Qualifying top three, Monza, 2019

Hamilton: Ferrari “timed everyone out” in qualifying

2019 Italian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton blamed Ferrari for the chaotic end to qualifying at Monza in which almost every driver failed to start their final flying laps on time.

The Mercedes driver accused Ferrari of slowing the field on purpose during the final out-lap in Q1 as they already had Charles Leclerc on provisional pole position.

“They basically timed us out,” said Hamilton. “It’s interesting: Get pole position in the first run and then just time everyone out.”


Hamilton said the situation arose because all nine remaining drivers at the end of Q3 left the pits together trying to get a slipstream from a car ahead.

“On the out-lap it’s dangerous for us all,” he said. “There’s people slowing down and you don’t know who is alongside you. It’s definitely risky business out there, but kind of enjoyable at the same time.

“But of course for us we’re down on the Ferraris in a straight line so we particularly need it. I think others also do. I think it’s with this new wing the drag is much bigger this year so everyone’s focusing on it.”

He said he was pleased to have secured second place on the grid after being unable to set a time on his last run. “I have to be grateful that we’re on the front row,” he said.

“We get to have a fight with the Ferraris tomorrow which is nice, we’ve split them. So as a team it’s a really good position for us to be in.

“It definitely is a bit of an anti-climax that we couldn’t all go out and do that last final lap, that’s one of the most exciting ones. But it’s crazy now with the timing we have, the system we have, where everyone backs up and tried to get a position.”

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Keith Collantine
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123 comments on “Hamilton: Ferrari “timed everyone out” in qualifying”

  1. That is a tactic that they look to. First run get pole and then slow everyone down so that nobody gets a lap in at the end.

    1. Quite silly to believe it was a deliberate target of Ferrari to time out everybody. They all played the part, Hulk the first one. An nothing prevented Lewis / Mercedes to overtake and not fall into the “Ferrari trap”… Just trying to force a steward decision, there, me think.

    2. Hamilton was the 4th car on track, why did he let others overtake him instead of pushing the field? He was in front of the Ferraris at the first corner

      He is being quite the hypocrite here if I’m honest

      1. They may start to use this tactic in the future. FIA should implement stricter rules, and that could fix this.

      2. He was not the 4th car on track, and the Ferraris were ahead of him for the whole lap. Check the footage (the highlights and his onboard).

        You’re getting him confused with Bottas.

        1. https://twitter.com/F1/status/1170412417798434817?s=19

          He appears to be the first Merc on there

          Even so, his comments were deplorable

          1. Just saw Bottas. Yeah Bottas is the 4th, but after the first chicane he was already besides or in front of him. Both Mercedes didn’t do anything

            After that video they all look like clowns, Hamilton giving it a bit extra of clownery with his team radio comments

          2. Watch Hamilton’s onboard, he overtakes a few cars (Bottas included) and then is almost put into a wall by Hulk. The incident with Hulk is shown briefly in the same video you posted. All the cars then speed up to try to make it to the end of the lap in time. Nothing more he could have done.

            Deplorable? Haha get some perspective mate. It honestly sounded like half-joke, half-admiration. Even if it wasn’t, it’s not really that serious a comment is it.

    3. Chinese GP Qualifying. Hamilton and Bottas leading the pack slowly, then Bottas backs off massively into the last corner.
      Mercedes, James to Valtteri on the radio, loud and clear: Do not let people by.

      Whose tactics?

      Short memory, very short.

      1. Doesn’t matter if they have short memory or not. It’s the second time in recent years that Hamilton makes unfunded remarks against Ferrari, here and in Silverstone when Kimi took him out.

        It’s extremely low from him, as they always come to point to an unsportsmanlike behaviour and result manipulation when there is no proof of it.

        He did the same to Rosberg in Monaco

        Arguably the best driver in the grid, but if he could shut it every once in a while he would at least spare him and us of this embarrassments

        1. In all honesty they’ve blown this out of proportion. Hamilton didn’t what really transpired out front. He was at the back and could probably only see the Ferraris when he said it in the interview it was only “maybe or somey”, not I’m accusing them of deliberately doing it.

