J.A.W. wrote: ↑27 Aug 2017, 17:32
Interesting to see.. at Spa..
..after the needlessly long (orchestrated) 'safety car' period.. which no doubt enabled fuel saving..
Hamilton was - on the the re-start - able to 'pour on the coals' & easily gap Vettel under max power..
& the 'juice' was clearly on show, as evidenced by the - nowadays rarely seen - visible exhaust flames..
Impressive, & conclusive.. as a mark of what power M-B really does.. have in hand.. well done M-B & Hammer..
It's not as clear cut as that.
Hamilton has said that he was in the wrong engine mode at the restart, so didn't have the gap he expected going into La Source. He then locked a brake at that corner, and could hear Vettel was on the power earlier (so much for quiet engines). On the run down to Eau Rouge he didn't use full power, thus allowing Vettel to pull up close behind, before nailing it through Eau Rouge and Radillion.
Doing this force Vettel to pull out from the slipstream earlier than ideal, and without the necessary momentum. Vettel pulled along side, but there after the Ferrari and Mercedes remained level, and as Hamilton had the inside for the corner, there was no way through for Vettel.
After making the engine mode mistake at the restart, Hamilton cleverly turned that to his advantage. I expect if he hadn't held back a little on the run down to Eau Rouge that Vettel would have got a much better slipstream and been able to use the extra momentum to take the lead.
The big advantage that the Mercedes seemed to have was in the second half of the lap, where Vettel had to do more recovery than Hamilton. So, probably, an advantage in the MGUH recovery for Mercedes.