Well what a Sunday to return to an autodrome of both dreams and devastation, a circuit that claimed two lives in one weekend in 1994, 3 time world Champion Ayrton Senna and relevant rookie Roland Ratzenberger.
It was the first time an F1 car has driven around the chicanes of Imola in anger since 2006 and it’s safe to say it was… interesting.
The Honey Badger, Daniel Ricciardo, scored his second podium of the year and he didn’t forget his shoey, surprisingly Lewis joined him for a taste of sweat infused Möet taken out of the Australian boot. Whilst one side of the Renault garage was buzzing, the other side seemed slightly deflated thanks to Ocon’s clutch causing issues and resulting in a retirement and subsequent safety car.
At Danny Ric’s Alma Mata the day couldn’t have been worse. Red Bull walked away from Imola with zero points. After running in P2, P3 and then P2 again, Max lost the rear and ended up in a gravel trap thanks to what looked like an immediate right rear puncture. The teams hopes fell to Albon who, after an unfortunate spin at the safety car restart with seemingly nothing but himself as the cause, dropped down to 15th and lost all hopes of a points finish.
However, the most devastating point of Sunday’s race came on lap eight when Pierre Gasly received a message from the pit lane to retire the car. After a sensational Saturday putting himself firmly in P4, everyone was set to watch Gasly chase another podium. After being squeezed at the start by Hamilton he lost a place but the Alpha Tauri had speed. Enough speed too, as Danil Kyvat, fighting for his career, brought home a P4 thanks to Max’s retirement. It begs the question as to what Pierre could have done had his engine not suffered a coolant leak.
Gasly’s retirement wasn’t the only one that hit F1 fans hard. George Russel was set for his first points finish but, in a very similar style to Grosjean in Baku 2018, while trying to warm the tyres up under the safety car, lit up the rear wheels and lost control hitting the wall and loosing his front end. A clearly defeated George sat down in the grass and hung his head in what looked like embarrassment. Not what he needs as he pushes for a Mercedes seat in 2022.
For the rest of the grid it was a pretty standard race. Charles continued to do what he does in an underwhelming Ferrari and brought home a solid P5. Alfa Romeo had a good weekend with Giovinazzi bringing home P10 and Raikkonen delivery a P9.
The other retirement of the day came from Haas’ Kevin Magnussen after complaining of a headache due to the force of the upshifts. This came after he told his race engineer that it was his job to finish but it does hurt. No reports as of yet about how he’s feeling but let’s hope he recovers.
In the end, Imola proved to be an amazing circuit loved by the fans and the drivers themselves. Whilst it was hard on the tyres and clearly on the physical side it’s a track we’d all love to see re-join the calendar.
Stay tuned for a another new track to the F1 calendar this year as the circus moves to Istanbul on November 15th