    4. @krichelle none of that. Nico and Lewis are playing a game. who’s more jacques villeneuve.

  2. Vettel wanted to get going but Sainz and Hulk blocked him at Grande Curva. It wasn’t Ferrari’s fault, it was an issue that was created due to many teams and not one.

    1. Yeah, he then proceeded to slow down so.much that Sainz overtook him.

      I think they are all to blame. It wasn’t a Ferrari tactic on its own, everyone played the same game

    2. Hulk : Owh looks like they want me go 1st the get the slipstream. I should purposely cut the corner now, slow and steady now. Haha.
      Stroll : Oh no you dont. Im slowing down too at the 1st corner.
      Sainz : Me too im slowing down, wait Hulk back on track. Then i slip behind him.
      “Hulk back on track”
      Hulk : Demmmm why are they still slowing down! You go 1st Sainz!
      Sainz : Oh no no, you go 1st!
      Hulk : You 1st!
      Sainz : You!
      Vettel : Honk honk…hey demmm let me through! WTH!
      LH : Demmm… ferrari purposely slowing down everyone. Demmm ferrari! I will bring this issue in conference room later!

      Sainz, Stroll and Hulk is like waiting for each other to go 1st, so that can get the slipstream, but they wouldnt let the back pack go through maybe simply because they want to go 1st, less traffic less slow lap risk. Sainz refuse to overtake Hulk, so as Stroll. Hulk purposely slow down to let Sainz or Stroll to overtake.

  3. Might be wrong but from what I saw, both Renaults, both Ferrari’s, both Mercedes and Stroll & Sainz were all going needlessly slowly at different points. The only guy that didn’t seem to do much wrong was Albon who was stuck at the back. Either way it was silly to watch, regardless of who made the mistakes.

    1. Yeah, Albon didn’t do anything wrong, though his team did, should just have sent him out ahead of the predictable mayhem @rocketpanda

      1. I kinda hope they all get penalties and Albon takes pole. That’d be funny.

    2. Hulk was the only renault going slow ricciardo was stuck at the back of the queue

      1. Agreed. He realised what was going to happen and tried to overtake but had no room

    3. Tomororw Kiki will win the race..

  4. Lewis and Charles continue from where they left off at Spa. Let the chase begins.

    1. It will be wet so i think Lewis is going to bag it.

  5. Ah, but that’s only the second most inane thing he’s said today. His first shot at brilliance was during the grid interview, when he gave that dead horse yet another beating (“Ferrari are so much faster than us on the straights”), to spin it in such a way that resorting to slipstreaming tactics was basically a means of self-defense.
    A more honest assessment of Mercedes’ collective qualifying performance today would be “We messed it up. But we’re still 2nd and 3rd somehow”.

    1. What did they mess up, actually?
      They were indeed slower and Ferrari should have scored a 1-2, based on pure speed.
      Both Mercedes outqualified one of the Ferraris, so yeah, it has been a remarkable effort.

      1. @liko41

        What did they mess up, actually?

        Getting in a second flying lap, duh.

        Also, “based on pure speed”, the slowest Mercedes was 0.047 seconds slower than the fastest Ferrari. Of course, in Mercedes’ version, Ferrari are nigh-unbeatable, but that’s propaganda, nothing else.

        1. @nase But then Ferrari would have had a second flying lap as well…

          1. @markzastrow
            Yes, of course. But let’s not play hide and seek: Hamilton’s playing the blame game, which only makes sense when you accept that something has indeed gone wrong. Hamilton’s statement can only meaningfully be interpreted as “We wanted to have another flying lap, but Ferrari prevented that”. Which is nonsense.

          2. @nase I’ll have to disagree that this is the “blame game”. From his body language in the post-grid interview, the way I interpret his comment is that he meant it partly jokingly, perhaps admiringly, in a wry tone that doesn’t warrant the condemnation being aimed at him.

