“Anyone who blames Max for that needs their eyes testing” – Horner

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has defended his driver Max Verstappen after Ferrari blamed him for taking both their drivers out of the Singapore Grand Prix.

“How on earth you can work that out from watching that I’ve got no idea,” Horner told Sky.

Singapore Grand Prix in pictures
Verstappen had one of the Ferrari drivers on either side of him when they collided approaching turn one.

“You can see Sebastian [Vettel] comes quite aggressively left, Kimi [Raikkonen] goes to the right and Max, he can’t disappear. He held a straight line and just desperately unlucky for him to be eliminated like that.”

“You see Seb moving over to the left, squeezing squeezing. You can’t just disappear. It’s racing, it’s one of those things when you’ve got three cars going into a corner like that. But Max certainly couldn’t just disappear.”

Horner suggested Vettel moved towards Verstappen because he was unaware his team mate had made a rapid start and was drawing alongside the Red Bull.

“I think he probably couldn’t see there was Kimi the other side of Max,” said Horner. “He’s been aggressive with Max and Kimi’s done the same from the other side and the result is what you see there. I think anybody who tries to apportion blame on Max Verstappen for that needs their eyes testing.”

Horner said Verstappen told him, “”I held a straight line, I tried to get out of the way because I could see where it was going but they just came so quickly from either side.”

“I think Max should be completely exonerated from blame for that incident,” Horner added.

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    105 comments on ““Anyone who blames Max for that needs their eyes testing” – Horner”

    1. +1 Christian Horner

      1. -10000000 and welcome to F1

        1. +googolplex christian. Max has zero blame on his shoulders today. Vettel ought be a man for once and accept he was responsible for ruining 3 other driver’s races as well as his own, but he won’t because he hasn’t got it in him.

          1. How was Vettel at blame? The fault is on Verstappen. Vettel is within his own right and rules to move across at the start, this move is very common. The following driver can take than the other line, but Verstappen is too stubborn to learn, he kept attacking on the left of Vettel.
            Oh, and Christian you need you eyes checked as well, never did Verstappen kept a straight line.

            1. Surely you’re joking @caci99 ?

            2. @lagerstars yes I might t. But care to explain what rule did Vettel broke then, since I assume you’re laying the fault on him?

            3. You are one of those guys that doesn’t know what a blind spot is, right? That’s why. You blame VET that did nothing, and praise VER that also DID NOTHING. He knew he wasn’t gonna catch VET, he saw RAI coming from his left and stayed there. Great judgement you got there. Deliver your driver’s licence ASAP.

            4. O…o…ai…ai who is BLIND ?? caci99 not only blind bout stupid too

            5. Please explain where VES could go? If you claim that VES should move out of the way RAI should have done the same and the whole thing is his fault. Squeezing someone if you have a bad start isnt smart, especially in the rain with poor visibility.

            6. @caci99 – were you watching another race???

          2. Yesterday I had the feeling that Seb caused this mayhem. However, after watching the start in slow motion from a couple of perspectives I see that Max is the sole responsible for the multiple collision, leaving 4 drivers out of the race.
            Watch these perspectives, in slo-mo if you would:
            https://youtu.be/jWwompdmYiA
            https://youtu.be/yoRlpqIwiqs
            I can see Seb driving in a straight line trying to close the door to Max, in a legit and predictable move we’ve seen many, many times without causing a collision. On top of that he was ahead of Max at all times so I do not see how he could be responsible for the disaster.
            Kimi moved to the left and overtook Max, in a straight drive without any trajectory change. Also a predictable and legit move.
            Max, instead, had an erratic trajectory. He first moved first to the right and he saw Seb coming, as Seb was ahead of him. At that time Max had a sudden move to the left without looking at the left mirror. Kimi had already passed him and his movement to the left caused the collision with Kimi and the billiard game that left 4 drivers out of the race. This movement reminds me to the incident between Sainz and Grosjean at the beginning of the Canada GP this year, when Sainz moved to the right without looking at the mirror.
            A more experienced driver than Max would have used the mirrors when changing trajectory and noticed in advance that there was no gap. So after a deep review I see Max as the sole responsible for causing a multiple collision.

