Verstappen is the idiot, he had a faster car for a couple of rounds sitting behind him, just waiting to be given the green light to pass. Max threw the win away, the video is pretty clear.
Printable View
Finnish drivers are not the fastest, but always the most consistent.
However, since they're both #2 drivers of the team, surely their lack of priority might have caused them to unable to fully maximize their points count...
Anyway, looking forward to see Kimi ending up on the podium as a #1 Sauber driver sometimes next year...
racerfink, that link now makes me want to sign up for F1TV
XHawkeye's rounds 1-10 vs 11-20 comparison shows Vettel scoring 40 less points, but Ricciardo 54 less, so it's a bit deceiving
Yeah great video. Might look into that next year.
After some reflection and watching that video I really think Max lost sight of Ocon when Ocon pulled out to go around. The drivers have notoriously bad vision to the rear and to the sides of their cars. I think Ocon pulled out and Max lost sight of him...maybe thinking he went too wide in turn 1? Max went inside on turn 1 (the typical racing line) leaving plenty of room outside. Then Max probably had no idea where Ocon was at that exact moment in time and just took the normal racing line into turn 2. Not realizing Ocon was trying to shove his car down in there.
In the heat of the moment I think Max lost sight of Ocon but Ocon knew exactly where Max was.
Tough call to know exactly what was happening but I love that footage and the audio to the pits...great stuff.
Man, if they hadn't botched the pit stop, he would have been out in front of VER anyway. Too bad.
Here's my opinion, First of all, Max knew he was coming and faster (he said as much on the radio), he probably should have just eased up going through 1 and into 2 and let him pass and be done with it. But that's easier said than done when you know Hamilton is right behind, and giving up a second or so could mean Hamilton in DRS, which means bad things for the Red Bull.
As for Ocon, I think the responsibility to make a clean pass is much higher when unlapping yourself, and when Max defended into 1, Ocon should have probably backed off and tried again into 4 or on the next lap. Once they get through 1, I think Ocon has to give up in this situation.
So mistakes (IMO) by both men lead up to it, but the final action that caused the contact, I think, is Ocon's fault.
Mercedes was struggling to get Hamilton to the finish. That’s why Max went by him so easily. All that jubilation by the Mercedes boys back at the factory was because they were sweating bullets about the motor going the distance.
I still think Max is a bit more at fault if this were a fight for actual position. He just didn't leave him any room at turn 2. Where do you expect Ocon to go? He already has half of his car on the curb at turn 2 and yet they still touched. Anyway, I'd be willing to see it as just a racing incident. Max just left no room for the other guy... and the other guy should've known who he's up against... Both Ferraris having made contacts with him earlier on the season knows Max and therefore didn't get into this kind of racing with Max... Ocon will learn now.
Now, the fact that it wasn't even real racing for position, I can agree that Ocon is more at fault.
Thanks to that video leading up to the event, I think it's more clear to me now FI was probably not involved in any conspiracies to purposely slow Max down... unless they botched their pitstop on purpose to do exactly what Mercedes wanted? :p
I’ve seen this many times now, and to me it’s all on Verstappen. He knew Ocon was there, even going back a whole lap when Ocon showed his nose a little bit going into turn 4.
I don’t disagree with the 10 second penalty for Ocon, but I would say that it was entirely reasonable for Ocon to have placed his car alongside Verstappen… right up until the moment that Verstappen chose to take the apex on that right hander. It looked like he had left him room!
I didn’t think it would be possible for me to hate a current driver more than I hate Hamilton, but here we are.