Hallo, MiniFans! After Saturday’s qualifying, the front row was no surprise, with Piastri and Norris locking it, but the second did hold a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Third place was snatched by the home hero, Verstappen, who was joined by a spectacular Hadjar in fourth. The RB, admittedly a bit out of place, would probably help Verstappen in his quest to try and get the McLarens, as the lack of experience at the front has shown many times that the beginning stage of the race isn’t the easiest to manage.
Verstappen’s softs gave him enough grip to get past Norris, seemingly a bit easier at first, but down to saving a spin in the dirty part of the track going into the lower part of turn 3, miraculously controlling the car and keeping the hard earned second place behind Piastri,who had chosen the perfect line to defend against both of his rivals. Norris, having fumbled a bit under Verstappen’s attack, was now sitting in third, with Hadjar, who had kicked off as if he was used to starting from the front, closer to his rear wing than him to Verstappen’s. Barely a couple of laps into the race, a few radio messages dropped warning about possible rain sooner rather than later.
As Verstappen’s tyre started to wear down, the gap to Piastri widened as he fell back down into Norris, who didn’t need to much to get past in a calculated move on the outside of turn 1, taking full advantage of the wear to the Red Bull’s softs. Meanwhile, Hadjar was still keeping Leclerc in check, fighting so hard to stay in fourth that he clocked faster times than Verstappen until he had to fully focus on the Ferrari, who had managed to catch up to him while dropping Russell further back. It was around this time that the endplate from Bortoleto’s front him, half detached from an earlier contact with Stroll, finally fell onto the track, leaving it and other small bits of debris on the surface.
Drops started falling here and there without any real consequence yet as team scrambled to make decisions, based on weather radars tyre degradation. Aston Martin was the first to make a gamble, pretty early on for Stroll and at a more expected time for Alonso, betting on that the rain wouldn’t get any heavier. Red Bull called Tsunoda in to defend from the Spaniard, but two more drivers in the pitlane meant having to wait and losing out precious time. Before anyone from the front could even start thinking about pitting, Hamilton crashing in turn 3 after going wide meanth the safety car came out and eveyone dove straight into the pits, with most getting a set of hards. Verstappen, however, went for mediums, once again a step softer than everyone else, which meant easier warming up and more grip on a not too hot surface.
The restart was clean at the front, with Piastri managing to escape and Verstappen pressuring Norris with a medium that should take him to the end. Behind them, Hadjar fought tooth and nail to keep Russell behind him, who had overtaken Leclerc in the mayhem of the stops under safety car. Sainz and Lawson were forced to pit again with punctures after a small scuff in turn 1,an incident that cost a ten-second penalty to Sainz for causing a collision. Not too long after, a big piece of carbon fibre on track forced a very brief virtual safety car in order to safely retrieve it before we went racing again.
The restart was quiet at the front, but the battle was a bit behind. With Hadjar having managed to shake Russell off, Leclerc somehow found a space to overtake the Mercedes in the last corners in an incident was was investigated by the stewards. Their decision would be delayed until after the race was over, leaving the investigation open. As the race settled, Russell was asked to swap positions with Antonelli due to his damaned car, while Alonso pitted again, trying to do something different and setting the fastest lap in the process, hoping for his rivals’ tyres to fall and be forced to either make it to the end on degraded tyres or pit as well.
Back at the front, Norris’ impatience meant he was a bit too close to Piastri, likely forcing his tyres more than necessary. He eventually backed down a bit to try and make it to the end on his set of tyres as other followed Alonso’s earlier example, as his pace was allowing him to overtake the backmarkers easily. Had they waited just a bit more, they could have taken advantage of the second full safety car called onto the track, once again due to a Ferrari having an accident around turn 3. In this occasion, however, Leclerc did not crash on his own, but rather after a collision with Antonelli that earned yet another 10-second penalty, this time aimed towards the rookie, who was somehow still in seventh place.
The restart was clean this time around, with Verstappen getting quite close to Norris on his softs, while Hadjar had, once again, proven his worth and stayed in fourth, a bit aided by the fact that the car behind was Russell, likely damaged from his earlier colision with Leclerc. The grid calmed down quickly, spreading out on the track and only seeing a couple minor scuffles in the midst of the midfield. It seemed as it it was a walk to the end, but F1 is unpredictable and Norris felt it in his own car as his cockpit filled with smoke due to an oil leack and was forced to retire less than ten laps to the end. The safety car came out for the third and last time to try and retreive the McLaren from the side of the track, leaving Verstappen once again right behind a McLaren with softer tyres.
The last restart was once again clean, despite being slightly earmarked by a few drops of rain here and there. Piastri managed to shake off Verstappen to cruise to the finish line, while Hadjar once again dropped Russell outside of this DRS zone, proving that the podium was not due to luck, bur rather hard work from the rookie, who had not made any mistakes under pressure.
The race had been mostly uneventful regarding the championship until the last ten laps came around. The constructors’ championship leader had both its cars leading, whereas Verstappen was comfortable in third, flanked by Hadjar. However, driving cars means that they can fail at any moment, of which Norris was the unfortunate victim and Hadjar the lucky heir after all the hard work he had put int. The podium was a celebratory one for the three occupants, with Piastri and his widened championship lead, Verstappen with his home crowd, and Hadjar with his first podium, hard earned through a great qualifying and race from the rookie.
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