Hamilton takes win and championship lead in Hungary

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton took his fifth victory at the Hungaroring after beating team mate Nico Rosberg to win the Hungarian Grand Prix to take the lead of the drivers’ championship.

Hamilton leapt out front at the start and was only ever headed during the pit stop cycles as he managed the gap to Rosberg behind and take the chequered flag and the championship lead.

Daniel Ricciardo held of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari to take third, while Max Verstappen survived a late challenge from Kimi Raikkonen to secure fifth.

As the lights went out, it was Hamilton who got the better start of the two Mercedes and swept into the lead into the first turn. Ricciardo also got a great start and tried to pass the Mercedes pair around the outside and appeared to have dispatched Rosberg, but the championship leader was able to snatch second position back from the Red Bull into turn two.

Vettel was the first to stop for soft tyres at the end of lap 14, immediately going purple. Ricciardo was the next to stop, but when Verstappen pitted a lap later, he resumed behind the Ferraris of both Vettel and Raikkonen, who was yet to stop on soft tyres.

Rosberg began to close the gap to Hamilton in front, while Ricciardo slowly started to reel in both Mercedes in third. Red Bull opted to pit Ricciardo for fresh soft tyres at the half way point, but Mercedes did not immediately react to cover the move.

Hamilton eventually stopped on lap 41, resuming comfortably ahead of Ricciardo. Rosberg too pitted the following lap, keeping his second place.

After keeping Verstappen behind him for over ten laps earlier in the race, Raikkonen found himself chasing down the Red Bull for fifth in the final stint. Verstappen defended the Ferrari’s attacks robustly, with Raikkonen clipping the back of the Ferrari into turn two and losing part of his front wing.

Rosberg did briefly begin to put his team mate under mild pressure in the final stint but was unable to mount a genuine challenge for the lead of the race. Hamilton counted down the laps to take his fifth victory at the Hungaroring and the lead in the drivers’ championship.

Sebastian Vettel tried a late challenge on Daniel Ricciardo, but could not pass the Red Bull driver, who held on to take the final podium place. Verstappen held off Raikkonen, while Fernando Alonso capped off a strong weekend for McLaren with seventh. Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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97 comments on “Hamilton takes win and championship lead in Hungary”

  1. This MERC can’t be beaten, it’s that simple.

    1. Still holding out hope for the Singaporean GP. Mercedes was quite poor there last year, and although they probably learnt, Red Bull will very likely give them a run for their money in a track similar to Monaco and with the US tyre

      1. Yeah they can afford to score 0 points in Singapore however.

        1. How good would Ferrari be looking now if they had given RBR their engines, even with the Mercs 1 and 2 it would be all Ferrari power challenging them.Pride cometh before a fall.

    2. Yes, they deserve their achievements but it doesn’t help the racing.

      I think what makes it worse is that despite having 2 top drivers the Mercedes can’t seem to overtake each other on track, in the races where they are close they don’t seem to be able to follow closely.

      1. Javier Javier
        24th July 2016, 14:57

        i dont see the achievement… the mclaren honda senna/prost was far superior for a simple reason… development was allowed, merc was protected by rules.. to me thats 50% of fake achievement

        1. Perhaps the other teams should have done a better job then during winter.

        2. I would understand ur comment if all other teams spent their tokens and still needed to update their power units. These MERCs are dominant more than we think. Whenever someone seems to close the gap, they just jump another half a second. It’s like they still have the flexibility to find a couple of tenths whenever they want.

          1. It’s like they still have the flexibility to find a couple of tenths whenever they want.

            The others can do the same.

        3. Javier Javier, if you are referring to the 1988 season and the MP4/4, then technically you are wrong about development being unrestricted.

          In 1987, the FIA announced that they would be changing the chassis regulations after Jacques Laffite’s career ending leg injuries in the 1986 British GP, which finally pressurised the FIA into implementing long overdue changes to the front crash structure.

