Lewis Hamilton did what he had to do (once again) to keep the World Championship alive. It was not without drama, particularly at the first corner where Lewis locked up his brakes and went over the infield. Behind him Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen bumped into one another. The story overall remains the same with Lewis needing to win all the remaining races. Nico can still finish second each time and still win the title and the only thing that will change this is if Nico suffers mechanical trouble or someone beats him. In Mexico Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were both unable to get ahead of Nico and help out Lewis. Ferrari was even less help, but Sebastian Vettel scrambled to a podium finish after Max Verstappen was given a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage by going off the track in the closing laps. Vettel was effing and blinding through the final laps, abusing Verstappen and Race Director Charlie Whiting, although this is in keeping with the new whining Vettel we have see most of the year. Verstappen dropped back to fifth with his penalty, behind his team-mate, while Kimi Raikkonen was sixth, Nico Hulkenberg was seventh after a spin, while local hero Sergio Perez finishing 10th, the two Force India drivers split by the two Williamses. Down at Sauber they were holding their breath in the final laps with Marcus Ericsson running 10th and one retirement would have given them the much-needed point to take back 10th place from Manor.
Also in GP+ this week…
– We look at the F1 driver market and the Liberty takeover
– We talk to Jordan King about his F1 practice session
– We remember Honda’s first F1 win in Mexico in 1965
– DT has some interesting conversations and looks at F1 Historics
– JS ponders the value of some special Ferraris
– The Hack ruminates on James Hunt, 40 years after his title win
– Plus the usual fabulous photography from Peter Nygaard
GP+ is the fastest F1 magazine. It comes out before some of the teams have even managed to get a press release out. It is an e-magazine that you can download and keep on your own devices and it works on computers, tablets and even smartphones. And it’s a magazine written by real F1 journalists not virtual wannabes… Our team have attended more than 2,000 Grands Prix between us.
GP+ is an amazing bargain – and it is designed to be, so that fans will sign up and share the passion that we have for the sport. We don’t want to exploit you, we want you to join the fun. You get 23 issues for £32.99, covering the entire 2016 Formula 1 season.
For more information, go to www.grandprixplus.com.
This is what Martin Brundle thinks of what we do…
joeblogsf1 
Hi Joe, I really enjoyed your silly season analysis. What do you think the future holds for Antonio Giovanazzi?
Joe, another terrific GP+. Thank you for the article ALL QUIET ON THE OWNERSHIP FRONT… one does need to keep up with these shenanigans and they do tend to be both arcane and labyrinthine at times. Correction… ALL the time. So thanks.
Ferrari’s German driver does bring to mind those corny sci-fi movies in which, under pressure, the alien tears away a human outer skin, revealing the raging inner alien. “Calm down, Seb” has to go down as another wonderful radio call. Or am I being too cruel?
Finally, I was thinking of you in the media centre last evening, assembling GP+ and anxiously awaiting the stewards’ deliberations on the Vettel/Verstappen contretemps. Hope the delay didn’t prevent you finding a nice restaurant to finish the day!
Enjoyed the mag as usual, but a message for DT.
The Brabham fan car did run again and about 25,000 people saw it. This was June 3rd 1979 at Donington in the Gunnar Neilson Memorial, where there was a 5 lap time trial won by AJ in an FW07, from James in A wolf (his last ever F1 run), Andretti in a 79, Piquet in the fan car and Rupert Keegan in an Arrows.
The meeting also notable for demo runs from Fangio, Stewart, Hulme, and Dan Gurney, together with Procar, F3 and BMW County races, the BMW won by Brundle.
It was very sunny and I still have a Fangio signed programme somewhere…
At what time did Vettel loose third place?
Well the likely loss of F1 to pay tv only, in the future, may be a blessed relief. By that time we shall have drivers’ butlers delivering “requests to pass” on silver salvers to the teams of those he wishes to overtake. The stewards will be fully occupied in recording who accepted whom and exactly when. The race result will be published in the London Gazette by the following Friday.
This is ridiculous, it stops racing, get rid of it and bring back gravel traps which stop cars and make drivers think before risking going off.
Totally agree. Don’t forget it is still possible to wire telegrams from your local post office, for drivers anxious to overtake at the first corner.