            1. I see differently. I see, relative to Vettel, Max got a slow start in the second phase and Kimi got a fast start. Kimi pulls up the inside of Max while Seb moves across hard to protect his inside line. Max holds straight, what Vettel does at this point is almost irrelevant to him, he is entirely in front of both the other cars.

              Max tries to make up for this in the third phase, but puts down too much traction and wobbles, less than an inch, but enough to know he has spun his tyres and Kimi does not, which means Max is much slower than Kimi meaning he will overtake Max by the corner. Vettel is clear in the lead and the only car a threat into the first corner is Kimi, who we know is no threat at all, except maybe to his pride.

              It’s looking like Ferrari will be one two after the first corner, but then Kimi moves right, for reasons unknown. Max’s distance to the edge of the track remains unchanged, yet Kimi clearly moves away from the edge. After he gets his front wheels ahead of Max he moves across so much that their wheels interlock and there is contact. Max backs down immediately, and releases the accelerator to prepare for taking the corner after the two Ferraris. This takes Kimi by surprise, he wanted Max to move right, probably because he knew of the threat from fast starting Mercs with the outside line.

              I just want to emphasise at this point, this is an accident that in my opinion has no blame.

              So Kimi expected Max to move right, and remember Vettel is absolutely clear in front, so he can. Kimi didn’t check that Max had done this before angling his car to take the defensive line through the corner that would see him into second place without challenge from behind, and at this point, checking this would mean craning around his HANs device to see into his blind spot. I.e unreasonable. His rear wheel clips Max’s front wing. The release of tension of his suspension breaking pivots his car hard clockwise, sending his front wing into Seb’s sidepods. Max, who was flung right by the impact does not hit Seb at all.

              Conclusion, Vettels manoeuvre was not dangerous, Max held a line he was entitled to and Kimi was responsible but cannot be blamed as it was reasonable to assume Max would drift right, most cars would.

      2. Not a big fan of Max. This wasn’t his fault. If all 3 drivers were aware of their position, this could have been avoided. Judging from the vids, Kimi and especially Max, were aware, Vettel wasn’t. I’m not saying Vettel is at fault here but he certainly wasn’t aware. Racing incident or Vettel at fault, take your pick.

        1. Be a real guy and say that IT was Vettel to blame

          1. Racing incident for me. I just put those two options up there because imo, they’re the only two options. If you look at VET in an onboard, he looks in his mirrors at least twice to the left. What he was probably hoping to do is make Max sweep more outward away from the racing line. What Vettel couldn’t see, is Kimi’s dynamite start, that had Max with no where to go. Had he seen Kimi (don’t think he could have) he’d have done it a little differently.

    2. Horner suggested Vettel moved towards Verstappen because he was unaware his team mate had made a rapid start and was drawing alongside the Red Bull.

      And that’s really all there is to say. It’s never Verstappen his fault, it’s certainly is not Kimi his fault and Vettel just came over very fast to cover off the better starting Red Bull. Yet he couldn’t have known Kimi was going to be there too,…

      1. Agreed. You can understand Vettel’s point of view wanting to come across and cover Verstappen, some people say it looked aggressive but let’s face it we see most pole sitters moving across like that off the line all the time, it’s just unfortunate for him and Max that on this occassion Kimi had such a good launch on the other side. You could say kimi had a couple of yards of room on the left to go into but then he would have risked going on a very slippy line into t1.

        Long story short I don’t think anyone deserves penalty points for that.

        1. No, it was mainly Vettel’s fault. I’m not a Verstappen fan, but in this case he was pretty much helpless.
          Take into account that Vettel was on pole, Ham in p5 and the race was there for the taking for Seb, he just made the wrong call at the wrong time, screwed up 3 people’s race and possibly cost him the WDC! There was just no need to move across like that ( and that was an extremely sharp, aggressive move to push Verstappen towards the outside)

    3. And he is right, nobody to blame

      1. I just had my eyes tested and I’m re-watching the replays. I still see Max’s car moving to the left and I still see his hands moving the steering wheel in a cockpit shot.

