Soldato
Nearly impossible to avoid contact if you're trying to go side-by-side through that corner, but it's obviously Vettel's fault. Boxed in behind Raikkonen, a sensible Vettel might have just sat back and waited.
Ultimately Ferrari blew it by only bringing one set of softs for Vettel and two for Raikkonen, then by jumping for the pits at the first opportunity when Mercedes scared them into it - they clearly didn't have a clue how the softs would work, but perhaps that's partly down to the poor weather in the practice sessions.
Excellent race from Hamilton - he's nearing Alonso levels of relentless consistency now. Clearly the faster car on all tyres (grumpy Mercedes complaining in Spa was ******** in the end - his Merc was faster from corner to corner on every straight and on both tyres), and with Vettel out of the question they managed to box Raikkonen in; being stuck behind Bottas didn't help his tyres, but frankly he was going to get passed anyway.
A bit early to call the second half of the season a meltdown as Mercedes were just plain quicker, but it was all a bit messy from Ferrari all round. I feel sorry for Kimi after what has been a couple of brilliant weekends from him.
I was tempted to go with Verstappen for driver of the race after keepimg a Merc behind him and being relatively close to the front at the end, but then he went and did a Verstappen, so it's got to go to Hamilton. A decent recovery from Vettel but it was his fault he needed a recovery in the first place.
As for the 13 people (at time of writing) rating this a 10/10... really? This equals or betters the best race you've ever seen?
As a footnote it struck me that Hamilton might have been stood on that podium slightly regretting signing for Mercedes for what we expect to be the his last contract. He probably feels a final fling in a Ferrari might have been fun with all that support behind him (then he can stop calling every single race's fans the best). Every top driver has to drive for Ferrari at some point and I can't think of any of top tier of all-time greats who didn't drive for Ferrari who's career wasn't ended early. Stewart, Hakkinen and Fittipaldi are the closest I can get, none of who I feel were the best of their eras but most might be in most people's top 10 I suppose.
Ultimately Ferrari blew it by only bringing one set of softs for Vettel and two for Raikkonen, then by jumping for the pits at the first opportunity when Mercedes scared them into it - they clearly didn't have a clue how the softs would work, but perhaps that's partly down to the poor weather in the practice sessions.
Excellent race from Hamilton - he's nearing Alonso levels of relentless consistency now. Clearly the faster car on all tyres (grumpy Mercedes complaining in Spa was ******** in the end - his Merc was faster from corner to corner on every straight and on both tyres), and with Vettel out of the question they managed to box Raikkonen in; being stuck behind Bottas didn't help his tyres, but frankly he was going to get passed anyway.
A bit early to call the second half of the season a meltdown as Mercedes were just plain quicker, but it was all a bit messy from Ferrari all round. I feel sorry for Kimi after what has been a couple of brilliant weekends from him.
I was tempted to go with Verstappen for driver of the race after keepimg a Merc behind him and being relatively close to the front at the end, but then he went and did a Verstappen, so it's got to go to Hamilton. A decent recovery from Vettel but it was his fault he needed a recovery in the first place.
As for the 13 people (at time of writing) rating this a 10/10... really? This equals or betters the best race you've ever seen?
As a footnote it struck me that Hamilton might have been stood on that podium slightly regretting signing for Mercedes for what we expect to be the his last contract. He probably feels a final fling in a Ferrari might have been fun with all that support behind him (then he can stop calling every single race's fans the best). Every top driver has to drive for Ferrari at some point and I can't think of any of top tier of all-time greats who didn't drive for Ferrari who's career wasn't ended early. Stewart, Hakkinen and Fittipaldi are the closest I can get, none of who I feel were the best of their eras but most might be in most people's top 10 I suppose.
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