Page 1 of F1 Final race - wow!!

Did anyone catch the final title deciding race today (on CH4 live)?
Amazing race, full of incidents and great driving.
Hamilton led for 57 of the 58 laps (arguably got away with one just a few bends into the start of the race).  Then Verstappen, who changed tyres while the safety car was out, overtook him on the last lap and went on to take the Championship..  Or did he?
Race director Michael Masi seems to think he can change the F1 rules in the middle of a race so they could effectively have a final lap shootout instead of all of allowing the lapped cars  to sort their positions out first.
Hamilton had it sewn up and was about 12 seconds ahead when the safety car came out and then had to try to win a one lap race against Verstappen on new tyres.  In fact Verstappen even seemed to nudge ahead of Hamilton too while the safety car was out - again, not allowed.
It will be an emotional rollercoaster for all I'm sure, but I really don't see how the FIA can allow the result to stand.

Ste

Quite an unbelievably unfair thing to do, effectively putting Verstappen right behind Hamilton with a free pitstop and seemingly changing the rules to do so. Did they buckle from all the constant pressure Red Bull were putting on them over the decisions throughout the season?

I'll be amazed if they reverse the decision, but Mercedes are fully justified in being extremely angry about it.

Well the FIA have backed themselves and declared Verstappen champion.
Not the end of this I think.
Such a shame that it ended this way after an amazing race.
Lewis was so far ahead that to do what they did seems even more ridiculous.

Ste

It was an exciting first lap, and exciting last 5 laps (or whenever the safety car went out), but a snooze fest in-between. I feel for Hamilton, he was robbed, but it shouldn't be changed now. Masi needs to go though, his decisions this season have been so inconsistent.


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Well I for one am please Verstappen won the championship!

Quote:
marksparks999 says...
"Well I for one am please Verstappen won the championship!"
It's not the who it's the how.
Complete farce.
Only came back to F1 a couple of seasons back as my son is really into it.

I left it way back when Schumacher was still driving and the 'after you incident'

I doubt I'll be bothering with it too much next season. 


Snaps

Haven’t watched F1 in years, but it sounds like the FIA did a Boris, breaking their own rules.

Won‘t be watching any time soon I guess.

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Quote:
Robee J Shepherd says...
"but a snooze fest in-between"Not sure about that.  There were quite a few good moments and the Perez stopping Hamilton passing part was exciting too.
Overall, I really don't think the sport did itself any favours.

Ste

Ros Atkins is rapidly getting a well deserved reputation for short 5 min ish summations of high profile news.

This one on last Sundays farce

Snaps

No great fan of Hamilton, except for the fact he's British so I'll always back him, but that was so contrived that I can't see how the result can stand if, as Mercedes intend to do apparently, it goes to court.

You can't make rules up on the fly, however much you want Red Bull to win.