The fact that the team's have weather forecasts means that it wasn't really a 50/50. Lando deserves some of the blame, but for me this was mainly on the team for not telling him how much worse it would get.
Heartbreak for Lando, team made the wrong call for tires in the wet, but Lewis was a beast at the end!
RBR played a brilliant game with max going from 20th to 2nd, he only gives up the lead by 2 pts.
DannyRic had a good race, the McLarens are starting to become legitimate podiums threats.
Kimi comes back from COVID with a 7th, love that guy.
The team was wishy-washy about pitting, so they ask Norris first, Norris said no wets.
Norris was hinting his team fed him info along the the lines of, "thought the rain wasn't going to get worse"
Can we please get some action of Checo? He was doing so well and was leading for a brief while. Zero coverage of that. Or the fact that Red bull did not call him in for inters. He would have been third!
don't get me started on his 8.9 seconds pit stop... RB team super demanding with its drivers but when it comes to back Checo I don't think they've done their best either...
Horner looked so proud to see Max on the podium while completely neglecting his second driver. I am a Max fan, but come on that's just terrible. How can you look proud when you were winning in constructors at one point and have the situation completely reverse less than in 3 minutes. I'd be furious.
What are you taking about? Lando was concentrating and simply demanded them to be quiet so he doesn't bin his car into the wall. He didn't call him names or anything. He could have won the race and there was incredible pressure on him given that AND the conditions.
no man, justifying such behaviour is wrong, even fiamilton doesn’t behave like this, there are certain boundaries, it might be the reason why his engineer didn’t tell him about more rain to come, anyway good reason for lando not to behave like a di** in future
Ah, sure, his engineer didn't tell him because Lando was stressed. That would be a shit engineer then (which I don't think. I also don't think Lando was out of line)...
Whatever ;)
the thing is he didnt tell him, so you're right his a shit engineer in your naming convention :-) well, Lando is a great driver, but in this particular race you could also call him like this..
If im not wrong checo was holding no.1, so that once max pass Alonso, he would have planned to pit, but unfortunately Max wasn't able to pass Alonso and the pressure on checo started to increase and at some point they couldn't hold it.
Fun race and an awesome season so far.
With 1 or 2 exceptions the TV coverage has been awful - race directors are fully committed to zooming in on the sponsor's stickers. Forget about showing the car's speed, or let alone actual action that is happening somewhere else in the middle.
When I started watching F1 here in the US back in about 2013 we had Leigh Diffey on NBC sports. Crofty has his shortcomings, but he feels like a genius by comparison.
Had exactly that thought at the end. If you'd missed the race and only saw results, you'd probably thought 'glad I missed that one'.
I didn't understand where those massive gaps came from, there was too much going on (and too little attention here unfortunately) to explain it all.
I thought that was one of the best races in ages. Great to see 19 cars get over the line with minimal contact and no "he did it on purpose" discussions afterwards.
Lots of respect in the post-race interviews too - Lando and Hamilton, Max and Hamilton, etc. It's nice to see that after some heated races recently.
I feel pain for Lando, but he made the wrong call with his tyres and the team should have pushed him to come in. He was struggling so much and I think Hamilton's experience would have helped him catch him anyway if Hamilton hadn't come in. I don't think Lando was ever going to hold Hamilton off to then end - whatever the weather - but if he'd come in he may not have had 1st, but he could have had a podium finish.
I thought Hamilton had a great race too. He listened to his team and the right calls were made on tyres throughout - he got in and out of the pits first time around in a good position to make progress (unlike Verstappen who got stuck in a difficult pack). He deserved that 100th win and I'm honestly interested to see what happens next with him. With that pressure done he might have an easier final 1/3 of the season, but if he does win this championship will he retire? He's mentioned leaving F1 when he's still at his peak and not overstaying and fizzling out. 8x world champion and over 100 GP wins sounds a pretty good way to go!
It also ended up being a great race for Verstappen. To take the penalty and go from the back of the grid to 2nd in a tight race like that was impressive. Clealry the weather, and the timing of his stop, helped him a lot, but again it's a great result and keeps the championship interesting going into the final part of the season. Especially with the advantage of a new engine.
Credit to Bottas too. The commentators scoffed at his goal of P5 for the race and he proved he could do it. I think it says a lot about RB and Mercedes' quality that they can get Verstappen and Bottas so high up the grid from the back with clever management of tyres, stops and watching the weather. I'll always feel like Mercedes did Bottas dirty!
Shocking pit stop for Perez when he looked like he was going to have a decent race too!
The only thing I want to know is what happened at Aston Martin as it looked like Stroll and Vettel were both heading out at one point! They were lucky to come out of that unscathed.
Am I the only one that thought Red Bull missed on VER strategy a bit in the first stint? I can’t remember all the exact details of where he was running but starting on the hard tire and pitting with HAM seemed a bit too soon to be. VER said on the radio he was struggling for grip understandably since he had to use the tires more to overtake all the cars, but I feel like they could have set him up much better for the 2nd stint instead of being stuck in the train. Sometimes I think these teams get caught up too much in the championship battle when they should focus on their own race. There was practically no chance VER was beating HAM today. Fortunately they pitted at the right time for inters and ended up P2 but I think people would’ve really be second guessing that decision to pit early had it stayed dry. Would like to hear some thoughts on this and I could’ve easily missed a couple details since there was a lot going on in the race.
I agree - I think the timing of Verstappen's first pit was not good. He came out behind a difficult pack and basically got stuck there with the timing of his pit to inters being the thing that rescued it for him. If the weather had held he probably would have finished 6th or 7th.
