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Yeaa because Hamilton start was all Merc sabotage and they're not trying to get Verstappen punished to get Hamilton more points.

not that much, see about 2014 season, both had fair chances and then some random problems (that could affect Hamilton) affected Rosberg instead and yet the team was all happy and so

I can't see nothing wrong on that, perhaps they should field a young driver to say "even with a rookie we can win the championship"

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The race was won on Saturday, it's no coincidence those on the right side of the grid had poor starts and those on the left didn't

Hulk around the outside of Bottas at the chicane was one of the moves of the season though, "see ya!"

And since Nico was praised to high heaven last week for fighting through the field it's only fair Lewis gets his dues this week.
Though I guess he has more practice at it with the way this season has gone

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That was a pretty decent race. Glad to read Lewis told Mercedes to drop the protest the team filed against Verstappen's defense late in the race.

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This made me chuckle, courtesy of WTF1

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He probably slammed it shut on Rosberg just when Rosberg thought he was clear....

This crying over Max is getting old. He's one of the only guys who makes this series interesting. Most drivers are lame and boring, or crybabies.

It is possible for a driver to be both interesting *and* dangerous. Grosjean gave it a good shot, for example.

The 'crying' is from people who don't want to watch someone get launched over his car, which is inevitable unless something is done.

This.

I wonder if the other drivers cry because he blocks dangerously or because he actually blocks.

Given that actually blocking is prohibited because it is dangerous, both are equally valid.

Verstappen didn't do anything wrong in this GP. Have you seen what Sainz did several times? That was ridiculously dangerous.

I actually didn't see what Sainz did, but would be grateful if you could point me to a video - haven't found anything yet

Verstappen did what he keeps doing - reacted to Hamilton diving for the inside by jinking across after Hamilton had moved. By the letter of the Sporting Regs it isn't 'wrong', but putting your car into the path of another car which has just moved *is* dangerous. It's the sort of F3 defending that he has had no chance to mature out of.

Yeah, no, I agree with Stoegi here. Verstappen had his fair share of illegal/dangerous moves in the past, but this one was not.

Catching someone off guard is not enough of a condition to make a move illegal. This is a case of early braking combined with placing the car in the middle of the track, it's a classic early defending line into the chicane and is something we've seen a lot of times before. Someone with Hamilton's experience should not be phased out by this.

It did surprise him though, just like Da Matta surprised the Schumacher brothers back in 2003, check this at 1:30.

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4clbku_f1-2003-japanese-gp-race-part-2_sport[/dailymotion]

Frankly if you don't like this kind of smart, relentless defending that makes the driver behind stay on their toes and really find a way past, then give up on racing entirely because the simulated total race time would be the only deciding factor for the ending position. Had Verstappen done nothing, he'd have been either passed in the chicane like a Trulli, or eaten alive in the following DRS straight and we'd all be booing another thrill-less DRS pass.

I'm not sure which video you watched, but in the one you linked to Da Matta defended his position by not moving or changing direction from the way he was headed. There was clearly no steering input, and MSC was caught out because he anticipated something that didn't occur. Ralf was caught out because he was, unfortunately, Ralf Schumacher.

Verstappen, on the other hand, waited for Hamilton to move to the right and then also moved to the right. He changed the direction of his car after the driver behind committed.

This kind of defending is indeed smart (in planning and execution) and relentless; there's no denying that. It is also dangerous.



Frankly, I guess several active F1 drivers who have made the same criticism had better give up as well.

You mean DRS-assisted pussies? (I'm just taking the piss here )

This is bound to remain an open discussion and I respect that. Current drivers want to pass easy and they will moan in the radio, I don't take that as an argument against a defending move. Other former drivers have a different opinion, say Martin Brundle found the Spa defense to be harsh but legal (I don't agree with him - I definitely think Spa was off-boundaries.)

His point is that they're racing drivers with split-second reflexes, direct steering input, massive amounts of downforce and with a left foot already on the brake pedal ready to slow down even in the middle of a straight. It feels much closer calls to us viewers than it is while in the cockpit where the world feels completely different, and gaps and capabilities are more sharp and accurate than we could ever fathom.

Commitment is not just shyly putting your nose out to one side while still car lengths behind the car in front and creeping up on them at a 5kph speed difference before braking. As long as the car behind doesn't have a massive speed difference (the Spa case), or is really closer than one length, the racetrack is still yours and you can choose your line, up to the driver behind to manage an escape route and adapt - which Hamilton could not manage unfortunately here. Otherwise it becomes an invitation to pass, you leave them the "lane" they selected with free air and free racetrack to outbrake you.

My issue is with changing lanes in a braking zone - if the following driver commits to a line, starts braking and then has is blocked from that line by the leading driver, their options for avoiding an accident are very limited, and the potential result of an accident much worse due to the speed differential. If Verstappen gave the lane changes under braking a rest I'd actually be able to enjoy an otherwise very exciting driver.

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Lol, driving someone off the road when you have the racing line is fine, but it's dangerous when someone changes lanes when somebody is a car behind.

Obviously not, and that would usually be penalised as well (although with FIA's inconsistency I know there are loads of examples where it wasn't). I'm talking about maneuvers that aren't against the letter of the law but are arguably unfair or unsafe. I think that's what most of us are talking about here really.

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I hadn't seen the Hamilton onboard of this incident, it seems that their top speeds were matching while on the gas (or not more than a few kph of difference). The high closing speed resulted more from him braking later - and possibly Verstappen earlier - than usual. Keep in mind this is the zoomed onboard, he was coming from quite far behind and if he hadn't braked so late it wouldn't have mattered which side Max takes.

Actually, it's difficult to tell but I'm not sure Hamilton could've made the chicane braking that late anyway. When on maximum braking, close to lock-up, you can't do much steering and have to release ever so slightly if you want to do any steering input. Watch his steering, he did very little input to avoid Verstappen, just a slight correction to the left. Doing so would cause an overshoot indeed, but not as far me thinks... Most of the overshoot can be attributed to him already outbraking himself completely to get close in what was not a full-blown overtaking move, and being spooked by Verstappen's move only made it worse. If Verstappen kept his line there's a great chance it would've ended Prost/Senna style given how far he came from.




Anyway this was just the analysis of Xp3rt racing driver Coldtyre... Regardless of what we all think about it, it's funny how it was handled at Mercedes:

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/177 ... al-protest