Formula 1

Unlucky that Lafferty crashed though, Weren't it?

 

Forgot who it was on the Sky team, but they said its called racing.
What joke statement, like you say he went into corner too hot and affected another drivers racing line.
If Lewis had stuck to the line they've have crashed.
If any other driver continued to do that, they'd get hammered.
Max hasn't changed his style, initially commentators said it was youthful exuberance. What is it now?

 

He has some discretion which is clear, but the rules (as posted) do not give discretion to do what he actually did.

 

I would like to think Masi just succumbed to the pressure of a job he seems to be struggling with. The problem now is the FIA will not back down. If the exact scenario had played out at the 1st race of the season I think they may have corrected it. But having named a world champion they probably feel they have no option but continue down the path.

 

When you are in a hole stop digging! you are right they will try and bluff this through, they engineered the outcome they wanted.

 

Lewis was 12 plus seconds ahead when the safety car was deployed .
After the race was restarted and ended he finished 2 plus seconds behind , that was after he basically gave up after trying to get the tow up the straight the corner after he was overtaken.

He won the race by 10 seconds.
Anything else as other people have said is WWE territory
rules made up for TV spectacle ,excitement, to keep people interested enough in the race to continue watching it and of course to keep looking at the sponsors logos

 

To be fair they should have realised that Masi in an absolute lunatic and banked on him doing something like that. [/sarcasm]

 

In my opinion the fairest way would have been to red flag it, then both get fresh tyres and it’s decided between them.

 

The Sainz point is a great one. Verstappen had a free run at Hamilton with zero threat from behind.

In reality, Sainz would have been left for dead on the restart but that’s not the point.

 

Fairest? Fairest would have been to follow its own rules, as they've done for the last 30 years.

Also, they wouldn't have done what you are suggesting, because Lewis would have won.

 

Well yeah there is that as well!

Whatever our opinions, we can all agree that it’s a farce that the rules weren’t followed to the letter.

The daftest thing for me is that if Masi had, at the point he said ‘no unlapping’, said ‘all cars unlap now’ we’d have had an outcome that followed the rules. It would have been the same outcome with Verstappen winning, but at least it would have been ‘fair’ based on the rules and not just Masi making it up as he went along.

 

Fairest probably not the best word. But the cleanest, least unsatisfactory way.

They’d have got their drama that they wanted too.

I don’t subscribe to the anti-Hamilton view either. He’d not have got away with corner cutting on the first lap if they were. They just wanted drama whoever won.

 

If all cars unlapped themselves, the race would have ended behind the safety car. That's why he completely obliterated the FIA rules. He let a handful through, but a couple blocking Sainz, allowing Max a clear run at Lewis, and those five unlapped cars were only a hundred yards up the road when racing resumed. The rules state they must rejoin the pack, and that the safety car only comes back in after all unlapped cars have safely rejoined the pack.

It's an absolutely corrupt decision, there's no debate at all, it's staggering that mere fans like us are even bothering to discuss such a clear fix.

 

I've not once suggested that they were anti-Hamilton. Be that across the season, or during that one race yesterday. But what I do know, is that the contrived decisions by Masi at the end of that race, were anti-Hamilton. They took the title off him. Simple as that.

As for the opening lap 'corner cutting', I disagree with you. He was run off the track yet again by Verstappen who was sideways blocking Lewis who had no choice but to enter the run-off area. Whether he gained an advantage is up for debate, but the fact Hamilton was faster on hard tyres than Max was on softs tells you that if Max had led after that corner, it wouldn't have been for long. And then no doubt, Max would have collided with him as soon as he tried to overtake.

 

That’s why I said at the time he said no uplapping, because at that point I believe there would have been time to get them through and follow all procedures.