was an ok race. sticking two fast cars down the back added interest. hamilton pissed in as expected. the minute I heard new engine spec I changed my vote to him... twas as easy as pie.
Mercedes seem to have made a leap forward in terms of the engine performance and yes, Vettel still seems to be throwing points away. He is doing a Verstappen on occasions. Not convinced of his reasoning for the accident in the post race interview. Since I have never driven such a car I can only go by the comments of previous similar moments and the drivers never gave the same excuse as Vettel. May all be true but isn't he paid to avoid a collison, at least on the first lap when in the championship lead. If his analysis of why is real then his understanding of the aero and brake dynamics should have helped him avoid the scenario. Still, 13 races to go and much to play for and let's hope it remains close. My gut tells me Lewis will enter the Summer break with a 30 point lead after today, but that assumes reliability.
When commentators suggest Vettel may be challenged by LeClerc next year you have to consider he isn't on it the way he should be. Novel thought and a bit of fun, if we had 20 drivers and twenty races and they each drove one race in each car, how would they finish? Just don't drive a car after Grosjean!
Nah, I think that just shows how highly people think of CLC. Rightly so. His attitude of being annoyed today at his mistake, despite getting points again is that of a future champ.
IMO hamilton senses it is time to put his foot on vettel's neck now. His comments about vettel's 5 second penalty not being harsh enough shows that hamilton feels the new engine gives him a huge advantage now and its time to use it. IMO ferrari and vettel have blown thier best chance already as they had the better far for 4/5 races and have not won them all.
I don't remember anyone bitching the penalties weren't harsh enough when Hamilton was smashing people off the track righ tleft and centre.
Back then the penalties were actually meaningful. Hamilton picked up a fair few drive-throughs. 5 second time penalties do absolutely nothing 90% of the time. Lewis is right, it's too soft.
In the old days Lewis got a 25 second penalty for not really committing an offence that wasn't punishable by a penalty anyway.
I didn't think it was worthy of a penalty, a blatant 'racing incident' it was the first corner and Bottas knew Vettel was there and turned in anyway, and it wasn't just Bottas' race that was ruined.
unless he was forced to pit because of it, in which case he didn't. The only penalty Hamilton ever got that wasn't desrved was Spa '08, and he's gotten away with plenty, forcing drivers off the road, no penalty, crashing into his team-mate, no penalty, weaving down the straight, no penalty.
If you read the press conference it's awful. The clickbait journalists had several attempts at setting up Max and Lewis to lay into Vettel but they wouldn't play. They both were of the opinion that it's a racing incident, these things happen. Vettel got off relatively lightly but that's the rub of the green sometimes.
Alonso has been taking advice off Grosjean. Are we sure it wasn't Erricson? Team: “Fernando is there any damage? Is there any possible damage?” Alonso: “I don’t know. I touch with Vettel. Hope he has damage. Stupid move!”
the question at heart goes back to, was a 5 sec penalty for Vettel adequate for his actions? If it's a racing incident, then no penalty. If not, then is 5 secs adequate? I think the penalty thing has been done to death, not sure there is ever going to be a 100% correct solution which either ensures the punishment fits the crime, without then affecting the racing, which was a previous gripe of many as a good fight was stopped because of big penalties being handed out. He is becoming a very bitter old man!
To me Vettel should have known better but a 5 sec penalty was probably OK. It was a bit of a racing indecent that a rookie would have made and got penalised so Vettel with all his experience should have not put his car in that position. I think Bottas was unlucky in the amount of damage he supposedly received. Maybe if the damage had been less he would have finished in front of Vettel.
Marc Priestly said exactly this . The penalty was for the contact , how were they to know the damage to Bottas's car , it could have been Vettel that had car damage( if his front wing stuck under the car etc ) . . I'm not sure if 5 seconds was enough though .