Excellent!

Definately best race of the year.  Brilliant that Kimi won.  Well done Ferrari.

I cant do the maths for Mexico, but surely Finger Boy needs to win?

How many Budweisers will Kimi get through tonight…

looking forward to an emotional speech from kimi

“bwoah it was okay”

Kimi in the pre podium to Lewis “did you win the championship or what?”

proper legend

Classic Bottas…..

Yeah I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt, but he’s just not good enough for that seat

Mercedes balls up the strategy again and throw the race win away. Why didn’t they bring Hamilton in at least 10 laps earlier when it was obvious to anyone watching the race that his tyres wouldn’t make it to the end? They just gave away track time and made his job impossible.

Also, it was obvious to me that none of the top cars were going to be able to overtake each other as they couldn’t get close enough coming on to the longest straight due to the hairpin beforehand. That was demonstrated quite ably by Kimi earlier in the race holding Hamilton back even though his tyres were knackered.

Ferrari got it right today and Mercedes gave it away.

I cant do the maths for Mexico, but surely Finger Boy needs to win?

lewis needs to finish at least 7th in any of the last three races to clinch it.

and pole is a liability on that side of the track!

Vettel has to win all 3 remaining, if he comes 2nd in Mexico Hamilton wins the championshop

hamilton has to score 6 points total in the next 3 races

5 points would do for Lewis I think, as he’d win on 1st place countback if they tied

‘Kimi, does the champagne taste even sweeter now?’

‘Nah, I’m pretty sure its the same as you get for 2nd and 3rd…’

Looking forward to the looped video montages at the end of the season showing Vettel endlessly spinning himself around in various locations around the world. France, Italy, Japan, USA… have I forgotten any? (China seems a little cruel as it was in no way his fault.)

I’m no strategist but this wasn’t the first race this year where I’ve ended up starting at the screen for a few laps in succession wondering why Mercedes aren’t bringing Hamilton in. Quite why they let him drop behind the window between Raikkonen and Verstappen is fairly unfathomable: at that point they still had both Bottas and Verstappen in front of Vettel, who are probably the two people they could count on most to hold him back. Hamilton would have been about 3 seconds behind Raikkonen—with what was it, 20 laps to go?—with significantly fresher tyres. I don’t understand that call. But hey, I guess they’ve hardly ended up with him in a precarious position for the title, so it doesn’t matter.

Good to see him having a go on Verstappen at the end, though. But then they’re both kind of cut from Senna cloth; a Prostish driver would have just rolled it home safely for the points.

why they let him drop behind the window between Raikkonen and Verstappen is fairly unfathomable

I’d like to think they’d want him to win the championhsip in style, in the US. Big PR boon. So they keep him out, build up the tension, bring him in so that he has a few people to get past then go for glory, taking Kimi on the last corner of the last lap. It just didn’t work out that way…. but nothing lost other than an infamous win.

Maybe they’ve got a better venue for the celebration party in Mexico?

I don’t know why they didn’t bring him in but it certainly won’t effect the eventual outcome, – other than assassination there is no way LH isn’t going to win the Championship and perhaps they were just doing it for data purposes? Or for shit ‘n giggles?

Or maybe a man in dark glasses named Woto Tolff put a large bet on Hamilton taking the title in Mexico on Saturday evening…

I just hope Hamilton has been practising how to do ‘5’ shaped burnouts!!

Will anyone else be glad to see the back of Alonso? He’s just become a moaning, whiny, ‘it wasn’t like this back in my day’, bitter old racer.

Yeah he has become more of a whinge bag lately – maybe this is a taste of what he’s been like internally all these years though which might explain why he’s been on the wrong side of so many decisions.

Good point – if this is his public face – his private attitude is likely to be a lot worse. And having the lovely fella Mr Briatore as his manager can only add to the charm of having him as your driver! 🙂

Meh. He’s been stuck in that dog of a Mclaren for quite a while slowly sliding to the back of the field & ends up in his fair share of dodgems with some of the over-enthusiastic rookie drivers.

I reckon I’d be pretty moany over the radio in his shoes.

