2021 Mexican Grand Prix - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Nov 05 - 07

[NathanOlder]

Bottas already said he is willing to play team orders. He isnt fussy about it.
Just like how Perez let Max through at COTA, Bottas is wright to let Lewis through and then play bowling ball with all honda engined cars. lol

Wouldn’t look at all pre-emotive….
Boot on the other foot and Perez gets the jump on Verstappen, then “plays bowling ball” with both Mercedes; all of you anti-Maxxers will simply say “oh well, --- happens”, I guess?

Why not want a good race? Demolition Derbies are good fun when that is on the race-card on a Sunday afternoon at the Adrian Flux Arena, but not for F1.

A deliberate act (and as Bottas did just this ‘accidentally’ a few races ago; a repeat would not look accidental!), should result in a team penalty, such as that delivered on Schumacher in 1998 (after the cynical Villeneuve chop).

Mods, posts such as the quoted here really should be removed.

Schumacher stalled on the grid in the final race of 98

As for Bottas, I assume your talking about Hungary, which was mostly down to the wet track and a Bottas mistake.

And as for the Demolition derbies, didn't Max spend his first few years in F1 thinking it was a demolition derby? and it gained him many many fans. So I guess some love to see it. If thats how they feel, let them enjoy it. Most fans here want to see a good close battle, hopefully today we get that.

edit. no idea why this has come out bold?

[Mansell89]

Gasly in P5 could cause all sorts of headaches for Hamilton, though equally for Perez and the RBR strategy too!

Turn one is going to be so tense

Gasly? How? He probably won't be in Ham's pit window by the time they stop for new tires. This is going to be a one stop race. Perez can play spoiler though, but this time it will be 2 against 2, unlike in Austin when it was Ham against the Redbulls.

I meant Gasly getting a tow from row 3 clean side of the grid- he could wind up in P2/p3 in turn 1 and therefore could be either hurting Merc by being ahead of one or both of their cars, or causing a headache jumping a RBR

[Juzh]

Didn’t get to see qualifying but the result was a huge surprise. I gather Verstappen’s final attempt was ruined, though?

Yep, Tsu mucked up Checo's run, and the 2 going off and kicking dust in the air in turn, ruined Max's.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... rIYQ0.html

On the second runs, home favourite Perez ran wide when he got distracted by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda running off in front of him, which put him out of pole contention to the dismay of tens of thousands of fans who only have eyes for him.

His team mate Verstappen wasn’t far behind and had to back off slightly as a result of the Mexican’s off, but the reality is he was unlikely to have had the pace to challenge for pole anyway.

Despite looking dominant in practice, Max never looked like he was getting pole in qualification today, Mercedes were getting the soft and mediums working better than red bull.

Just before Tsunoda/perez distraction Verstappen was around 3 tenths up compared to his first Q3 lap, so pole was on the table, even if difficult. It's not a foregone conclusion he couldn't do it. These official articles posted on f1.com are always poorly researched because they have to be pumped out fast.

[JordanMugen]

edit. no idea why this has come out bold?

Missing a close bold bracket in the quote.

If corner cutting at turn 1-2 was being monitored, I'm sure that would have been mentioned and noted by the stewards, whether it was for Verstappen or another driver.

I think Red Bull will still have the race pace, even if they didn't have the pace on softs, so we will see if Max and Checo can get to the front.

[LM10]

Yep, Tsu mucked up Checo's run, and the 2 going off and kicking dust in the air in turn, ruined Max's.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... rIYQ0.html

On the second runs, home favourite Perez ran wide when he got distracted by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda running off in front of him, which put him out of pole contention to the dismay of tens of thousands of fans who only have eyes for him.

His team mate Verstappen wasn’t far behind and had to back off slightly as a result of the Mexican’s off, but the reality is he was unlikely to have had the pace to challenge for pole anyway.

Despite looking dominant in practice, Max never looked like he was getting pole in qualification today, Mercedes were getting the soft and mediums working better than red bull.

Just before Tsunoda/perez distraction Verstappen was around 3 tenths up compared to his first Q3 lap, so pole was on the table, even if difficult. It's not a foregone conclusion he couldn't do it. These official articles posted on f1.com are always poorly researched because they have to be pumped out fast.

Despite having been 3 tenths up until he got distracted, he then even lost 2 tenths in last sector compared to his first run due to a lock up - he probably wanted to make up the lost time. So that’s alone half a second lost at least from what we can say from these numbers.
I’m not even talking about Perez’ lap which was destroyed completely.
If Tsunoda ran off on purpose - for whatever reason - this needs to have consequences.

[MtthsMlw]

If Tsunoda ran off on purpose - for whatever reason - this needs to have consequences.

Yeah it was on purpose, he was on a slow lap and got out of the way. Idk if this needs to have consequences.

[Juzh]

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... rIYQ0.html



Despite looking dominant in practice, Max never looked like he was getting pole in qualification today, Mercedes were getting the soft and mediums working better than red bull.

Just before Tsunoda/perez distraction Verstappen was around 3 tenths up compared to his first Q3 lap, so pole was on the table, even if difficult. It's not a foregone conclusion he couldn't do it. These official articles posted on f1.com are always poorly researched because they have to be pumped out fast.

