Poll: Belgian Grand Prix 2016, Spa-Francorchamps - Race 13/21

[ThestigGT999]

Worked well for old hami!
The yellows and safety and then the red could not have bene more fortuitous !

Well driven, but basically straight lines from both mercs.

Look forward to seeing how much of a mess the hami supporters make over this, no contributions to UK, messing themselves silly.
Probably tactically voting BNP also LOL

quoted for the truth

 

[drunkenmaster]

It isn't his account, it's his fan club.

'Kimi Raikkonen Fan club of the F1 world champion in 2007 with Ferrari. See Our KimiRaikkonenKr7 Collection below:'

It's right at the front of that instagram page.

Anyway apart from the usual suspect I think most agree that there was some reckless driving today. He's got talent but his attitude stinks and it's only a matter of time before it ends in a big incident.

So just a separate question then, is the whole, fake left, cause the guy ahead to defend left, go around on the right a part of racing history. Have people done that since forever, is that not a valid way to race? Did we not discuss if a driver did well and didn't buy a fake but defended to the correct side?

If so, and no one ever complained, and that was all seen as entirely fine, then why is it not okay for Verstappen to wait for Kimi to move and then defend on the side he chooses is appropriate? Why is it on Verstappen to leave space before Kimi gets alongside as long as he's only making one move?

I see a lot of people saying it's dangerous because he blocked him going through.... while he left 3/4 of the track on his left completely clear which Kimi was able to use but instead of switching left he freaked out, got locked in on the idea of staying right and had to slow. Why is it not on Kimi to be ready to react to a defensive move which drivers have been doing without any reproach for the past 50 years? Had Kimi been prepared, adjusted left he'd have passed Verstappen without incident.

 

[MooMoo444]

Had Kimi gone left, Max would have moved over to block him there too most likely, as the left line is the racing line. As he's done previously. It's not sporting to wait for the driver behind to commit and then straight up block them.

 

[Mr Jack]

Funny, some saying Hamilton was lucky, but he was only in this position due to his bad luck at the start of the season. If it wasn't for that he would probably have a few races in hand by now. He needs to build a lead now and I am sure he will.

I don't count a bit of luck against anyone. It's nice when it balances out over a season. You're right that he was in this situation because of bad luck so a bit of good luck balancing it out a bit seems fair to me

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Added poll, so we can rate the race

 

[steve45]

7 for me, enough excitement to keep me thoroughly engaged through the race and a decent result, excitment tailed off towards the end but dont most races? not a classic by any means.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

One of my favourite moments of today...

Race engineer (on radio) : Lewis, huge crash of Renault at turn 1, safety car in, would you like a pit stop?
Hamilton : Is the driver OK?

 

[mjt]

Am I the only one who thinks Vettel turned into Kimi?

Vettel reckons it's Max's fault for blocking Kimi, but Vettel should've gone further before turning, knowing full well there was at least 1 car inside him..

*shrug*

 

[SS-89]

Had Kimi gone left, Max would have moved over to block him there too most likely, as the left line is the racing line. As he's done previously. It's not sporting to wait for the driver behind to commit and then straight up block them.

Agreed, 42 seconds onwards for people who haven't seen it.

Wall of text

I suggest you watch the video above, he didn't leave the left of the track completely clear like you intimate, in fact he hogs the middle as kimi closes and then veers to the right once he sees kimi decide. Fair racing in the past isn't people veering across inches from the front of the car behind.

Some still frame captures from the video above, the last of which is when kimi has to slam on the breaks as he cuts across to avoid a collision due to the closing speed.

Spoiler

Anyway honestly, I can't be bothered to get into it with you as you'll end up writing paragraph after paragraph about how you think you're right. Like I said agree to disagree, I think it's dangerous driving, you don't fair enough.

Am I the only one who thinks Vettel turned into Kimi?

Vettel reckons it's Max's fault for blocking Kimi, but Vettel should've gone further before turning, knowing full well there was at least 1 car inside him..

*shrug*

I think it's a racing incident but if fault has to be applied then the majority goes to Vettel. I understand why he turned in as he wants to get ahead but you have to expect that people might dive down the inside of Kimi.

 

[mjt]

I think it's a racing incident but if fault has to be applied then the majority goes to Vettel. I understand why he turned in as he wants to get ahead but you have to expect that people might dive down the inside of Kimi.

Quite. Not exactly the move I'd expect from a four-time F1 World Champion on the first corner of the first lap of a race

 

[UTmaniac]

I've rated the race quite harshly (5) because...

The race should have been instantly red flagged after Kmag's monster smash at the top of Eau Rouge, we had several wasted laps of safety car, when it was painfully obvious that a major repair of the tyre barrier was needed. IIRC, it also gave Vettel and Kimi a free-ride to unlap themselves under the safety car and then score points after their La Source collision at the start.

Once again, the stewards were painfully passive, at least from how C4 showed the race. Not even an apparent investigation for Vettel turning in on Kimi and Max at T1; Alonso and Hulk's incident on the pit lane exit; Hulk weaving to defend against Alonso; that scary late block up Kemmel by Max against Kimi.

Once again, I think Mercedes/Lewis made bad tyre choice calls for Lewis. Spa is always hard on tyres, sector 2 is brutal on softer compounds, he should have had two fresh sets of mediums for the race (start with one as he did, then another set to use at first change at red flag) and a set of softs to finish the race on. But instead, IIRC, he went med/soft/soft/{used} med, which cost him second in my opinion.