          However, a number of teams complained that they would effectively have to design a new chassis that would only be used for 1988, given that the FIA had already announced that turbo engines would be phased out for 1989. The FIA therefore chose to compromise by introducing their equivalent of the ACO’s “grandfathering” rules for sports cars – the teams could enter a modified 1987 spec chassis, even though the chassis would technically not comply with the new front crash structure regulations, but those teams would then be forced to stick to the same chassis design for the whole of the 1988 season.

          Now, McLaren and Lotus could both afford to design a new chassis for 1988 as both teams had financial support from Honda (although Lotus’s 100T was only a lightly modified version of the 1987 spec 99T).
          However, other teams – such as Ferrari, Arrows and so forth – took up the FIA’s offer to run a modified 1987 spec car, effectively locking them into a year old design before the season began. Technically, therefore, McLaren was given some protection by homologation rules that restricted the development options of their rivals for that year.

  2. Nico Rosberg showed his true value as number 2. Left the door open at turn 1 and never really managed to put Hamilton under pressure for the whole race. 40 points lead gone just like that, feels like ages ago when he was leading comfortably.

    We’ll see what happens once Hamilton’s engines being to struggle and he takes a penalty or two. Otherwise I’m confident right now, having defended Nico through the season hoping a title fight might last until Abu Dhabi, that Hamilton will walk with the title come November… or even earlier.

    1. I think this is quite harsh on NR. I hardly think he could defend into Turn 1 against Hamilton

    2. Never under pressure? You’re kidding right? He was within 3 seconds the entire race, that is pressure,… Fact teammates can’t overtake on this track under these regulations isn’t his fault.

      1. @xtwl Stop kidding yourself! The whole race was controlled by Hamilton – from start to finish. The 3 sec gap you talk about? Controlled by Hamilton. He did exactly what he needed to do to keep Rosberg exactly where he wanted him, without straining himself or his car.

        Which race did you watch?

        1. When drivers are in controle they talk about gaps of 5-6 seconds, not 2-3. Had Rosberg been a little closer when Hamilton went wide he would’ve got past. If Hamilton had so much pace in hand he would have created a larger gap because even a bad pitstop would have destroyed his lead. It’s only logical.

          1. @xtwl
            I am surprised you are saying this. Drivers who are afraid of being caught and beaten tend to extend their lead too much. Hamilton has shown repetaedly that he controls the minutest of paces for lap after lap to the end of a race. He has nerves of steel and n doubt in his ability.
            He said to Sky after the race that he was “absolutely” in control of the entire race pace.
            “This is a race where it is very hot and you don’t need to do more. I don’t need a 5 second, 10 second gap. I need to do what I have to do even if I win by a 10th of a sec. I was just managing that gap…and even if he got 1.8, 1,5 it doesn’t matter. And when I needed the time, I put my engine to where I needed it to be and I was able to keep the time.”
            So yes, he was obviously in control. His only worry was nursing his PU.
            Where have you been all these seasons? This is not the first time Hamilton has held Rosberg at bay with the minutest of gaps.

          2. In Hamilton’s interview with Sky he specifically said this is a track where you don’t need to build a 5-10 sec gap. He was happy coasting with his engine turned down and maintaining 2 secs because it is so hard to follow and over take on the track.

            Then when needed he turned the engine back up. A do-just-enough and preserve the engine drive from Hamilton.

        2. @stubbornswiss you are trying to teach old dogs new tricks mate, no matter what you watch or say, their technical analysis is always unbiased and far superior to those who are always biased like yourself :)

          1. Hami did what Rossi did for a decade, made it look so much like a race even his main competitor thought he was still in it. He could have won by 30 seconds and not broken a sweat. He could put half a sec into Rosberg in a sector. Nico will have real trouble recovering from this once the reality hits him. Two drivers in the same car should never really be that far apart. Could be the drive of the season considering he’s nursing that car.

          2. @mysticus Annoying isn’t it.

