New on RaceFans
- French GP result was “solid” and “definitely needed” – Ricciardo
- First pictures from the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix weekend
- FIA to force F1 teams to slow down their pit stops
- Alonso expects Yas Marina changes will make overtaking easier
- Letting Verstappen pass immediately was essential to ensure French GP win – Perez
- Hamilton begins Mercedes contract talks, wants Bottas to remain as team mate
- Hamilton excited by full crowd for British GP but warns it may be “premature”
- No problems with Mercedes relationship after terse radio messages, says Bottas
- Ferrari launched “very big investigation” into cause of dire French GP result
- Silverstone to welcome full crowd for British Grand Prix
As live-performances of anthems go, this is a big F-
Yeah, really pales in comparison to the pre-race rendition of the marsaillaise (gosh how wrong can one pronounce that though Lazenby, my ears are still hurt from that almost as much as hearing my own hymn done so insipidly :-)
I can’t wait to hear why Bottas wasn’t pitted for the fast lap
This title battle delays Mercedes’ usual early switch work on next year’s car. Probably.
That, plus the budget cap.
The discussion if Perez is better Red Bull team mate than Albon and Gasly has now officially ended with Perez taking 3rd from Bottas as well as his win last week in Baku
No way Albon would have been able to do that.
Gasly might have been able to get 1 of those results but not both. Gasly did seem to get better since he left Red Bull.
I don’t know who’s gonna win the WDC, but I’m pretty sure Red Bull Racing will be WCC in december with Perez
Unless they sack the tool ASAP
Perez is exactly what Rbr needed
A long way to go in this fight yet. They’ll be many great moves and mistakes to come. Feel Mercedes dropped the ball there, let Max off for the first corner mistake.
2 absolute gladiators though, both exceptional drives. Hopefully goes to the last lap of the last race!
Not sure my heart could take that :-)
Max and Lewis’ roles reversed from Hungary and Spain.
Double podium for Red Bull. Malaysia 2017 was their last one
Danny Ric back to somewhere near his usual level which is good to see
Very very good race for Paul Ricard
Nice race. Tyre strategy intrigue and tension until the end. Shame top 4 are so far ahead of the rest.
What strategy did Mclaren use? They did pretty darn well!!!
The one where they are easy on the tyres I guess (which did cost them yesterday).
Hamilton did say as long as we undercut them and Rbr did it to them , oh well a very interesting debrief for Mercs
Yeah both drivers ‘do explain, how much worse would we off had we been pro-actively on a two-stopper, after we gave them an undercut on first place?’
Interesting stuff.
Don’t write Lewis and Mercedes off yet though I would say ;)
You can’t write off Mercs, seen Hamilton and Mercs behind at the midpoint and still win with races to spare, good for us this hopefully will go to the wire
Great race.
Appreciate your input fellas, thanks Keith for hosting this great forum :)
best race sine Brazil 06
meant 2007 with the Kimi win
Well done Max and Rbr
Merc really need to sharpen up.
3 wins in a row and a healthy lead in the championship
Bottas and Hamilton let down by the team. Gotta take this on yourself Mercedes
First double podium for Red Bull since….2017?
Yep Malaysia that year
Perez will now be flat out to finish 5 seconds ahead of Bottas in case of a penalty. Oh no, wait, Bottas has given up.
And fastest lap
Bow to your real king Lewis, your time if over!
Hardly too much racing to be had
Funny how us Lewis fans can give Max credit, you find it so hard the other way around eh?
Yes because Hamilton is a tool. Tools are kept in a shed and you don’t give them any credit :^)
Got a PC in your shed? Posh…..
Coming from the blunt hammer himself?
FO!
Hamilton is still goat. Even if he doesn’t win this year.
Would love to bring the Chueco back to life, he would make you eat it. Your goat (you put it that way, no caps) would not get JMF’s rates of wins, poles and flaps in a hundred lifetimes.
Were you dropped as a child?
Why hasn’t BOT gone for fastest lap?
Great stuff from Max.
Not bad for a French GP
Why didn’t Bottas pit?
because he’s such a tool he wouldn’t get the FLAP
Mercs had a taste of their own medicine
Cue a tyre failure for Verstappen!
Lewis tried. Well done Max. But Bottas and Hamilton will be mad at the team.
I think the team will tell them they’d have ended up on track behind both Red Bulls. Maybe not a difference for Bottas, but Hamilton would have needed to get past both. Might have worked, but probably not easy to get.
Whew …….
Welll done Max, very cool
!
