[pennywise]

George Russell Interview was interesting. He blames Bottas for moving but I've watched it a few times now and he was taking a massive risk being on the wet stuff.

Ant is playing replay now on Sky. Bottas didn't squeeze him, Russell was on the wet stuff and lost it himself. Risk v reward miscalculation in my eyes.

100% George's fault for me.

[edit]
George also apologised for the Hamilton off. I don't see that one as George's fault at all, but he did say "I could have let him go in a better place". Hamilton's fault though, he knew that corner was wet..

!00 % Georges fault ...the onboards from Kimi's car clearly show plenty of room for the overtake....and Valtteri even moved to the left before Russell binned it.....he did say something interesting though when interviewed about if it was any other driver than George.....he seems to think Bottas has a niggle for him ....for coveting his seat at Merc.

As for the Blue flag incident ....nah for me George should have lifted after coming out of the previous corner and gave Ham time to pass and return to the dry line.......and Georges apology shows he knows he was in the wrong

[morini]

See, Bottas was nowhere near George when he put his front right on the grass

   

The outcome was a horrible snap right into the side of Bottas

   

[pennywise]

See, Bottas was nowhere near George when he put his front right on the grass



The outcome was a horrible snap right into the side of Bottas

yea look at the gap between the cars...ffs Danny K the Torpedo would have tried to go through that space....I think you need to email George those pice

[Antilochos]

Sorry I missed the chats but had other things to attend.

Anyway, I am sure everyone enjoyed that race. Great racing from the front to the back, I really loved it.

Of course Verstappen did great. Start was something special, then he made no mistakes during race, survived couple of restarts, etc. But just like always when the guy at front is doing okay, the driver of the day is some one else.

In this case Norris. He is really doing great this year and second half of this race was just superb. He kept Hamilton off with some old soft tyres longer than I thought. Impressive weekend from Norris. That McLaren is third car this year for sure.
Which makes me wonder about Ricciardo. I would've thought he be faster, faster than Norris. He seems to have nothing on his teammate. Weird, wonder what is going on with him.

Talking about struggling teammates, Perez. He surely messed up. Don't know why. Maybe because the circumstances were tricky, maybe he was trying to hard. But that hurts for him but also for Red Bull. He should've been there to fight Hamilton.

Yes, Hamilton. Verstappen took the lead at the start and we would've got a great battle during the race, although somehow I had a feeling Verstappen had the overhand. Great and beautiful fight from Hamilton back to P2. Shows the car and drivers class, but I can not deny he was lucky (again) with the Bottas and Russel crash (silly rule by the way that cars can unlap themselves during such a situation). But we have a great battle on hand this year with Hamilton and Verstappen. Those are a class apart.

That crash. Don't know who to blame, think Russel. But (and it is a big but), what the hell was Bottas doing in that midfield? He was there from start and stayed there. Look how fast Hamilton got back to the front. Yes, Hamilton is different calibre than Bottas, but still the Mercedes is a much better car than all others (except Red Bull seems on par this year). Buttass was getting overtaken by a Williams. That should be the issue here.

Overall tricky but fun race. Even though Leclerc made a mistake in the beginning, he really showed how good he is. Saintz seems to need some more time with that car.
Vettel, can it get any worst for the poor guy?

[forzaferrari]

If I was Fuhrer Toto I would have been more upset at Bottas for being shite than at George for having the gall to try a pass on the works car

[NeilP]

What I am finding particularly galling about this incident is the perception that Russell somehow is a bad driver and made a lack of judgement error. Wind the clock back 3/4 years and replace Russell with one Max Verstappen and the picture is completely different. "It was bold and exciting move from Max and I hope we see more of it in F1 its entertaining and what the sport needs." With Russell "He needs to learn from this mistake that is not how you drive in F1"

Ironically Russell made reference to Bottas's move as "Max Verstappen" move which I find even more ironic because he nailed it right there.

I have seen the incident many times and if you want to blame one side more than the other then yes I think Russell bears more responsibility than Bottas. That said there is absolutely no question that Bottas pushed him wider if you look at the view from Kimi's car at one stage Bottas was pretty much totally to the left side of the track then look at the time of the loss of control he has moved massively wider so much so there was much more room on Bottas's left hand side than the right. Was there a cars width...Yes. Did that satisfy the rule book... Yes I guess it does. Did Bottas action contribute to the accident...yes.

Much is being made of the conditions and lack of wisdom by Russell. So does that mean we can ignore Bottas's lack of allowing for the conditions. I do not think so.

The rights and wrongs of this incident are many. IF I am George Russell I am really having to bite my tongue at Toto Wolff and telling him to go f$&^K himself. The guy is stuck in a basically F2 car and was challenging a Mercedes Works driver for position and you think he is going to back off. Delusional.

Like I said yesterday I hope Russell does not change to fit in with Wolff and his dumb attitude. Russell is not a child, do not talk about him as if he is. You want to widen the scope of this incident what the hell is Bottas doing in 9th place with a Works Mercedes in his hands with no issues? Lets not forget the decision was made by a certain Wolff to keep him there. Can we discuss his lack of ability keeping a journeyman driver is such a prized seat. Everyone and his Dog knows Russell belongs there yet 'Mr.Toto I know everything" decided it should be Bottas's seat. Maybe its time for him to move on.