        2. Yeah how wrong of Mercedes dominated qually all year and were a massive 7 tenths behind in Spa in qually how silly of them to know that Ferrari have the best engine by a mile. If you remember last year Ferrari were mighty at Spa and then Hamilton could live with them at Monza looks like the same here. But as a Hamilton fan would i rather he be in a Ferrari at Spa and Monza, you bet. If you think Merc are wrong why aitn Ferrari been showing these performances rest of the season, isit perhaps because they have the best engine by a mile?. Only have to see Spa to prove that, Vettel breezed past Merc at the start after going wide and having a bad exit says it all. Ferrari would have took pole without DRS at Spa that is how faster there engines are. The heavy breaking and slower corners clearly bring it much closer at Monza

          1. @ dan
            Commas would be a step in the right direction. I’m afraid I couldn’t go through the entirety of your rant because of that.

            were a massive 7 tenths behind in Spa in qually

            Spa is not Monza. We’re in Monza here, and both Mercedes came within 0.047 seconds of Leclerc’s pole time. That’s not that difficult to understand, is it?
            In fact, the only session in which the fastest Mercedes was more than a tenth behind the fastest Ferrari was the rain-hit FP1.

            how silly of them to know that Ferrari have the best engine by a mile.

            That’s not “knowing”, that’s exaggerating. Yes, the Ferrari engine appears to be more powerful, at least in qualifying. But probably not by much. Yes, the Ferraris are usually faster on the straights. But they also suffer in the corners. Which is just the logical consequence of having a car that is aerodynamically efficient but struggles to generate sufficient downforce in slower corners.

            The rest of what I’ve glimpsed it just applied circular logic, sorry.

          2. You mean the lap of LeClerc’s where he made an error?

        3. Yeah, the same propaganda which is selling a largely dominant Mercedes.
          If Ferrari was a little smarter, they would have won at least five races this season and the championship would still be open.

    2. Absolutely– Mercedes was fastest in FP1, FP2 and FP3…. oh wait.

  6. Completely disagree. They all screwed up. Sponsors should ask F1 for some money back.

    1. Sponsors love nonsense like this more than bog standard sessions. It gets more people talking about the sport they pay to be involved in.

  7. As usual, Hamilton with a wink and a smile lets the media off on a wild goose chase. Just like back in 2016 when he gently insinuated internal sabotage favouring Rosberg.
    If they really wanted to, they should have gone out first. They failed to beat Leclerc’s lap time and then they waited until the last possible moment to get out, knowing it was gonna be on the margin.
    Hamilton is such a brilliant heel.

    1. @wsrgo
      Oh please. Give it a rest. The whole world saw Mercedes MASSIVELY backed Rosberg in 2016. Massively. And multiple times.
      You h@ters should really implement your rhetoric, because this old deny-the-obvious stuff is really silly.

      1. Still not digesting that Rosberg won that WDC ? Or maybe you believe that by saying it over and over again it will become true ?

        1. Yes, he won it. And I think one of the reasons he retired is that he went borderline sociopath doing it, and realized it.

          But Rosberg did have a lot of support from the team to “even things up”– Like switching around the garage crew, a number of failures that only affected Hamilton’s car, and some suspiciously bad starts with a finicky clutch.

          How much of that was deliberate? Probably just the crew swap.

          1. But Rosberg did have a lot of support from the team to “even things up”– Like switching around the garage crew

            You mean giving Rosberg his crew back that they took off him to give to Hamilton when he arrived in 2013? Is that the crew you’re talking about?

        2. @grat
          It’s hard to accept a robbery.
          2016 was exactly that.

      2. ”As Niki would say: ”You’re crazy!”

      3. @liko41 Like when Mercedes told Rosberg to let Hamilton past in Monaco?

        1. @retardedf1sh
          The only clever thing you have done in your life must have been chosing your nickname.

          1. @liko41 I was just pointing out an example of Mercedes favoring Hamilton in 2016. You accuse Mercedes of favoring Rosberg massively that season but so far you have not given a single example to back that claim. If you want to throw your opinions around, you should be prepared to back it up instead of insulting everyone who disagrees with you. Insulting someone is an incredibly immature and petty way of trying to win an arguement and so far you’re losing quite badly.