What happened between Perez and Bottas? Ahhhhhh nooo Max passes
Keep it cool and calm Max. No crazy stuff from the old days please.
Max pretty close. I won´t be surprise if Checo wins back to back races
Aaargh, my “live stream” isn’t as live as I would have wanted :-/
I reckon penultimate lap Max will get him
I don’t think there’s enough laps
Will be Max next
« Leave me to it » red bull tell that message to Max, because he has to catch him.
Come on only 4 laps to go, keep going Lewis
going to bin it real hard
Bottas drive angry and keep third
Never underestimate Ham.
Wow what a race, all because of Mercedes miscalculation..
Still a bit odd how Verstappen leads the driver of the race while HAM isn’t in it after VER made a little mistake to lose lead, while HAM so far hasn’t put a foot wrong and might still win? I mean, yeah, VER seems to have a default seat in it a bit and it isn’t Hyrianto (sp?) as he’s clearly again doing a good job, but still.
Because of course he has the faster car ;)
Traffic and bottas stymied verstappens progress (and tyres)
Max is done, mediums are finished
Leave Bottas out
Yes of course Bottas’ 1-stop was meat to protect HAM, but it also might mean they didn’t actually get Perez back anyway bc. he’d end up well behind him too.
Hamilton has got this unfortunately. Nice try though, if they didn’t stop than Mercedes surely would have.
Wow. Okay happy to be proven wrong.
No idea why they didn’t split the Merc strategy, Bottas gave his opinion early in this second stint.
Max tyres going off, gap still 5 seconds.
Holy… how did VB keep that on track?
Nooooo that is tooo harsh on Bottas
To be fair to Bottas, he’s right. Merc strategy strikes again
Think we can all agree on that
Perez is now after Bottas
Valterri, I am so sorry. This is too harsh.
Now Charles, unlap yourself!!
Bottas disgruntled with team.
Thing is Hamilton might win the race on a 1 stop.
Affordable strategy
Max will get him
Will the race be long enough? Or will Verstappen just miss out on a chance?
Let’s all congratulate George Russell on his 2022 Merc seat!
But Bottas showed us his butt in Drive to Survive. Surely that has to count for something!
His 13th might be quite important against Haas.
well done Valt, you’re useless as ever
Been a really good race so far.
LeC will be interesting
Personal best lap for Lewis there.
Tense pfff
Woah, come on Lewis!
Bottas is useless
10 laps is not a lot, Hamilton is still 4 seconds ahead
Bottas, the master of racecraft, strikes again.
Ok one down. The final boss ahead lol what a race
Bottas is hopeless
Max needs to overtake Bottas in Mistral straight or he’s gonna run out of time
Come on Bottas
Keep it cool Max
to Bottas: confirmation, difficulty mode is up a bit.
Hm Leclerc just behind Lewis there…. how important will that be?
Imagine if Perez also takes the podium from Bottas
Hope there are no tyre failures
I swear to Dog, if it starts raining now….
It would probably favour Max because he’s on fresher, softer tyres so probably in his favour should it rain
If Verstappen does not win this race, I think Red Bull would be regretting not going onto Hards.
They only had 1 set of hards in their inventory. They were already on the car
Oh wow. Forgot they only have 2 sets.
Did they have any okay’ish sets left?
They probably should have just stayed out. Tough one though, they might have been undercut. They probably did the right thing.
Yeah, otherwise either Mercedes would’ve done it or Mercedes would’ve just waited for tyres to drop off
And Max will get DRS from back markers
There’s plenty of traffic coming up
Ahaha, what’s going on?! This is like a Bernie idea, random radio failures
Has max taken too much out of these mediums? Could be very interesting. I’d still fancy Max for the win.
Okay Ferrari, where did you guys place that jammer?
Surely Mercedes won’t stop now
They can’t, it’s an interesting ending…
Ferrari have dreadful race pace
abysmal
I wonder why Red Bull went for the Mediums. Hards would have even troubled Mercedes more than Mediums.
and it seemed too early for mediums. We’ll see
Depends if they have had any available
They probably don´t have any hards left
Didn’t they say the rears are good and the fronts are bad. Shows how rubbish the aws graphics are!
If the AWS graphics were right, what are the odds of a tyre blowout?
119%, but I got that information from Pirelli :^)
Max either has insane pace, or he’s taking too much out of the tyres before the actual fight
10% performance lmao
According to the AWS stat, Hamiltons tyres are already at 10%. Surely he can’t do 16 laps on that.