I totally agree. Also can anyone explain to me how Hamilton was able to take a shortcut about the width of a football field, and then come back on the racing line and get no time penalty? How does this relate to the fact that if a driver put four wheels off the track during qualifying his time doesn’t count. if he crosses the while line entering or exiting the pits he gets a a penalty, I could go on and on. I think the powers that be are making the rules up as they go along to insure that the championship goes down to the wire, and are prepared to sacrifice fairness and sportsmanship to achieve that end.
They probably didn’t penalize Hamilton because the safety car came out shortly thereafter, bunching up the field and negating the huge advantage Hamilton gained by cutting two entire corners. It usually takes the stewards at least a lap or two to assess penalties, and the safety car was already out by then. A “no further action” message from race control would have been reassuring to fans – at least we’d know they noticed it.
In Hamilton’s case on turn 1 he had no option but to go straight on. Plus he was far enough ahead to have remained in front anyway.
They managed to redefine ‘farce’ in Mexico.
Even Martin Brundle was pretty clear at times in sharing what he thought of that track.
I’m don’t normally give in to making verbal outbursts but I have to say that this year’s Mexican GP was the most boring race to watch ever and the result was a complete farce with Vettle being handed the podium place.
To my mind (and direct interpretation of the rules), no advantage was gained by Vestappen’s own self induced mistake because he gave any back any advantage in distance instantly. Vettle was nowhere near to performing an overtake to claim he had been denied a pass and his efffing and jeffing outburst afterwards on open radio towards all including Charlie Whiting was over the line. Vettle should have being disqualified and not rewarded for his non-existent sportsmanship and bringing the sport into disrepute. I’ve always had a good deal of respect for Vettle but after this latest episode I no longer have any time for him.
For 40+ years I have followed F1 closely including the 15 years working inside at Cosworth and Judd. Never have I been so ashamed of what the sport has become and I strongly feel that if there is to be a future for the sport then the core values of sportsmanship must upheld or all else will fall down around it. There has been a steady decay for years but now I see the rot finally settling in.
PS.
While we’re on the subject of missing corners; Hamilton should have been handed a 5 second penalty for turn1 because he took full advantage of his mistake and was way off into the distance only to be reeled back in by the deployment of the safety car. It should be the same rule for everybody or else there is no element of fair play.
I might add that I don’t support any one team or one driver; it’s the technology of the sport that hooks me.
Nope Lewis did not deserve a 5 second penalty. Usually at the start if he had no cars near him fighting it into turn one then he has neither gained the advantage.
The safety nullified whatever you think he gained
Numerous drivers have gone off road like Schumacher, Hill , Vettel , at not been penalised. The start the stewards normally give a bit of leeway. Monza Spa Austin have a sharp turn turn 1 and people do leave the track from time to time. Hardly anyone is penalised unless you force someone off track. Lewis didn’t get a penalty because there was no one around him.
So
what if the thing he gained was not measurable in time, but measurable in state of his tyres? Had he tried to make the corner, he would surely flatspot his tyres even more, rendering them unusable for rest of stint and needing of a pitstop. Devil is in the details, as always.
To miss the first corner completely at that stage of the race was inexcusable. he knew full well where his breaking point was, but he chose to ignore it because he was not prepared to give up his lead. In the past with sand traps and barriers he would have had no choice. I’ve been following this sport for the last 40 years and I’ve never been so disgusted in my life with the people who are destroying this sport with their divisive regulations.
Is this comment about Verstappen or Hamilton? It could be either…
Normally, I tend to take the view that the stewards have more evidence available to them than us, and that their decisions – like those of a court of law – are the definitive judgement on the matter. But at least from the evidence we saw on TV, there did seem to be a lot of inconsistency in this race.
It is difficult to argue that no advantage was gained by Hamilton by missing out an entire corner of the racetrack at the very first turn. He somehow made it to the apex of turn 3 before anybody else was even out of turn 2, despite messing up!
Admittedly, some of the time advantage was lost under the safety car, but having first position on the road is big advantage when it comes to a restart – how often do we see the leader being overtaken in such circumstances?
When Verstappen took a similar excursion later, he justifiably enough got penalised for using the shortcut to retain his position. As a matter of fact, he gained a bit less time than Hamilton did (Vettel had almost caught him up again by the time he rejoined the track). But if the stewards thought that it merited a penalty, it’s difficult to see why they didn’t think Hamilton’s similar incident didn’t – especially since it gained him more of an advantage for a higher-placed position.
