I'm a bit behind the live footage, but at the start of lap 9 someone has got hold of a mic and is making car noises. I thought one of my cats was ill
F**king Finally! Never change Mr Raikkonen. I think Daniel Ricciardo's car has now passed into the realm of sabotage, even Red Bull's don't break down this often. Either that or they took the battery out of his car and hid it somewhere in Golden Boy's. Seb keeps the title open despite his very best efforts to throw it away, again. Yay Kimi, again!
Mercedes waited to long to pit Hamilton causing him to end up behind Max, but lets face it, the title race is definitely over either way no matter what the math says. In the absurdly unlikely scenario that Hamilton didn't finish the next two races and Vettel won both of them he would still be behind. Or lets just assume Hamilton runs out of engines, gets a penalty and has to start from the back of the grid, that would still be 5th place as worst case scenario in the race.
Hopefully they put a new PU in Hamiltons car and let him go racing like they did in Brasil a few years ago.
I'm a little confused. Sainz got punished for exceeding track limits and yet Max left the track and gained what seemed like 4-5 places and that was ok?
Sainz got punished for driving the exact same line that Vettel drove not twenty meters ahead, yet Vettel was not punished. F1 stewards, whatchagonnado?
Grosjean now only 2 points away from a race ban Article Seems a bit harsh and a pointless punishment IMO. Can't see what handing it out actually achieved
Don't understand that grosjean penalty. The stewards acknowledge that he took precautionary action to avoid a collision, but punished him anyway. Coupled with the ridiculous sainz penalty it was a really off day for the stewards.
So as I have it, We're now looking at a 70 point gap, with a theoretical 75 left on the table... We all know this is a done deal in all but maths. The race was quite entertaining. The Ferrari apparently reverted to an older spec car, and suddenly, they're quick again - nothing to do with the PU, then (as was mentioned by the FIA earlier). Interestingly, it seems tapping the front wheel of the Ferrari will send it into a spin. The result that I liked least was DanRic having ANOTHER failure.
Im not sure Mercedes did, while yes they could have pitted him earlier and had him out infront of max, the tyres might have been an issue still towards then end, Lewis could still have held off max i think but we saw that lewis could have won that race when he got new tyres, just the dirty air ruined his car and the chances really. If it was not such an issue when in the dirty air, i would like to think we would have seen lewis get the win and the title. But as such we wait till mexico again.
The only chance for Vettel at this point is Hamilton having a health issue (like a broken foot) sidelining him for the rest of the season and Vettel somehow winning every remaning race. Which is 1 in a million chance.
2 DNFs/race wins in a row isn't exactly unheard of. Then you have the potential jitters in the last race. It's still very unlikely, but probably more likely than an injury in this day and age.
It would probably also require Vettel to pass a non-backmarker without finishing the move pointing the wrong way.
Hamilton would realistically need 3 DNFs though to lose the title. Because if he finishes any one of the three races he gets a 5th place at worst (both Ferraris and both Red Bulls ahead of him) while all he needs to win the title is one 7th place.
