But a great drive by Seb in the clean air to gain the advantage. That Verstappen, he’ll be a supreme cock-block all season long, I predict. Nice to see Ferrari strategy work for once.
Too bad about Dan. I like that guy.
Was it just me, or did this race take a shorter amount of time to complete than usual? *Usual *is a loaded metric, of course, but this race seemed to just fly-by. Which is surprising, b/c it was such a snoozer.
I was glad to see the red car(s) up there and even happier to see a (seemingly) gracious Hamilton behind and on the podium. Maybe removing the Nico *thorn *in his paw has brightened his personality. 
The Indianapolis 500 has traditionally had 33 drivers since the race was first run over a century ago (with a few exceptions). Even if the rest of the series has 22 or 24 or 26 cars – which is a reasonable and safe amount for most tracks – they’ll always try to get 33 at Indy. The series and IMS would be quite embarrassed to have less than 33, and there’s occasionally some behind-the-scenes dealmaking in lean years to ensure that the field gets filled.
Prestige and prize money are far bigger at Indy than at any other track, and Indy has always has one-off drivers and teams trying to make the field for that one race – sometimes drivers who drive full-time in other series, guys that are otherwise retired, etc. That’s part of the charm and magic of Indy, and it’s always been what the qualifying process was built around.
If anything, it’s a shame that they have a hard time getting much over 33 lately, so there’s either no bumping or very little bumping in recent years. 40 legit entries would be fantastic, and it hasn’t happened in awhile. Fans are generally quite eager to see more entries and more bumping for the 500, as it adds a great deal of drama to qualifying, just like in the old days when the entry lists were a mile long.
No, it wasn’t just you. It did seem like the race took less time than usual.
I still think the fins are funny looking, but I do like the pink cars!
Nice to see Bottas on the podium. Sucks for Ricciardo and the Haas guys. I have a bad feeling it’s going to be a long season for Haas. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong.
Race length is determined as the lowest number of laps that exceed 305km (Monaco is an exception). In addition the maximum race time is 2 hours.
Given that the new cars+tires make for faster lap times, it makes sense it was a shorter race than we are used to. In addition there were no saftey car or virtual safety car situations.
It was nice to see Grosjean qualify and run as high as he did, though. Could be a good sign.
Italian gang plotted to steal Enzo Ferrari’s remains and hold them for ransom.
Well, who saw that comin’? 
(I’d link, but my computer is being contrary)
Interesting race in China. Nice to see some passing. Someone take up a collection and send David Hobbs a thesaurus.
Cracking drive by Verstappen.
Yeah, but kinda dickish at the end complaining of Grosjean being in his way when he wasn’t even within DRS range.
While we wait in silence for the next race, I’ll just note that I also enjoyed the Indycar Long Beach race, with Pagenaud doing a passing Verstappen impression.
I was also amused at how tiny the front tires on the Indycars look these days.
I thought it was interesting how Hinchcliffe said it was great to be the second Canadian to win, after Paul Tracy. Apparently he was forgetting about Gilles Villeneuve, who won when it was a Formula 1 race in 1979.
And the current Indy cars are quite ugly. Not just the tiny front tires, the whole car is much too bulky in the back. And it’s got the main rear wing, with the stubby little side wings added on. I’d like to see one of the open-wheel formulas go to a much simpler spec. I’m not against wings (although I’d be very curious to see what the designers could come up with without them), but there’s just too much these days; barge boards, and fins, and vortex generators, and God knows what else. I’d like to see a car, not a Swiss Army Knife with all the blades and gadgets opened.
Fernando Alonso is skipping Monaco this year to race in the Indy 500.
This news makes me happy! I think it is good for everyone.
Interesting. I know that the Indy 500 is a Big Deal in racing (to put it mildly), but so is Monaco. Seems a shame to have to choose between them, although if you’ve already won Monaco twice maybe that makes it a little easier.
Buy out his contract and get him off the air!
Take Buxton with him.
Botas gets his first poll! Cool, but ultimately meaningless. I’m sure Lewis will see to that.
Yea, grabbing the pole by 0.028 second was little redemption for spinning behind the safety car last week; yuk, yuk. 
Hamilton will put him in his place!
Kidding aside, it was good to see Lewis start from somewhere other than pole and even better to see him third going into the first corner. I won’t spoil the finish but I thought the racing was great today. I shed a small tear for Verstappen, though.
I lost a few laps though… why/how was LH penalized? Did it really effect the outcome of the race or were the commentators just building the drama?
There was a safety car after Vettel had pitted, but before Bottas and Hamilton had. So both Mercedeses came in to the pits for new tires. But there’s only one Mercedes pit box. What you’re supposed to do, apparently, is come in to the pits at your usual speed and wait behind your teammate until the box is clear, then pull into the box and complete your stop.
But that’s not what Hamilton did. Daniel Ricciardo was right behind him on the way into the pits. Hamilton slowed on the pit access road to keep Ricciardo behind him. That delayed when Ricciardo would reach his pit, and gave Hamilton a better chance of coming out of the pits in front. So the penalty was for impeding Ricciardo.
On the subject of penalties, did anything happen about Vettel lining up strangely for the start in China? He was pointed at an angle (to get to the clean side of the track, I assume) and his left tires were outside the box painted on the starting grid. I think I saw that it was being investigated, but I don’t remember the resolution.
No penalty, but Charlie Whiting apparently made an explicit point to say that going forward you must be fully within your pit box.
It’s amusing (in a sad way) that Alonso has a better shot at actually being able to finish a race at Indy than any given F1 race this year…