Poll Was Hamilton right to not yield to Rosberg?

[Hamberg]

it was simply meant as a way of optimizing both drivers strategies or more correctly not to compromise one driver because the other was on an alternate strategy,

I agree with that entirely in terms of what Mercedes were trying to achieve. However it appeared Lewis had a better grip (no pun intended) on the scenarios and tyre performance to know that letting Nico past would compromise his position.

Very impressed with Lewis today. He's shown an intelligence not many thought was there.

 

[Bullet190]

I think it is a team sport to the point when one driver has no more chance of winning the drivers championship. Remember Vettel refusing to help Webber when he was way behind on points, it paid off when he won the championship on the last race. Same for Button refusing to help Hamilton until it's impossible for him to win the championship.
I think the first call to Hamilton to not defend against Rosberg was the correct one, it would have slowed both of them down anyway. The second one to ask Hamilton to effectively slow down by over a second to let Rosberg pass is the contentious bit.

 

[snowy]

Putting Lewis on a tyre that is two seconds a lap slower is the most contentious issue.

 

[gethinceri]

Nico showed that he is weak, he should've been pressurising Hamilton but failed to get close enough, he was indecisive in overtaking moves and pitted 5 laps late for his final stop.
Hamilton was 100% right.
Nothing tells me Nico asked for Lewis to be moved over, radio messages indicate that Lewis had been told to let him through, they are different things.

 

[Hamberg]

I think that was a strategy they agreed before the race to get him into the top five. They just didn't change it when he got there with less than 50% of the race completed. Nobbers.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Nico showed that he is weak

Well I think he is a very lovely young man...

 

[olegg]

There was very strange to hear complaint from Nico.
He didn't have real try to pass Hamilton.
Last lap is not that case.

For opposite example may be Malaysian 2013

 

[Il_leone]

There was very strange to hear complaint from Nico.
He didn't have real try to pass Hamilton.
Last lap is not that case.

For opposite example may be Malaysian 2013

I was going to say Malaysia 2013 springs to mind but Ross Brawn said it was fuel critical and simply defused the situation between the two despite Nico not being happy.. but that was a correct call to back off

Here I don't see why Lewis should move over given the situation in the championship between the two..

 

[Shogun]

Well, if the team tells you to let a teammate past, if youre a team guy you should let them pass but honestly, I wouldnt have let Nico pass either unless he was up my exhaust pipe and even then, I wouldnt let him pass me easy.
Im honestly not at all surprised that Lewis didnt let him by. Lewis is trying to win a championship and to let Nico by would be pretty much handing him the championship.
Look at it this way too: whats Merc-AMG going to do, fire Lewis? If they did, theres plenty of other teams that would be more than happy to have Lewis drive for them and Im sure McLaren would love to have him back if they did.
In some ways, I feel that Merc-AMG not having a clear #1 driver isnt exactly good for the team. This is creating drama every week and instead of focusing on preparing the car and enjoying being the dominant team in F1, they are having to deal with all this Nico vs Lewis nonsense every week.

 

[Il_leone]

I remember Paddy Lowe saying after Bahrain that " Team Orders were terrible for F1" and allowed Hamilton and Rosberg to race and we witnessed one of the best duels in F1

The tone has been set now really the team cannot interfere any further in their battle

 

[soccerman17]

This isn't a right or wrong situation. Its a drive for yourself or drive for the team situation, and with your team so comfortably ahead in the constructors championship it makes a lot of sense to start driving for yourself for the WDC.

 

[RasputinLives]

These guys are fighting for a world title. There is no question that Lewis was right to not let him through. Why would he?

I stood with Vettel on his Webber overtake and I stand with Lewis on this.

I would have stood with Nico if he'd passed Lewis when he was told to stay behind too but he obeyed that order.

 

[Hamberg]

It's normal for a team to ask a driver who is on a different strategy to let the other through. Sometimes they even advise not to defend against drivers in a different team.

What Merc seemed to have missed is that Rosberg would gain the pit stop and more with fresh tyres. Hamilton didn't miss that. I don't think Nico did either hence the questions rather than Malaysia '13 style protests.

Merc have said he was right and they panicked. Sounds good for me.

 

[ramilas1]

How is this going to affect the team for the remaining races?
It could be gloves off now and every many for himself.

But it's always been every Hammy for himself, hasn't it?
Me, me, me, me!

 

[Brogan]

I don't know what that means.

 

[Wombcat]

Look at it this way too: whats Merc-AMG going to do, fire Lewis? If they did, theres plenty of other teams that would be more than happy to have Lewis drive for them and Im sure McLaren would love to have him back if they did.
.

But on the other hand: right now Mercedes doesn't need Hamilton to become WCC or WDC, Hamilton does need Mercedes to become WDC.

 

[Splash]

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it but we should all be thanking the Mercedes engineers for their efforts in rebuilding Lewis' car after it was virtually destroyed in the fire. If they hadn't done such a great job we would not be having this discussion.

 

[Tacitus]

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Just seen an interesting point on twitter. Our poll matches a similar poll done on twitter. We are a British biased site and within our fans we are generally more biased towards Hamilton over Button and other British drivers, as overwhelming as our poll result may be it would be interesting to know what the German F1 forums are thinking about the same situation. The key person to ask about this would be of course GermanF1 but if we have any other clippers based in Germany or have access to German F1 forums it would be nice to see their views.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Given that a German driver, leading the World Championship driving a German car with a German engine wasn't enough to get bums on seats at the German GP last week I would gauge the general mood in Germany as being pretty apathetic at the moment.

As for the initial question. In a rare (for me) show of support for Hammy, he was absolutely right to keep on keeping on. As he put it, in more or less the same words, If Rosberg could have got close he could have had a go.

I'm pretty sure that the result would have ended with Ricciardo winning, Rosberg second and either Alonso or Hammy third, at best but more likely, just a reverse of Hammy and Rosberg meaning the total points for the team turning out the same. I know what the Merc management were trying to do in hedging their bets to get the best out of both cars but all round, it wasn't the best result for the team. This will no doubt lead to more "clear the air" talks between the two 'good' friends. And it will be situation almost normal in a few weeks time.

The question remains, can Nico "Nelson Piquet" Rosberg crafty his way to the tilte or will Lewis "Nigel Mansall" Hamilton, on the whole the quicker of the two, keep it all together in the brainbox department to take the spoils.**

(** N.B. the battle between these two is not and will never be the same as Prost v Senna)