Piastri lost the win at the first corner, I think even if Max had overall better pace it wouldn’t have been enough to overtake under normal circumstances.

From there, in hindsight, the fastest strategy would have been to sit behind Max and push through the overheating Mediums. But Piastri and team had to try to go for the lead with an undercut because they’re racers, nothing can be said against that.

With two mistakes overall, I think third place is the smallest penalty he could have gotten away with, it could have been much worse, and it was good to see the progress through the midfield.

Norris had to clear fewer cars to make his progress, but he did it well and had race pace meeting or exceeding Piastri’s. Good to see them racing cleanly after the safety car.

Williams in the top 5 again, let’s go!

What a disappointing race for a Saintz and Alonso fan after that qualifying! Good to see Hamilton getting back in the mix though, and still a mostly fun race overall. It was nice to see drivers going off the track getting punished by gravel instead of just driving back on ahead of the other car

Surprisingly good race for being Imola in the dry. I can’t even remember the last time we had this many overtakes here. Feels good that the track goes out with a bit of a bang, even though on balance I won’t really miss it.

What can you even say about Max at this point. As someone who isn’t a personal fan of his it gets annoying to have to pay your respects every race, but he is so far ahead of the rest of the field in terms of skill that you just have to sit back in awe. Beautiful overtake and superbly managed race. Again we see the importance of clean air this season and that turn 1 lap 1 basically won Max the race.

Disappointing race from McLaren on all fronts basically. Pace wasn’t there, strategy wasn’t there and even the pitstops were poor. Very curious to see if this was a one-off or the beginning of a backwards slide. Max was genuinely faster here but clean air muddles the picture. The flexi-wing rules change is just around the corner too. Is the balance of power shifting?

Impressed by the fightback from Ferrari, their race pace was actually quite strong and I thought they had some good strategy calls actually. I felt Leclerc’s pain at the end but they had no other options, putting him on a soft was suicidal. It’s unfortunate for them that with the current dirty air issues they seem to have good race pace but awful qualy pace, which is sort of the opposite of what you want now. They had some mixed luck with the VSC and Safety Car both taking and giving but overall I think both drivers got everything out of the race for once. A couple of more laps and that’s a Hamilton podium, even.

Mercedes had a weird race, Antonelli was struggling even before the DNF but George too seemed to have terrible pace, especially after the pitstops. Maybe it was just too hot for them, their car has hated high temperatures the past few years.

Also have to mention Albon pulling another fantastic race. My brain says Max for driver of the day but my heart says Albon. I really think if he got past Leclerc there instead of going into the gravel he had a shot at Piastri and the podium.

Let’s not talk about Aston.

Verstappen proving once again that if the cars are similarly paced, he makes the difference. One of the craziest turn 1 moves that I have ever seen

What was the cologne comment from DC to Lando about?

It’s really hard to say where Red Bull are as a team. Max seemed to be able to use the car as if it’s either the fastest or second fastest car. But Yuki had so many other teams’ car between him and Max. McLaren makes sense. But Ferrari, Mercedes, Williams and Racing Bulls?