Lewis Hamilton has taken an easy victory in France thanks to a controlled performance at Circuit Paul Ricard. Max Verstappen raced anonymously to second place while Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium for Ferrari.
Track was good, passes from vettel and bottas were expected, but kimi made one on ric, ric made one on vettel, hulk passed perez, those were all fair game.
Its a cool track all in all, and was a cool race. Maybe a 10s penalty for vettel would be a better measure, but that wouldnt have change a thing, its the way cookie crumbles sometimes.
Its too bad we didnt see the pace of ferrari vs merc in clear terms. The pace vettel showed in traffic was immense, he had red bull pace while overtaking half of field.
For all the ones asking how he got dotd - he provided most entertainment.
I would still like to think how the track would look without chicane, side by side at 360 kmh into a very very fast corner, sounds mega.
Also : i seem to repeat myself, but leclerc is really good. I hope he gets haas drive next year, then ferrari in 2020 if its all good in haas. He is just demolishing ericsson.
Also : i seem to repeat myself, but leclerc is really good. I hope he gets haas drive next year, then ferrari in 2020 if its all good in haas. He is just demolishing ericsson.
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What if Sauber becomes faster car? Their race pace today was very close
Your boy just loses control everytime when the pressure is on and tries to take out the whole field.
He needs to get a black flag and sit at home and watch a race maybe.
I know. The guy needs to get a grip specially considering how he performed under pressure he had on him in 2010 and 2012 in the last race.
Yeah he is a great driver if he can keep his cool at the start we might have seen race between champions.
with the different tyre strategies and all.
Cheeky comment from VES:”MV: Yeah. I think next time you see Seb you should ask him to change his style, y’know? Because honestly, it’s not acceptable. That’s what they said to me at the beginning of the season, so I think they should do the same! And then, of course, Seb shouldn't do anything, and just drive again and learn from this and go on.”
Anyway for me the start incident, its one of those things that can happen. If VET would have left to much room then he would be overtaken by VER on the outside, so he had to slot in pretty close behind BOT, and it went wrong.
What I found worse is how he lost the car a couple of corners further and drove into Grosean’s left rear, sending him off the track. That was entirely preventable. He shouldn’t be there trying to race the pack in a stricken car. I am surprised that thad did not get penalised for that.
I agree. The hit on Gro was the larger infraction of the first lap in my opinion, as it wasn't really racing, he was trying to maintain position in anticipation of the safety car...
5 seconds was an appropriate penalty for Vettel. He locked up and lucked out in the incident. The real issue is that because of the carnage that followed the safety car came out and saved him any real pain. Had the race continued under normal racing conditions after the first lap then he’d be a minute and a half behind and wouldn’t even get in the points. No one would mention the 5 seconds. He got very lucky today, so maybe he locked up and lucked in?
Some interesting stats compared to last year after 8 races.
2017:
Vet - 3 wins, 6 podiums, 153 points
Ham - 3 wins, 5 podiums, 139 points
2018
Ham - 3 wins, 6 podiums, 145 points
Vet - 3 wins, 4 podiums, 131 points
So what`s yr point:
1. Last year Vet was 14 points ahead and now they are on a reverse order or
2. After 8 races there are the same 14 points between them?
Vettel slamming into Bottas in the 1st corner 1st lap was, well.....a bit foolish, but to be very honest, something that can happen. Let's just point towards Ricciardo @ Baku that being closeby lost all downforce, so using that in defense of Danny (reasonable), should then also apply to Vettel.
His start was phenomenal though, impressive blazingly fast start, i thought he might have p2 in the bag but it turned out differently.
Max avoided the carnage and drove fine the rest of the race.
Still, first lap was crazy. Gasly vs Ocon - seemed to me like Ocon was in some sort of trouble but even if he wasn't, he rather swerved abrubtly to the right, and then Gasly had little left to avoid contact especially when his car went sideways in trying to avoid him. Sad and for the both of them, but was spectacular nonetheless.
