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The 2021 F1 Season.

Three great drives today, fantastic to watch. Unlucky for Lando it would have been good to see them battle in the dry. Max must be thrilled with that change at the end, worked superbly for him.

As for Lewis, he must be relieved to get that 100 off his back. Amazing record throughout his career since well before F1. Someone might equal it one day, but I doubt I'll ever see it. Incredible.
 
A race that held one's attention all the way through, no major incidents, a good win for Lewis and maximum damage limitation for Max.
 
Not the best time to learn, but he needs to learn when to listen to the team and when to go with what he thinks is best and this one should stick with the win having been so close.
Surely this should have been a team call?
They have the data, they should have made the call for him.
If he had pitted worst case scenario was 2nd, he finished 7th.
 
Ah Lando, a superb drive right up until that call stay out. Was always going to be tricky as he knew up until it really came down, the following driver had the advantage. That period where the track was slippy but not wet and he started to pull away from Lewis was brilliant driving and judgement of the conditions. He's knocking hard on that door for a first race win.

Lewis finally gets another race win and his 100th victory but it'll be Max who leaves with the biggest grin. Getting second after starting from the back and using the 3 place grid penalty at the same time is virtually a race win.
 
Post race, Lando said he was told to expect drizzle, not a downpour. On that basis switching wasn't an option: he was going to win. So the lesson may be - shoot the forecaster! :)

Seriously, there have been (with hindsight) some poor team calls this season. But predicting weather is never more than a best guess.
 
Post race, Lando said he was told to expect drizzle, not a downpour. On that basis switching wasn't an option: he was going to win. So the lesson may be - shoot the forecaster! :)

Seriously, there have been (with hindsight) some poor team calls this season. But predicting weather is never more than a best guess.

There were also plenty of poor pit stops today. Never seen anything like it.
 
Surely this should have been a team call?
They have the data, they should have made the call for him.
If he had pitted worst case scenario was 2nd, he finished 7th.
When it is raining it is the drivers call as they are best placed to decide on safety and their ability to drive on those tyres.

This was a rare occurrence where, in hindsight, the team should have overridden the driver's decision.

The team had data (converting predicted rainfall into laptime, for a series of laps, for any tyre type, is extremely difficult) but did not know how much the rain would affect driving conditions over the next 5 laps.

Lewis at this stage of the race had a free pitstop as he could fit Inter tyres and come out in 2nd and if as the Merc team predicted, then the conditions would get worse, then slicks would become extremely difficult and slow to drive.

Other teams and drivers clearly did a better job in the last few laps of this race.
 
Exciting finish and Verstappen will no doubt feel like a winner as well as Hamilton. Tough luck for Lando there but them's the breaks.

Outstanding achievement for Hamilton with 100 race wins to go along with 100+ poles.
 
Excellent race. I just watch highlights now but it was good to see Hamilton driving well after the patchy heats. I presume his query of the tyre change that won him the race was just a bit of back-covering…
 
Great race, gutted for Norris but he was asked to box and reacted strongly. Perhaps they should have said the rain was getting worse, he might have listened. Hamilton did what we expect of him and drove incredibly well, perhaps Bottas showed us the real pace of the Merc which often just doesn't seem quite as good as the RB this year. MV drove a fantastic race and RB's strategy worked really well, he was a bit lucky to end up second. Great showdown to come I just hope it's clean and that Lando gets his first win very soon.
 
Excellent race. I just watch highlights now but it was good to see Hamilton driving well after the patchy heats. I presume his query of the tyre change that won him the race was just a bit of back-covering…

Both he and Lando probably thought they could handle what appeared to be just part of the circuit at that time. Lap fifty out of fifty three laps felt very close to the end for me just watching them, for Lando that must have been agony. MV's choice was much easier.
 
I really wanted young Lando to win that race but hey , he'll learn from that. Mistakes happen. Pitwall and all.

What a race though. Can't help feeling that we'll never see the likes of Lewis again. As much as he's a bit of a knobhead at times he deserves the accolades.

(PS I can remember living in Northamptonshire and my next door neighbour was a top guy at the F1 engine machine shop in Brixworth. I've always followed F1 and asked him one day who he thought could be the next Senna or Schumacher - he said - "look out for a young kid called Lewis Hamilton" - This was around 2003 - 2004. How right he was.)
 
Not much to add to the comments so far except I was supposed to be cooking this afternoon whilst watching the race recording. Usually I can create my own highlights program with the fast forward button but this time I had to watch the whole thing real time and dinner was late.... sorry family

Pleased for HAM, but sad for NOR. What many folks miss when criticising these decisions - and all leading teams have messed up a few - it is so hard to make the right call when in the lead as you don't want to throw the race away, it was not that long ago that the switch to inters did not work at the wet end of a race. His time will come.
 
Lando was excellent and I am sure he will win a race soon as he certainly has the ability .Lewis also did well to win and with Max coming in 2nd he must be getting worried about his title chances .
Max was a bit lucky but he had underlying speed which the Merc does not , this is going to be a very tight championship !
 
Lando was excellent and I am sure he will win a race soon as he certainly has the ability .Lewis also did well to win and with Max coming in 2nd he must be getting worried about his title chances .
Max was a bit lucky but he had underlying speed which the Merc does not , this is going to be a very tight championship !

To be fair the Merc was the faster car at Sochi and if there had been no rain Verstappen would have been 7th as he had very much settled there before rain threw the race up in the air. After that things fell into place for both him and Hamilton, but ironically Hamilton coming 2nd and Max 7th would have been better for the championship (for Lewis). If Hamilton (and Merc) can cut out the mistakes then it will go to the wire I feel, but I am just not sure they can as Max and RB are applying the necessary pressure to force the errors, a by-product of Merc having probably had it a little too easy in the last few seasons.
 
Pleased for HAM, but sad for NOR. What many folks miss when criticising these decisions - and all leading teams have messed up a few - it is so hard to make the right call when in the lead as you don't want to throw the race away, it was not that long ago that the switch to inters did not work at the wet end of a race. His time will come.


If Norris had come in for tires he wouldn't have regained the lead, looks to me like the gamble to stay out was his only chance to win.
 


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