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Mind games are part of racing. Fill the guy's mirror with your car to goad him into a mistake. Did Hammy cross the line - he's done it before so I can't give him the benefit of the doubt now.
Vettel is a fiery guy. Did he get pissed and hit him intentionally - most likely.
But in this case, from the way it looks on video:
Who has a good defense? Hammy. Who doesn't? Vettel.
LOL... think about the children! Did he think about the children in Abu Dhabi last year when backing up Nico into Vettel or asking the team to have Bottos back up to give Vettel dirty air? Knowing Hamilton, his plan would have been to pass both Vettel and Bottas and his justification would have been "because I'm in the WDC hunt"! Looks like the team was right about Bottas having a shot at Stroll!
He's a great racer, but there has never been a bigger douchebag than Lewis Hamilton
These guys are the best drivers in the world, able to do virtually anything behind the wheel of a race car......including whacking one of your rivals just hard enough while making it look accidental
In the current issues of both F1 Racing and MotorSport Vettel is featured; in both articles the theme is the same, that being he's great when the car behaves the way he wants it to and things are going well, but when it doesn't and they're not he loses his mind. Case in point.....just ask Steve Matchett
Looks like about as hard a hit as you can manage without risking much damage to your own car. Vettel's car jumps into the air from the impact.
I don't think the impact is what caused the car to jump. IMHO Seb's tire climbed Hammy's. Contact like that at higher speeds would just zing the tires and take all the letters off, but at slow speed I'd bet it just climbed the sidewall.
I think both Lewis and Seb knew what they were doing with the lift (brake check with no brakes) and the tap. Hamilton orchestrated it better and took advantage of Sebastian's volatility.
1. Vettel intentionally hit Hamilton. He's a 3 time WDC. You don't think he can control the car at 50 MPH under a yellow in dry conditions?
2. Hamilton may not have hit the brakes but there are other ways to slow the car down quickly w/o brakes. He was screwing with Seb. Someone mentioned the hybrid system. Remember, the cars don't need as much braking due to the energy harvesting providing braking as soon as you lift. He knew what he was doing.
Both of them should have received penalties, IMO.
Hamilton also asked if over the radio if Bottas was in a position to screw with Vettel and make him drive in dirty air so Hammy could catch him. Hamilton is a team player only when it's convenient to benefit him.
I think they both knew exactly what they were doing. The difference is Hamilton's move was totally legal and good racecraft. As leader, he sets the pace, and anyone in his position backs down the field before the race goes green, to attempt to gain an acceleration advantage off the line.
Seb's hand gestures and move alongside were an expression of his anger are ok, but he crossed the line when contact was made.
Full disclosure: I'm a huge Sebastian Vettel fan, but in this case he was wrong.
1. Vettel intentionally hit Hamilton. He's a 3 time WDC. You don't think he can control the car at 50 MPH under a yellow in dry conditions?
2. Hamilton may not have hit the brakes but there are other ways to slow the car down quickly w/o brakes. He was screwing with Seb. Someone mentioned the hybrid system. Remember, the cars don't need as much braking due to the energy harvesting providing braking as soon as you lift. He knew what he was doing.
Both of them should have received penalties, IMO.
Hamilton also asked if over the radio if Bottas was in a position to screw with Vettel and make him drive in dirty air so Hammy could catch him. Hamilton is a team player only when it's convenient to benefit him.
The FIA have confirmed that Hamilton's telemetry shows he didn't brake or lift, he didn't slow the car. He's a douche but he didn't do anything wrong there.
The FIA have confirmed that Hamilton's telemetry shows he didn't brake or lift, he didn't slow the car. He's a douche but he didn't do anything wrong there.
Vet probably wanted to make sure Ham didn't get a run on him, got on the throttle, and when he saw Ham was right there it was too late to avoid the rear-ender. Then he blamed Ham for something that was his fault because, yes, he can sometimes be a crybaby, just like Ham.
For me, the jury is still out on whether Vet intentionally hit Ham when he was alongside. But regardless, I think the penalty was warranted and a stiffer penalty would have been warranted too.
Last edited by Manifold; 06-27-2017 at 08:20 AM.
Reason: correction
They are both whiney douchebags. There was talk of Vettel going to Mercedes, German driver in German car. Would love to see those two on the same team. Barrels of Liebfraumilch would be flowing from that camp.
1. Vettel intentionally hit Hamilton. He's a 3 time WDC. You don't think he can control the car at 50 MPH under a yellow in dry conditions?
He's actually a 4 time world champion, thank you.
Maybe we should call it a deceleration check instead of a brake check. Same result though. So that move is ok. I think I will use that at my next race and see what the guy behind me thinks.
Hamilton was playing these games all last year too. That's one of the reasons Rosberg couldn't take it anymore.
It will be interesting to see how these two race each other the rest of the season. It may be a lot like Prost Senna stuff, or a lot of radio chatter asking Charlie to look at what the other guy did to him. There's always something to keep it interesting!
IMO, even if Vettel hit him on purpose, which i don't think he MEANT (this is going based out his hand movements w/ the steering wheel -- yes one cannot see the right hand IF he used that hand- i'm basing off he had it up like his left hand up and i believe same w/ right hand, my take is he was so furious he forgot placement of car). Anyways i'm glad hamilton got a taste of his own medicine. Games / push offs / intentional crashes / whining etc. Hamilton is the King & Queen of primadonnas. Think of the children, lmao.