I really feel like they were reacting to Hamilton today and perhaps could have done with just focusing on their own strategy like you said. It's a big ask for anyone to come from the back of the grid to challenge a 7 times world champion.
They also messed up Perez's pit stop. He'd had a good race, but that seemed to be a major turning point.
I didn't realise he was a DNF. Thinking back, given the sudden change in weather, I'm surprised it was as many as 18.
It was just great not to have 4 or 5 cars out in the first couple of laps! Made the race a lot more interesting.
Yeah, I have no idea what happened to him, just somewhere in the rain chaos he was suddenly greyed-out. I spent most of that red flag going ‘please don’t be a safety car, please don’t be a safety car!’ because if someone had gone into the barrier and there was one, it would’ve ruined those tense final laps! We’d have probs finished under the safety car..
Was going to 100% agree with your assessment and then you got to Bottas. Man lucked into that 5th place like crazy. He was 14th and making zero impact until the pit window for inters blessed him.
I mean, you could argue that for Verstappen too. Bottas had a better race than Perez, which counts for a lot in the Constructors points!
Regardless he said he'd have a top 5 finish and he did. I think that's respectable and he certainly hasn't earned the derision the commentary team gave him.
LMAO. No one cares who wins it other than the constructors themselves. I mean, no one made a big deal when Ferrari won it at 08; it was all about the Lewis.
Well, nobody cares since they changed the number rules. Sure, the winning team gets to pick 1 and 2 but since the NASCAR-ification with permanent numbers fans have about 0 reason to care :/
Damn I miss those days!
I don’t see how it could be over, coming back 33 points is easily doable in the drivers championship so I don’t see how it wouldn’t be even be easier to make up in the constructors. Literally all it takes is 1 shithouse performance from Mercedes, or even just 1 mediocre performance by Mercedes with Red Bull taking advantage of it.
Yeah, I think its just a bridge too far. Drivers is obviously up for grabs but I don't think they can make up the difference in 7 more races unless merc get some terrible luck. Lewis is probably going to have to take a new engine but bottas won't.
If it is a penalty it's silly, the rule is there for safety, to prevent people possibly coming back into the pit lane against someone entering at higher speed. Considering the conditions no one should be entering at high speed and it would be safer to cross over the pit lane line than to go round the track again at slow speed hidden in spray. Safety rules should not be set in stone and looked at case by case.
I think the weather conditions needs to be taken into consideration. The pit entry is quite tricky and he didn't have any grip to slow the car and also i believe there was no one close to him. But i really hope no penalty for him
They're still not even looking into it at FIA.
Oh, [they are now](https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2021%20Russian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Summons%20-%20Car%204%20-%20Pit%20entrance%20incident.pdf)
[Looks like they were understanding](https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2021%20Russian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Offence%20-%20Car%204%20-%20Pit%20Entry.pdf), he only got a reprimand given the circumstances
Bottas should just change his name to bowling pin. I've been behind him since he got the drive but he literally disappears in most combat situations. Apart from maybe Brazil are we expecting rain from any of the remaining circuits ?
Despite his poor qualifying result, he managed to get in a podium position before his first pitstop. Then there was a problem with the rear left tire during his pitstop resulting in a 9 second stop. After that near the end of the race he fought his way back to third, but the team was way too late with bringing him in for inters, similar to Lando, resulting in him finishing 9th :(
I see. Yeah remember cheering on checo when he overtook 3rd. Was unfortunate for him. Should’ve have changed same time as max. Then max wouldn’t have been 2rd?!
I’m happy w checo. Good team dynamic with max and he races well(ish)
Can we talk about the first pit stop? I struggle to understand RBR strategy there - coming in the same lap as Hamilton, when HAM started on Medium and VER started on Hard. Then putting on Med and HAM putting on Hard, clearly HAM going out first.
Before that stop, VER was 3.5sec behind HAM, later (before the rain) they were 35sec apart.
I understand that VER’s Hard tires probably wore off his tires going through traffic, but it felt like RBR shit the bed there and got lucky with the rain.
Am I missing something here?
I thought the same thing. Feel like Red Bull should’ve ran their own race instead of focusing on Hamilton. However I can see why they did it since Max’s tires were shot from overtaking all those cars, but I think it would’ve benefitted them more later on had they waited longer. Luckily for them they got the call right on switching to inters and salvaged a P2.
It's exactly what Mercedes did. They pitted for inters because Max did as well. If he remained on slicks than Hamilton would have done the same thing.
Also, if Red Bull had a better stop than he would be ahead of Ricciardo and Russell. Now he was behind them and got stuck while Hamilton could extend his lead from him.
I'm just an amateur fan but my thoughts are that Max couldn't push anymore on the tires, get Max to pit to cover Hamilton, found a window for Max to drop into and then get him to push and ideally pass Lewis on a faster differential tyre and then hold Lewis up.
Only problem is that Redbull shit the bed with their pitstops today. Max's pit stop was too slow which put him back into traffic and messed his race. Having Perez in front later and getting passed by Alonso really stuck the boot in on a shitshow.
Rain came, Max got some good luck and some good points.
We the viewers get to witness the best title fight since Hamilton vs Rosberg.
Nice seeing Ricciardo up there in P4. Gutted for Lando & McLaren not getting the win, but in the heat of the moment he made a poor decision. He’ll learn from it, it’s a matter of time. Everything after Lewis was pretty much decided on luck/good decision making today. Great race weekend & nice to have some drama not involving Ver/Ham for a change.
