The Official 2016 Austrian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Dr Z]

Date(s): Friday 01 July - Sunday 03 July 2016

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1, with Channel 4 showing highlights of qualifying and race.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0845	-	0900	1000
Practice 2	Fri	1245	-	1300	1400
Practice 3	Sat	0945	-	1000	1100
Qualifying	Sat	1200	1730	1300	1400
Race	Sun	1130	1800	1300	1400

Red Bull Ring, Spielberg



Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Info such as lap times, PU use, technical reports, stewards decisions etc for the weekend will appear here:

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-ch...

Weather forecast:

https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/10day/l/16666:25...

Day	Comment	High/Low (°C)	Chance of Rain
Fri	Showers	24/14	70%
Sat	Showers	24/14	40%
Sun	Showers	24/13	60%

The tyre choices requested by the teams:



NB: Teams have a choice between two tyre types they must run during this race. Rules are that they must have at least one set from both compounds available for the race. The mandatory tyres are Soft and Super Soft.

2015 Qualifying:

POS.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.218	1:09.062	1:08.455
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:10.976	1:08.634	1:08.655
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:11.184	1:09.392	1:08.810
4	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:11.830	1:09.719	1:09.192
5	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India	1:11.319	1:09.604	1:09.278
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:11.894	1:09.598	1:09.319
7	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:11.307	1:09.631	1:09.612
8	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:12.092	1:10.187	1:09.694
9	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:12.001	1:09.652	1:09.713
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:11.821	1:09.920	DNS
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:11.661	1:10.374	-
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:12.388	1:10.426	-
13	Carlos Sainz, Jr	Toro Rosso	1:11.158	1:10.465	-
14	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:11.973	1:10.482	-
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:12.508	1:10.736	-
16	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:12.522	-	-
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:12.632	-	-
18	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.867	-	-
19	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:14.071	-	-
20	Will Stevens	Manor	1:15.368	-	-

2015 Race:

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	71	1:30:16.930	2
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+8.8001	1
3	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	71	+17.573	4
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	71	+18.181	3
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	71	+53.604	6
6	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	71	+1:04.075	5
7	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	10
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	70	+1 Lap	7
9	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	13
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	70	+1 Lap	18
11	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	8
12	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-Renault	70	+1 Lap	15
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+2 Laps	11
14	Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	68	+3 Laps	16
Ret	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes	34	Gearbox	9
Ret	Carlos Sainz, Jr	Toro Rosso-Renault	34	Electrical	12
Ret	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	7	Electrical	20
Ret	Will Stevens	Marussia-Ferrari	1	Oil leak	17
Ret	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	0	Collision	14
Ret	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	0	Collision	19

Fastest Race Lap: 1:11.235 (Lap 35; N. Rosberg, Mercedes)

---

Leaving behind the streets of Baku, we return to the very different scenery of the Red Bull Ring. It’s hard to say but the fast and flowing layout probably favours Rosberg’s style more, however Hamilton was pretty quick around here in 2014. If my (armchair) calculations are correct, we could be in for a genuine 4-5 way fight at this GP, mainly featuring Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull pilots. However, a very high chance of rain is being forecast, so it could be even better if rain arrives during the race and/or qualifying.

If dry and cold/overcast we could see a repeat of tyre graining issues experienced by teams, but it looks like the practice sessions have similar forecast, so teams will likely be able to optimise their package to work the tyres in race representative conditions.

Also, if we have a dry race, I reckon we could come within a second of the overall race lap record set back in 2003. Looking forward to it.

The thing that caught my eye in the tyre selections is the fact that Haas have toned down their strategy of maxing out on the grippiest tyres, to the exclusion of others. I think they suffered with the strategy of having their race tyre strategy built around the fastest tyre available and while it worked to great effect in the earlier races, it did not give them that flexibility in some of the recent races. It seems the works Renault team are taking Haas’ place with that approach!

Edited by Dr Z on Friday 1st July 09:37

[Dr Z]

Flooble said:

Another awesome starter Dr. Z!

Interesting that Red Bull had issues at the last race, having to switch to the Medium tyre. I wonder if they may struggle here with their tyre selection limiting their options to correct the suspension issue?