          3. @xtwl it certainly is annoying: when certain people win, or loose, some F1 prodigies come along, and start dissing fans with their “perfect” technical analysis and wisdom… and when forums like this asks “fans” for their opinions by providing the initial food, these “analysts” dis fans for being too emotional based on their assessment…

    3. – Nico Rosberg…Left the door open at turn 1

      When I saw that, what immediately occurred to me was it must have been one of their agreements after their last crash. I think they must all have agreed to stop forcibly closing the door on each other at turn one.

      1. Yes he could have moved right in the first couple hundred yards to block or crowd Hamilton to the inside. That was really unusual in this era of race-start chopping. he didn’t even line himself up at an angle which is also SOP now. Maybe he had a few million on the line for not causing a crash per his new contract.

    4. I also think Nico’s fans should not use the race to start attacking the guy’s racing skills or any other thing. He drove as best as he could like Vettel, Kimi, Ves, Ricc, Alonso and others. Fact is someone has to win and it just happened to be Lewis. That does not in anyway diminish Nico’s skill.

    5. @fer-no65 I don’t see what else Rosberg could have done, his start was fine but Hamilton was on the inside so he couldn’t turn in and he had Ricciardo on the other side.

      Personally I would have liked to see the Red bulls get past both Mercedes but I thought the top 4 were all very impressive this race.

    6. Ham has obviously been studying Nico’s race start procedures, hence why he could get ahead of Nico ;)
      Let’s be quite honest here… you and I both know Nico was miles quicker but turbulent air (following) + Merc management was the main reason why Nico didn’t win. Ham did a great job at the start though and I as a Nico fan applaud him for that! It’s probably been near a year since ham could out drag Nico. As far as race pace…. Nico was superior

      1. I’m not sure quicksilver. The gap went dpwn to 0.5 from the traffic and by the end of the next clear lap it was back up to over a second. I think Hamilton had the pace when he needed it.

      2. – As far as race pace…. Nico was superior

        I don’t see how someone who never managed to get close enough to attempt an overtake has a superior pace. If he had that pace today, I never saw it and I doubt majority of viewers saw it too. Hamilton is a master racer. He is the best at tyre management, pacing with the smallest of margins, fuel saving, etc. So what I saw today, was Hamilton doing what he does best, manages the pace of the race as superbly as possible. Each time the gap shrunk due to any reason, he immediately stretches it to a slightly comfortable or manageable, at least to him, 1 sec or more.
        So I don’t know how Nico showed he was faster today. He raced very well today, no doubt about that, but he did not make the pass that could have given him the win.

        1. Ok I will take “superior” back cos it’s clearly hurting some.

          Nico was definitely faster out of the two hence Mercs radio in to LH saying in a nutshell “Buddy, you’re a little slow at the moment and Nico is faster…. if you can’t pick up pace then we’re going to have to ask you to move over like Nico did for you in Monaco”.

          There’s no denying that Nico was faster out of the two. Ham made a better start and that’s where it all counted. Good for him but remember this a a difficult circuit to overtake on (we all know cos Kimi struggled to overtake MV on new + faster tires).

          Overall: I’m a little bumbed that the race wasn’t that excitiing like it has been last 2 years. Obviously got to do with weather.

          I will still say DR is the by far the best driver to be in F1. Put him in a Merc and you’ll see LH retiring early to save humiliation

          1. Gap management was obvious. 3 seconds is quite a lot, you make it sound like NR was sitting on his diffuser. If he was faster he would have been within DRS range, that’s when you know a driver is only struggling to overtake due to turbulence.

        2. Lewis was very, very, very obviously managing the gap exactly how he wanted it. The question is whether we’ll ever see Rosberg doing what Hamilton has done in past seasons, hunting down that gap until getting past Hamilton (and not via the pits). Or indeed whether we’ll see Hamilton doing that this year. That would be a definitive statement of who is actually fastest on track. Until Rosberg can show that by catching and passing Hamilton in a straight fight, you can’t possibly judge that he was quicker.

