2021 - Race 19 Brazil

[airshifter]

Toto to Bottas: You need to be a little more aggressive in your breaking point this race.

Bottas: How aggressive?

Toto: 5 m after you make contact with Max car

No doubt they are hoping for miracles up front. If Max gets a poor start they might be able to hold him up for a little while.

I was being a "refresh monkey" on the FIA decision website. I knew it had to be coming soon.

Same here. I bounced over here to make my comments and apparently that's when the decision was released.



But it's not over until the fat lady sings. Even though the penalty will sting Lewis has made some monster drives from the back of the field. If they can keep the fight to less than 25 points they might still be in the hunt.

At this point we will see 100% full on Lewis attack mode through the Sprint race. I think it's their only hope and they will know that.

With the Sprint race in play it might more or less cancel the fact that Lewis has two penalties. He's come from the back of the grid before, and we will see if he can do it again.

[F1nKS]

But it's not over until the fat lady sings.

With 4 races (including Brazil) this is hardly over for Hamilton. It does make it a more uphill battle. Of course, he is lucky he has the sprint race this weekend as it will allow him a chance to dig out of his hole some.

But there is so much that can happen in 4 races that can flip the standing so quick. Let remember there is COVID still.

[joe1888cfc]

[QUOTE=truefan72;1286566]Haha you guys are beyond biased. This is where this forum has jumped the shark. So let me get this straight. Hamiltons car was summoned to the stewards because there was a very minor infraction to his rear wing drs system that was off by millimeters in all likelihood because max Verstappen touched and probably tampered with his rear wing and then had his mechanic call for an investigation ( i mean who bloody touches the competitors rear wing in parc ferme like that???) with that new evidence max and the mechanic have been called into the stewards…and the general takeway from you lot is that max tampering with hamilton’s rear wing is ok, but hamilton should be banned for said rear wing infraction caused by verstappen? Ridiculous.
It is pointless to have any kind of discussion here anymore. A sad state for this forum.



they’ve just ran a video on Sky of loads of drivers poking and prodding the other cars, Seb actually rolls a Merc forward! I'm not even 100% sure max touches the car.

[Zico]

For me both the penalty decisions were the correct ones. Lewis will be gutted and feel hard done to that it's because of a broken part but as it provided a performance advantage, unfortunately there can be no other penalty.

I'm actually a bit surprised they didn't try to punish Max harder to keep the championship more open and that has renewed a bit of my faith in the FIA being both fair and consistent with this one... but strangely I'm also a bit disappointed that the points could move away from Merc and Lewis in a big way this weekend.

Ah well.. at least watching Lewis having to work his way through the field should be interesting..

[denkimi]

I feel like hamilton could end up on the podium tomorrow.
That mercedes is at least a second a lap faster than any other car except redbull. And perez is once more useless, failing to do a anything usefull with the speed of his redbull .

[Zico]

I feel like hamilton could end up on the podium tomorrow.
That mercedes is at least a second a lap faster than any other car except redbull. And perez is once more useless, failing to do a anything usefull with the speed of his redbull .

Absolutely, I suggested in an earlier post that his new engine probably gives him a tenth or so...well its clearly a lot more than that. What a monster!
This championship is still very much not over.

[joe1888cfc]

Max shat the bed big time, Hamilton looks a second faster than every other car, Perez is an utter waste of space in the other red bull and Mercedes should never had got rid of bottas

[airshifter]

For me both the penalty decisions were the correct ones. Lewis will be gutted and feel hard done to that it's because of a broken part but as it provided a performance advantage, unfortunately there can be no other penalty.

I'm actually a bit surprised they didn't try to punish Max harder to keep the championship more open and that has renewed a bit of my faith in the FIA being both fair and consistent with this one... but strangely I'm also a bit disappointed that the points could move away from Merc and Lewis in a big way this weekend.

Ah well.. at least watching Lewis having to work his way through the field should be interesting..

I thought they were a bit harsh with Max on the fine, but I'm sure the torches and pitchforks would have come out if they didn't fine him, so they were essentially backed into a corner on that one. Good thing it's not retroactive, as Seb would owe at least a couple hundred thousand pounds. BUT if they continue the trend.... they shouldn't have to ever fine anyone else. Getting a good look is one thing, but even the drivers at the top of the pay scale probably don't want to part with that kind of money.




The sprint offered some surprises I wasn't really expecting. No shock that the soft runners made better starts and gained some position, and really no shocker that Lewis made up so many on the first lap with his warmer mediums. But I thought even with track temps what they were that they would fall off quicker and the mediums would have an advantage by half way in or so. Great work by Sainz to keep Checo behind, and it didn't look easy. I think Max had a chance at Bottas but wasn't going to push the issue much. Better to not risk the car at this point.

Great drive through the pack for Lewis. With that new engine that Merc is an absolute monster down the straights with DRS. It seemed that by the time he had half the Spring down, Lewis had perfected his DRS attack. Even the faster cars stood no chance. The same was true up front... Max could make up a tiny bit on Bottas down the main straight, but not much. As is par for the course though, great recovery/damage limitation drive by Lewis. The only person that really had any chance at defending a move was Lando. I'm not sure if he underestimated the closing speed, or just lost the game of nerves. He had a shot at covering the inside and missed it. Everyone else was toast fairly quickly.


At this point I think the race win is probably 50/50 Lewis and Max. Barring the conditions really swinging things towards one teams setup, the Merc are obviously faster. Both Bottas and Perez need to be on their games for the sake of both the WDC and WCC. I wouldn't be at all surprised if both #2 drivers start on softs and play the strategy game to hold up the #1 drivers. But at this point it's even possible that one of the teams rolls the dice and puts a #1 driver on softs. And Interlagos has been known to produce plenty of safety cars as well, and being that close to the water always gives a chance of rain.


It's clear that Merc isn't going to go down without a fight. Even Bottas was back on it. Toto has his head back in it, and the radio call was a gem.



I don't even think the fat lady needs to warm up for this race, as barring any major shuffle, she isn't going to be singing soon.

[denkimi]

At this point I think the race win is probably 50/50 Lewis and Max.

unless something happens, either bottas or verstappen is going to win this. after only 24 laps everybody else was almost or more than 20 seconds behind.

although hamilton looked to be very fast compared to the others, his fastest lap was still slower than those of both verstappen and bottas. except perez, both ferraris and norris, everybody else was more than a second per lap slower.

[Nitrodaze]

What a drive from both Mercedes drivers. Hamilton showed star quality driving from last to 5th in 24 laps. The Mercedes with new engine is really mighty.

Bottas made up for Mexico with a stunning drive. Winning from second with a brilliant start. Bravo Valterie!