Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Dec 5, 2021

[reddevilsix]

Well quite an interesting race with several red flags and three standing starts. Somehow the FIA stewards have handed Red Bull's Max Verstappen a 10-second penalty for his role in the collision with Lewis Hamilton at the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

From https://www.motorsport.com/:
At turn 21 the driver of car 33 was given the instruction to give back a position to car 44 and was told by the team to do so “strategically”. Car 33 slowed significantly at turn 26. However, it was obvious that neither driver wanted to take the lead prior to DRS detection line 3.

The driver of Car 33 stated that he was wondering why Car 44 had not overtaken and the driver of Car 44 stated that, not having been aware at that stage that Car 33 was giving the position back, was unaware of the reason Car 33 was slowing. In deciding to penalise the driver of Car 33, the key point for the Stewards was that the driver of Car 33 then braked suddenly (69 bar) and significantly, resulting in 2.4g deceleration. Whilst accepting that the driver of Car 44 could have overtaken Car 33 when that car first slowed, we understand why he (and the driver of Car 33) did not wish to be the first to cross the DRS.

However, the sudden braking by the driver of Car 33 was determined by the Stewards to be erratic and hence the predominant cause of the collision and hence the standard penalty of 10 seconds for this type of incident, is imposed.

So Hamilton wins again and now the F1 season is headed into the last race of the year next weeked. The championship is still up for grabs. I suspect that things will get rough as the two leaders battle of the win. Keep tuned in.

Richard

[PDXLance]

Too much drama on that race, I guess the penalty fits the situation. Lewis should not have been that close behind even if he got brake checked, and should have pulled out of the slip stream earlier. But, a 2.4 g brake test was a little excessive for Max.

[reddevilsix]

From what I read, Max understood from his radio contact with the team, was that he was suppose to let Hamilton go by for some reason. And then it came to be a game of chicken. Neither one of them wanted to be in the lead going into the DRS zone. So Max was waiting for Hamilton to go by and he wasn't, thus he hit the brakes.

I'ed say that there was some game playing by both drivers. If Hamilton would have just moved over the passed, all this would not have happened.

Richard