          1. Ahhhh did I hit a nerve?? Sorry man! You and I both know Merc has sabotaged Nico in the past, hence why lewis has “won” the WDC. Ham is the higher payed driver right? Why allow a lower payed driver to win. Hams championships are SO fake! DR or SV would embarrass lewis if they were in Nicos car! Ham is nothing but lucky

          2. @David BR You and I both know Ros sucks and some slowsilvers are slow to recognize and admit it… You and I also both know, Ham in same exact spec cars beat Sebastian Vettel (F3 ?years i think), and Alonso! (F1 debut). You and I both know Ham, so let some slowlearners learn slowly :) and let them think their silver boy is silver never reach the gold status before their eyes…

      3. ruth517 (@spanishconnection)
        24th July 2016, 15:15

        I think Lewis was nursing his tyres and his engine. However he was in control and simply turned up the wick when Rosberg closed in.

        1. Ruth you could be right …. The same could be said for Nico too (regarding nursing). But we all know Hungary is very difficult to overtake on (another “monaco”) + Merc battle to follow another car like in Nico’s case – following Lewis (like LH couldn’t do anything about MV in OZ even tho we know he was faster in Australia …. unless you’re telling me that MV was actually faster than lewis in OZ ?????).

          Nico was definitely quicker but that doesn’t matter does it? Lewis made the better start and he just managed to keep NR behind!

          1. There’s a difference between being the nurse maid and needing one.

          2. Nico was not only slower, he was a lot slower. Whenever he got too close for comfort, Hamilton took it back within a few corners.

    7. @glynh @xtwl @mashiat I could be wrong of course, since we’re all armchair experts, but looking at all the onboards, I got the feeling Nico didn’t squeeze Lewis that much. Lewis, being put in that position, would’ve turned around Nico from the outside and got ahead… either letting Ricciardo to the lead or himself in the lead.

      It’s not the first time Nico has fallen behind Lewis at turn 1. I just think Lewis knows that, like he understands that’s Nico’s weakness.

      I just believe that Nico sometimes shows why a lot of people don’t rate him as champion worthy. He had half a car ahead into turn 1, he left a huge gap between himself and Lewis and he also managed to let Ricciardo by on the outside. Thankfully for him he managed to recover 2nd place right away..

  3. To me it looked like max was changing directions more than once on a couple of occasions while defending from kimi..

    1. +1…..deserves a penalty.

      1. 100% Agree!!! Unfortunately I doubt it will happen because lewis probably made 3 or even 4 changes in direction last year defending (I think it was) DR and didn’t get penalized!! And lewis’s defending was all over

    2. Yes, Max needs to be reigned in by the stewards. He is overdoing it. He has been praised by fans and pundits alike but I think it has gotten into his head that he could defend as he likes. That is dangerous. Apart from that, he is a very good driver.

    3. If so, race control would announce it in the comming 2 or 3 laps. There where no announcements so crying like a baby will not help!

    4. 1 move off the line. 1 move back. That’s allowed, I thought. Since there’s no announcements, the stewards agree.

      1. The straight after corner 1 is short and you naturally transition to the right half way down it to take corner two. Allowed move, maybe execution a bit Jerky. Move one a Jerky defense towards the inside.

        Nothing wrong there…

  4. what a borefest once again

    1. Yes Max was changing direction too much..Kimi was frustrated rightly so.

      1. don’t forget the overtake from… wait, there wasn’t an overtake

      2. No he wasn’t, defending like a pro!

        1. Still I Rise
          24th July 2016, 15:23

          Changing direction under braking is not defending like pro.

          1. Max defended like a pro, crybaby!

        2. Still I Rise
          24th July 2016, 17:02

          Cry baby? He beat Kimi by 1 second. Where did Kimi start on the grid and where did max start?.. Stewards are soft on the so-called new messiah, wins a race suddenly he’s untouchable, pastor’s been there, done it….then came the wall plantings and the dubious drives afterwards. Tick tick.

  5. How much more viewers F1 lost after Button penalty? Not to mention another 1-2 snooze fest. One more thing:can someone already try to control that little kid who can’t push pedal hard enough in pits to stop his dangerous driving and weaving on track?

    1. Everything you just said. Worst (most boring) race of the year by a long shot. Dumb penalties where there shouldn’t be any, none where there should have been (Max). No wonder F1 is in a nose-dive.

