It was a busy weekend and Sprints make it much, much better.  But I do agree that should not cut into practice time. 

19 hours ago, theguru said:

One of the wildest races you will see, especially from an unpredictability standpoint.  Wow!

Thanks @theguru for the attached info above that really sums up the race.  Wasn't sure how I was going to try to do that!  Ha.

It just goes to show that Red Bull with Verstappen is a TOTALLY different beast than Red Bull with Perez.  Just remarkable how Verstappen didn't seem to be bothered much with the wet and everyone else did.  I just think Red Bull/Verstappen had the exact correct set up.  You could tell Norris and McLaren were off on their set up.  Norris and Russell did have poor luck with the timing of the initial Yellow Flag and then just a few laps later Red Flag but felt McLaren should have stayed out even when Russell pitted under yellow.

I think this race cemented Verstappen's 4th World Championship.  Would be an epic collapse now for Norris to come back to overtake Verstappen now.

And I have to give props to Alpine, who were honestly dogs when the weather was dry, but somehow found their sea-legs in the wet Brazilian conditions.  You could tell on the podium that they knew they had stolen one and they did.  Good for them.  It's been a long hard year for Alpine.

The RBs were good too with Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson both showing good promise for down the road.

And 5 cars crashed out!  It was entertaining for sure.  Hate it for Williams who is a smaller team, and they had 3 or 4 wrecks this weekend.  Terrible results for them.

Las Vegas is next.  It is my favorite of the American sites simply because of the City of Las Vegas.  They spit the bit last year with the street manhole covers debacle.  But hoping for a great race in about 3 weeks!

And I've lapped the field in my fantasy league now going over 1,000 points above the second-place guy.  Feels GOOD!!!!  Ha!

4 hours ago, Purple88 said:

One of the wildest races you will see, especially from an unpredictability standpoint.  Wow!

Thanks @theguru for the attached info above that really sums up the race.  Wasn't sure how I was going to try to do that!  Ha.

It just goes to show that Red Bull with Verstappen is a TOTALLY different beast than Red Bull with Perez.  Just remarkable how Verstappen didn't seem to be bothered much with the wet and everyone else did.  I just think Red Bull/Verstappen had the exact correct set up.  You could tell Norris and McLaren were off on their set up.  Norris and Russell did have poor luck with the timing of the initial Yellow Flag and then just a few laps later Red Flag but felt McLaren should have stayed out even when Russell pitted under yellow.

I think this race cemented Verstappen's 4th World Championship.  Would be an epic collapse now for Norris to come back to overtake Verstappen now.

And I have to give props to Alpine, who were honestly dogs when the weather was dry, but somehow found their sea-legs in the wet Brazilian conditions.  You could tell on the podium that they knew they had stolen one and they did.  Good for them.  It's been a long hard year for Alpine.

The RBs were good too with Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson both showing good promise for down the road.

And 5 cars crashed out!  It was entertaining for sure.  Hate it for Williams who is a smaller team, and they had 3 or 4 wrecks this weekend.  Terrible results for them.

Las Vegas is next.  It is my favorite of the American sites simply because of the City of Las Vegas.  They spit the bit last year with the street manhole covers debacle.  But hoping for a great race in about 3 weeks!

And I've lapped the field in my fantasy league now going over 1,000 points above the second-place guy.  Feels GOOD!!!!  Ha!

Right on all the events that happened.  I am currently in the middle of watching the race a second time because there is so, so much to digest.

Everything I read says Max is the champ and can't lose it now.

Norris and Russell both had bad luck, I blame the teams for bringing them in, especially knowing a red flag may be coming and you get a free tire change.

Love it for Alpine, that was great, lol!

So much fun, anyone that is into NASCAR that doesn't watch F1 needs to check it out.  It is best and as always the viewing experience on ESPN is second to none thanks to Mercedes Benz now and Mothers Polish in the recent past.

 

Speaking of Red Bull with Max:

41 minutes ago, theguru said:

Speaking of Red Bull with Max:

Man, that is super-impressive!  I knew it was alot, but I didn't know it was that much.

It was like Verstappen was out there in slicks when the rest of the field were on wet tyres.

Just a great driver!  I don't think I really realized how much difference a driver makes; I mean I know a little, but watching F1 as long as I have seeing the disparity between Perez who honestly is a decent driver compared to Verstappen is SR on Varsity vs 7th grade.

On to Las Vegas!  Viva Las Vegas!!!!

Right, sometimes Max stands heads and above everyone and yesterday was one of those days.

I wish all the cars were essentially equal so we could tell more about the drivers and the teams but you can't have it all.

It is hard to explain to a non-F1 fan how awesome Brazil was this year.

