He slowed down more than he normally would, as he was headed toward the DRS line and wanted to do what he did later. He needed Lewis past him prior to that line. Fair enough. What was weird was why Lewis didn’t just breeze by earlier, as he surely would have had Max been breaking down.
The DRS line being mentioned as a reason for both drivers slowing, with Verstappen wanting Hamilton to go past him before the line so he could then use DRS to immediately retake the lead, whilst it is being suggested that Hamilton slowed because he didn’t want to give Verstappen that advantage. Maybe, if a driver is instructed to concede the lead, there should be a rule stopping them from using DRS to retake the lead on the same lap as it was conceded?
He might have thought he was erring on the side of caution by staying behind Verstappen (and thus avoiding a penalty if there was some circumstance where he shouldn't be passing). Why he remained on the same line as Verstappen rather than moving into the space down the inside, I have no idea...think he just short-circuited a touch because he had no idea what was happening, because (per the conversation between his pit wall and race control) they had only just told Mercedes what was taking place while Verstappen was slowing, and hadn't yet passed that information to Hamilton.
Yes, that's exactly what I think happened. Let's move on though to the next race. Absolutely no need for any retrospective penalties (including for the Perez/Leclerc incident by the way).
Unless it’s clear as mud that he did something to deliberately get hit bu LH, MV will surely get no penalty. It’s huge for F1 if they go in neck and neck and hopefully start 1 and 2 . Starting 1 and 12 would just be a massive anticlimax and FIA know this….
Max has been given a ten second penalty for the braking incident, which puts him back to...err...second. So we go to the last race all square.
I think they've made the right call there. Max was at fault for that incident so needed penalising. However they didn't want to ruin the last race so they just gave him a time penalty. They just needed to send the message that he went too far yesterday.
But how many times does MV need to have that message Tom? He has driven this year in a manner that says he does not care whether he takes Hamilton and himself off the track. These are not my words, but those of a number of F1 drivers, who deserve their opinions considered. These same drivers, including Alonso, who has little love for Hamilton, has been critical of MV. So it's not okay to let them race if one driven intentionally breaks the rules, as MV did at least twice yesterday and a few other times this season in the opinion of the other drivers. We go into the final race of the season and l would not put it past MV to drive Hamilton off the track like MS did to Damian Hill. Is that the sort of racing we want to see?
It makes for history and excitement. You don't get people talking about the boring championship wins. Not saying it's right, but the drama and the possibility he might just do that, will have everyone glued to their screens next Sunday.
I was thinking back to the time when MS did Hill and was going to ask if rules have since been changed to prevent this from happening again. Is there a penalty that could lead to MV having points deducted, should he be deemed to have deliberately taken both himself and Hamilton out of the race? If not there’s nothing to stop him taking Lewis out at the first corner of the final race.
Schumacher was completely disqualified from the championship in 1997 for trying to deliberately wreck Villeneuve.
Channel Four are negotiating with Sky to be able to show the deciding race live, which is great news for the majority.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59575979 That's good news. That must have been down to Lewis "nothing to do with me" Hamilton taking a stand over it.
Not for me. I want Lewis to utterly dominate the little **** from first practice, qualifying and throughout the race and see Horner bleat on afterwards about wings, spoilers, the weather and whatever else he wants to bring on for excuses that his spoilt cheating brat of a driver did not win the championship.... Hhmm feel so much better for that rant Libby!! Been holding that in for weeks!