The current rules regarding excess engine component changes are absurd, they serve very little purpose when a driver can fit multiple new sets over a weekend, to be given a 60-place grid penalty for a race of 22 cars and the excess 38-places are not carried over! What's more, because the rule being what it is currently, it made things very dull beyond Hamilton semi-fighting for third towards the end.

I don't like how cars can get a free tyre change under the red flag, it robbed us of a more interesting compound battle yesterday, in my opinion.

I naively thought that Rosberg might be briefly challenged, when he changed to mediums and all the other contenders were on softs at the red flag, but he just sailed off into the sunset.

Spa is my favourite circuit to drive in race-sims, I drive it to death, it is normally my most anticipated race of the F1 calendar. But yesterday's race could not hold my concentration, I was flicking to other Chrome tabs on my pc while live streaming.

 

[deuse]

Well done Hamilton. The FIA should have done something about Maxs very late move to block Kimi. I rated the race 6.

 

[PikeyPriest]

Personally I think the problem with max is when he chooses to make his move. Normally a driver will choose a side (real or fake to pass), the driver in front moves to block that line and then the driver behind either has to switch to the other side to over take it back out.

What max does is wait until the car behind is too close to swap sides and then squeeze them out of track so there is no chance to swap back or do anything. If you don't break you will take off the front of your car and probably spin him out aswell. That movement is the same, the problem is max moves incredibly late intentionally so that the driver behind despite being faster has no option but to back out. Similarly with forcing drivers off at the apex. It runs a very fine line of being acceptable racing and it usually at some of the highest speed areas (due to Drs and the red bull being slower on the straights than corners). If he keeps doing it eventually someone who isn't expecting such a move won't back out in time and will tag the back of his car and I'm not sure you could say max would be without blame were it to happen.

 

[Quartz]

I agree that the race should have been red-flagged earlier, and I would have liked to see them restart from the grid, but overall that was a cracking race.

 

[Twirlywoos]

Max does not need to tone it down. This is not the Schumi, Senna era where wreckless driving was a sign of "talent" and drivers could continuously get away with "bad driving ".

I like his ruthlessness though unlike most of the grid lineup.

 

[smr]

Good race, really annoying that Jenson got hit :/ Great to see how good McLaren are getting now... "He'll be a sitting duck" Yea good one mate!

I can't believe Max didn't get a penalty, if that was Kvyat for instance for a fact he'd have got a penalty. It's as though he's got his own set of rules which apply to him. Bizarre and quite frankly ludicrous.

Looking forward to Monza.

 

[Mark365]

I thought the race was boring and predicable as usual. I score it a 2. The pundits on both Ch4 and SkyF1 said it would be amazing if Lewis finished in the top 10. Honestly, I had to laugh at that one. From Thursday when we heard LH would be starting at the back of the grid, I thought Lewis still has the car for a podium finish. Gotta laugh at these ridiculous rules regarding engine changes, Lewis grabs three new engines and finishes 3rd, a complete and utter joke. Ferrari have lost the plot, I can see another clean out happening in the red stable. They will have there work cut out to catch Red Bull. The fact that there was no action taken against Ferrari for the first corner collision is Monza is next. Ferrari don't do grid penalties at Monza. K Mag was a lucky man and yes the race should have been red flagged after Kevin's huge crash. Red Bull are on the up. Once this whole power unit thing settles down and aero returns as the key ingredient to performance, Red Bull will have the wings to pass Mercedes. Tell you what, the pressure will be on Ferrari at Monza. The Mercedes will run and hide and if both Red Bulls perform, that's the podium locked out for Ferrari.... The pundits promised us a peach of a race at Spa. I thought is was complete and utter boring POO.

 

[Big Spender]

I give it an 8, only because Hamilton didn't win.

 

[timmeh]

I thought the race was boring and predicable as usual. I score it a 2. The pundits on both Ch4 and SkyF1 said it would be amazing if Lewis finished in the top 10. Honestly, I had to laugh at that one. From Thursday when we heard LH would be starting at the back of the grid, I thought Lewis still has the car for a podium finish. Gotta laugh at these ridiculous rules regarding engine changes, Lewis grabs three new engines and finishes 3rd, a complete and utter joke. Ferrari have lost the plot, I can see another clean out happening in the red stable. They will have there work cut out to catch Red Bull. The fact that there was no action taken against Ferrari for the first corner collision is Monza is next. Ferrari don't do grid penalties at Monza. K Mag was a lucky man and yes the race should have been red flagged after Kevin's huge crash. Red Bull are on the up. Once this whole power unit thing settles down and aero returns as the key ingredient to performance, Red Bull will have the wings to pass Mercedes. Tell you what, the pressure will be on Ferrari at Monza. The Mercedes will run and hide and if both Red Bulls perform, that's the podium locked out for Ferrari.... The pundits promised us a peach of a race at Spa. I thought is was complete and utter boring POO.

The fact that there was no action taken against Ferrari at T1 was because it was a standard T1 incident and they're a bit more lenient with those. Not sure what action you wanted to be taken. Drive through penalties for all of them? That would have made the race a 10...

 

[this_is_gav]

It wasn't a bad race, but most of the fun and games was concentrated into the first few laps before and and after the red flag.

I was a bit disappointed in Hamilton. He finished 3rd, which is was an awesome result, but he only overtook 4 cars, and one of those was a Honda.

Charlie's going to have fun with Verstappen in the next drivers briefing. He had a poor race in terms of driving standards, but I thought what he did to Raikkonen on the Kemmel straight was shocking. They nearly had a stratospheric accident there.