Official 2021 Portugal Grand Prix Thread **SPOILERS**

[entropy]

WickerBill said:

CustardOnChips said:

But everyone has been saying the RB is the fastest car. And should have been on pole and got fastest lap.

Other than a couple of max mistakes, they would have.....

Not sure about that.

Lewis was stuck behind Bottas for a while and then unleashed his pace. It was like the tyres came to him.

What if it was Max on pole instead of Bottas? Would Lewis have found a burst of speed?

[Derek Smith]

TheDeuce said:

I've explained why. There's no point me re-explaining it in a more simple way.. You either see that Merc were winning slowly today, or you don't. That's what I saw - if you saw different, that's OK.

I would expect Merc to win at the slowest speed possible, but Hamilton kneeded a bigger gap from MV, but seemed reluctant to push for it. Or could not. MV knew he hadn't got a hope of passing LH on the straight, so he was going asslowly as he could. It's what drivers do. You must have noticed.

I don't particularly like the circuit as it has just the one passing spot once everyone's up to speed. Merc trimmed their cars to perfection, RB did not. The cars are more or less equal, but the teams need to do their bit, and Merc did, in the main. Mind you, had MV not made a mistake . . .

Also, MV was unable to exploit one of the obvious weaknesses of the Merc. As some of the more astute PH posters on this forum pointed out at the time (a-hem), Merc brought Bottas in too early. They probably felt they needed to get the softs up to speed. But, given VB's first flyer, they were wrong. MV went off-circuit, seemingly deliberately. I don't think he would have got the fastest lap, but we'll never know.

An error. Silly ones like that can cost a championship.

[anonymous-user]

If I had to guess, once Hamilton hit the front he was managing his tyres to give maximum flexibility. I expected him to push for a big gap but I think it looked a bit risky for the low grip/windy conditions and it could have killed off the tyres sooner than ideal.

Interestingly the Mercedes seemed really strong in s3 compared to earlier in the weekend, which is the key to remaining ahead/overtaking here.

[Byker28i]

Quite a lot of discussion here. Bottas lost his position because he was put under pressure with a 3.3 sec pitstop, when red bull did 2.4 and a 1.9
With such fine margins, Merc need to work on these.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

[anonymous-user]

Byker28i said:

Quite a lot of discussion here. Bottas lost his position because he was put under pressure with a 3.3 sec pitstop, when red bull did 2.4 and a 1.9
With such fine margins, Merc need to work on these.

I agree, Mercedes are a fraction behind on pitstops. I think the Mercedes/Bottas taking too long to get the hards up to speed cost him the position, though. It took him a good few laps to get them up to temp and begin clawing back time. Ultimately didn't matter as the sensor issue would have cost him position even had he kept ahead after the stop.

[anonymous-user]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

No mistakes apart from the one that let Hamilton past...

[TheDeuce]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

Good for him. I think at the level at which Max and Lewis are fighting, it would be a huge mistake for Max to not respect Lewis. It's also been the case that Lewis has shown max a lot of respect and even support over the years, despite max being on tradjectory to potentially interfere with his record breaking run.

It's 100% a case of drivers seeking to better themselves by being honest and fascinated about one anothers strengths.

[Derek Smith]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

No mistakes apart from the one that let Hamilton past...

Picky, picky, picky.

[anonymous-user]

Derek Smith said:

Picky, picky, picky.

Hamilton picky him off after he got squirrelly on that corner exit!

[Deesee]

Byker28i said:

Quite a lot of discussion here. Bottas lost his position because he was put under pressure with a 3.3 sec pitstop, when red bull did 2.4 and a 1.9
With such fine margins, Merc need to work on these.

Max boxed with 1.9s pit stop.

Lewis was only 3.3 seconds ahead of Bottas who himself was 0.5 seconds ahead of Max.

Lewis pitted two laps later than Max lost 0.5 second in the pits physically, however found himself with his overall advantage increased to 5.2 seconds by the first sector.

How? Nailed the two in laps.. Better than Max and better than Bottas.

Lewis bought himself time, including time to warm up the tyres, on the out lap, Bottas did not.

