2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[MKlaus]

finally, a race that has enabled warring fan camps! just like their drivers, neither gives an inch and would repeat their version over and over again for pages. more of this please.

[zibby43]

Christian Horner when asked if Red Bull ultimately lost the race with its strategy decisions:

“No, definitely not. Mercedes had very strong pace at the beginning of the race. We couldn’t create a gap to cover them, their degradation looked impressive."

- The Race

[the EDGE]

Well, yes, there are three problems there, too: 1) that it was apparently ok to color outside of the lines in t4, 2) unless in the context of overtaking (which is inconsistent; a time gain is an advantage just as well), and 3) that they changed their mind on the fly.

TBF if I’m Verstappen I’m asking RedBull what the hell they are playing at. It’s clear Mercedes knew the score and passed the info on. Now either RedBull didn’t know, understand or just didn’t bother to tell him.

Charles said it was anounced during the drivers meeting, so Max should of had first hand knowledge of what was and wasn't illegal.

It was announced live on tv during practice that track limits would only be enforced when an advantage was gained... I.e during overtake, and as usual the sky team said well surely they only leave the track to gain an advantage

IMO track limits should be enforced at all times, but appreciate that is a BIG job to do

However the track limits discussion has nothing to do with Max’s overtake, they are two separate issues, leaving track whilst overtaking always has, and always will be a no-no

[dans79]

TBF if I’m Verstappen I’m asking RedBull what the hell they are playing at. It’s clear Mercedes knew the score and passed the info on. Now either RedBull didn’t know, understand or just didn’t bother to tell him.

Charles said it was anounced during the drivers meeting, so Max should of had first hand knowledge of what was and wasn't illegal.

It was announced live on tv during practice that track limits would only be enforced when an advantage was gained... I.e during overtake, and as usual the sky team said well surely they only leave the track to gain an advantage

IMO track limits should be enforced at all times, but appreciate that is a BIG job to do

However the track limits discussion has nothing to do with Max’s overtake, they are two separate issues, leaving track whilst overtaking always has, and always will be a no-no

I think the argument is if Max had been abusing the track limits like the other drivers, the gap he had to make up would have been smaller.

[the EDGE]

Charles said it was anounced during the drivers meeting, so Max should of had first hand knowledge of what was and wasn't illegal.

It was announced live on tv during practice that track limits would only be enforced when an advantage was gained... I.e during overtake, and as usual the sky team said well surely they only leave the track to gain an advantage

IMO track limits should be enforced at all times, but appreciate that is a BIG job to do

However the track limits discussion has nothing to do with Max’s overtake, they are two separate issues, leaving track whilst overtaking always has, and always will be a no-no

I think the argument is if Max had been abusing the track limits like the other drivers, the gap he had to make up would have been smaller.

Well that’s RBs look-out, they were told they could, as long as they weren’t over-taking. Unlike RB or Max to miss a trick

[Restomaniac]

Charles said it was anounced during the drivers meeting, so Max should of had first hand knowledge of what was and wasn't illegal.

It was announced live on tv during practice that track limits would only be enforced when an advantage was gained... I.e during overtake, and as usual the sky team said well surely they only leave the track to gain an advantage

IMO track limits should be enforced at all times, but appreciate that is a BIG job to do

However the track limits discussion has nothing to do with Max’s overtake, they are two separate issues, leaving track whilst overtaking always has, and always will be a no-no

I think the argument is if Max had been abusing the track limits like the other drivers, the gap he had to make up would have been smaller.

But that’s clearly on him. It’s being painted as the Race Director’s fault due to different rules for different drivers which is clearly untrue.

[dans79]

Christian Horner when asked if Red Bull ultimately lost the race with its strategy decisions:

“No, definitely not. Mercedes had very strong pace at the beginning of the race. We couldn’t create a gap to cover them, their degradation looked impressive."

- The Race

That most likely means in 2 weeks time, Red Bull will have to trade off someone one lap pace for better tire degradation, thus narrowing the gap.

[LHamilton]

It's hypocritical for Mercedes to call it out when you're passed but you've gained a lasting advantage throughout the race.

