I love Max's aggressive style but Max got himself ahead by carrying so much speed into the corner and at an extreme angle which forced Lewis off. Everyone seems to have forgotten that you have to leave room for your opponent, not just stay within lines and force them off. Max initiated a move that meant he could never leave room for Lewis. That's also how the stewards took it and so allowed it, but to say Red Bull took it like gentlemen? The only reason they aren't still bleating on about it is the end result. Horner has never taken anything as a gentlemen in his life. Hamilton took the result like a gentlemen afterwards and I think earned a lot of respect from people when emotions will have been running high. Mercedes, I believe rightly complained and appealed as the decision at the end was a farce, and as far as I know, unprecedented in terms of its interpretation of the rules.
I actually don't blame Red Bull, Horner or Verstappen....The blame is squarely on the shoulders of the incompetence of the Race Director. Even for an armchair spectator like me, you can see instantly this isn't the right way to decide a major world championship. To have a sprint finish with one person on the right tyres is clearly not fair, especially when he held a 13 second lead and had 4 cars between him and Max. How can that be allowed to happen.
If red bull could’ve directed the race and safety car, this is exactly what they’d have done. And they’d still be complaining about it if it was the other way around
Somebody said on GMTV this morning that a footballing equivalent would be a team being 2-0 in injury time. A player gets injured and after treatment, play restarts then the referee says 'Next goal wins!'
There will be an asterisk next to Verstappens name when it comes to this Championship...which is sad for the kid....but he didn't win it fair and square
My earlier post about a football analogy... the wrong refereeing decision, would certainly (being football has previous) have been put down to, personal bias, corruption or bribery... I do wonder about this 'race director' might be found wanting in a similar way? 24 hours later i still cannot see how he thought the decision he made was fair and good for racing. Frankly he needs to quit or be sacked.
Lewis was classy as ****, but it’s a disgrace. He was faster than Max on slower tyres at the start, he was faster in the middle, and he had won the race at a canter, to then effectively have it reset to favour Red Bull, after they announced ‘cars not to pass’ then changed it 300 yards before the end of the final lap. What is clear is that Max ain’t no Lewis. Had a faster car all season and only won it because the FIA gifted him it. Max won’t go after Lewis titles, cos mark my words Russell will dominate him in a fast car. On the first lap, Max was not making that corner, he was straight on until Lewis moved and he’d have taken Lewis out and won under a disgrace that way instead.
Not in my eyes. Verstappen done nowt wrong and can't be blamed for the horrendous decision making by the officials
Yep... I do not blame Mad Max... in my football analogy, its not the penalty takers fault the referee has given the pen. He could have missed if course... or in Mad Max's case not overtaken Lewis!
Don't follow the sport personally, always tried to get into it when younger but it doesn't do anything for me. That said, for the sake of sheer competitiveness, I was hoping Max would win. That said, sounds like the institution have ****ing ruined an entire year's worth of racing with one decision. Mental.
Hamilton very magnanimous but he did say on his radio “this race has been manipulated. not heard the last of it I don’t think either https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...u-dhabi-decision-could-be-overturned-in-court
Bang on mate! My Mrs was doing her nut about Hamilton not being asked to give the position back but after Turn 4 at Brazil what the **** were Red Bull expecting...they've been banging on about being left to race and that's exactly what happened but because they felt hard done by they kick up a stink....****ing arse clowns. Max slapped a 2nd set of hards on when the VSC was triggered and even after that cleared he wasn't clearing the gap to hamilton at the rate required 0.8 sec's a lap....i think he was somewhere between 0.1 and 0.5 a lap quicker and was still 11 seconds behind with 6 or so laps to go when Latifi stuck it in the wall. Out of all of the possible options available to the FIA, they picked the only one which would see Max winning the race. A decision reached after :- 1. Max pits for soft tyres (Lewis couldn't as it would have meant giving away position....the world championship was theirs to lose) 2. Informing teams (and the public) that lapped cars would not be allowed to unlap themselves - i.e. most likely meaning that Hamilton would hold on for the win 3. Horner Spice complains to Michael Masi about lapped cars not being allowed to unlap themselves and wanting "1 lap of racing" So rather than follow the rule book, as has been done after every safety car period (other than during a wet race) whereby lapped cars are allowed to unlap themselves with the safety car returning to the pits the following lap after they (the now unlapped cars) have rejoined the back of the grid....which is done for safety reasons I have to add here, the race director decides to let the lapped cars unlap themselves. The madness did not stop there tho. So Horner Spice gets his wish for the cars inbetween his driver (Max) and Lewis to be moved out of the way....but none of the other lapped cars are permitted to pass the safety car. That is Mercedes' beef with it all.....you can't have half measures and just change the rules because it's the last race of the season. You either apply the rules, which would have meant all lapped cars pass the safety car and join the back of the grid at which point the safety car comes in to the pits at the end of the following lap.....which would have meant the race finishing behind the safety car, or the original instruction stands (i.e #2 from the above). Max has scored massively in the last two races with safety cars which has effectively won him the title, so it smacks of sheer hypocrasy when he comes out with comments like, "this is not F1 racing" and that races are being won/decided by stewarding decisions....well that all worked out quite ****ing nicely for him didn't it! Shame he couldn't have won it on track as I would have had a hell of a lot more respect for him. Gutted for Hamilton, not because I'm a Hamilton fan or because he lost out, more to do with the manner in which he lost out. I hope Merc rinse the ****ers in court for this, purely and simply from the aspect of things needing to be changed.....if Max is stripped of his World Championship then so be it....it was never his up until lap 57.
Not a fan of either as “people “ but wanted Lewis to win simply because the authorities seemed desperate for Max to win. Wanted it decided by a race not by a stupid decision to make it all about the last lap. Imagine being 3-0 up in a game, 89 minutes on the clock abd them saying “next goal wins”. That is effectively what happened here. Nothing to do with the race as Hamilton was 12 seconds ahead with 5 laps to go. Max wouldn’t have ever caught that up.
