Formula One

Fortunately managed to avoid finding out the. result. Worth watching, but tactical  rather than spectacular. Lewis seemed very respectful of Max at the first turn. Perhaps the thought of how the thousands of Dutch fans might react was a factor.😂 Quite liked the fact that Bottas ignored orders and made Hamilton work for fastest lap. He was never going to get past max anyway, so why not bring him in for a new set of rubber. Perhaps they didn’t want to finish 21 seconds behind the red bull. I very much liked the track and the banking. Overall a good well fought race.

Well, there wasn't any safety cars or red flags as i thought might be the case. More like a precession than a race though on another track where overtaking is limited to one or two places.

Good win for Max, and a second and third for Mercedes to consolidate the lead in the constructors standings.

Lets hope for some racing at Monza next weekend.

I always make sure I stay away from the news channels until after the C4 broadcast. Contest is still tight but I don't think I'd put money on LH for his 8th championship.

Red Bull must be wondering about their second driver at the moment. I thought Perez was an inspired choice and also surprised they went outside the Red Bull stable to find a driver? Of late, in previous teams he has been Mr consistent, however he seems to have struggle to find his feet at Red Bull. It is the Constructors Championship that dictates the money teams get at the end of the season. Had Perez been more consistent at Red Bull they would be in a better position in the Constructors race. What they need is another Vettel/Webber partnership?

David

Great day for McLaren yesterday with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris taking first and second. They certainly had the same pace as Red Bull and Mercedes and Ferrari were not too far behind. Maybe it was a lot to do with it being a fast, low downforce track but a great day for them non the less.

Max Crashtappen was back to his usual tricks. Frightening crash with him and Lewis Hamilton. I think Max was seeing the red mist after an appalling pit stop and was going to do everything to make sure Lewis didn’t finish in front of him, thereby protecting his 5 point lead.

It wasn’t very nice to listen to Verstappen on the radio when his car was still on top of Lewis’s saying “That’s what you get if you don’t give me room”. It certainly sounded like he crashed into Lewis intentionally, a view also taken by Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert.

Then to walk away without even checking if Lewis was alright with his Red Bull car still on top of the Mercedes sums up his attitude.

Lewis was very lucky not to be seriously injured. A testament to the value of the Halo head protection device possibly saving his life.

Verstappen has been deemed to have caused the incident by race stewards and has received a three place grid penalty for the next race.

It’s about time Verstappen was banned for 3 races, never mind 3 places on the grid. His attitude is disgraceful and his driving skills worse. He’s a danger on the circuit, mostly to others, particularly if he doesn’t get his own way or things don’t go in his favour. I agree that to be a winner there needs to be drive, determination and some aggression at times but it needs to be controlled - and Crashtappen is not in control. He’s a loose cannon and woe betide anyone who gets in his sights.

It took the life of Jules Bianchi in 2015 for F1 to take steps to introduce more safety for the drivers and hence the halo. Without that, Lewis Hamilton would have been killed. 

Another interpretation might be that Lewis knew that Max was almost along-side him and if he gave him room he would overtake him so he squeezed Max which in normal circumstances would have forced him off the track. What he perhaps could not have anticipated was that that that part of the track there is a very high kerb which resulted in Max bouncing over him?

David, interpretations aside, I stand by my comments and stick with the professional drivers analysing the incident - Verstappen deliberately drove into Hamilton - thus protecting his championship lead.

Does he care what happened to Lewis? 

Verstappen's psychopathic tendancies are clear for all to see.

You can interoperate the cause of the crash any way you want to. What isn't open to interoperation is Crashtappens  radio message when he was on top of Lewis and the fact he walked away without a second glance to see if Lewis was okay.

Coupled with that he walked on to a live racing track ignoring marshals instructions to get of the track, thereby putting himself, the marshals and other drivers at great risk. Yet another example of his "I'm invincible" attitude.

David it was only a couple of weeks ago you posted:

"I think we have to accept that the Race Stewards found Lewis to be at fault so therefore no blame can be laid at the door of Max."

Why do you think the race stewards might have got it wrong this time?

I think they both have similar attitudes. Lewis was equally dismissive of his roll in causing Max to crash at very high speed. At least Max’s rant could be put down to heat of the moment and sky high adrenaline levels. Although it would have been the decent thing to check on Lewis, he did mention he knew he was alright as he was trying to reverse out from underneath. As the stewards wording, with the exception of the drivers name, was the same in both incidents, it could be argued Max has been awarded a more severe penalty.  3 place grid, as against 10 seconds during a race in which he had knocked his opponent off the track and gone on to score lots of points.