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And some more "this shouldn't happen" in FP1 and FP2 for the French GP. Ericsson catching fire after a good hard thump side-on against the barrier, and Perez abruptly driving a three-wheeler (without hitting anything first).

"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody cars this year," to misquote Admiral Beatty. Qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday are going to be... interesting.

I have heard that there were hideoustraffic snarls just getting to the circuit today, including a cheeky shot of someone watching FP1 on his laptop--which was on the dashboard of his car as he sat in traffic. The grandstands were also apparently pretty empty as a consequence. Here's hoping they figure out contraflow for tomorrow and Sunday. I mean, if they can figure it out for Pocono, they should be able to figure it out for Paul Ricard, right?

Well Grosjean's status as a trouble-magnet is ongoing, crashing out of qualifying as he did then seemingly pushing a cameraman out of his way... until another camera looking down the pitlane showed what he was actually doing was keeping said cameraman from hitting part of the gantry that was above the pit box!

Well, that happened. Bottas did a good job getting back into the pits on three tyres. And yet another wheel goes >>whee>>thataway>> in the <clonk> of the French drivers. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen in F1 cars any more?

A good job from LeClerc, getting into the points. Someone to watch for the next year or two, I'd say.

And Hamilton's back on top of the Championship!

I'm glad, I was getting sick of the amount of complaining he'd been doing as of late so I'm glad he was able to win this one. I'm just glad it was Bottas that Vettel took out, like Raikkonen he seems to attract all the trouble his team encounters.

Double Mercedes retirement.

Just wow. Apparently it hasn't happened in 7 years. I have to say that between Ferrari and Haas and Sauber, we may very well have a new winner in the reliability race.

Alferd Packer wrote: ↑2018-07-01 08:55pmJust wow. Apparently it hasn't happened in 7 years.

Their last double retirement was when Hamilton and Rosberg collected each other in Spain a couple of years ago.

Their last mechanical double retirement was Kling (gearbox) and Moss (engine) in Italy in 1955, but given that Fangio won (of course) and Taruffi came second, I'm not sure that counts.

After me saying that Bottas attracted all the Merc trouble, seems there was enough for both drivers this time. This is 2016 all over again, when Hamilton's engine blew when he was winning and ultimately cost him the championship, despite him winning the last 4 races. The only saving grace was that Vettel didn't actually win, with Verstappen and Raikkonen finishing ahead of him.

As Verstappen was quick to remind everyone over the radio, he won the race in a Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring. It's Ricciardo that I also feel sorry for, since he too retired at Red Bull's home race. And special mention goes to Nico Hulkenberg, whose engine blew up in spectacular fashion!

Argleblargle.

A good showing from Hamilton, managing to come back to second after Raikonnen nudged him off and all the way to the back, but still...

Argleblargle.

Even though it's unlikely he did it on purpose (locking up while braking), there are those who are saying Raikkonen deliberately took out Hamilton. Certainly Ferrari management will be (unofficially) patting him on the back, regardless!

His comeback from dead last was certainly helped by the safety cars near the end. And Williams' were in a pickle- someone somewhere in aero fucked up so they've had to revert to an older spec rear wing.

The second safety car ended with what, 12 laps to go? And the Williams still finished like 40 seconds back. That's rough.

In any case, the points for Hamilton and Vettel are very close to what they were this time last year. So really, it's gonna come down to if Ferrari has learned from the second half of last season.

Well, Hamilton has a lead going into the summer break. Nothing outrageous, of course, but it's definitely nice to have. Now we wait to see if Ferrari really does have the most powerful engine at Spa and Monza. If so, that'll really cool to watch.

Speaking of engines, what's up with Red Bull lately? Last week Ricciardo, this week Max <bleep> Verstappen.

And I hope the Mercedes mechanics can remove the "Kick Me" sign from Bottas' car, those last few laps were kind of embarassing.

Finally, we're back to racing! But before that, let's see if we can compose a list of all the moves coming up:

• Danny Ric to Renault
• Sainz to McLaren
• Alonso to Indycar (or just the 500)
• Gasly to Red Bull
• Stroll to Racing Point Force India New And Improved Recipe Same Great Taste
• Ocon to ??? Maybe McLaren as soon as Monza, which means...
• Vandoorne to the toilets
• Kubica to Williams

Of course, those are the confirmed/likely moves. I've heard that Haas is getting ready to dump Grosjean for Perez, or that Alexander Rossi will get a drive if he wins the Indycar championship.

Truly, it was the silliest of silly seasons.

As for Spa itself, Q3 was awesome. The lap 1 incident was terrifying, and should put to rest any detractors of the halo (I personally think it looks stupid and will always say that, but it likely saved Leclerc from a severe injury in the best case, so... ). The race itself--eh. Some good scraps in the midfield, but I think Ferrari has demonstrated that they are the fastest car. It's now on Mercedes to play catch up--or just hope that it rains for the remainder of the season.

The way McLaren are regressing they'll be the next Williams- looks like Alonso's F1 career is over not with a bang but a whimper. He spent years at Ferrari and ended up leaving just as they were getting their act together, then at McLaren when for three years Honda produced the worst engine since the Peugeot 20 years before. Only now they're running Renault power units and they're still no further up the grid, showing the chassis wasn't great either.

It would be bloody hilarious if, right after Alonso leaves McLaren gets its shit together just as Ferrari did.

I honestly think Alonso's done with F1, and happy to be so. Yes, it's the premier racing championship in the world and yes, he's one of the greatest drivers who has ever lived, but he has the unique ability to win the Triple Crown. Excepting JPM, there is no currently active racing driver who can aspire to do that. If he wins the Indy 500, he will be one of two men to win the triple crown. There is no rarer accolade in motorsport, and honestly, there are very few drivers in any series who have the ability to do it.

So I can see Alonso either taking a full- or part-time drive in Indycar for however long it takes him to win the 500, or just running the 500 every year for the next decade, so that he can secure his legacy.

In my opinion this Sezon is the best and the most interesting Sezon ever

McLaren are replacing both of their drivers at the end of the season, and bringing in Carlos Sainz and rookie Lando(!) Norris . Because he's a rookie starting at McLaren he's being compared to Hamilton, however Hamilton had a car capable of winning races- Norris... won't. Ditching Honda (said before and I'll say it again- worst engine since Peugeot) in favour of renault did improve things, but the chassis still isn't good enough.

Sucks to be Vandoorne though- in terms of race results they were 8-6 in Alonso's favour; both drivers have struggled the last couple of seasons, for reasons beyond their control.

Well, Hamilton claimed his fifth title at the second time of asking, with two races still to go. Sucks to be Ricciardo though, his eighth retirement this year, and from a strong position too.

Annoyed at the ITV news for giving away the race result before the hightlights were to be aired an hour later on channel 4 though. Not all of us want to pay Sky hundreds of pounds a year for the privelege of seeing every race live!

Well done Hamilton.

Getting to the point where Schumacher's record is under threat, something I didn't really think possible until this year. Hamilton's already got the pole record, and is only 2 championships and 20 race wins behind.

2 years to go of the current regs, disquiet among Ferrari's engineers (if the rumours are to be believed) and a potentially resurgent Red Bull could make the next couple years interesting.

It would be nice if Red Bull found their form again, this is the team that claimed the championship four times in a row with Vettel after all. McLaren though have been nowhere even after ditching the awful Peugeot Honda Power Unit.