Official Eifel Grand Prix 2020: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 11 of 17 - Page 4

AndreasDavour · 12 Oct 2020, 07:45 (Ref:4010074)

The start of this race was quite telling if you wanted to study the dynamics between Hamilton and Bottas, and why Bottas will never get the better of Hamilton. At the first few corners, Lewis is drifting out towards his team mate and daring Valtteri to back out, same thing in Spa. Bottas almost always backs off. Unless he drives like he intended to ram into Lewis he will never win, as that's what Lewis does to him.

Congrats to Danny Ric!

**chunterer** · 12 Oct 2020, 07:47 (Ref:4010075)

But Bottas did 'fight his corner' this is why he was ahead for the first part?

AndreasDavour · 12 Oct 2020, 08:09 (Ref:4010077)

Yeah, this race was a nice interplay, where you could see it in action so clearly as Lewis did not totally bully Bottas likes he usually does.

Note that I'm not saying Lewis does anything wrong, he is just as ruthless as you have to be to be a champion. Bottas just isn't.

Knowlesy · 12 Oct 2020, 08:12 (Ref:4010078)

Bottas was seriously impressive at the start (apart from, err, the actual start).

But my god, that turn one error afterwards.

It was a very Rosberg 2014/15 day for him.

ascarracinguk · 12 Oct 2020, 09:32 (Ref:4010095)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Bottas was seriously impressive at the start (apart from, err, the actual start).

But my god, that turn one error afterwards.

It was a very Rosberg 2014/15 day for him.

Bottas was very good at the start, i do wonder if a Hamilton with less licence points would have put Bottas on the grass though....probably didnt want to risk the ban, or the loss of championship points.

It was to form to after that to be fair. How many times have we seen in the past, if Hamilton cant get through, he will sit there, 2 seconds behind the car in front, preserving his tyres, ready to pounce, whether that be an overtake on track or through strategy.

Unfortunately for Bottas, hamilton is both quicker and kinder on his tyres.

69 points is a big lead, if hamilton wins next time out it could be over 75 points with 5 races remaining....thats crazy to think, but tbh even though its a big lead, it only takes a retirement or bout of COVID and Bottas is back in it.....

...i dont think anyone can take the championship for granted quite yet.

S griffin · 12 Oct 2020, 09:41 (Ref:4010097)

Bottas looked mega today. It wasn't easy, but he got the lead in style, just how it should be.

Just a shame we never saw a recovery from him. Hamilton did the job, but it could have been a very different story.

I think Bottas can do it if he just digs deeper more, because I am sure he has got something in him if he can find it. Fair play to Lewis with his lead, but if only we'd seen more of the best from Bottas it would have been a lot closer. I am sure Bottas will try to give it his all, but he really needs to give his all, as he is running out of races. Of course he could get lucky if Hamilton gets a DNF. Hamilton will still be up there, but Bottas can't afford to lose anymore points, he needs to get the job done on Sunday.

I think this is a title fight that has gone too far one way, but we'll see. No point looking back now, we just have to hope we can see the best from Valterri and he can still keep Lewis honest

greentrumpet · 12 Oct 2020, 18:29 (Ref:4010202)

Bottas was great at the start but it's impressive how Hamilton can still look after his tyres while sitting in the dirty air.

**chunterer** · 12 Oct 2020, 21:55 (Ref:4010240)

Quote:

Originally Posted by greentrumpet

Bottas was great at the start but it's impressive how Hamilton can still look after his tyres while sitting in the dirty air.

I think if you look at the first stint, Lewis actually sat back for a fair while to keep.away from dirty air. Once Max started to press a bit harder Lewis upped the ante and 'bam' he was on VB pushed him into the error and wss past.

**Peter Mallett** · 13 Oct 2020, 07:47 (Ref:4010307)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

I think if you look at the first stint, Lewis actually sat back for a fair while to keep.away from dirty air. Once Max started to press a bit harder Lewis upped the ante and 'bam' he was on VB pushed him into the error and wss past.

Yes indeed that was the case. But I wonder if Bottas was having PU problems at that point? I doubt we will ever know but that was a loooong lock up into turn 1.

steve_r · 13 Oct 2020, 11:19 (Ref:4010353)

Maybe. Hamilton said on post race interviews that he could tell that Bottas front tyres were wearing out. I'm not sure how he could tell this exactly, but he said that this was the reason that he upped the pace. IIRC Hamilton set a couple of fastest laps just before Bottas locked up.