        Christian says that Verstappen saw both Ferrari drivers coming from both sides, so he was the only one fully aware of the situation. The problem is that he didn’t held a straight line, contrary to what Horner says. That’s what Max should have done, but it was his bad judgement to try to close the door on Kimi when he was already alongside him. He reacted too late to cut Kimi and Vettel decided to cut Max, unaware of the situation. Vettel didn’t make a mistake, Kimi didn’t make a mistake, Max did. For me it’s a pretty clear-cut situation.

    4. lots of eye test incoming.

      1. “they should have gone specsavers” commercial would have been awesome for the crash :)

      2. “they should have gone to specsavers” commercial would have been awesome for the crash :)

    5. I think this is the first time I’ve ever agreed with Horner.

      I just don’t understand where people expected Max to go. The above camera shows how aggressive the move across was from Vettel. A standard move at most race starts but he caused this and only has himself to blame. I honestly hope they come down on Vettel especially after Baku.

      1. You actually see Max back out but he couldn’t get out of the sandwich anymore

      2. “I honestly hope they come down on Vettel especially after Baku.”

        just like they used to on schumacher and Senna???? LOL

    6. Vettel was to blame, also didnt Mika Hakkinen get a race ban for exact same move from pole in similar conditions before for causing the collision.

    7. Wouldn’t say they need their eyes testing… simply changing the tinting of their lenses should do the trick.

    8. All i can say is WOW!

      Clearly, Vettel expected Verstappen to give way, the trouble is he couldn’t.

      What i would like to see is a camera angle which explains how Vettel came to spin out.
      Vettel had survived the scrap at the start with Hamilton in hot pursuit, the question is
      what was going through Vettel’s mind when he spun out.

      Was he perhaps thinking of damage limitation?

      1. he spinned over fluids, like ricciardo in hungary

        1. Yeah, massive hole in the sidepod that wasn’t visible on TV at the time. Was spraying fluid pretty much straight from the hit.

      2. The damage from the collision meant he was leaking fluids. Even without the spin caused by that they would have retired him. The question is has there been any power unit damage?

        An engine penalty would be the final nail in the coffin of his championship hopes.

    9. Horner is right. Vettel was way too agressive in his start, his main rival was way down the grid. Should have taken a more conservative and/or cautious approach.

      1. That move by Vettel at the start is what you do when you know you are having a poor start.
        It would be interesting to see what telemetrics makes of their individual starts.
        So far there’s been nothing concrete in the post grand prix analysis.

    10. Racing incident. If RAI didn’t have such a good start and was up on VER as quickly as he did, all three cars would’ve survived turn 1. Looking at the start the two cars in particular that had the best starts were RAI and HAM.

      1. And Alonso, a stunning start.

      2. Agreed. The whole incident was a result of a stellar start on Kimi’s part. In Horner’s own words: “I think he probably couldn’t see there was Kimi the other side of Max”. Vettel was protecting the racing line into the first left hander as Pole was on the right. Likely he had no idea Kimi had made such a good start and was already up the inside of Verstappen who saw Kimi coming up the inside and moved rigth in avoidance only to then see Vettel coming across. Max moves left, forces Kimi into the wall, who then bounces into his teammate and sandwiches Max. The Stewards got this one right: racing incident.
        Anyone who says Vettel was “too aggressive” has never won a WDC. It’s racing, not a dinner party. No driver fighting for the championship is going to say, “Oh, er, pardon me, I didn’t see you there. How rude of me. Please be my guest and take my spot.” Of course Vettel’s aggressive, it’s called racing.
        Even Hamilton agrees: “They’re generally in your blind spot if they get as good a start as you, and it’s difficult to know where they are. So your immediate thought is to cover your ground, get to the inside and cover and turn them down, so I assume that’s what he [Vettel] did.”

    11. Sundar Srinivas Harish
      17th September 2017, 15:58

      Vettel was simpling letting the future Red Bull-Honda team know that he’d be a cultural fit with that kamikaze move.

      1. COTD.

    12. In my eyes the whole thing was instigated by Vettel. With Hamilton so far behind him on the grid, and with so much for him to gain, his aggressiveness at the start was totally unfounded and may well have cost him the championship.

