2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 27-29

[Bisonas]

Veeery interesting race. Bottas very unlucky so far. Another race win slipped away.

you need to understand one thing, Bottas was only in front because of Safety car. Otherwise he would have been 3 rd at the best. So luck swings both ways

You also need to understand one thing. Extending a stint in order to be able to benefit from a late SC in Baku is actually a strategic call. The tyres where holding fine, his times where competitive, so they extend his stint waiting for a SC. They had little to lose and a lot to gain if a SC would come.
Having a late SC in Baku, it happens. You can calculate it in your strategy as an option if you have little to lose.
Having a puncture on a new set of tyres 3 laps before the end isn't something you can calculate in your strategy.
So Bottas was for sure way more unlucky, than lucky.

[Sevach]

Ferrari strategy was horrible. It was very simple to just wait until Bottas pit and then follow him. Instead they pitted and put him on softs that they knew were not working on Kimi's car. Mercedes was very smart this time. They kept bottas out and waited for safety car.

I don't get it either, Hamilton was no threat and Bottas was still 10s behind on a track were the undercut doesn't work, and everybody could see how slow soft tires were.

[TAG]

I don't get it either, Hamilton was no threat and Bottas was still 10s behind on a track were the undercut doesn't work, and everybody could see how slow soft tires were.

It's just a page from the Mercedes book on strategy. In the end Vettel had control of his race in his hands and didn't do anything to help his cause. It's just life's way of averaging things out I guess.

[NathanOlder]

Baku practice I think.

Hmm practice is a bit of a stretch IMHO.

However 3 crashes during only 4 races takes some doing.

Still forgetting his crash in Bahrain Quali when his PU spiked, still a crash tho.

Just out of interest, how many incidents has he had so far this year, he spun in australia as well.

[PlatinumZealot]

Good race for me! The BOSS finally gets his Baku win. Sad for Vettel but he judge have judged his situation better. The same for Bottas. He went off the racing line onto a dirty part of the track to break the tow. Not totally his fault but...

I see Perez snatching that podium. Good driver. Wishing he gets into Ferrari after Kimi calls it quits.

[Yurasyk]

Vet was loosing over 0.5 to Bot before pitting and about 0.3 to Ham as well. He would lost many seconds of margin to Ham and became vulnerable to its attacks later with probably worse pace on softs than Merc, if he would not pit. That was rather the fork as it was predicted before, but surely, not in this way.

[Vettel165]

The things would look now a lot better if Kimi didnt managed to make his big mistake on his Q3 run. But it doesnt matter now the race is done. We need to look at the future.

[NathanOlder]

Yeah so Vettel suffered because Ferrari don't have 2 reliable drivers.

[Bisonas]

Now regarding RIC and VES the whole thing its just lol.
Reading FIA explanation of their verdict is just laughable.
Christian Horner also giving guides to the drivers what to say exactly on their press releases and the stewards is a joke.
I don't know for how long FIA and RB are gonna try to protect their golden boy, but as i have told it many times, giving him free passes for behaviors like that isn't going to make him any better. He really really must change they way he approaches wheel to wheel racing. He has enormous talent, but he has literally no respect for the others when he is racing. Last year people he was fighting had many to lose. So they where conceding on suicide attacking moves he was making. They couldn't risk a DNF. VES just didn't care about contact. That was making him look extra good.
This year at this early stages no one is conceding. And when no one is conceding it will always gonna be trips to the gravel or contact when he is trying to pass or when he is trying to defend.
What he did today to RIC was unacceptable. And i am not talking only about his defend on the crash.

And RB is at fault also. They where seeing what was happening from lap 10. They where lucky enough RIC made the pass with no contact once. Why the hell he had to do it again ??? I didn't keep track of RIC out lap after pit but if he was slow because of traffic or because the tyres for one lap couldn't get to temperature thus being slower for that lap, which ever happen then RB is at fault also. They didn't gave him the preferable pit strategy as they should. He was the leading RB he deserved the preferable pit strategy. Pitting first isnt't always the preferable strategy. Especially on tracks that is hard to get temperature to the tyres.
Now if RIC made a mistake on his out lap and lost time, then discard the last paragraph .

[Just_a_fan]

Azerbaijan Grand Prix victor Lewis Hamilton was late to the podium because he went to tell Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Valtteri Bottas that the win should have been his.