Then again: >AWS stats
Alonso looks a lot better on his hard tyres than he did dropping like a stone on mediums in his first one.
Aaah, it’s a good race to be back :D
Strategies and surprises, always makes a great race.
Hamilton sounding panicked. This is Bottas’ job interview; if he keeps Verstappen behind he’s got the Merc seat, otherwise Russell is in
If Hamilton and Bottas pull this off, then there’s no question Mercedes is the better car in race.
Can’t see Hamilton or Perez stopping Max
Not Perez Bottas
Wait Max on Mediums? I would have had more confidence on Hards.
Repeatedly purple, Max needs to back off right now. He doesn’t need to undercut them, he needs to get to the end and maybe overtake some Mercs later.
I don’t think Hamilton and Bottas can keep this up.
I agree
Max almost 2 seconds faster
So, what if Mercedes had pitted Bottas to counter, he could get Perez certainly – but VER, not really; now they have a buffered win/1-2 situation? Hah, and HAM ‘my rears are fine’ lol
If Hamilton is going to win this race, he has to stay out. Might as well make it a double road block
Just need a safety car now to really mess things up
George, it’s James
Ok. Verstappen on new tyres. What now Mercedes?
A reverse of Hungary?
Yup
Where’s Barry to tell us all how much faster the Mercedes is than the Red Bull?
Right here. Don’t know if you had your eyes open at all, but Mercedes clearly had more pace.
I’ve seen two evenly matched cars all weekend.
You need an overpace of +/- 1,5 second to overtake. They may not have that, but in clean air the Mercedes was clearly faster.
Yeah not sure what your watching the cars have been evenly matched
Might have to considder getting some glasses then
Irony.
They both had DRS behind, and through free practice Red Bull were actually faster on the long runs. These cars are very evenly matched, but Max is just driving better.
Max has laps
Lewis will go long and hard now surely
wow. too early
My thoughts exactly
Mercs have to stay out
Still got 20 laps though, are these mediums going to last??
Exactly…
Surely there had to be more life in those hards
Oh max boxing!
Lol Max is putting!
Weird to see M. Schumacher at the last position… :-/
Both McLarens going very well on race pace. Very impressed by Ricciardo for the first time this season
Perez might win this
Mercedes losing time now. Verstappen got time in hand
Perez going be one of the few 1-stoppers? But he’ll be on old tyres then, compared to two stopping Mercedes and Red Bull.
You’d think even with track position Perez would be a sitting duck by the end
The thing is, if HAM stops then some pressure off Verstappen, so he might be to extend to a 1-stop.
So driver error plus strategy error has put us back to race start…
Got to be two stop after seeing Leclerc there.
maybe not for Perez, he might win
Just to mention, last week was everything bad about Pirelli, this week is the reverse, split strategies are always intriguing.
44 is losing it
Leclerc has no tyres. 2 stops for sure
Clever Norris, Leclerc too close for Gasly to move over and defend the corner, and Leclerc ripe for the picking.
Soo, maybe that late stop wasn’t as questionable as Norris, and Sky’s guys thought it might be.
That was beautiful by Norris. Making Gasly brake early behind Leclerc
I think somebody forget to tell Norris there’s only 1 overtaking spot on this circuit.
Undercut today is powerful. Everyone in the strategy department of teams have to know that. It’s almost similar to Bahrain this year
What tyres are Alpha Romeo using? Terrible lap times.
Kimi on the hards he started on, Gio has pitted for mediums
Ok, bound to improve then.
I think both Norris and Gasly go off track there.
Merc definitely better on racepace. Both mercs can follow Max easily
Wait, how is Perez ‘a second, second and a half’ faster while he’s still at 15,x since 5 laps?
Take a shot every time Sky says tires
We’re only halfway through the race, I’m not sure Hamilton can keep this pressure up, or if Verstappen can withstand it, until the end
Leclerc did in Monza 2019
Gotta admit: that Mercedes is doing great in dirty air. That has been quite different in the past
Doesn’t look that good imo. Lewis is oversteering a lot.
I mean understeering
Lewis kept it in check pretty good though. But hearing that last radio I guess he used his tyres too much too.
How on earth is Hamilton keeping up with Max for this long? This is like Monza 2019.
because he is a great driver in a great car ;)
I wouldn’t call it particularly wise racing. He should be preserving his tyres for an attack later, as Max has less downforce and will probably be prone to wear.
Lewis’s tyres are always ruined it seems so it makes no difference ;)
I was thinking the same. Let’s see if Max can keep the Mercedes behind
Max is driving very impressively, must be difficult under such pressure.
