Fuck Rosberg. Sick of that whiny bastard. Every week, “well, there was something wrong with the car and we’ll look into it.” No, you’re just not as fast as Hamilton. He should have received a penalty for taking off Ricciardo’s wing at the end, though the puncture was certainly penalty enough.
Especially considering everyone basically started from a level playing field two years ago.
It was a fantastic race. Hulkenberg’s wing failure was terrifying, but otherwise all the crashes were kind of fun. I was hugely impressed with Ricciardo’s drive. He took a podium at a high-downforce track despite running half the race with messed up aero and being hit by both Mercedes.
Hamilton was all over the place. Considering how effortlessly he dominated practice and qualifying, he had a terrible race.
Mercedes - but Hamilton in particular - is going to have to do something about those starting problems if they want to avoid letting the field back in. Hamilton was lucky to retain the championship lead; all Rosberg had to do was not hit Ricciardo. He would have passed him on the straight easily next time round.
I don’t know about that, but I just watched the Saturday night rebroadcast and they didn’t even show Q3. Well, they may have; I started watching near the end of Q1, then saw Q2, then they went to commercials and when it came back they were parking the cars and qualifying was over. It’s possible the editing got messed up and they showed Q3 before I tuned in.
I missed big chunks of the race because the channel it was on was all choppy and kept fuzzing in and out. Did they ever find out where the dude walking on the track came from? That was up there with some of the more bizarre things I’ve seen.
Nice to see Alexander Rossi make his F1 debut, too bad it was in a Manor. At least he beat his teammate.
It will be interesting to see how Toro Rosso deals with their two young drivers after this race. Ignoring team orders has happened many times before, but not by rookies that I can recall. Usually, the driver has a bit of clout before they can get away with it. We’ll see…
Nope. They never mentioned it again after the course went green, and nothing post-race.
I watched it on NBCSN on DVR and it wasn’t choppy at all, and they still went from Q2 directly to the starting order. I assumed Q3 had been cancelled because the security problem, but apparently not.
The team didn’t penalize Verstappen. They were telling him to let Sainz past just to see if Sainz could pass Perez, with the plan being form Sainz to let Verstappen by again if he couldn’t. But they forgot to explain the last part to Verstappen.
That kid’s going to be amazing. I haven’t been this impressed by a young driver since I saw Schumacher’s first Benetton drive in '93 (when he was outlapping Senna on a wet track in his second race). Granted, I didn’t watch much from 1996 until this season, so I missed Hamilton and Vettel’s first years.
Good to see Hamilton back on top of the timing charts at Suzuka. Considering how quick they were at Monaco, I thought Singapore might represent a long-term handling problem given the changes to the tyre rules.
It just now occurs to me that promising young drivers should see to it that I have a ticket to the race, a hotel and airfare to their debut effort. My being there seems to work out pretty well for some…
Great finish for Perez but by God was that a stupid move by Kimi. Surprised they didn’t give him a grid penalty along with the time since it allowed him to gain a points advantage.
Hamilton just has to win one more to wrap up the title. At this point Nico needs to focus on taking second
Yeah, he sure seemed to have the drop on Val, he should have waited for a better opening. But then again, he’s the one behind the wheel, and it was the last lap. Gotta take your shot when you get it. Remember, he would be a multiple World Champ if not for a couple bad breaks.
I’ve seen an amateur video of Kimi crashing into Bottas and it’s clear that if Bottas had not been there, Kimi would have been in the barrier. I wonder if Kimi had a brake failure?
I know, I know… I’m a fan of both drivers so you probably heard my big “NOOOOO!” from where you are. And yeah, it was a pretty boring race until that last lap.
I don’t think so, based on his post-race interview. Which I found nearly as funny as the actual incident because when it happened, David Coulthard was all “well, Kimi normally races pretty fair, I think he’ll hold his hands up and admit he made a mistake” whereas Kimi actually said something like “I’d overtaken him there before and I thought I could do it again, but he didn’t give me any space.” Er, yes - because he was TAKING A CORNER and you were going in a straight line! Deserved penalty (in fact just a slap on the wrist really, though it does gift the constructor’s title to Mercedes a race or so earlier than they would otherwise have secured it), but it doesn’t help Bottas who won’t get that podium back.
Other than that, yes it was a dull race but as a Hamilton fan I’m pleased. Rosberg seems to be getting all the bad luck Hamilton had last year. The difference being Hamilton won last year anyway, doesn’t look likely for Rosberg who faces a battle for second place.
Ha! I was watching for that to see if VP got sprayed. And you’re right… LH barely gets him as he shuffles away. All the dignitaries were laughing as they grouped behind the podium waiting for the door, so it seemed to be in good fun.
on another note:
Was there ever confirmation that Grosjean had any mechanical failure or did he just pitch it into the wall (in spectacular fashion)?
I loved every lap!
