Meh. If rules and procedures were exciting, I’d read court transcripts instead. But, whatever gets people aroused is fine by me, I’m not one to kink-shame.

Toto/Bono/whoever at MB cocked up a strategy call and didn’t bring Lewis in for fresh tires when they could. I didn’t see any article in the rulebook which says…

Well, Merc certainly handed them that win on a silver platter. That was incredibly shit tire strategy by Merc.

Yeah, they were even on points coming into today, may the best driver win. The FIA rules are open to interpretation by the stewards in some cases, and this was one of them. As I see it, the stewards had 3 options:
1) End race under caution
2) Instruct all lapped cars to pass the safety car and resume race, except…

Nah. You EARN wins, you don’t DESERVE them.

That’s what racing is like sometimes: you have to make quick decisions and assessments. And luck plays a role. My first reaction was a possible two laps of racing even. Look at how lightly Latifi hit the wall, the car was pretty intact and easy to clear off the track.

Aside from the fact that Max won more races this year, and the ones he didn’t win were the result of tire failure, DNFs which were the result of being punted off the track by Mercedes drivers, and grid penalties due to necessary engine replacements that resulted from said punting.

But do go on.

3. That’s exactly right. Lewis wasn’t pushed out by Max, Max had every right to that corner. And besides, Lewis would’ve taken the spot back on the next straight. And Yuki literally overtook Bottas exactly the same way on the last lap, in that exact corner too and Bottas conceded. 

Oh please. Max finished in the “Top 2" 18 times this year. More than any driver in F1 history. The man deserved that win.

Eh, I usually end up with “fuck em both”. Both teams are whiny fuckers when it suits them. Really hope Mclaren or Alpine can make headway.

Yup, Max had gone past him and Lewis retook the position back by going off the track. And I agree: in the end it didn’t matter...of course it MAY have been possible for Max to keep Lewis behind and it could’ve been a different looking race, but as you say since Max won fair and square luckily that controversy is water…

Exactly.

It was obvious they wanted a race to the finish, which if so then they should have just red flagged it like they did in Baku. We would have had a two-lap shootout with both on reds. You can speculate how that would have ended.

Michael and Derek only made a questionable call at the beginning of the race when they went totally against all precedents and the rules they’ve set, but incredibly luckily that didn’t end up deciding the race and therefore the race didn’t end with a bad aftertaste.

You’re right but Lewis being fucked is Toto’s fault not Masi’s

This is definitely the correct opinion on 3. Lewis made no effort to rejoin the track in a timely fashion and actually steered his car away from rejoining the track and toward the next apex. Having said that, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Yeah, I’m really surprised they didn’t throw a red flag. Seemed if they tried to do it the sporting way, that was literally the only option. 

There wasn’t really anything for which either Max or Lewis could have been blamed today. Both absolutely drove their dicks off.

I can’t blame Red Bull or Max for this. They took advantage and a strategy that was perfect. It’s Masi that fucked it up. There’s something to be said about how much pressure Masi was under in this crazy season but still, he failed when it mattered not just for this race but the whole season.

Funny, I usually try to do likewise and come back to “fuck Lewis and fuck Toto, but especially Toto”, but today it was “fuck Michael and Derek” more than anything else. 

1) Red flag after Latifi crash would have been best outcome, but I’m glad the race wasn’t finished under a yellow. For myself, I’m glad Masi made the decision he did because I got to see a dramatic finale.