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F1 2021

Red Devon

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Not quite the gap between Red Bull and Mercedes as some people were expecting, if Verstappen can keep his his head though he should take Bahrain...Mercedes will probably be closer still by the next race at Imola.
 

Rosencrantz

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Not quite the gap between Red Bull and Mercedes as some people were expecting, if Verstappen can keep his his head though he should take Bahrain...Mercedes will probably be closer still by the next race at Imola.
The caveat to that is Max damaged his floor in Q1 on his first flying lap. Race pace in practice was quite close though between Max and Lewis although Lewis is worried about tyre durability with the Merc sliding around more.

I think the Merc is a quick car but they haven't quite figured out how to find an optimal set up yet. Lewis seems to be driving around the problems better than Bottas which you would expect. One thing for sure though is that Red Bull is quick and on rails.
 

Red Devon

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The caveat to that is Max damaged his floor in Q1 on his first flying lap. Race pace in practice was quite close though between Max and Lewis although Lewis is worried about tyre durability with the Merc sliding around more.

I think the Merc is a quick car but they haven't quite figured out how to find an optimal set up yet. Lewis seems to be driving around the problems better than Bottas which you would expect. One thing for sure though is that Red Bull is quick and on rails.
Noticeably Max doesn’t have a team mate to support him again today....looking forward to it it should be an interesting one.
 

Rosencrantz

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Noticeably Max doesn’t have a team mate to support him again today....looking forward to it it should be an interesting one.
Yeah Perez will be gutted as he was at least mixing it between Lewis and Bottas but got caught out in Q2. Qualifying has never been Checo's strong point.
 

Colesman Ballz

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Well that was a dramatic start to the season !

#givetheplaceback!
 

Red Devon

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As soon as we saw Christian Horner’s foot starting to go we knew it was going to be a tense one...F1 at it’s best with Hamilton showing his brilliance to pull that one out of the bag...special mention for Lando Norris on an excellent fourth place too.
 

Rosencrantz

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Merc strategy and Lewis nursing those tyres on the long third stint asked all the questions they could of Red Bull and Max. Max just couldn't get the clean overtake and having handed the place back couldn't get back close enough and got a bit scruffy. Merc now have three weeks to try and catch some of that gap up to Red Bull.

Perez done enough during the race to suggest that he will be involved if he can get qualifying sorted out. Bottas v3.0 still not going to sustain a championship run with Lewis looking revitalised at the challenge of Max.

Strong race for McLaren and Ferrari with Lando getting an early marker in against Danny Ric. It will be a good battle between them. Disappointing for Alpha Tauri who look like they have a strong car at this stage. Good points though for Tsunoda who looked as calm as anything passing the likes of Alonso and Vettel.

This could be an epic battle this season.
 

Red Devon

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Intriguing race this weekend in Imola. I’m not sure we’ve learnt too much from Friday practice other than Mercedes appearing to have closed the gap a bit on Red Bull, some of that could be sandbagging on Red Bull’s part although Verstappen didn’t get much track time in the second session to really tell...I expect Max will probably top the time charts tomorrow when it really matters.
 

Rosencrantz

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With one thing or the other have only just caught up with watching quali at Imola. How close do you like it? Less than one tenth covering the top three and half a second down to eighth. George Russell in twelfth in a Williams less than a second behind the pole time!

Normally a difficult place to overtake so strategy will be key you would think and for once Lewis is the hunted with Checo and Max right behind and Bottas in a lowly eighth. This time Red Bull can call the shots unlike in Bahrain supposing no drama with either of them at the start. It also will be an early indicator of whether RB will be putting all their eggs into Max's basket or see how it pans out in the race between him and Checo. I have a feeling they will use Checo to try and wrong foot Merc.

Gutted for Lando.

Ps. I've noticed that I have inadvertently set up two F1 2021 threads 🤦. If the mods care to merge then go ahead 🙂
 
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Red Devon

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Opinions seem to be divided on the Bottas Russell incident, a competitive race though with Norris deserving of his third place and driver of the day award.
 
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