[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

In such scenarios they generally like to add a 3rd variable of strategic errors and pit stop blunders. Looks like fun weekend ahead!

Quoting myself...I had this uncanny feeling that something was not going to work out properly for Ferrari. What a shame!! They messed up their weekend and mine too!

Kimi probably had one of his best starts and one of the best of the season across all drivers. And that was all that he had to talk about from the race! He must have had a really large beer yesterday.

Like everyone already said, it was a pointless move by Seb. Overcooked it. But then, we have to give him a bit of slack as there was no way that anyone would expect the Kimster to be so far ahead!. In hindsight, I'd say Max was the only guy who knew exactly what was happening out of the 3 and the only one who could have avoided it (at the expense of losing at least 3-4 positions by 1st corner).

Lewis Hamilton - well as often, at the right place at the right time when providence is out making donations. Drove flawlessly of course afterwards. Its such a shame that the Ferraris went out so early. Hamilton was driving so fantastically that I am not sure if the reds would have managed to keep him behind for too long even without the melee.

The championship is as good as gone now for Ferrari as constructor. They should hold all known possible religious rituals daily now to all gods and pray for the act of providence to do some magic about Vettel's bid about drivers' championship at least - for our sake also.

This championship promised to go down to the wire & suddenly it becomes so one sided.

[Johnnny]

That move from Seb makes us to think that he is afraid(more anxious?) of the young rookie Max at the start!!?? Clearly Seb enjoys some liberty from both Ferrari and the F1 Mgt when we see all these dramas ending up favoring him with no penalties?

[im_srini]

What a terrible, terrible race ! But I frankly don't see why everybody is panning the one driver who was not to blame - Vettel !

He just did what every pole sitter has been doing since Schumi ( the Awesome ) popularised the 'cut'.

Does anybody think any other pole-sitter would've done anything different at the start ?

Please watch Max's on-board in slow motion, Vettel cuts left to consolidate his line into Turn-1, is that a surprise given how reckless Max has been in driving down the inside ?

You can see that initially Max turns left too as he sees Seb come left to shut the door on the inside line into Turn 1.

I guess he then realizes, a tad too late, that Kimi's charging up his RB13's left side because he then starts correcting to the right.

The closing speed of Max's Red-Bull & Kimi's Ferrari suggests that Max actually braked or at the least, lifted off.

In my opinion, Kimi tried to shut the door too soon on Max because the next thing that happens is that Kimi's rear right & Max's front left get entangled.

This of course turns Kimi's Ferrari broadside, which then spears into the back of Seb's Ferrari. At this point, Seb's SF70H is actually in front of Max's RB13 & in the clear !

After the masterful display on Saturday, it was heart-breaking to see the Ferraris take themselves out, but still, it was a racing accident, it's not like other drivers haven't taken out their own team-mates before.

The Tifosi can take solace in the fact that now Seb has nothing to lose, so he's going to give it his everything, I doubt he's worried about losing 2nd to Bottas.

Lewis on the other hand is going to have to keep looking over his shoulders wondering when the hand of fate is going to strike down his Mercedes just like it did the crimson cars yesterday - well, you can only hope, right ?

P.S. - I think posting the official F1 videos here is pointless as 'Liberty Media' only allow the videos to be viewed on YouTube itself

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by im_srini

He just did what every pole sitter has been doing since Schumi ( the Awesome ) popularised the 'cut'.

Does anybody think any other pole-sitter would've done anything different at the start ?

-----snipped -----i

That's not the line. Take a look at some previous SGGP starts over the last few years.

[sun_king]

Originally Posted by im_srini

What a terrible, terrible race ! But I frankly don't see why everybody is panning the one driver who was not to blame - Vettel !
<snip>

I would also go for panic from Max, the blistering pace of Kimi triggered Max' natural instincts and he went for what he usually does, try the squeeze. Once Seb recovered from the lethargic start, he matched the pace of the RBR and was surging ahead. Seb made the one allowable change of lane per straight and there was enough room for Max if Kimi was not present. You can't expect Seb to be aware of where Kimi is after just two seconds of the race. After the first second Max was defending his position rather than attacking Seb.

