**** me how Russell drags that Williams around with how stiff it is is beyond me EDIT- and Latifi! Hope the team start on a better footing in the new regs
Oh god. Why. Croft you never listen to anyone. Need to turn them up. Horner: actually we cant turn anything up. It's the rules. Croft in an arrogant side comment: give them a heavier boot. Like, does he ever listen to anyone or actually read the rules.
Croft repeats it in q2 which totally ignores perez hasnt improved at all and says verstappen is in effect cheating. Total chump.
Mazaspin seemed genuinely upset he made a mistake. Not seen him interviewed very often and always thought he didn't seem emotional and looked like a 'Russian baddy' in a bond film but he genuinely looked unhappy with himself!
Absolute pellet the bloke is, doesn’t belong in the commentary box whatsoever and is utterly saved by the intelligence around him.
Maximised the return though not quite sure they had to push it in q2 and q1 so hard but bottas hasnt backed him up so verstappen will take this as pole for race plus minimised damage for sprint. It'll be interesting to see if verstappen pushes it in turn 1 here.
From the BBC "Towards the back, George Russell was out-qualified by Williams team-mate George Russell for the first time in their three years together, the Canadian taking 17th, just 0.056secs ahead of the Briton, who was 18th." Must get a bit confusing in the Williams pit.
Indeed, the risk reward balance now is super fine. That said, a Lewis DNF or double DNF for them both is basically like Max running down a clock so let’s see! Think Max will drive a very steady second place in the sprint myself unless V-Bot remembers how to nail a start and give Max a nightmare!
Well well. With that pace advantage and overtaking being possible here, I'm still hopeful for a good race for Lewis. Bottas really needs to realise that he has absolutely nothing to lose and Max has everything to lose at T1 tomorrow. To be explicitly clear, I don't want him to do anything illegal or ram him off the road, as I want Ham to win fairly if he wins. But surely Max is smart enough now to pick his battles and Bottas should use that to his advantage.
Can see Verstappen leading going into the first corner, he normally nails he's starts but the Mercedes definitely looks the faster car here plus its quicker in a straight line so they should get a 1-2
Hamilton under investigation! DRS might have been opening too far (ie outside of the limit!!) Pit Lane start/back of grid if guilty!!
Does that mean Bottas will start at back as well? Only slight plus point is that Merc could replace all Lewis's PU components, if they have the new spares? Looks like it was a Red Bull protest!! I wonder how they spotted the flap opening a couple of mm too much, I thought they were no longer allowed high res photos to reduce their copying?
Unless they can show something has broken then this is an easy dsq from quali. The only thing that might save him is pressure from liberty "for the show"
It seems only Hamiltons car and his drs was too far open. If true there's no way his quali can stand but again the Sprints confuse the whole thing. If he starts from pitlane in sprint his final sprint position determines his race position. In short utterly disastrous
It was a technical steward measurement. Unsure if its really a red bull protest specifically but I'd not be shocked if Hamiltons superior speed led to a demand to check the whole car out
They might have another get out to let him race - a couple of the planes carrying all the kit was delayed so certain rules were relaxed like the curfew and the time limit for scrutineering was extended. Think it's a slam dunk though.
