Muy buenos a todos,
not much of a contributor but I have to admit, that yesterdays race got the emotions a little higher than usual. And I read some very good posts above I'd like to comment on.
My first reaction was a deep feeling of unfairness towards Verstappen and a usually subtle bias pro Mercedes and Lewis. Irregardless of the sport I feel there is always a bit of subtle and subconscious, but very much present, bias towards the icons / prominent teams of the sport.
But I have to admit that upon reflection I am very much in the camp of
scbriml wrote: [...]
and
astuteman wrote: [...]
. Verstappen should have taken the long term view of things for a) the race itself and b) the championship.
Verstappens defense in lap 1 was borderline with him pushing Hamilton to the wall actually over the border of "hard but fair" racing in my opinion. I don't share the Rookie comments though, otherwise Alonso should have been target of the same comments after F1 Sprint on Saturday.
Verstappen needs to learn that he can only bully himself through if he is in for race wins. If he is in for the championship, some balance adjustment is needed.
It would have been an easy P2 for him worst case and a >50% probability for P1 if he would have just backed out a bit at turn 9. I am not even convinced Hamilton would have completed the overtake even with Max going a bit wide.
As others have said, with a superior car and 32 points up you can afford quite some P2s before you need to take more risk.
Learn and grow Max and you are in for a superb career.
With regards to Lewis: yes, his trajectory wasn't exactly apex, but going into a 280kph turn missing the apex by 10cm thats hardly something you can blame him for, especially off the racing line. Hence, I tend to view it as a racing accident both drivers could have avoided but weren't willing to. Bad luck for Max, a bit too much good luck for Lewis for my taste. I would have liked for them to both end in gravel. Would have done wonders for the coming races finding the balance, Lewis stresses must be found.
That said, I don't like, and never did like, his arrogant attitude. He obviously knew Max is in hospital. No chance nobody told him. And with all of Lewis' applaudable effort to bring disadvantaged people into societies focus, a little reservation during celebrations certainly wouldn't have hurt his credibility.
No words for Toto and Christian. Old whiny white guys.