RandoEFC

In what was easily the fastest car this weekend. He deserves some credit, like Karius deserves some credit for the 2-3 saves he made last night. If Verstappen wasn't such a golden boy and so marketable his career would be under serious threat the way he's performing. Any of the decent midfield drivers like Hulkenberg, Perez, Sainz, Ocon would have returned vastly more points in that seat than Max this year. He's young but he's not inexperienced anymore and you have to wonder how much longer he can keep making the same mistakes without learning and finding a way to improve his driving.

Terrible race, nice result.

They can have Schneiderlin, nice swap deal.

I think the thinking is that in the past, people complained that teams in 3rd had no better chance of getting promoted than those who finished 6th which was unfair. The argument is that this way, there's a reward for finishing 3rd/4th instead of 5th/6th as you have to play fewer games than the other play-off sides which gives you an advantage. It might be nonsense but if people are that arsed about it being worthwhile to finish 3rd or 4th instead of 5th or 6th there's no harm in trying it. Flipside is obviously if a team finishes 8th they can be one of the three teams who get promoted. Pretty daft and it's akin to Everton and Burnley being given the opportunity of a playoff to get into the Champions League.

Eurgh looks horrif. No ta.

As an Everton fan up against an Ashley Williams lookalike it's hard to see how Bellew could ever lose a fight to David Haye.

Hamilton was very classy after the race with his comments about Vettel and Bottas. It seems that he's finally starting to show some maturity so hopefully that continues and I can bring myself to support him as the British driver for the remainder of his career. Some people are calling it lucky, maybe it was, and maybe Vettel was unlucky with the safety car. However, Vettel was ahead of Hamilton and he should have taken that instead of a reckless attempt to grab the win that Verstappen would be proud of. If he'd played the percentages he would have won the race when Bottas had his bad luck on the next lap. Instead he gets 4th and costs himself 13 points while handing Hamilton an extra 7 points. Could be decisive in the final standings. I think that move goes to show that he still fears a repeat of last season when Mercedes pulled clear of Ferrari and Hamilton had a flawless second half of the year. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I read that as Hamilton and Mercedes still being in his head despite Ferrari having the best car all weekend. Like last year, it is surprising to see so many young drivers like Stroll, Hartley, Sainz and Leclerc bring home the points in this sort of race while more experienced drivers shat the bed. Hulkenberg and Grosjean particularly disappointing today, both dropping the car under no significant pressure when it could have been them picking up the podium finish that eventually went to Perez. McLaren might still be lacking pace but between the team and the drivers they have their heads screwed on and have taken good advantage of some of the early season chaos with significant upgrades to come at the next race too apparently. Red Bull I don't think I can add to what's been said but it's good to see 8 of the other 9 teams rewarded with points today. All in all, this is a great circuit. It's horrible to play on the PS4 and that's an accurate reflection of real life. I was actually slightly terrified by Kimis on-board camera at one point during qualifying the way he was throwing the car into blind corners inches away from sharp barriers. Street circuits are absolutely essential in F1 even if some people complain about a lack of overtaking at some of them.

Not convinced that was fully Maxs fault to be honest. Ricciardo looked like he was coming in very hot. Would love Bottas to win here but doubt he can hold off Vettel. If Bottas wins though that's three out of four races this year decided by lucky safety car strategies. Hamilton and Kimi past Seb, big lock up, reckless!

Ultimate Team really is the biggest pile of AIDs in the history of gaming. Online is full of enough horse shit but even offline modes now are riddled with cheating AI and the game "switching off" your defenders to concede a goal in the last minute. It's a shame I enjoy building squads and doing the squad building challenges for packs so much. Says it all that the actual playing matches part is a chore. Hilarious how EA deny that the gameplay is any different in Ultimate Team than Career mode or anything like that and some melts actually believe them.

Wow. After sleeping through much of the first half of the race I'm glad the second half came alive. Danny Ric . Bottas drove well, could easily have won that after holding Vettel off but for the safety car. Hamilton was beaten fair and square by him this weekend. Vettel very unlucky. Kimi did okay and was quick but doesn't have the killer instinct to make key overtakes these days. The Red Bulls looked like they were in a different formula with the stronger tyres. One of their drivers successfully took the candy from the baby but Max Maldonado struck again and ruined his and Vettels race. After the safety car he was actually just in front of his race winning team mate. Championship should be interesting at this rate.

Surprising but let's see how the race pace is. People can call Ferrari the faster car but Vettel has won both races with a Mercedes right up his arse for the closing laps. Useless Bottas outqualifying Hamilton again anyway.

