision Sauber has made in a long time.
Red bull deeply saddened me lap 48 and pit Max for a third time, they did not see my big brain strategy plan.
While being lapped, Ollie and Liam get massively in the way of Lando and Max, nothing horrible ends up happening but Ollie and Liams fight ends up with Ollie having to give up his place to Liam and receiving a 10 second penalty.
Sadly on lap 55 Kimi ends up in the gravel of turn 10 after having power unit issues. Mercedes really needs to figure their power unit issues out because they are having WAY to many issues for a works team. A safety car is deployed for this incident.
Mclaren was able to pull of a beautiful double stacked pit stop during the safety car. Red bull made a horrible terrible no good very bad strategy decision and pit max again during the safety car and putting on the only new tires he had left, hards.
The safety car ends lap 60 and Charles is almost immediatly around Max into turn one because Charles was on barely used soft tires and Max had a crazy snap in turn 1. A lovely silver lining to this horrible safety car is that Nico is in p7!!!!
Coming out of turn 1 Max also has contact with George, and on lap 64 was for some reason told to give the position back. I really do not understand why Max was even told to give the position back because he was pretty firmly not in the wrong for this first collision with George.
While George was trying to get past Max made an admittedly bad move causing a collision again with George. I do however stand by my criminal wife and will defend him with my life o7. This incident sadly must allow George through to p4.
Another Sauber silver lining Nico was able to get past Lewis's Ferrari, great move for Nico but ultimately deeply embarrassing for lewis.
The race ended with another Oscar win!!! At least on of my boys is winning!!!
Sadly Max crossed the line in p5, however, after a 10 second penalty for the incident with George, he ended the race in p10.
Thankfully, Sauber is able to come back again with another silver lining, crossing the line p6 and after penalties ending p5. This is a crazy result for him!!! p15 to p5 thats crazy!!! Fernando's back luck also finally comes to an end and he's able to get his first two points. (Baby steps!!)
Red bull really truly should have never pit Max again during the safety car. There would have still been struggle with Charles but I don't think it would be anywhere near how horrible the hards ended up being, and all of the George stuff could have been avoided. This race really should have been an easy podium and possible win for Max, it really sucks when its strategy that fucks it up.
I'm not to far down the doomer pipeline though because Oscar extended his championship lead!!!
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In true monaco fashion quali was super crowded and full of traffic.
During Q1 Lance Stroll impeded on Pierre Gasly in turn 10, forcing him to abort his lap, because of this Lance was given an additional 3 place grid penalty bringing his total penalties to 4 after an incident in free practice. Lewis hamilton got a 4 place grid penalty after impedeing on Max in turn 3.
Q1 was finished off during a red flag after Kimi Antonelli drove into a wall after his suspension broke while coming out of the tunnel. While Kimi technically mad it through to Q2 he has to retire the car.
Mercedes continued to have bad luck in Q2, as George Russel lost power inside the tunnel. George said that he hit a curb and suddenly lost power. This cause a red flag and the session was stopped to get his car out of the way. The session resumed ending with both Mercedes at the bottom in p14 and p15.
Esteban Ocon and Isack Hadjar got into Q3!!! Isack did a great job all of quali. Lando ended up just barely stealing pole from Charles, setting a new track record of 1:09.954.
I'm not going to lie this was one of the most boring stressfull races. To start off the race Ollie Bearman had a 10 place grid penalty after overtaking during a red flag in free practice causing him to start p20, Lance stroll had a 4 place penalty after incidents in quali and free practice causing him to start p19, and Lewis Hamilton had a 4 place grid penalty after an incident in quali causing him to start p7.
This race also had a new regulation with mandatory 2 pit stops and three different tire compounds. This was meant to make the race more interesting, however I think it just changed what way the race was boring. The only way to make the race more interesting is to either make the cars smaller or give them mario kart rules.
Going into turn one Lando had a massive lock up. Not gonna lie I got super excited by this and was really hoping Charles would get in front here. However, Lando was able to keep it together and kept the lead on Charles.