    2. pastaman (@)
      24th July 2016, 22:38

      Not to mention the TV race director obsessed with watching Kimi and Max for a bajillion laps

  6. People are going to slate this race because of the badge on the car and the name of the winner but I don’t see how is was significantly less entertaining than last years race other than the result. Last year was a good race, this was a decent race. But to hear people talk it’s like they were day and night.

    1. Last year was unexpected, this could have been predicted by someone who started following the sport last race.

      1. … I can’t argue with that, I predicted 8 of the top 10 and 6 of them in the correct finish position. But after the first lap last year, we then still had a predictable result. Vettel jumped the lead last year and held on until the end, Hamilton stole the lead this year and held on for victory. There was still pressure on with the top 6 for the entire race. I think people are rating the result not the race.

      2. – this could have been predicted by someone who started following the sport last race.

        No, it could not have.

      3. @xtwl we’ll find out in the results of the predictions how obvious the result was.

  7. Button’s penalty was absolutely ridiculous and it shows what a farce F1 has become. Rosberg is just not good enough to win this championship. For him, winning the first four races and still losing the championship will be very embarrassing.

  8. Good job by Mercedes to secure the 1-2. As for Nico, how much could you ask? Lewis was clearly managing his car, and he should have, at least, gone below 1 secs. He only went below 1 secs because of a ridiculous Haas and because Lewis made mistakes. I know that the mercedes’ weakness is following cars but… Well… it’s understandable given the track nature…

    As for Button… I propose a revolution against the FIA. LOL

  9. Sem (@05abrahamsemere)
    24th July 2016, 15:11

    First of all, boring race! My thoughts:

    Second, well done to Hamilton for winning a record 5th time and taking championship lead but he was mediocre today (Hamilton is one of my favourite drivers, he deserved the pole yesterday much more than Rosberg IMHO). Rosberg is unfortunately not on the level of Hamilton and he will likely lose this year, Hamilton has the upper hand on pace this year through race and qualifying unlike the last 3 races of 2015.

    Thirdly, well done to Riccardio for outshining Verstappen completely this weekend which has not happened since Monaco. These two are the most evenly matched pair in F1 at the moment.

    Ferrari slipping back and fighting with Red Bull for second. Vettel must now understand what Alonso was talking about all those years. Riakonnen good race, but again clumsy and poor in hard racecraft (reflexes slow in age).

    Well done to Mclaren, but I’m afraid this was more to do with the track characteristics more than anything. Alonso has been struggling to beat Button since they were teammates: Button outscored him last year and I predict he will finish ahead of him this year – where is the 6 tenths? In my opinion, Alonso is no longer the best driver – Hamilton, Vettel, Riccardio have surpassed him and in the future Verstappen will too.

    1. ‘Alonso has been struggling to beat Button since they were teammates’

      that’s blatantly a false statement. yes button has been closer than most expected, but Alonso has undoubtedly been the faster driver in the races, if not qualifying. yesterday’s quali showed what Alonso could do in the wet when button wasn’t that close at all. and we all know the reason Alonso finished behind button in the points last year. he had more reliability issues than button, and most of those occurred when he was in a points scoring position

      1. “Struggling” lol
        SM, rather not respond to a comment like Sem’s. I have watched the McLaren battle very closely over the last two years. Button is certainly close but Alonso is still the better driver. A few reliability issues going the other way last year and Alonso would have been in front like this year. Still, very close though. I would like to see Button in the Williams next year. The two race seats that should be available from the old guard are Massa and Raikkonen. Kimmi and Felipe are good drivers but they are blocking good talent out there.

        1. thanks @The Truth

          I have to agree with you, button to Williams will be interesting and kimi was awesome in his day, but sadly, he shows more often than not that he’s past his time. i liked both kimi and massa in their time but it’s time for new talent to come through

    2. Ricciardo was stupidly happy with 3rd guess the pressure is getting to him.
      Max was on him till the pitstops, complaining that he had to drive like a grandpa behind him. After pitstops,redbull lost him 3,5 secs, gameover, stuck behind Ferrari.

