Williams qualified well for once. So yeah, maybe Albon scores today?

I'm counting on Gasly making some progress.

The weather may be the star today, and I hope it's mixed.

I expect fireworks in this one, and we will see. The cars are all just so evenly matched, and a lot of drivers at the top will feel they deserve a victory so I hope we see some good action. The nature of the corners here allows gambling, or aggressive moves. Passes on the inside and outside, or attempts, anyway. If its mixed it'll come down to which team gets it right most often, on the right tire at the right time. I think it's impossible to predict a winner, even take a guess haha. The gravel traps here seem especially sticky and few cars ever manage to emerge once they've dipped in to one, so safety cars are likely I think.

The data from practice has Ferrari faster on race pace than Merc, so who knows

Checo's done. This was one disaster too far, no? Sintax was telling me he read Checo has a performance clause in his new deal and has to be within 100 points of Max by Spa to keep his seat. He's already further behind than that and has nearly no chance to close that gap in a couple races. He would need Max to retire, and anyway, he starts last from the pitlane today so points are a reach. But then if the weather is shifting all bets are off and he could land on the podium, you never know!

Looks like it will be dry at the start.

I had to work and missed the Indy car qualifying, but well done to Palou. I heard of no issues with the new engine. I looked up last year's pole time and this year was one second faster, for what it is worth.

I wrote I'm counting on Gasly and 15 minutes later he's out before the lights went out.

We only have two differences in our teams this week and one of mine is already out. Need Ocon to have the same problem now

That was a good race. Changing conditions are always the thing to spice it up.

Congrats to Lewis. He drove a great race, and I was sort of rooting for him to pull it off. Good for him and for Mercedes, who were fast all weekend. Too bad for Russell or it may have been him on the top step.

Gasly out before the flag drops is a bummer, but that's racing.

McLaren and Ferrari both made the sort of mistakes today that they can't make in such a tight fight for the titles. If McLaren had double stacked and came out on the same tires they did in the race, Piastri would have passed Norris. But I think obviously what they should have done is double stack and send both out on mediums. Piastri paid a price today for hanging on Lando's exhaust, Lando paid a price for going on to the softs. These are hard calls for the pitwall, but it didn't work out for either of them.

Ferrari too got it wrong at crucial times, and it didn't look like they had the pace anyway. But it is a poor result for the team in the overall picture.Ferrari are now just seven points ahead of McLaren.

Max drove a great race in a car that wasn't as fast as the Mercs or McLarens. But Red Bull got it right with the tire swap calls. Right tire at the right time as Brundle always says. He wasn't looking any better than fifth or sixth in the first stint in the dry on pace, but he kept making up spots by making the right calls, and was obviously closing on Hamilton at the end. If Verstappen goes on to win the title, this result will be a big reason why. He extends his lead with maybe the third fastest car on the day and that will do nicely. Red Bull maintain a nice lead in the constructors, but they are doing it with no help from the second car and this cannot go on. They only have one car scoring, and they need a second car in the mix for strategy reasons.

Not the incident-filled race I was anticipating, but enjoyable to watch. Sargeant nearly scored. Aston will be feeling some relief at a good result, and Alpine will be back to the drawing board. Hulk turned his good starting spot in to a great result. Gotta say he has been driving great this year. It felt like a gamble when he was brought back in to F1, but credit to him for performing at a high level.

On to Hungary in a couple weeks, then Spa, then summer break.

Mid-Ohio about to drop the flag

Good race too, at Mid-Ohio. Pato and Palou with a good battle at the end. That's one Chevy and one Honda, so yeah, I think the engine change thing has gone as seamlessly as you could want. Honestly I didn't feel like the racing was changed all that much, but fans have a new thing to monitor. Pato jumps three spots in the standings with this win. Dixon the big loser, through no fault of his own.

Was working so only could watch the highlights, that was GOOD !

Lando is good, the car is good, Oscar is good, they're almost there, but not yet.

LH was so moved it sounded like it was his first win ever, GJ to him !

Luck was on my side, although I regret not playing LH as winner, I somehow felt like it but it was too risky.

Yeah, you extended your lead with Gasly's retirement, otherwise it was tight with our teams so similar. Plenty of season left.

Iowa, this weekend in IndyCar, a doubleheader with races on Saturday and Sunday. With the schedule also including Gateway I presume, and the Nashville oval over the streetcourse, the second half of the season feels like an oval revival. And that is not a bad thing.

Iowa, this weekend in IndyCar, a doubleheader with races on Saturday and Sunday. With the schedule also including Gateway I presume, and the Nashville oval over the streetcourse, the second half of the season feels like an oval revival. And that is not a bad thing.

It's been repaved and the speeds are outrageous! Indy Cars on short ovals are exiting at such velocity. I hope I can catch the race(s).

Yes, Iowa looks like it is going to get “interesting” due to the partial repave. For some reason they didn’t repave all of it I understoodfrom the commentary on the YT highlights, and now they experience very different grip levels I gather. Maybe it’ll settle in.

