REVIEW BY BEN STEVENS
If there’s a bright side for Kimi and
his legions of fans, it’s this: the season is
far from over, and while he might not be on
Vettel’s level, he’s still in with an excellent
shot at more wins. The Ferrari is clearly a
superb car, and if he can muster more days
like Saturday, who’s to bet against him?
Unfortunately outside of the tiff at
Ferrari Monaco wasn’t exactly a race to write
home about. Passing is hard here at the best
of times, but with even wider cars this year
all we got were a series of ham-fisted moves
that ended up with one or both cars retiring.
Jenson Button using Pascal Wehrlein to erect
a tribute to Houston rapper Paul Wall’s 2005
single Sittin’ Sidewayz was particularly
egregious, and will probably be the most
indelible image from the race.
That said, there were a few unheralded
performances that deserve plaudits, namely
Carlos Sainz and the two boys at Haas.
Sainz was absolutely on it all weekend, his
P6 adding to an increasingly impressive
resume, while Romain Grosjean (P8) and
Kevin Magnussen (P10) scored the first
ever double-points finish for Haas, with
Magnussen particularly impressive despite
some major mid-race setbacks.
With the “crown jewel” of the F1 calendar
done and dusted, F1 can return to actual
racing in Montreal. Can Mercedes bounce
back? Will Kimi still be miserable? We’ll
find out in two weeks.