Bottas needs to work on his in laps. Red Bull need to work out they can’t undercut Lewis, he’s always got pace in hand with the rubber.

[zsdom]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

No mistakes apart from the one that let Hamilton past...

And the one that cost him fastest lap & an extra point

[LaurasOtherHalf]

TheDeuce said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

Good for him. I think at the level at which Max and Lewis are fighting, it would be a huge mistake for Max to not respect Lewis. It's also been the case that Lewis has shown max a lot of respect and even support over the years, despite max being on tradjectory to potentially interfere with his record breaking run.

It's 100% a case of drivers seeking to better themselves by being honest and fascinated about one anothers strengths.

One thing I mentioned to my Dad today (we had to watch separately instead of together this week) is rather than Lewis losing to Max, I think the more pertinent point is that for Max, it's probably going to be very important to beat Hamilton before he retires.

Because if one thing is certain, people will use it as a stick to beat him with in the future if he never beat Hamilton in a straight championship battle.

[Flooble]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Byker28i said:

Quite a lot of discussion here. Bottas lost his position because he was put under pressure with a 3.3 sec pitstop, when red bull did 2.4 and a 1.9
With such fine margins, Merc need to work on these.

I agree, Mercedes are a fraction behind on pitstops. I think the Mercedes/Bottas taking too long to get the hards up to speed cost him the position, though. It took him a good few laps to get them up to temp and begin clawing back time. Ultimately didn't matter as the sensor issue would have cost him position even had he kept ahead after the stop.

I wonder if this is the year when Mercedes may be forced to address their shortcomings on strategy and pitstops? They are regularly 0.5-1.0 second slower than Red Bull in the stops and most years make a few howlers on strategy (nearly giving away the fastest lap point to Max is minor compared to their usual paralysis over whether to pit when there is a safety car ... or the reverse of pitting when the pitlane is closed .

I also wonder if Bottas, being more than an entire race win behind (and to be fair, he still would be even if he and Russell had not come together at Imola), may be asked very early to be the "Number 2" driver in order to ensure Mercedes win at least one of the championships. With Perez looking likes he's settled in, Red Bull seem likely to consistently maximise their points so Mercedes may need to play the team game.

[Deesee]

This is class from Red Bull & McLaren

https://twitter.com/mclarenf1/status/1388832731019...

https://twitter.com/redbullracing/status/138883780...

[NRS]

TheDeuce said:

WickerBill said:

TheDeuce said:

Give it up mate - Lewis could clearly have pulled away. He did not... The cars being close in terms of performance has nothing to do with it, obviously in clear air the guy that passed the other car to lead can continue to pull out a lead if he so desires. The reasons for not doing so are either tyres and/or backing up in to an opponent and leaving them in dirty air.

And your proof of this is what?

If they could clearly gap the bulls, then why cost themselves points by allowing max to get so close....

I've explained why. There's no point me re-explaining it in a more simple way.. You either see that Merc were winning slowly today, or you don't. That's what I saw - if you saw different, that's OK.

Why don't don't they do the same tactics as previous years then? Clearly the cars are a lot closer, otherwise they'd just do what they used to.

[TheDeuce]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

TheDeuce said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

Good for him. I think at the level at which Max and Lewis are fighting, it would be a huge mistake for Max to not respect Lewis. It's also been the case that Lewis has shown max a lot of respect and even support over the years, despite max being on tradjectory to potentially interfere with his record breaking run.

It's 100% a case of drivers seeking to better themselves by being honest and fascinated about one anothers strengths.

One thing I mentioned to my Dad today (we had to watch separately instead of together this week) is rather than Lewis losing to Max, I think the more pertinent point is that for Max, it's probably going to be very important to beat Hamilton before he retires.

Because if one thing is certain, people will use it as a stick to beat him with in the future if he never beat Hamilton in a straight championship battle.

Totally agree - in fact if he doesn't beat Lewis, it'll kind of feel like his time hasn't begun. He's supposed to beat the 'old man' as part of his own formative journey.

The only problem is a lot of patience may be required. Looking at Lewis's drive today, I would say he's definitely not 'peaked' just yet. He made two race defining passes today - both perfect, the second of which he apparently didn't even realise was for a racing position.. https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2021/5/2021_Port...

