The battle between Hamilton and Verstappen in Hungary was also stonking as the two circulated close together – Hamilton seemingly faster, but unable to pass. As Monaco Grands Prix go, this was about as good as you can reasonably expect from a dry race – we might have given it an ‘A’, too, but with Verstappen’s five-second penalty hanging over the race, it did sap a bit of the tension out of the closing laps. But the tension of not quite knowing whether Hamilton’s tyres would last made for compelling viewing at the time, especially as Max Verstappen was the driver directly behind him. ![]() When you look back on it now knowing the result, Monaco appears to have bee a bit of a dull race. ![]() ![]() At the time it also made it look like Mercedes and Ferrari were going to give us a close championship fight – and a bit of post-race optimism is always good. Hamilton’s brief battle with Vettel was rather entertaining, too, as was the subsequent explosion of sparks from the Ferrari when Vettel’s front wing became detached. Leclerc taking pole in only his second race for Ferrari, losing the lead, taking it back and looking set for victory, only for reliability to spoil everything was a perfect microcosm for the emotions we as fans can go through watching a race. Plus, all those shenanigans in qualifying were as entertaining as they were stupid. Bottas showed that he can fight with a mega pass on his teammate into Copse, but all eyes were on Verstappen and Leclerc, who were knocking seven bells out of each other in a battle which just about remained within the realms of fairness… until Vettel had a monumental bit of brain fade and ruined it all.Īnd the Italian GP? Well, seeing Leclerc deliver Ferrari’s first Monza victory in nine years having had to fend off both Mercedes drivers was just superb. The second half of the British GP was nothing to write home about as Hamilton cruised to the win, but that was more than made up for by a sensational second half. The refreshing sight of Mercedes not making it nine wins in a row was also a huge morale boost for all F1 fans following a season which, up to this point, had been rather horrendous. The winning overtake was a touch controversial and the fact we had to wait hours after the race to find out who’d actually won was a bit of a shame, but thankfully things ended with the right result. It was also Honda’s first win, and the joy of boss Toyoharu Tanabe on the podium was infectious. As Verstappen recovered from a woeful start to move through the field and deny Charles Leclerc his first win on the penultimate lap of the race. The Austrian GP was a brilliant slow-burner. That was immediately remedied when Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso beat Hamilton to second in a drag race to the line, and then again when Carlos Sainz was promoted to third – from last on the grid – following Hamilton’s penalty. Verstappen and Alex Albon overtaking around the outside of the first corner in sync, the Ferrari’s colliding, Hamilton’s gamble, and the pain of seeing Albon lose out on a chance of a maiden podium through no fault of his own. Max Verstappen’s scrap with Hamilton early on was entertaining, but it wasn’t until Valtteri Bottas broke down that things really kicked off. ![]() Throw in all the other drivers who binned it in the tricky conditions, Sebastian Vettel going from last to second, Lance Stroll briefly leading the race, Daniil Kvyat finishing on the podium and Williams scoring its only point of the year, and you end up with pretty much everything you could want from a grand prix.īrazil was a totally different kind of epic race. The German Grand Prix (which, sadly, looks like being the last one for a while) was the most chaotic race we’ve seen in F1 for years, thanks to unpredictable weather and the super slippery dragstrip on the outside of the final corner that even caught out Lewis Hamilton. It had to be, didn’t it? In a year with a decent share of excellent races, these two stand head and shoulders above the rest. Let’s kick off with the highlights and work our way down from there. This time around, we’ve grouped them together and given them a rating ranging from A* (the best) to F (the worst). In fact, many races were so equally good or equally bad that separating them all and putting them into a definitive ranking (as we did last year) proved a bit too tough. The 2019 season was pretty much one of two halves a string of absolutely dire races was followed by a mid-season purple patch where almost every grand prix wound up being a bit of a classic.
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