I'm still on the fence about the Merc upgrades. Both drivers had good races, but Merc was the only team that ended up never putting either driver on the hard tires for the race. Being that the hards weren't very good on any stint for any driver, this alone might have made up a lot of time. Since Lando had to stop early, Lewis only had to pass Carlos to reach #2. George had more work to do to get to P3, but had some help along the way. Sergio lost ground to George, but was on the less favorable tire strategy. To lose one place isn't that bad when you have run the harder tire for the majority of the race. The softs lasted much better than expected, so Merc pulled one out of the hat with the strategy they ran.

So at this point, it's hard to say if Merc took a big leap forward, Ferrari and AMR lost the plot, tires made the difference, or a combination of the above. RB is still obviously way up front, and I think they only went to a 2 stop strategy to be safe, and since they had time in hand to give it a go. It looks like Merc also considered a one stop race and then went to two.

There is also the potential rain factor, so I'm sure the setups were quite varied. That might have contributed some to the shaking up of the field we saw as well.


Either way, some hope for Merc and jumping ahead in the WCC should motivate them. Ferrari can't seem to be able to get a break, and the upgrades might not have helped them much if at all. But they have struggled with race pace before, so it's nothing new. Lewis draws closer to Alonso in the WDC points as well, and a double podium for the drivers lifts spirits quite a bit, which they need right now.