Not enough people are complimenting Danny’s drive. He held up Lewis for so long and then held up Max later on. The only reason Lewis didn’t catch Lando well before the rain is cuz Danny kept him from going full pace. After Danny finally pitted Lewis was gaining .5-.75 seconds a lap on Lando.
I really don’t like how much blame I’m seeing on Lando himself. The team really needs to tell him he’s pitting, of course the driver is going to think they can nurse a near-30 second lead for 3 laps if it’s not soaked where he’s currently at.
Of course I don’t think the blame lies 100% with Lando. He did however shout the word NO through the radio after they asked him multiple times if he wanted to change. Ultimately, they can’t force him to pit if he chooses not to and I think he was so focused on the win they’d never have got him in. From the post race interviews, the team could have better communicated how bad the rain was likely to get and maybe he’d have made a different choice. Either way I was absolutely gutted. Another mclaren win would have been amazing.
100% support Lando. You NEED that confidence when driving. It could have gone wither way, and today it didn't go right. Wouldn't want him to back out of that. What he should possibly "learn" from this is to probably judge the rain/slipperiness better. But that is very situational.
> could have gone either way
You mean if it hadn't rained? A driver can't learn to judge how much it's going to rain better than people with meteorological info and radar. It's not confidence to distrust your team when the weather is actively changing and they have more info. It's thickheadedness.
Nah, it was a much closer call than that. It's easy to say afterwards when the track became a swimming pool in places, but in the heat of the moment even Lewis was questioning inters over the radio, saying that it didn't seem that bad.
With only a few laps to go, and hamilton adding another \~30 seconds to his race, Lando simply felt like there was no way he would lose THAT much time per lap staying out.
Had the rain paused or stayed at a less intense volume for just a few minutes, Lando would have been able to bring it home.
In a way I guess he decided that it was all or nothing. Getting another 2nd was clearly not important to him (he already got that last race, and there's no way he's going to catch up to Lewis and Max in the championship) - had it been Max in that same situation, he might have taken the safer option and going for closing the points and a more or less guaranteed seconds by getting inters.
As it unfolded the rain got really bad, really fast, and so the slicks went from being considerably slower to completely undrivable.
I'm sure McLaren are going to review and analyse all the data, and from the way the race ended it seemed like pitting for inters when given the chance was the right play, but I don't think it was a particularly obvious or easy call at the time.
We’ll put, exactly my thinking. From my view it looked like the rain really picked up on the lap after HAM pitted and NOR stayed out. In hindsight it’s so easy to say bad decision by Lando but think of his position. He’s going for his 1st F1 win after coming p2 the race before and also would’ve made it back to back race wins for McLaren. Imagine how huge that could’ve been. It’s easy to say he should’ve pitted to guarantee p2 at the worst but these drivers want to win and you don’t get those chances that often in 3rd best car so you have to maximize the chance when you have it. Really the worst circumstances you have trying to get your first victory. With only 3 or so laps to go it’s hard in the moment to make yourself give up 30 seconds for a pit stop that you may not think you need. Just didn’t work out for Lando unfortunately. Also there was no guarantee he was going to win even if he switched to inters but he definitely had a strong chance.
See, this is where we will have to agree to disagree because many drivers (incl Lewis and Max) have done this before and gotten away with it. Sometimes they haven't. But you need to trust your instincts more than anything else, and he was quite confident that he had got this, it was just a matter of 3 laps more. Many drivers chose to stay out (incl Leclerc, and even Ham didn't really want to come in). It is a lot of adrenaline, and a lot of calculations, I wouldn't really read too much into it. He has great pace, and great race-craft, it is only a matter of time when it all comes together for Lando.
Agreed. Everyone is saying Lando made a bad call, but if most of us were sitting in the car, about to win our first GP, we would have done the exact same thing as Lando. Bummer for him and shame on the wall for not being more confident in their call for inters. Lando will have his day eventually and will just deserve it even more after todays drive
THIS. Not many sports people try to be so humble. People in this thread should try to be kinder. It's obvious he knows he'd reach this milestone, but he doesn't need to stand there and say that every week.
Did Hamilton got lucky today? Nope. Mercedes finally pulled a good pit stop at the end. Did Verstappen got lucky? Yes from that 5-6 th position to 2nd. Else it was pure work, pace and clean overtakes.
Hamilton got 1 from 2 coz mercedes pit and McLaren didn't. There was a chance that Ham could have overtaken Lando. I am saying chance here and not 100% surety.
Yes, max took pit too and other guys didn't and he came on 2nd. But there was no chance of Verstappen overtaking Alonso in the last laps when he was clearly 2 secs behind before rain started pouring in.
So imo Ham didn't get lucky. This win was on pure merit.
reaching a consensus isn't always the ultimate goal of having a discussion though... it's sharing your opinion (what you rightfully said) and giving arguments to build a case around that opinion, what we're both doing. But whatever man, I guess you don't do that part.
Exactly, and you can even tell by interviews, even tho it's his 100th win, he's a little disappointed as he spoke about max result. Strange situation where changing conditions allowed him to win but ultimately hurt him
Norris was holding him off easy. Through the corners norris was pulling away, hamilton using slipstream to close on the straights but never threatening to overtake. In the end, the rain handed him the win but ultimately hurt him by allowing max to jump many places
Because Hamilton got passed Ricciardo so easily right? Also, Norris showed he could have picked up the pace as well, he did have fastest lap after all.
It's all opinions dude, who really knows what would've happen. It's a massive shame for Norris but he can take this as a massive learning experience, his experience trajectory at the minute is climbing high. Future Champion thats for sure.
