TOPIC:

What an absolute joke F1 stewards are and the finger is being fairly and squarely pointed at an Australian race director Michael Masi who virtually handed the race win and the championship to Max Verstappen and Red Bull who were kissed on the cock by an idiot backmarker who crashed into a barrier with about 5 laps to go with Hamilton in total command of the race and the championship.

It brought about a safety car which virtually allowed anyone to make a free pitstop. The problem for Mercedes was they had track position and risked handing it to the Dutch wrecking ball and as one of the commentators said if the race had of ended under the safety car then effectively Mercedes would have handed the race win to Red Bull.

Verstappen pitted when they saw Mercedes stayed out and put a fresh set of softs on while Hamilton was on 25 lap old hard tyres. But Max should have remained back in the pack with 5 cars to overtake which was originally the call. Christian Horner jumps on the phone to the race director and piles pressure on him to allow the backmarkers to overtake the safety car but only allows the cars in front of Verstappen to pass the safety car not the rest of them, which effectively put Verstappen right on Hamilton's back with 1 lap to go. Hamilton was a sitting duck and had no chance of holding him off. 

What an absolute farce. The right thing to do would have been finishing the race under the safety car. Verstappen was handed too much of an advantage from a crash that didn't involve anyone and Hamilton's commanding lead was wiped away. Yet after a previous incident a few laps earlier where a driver had to park his car a virtual safety car was employed which meant all the gaps had to be maintained. If that had of happened Hamilton would have won the race and the championship.

Understandably Mercedes are furious and lodged 2 protests which were dismissed and their subsequent appeals were dismissed. I feel this will go all the way to an arbitrary court to be decided.

That's racing DD. I thought Hamilton got the rub of the green when he left the track on lap 1 and didn't give the place back to Max who was half a car length in front of Hamilton but that's the way it goes. For that last incident they couldn't go for a VSC as there was debris on the track which needed to be cleared but yes, I do agree it was a strange decision to let only the 5 lapped cars between Max and Hamilton to go through. Horner was on the phone but so was Toto so no finger pointing from me as they were both as bad as each other. Hamilton was by far quicker on the day but some clever pitting and just plain good luck saw him lose. Well done to Max. I think it's good that the whinging Pom lost as he's an arrogant prick for mine.  Ricciardo has been a major disappointment and must be nervous about his seat after 2022 you'd think.

I disagree BC I think Verstappen is a dirty driver who is willing to cheat to win. Anyone can see his move earlier in the race you refer to he aimed his car to push Hamilton off the track, if it was a street circuit like Monaco there is no way he can pull that move off.

Because they went into the race level on points but Max would have won on a countback if they both finished outside the points because Max has won one more race, I felt Max would have been prepared to take Hamilton out even if it meant the end of his race also.

If that's racing then I'm over it.

I just think it was a very exciting end to the season. After all the stuff that happened over the year it came down to one incident. If Latifi stays out of the barrier Hamilton wins the world championship. He didn't and it opened the door for Max but lot's of stuff went on before that. Perez's brilliant effort to hold Hamilton up, Bothas not firing a shot, Hamilton's perfect start...all sorts of things happened to make it a brilliant race and end to the season rather than the boring, pedestrian predetermined outcomes of recent years with Mercedes being so dominant.