Pfft, getting a shit-cart full of money to travel the world, drive a fast car, meet the rich & powerful, get wined, dined, have gifts lavished on and to have the sort of life the rest of us can only dream about. Yeah I can see why he’s a moany cock too.

Would love to see Kimi win the last three races and leave Ferrari/finger boy red faced

My weekend is no longer complete without listening to a four letter rant from Vettel over the radio on a Saturday, followed by him going backwards at some stage on the Sunday afternoon.

Laurence Edmonson’s view seems to be that the Merc just wasn’t fast enough on the day and strategy wasn’t the major problem.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/25051412/the-real-reason-lewis-hamilton-win-title-austin

The reality was that the Mercedes simply wasn’t quick enough to make either strategy work and that’s why the cars finished third and fifth.

As far as Alonso goes, I’ve always been torn between loathing him for acting like a total prick at times and utter amazement at how he can get into a dog of a car, grab it by the scruff of the neck, and somehow score points. Not just the McLaren, but those turds on wheels that Ferrari gave him too. I rate him and Hamilton as the two best drivers of the last ten years, so sorry to see him go.

well  done lewis

Great driver, but a bit too American for my tastes.

Yes I know he’s British (and ought to be Scots with a name like that) but somehow always comes across a bit mid-Atlantic. Not that his being British would automatically make him likeable.

Still a great driver though.

Great driver, but a bit too American for my tastes.

Yes I know he’s British (and ought to be Scots with a name like that) but somehow always comes across a bit mid-Atlantic. Not that his being British would automatically make him likeable.

Do you realise how much of a p**** that makes you sound?

Awesome driver. Congratulations, Lewis. One of the best.

Awesome driver. Congratulations, Lewis. One of the best.

+1. Get in!!

Do you realise how much of a p**** that makes you sound?

OTOH I fully support his rap career

Right up there with the true greats and it’s not all about the 5 WC’s but grinding out poles and wins in cars that weren’t that good.

Even this season he has pulled out wins where I don’t think any other driver could but his McLarens 2009-2012 were arguably only the 4th fastest car and he still won races and snaffled poles.

Would love to see him go on and take Michael’s records…

Mikey – that was me trying to be nice.

Hamilton comes across as a whiny little spoilt brat. I mean complaining that the team have put the wrong tyres on his car when he’s cruising to the driver’s championship in a world beating car they gave him? He’s a prat.

However he is a very good driver who has just won the championship so I was being nice.

And now you’ve gone and spoilt it.

Bad Mikey.

complaining that the team have put the wrong tyres on his car when he’s cruising to the driver’s championship

Demanding perfection at all times is what makes a world Champion.

Hamilton comes across as a whiny little spoilt brat.

Yep, I think getting beaten by Rosberg was the best thing that ever happened to him. He is annoying when he opens his mouth, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s up there with the best drivers ever. (I would say the same thing about Alonso too, Jesus I wish he would just shut up and drive the car.)

Hols2 +1

Demanding perfection at all times is what makes a world Champion.

Quietly ragging the living daylights out of whatever your given whilst working like a trojan to make things better behind the scenes is more of a tell for me.

Hamilton comes across as a whiny little spoilt brat. I mean complaining that the team have put the wrong tyres on his car when he’s cruising to the driver’s championship in a world beating car they gave him? He’s a prat

Sorry did you watch the same GP?   For reason’s unknown to Hamilton, his tyres were degrading an an alarming rate and when he’s being asked to drive 40 more laps whilst ensuring he finishes and wins the Championship demands the question.

He was struggling, not cruising and yesterday’s cars was not world beating.  Watching your tyres blister and degrade at 200mph can’t have been comfortable by any stretch of the imagination.  He was also suffered from another as yet undisclosed mechanical issue so I’d imagine a fair bit of stress was going on in that cockpit.

One other thing btw, you should try comparing Hamiltons personality to the one you are expressing yourself here, it might be insightful for you…

I’d imagine a fair bit of stress was going on in that cockpit.

Given he already had 4 titles to his name and knew that a 5th was in the bag anyway (if not at that race then the next one), I’d imagine more people are getting stressed out in this thread.