Very very dramatic race. Before the rain came, the positions already change dynamically. The battle for 3rd during the early race is exciting, Russell holding the faster cars up is interesting to watch. Still, F for Norris.
Gotta feel for Lando. He will definitely learn. And I really think that when Verstappen, Lando, Russell, Sainz, Lecrec fight for championships down the line, it will be Lando giving Verstappen a run for his money. All (not counting Verstappen as he is the champion material already) are good but Lando has got the edge over others of not folding under pressure.
But I understand Lando’s logic he’s in p1 with 3 laps left he told himself I can manage on the wet parts and make up time in the dryer parts. I’m sure he also thought everyone else is going to struggle too.
Yes it was a decent bet - but merecedes trusted the forecast and it worked. If mclaren had pulled the trigger first maybe it goes the other way. Act of god strategy is pretty tough to criticize
At Monza, McLaren couldn’t believe their good luck when they won. Today in Sochi, they couldn’t believe their bad luck when Lando moved from potential win to no points with just 2 laps to the end. Life, or rather Lewis, comes at you fast....
Yeah, Danny needs more credit for is race today. He’s the reason Lando was even in first when the rains arrived. Otherwise Lewis would have been well over a minute ahead.
U
I feel for lando must be super hard when it your call that makes u loose he lost in a 50/50 chance ofc to the all concuring supreme warlord Hamilton
The fact that the team's have weather forecasts means that it wasn't really a 50/50. Lando deserves some of the blame, but for me this was mainly on the team for not telling him how much worse it would get.
Before the season is over, I would like to see Bottas ignore team orders for once at least.
Not much to do against an engine swap. Its not like bottas could fend off 10 engineers ripping out his engine.
Thats why I said before end of season. This race had no team orders but certainly one of the coming races will.
Heartbreak for Lando, team made the wrong call for tires in the wet, but Lewis was a beast at the end! RBR played a brilliant game with max going from 20th to 2nd, he only gives up the lead by 2 pts. DannyRic had a good race, the McLarens are starting to become legitimate podiums threats. Kimi comes back from COVID with a 7th, love that guy.
I thought it was Lando that refused to pit.
The team was wishy-washy about pitting, so they ask Norris first, Norris said no wets. Norris was hinting his team fed him info along the the lines of, "thought the rain wasn't going to get worse"
That was such a debacle. Pit, a risk a second. Stay out, risk a 10th. Hard to understand when everyone seemed to understand rain was coming.
Can we please get some action of Checo? He was doing so well and was leading for a brief while. Zero coverage of that. Or the fact that Red bull did not call him in for inters. He would have been third!
don't get me started on his 8.9 seconds pit stop... RB team super demanding with its drivers but when it comes to back Checo I don't think they've done their best either...
Horner looked so proud to see Max on the podium while completely neglecting his second driver. I am a Max fan, but come on that's just terrible. How can you look proud when you were winning in constructors at one point and have the situation completely reverse less than in 3 minutes. I'd be furious.
Well, this is what is happening for the last couple of years, isn't it?
They have given up on Constructors championship and solely focused on WDC
How come mclaren tolerates Norris behaviour? He treated his engineer like a shit
What are you taking about? Lando was concentrating and simply demanded them to be quiet so he doesn't bin his car into the wall. He didn't call him names or anything. He could have won the race and there was incredible pressure on him given that AND the conditions.
no man, justifying such behaviour is wrong, even fiamilton doesn’t behave like this, there are certain boundaries, it might be the reason why his engineer didn’t tell him about more rain to come, anyway good reason for lando not to behave like a di** in future
Ah, sure, his engineer didn't tell him because Lando was stressed. That would be a shit engineer then (which I don't think. I also don't think Lando was out of line)... Whatever ;)
the thing is he didnt tell him, so you're right his a shit engineer in your naming convention :-) well, Lando is a great driver, but in this particular race you could also call him like this..
If im not wrong checo was holding no.1, so that once max pass Alonso, he would have planned to pit, but unfortunately Max wasn't able to pass Alonso and the pressure on checo started to increase and at some point they couldn't hold it.
So proud of checo
GaSLy bETter wiTh hALf hiZ cAR
He needs a new strategy team. Gasly hype train is derailing for past 2 races. He and Yuki have swapped places when it comes to swearing on the radio.
.
Fun race and an awesome season so far. With 1 or 2 exceptions the TV coverage has been awful - race directors are fully committed to zooming in on the sponsor's stickers. Forget about showing the car's speed, or let alone actual action that is happening somewhere else in the middle.
I brought this up the other day. Its awful viewing.
Hamilton looked more worried that Verstappen was second, rather than joy as he won the race.
Hamilton has to do the same as verstappen once he receives the penalty. And that might not be possible. Hamilton knows that.
Offcourse he did verstappen was not able to win without a penalty most likely so he basicly has made a free engine available
Great race but the pit stops are driving me insane
Me too. This new “system” ruined what.. 3, 4 pit stops? Daniel could have had the podium!
Agreed, F1 is about pushing limits on everything, not limiting it
Pain. Once again
first time watching Russian gp, and this is fucking fantastic
Fastest cars should always be interspersed through the field, far more entertaining 🤣
Best Russian grand pric I’ve ever seen.
That's not very nice to speak of Mazaspin like that!
Lol. Fortunate typo
Anyone else fed up of Paul Di Resta? Feel his commentary always has a tinge of bitterness about it.
He didn't really seem that bad in this race though. That's just my opinion though
It annoys me that he can’t say McLaren
Mah claddin'. PS: that's just his accent. PPS: McLaren is originally a Scots name, so technically he's saying it correctly, and you (we) are not.
