jlanka

^ this

multi21

Totally agree! On a track where passing is incredibly difficult, why stay out for only 8 laps???? Vettel had just done about 17 laps to start the race on the soft compound and with a full fuel load!! Makes zero sense....

Bad luck for Ricciardo with the puncture and congrats to a very young Max who drove an incredible race and kept cool the entire time.

As far as the Mercs... I saw an explanation of what happened with former F1 driver Anthony Davidson and on board shots with Nico's car going into harvesting mode with Hamilton taking advantage and the move to block. It's so funny reading all the guys on here who try and compare blocking in club racing to F1. Just apply the same logic to your weekend softball league and MLB and the difference between a hard slide into 2nd base to break up a double play.....when it's your profession and get paid millions of dollars it's kind of different.

perfectlap

it was the old Schumacher chop at 10/10's. Must be a German thing. Vettel probably approved as well.

from the stewards vantage, it's purely a racing incident. I have to agree. you get one change of direction to defend the lead.

From a Merc vantage, it was pretty stupid of Nico to try and win the race on the opening lap when the risk was 43 extremely expensive points for the team. Hamilton saw that Nico was having a technical issue and employed the racer's cardinal rule, if there is a gap you go for it.
Lewis saw that he could pass on the outside, risky as there is no escape or pass on the inside -- less risky. So everyone thought...
we learned that Nico and Vettel have some things in common.

gums

With Nico understanding that he had a technical glitch in progress, ALL THE MORE reason to yield!
Funny how all the epic battles we watch from the vintage days have NONE of this crap.
It was called racing back then.
Now it's all different, and they've tried to write rules to define what you can and can't do!
As for the baseball analogy (above), in case you haven't noticed, that's been outlawed now.

multi21

Is Senna vintage enough? I used the baseball analogy specifically because it was outlawed this year after 100+ years baseball has existed. The point was that weekend warriors like us have to go to work on Monday morning and these guys are paid generational amounts of money to win.

What Nico did was not outside the rules, but he could have elected to not go defensive. If Hamilton does not go for the lead when he clearly sees Nico's car slowing down, then he is not doing his job. Conversely, Lewis could have lifted because it's his teammate. Nico could have not blocked because it was his teammate. If either one does that, we're not having this discussion, but it didn't.

Three things will define if Nico wins the championship this year:

1. How will he react to this incident, i.e. will he go away with his tail between his legs or stand up and say, "Yes, and I would block him or anyone else again if presented the opportunity".

2. How will he react when Lewis wins his first race this year?

3. Most importantly, how will he react when he has a DNF and Lewis wins to gain 25 points on him?

If Nico can stand up and not fold psychologically, then he will win because Hamilton is not going away anytime soon and conceding the championship.

gums

As much as I do love Senna, I never admired those tactics.
Worse from Schublocker.

As for Lewis, I think he's darn lucky that he managed to collect Nico.
Could you imagine it had Nico gone on to win again with Lewis out?

LuigiVampa

Except for some a$$hats out there most club racers don't risk wadding up their car on low percentage moves. I agree, pros are a different breed. They balance the win versus making a bold move.

To be honest, was this such a bad move by Nico from a mental point of view. He has been Hammy's bitch for the last two years. Now the shoe is on the other foot and Nico seems more solid and Hammy seems to have lost something. Closing the door says "I'm not the number two driver and I will not yield to you!"

I'm not going to be so cynical as to say that he risked a crash but no one except Hammy is going to catch Nico so what did he have to lose by teaching him a lesson? Nothing, he really risked nothing.

I don't like blocking, but done properly, it is part of the sport. I've been grinding my teeth the last few weeks over being blocked, both legally and illegally in a recent club race. Its not nice to be on the receiving end. But as was pointed out, club racing and pro racing are two different animals. In pro racing you do whatever you can, to the letter of the rules (and perhaps a little beyond), to win.

If Nico went on to win the race there would have been a bounty on his head.

Nizer

Ah yes, the good old days.....


But I digress. Hamilton had plenty of overtaking speed. If he was smart he would've faked to the inside drawing Nico into his one legal blocking move then gone around the outside.

Larry Herman

IMHO this is strictly an open-wheel phenomenon. You can run someone off the track because of the severe penalty paid by the trailing car if contact were to happen. If they were racing sports cars, the trailing car would have punted the blocker off into the weeds. Maybe F1 needs ANOTHER rule to state that when 2 cars are within range of contact, they must leave 1 car width for the other car to exist, regardless of whether it is on the inside or outside of the track. No more pushing someone off of the track.

Quinlan

You and me both. Rosberg had screwed up and knew he was much slower than Hamilton. To dart over to the wrong side of the track in order to block Hamilton guaranteed a crash.

I think it is like missing a shift - if you miss a shift and then rapidly change your line, YOU are the asshat,, not the guy who hits you from behind.

gums

Mitigating circumstances, that Senna/Prost clash, as there always are.
Senna was cheated out of his rightful choice of lane as the pole sitter, as Prost-supporter Balestre insisted that Ayrton start on the inside of the track, which is the dirty line. Repeatedly victimized, Senna let it be known that there were going to be repercussions. We all saw this coming.

The real problem to all of this is that the young karters think this is the way it should be done and now it's acceptable at all levels. I recall a kart race I was in and the youngsters were all darting and weaving intentionally, it was ridiculous and that's when I gave up karts.

StoogeMoe

This. Nico has made this move several times in the past, most notably at Australia a couple of years ago. It should have been no surprise to Lewis that it was coming. You gotta study your competition.

I would have loved to be at the meeting with Toto and Paddy. I bet that was interesting!

Vandit

This is the exact comparison I was going to make.

Nico was having a mechanical issue that noticeably affected his pace, he knew he was having the issue because he actively tried to correct it (way too late), given the issue, he knew that Lewis was gonna drag his a$$ down that straight, so he decided to resort to some Xbox Live racing tactics like a total dumba$$.

Jimbo951

Found this online:

Rosberg: "I saw Lewis closing in, and as soon as I could I closed the door. I covered the inside with a clear, strong move to make sure he understood there would not be space there. That's what you do, you close the inside door to make sure he doesn't get by.”

Difool

Obviously no pro here and am in no position to judge, but... if Nico had left room on the inside was Hamilton going to make that corner fully track right at the entry, at that speed? His jink to the right seemed to be red-mist and didn't look like it was going to end well regardless.