[nkrishnap]

Looks like the Mercedes have good pace as usual and Nico Rosberg is just off by around 0.5 seconds with the medium tyres. With soft, the Mercedes drivers would have an upper hand with around a second advantage. A very good race pace set up for Ferrari is a must to have any chance of even challenging the 2 Mercedes drivers.

[jfxavier]

The AMuS timings for different tyre types in use gives a good idea about the relative pace.
Fuel loads are still unknown.
Eg: Sainz seems to have done a low fuel Hard tyre run.

[ecenandu]

That was a mega lap from Honey badger. Max already showing his worth and why Redbull was correct in swapping the seats.

Lewis also had a great final lap, he had to work for it.

Anyway, I hope Lewis will have a clean race tomorrow. He is pumped, no doubt.

Mclaren in to Q3 on merit, since Abudhabi 2013.

Its tomorrow that count, can we see the youngest podium finisher in F1 tomorrow?

[Monolithic]

I was hoping for Ferrari to be on grid 1 or 2. I just cannot understand how Kimi couldn't get into top 3. I hope he makes some aggressive moves in the first lap and take out the two Redbulls.

[a*ed]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

That was a mega lap from Honey badger. Max already showing his worth and why Redbull was correct in swapping the seats.

What the hell ever happened to the Ferraris?! How can they be slower than what they were in FP3 !?

Need to give it to Ricciardo for that stonker of a lap! Jeez.
Verstappen has been impressive. Let's see how the race goes for him.

Hamilton seems to be back to form and i see him riding into the sunset tomorrow without any much competition from the others.

Alonso in 10th position, Man! Finally the McLarens break into Q3.

Carlos Sainz seems to be performing better than Kvyat!

[Hatari]

Exciting quali for a change! Was that a bit of gamesmanship on Ricciardo's part.. waiting for Q3 to pull out his best lap?

Strange that Ferrari couldnt make the tires work in Q3.. track temp too high maybe?

Dont see Lewis losing it from here.. Ferrari vs Red Bull should be exciting.
Also hoping Fernando makes up a few places in the race, great quali for him.

[a*ed]

Oh my god! What a start! Both the Mercedes are out after they crash into each other!

[mayankk]

That was amateurish from both of them. Though I think it's more Nicos fault, I'm inclined to think it's going to classified as a racing incident.

Oh OK. Let's see what Max pulls out now.

[Chetan_Rao]

Will cross-post what I put on another discussion board:

Leading car is entitled to ONE defensive move (change of direction), and the chasing car is entitled to ONE car-width of space IF it's alongside.

Rosberg could've left more space, but Lewis wasn't anywhere near alongside to be entitled to it.

Racing incident.

While the stewards may decide this either way (post-race investigation announced), this is only going to work Nico's way in the long run. He stuck a clean pass on Lewis to take the lead, and the incident is a clear message that Nico is finally willing to back himself instead of playing the team-game. Lewis can't really complain about anything here, he's done this to Nico plenty of times when Nico was far more entitled to some space than Lewis was here himself. Racing aggression works both ways, and trying to win the race on the first lap cost Hamilton here, more than Nico did.

Mercedes garage is the place to be right now.

P.S. Getting your front wing barely alongside the leading car's rear wheels doesn't count as getting alongside, nor does barging in with a far greater closing speed in a braking zone assuming the leading car will either give up or not close off the inside line.

[Monolithic]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Rosberg could've left more space, but Lewis wasn't anywhere near alongside to be entitled to it.

Racing incident.

While the stewards may decide this either way (post-race investigation announced), this is only going to work Nico's way in the long run. He stuck a clean pass on Lewis to take the lead, and the incident is a clear message that Nico is finally willing to back himself instead of playing the team-game. Lewis can't really complain about anything here, he's done this to Nico plenty of times when Nico was far more entitled to some space than Lewis was here himself. Racing aggression works both ways, and trying to win the race on the first lap cost Hamilton here, more than Nico did.

Hamilton should've been patient there. However, he maintained a clean line at the curve and had more speed than Rosberg. He would've had to slow down at the next corner, that move from Rosberg was way too aggressive considering how close they were to the corner.

But I think one gratifying thing for them is that they both are out of the race. So no change in points which is good for Rosberg.

Also I remember Vettel jokingly asking both Rosberg and Hamilton to take each other out so that he could pass in a meet.

[mayankk]

It seems the gods came together to give little Max the best day of his life so far.
Brilliant fend off. Pity about Daniel though. He would just have taken the finger off the podium.

[a*ed]

Mad Max!
What a drive! Didn't make absolutely any mistakes. Brilliantly kept Kimi at bay for the last 15 laps although both of them were on similar strategies.
The kid's definitely going places. Amazing race!
Expected it to be a boring race but boy was I wrong!

[Meccanico]

What a race! A proper fight till the end after quite a while. Verstappend really created history today. First Dutch and also the youngest driver to win a GP, all in his debut race for RedBull. Just magnificent! Is this going to be a similar story to Vettel's?

Where did Ferrari go wrong though? Probably a two stop strategy would have helped?

[SilentEngine]

What a way to take his first win! It's a fairy tale coming true considering where Max was two weeks back. Brilliant last 20 odd laps to keep Kimi behind him.

If we look at the start, any of the eventual top 4 could have won today. For half the race, Ricciardo and Vettel were ahead of their team mates, and it was their track position that actually made their teams to opt for 3 stops instead of 2, which eventually cost them the win. Ricciardo came out worst having lead from the beginning.

[ecenandu]

Watch the crash between Nico and Lewis here,

Crash

My driver of the day is Lewis hamilton, for taking out both Mercedes and giving us a fantastic race.

Jokes apart, what a race by Max, hasn't put a foot wrong the whole race. Max has done a brilliant middle stint on the set of Medium, better than Dani. The final sector, the Redbull were quite strong the whole weekend, so all max had to do was get a clean exit from the last corner. To do that for 20 odd laps, man, unbelievable. You need a cool head for that and Max surely got that.

Whether Daniil or Carlos could have emulated the Max here had they been in a similar position. Hard to predict but when you check the lap time data of Daniil in the previous four races, its safe to say that a win would have been quite unlikely but a podium, more likely.

Hard to predict what Carlos would have done though. His driving style is more reactive type as suggested by Peter windsor, so I would say a podium not victory.

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