GavinSSAP1

And then to hear his explanation of what happened. What a twat.

A 2

Forget the drama and that which rhymes with swat. The race was packed with action and the post race should celebrate the other achievers. Max Verstappen was very opportunistic in finishing second making his tires last as long as he made them. Kimi Raikkonen drove a fighting race as well.

But the drivers of the race IMO were Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein. JB made a smooth start and dived into second behind Lewis and it was great to watch him hold off Kimi at bay for the first 7 laps. Then for him to stay in the mix and finish 6th by making passes where they counted was great. Pascal Wehrlein ran up as high as 6th at one point and then he kept the car in the race and in a position to benefit with a 10th place finish with all the attrition after running 40 freakin laps on one set of tires and battling Bottas. Haas finished in 7th with Grosjean achieving the finish with his time penalty - it helped that Perez lost his brakes and DNF'd. so I think the real heroes of this race are Jenson, Pascal, Romain, Max and Kimi.

When Seb had has tire blowout incident, all the commentators were speaking of how Nico drove through the debris. What they missed saying was that Pascal Wehrlein barely squeaked by as Seb's car rolled back on the track to the outside where it came to a stop.

Now moving on to the win. I think it was hard fought. Nico was within his bounds to defend as harsh as that was. Keep in mind Lewis has treated him the same in the past and if the situation were reversed today, would do no different. I have no sympathy for either. What unnerved me is that Lewis was booed on stage. Its not like he did something unfair to win the race. He won fair and square. Nico defended within his rights, they collided, Lewis came out the better from that collision and then won the race. I'm hoping the booing was more to do with what Vettel went through when he was on his streak of championship wins than something else.

The lead is now down to 11 points as the teams head to Silverstone for their home race (unless you are Ferrari or Sauber). I hope we get to see another exciting race next weekend.

GavinSSAP1

I agree with all the points you made, other than the win. Nico just didn't make any effort whatsoever to turn into the corner. Sure, he has every right to defend, but he didn't defend. He pulled a Senna/Prost move because like David Hobbs and Steve Matchett said, his championship would be better if neither would have finished. The image that F1 posted on their FB/Insta pages clearly show Nico made no effort to turn into the corner.

Be that as it may, it was a great race. Probably the best race of the season so far and I'm looking forward to Silverstone next week!

Vitt

Well said. I read all the posts, but AFAIK, this is the same situation where Lewis had the inside line and it was his line (I forgot which race, but was T1 of first lap). I believe it was Toto Wolf himself that also made a statement to this effect regarding that incident. Lewis was smart to say that he "understeered" and that's what pushed him into Nico (and in turn caused Nico to take evasive action and go off track after they bumped). Regarding Austria, Wolf himself said that each time he looked at the data, new variables were introduced and It takes two to tango. I don't believe Nico tried to crash both of them out because he would be better off. No one knows, not even Hobbs, so that will always remain speculation and conspiracy theory.

gCHOW

Anyone notice in the telecast during the podium interview (which were pretty shit btw) there was a shot while Lewis was saying that Nico had brake issues that Christian Horner turned around to Niki Lauda behind him and seemed to say "is that true?".

I thought that was pretty funny and just shows how much the paddock overall must also be as entertained as we are.

Great race, hoping for a fun Silverstone!