Formula One

Reading the press this morning it's rumoured that Russell will be in Bottas' seat during this season so they'll only need one new driver next season. Don't forget next year with the new rule changes it will be new for everyone.

JK

Wouldn't surprise me to see Lando Norris in the second seat.As JK has mentioned changes next season , Mercedes can rebuild from scratch.

The only problem with that is that Mercedes only want a support driver for Lewis at the moment. I am not sure George Russell would be willing to play that game so Bottas might be safer than you think? It really does depend on what Lewis decides to do if he wins his eight Drivers Championship. Perhaps for a year George would put up with it?  It does seem that Red Ball are going to push Mercedes hard this year for the title so it's important to have both drivers scoring maximum points. It looks as if Perez has growing confidence in the Red Bull so there is a scenario where Lewis could win the Driver Championship and Red Bull the Team Championship, now that would be interesting. I bet Perez is laughing his socks off having been replaced at Aston Martin with a former world champion who is struggling to score points.

David

Can't see Mercedes tolerating Bottas's performance too long, he was 124 points  down on Hamilton last year and is already 37 points down this year in the same car. If Mr Wolff wasn't his management he might not have been with Mercedes this year.

Whist it was inevitable, it shows what a talent LH has in achieving 100 poles. He'll outnumber London plumbers soon. 

Another super performance by Team Hamilton, but not helped by his team mate. I do wonder what would have happened to Bottas had his delaying tactics resulted in a victory for Red Bull!

The delay was very marginal and the benefit Lewis had from the new tyres was unlikely to have lessened his chance of winning. The Bottas delay at best was only two or three corners and I am sure he would argue that he wanted to choose where Lewis overtook him. Feel sorry of Max as this is not the first race this year where an early safety car has impacted on the outcome of his race and denied him of a possible win.

David

The delay caused by Bottas was about 1 second, and in the end made no difference to the outcome. The fact that Bottas didn't let Lewis pass and made him do a full overtake move was a bit naughty. I wonder what the recriminations would be if they had collided due to Bottas's petulance.

I can't feel sorry for Max. What goes around comes around. He's caused enough safety cars in his career, but again i don't think it affected the result. Mercedes and Hamilton made sure they had options for the race strategy which in the end proved to be the difference.

A bold move to go for the late tyre change, nonetheless. The need to be lapping a second faster for twenty plus laps made it something of a nail-biter.

The strategists predicted a last lap battle, Lewis got it done with 6 laps to go. I don't think anyone else on the grid has that much hunger. Was a nailbiter though!

The good news that Lewis will more than likely stay with Merc next year and the fact that Valteri continues to underperform makes it more likely to me that Russell's seat is secured

JK