Perez 18 seconds behind. Anyone think a 2 stop?
Both Mercs when they keep driving like this
He was always a sacrifice, I don’t get why they didn’t stop him once it was clear Verstappen was ahead of Hamilton
Such zoomed in shots being shown. Might as well have an hour of pre race sponsor logo display show
Sky would probably be forced to cut away from that if it’s during the build up. UK advertising law is very strict
I cant believe they have to lift through Signes.
The need to keep the tyres alive
Think he might have it back, (Ham)
Why is Perez still out? The whole idea of leaving him there was to be a roadblock for Hamilton, clearly not needed anymore
Ham lost drs
Would be fun if Bottas tries to overtake Hamilton
Go for it Valt!!
Perez is going to have the best tires at the end of the race
“Not sure what happened”. Huh? Hamilton wasn’t fast enough/Verstappen was too fast, that’s what happened
Hot take: This race hasn’t been *too* bad so far
Thanks Mercedes. You make things harder. But I imagine Lewis will be all over Max
Merc undercutted themself
Yoooo!! I never expected that, Hamilton had a shocking inlap. Bottas is all over Hamilton too
The Mercedes pitwall are doing a pretty bad job this year
2,2s was not a bad pitstop. But they did calculate the margin they needed a bit too narrowly I suppose.
They should have box Hamilton 1 lap earlier
:O
Lewis is going to be on the radio very soon!
There you go, great pit stop Rbr
Mercedes’ was actually faster by a tenth (2.2 vs 2.3)
Shocking!, thanks
Wowza
Wow nice job Mercedes. Thanks for making it harder.
So, undercut worked for Leclerc so far, and RIC on SAI,GAS too.
RB has nothing on Merc’s race pace
Is Keith doing live commentary or is he here with us?
Max is in
#77 pits. And the expected message outlap will be critical
Bottas in the pits
What’sup with Bottas Perez?
Perez has lost about 2 seconds in the last few laps
I think Bottas is trying to get closer to Verstappen for a potential undercut there. Let’s see whether that can work with hards.
Ricciardo was already looking decent in Barcelona, here at the next ‘real/normal’ track he looks more or less like his old self, with a car that seemingly is closer than others to an easy 1-stop, good to see.
ah, right so now he’s undercutting Gasly then.
I wonder if they will look at Bottas’ lock up there, cause he did not follow procedures to rejoining the track
He definitely didn’t seem to lose much time
Mercedes Race Pace is just unmatched. Seems pretty clear they have the best car, as points get given on sunday and not on saturday.
Nahh, pretty sure if Max didn’t go off he’d be leading this race
Exactly.
I think Mercedes and Red Bull have similar cars. It’s not unmatched at all Barry.
Is it me or do the McLaren’s not seem to be struggling as much with the Ferrari’s?
Max dropped off a bit as well…
Max made a mistake somewhere.
Everyone struggling. Pirelli, FIA… I am not impressed
They did have a lot of rain overnight/this morning. That will have washed the track very green and increased the deg significantly
I’m not struggling, I’m doing all right!
What was with the direction there? We’re watching McLarens just drive while Vettel is overtaking Alonso in a little box on the left
Ahh Bottas locked up
2+ sec lead at the front as tyre preservation starts to rule the strategy
Vettel Alonso. No love lost here.
Perez starting to close up! Playing the long game
“2 McLarens do 1 Alpine in a space of 2 corners…”
This made me chuckle
Bottas dropped off a lot
2 overtakes in 1 lap!!! What is this magic???
lol
Vettel smelling blood now!
Bottas and Perez swapped places there for a split second….
Great move Lando
Great to see a proper pass in a proper corner
This chicane on the mistral straight just kills any slipstreaming. Why don’t they just run the full straight?
Might make the turn at the end too dangerous, like Abu Dhabi.
Without the chicane they’d be reaching insane speeds at the end of the straight. It’s a safety measure
Insane speeds is fine with me …. sat here safe of course ;P
OK, if they need a chicane, move it further along the straight to make overtaking possible.
Well Monza seems to be allowed.
Monza? The one with all the chicanes?
The explanation I’ve heard (on here I think) is that the FIA would informally consider such a straight “too” long. There’s nothing in the regulations, but no grade 1 track has a straight as long as Mistral.
