Rate the race and driver of the weekend. Round 8, France 2019
Mean Reader Score: 2.15 Rated 8/8 races this season
Oh dear, compared to this year’s 2.15, last year’s score of 5.61 is positively astronomical.
Dreadful or Abysmal? How best to describe this awful ‘race?’ The score says it all- it was extremely dull, with nothing much to report, other than the penalties served on Perez (five second) for following the regulations to the letter when he went off track, but still managed to gain a ‘lasting advantage’ (two places) and Ricciardo’s two separate five second penalties which, when added onto his time at the end of the race, removed him from his actual finishing position of 7th and placed him in P11, out of the points.
Other than that, nothing much happened. Vettel gained a couple of places, finishing in P5, Leclerc made it onto the podium in P3, Hamilton won (again) and with Bottas taking P2, Mercedes set another record for 1-2 finishes. I’d like to dredge up something vaguely interesting that happened this race, but sadly, there is nothing.
Driver of the Weekend Lando Norris 47.69 % of Reader Vote.
McLaren had by far their best race of the season. Even if the results were ‘track specific’ getting two cars into P3 would have been pleasing enough, but ahead of a Ferrari, (Vettel), a Red Bull (ok, Gasly) and a Renault (Ricciardo), time to celebrate. P5 and P6 was far and away their best qualifying for quite a while now. And, had it not been for a pesky hydraulic failure towards the end of the race, our Driver of the Weekend, Lando Norris, could have picked up even more points.
A great weekend but disappointing in the end for the F1 rookie 😬#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/zLcefNY3MZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 24, 2019
On lap 43 Norris was told he had a ‘small issue’ and he was ‘not allowed’ to use DRS (even if it was available). Having this issue for the remaining 10 laps, Norris was then forced to leave the track by the return to the track of a late braking Ricciardo, which resulted in Norris losing not one but three places (Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg). Still, after penalties were applied, Norris ended the race in ninth place, winning two well deserved points for McLaren. Well done Lando!!
@F1TheaJ
I can’t help feeling the track is a major contributor to the low ratings. The wide, flat, weirdly painted runoff areas have a hypnotic effect that sends me to sleep. Reminds me of the Las Vegas hotel carpark track of the early 80’s.
I thought Norris was particularly unlucky in that if not for Ricciardo’s unsafe rejoining the track he would have held that place despite the hydraulic failures. One might say that with experience he should have taken a wider line in the assumption Ricciardo would do that, but experience alas only comes with experience.