RaceFans Round-up: Advantage Mercedes at next two races

In brief

Advantage Mercedes at next two races – Horner

After victory in the first two races following the summer break – albeit including the abandoned Belgian Grand Prix – Horner expects that Mercedes will have an advantage heading into the next two rounds at Monza and Sochi.

“Their car and engine package has always traditionally been very strong at those two venues,” he said. “They’ve been weaker venues for us.

“I expect them to have the advantage at the next two, but thereafter, it should be nip-and-tuck, I would certainly hope. So the next two weekends for us are about trying to limit the damage as much as we can and extract from the car as much as we can.

AlphaTauri told Gasly to slow down

Pierre Gasly says his AlphaTauri team were telling him to slow down at times on his way to a strong fourth place at Zandvoort.

“I’m really pleased,” he said. “The car is fast, I managed to set it the way I want and the team did a fantastic job all the way through the weekend. So today we were flying.

“They were asking all the time to slow down the pace for tyres and I just wanted to push more because we had more pace than that. But all in all very good management and an amazing race.”

Zandvoort open to change of date

Dutch Grand Prix promoter Jan Lammers says the venue is not wedded to a September date for future races.

“That’s not something I focus on,” said Lammers yesterday. “That’s not my call.

“This is one of the 20 or 21 races, whichever it turns out to, so that has to fit into the larger picture of Formula 1. So I think if that fits in well with them, that’s more important and I think we will accommodate whatever it is.”

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

My notes folder for the grid is still wet from Spa

— Tom Stallard (@Tom_Stallard)

Twitter

Another insult for poor Valtteri – who is, after all, leading the race – tv stats say Max will on his chuff in three laps – and it’ll be easy to over take !!

— Byron Young (@byronf1)

Twitter

This might be a sign they’ve reached the limit of how many buttons there should be on an F1 car’s steering wheel.https://t.co/D2Eoqn5ySs#F1 #DutchGP

— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)

Twitter

So when VER wins while AWS claims his tires are at -30% is that when we can agree that these metrics are a load of rubbish?

— Gavin “Ole Dirty Hands” Ward (@GDubRacer)

Twitter

If Max can stand the pressure of expectation from that amazing home crowd, and Lewis giving it absolutely everything in a works Merc, he really does have nerves of steel.

— Martin Brundle (@MBrundleF1)

Twitter

Subliminal oval track training today for F1 drivers. T3 was Darlington, on to main straight was Atlanta. #influxcoming

— Derek Daly (@DerekDaly500)

Twitter

Four hours after the race. 70,000 fans. Not a single piece of litter dropped. Well played the Dutch. pic.twitter.com/2nt8pEvi0q

— Ben Hunt (@benjhunt)

Twitter

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

A good points haul in Zandvoort (Ferrari)

Carlos Sainz Jnr: “My race today was very far from what I was looking for. I could not match the pace I had on Friday, as I completely lost the good feeling I’d had with the car up until then. I just couldn’t find the right balance, sliding too much and I had a lot of degradation. I was planning to attack and fight for positions, but I ended up having to defend. We need to analyse what happened today and move on.”

Lots of heart and little luck in Zandvoort (Alfa Romeo / Sauber)

“Everyone probably expected a chaotic race, with yellow flags, safety cars, but none of this happened: I still managed to have a good fight with Sebastian (Vettel) and then catch Latifi and pass him in the final lap, which was fun.”

We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.

On this day in motorsport

• 35 years ago today Teo Fabi scored his third and final pole position at Monza. He holds the record for most pole positions for a driver who never led a lap of a race.