This post makes me feel like I need a walking stick.

Can you find me a quote saying that Rooney has demanded an explanation? Or is it just that the manager has said he'll sit down with him and now we're inventing the part where it's because Rooney expects that to happen?

Because the reason Rooney and our other midfielders were shite is down to the tactics he asks them to play.

Five dead rubbers left, hopefully he gets some time on the pitch...

I don't know what to make of him either. At least looking at Southampton you'd say they shouldn't have sacked him. I don't really know if Leicester are coming or going. On one hand I still perceive them as the de facto 7th/8th team along with us but on the other hand they don't seem to have done much with their title success. Some decent players brought in like Ndidi but you'd expect Mahrez to leave this summer and aside from Vardy the rest of their squad is pretty average and could see them slip back into the whirlpool of chaos that is the bottom 12 or so teams in the Premier League.

Max reminds me of a young Hamilton but not as fast. Lewis went straight into a top seat and had a steep and very public learning curve for his first few years. His best year was actually his debut season in 2007, then 2008 onwards although he won the title that year were riddled with mistakes and petulance culminating in the 2011 campaign where he has his arse handed to him by Jenson Button who was a top driver but no Vettel or Alonso. He has matured as a driver if not so much as a person since then. Verstappen is even younger than Lewis was when he burst onto the scene and the hype around him is so great that there's a lot of pressure. However at the moment he looks like he'll always be good enough as an occasional race winner in an occasionally race winning team but if Red Bull get back to being consistent front runners he's not good enough to beat Vettel or Hamilton in a straight fight if Ricciardo moves to Ferrari as rumoured. Max is the type of driver who could win 9 races in a year and finish 2nd in the Championship being a more consistent rival with 6 or 7 wins.

I agree that Verstappen is a nobhead. Absolutely reckless move on Hamilton at the end of the first lap but he gets away with it because he pulls out a stunning qualifying or race performance once every five Grands Prix and then acts cocky as if he's delivering it every week and for some reason people buy into it. Time for him to grow up. He's not in Vettel or Hamilton's league, not even in Ricciardo's league.

Well done to Vettel but it doesn't half do my head in when Pirelli say these tyres will do 25 laps and they end up doing 40. Was looking forward to Vettel putting on the super sorts and charging back. Valtteri should have won even though he only had a minor tyre advantage at the end. Vettels tyres were mullered and he had DRS. Great drives from Gasly, Alonso, Magnussen, Hulkenberg.

F2 and F3 stuff belongs in here. Motorbikes and touring cars etc can go in the general motorsports thread .

F2 second race is underway!

Almost all of the current grid came through F2, most of them were in there when it was called GP2 though but it was essentially the same thing. I went to the British GP in 2010 and 2011. I can't remember which year it was but we watched all of the feeder series including GP2 (featuring Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado), GP3 (featuring Esteban Gutierrez) and Formula BMW (featuring Carlos Sainz Jr). Lewis Hamilton came into F1 as a GP2 champion, as did Maldonado and Hulkenberg if I remember correctly. Jolyon Palmer and Charles Leclerc more recently. The main exception are the Red Bull academy drivers who seem to take different routes through the feeder series before getting a chance at Toro Rosso. However the FIA have set it up nicely now that there is a clear route through GP3 and F2 to get to Formula 1, with both of those series attached to most F1 race weekends. It's also good that Sky Sports F1 have the rights and show all of the qualifying and races if you're minded to watch the up and comers.

This was the battle in the F2 race earlier for 2nd place between the Brazilian Sette Camara and Russian Markelov who started the race from the pitlane after stalling on the starting grid.

Like I said I'm not saying he's in the elite but I just find it weird people are getting on his back today when he couldn't have done more. Qualified within a tenth or two of the Ferraris who were both driving what was clearly a superior car to the limit. Bottas did get a couple of poles and a couple of decent wins last year. He lost his way in the second half of the season while Hamilton was in a class of his own. He's the perfect second driver for Mercedes, allowed Hamilton to canter to the championship last season whilst outperforming Kimi comfortably to bring home the Constructors title. If you're asking whether he's good enough to take over when Lewis leaves Mercedes that's a different question. I wouldn't rule it out depending on when that time comes but there are plenty of doubts for the time being and many drivers who will be gunning to replace him if the pecking order remains similar to what it is now.

Lol, such rhetoric. Bottas is no elite driver but he gets all this flak when he did better than Kimi last year. Also last week people were saying Bottas not good enough for Mercedes because he crashed in qualifying. Didn't hear a peep about Max pointing his car the wrong way for the second weekend running.