      4. @liko41 ah, the usual ‘obvious’ argument conflating facts and suspicions by assuming a superior philosophical and factual position. What exactly was ‘obvious’? That the team deliberately failed his engine at Sepang? ‘Something doesn’t feel right’, Lewis had said. And that was just one instance.

        1. @wsrgo
          Obvious is something you h@ters clearly could not get.
          Go figure..

          1. @liko41 do you have any actual rebuttals to provide? And for Pete’s sake, stop writing ‘h@ters’. Makes you sound like a 4 year old.

    2. And you’re a conspiracy happy git.

      1. Thank you, this means a lot. Lots of love from India, hope the rest of your year goes well.

  8. Are you saying Toto Wolff doesn’t have a watch? Somebody please get this man a watch!

    1. @eljueta – probably broke it in his last desk banging episode.

    2. @eljueta What’s the use of a watch if the cars ahead of you are keeping you back? There was plenty of time, but the cars in front choose to drive so slow that even they didn’t make it across the line on time.

      1. @f1osaurus Q3 is not under SC rules, they’re free to overtake each other. If they didn’t because they didn’t want to give a slipstream to the next car and that meant they couldn’t even do a second run, then everyone who didn’t make it in time is to blame.

        1. @warheart This is not about rules. The track was clearly blocked by the two cars in front

  9. No Lewis. I am not sure if you’re blaming them for this farce. But the track was empty for a full three mins before all of them ventured out.

    1. But the track was empty for a full three mins before all of them ventured out.

      @webtel – indeed. And this track isn’t one car wide, so feel free to overtake any slower cars. I mean, these guys do know what overtaking is, right?

      1. Max wasn’t there so probably not :)

      2. @phylyp There were two cars ahead though and they were in the middle of the track so they would not be overtaken.

        So Hamilton is right. The guys behind couldn’t do a thing about it. Although it wasn’t just Ferrari doing it. It was mostly Hulkenberg causing the issues. He has been summoned to go in front of the stewards.
        .

        1. @phylyp : They have all have watches that show them the time during which they’ll get a tow. Zero purpose otherwise.

          @f1osaurus : Actually, Nico has been summoned for a different reason–going off the track for no justifiable reason. I think it is unfair to lay the blame on one driver. They were all selfish and childish. No use penalizing.

          1. They have all have watches that show them the time during which they’ll get a tow. Zero purpose otherwise.

            @webtel – true. But I hope today they learnt a lesson that waiting for the almighty tow might be counterproductive. :)

          2. @webtel Hulkenberg went off track to try and get behind some other cars.

            Clearly there were two drivers in front holding everybody up. Then when they were being passed, Vettel and Hulkenberg were holding everybody up.

            Why would you penalize the drivers who were being held up? It;s the 3 or 4 cars who were doing the actual blocking from the front who should be penalized

          3. @f1osaurus: No. my line of thought is different here. Almost everyone held up everyone else intentionally !! Their only intention: “I need a tow.”
            As @phylyp mentioned, there was room to overtake at various points of the track. I am recounting the events as they were shown:
            1. Hulkenberg leads the pack–goes off
            2. Stroll leads and pulls over to the right after turn 2
            3. sainz behind, doesnt overtake, pulls alongside stroll–just about enough room for a third car–no one overtakes.
            4. There is a merc that pulls up right behind stroll. Ferraris overtake this car going into T3–meanwhile albon slows down–the other merc overtakes him.
            5. Out of T3, Hulk leads the pack followed by sainz (right alongside) followed by ferraris, then stroll and the merc, daniel on the right and albon behind merc
            6. Vettel the first car into T4–a full minute left–sainz ahead of leclerc–hulk–merc–stroll, albon , merc, daniel.
            7. After T7–Sainz, vetter, charles, hulk, merc,stroll, albon, merc, daniel. Doesnt change much until ascari
            8. Back straight–Sainz clear, Charles racing vettel. Behind, lewis gets a tow from Hulk, moves to left to overtake him (outside line). Doesnt work out because of Vettel ahead.
            9. Into parabolica–Hulk ahead of lewis, albon overtakes Bottas and stroll on the inside. By now, Daniel has attained Nirvana !!
            10. Now, replays show lewis getting on the back on Hulk who is seemingly slow. Prior to that, Hulk breaks hard (almost a lock up ?) trying to overtake vettel too. My assumption–“because of this sudden maneuver, Hulk couldnt maintain the speed in that corner.
            11. Post parabolica–Hulk simply follows the line Vettel took. Lewis having to move right to ensure he doesnt bang into Hulk.

