"Mercedes threw it away in the first corner, but Red Bull was also asleep"

13:13, 09 Nov 2021
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Valtteri Bottas provided Mercedes with a poor start after a miraculous Saturday. Red Bull Racing in turn threw away a one-two finish because they were sleeping during the pitstops. Christijan Albers explains what he saw happen.

Mercedes threw it away at the start

The former F1 driver and F1 connoisseur always knows how to find points of criticism on the winning team. After the Mexican Grand Prix, Albers saw Mercedes throw the race away at the start, but he also saw Red Bull Racing let an important second place for Sergio Perez slip away.
At the Formula 1 podcast of De Telegraaf, Albers says: "The whole problem is that Mercedes threw it away so much in the first corner, everything just broke down at once. But Red Bull were actually just sleeping again too. Despite the fact that they have genius pit stops."

Red Bull threw away their own one-two

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Red Bull Racing's ingenious pit stops are always a topic of conversation. No team can emulate Red Bull. Yet it was Red Bull's pitstop strategy that left much to be desired in Mexico.
Albers: "If Perez had come in the lap after Lewis Hamilton did, he would have had the opportunity to come out in front of Lewis. Because Lewis ended up exactly in the traffic and couldn't drive the optimal lap time. So they could have reacted much better to that."
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