It also sets a dangerous precedent for the future. Now that it’s been established that a tyre-smoking skid off the track is faster and just as legal as actually trying to go round the designated corners, isn’t it likely that we’ll see it more often now – with what will inevitably be a major pile-up at some point?
Well said Brendan. When you and I started watching (me in 1972), it was actually worthy of being called Grand Prix racing.
Disgusted Brendan F1 ?
Try and keep sport in perspective please.
The term disgusted is overly used it’s watered down by emotional claptrap.
Disgusted is a term used when you find mass graves of innocent children and men in Kosovo or the genocides in Sudan Darfur and in 2nd WW. Disgusted is when you see a 6 year boy wiping blood from his face in a ambulance while it’s being bombed by the Russian and Syrian airforce. Disgust is shown towards Men in their High Castles ordering barrel bombs to fall in Allepo.
Sport is sport even in a dangerous sport like F1. Hopefully everybody moves on to the next race. Some feeling raw about the result some jubilant.
Try remembering that next time you feel Disgust.
Ps Let’s wear the poppy whatever colour Red ( Remembrance of Allied and Empire Forces) or Blue (France) or White (Peace/humanists) with pride to honour the fallen. Without sports governing bodies affecting the choice to wear it)
Lets look at the “Verstappen didnt gain advantage” point a bit. Lets consider that at the run off of turn 1, there is a gravel trap, or a wall. If Verstappen goes the same as he did in race, he gets beached in gravel or crashes into wall, so obviously, he has DNF, meaning that the outcome is different to the one in race. One other possibility is that because he sees wall or gravel trap, he actually tries to make the corner, overshooting it and losing time and position to Vettel, but not going off track. Possibly destroying his tyres from a flatspot. Again, it is a bit different outcome to the one with grass run off.
So yeah, I believe Verstappen did gain an advantage, not compared to Vettel, but compared to the scenario in which he tries to keep the car in confines of the track. When you read my reply, do you still believe he did not gain any advantage by cutting that corner?
Actually, the same goes for Hamilton. Had he tried to stop for the corner, he would ruin his tyres in a massive lock up. So the advantage gained by cutting the corner should not be measured only by distance to the car behind, it should be measured to the damage done to the car and tyres also, both having a great effect on rest of laps. That damage being avoided by cutting across the grass.
It is really clear cut, I dont understand the problem behind it. Only one that I can absolve of the blame is Rosberg, because he tried to drive on track but was punted off by Verstappen, in classic Verstappen lunge from 2 car lengths behind (which is all fine and dandy if you manage to control the car from hitting the other car).
So for me, I would give penalties to both Hamilton and Verstappen for cutting the track. I would also give it to Vettel, because he did move in braking. (another point is that i dont really have the problem with move that Vettel did, and I do see the difference between squeezing the avaible space of attacking car vs. totally blocking attacking car, but rules are rules so **** it :D).
it looks like Race Stewardship is getting caught with their own laso – the rules book.Funny but partly VET is right – i mean either penalise Everybody in the same manner for the same offenses or .
For the first time ever, I seem to be having trouble with the download – it gets to about 3.5MB and then crashes. Just checking in case I’m one of many…
I had that the first time, but it was fine the second time I tried, I’m afraid.
A couple of thoughts from the race….
Watching the race live on TV I did notice that with the limited effectiveness of the DRS due to the thin air how hard it was for a car to slipstream on the long main straight and overtake. Makes me think what it would be like without DRS, I think many less overtaking manoeuvres.
I also think how many people who do not regularly follow F1 will wonder why this morning how 3rd place changed three times after the race finished?
Great issue of GP+ as always Joe.
I went to bed with a nice warm fuzzy feeling about a Ferrari driver getting to spray the bubbly, even if it was the wrong Ferrari driver, and got up this morning to find they’d been playing musical podiums. Doubly confusing when I didn’t see anything much to complain about in the Ricciardo/Vettel business anyway, especially in comparison to Massa being shoved into Oklahoma last time out.
Cancel the above comment – it worked an hour later, must be my internet…
While I am a Lewis fan, I have to point out once again, that equaling the record of a driver from another era means nothing unless you divide both by the number of races per season. Thus while Lewis’s achievement is undeniably outstanding, it does not equal that of Alain Prost.
Hamilton has done better than Prost, 51 wins from 186 starts by HAM versus 51 wins from 198 starts by PRO!