            This is my interpretation only. But it does seem like there wasnt just one person or a team responsible for this farce.

          4. @webtel I didn’t say it was one person or one team. I said

            It;s the 3 or 4 cars who were doing the actual blocking from the front who should be penalized

            And then you describe 3 or 4 cars doing the blocking …

          5. @f1osaurus :

            Thats where we differ. If you call that holding up, then all them are guilty at some point of the track. I am talking about whats fair–Lewis hols himself up behind Stroll and then complains later that everyone was timed out. As much as i admire Lewis–that was cute and laughable at best. Cant wake up late and say there wasnt much time left in the day especially when you know that there are only 24 hrs.
            Lets put this to an end for our interpretations vary. No penalties as of now.

          6. @webtel No, only the people holding up were guilty of holding up. Hamilton tried to overtake but was blocked.

            No penalties yet, but clearly the stewards are agreeing with me. They are investigating the 3 drivers who were doing the holding up from the start.

            Oddly enough they left out Vettel, but I guess he’s in trouble enough already with his Q3 time looking to be deleted.

    2. @f1osaurus then if Toto had a watch he could have told Lewis to overtake the slow cars!

      1. @eljueta Vettel stated that this was impossible. Hamilton actually tried to overtake Hulkenberg, but got blocked.

        Did you even watch Q3?

        1. Ok the joke did not go through it seems.

          1. @eljueta Yes, try why not to pretend there was a joke in there.

  10. Wasn’t just the Ferraris… I think the rolling roadblock through Curva Grande was the biggest problem, and Vettel had no motivation to go slowly.

    Imagine it was a ‘just out of the car’ emotional reply that he’ll think again on after he’s seen all the replays.

  11. Well, Ferrari were part of the reason this thing happened, because they were part of this farce, but I’d look to other parties if I had to specifically blame someone here (HUL, SAI, possibly STR)

    1. @mxmxd Clearly also Vettel. He slowed down massively trying to get Leclerc ahead of him again.

  12. Just when one might think he’s a really cool dude after all, HAM strikes again with some super ridiculous sayings! What a pathetic loser…

    1. @mg1982
      So stating his observation right after getting out of the car (without having seen any footage or data) and being a part of the craziest qualifying seen in a long time makes him pathetic?
      I say pathetic are those who never lets go of an opportunity to unfairly criticize Lewis.

      1. He must blind not to observe the other cars on-track, and that it wasn’t Ferrari leading the pack. But since he’s not blind, he’s probably stupid. But what are the chances of being stupid and denigrate the main competitor. Not many. So, most lilely he’s malicious. Nobody stopped him from doing his own lap. Also, probably he knows his own team not being very angelic so, he presumes every other team is like that.

    2. @mg1982 Vettel claimed he should have had pole. How is that for “pathetic loser”?

      1. @f1sauros, well sort of, more like he could have had pole, had he gotten the planned tow from his teammate, and then he too suggested Leclerc wasn’t unhappy he couldn’t in the end (oh, see the other article for that I guess).

        1. @bosyber Well I saw him say it on TV. He pretty much said that he had a great lap, but that the lack of tow cost him the pole really. I’d say that’s quite clear that he feels pole was taken from him.

          1. @f1osaurus didn’t he say they had the car for pole? Not quite the same, but I do agree, he suggested that with that tow, and a normal lap, he would have gotten pole – no wonder then that Leclerc preferred not to play ball when he saw a way to prevent it in the chaos of that lap!

    3. @f1osaurus
      Being honest, dude, he is en route to his sixth championship.
      NOt exactly what you could call a loser.
      You, on the other hand, seem right another pathetic h@ter.

      1. Sorry, f1osaurus, that was indeed a rsponse to @mg1982

    4. “Super ridiculous”? “Pathetic loser”? Get a grip mate.

