2017 FORMULA 1 VTB RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

I agree entirely.

Rather than being in Sochi where he had no hope of achieving anything, Alonso would have been better off familiarising himself with his new car , different racing environment and an oval course.

This Indy venture looks like a half-backed idea now.

 

Superb drive from Bottas,well deserved.

Seb still leading WDC and Kimi stepping up a bit now too.

Lewis was on the back foot all weekend,all the talk about Alonso taking over his seat ? hahaha good joke!

Hope to see some proper battles when they arrive in Europe.

 

Also Eddie Jordan or Kai Ebel?

 

Is it really that funny? I can honestly see it happen, provided Bottas keeps performing. IF Bottas does similarly in Spain, Monaco (!) and Canada, I can see Elton making a public statement that he'll retire end of the season. Mark my words, he'll go as far as saying he fell out of love with the sport early 2016 (gives him a nice excuse for losing the title, and taking it away from Rosberg too, in his mind anyways), and being beaten by the new kid in the team.

And if he leaves, I'd be extremely surprised if it isn't Alonso in the team for 2018.

And Furoni won't be able to contain his laughter when the 2018 Mercedes is a relative turd, constantly being beaten by Ferrari and Red Bull.

 

I can't see Lewis retiring for at least another 3/4 years,providing he can stay in a top car.

Bottas, as expected, is doing great of course ,but i don't think Lewis is a quitter.He likes racing too much,if Ferrari end up on top this year, and they drop Kimi (i hope they don't),then Lewis might even end up at Ferrari.Even if that should play out,i don't think MB would want to take Alonso.

 

No passing and very rare for a car to get within 2 seconds of the car in front. Boring

 

It's not only passing that makes a race interesting.

 

Thanks Becker.

Absolutely, they should.

It's no wonder the casual viewer here doesn't get hooked, the commentators don't have a clue what's going on and just make up crap to fill the airtime.

All the best,
Andrew.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Best part of the race was the overtaking from Max upto the 1st corner. He just needs a better car now !

 

Race was +pretty crappy apart from last few laps....Bas regardinga Alonso taking WElton's place i don't think it will happen, Mercedes won't touch him with a 10m pole...If they're smart they can have guys like Riccardo or Perez...by the way, seems like Ricci is having a 2014 Seb's year....

 

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The explanation is quit simple: The extraordinary circumstancces of Lewis sitting in a complete dominant car that guaratees a podium finish even on a bad weekend are over...There are four people sitting in a car able to win at the moment and none of them is an underachiever so when your performance is the worst of the four on a race weekend you are not on the podium. This is normal and happened to Lewis before the hybrid era and it will happen again, nothing to be deeply discussed and no indication in either direction. And if Lewis steps out and says he had a bad weekend not finding the right setup, screwing the qualy and not finding a way past the others once he did not had the same good start as his team mates this would make him human and more respectable in my opinion and we could move on.
But most likely this will not be happening or when did you actually hear any of the drivers saying so...self critism does not seem to be in their blood, nothing new since Schumacher against Villeneuve...

But the Hamilton fans seem to need an explanation how the "impossible" happened because they are obviously spoilt by the last three seasons and think this is normal.
And as I said above I do not rule out that there were problems but even if there were, how can one trust any announcements either by Lewis or Toto knowing that it happened after almost every race they did not win. So the line between an explanation and an excuse is very blurry and I would not trust completely in anything stated as we all know that they follow other interestes then the "sole truth".
And for some reason it is always ruled out what bad luck or unfortunate circumstance led to a loss of Hamilton but never when luck led to a victory.
Liek in Monaco: we will hear to the end of the days how the team took away his victory with a wrong call (even if this involved Lewis himself) but for some reasons those complaining about that will not tell in the same sentence that Lewis got a victory gifted at the same place when RB screwed Ricciardo even worse. When Lewis wins none of his fans takes into account that his opponent might have had a problem as well...Take Rosberg: They can explain every single race why it was lost by Lewis and rarely does one hear that Rosberg was simply better, but as soon as Lewis won nobody ever accepted that it might have been as well becaue Nico did not run a smooth race...

