Pick the Podium - F-1 - Gran Premio Heineken D'Italia, Monza, Italy, 2018

[Retroram52]

After another run at Hamilton in Belgium to cut the points gap, the Ferraris are coming on strong. Other teams continue to make in-roads to get to the top ten.

 

[Retroram52]

Maybe there is something to this afterall.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/lewis-hamilton-mercedes-apos-t-083059419.html

 

[Retroram52]

Vettel and Raikkonen set the standard in Italia land over Hamilton and Bottas in FP2. Maybe the Ferrari's have finally caught and passed the Mercs.

 

[forty_three]

Kimi takes pole while Vettel whines like a petulant child.

Around a tenth of a second between the top three. The midfield battle in Q2 had 12 cars covered by 2 tenths. Perez missed Q2 by .0001. Could be a crazy, exciting race. No way Ferrari tolerates Kimi's pole position and will have a pit "mishap" should the Golden Boy not get past on track.

VET
HAM
RAI
BOT

Also, Daniel will finish 5th from the back. Renault looks to have gotten good power numbers in that C spec engine.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Vettel
Raikkonen
Hamilton
Verstappen

 

[Retroram52]

I'll go with Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen, and Bottas.

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Vettel
Raikkonen
Hamilton
Bottas

 

[Retroram52]

Hamilton took the win when Vettel spun-out and Hamilton went on to hold off Raikkonen. Hamilton moves ahead of Vettel by 30 points in the championship. Bottas took third followed by Vettel. Verstappen took fifth and Grosjean took sixth for Haas that was pretty cool to see.

 

[Retroram52]

Here is how we did:

BoiseStateFan27: 4 points- Correctly selected Raikkonen for second
forty_three: 0 points- skunked
Hank Kingsley: 4 points- Correctly selected Raikkonen for second
Retroram52: 0 points- skunked

Season totals:

BoiseStateFan27: 68 points
forty_three: 51 points
Hank Kingsley: 52 points
Retroram52: 60 points


Next up: Singapore Grand Prix, September 14-16, 2018

 

[Retroram52]

Kudos to BSF and Hank for continuing the big mo and scoring points. BSF widens his lead and Hank moves into third. Excellent!!

 

[forty_three]

Good race. Liked what Rosberg said about Vettel making mistakes. He keeps letting himself down and against a team like Mercedes and a consistent driver like Hamilton he's not gonna be a champion doing it. He tried to squeeze Hamilton and he lost out. He had the pace to get by Hamilton on track but he tried to win the spot on turn 3. He threw a win away on lap one.

And Verstappen is just beyond dangerous. The move he was penalized for was bad enough, but then for him to try it 3 more times keeping Bottas behind him when he knew he had a penalty deserves a race ban, IMO. Plus he let Vettel past him on time by fighting Bottas who was not his battle. Hot headed little twat. Good job Red Bull, putting all your eggs in that basket case.

 

[Retroram52]

Agreed 43.

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Kudos to BSF and Hank for continuing the big mo and scoring points. BSF widens his lead and Hank moves into third. Excellent!!

I was very conflicted at the end of the race

on one hand I wanted Raikkonen to win because he hasn't in so long and it would keep the title race a little closer, on the other I knew for this competition that I needed Hamilton to pass him.

Good to extend the lead but Singapore will be a tough race to pick with safety cars, it being tough to overtake and the track style bringing the Red Bulls into the picture. 8 points is nice but you could easily shoot right back past me.

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Good race. Liked what Rosberg said about Vettel making mistakes. He keeps letting himself down and against a team like Mercedes and a consistent driver like Hamilton he's not gonna be a champion doing it. He tried to squeeze Hamilton and he lost out. He had the pace to get by Hamilton on track but he tried to win the spot on turn 3. He threw a win away on lap one.

And Verstappen is just beyond dangerous. The move he was penalized for was bad enough, but then for him to try it 3 more times keeping Bottas behind him when he knew he had a penalty deserves a race ban, IMO. Plus he let Vettel past him on time by fighting Bottas who was not his battle. Hot headed little twat. Good job Red Bull, putting all your eggs in that basket case.

Agreed, especially on Vettel. He has made way too many mistakes this whole year. Ferrari had a quicker car but Mercedes is still quick enough to take advantage when they mess up which is what Vettel has done seemingly every other race. This championship is just about over at this point

 

[Retroram52]

I have run into a streak of foul luck getting skunked two weeks in a row. We shall see. It isn't over until the last race. See you then.

 

[forty_three]

Agreed, especially on Vettel. He has made way too many mistakes this whole year. Ferrari had a quicker car but Mercedes is still quick enough to take advantage when they mess up which is what Vettel has done seemingly every other race. This championship is just about over at this point

The thing that is mind boggling to me is the two biggest mistakes he's made were completely unnecessary. Hockenheim he was in control, had a win sealed and he pushed for no real reason because Hamilton had just stopped and lost it. Went from a win to a DNF pushing when there was no benefit to doing so. All he had to do was hold position, and make it impossible for Lewis to pass.

Then yesterday, he wanted a go at Kimi out of Curva Grande, got out of position and opened the door for Lewis. He moved to close Lewis off and ruined his angle into the chicane. If he had gotten through that chicane, Ferrari would have told Kimi to move over within a lap. Guaranteed. And if Lewis had got past, he would have passed him on track.

You have to wonder if Ferrari are thinking they should have put their full support behind Kimi. He would probably be Champion if he got the favor Seb has.

 

[Retroram52]

Rosberg chimes in about Vettel. Says he makes too many mistakes to take the title from Hamilton. We shall see.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/rosberg-vettel-making-too-many-082647377.html

 

[Hank Kingsley]

You have to wonder if Ferrari are thinking they should have put their full support behind Kimi. He would probably be Champion if he got the favor Seb has.

You know the drill at Ferrari if you are #2. Ask Barrichello.

No foreplay. Not even a grease up.

They just fucking screw you.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Rosberg chimes in about Vettel. Says he makes too many mistakes to take the title from Hamilton. We shall see.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/rosberg-vettel-making-too-many-082647377.html

I never liked Swivel Hips. But he is correct here.

 

[Retroram52]

Yea, Hank, Vettel had a golden opportunity to put a nail in a coffin for Hamilton but screwed-up. Now he is really under pressure to re-claim what he has lost and when he is under pressure, he usually screws-up more. We shall see.