[Hutnicks]

  I disagree

For sure. I believe that pit strategy played out without the SC would have had him ahead of Rosberg.

 

[oqvist]

 
For sure. I believe that pit strategy played out without the SC would have had him ahead of Rosberg.

Would been unable to defend that position though

 

[Hutnicks]

  Would been unable to defend that position though

Not so sure of that given the tyre choices, even Rosberg had a few questions for the management there. That said RB seems to have an uncanny ability to demote their drivers with pit strategy when it counts most. My own suspicion is they pirated a copy of the SCUDs strat software.
 
 It was amusing to see the kid lose his mind for a minute there. Must have been quite annoying when he showed up and his Big Mac and Frites were nowhere to be seen.
 
 To be honest I will be more than happy to see the end of the whole tyre deg debacle and look forward to some actual racing taking place. I am all for multiple compounds but they should be ones the teams asked for not some alimentary fool looking to put on a show by limiting the ability of the driver to push the car.

 

[oqvist]

Hilarious race ending. I love the hypocrazy of the skysports commentatory. 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Hamilton locking up going straight to keep position. oooooh it´s fiiiiine! Rosberg should get a penalty for being pushed of the track and taking the grass instead of crashing himself out!!
 
Max looking brakes at the same spot going straight. Oh he will for sure get a penalty for that and have to give position back! Worst offense was obviously  Vettel cuzzing  on tv

 

[wuwhere]

Verstappen is a funny driver.

 

[MuZo2]

What a drama at end of race, on podium and after podium. Verstappen and Redbull should be fined.

 

[WraithApe]

  Verstappen is a funny driver.

 
One of the main reasons I keep watching F1.

 The races would be a lot duller without Max.
 
In this case, I guess he did gain an unfair advantage, whereas Hamilton's run off on the first corner didn't, hence the penalty. He was right about Vettel's radio messages though - it was like a child throwing a tantrum; really petulant.
 
LOL @ Eddie Jordan saying he had to give the place back. He had track position, so technically he wasn't giving the place back - I guess he meant he should have yielded after gaining an advantage. That guy really irritates me. The one pundit I don't think C4 should have brought over from the Beeb.

 

[Jabbah]

A race of three halves this one A bit of action at the start, snooze fest for the middle stint and explosive ending. Once again though the stewards seem to be unable to stay consistent even within the race.
 
My analysis:
 
Hamilton - Out braked himself into the first corner when he really wasn't in any danger and rejoined after turn two with a significantly increased lead that wasn't removed until the safety car came out. I thought he was in danger of a penalty but escaped without.
 
Rosberg - Lucky he had Mercedes power after the start as the RB had him up to half way to turn one. The RB superior braking meant Max managed to throw the RB up the inside of a running wide Rosberg. Wheel to wheel contact was made with Rosberg going off track, missing out turn two and rejoining well ahead of Max. Mostly a racing incident but more of an advantage gained than Hamilton, again no penalty probably due to the typical light touch from the stewards on the first lap.
 
Max on Rosberg - Awesome opportunistic dive that may have got him second had he not locked up the inside wheel. Max's pace dropped off towards the end though so would have been at risk even if he had had made the move stick. 
 
Vettel on Max - Vettel got within about a car length of Max at turn one where Max out braked himself and went for a little sojourn across the outfield almost exactly as Hamilton had. Vettel was almost straight on the back of Max again, so might be debatable if a lasting advantage was gained. From subsequent laps at turn one Max could still brake late and not be at risk from Vettel. I think he could have made the corner and not had Vettel being any closer so there was no "place to give back". However even Max's race engineer said on the radio he thought he would have to give up the place. Given the similarity to Hamiton's event, I think this is slightly dubious. At least the Stewards came to a decision fast enough to give the penalty out before the podium and have the right person on the third step...
 
Ricciardo on Vettel - Vettel did not manage to get into another position to overtake Max which meant he came under pressure from Ricciardo. After a scrappy corner Ricciardo had a good run down the inside of Vettel to the next turn with Vettel realising too late and trying to close the door in the braking zone causing contact with Ricciardo. It is quite ironic that Vettel being one of the most vocal in calling for the "Verstappen" rule was also the first to fall foul of it. Shame they took a number of hours to sort this one out after the knee jerk response getting Vettel on the podium.
 
