Championship showdown this weekend. Will Lewis win his eight title or will Max win his first? All will be revealed on Sunday.
TV Times:
Qualifying Live: 1PM. (Sky Sports)
Race Live: 1PM. (Sky Sports and Channel 4)
Bring! It! On!
This isn’t due to inconsistency in the rules, but a matter of how long it would take to clear the Williams. People seem to be forgetting what the safety car is for - it’s to allow an incident to be cleared, and then it’s supposed to get out of the way as soon as it is safe to let the race continue.
The precedent is that lapped cars are let go.
The precedent is that the safety car comes in when the track is clear.
The precedent is that ending under green flags is vastly preferable to ending behind the safety car if at all possible.
The rule book specifically states that it is up to the race director’s discretion.
The incident was cleared and the race director used his discretion correctly and followed all precedents and did exactly what they should have done. The only issue was the terrible communication, first announcing that they were going to throw precedent out the window and disallow unlapping because of the lobbying from Toto, but fortunately good sense prevailed and they got on with it and allowed for a race, like they would have in this situation in any race regardless of who was involved.
And?
Masi, as we've learned, is more than capable of telling Toto to piss off.
Shouldn't be any interpretation of rules. Should be clear what are the scenario's. Nobody here would have thought only cars between 2 cars could unlap themselves.
It is unfair for all other drivers who didn't benefit from it. e.g. Sainz would have to over take 2 cars to have a chance to gain a place. That isn't fair. Purely done for tv.
Just like the spa race. Racing is 2 laps behind a safety car. That was done for money reasons. Masi made a complete mess of it. Buck stops with him. If he didn't know what to do then flag it. Not this making it up as he went along. 0 cars can pass to 5 cars can pass.
It wasn't a gamble on Red Bull's part though. A gamble would be to bring Max in while he was leading.
Red Bull had the advantage of being able to do the opposite to Mercedes to give themselves the best opportunity they could. Mercedes didn't have that. If they brought Hamilton in it would have been a massive gamble.
I'm not trying to take anything away from Max or Red Bull here, btw, but it was nowhere near a gamble on their part because they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, which they did.
Was following the Betfair exchange and Hamilton was getting layed at 1.05, essentially a bet on verstappen at 20/1. This all changed when latifi crashed of course.
It did look done and dusted but the way season panned out late drama wasn't surprising
Did Max get very slightly ahead Lewis just before they raced to the end? This was part of Merc’s protest, yes?
Maybe 10cm. It was dismissed as immaterial.
Yes. Thought that. But I’d not seen that before. I know it was crucial for Max to be as close as possible, but wasn’t aware he could get slightly ahead.
Looking at these cars it’s insane how close they get without touching..
He did yes but it was dismissed because it was trivial, he was alongside on the inside of a turn so naturally drifted ahead ever so slightly for less than a second! It happens often enough in SC conditions and on formation laps.
Doesn't matter. Hamilton was going between the brakes and the gas so was going to happen, but Max gave up position and they crossed the line as they were.
This was Mercedes attempts to get the result overturned. It won't happen so any appeals they have will be for accountability at the higher ups.
It really was a thrilling final 2 hours to the season. Whole race for me was exciting, and the end was just the icing on the cake.
Have to feel sorry the way Lewis lost it, but Max showed Senna like skills and daring and hunger to pull it out the bag
I think he is probably more an instinctive and innate driver than Lewis.
Question; lap 37 or 38 VSC should Merc have brought Lewis in for new hards, in anticipation for a possible late SC? Had Lewis fresher tyres on come lap 57/58, surely the challenge for Max is more difficult?
Remind me: did Max pit for VSC and SC?
The real issue is the FIA have given the teams too much control into what goes on during the race. It's a pantomime.
Horner and Wolff are more famous than three quarters of the drivers that lined up yesterday. Horner has said he was roaring at Masi throughout and Wolff is a meme. That's no way to officiate things.
You can't hold minutes long negotiations in a sport where everything happens at literally 100mph. There's a million and one incidents that happen during a given race and to have teams whingeing incessantly is intolerable.
It may be good for the cameras and social media engagement but Masi/the race director and stewards need to reassert control over proceedings and not let teams rule the roost.
To casuals, three of the five most famous people in the sport are non-drivers. Four out of six if you include Ginger Spice.
Unsustainable.
FIA need to tighten up some of the rules and then tell the Toto and Horner to piss off and stick to principal-ing their teams.
They would have given up track position to Max. Just because he would have had fresher hards doesn't guarantee he'd be able to pass Max, who is more than able to make his car as wide as possible.