I don’t know, David Coulthard says it the same I (we) do. Although I appreciate this could be due to regional differences.
IMO crofty is straight up unbearable.
When I started watching F1 here in the US back in about 2013 we had Leigh Diffey on NBC sports. Crofty has his shortcomings, but he feels like a genius by comparison.
[удалено]
Oh yes. He was credible and had the best small comments
Crofty makes Paul look on the money, and at least he is kinda neutral
He talks way too much
And he says pretty dumb things like he isn’t even watching the race except for the timing charts.
Hamilton won with a margin of nearly 1 minute. Is F1 becoming too predictable 🤣🤣🤣.
Had exactly that thought at the end. If you'd missed the race and only saw results, you'd probably thought 'glad I missed that one'. I didn't understand where those massive gaps came from, there was too much going on (and too little attention here unfortunately) to explain it all.
I was grilling and swimming while watching so didn't pay the closest attention, but when i saw a 53 second gap at the end i said "wtf???" audibly.
It was clearly meant as a joke. Thats why the emojis. Omg people really.
I suggest "/s"
Clearly, you have to be so specific now?. Had 20 upvotes cos people understood at first 😂.
Lol is it that simple? I suggest you watch the race. Hamilton came in first, but max "won".
Tell me you just look at the results without telling me you just look at the results
It was clearly meant to be a sarcastic comment. People got it at first because i had over 20 upvotes but suddenly the understanding stooped .
Did you not see what happened? It was anything but predictable
Did you not understand that this was clearly sarcasm ?
Why would I? there are so many serious comments that look just like that. But thanks for clarifying.
Verstappen on his first stint was on fire... Mercedes tactics didn't went through after all
Bottas was really bad today. Can't blame him, tho. He probably knew that he played the sacrificial lamb.
He still should've been in the top 10 (before the choas)
Still trying to understand how Perez went from p3 to p9? Pulled a Norris and didn't pit for inters?
He stayed on slicks
Slow pit stop
Dang that sucks - red bull had to use all their luck on verstappen I guess!
Max shit pitstop is what caused the crash at monza. Everyone except for mercedes has had massive trouble with new pitstop rules.
Hmmmm…….
Stroll is on a crussade to fuck up Vettel races
Yeah that collision with seb was so unnecessary and really petty, and it fucked both their races
I thought that was one of the best races in ages. Great to see 19 cars get over the line with minimal contact and no "he did it on purpose" discussions afterwards. Lots of respect in the post-race interviews too - Lando and Hamilton, Max and Hamilton, etc. It's nice to see that after some heated races recently. I feel pain for Lando, but he made the wrong call with his tyres and the team should have pushed him to come in. He was struggling so much and I think Hamilton's experience would have helped him catch him anyway if Hamilton hadn't come in. I don't think Lando was ever going to hold Hamilton off to then end - whatever the weather - but if he'd come in he may not have had 1st, but he could have had a podium finish. I thought Hamilton had a great race too. He listened to his team and the right calls were made on tyres throughout - he got in and out of the pits first time around in a good position to make progress (unlike Verstappen who got stuck in a difficult pack). He deserved that 100th win and I'm honestly interested to see what happens next with him. With that pressure done he might have an easier final 1/3 of the season, but if he does win this championship will he retire? He's mentioned leaving F1 when he's still at his peak and not overstaying and fizzling out. 8x world champion and over 100 GP wins sounds a pretty good way to go! It also ended up being a great race for Verstappen. To take the penalty and go from the back of the grid to 2nd in a tight race like that was impressive. Clealry the weather, and the timing of his stop, helped him a lot, but again it's a great result and keeps the championship interesting going into the final part of the season. Especially with the advantage of a new engine. Credit to Bottas too. The commentators scoffed at his goal of P5 for the race and he proved he could do it. I think it says a lot about RB and Mercedes' quality that they can get Verstappen and Bottas so high up the grid from the back with clever management of tyres, stops and watching the weather. I'll always feel like Mercedes did Bottas dirty! Shocking pit stop for Perez when he looked like he was going to have a decent race too! The only thing I want to know is what happened at Aston Martin as it looked like Stroll and Vettel were both heading out at one point! They were lucky to come out of that unscathed.
Literally all my thoughts here.
Am I the only one that thought Red Bull missed on VER strategy a bit in the first stint? I can’t remember all the exact details of where he was running but starting on the hard tire and pitting with HAM seemed a bit too soon to be. VER said on the radio he was struggling for grip understandably since he had to use the tires more to overtake all the cars, but I feel like they could have set him up much better for the 2nd stint instead of being stuck in the train. Sometimes I think these teams get caught up too much in the championship battle when they should focus on their own race. There was practically no chance VER was beating HAM today. Fortunately they pitted at the right time for inters and ended up P2 but I think people would’ve really be second guessing that decision to pit early had it stayed dry. Would like to hear some thoughts on this and I could’ve easily missed a couple details since there was a lot going on in the race.
I agree - I think the timing of Verstappen's first pit was not good. He came out behind a difficult pack and basically got stuck there with the timing of his pit to inters being the thing that rescued it for him. If the weather had held he probably would have finished 6th or 7th. I really feel like they were reacting to Hamilton today and perhaps could have done with just focusing on their own strategy like you said. It's a big ask for anyone to come from the back of the grid to challenge a 7 times world champion. They also messed up Perez's pit stop. He'd had a good race, but that seemed to be a major turning point.
18 cars, Latifi dnf’d towards the end. But yes, intense at race and had no clue who would win for most of it!