      Don’t see Ricciardo outshining Max..

      1. Drive like a grandma did Max say. His pitstop was really slow and made him drop behind Kim.

    3. @05abrahamsemere Button better than Alonso? That’s like saying Nico is better than Lewis…

    4. pastaman (@)
      24th July 2016, 22:39

      Thank you for spelling “lose” correctly

  10. So 27 seconds to a car which has the best chassis and where engine power isn’t that important.
    And people still think Mercedes wil fall back next year?
    As long as the V6-hybrid exist Mercedes will always be at the front on most tracks.
    Tilke Dromes have massive straights and I cant see them mess up the rest of the car that bad.

    1. I find it comical how people that have no idea about the inner workings of the teams cam make statements about the engines and chassis as if they were facts.

      You have no idea about anything regarding the Mercedes chassis. For all we know it’s actually better than the Redbull chassis.

  11. Okay so regarding the race, it wasn’t anywhere near the most exciting Hungaroring race in history. But it was a controlled and mature race from Lewis. I know Rosberg was tracking him all race but when Hamilton was given the hurry up by his team, through traffic and then when he ran wide on lap 63 he was still able to pull out a bit of a gap and and keep Nico at arms length out of DRS. I know some are being harsh on Rosberg losing the lead in the championship which there might be a point to argue there. I remember Jenson in 2009 clinging on for the entire season despite Red Bull and Mclaren catching up. I honestly thought this was Nico’s year, even as a Lewis fan but I cannot remember a WDC elect throwing an advantage away like Rosberg does. But Rosberg is keeping Hamilton very honest.

    Finally the penalty on JB was just absurd. Throw out these radio rules now. The FIA made the cars so complicated it’s impossible for the driver to know the car inside out like the chief mechanic. I have to say, the FIA comes across is incompetent many a time.

    1. The difference between Rosberg and Button’s situation is that for Rsoberg, every race he doesn’t win, his one championship rival does.

  12. – As long as the V6-hybrid exist Mercedes will always be at the front on most tracks.

    So what should be done to the V6-hybrid? Scrap them and return to gas-guzzling and ear splitting V8s or 10s or who knows 12s?

    1. That was a reply to @Ruben above

    2. Yes. Scrap the recovery systems AND the minimum weights of cars — take out several hundred pounds of batteries and extremely expensive development engineering, the cars would be just as fast over a race distance, tyre degradation would be far less decisive, smaller teams could actually afford to race and the sport would improve…

      1. May as well use remotely controlled 1/10 scale nitro cars and drop the cost further down? ey?

        1. That’s only to resolve the halo problem ;=}

        2. I was actually being quite serious about dropping recovery systems and lowering minimum weight. From a pure engineering perspective, the additional horsepower available is less than the energy required to accelerate the added weight over a complete lap. It’s not available all the time as shown during qualy – drivers have to do a “battery recovery” lap before they can do another flat-out time. Add to that the amount of turbulence (or the difficulty following closely to overtake) is also weight (as well as velocity) dependent.
          Take a look at the minimum weights over the last twenty or so years – they’ve been trending upwards. The most remarkable improvements in F1 came about prior to the mid/late 1980s when weight (and therefore efficiency) were trending downwards. Girder chassis to tubular to monocoque; steel to aluminium to fiberglass to carbon fiber; disk brakes are lighter than drums, alloy wheels lighter than spokes; rubber/neoprene fuel tanks, the list goes on…
          The current “green” trend of regulated fuel usage is political, not engineering – and engineering used to be one of the beauties of F1, allowing innovative, not regulated ideas, dominance that lasted maybe for a season (not like the current Mercedes situation) and true technological progress. Maybe just a guess, but today it costs $5 million to gain a tenth of a second lap time — compare any two teams and you’ll come up with that sort of number; and it’s all “rule compliance” not innovation. Without the minimum weight rules, there wouldn’t be a single car with battery recovery.
          Frankly, I don’t think it’s good for the sport.