    13. It was a racing incident. Verstappen allowed room for Raikonnen but drifted slightly towards him as he saw Vettel approaching on the other side, just enough for contact and the bowling alley moment. Vettel presumably didn’t realize Verstappen had nowhere to go. When you see the replay from the front and the Ferrari’s basically angling toward each other with VER in the middle, it’s 100% obvious a collision was going to occur within a few milliseconds, completely irrespective of what Max might have tried to do to avoid it.

      The real question is how prudent Raikonnen was to try to race into the first corner. The problems posed by getting a great start…

      1. No the real question is why did Vettel take so much risk, when the race was there for his taking?????

    14. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      17th September 2017, 16:02

      I don’t understand what Seb was trying to achieve because Max was already alongside it wasn’t like he could block. I can only imagine he was trying to prevent Max from getting a decent wide line into T1 by squeezing him. I think he was overly aggressive just because it was Max.

      1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        17th September 2017, 16:10

        Just seen it again and Seb prob didn’t realise (for sure) Max was alongside so was prob just trying to block. Even if Kimi wasn’t there though he was reliant on Max getting out the way. Unnecessary when a championship at stake.

      2. I think he was trying to keep Versappen inside to keep him farther from the racing line through 1 and 2. The farther left Versappen goes the more he has to brake.

        Similarly, Kimi was so far inside he could only have cut the corner or slowed way down.

        Vettel’s move would have been more understandable if Versappen was a championship threat, rather than most likely to DNF. Instead he made Lewis’s day. Or maybe season.

    15. I don’t perfectly agree with Horner’s take, but that seems eminently more reasonable than whatever’s coming out from Ferrari.

    16. Horner finally gets one right… surprised he didn’t somehow manage to slight Renault in the quote. ;)

    17. Anyone in Vettel’s position would have closed that inside line being ahead. Anyone in Kimi’s position would have gone for that inside to the 1st corner with a great start like he had. Anyone else in Verstappen’s would have braked or released the throttle and not turn at the car which was passing him. He is only the one that has the clear picture of where everyone is and his choice is to clip Kimi’s rear tyre. Either he is not that smart to avoid contact by releasing the throttle or he knows exactly what he is doing and decides to turn on another driver.

      The kid doesn’t know how to lose. It was cute at first but now with so many incidents that he has been involved it’s clear that the lack of punishment will only make matters worse.

      1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        17th September 2017, 16:41

        Nonsense. If a driver is driving a straight line on a straight he is entitled to not have to back off. Kimi and Max did nothing wrong other than get a better start than Seb. There was only one driver who did the sandwiching (invented a word).

        1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
          17th September 2017, 16:43

          Also he didn’t have time to back off the speed Seb came flying across. You turn into a car on a straight line you are to blame. Simple.

      2. So Vettel was right to turn into Verstappen, but Verstappen not? And if Vettel turned into Verstappen, what was he supposed to do, brake massively and cause a collision behind? You’re moving seriously off-planet with that assessment.

        The Ferrari drivers sandwiched Verstappen into the first corner in wet track conditions. Really, it’s just not a very sensible move if you want to limit the chances of a collision.

        1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
          17th September 2017, 16:56

          I’m actually impressed by the extreme bias to go against logic and the experts to exonerate Vettel of any blame. I don’t deny Verstappen is an incident magnet and I don’t deny it was a racing incident but to blame anyone other than Vettel for the incident is crazy.

          1. I actually thought the conditions were perfect for a first corner incident with Verstappen and the two Ferraris (you’ll have to take my word for it!) and Hamilton to win in the wet weather conditions. But I really didn’t expect Vettel to be so aggressive, or Raikkonen. Verstappen was pretty much a passenger in the incident. Just got away reasonably well and drove more or less straight until Vettel squeezed his way. I imagine the Ferrari blame machine is actually just desperate to avoid a Vettel penalty and the supporters are following in their wake.

            1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
              17th September 2017, 17:10

              Vettel’s apologetic team radio was very telling to me. Usually he will argue and scream to the nth degree when he feels aggrieved but he knew he messed up.

