Formula 1

[mbamber]

Hamilton just matched Ayrton Senna's record for pole's and the Senna Family have arranged for a presentation of one of his race helmets very nice gesture and I think it got to Louis a little bit !  

[Kim Jong Il]

27 minutes ago, mbamber said:

Hamilton just matched Ayrton Senna's record for pole's and the Senna Family have arranged for a presentation of one of his race helmets very nice gesture and I think it got to Louis a little bit !  

Yes,my mistake. Hamilton has not matched the all time pole record but he has matched Senna's number of poles. Schumacher still holds the outright record with 68  so 3 more to go for Lewis.

[mbamber]

15 minutes ago, Kim Jong Il said:

Yes,my mistake. Hamilton has not matched the all time pole record but he has matched Senna's number of poles. Schumacher still holds the outright record with 68  so 3 more to go for Lewis.

I am sure he will do it. That last lap of his was fantastic.

[Edge]

Should be worth watching to the first corner anyway.

[Kim Jong Il]

Interesting race!

Hamilton made a good start to hold first place into the first corner but Verstappen makes a blistering start to go from 5th to second......taking a little bit off Vettel's front wing in the process. This means Vettel will have to make an unscheduled stop on lap 5.

Unfortunately Verstappen's car gives up not too many laps later due to a battery problem.

Big crash between turns 2 and 3 on the first lap see Massa and Sainz retire and the safety car out.

From here on fairly steady at the front but things warm up with about 10 laps to go. Raikonnen is in front of Vettel at this point but his brake by wire system develops a mind of its own which sees him go off the track, rejoin but allows Vettel to go past. From this point on any hope Kimi had disappears. 

Spirited drive by Vettel sees him pass both of the Force India's but he cannot catch Ricciardo so finishes 4th.

Team of the day looks like Force India, but I think some bad team orders spoil their day really and probably cost them places and points when, if they had swapped their drivers round, they could possibly have sneaked that 3rd place.

Alonso in the points until a couple of laps from the end and guess what......engine gives up, how surprising. 

 

[Kim Jong Il]

Next round......Baku, Azerbaijan. 

Fridays practise sessions saw Verstappen fastest in both sessions as well as a fair few drivers using the run off zones as tyre warm up seemed to be an issue for a lot of teams.

Saturdays free practise had Bottas the quickest as well as a few incidents....Palmer's engine caught fire which excluded him from qualifying, Verstappen had hydraulic problems and Vettel had an a water leak which, I think, required an engine change back to his old engine.

Onto qualifying and Q1 and Q2 had no surprises.

In Q3 there was a red flag towards the end of the session when Ricciardo clipped the wall. At the time Bottas was on provisional pole and Hamilton's even quicker lap had to be abandoned. When quali started again there was only time for one quick lap...and it was Hamilton who pulled it out of the bag.

So we start with the Merc's on the front row followed by the Ferrari's of Raikonnen and Vettel. Verstappen will start from the 3rd row but look out for another quick start from him!

Both Mclaren's will start at the back after taking heavy grid penalties for engine parts being changed. Alonso takes a 40 place penalty and Van Dornne takes a 35 place penalty. It must surely be coming very close to the time when Mclaren tell Honda to do one and switch to a customer engine from, probably, Mercedes.

Trivial information. Baku is the largest city in the world which is below sea level.

Hope for a good race tomorrow but I seem to think last years race was a bit processional....correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Magic040]

Excited to see Verstappen in a Mercedes/Ferrari next season because Red Bull can't get their shit together.

[mbamber]

Well 3 Safety cars & a Red flag not even half way through the race yet.

[Edge]

Boxing?

[mbamber]

4 minutes ago, Edge said:

Boxing?

Vettel & Hamililton

Occon & Perez

Sainz & Kyat

Should be fun 

[mbamber]

This is bizarre Perez & Raikkonen cars repaired & back in the race. 

[Edge]

Actually got a bit exciting.

[Kim Jong Il]

Sounds like the most interesting race of the year and I missed it.

Why oh why did the wife arrange for friends to come for a late lunch today!

I'll have to try and see the highlights....just as well I don't know the result.

[mbamber]

8 minutes ago, Kim Jong Il said:

Sounds like the most interesting race of the year and I missed it.

Why oh why did the wife arrange for friends to come for a late lunch today!

I'll have to try and see the highlights....just as well I don't know the result.

There is a Shock to the race nothing bad I wonder will guess what I mean. 

[Kim Jong Il]

Wow, just watched the 60 minutes highlights on sky.

More like stock cars at times.

Can imagine Lewis is well peed off over the headrest....cost him a lot of points in the end.

Well done the top 3 for just keeping at it, just shows you should never give up.

I wonder what odds the bookies would have given on that result, probably put a pound on and retire from the winnings!

[Edge]

Vettel should have got a black flag for that IMO.