Hamilton was only third at the late safety car restart, but gained one position when Sebastian Vettel ran wide trying to pass Bottas for the lead and was then handed the victory when Bottas picked up a dramatic rear puncture.

"I have very mixed emotions for today. It's really quite a humbling experience," said Hamilton.

"Ultimately Valtteri deserved to win. He did an exceptional job, a faultless drive. Less so on my side.

"Straight away when I got out of the car and did the interviews I went to see Valtteri.

"I just wanted to congratulate him on how well he drove and that's why I was late to the podium.

"Valtteri was very, very unfortunate. A one-two would have been a great result for today.

"I wouldn't have got by him if he hadn't had that tyre blowout."

Bottas had been third in the early laps but ran much longer than his main rivals in his first stint.

He still had not pitted at all when the Red Bull intra-team collision prompted a safety car with 12 laps to go, and was able to stop and replace his old supersofts with ultrasofts without losing the lead.

Bottas sustained the puncture when he ran over debris on the start/finish straight with just three laps to go, in an incident that Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff described as "brutal".

Mercedes non-executive director Niki Lauda hit out at the circuit for failing to clear the debris.

"Why didn't they clean up the circuit properly?" he said to Sky Sports F1.

"There was so much time to do it. It was a disaster for Bottas and for Lewis really good.

"[Bottas] did everything absolutely perfect. He could have won the race easily, but nevertheless Lewis did a good job too so thank God we won the race."

Bottas said he did not see the debris he hit.

"Street circuits in general with a lot of crashes will always be an issue, this time [it] was so unlucky," he told television crews.

"I had no idea at any point that I ran over any debris, I didn't see anything, I didn't feel anything, so I was just very, very unlucky."

Asked how he would recover from the disappointment, Bottas replied: "Maybe 10 pints of beer and we will be fine! I will get through it - of course you always need to get through difficulties, it is part of racing although at the moment it is very painful."

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13568 ... ole-bottas

Class from Hamilton.

As for the Ric/Ves crash - at least RedBull, like Mercedes, allow their drivers to race each other. Hey, Ferrari - how about that as an idea?

[Vettel165]

Yeah so Vettel suffered because Ferrari don't have 2 reliable drivers.

No I didnt mean like that, but Seb today had to defend from both of the Mercedes drivers. First there could be a problem with undercut, and then one could stay out for a overcut (and for a safety car). This is very hard to manage, if the other Ferrari driver was there he (Kimi) could stay out longer on the fresh rubber than Seb, and then 1-2 laps after Seb pit, they also send him into it. With Ferraris strong race pace, I think we could have been 1-2 today. To many iffs of course. Barcelona, Canada, Austria I think should be strong tracks for Ferrari this year, also Silverstone. Like I said already 425 points are still available, all to play, the championship isnt won in first four races.

[bauc]

Toro Rosso guys: "That was so close man ! Almost..."

Red Bull guys : " Hold my beer !!"

[LM10]

As for the Ric/Ves crash - at least RedBull, like Mercedes, allow their drivers to race each other. Hey, Ferrari - how about that as an idea?

Not the best timing to give a positive image of letting both drivers race each other to the limits after today's accident.
Maybe it would have been avoidable if the team had intervened. And doing so requires having to kind of choose a driver in that particular situation. Instead they pushed the drivers even more. Ric's engineer told him "Go get him" after Verstappen came out infront of him after his pit stop. And we all know the end of the story.

This doesn't mean that I approve of what Ferrari has been doing for many many years, but it is how it is. Both sides have their pros and cons. However, if you asked me, I also would let both drivers race each other.

[Shrieker]

Why did Ferrari FXXX Vettel when the SC came out ? Were they worried that Bottas would still come out ahead after his pitstop ? I think not; and Vettel on softs should've easily been able to keep Bottas behind on ultra softs. If Vettel was coming out ahead by staying out, than pitting him was an epic fail, and not just in hindsight...

What' s the deal here ?

[Vettel165]

Why did Ferrari FXXX Vettel when the SC came out ? Were they worried that Bottas would still come out ahead after his pitstop ? I think not; and Vettel on softs should've easily been able to keep Bottas behind on ultra softs. If Vettel was coming out ahead by staying out, than pitting him was an epic fail, and not just in hindsight...

What' s the deal here ?

Because the US tyres were much faster in this low-track conditions (they would warm up much faster as softs), Vettel would be destroyed at the restart by Bottas if he was on old soft tyres. It was a right call.