Well done Lewis. Impressive.
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Well done Lewis. Impressive.
Makes Lewis whinging all race look pointless as the tyres were clearly OK if a bit worn.
That said it is a good win for Hamilton
Very good effort by Leclerc to stop Merc from taking another successive 1-2 finish with that safety car. :p
After such a brilliant start to the season, Bottas' season took a dent from a reckless Redbull release of Verstapenn as they tried to steal 2nd place from Mercedes. Hamilton drove a canny and cagey race to a well deserved Monaco win. Putting 17 points between himself and a very unlucky Bottas.
What l find very unfair was that Redbull and Verstapenn have screwed up Bottas' championship fight with Hamilton and they only get a tap on the wrist; 5 seconds penalty. For a start, it is a decision that would prove to be inconsistent when they next levy a drive through to another team that does the same thing in the near future. I can see that they want a show of a Verstapenn versus Hamilton duel. Unfortunately, at the expense of consistency and a display of what seemed like an open and plain favoritism towards Verstapenn.
The job of winning the 2019 title just became harder now for Bottas. Bottas now need to ensure that he wins the next two races to be back in the fight with Hamilton. I hope Mercedes would still allow them to race each other, since Ferrari or Redbull are not really in the driver's title fight.
Mclaren slowly consolidate 4th in the championship. That is great isn't it?
That Verstappen penalty was horrendous. You know what I reckon was the worst part about that soft decision?
It almost happened. But had Verstappen caused a collision with Hamilton that forced Hamilton out of the race, it would've occurred when a moment Verstappen shouldn't actually have been there.
Not that he might have posed much of a threat, but it then denies Vettel and opportunity to go for the lead.
A decisions made by a bunch of monkeys.
Yawn. Another Monaco GP.
If Red Bull did not release Verstappen unsafely at the pit stop placing him in the 2nd place, the top 5 most likely would have finished where they started, and probably without challenging each other. This and the previous race look really embarrassing compared to Indy GP and Indy 500.
They need to find a better way to right things with these penalties they apply. To me personally a 5 second penalty at a place like Monaco is a severe enough penalty to the driver. But it just doesn't consider what it does to the drivers surrounding that issue. Even if Bottas didn't have to come back into the pits, he would now be behind the driver that ran into him.
I would suggest that they figure out a way to make the driver immediately give up the time on track, placing him back in the pack to wherever that 5 or 10 seconds places him in the field. I think Max had enough pace that if he was to get by Hamilton he might have been able to open up a 5 or more second gap within a few laps. And that would be a complete farce to the race.
As for the rest of the action, nothing much out of the ordinary for Monaco. Most of the position changes were made due to strategy calls, though there were a few good passes on track.
As much as I appreciate the prestige and history at Monaco, I really think it's time for a change. If they can't figure out how to make it a track with passing opportunity, then it should go.
I agree, it is time for the track layout of Monaco to change. They have to find a way to make it more like Baku with a long enough straight for the effects of DRS to facilitate overtakes. I did not see enough to suggest DRS was effective during the Monaco race.