ajcjr

is it any better if you are there, i would like to see a live race but i cant see spending a good amount of money to see some boring race.

LuigiVampa

I believing rejoining the track in an unsafe manor is judged on whether it was intentional or not. Not a rules expert but I don't believe I have seen it applied when someone spins across the track and people have to check up.

winders

So any spin that has a driver go off the track then back on requires a 5 second penalty? I think you are reaching here.

DTMiller

Don't the Stewards have access to telemetry? Maybe something in there told a story... Just guessing.

iammacey

This was my thought as well. I don't pretend to know what would happen if SV hadn't came back onto the track in the throttle, but I assume the stewards reviewed the telemetry.

It seemed to me like Seb was on the throttle through most of that to avoid losing position and that pushed him wide coming off the grass. The save was impressive, but I immediately questioned what would have happened if he backed off with an intention to enter on the left and off the racing line.

However, if I were Seb, I would have likely done the same thing. As I suspect any driver would. So, for me, it's a part of racing and I'd have preferred no penalty.

Akunob

Great race, 5 sec penalty notwithstanding! Best of the rest appears to see Renault get back on course. Ricciardo's defense on Bottas while using DRS was epic and some other great passes in the mid-pack cars! Regarding the 5 sec penalty, if you put emotions aside, frankly this is another Ferrari unforced error, this time by the driver. Vettel had a nice lead and couldn't hold it, he went off Turn 3 and only succeeded in staying in front by obstructing the #44 car's forward progress. The fact that Vettel was on grass, had little traction and did a fantastic job 'saving' the Ferrari from any real damage or contact with the wall does not change the fact that Vettel, once again, messed up a race he was leading comfortably. I'm sorry that's how I call it. How many times do we see Hamilton take a lead and not mess up (we then call the race a snooze-fest)!! Even when in the lead on worn/dead tires, Hamilton can still nurse a lead to victory while holding off Max, who is on fresher tires (Monaco)!! Vettel continues to show that mentally he's having a tough time closing races. Conveniently Vettel has F1 stewards to blame this time but the fault is his for putting the decision in the hands of the stewards to begin with. It's not how we, the fans, would want to see the race end but rules are rules! Vettel simply messed up. PeriodT

Glyndellis

We may have seen a German F1 champion make a mistake before whilst under pressure from a British driver (Schumacher/Hill in Australia '94) and try to take him out.

hacker-pschorr

Mahler9th

I haven't finished watching yet.

But what I have seen so far suggests that the stewards did not come to what I thought was an obvious determination.. My hypothesis includes the proposition that there was room/gray area for them as they studied the incident.

I have no issue with the #44 team and car calling for an investigation. I cannot imagine any team in F1 not doing that with so much at stake.

Not the first "oops" I have concluded since starting to watch pro racing in 1966 or so. Likely not the last.

I think the Scuderia did well for themselves.

I hope that ALL of the drivers, teams and officials comport themselves professionally (and with grace), even if I cannot expect that from fans. Journalists-- I'd guess there will be a range of responses.

mdrums

ipse dixit

F1 just had its Kentucky Derby moment.

signes

These pretty much say it all. Anybody that actually knows what they are talking about and has been in that position knows this was a shameful call.

Manifold

As Toto said after the race, it wasn't and usually isn't black and white, but more like a 60/40 call which could have gone either way. Without fixating on the exact wording of the regulation, I'm ok with the decision because the root cause of the near crash, nearly taking out Lewis while driving the racing line, was Seb making a mistake under pressure and losing control of his car, which then resulted in unsafe re-entry to the track (regardless of the unsafe aspect being unintentional or somewhat intentional once he was in the grass). It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that Seb should have lost the position to Lewis because of his mistake and the consequences, or instead lose ~5 secs to produce a similar outcome.

Seb's theatrics were kind of amusing, though they also reinforced my impression that he can sometimes be a bit of a crybaby and is very frustrated that he can't land a WDC in the Ferrari.

Akunob

^ Bingo. Folks (and the internet) are focused on the 5 secs penalty but the real issue was that Vettel made a mistake while in the lead. As we say in our lowly DE, “Dude put four wheels off and mowed the grass!” Vettel’s re-entry was deemed unsafe because it affected another driver’s forward progress. It had nothing to do with whether Vettel had total control of the car (which he did not) nor whether pushing Hamilton wide and forcing #44 to ease up was done intentionally (which it wasn’t). Had there been no car around Vettel when he came back on track and he didn’t impede anyone, then the F1 stewards wouldn’t have penalized him.

Right now, Vettel is Vettel’s own worst enemy and his theatrics at the end of the race is just a window into how fragile his psyche is right now given Hamilton and Mercedes recent dominance and his inability to live up to the expectations at Ferrari.

winders

Bingo? Using your logic, anytime any driver makes a mistake, and impedes another driver during that mistake, they should be given a 5 second penalty. That makes perfect sense...not!