Formula 1 Round 21 Saudia Arabia GP

I expect the next race to be the most boring race ever as no drivers will be wanting to overtake anybody.

To what end would Max just decide to give up a position? There’d be no guarantee he’d get it back with DRS. It makes no sense.

Charlie whiting was missed today. No way would he have allowed this mess in terms of communication which we heard at times.

That's what I'm thinking. Abu Dhabi is now the greatest show on earth.

Except for the part where he perfectly slowed down and tailgated Max exactly? https://youtu.be/QS4Z38HhsMc?t=53

Allowed pass? Its a race, if a car in front is slower, surely they don't need permission to pass?

Ah come on, the track isn't narrow at that point. You could drive 2 double deckers up the inside but Hamilton choose not to.

Coming next year. 2022 new rule.

Hazard lights and indicators.

So drivers are aware of others intentions.

Yeah but should it not have been a "Max is being moved to X because he done Y", asking would they accept it sounded so strange. Or...incident with car 44 and car 33 is being investigated and the result is car 33 drops one place.

So to summarise the events of this race:

Hamilton ignores a double waved yellow and is unpunished because the yellow flag was a “mistake” which might make sense as a mitigating circumstance if not for the hefty penalty Verstappen received at the previous race when a rogue Marshall stuck a flag out when there was no actual caution, costing him any opportunity to race for the win there.

Hamilton also nearly causes a massive collision with Mazepin with his dangerous driving, but only gets a reprimand and a fine.

On the first safety car Bottas cheats on behalf of Hamilton to illegally build a gap to allow Lewis a cheap pit stop, this is blatantly against the rules and goes unpunished.

Red Bull focus their attention on strategising rather than finding creative ways to cheat and make a clever tactical decision to stay out given that the barrier would likely need repair, getting first place.

On the our lap for the restart Hamilton blatantly and deliberately cheats by not following the car in front and gaining himself a huge advantage with warm tyres on the restart.

On the restart the telemetry graphics show a quicker reaction time for Max but the warmer tyres Lewis has thanks to his unsportsmanship allows him to get alongside and push Max off at turn one, Max is left with nowhere to go as if he brakes any earlier Bottas hits the back of him and if he turns in any harder Lewis hits him, so he is forced off but manages to get back on track and back into first while Ocon also gets Hamilton too out of turn two. Bottas also goes off at turn one as many others have done, and the precedent is always that you’re allowed to race when pushed off like that on the first lap. However, ignoring precedent, the FIA tell Red Bull they have to give away two places and jump back to third.

Undaunted, they accept this, and Max makes a beautiful restart getting from third to first cleanly while Lewis is busy hitting Ocon.

They then get into a rhythm for most of the race where Max builds up a gap in sector one and Lewis closes back down on the main straight with his fresher more powerful engine but due to Verstappen’s speed in the first part of the lap Lewis can never get close enough to make a move.

However, a miraculously timed Virtual Safety Car in the final third of the race forces them to run at the same speed through the first sector then gives a green light just before the big straight, giving Lewis his best chance of the race to get a run into turn one. Both cars brake late and both cars go off track and both come out of the corner in the same order they went in, but Max is told to hand the place over to Lewis.

He duly complies and slows down but Lewis in a massive feat of stupidity runs into the back of Verstappen, cutting his rear tyre as Red Bull later revealed. Lewis slows right down after the incident and Max pulls away, but he’s asked to give the place back again and has to slow right down again to let Lewis catch up.

After letting Lewis past on the second attempt, he then completely outsmarts him and pulls off an overtake to get into the lead again. However this time, despite the fact he gave Lewis the position twice, he’s additionally given a five second penalty.

At this point the race is effectively over, with Max left to nurse his car home with the damage Lewis had inflicted running into the back of him. And all the shenanigans trying to let Lewis past, in addition to the five second penalty, means Ocon has closed up and Max can’t pit to get rid of the damaged tyres as there is no longer space, so he’s left to take second and can’t go for fastest lap either.

Unsurprisingly, the fans comfortably vote Verstappen as driver of the day and those at the track boo Lewis for another dishonestly stolen win post race.

Then a couple of hours after the race, just for a laugh, the stewards slap another penalty on Verstappen for the fact that Lewis ran into the back of him

You couldn’t make it up, so many utterly and totally inexplicable decisions at every point that it’s hard to contemplate as anything other than pure race fixing, looking like they’re deciding the championship outcome in race control rather on track.

Nah. This thread is toxic, 3 or 4 posters who hate Hamilton constantly stinking the place up with stupid irrational diatribes.

But next week should be good, I just hope it gets won or lost by the two of them racing, and not something inane like safety cars being the difference or some other driver taking them out.

Euro news saying Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton admits there were times during his superb win at the inaugural Saudi Arabian grand prix when he feared he would be put out of the race by his f****** crazy title rival Max Verstappen.

.

Some of the stuff about Hamilton is ridiculous (The FIA were a shambles yesterday for the most part) but absolving him of any blame for this fanciful notion that Max would take him out is equally ridiculous.

You cannot judge a race by what a driver might do, only what a driver has done.

The FIA has basically decided now that the driver who will get the space back essentially gets to choose when that will be. Fine, just apply that consistently in future.

Putting all the shenagins aside and looking at the pace and tactics, it may have been difficult but under a normal racing conditions Red Bull may have had the pace to beat Mercedes yesterday. A mistake in qualifying and wrong tyre choice didn't help Max.

Will both teams turn up the engines to maximum now for last race and risk it for the championship?

Thats why I wonder will the driver in front still get penalised for not giving back the position quickly enough. Or will that rule be removed now.

I think Red Bull and Jos need to take Max away and calm him down and get him back driving the way he got into the lead. His emotions have taken over his driving and instead of looking forward he's to busy looking in his rear window. Hamilton seems to be in his head and could tell that with the restart with his giving out and instead of concentrating at task in hand.

Lets hope it doesn't end up in a crash. Whoever wins next week will be unbearable. Hamilton/Toto will be over coming this that and other. Max/Horner be we've to beat everyone and FIA.

Max, to me, is driving the same as he has all the season. It's not that Hamilton is in his head, it's that the Merc is now faster than the RB. And there's nothing he can do about it.

He can take the lead with impressive starts but ultimately, over the course of a race, he'll struggle to keep the lead. Max and RB will need a lot of luck next week to win.

wow, what a race, the first most exciting race ive seen in years, next weekend is gonna be something else, now this is f1!