2020 Russian Grand Prix - Sochi Autodrom, September 25 - 27

[komninosm]

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Nice to see some actual overtaking in Russia, but the Stewards' ruling on having to weave through those bollards took no account of the angles cars might find themselves in, once they'd finished bouncing off the kerbs. If everyone is breaking the rule, perhaps it's a stupid rule.

On those Bollards, they were only a compromise if you actually attempted to make the corner, Like Sainz was doing, or Grosjean attempted. to go through, they needed to slow down more. Max showed us that if you bail out early and just miss the apex by a mile, you don't even lose a tenth. Max was able to go in to turn 2 side by side with Ric. then aftwr the bollards, he wasn't even a car length behind. The Stewards need to make a better job of punishing drivers who cut corners.

Yeah those Bollards are very stupid and the Stewarding was bad.
If you fail to take the corner, just give position to a car behind you and that's it. No reason to put objects on track or near it.

[Racer X]

Confirmed by radio that Mercedes confirmed that Ham could do the practice start that far from the pits.. Again Lewis suffers for the team. This penalty points are bull....

IMO, The penalty points should only be given for collisions
It is just BS to give it out for team's mistakes like in Monza and here

But the rules are the same for everyone. It's not Hamilton's fault but it is his teams and they do need to serve the penalty at least now they have learned a lesson hopefully.

Too bad Hamilton...

[siskue2005]

2 penalty points for no apparent danger. Could not inform team of infraction and gave 2 penalties.
Waited a long time and gave penalty inside race for offense BEFORE race. Should have been a grid penalty or something.
Previous time this offense happened, Leclerc just got a reprimand, no penalty points nor time penalty.
Meanwhile, both Leclerc and Vettel HIT other cars and caused them to crash (one completely out of the race) and NO INVESTIGATION even! They freaking investigated Grosjean for hitting the boards after Vettel hit his tire and forced him out! But not Vettel!
Verstappen passes car in pit lane driving over mechanics spot, in red flag! No INVESTIGATION even!
FIA is a yoke /Alonso

Agree

[RZS10]

According to Toto Wolff the event notes were not clear about the actual position where you could do the practice starts
"I respect the stewards, but this time i don't agree [with their decision]. The event notes say, if i'm informed correctly, that you're allowed to do the starts after the lights on the right hand side of the pitlane - however it wasn't specified where exactly"

Big oof if true

[El Scorchio]

Yeah the next points to expire are mid-November from last year's Brazilian Grand Prix. He's racked up 10 points this season already.

I'd say a race ban at some stage is quite likely, even if he makes it past November, as the next points to expire are July next year.

I suspect Mercedes will look to serve it this year, assuming Hamilton leads the WDC by more than 25 points at the final race.

As to today, if Mercedes/Hamilton don't want the stewards interfering, don't give them the chance to interfere. Although, judging from their strategy today...

Great drive from Leclerc, again. Great drive from Perez too.

Sad for Stroll, would've been interesting to see what he could've done with Hamilton so compromised. Also intrigued to learn that being punted into the wall doesn't merit a penalty for the punter.

Carlos...

Nice to see some actual overtaking in Russia, but the Stewards' ruling on having to weave through those bollards took no account of the angles cars might find themselves in, once they'd finished bouncing off the kerbs. If everyone is breaking the rule, perhaps it's a stupid rule. On the plus side, at least they didn't Red Flag the session due to polystyrene on the track (although I assume they're updating the rules even now).

Good point about the penalty points. Makes sense to miss the last race ‘on purpose’ if the title is won, weird as it would be. A little bit Schumacher-esque and against the spirit of things though, I’d say.

I wonder if they’d punish him for intentionally trying to get a punishment?!

[komninosm]

British (of course...) journalist asked Lewis if he feels that FIA is trying to stop him. He agreed and said this is not first time when FIA trying to give his life harder. :D
We are so close to "they punish me cause I'm black" again!

Yeah, the FIA has never been a fair entity, it has always been there to cater to one side's needs
So I m not surprised Lewis feels that way

Also there have been racist scandals in F1, from officials to fans to teams (members).
Having a BLM t-shirt displayed last win can't have helped either. I'm actually surprised they didn't officially punish Hamilton for that. Like bringing the sport into disrepute or some nonsense.

[PlatinumZealot]

British (of course...) journalist asked Lewis if he feels that FIA is trying to stop him. He agreed and said this is not first time when FIA trying to give his life harder. :D
We are so close to "they punish me cause I'm black" again!

Lewis is smartly creating more story and fanfare behind it to make it look greater when he smashes the records! Lol.

For me as a fan the struggles make the victories sweeter and that is exactly what Lewis is tugging at. This Netflix episode should be fire!

[siskue2005]

Confirmed by radio that Mercedes confirmed that Ham could do the practice start that far from the pits.. Again Lewis suffers for the team. This penalty points are bull....

