Job not done by any means, but boy did he school the lot of them.
Just realised, I won’t have a chance to watch the GP until pretty much Tuesday evening. No chance of avoiding spoilers. Enjoy gents. I look forward to the synopsis provided in this thread. I gotta a fiver on Riccy stealing a miraculous win.
You didn’t miss much. Hamilton from pole. Perez squeezed Ocon into the wall to start the race making Ocon the only retirement. Perez later got stuck behind $irotken who was infinitely slower and when he finally got by he swung into $irotken. Other than that, whole lot of nothing. Vettel finished third place 30seconds off of Max.
Perez is weird, seriously, but not surprising.
Real surprise is 30s off 2nd. Nw I am not Vettel’s biggest fan, but it does raise a question. Was it the car or a bad day at the office.
You think Ferrari has gone with Merc philosophy of power over everything else and merc swung the other way? I can understand it is a difficult to pass, so at worst expected him to be like 0.5-4s back from 2nd. Safety issues contribute?
OK just watched highlights. Not much in it at pit stops for Vettel and Max. Pity Grosjean got a penalty for being in his own race.
Perez is a loose cannon, deserved 16. No way to impress new owners and make it more challenging for a good driver like Orcon to find a new drive.
So smooth.
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@schlitty. Don’t think he could even repeat that lap if he tried. Finally had a chance to watch this. I wonder if something like temperature or something gave the mercs pace. Their performance is definitely an outlier considering the season. I know strategy of Ferrari had a lot to do with it, but even then it is an outlier. Be interested to hear thoughts?
Yeah, I’m with you that it was just the perfect lap that he couldn’t even repeat himself. As for performance, I dunno. You hinted at it the race before that Merc had closed the gap with Ferrari seemingly ‘turning it up’ in Q1. Looks like you may have been on the right track. That Ferrari didn’t look like it had anything in Singapore. Maybe it was the heat like you mentioned? Or maybe Merc engineers just did it again. Though with Hamilton playing games on the radio in Singapore (he kept saying his tyres were going and stuff when they weren’t) it makes me think Merc wasn’t 100% confident they could hold it, but again I dunno. At the very least they got Hamilton’s ride flying! This one is in the books. I just hope we get a surprise race winner in one of the last six races.
So Perez blatantly put his teammate into wall… again. Costing his own team, who he claims to care about sooo much about more money. They keeping him and Orcon battles for a drive still.
Merc going to Formula E and I think further prohibits the thinking they should have a B-team too. They have let Werhlein go too. Bloody shame, but if it means he gets a seat at Torro Rossi, then Merc did right by him.
This situation upsets me
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Definitely a lot of potential missing out in this F1 field. But Perez wasn’t really going to ever lose his seat. He more or less the one that saved the team. Even before Daddy Stroll came in with his wallet. Pretty sure I read something about Perez invested heavy with his own company and rallied the workers. I never really looked at his seat as vulnerable. Figured it’d be him and Ocon until Stroll’s billions came in.
Either way, we need another team in F1 if this many talented drivers are missing out!
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Good choice
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Haas announcement before FP1
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Nothing surprising in qualifying after seeing the free practices. This should be an easy Mercedes 1-2 tomorrow on Sunday.
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may as well confirm Sirotkin at Williams and Stroll at Force India. Kyvat confirmed for Torro Rosso. Only two seats left.
Expected results except that the ultrasoft was slower than the soft tyres. The championship is truly over.
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It was on at 7AM here so I didn’t even bother setting the alarm. Wasn’t surprised to see I missed nothing. Shame Mercedes did the team orders, they don’t even need the extra points for Hamilton! Oh well. Good showing by Leclerc though.
I was not convinced that the Mercs would have it their own way like Sochi races before. With Ferrari engine being what I consider to have the upper hand at the moment. Mercs have something intrinsic working. Boring podium. Max lighting the up for all and Le Clerc showing everyone he is a contender for Vettel.
Ultra soft was a waste of time completely. Would have been more interesting with the super soft I reckon.
We all get the team orders and the positions Merc wants/needs to be in. BUT totally unnecessary, Bottas had the better of Hamilton by far. The team setup can handle this and it is understood, but it just leaves a bitter taste.
Don’t care what happens. Excited, this is easily my 2nd favourite F1 track. Rewards bravery and punishes the smallest mistake. Suzuka!!
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True, Suzuka is always fun, but I also hate it, because I have to wake up early on the weekend. 8 am local time for today and 7 am tomorrow for the race. My eyes are hurting 
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