Yeah I’ve heard that they don’t like any straight longer than the 1.5km of the Fuji pit straight. The Mistral would be 1.8 km
I’m not sure Hamilton would be too worried about Russell as a teammate. As much as I like George, his qualifying is insane, but his starts and race pace is actually pretty poor
How’d Ricciardo get past Norris? He went off the track at T1, didn’t he?
Think was Norris who went off. Ricciardo over took at the start
Perez falling away at the moment
Perez doing a Gasly right now…
Long time no see, great to hear your insights during the race! (I’ll be quiet)
Time for Bottas to do something about his seat
Well, Russell lost 4 places on the first lap. He may be mr saturday but I would say about half the time he undoes his work on lap 1. These starts would really effect his results in a top team. Possibly because he’s all the way down, his starts don’t seem to be noticed by many. If he made those sorts of mistakes at Mercedes, the critisism of him would go through the roof.
Yeah but if you outqualify the car you’re going to lose places. He’s already proven at Bahrain he can handle himself
This actually isn’t relevent in the first laps. It is down to the driver and their preperation lap. Car performance is what matters later. Kubica very often got good starts in williams – in fact was ahead of russell at the end of lap 1 in over half the races. I personally think Russell must have pretty poor preperation if I’m honest.
It’s a good point though about the starts, granted.
Max needs to preserve tyres not to kill them, at this stage
Low grip probably also has something to do with the rain during the morning doesn’t it?
My boi Mazepin!!! That move was great!!
Cue the usual complaints and criticism
Tsunoda is upto P16 already no replay how he did it.
Stroll making up places as well.
Perez getting dropped a little bit
Stroll goes from 19th to 15th
Replays on lap 3, all set for a GREAT race
That was a bit of weird wobble for Verstappen (wind?)
Braked to late
It did seem more like a wobble, partly from wind, partly from driver error that just braking too late.
I think so, he said he couldn’t control the car
Max stayed at around 1-3 seconds at the start stationary. I’d imagine that just dropped the temperatures a lot.
Replays…….
Nice stuff from Vettel
Lewis complaining about lack of grip
And he goes faster.
Vettel making up ground.
Max is staying in touch with Ham though
Lewis’s tyres wont make it!
Red Bull Magic Button??
Ok can Bottas put pressure on Mac
Wow Lewis had that thing sideways!
Max was waiting a long time for the start. Cool brakes?
I also thought saw. But it looks like grip is super low
Disasterous, Merc now have the upper hand
I thought he stayed too before getting into position.
Lol Max ya goon :/
That was unexpected.
Mistake already
Cold tyres on Max. Wow
I am expecting the race to be more than a bit of a snoozer after the first lap or two. Has every chance of being a high speed parade.
Most of the passing at the head of the pack will likely be done in the pits.
The usual Hamilton/Merc mindgames at play
Gotta be one of the most beautiful venues that F1 goes to, disappointing the track hasn’t produced decent racing yet though
Beautiful? Not the word that comes to mind.
Talking about the scenery around the track not the track itself
As usual we did our pre-race winner predictions – the results came back as follows:
2x Verstappen
1x Hamilton
1x Perez
Who’ve you gone for?
Wow nobody went for Bottas
That’s what I said…
I like the lack of certainty
Hamilton
Hi all, should be a good start and race!
After excellent German GP, expecting French GP to be a processinal affair with top 3(qualifying) finishing in as is order.
Wise expectation. It can only get more interesting from there, right!
Mid field should be exciting lets hope the director shows those battles on tv.
Siesta time
Calm down ted, lay off the amphetamines!
He’s taken a bit too much of the ‘blue magic’ I think
I find Kravitz nearly as annoying as crofty. He often mutters to himself and takes ages to get to the point of soemthing that is actually reletively simple. As Well as being by his own awful jokes. He was much better when he was on the BBC years ago.
Windy out there. Looks like it is a crosswind based on Sainz’s hair movement lol
The FIA weather forecast says a 20% chance of rain during the race.
It rained heavily this morning during the F3 race. At that time the chance of rain was rated at 60%.
I live near Nice and today the weather is very unstable as it is in Castellet. The air is pregnant with rain here and it did rain a little when 0% change was forecasted.
I’m looking at the satellite and it looks like the clouds are moving East now, I don’t think it will rain unfortunately. Track will still be greasy so should be a good race nonetheless.
What are the chances of a wet race today?
Was wondering the same thing
Rain radar says no for now. But rain is around, so there is some hope.
https://www.meteo60.fr/radars-precipitations-pluie-france.php
Good question from Rosberg: how did you manage these times over the whole lap, getting S3 so well – Horner: took bit of wing out while keeping enough for good S2, less energy/drag used so S3 better. I mean, maybe not new for those in the know, but good question for people to understand.
