[TrapezeArtist]

Well that gave us quite a lot to chew over.

Red Bull are still in a class of their own. The superiority of the car allows Verstappen to exploit his massive speed without getting into tangles, but this time around Perez was looking a bit lost.

Mercedes proved to anyone who was still in doubt that the zero-sidepods were a bad idea. Now they have been ditched the Mercs seem to be getting into their stride, even if there is more work to do. Lewis is now looking and sounding like a World Champion again. George had a storming start (he must have passed about 5 cars before the first corner, because he was investigated and cleared by the stewards after he ran around the escape lane). His pass on Carlos Sainz was pretty good too.

Ferrari showed reasonably well with Sainz, but Leclerc (or his car) was all at sea. I think qualifying second may have flattered Sainz and the car a bit, perhaps because his timing was just right.

Aston Martin were not as good as they have been in previous races. The excuse of a damaged floor sounded like a reasonable explanation of Fernando's qualifying pace, but he didn't do much better in the race. And then to just sit behind Stroll and declare no interest in passing him was just weird. Whatever happened to the Alonso of old? It must have been a bit disappointing for his Spanish fans and could cost him a championship place at the end of the season.

Alpine were not as impressive as qualifying suggested.

Likewise McLaren. Lando will be feeling chastened by his over-enthusiasm in the second corner which utterly ruined his race. Though it was inevitable that he would have fallen down the order somewhat anyway.

Poor Tsunoda! He put up a firm but fair defence and Zhou just jumped off the road. After Zhou had bailed out Tsunoda didn't even run out to the white line. Unlike Verstappen's defence against Sainz on the first lap when he had more than half his car off the track. Yuki is innocent!