  13. I like what Verstappen brings to F1. Aggression and that hunger to get in front. That said, his moves today were dangerous in the breaking zone. Lesser drivers would have taken each other out. I will repeat: dangerous. The FIA are clamping down on track limits and radio comms (laughs) yet yellow flags and change of direction in braking zones are lenient. I hate the rules of f1 at the moment. The rules have been challenging for me to follow and accept for 25 years, but this season is a new low. All I want is clarity and consistency and rules that allow for drivers to push and manufacturers to develop their cars through the year. If a race is won at turn one and a cheapie ship is decided during the summer, then we have problems. I want two teams racing at the front and the odd fifth placer pushing them on the odd occasion. Come on FIA, I’m not asking for much.

    1. *braking zone
      * championship… Although cheapie ship is an interesting description.

    2. Arnoud van Houwelingen
      24th July 2016, 16:03

      Verstappen did nothing wrong. That’s why he was not penalized. When Kimi clipped Max it was the fault of Kimi completely. He made a strange move. Max only moved once and turned in for the corner. What else could he do? Keep outside at the corner. Come on this is racing!!

      1. Take note of the change of direction in the braking zone. Max wouldn’t want it done to him so he shouldn’t do it to others. You can do exactly what you described before the braking zone, not in it. Ferrari won’t complain but it should be discussed in the driver’s forum so that there is no repeat.

        1. Arnoud van Houwelingen
          24th July 2016, 16:35

          i disagree completely .. he turned in for the corner .. it was Kimi who made a strange move in my opinion!

          1. We will have to agree to disagree then. Hopefully Verstappen continues to bring to F1 the excitement that he does. I also hope the safety rules are applied consistently and that it promotes clean and safe passes.

      2. MG421982 (@)
        24th July 2016, 19:38

        I think the fight was fair… but it’s about breaching the rules… and not if it was fair or not!!!! Verstappen did indeed moved more than rules allow. End of the story.

      3. Verstappen was not penalized because he is the new young buck. His second move to the racing line(allegedly) was the one and only time during the race he used that ‘racing’ line into the corner. Raikkonen might not be fastest but it’s not his first day in school.

    3. @The truth, let’s hope you are truthful enough to side with Hamilton who is calling for a clarification of the yellow flag rules as apparently Nico Rosberg did not observe them well enough during qually while other drivers on the grid did.
      After the race, Hamilton insisted while talking to Sky that Rosberg’s action with the yellow flag was questionable.

      1. The yellow flag rule application was interesting to say the least. I didn’t watch the onboard from Rosberg’s car, but if there were double waved yellows visible on his dash and on track then he needed to slow down more than the tenth that he had backed off. This is regardless of Alonso or marshals being in the area or not. Truthful enough?

        1. Lol. Yes you are.

  14. Just watched Hamilton and Rosberg’s post race press conferences. Lewis basically owned up that he was driving to win as slow as possible. Now. This to me confirms the ruthlessness world champions possess. Merc essentially gave Lewis the hurry up and in turn he only marginally increased his pace. Why? Because he was thinking of himself and his engine situation and didn’t give a… about Rosberg and backing him in the Red Bulls. Where am I going with this? If I was Rosberg I would have ignored the team orders in Monaco. While he did the gentlemanly thing by letting his team mate through and give the team a chance of victory, it hurt his own prospects badly. Remember the saying “good guys finish last”? This coming from a HAM fan btw. F1 is a brutal business and as such you should leave no prisoners. I know Nico’s tried that a few times but each time he does, he seems to come second best. So maybe he needs to execute it better.

    1. Did you just call Nico a good guy? Great joke.

      1. Far from it. Just that he needs to time his ruthless moments better. I suggest you re read my comment.

    2. If only the team could go on the radio and ask Rosberg to un-crash into Hamilton and not lose a 1-2 in Austria like they did on the radio to Hamilton today to not lose it.

  15. The Stewards must be disappointed Lewis won anyway.

    After Nico has benefited, I’m sure they’ll now ensure that no-on else can set purples on a sector with yellow flags.

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