Prost has won more titles, though.
Ah! you can prove anything with numbers!
Off topic: I notice that Chris Tarrant is starting a journey from the Port of Seward in Alaska. Is that by any chance named after one of your adventurous relatives?
Look at the spelling…
So your family did not buy Alaska then!
Seward, Alaska is named after William Seward, who as Secretary of State in 1867 negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Czarist Russia. In the power politics of the era Russia was afraid if another war broke out with Great Britain it would lose the thinly populated Alaskan territory. Russia was more sympathetic to the North (Seward’s side) in the American civil war a few years earlier while Great Britain and France were more sympathetic to the South.
Seward was born in New York as was his father so if he is related to Joe Saward it goes way back. Seward was a highly intelligent man if at times egotistical (he thought he would run the government until Abraham Lincoln set him straight) and too outspoken (comments about an irrepressible conflict might have cost him the Republican nomination in 1860). Also very lucky to survive assassination in 1865.
Hi Joe
Whilst i do not agree with Vettel’s outburst after his encounter with Verstappen I can fully understand it and his frustrations. I think it rather illustrates that promoting a driver with promise before he is ready or mature enough to cope with all the pressures of being a topline driver. Unfortunately Verstappen is very arrogant and appears to not take advice very well, believing in his own invincibility. However I think it is not a question of if he has a bad crash, but inevidable that he will, hopefully without serious injury to either himself or others.
Great blog, I always enjoy reading
Chris
@Chris H:
Ironically your current ‘outburst’ against Verstappen is based on misinformation, exactly like Vettels. Vettel was told by the Ferrari pit wall that Verstappen actually received the order to move over. Truth is, he hadn’t. He was actually told to keep his position (which seems actually the logical thing to do until you formally receive the order to do so by the stewards if they deemed you gained an advantage). Analysing your post though I see you making the jump from understanding an outburst from Vettel to attacking Verstappen on several points completely irrelevant to the incident in Mexico. Add to that these points you seem so certain of are completely untrue. You claim he is arrogant and you are convinced he believes he is invincible. While in fact your disability to recognise the difference between confidence in the car and arrogance is the underlying problem. Add to that, I see a classic case of confirmation bias (related to cognitive dissonance, google it). You have a gripe against Verstappen and seek confirmation for it in every situation. While in fact the guy did everything correct here, looking at what is on the table I just can’t flaw his judgement on track (apart from the grip level into that corner of course). After the race he reacted too strongly against Vettels (outrageous) remarks in my opinion, but off the track I guess he is showing his age (still doing better than I probably did). Vettel did NOT show his age though… he should know better. I suggest you actually talk to Verstappen if you get the chance, maybe it will fix your bias
Chris, I’m afraid you’re using the wrong example to show your concern of Verstappen’s driving style. He stayed out on track following orders from his team while they were discussing the matter with race control. Charlie Whiting then decided to investigate after the race, so it would have been fairly foolish to give up position.
Seb only has himself to blame. Had he stuck it it out at Red Bull, young Max would be a struggling upstart in a Toro Rosso with an outdated power unit and probably looking at being dropped for next season! In the meantime Scumacherfication has transmuted into Alonsofication and seb is cracking under the pressure. Someone needs to give the poor guy a break!
Joe I see that you now have a competitor in the electronic F1 magazine market. I know they are only on issue 1 but I have to say they got a long way to go to match GP+ quality, quantity and content.
I am a little surprised they did not try to purchase your existing GP+ magazine or maybe they did and for what ever reason you were not interested.
Who?
I did not want to give them any free publicity especially on your blog Joe but it called GP Gazette and motorsport(dot)com are behind it. As soon as I saw it yesterday I thought the idea of this electronic magazine had come from seeing GP+ in the market.
All I add is while issue 1 maybe free it looks like it going to be very expensive in the long run to buy (if it takes off).
I thought you might of known about it…..
Yes we did know about it. But let’s see how they do. We’ve done 201 issues and they won’t find it easy.
I want to reassure you Joe that while may be I cannot speak for everyone here, I sure my thoughts are similar to many here. These are….
Ever time I see you in the background on TV talking to someone (this week it was Alex Rossi) or asking a question in the team principle press conference like you did again in Mexico (qualifications to be a team principle) I think, Joe’s there in the heart of it getting the facts, the true story.
