Was a shame for sure. We were robbed of some great racing.
The only area where I can see stewards would have been critical of Seb is when he rejoins the track and makes a strong right input to steering that was not connected to car control but positioning. Without all the data and slow motions hard to tell, but if that is the case he deliberately positioned his car to block when he was able to keep the inside line. It is pure conjecture but the only thing I can pick up from video. If not true then a very harsh penalty
I defer to Mario Andretti on this one. He has it right; the stewards got this one wrong. Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date
Didn't we hear Vettel say something like this on the radio ... "If i had taken the inside line, he would have passed me!"? (meaning, yes ... he had a choice) If my memory is correct, than your conclusion is verified.
"Beyond dispute", which is why nearly every former F1 driver, including WDC's are disputing it. - He wasn't pressuring all that much. Every time he closed the gap, Vettel responded. Did you miss those 5 lock-ups by Lewis today? -Seb hardly made a mistake. He caught a snap of oversteer on entry into the corner. That caused the back end to step out on him and he had no ability to control the car. Mansell even said "...he was a passenger". - He rejoined in the only manner he could without crashing the car. Theres no traction on the grass. Had he joined to the left he would have spun out in the marbles or hit the wall. That's unsafe. Vettel left Hamilton space. Lewis couldn't have braked that hard, he never even locked the tires. - I can't argue with you here. Hamilton was definitely awarded a victory by the stewards.
I heard something a little different from Seb: he said “if he (Lewis) takes the inside line, he would have passed me”
Here you go: one transcript of the audio: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.crash.net/f1/news/922229/1/vettel-s-canadian-gp-f1-team-radio-outburst-full%3famp Ferrari to Vettel: “We have a five-second time penalty for unsafe re-entry. Head down, head down.” Vettel: “I had nowhere to go. Seriously I had nowhere to go. I didn’t see him.” Vettel: “When you go through the grass and come back you have amazing grip! Where was I supposed to go? I have grass on my wheels. He decides to go that way, if he got to the inside he got past me.” Ferrari: “OK, stay focussed. Copy that but stay focussed. 10 laps to go.” Vettel: “I am focused but they are stealing the race from us!”
I don't know why Vettel would even assume Lewis would go towards the inside line where Vettel is coming from back to the track.... That's a bit odd.
No. Horrible call. Regardless of the impacted team it was BAD for F1 as well. Again, simply horrible.
Time penalties are not good... If there was to be a penalty, it should have been Vettel dropping one position to Hamilton, thus allowing an opportunity to repass. (This would almost guaranteed and exciting finish)
Pretty sad...the Stewards know what its like to correct a car's direction in a split second at 100 mph. What did they expect Seb to do in the situation he was in? Hit the brakes and spin? Drive straight into the wall? What was Hamilton thinking!?!? You see a car in front of you in a precarious predicament and charge right into it? He was the reckless one that could have caused a pileup had Seb not kept his cars momentum.
I agree with that. The rules say that if you gain OR RETAIN an advantage by going off track limits, you should surrender a position if you had an other car following closely and about to overtake you. That was the case here. Vettel cut across with 4 wheels in the grass, and managed to stay ahead of Hamilton thanks to that move. I think he was badly coached by his team which should have told him to let Hamilton by, to overtake him later. It's another joint failure of Vettel and the Ferrari pit.
You are simply not supposed to keep your position in a race by cutting across corners and going off track limits !!!
I missed all the fun earlier, so it’s about time I posted on this subject I think! And in case no one has mentioned it, Ferrari have lodged a formal appeal/complaint this evening as far as I’m aware. If I was Seb and was subjected to such a ridiculous penalty, I’d have slowed down awkwardly, made Elton go off roading and damage his car, and then crossed the line two abreast with Charles to give him his first win, and stick it to the stewards who were either incompetent or cheating today.. Anyway, as usual, wasnt it so nice today to see the stewards ride to the rescue of Mercedes..... what a great decision. If you look closely at the footage of the stewards room, you can just make out the edge of the briefcase full of cash they must have taken to come to such a boneheaded, ridiculous decision. Presumably it would have been fine for Seb to just close his eyes, let the car spin, take out Elton and kill him against the barriers out of control then? I mean, thee was no other option, wow, death race f1, now that’s an exciting prospect