Max Verstappen has won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, leading the race from start to finish and easily controlling the Mercedes duo. Valtteri Bottas finished 15s down on the Red Bull, Hamilton completes the podium in third place.
Well it’s nice to see a shake up in the order of things and Red Bull being the strongest car for a weekend, but this really has been the dullest race of the season perhaps by a distance.
How many overtakes have we actually had? Less than the 28 last year?
Perez's breakdown and early SC killed the race. Locked everyone into a tyre preserving strategy and robbed us of the only car who would be able to charge late race on a contra strategy to most of midfield. Stroll is completely useless.
I really blame Mercedes for this boring race for not showing a little teeth and the willingness to be courageous in trying an alternative strategy when they followed Verstappen into the pits. Seemed like they were just happy to “protect Bottas 2nd in the WDC with as little risk as possible”.
Not a happy Mercedes fan today. I feel robbed.
/end rant
Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II #Team44 supporter
So detuned that they outdragged RB16 on both long straights, and the corners implying the Mercedes is carrying more drag and more downforce. I wish I could detune my engine to let me run MORE downforce and still be faster on the straights.
So Honda is likely more powerful than Mercedes in today's race. At least in MGUK deployment. If a Mercedes wins I want no more excuses about power advantage OK, bull boys?
To be fair, we need a three wheeled RB puncture experiment with max driving before we can meet your level of analysis.