2019 British GP - Silverstone

[Nitrodaze]

That’s the difference between the great and nearly great drivers. Bottas was on fresh tires and couldn’t beat Hamilton’s effort on 30 lap old tires. That’s actually really pathetic that Bottas coud not nab fastest lap.

So much for Bottas v2.0.

These Pirelli tyres are so inconsistent. They never know what they are getting at the pitstop untill they hit the racing line. In some cases, as Bottas, Verstapenn and few other drivers discovered, the new tyres could easily be worst than the one that they changed from. That is why l thought it was a very smart decision by Hamilton to stay with what he knew was working for him.

[airshifter]

That’s the difference between the great and nearly great drivers. Bottas was on fresh tires and couldn’t beat Hamilton’s effort on 30 lap old tires. That’s actually really pathetic that Bottas coud not nab fastest lap.

So much for Bottas v2.0.

It's amazing how much your fanboy attitude with Lewis skews your views.

Sure, it was a great accomplishment to get a fast lap on older tires. But Bottas was the better racer on track this weekend. He beat Hamilton in qually, and then in a wheel to wheel fight for a number of laps on track. It appears that only thing that kept Bottas v2.0 from a Silverstone win was the timing of the safety car, and the strategy call to have Lewis run deeper. He was losing time to Bottas on track, so they threw out the Hail Mary unless it would have cost Lewis 2nd place.

So much for fanboys!







As for the overall race, boring F1 at it's finest again!

Some great on track action all around. Bottas/Hamilton. Max/Charles, Charles/Gasly, Max/Vettel, and then a lot of movers farther back in the pack. As usual some big winners and losers in the safety car shake up, including both of the top two teams. I'm not yet sure of the entry positions of Bottas and Leclerc when the safety car came out, but it seemed a really strange call that they didn't bring Bottas in on the next lap either way.

Gasly finally gets into the fight, even though some luck played into his hand. Kimi makes it into the points again, along with both Renaults. Kvyat manages to bring the Toro Rosso up into the standings as well.


I'm glad I watched this boring race live to catch all the action. The people that said F1 has become too boring are really losing out IMO.

[Nitrodaze]

But Bottas was the better racer on track this weekend. He beat Hamilton in qually, and then in a wheel to wheel fight for a number of laps on track. It appears that only thing that kept Bottas v2.0 from a Silverstone win was the timing of the safety car, and the strategy call to have Lewis run deeper. He was losing time to Bottas on track, so they threw out the Hail Mary unless it would have cost Lewis 2nd place.

Bottas was at his very best today and it could have been a great spectacle to see the fight for the win between Bottas and Hamilton. Some say the safety car cheated Bottas of the win, but l think Hamilton may have won it anyway. Mainly because Hamilton really managed his tyres better than Bottas in this race, he may have got Bottas in the end l think.

[airshifter]

Bottas was at his very best today and it could have been a great spectacle to see the fight for the win between Bottas and Hamilton. Some say the safety car cheated Bottas of the win, but l think Hamilton may have won it anyway. Mainly because Hamilton really managed his tyres better than Bottas in this race, he may have got Bottas in the end l think.

May have. Kimi may have won the race.


Where did Lewis manage his tires better? He managed to stay behind Bottas until the pit stop, and the undercut was working. Bottas had already made up time to stay ahead before the safety car. The hards were working well for pretty much everyone after the stop, so all they could do was leave Bottas on track and hope for another safety car, since he was already on a second set of the mediums. The safety car gave the strategy advantage and the lead to Hamilton.

Not to take anything away from Lewis, as he drove a great race as well. But until the 3rd stop by Bottas, the gap was 3 seconds or so. Bottas had 2+ seconds over Hamilton on the short first stint at times, so it's not as if the two Mercs weren't fairly close to each other. Bottas would have had to pass Lewis and put the 18+ seconds on him to buy that 3rd pit stop, and the dicing early in the race pretty much showed that the cars were too close together in pace to even think that might happen.

[Nitrodaze]

May have. Kimi may have won the race.


Where did Lewis manage his tires better? He managed to stay behind Bottas until the pit stop, and the undercut was working. Bottas had already made up time to stay ahead before the safety car. The hards were working well for pretty much everyone after the stop, so all they could do was leave Bottas on track and hope for another safety car, since he was already on a second set of the mediums. The safety car gave the strategy advantage and the lead to Hamilton.

Not to take anything away from Lewis, as he drove a great race as well. But until the 3rd stop by Bottas, the gap was 3 seconds or so. Bottas had 2+ seconds over Hamilton on the short first stint at times, so it's not as if the two Mercs weren't fairly close to each other. Bottas would have had to pass Lewis and put the 18+ seconds on him to buy that 3rd pit stop, and the dicing early in the race pretty much showed that the cars were too close together in pace to even think that might happen.

I think Bottas had to stop for tyres when he did because he had chewed up his tyres, unfortunately, he had to do so before the safety car was sent out. Hamilton was able to run a longer first stint because he managed his tyres better. In the first stint, Hamilton was all over Bottas but occasionally had to pull back to cool the car down and was able to catch up to Bottas soon after cooling, quite easily.

Without the safety car, chances are that Hamilton may have pitted and come out behind Bottas. But with three or four laps fresher tyres. I think Bottas would have been vulnerable towards the end of the second stint because he is harder on his tyres, hence he wears them down faster than Hamilton, who would be on four laps fresher tyres when Bottas begins to struggle with tyre wear. Judging by how determined Hamilton was for the win, l struggle to see how Bottas would have kept Hamilton behind when he started to suffer from tyre wear at the closing stages of the race.

Bottas' weak point this season is his poor tyre management. That said, he drove a very respectable race today but l could not see him winning this one.

[gm99]

That’s the difference between the great and nearly great drivers. Bottas was on fresh tires and couldn’t beat Hamilton’s effort on 30 lap old tires. That’s actually really pathetic that Bottas coud not nab fastest lap.

So much for Bottas v2.0.

Well, Bottas had set the fastest lap by quite some margin (on his first flying lap on the new tires, I think), so he backed off, especially as no-one else in the top ten was on fresh tires. I'm sure he could have gone quicker in the end on low fuel, but neither he nor the team saw any reason to do so, given his position and the fact that he actually had the bonus point in his pocket at this time. When Hamilton did his fastest lap on the last lap of the race, there was simply no time left for Bottas to retaliate.

[journeyman racer]

3 cheapo wins for Hamilton this season.

Jag_Warrior made a good point about it on the Lewis Hamilton thread.

[truefan72]

That’s the difference between the great and nearly great drivers. Bottas was on fresh tires and couldn’t beat Hamilton’s effort on 30 lap old tires. That’s actually really pathetic that Bottas coud not nab fastest lap.

So much for Bottas v2.0.

Indeed

[zako85]

When this season started I reckoned that Verstappen will finish this season third in the WDC behind Mercedes drivers, and lo and behold it looks like this is already happening.

[N4D13]

That safety car absolutely destroyed the race. I'm particularly gutted for Norris, who was having a dream home race and then got sent nowhere. The opposite could be said of Sainz, who wasn't brilliant after a poor qualifying, yet somehow managed to find himself getting best of the rest honors in a day when he just didn't deserve it.

I'm also upset that the safety car robbed us of a Hamilton-Bottas fight to the end. It could have been a real thriller, but Bottas got mugged there.