You know you're pretty good at F1 when you're overtaking the lead driver without noticing

Edited by TheDeuce on Sunday 2nd May 22:50

[TheDeuce]

NRS said:

TheDeuce said:

WickerBill said:

TheDeuce said:

Give it up mate - Lewis could clearly have pulled away. He did not... The cars being close in terms of performance has nothing to do with it, obviously in clear air the guy that passed the other car to lead can continue to pull out a lead if he so desires. The reasons for not doing so are either tyres and/or backing up in to an opponent and leaving them in dirty air.

And your proof of this is what?

If they could clearly gap the bulls, then why cost themselves points by allowing max to get so close....

I've explained why. There's no point me re-explaining it in a more simple way.. You either see that Merc were winning slowly today, or you don't. That's what I saw - if you saw different, that's OK.

Why don't don't they do the same tactics as previous years then? Clearly the cars are a lot closer, otherwise they'd just do what they used to.

I said they were a lot closer too! But it's still the case that if Lewis was able to pass Max he could have stretched out a commanding lead in clean air if he had so desired. He did not, most probably because Merc were coordinating their drivers to fk up Red Bulls strategy. Because... without disrupting RB strategy, the reality is, RB are a genuine threat to Merc this season.

[Exige77]

TheDeuce said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

TheDeuce said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Max Verstappen said:

If you say it's the car you are stupid, I made no mistakes but in the finer margins Lewis is a millimetre better in every department, I think we had similar pace but much respect to Lewis. He truly is one of the greats & congrats on his 97 today. The better man won.

Good for him. I think at the level at which Max and Lewis are fighting, it would be a huge mistake for Max to not respect Lewis. It's also been the case that Lewis has shown max a lot of respect and even support over the years, despite max being on tradjectory to potentially interfere with his record breaking run.

It's 100% a case of drivers seeking to better themselves by being honest and fascinated about one anothers strengths.

One thing I mentioned to my Dad today (we had to watch separately instead of together this week) is rather than Lewis losing to Max, I think the more pertinent point is that for Max, it's probably going to be very important to beat Hamilton before he retires.

Because if one thing is certain, people will use it as a stick to beat him with in the future if he never beat Hamilton in a straight championship battle.

Totally agree - in fact if he doesn't beat Lewis, it'll kind of feel like his time hasn't begun. He's supposed to beat the 'old man' as part of is own formative journey.

The only problem is a lot of patience may be required. Looking at Lewis's drive today, I would say he's definitely not 'peaked' just yet. He made two race defining passes today - both perfect, the second of which he apparently didn't even realise was for a racing position.. https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2021/5/2021_Port...

You know you're pretty good at F1 when you're overtaking the lead driver without noticing

Max hit the nail on the head. Lewis is just that tiny bit better here and there and makes less mistakes. No one is perfect.

Lewis can turn up the wick when it’s time and keep his powder dry when he needs to. When things go wrong, more often than not, he somehow seems to limit the damage and still get a few points.

It will pain Max incredibly if Lewis retires unbeaten by him in a straight fight over a season.

This season is shaping up to be a cracker.

[HighwayStar]

NRS said:

TheDeuce said:

WickerBill said:

TheDeuce said:

Give it up mate - Lewis could clearly have pulled away. He did not... The cars being close in terms of performance has nothing to do with it, obviously in clear air the guy that passed the other car to lead can continue to pull out a lead if he so desires. The reasons for not doing so are either tyres and/or backing up in to an opponent and leaving them in dirty air.

And your proof of this is what?

If they could clearly gap the bulls, then why cost themselves points by allowing max to get so close....

I've explained why. There's no point me re-explaining it in a more simple way.. You either see that Merc were winning slowly today, or you don't. That's what I saw - if you saw different, that's OK.

Why don't don't they do the same tactics as previous years then? Clearly the cars are a lot closer, otherwise they'd just do what they used to.

It’s the longest season ever... I’d imagine Merc don’t want to be stressing the power units and components anymore the necessary for the win. A mentioned earlier, win as slow as possible.