Austria 2016

[jens]

I don't want to go into all these deep arguments, which people understandably have here. Just some short thoughts from my POV.

* I'd really like Rosberg to win one WDC in his career, especially given as long as he has the opportunity to drive excellent cars. But every other weekend he keeps reminding me, which he would struggle to do so... What a pity.

* Vettel has been suffering from quite a lot of unluck this year. Already 3 DNF's, which is quite a lot by modern standards. With a smooth run Vettel could even threaten the championship battle, but as of now he can forget about it...

* Ricciardo is obviously clearly better than Verstappen in qualifyings, but in race trim Max seems to have an edge pretty often, which quite frankly I find rather amazing.

[The Black Knight]

I don't want to go into all these deep arguments, which people understandably have here. Just some short thoughts from my POV.

* I'd really like Rosberg to win one WDC in his career, especially given as long as he has the opportunity to drive excellent cars. But every other weekend he keeps reminding me, which he would struggle to do so... What a pity.

* Vettel has been suffering from quite a lot of unluck this year. Already 3 DNF's, which is quite a lot by modern standards. With a smooth run Vettel could even threaten the championship battle, but as of now he can forget about it...

* Ricciardo is obviously clearly better than Verstappen in qualifyings, but in race trim Max seems to have an edge pretty often, which quite frankly I find rather amazing.

Agree with all the above. Vettel's driving has been none too shabby this year but has been unlucky on a number of occasions, especially Russia. He really needs to stop moaning about tough racing though e.g. Ricciardo in Spain.

Regarding Verstappen, I am really interested to see how his qualifying is going to progress. He has been amazing in race mode but qualifying is his Achilles heel right now and his only one. It's really amazing how well he is doing overall but some drivers just don't have out and out qualifying pace. It'll be interesting to see how his develops.

[The Black Knight]

Backing off when you are ahead in the corner would have been dangerous, judging by the relative positions of the cars. If you look at all the successful maneuvers that have resulted in a pass in the corner, rarely would you find any that is from the position that Rosberg was operating from. His chance of taking the position was already handed to him by Hamilton by taking the wide line through the corner. All Nico had to do was to cut the apex and he would have been ahead coming out of the corner. Hamilton had taken the path to have a better traction coming out of the corner to retake the position.
Whichever way you look at it. Rosberg drove a daft maneuver through that corner and paid a well deserving price for it. That does not diminish my support for him as the leading underdog. But it frustrates the hell out of me to see him slowly throw away what seem like a done deal if he just keeps it together.

If Hamilton can pull off a win of this title, it would be one of his most deserving title of all his titles so far. He appears to be driving against the odds. Without the clear support of the team.

What is most about Hamilton in this championship is that he's only 11 points behind after suffering massive reliability problems. There's no doubt he has been the better driver overall but Nico has made full use of the advantage when handed it. I think Hamilton will win the title. 11 points is nothing nowadays. It's pretty much a clean slate from here. In fact, I'd say the championship pretty much restarts from here now.

[Nitrodaze]

I don't want to go into all these deep arguments, which people understandably have here. Just some short thoughts from my POV.

* I'd really like Rosberg to win one WDC in his career, especially given as long as he has the opportunity to drive excellent cars. But every other weekend he keeps reminding me, which he would struggle to do so... What a pity.

* Vettel has been suffering from quite a lot of unluck this year. Already 3 DNF's, which is quite a lot by modern standards. With a smooth run Vettel could even threaten the championship battle, but as of now he can forget about it...

* Ricciardo is obviously clearly better than Verstappen in qualifyings, but in race trim Max seems to have an edge pretty often, which quite frankly I find rather amazing.

Not so surprising. Kyvat also had the edge in the race most times last year and this year too. He is struggling with tyre management over long runs.

[Nitrodaze]

What is most about Hamilton in this championship is that he's only 11 points behind after suffering massive reliability problems. There's no doubt he has been the better driver overall but Nico has made full use of the advantage when handed it. I think Hamilton will win the title. 11 points is nothing nowadays. It's pretty much a clean slate from here. In fact, I'd say the championship pretty much restarts from here now.

Fair comments, l would add " All things being equal!". CETERIS PARIBUS