That is incorrect. The regulations explicitly give Masi the discretion to modify the regulations, and inarguably so where related to safety cars.

He had to start on the tires from Q2, which were mediums. Max wanted to start on mediums as well but locked up on his lap in for his first attempt in Q2, so he had to pit for the softs that he started on. Merc switched to softs in Q3 to try and best his time and couldn’t, but they still got to stay on the mediums from…

A collective of stewards and former drivers who don’t change based on what time zone they’re running in. We can start with that.

Yeah, looking back at it, it looks like the gap was bigger in reality than in my memory. He was in good shape.

Technically Masi is the only one who can override the rules.

I thought Lewis had a set of lightly scrubbed softs from Q3...?

I dunno, he had some miles left to cover, it’s not like he was 3-4 laps away, and by the time everyone noticed they had really started to fade Max would be in DRS range within a lap at most. I think the most likely outcome was Hamilton won by 3-4 seconds

The problem I have with this isn’t that someone has discretion over how rigidly the rules are implemented, but that the discretion belongs to Masi and not the stewards. The other problem I have with it is the stewards aren’t the same from race to race. I suspect both of these things will change by 2023 if not next…

A red flag under normal circumstances would give Hamilton a free tire change, but clearly this was anything but normal circumstances

I’d give it like a 15-20% chance of Max overtaking him, which is not a forgone conclusion. There was a chance of punctures or Hamilton just running them out. He had been complaining they weren’t going to make it for 30 laps by that point.

There would be 1000x more headlines if not 10,000x more, because more than half the field already think that FIA goes out of their way to keep Hamilton on top.

Bottas was on full senioritis as soon as Toto said he couldn’t hit Max like a linebacker

Eh, Lewis only had pace on one of the last 20 laps, and I’m not convinced the tires would have gotten him there. Personally I think they would have, but I don’t think it was a foregone conclusion.

They should have pulled Lewis in when Max went in for new hards. Even if he surrendered the position. Merc had pace over them all weekend aside from 1.5 laps in Q3. I thought that was a terrible decision at the time, I thought it was a terrible decision after Toto explained it to Lewis, and I thought it was a terrible…

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

If the rules permitted him to say “no tire changes” I agree, but I’m not sure if the rules allow for that and assuming they don’t I’m not sure that’s the right call either. Max was actually on 20 lap hards when the yellow came out, but unless Masi red flagged it the second it happened Max was already into the pits.

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.

What decision could Masi have made that wouldn’t have been controversial. Seriously. And keep in mind those lapped cars weren’t just out there as distractions.

“Data Shows: Guy with Fastest Car Goes Fastest”

Perez has 0% chance of qualifying ahead of Hamilton, but Bottas is about 50/50 of qualifying ahead of max.