this is what i thought happened in the moment, i have not seen any official telemetry but i assume the FIA HAS seen it, im guessing they felt had he lifted / lifted more then he could of had much more control when he rejoined the track. i felt his little temper tantrum, pushing his car back away from the others and then moving the signs was a little childish, he made a mistake that cost him the victory
My 2c: The fact is that he DID rejoin unsafely. He steered into the skid, caught the car, then lost it again by trying to pull left. That makes it likely (pure speculation) that he applied throttle again. He's a top tier driver, so minor mistakes like that amount to big things. Had he let Lewis past after, I doubt the stewards would have done a thing. The fact is that he made a mistake under pressure, and near as makes no difference, clattered into Lewis. Lewis was off the track and on the brakes to avoid this. Either he deliberately steered into Lewis, which I don't think anyone is claiming, or he was not in control of the car, which is, by definition, unsafe and deserves a penalty. 5 seconds is really not a lot, all things considered. His temper tantrum and refusal to see what went wrong, then effectively disrupting the podium procedures because he's butthurt does him no favours in the greater scheme of things either. Other than that: Bottas had a weak weekend, Renault had a good one. Stroll did well for once. Steiner crapping on KMags was fair enough, and made for fun TV. Lewis was all over seb for the whole race.
To me this would make sense, or least he kept his foot in, we likely will not see the brake/throttle traces showing that but possibly on board with audio you'll be able to hear the engine to give you a clue.
He clearly reapplied throttle the second he was on tarmac again, at least after he assumed he had grip, which was a mistake. Was the mistake REASONABLE? possibly. Does that preclude an unsafe re-entry? nope.
Completely unrelated, but this was probably the best Fantasy F1 result ever for me - 3rd highest score of the race (globally) and shot me back up to 137th in the overall standings.
Gary Anderson's most recent Autosport Plus article says it all, really: https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature/9217/vettel-penalty-decision-turned-f1-into-a-farce
I don't think so. But that's pure hypothesis by me. My feeling is he prolonged his not having control by applying throttle when he has no grip. There's a secondary question here, which is whether he gained an advantage. This isn't what the stewards' report says, but I am willing to bet it's something they would have considered, given the situation. Hence me thinking that, had he yielded the position, the stewards would have just let it go. it is what it is, I suppose.
IMO, Vettel left the track due to losing control, ran across the grass and rejoined (due to trajectory, physics etc..) still not fully in control of the car. If he hadn't throttled the car would have spun, collecting both him and Lewis into the wall.. So he was damned if he did, damned if he didn't. Playing devils advocate: If Lewis really felt that was not the way he wanted to win the race, he could have dropped back 5 seconds
Vettel was pressured into making a mistake - not the first time he's blown the lead at Montreal - that's what racing is, and why I don't get the argument that the penalty was harsh. He blew it and left the track, and keeping the lead is seen as gaining or maintaining an advantage by exceeding the track limits. It's OK to feel for him, having driven so well up to that point (well, I wouldn't but that's a different matter), but to claim he didn't deserve a penalty is just bollocks.
I go back to 'would we even be having this conversation if it weren't Vettel/Hmailton?', or the front 2 drivers... If it was Stroll and Sainz for 10th place, would there be all this fuss?
Even if not, there should be fuss. More than anything this is F1's inconsistent ******** all yet again, this time killing what was promising to be a fun, scrappy race. I'm glad for the controversy, and hope it wakes up the FIA, FOM and everyone else that matters.
At the end of the day rules are rules why should finger be treated any different really. Oh and on that not I really wish he'd stop that finger thing as he hasn't been number 1 for a very long time.
Maybe if the penalty would have been for leaving the track and gaining an advantage there would have been much less of a controversy about it. Although having watched a couple replays since it happened I'm basically at the point where I say he earned the penalty with his whining on the radio regardless of what happened on the track.
