FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2017: RACE ***SPOILERS***

Please, no drinking out of the shoe!

 

Easy to see that ferrari lost the race in strategy today, not on pace

 

Seb driver of the day!!

 

The Virtual Saftey Car screwed up the tyre strategy for Ferrari.

 

+1
They threw it away. Again.

 

Oh. I thought it was Swahili....

 

Sheet happens....

 

Also, it seems that safety cars [real and virtual] are Ferrari's Kryptonite.

 

good afternoon everyone...

 

Kimi's new little friend having the time of his life.

 

+5

 

'Don't know that yet....'season has a long way to go.

 

DelaRosa doing a nice job.

 

most crazy thing is both lapped everyone until ric and ric is 1min 15sec behind

the gap between the teams is just mental

 

It was pretty close either way. I would have pitted Vettel too, outside a later pit would have ceded track position. At least the way round that they did it, there was a chance to fight off Hamilton.

I think Bottas holding up Vettel earlier in the race may have been the decisive moment.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Definitely, going to be Hamilton and Vettel all year long. Hamilton/Mercedes won a fair race today, Ferrari had the quicker package.

 

Bottas is a great driver but his taking out Kimi (and Max) in turn 1 effectively set the stage for the rest of the race. It was karma that he would blow his engine and DNF. In a way, Max also contributed as he made it 3 cars into turn 1 and Kimi would have survived the bump from Bottas had Max not been on his outside.

 

Yup, Bottas helped Ham, as he should.

If Kimi hadn't had his accident then Ham would have had the same issue Seb did.

Those two moments had the biggest impact.

 

Bottas didn't do anything wrong in Turn 1. He was on the inside with a wheel alongside while driving in the curb and holding a perfectly reasonable line. It was merely unfortunate that the two cars on the outside were cutting the corner while overtaking him and not leaving enough room. There was a lot going on, so that's understandable.

It was just a racing incident - these things happen and I wouldn't apportion blame on this one. Clearly, the stewards agree that Bottas didn't "take out" Räikkönen.

All the best,
Andrew.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Don't like the outcome but it was a rare F1 race in recent memory where it was a legitimate pass for a win.

 

Too many parties, Lewis.

Anyone who says race driving isn't a physical sport should see this.

 

Mercedes made good use of Bottas and the safety car. They've beaten us at strategy like we'd beaten them at Australia. ---- happens. Also we've lost a bit in race pace. But the good news are that we're keeping up in the development race.

It's a long season. Let's see how it goes.

 

IMO Bottas was being overhauled by Kimi and he should have been more careful - after all, it was his front left hitting Kimi's right rear so Bottas could see what was developing. He did not leave Kimi enough room.

I think you know I'm not saying Bottas purposely caused the bump, but he did effectively remove Kimi and Max as a result. He simply misjudged. He had lost pace just before the turn, allowing Kimi (and Max) to gain an advantage in turn 1 and I think he may have panicked a bit and had a lapse in judgment. IMO, these accidents don't just happen, there's always a reason.

Otherwise, I think Bottas is a great driver and a clean competitor.

 

What a great race! Gripping from start to finish. The two best driver/car combos of 2017 battling all the way. Superb stuff. Great skill on display and a clearly physical race.

Weh also surprised today. Good job by him.

RB - what happened to the 1.5s performance improvements that never turned up?

Even Alonso finished - quite an achievement.

Finally - kudos to Ferrari PR for finding the crying kid and making his life by getting him in to meet Kimi. Nice touch.

 

+1