Post by NewsPost by Alan BakerPost by NewsPost by JohnPost by larkimI get why he did it.
But in the cold light of day, once you're off the track you have a
new obligation to rejoin safely, and if that means you have to
compromise your speed or position that is what your obligation is.
I'm sure vettel knows that, but it doesn't matter it any more
palatable for him when he has to suffer the consequences of his own
cock up.
He didn't have full control of the car until he got back on the
track. Doubt Merc even had to open their photo album the get the
Chosen One another win.
HAM could have gone to the left to avoid the re-entering VET going
right, but didn't.
Easy to say, and in theory that might have been possible, but he had
precious little time to decide it was the right move.
VET was out of control, heading across the track toward HAM's right.
HAM had clear track to driver's left. Instead, he took his chances.
Yes: Hamilton had clear track to driver's left; no doubt about it.
If he'd been given advanced warning that Vettel was going to lose it and
re-enter the track in exactly that manner, he could certainly have made
use of it.
The question is:
At what point does he know enough about where Vettel is going in order
to make his decision, and that's just not clear.
I have been in the situation of being close behind a car that lost
control. It was a Ford Mustang when I was renting a Honda CRX that had
had an engine swap, and although he was faster than me on the straights,
I was faster through the corners.
I'd been trying to find a way past for 7 or 8 laps when he finally lost
the rear end coming out of turn 6 (at Mission Raceway Park). Before he
got the car collected, he was in a tank-slapper, and if someone could
have given me foreknowledge of exactly what part of the narrow track he
wouldn't occupy, I would have been gone in a heartbeat.
But with his car going back and forth on the road in front of me, I
wasn't about to commit to a side when I was renting someone else's race car.
Could Hamilton have picked better? Maybe. But it's not a simple "he
should have gone left".