Gareth Collier

When you start 4th after a rain affected Q3 yet still finish 13 seconds ahead in a 19 lap race it doesn't bode well for the GP.

Q1 and the grass is on fire again.....

Apart from the borefest up front the race wasn't too bad with a lot of different strategies although pit/tyre strategy shouldn't be the only way to make a race interesting. Much like Sainz/Norris a few races ago it also says a lot when you can stop a car 2 places back from overtaking by slowing enough to allow the car behind you to get DRS but not enough to get by you but enough to stop the faster car behind them from passing then challenging you. This time Alonso, Piastri and Russell and it worked until Piastri made a small mistake but to late for Russell to challenge Alonso. Similar I suppose to Magnussen driving slowly on purpose to help Hulkenburg but not slow enough to be passed. I'd much rather see flat out racing than these slow tactics.

Which doesn't help the majority of road users in cars. To be fair the only roads that were open were certainly unsuitable for HGV's. That said they managed to close every A road at the same time so if you were in an HGV it was tough. The A2100 north of Battle is also closed due to a landship so an HGV in Hastings would have to go up the A21 to Hurst Green and then across to Heathfield then you were in the clear. Just looked at the routes. A normal 11 mile drive from Hastings to Eastbourne increases to 39 miles using open A roads.

Never at the sharp end and answerable to none. The missus was driving back from her fathers from Peasmarsh to Eastbourne a couple of nights ago and upon reaching Battle met diversion signs pointing her towards Hastings due to roadworks which had closed the A271. Following this route sending her initially in completely the wrong direction she finally passed through Bexhill and reached Little Common where she was met with more road closure signs, the A259 between there and the outskirts of Eastbourne. At this point her local knowledge ran out so she gave me a ring so I sent her south towards Cooden where she could use the old route along the coast but upon arrival it was also closed for roadworks so another phone call from an increasingly frustrated wife. Back to Little Common and this times north along Peartree Lane (I used to live there so know all the backroads) but half way along it was also closed for roadworks. In tears now I became a remote satnav and managed to guide her back to the A269 at Ninfield where it turned out that stretch was clear until it meets up with the A271 which was just beyond the section that was closed. A 50 minute journey took over 2 1/2 hours and the galling bit was a bit of thought from the planners could have sent you a couple of miles down a country lane from Battle to Ninfield rather than the ridiculous route that just took you to another closed road. I guess it's because it's nearly the end of the financial year so the county council is using every penny it has left of their roadworks budget but to close virtually every route between Hastings and Eastbourne from 8pm onwards with diversions that don't work was ridiculous. It was obvious the none of the planners knew of the other works hence diverting you towards them. Anyhow, it's not the fault of the guys doing the work but unfortunately they are the ones visible and cop the drivers frustrations at the incompetent planners.

No, there wasn't any contact but only because Russell managed to avoid him. The stewards report stated Alonso lifted, braked and down shifted over 100 meters earlier than any other lap and that he had driven in a potentially dangerous manner which is why he was penalised. All they couldn't establish was whether it was because he had decided to take a new line out of the next corner as he claimed or to put Russell in the wall. What is there to learn for young Russell? The stewards clearly didn't think Russell was at fault with 100% of the blame put on Alonso. Sorry, but I can't agree with your view of it and must go with the stewards interpretation of it.

And a decent penalty for what could have been a far worse accident.

It is telling when you hear such a massive cheer from the crowd on lap 2 followed by an even bigger cheer on lap 3. Not much overtaking but still a positive for F1.

Must have been a heavy appendix if the weight drop has shaved that much of a lap. Before you know it they'll be having them removed 😂

Great effort from Bearman and Magnussen proving that if you drive slowly in the right places and save your battery for the straights no one can overtake even with DRS. Great team drive to get the Hulk into the points. Otherwise the lack of comment here about the actual race says a lot. All I can hope for is a Red Bull implosion.

Apart from Sainz not giving a stuff about team orders and going hell for leather it looks like this season could be a carbon copy of last. Liberty Media may not be too happy about that as viewers switch off around the world. All that can be hoped for is RB self destructing.

Spoilers - as a regular contributor to the various F1 threads over the years there has never been a "gentleman's agreement" over spoilers. It has been discussed before and the answer has always been "don't read the thread if you don't want to know the result". Indeed races are often discussed while they are still running with a lot more chat the second Max invariably crosses the line first. I am baffled why someone's train of thought is "I've missed qualifying so will watch it later. What shall I do whilst I wait and try to avoid spoilers? I know, I'll go and read a F1 thread on a forum and then if anyone has dared to talk about F1 I will get upset". By all means have the discussion again but just how long is a reasonable time to not talk about something that has already happened? After the race, after Ch4 has shown the highlights, after someone has watched the highlights on catch up? There will always be someone who doesn't know the result. The easy answer is don't read a F1 thread if you don't want to know what happened. No idea why I have to defend myself because someone decided the best way to avoid spoilers was to read a F1 thread....

Don't read this thread until you've seen the repeats then, simple.

Oh goody, Max on pole. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz A bit of head scratching at Alpine.

Yep, I know car insurance is rocketing, we're a 3 car household, but the cost of spares, repairs, replacements and labour have all gone up dramatically so it's sort of understandable (ours went up approx 85% last Nov) but OS Maps is a bit of software that remains pretty much unchanged year on year so no idea how 45% can be justified.

I do a lot of walking and subscribe to OS Maps. Last year it was £19.99 and my renewal is £28.99. That's 45%. Apparently their costs have gone up but they're doing something wrong if they've gone up by that much.

That's a couple of dance halls coming my way, the SECR is becoming very well served in 'N' 😊

Surely next season can't be as boring as the last but I have a nagging fear it could be. RB were able to give up development of their car mid season as they were so far ahead and concentrate on next years car whilst the rest had to continue playing catch up so they may well already have a big head start. Let's hope McLaren continue to improve and the Mercs can't be that bad yet again. As for Ferrari they'll start well then implode.

The website appears to be up and running again now. Good news.

Whenever I have something switch to "delivered" on online tracking through Evri/Yodel/Amazon what it actually means is it's been chucked on the doorstep in plain view of the world and a vague photos confirms I have it in my possession. As to the last part it all depends on if it's still there when I get home. If I was dishonest I could claim non delivery in every case because a doorstep is not delivered, just abandoned. Of course on occasion the "evidence" photo means a trip around the neighbours to see if you can find a front door the same colour as in the photo.

Although there was a period of Mercedes dominance as far as championships go they didn't win every race, there was often a good 5-6 different race winners and never dominated to the extent Max had. There was often serious competition but they usually ended up shooting themselves in the foot at some point.

And arguably the dullest ever season draws to a close. Fingers crossed next season will be better and the rest of the field or at least one or two offer a challenge to Max. As for today's race that's 9 years on the trot the pole sitter has won....

Perhaps I should clarify my comment that it was possibly the best race of the season. There was a fair bit of overtaking, close running and the lead actually changing on track more than once although that was helped by safety cars where teams, IMHO, can take an unfair advantage when it comes to tyres and strategy but the bar to which I was judging it is extremely low!

After a season of drudgery and the ridiculous hype before this race and sending paying fans home just before a wheel was turned in FP2 it turned out to be, possibly, the best race of the season. Glad to hear Lando is ok.

"At last" the spectators said when it was confirmed FP2 was due to start only to find that half an hour before the new start time the grandstands were closed and they were all cleared out and sent home. You couldn't make this up!