The Tifosi can take solace in the fact that now Seb has nothing to lose, so he's going to give it his everything, I doubt he's worried about losing 2nd to Bottas.
<snip>

Seb will need to win five out of the next six races to win the championship on his own. Just not possible this year, the only way I see him winning the title is if RBR puts Kvyat in place of Ricciardo and the Ferraris qualify in the third row for the remaining races. Given enough chances its fairly possible that either Max or the Torpedo will take out Hamilton at least twice in the remaining races. Maybe thrice...

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by im_srini

What a terrible, terrible race ! But I frankly don't see why everybody is panning the one driver who was not to blame - Vettel !

He just did what every pole sitter has been doing since Schumi ( the Awesome ) popularised the 'cut'.

Does anybody think any other pole-sitter would've done anything different at the start ?

Please watch Max's on-board in slow motion, Vettel cuts left to consolidate his line into Turn-1, is that a surprise given how reckless Max has been in driving down the inside ?

You can see that initially Max turns left too as he sees Seb come left to shut the door on the inside line into Turn 1.

I guess he then realizes, a tad too late, that Kimi's charging up his RB13's left side because he then starts correcting to the right.

The closing speed of Max's Red-Bull & Kimi's Ferrari suggests that Max actually braked or at the least, lifted off.

Vettel took himself out with over-ambitious and pointless move, by triggering that chain reaction. Doesn't matter what Schumi or some one else would have done.

His move would have worked if he had a good start, but he was actually slower than Max off the line and initially he was just going straight. Once he realized he was going to lose position, he started moving to left, with intention of squeezing Max, but it was too late by then and what resulted was a Ferrari sandwich served with Redbull meat inside and finished off with toppings from McLaren.

Out of the three drivers in question, he was the one with everything to lose. His fight should have been with Lewis, but he chose the wrong battle here.

In my opinion, Kimi tried to shut the door too soon on Max because the next thing that happens is that Kimi's rear right & Max's front left get entangled.

I think it was the other way, Max left the door wide open for Kimi to enter and then closed it when Kimi was half way through.

[avdhesh15]

Vettel has been having these brain fades whereas Hamilton isn't. That's gonna be the difference in the end I believe. Just ridiculous.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by sun_king

Just not possible this year, the only way I see him winning the title is if RBR puts Kvyat in place of Ricciardo and the Ferraris qualify in the third row for the remaining races.

LOL!
Half of that seems easily doable. On most tracks hereon, Ferrari will qualify on 2nd row - rather 1 car on 2nd and the other on 3rd seems more feasible.

How to get the torpedos to reach so far forward before 1st corner I wonder. Instead they can try something in FP3 or Q2!

[danlalan]

A Hamilton fan/s is just sitting on the beach with a couple of beers and enjoying all the rucus happening down under.

Its going to be nice to see how vettel comes back from this one. A few races ago hamilton was in the same position some 25 points behind.

Lets wait and watch.

Silently Bottas is catching vettel now.

Whos going to crumble under pressure?

[Fullrevs]

Well that was a nice 30,000/- (GP ticket costs) down the drain for me.I was trackside for the 3 day action. After standing in the pit garage and see Vettel pull a fabulous pole position, Sunday was an absolutely disaster. All of 10 seconds was pure happiness and it all ended really soon. To add insult to injury, it was raining in an extremely humid city. Absolutely gutted! In my view, there is no chance Vettel and Ferrari can come back from this. LH 44 all the way from here.

[ach1lles]

^I was there too, at the pit grandstand! We were right at the start finish line, opposite McLaren. I almost mirror your feelings. We were so pumped after qualifying and One Republic concert and it all went down within the first 10 seconds on race day. After that it was quite ho-hum really.

Except that we actually enjoyed the rain bit, and (accidentally) went in without umbrellas

After the race we walked on the track all the way to possibly the best finish to the event, the Calvin Harris concert. That was magnificent. But yeah, for a Ferrari and a racing fan, this was disappointing.

This was my first race live, and I was just impressed by the sheer opulence, the amount of stuff that happens for a single weekend. F1 is is just so princely.