Taken from Caffé#98 by Pino Allievi – FormulaPassion YouTube channel
Him again, yes, him again. The usual Verstappen who dominates but doesn’t borebecause on Sunday in Spain he had to work hard to win a very tactical grand prix, in which anyone who made even the smallest mistake paid heavily for it.
Instead Verstappen almost never makes mistakes and in any case he does less than the others. And it’s right from the driving precision And from prudence in the choices that the triumph of Montmelò arrived. The best car on the track was in fact the McLaren, not the Red Bull. Lando Norris had made this clear on the eve with a sprint from pole position, but then in the race he compromised everything with a lackluster start and that somewhat rude attempt to block Verstappen at the first corner, which dropped him from first to third place.
The rest was a consequence and Norris was very honest in admitting his faults, apologizing to the team, which doesn’t happen very often. But, apart from this, Lando raced well, he was aggressive and respectful of the tyres, showing a maturity that will sooner or later take him back to the top step of the podium.
Verstappen, a smart guy, took advantage of the mistakes of others and always maintained his pace without overdoing it, obtaining a well-deserved victory. Third step of the podium a Lewis Hamilton, an intelligent strategist who kept out of time-wasting battles and was skilled at reading the race: Mercedes acknowledged this and Ferrari too, perhaps, breathed a sigh of relief in the future.
Already, the Ferrari, with the drivers arguing on the track, Leclerc, who was less to blame, suffered damage to his front wing and struggled until the first pit stop, when he returned with a gap of 19”7 from Verstappen. Then, with the Medium and Soft tires for the final two sections, he managed to maintain a very high pace but was unable to go beyond fifth place.
Which is little, but the races must be read in the numbers. Charles between laps 24 and 66 conclusive he remedied it from Verstappenwho shot to defend himself from Norris, a gap of just 3 secondsdespite having to fight and overtake behind. It’s a fact hidden in the folds that gives us hope and who says that the situation – in light of the exam on the most difficult track of the world championship – it doesn’t seem as disastrous as the modest placement would lead one to think. And it is obvious that with a better position on the starting grid, the Ferraris could have had a leading role and not a supporting role, without prejudice to the fact that the bitter skirmishes between Leclerc and Sainz are becoming an inevitable constant which the team had already budgeted before the championship started. The objectives of the two pilots are too divergent, the anger that Sainz harbors inside is too evidentat a time when he knows he risks leaving the world that matters, at least for a while.
Time for a quick coffee and on Sunday we will already be in Austria, in Zeltweg, on the track owned by Red Bull, with Norris who cannot make mistakes twice in a row, Hamilton who dreams of the great result in front of his new fans who will arrive from Italy with the Cavallino flags and Ferrari which is one step away from possible glory, but that step is always too long to allow it to get ahead of everyone.
#hidden #data #Ferrari #hope #Spanish #FormulaPassion.it