        2. Vettel is ahead. Kimi is next to Verstappen. It’s not the shame thing. All leading drivers protect the inside line by cutting it. Vettel sees the space in front of Verstappen and closes it. A bit sudden, a bit faster… maybe. But there is an acceptable space. Verstappen sees that, sees Kimi beside him. There is literally no space to turn left but onto a whole car.

          1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
            17th September 2017, 17:06

            I agree but you can’t do it when a car is already inside.

          2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
            17th September 2017, 17:07

            Alongside I meant sorry

            1. We have seen a lot worse moves to cut the inside line. This was not one of them. You can’t use the sandwich analogy when one car is definitely ahead. Yes he squeezed him within acceptable limits. In Vettel’s POV which he clearly haven’t seen RAI he cuts his line inside the first corner but there is space for him. Of course the space later disappears with RAI occupying it but in that very moment what should Mac do apart from fall back? I would have agreed 100% with Horner if VET was next to VER or closer. But he isn’t. Simple as that

            2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
              17th September 2017, 17:38

              The onboard camera shows Vettel turning left and left and left until he hits a car alongside. That’s all there is to it. Saying Verstappen should have backed off is saying Verstappen should have reacted to Vettel’s mistake. This was all Seb. Hence his apology on radio like Spa last year.

            3. You can’t use the sandwich analogy when one car is definitely ahead

              Vettel was not definitely ahead though, your argument is invalid

          3. There is literally no space to turn left

            So you’ve basically confirmed what I said: Verstappen had nowhere to go. Just like Raikkonen driving up the inside. Whereas Vettel could have taken a less sharp angle (as you suggest) and not risked a collision. I really don’t see how you work that out as MV’s fault! It’s been part of Vettel’s grid start tactics every since his Red Bull years to veer from P1 hyper aggressively to block off challenges.

            1. If you have nowhere to go, you release the brake. You don’t hit another driver.

            2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
              17th September 2017, 17:42

              1. There was no time to react Seb came across to fast. Although he did try but was already too late.

              2. Why should Max brake in a straight line for someone else’s mistake?

            3. @theovog I guess you mean press the brake, but MV would have had to slam the brakes on to get out of Vettel’s way, which on a wet track with Raikkonen inches from him would have been equally high risk. In fact it seems MV did lift. Sorry but you really can’t blame him for the incident caused by Vettel wanting to force track position, SV has to take responsibility there.

            4. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
              17th September 2017, 17:59

              The pic at the top of this page shows exactly who causes the incident. 2 cars accelerating in a straight line and another smashing into them.

        3. Vet was ahead of Vestupiden.

          1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
            17th September 2017, 17:40

            So you’re not allowed to go alongside cars you’re faster than?

            1. imma make this as short as possible. Certainly you are if there is space. He knew kimi was on his left, saw vet closing, he got no space, steers to the left instead of yielding. Sore loser that kid.

          2. If VET was ahead… why all the squeezing maneouver then?!

      3. Max did back off and its kimi who clipped max. Rear tyres are wider than front tyres!

    18. You see Seb moving over to the left, squeezing squeezing

      He’ve got enough room there…
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egHvWj0Jz3Q

      1. Yes, it’s what Seb does. This time it cost him a championship maybe.

        1. @david-br
          Regardless of who was to blame, my point is that Horner is incredibly hypocrite when giving his feedback about a situation in which his team is involved

          1. Oh right, point taken! It is kind of his job, though :O)

    19. Probably racing incident. One can see Verstappen make the first move towards Raikonnen and thats the initial hit. However had Verstappen kept his line it would have been Vettel that would have initiated this carnage. It looks like there was no way to avoid that.

      In the end Vettel quite misjudged here. This is probably a turning point in the championship. He should have been more conservative, knowing Lewis was behind. But that is always easy to say afterwards.

      1. In slow motion Vettel clearly cuts across towards Max before Max turns slightly towards Kimi.

        At racing speeds, all Max would have seen is Seb closing in rather quickly. He made a slight move towards the left to avoid Seb but then enters Kimi’s path.

        In fact, if Max had managed to back out I’m not sure that Seb wouldn’t have drove into the side of Kimi, he was that aggressive.