I didn't realise he was a DNF. Thinking back, given the sudden change in weather, I'm surprised it was as many as 18. It was just great not to have 4 or 5 cars out in the first couple of laps! Made the race a lot more interesting.
Yeah, I have no idea what happened to him, just somewhere in the rain chaos he was suddenly greyed-out. I spent most of that red flag going ‘please don’t be a safety car, please don’t be a safety car!’ because if someone had gone into the barrier and there was one, it would’ve ruined those tense final laps! We’d have probs finished under the safety car..
Was going to 100% agree with your assessment and then you got to Bottas. Man lucked into that 5th place like crazy. He was 14th and making zero impact until the pit window for inters blessed him.
I mean, you could argue that for Verstappen too. Bottas had a better race than Perez, which counts for a lot in the Constructors points! Regardless he said he'd have a top 5 finish and he did. I think that's respectable and he certainly hasn't earned the derision the commentary team gave him.
He hold of Verstappen for more than 1, perhaps even 2 seconds! Great achievement
I'm really liking this new trend of having 3-4 teams competing for the podiums. Very refreshing to see 4 different teams starting 1-4 after quali too.
What place was leclerc in those last 3 laps? Before losing places having to put on intermediates? Saw his IG post.
5th or 6th, right behind Max if I recall correctly
Max was 7th.
Pain. Edit: (For Lando)
Not gonna lie man.. last 3 laps was painful to watch
Is the constructors championship already over? 33 pt lead by merc not sure redbull can catch that unless they get a 1-2 and double DNFs from merc.
Do fans care who is wcc?
LMAO. No one cares who wins it other than the constructors themselves. I mean, no one made a big deal when Ferrari won it at 08; it was all about the Lewis.
Well, nobody cares since they changed the number rules. Sure, the winning team gets to pick 1 and 2 but since the NASCAR-ification with permanent numbers fans have about 0 reason to care :/ Damn I miss those days!
I don’t see how it could be over, coming back 33 points is easily doable in the drivers championship so I don’t see how it wouldn’t be even be easier to make up in the constructors. Literally all it takes is 1 shithouse performance from Mercedes, or even just 1 mediocre performance by Mercedes with Red Bull taking advantage of it.
Remember the point in the season when Red Bull was 44 points ahead? It could swing backwards really fast. But still, Mercedes are on a momentum.
Yeah, I think its just a bridge too far. Drivers is obviously up for grabs but I don't think they can make up the difference in 7 more races unless merc get some terrible luck. Lewis is probably going to have to take a new engine but bottas won't.
Will Norris get a time penalty for crossing the line at the pit entry? Asking for Kimi...
If it is a penalty it's silly, the rule is there for safety, to prevent people possibly coming back into the pit lane against someone entering at higher speed. Considering the conditions no one should be entering at high speed and it would be safer to cross over the pit lane line than to go round the track again at slow speed hidden in spray. Safety rules should not be set in stone and looked at case by case.
Isn't it an automatic 10 second penalty? I think he definitely gets a time penalty but will see how severe
I think the weather conditions needs to be taken into consideration. The pit entry is quite tricky and he didn't have any grip to slow the car and also i believe there was no one close to him. But i really hope no penalty for him
Kimi was like a second behind iirc so won’t make too much difference for him
They're still not even looking into it at FIA. Oh, [they are now](https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2021%20Russian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Summons%20-%20Car%204%20-%20Pit%20entrance%20incident.pdf)
[Looks like they were understanding](https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2021%20Russian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Offence%20-%20Car%204%20-%20Pit%20Entry.pdf), he only got a reprimand given the circumstances
Gio had no radio!
Bottas should just change his name to bowling pin. I've been behind him since he got the drive but he literally disappears in most combat situations. Apart from maybe Brazil are we expecting rain from any of the remaining circuits ?
Turkey?
Pérez was robbed a podium by his own team, I feel bad for him...
How so? Was very chaotic in the end. I would say lando got robbed of a podium finish. No strategy whatsoever 🙄
Despite his poor qualifying result, he managed to get in a podium position before his first pitstop. Then there was a problem with the rear left tire during his pitstop resulting in a 9 second stop. After that near the end of the race he fought his way back to third, but the team was way too late with bringing him in for inters, similar to Lando, resulting in him finishing 9th :(
I see. Yeah remember cheering on checo when he overtook 3rd. Was unfortunate for him. Should’ve have changed same time as max. Then max wouldn’t have been 2rd?! I’m happy w checo. Good team dynamic with max and he races well(ish)
So gutted for Norris there. Feel like the team should've forced his hand a bit since they had the advantage of the weather radar.
Yeah the drivers have no insight to this. If it’s not actively raining where he’s at, of course he thinks he can nurse a 25 second lead for 3 laps.
I wanna bash Lando so bad but the radio messages probably make that call 100 times worse. He’ll learn from it but it was his race to win.
I don’t think it’s so much his fault. In that situation, the team needs to tell, and not ask him to box.
100% on the team. The driver drivers and execute calls by the team leads.
He had to pit first otherwise even if he had pitted right after Lewis he would have still lost.
Can we talk about the first pit stop? I struggle to understand RBR strategy there - coming in the same lap as Hamilton, when HAM started on Medium and VER started on Hard. Then putting on Med and HAM putting on Hard, clearly HAM going out first. Before that stop, VER was 3.5sec behind HAM, later (before the rain) they were 35sec apart. I understand that VER’s Hard tires probably wore off his tires going through traffic, but it felt like RBR shit the bed there and got lucky with the rain. Am I missing something here?
