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2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes

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Alianora La Canta:
This race was proper fun!

Heroes

Hamilton - Great comeback from nearly marooned in a gravel trap, to halfway down the field, to 2nd.

Verstappen - Took all opportunities on the table to win - although some luck was also required (leaving the track a little bit harder could have resulted in no points at all).

Leclerc - 4th in qualifying was already good. Securing the same result despite a broken radio (he couldn't receive messages) and going to considerable lengths to ensure he didn't get a penalty from Verstappen's off was even more so. Verstappen is above him in the list because of that formation-lap excursion.

Zeroes

Russell - Not so much for the crash, which I think was due to Russell and Bottas having different interpretations of what was possible in the conditions that were both partially true... ...but for attacking Bottas afterwards, both physically and in the press. I appreciate Russell was furious, but this sort of thing got mocked in 1982 and the years have not been kind to driver fu. Thankfully, he's since apologised for bad handling of the whole incident.

Aston Martin - The car clearly has potential - Vettel had the fastest lap of the race partway through - but it's literally going up in smoke with those brake fires on both cars. (That Lance was able to start from the grid anyway is a point in its favour. But only a minor point, especially as the "solution" of "drive quickly" (on an installation lap!) usually makes brake fires worse). Weird strategies and a dodgy gearbox for both drivers (all mechanical for Vettel) compounded a horrible day.

Perez - No, Checo, you know better than to drive like that. The penalty for overtaking under the Safety Car was particularly surprising.

Dishonourable mention: Stroll - Yes, I'm counting him separately. Don't argue with your engineer who's providing solutions to terminal car problems (even if the solutions are weird). Hitting the gears at the wrong times may have caused gearbox damage, from what I could hear from the car, and overtaking two people by skipping an entire corner was never going to work (he's lucky he was only told to yield one place back).

(I wanted to give Mazepin a dishonourable mention for continuing to spin and be slow, but I've run out of space).


--- Quote from: Andy B on April 19, 2021, 07:50:52 AM ---Surely Alpine is pronounced Al-pine not Al-peen as Sky commentators keep doing.
Nothing to add to the above other than to say the Vettel, Alonso Mazepin have not surprised me!

--- End quote ---

Al-peen is the French way to pronounce that word, and Alpine is a French company. Sky is correct (as is Channel 4).

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