I think the problems experienced by RB in Baku had a lot to do with the fact that they struggled to find the right compromise between rear downforce and drag levels required to compete with the straight line speeds of the competition. The problem in Canada was one of setup meeting wrong conditions I believe...

Recently motorsport.com published the ideal working range of this year's Pirelli tyres which cleared up a lot for me:

Tyre	Ideal Temp Range (C)
Hard	105-135°
Medium	90-120°
Soft	100-125°
Supersoft	85-115°
Ultrasoft	85-115°

Immediately, you can see that a car setup to keep the Ultrasoft and Supersoft in it's optimum window (85-115) is likely to be more comfortable on the Medium tyre (90-120) than either the Hard or Soft as these latter tyres' operating window doesn't share much overlap with the Super Soft or Ultra Soft.

Austria is not a low downforce track, infact it reminds me of Barcelona without the Sector 3. So, Red Bull should be able to run closer to their optimum downforce levels which helps in getting heat in to the tyres and also prevent the rear tyres from sliding--this was the problem reported in Baku for RB. But durability of the tyres also comes in to it, so the working range of the Medium tyre plus it's better durability meant the Red Bull was doing better on it...the drawback was obviously the pace disadvantage vs Soft.

In Canada, the Soft tyre was mandatory but due to the cool conditions/track surface, a car that's setup to work the Super Soft/Ultra Soft in it's optimum temp (say 100 C, bang in the middle of 85 to 115), needs to put more energy in to the Softs to get it to it's optimum temp (let's say 112.5 C).

But because the track temp was cooler than anticipated, the car was prone to putting the Soft tyre out of it's working range (below 100 C), whereas Super Soft and Ultra Soft were still within their working temperature range at those temps and give good grip. This was further exacerbated by the track layout not having many fast corners and being low grip/abrasiveness in general that meant less energy going through the tyres over a lap, and less chance to put energy/heat in to the tyres to bring them up to temp.

This is my understanding. Happy to be corrected by any real engineers lurking.

[Dr Z]

Wh00sher said:

Dr Z , if it`s known, can you add the Mandatory tyre to the first post for each race please ? Just for completeness. Unless you already have and I missed it

Just updated the OP. Mandatory tyre is a choice between Super Soft and Soft for this race.

Got F1 Access for this month and following live timing, Merc look mighty quick...managed to screenshot Rosberg's quick lap on 10 lap old Super Softs...purple sectors 1 & 2. Quicker than last year's pole lap sectors! Qualifying laps should be bloody quick.



Vettel was on Ultra Softs, and Ferrari look decent in S1 and S3..so there is some hope yet. Ric's lap was also on Super Softs.

[Dr Z]

Funky rear wing on the McLaren.

[Dr Z]

I'm unsure of what the pecking order might be as teams weren't able to run a full programme for the usual FP2 long runs...I think some teams were anticipating the rain and did some work in FP1.

Ferrari appear to have the quickest race car, if my eyes aren't deceiving me. Raikkonen's stint on the Ultra Soft tyre in FP1 was pretty quick and Vettel was in the 11s in FP2 on a drying track (a 1:11.2 was the fastest lap last year). I'll wait for further confirmation in FP3/Qualifying before declaring this to be true. Any of you watching FP1/FP2 get the feeling that Ferrari were quicker than Mercedes?

[Dr Z]

Mr_Thyroid said:

Dan and Max looking cool. At least they're better than the hideous camouflage suits they've been wearing up to now.

I quite liked the camo.

[Dr Z]

Interesting that Merc are the only team suffering from blistering...

[Dr Z]

Oh dear, Rosberg crashes!

ETA: rear suspension failure

[Dr Z]

A wet Q3? This should be good!

[Dr Z]

I think Kimi has a good chance of winning the race tomorrow...need to ace the start, but can't remember the last time he had a good start! Hopefully Hulk will also get in on the action and won't allow Hamilton to run and hide at the start.

[Dr Z]

Hulk doing PB under double waved yellows? Sorry, but that's a penalty no question. You can keep your telemetry showing the merest microsecond lift. Think he should be with the Stewards in 10 mins or so.

