Now, coming to the race itself. I want to blow off some steam so here I go-
Vettel seems to have lost some confidence in the wet/tricky conditions. I'm not one of those who has forgotten some of his remarkable races in the rain, but he needs a performance in the wet quite badly to reinstate his self belief. I believe an on form Vettel could have taken pole and as a result won the grand prix.
How good is Lewis Hamilton? I mean day in day out he churns out these pearls in extreme pressure situations in such challenging circumstances. The grand prix was won yesterday and boy was it well deserved! Absolutely deserved championship lead and upto now, the best driver of the year. He's put in three absolute pearls back to back and Vettel will be breathing a sigh of relief that there's a bit of a break now. I think, in my head, Hamilton is now the second greatest racing driver of all time. It's hard to do those rankings but I just can't find higher praise for him.
I see a lot of filth around here about Vettel being 'clumsy' with his pass on Bottas. It's hilarious! The bloke had his entire car ahead of Bottas and earned the apex to that corner. It's basic racing. Bottas hit Vettel and his overspeed was such that he still couldn't make the corner. Vettel's pass on Raikkonen as well was absolutely brilliant! Anyone attributing any blame/adjectives towards Sebastian there is showboating and talking out of places where it doesn't smell like roses.
Last year, continuing into this year there have been countless articles/suggestions that Ferrari have a no.1 and no.2 driver. Anyone who's followed this season and is true to himself will tell you there's no such crap happening at Ferrari and Bottas is definitely doing no.2 duties at Mercedes. He was basically lamb chop today when they didn't cover for Kimi. I find this hypocrisy absolutely pathetic. Lewis doesn't need to be portrayed like this messiah more than he already is and Vettel as the pantomime villain. The narrative seems to be that Lewis is driving a slower car since 2017 against a competitive team mate against a stronger Ferrari with a German who has all the cards laid out in his favour including a team mate to serve him at back and call. The reality and the narrative are very different. Mind you, I think Mercedes are being smart about this and Ferrari daft!
How many races now and this is the third employee Toto has managed to throw under the bus in front of the press? He basically called Bottas a lapdog who's been a brilliant team man this year and again insinuated that the Ferrari's crashing into him was standard protocol? The guy is smoking some high quality --- and Lewis is the only reason he is still in that job. I've followed F1 for 25 years now and I've not seen a team principal who has 0 qualities to be one. People will talk about the 4 championships.. this is the real challenge and he might win again but the first time he's been under the pump and there's more than enough to indicate that he doesn't cut the mustard!