German + Fellali = different rules.

[mbamber]

8 minutes ago, Edge said:

Vettel should have got a black flag for that IMO.

German + Fellali = different rules.

FIA =  Ferrari International Assistance.

 

[Palaeojeo]

Hamilton does a break test on Vettel who loses his temper and bangs into Hamilton, not un-save at that speed, stupid, unsporting, yes, and he deserved the 10 sec stop and go. However why did F1 not conceder Hamilton's Break test dangerous, or just plain unsporting and penalize him also. I think its racism, this need to elevate the dark skinned man and penalize the light skinned man. What happened was all wrong, both of them where guilty and both should have been penalized. 

[Edge]

12 minutes ago, Palaeojeo said:

Hamilton does a break test on Vettel who loses his temper and bangs into Hamilton, not un-save at that speed, stupid, unsporting, yes, and he deserved the 10 sec stop and go. However why did F1 not conceder Hamilton's Break test dangerous, or just plain unsporting and penalize him also. I think its racism, this need to elevate the dark skinned man and penalize the light skinned man. What happened was all wrong, both of them where guilty and both should have been penalized. 

I saw that Hamilton didn't accelerate as per Vettel's 'demands', but do we know for a fact that he braked?

Vettel made a bad mistake, lost control of his temper.(AKA road rage).and drove dangerously, deliberately running into Hamilton.
That's what I saw anyway.

Vettel should have had a Black Flag at the least....Schuey would have been proud of him.

Your racist slant is not only silly, but perhaps you should check PA's Rules before playing that card.

[mbamber]

29 minutes ago, Edge said:

I saw that Hamilton didn't accelerate as per Vettel's 'demands', but do we know for a fact that he braked?

Vettel made a bad mistake, lost control of his temper.(AKA road rage).and drove dangerously, deliberately running into Hamilton.
That's what I saw anyway.

Vettel should have had a Black Flag at the least....Schuey would have been proud of him.

Your racist slant is not only silly, but perhaps you should check PA's Rules before playing that card.

I also did not see him slow down a lot he just did not accelerate at a earlier restart Hamiltons team warned him he nearly passed the safety car before it left the track so he had to slow to give it space to leave the track.

[Kim Jong Il]

12 hours ago, mbamber said:

12 hours ago, Edge said:

Vettel should have got a black flag for that IMO.

German + Fellali = different rules.

 

I think the penalty was given not so for much Vettel driving into the back of Hamilton but for his reaction afterwards.

On the replay you can see quite clearly that when Vettel drove up alongside Hamilton to admonish him he clearly turned his cars steering wheel to the right and hit Hamilton's car.

Anyone else would have been black flagged....Ferrari....

[mbamber]

Just now, Kim Jong Il said:

I think the penalty was given not so for much Vettel driving into the back of Hamilton but for his reaction afterwards.

On the replay you can see quite clearly that when Vettel drove up alongside Hamilton to admonish him he clearly turned his cars steering wheel to the right and hit Hamilton's car.

Anyone else would have been black flagged....Ferrari....

Yes agree on both points but the shock was Both McLarens finished the race. 

[Edge]

2 minutes ago, Kim Jong Il said:

I think the penalty was given not so for much Vettel driving into the back of Hamilton but for his reaction afterwards.

On the replay you can see quite clearly that when Vettel drove up alongside Hamilton to admonish him he clearly turned his cars steering wheel to the right and hit Hamilton's car.

Anyone else would have been black flagged....Ferrari....

Agreed.

The rear ending was IMO Vettel's impatience and mistake.

The subsequent sideswipe was pure temper for which he was punished.

Am I right in thinking that the announcement by the stewards about the 10 second stop go only came after Hamilton had been ordered to pit re' his loose headrest?

[mbamber]

2 minutes ago, Edge said:

Agreed.

The rear ending was IMO Vettel's impatience and mistake.

The subsequent sideswipe was pure temper for which he was punished.

Am I right in thinking that the announcement by the stewards about the 10 second stop go only came after Hamilton had been ordered to pit re' his loose headrest?

Yes initially the commentators said it would be dealt with after the race. 

[Kim Jong Il]

Just been reading the BBC race report. They say that the FIA review of all the data showed that Hamilton did not brake test Vettel and that Hamilton's restart of the race was exactly the same as all the other restarts he led.

The next level of penalty above the 10 second stop and go is disqualification. Charlie and his crew, for my way of thinking, have bottled it and let Vettel get away with what is a really a serious issue.

Again, and its just my opinion, Vettel does seem to have some kind of anger management issue. This is not the first time he has reacted to a situation, though he reacts usually with just foul language and hand gestures, and I suspect it won't be the last. Question is how long will he be allowed to get away with it before he causes an accident.

As has been noted previously, Ferrari historically have 'gotten away it' so many times in the past and the trend seems like it will continue.