I know that you will take these facts and turn them into words which will be relayed to your readers whether here on your blog or in GP+ or one of the other publications you write for. We know that you take time to interact with the public, your audience with Joe (something I really want to go to, maybe London 2017) or your pod cast, (well worth a listen to).
Because you there Joe, you have a following (in a non creepy sort of way).
I know that answering these comments eats into your “free” time but I am sure many here will agree with me that we appreciate it and because of that we will carry on purchasing or for those who do n’t, start to purchase GP+
It looks like a carbon copy of Autosport and nothing you can’t find anywhere else in the interweb
Just what we the fans need, more ‘virtual’ gleaners. If they’re not willing to put people in the field to earn their stripes I wish them a speedy & deserved crash & burn, Then again, how bad of a crash could it be, some dude knocking this stuff out on his computer in his living room?. It’s bad enough that cut and paste internet fluff pieces are being posted. A fluff cut & paste magazine? whose dumb enough to support that? Come on people. In the words of our 4 time champion-lite (the car did it again) F**k me!
p.s. The nicest moment of the race actually, i think, was after the race to see The Real Teamwork by both Red Bull Superstars. They maybe hate each other on the track, but the way they stood by each other after(and actually during) the race was just Exeptional! They(pushing more likely their own agendas) trapped the stewards and regained robbed podium albeit with different Racer. And it’s nice to see the pictures of both holding the trophy on empty podium late night. THAT IS the REAL TEAM WORK! Hat off to both these Lads!
Can someone please, honest and without polemics or British bias, explain to me why Verstappen got a 5 sec penalty for cutting through the gras and Hamilton did not?
As far as I see it both managed to keep their position only based on this same manoeuvre.
I’m absolutely not into taking sides here. I just don’t understand.
I also think Hamilton should got a penalty at the start and later the Verstappen incident make the issue even more glaring obvious. I think he avoided the penalty because his current position on the champioship (i.e. if he got penalised the fight for the champioship is almost over) not because he is british, Lewis or whatever personal reason. Another driver in the same relative position would get same treatment. This is not made it less unfair, but the FIA must try to keep the uncertainity on the champioship as long as possible.
The stewards have always taken a more lenient approach to what happens at the first corner, hence them looking at a couple of collisions on lap 1 of this race and taking no further action.
Hamilton was not being challenged for his position when he left the track, the following cars were some distance behind him when he outbraked himself into the first corner.
No advantage was gained or lost by any driver, as the race was neutralised a few seconds later by the deployment of the VSC then the safety car.
It’s fair to say that if another car had been alongside Lewis then he may have been investigated, but that wasn’t the case here.
On another point, I suspect Mr Vettel is in a lot of trouble for his comments about the race director. In no sport are comments like that allowed to go unpunished, and rightly so. Sky reported that Jean Todt was watching on TV, is reported to have been less than impressed with the Ferrari driver’s words.
The point is he left the racing track. That should carry a penalty, not the location of other drivers.Nobody else took a shortcut. On another track he would be out of the race.
He backed off so deemed to have no advantage. Also, he was leading anyway.
Its pretty clear. If Hamilton had made the corner, there was nobody close enough to pass, whereas if Verstappen had made the corner, Seb was about to get alongside, maybe even make the pass.
There has always been an allowance made for the first corner. Which is why neither Mercedes were penalised. Correctly in my view. Also consider Alonso was not penalised in Austin and he left the track.
I also don’t think Verstappen should have been given a 5 second penalty. This I feel was a result of the intimidation of Ferrari who put the the stewards under huge pressure.
However, this is all based on the current interpretation of the rules. I would like to see some new rules made that punish a driver for going off.
Maybe there should be a rule that any driver who has all 4 wheels off the track has the rest of the lap to automatically hand his place to the next competitor. I realise this has complexities not least if said driver is 30 seconds in front! However something needs to be done as the way the drivers exploit the track limits is wrong in my view. Just look at Alonso in Austin who consistently managed his oversteer in Austin by regularly leaving the track and then completed his pass on Sainz by running completely off the track! Then no penalty was applied!! Something has to be done and unfortunately we can’t build a Bernie wall!
Apparently Hamiltons telemetry proved that he backed off straight after therefore negating any advantage he may have gained.
When a driver makes a braking error when the field is tightly bunched — at the start or after a safety car — the last thing that anyone needs is for the driver to attempt a heroic save. It’s safer for all if the driver drives off circuit and rejoins appropriately without penalty. If a penalty was applied, drivers might be encouraged to hang on, putting those behind at risk.