And good follow up with Wolff: if we did that, we’d lose (more) in the corners, so it just seems we need to get better all around. Probably still heating the tyres, giving the FP3 run where HAM got a good time on the 3rd lap.
I’d imagine every reasonable person would be applauding Max and the rest of the top 4 for some truly excellent laps. Obviously not…
I applaud all of these guys, even the spoilt brats.
Exciting to see the two top cars so close that it depends on the driver and team getting it just right, looked like good laps from Bottas and Hamilton too, but not quite what Verstappen could do. Saturday VER/RBR on top, looking interesting for tomorrow!
Indeed. I’m looking forward to the race – the anticipation this year is significantly up for me.
This keeps the championship alive? Max is ahead diResta (or did he want to ask that to Hamilton?). Verstappen did great and he got his 2nd pole of the year, so yeah, good for his championship fight.
Even with a tow from Bottas, Hamilton can’t pull it off. How satisfying!
Where do people like you come from?
Even running in the dirty air from Bottas, Hamilton can’t pull it off. Well done Max, great lap!
Some top laps there. Make for a great race tomorrow hopefully!
Think this might be a Merc win tomorrow
WOW. Verstappen wiping the floor with everyone, Hamilton/Bottas/Perez all very even
Top stuff.
Once again Qualifying provides a great hour of entertainment :)
Amazing lap. The start should be very interesting
He will get hunted tomorrow though
Perez behind Bottas.
The cars seem on par.
About time we have the first two rows occupied by Red Bull and Mercedes.
Final sector was the killer, well done max
Wow Max
Max going faster :O
Come on Lewis ….
Stubborn Swiss needs to yell …
HAMMERTIME ;)
Not too sure… on this one. Think Max will go quicker
Worst AWS graphic yet! HOW CAN YOU COMPUTE SUCH FIGURES?
Come on. At least they are decent information. Not all is black and white to the eye.
“Decent information”? How is a percentage score of use of car potential any kind of information at all? Literally, how can such numbers be calculated? What is considered 100% usage? It’s ridiculous, don’t defend this nonsense
I’d like to know how they arrived at those numbers
They get them from the same supplier as Pirelli uses to cook up their pressure suggestion :^)
Whoever predicted that 1:30.3 dead for pole time: I salute you good sir!
Oh nice new graphics. Fantastic to get some of that for us
Car limit performance what on earth
Makes no sense to me, would probably be more sensible to compare with his team mate
Blimey, feel if Hamilton can split the red bulls, that would be a huge win for him. Max miles clear. Other teams nowhere near. Poor lap for Danny Ric again
Looks like Ham lost the most time in sector 3
As I predicted, Verstappen has 3-4 tenths over Hamilton. Why do we have drivers going off on their out laps?
Cold tires perhaps?
Flexi wings, tyre cooling tactics, pressures….what else has Toto got against RB?
Perez a mile off Verstappen :/
but closer to Lewis than Lewis is to Max!
Jesus, four tenths
Bottas? Where have gone?
thank you for those useless ratings out of 10 AWS
Track limits for Max?
Looked just inside to me
Yup he’s good , good lap Max
Apparently no limits for t2.
I think it’s because T2 has those yellow kerbs so the track limits are self-policing
Uh…what? What’s behind these ridiculous AWS performance scores?
A certain Austrian with a very heavy voice and an amazing eyebrow
OK.
I’m happy to see RB grab the front row but I want both Mercs right up close behind them please.
Mercs are going to be strong in the race tomorrow, Bottas should bag pole out of the 2 Mercs, not sure who will get pole at Rbr
There’s an outside chance Perez may out qualify Verstappen. The number 2 drivers ahead would be fascinating!
Can someone explain to me why the top four burned a set of new tyres for a final run in Q2? Surely they were safe already, and it’s not like they have many medium sets.
I think both Mercs improved so they will use those new tyres. Hamilton had definitely done 2 runs on the other set
That too, yeah. The Mercedes cars now start on tyres that are somewhat newer.
Because the difference between the soft and the mediums is about 6 tenths, so depending on how people improve, they might have been in danger Adrian.
So they were out there to be able to set a faster laptime in case it was needed (even Perez was only 7 tenths ahead of p11 )
Ok, I thought the softs were no faster, and they might want to use medium for Q3 as well.
