Bottas wasnt racing Vettel, he was a pit stop window down in no mans land on neither a 2 stop or a 1 stop - totally compromised. By that notion he was racing Lewis more because he was 6-8 secs down on Seb, so he shouldn't have let him past? For a team that guarantees their drivers will have the same strategy, always pit within 1 lap of each other (unless out of position) they sacrificed his race. I'm just saying that less than 20 ish laps into a race that's a hell of a gamble, risk, sacrifice to make. I'm honest and upfront about the way Merc go racing, don't like it - never have.
It's rare to see Mercedes actually get a strategy right, makes for a nice change. Would have been a 1-3 if Bottas' engine held. About the best the team could have hoped for.
Regardless of pit stops, Bottas was racing Vettel for position. As you say, who knows how things might have panned out.
just seen the first F1 coverage of the weekend for me. Lewis' hair. Wtf? Is he trying out for a 70's Liverpool team? That perm!!??
It would have been plain bonkers for Bottas to let Vettel by without making him – a title contender driving for a different team – fight as hard as possible. This was a race for position, on track. Although he was not challenging for the win this time, Bottas was not some back-marker hoping to avoid being lapped. As has been mentioned, he probably would have got on the podium, but this really is beside the point. It would be totally wrong from any perspective save that of one's opponent (and un-objective, partisan onlookers!) for a racer not to race in order to hang on to a position for as long as possible. All manner of things can go wrong for the challenger, especially when having to drive hard with another car occupying the space you want; not least mis-judging a braking point, flat-spotting tyres, or making the wrong adjustment on the steering wheel, etc. Bringing him in early would only have helped his opponent. The decision was as correct as it was obvious – even to Vettel! Suggesting this was in some way wrong is just plain wrong!
Oofff, not just wrong, plain wrong . Looking forward to Lewis returning the favour to get the best possible result for the team "Merc style". I think Bottas is still waiting for his position back from a few races ago and Nico still wondering why is strategy was screwed by Lewis in Hungry. Can't wait to see Bottas drive round 10 secs off the pace in Monaco All joking aside, Ferrari only have themselves to blame for not pitting under the VSC and I thought Lewis was excellent.
guess you meant favour. That really is the crux of it, isn't it. What will Hamilton do when the roles are reversed, will he amaze everyone and obey, or do as he always has from the very beginning of his F1 career. If, as I suspect, it's the latter, how will Bottas react the next time if the team do what they usually do, make some hot air public statement and carry on as normal. It could all go tits up pretty quickly, Bottas won't roll over to get his tummy tickled like Rosberg, ask Kimi. Personally I don't think Mercedes had any other option than to do as they have, both times Bottas has been off the pace for one reason or another (tyres and clapped out engine)
Bottas did what a racing driver should do, defend his position against a driver from another team as you never know what may happen later in the race. Had Bottas kept running, and say Vettel had to make a further pitstop, then those couple of laps behind him could have made the difference between gaining another place. He certainly was never going to bang wheels with Vettel to keep him behind, but made Vettel work for the place and made him pull off a very neat dummy down the straight. Hamilton had the legs on him and whilst Bottas did not make it difficult to get past by any means, I think DRS would have made the move possible anyway without him lifting a bit on the straight.
Lewis was a like rat up a drain pipe down that straight. Even with DRS he was obscenely fast - Merc still seem to be able to get crazy boost if their donkey.
How the top two got away from 3rd and 4th. Was a heck of a difference in pace considering they should all have pretty good setups for round here. Top 2 over a second a lap quicker than Ricciardo, without the VSC it could have touched 1.5s a lap as I'm guessing Hamilton held back a little once he got ahead.
He probably sh1t himself when he flew past Seb . A lot was made about his fitness after the race which I thought was much about nothing. He's obviously very fit and strong.