Well, that was one of the coolest races I’ve ever seen, and I’ll remember it for a long time. So many wild cards and strange incidents resulted in absolute craziness from start to finish. My safety bet on Verstappen made up for the sunk wagers on Ferrari, so I’m still ahead in the end. It was amazing to see Mercedes go down so hard, they really need to be taken down a notch (or 14)…I have to give Hamilton props for soldiering on through such arduous conditions and keeping pace even after that interminable pit stop after his wing was damaged, but he really lost steam after that, and Bottas fared even worse. And it’s awesome to see some of the underdogs like Stroll and Kvyat running up front. Both of them earned some major respect at this race.
I assume they race in the rain because they don’t want to delay the race until Monday when many people cannot show up? Any other race series race in the rain? NASCAR and Indy car don’t race in the rain, don’t know about other smaller US race series.
Bernd Maylander roll it into the grandstands a la le mans 1955. Dozens of flaming deaths. Then bottas spun out in the pools of blood because he had slicks.
The gambling odds are infinitely better than a lottery. Place multiple bets on different drivers and include a few with longer odds, and you have a good chance of coming out ahead.
I think NB was referring to the outcome of the race itself in those conditions (e.g. Hamilton and Bottas spinning in virtually the same place, but Hamilton just avoiding race-ending damage and Bottas not), rather than betting on its outcome.
Nice to see Vettel managing to actually give other drivers some space this time. Perhaps the recent sanction has had the desired effect. And lucky that Verstappen can’t seem to launch his car off the line, otherwise it might have been another dull runaway victory. In all seriousness though, great drives by those two, credit where it’s due.
Ok, dumb question time. Watching free practice one today, and the commentators have mentioned the F3 cars running practice earlier on the day. Which brings up a question that’s always been on my mind - when another series races on the same weekend, what do the other cars use for pits? Surely the F1 teams don’t vacate the pits, so what do the other cars use?
Max gets his first Pole and becomes the 100th driver to sit on Pole.
Dag, it depends on the circuit. I know a couple tracks have second sets of garages, but others do not and in fact used the F1 facilities. Don’t know the logistics of it, however. Wish I did…
I’ve just set up an account on Bovada because I stupidly missed the wager cutoff that my other betting site imposes on Formula 1. Luckily Bovada is not only open later for betting, but also offers FAR more bets on F1 than the site I’d been using, which allows you only to bet to win. Bovada offers almost as much variety for F1 than other sites do for baseball and basketball. You can bet on showings in the top 3, top 6, top 10, you can bet by team, you can bet on who will retire first, on who will have the fastest lap, on a myriad of other things. You can even bet on whether or not the damn safety car will be in the race (!). Just wanted to throw this out there, in case anyone else here cares to wager on these races.
Based on Vettel’s surprisingly strong performance last time, I bet on him to win, which would have a large payoff. Safety bet on Hamilton, “first to retire” on Leclerc (another small risk/high-reward wager.)
The “top 6” and “top 10” options, I want to wait until a little later in the season to try. There are some wild cards like Raikkonen who I think has a good chance of cracking the top 6, and Kvyat and Stroll who could muscle into the top 10 if they do even just slightly better in qualifying.
If anyone is still following, the Belgian GP is tomorrow morning.
The track is apparently known for rain. That would make things quite interesting. Hamilton and Vettel have each won it 3 times previously (Vettel most recently last year, and in previous years driving for Red Bull as opposed to Ferrari.) Raikkonen has won it FOUR times, so while he may not have a shot at a win in his Alfa Romeo, his prior experience may at least improve his standing.
Those who have been paying attention will know that Pierre Gasly has been busted down to Toro Rosso, swapping places with Alex Albon. This will be Albon’s first time on the track for Red Bull, and hopefully he will perform better than his predecessor did.
There’s a bit of a pall about this race, though. Anthoine Hubert, last year’s GP3 champ and twice winner in F2 this year, was killed at the top of Raidillon yesterday. I’m not an alarmist about racing accidents, but in this case I think they need to open up a much larger runoff area there if they don’t want to change the iconic nature of the curve. Cars come over the top blind and at full speed, and the guy who hit him never had a chance to even see it in front of him.
Just caught up with the Italian GP highlights. Absolutely outrageous that Leclerc wasn’t given any penalty for cutting the chicane after a lockup. He missed the apex, took a clearly quicker line through the corner to prevent an otherwise inevitable overtake, and weaved across the following straight. But apparently that’s absolutely fine. It’s a good job the championship isn’t closer because Hamilton was robbed there. Blatant blind eye turning by the stewards to ensure a home win and keep a tiny bit of interest in the sport.
