German Grand Prix 2018

[Four Five Eight]

Vettel is on Pole position with his teammate behind him in third and Bottas next to him going into the first corner. Lewis I think took himself out of qualifying by running quite violently over those curbs despite what the team said afterwards (probably to make him feel better for the race) But no doubt he and Ricciardo will be providing some interesting overtakes from the back while Vettel tries to go from pole to the victory. Bottas hasn't had the best of luck recently so it'll at least give him a chance to claw back points on his teammate if not the championship.

 

[Kiskaloo]

Spoiler

Solid strategy call by Mercedes to put Lewis on Ultas just before the rain started allowed him to take the lead after Vettel DNF's into the wall on used softs. Poor strategy call by Ferrari to keep Vettel behind Kimi for so long to damage those softs and one wonders if that played a role in the off.

So Lewis and Mercedes take back the WDC and WCC lead going into the Summer Break. Ferrari still has the better engine, but we've seen Lewis and Mercedes go into the break on a high and turn it into momentum for the second half of the season and will that be the case again this year?

 

[WDWBen]

Updating: Hamilton was called before the Stewards for hit pit/no-pit switcharoo and he will be speaking to the press shortly.

 

[Kiskaloo]

Updating: Hamilton was called before the Stewards for hit pit/no-pit switcharoo and he will be speaking to the press shortly.

He was reprimanded for the action, but no time penalty was applied so his win stands.

 

[Four Five Eight]

I think the Stewards are just too afraid of the Ham fans to hand the win to Bottas.

 

[bone]

hamilton is so lucky!! but he fell out last race, now it's vettel's turn...

and i don't think he should've been reprimanded for that pit issue

if he were to cut the entrance to enter the pit, fine, but imagine vettel was heading for the pits when kimi broke that guys leg, and they yelled to vettel stay out
that's the best course they could take, and should not warrant a sanction

they prevented a dangerous situation, they didn't create one

 

[WDWBen]

I think the Stewards are just too afraid of the Ham fans to hand the win to Bottas.

Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[TC]

The thing about Lewis not getting a penalty was apparently that there was no precedent to fall back on. It was under safety car and they judged no one was put in any danger. But by not penalizing Lewis, they set the precedent that it's okay to drive where ever you want in regards to pit late entry while under safety car. I'm looking forward to the day it happens again and they point to Lewis in Germany 2018 as the precedent.

 

[Kiskaloo]

The thing about Lewis not getting a penalty was apparently that there was no precedent to fall back on. It was under safety car and they judged no one was put in any danger. But by not penalizing Lewis, they set the precedent that it's okay to drive where ever you want in regards to pit late entry while under safety car. I'm looking forward to the day it happens again and they point to Lewis in Germany 2018 as the precedent.

Well they can explicitly preclude it. In Baku during FP2, for example, the FIA opted to disregard the usual rule stating drivers must enter the pitlane if they have four wheels to the left of the solid white line in order to encourage drivers to use the pit lane entry for slipstream passing. However, drivers complained that was a safety risk that could lead to a collision if a trailing car jumped out to slipstream when a car further ahead was slowing to enter the pits so the rule was re-implemented from FP3.

In Hamilton's case, as the entry into the pit lane in Germany was well off the racing line, the risk of a collision by a following car was minimal so the stewards decided it was not a publishable offense (as in imposing a penalty).

 

[mpicco]

What a cock up