There was a lot of excitement regarding a Ferrari fightback through testing and practice. When Verstappen still clinched pole, there was disappointment, but I told myself that this Ferrari looks good and appears to have sorted their tyre wear problems. So of course, the race begins with Leclerc locking up at seemingly every corner. These lock ups were not a result of poor tyre wear, rather an issue with Leclerc’s brakes. Several drivers had issues throughout this race, with both Mercedes suffering from battery issues and Hamilton reporting that his seat was broken. Between these issues and the inevitable squabbling between drivers that resulted, Verstappen was allowed to drive off into the distance, a sight we’ve become used to seeing.

Albeit the first third of the race was quite entertaining. All the cars were relatively close and there was always a battle to cut to. Perez passing Leclerc and Seargeant passing Ricciardo were memorable, but the best battle came from the two Ferraris. Sainz clearly does not care whose feathers he ruffles, making an aggressive overtake on Leclerc on lap 11, before shutting the door on his teammate. Sainz then had to do the same on lap 17, after the first round of stops, before passing George Russell three laps later to bag himself a podium. As for Sainz’s replacement, he finished two places behind his teammate and spent more TV time going off the track than driving on it.

The race became more sparse of action shortly after the first stops. Gaps started to emerge between the drivers and the cars slotted into their natural positions. A personal highlight was watching Bottas’ 52-second pit stop, only for the TV directors to decide that as there was nothing else going on, we might as well spend a minute watching it again. Oscar Piastri attempting to defend from Lewis Hamilton on freezing tyres also entertained, though the difference in grip made that particular pass inevitable from the word go.

Thus, it fell on Visa Cash App to provide us with some drama. The car could have received a point with Tsunoda today, but the team allowed for Yuki to get undercut by multiple cars, likely as the team members were too busy checking their Visa Cash Apps. With so much focus on the current cost of living crisis, one would forget to do their job, a bit like when I found smashed up eggs under the fruit cases when working at Sainsburys. Though, even more controversially than me having to remove eggshells that were literally welded to the shelf, would be RB’s use of team orders. As Tsunoda was attempting to set up a move on Kevin Magnussen, they ordered a driver swap with Ricciardo. Yuki was not happy with this, arguing with the team until relinquishing the position a couple of laps later. I understand Yuki’s frustrations. In a year where a Red Bull seat is possibly on the line for him, he needs to beat Ricciardo consistently. After being in the hunt for points, to have the team mess up his strategy and use unnecessary team orders, I would be angry as well. What was less acceptable was when Yuki decided to divebomb Ricciardo after the race had finished. Moments of road rage are not good examples to set, especially when that road rage is directed against someone you are soon going to be spending hours in meetings with.

As the junior RB team provided some entertainment, the senior RB team sucked out a lot of it. Whilst I haven’t given up hope of there being some battles for the win this season, Red Bull getting yet another 1-2 has not filled me with unbridled optimism. As this may be one of the better chances for Ferrari to win in the early portion of the season, we may have to get used to learning the Dutch National Anthem. Again.