Despite having been 3 tenths up until he got distracted, he then even lost 2 tenths in last sector compared to his first run due to a lock up - he probably wanted to make up the lost time. So that’s alone half a second lost at least from what we can say from these numbers.

Not exactly. If final lap was to be clean throughout then he'd need to match his Q2 sector 3 time which he did on mediums and that would put him in the ballpark of pole position. Not unreasonable thing to do on soft tyre. If he only matched his first Q3 lap sector 3 it probably wouldn't be enough by around half a tenth or so.

[jumpingfish]

Isn't it better for Verstappen not to be on pole with his straight line speed? I think starting from pole he could be an easy target for both Mercedes before T1

[NathanOlder]

If Tsunoda ran off on purpose - for whatever reason - this needs to have consequences.

Yeah it was on purpose, he was on a slow lap and got out of the way. Idk if this needs to have consequences.

I just don't understand why he didn't have an inlap that was 3 or 4 seconds off the pace. He started the lap ahead of Gasly and was 12 seconds ahead of the Ferrari (Sainz I think). So once he let gasly through, he probably had around 10 seconds to Sainz. If he then drove the rest of the lap 5 seconds off the pace, he still would have been well ahead of Sainz and 5 seconds off the pace is cruising very slow. There was no need to look after the tyres or anything. So I believe it was shocking driving from Tsunoda. He was about 16 seconds ahead of Perez at the start of the lap and Perez caught him half way round the lap!

One very slim possibility could have been to give Max a tow from T11 to T12? but I highly doubt it, the team would have had to have been on the radio a fair bit to let him know where Max was and its a big risk so very very unlikely.

for some reason it was just a huge screw up from Yuki and Alpha Tauri.

[NathanOlder]

Isn't it better for Verstappen not to be on pole with his straight line speed? I think starting from pole he could be an easy target for both Mercedes before T1

At the same time you could say without the top speed, he needed to be starting at the front.

1st row, 2nd row both have their advantages. I think it will just come down to who has the best launch. If the Mercs get a good launch, they won't be passed on lap 1. If Max has a bad launch, he will be attacked by Leclerc , Gasly and Ricciardo.

[Tizz]

Isn't it better for Verstappen not to be on pole with his straight line speed? I think starting from pole he could be an easy target for both Mercedes before T1

I think so too. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It's going to be an interesting T1 in any case.

[Gillian]

If Tsunoda ran off on purpose - for whatever reason - this needs to have consequences.

Yeah it was on purpose, he was on a slow lap and got out of the way. Idk if this needs to have consequences.

I just don't understand why he didn't have an inlap that was 3 or 4 seconds off the pace. He started the lap ahead of Gasly and was 12 seconds ahead of the Ferrari (Sainz I think). So once he let gasly through, he probably had around 10 seconds to Sainz. If he then drove the rest of the lap 5 seconds off the pace, he still would have been well ahead of Sainz and 5 seconds off the pace is cruising very slow. There was no need to look after the tyres or anything. So I believe it was shocking driving from Tsunoda. He was about 16 seconds ahead of Perez at the start of the lap and Perez caught him half way round the lap!

One very slim possibility could have been to give Max a tow from T11 to T12? but I highly doubt it, the team would have had to have been on the radio a fair bit to let him know where Max was and its a big risk so very very unlikely.

for some reason it was just a huge screw up from Yuki and Alpha Tauri.

Yeah that's it isn't it. It was very weird. He should not have been there and then he should not have gone off track. It's totally like you say, drive a few seconds faster, which is still very slow, and none of this would have happened.

[BlueCheetah66]

Isn't it better for Verstappen not to be on pole with his straight line speed? I think starting from pole he could be an easy target for both Mercedes before T1

I think so too. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It's going to be an interesting T1 in any case.

The main problem for Verstappen is that, even if he gets a better start than Hamilton, Bottas will likely have been told at the start to move to the right to give Hamilton a tow down the straight, leaving Max with nothing. He will have to get a very good start I think to lead after the first corner

[Stu]

Isn't it better for Verstappen not to be on pole with his straight line speed? I think starting from pole he could be an easy target for both Mercedes before T1

At the same time you could say without the top speed, he needed to be starting at the front.

1st row, 2nd row both have their advantages. I think it will just come down to who has the best launch. If the Mercs get a good launch, they won't be passed on lap 1. If Max has a bad launch, he will be attacked by Leclerc , Gasly and Ricciardo.

Turn one is likely to be interesting! It looks to be configured for multiple lines of entry, but only has one exit that can work for turn two entry.
Fingers crossed that everyone makes it through safely.

[Tizz]

Isn't it better for Verstappen not to be on pole with his straight line speed? I think starting from pole he could be an easy target for both Mercedes before T1

I think so too. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It's going to be an interesting T1 in any case.

The main problem for Verstappen is that, even if he gets a better start than Hamilton, Bottas will likely have been told at the start to move to the right to give Hamilton a tow down the straight, leaving Max with nothing. He will have to get a very good start I think to lead after the first corner

I'm not sure. I think they will want to go to the left as that gives them a faster line through the first corner leaving them less vulnerable braking into in T1. But you are right, even though there are opportunities it will by no means be an easy overtake for Max.