Rant over. I enjoyed the race it was very watchable. Still not loving Imola but I would prefer to see it on the calander than a race around a Car Park in the USA which is the latest mistake by Liberty.

[forzaferrari]

Pretty much agree with all that Neil.......in my "uneducated" opinion it was a racing incident, neither driver was particularly "in the wrong"
Not a bad race much helped by the conditions.

---

I get the feeling Toto has already had a chat with George 

   

[NeilP]

Just a bullshit press release no doubt penned by a Mercedes intern.

To my mind he has nothing to apologize for this is a Toto Wolff exercise. Sad he has a ten year contract with him. Pretty pathetic and I am especially disappointed in Mercedes for this. Can you see Red Bull Making max release something like this?

Where are the Williams voices on this situation are they that needy of Mercedes to say NOTHING in defense of their driver. If I am Williams top guy I am telling Toto Wolff to shut the hell up and console his lame ass number 2 driver and mind his own business.

[PapaofGags]

What a weekends motorsport, cheered us all up no end, thoroughly enjoyed Sunday.     

Congrats to Max, almost flawless, another star drive, Gentlemen lads we have a fight on our hands!        

Checo, some quali, first man to out qualify Max in recent history, the race? well he's a "much" better racer than we saw in Italy, I'm sure this will motivate him even more, with Bottas being shite again I recon Checo will be really important in the WCC. 

Lewis, what a recovery, funny how sport can go from disaster to wow! in such a short time, I really thought that was it for him/his fans, thought George could have used his noddle better (I'll come back to that) & picked a better place, but the bottom line Lewis chose to go off line onto the wet with slicks.... rush of blood/impatient.

It  just go's to show they are all human, the little Devil on my shoulder quite likes it when drivers get an ego check in a sport full of ego's. Hehe  

Bottas, amazing wasn't he..... again, I'll get to the accident but for now why was a Williams able to challenge a works Mercedes? doesn't look good does it..... 

LANDO! Come on Brits admit it, how many times did you think, say or like me shout. (like he can hear me)  

"Come on Lando" bloody brilliant! I know it takes a while to get used to your new team/car but Danny must be thinking WTF? *IF* this keeps up & he beats Daniel in the same car...... clucking bell.

Like all of you I'm well chuffed to see McLaren back at the pointy end.

Ferrari are on their way back aren't they, CLK was again excellent, Carlos was all over the place but made a good recovery, same as Checo I know he's better.  

The crash, wow, talk about ego's dented Bottas being in the position to be overtaken by a Williams, again really? & George putting his ego/pride in front of common sense, completely missing the bigger picture, I'm posting having seen the pics that show George had room but I think Bottas "slight" move to the right spooked George who kinda lost it all on his own, (with wheels on the wet & grass) his reaction after, it doesn't make him look good does it? 

Says online "George Russell is planning to call Valtteri Bottas in the coming days" well lad expect to get a round of "fecks" thrown at you, now you better phone Toto & explain why with the cost cap, upgrades may have to now be put on the side, the golden boy has some humble pie to eat.

The lad is special & will learn from this.

Amazing weekend of motorsport, the best bit? easy.... Two Brits on the podium.  

Again, congrats to Max.

[morini]

Nice summary Paps. Can't argue with any of it.

My view on the Bottas / Russell prang differs greatly from Neils. The only thing Bottas did wrong there was be so slow he couldn't get that Merc up the grid where it belonged (it was the fastest race car out there by some margin). If you read Ross Brawn's piece on f1.com he puts that down to tyre temperature (or lack thereof). There might be some truth in that, but whenever it is wet Bottas becomes more crap than normal, he's demonstrated it many times. Anyway, the actual incident was totally and absolutely down to George, sorry but I can't see it any other way. I've watched it many times and even posted some stills in this thread. George simply didn't need to have his right wheels on wet grass, he had yards (and I mean yards, I am not exaggerating) of room on the inside. I don't blame him for having a go, but it was very badly executed. Rush of blood to the head. Oh, and VB didn't move right at all, in fact he moved left to leave even more room.

Agree wholeheartedly that Hamiltons off was completely his own fault. He could and should have waited for a safer place to get past the backmarkers. What it showed though is Mercedes really do have pace in hand when it comes to race day. I think their lack of quali pace is genuine, but I reckon that mistake robbed us of a great finish. I'm not saying Lewis would 100% have passed Max on track, but the deg on the Mercedes was a lot better and in my view he'd have got him. I thought Max was going to clear off into the distance after the first few laps but Lewis he kept him pegged at a constant 5 seconds then reeled that in to 1.5 before the pit stops. Very slow 4 second pit stop from Mercedes blew the chance to overcut there. One place RBR definitely are better than Mercedes is in the pit lane, their crew are always awesome, fair play.

Very entertaining and enjoyable race though. Lando showed is going to be right up there as a WDC contender (and soon too). He is owning Daniel currently and, frankly, I didn't expect to see that.