 

Bottas already spanking Elton. Love it. 2 seasons in a row being beaten by a perceived lower rank team mate will end his career ... lol.

Oh how the supposedly mighty (British press view) fall.
Pete

 

Congrats to Bottas, Seb still on top, subpar performance from Lewis and how much longer will Palmer keep a proper ride from someone that is much more qualified? Watched the race in Tuscany on vacation tonight and prefer the RAI broadcast.

 

Shocker from Lewis one of the worst he had ever driven, struggled with set up I suspect. Claims of overheating and loss fin power but not sure of the latter seemed fine to me. Funny how people jump on him instantly for one bad race but will make excuses for Vettel when he drove poorly for an entire season . Lewis will be back at his best next race.

Very good race by bottas. Bottas and Vettel were on the clean side but Vettel stuffed his start and bogged down. Lewis got away well and got past Kimi initially but had to give it back when he ran out of room after getting the squeeze from Rico and Kimi

Boring race but came good in the end

 

They'll probably be smarter employing Ricciardo or Verstappen (unlikely to get the latter though, really can't see RBR letting Verstappen go!), as Ricci will be for a much longer term.

Could well end up being a Dutch Auction for that seat. Alonso sitting on a few hundred million means he'll be able to win that rather easily...

 

Well, you like to forget that Lewis LOST last year to his teammate while whining to the team about how well his teammate had been doing against him for years. And it seems like something similar in is the cards for this year. Bottas has come on strong learning the team and car in just a few races.

Lewis has already had Bottas move over for him once this year and forced the team to issue team orders -- to his benefit-- in public

Lewis is gracious today because it was Bottas' first GP win and he himself looked lost all weekend.

The two of them are heading in different directions. And Mercedes pays Bottas 1/10 what it does Lewis for the privilege. You do the math.

Does anyone doubt that if Hamilton was in Vettel's spot with 5 laps to go today that Bottas would have been told to finish second? If so, you're not paying attention.

 

One bad race does not prove the ascendency of bottas. Hamilton was comfortsbly faster in the first three races and Sochi is a strong trAck for bottas s and a shocker of Lewis -one of the worst races he's ever driven. Give it a few more races no need to be over eager already...as much as you all want hamilton to fail

 

There is no personal rivalry between Hamilton and Bottas, no animosity, and that's what spurs Hamilton.

He used to be really aggravated if Rosberg used to be in front of him, but losing to Bottas leaves him indifferent.

 

This is bottas's first win no one could dislike the guy. Lewis and nico were fine until nico parked his car in Monaco that's when the beef started

Lewis will get fired up if bottas challenges him in the WDC but Lewis thinks he's got him covered. Today may make him sit up and take note but I think that was a one off personally

 

Again, you forget Lewis was beaten by his "number 2" last year. And in previous years Lewis used Mercedes to help him over his teammate.

I don't want him to fail. He's been doing that for some time now. When Mercedes realizes he's an overpaid driver where they can get similar results for less, he will quit.

 

Lol reliability beat Hamilton last year. Those bad starts also hurt him a lot but merc have fixed their starts now. You seek to forget 2014/15 where nico barely ever beat Lewis even if starting in front of him.

Bottas is pretty quick but mark my words Lewis will beat him comfortably this year. A top driver is needed to win the constructors in seasons as close as this. Sochi is a merc track and Ferrari were QuickEr in qualy and the race, they havd the better car this year. Merc need lewis more than anything right now

 

You must be Toil!!! As soon as someone says something against Lewis your instant reply is "but look at Vettel"!!! I have no idea what Vettel has to do with it and nobody said Seb is GOAT as you permanently did with Lewis...Get over it....

 

No, Lewis beat himself and Nico had better starts in the very same car so please don´t blame Mercedes for that...it was purely Lewis own fault that he did not practice starts until it was to late and he thought he gets away with it...

 

Ugh... I figured by now all the Lewis excusers finally have come to their senses.

Guess not!