Big surprises in Ocon and Vettel, they looked much stronger earlier on
and go Fernando :)
Mercs *might* be more competitive on mediums
I’d love Leclerc to keep that helmet, way better than his usual mess of lines
Norris has an issue?
Sounds like it. They weren’t saying much on radio were they :/
I hope he’ll be in q3
Maybe underfuelled or mixed set.
Think you’re correct. He’s out in Q3
Charles Leclerc needs a lap here, strangely quite off the pace to Sainz all weekend. Big lap needed for Daniel
Lewis: ‘Oh nO wE HaVe A pRoBlEm GuYs’ >goes fastests
Stop believing the guy whenever he complains, same with Wolff. They’ve been saying it for years now and every.single.time this happens. Yet every single raceweekend you have the same people saying: ‘Oh, looks like Mercedes has an issue’.
I love all that “mind games” stuff.
I loved back in the days when pit crews would run out to try and trick other teams into thinking they were pitting a car.
Don’t they still do that sometimes though, even though technically they’re not allowed to?
I would say so.
Psychology is just as important as performance in my opinion.
Convince your opponent that he can not win and he will probably lose ;)
Come on Max… need to see the medium tyre perf from you
But unlike Hamilton, Max doesn’t need that medium performance lap. Hamilton was potentially at risk, Verstappen is probably safe.
To be fair I’m interested how good the Rbr is on medium for the race
Hamilton looks like needs a warm up lap. He hasn’t looked in great form this weekend but sure he’ll be close in Q3
Can never write him off, Singapore 2018…
Yep, he can always find something! Looking very close again, hopefully Q3 is just as close!
Nice Lewis :)
Lewis goes top???
Tyre prep longer on Merc and probably Aston
Hmm, q3 will be interesting
If ever a track needed static cameras it’s this one. The slow panning wide angle shots are just terrible.
Yep, very true indeed. Can’t understand how the director doesn’t see it (or maybe tried unsuccesfully to get?)
Norris is one driver that has real trouble staying within limits
Vettel a surprise at the moment, thought Aston Martin were not looking great in practice
He’s definitely going from strength to strength, a shame Stroll isn’t there for comparison
Seems like everybody has to start with a banker lap to be safe.
Too many sessions stopped by red flags.
If Rbr don’t get pole…
Perez beating Max would be funny :)
He needs to keep him honest
He’s certainly looking up for it…
I have always thought that Lance is one of the best starters I have seen.
He can often make a few places up.
I’m going to be watching him at the green light tomorrow as much as I will be the front of the grid.
I don’t know who’s interviewing Tsunoda on Sky, but good lord they can’t formulate a comprehensible question
I thought the same thing 🤣, how about is the gear box ok?
lol, that has to be up there with worst phrased questions of the year. they should also keep in mind whilst most of these guys have good english, it’s not their first language so pose some more straight forward questions.
This will be interesting
All on mediums
Surprised that the entire left-front on MSC car snapped like that: the final ‘bump’ against the wall was rather soft
Yep, MSC ending the session, which keeps him into Q2 (apart from not taking part with that car). But yeah, Russell through as well.
Russell into Q2 again.
Unlucky for Lance but Russell wont mind to much.
Mick ensuring he’s through!
Through to Q2 or through with quali???
Oof Lance…
2 red flags? That’s rare
Arg – red flag destroyed Lance?
Oh no, Schumacher
Lotta traffic for Stroll
Looks like it’s a better lap from Ham, and the tyres weren’t changed…
Ham is going again…
Really hoping Mercedes have something in hand or this is going to be a seriously boring race up front!
Unlike all the races where Mercedes have lead from start to finish?
Equally as boring! Just want them to be close so we get a race!
Agreed. I have been pleased by Ferrari’s improvement these last few races.
Would be nice to have three or four front running teams.
Or is Perez
Max, is not playing today…
Let’s go Max! :)
Hi all, expecting a surprise for poll just not sure what sort of surprise
Well, Yuki made it out in Q1 alright. Who knows what damage this affair caused to the car (mechanics/gearbox/driveshaft) etc.
Looks like Dr. Marko went blind…
Get out of the damn car Yuki!
Turn off the poor overheating engine…
So regarding those ‘you may only remove the tyre blankets 30 seconds before driving out of the pits’, what it preventing teams from puting the blankets on the tyres but not turning the power to them on? Or turn on the power but remove the fuse for that power group? Or puting on the blankets but remove the heating elements from the blankets and fill them with something else?