Hamilton and Rosberg should have got penalties at the start IMO which would also have resulted in a more interesting race, although I expect they may have been able to eek out a large enough lead to cover a 5 second penalty at their first stops.

 

[oqvist]

Yeah mercs should get penalties by default Seriously Had Nico not done evasive manoveurs Max would get penalized for the T1 incident. Where could Nico reenter when being puhed out the track? Hamiltons was far worse. Own unforced error that he gained hugely from. They should at least have huge bollards there to make sure you have to slow down. But they don´t generally penalize such so it´s consistent. I think Max was actually quite close with yet again get away with his off the track defense. He seemed surprise having to leave the podium ceremony.
 
Vettel did a Max though not quite as blunt and get penalized for it. Riccardio did have some room to go Max make sure it´s crash into me or abort for the overtaking car but I don´t mind the penalty even though being backed into Ricchiardo by a cheating Max I would for sure defend like crazy.
 
I want to see Vettel in a McLaren and offend both the sensitive  japanese and english crowd awesome. Alonso is doing a decent job but the toughest he can say is GP 2 engine Get Hamilton back there and you have Beauty and the Beast.
 
With more downforce next year and wider tires should have Vettel go out of breath a lot more so I bet his radio traffic will calm down

 

[MuZo2]

  Ricciardo on Vettel - Vettel did not manage to get into another position to overtake Max which meant he came under pressure from Ricciardo. After a scrappy corner Ricciardo had a good run down the inside of Vettel to the next turn with Vettel realising too late and trying to close the door in the braking zone causing contact with Ricciardo. It is quite ironic that Vettel being one of the most vocal in calling for the "Verstappen" rule was also the first to fall foul of it. Shame they took a number of hours to sort this one out after the knee jerk response getting Vettel on the podium.
 

 
That was very unfair from Redbull , Max backed Vettel into Ricciardo , which allowed Ricciardo  to attack Vettlel, Had Max given place back to Vettel immediately this situation would not have arised.

 

[oqvist]

   
That was very unfair from Redbull , Max backed Vettel into Ricciardo , which allowed Ricciardo  to attack Vettlel, Had Max given place back to Vettel immediately this situation would not have arised.

To be fair I don´t think they planned it that way. They did tell Max to let Vettel by after he cut the corner to stay ahead. Ricciardo was on faster tires but got helped a ton of course by that scrap. Also felt like Ferrari messed up Kimis race again but he maybe just got a bad set of tires.

 

[WraithApe]

  Yeah mercs should get penalties by default Seriously Had Nico not done evasive manoveurs Max would get penalized for the T1 incident. Where could Nico reenter when being puhed out the track? Hamiltons was far worse. Own unforced error that he gained hugely from. They should at least have huge bollards there to make sure you have to slow down. But they don´t generally penalize such so it´s consistent. I think Max was actually quite close with yet again get away with his off the track defense. He seemed surprise having to leave the podium ceremony.

 
But the safety car almost immediately wiped out Hamilton's increased lead... so you could argue that he didn't actually gain any advantage by running off.

 

[Jabbah]

Some good info on why certain decisions were made by the stewards:
 
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/revealed-why-hamilton-escaped-mexican-gp-turn-1-sanction-845383/

 

[Jabbah]

   
That was very unfair from Redbull , Max backed Vettel into Ricciardo , which allowed Ricciardo  to attack Vettlel, Had Max given place back to Vettel immediately this situation would not have arised.

 
Max was defending his place. He had not been instructed by race control to give the place back and other drivers who had gone off at the same corner were not penalised. Going by the reasoning of the stewards, Max may have been able to cut the corner and kept the place if he had lifted after rejoining the track allowing Vettel to be closer sooner. Besides, how unfair it was or not has no bearing on if Vettel's actions were acceptable. His behaviour was a lot worse than Verstappen's; causing contact with another car, swearing at the race controller and calling another driver a ******. I think Vettel is trying to become the bad boy of F1 at the moment.

 

[Jabbah]

  Where could Nico reenter when being puhed out the track? 

 
I recorded the race so could check. Rosberg could easily rejoin the track before turn two, right after Max. He was clearly thinking about doing that as his car was parallel to the track and only a tyre width off it and then darted across the grass to rejoin a car length in front of Max. Worse than Hamilton as he was battling for the place and actually lost it before deciding to go across the grass. Of course for those that believe Max is the antichrist he will be wrong in any on track battle.