        Seb just didn’t look like he knew where he was going, it looked like a blind charge rather than a calculated move.

    20. Don’t know who is to blame, must view all the camera angles to say, but in my opinion and from VET point of view, he should have left a little more room. Verstappen had much less to lose, Seb could have finished second but ahead of HAM, instead he has all but handed over the WDC to Lewis…

      1. Fikri Harish (@)
        17th September 2017, 17:59

        @qazuhb
        Vettel’s move was aggressive but not overtly so and would be okay had Kimi not where he was at the point but I do know that Max isn’t to blame. Yeah, Max could’ve braked or eased off on the throttle to get out of the way but I’ve never liked this practice of letting one guy shouldering the burden of discretion even if the other driver is the one making a potentially boneheaded move like this. Besides, given Vettel’s and Kimi’s trajectory, it’s possible that those two would’ve hit each other even if Max backed off, now that would be interesting to watch.

        Do I personally think that Vettel is to blame? Definitely.
        Does he deserve a penalty though? That’s harder to say as a penalty now could set a precedent of pole sitters not allowing to block the second-placed driver and given how much rule dictating drivers what to do or not to do already, I prefer not to further complicate matters.

    21. I do so hate to agree with Horner, but I really have to here. Vettel did the ‘Schumacher chop’ and paid the price. Racing incident at the end of the day. Feel sorry for VER given his recent luck.

    22. Anyone blaming Verstappen for this is either a die-hard to Tifosi or just hates him to begin with, and thus just blames him no matter what he does. Just look at the video of his onboard – he just goes in a straight line, and suddenly there is a Ferrari squeezing him on each side. Raikkonen didn’t have much space because he couldn’t go on the wet run-off area, but Vettel had half the track width to maneuver. Neither Verstappen nor Raikkonen backing out would have prevented the crash (and the notion that Vettel had a prerogative to the track is ridiculous anyway), but Vettel backing out certainly would have. Ergo, Vettel’s fault.

      1. Does this looks straight line to you?
        https://media.giphy.com/media/Eyr8R1dAItpPG/giphy.gif

        Not to take any blame out of Vettel’s aggressive line changing though, that was quite unnecessary. And it made Max to do that little line change towards Kimi. All this happened so freaking fast that those moves were more reflexes than real well placed race driver moves.

    23. Funny, the official Ferrari Twitter feed is blaming Max for taking out Kimi first, then Seb. Not too many are buying into that.

      If Vettel had not cut across it was still always going to be tight into turn 1, but his cut across started the chain reaction before they could even get there.

      What a start by Alonso only to be punished severely through no fault of his own.

      As others have mentioned, for once a rare occasion to agree with anything Horner has said.

    24. Only verstappen could have avoided this accident by slotting behind either Ferrari driver. But the teenager, as has been the case with him in the past, was too busy forcing his way into a gap, after losing out to Raikkonen.

    25. never agreed with horner before ; has to be a first time for everything I suppose

    26. Ferrari getting absolutely savaged with memes about that Tweet blaming Verstappen, deservedly so too.

    27. For me Vettel solely to blame for the turn 1 incident, aggressively and needlessly chopping across the field and taking out 3 other cars including your teammate is not the actions of a world championship drive. Vettel bottled the championship today ruining season best finishes for Verstappen and Alonso along the way. Up there with Baku for me in terms or right royal F-ups!