And those are just a few things I came up with while waiting for my popcorn to get ready in the microwave. I can imagine some well-paid genius at Aston or Red Bull can come up with something better…
They monitor what temperatures the teams are running in the tyre blankets too @barryfromdownunder, that one has been tried already.
I guess they could always bypass that sensor like a certain other team did with their fuel flow not too long ago…:^)
Cheers though!
Six qualifying sessions in the bag and it’s two poles each for Lewis and Charles, with Valtteri and Max securing the other front-row spots.
Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for qualifying for the 2021 French Grand Prix.
Before we get stuck into the session, have you made your French Grand Prix predictions yet? You need to get them in before the scheduled starting time of qualifying so enter here now: https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
What’s your tip for today’s session – do Red Bull really have that large a gap over Mercedes?
Nah, the gap is not going to be that big. Might be a tenth or 2 in it at best/worst (depending on perspective)
hi everyone!
I think the pole time might even be a tad faster @jerejj! And I think Max can win it too. Otherwise, my top 5 is not dissimilar
1:30.300/VER
Additionally, pre-QLF top 5: HAM-VER-PER-BOT-NOR
Final practice is over and Max Verstappen is fastest for Red Bull-Honda. Here are the times in full plus session report and visual gaps:
https://www.racefans.net/2021/06/19/verstappen-emphatically-fastest-in-final-practice/
Remember, the deadline for your French Grand Prix predictions is coming up – you need to get them in before the scheduled starting time of qualifying. So for your chance to win this weekend enter here now:
https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
I’m waiting for the “Redbull don’t have the best car” comments.
Imagine still falling for the Mercedes sandbagging meme because you’re so gullible
Imagine reading your tin foil comments over and over… :-)
For a tin-foil hat comment, I’m right more often than not :^)
Why does Paul Ricard circuit advertise Visit Portugal, even though the country is different?
Guess they missed on a big cheque from the French goverment, decided to take this one to troll?
Even the French prefer Portugal to their own country
Finally, someone on the track.
Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for the final practice session for the 2021 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.
Ocon did yesterday what Gasly did three years ago.
Oh, stop complaining Red Bull. Stay on the track. I’m Masi stands his ground.
I don’t expect the soft tyre to be used in the race. That is too soft for the race.
Oh dear, Lewis already starting his moaning about there being something wrong with the car on friday before French lunch this time? For sure nobody in their right mind believes that anymore…right? Right guys?
That front-wing camera angle is pretty nice onboard the Mercedes: the left part of the front wing bends several centimeters on the start/finish straight. Was the FIA watching too or were they looking away because Toto paid them off?
FIA has blindfolds on untill someone removes it in anger.
I would’ve thought Horner would’ve done that by now. Good ‘ol Christian is losing his edge it seems…
He did talk about flexing front wings to which Toto had rebuttal but not sure why no protest was filed by RBR in retaliation to protest by AMG and McLaren.
‘Can we have that bit back please’
Would be a shame if it went missing like that diamond from Jaguar…
Mazespin!!
Has Bottas just drunk steroids?
Hello everyone and welcome back for second practice for the 2021 French Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas was quickest in the first practice session with a best time of 1’33.448.
Tsunoda had two close calls.
What happens if you go three feet wide at Monaco?
Once again, a lot of wheelspin on the Red Bull
Though it is quite notable how Mercedes has been on the ‘that is a lot of cost’ drum this season – do feel they have a bit of an agenda (maybe spurred too by Merc. the company wanting the team to be self-sustainable).
Pointless complaining by Mercedes. Stay off the track.
The small yellow bumps work as a physical deterrent for track limits, so better to have them there.
I do tend to trust when Karun says it is a bit overproportionate, this exact kerb (and w. Di Resta sort of agreeing) – though I basically do feel ‘yes so stay off them’, maybe these are not a great solution (rather than for example what they have at Barcelona).
Exactly. If it doesn’t do damage or slow you down enough (and there isn’t a tracklimit that may or may not get enforced), you might as well run over it. It isn’t gravel like they will have at Zandvoort, so for Bottas it’ll be good practice. If he can’t stay on track here, he’s going to visit the gravel in early september quite a few times.
Stay ‘on’ I should’ve typed.
If it costs you several tens of thousands of dollars if you go off-track, maybe, ya know, don’t go off-track? Nobody is forcing you to go too fast there…
If you go off course at this track, you’d need GPS to find your way back.
Quite a big flat spot on the right front tyre.
It’s nice to be back in France after a while.
Mick off already.
Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for the first practice session for the 2021 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.
Go Austin Martin