F1 2020 :Round 17 Abu Dhabi

lolie · 13-12-2020 3:39pm

PsychoPete wrote: »

Ricciardo doing a very solid job today

Yeah doing well but i expected him to close up on Sainz on the new tyres but it hasn't happened.

murphyebass · 13-12-2020 3:39pm

2011 wrote: »

So would I. perhaps he has not recovered fully from covid.

That’ll be his excuse if he doesn’t.

If he does manage to pass him he’ll be grateful to be here and blessed to to have overcome the adversity...

And dont forget his dead tyres.

Lawlesz · 13-12-2020 3:40pm

2011 wrote: »

So would I. perhaps he has not recovered fully from covid.

I'm sure that'll be the chatter after the race anyway, regardless.

Race has been shocking, had a snooze in the middle there.

MaddChris · 13-12-2020 3:41pm

Hamilton now backed off, so much for a bit of excitement.

13-12-2020 3:41pm

5 laps to go, I'm not even going to wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c0mmi_e69o

ctrl-alt-delete · 13-12-2020 3:42pm

More like a practice session than a race in the end.

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 3:42pm

Bottas has closed the gap to Max by two seconds now. Still 11 seconds, though.
Lewis 3.6 back.

Strange day...

murphyebass · 13-12-2020 3:43pm

Yeah I’m done. Worst race of the season.

They need to do something with this track.

Brutal stuff.

namloc1980 · 13-12-2020 3:43pm

Such a bad track.

Stoolbend · 13-12-2020 3:45pm

This is worse than Monaco.

Wait until Crofty gets all excited as they cross the line like we didn't know who was going to win.

Charlie-Bravo · 13-12-2020 3:45pm

The highlight of this race was the sunset. What a waste of hanging around for two hours on a Sunday.

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 3:47pm

Good win by Verstappen, but not enough to nick 2n place in the WDC.

In other news, Selby's beating O'Sullivan 3:1.

tipp_tipp_tipp · 13-12-2020 3:48pm

Turned it off to watch the 2nd half of the Joe MacDonagh final. Another horrible race at this horrible track. Turned this race off last year too.

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 3:48pm

Albon: "Where is Lewis slow?"
Reply: "Lewis is slow everywhere"

Stoolbend · 13-12-2020 3:50pm

He didn't cream himself like he does for Lewis

skipper_G · 13-12-2020 3:50pm

Albon catching Hamilton at the end but it's too little too late. Story of his life

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 3:50pm

Max's final gap over both Mercs was 17 seconds.

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 3:52pm

Dani Ric got the fastest lap and finished 7th.

McLaren have 3rd place.

Cool_CM · 13-12-2020 3:52pm

Ocon gets Stroll on the tiny screen.

BikeRacer · 13-12-2020 3:52pm

Awful awful 'race'

skipper_G · 13-12-2020 3:52pm

Stroll gets done for 9th at the end. Stellar work as always. P4 in the championship it is. What a **** weekend to finish the season.

The race was a total snoozefest

ctrl-alt-delete · 13-12-2020 3:54pm

Danny Ric nicks the fastest lap right at the end.

Not long until March and still a bit to sort before then.

antodeco · 13-12-2020 4:00pm

Hamilton coughing straight away :pac:

ctrl-alt-delete · 13-12-2020 4:01pm

antodeco wrote: »

Hamilton coughing straight away :pac:

Putting a good word in for Albon too - hoping Redbull will keep him.

At least Lewis called out the track in a way.

Lawlesz · 13-12-2020 4:03pm

You know it's a dire situation when even Crofty is laughing about it fizzling out with 35 laps to go.

FourFourRED · 13-12-2020 4:03pm

Very bland race. Verstappen winning. A double blow.

Oh well, bring on next season.

Stoolbend · 13-12-2020 4:04pm

Hard to call it a race.

flazio · 13-12-2020 4:06pm

Even the end of season donuts were a damp squib. Only the two Mercs and KMag bothered.

Cool_CM · 13-12-2020 4:10pm

Stoolbend wrote: »

Hard to call it a race.

Feel sorry for the Channel 4 techies that are going to have to try to edit that into a "highlights" show

flazio · 13-12-2020 4:12pm

Cool_CM wrote: »

Feel sorry for the Channel 4 techies that are to have to try to edit that into a "highlights" show

Feel even more sorry for Ben Edwards. Sad way to bow out of F1 commentary.

namloc1980 · 13-12-2020 4:43pm

Abu Dhabi is awful, made even worse by being the season finale. Money talks I guess.

Jordan 199 · 13-12-2020 4:53pm

namloc1980 wrote: »

Abu Dhabi is awful, made even worse by being the season finale. Money talks I guess.

They should replace it with a classic like Interlagos.

Harika · 13-12-2020 4:55pm

What a snore festival. Never been more happy to fast forward

flazio · 13-12-2020 5:36pm

https://twitter.com/JennieGow/status/1338158780186587138?s=19

And that's that.

chicorytip · 13-12-2020 5:45pm

I found it an enjoyable race. The performance of Verstappen was remarkable. Not enough emphasis was placed on that during the Sky commentary, instead it was mostly about what was causing Mercedes woes. Simple - they were just trounced. The result bodes well for next season. If Red Bull continues to improve and Ferrari recovers It should be a closer run race. Lewis will not be a nailed on certainty for number eight.

