[Official] Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2019: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 4 of 21

[bjohnsonsmith]

I missed qualifying, so can't really comment but looking at the times for Q3,

Bottas, 1m40.495s
Hamilton, 1m40.554s. 0.059s
Vettel, 1m40.797s. 0.302s

Merecedes have the better of Ferrari on the track and psychologically.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

The one thing I quoted on months ago, was that Kubica would not be able to react fast enough on a street track to avoid crashing. His right hand was shown to have not fast enough grip reaction...At least he wasn't injured today.

The crash was caused by his taking the wrong line and clipping the inside wall rather than just the Kerb. It broke his Left front suspension and steering. His ability to grip the wheel or have his hand react wasn't relevant to this incident.From the initial mistake and impact, no-one would have been able to prevent the secondary impact.

[F1Pete]

Yes, Toto barely had a smile when Bottas scooped pole. It is exactly that. He is the wrong guy on pole. Not only is Bottas up against his team mate and the other competitors, but also up against his employer. Seeing his boss almost frowning when taking P1 would be demoralizing.

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[F J Nedos]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Yes, Toto barely had a smile when Bottas scooped pole. It is exactly that. He is the wrong guy on pole. Not only is Bottas up against his team mate and the other competitors, but also up against his employer. Seeing his boss almost frowning when taking P1 would be demoralizing.

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They need another Finn in there possibly.. Kimi?

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Yes, Toto barely had a smile when Bottas scooped pole. It is exactly that. He is the wrong guy on pole. Not only is Bottas up against his team mate and the other competitors, but also up against his employer. Seeing his boss almost frowning when taking P1 would be demoralizing.

Keep banging that drum!

[greentrumpet]

Leclerc should've won already this season, let down by a breakdown. If he hadn't clouted the Baku scenery it's quite likely he would've out qualified Vettel again. There isn't much wrong with the Ferrari, sad the team seem intent on backing the wrong horse. Two years of Vettel throwing chances away should've been enough.

[FIRE]

Leclerc isn't helped by team decisions.

[chunder]

It's simply a hard sport to watch at the moment for me.

Dull, uninspiring, utterly self absorbed.

Woeful commentator, just a hard watch. First one I have watched for a few months, won't be rushing back.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Toto struggling to crack a smile when Bottas leads the Merc 1-2, speaks volumes.

Is he already having to think about what to do with Ocon next season?

[ApexTurtle]

Originally Posted by chunder

Woeful commentator, just a hard watch.

I think it was Paul di Resta? Shameful performance by him if it was.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

Toto struggling to crack a smile when Bottas leads the Merc 1-2, speaks volumes.

Pretty embarrassing.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Leclerc isn't helped by team decisions.

but he also was not fast enough , after his pitstop he actualy lost time on Max when Max was on mediums and Charles had new softs, but instead of closing on the Red Bull he lost time every lap(until the 2nd stop)

[Akrapovic]

It does sound like a conspiracy theory, but Toto does seem to be less happy when Bottas does well. Is he wondering who he can throw into the Formula E holding pen?

Leclerc was never going to get better than what he did. They could've pitted him earlier to minimise time lost on the harder tyre, but then they'd have been gambling on the softer tyre lasting longer. Given the start position, this was as good as they were going to get.

[sparkione]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

Toto struggling to crack a smile when Bottas leads the Merc 1-2, speaks volumes.

Is he already having to think about what to do with Ocon next season?

Yep. The team gave Bottas a good talking to over the winter and told him to raise his game or lose his seat. Toto was expecting to be able to fire him after a few races this year and insert his man Ocon. He wasn't 't expecting Valteri to raise his game this much – enough to give Lewis pause for thought too, I imagine. But Ocon deserves a seat in a top car and I don't doubt Toto will ensure he gets one before too much longer...

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

but he also was not fast enough , after his pitstop he actualy lost time on Max when Max was on mediums and Charles had new softs, but instead of closing on the Red Bull he lost time every lap(until the 2nd stop)

True

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by sparkione

Yep. The team gave Bottas a good talking to over the winter and told him to raise his game or lose his seat. Toto was expecting to be able to fire him after a few races this year and insert his man Ocon. He wasn't 't expecting Valteri to raise his game this much – enough to give Lewis pause for thought too, I imagine. But Ocon deserves a seat in a top car and I don't doubt Toto will ensure he gets one before too much longer...

This indeed.

[steve nielsen]

Danny Ric gets a 3 place grid penalty and 2 points on his licence for reversing into Kvyat

also: watch this vid, it's very funny after today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMbNpfbqPFE

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

Danny Ric gets a 3 place grid penalty and 2 points on his licence for reversing into Kvyat

also: watch this vid, it's very funny after today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMbNpfbqPFE

lol

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

Danny Ric gets a 3 place grid penalty and 2 points on his licence for reversing into Kvyat

also: watch this vid, it's very funny after today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMbNpfbqPFE

[P38 in workshop]

In it's comparatively short history the race has become one of my favourites.I do have to wonder whether the apparent Ferrari speed at pre-season tests was achieved by using high fuel flow settings and a few other measures that wouldn't have seen a car run a race distance.Maybe we will see who did the best job with the first big batch of updates when the circus reaches Barcelona.By which time Williams need to be seen to be closing the gap to the rest because this weekend they still looked lost and slow,but I suppose you might say that encountering Russell near the end gave Bottas a DRS opportunity that sealed the fate of the win.I wasn't surprised to see Ricciardo penalised for reversing,even had he not hit Kvyat,it always used to be utterly forbidden to reverse on the circuit.The Haas that spun to return to the track did it the right way.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

It's not illegal to safely reverse back out of an escape road. The only place it's illegal to reverse is the pitlane.

The penalty was for causing a collision.

the driver of car 3 reversed into car 26 thereby causing a collision.

Source: FIA.com

[ApexTurtle]

That ridiculous divebomb was penalty worthy enough in my opinion. Kvyat did everything right and got robbed.

[S griffin]

Great win for Bottas. Nice to see the Mercs showing you can race hard, but fair on the first lap of a tight street circuit. Valterri has certainly raised his game, let's see if he can keep this up for the rest of the season

For a driver like Ricciardo, first to see that divebomb, then reverse into Kyvat was not like him. Glad he owned up to it

Bizarre strategy by Ferrari to leave Leclerc out for so long. Not looking good for them atm

[wolfhound]

It looks like current Ferrari strategy is to make sure that Vettel always comes out on top and Leclerc cannot get any where near Vettel on track.

I wonder where Leclerc would have finished if he had gone for his soft tyres about 15 laps earlier knowing he still had a spare set for a run to the flag. I remember Red Bull doing that a few years i think with Webber when he had qually issues and had to start at the back but had a pile of unused soft tyres so he had about four tyre stops and ended with a decent result.

[Taxi645]

In retrospect after 4 Merc 1-2's it was perhaps not the best deciscion to this year permanently switch to the thinner tyre thread that last year Mercedes clearly worked best with. In a season where getting the tyres switched on is quite difficult and critical that's quite the advantage to have.