During lap 1, Garbiel Bortoleto drove into the wall while attempting an overtake on Kimi, but he was able to reverse out of the wall and make it back to the pit. A yellow flag and eventually a virtual safety car was called to fix the barrier.
Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Ollie Bearman, and Gabriel all take their first of two pitstops during the VSC. Ollie's pitstop was SOOO slow which really was not helping him.
By lap 8 another yellow flag was waved after Pierre made contact with Yuki. Pierre drove into the back of Yuki, after the collison Pierre's front left tire was just barely hanging on by a thread and his break line was snapped. Thanfully Pierre was able to make it back into the pit without any other collisons, however he had to have the Williams pit team help stop him as his breaks were just completly gone. Somehow a safety car of anykind was never called for this. I really don't know how there wasn't as it looked like Gasly left half of his car out on track.
Laps 13, 15, 17, and 18 Nico Hulkenberg, Isack Hadjar, Fernando Alonso, and Lance Stroll each take their first pit stops respectively.
On lap 18 Ollie got his second needed pit stop out of the way, I think this strategy worked incredibly well for him. Overall front loading the pit stops seemed to be the best strategy throughout the race.
In lap 18 Lewis Hamilton took his first pit stop and managed to come out ahead of Isack Hadjar sadly. Lando also took his first pit stop this lap.
On lap 20, Isack took his 2nd needed pit stop. Isack did incredibly well this race and the VCARB strategy was actually really good this race. I really hope to see a podium from him this season.
On lap 21 Mclaren tried to pit Oscar in attempt to over take on Charles, however his pit was just exceptionally long and this did not work at all. Charles pit lap 22 and was easily able to come out in front of Oscar.
On lap 28 Gabreil and Franco Colapinto take their second needed pit stops.
Max pits on lap 28 and is able to come out behind Oscar but infront of Lewis.
Lap 29 Esteban took his second needed pit. Liam Lawson took his first pit lap 32 and Alex Albon took his first on lap 34.
Insane amounts of lapping happened during this race, by lape 34 all cars up to p9 were lapped.
Gabriel went in for a third pit stop on lap 37.
Fernando Alonso's horrible no good very bad season continued on lap 38 after he had to retire his car for power unit issues. However, he did not let anyone benefit from his misfortune and was able to pull the car off the side causing only a brief yellow flag.
On lap 42 both Alex and Liam take their final pit stops. Honestly, if this race did anything it showed great strategy from VCARB and Williams. On lap 45 Alex and Carlos Sainz swapped positions. This was to allow Alex to return the favor of holding off the Mercedes behind to allow Carlos time to pit.
On lap 46 Nico Hulkenberg took his 2nd pit stop.
Oscar gets his second pit stop on lap 49 being able to come out in p4 in front of Lewis.
On lap 50 Charles, Carlos, and Lando all take their second pit stops. Also by lap 50 all cars up to p6 were lapped.
George Russell was noted on lap 50 for leaving the track and gaining a position on Alex Albon. This incident was insane, George had been complaining about Alex driving erratically for a couple of laps and then fully admitted on radio that he intentionally overcut Alex and would just take the penalty.
George was given a drive through pit penalty, which ends up being about 20 seconds. George takes his penalty on lap 55.
Carlos took his 2nd needed pit stop on lap 55. On lap 57 Lewis also finished out his 2nd needed pit stop.
On lap 65 George finally took his first real pit stop. On lap 67 Alex and Carlos switch their positions back.
Mercedes lost all ideas on what strategy even is this race, by lap 72 George had pit twice, once forcibly, and Kimi was only going into his first pit stop at the end of the lap. After the race Toto Wolff said that the team legitimately forgot that they needed to pit their drivers twice during the race. How could that possibly happen.
Kimi was quickly called in for his last pit stop on lap 75. Yuki Tsunoda also got his final pit in on lap 76 and after waiting out for a red flag for as long as possible Max finally pit on the end of lap 77. Max was able to come out p4.