    28. Are you kidding ? Vettel’s fault ? Please, look at the video and you will see that Verstappen started the accident when he hit Raikonnen,one of Verstappen’s favorite targets, although he has hit his own teammates and anyone else in his way as he know he can do so with impunity and lacking respect for other drivers there is no deterrent to such conduct -and he seems to like his well deserved moniker of “Maldonado 2.0″.
      Answer this :how can you blame Vettel when he was merely passing Verstappen when Verstappen bounced off the car he just drove into ,Raikonnen’s and the rebound caused his car to hit Vettel’s who already got his nose past Verstappen’s.
      F1 wants and needs a new star so it has looked the other way every time Verstappen has done something wrong :like cut off Raikonnen at 200 mph at Spa or when Verstappen blocked Raikonnen with a double move and took off Raikonnen’s wing so F1 has contributed to creating a highlight to its lack of fair officiating but, I look at it this way .
      Maldonado ,I mean Verstappen just saved me thousands of dollars as I have just cancelled my trip to Austin for the US grand prix and while it was a bad ” sports viewing “morning it should be a very good “sport viewing ” afternoon as the Indycar double point race from Sonoma is scheduled to air.
      F1 had been my favorite motor sport circuit for years but,I doubt that i will watch it after today now that Verizon Indycar has become my favorite .
      The F1 cars are better ,but, not by much and most of the F1 tracks are better but, there are better rules in Verizon ,like push to pass ,and much better officiating and most of all ,Indycar has INTEGRITY .
      Its too late to book a flight out to Sonoma But, I’ll make up for it next year with an extra trip or to : Watkins Glen is in driving distance ans Barber Motor Sport IS one of the world’s great venues.
      Better late than never.

    29. I would apportion the blame here 66.6% Kimi, 33.3% Vettel 0.1% Max. *Nicely timed photo btw.

      1. Yeah, Kimi forgot about the no.2 status: always keep it behind VET.

        1. +1000! Kimi was the unluckiest yet the person who spoke the least about it. Should have been P1 by end of first corner!

    30. We old heads remember when the “Schumacher chop” was shocking. Now it’s SOP. Hamilton did it last race but he was clear of Stroll at least. Vettel was really reckless here.

      1. Exactly what it reminded me of @dmw

        There is a lot of those these days. This one was costly.

    31. Irregardless of who’s to blame, I wouldn’t want to be a Dutch tourist in Italy right now.

    32. While on the road I blame Vettel, starting that race in the wet was madness, and an accident waiting to happen. If the conditions weren’t bad enough, the grid as it was was always likely to produce an crash. Vettel desperate to get winning, both red bulls knowing Vettel couldn’t afford a crash, Hamilton and Kimi knowing the start would likely be their best, perhaps only, chance to advance up the field. From a standing start, it was always likely to end in tears.

      As someone wanting Hamilton to win this season, I am please he has gotten a great lead out of it, but we were robbed of a potential classic race, and it may well have decided the championships for all the wrong reasons.

      1. I think this is an acceptable way to settle the championship. Vettel has now made about 35 points worth of serious mistakes between Baku and Singapore. Not getting silly penalties or crashing is part of winning WDC.

        Of course it is sad because he and Hamilton were putting on a great show. Hopefully he’ll stay engaged and we’ll see the close races continue.

    33. Max seems.to have a view it’s lift or crash .. he is and will crash more and more.

    34. I was there last night. Although I really really hoped a winning for Ferrari and Vettel retake the lead of the championship points, I got to say it was only because Vet cut the line to hard and there was no more room for the speeding start Kimi. It’s on the main straight and Max didn’t even move his steering wheel. So why is some one blame him? To me, VES and ALO were the most unlucky drivers in the start.

      It is the first time I went to see Singapore Grand Prix and the atmosphere there was GREAT! Even better than Monaco.

    35. It is demonstrated, In matters of testing the eyes .. No to doubts FIRST PLACE, YOU.

    36. I bet if it weren’t for Verstappen, Vettel would never have made such an aggressive move. Verstappen/Vettel go way back and vettel would never let him pass. Could it have been avoided..yes but then sometimes driver repo goes way above and that is why Vettel would never have let Verstappen overtake him come what may! To me it was nobody’s fault just aggressive driving coupled with a little bad luck with Kimi having a mega start.

    37. This was clearly VES fault. VET rear left wheel never touches VER front right wheel or front wing – this can be seen when watching HAM on board at the start (it would be great to see RIC on board at the start for extra confirmation) but VER has space between his and VET car. VER moves to the left (way to late) to cover the fast starting RAI and makes contact. VER can’t handle being passed as the hype has gone to his head (the same reason he ploughed into RIC in Hungary). VER also performs the most aggressive chop under braking of any current drivers (VER chop on RIC in China is one example, plus multiple on other drivers during 2016) so should be able to expect and respond to VET move at the start of the Singapore race.

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