[Dr Z]

Just saw a tweet from an AMuS reporter that no penalty for Hulk but Haryanto, Palmer and Nasr penalised for not slowing under yellows.

Apparently, Pirelli have lowered the minimum rear tyre pressure by 1 PSI for today and the race, after monitoring tyre pressures run by the teams in Friday.

[Dr Z]

How many broken suspensions tomorrow, I wonder with cars being pushed wide on full fuel loads..

[Dr Z]

Was out playing a gig (weekend warrior with the guitar you see), so only managed to catch the live race after the safety car. Having caught up with it now, I thought it was an excellent race with lots and lots of strategy interest...split tyre strategies between team mates generate wheel to wheel combat. Well, there's a surprise.

Hamilton and Button running 1-2 at the start was so nostalgic...those were the days, when you got to see clean wheel to wheel racing between team mates for more than a corner. Button to Mercedes?

Raikkonen must hate Verstappen now. Kept him behind for the second time!

Unfortunate for Vettel, but did Ferrari have the pace to win? Hard to say but the cooler conditions didn't help surely.

Great drive from Wehrlein.

I paid for the live timing in the F1 app (£20/yr) and I must say, it greatly enhanced my appreciation of the race all through the field. You often see situations developing before the TV director decides to show it, so it was a big plus. Looking forward to races where I can properly follow what's going on in real time from the start of the race.

Also a small note: the fastest lap of the race was only a tenth off the Lap record set in 2003. This is great!


Apologies, this has been done to death in this thread, but this is my perspective on the Nico/Lewis incident:

I perfectly understand why Nico tried to run Lewis out of the track on the entry to T2 rather than exit. Lewis fans/Nico critics have been quick to seize this as Nico not having any grasp of race craft. Of course, all these racers who would have played it the "correct" way are guaranteeing themselves of losing position in the braking zone to T3, coming second in that process. Coming second best might be perfectly acceptable to them, but that's not WDC material as they are often so quick to point out.

So, your front tyres are graining badly and you've got much less grip than your attacker. Your brakes are also at their limit and you've not got as much performance from them as your attacker. The attacker is on the outside in to T2 and has got his nose slightly ahead. You then decide to take the normal racing line because you're on the inside? Now you're struggling for traction on the exit and your attacker who is alongside just ahead, out drags you in to T3 due to better traction. Now, to get the position back, you have to outbrake him...with brakes that are shot. The attacker out brakes you easily in to T3 and drives off to win the race. Cue more fans bringing out the old, can't hack it wheel-to-wheel line.

However, if you can compromise the attacker's line in to and out of T2 as much as possible, or better yet run him out of the track while you're at it, it will buy you the breathing space to brake at a safe distance in to T3 and help you keep position.

Watching both LH and NR's onboards side to side, NR turning the wheel was more a reaction to LH turning in to him rather than NR deciding to finally make the corner. It was clear he was only going to attempt to turn the wheel once he's sure that his attacker will be on the kerbs or bail out and go off track. The usual Lewis would have bailed out sooner in to the braking zone and ducked under to do the switch back and win the position into T3...it was interesting to see him 'do a Nico' in trying to win the position in that corner and be done with it. NR very nearly had him.

There you go, flame away!

[Dr Z]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Dr Z said:

Watching both LH and NR's onboards side to side, NR turning the wheel was more a reaction to LH turning in to him rather than NR deciding to finally make the corner. It was clear he was only going to attempt to turn the wheel once he's sure that his attacker will be on the kerbs or bail out and go off track. The usual Lewis would have bailed out sooner in to the braking zone and ducked under to do the switch back and win the position into T3...it was interesting to see him 'do a Nico' in trying to win the position in that corner and be done with it. NR very nearly had him.

I think you're giving NR more credit than he deserves. He attempted a block pass (to borrow MotoGP terms) and as someone earlier alluded to NR's attempt reminded me of Rossi's move against Marquez at Malaysia. His intention plain and simple was to run LH so wide (no doubt feeling justified in that LH has ran him wide on numerous occasions) that he would lose all momentum to survive for this final lap.