    5. Are you OK?

    6. @mg1982 Not as big a loser as youre guy Vettel, beaten in Spa haha. And he could not even get on the front row haha, Vettel is the loser. 2 poles in a row for his second year teammate threw a title away in the fastest car aswell, who is the loser again?

  13. Pathetic clown as Always when things doesn’t go his way…

    1. Why are you describing yourself?

      1. Can we do without kindergarten comments like this please?

  14. Lewis is one of my favourites even though I can’t stand his team. But I’ve got to disagree with him here. All teams were to blame. If they were going to jostle for position the drivers could’ve all come out earlier. It would’ve created a time buffer to compensate for the jostling and they would’ve set a lap time all. Simple as that!

    1. All teams were to blame. If they were going to jostle for position the drivers could’ve all come out earlier.

      @lebz – Agreed.

      There’s times when strategists are clever. And then there’s times when they’re too clever for their own good.

      1. @phylyp @lebz I disagree—Renault played it perfectly! They locked out the third row, ahead of a Red Bull and their customers. Ferrari didn’t look too displeased to be on pole, either. And Mercedes weren’t too unhappy to have had Hamilton split the Ferraris.

        The only drivers who really lost out were Albon, Stroll, and Raikkonen, who didn’t set a time in the first runs, either. Everyone else actually benefitted from this in the sense that it ensured they would start no lower than 7th.

        If you go first, you give everyone else a chance to go faster, except yourself. So why would you? If you’re already in a good position, and the prospect of a second run puts you at a significant disadvantage. it makes far more strategic sense to do everything you can to slow down and ensure no one else can run either. And with three cars not having set a time, it made the strategy all the more attractive.

        1. @markzastrow – well argued, that’s definitely another way of looking at it.

  15. Yes cos it was Ferrari who left the pit lane and then stopped at the end. Oh no wait…

    1. That’s the correct way to do it…

    2. Pulling over for a practice start is within the rules AND, more to the point, it doesn’t slow down any other teams or drivers. You’re argument is flawed, at best.

  16. Sod this, everyone timed themselves out! Nobody banned them from leaving the pits in good time to make sure nothing of the sort would happen.

    Everyone who did not cross the finish lone in time is equally culpable.

  17. Facepalm :)

  18. Classic salty Hamilton Monza is a wide circuit it’s not Monaco, if the Ferraris stop on track just pass them.

    1. Classic salty h@ter.

    2. Maybe you will listen to Vettel? Vettel claimed “I was trying to get through, but I think there was a McLaren and a Renault blocking the road”

      So, no you couldn’t simply pass them

      When Vettel actually did manage to get past, he in turn blocked the road waiting for Leclerc to get in front.

      1. He screwed up too, everyone did that why it’s funny to hear Hamilton blame Ferrari

        1. Well Vettel was the one holding everybody up for the second part of the lap because he wanted to get Leclerc in front of him and Leclerc was holding station behind Vettel until the last corner.

          So from Hamilton’s perspective, there were two Ferrari’s holding everybody up (with one McLaren out in front bolting away).

  19. I hope this tactic does not become a norm from now on. But Hamilton and everybody else certainly were not obliged to wait for Ferrari…they could have gone out ten seconds earlier.

  20. Once again, Hamilton says something completely innocuous and people start frothing at the mouth.

    It really seemed like a joke from Hamilton. Just the way things worked out this time, and Hamilton seemed to jokingly suggest it could be a strategy in the future.

    1. @carbron This. Even if he meant it, his body language in the grid interview seemed to indicate he meant it half-admiringly.

    2. To be fair, that’s standard for a Hamilton quote on this forum. If he responds to a question, someone will slam him for that – how dare he say anything??
      If he says nothing, he gets slammed for it – how arrogant, just who does he think he is to ignore questions?
      Yesterday, or the day before that, I made it first to the comments section of the article on Hamilton saying some ferrari fans want him to join ferrari.
      I mentioned that, before “the usual lot” arrived, it was good to make the point that Hamilton’s statement was in response to a very leading question by a reporter, suggesting that Hamilton should move to ferrari.
      My response was deleted after half a day or so – the administrator in question no doubt thinking, how inappropriate that someone should dare defend Hamilton on this forum!
      If this particular comment somehow makes it past the administrators, I won’t be surprised if it’s then deleted a few hours later.

