If that happens I'll eat my Hamilton signature embossed hat! Pretty good race, some good overtakes, but some awful rookie errors weirdly by non-rookies (Gutierrez, what the hell was that?!)... Interestingly cold atmosphere on the podium. No hatchetts buried here folks
Well that coming together in Spa looked like a desperate lunge to me. And then the off today. All signs he knows Ham has him beaten in a wheel to wheel fight.
From the time they told Rosberg Hamilton is catching him and by how many secs per lap you could tell Rosberg was cracking.. Just listen to his nervous reply and his tone of voice.
Interesting fact for the next race: though he has never won it, Rosberg has only failed to beat his team-mate at Singapore once (Nakajima in 2009, mostly because Rosberg had a drive-through). Definitely one of his stronger tracks. I agree with people saying Ricciardo could win (seriously, though his odds will have lengthened this week, I'd go hunting) but he needs Mercedes to hit problems. He's 50 points behind Hamilton at the minute and even with the double points that won't be enough.
Why are people going on about Rosberg going off as if it's deliberate? He's been doing it all season! We've defo discussed it at least twice this year!!!
Yeah, Mercedes forced Rosberg to agree to let Hamilton win the race... ****ing hell Did you not hear him at the end talking about how it was a shame for his side of the garage? I swear sometimes I want another Schumacher/Hill Adelaide 94 moment so that people can understand what actual F1 controversy is supposed to be...
Rosberg simply broke under pressure. Maybe he is stronger mentally of track but once behind the wheel he doesn't handle pressure well. Remember the race earlier when he was under pressure from Hamilton he kept running off the track then it was only after Hamilton overtook him Hamilton brakes failed and he was able to take back the lead. Rosberg cracks under pressure..we have seen this a few times already this season. Seems to me that Hamilton thrives under pressure..as we have seen a few times this season as well.
yeah lewis has had to bounce back so many times this season.nico is quick,but lacks race craft.its strange they told lewis to stay 2.5 seconds behind,if he had done as told,nico would have won instead.
Ricciardo is showing Alonso-esque levels of racecraft at the moment. He manages to make all these moves, without ever losing a piece of his front wing, without any contact at all, all while managing to get good mileage from his tyres. Pretty special from him. And he never looks reckless, his moves tend to be late, yet somehow controlled at the same time.
The truth is I didn't really understand the 2.5 seconds message maybe a trick from Hamilton side of the garage to out fox Rosberg. But I couldn't see that happening since Hamilton was miles quicker all weekend on the harder tyre. And he was also getting his tyres last longer. So I knew once he switch to the hard tyre he would have swamped Rosberg and I think that is what Rosberg was afraid of. If only Hamilton wasn't bogged down with that electrical problem at the start he might have heated Rosberg by at least 15 seconds. He was on Rosberg's tail before the pitstop and that was after dropping back to 4th place because of the electrical problem, then had a very slow lap before the pitstop or he would have come out I front of Rosberg. Yet he was able to open an almost 5 second gap on Rosberg and Rosberg never looking like coming close. I think at the end Hamilton just decided to cut back on power because He knew it was impossible for Rosberg to catch him at more than a second a lap.
Ham is doing everything the doubters said he couldn't this year, thinking for himself and making tactical decisions on track, and thriving under the pressure.
Worth noting though that both Merc drivers do have the luxury of an insanely brilliant car. I know a lot of people give Vettel stick for winning titles in a dominant car, yet the Mercedes duo seem to have both got off pretty scott-free from the fans, despite the Merc being a lot better than the Red Bull's of the past few seasons.
I heard a very interesting remark from Hamilton when they asked him about who has the mental advantage and asked if the off moment from Rosberg was a defining moment. Hamilton spoke about when he was catching Rosberg pretty quickly after the team told him about maintaining a gap to preserve the tyres. He said Rosberg had an in interesting reaction to the pressure. Lol when they asked of Rosberg cracked he just said well he had a very interesting reaction. Lol.
Vettel had no real competition from within his own team though, so no-one capable of beating him consistently. At least it's a two way battle this year. I agree though, if the Merc domination continued for several seasons I think we would start to see more of a backlash. I don't think that long-term domination will happen though.
Not sure how to start a new thread, but thought i'd drop this in here for people to see it. https://twitter.com/adam_s_parr/status/508624381158125568 Adam Parr ‏@adam_s_parr This is the last year of F1 as we know it. In 2015 eight teams will contest the championship, with several teams entering three cars. 3:34 PM - 7 Sep 2014