The difference IMHO is any time LH has run NR wide he has done it by sticking to the racing line - turn in>hit apex>go wide - it might be tough racing but it isn't cheating and if nothing else by sticking to the racing line you at least gain some moral high ground in that you weren't deviating from the course your car would normally take should the guy outside you not be there.

This is the crucial difference in NR's move in Austria. We've seen him do it time and tim again but NR is willing to shove his competitors off the track be it like yesterday by driving your opponent completely in the opposite direction of the corner or like in Barcelona by shoving him wide on the straightaway.

I forget the other examples when he did it-Bahrain I think (2012?) where he pushed Hamilton and Alonso off in a similar manner to Barcelona. None of these examples were him following the racing line, this was him having a car alongside him and shoving them off, plain and simple dirty driving IMHO.

My surprise (perhaps the same as you?) is that LH didn't outbreak him and duck under for the run to T3 (as he did in Bahrain 2014). We'll probably never know but I suspect that LH never thought (as Marquez did in Malaysia) that anyone would so blatantly pull such a move.

I agree that it was a 'dirty' move by Rosberg, but I can't agree that he never leaves racing room on the outside. Rosberg is perfectly capable of leaving room on the outside and running the attacker/defender wide on exit. For example:

Austin 2015

In the same race at the start, Hamilton didn't exactly hug the apex to leave room on the outside, rather opting to take the line necessary to run Rosberg off track. Granted, the actual running off track happened on exit but the intent is the same, just executed better.

ETA: Notice Hamilton jinking left to compromise Ricciardo on entry to a corner! No angel.

My belief is that the actions of Rosberg was one of a racer severely compromised with his car performance to fight fairly, and he was sure to lose position in to T3 if he did the normal thing. Watching the onboard from Hamilton, Rosberg was taking very tight lines through most corners in the lead up to T2, whereas Hamilton's lines were much more relaxed and shallow. It was clear who had better grip and performance. Let's not forget, Rosberg was on the grippier tyre here. He should have disappeared in to the distance after the final stop but did not.

I don't think Hamilton expected to out brake Rosberg by so much especially being on the less grippier tyre, so got caught up on the outside unable to duck behind for the switch and put himself at the mercy of Rosberg's antics.

The comparison with Rossi/Marquez was apt.

Edited by Dr Z on Monday 4th July 15:51

[Dr Z]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Dr Z said:

Watching the onboard from Hamilton, Rosberg was taking very tight lines through most corners in the lead up to T2, whereas Hamilton's lines were much more relaxed and shallow. It was clear who had better grip and performance. Let's not forget, Rosberg was on the grippier tyre here. He should have disappeared into the distance after the final stop but did not.

I don't think Hamilton expected to out brake Rosberg by so much especially being on the less grippier tyre, so got caught up on the outside unable to duck behind for the switch and put himself at the mercy of Rosberg's antics.

I'll bow down to your knowledge on the respective tyres performances but I (perhaps wrongly) assumed that the reason LH had such superior performance was mainly down to the ultras being "burnt out" by NR trying to stay ahead of LH. By lap 70 their performance advantage had gone and now LH had the grip to attack which he inevitably did once NR made his last lap error in T1. I don't think there was any surprise in LH's braking into T2, he knew exactly what he was doing-he simply didn't know what NR was about to do next!

Rosberg only did 16 laps on the Super Softs and others had done many more laps on them in the race. His lack of grip was more to do with the graining than the stint length or how hard he was pushing:



You can actually see some graining of the rears too.

Watching the onboards, Hamilton expected Rosberg to turn at the point or before he himself started to turn--this would have allowed him to do a switch to the inside on the run to T3...but Rosberg turned a fraction later than Hamilton. It was quite an aggressive steering input from both drivers and while Hamilton’s fronts had the bite to turn, Rosberg simply understeered. I must make it clear that these are simply my observations and not an attempt to defend Rosberg even if it might appear that way!

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Dr Z said:

My belief is that the actions of Rosberg was one of a racer severely compromised with his car performance to fight fairly, and he was sure to lose position into T3 if he did the normal thing.