  21. Hamilton chose to stay behind, he could’ve went ahead and made it, nobody forced him to go as slow as he did, he chose what speed to go, Ferrari didn’t impede him in any way, just because your car you needs a slip stream is your teams fault, not Ferrari`s, the arrogance to blame someone else, blame yourself and your team.

    1. If you watch the final moments, the road in front of Hamilton is completely blocked by Sainz, Hulk, Stroll, and the Ferraris. Would have been difficult for him to go any faster, as we saw people swerving all over the track.

      The Ferraris did impede people e.g. Seb was gesticulating for Hulk and Sainz to get out of his way, then overtakes and slows down himself.

  22. Mercedes were actually ahead of Ferrari before Curva Grande, so how is it their fault?!
    They’re all to blame, but especially the Renaults and Sainz. They bunched up the field so much, that would have never worked, anyway.
    Tyres and brakes would’ve been too cold at the start of the lap.

    1. @srga91 No they were not!

  23. I really enjoyed it. Most of them could have got through at some point, yes there were times side by side cars were blocking, but it wasn’t all the time. Anyone who got near the front just backed off again as they were going to miss the tow, and they thought it wasn’t worth it. The downside of trying to always be clever is that some can end up the wrong side of clever and this time there were 8 cars in that position.

  24. This qualification was a good portrait of the way of thinking of the current “strategists” of the team. Too much focus on short gains while loosing completely focus on the bigger picture.
    Yes. A slipstream was very important here. But doing a flying lap is much more important for sure… I would say that they will learn for this mistake but I’m pretty sure the won’t.

    Frequently is said that “F1 is a business and not a sport anymore”, I would love that to be true. In a business, teams would see each other as business partners instead of rivals and enemies. If teams think first in the business (the business of producing a good show for people to see in TV and in the circuits) this ridiculous situation wouldn’t happen.

  25. poor @mg1982 You just know F1 is so hard for him right now when the guy he likes as been completely shown up. After 2013 you would have been on cloud nice not so much now though. Getting shown right up by Leclerc, his value in the minds of people is just going down and down and i feel for you mate lol…

  26. Well done Lewis and Valterri showing Vettel up with a worst engine at Monza you love to see it. His standing in the greats of F1 is getting worst and worst i love it.

  27. Maybe then you could start your lap 6′ prior to the end, then move aside for the next car, or 3′ and race the circuit to get in the back of another car and then get your tow in a double hot lap. Anyway, there’s plenty of techniques to achieve your goal. But, by what’s been said it’s obvious that YOU Lewis wanted to both start marginally and also gain a tow as if that is a right only for you and you only – like everybody else on the track of course… Chill out man, nobody’s to blame because some blocked the road, others wanted to be blocked to stay behind, some then played the “I blocked my wheels and go out of circuit” and yet some others just watched stunned and just drove.
    Basically it was a shame for all…or none.

  28. As usual Hamilton has to find someone else to blame.. He can just never accept tht its his fault.
    It’s a shame that we have characters like this in F1.

  29. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
    7th September 2019, 21:43

    Looking at the onboard of Hamilton’s first (and only) Q3 lap you can see RAI spin off in front of him at the last corner – does anything think this cost him any time and potentially pole position? After all the gap was very small in the end. And could VET have taken pole had he had a clean lap with a slipstream, given he was only 0.15 off LEC without it?

    1. Yes to both questions I believe!

      1. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
        8th September 2019, 9:29

        @esploratore – Thank you! I definitely think it will be an interesting race (and hopefully a wet one). Mercedes were very close in Qualifying and I expect them to have the advantage in race pace. I predict Leclerc will lead from the start, but Hamilton will overtake him towards the end, as MERC will be able to use BOT to force LEC to pit early. This is if it’s a dry race … a wet race would be amazing in slippery conditions! If so, I would still put my money on HAM for the win but would keep an eye out for Stroll and VER to do well.

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