The race finished with Lando p1, Charles p2, and Oscar p3. Lando also finished off his first monaco win with his final lap being the fastest of the race. Thankfully Oscar was able to finsih the race while keeping his championship lead over Lando by two points.
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Quali was absolute chaos!! Yuki Tsunoda had a massive crash is Q1, the crash looked absolutely crazy, but thankfully he was fine and was able to walk away from the crash.
Franco Colapinto also had a horrible Q1, first he was handed a one place grid penalty after an early release during the red flag that was caused by Yuki's crash, then he had a hard nose first crash into the wall. However, he did technically make it into Q2.
Q2 was delayed for about 20 minutes as race control was decided if Ollie Bearman's final lap would make the time boards or not, as he crossed the checkered flag right as the red flag for Colapinto was called. Ultimately, Ollie's time wasn't counted and instead Gabriel Bortoleto was pushed through to Q2.
Q2 was horrible for all italians as Kimi Anotonelli and both Ferarris were knocked out this round. Rather embarrassingly both of the Ferraris were knock out by the Astons.
Carlos Sainz had a incredible lap towards the end of Q2 and ended up having the fastest lap by the end.
Q3 was a bit boring pretty much everyones laps got ruined at some point, but Fernando got P5 which is super exciting.
After his massive crash in Q1 Yuki Tsunoda started the race from the pit lane to allow the engineers more time to work on his car.
Max did a beautiful overtake on Oscar in turn two, he breaked incredibly late into the turn and was just off like a rocket after that.
On only the end of lap 1 Estebon Ocon pit for hard tires after starting the race on mediums. I really have no idea why he did this, I wasn't paying the closesy attention to him but his first lap didn't look that bad to me. But who knows.
Charles Leclercs first couple of laps looked really strong to me. On lap three he pulled a great overtake on Pierre Gasly, causing Pierre to drive into the gravel and fall back four places.
From laps nine to fourteen some cars started pitting. This was way earlier than anyone was expecting as the pit window was supposed to start at lap 19. Pretty much all of these pit stops where definitely just way to early. Especially Oscar's pit on lap 14 which not only was extremely slow, but also put him out in a bunch of traffic.
During Fernando's pit exit his front left and front right brakes where on fire. I don't think this really caused him any issues as by the time he was back on the track the fire was out, but it looked absolutely crazy on camera.
During lap 18 to 24 Oscar was clawing his way back up the field, having three overtakes in three laps. However, by the time he got back into position his tires where just dying.
This entire race Isack Hadjar was doing a great job defending. His was able to hold off everyone behind p6 for a good amount of time. Doing a trial run for the redbull second seat already!
During lap 28 Lando finally pitted coming out p7, however, Max stayed out.
On lap 29 Esteban Ocon pulled off into the grass with car issues, a yellow flag and eventually a virtual saftey car is called.
This virtual safety car could not have been better timed for Max and he pits being able to keep his positon. Sadly Oscar wasn't able to pit until lap 30 and lost his p2 dropping back two places. Oscar also only had used tires left which was not very helpful.
During lap 33 Carlos and Yuki made contact but not further investigation was done by race control.
By lap 35 Lewis Hamilton was finally able to make it past Kimi Antonelli, who had been doing a great job the entire race defending against Lewis.
Max was able to stretch his lead on p2 to 18 seconds by lap 39. I love to see it, welcome back 2023 Verstappen dominance how I missed you so.
Nico Hulkenberg pulled an amazing overtake on Fernando Alonso lap 39, honestly was great to see I think Nico is great.
Oscar finally pulled himself back to the top three on lap 40, but again his tires had a foot and a half in the grave at this point.
For some reason that I truly can not understand the Alpines pull team orders on lap 46, Franco Colapinto giving up his p15 for Pierre Gasly. I feel like they should of done this earlier if they were going to because Pierre didn't even finish in the points.
