Vettel Wins Well in Monaco
On a day where the overcut proved to be the tactic of choice, which all three of the big teams used to their advantage, ultimately team tactics barely played a part as Sebastian Vettel took full advantage of Lewis Hamilton's horrendous qualifying performance to move 25 points clear of his title rival. For all the talk of team tactics being utilized to switch the Ferrari drivers, and that certainly played a role as overtaking is nigh on impossible in Monaco, the simple truth is that Vettel drove vastly quicker than his teammate, and could well have got past him regardless of which way round the drivers were pitted.
But as much as this was a race where Vettel was the superior driver, it was also a day where the overcut - staying out longer with clean air to drive into, worked a treat. Whilst Vettel was streaming off into the sunset to overcut his teammate, Daniel Riccardo was securing a podium for Red Bull with exactly the same tactic, as his pace took him past the scrap between Max Verstappen and Mercedes' front-runner Valteri Bottas. It was a frustrating day for Verstappen whose pit stop took 0.8s longer than Bottas', only for the young driver to end up less than a second behind Bottas as the Finn left the pits, and Verstappen to be stuck behind him for the remainder of the race.
The other main benefactor was Lewis Hamilton whose own racing strategy did a fantastic job of limiting the damage that was done on Saturday. It was clear that if the top five cars all finished, Hamilton would be capped at 6th place, so for him to finish 7th, unable to overtake the frustrating Carlos Sainz and accepting that risking a DNF was stupid, is a good race for him. Whilst Lewis will be frustrated to have lost ground on main title rival Vettel, he'll also accept that things could have been a lot worse.
But whilst the top seven were largely set after the first round of pit-stops, without a single memorable overtake in the race, as is traditional at Monaco, the back half of the race was lit up by a series of mad crashes, including one extremely dangerous clash between Jenson Button, filling in for Fernando Alonso who was at the Indy 500, and Pascal Wehrlein. Button was too aggressive, smashing into the side of Wehrlein who ended up sideways in the barrier but mercifully wasn't injured. Then Marcus Ericsson crashed trying to get past the safety car, and Sergio Perez managed to run Stoffel Vandoorne off the road before slamming into Daniil Kvyat. 
Overall though, although neither Mercedes nor Red Bull will be overly unhappy with the way that the race panned out, this was Ferrari's weekend. A massive 1-2, a big win for Vettel, and stretching their lead both in the Drivers and Constructors Championships. Mercedes have some catching up to do.
Sato Wins Emotional Indy
For all the talk of Fernando Alonso, who made a fantastic fist at the Indy 500 title before his engine blew out (a feeling that will be all too familiar for the Spaniard), it was another former F1 driver, the Japanese driver Takuma Sato who claimed the race win after a frenetic final few laps, in which he duelled with Helio Castroneves, who had run an almost perfect race up until that point.
Castroneves, the three time winner, had been driving brilliantly all day, riding the yellow flags well and picking his moments. But Sato, who surged past Max Chilton, who had led the race for the majority of the big half, and rookie Ed Jones, timed his move to perfection and Castroneves had no answer.
It had looked for large periods like the trio of Fernando Alonso, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay for Honda/Andretti would be the three that would be competing for the title, but with Alonso and Hunter-Reay both suffering Honda engine failures, and Rossi suffering a problem with a pitstop that put him back in 7th and unable to pounce near the end, it was fellow Andretti rider Sato who took the glory.
It was a race that could have ended very differently however, after a red flag on lap 53 for a truly horrendous crash. Jay Howard hit the wall and skidded back across the course, in the process slamming into Scott Dixon. Dixon went flying, and his car bounced three times after smashing into the safety barrier. It was nothing short of a miracle that Dixon was able to climb out of the wreckage of his car, let alone without a serious injury. The race was stopped for 20 minutes, but if Dixon had been seriously hurt or worse, it would have put a very different gloss on proceedings.
As it was, it was Sato's historic victory, the first for an Asian ever in the Indy 500, that took the headlines. It was a thumping race, and one that will be memorable for multiple reasons.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Murray through. Konta out. More depth tomorrow.
- England imploded as South Africa took the last ODI.
- Tuchel and Spalletti gone. Lots of change.
- Wenger In. Two more years. Oh boy.
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