Brayden's Thoughts - Monaco

Excited for a Mercedes Championship and devastated for Gasly

Kimi Antonelli really showed us this weekend that the Mercedes really cannot be beaten, even with an engine nerf.

While the pair of the Mercedes were not lighting the timing page up, Antonelli showed his prowess when he put in a lap in Q3 to go 0.039s faster than Verstappen. Antonelli is really starting to become a Saturday master as he keeps pulling together very surprising yet impressive qualifying sessions, especially at the tail end of Q3

Image Credits : Motorsport.com

Throughout the race he controlled the lead very comfortably and ,I cannot lie, laps 1-59 were so boring, as nothing was happening and it again proved that no matter how small we continue to make these cars, overtaking in Monaco will always be difficult.

Just look at the battle between Russell and Hadjar, Russell was within 5 tenths for way too long and the struggling Hadjar should have been easy to pass, yet he couldn't. The commentators made a great note, however, that Russell really couldn't risk anything with the championship now in the forefront of his mind. That still doesn't excuse it because there was Gasly and Norris, where Norris was within about 1 second for his entire race, before ultimately retiring.

Image credits : Motorsport.com

On the topic of Gasly, that was heartbreaking to watch. Alpine should be ashamed that they let him celebrate that entire cooldown lap thinking he actually got a podium when in reality he had 2 5 second penalties he still needed to serve. Props to the team for actually taking action and standing up to the FIA with their right to review, because that pit lane issue was unreasonable and there should never be a race where 5 drivers get speeding penalties without even speeding in the first place.

Overall it was enjoyable from lap 60-78 and had me on the edge of my seat, but laps 1-59 were very boring, otherwise very excited for Spain next week.