I haven’t read any complaints from other drivers about the absence of a penalty for Hamilton. I think everyone understood that Hamilton was lucky on Sunday and that on another day it might have been them.
Ricciardo complained bitterly at the lack of Penalty for hamilton
Hamilton went off well ahead of Rosberg, slithered more or less out of control over the grass and wobbled back onto the track still ahead of Rosberg. In the words of the The FIA Formula One Race Director report, Document 37, issued 17.15 on 30 October 2016:
“Time 13.03. Car – 44. Incident – Missed the apex of the corner. Action/Comments – None necessary – No advantage.”
In the matter of Verstappen, the FIA Stewards of the Meeting, in Document 33, issued at 15:28 on October 30, found that: “Car 33 left the track at turn 1. The Stewards considered that by leaving the track the driver was able to retain his position and hence, gained a lasting advantage.”
Putting that, if I may, into my own words, Verstappen ran wide under pressure from Vettel and (here’s the crucial bit) could have stayed on the bitumen, albeit running wide, and in doing so would have undoubtedly fallen behind Vettel. Instead, he chose to continue over the grassed and retain track position whilst at the same time crossing his fingers and toes (so to speak) that he’d get away with it.
A bit like a (now retired) German driver did on lap 32 of the 1994 Australian Grand Prix and lap 48 of the 1997 European Grand Prix.
I think comparisons with Schumacher’s conduct in 1994 and 1997 are improper.
Max Verstappen had the opportunity to try to stay on the road — which would have been challenging for Vettel and following drivers if the Red Bull had spun. But most probably, no accident would have occurred.
Gary, you can’t possibly equate Verstappen’s cheekiness with the egregious attempts by said retired German drivers to punt his opponents off the track.
/In the words of the The FIA Formula One Race Director report/
Which means that Whiting himself decided there was no issue, and stewards did not analyze that at all.
The ‘first-turn’ rule hardly applies, as is regards collisions rather than taking aggressive line and braking much too late (as it looked from outside).
I would say that Lewis missed the apex of the first two corners or did I watch a different race to theFIA? As I assume we cannot go back to gravel traps maybe the solution is that cars leaving the track limits either have to rejoin in the same corner or by a given route with a ‘chicane’ or other feature to stop them rejoining two corners later at full racing speed or as in Lewis’s case faster than full racing speed!
Thanks for looking up these reports. I hope for all these clarify the actions taken by the stewards. They certainly make it clear to me.
I think all 1st turns should have a gravel pit or a nice solid wall to reward any errors on the track. This change will align with – Bernie’s desire to bring danger to F1.
Boring race, enlivened with Seb’s foul mouth rant, more importantly I see another journalist has left F1, with the departure of Daniel Johnson from The Telegraph, Who is going to be left to report in the future. Keep up the good work Joe.
Today the FIA issued a statemen: FIA Statement regarding actions of Sebastian Vettel at Mexican F1 Grand Prix.
You can read it on the FIA website. Short story in light of Sebastian Vettel personal and written apologies to all concerned quote: “…the FIA President has decided, on an exceptional basis, not to take disciplinary action against Mr Vettel by bringing this matter before the FIA International Tribunal.”
I hope everyone in the sport will learn from this and can control their use of offensive expletives
Wrong decision IMHO – spicing up the races shouldn’t extend to foul language aimed at officials. In any other sport a punishment would ensue.
If the FIA didn’t want to give Vettel a sporting penalty, they should have given him a meaningful fine ($100,000?) and a couple of weeks’ “Community Service” helping with the FIA road safety campaign – telling kids to wear seat belts and that racing is for the track, actually stops them getting killed.
This is all ridiculous! What race are we discussing here? All the banter about who cut the grass correctly and who wrongly! Looks like lawnmover race not the F1. Ridiculous
I tried watching this race as it was on free TV and I hadn’t seen an entire GP yet this year. If this is what F1 has come to, I won’t bother again. My biggest complaint is that the pole sitter outbraked himself, cut two corners and actually benefitted. I can live with chosen one Verstappen almost taking out the championship leader at the start and all of the Vettel fury at the end — that’s normal driver behavior — but I can’t understand why Hamilton got away with his mistake. That’s basically two races he’s won this year via track shortcuts.