Hamilton has decimated the field in Quali today!! - Needs to win the Sprint Race now as Verstappen will surely start the race from pole and Hamilton is getting a five place grid penalty regardless
Still twists left in this Championship. Mexico has always been a strong track for Red Bull that dominance from last week was unlikely to be repeated again this season. Hamilton doing what he can so far this weekend but needs a bit of luck now with his engine penalty. Bottas needs to get ahead of Verstappen in the sprint and if Hamilton can get a good start on Sunday so he’s close enough to Verstappen that strategy comes into play then he can still win this weekend.
Then we have Qatar and Saudi Arabia to come. Both new tracks that no-one really knows who they will favour, but they are faster tracks and these are usually the types of tracks that Mercedes go well at. It's true that, this season, when tracks have favoured Red Bull the gap to Merc has been bigger, whereas Red Bull have stayed closer to Mercedes at supposedly Mercedes favouring tracks (e.g. Red Bull winning in Austin, and Max ahead of Lewis at Monza and Silverstone until the crashes), but it definitely give Lewis a fighting chance still. If he can get the gap under 14 points after this weekedn, ideally 12 or less to take the fastest lap point out of the question, then he'll be very happy indeed.
That’s torn my earlier comment. Nothing for it now for him other than to get his elbows out and make a few lunges into turn 1.
Seems he’ll get the DRS penalty for the sprint and then get the engine penalty for the race so a double whammy.
I'll be surprised if they let him take the penalty for the sprint race, surely it's going to set a precedent for qualifying then, run an illegal car in Quali, get pole, get punished in the sprint race and get away Scot free in the main race?!
That’s torn my earlier comment. Nothing for it now for him other than to get his elbows out and make a few lunges into turn 1.
Seems he’ll get the DRS penalty for the sprint and then get the engine penalty for the race so a double whammy.
I'll be surprised if they let him take the penalty for the sprint race, surely it's going to set a precedent for qualifying then, run an illegal car in Quali, get pole, get punished in the sprint race and get away Scot free in the main race?!
They really need to tidy up the Sprint Quali rules.
I suppose the other way of looking at it is Hamilton would start at the back today, if he isnt able to make up sufficient positions then he'll start five places further back again tomorrow.
Could almost end up as a double jeopardy punishment for him, as he was saying in the Press Conference yesterday that he feels Brazil is one of the harder tracks to overtake on.
It did look a bit suspicious in the video from someone in the crowd. Max playing around with the DRS flap on Hamiltons car. Foul play?
Not saying this is how this will unfold, but theoretically, Verstappen may have inadvertently got Mercedes off the hook, because the car failing the measurement test was after he touched it. They could argue he tampered with it, even though that looks highly unlikely and Mercedes have, almost certainly, simply fucked up.
It did look a bit suspicious in the video from someone in the crowd. Max playing around with the DRS flap on Hamiltons car. Foul play?
Not saying this is how this will unfold, but theoretically, Verstappen may have inadvertently got Mercedes off the hook, because the car failing the measurement test was after he touched it. They could argue he tampered with it, even though that looks highly unlikely and Mercedes have, almost certainly, simply fucked up.
Yeah to be fair it would be hard to tamper with it as they are designed to withstand heavy weight. Hopefully it gets Hamilton off the hook. Karma for max being a complete tosser anyway.
Extremely unlikely that Verstappen tampered with Hamilton’s wing, I would’ve thought. Maybe Red Bull already had an idea that it opened too far and told him they would be reporting it (I know that’s not what has been said happened). Also, didn’t Verstappen’s rear wing break recently? Perhaps just doing a compare and contrast?
He does look shifty but hard to see what he could’ve done to a pretty strong piece of body with just his hands and in a couple of seconds.
Without a better video, what can they do? It's inconclusive that he actually properly touched the rear wing, based on that video.
"Max, did you touch the car?"
"No, I lined my fingers up close to it to measure the gap of the slot because it looked bigger than ours"
"Do you know you can't touch the cars as they are in parc ferme conditions"
"Yes, I didn't touch the car"
End of conversation
Mercedes to the back of the grid, Max given a reprimand and a fine for inspecting an opponent's car in parc ferme conditions, is what I expect to happen
Seems a reasonable outcome. As I said, I highly doubt Verstappen actually did anything to Hamilton’s car other than touch it so a grid penalty or similar would’ve been unfair.
Was an inevitable outcome unless the original measurement was somehow shown to be inaccurate. Massive balls up by Merc that bar a miracle or a DNF for Verstappen will pretty much end the championship fight. Would be a hugely anticlimactic end to what has been an absolute classic of a season up to now.
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Last seen with Bono in the Samalayuca dune fields.
Just imagine Horner's outrage - mind you, he would blame Toto if Max slid off with no other cars near him.
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/formula-one/london-grand-prix-newham-royal-docks-b965343.html
Only the second time since 2018 when he was in F2 that Russell has been beaten by a team mate at this stage.
Another cock up from Merc - it’s almost like they don’t want to win this year. Catalogue of errors and surely that’s the title gone.
Seems he’ll get the DRS penalty for the sprint and then get the engine penalty for the race so a double whammy.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/verstappen-to-face-f1-stewards-over-brazilian-gp-qualifying-parc-ferme-incident/6775559/
I suppose the other way of looking at it is Hamilton would start at the back today, if he isnt able to make up sufficient positions then he'll start five places further back again tomorrow.
Could almost end up as a double jeopardy punishment for him, as he was saying in the Press Conference yesterday that he feels Brazil is one of the harder tracks to overtake on.
😂😂
He does look shifty but hard to see what he could’ve done to a pretty strong piece of body with just his hands and in a couple of seconds.
Instead they're going to have to fit another one to Hamilton's car instead whilst we wait for the decision.
Be awkward if Hamilton goes even faster
"Max, did you touch the car?"
"No, I lined my fingers up close to it to measure the gap of the slot because it looked bigger than ours"
"Do you know you can't touch the cars as they are in parc ferme conditions"
"Yes, I didn't touch the car"
End of conversation
Mercedes to the back of the grid, Max given a reprimand and a fine for inspecting an opponent's car in parc ferme conditions, is what I expect to happen
Starts at the back of the Sprint race, so if he doesnt make up five places he starts at the back tomorrow as well
Fighting a losing battle against a 2.5 year old wanting Cocomelon....