[morini]

There are a number of posts in the Canada 2019 race thread on this, but I thought I would post this up in the hope of keeping the race thread on topic. I guess the incident itself is on topic" but these types of discussion usually go off piste really quick.

Anyway, I'll start by saying I think the penalty was justified. If it wasn't a time penalty then Vettel should have been asked to give the positon away on track. That would probably have been better for him as he would have had a chance to regain the position on the long straights.

This was Hamiltons view (taken from BBC sport website). I agree with all of this.

Hamilton said: "The Ferraris were really quick. I just had to put him under pressure and force a mistake because they were so quick on the back straight that even if I got close into Turn 10 he would just pull away. And he made a mistake.


"Ultimately the rules say when you go off you have to come back on in a safe manner and I was alongside and I had to back off to avoid a collision and I guess that's why they made the decision."

Asked whether he would have preferred to race on without Vettel receiving a penalty, Hamilton said: "If you try to force a guy into a wall, are you saying you shouldn't get a penalty for that? I was going to crash with him, so I had to brake.

"I was just driving the normal line so I shouldn't have been in that position of being close to crashing. It was his responsibility to avoid that, but it ended up being mine. So because of that I lost a chance of passing.

"I won. Of course I want to do it on the track. Even after I knew he had a penalty, I was pushing and thinking maybe I would get another chance. But I was just sliding around and he was too quick on the track."

Later, after watching the incident again, he said: "I watched the replays. It was obviously very close. What I can say is, if I was in the lead and made a mistake and went wide, I would probably have done the same thing, because it happened so quick and you are just trying to hold your position.

"I would have tried to squeeze him, too, and that is ultimately what happened. My opinion on that has not shifted.

"If you did not have that rule, I would have kept it lit and we would have crashed. One way or another it was going to go badly."