Originally Posted by
truefan72
I do blame Leclerc for exacerbating the situation.
Of the 2 drivers, clearly he was the slower one.
he got a poorer start (no matter what ferrari officially say to cover their ass)
and he absolutely could not keep up with Vettel's pace, to the point where Hamilton was able to stay in striking distance with mediums compared to leclerc's softs
Hamilton to his credit came out and explained how difficult it was to stay with the Ferrari ahead of him, essentially doing qualifying laps to do so
Meanwhile Leclerc just decided to whine constantly over the radio, even when he knew that he had a poorer start and less race pace than Vettel.
That should null and void any gentleman's agreement foolishly made prior to the start.
If they were racing nose to tail for the first 5 laps and then he backed up to save his tires, then came right back at vettel a few laps later, then i would see his point.
but he didn't and then tried to engineer his way to the front.
Just because you got pole on a saturday is no guarantee that it finishes that way on a sunday.
It also isn't your right to be on the lead after the red lights go out.
This isn't the first race at sochi and everyone knows the track. It is what it is.
But only Ferrari manage to mess things up royally. Both the team and leclerc come off looking bad.
This has been their pattern all season long. Trying to control the race from the pits.
Early in the year, it was them favoring vettel to Leclerc's detriment and now they have turned it around completely.
How about just letting them race from the start and the only instruction be to not take each other out. If a situation comes up during the race that makes sense then do so. But certainly not stupid agreements prearranged in a bizarre way to mitigate the nature of the track to one driver's benefit. Getting pole is no inherent right to win the race. All it says is that you were fastes on saturday and have a slight advantage starting the race.