If your actions when put under pressure of losing a position on track is to drive into/force your competitor off the track you have no place on a racing circuit. I'll reiterate my point, this wasn't driving the racing line when your nose is in front and claiming the corner, this was (as you say) being beaten and seeing no other option but to cheat. I made the comparison about club racing before as IMHO if that had happened to me I'd have had a serious word following the race and most club level racers I know would say the same.

What's the first thing your ards instructor says to you when you take your first racing license test? "the most important thing for racers is to be able to trust those who will race against them", NR isn't (IMHO) a trustworthy competitor. The reason for the crash was NR putting his car in a position that no other competitor could possibly expect him to;

It’s a good point, the one of trust. Unfortunately, these two drivers and Nico in particular carries a lot of baggage from the past which makes it difficult to judge an incident in isolation.

Crafty_ said:

If Rosberg had squeezed Lewis to the left and turned in vaguely towards the apex a bit late but far earlier than he did Lewis would have had far more ground to cover, by that time Nico would have been making his exit with a little bit of headway and driven off to the finish line, Lewis unable to challenge in the remaining corners (especially in light of the yellows for Perez which I doubt they were aware of at the time).

As it was Rosberg was going to drive himself and Lewis off track, not acceptable hence the penalty.

Agree with you Crafty, that it wasn’t fair driving from Rosberg but my comments were from the POV of not being able to understand why one would go to such lengths to defend position unless you have history with said driver or you actually had a technical problem. (see comments below)

Derek Smith said:

I'm not sure that you are not trolling.

But here goes.You start off by saying what everyone seems to agree happened: NR attempted to run LH off the track. I can see the imperative for him; it is not as if it is obscure. The race ran down to that one corner after his mistake in T1. It is a harsh life in F1.

The question then is whether he drove according to the rules.

I’m not sure you understand where I’m coming from. I was not defending Rosberg’s driving there. Was simply trying to understand why he had to resort to such a move, when in other instances he was perfectly capable of gaining position in a fair manner against Hamilton (cf. Austin 2015 above). Do you think Rosberg genuinely believed he couldn’t out brake Hamilton into T3 if everything was fine with his car?

Derek Smith said:

LH is entitled to go around the corner in a manner that allows NR to go around, given that he was in front. Further, NR came from behind LH to ram him.

You suggest that LH turned into NR but that is clearly wrong. NR drove into LH. LH turned into the corner leaving, as can be seen clearly, enough room for NR to get round, probably at a greater speed than he was going. As can be seen, he was going very slowly at the time his front wing went into the side pod of LH.

You then state that NR was not going to turn the steering wheel until LH drove off the circuit. If that is true, and the on boards and the different angles seem to show this clearly, then I seem to remember a rule against that. It is causing an unavoidable collision. Expecting (hoping) LH to conveniently drive somewhere else was either stupid or he wanted a collision.

Watch the onboard, they were both driving in a straight line when Hamilton decides to turn to make the corner...Rosberg was still driving straight at that point. I’m being pedantic I know but those are the facts. When Rosberg decides to turn to make the corner doesn’t come into how the collision actually happened. Proximate and ultimate cause. Assuming cars are sufficiently alongside each other, who was slightly ahead whilst driving through the corner doesn’t dictate whose corner it is, disregarding rules re: inside vs outside on approach to said corner, if I understand the rules of racing correctly.

Poor racing etiquette from Rosberg I know, but the way it happened suggests to me that there was more going on. Why would you compromise yourself so much by going so deep in that corner when you’re in the prime position to do a simple brake->hit apex->run wide on exit? Unless you believed that you wouldn’t be able to enter into an out braking contest and win, into the next corner.

[Dr Z]

velocgee said:

Really?!!

• yawn*

Go to bed.

[Dr Z]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Dr Z said:

Watch the onboard, they were both driving in a straight line when Hamilton decides to turn to make the corner...Rosberg was still driving straight at that point. I’m being pedantic I know but those are the facts. When Rosberg decides to turn to make the corner doesn’t come into how the collision actually happened. Proximate and ultimate cause. Assuming cars are sufficiently alongside each other, who was slightly ahead whilst driving through the corner doesn’t dictate whose corner it is, disregarding rules re: inside vs outside on approach to said corner, if I understand the rules of racing correctly.