To move away from this a bit, its gone a little bit unnoticed what Perez did during the race. He was able to slow Lewis down by 6 seconds in one lap. That is absolutely amazing. You can see that if Perez was further up the field in more races, he would've played a bigger role in perhaps RB getting the constructors too.
He's a master of making his tyres last and is regularly in the kind of position he was this race - 10+ seconds behind but ahead on track if he runs long after the others pit. The difference in Abu Dhabi was that Red Bull asked him to completely compromise his race to slow Lewis. In other races he'd continue doing his own thing, which would likely have involved maintaining the gap he had ahead of Lewis for longer and probably pitting before Lewis caught up to him.
Red Bull have maybe been naive not using Perez in the way Mercedes used Bottas most of the season, but in the end it worked out. I don't think Sergio is the kind of driver who'd be willing to do that kind of thing race in race out, but he was happy to do it on this most important of occasions.
On Perez he had a massive impact on the WDC over the season
Monaco: Overcuts Hamilton to 6th Place, Max wins
Baku: Doesnt alllow Hamilton to pass him all Race, and at the second start up, HAM goes long and ends 16th
France: Due to position makes Hamilton not go into pits, Max catches up, passes HAM and wins race
Silverstone: Took Fastest lap from HAM
Turkey: Perez defends and leaves HAM in 5th, Max gets 2nd
Austin: Makes HAM make a Pit Spot too soon to prevent undercut, Max wins
Brasil: Takes fastest lap from HAM
Abu Dhabi: Holds him up for 10 seconds making HAM skip Pit stops in order to not lose position.
All small in isolation but when you add them uo its a massive impact... expect him to have a nice bonus soon
He dropped back after that and was a full car length behind once they actually got to the line and started racing again. I suspect getting alongside Lewis was a mixture of mind games and avoiding the risk of Lewis brake testing him (which Hamilton has form for in the past with Vettel)
Mercedes did protest it and it was thrown out. It's not at all unusual for cars to briefly overtake each other behind the safety car as they speed up and down to warm up their tyres - as long as they're not ahead when they actually start racing again it's never been an issue.
Just on lap 1 when Max made pass on Lewis, bumping him off track. Why did so many feel Max did nothing wrong, and that Lewis should have given the place up? Stewards decided the way I felt they should have. Max’s move, albeit skilled, was too aggressive. He interferes with Lewis.
Other than lewis diehards I dont think anyone would bat an eyelid if lewis retired so this strawman about people not getting lewis out of their heads is laughable.
Mercedes have decided to prolong this as sore losers and trying to steal the championship via dubious legal challenges. Why cant they take their beating and celebrate winning the constructors championship and as a team show some sportsmanship and be gracious in defeat.
Imagine being a mercedes mechanic busting a gut all season and instead your team principle is crying and moaning about one driver and throwing equipment around the garage.
Toto - the wolff who cried like a boy😂
Max broke late but made a legitimate attempt to make the corner and stayed within the track.
Hamilton did not need to cut the entire run off and I’m doing so gave himself a lead of about 1.2 seconds as far as I remember
For a change from pages of back and forth about rules and regulations, why not enjoy Checo's defensive masterclass backing Hamilton up 7 seconds in a couple of laps on old soft tyres
Probably because he didn't bump him off track? He made the apex, stayed on track, executed a perfect clean overtake. Lewis decided that instead of just conceding the corner he'd drive off the track, cut the chicane, and steal the lead.
He didn't bump him though, it was a lunge but he didnt touch him. Max also stayed between the white lines but Hamilton didn't.
All in all, it didn't matter in the end.
Definitely the signing of the season.
Probably not, but any time Max has done something similar Mercedes and Race Control have asked for the position back.
I'm not sure how much time Hamilton gave up as it looked like he ended up 2 seconds ahead because of that and stayed at least that time ahead after.
Its another case of the rules not being clear and confusing but Mercedes benefitting this time.
Hopefully this is a wake up call to simply and clear up the rules.
As annoying as Toto is, I feel like there should be some acknowledgement by Redbull that this was a highly unusual lucky way to end a race, Iam a Redbull fan, but to act like they somehow deserved this win is a bit laughable, we could go back and forth about rules all day, restarting a race like that just for TV isn’t right, basically saying the other 99% of the race was irrelevant, let’s have 1 lap sprint with one driver having a massive advantage
Redbull are being just as petty as Mercedes’, kind of saying nah nah nah nah nah nah, we won, we’re the best.
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