Behind Max Verstappen's Sunday cruise, there was an excellent race. Red Bull might have looked even better around the Barcelona circuit and shows just how incredible it is in high speed corners and still is the fastest on the straights. Verstappen was off the charts. Wins by 24 seconds and he made it look easy. Perez had a good recovery, though never should have qualified that poorly. The soft tires was probably the better tire to start on, but who knew the deg on that tire would be so low? A podium for him would have been very difficult even with a perfect race. Mercedes B spec upgrade is definitely a success. Though we should remember that the old car was very strong in race pace as well. Merc very possibly have solidly the 2nd best car on Sundays as of now. The new package seems to suit Lewis Hamilton a bit better, so it would not be surprising to start to see him pull away from Russell a little bit. A very good recovery drive by Russell. Plenty of passing on the track against top competition, and kept his pace up to not allow Perez to get close in the end. Ferrari's B spec upgrade appears to be a flop. It is expected that a team needs to learn the car in terms of setup and characteristics, but Ferrari are so lost on it, it almost seems like the new package didn't even get ran on the simulators. Sainz seemed to get on with the car okay, but his pace relative to Mercedes and Red Bull seems worse. His radio message still show a lack of trust between him and the team. Leclerc, what the heck? Was sure there was a problem in quali, the team had no idea what it could be, had no answers or solutions aside from change everything. Though did they even use the opportunity to change PU and gearbox? The penalties would mean nothing starting from pitlane anyways. Despite all the changes, he still did not have any pace in the race. Very odd that Ferrari pitted Leclerc off the hard tires on lap 17. But that's Ferrari for you. Aston Martin taking a page out of Ferrari's play book by pitting their drivers right behind traffic every time. Stroll only moved backwards in the race, and never put up a fight against anyone. But still had a decent car and track position to finish in the best result possible for him today. Alonso looked to be playing a waiting game, and was forced to pass multiple cars after each pitstop, and when put on Hard tires for his final stop, it seemed like the shackles were released and he was able to close up to Stroll in just a few laps. Unfortunately he played the team game and held position. Should Aston Martin switched the drivers to try to keep Alonso in the hunt for 2nd in the WDC? As for 2nd in the WCC, it's all but a lost hope now since Mercedes appear to be the better car in the race now. Alpine made some big steps and the car is quite strong in qualifying. Their race pace isn't as great, but they are still only the 5th best car, which makes any result inside the top 10 a good day. Ocon still making iffy moves when racing wheel to wheel. Gasly fortunate to get a point with Yuki's penalty. Alfa Romeo had one of their better races. Zhou had one of his best races. A fantastic performance which included strong pace, clean hard racing, making good passes. Bottas on the other hand was lost in his own shadows. While we could call for him to be replaced, he wasn't the only driver to struggle while their teammate seemed to do alright. AlphaTauri through a point away. Tsunoda had a very strong race and deserved points, but his penalty was fair. Had he gave up the position into T4, surely no penalty would have been issued. De Vries still lacking and hasn't adapted to the car at all. No wonder Helmet Marco is starting to get frustrated with the kid. McLaren gave us high hopes of a strong running today. Norris had good qualifying and talked of the car's strengths in high speed corners. Unfortunately nothing to show for it in the race. Piastri finished about where one would expect from him. What happened to Lando after his lap 1 incident that damaged the front wing? Surely his car wasn't damaged beyond that. One would expect a recovery to get back to at least 12-14th, but he was near the back all day. Haas is a sad story of inability to develop. The car continues to move backwards. Their drivers have some fight in them. Hulkenberg continues to impressive with some great passes and continues to beat Kmag. Unfortunately the car is one of the worst with no signs of improving. Williams, back to the back. There are photos of their floor and the differences compared to Red Bull are staggering. It's certainly not budget, CFD, or wind tunnel constraints as the team has the most of anyone. The team must have elementary levels of aerodynamics relative to every other team, and it's been this way for 10 years. Albon getting the most and more out of the car. Logan following in Latifi's footsteps to be last of the running cars each race. Driver of the Day: George Russell. 12th to 3rd with a lot of passes on track. Outstanding. Honorable mention goes to G. Zhou.