I'm not entirely sure though if it was then Vettel or if it was Raikkonen that hit the Haas of i Magnussen (if it was Vettel i'd assume Grosjean). Atleast, if it was a Haas. A Ferrari clearly made quite the good bump into the rear right wheel of a Haas (if i'm right). Assuming that had to be Raikkonen since he was close behind Magnussen, that was pretty lousy driving too.
Vettel on Alonso was tongue in cheek. He just put it there and quite frankly took Alonso totally by surprise. Was there even contact? Alonso had to act to avoid contact and that caused him to lose control and quite frankly completely ruined his already not so swell race.
Impressed with LeClerc, great driving.
A bit letdown with Sainz - despite thinking he drove a fantastic race, and i even thought he might make it hard on Max after the Safety car, after a while he went down the ladder rather quick. Hoped to see him finish in a better position, but oh well.
Stroll, geesh. just as much as geesh Williams. that FL tire was completely gone anyway, Should have called him in a lap before no matter what. Thanks to that we got a very lame end to the race with a VSC finish.
As for the race itself, looking past the incidents; what a major boring circuit/track. It did nothing to me. It looked amateuristic. I don't know what happened to Magny Course but would have prefferred that place, even if i must be honest that i never really liked that track either, but this was worse. The only thing that gave some 'excitement' was the contact between Vettel and Bottas which caused a huge domino-effect; drivers avoiding those went off-track left and right, then picked up dust, etc. etc.
the real action only was in the first couple of corners to be honest.
Raikkonen on a (damaged) Ricciardo was not even worth mentioning to be honest, the Ferrari carried so vastly much more speed that there was nothing to do there.
Just shows to me how RB has made a good decision in going for Honda.
Hulkenberg was btw gigantically disappointing. I don't know what it is, but every time i feel like hoping to see some good from him, he's just totally boring.
Interesting race from Hamilton though. I share the same sentiment with others here that he seemed less motivated then ever this season but i'm starting to scratch behind my head again and notice just how that seems not to be the case at all. The ease with which he won this GP was also quite impressive. He just blazed off at that SC restart and disappeared.
Back to Max, i think he really showed he kept his head calm and that gave him an easy p2. I also liked his cheeky comment post-race briefing interview to the media in regards to Vettel. that was a nice kick in the groin.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Maybe many of you think about Vettel should take a lesson from his action into turn 1, but I beg to differ and say the main lesson he should take from this race is that he needs to win the pole in the future. And this is not for avoiding this kind of issues at the start. The main reason is had he really want to win this WDC ...
Therefore, he should not be so cocky about his car superiority over Merc`s one this year particularly in race trim and take a little bit of compromised setup towards qualy, I should say ...
Flat out wishing damage on opponent's car, after being utterly mugged round the outside and cought sleeping. Hopefully mclaren is bad enough the entire year so he packs up his things and leaves for indycar.
Also : i seem to repeat myself, but leclerc is really good. I hope he gets haas drive next year, then ferrari in 2020 if its all good in haas. He is just demolishing ericsson.
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At this rate the Sauber will be the better car next year. Ferrari backing and all.
Some interesting stats compared to last year after 8 races.
2017:
Vet - 3 wins, 6 podiums, 153 points
Ham - 3 wins, 5 podiums, 139 points
2018
Ham - 3 wins, 6 podiums, 145 points
Vet - 3 wins, 4 podiums, 131 points
So what`s yr point:
1. Last year Vet was 14 points ahead and now they are on a reverse order or
2. After 8 races there are the same 14 points between them?
That this year Lewis is ahead for the same reason Vettel was last year, consistency and staying out of trouble. Imo unless Ferrari has something up their sleaves, Vettel is going to have a hard time. He is already behind and entering the part of the season where Mercedes should be at their strongest.
maxxer wrote:
Your boy just loses control everytime when the pressure is on and tries to take out the whole field.
He needs to get a black flag and sit at home and watch a race maybe.
Oh please. 5 second penalty was enough
5 seconds was not enough as he took out a competitor and got away with it and ended infront of him.
What penalty Bottas got last year at Baku for instance? Zilch....
Flat out wishing damage on opponent's car, after being utterly mugged round the outside and cought sleeping. Hopefully mclaren is bad enough the entire year so he packs up his things and leaves for indycar.
