2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Imola, Apr 16 - 18

[MKlaus]

George needs to be careful, as lando could easily take his future Mercedes seat.

He's already in a faster car, and thus has more chances of showing what he's capable of!

Agree with that. I like him but he’s done himself no favours in or out of the car today.

hearing what toto said, he believes it's 60/40 between the two and the footage shows, bottas moved to right just a tad, enough to spook george and in a split second george needed to react. it was a typical "verstappen move" by bottas which was banned in 2015 and later drivers agreed to not do it. once again, george lost out from points scoring position. these opportunities don't come often in williams and he had go for it. bottas was needless to defend that position.

[PlatinumZealot]

Great damage limitation, Octo-God. Squared in the championship now. Back at zero.

How about, loosing a car for a second race in a row?

Max did the same too. In Max's off he just happened to be on the inside of the turn.

So what are you saying now?

[godlameroso]

Hamilton is a point ahead, he got the fastest lap.

[godlameroso]

It depends if you have the ability to be objective or not. Some of us do!

Ironically, such a statement would likely also be made by the other team if the tables were turned. Maybe it would be nice to just accept most people here can be objective, and use that as a starting point in a discussion, instead of accusing one another of irrationality?

You’ve just completely contradicted yourself with that post.

Only if you assume you can remain objective, however it's a fairy tale.

[e30ernest]

Another exciting race! Verstappen won this on merit. I think the Mercedes in Hamilton's hands was probably quicker than the Red Bull in this track, but by taking track position at the start, Lewis would have had a hard time passing Max. His chance was on that pitstop but that ended up badly.

Lewis was really lucky here. His teammate's misfortune meant he wasn't a lap down. And the restart helped bunch up the field so he can have a chance to claw his way back to 2nd. Amazing run by Lewis still though. Yes he got lucky, but he made full use of that opportunity to pretty much mitigate all the damage his mistake had done.

Lando deserved that spot. Amazing drive from him. So happy to see him getting results. Whatever happened to Daniel though?

It's almost like the teammates of the top 3 were driving different cars. They were nowhere.

As for Russel vs Bottas, I think it was both their fault. I think when Russell saw Bottas in front, he felt he definitely needed to try for a pass to prove his place in the Merc team, while Bottas seeing Russell in his rear-view thought he had to defend at all costs. I'm afraid this race would be the race that lost Bottas his Mercedes seat. Mercedes in a tight championship cannot afford to have one of their drivers languishing in the midfield.

Good result for the Ferraris. I wonder if Sainz was told not to pass Leclerc. It seemed to me Sainz had more pace towards the end.

Can't wait for the next race. This championship is looking so good!

[El Scorchio]

Who said it should have been a VSC, the issue is the resetting of the field. Andreas Seidl wasn't happy about losing that place to Hamilton. HAM fans should just be happy Bottas and Russell caused an incident that played into Hamilton's hand. If there was no accident then Hamilton wouldn't be 1 point in the championship lead now would he!

Thank you for stating the obvious.

Strangely, I didn't see anyone complain about the red flags at Mugello, or the VSC when VET won in Australia 2018 thanks to it.

Some people can be dense, like not understanding that some flawed rules sometimes are exploited, you know, like track limits and free unlapping during red flags.

100% when the same ‘flawed rules’ benefit a driver of a Honda powered car you’ll suddenly have zero problem with any of it.

[oT v1]

Just wanted to add I think Sky need to lay off the Mazapin hate, the guy not might be good enough for F1 (and in general a bit of a twat) but he’s just a rookie. Give him a break.

[PlatinumZealot]

The Ferrari's were looking pretty quick today. Perez was also doing a good show but for those mistakes. He seems to be focusing too much on Max and not on the road in front of him.

[dxpetrov]

Again, cannot fkn believe how much luck this guy gets in his life.... There is no end to it! No DNF since 2018.

[godlameroso]

Who said it should have been a VSC, the issue is the resetting of the field. Andreas Seidl wasn't happy about losing that place to Hamilton. HAM fans should just be happy Bottas and Russell caused an incident that played into Hamilton's hand. If there was no accident then Hamilton wouldn't be 1 point in the championship lead now would he!

Thank you for stating the obvious.

Strangely, I didn't see anyone complain about the red flags at Mugello, or the VSC when VET won in Australia 2018 thanks to it.

Some people can be dense, like not understanding that some flawed rules sometimes are exploited, you know, like track limits and free unlapping during red flags.

F1 is just as political as it is about actual racing, Hamilton is a champion, and a champion will maximize every single circumstance to his advantage. That's what makes him a champion, he's still a point ahead of Verstappen and finished second because he has the speed and exploited the circumstances to his advantage. It shows you what a worthy foe Verstappen is racing and why he cannot afford to take his foot off the gas, it has to be maximum attack all season long, as Hamilton will use EVERYTHING in his attempt to get number 8. Those 20 seconds felt like tenths to me.

[f1316]

People keep saying good race for Ferrari and that they should be happy but without the Russell/Bottas crash Leclerc had a nailed on 2nd place in the bag - he was WAY ahead of Perez and even further ahead of Norris. It’s a fine result given where there were last year but Leclerc didn’t get the benefit from the big gap he pulled out to those behind him in the wet and really deserved a podium.

[214270]

Davidson nailed the analysis on the BOT/RUS incident. No jink to the right from BOT, it’s really the kink in the track making it look like BOT moved to the right. If anything as Davidson showed, BOT moved to the left.

[dans79]

Davidson nailed the analysis on the BOT/RUS incident. No jink to the right from BOT, it’s really the kink in the track making it look like BOT moved to the right. If anything as Davidson showed, BOT moved to the left.

If telmetry shows bottas just went straight or even veered slightly to the left, George is going to feel like a fool for his actions and his words.

[El Scorchio]

Ironically, such a statement would likely also be made by the other team if the tables were turned. Maybe it would be nice to just accept most people here can be objective, and use that as a starting point in a discussion, instead of accusing one another of irrationality?

You’ve just completely contradicted yourself with that post.

I dont think i have; unfortunate you read it that way. I am just saying saying the objectivity- asymmetry you are implying does not exist, in my view.

What you appear to be saying is that we should all try to accept people as objective, right after saying people wouldn’t be objective had this unfolded the other way round.

I agree it would be nice if people were objective but realistically most aren’t, whether it’s by a little or a lot.

Whinging about red flags and race restart procedures in the race today is the exact opposite of objective. People have the absolute right to say they are annoyed that a driver they don’t want to do well or don’t support got extremely lucky with how the race unfolded and I think everyone would respect that, but to try and mask that by claiming the rules are stupid or unfair or were not followed properly is just a bit silly. All the procedures were followed correctly.

[proteus]

At least Hamilton got the overtakes done, unlike Bottas!

Valtteri actually did half of the work for him. If there would be no crash with Russell, Lewis would have much more work to do and possibly would not see the second place, not even a podium.