DTMiller

My goodness. What a monkey **** this race is. Between the spec Miata start and the team on team damage and the Hamilton Vettel yellow flag collision. WTF.

PiB993

I could be wrong but didn't something like this happen with vettel in the the past where some kind of action offended him during a yellow or sc and he came back on bonked the guy? Maybe I'm thinking of a different driver. I recall a retaliatory hit during a red mist moment.

FredC

This track hardly seems to fit the standards set by the likes of the newer tracks on the circuit. More like a Formula E venue...

LuigiVampa

Agreed.

What a messed up race - yellows beget yellows.

Was exciting to watch.

LuigiVampa

Vettel's interview with Will Buxton after the race reminds of of Bill Clinton asking what the definition of is is?

He refused to say whether he hit Hamilton deliberately or not.

gbuff

I've posted in other threads how I can't stand street circuits and this race was the poster child for that thought.....that said, despite all the crashes I found it very entertaining with DR winning from P10, Bottas from a lap down and in last to P2, and despite being pipped at the line Lance just drove like a veteran and not like a kid in staying out of trouble for P3 which is absolutely amazing given the start of his year. Big boost for Williams (Massa also did very well) going forward, hopefully.....

Gary

StoogeMoe

Everybody is quick to jump on Vettel when it was all started by the game player Hamilton. Hamilton always has to resort to games when he knows he isn't strong enough to guarantee a win. Why wasn't he penalized for that brake check? I don't agree with Vettel's retaliation but can understand his anger. He all but admitted to hitting Hamster deliberately. Karma is great and got Hamster's bolster, thereby giving him the penalty he deserved.

Great result for Stroll. You can tell he gained confidence after his Montreal finish. Maybe now we'll see what he's really capable of.

Force India is all but imploding. They better straighten things out quickly or somebody's going to get the boot.

DTMiller

Yeah, how dare everyone hold Vettel responsible for his actions that are out of bounds in literally every racing series in the world. Crazy that people are doing that.

There must be a way this is Hamilton's fault.

I can only imagine the SCREAMING if Hamilton had done what Vettel did. People would be calling for his banning from the sport. But Vettel does it and it is Hamilton's fault.

dogger15

I'm guessing for two reasons. 1. He didn't brake check Vettel: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-hamilton-vettel-baku-brake-testing-923425/
2. Lead car controls the pace and it's up to the following cars to maintain a gap like all the other cars did behind Hamilton.

Intentionally ramming another car because he couldn't control his road rage should have gotten him Black flagged. If he wasn't driving a Ferrari, it probably would have. I think the stewards should have awarded
Seb with 6 penalty point (instead of 3), to go with the 6 he's already earned. That would give him a total of 12 and net him a one race ban. Maybe that would result in the attitude adjustment he appears to need.

Coochas

Crapola circuit. They are going to rename it Faku for next year.
It certainly looked like HAM brake checked VET. VET's response was very uncool and he's a lucky boy that he only got a 10 second penalty for it. Just goes to show you no matter how high up in racing you are, you are still susceptible to the red mist effect.

Always happy to see smiling RIC on the podium. I was happy to see Stroll on the podium as he has had less than a smooth start to his F1 career.

PJorgen

I'm not sure that Vettel intentionally bumped Hamilton. VET pulled along side HAM and when VET turned his head to look at HAM and make a rude gesture, he may have unintentionally drifted into HAM. Possible? Remember, your car goes where you look.

I'm not a VET apologist, just considering alternatives.

multi21

Highly entertaining, but was a $hit fest in terms of a course. Parts of those streets remind me of tiny streets in Europe where it's hard to navigate a Fiat 500 through the narrow ancient streets.

Anyone else get the feeling it was more like a NASCAR race with all the yellows, SC periods and red flag session? I watched NASCAR at Sonoma and they had LESS cautions than F1 did today!

With regard to Hamilton, his actions behind the safety car were highly "irregular", I don't know if he break checked Vettel, but slowing right after a 90 degrees turn is usually a "no-no" because everyone is trying to go around the corners fast to put heat in their tires. That being said, Vettel should have never turned into Hamilton and it basically cost him a race win....

StoogeMoe

This shows the flaw with how these stewards base their decisions solely by looking at data when all you have to do is open your f'ing eyes and look at the video. I know a brake check when I see one and Seb was in a even better seat.

This same kind of injustice happened at Mexico last year. These stewards have learned nothing.

multi21

Couple more thoughts about Force India and the red flag session. They could have finished 1-2 today which would have been HUGE in terms of end of year prize money in the constructers championship. Unfortunately, they (Force India) have a management problem because when they asked Perez to move over for Ocon in Canada because Ocon had the fresher tires so he could have a go at Riccardo for the last podium spot, Perez refused... despite the fact the team told Perez that if Ocon couldn't pass Ricciardo, Ocon would give Perez the spot back. As a result, both Perez and Ocon were passed by Vettel and neither of them reached the podium.

There are 300-600 employees employed by each F1 team - some of those highly intelligent engineers and strategists who run countless calculations and simulations. One driver can F up all the work of those 600 employees when they decide to go against team orders.

I'm not condoning what Ocon did by not giving Perez room and pinned him against the wall, but it's a direct result of what Perez did to Ocon last weekend. In the end, the entire team lost out on another podium - two weeks in a row. If someone doesn't lay down the law, this team will flounder the rest of the way.

Finally, F1 screwed the pooch with the red flag session. The rules state that cars must be worked on in the "fast lane" of the pit during a red flag session. Both Kimi and Perez were penalized because their mechanics worked on their respective cars in the garage. The only problem is that they were in the garage before the red flag session because of prior damage. I would have argued that the penalty was not properly applied because they were not subject to the same rules regarding the fast lane because they were already in the garage....

John H

That circuit reminds me of something...




except that car sounded 1000X better.