agree on norris. for me, the only one out of all those you mentioned who was much like max was vettel. rosberg had a great rookie year, and never came off as an ass. lewis came off as far less of a dick compared to alonso. i like both leclerc and russell. all far removed compared to max, again for me.

anyway, lets get to another race so we can move on. indycar this weekend fyi...

I have low expectations this weekend

Paul Ricard is the WOAT circuit

I don't mind it. It messes with your eyes though if you focus too hard.

Watch out for Perez, he might do a one stop and win the race

lol that observation

Max is going to eat both mercedes

Could nick a podium at least.

Bwahaha, thanks Valtteri

Mmmm seems Verstappen isnt going to pass lewis

much better race than I thought it would be

just the 2nd win for Max from pole, 1st win with pole and fastest lap

Bufff that was tight

Perez doubters looking silly, now 25 clear of Valtteri.

When Lewis passed Max at the start this looked like it was going to be a total bore fest. Turned out to be one of the better races this season.

I'd be lying if I said I did not consider switching the race off. Glad I didn't.

Lewis is the boy who cried wolff. He's always bitching about something, so even though he complained 5x in the first 11 laps about tires falling off much quicker than anticipated, Mercedes didn't take it seriously b/c he always bitches no matter what. If they had listened to him (or Valtteri who also said it was a 2 stop race) then they would have won easily.

We can thank the early rains for cleaning up the track just enough to make it an intriguing race, otherwise it would've been boring.

Mercedes leaving Bottas hanging without getting anything for it was very satisfying. They never do what he asks them as he is only there to make sure nobody challenges Lewis. Also glad both Perez and Ricciardo are getting to the level they should be at. Especially Perez must have the time of his life after thinking his career was over and then ending up in what now looks like a possible WCC winning team.

I was (am) one of them

People were saying: he's going to challenge Max, he's going to push Max to another level, Max will have a hard time beating him in quali blablabla.

Har ****ing har. He is a good driver, that's it. He is lightyears behind Max. It is because Max had one poor qualifying that he is only 6-1 down. He's there to pick up the crumbs and he does a better job than Albon and Gasly.

Bottas has only himself to blame for getting fourth. He stayed within 1s from Lewis for great part of the race for what reason? He wasn't going to pass Lewis. Bottas burned up his tires, while Perez was smartly staying behind in clear air, managing his tires. Bottas was greedy and he paid for it.

Not me. I was intrigued the whole way as there was too many laps left when Lewis started to fall behind Max after the 1st pit stop for Mercedes not to think about an undercut 2nd pit stop strategy and then it was a matter of who blinked first and went in whether it was Mercedes or Red bull. This time Red bull didn't give up their opportunity that cost them the Barcelona win.

Yah, people with those expectations were delusional. Gasly's proven to be a damn good driver and even he couldn't do much with the 2nd Red Bull seat. It's a pretty thankless task and I think Pérez just getting consistent top 5s and challenging Valtteri would be a hell of a result.

If you gave Gasly another chance he'd be doing as good if not better than Checo. Purely on qualifying alone.

It's possible, but I don't think you can just assume the results would transfer over. Gasly's in a low pressure situation now, the expectations are a fraction of what they were with Red Bull. Maybe it suits him better. When the pressure was mounting w/Red Bull, he shriveled up. Checo has only risen to the occasion after a slow first 5 races.

Checo also has a skillset which might be perfect for that seat. His race/tire management has been impeccable and given Red Bull the chance to try some different strategies that have led to better than expected results.

I think that is one of Checo's issues for qualifying is that he is so trained to looking after his tyres that he just doesn't get them into the right temperature for a 1 lap run.

For RedBull it is actually better to have someone in that second seat that is great with tire management than someone who can qualify slightly better. Those tire management skills make him a huge threat when staying out both with blocking Lewis if Lewis stops first when Perez is in the pit window as well as getting potentially cheap stops under a safety car. Gasly is also better off where he is now. AT is actually a solid mid field team with budget caps and AT might be even higher up next year depending on how much they can use from RedBull(Newey). If I was Gasly I wouldn't even consider Alpine, Williams or AM if they had a seat and the better teams have their drivers set for now.

Depends though - last weekend it was perfect as he qualified 4th as that is about the maximum he can achieve sometimes 3rd if Bottas is having an off weekend but then there are other weekends where the Ferraris could out qualify him or one or both of the McLarens and then he is stuck behind them and even Gasly is a threat. I think the red bull car is good enough that he can get a 4th at least at the majority of tracks so it works well for Checo but I suspect if it was Gasly he'd be beating Bottas at a whole lot more tracks in qualifying and be an even bigger help to Max starting and staying in 3rd.

Hmm, maybe he should have thought of that when he was in the seat.

Was he given a fair chance though? All that was changed when Alex Albon took the seat but it shouldn't have been for him as someone that could hardly beat Kyvat in the toro rosso.