IMO, The penalty points should only be given for collisions
It is just BS to give it out for team's mistakes like in Monza and here

But the rules are the same for everyone. It's not Hamilton's fault but it is his teams and they do need to serve the penalty at least now they have learned a lesson hopefully.

Too bad Hamilton...

Ok so where is the penalty points of Max overtaking car in pit lane?

Where penalty for Leclerc today?

Where is the penalty for Leclerc Monza 2019?, with that much amount of swerving, pushing and track cutting Leclerc did there, if it was Lewis they would have given in 10 sec Stop go and 10 penalty points That pattern has been seen in this season aswell!

Remember 2019 German GP when Leclerc was not given any penalty, instead the team was given financial fine!
Hmm, do you see the pattern here!

Same in 2017 Vettel was on 10 penalty points, and got given penalties for incidents in a couple of races (Ricciardo tangle in Austin?) but no penalty points otherwise he would have got a race ban

The rules are most certainly not the same for everyone!

[komninosm]

Confirmed by radio that Mercedes confirmed that Ham could do the practice start that far from the pits.. Again Lewis suffers for the team. This penalty points are bull....

IMO, The penalty points should only be given for collisions
It is just BS to give it out for team's mistakes like in Monza and here

But the rules are the same for everyone. It's not Hamilton's fault but it is his teams and they do need to serve the penalty at least now they have learned a lesson hopefully.

Too bad Hamilton...

He meant the Penalty Points on License, NOT the Time Penalty in Race.

[siskue2005]

Yeah Perez went from 11 seconds behind Hamilton after putting during the race to 9 seconds behind Lewis.

Max at the same time was getting further away from Hamilton towards the end with the 2020 Mercedes being such a monster it think it says a lot more about Max/Perez to be able to put that kind of a push to Hamilton.

I think Max/Perez had a far more impressive race then would seem at first sight.

Sergio was almost 18 seconds faster then Ricciardo. And Max was almost 7 seconds closer to Bottas.

Impressive...

It had to do with the fact that after the VSC Lewis backed off and didnot push

Lewis backed off in the final Lap not after the VIRTUAL** safety car. He was cutting time to Max but Perez was still gaining on him. Without the first safety car Max and Perez might have been more impressive.

Bottas might not have won.

Perez would have still been 4th but a bit further away from 5th.**

Max might have won.

Hamilton was no matter what destined to
Get 2nd or 3rd due to his own actions...

After the VSC u could clearly see that both Mercedes dropped pace from 1.38 to high 1.39s
There was no way of catching them or no threat for losing the race.

[komninosm]

Becuase of new rules on the podium driver must be fully clothed up to the neck! They cant even remove their gloves!

Silly if you ask me!

If only the Laws in the real world could be ammended this rapidly for equal justice.

Seriously? They added rules for that? I'm pretty sure they all removed the gloves. Quick give them 2 penalty points each! /wink wink nudge nudge say no more

[siskue2005]

Although i am glad that Lewis didnt equal Schumy's record here in a shitty track!
those race wins deserves much more grandeur
like equaling it at Nürburgring and beating it in Imola!
would be great!

[Shrieker]

Well it was a discretional penalty so race decided by the stewards.

Coincidentally the nationality of the head steward today is??....

Well, If it's written in the rule book...

It’s not. It was in the race director’s notes.

Yeah, I thought about that as well. It's pretty much a rule when the race director mentions it in writing.

[siskue2005]

Becuase of new rules on the podium driver must be fully clothed up to the neck! They cant even remove their gloves!

Silly if you ask me!

If only the Laws in the real world could be ammended this rapidly for equal justice.

Seriously? They added rules for that? I'm pretty sure they all removed the gloves. Quick give them 2 penalty points each! /wink wink nudge nudge say no more

Lewis removed one gloves in the podium, he desreves 10 place grid drop and 2 penalty points for next race!

[komninosm]

According to Toto Wolff the event notes were not clear about the actual position where you could do the practice starts
"I respect the stewards, but this time i don't agree [with their decision]. The event notes say, if i'm informed correctly, that you're allowed to do the starts after the lights on the right hand side of the pitlane - however it wasn't specified where exactly"

Big oof if true

Oh nooo.
This is my utter lack of surprise.

So can anyone explain why Verstappen and Vettel and Leclerc were not even INVESTIGATED?!
For the following:
>>>
Meanwhile, both Leclerc and Vettel HIT other cars and caused them to crash (one completely out of the race) and NO INVESTIGATION even! They freaking investigated Grosjean for hitting the boards after Vettel hit his tire and forced him out! But not Vettel!
Verstappen passes car in pit lane driving over mechanics spot, in red flag! No INVESTIGATION even!
FIA is a yoke /Alonso