Kimi sadly had engine issues on lap 46 and had to pull off into the grass, resulting in a yellow flag and eventually a full safety car. Really sad for Kimi especially since this was his first home race, and with the possiblity of Imola not being back on the calendar next year.
This safety car once again was great for Max Verstappen as he was able to pit and keep his position. Lando was not as lucky as when he pit he dropped to 3rd behind Oscar.
Sadly, quite quickly after the safety car ended Lando was able to get past Oscar as Lando wheels were just so much newer than Oscar's.
Laps 61 and 62 Alex Albon was fighting Charles for his LIFE. On lap 61 Charles pretty much pushed Alex off the track into the gravel, this incident was noted by race control but Charles gave the position back on lap 63 so no penalty was given.
Max won the race absolutely beautifully with both fastest lap and driver of the day. I'm pulling full Ferrari delusion and deciding we are SO back MV1 World Driver Champion 2025 for sure!!!
Fernando had a absolutely horrible race, I don't know who cursed this man but he qualified p5 and somehow still has come away with 0 points for the entire season. Free this man!!
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Max started on pole however Miami has never been won from the front row sadly
Going into turn one Max locked up allowing Lando to put him under pressure, however, after a failed moved and contact with max in turn two Lando fell back 4 places.
Jack Doohan and Liam lawson had contact in lap one causeing damage to Liam's car and a puncture to Jack's wheel. Jack limped along for a little but did not finish the race and a virtual safety car was called during lap two.
Both the Verstappen-Norris and Doohan-Lawson incidents were noted but no further investigations were done into either.
On lap nine a spin snuck up on Fernando Alonso in the same place he crashed out in the sprint race, but he was able to hold it together thanfully.
During lap eleven Max and Oscar were racing eachother beautifully, I love seeing them race eachother it's always so fun to watch. Finally, in lap fourteen Oscar passed Max after Max had a front wheel lock up. During lap fourteen it was also reported that Albon was having water pressure issuses. By lap seventeen Oscar already pulled ahead making a five second lead.
Lando and Max have another incident on lap seventeen where Lando squeezed Max off the track while passing him. Lando gave the position back to avoid penalty, but by lap eigthteen Lando passed Max again.
On lap eighteen George reported rain, and throughout the race rain was expected, however, the rain never really made it to the track other then a barely noticeable sprinkle for a couple of seconds.
On lap twenty-two, Lewis Hamilton finally passed Estabon Ocon's Hass after figthing him for p10 for 23 laps, again taking on Ferrari horrors.
On lap twenty-eight, Ollie Bearman went off the track and limped around for a little before DNF-ing because of power unit issues. A virtual safety car is called on lap twenty-nine because of this.
Apparently Lando almost hit a Ferrari mechanic while pitting during the safety car??? I don't have any proof of this it's just what the commentators said so don't quote me.
During the virtual safety car George was able to pit and get around Max. Really just bad luck for Max with the virtual safety car right after he had just pitted. I think he definetly would have been able to defend p3 (and possibly fight for p2) if this safety car hadn't happend.
On lap thirty-three Gabriel Bortoleto reported engine issues and eventually DNF-ed for power unit issues. A virtual saftey car was called as a result.
Yuki Tsunoda is noted for speeding in the pit lane, and receives a 5 second penalty as a result. It looked like he had a double front wheel lock up while entering the pit lane preventing him from properly brakeing.
Throughout this entire race both of the Williams have done such a good job running consistently in the top ten, especially Alex Albon who has KEPT that Williams in p5, I am so happy to see him were he belongs fighting at the top. However, Sainz sligthly less so, as on lap thirty-four Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton pulled off a great overtake on Carlos.
The Ferrari started having team order issues and Lewis is told to stay behind Charles.
On lap thirty-nine, Liam Lawson quietly DNF'ed as a result of damaged taken during his contact with Doohan in turn one.