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 6:32pm

chicorytip wrote: »

I found it an enjoyable race. The performance of Verstappen was remarkable. Not enough emphasis was placed on that during the Sky commentary, instead it was mostly about what was causing Mercedes woes. Simple - they were just trounced. The result bodes well for next season. If Red Bull continues to improve and Ferrari recovers It should be a closer run race. Lewis will not be a nailed on certainty for number eight.

I don't think we saw the real Merc today. They were nursing the MGU-K so that must have had some effect. Whatever the reason, it was nice to see a slight shuffle at the top.

Stroll didn't do himself (or the team) and favours. A few key mistakes cost him a couple of places and the chance to nick some points. In the end they ended up 7 points behind McLaren. If he had caught Ricciardo they would have been level. How would it be decided then?

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 6:38pm

Interesting looking at the individual fastest laps today. Bottas' was 3 tenths and Albon's 2 tenths faster than Hamilton's. Giovinazzi and Fittipaldi faster than the likes of Leclerc, McLarens, Gasly, Ocon.

Russell's was the slowest, 0.9 s behind Latifi and 2.4 behind Ricciardo.

El_Duderino 09 · 13-12-2020 7:15pm

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

... In the end they ended up 7 points behind McLaren. If he had caught Ricciardo they would have been level. How would it be decided then?

Probably decided on highest individual finish or most race wins so RP would have come out ahead

13-12-2020 7:47pm

Awful race. Once the SC came out the race was going to be dead.
Depressing that Merc wouldn't take a shot with Hamilton with 15 seconds left and have a go on a new set of tyres.
Bunch of lads tipping around 6 seconds a lap off their fastest times, dire stuff altogether.

AMKC · 13-12-2020 8:50pm

Well that was the most boring race of the year but delighted for Max and for McLaren getting third even do I would have preferred if it was Renault 3rd. Roll on next year.

Inquitus · 13-12-2020 8:55pm

chicorytip wrote: »

Sky commentary, instead it was mostly about what was causing Mercedes woes. Simple - they were just trounced. The result bodes well for next season. If Red Bull continues to improve and Ferrari recovers It should be a closer run race. Lewis will not be a nailed on certainty for number eight.

Merc stopped major development on the 2020 car ages ago with the major focus being on the 2021 car with the incumbent rule changes. This explains why Red Bull have got closer towards the end of the season, but does not bode well for their chances next season.

Harika · 13-12-2020 9:10pm

Inquitus wrote: »

Merc stopped major development on the 2020 car ages ago with the major focus being on the 2021 car with the incumbent rule changes. This explains why Red Bull have got closer towards the end of the season, but does not bode well for their chances next season.

Why would have red bull continued to develop for 2020? Catching Mercedes is out and no danger from the back. Ferrari thought their issues will be fixed with the v2021 engine, no need to waste time to get third in wdc as they can stomach that financial

El_Duderino 09 · 13-12-2020 9:40pm

Harika wrote: »

Why would have red bull continued to develop for 2020? Catching Mercedes is out and no danger from the back. Ferrari thought their issues will be fixed with the v2021 engine, no need to waste time to get third in wdc as they can stomach that financial

I don’t know what red bull did but hey are usually slow starters to the season. It takes them longer to get the far to work for them so they tend to improve as the season goes on. It would be great if they could hit the ground running in 2021

Killinator · 13-12-2020 9:56pm

Max complaining about tyres while he drives off into the sunset and nobody cares, the kind of thing a certain other driver does and gets ripped apart for, strange.

That was an awful season ender with an overly powerful DRS being the only reason anybody passed anybody.....well except Stroll running wide, but that's becoming common for him when under pressure.

Gaoth Laidir · 14-12-2020 1:22am

Kravitz said that Merc's tuning down the engine to protect the MGU-K was only a loss of around one tenth per lap, so it still doesn't explain why they were so far off the Red Bulls.

Top Dog · 14-12-2020 2:39am

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Kravitz said that Merc's tuning down the engine to protect the MGU-K was only a loss of around one tenth per lap, so it still doesn't explain why they were so far off the Red Bulls.

Lewis not 100% after covid, and Bottas was .... Bottas

Polar101 · 14-12-2020 6:55am

chicorytip wrote: »

I found it an enjoyable race. The performance of Verstappen was remarkable. Not enough emphasis was placed on that during the Sky commentary, instead it was mostly about what was causing Mercedes woes.

Yeah, Verstappen's performance was just about the only interesting thing in the race. Absolutely nothing happened (aside from the Perez breakdown and that thing where someone was a bit slow in the pit lane), but at least it wasn't the usual 1) Hamilton 2) Bottas.

Ok, it was 2) Bottas, but..

14-12-2020 8:11am

Killinator wrote: »

Max complaining about tyres while he drives off into the sunset and nobody cares, the kind of thing a certain other driver does and gets ripped apart for, strange.

Believe me, if Max did this at almost every race people would get fed up with him too.

14-12-2020 8:13am

chicorytip wrote: »

I found it an enjoyable race.

Compared to what? Watching paint dry?

The performance of Verstappen was remarkable. Not enough emphasis was placed on that during the Sky commentary, instead it was mostly about what was causing Mercedes woes.

Agree 100%

BrentMused · 14-12-2020 12:22pm

There have been some stinkers over the years but that was right up there. Even the commentators were audibly bored and didn't bother to feign interest or excitement.

Overall it was an enjoyable season with some excellent races and tracks, which we will hopefully see more of in the coming years.

Credit to everyone involved. It's a serious achievement to put together a 17 race season under the current circumstances and the amount of time and sacrifices that crew members etc have made should not go unnoticed.

96 days until we go again in Australia!

F1 2020 :Round 17 Abu Dhabi

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