Tourer · 13 Oct 2020, 17:51 (Ref:4010443)

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve_r

Maybe. Hamilton said on post race interviews that he could tell that Bottas front tyres were wearing out. I'm not sure how he could tell this exactly, but he said that this was the reason that he upped the pace. IIRC Hamilton set a couple of fastest laps just before Bottas locked up.

On Autosport site, Bottas said there was light drizzle at that stage, which he believes led to the lockup - as he hit it first, Hamilton was able to adjust and not have the same problem. He was fairly philosophical about it and make of it what you will but the drizzle coming and going might help to explain why so many of them through the race had lockups into turn 1.

Article here.

tux · 13 Oct 2020, 18:06 (Ref:4010449)

The whole weekend felt really strange, like, more of an exhibition rather than an event. For me personally i missed F2,F3 so im really worried that my interest in the events next season will decline when they split F2,F3 from the F1 package.

wnut · 13 Oct 2020, 23:34 (Ref:4010493)

Quote:

Originally Posted by tux

The whole weekend felt really strange, like, more of an exhibition rather than an event. For me personally i missed F2,F3 so im really worried that my interest in the events next season will decline when they split F2,F3 from the F1 package.

Have you attended a race weekend where F1 is the only event on the cards?
IMO its miserable! Huge long gaps where nothing is happening.

This is just F1 again trying to steal the limelight from other classes of racing.

Trying to put sponsorship packages together in F2 and F3 without the large crowds becomes much more difficult. This is how they will kill ICE racing.

S griffin · 14 Oct 2020, 09:43 (Ref:4010570)

Did they not even have one support race? That is almost unprecedented, can't think of another time that has happened, at least in recent times. Of course with the current situation, it makes things trickier, but still. You need to have support races to keep people entertained between the races

**bjohnsonsmith** · 14 Oct 2020, 09:47 (Ref:4010572)

Quote:

Originally Posted by S griffin

Did they not even have one support race? That is almost unprecedented, can't think of another time that has happened, at least in recent times. Of course with the current situation, it makes things trickier, but still. You need to have support races to keep people entertained between the races

Support races for support races? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

**chunterer** · 14 Oct 2020, 12:58 (Ref:4010614)

Quote:

Originally Posted by S griffin

Did they not even have one support race? That is almost unprecedented, can't think of another time that has happened, at least in recent times. Of course with the current situation, it makes things trickier, but still. You need to have support races to keep people entertained between the races

Yes there were 2 of the German based Touring Car Legends races, bit like MRL's Touring Car Challenge or the Peter Auto one, but with a few oddities thrown in!

**Peter Mallett** · 14 Oct 2020, 13:08 (Ref:4010616)

Didn't they have the sports prototype cup too?

E.B · 14 Oct 2020, 14:38 (Ref:4010629)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Didn't they have the sports prototype cup too?

According to the event schedule, it seems Touring Car Legends and Renault Clio Cup only.

https://www.racefans.net/2020-f1-sea...el-grand-prix/

However looking at the event programme online it only mentions the Legends race in the support list.
Official Programme: https://secure.viewer.zmags.com/publ...er#/a01fe5ab/1

S griffin · 14 Oct 2020, 15:21 (Ref:4010644)

Ah well, nice to have something a bit different in the support races. Was great back in the day when you had national series supporting the GP, which only Australia does nowadays

chillibowl · 14 Oct 2020, 15:41 (Ref:4010652)

how many people/spectators were at the track though and was there an increased risk of spread because of the spectators?

rather, was this a trade off between the circuit making some money off of ticket sales vs the need to provide more action throughout the day?

or is the new format going forward? F1 tickets are expensive and if i was a paying spectator, i would expect some other events to fill out my days at the track.

**Adam43** · 14 Oct 2020, 18:05 (Ref:4010687)

Isn’t this because F1 is trying to destroy all other ICE series. I read that somewhere. COVID is a convenient excuse.

Or, things all came together relatively late in the day and sorting out logistics, costs and everything was all relatively last minute.

No can’t be that there must be more to it

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