Poor racing etiquette from Rosberg I know, but the way it happened suggests to me that there was more going on. Why would you compromise yourself so much by going so deep in that corner when you’re in the prime position to do a simple brake->hit apex->run wide on exit? Unless you believed that you wouldn’t be able to enter into an out braking contest and win, into the next corner.

As we keep saying Doc, he did it to run LH off the road. Even the stewards agree and you'd imagine they've seen the telemetry.

If (as you're suggesting) he over-ran the corner entry and hit LH in T2 due to brake problems;
How did he brake equal to LH in T2?
How did he happen to brake hard enough to hit the apex in T1?

All through their manoeuvre into T2 NR had braked to the equal of LH, their cars were going at the same speed. You've seen the onboard footage and at no point is under steer or tyre grip a contributing factor to NR going straight past the turn in point to the corner.

He just drove straight on.

Should his "brake failure" be the contributing factor he claims it was, it would be pretty easy to exonerate himself with the stewards, he'd simply show them the trace of his braking and the reduced performance of the brakes compared to other laps. I'd love to see the trace and see just where in the corner he released the brake, I'd lay a good chunk of this month's wage it's way before he hit LH

But that hasn't happened which leads you to believe that it's a bullst excuse even if you don't believe your eyes and have seen NR brake every bit as well as LH all the way into T2.

I appreciate the civil tone of your responses... thanks for resisting the temptation to decend into Internet point scoring and name calling.

I don't have any hard evidence to back up the claim that he had brake problems, I'm purely going on the comments of Wolff/Lauda... And also Mark Hughes' report--he's usually bang on with the technical stuff. If he didn't have any brake issues, then the penalty given was too lenient, IMO.

[Dr Z]

Was just pouring over some of the lap times and I'm deeply impressed with Verstappen. I think it's amazing how he managed to be so much quicker than Raikkonen whilst doing the stint lengths he did on the Soft tyre. The Softs weren't degrading but still...I know he's known as being a bit of a magician with the tyres at Torro Rosso but to show this kind of ability so quickly in a different car is pretty impressive...it shows that it's an innate feel thing. His overtake of Ricciardo was also superb...in fact, that set up his race.

I think at Sky after the race, Ted was asking why Mercedes didn't pit Hamilton when Rosberg was absolutely flying on the Soft tyre, eating in to the gap to Hamilton. Looking at the gaps, it was clear who Mercedes considered to be their main threat for a race win, at that time. Raikkonen was sitting 4s behind Hamilton plodding away, Rosberg eating well into the 20 second buffer. But there was another man on track who was almost as quick as Rosberg and it was Max. I think Merc pitted Hamilton just as Verstappen was knocking on the 20 second gap between him and Hamilton. Lewis managed to emerge just ahead. Then Vettel's tyre blow out happens and turns the race on it's head.

I think I'm turning in to a Verstappen fan.

Also, I think both Hamilton and Rosberg could have gone to the end on those tyres after the SC. However, Merc knew by this point that the Super Softs weren't the best tyre to be on for the conditions. So it's a bit strange that they do pit Rosberg to put him on those tyres (he didn't have any other), but drag Hamilton in to the pits too when he didn't need to pit again? I smell some convoluted Mercedes equality nonsense. No threat from Verstappen or Raikkonen at that point. I know it looked like Merc were giving Hamilton the undercut, which it was and he couldn't make it work, but does anyone believe the official line?

[Dr Z]

I'll just leave this here:



A few observations:

Rosberg didn't try to run Hamilton off track in the braking zone--no squeezing.

Rosberg's line suggests he intended to close Hamilton out mid corner/exit.

Hamilton's line was not ideal for a switch back which is what he was trying to do, but his turn in was also awfully late, because he out braked Rosberg too much to modulate for the switch back, I think? Or have I got this the other way around?

ETA: Hard to believe the blind spot suggestion too, as you often see racers give space to each other in similar positions in the 1st corner.

Edited by Dr Z on Thursday 7th July 13:17