Charles allows Lewis through switching positons on lap thirty-nine after three laps of Lewis asking to swap. Ferrari had CRAZY communication issues between garages this race as they only asked Charles to swap once, but told Lewis they would attemp a swap each of the three laps. Lewis also had some great radio messages this race, my favorite is "Have a tea break while you're at it".
Both Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz were noted for yellow flag infringment on lap fifty, but neither were penalized.
On lap fifty-one Alex Albon's water pressure issue stabalizes. I'm gonna be honest I have no idea what this means but I'm just glad he's doing well.
The Ferraris swap again with even MORE communication issues on lap fifty-two, Charles was told that Lewis had agreed to a swap before they had even asked Lewis if he would swap. Eventually Ferrari figured themselves out and Lewis let Charles through on lap fifty-three.
On laps fifty-five and fifty-six Max was struggling with reported downshift issues, and was told to slowly downshift and if possible avoid it all together.
By the end of the race both Mclarens cross the line with a 34 second gap to George Russell in thrid.
The race ended with Oscar getting his sixth career win and his third consecutive win!!! This makes Oscar the first Mclaren driver since Mika Hakkinen to have three wins in a row!! Yuki was able to just barely keep his point in p10 after finishing just 5.1 seconds ahead of Isack Hadjar, outracing his penalty by just 0.1 seconds. This one two from Mclaren also makes them the first team to finsih one two in both the sprint and race in the same weekend.
As a result of a lost bet Oscar did the griddy in parc ferme lol.
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Kimi started on pole! This makes him the youngest ever polesitter by two and a half years. This was also the youngest ever front row with an average age of 21.
Charles Leclerc did not start the sprint after aquaplaneing and crashing out on his outlap to line up on the grid. He truly can NOT escape the horrors.
The formation lap was driven behind the safety car, two laps were driven until a red flag was called. There was a bit of confusion at first on whether the race had started during the safety car or not. But it was annonced that the race had not started, but would be cut from 19 to 18 laps because of the extra formation lap.
After the red flag was lifted a further two laps were driven behind the safety car then the race started with a standing start.
In turn one there was a near incident between Oscar and Kimi. Kimi claimed Oscar pushed him off, but no penalty was given. It was another GREAT move by Oscar, I'm obsessed with his overtakes they never dissapoint. However, sadly after turn one Kimi lost pole and fell back to p4.
Max was investigated for a false start as a result of being out of position in his grid box, thankfully!!! no further action was taken and he didn't get a penalty.
On lap 11 the track was fianlly drying out and DRS was finally enabled and Yuki Tsunoda starts the pitting period, being the first to pit for slicks. The sprint finally starts getting interesting after this.
During their pit Red Bull had an unsafe release causeing Max to drive into Kimi. Crazy that this even happend, Red Bull's pitstops have been horrible all season. Thankfully Kimi reacted quickly or he would have driven straight into a hoard of mechanics. Max recieveded a ten second penalty as a result
On lap 13 Carlos Sainz hit the wall and limped back to the pits, I think it was kinda dangerous that he kept driving because one of his wheels was fully off by the time he got to the pit. As a resuly Carlos did not finish the sprint. After this collison there was somehow no saftey car?? I think there definitely should have been one because it looked like half of Carlos' car was left on the track.
Mclaren pited Oscar before Lando thankfully trying to avoide another Hungry 2024.
On lap 15 Fernando Alonso crashes out after a incident with Liam Lawson. The crash looked CRAZY in my opinion, the whole car looked deflated. This crash continues Liams war on the elderly, however, he gets a five second penalty for the incident.
The Alonso-Lawson incident sadly resulted in a saftey car that heavily favored Lando because he was still yet to pit after Oscar. If I had a nickle for everytime Lando Norris won a race in Miami after an incredibly timed safety, I'd have two nickles, but it's werid that it happend twice right.
The race ended under the safetycar. After the race Alex Albon was dropped from p4 to p12 after a 5 second penalty as of a result of safety car infringement, and Ollie Bearman was dropped from p8 to p14 after a 5 second penalty because of a unsafe release, pushing both out of the points :(