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Max Verstappen is now the youngest Formula 1 grand prix winner, and is also the first dutch Formula 1 grand prix winner. The young dutch driver made his debut today with Red Bull and managed to lead the majority of the race in front of Kimi Räikkönen after the two Mercedes drivers crashed shortly after the start of the race. At first, Rosberg managed to overtake polesitter Hamilton, but when Hamilton came back at Rosberg in the first corner, the german driver made a rather rash defensive maneuver, and the two Mercedes drivers collided and retired from the race. Mercedes' Toto Wolff referred to the collision as a race incident and he blamed neither of the two for the incident.
After the incident, Red Bull's Ricciardo looked like the strongest contender for a win, but bad strategy dropped him down to fourth place, behind both Ferrari drivers. The australian driver later recieved a puncture while he pursued the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. Ricciardo managed to finish fourth despite the puncture.
Carlos Sainz had a good race today, and managed to finish in 6th. His new team mate Kvyat managed a 10th today.
Williams' Felipe Massa, who failed to get out of Q1 in yesterday's qualifying session, managed to get all the way up into 8th place. Massa's team mate Bottas finished 5th.
McLaren looked ready for a second double points finish, until Fernando Alonso had to retire with an engine failure. Meanwhile, Button managed to finish in 9th place.
Renault's Jolyon Palmer managed to outpace his team mate for the first time this season today. He finished behind Sauber's Ericsson in 13th place.
Circuit de Catalunya - 15 May 2016
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (4)
Login to replymclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
He did well and earned that win, though you'd have to say RBR and Ferrari made strategic blunders in giving that chance away from Ricciardo to Ves and from Vettel to Kimi. Riccardo won two races this way in 2014 so he got to taste how it feels to rob someone elses victory by SCD, here he lost out on strategy. I don't have much sympathy for Ric here.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I mainly agree with you, but I still feel sorry for Ricciardo. But at least he managed to limp into fourth place, so better than nothing.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It was a good race. Awkward incident for Mercedes, that one... Plenty of drivers who did a good job today. Massa from 18th up into 8th, Ericsson set a few fast lap times and once again he outpaced Nasr, Gutierrez were on even ground with Grosjean, Sainz up into 6th. And more points for McLaren is always nice. ;) Odd how Ricciardo's tyre exploded like that, old or not. The reason for the new tyre pressure rules was to reduce the risk of that happening, but since it still happens we might aswell revert to the old pressure rules, makes the tyres better to race on, at least.
RacetoWin
Posts: 95
Everything fell into place for this to happen,
the mercs crashing, Sainz passing the ferrari's on the turn of the Merc's crash site while the ferrari's were slowing down. Sainz then holds up the Ferrari's to let the Red bulls build a Gap, horner changes verstappen's strategy to pit early, raikkonen follows, vettel calls the bluff of Riccardo and pits early as Redbull sets up max for a potential victory. it all played out very nicely. Great job MAX!