For the drivers, you just never know what can happen. It does seem that Gasly has come back alive after being demoted, but maybe the RB is just that tough to drive, or the pressure took it's toll...

Either way, silly season is always with us in F1. Whatever we think can't possibly happen might. Kimi went back to Ferrari, and Fernando went back to Mclaren.


It was clear at Baku that the Bulls were strong on overall pace. Merc played the straight line setup to keep cars from passing, but they had to pit.

I was watching the pit sequence again, and I have to say that the release of Lewis was a very minor delay on the actual light. Maybe a 1/2 second or so tops. But when the light turned green the AT of Gasly was almost exactly right alongside the Merc pit. Lewis got away slow and that left 5-6 cars lengths between them by the time he hit the pit lane. So the theory that some claim he only lost the lead due to a bad stop is pretty much just.... well not true. I also checked timing as Lewis pitted, and Perez was just a hair over 2.5 seconds behind Lewis. When he pitted two laps later he came out ahead after having a 4.3 second stop. He came out cleanly in front with some gap, and that shows just how much the RB's were being held up.

Merc is going to have to fight harder this year, at least on some of the tracks.