Yeah, just two lanes in the corners were repaved I think. Straights and high parts of corners still the old stuff. But they are hoping it provides two racing lines. We will see.

I missed the race as it was preempted by the Trump assassination coverage and at that point I didn't care about the race anymore.

I’ve only had access to the two 30 min. Long highlights of both races and from what I gather from various reactions to this race weekend was a nervousness brodering on premontion regarding the unraceability of this track. Maybe 187 mph is cool and it is certainly insanely fast but with practically only one lane available due to the partial repave, some of the racing was processional and the track probably too small for 27 cars, re. Power hitting Fittipaldi and numerous close misses, except when cars did wreck like on first lap in race 1 or on the last lap of race 2. Thankfully Sting Ray Robb is reported ok. That could have gone a lot worse, and the aeroscreen probably saved Kirkwood from harm when Carpenter’s rear left wheel bounced and then came to rest on it.

But as you say, in light of the other events, everything else is secondary.

I managed to watch race 2 and came to post what you said. The track just didn't produce a compelling race. Without a second lane it's single-file. Racing laps were nearly 30 mph slower than quali. You always expect quali to be faster, but that seems a big drop.

We also had some problems with the new motor this week, with teams having trouble with their charging systems.

Bad crash at the end as well

Papaya boys looking good in Hungary. Can they take full advantage?

Hungary is a decent track to drive, but for me not a great F1 track. A great qualifying track, but racing is limited in my view due to the nature of the corners. Hungaroring is very different from where we've just been, like Silverstone and Red Bull Ring. A 'slow speed' circuit, if that can be said of Formula 1 cars. I was a little worried that Red Bull would struggle, and one of them has of course. I wondered too if Merc would suddenly look worse, as their car had been made better in high speed, would it now look worse in the slow? A little bit, yes.

RB turned it around and looked strong in FP3. Williams look as strong as they have all year, which is odd as it has been high speed tracks, and those with the longest straights, where they have been fastest in the recent past. They look like they can score tomorrow. But they will need to qualify well as overtaking here is nearly impossible, except heading in to turn 1 and turn 2. It's a double DRS zone here and this is where the passes need to be made. Then it is follow the leader for the rest of the tour.

In fantasy, one change, Gasly out for Albon. Good luck!

When racing it, I find Hungary pretty technical, and with rain looming everything is possible, as quali showed.

I bet on Papaya, and shoved in Ricciardo. I hope Ocon can make some ground during race, Alpines are pretty slow AND they screwed up their tactics in Q1.

Tsunoda may suffer tomorrow, with a car to rebuild overnight.

Looking good for the McLarens at the mo, so swapping over to Lando could be a good move. But then, Lando needs to execute and that won't be easy with Piastri and Verstappen behind I don't think. Red Bull have good race pace here, deg looks good from the practice data and the cars are tight. Should be a good battle and turn 1 will be a big battleground tomorrow I am sure. This is where Bottas plowed in to the leaders a couple years ago.

I was tempted to swap Merc for Fez this week and nearly did but then Leclerc had such messy practice sessions, and Ferrari need to prove they are functional again. But right now they are looking a lot better than Mercedes. Lewis will be happy enough to start where he does, but Russell will not be happy at all. Out of position and feeling he deserves better might make him over aggressive in his bid to get in the points. I'd say he will be battling Checo through the order, but for fook's sake man. Afterwards, he said 'this cannot happen again'. No, this one was the one that couldn't happen again! It's gotta be all in his head, and the funk has gone on too long. Red Bull have to make a change, especially if both orange cars score good points and Perez fails to score again. Kvyat, Albon, Gasly were all given the boot for less. It's harsh, but this is F1 and you have to get it done. I hope he fights his way to sixth or something, but I have zero faith in anything but a couple of crashes and a retirement being on the cards. Tsunoda's crash seems so much more in the spotlight and it's like he failed the audition, even if they aren't considering him. My first reaction though was oh, man not with the RB seat up for grabs!

You're right about the track being technical, and that leads to mistakes, as we saw through the sessions so far. It's been hot, which melts the tires, and the weather has been spotty. Doesn't look like any rain is in the forecast for the race? If it runs green then the teams who manage the tires best will be at the front. But I don't think this one is going to run green. I say this a lot but then it goes caution free lol. I said above that I don't think this track is a great fit for F1 cars, but more than good enough. But you see how much the drivers have to saw on the wheel, and feather the pedals to get around in good shape. That puts more of the lap on the driver, which is good, and maybe leads to more errors, which is also good for the spectacle. Like how Max spun when totally in control a couple years ago, or how many cars we've seen so far dipping a wheel and going for a spin.

Well, this is all speculation. Hoping for a good race.

A friggin' good race it was !

"stop being childish now", sait GP

It had been a long time since I watched a race from start to finish, oh boy did it deliver drama

Gotta watch post race interviews now, can't wait