Vegas street course this weekend and these drivers crack me up, lol lol.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix did not disappoint!  EXCEPT possibly from a "regular" fan experience.  I mean they run the race in the middle of the night.  Is that a problem in Vegas?  Not at all!  You don't disrupt the Strip streets as much and it brings in fans from around the world.  But I don't think this race was packed as just about every other one is.  I saw photos of some empty less desirable stands on Instagram.  But I also want to give kudos to the Las Vegas racing group putting on the race.  Last year was ROUGH for the first time grand prix (since 1981/1982) with manhole lids coming off and then some other more minor issues.  They really listened to the criticism and made improvements.  Congrats!  But racing in the desert at night gets dang cold.  Cold temps mean low grip.  And like all conditions, some are better adept to dealing with and thriving in those conditions.

On to the race.  Well, I want to speak just a second on qualifying, as that's what sets the race up.  The Aston Martins were sleds out there.  Just terrible setup and delivery for them.  Sad for Alonso.  But Franco Colapinto, the young Argentine driver for Williams, smacked the wall and destroyed his car and brought out the red flag in Q2 and took forever to clean up.  Amazingly the Williams team had a car for him the next day.  Tip of the hat to their mechanics in their garage.  That can't be that easy to do.  In the final Q3 (final round of qualifying), it was clear the Mercedes had found new pace and were at the top of the leaderboards, but Lewis Hamilton made a rare costly error going wide and ended his qualifying in 10th place (WAY below where his cars pace was).  His Teammate George Russell earned pole position with Carlos Sainz the terrific Ferrari driver who will go to Williams after 2 more races.  Man, I just can't let it go that he isn't going to one of the bigger teams.  Mercedes chose to go with their YOUNG stud driver Antonelli.  Ferrari started it all with hiring Lewis Hamilton in Sainz' spot.  McLaren already has their team in Norris and Piastri.  So that leaves Red Bull that I'm honestly not sure what they are thinking unless it is with their pocketbooks with Perez.  

The race was fun with Russell launching off the line and a Quick Charles LeClerc with Ferrari went from 4th to 2nd at the first turn.  Impressive.  Max Verstappen started 5th for Red Bull and all the 3-time World Champion had to do was stay in front of his main rival and friend Lando Norris (McLaren) in 6th place.  Easier said than done.  

There was a lot of jockeying around early and late in this race.  It was supposed to be a one-pit stop race, but you could tell immediately after Sergio Perez had to come in to the pits early on the hard tyre that the tyres simply were not going to last long enough (except for a Brilliant Kevin Magnussen who made the 1-stop work and came to the line a solid 12th place for Haas, who are in a dog fight with Alpine and RB for the #6 Constructors Championship.  We are talking 10s of millions of dollars for these teams who employ a boatload of people, so this REALLY matters to them.  Keep an eye on these teams for the last 2 races.  Also Ferrari (584 points) is making a run at McLaren (608 points) for the Top Spot.  You could tell this matters to the teams as McLaren brough Norris in on the 2nd to last lap and put on soft tyres to earn the 1 point for fastest lap.  Will be interesting.

Lewis Hamilton was on a mission.  He stormed through the field and passed Verstappen and only had his teammate Russell left, but he was 10-11 seconds up the road (that's a lot in F1)!  He made a great run at it but burned up his tyres to get there and at the end just couldn't catch his teammate Russell who earned his 3rd win of the year!  Impressive for who will now be "The Guy" for Mercedes in 2 races.  Hamilton finishes second and That Guy!  Carlos Sainz earns 3rd!  (WAKE UP RED BULL!) 

And Max Verstappen finishes 27 seconds ahead of Lando Norris and clinches the 2024 F1 World Championship!  It hasn't been easy for the Dutchman after winning 7 of the first 10 races.  But he is a 4 Time World Champion!  Impressive and Congratulations!  He joins Sebastian Vettel and Alaine Prost at the #4 step.  The names above this (only 3) are legendary:  Juan Manuel Fangio won 5 in the 1950s.  The Great Lewis Hamilton won 7 (some say 8, but conversation for another day) from 2008 to 2020) and the Great Michael Schumacher won 7 from 1994 to 2004).  Great list to be on!

The thing I'm MOST happy about is I really believe 2025 will be the most wide-open F1 has been in a long time.  I think all 4 of the top teams will have a chance at the Championship next year and that is SO exciting.

But 2 races left sports fans, great time to jump on board with F1!  They race in Qatar this weekend!

 

I thought this was hilarious!  You couldn't stop and stand watching the race without a ticket.  But some people figured out that if they could keep moving up and down on escalators during the race, security and the police would leave them alone!