No it's not. One was done before the warning and without any other cars nearby. The other one was done after the warning and in an overtaking maneuver. If you can't put these things into context then I don't know what to say.

Yeah yeah. Admit to the crime, do the time. Besides, if you look at Max's pass he was clearly ahead of Hamilton before leaving the track. Red Bull could have argued that Hamilton didn't leave him any room. In any case, Hamilton fans got their egos lifted, Red Bull Honda fans had a pole-to-win robbed. I'm sure it will fuel Max's determination, and not make him lose confidence like some people here are saying.

Red Bull couldn't have argued that Hamilton didn't leave him any room since they were side by side going into turn 4. Max decides to run wider and thus carry more speed which leads him also having a snap of oversteer which puts him at the wrong side of the kerb. Max was ahead of Hamilton when he made the pass, but couldn't stay on track to finailze the move. You can't use the argument of "being infront" if the driver then needs to go off track to finalize the move. Hamilton fans probably got their egos lifted, but did RB fans get robbed? No. Not really.

[Mogster]

Abusing track limits on your own to gain 100ths and going completely off track to gain position are completely different.

I suspect RBR thought that if they maintained position then the positions could be reversed after the race (highly likely). I suspect they also thought Max would take the position back on the next lap and everything would be fine...

[Radley]

Why isn't Russell in the second Mercedes?

[jz11]

Thinking back at the action near the end, and the speed at which VER was closing in, makes me think now that Hamilton might have been semi-intentional about the pace, managing the shrinking gap while preserving his tires as much as possible to have no more than 1 chance for Max to have a go, when he did, he left the track and rightfully gave the position back (and camera work was atrocious as usual - caring more about sponsor names being readable on cars than showing what actually is going on on the track), after that Max probably didn't have battery charge any more and had to back down and Lewis on the other hand had charged things up, tires weren't overheated (unlike Maxes) and he could then sort of maintain that 1sec gap, Max even lost DRS for a lap there, brilliant drive by Lewis, good sportsmanship from Max, top notch racing! Hopefully Perez will step up a bit to make Maxes work a little easier if Merc still won't able to sort their car out

And regarding track limits - they should have handed out warnings for leaving track, they did delete laps in quali for leaving the track at the same place Lewis did a good number of times - that is creating controversy deliberately, there is no way around it - they wouldn't leave the track there not in quali and not in the race if there wasn't a tiny gain to be had there, and the gain wasn't at the exit - it was about the corner entry where they risk carrying as much speed as they can and then hopefully don't leave the track - so if you know you'll get punished - you can't push the limit as they did and get away with leaving the track when they don't judge their speed and tires correctly (thus gaining the advantage!) - and that is what separates great driver from the likes of some 4 time world champions that drive in the back of others and then complain about the car in front moving........

[Mogster]

Why isn't Russell in the second Mercedes?

The same reason Alonso isn’t in the second RBR.

[aMessageToCharlie]

Agree with Pietro Fittipaldi's analysis of the Ver/Ham situation in the post race show. But the stuarts effing up is nothing new, so whatever. It's just part of the game now.

We were lucky to witness a great strategic battle between the two best teams (no Ferrari strategy F this time around) and the best drivers on the grid in equal cars and it looks like we're in for a great season. I'm pleased!

Kudos to Max how mature and calm he took the blow. Kept calm and collected when RBR kept him out on the mediums, hunted Hamilton down, pushed him into an error going wide (it's been a while since we've seen that!) and made a clean pass.

Hamilton looking good under pressure today. Great defesinve driving and he really had to use every trick in the book today to get that win. From keeping maximum distance on the grid formation to gain a temperature advantage, to exploiting track limits and pushing Max wide in T4.

Hope we'll be seeing a real dog fight like that all season. And with the second drivers in the mix it will be a strategic war game.

Let's just be happy to have an entertaining season for once instead of throwing verbal toys around.

[JPower]

Why isn't Russell in the second Mercedes?

He has time. Bottas ran a great race IMO. The bad pitstop really hurt him.

[Shrieker]

What an epic, epic race. This has been in the making for a long, long time.

And yes, of course it's not a legitimate overtake when you go out of the track limits to complete it. I don't know how that's even a discussion.