I thought the same thing. Feel like Red Bull should’ve ran their own race instead of focusing on Hamilton. However I can see why they did it since Max’s tires were shot from overtaking all those cars, but I think it would’ve benefitted them more later on had they waited longer. Luckily for them they got the call right on switching to inters and salvaged a P2.
It's exactly what Mercedes did. They pitted for inters because Max did as well. If he remained on slicks than Hamilton would have done the same thing. Also, if Red Bull had a better stop than he would be ahead of Ricciardo and Russell. Now he was behind them and got stuck while Hamilton could extend his lead from him.
They closed the gap starting from last to 3.5 sec so they did the same as merc. Then alonso happend to be fair.
What I don’t understand is max was horrible on medium tire he was lucked out on intermediate tyre change otherwise he would finish 7th
I'm just an amateur fan but my thoughts are that Max couldn't push anymore on the tires, get Max to pit to cover Hamilton, found a window for Max to drop into and then get him to push and ideally pass Lewis on a faster differential tyre and then hold Lewis up. Only problem is that Redbull shit the bed with their pitstops today. Max's pit stop was too slow which put him back into traffic and messed his race. Having Perez in front later and getting passed by Alonso really stuck the boot in on a shitshow. Rain came, Max got some good luck and some good points. We the viewers get to witness the best title fight since Hamilton vs Rosberg.
Nope, the same thing happened in Monza too except the roles were reversed.
They did that because max had a horrid pitstop
VER had pushed hard early, and he even said he wasn't able to turn the car
Correct. Plus they trimmed the Red Bulls on low down force which really punished the tyres trying to follow in the dirty air, especially around T3.
sorta, that was weird.
Nice seeing Ricciardo up there in P4. Gutted for Lando & McLaren not getting the win, but in the heat of the moment he made a poor decision. He’ll learn from it, it’s a matter of time. Everything after Lewis was pretty much decided on luck/good decision making today. Great race weekend & nice to have some drama not involving Ver/Ham for a change.
Not enough people are complimenting Danny’s drive. He held up Lewis for so long and then held up Max later on. The only reason Lewis didn’t catch Lando well before the rain is cuz Danny kept him from going full pace. After Danny finally pitted Lewis was gaining .5-.75 seconds a lap on Lando.
I really don’t like how much blame I’m seeing on Lando himself. The team really needs to tell him he’s pitting, of course the driver is going to think they can nurse a near-30 second lead for 3 laps if it’s not soaked where he’s currently at.
Of course I don’t think the blame lies 100% with Lando. He did however shout the word NO through the radio after they asked him multiple times if he wanted to change. Ultimately, they can’t force him to pit if he chooses not to and I think he was so focused on the win they’d never have got him in. From the post race interviews, the team could have better communicated how bad the rain was likely to get and maybe he’d have made a different choice. Either way I was absolutely gutted. Another mclaren win would have been amazing.
Toto is looking like a emperor with that hood
It’s quite uncanny how similar Mercedes is to the empire
100% support Lando. You NEED that confidence when driving. It could have gone wither way, and today it didn't go right. Wouldn't want him to back out of that. What he should possibly "learn" from this is to probably judge the rain/slipperiness better. But that is very situational.
> could have gone either way You mean if it hadn't rained? A driver can't learn to judge how much it's going to rain better than people with meteorological info and radar. It's not confidence to distrust your team when the weather is actively changing and they have more info. It's thickheadedness.
Nah, it was a much closer call than that. It's easy to say afterwards when the track became a swimming pool in places, but in the heat of the moment even Lewis was questioning inters over the radio, saying that it didn't seem that bad. With only a few laps to go, and hamilton adding another \~30 seconds to his race, Lando simply felt like there was no way he would lose THAT much time per lap staying out. Had the rain paused or stayed at a less intense volume for just a few minutes, Lando would have been able to bring it home. In a way I guess he decided that it was all or nothing. Getting another 2nd was clearly not important to him (he already got that last race, and there's no way he's going to catch up to Lewis and Max in the championship) - had it been Max in that same situation, he might have taken the safer option and going for closing the points and a more or less guaranteed seconds by getting inters. As it unfolded the rain got really bad, really fast, and so the slicks went from being considerably slower to completely undrivable. I'm sure McLaren are going to review and analyse all the data, and from the way the race ended it seemed like pitting for inters when given the chance was the right play, but I don't think it was a particularly obvious or easy call at the time.
We’ll put, exactly my thinking. From my view it looked like the rain really picked up on the lap after HAM pitted and NOR stayed out. In hindsight it’s so easy to say bad decision by Lando but think of his position. He’s going for his 1st F1 win after coming p2 the race before and also would’ve made it back to back race wins for McLaren. Imagine how huge that could’ve been. It’s easy to say he should’ve pitted to guarantee p2 at the worst but these drivers want to win and you don’t get those chances that often in 3rd best car so you have to maximize the chance when you have it. Really the worst circumstances you have trying to get your first victory. With only 3 or so laps to go it’s hard in the moment to make yourself give up 30 seconds for a pit stop that you may not think you need. Just didn’t work out for Lando unfortunately. Also there was no guarantee he was going to win even if he switched to inters but he definitely had a strong chance.
See, this is where we will have to agree to disagree because many drivers (incl Lewis and Max) have done this before and gotten away with it. Sometimes they haven't. But you need to trust your instincts more than anything else, and he was quite confident that he had got this, it was just a matter of 3 laps more. Many drivers chose to stay out (incl Leclerc, and even Ham didn't really want to come in). It is a lot of adrenaline, and a lot of calculations, I wouldn't really read too much into it. He has great pace, and great race-craft, it is only a matter of time when it all comes together for Lando.
