2023 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Sep 22 - 24

[AR3-GP]

George was right there they should have stayed where they were

They screwed him. Hamilton wasn't fast enough to pass.

[Michelangelo]

Interesting position swap.

[organic]

George was right there they should have stayed where they were

They screwed him. Hamilton wasn't fast enough to pass.

also forced off earlier unfortunately

[Bill_Kar]

They honestly should just let Hamilton pass at the first moment they could, when Sainz was 2.3 seconds behind.

[basti313]

Russell pace compared to Hamilton just fizzled out all of a sudden. He should be on bigger pace compared to everyone to make use of his strategy but I do t know what's happening, unless he's now saving to defend from everyone e coming at him now.

What has fizzled? Both were doing close to 38 and he kept doing 38...just a penalty...rediculous strategy if the new tire is 2-3sec faster. In 10 laps they get a free stop.

Russell was gaining on Hamilton by anywhere from 4 to 8 tenths a lap. He then stopped gaining much at all. His pace advantage to Hamilton wasn't showing anymore.

Hamilton pitted as soon after this started happening.

Yes...today Merc was doing Ferrari things:
- When Rus was clearly faster in the first stint he was blocked and pushed off by Ham on done tires.
- When it was obvious that a one stop can never work, that was one lap after Ham pitted and was close to 3sec faster...they stick to the one stop.
- Now it took several laps, all gap to Sai lost to make a decision...let us see, I guess a wrong one.

[GrizzleBoy]

George was right there they should have stayed where they were

Carlos only ever got close to Lewis because George didn't let Lewis by in the first place when asked.

During the time George was discussing with the team Carlos was right up the back of Lewis.

There was no way Russell could've kept both Ham and Sainz behind, so all it sis was give Carlos free time to the back of Lewis without using his tyres.

It only became a strategy they'd have had to do because George wasn't compliant straight away.

If anything, George just backed Ham into Sainz and Sainz being faster would've been past Lewis and up the road if George wasn't forced to listen to the team.

[Spoutnik]

[Juzh]

Norris really mopped with piastri, +17s in the end. He'll have to work on his race pace, it happened a few times now.

Perez in shambles even more so than usual. I'm wondering how watertight his contract is for next year, at this point putting even a rookie in the car could not be worse. I don't think he'd be able to beat norris today even in a clean race.

Semi-dull race.

[denyall]

That's the takeaway, Rus had no hope on the one stop.

Merc had to pick between 5th and 7th or 6th and 7th, no matter what Rus would have ended up 7th.

[bluechris]

A mistake from MB again today. If they haven't swapped places it was possible for Russel to keep Sainz behind them and they all saw that this is doable in the previous race so no excuses there.

[Cs98]

George was right there they should have stayed where they were

Carlos only ever got close to Lewis because George didn't let Lewis by in the first place when asked.

During the time George was discussing with the team Carlos was right up the back of Lewis.

There was no way Russell could've kept both Ham and Sainz behind, so all it sis was give Carlos free time to the back of Lewis without using his tyres.

It only became a strategy they'd have had to do because George wasn't compliant straight away.

If anything, George just backed Ham into Sainz and Sainz being faster would've been past Lewis and up the road if George wasn't forced to listen to the team.

Nah. As we saw Hamilton wasn't fast enough to pass George and it would have just ended in a DRS train.

[atanatizante]

LAW has beat TSU again and this time on his home turf and his own car! What more has he to do just to take someone seriously about his driving abilities and hire him for a seat next year? Does anyone hear me?

[AR3-GP]

Norris really mopped with piastri, +17s in the end. He'll have to work on his race pace, it happened a few times now.

Keep in mind Piastri saved almost 10 seconds of race time with his VSC stop and undercut Norris twice. Norris also lost 5 seconds under the VSC due to Perez block. Norris basically finished 35-40 seconds ahead of him when you correct for it. It is absolutely shocking.

[Cs98]

LAW has beat TSU again and this time on his home turf and his own car! What more has he to do just to take someone seriously about his driving abilities and hire him for a seat next year? Does anyone hear me?

They should let him drive for Williams next season.

[dialtone]

A mistake from MB again today. If they haven't swapped places it was possible for Russel to keep Sainz behind them and they all saw that this is doable in the previous race so no excuses there.

I'm sorry what? Russell got clean passed by Sainz while he had DRS, this isn't Singapore.