Grand Prix thread Official NOT606 Spanish GP Chat and Predictions

he knew if Rosberg led at the end of the lap, he would not be able to overtake. We saw how bad it was with Ferrari/RBR, Merc v Merc would have had no chance of an overtake.

 

No need to apologise to me. I've not said it was Rosberg's fault. I can see exactly why he did it. Hamilton had to make a split second decision because of his closing speed as to what side of Rosberg he went. In hindsight, he may have had the momentum to go to the outside and try and sweep past, but Nico could have moved back over and squeezed him a bit to the outside.

He made a racing drivers move, and it didn't work, Rosberg didn't yield (he had no reason to as was ahead) and off they both went. Will either of them learn from it, I doubt it. They're racing drivers.

On the assumption it will be an all Merc front row at Monaco, could be an interesting run to the first corner!

 

Given last 2 weeks discussion about Kvyat, any driver divides opinion.

 

I agree that no action was the correct decision, I think what is key to this is that Hamilton effectively lost control once on the grass and this lead to the accident, if he'd been on Tarmac outside the track limits they wouldn't have crashed, although presumably the pass would have been illegal.

I'd suggest however that Hamilton was slightly more in the wrong, in the sense that he was the one who could have backed out once he realised that he was driving into a closed wedge rather than continuing onto the grass as he approached a braking area. I think this is what Lauda meant when he said it was "too aggressive", in that, by continuing onto the grass Hamilton had put himself in a no win situation, where he could never make turn 4.

History shows us that Merc have favoured Hamilton in such situations. For example they blew the Spa issue up as much as possible, but have played this down as much as possible. I'd suggest the internally they agree with Lauda's assessment and have suggested that Hamilton plays the percentages slightly better going forward. Hamilton's more apologetic tone, compared to Rosberg's, would seem to back this up.

 

I'd have to watch it again, but I think by the time the door was shut there were two options left for Hamilton. The grass, or straight in to the back of Rosberg. Neither particular fantastic options.

 

Or use the brake pedal

 

Just had chance to take a look again... Once he commits to the move and Rosberg defends, there's not a whole lot of backing out or changing plan that he could do. Too late at that point to go anywhere other than grass.

 

It reminds me of his incident with Kobayashi back in 2011 in Spa. Or with Bottas in Brazil 2013. Very similar if I can remember from my hazy memory.

 

Apparently Hamilton has taken the blame.

 

Fair play if he has. Wonder whether it will change his mindset with Rosberg going forwards.

 

Yeah its good that it settles the debate. Mindset shouldnt be a problem with Lewis. He came back from his 2011 season which is probably him at his worst.

 

From what I read, he apologized to the team but hadn't so much taken responsibility for the incident. That's not usually something racing drivers like to do, even when they're blatantly in the wrong.

I guess it will all come out in the wash over the coming days.

 

Interesting parts being tested on the Williams. All illegal but a head start on 2017 down force levels

 

If he has then that's very impressive - but from his reaction in the car and his explanation in the post race interview - I think that he felt it was his mistake. Nico's reaction in the pen after it was deemed a racing incident indicated he was unhappy with the decision - given his high at the moment I took that to be a sign of serious irritation. Whether that was down to the team not backing him outright (as they did Lewis in Spa) or the stewards decision - who knows?

 

Might be peeved at himself too. It was ultimately his mistake that got him in the position to have to defend against Hamilton there.

 

Raikkonnen should demand his places back for Russia last season, I'm pretty sure he had more than a tiny amount of front wing alongside Bottas, and Spa '14, fairly sure Rosberg was blamed despite having his front wing level with Hamiltons rear as hamilton did his usual nose chop.

I guess it all depends on whose front wing it is

 

He doesn't tend to cope so well when he knows it was his mistake. His confidence in his abilities is so high it's almost like he can't believe it when he does make an error. Manny's point about 2011 is very good, was his worst season for errors and he seemed to let it get to his head. I think he has matured since then so should be able to put it to the back of his mind for the next race, but there is no doubt the pressure is on him to overhaul Rosberg as Nico looks a different driver this year. No unforced errors so far this year, that was his downfall in previous seasons where he handed race wins to Lewis because of mistakes. Lewis needs to apply the pressure again to see how vunerable Rosberg may still be, but until Hamilton sorts his starts out Rosberg will waltz into the distance and win at a canter.

 

If thats a prelude to 2017. Then im out.

 

In my opinion there's a point where, he either has to decide to lift or to go onto the grass. It's a split second decision, where I'm sure factors like, I'm behind in the championship, overtaking is hard here - this might be my only chance, I don't like this bloke, he's making me look bad, I can't believe he got past me again, all contributed to the pressure that meant he kept his foot in and drove himself into a no win situation

 

After the first lap of the 2014 Italian GP, Lewis was 29 points behind Nico and sitting badly to lose even more points in the championship to him with just 7 races to go albeit with the double points scenario in Abu Dhabi. He won that race somehow and went on to win 6 of the last 7 races. I feel that with 16 races and 400 points on offer with a gap of 43 points, there is still hope. But it isn't the championship that is concerning for Lewis, it is the fact he has not won a race since October. I mean in the dominant car that he has that is not good enough. I think although Monaco is not a must win, it really will be interesting to see how Lewis and in a way Nico perform.