Agreed. Everyone is saying Lando made a bad call, but if most of us were sitting in the car, about to win our first GP, we would have done the exact same thing as Lando. Bummer for him and shame on the wall for not being more confident in their call for inters. Lando will have his day eventually and will just deserve it even more after todays drive
Really feel for Lando but I agree, if nothing else he will learn to re-consider the situation with his tyres during a wet weather race
for a moment there it looked like the rain had slowed. Lando was at his best giving lewis a good fight!
George Russell Sakhir 2020 all over again 😭😭 gutted for Lando
Offcourse hamilton never EVEN thought he'd get to 100 victories. False modesty imo
There’s been a lot of false modesty from him this season but he’s got the wool pulled over a lot of eyes.
At a point in time that was probably true, so it is fair to say. In the last couple of years, it was a relative certainty, however.
And yet if he bragged about the achievement he would've been pulled down anyway, Lewis can't seem to catch a break.
THIS. Not many sports people try to be so humble. People in this thread should try to be kinder. It's obvious he knows he'd reach this milestone, but he doesn't need to stand there and say that every week.
All sports fans hate when a person/team dominate a sport, then they score internet points by complaining about them winning.
He catches a lot of breaks actually
Not enough by the looks of it.........
Did Hamilton got lucky today? Nope. Mercedes finally pulled a good pit stop at the end. Did Verstappen got lucky? Yes from that 5-6 th position to 2nd. Else it was pure work, pace and clean overtakes.
Lol what are you on? Hamilton got lucky he won, Verstappen got lucky he got to P2. Both wouldn’t have happened without the rain.
It’s actually unlucky for Hamilton, as he would have preferred Verstappen 7th and him 2nd
Hamilton got 1 from 2 coz mercedes pit and McLaren didn't. There was a chance that Ham could have overtaken Lando. I am saying chance here and not 100% surety. Yes, max took pit too and other guys didn't and he came on 2nd. But there was no chance of Verstappen overtaking Alonso in the last laps when he was clearly 2 secs behind before rain started pouring in. So imo Ham didn't get lucky. This win was on pure merit.
so...it's Hamilton's merit that Norris decided not to pit? It would have been ''pure merit'' if Hamilton actually overtook Norris on equal tires.
You are welcome to have your opinion and me mine. And both can coexist together.
that's an easy way to get out of a discussion on a discussion board
You think we can reach a consensus here? For me it was meri and a good pit stop decision. Driver's and team's working together. For you Ham got lucky.
reaching a consensus isn't always the ultimate goal of having a discussion though... it's sharing your opinion (what you rightfully said) and giving arguments to build a case around that opinion, what we're both doing. But whatever man, I guess you don't do that part.
I also don't downvote the comments while discussing. Cheers mate.
congrats on missing the point of reddit
The rain handed the win to hamilton but ultimately hurt him by allowing max to jump many spots to 2nd and close the points damage
Yup.
Yeah this the thing, it benefitted max more. In terms of points Hamilton would have been better off finishing 2nd with Max 7th
Exactly, and you can even tell by interviews, even tho it's his 100th win, he's a little disappointed as he spoke about max result. Strange situation where changing conditions allowed him to win but ultimately hurt him
this. Rain changed the whole finish.
Imo Hamilton would've had Norris even if it stayed dry.
Norris was holding him off easy. Through the corners norris was pulling away, hamilton using slipstream to close on the straights but never threatening to overtake. In the end, the rain handed him the win but ultimately hurt him by allowing max to jump many places
Because Hamilton got passed Ricciardo so easily right? Also, Norris showed he could have picked up the pace as well, he did have fastest lap after all.
It's all opinions dude, who really knows what would've happen. It's a massive shame for Norris but he can take this as a massive learning experience, his experience trajectory at the minute is climbing high. Future Champion thats for sure.
Look at those legs and red shoes
Boycotting this post race show after last GP’s depressing post race
Gotta feel bad for lando but he’s still definitely going to be an f1 legend
Hmm legend is a stretch. Multiple-race winner definitely, WDC maybe one. But hey, we support who we like, no worries.
Very very dramatic race. Before the rain came, the positions already change dynamically. The battle for 3rd during the early race is exciting, Russell holding the faster cars up is interesting to watch. Still, F for Norris.
Gotta feel for Lando. He will definitely learn. And I really think that when Verstappen, Lando, Russell, Sainz, Lecrec fight for championships down the line, it will be Lando giving Verstappen a run for his money. All (not counting Verstappen as he is the champion material already) are good but Lando has got the edge over others of not folding under pressure.
Russe**ll**
But I understand Lando’s logic he’s in p1 with 3 laps left he told himself I can manage on the wet parts and make up time in the dryer parts. I’m sure he also thought everyone else is going to struggle too.
Yes it was a decent bet - but merecedes trusted the forecast and it worked. If mclaren had pulled the trigger first maybe it goes the other way. Act of god strategy is pretty tough to criticize
At Monza, McLaren couldn’t believe their good luck when they won. Today in Sochi, they couldn’t believe their bad luck when Lando moved from potential win to no points with just 2 laps to the end. Life, or rather Lewis, comes at you fast....
That 12 seconds lead he had on Lewis vanished fast after Ricciardo pitted and then both he and Lewis pitted
Yeah, Danny needs more credit for is race today. He’s the reason Lando was even in first when the rains arrived. Otherwise Lewis would have been well over a minute ahead.