Top marks for dominant Russell and Verstappen after Las Vegas GP

True, but you still need to do it. Just like Verstappen still had to do it in 2023 even though the car was (likely) in a class of one. I'm not saying Hamilton drove better than Russel, just that a 6 is a bit off.

In what was effectively a 2 car race, Lewis came P2. And it's wasn't even all that close. Lewis finished 7.4 seconds behind George. And I get the distinct impression that George was just managing his own race, and didn't really care if Lewis got close (as long as it wasn't threateningly close). Toto said that George could have gone 2 seconds faster, if he needed to.

Given the car, Lewis should have been hammer and tongs with George. But he wasn't.

Jeez, did were Brundle and Crofty think that HAM was that much faster than RUS? 0.3s - 1.0s per lap faster? ?

Yeah, Toto said George could have gone 2 seconds (per lap) faster. Toto was probably exaggerating a bit, more like 1-ish second.

Maybe some people were listening too much to Brundle and Crofty, who kept saying that Lewis is going to catch up to George, and then we will see a fight for the win. I honestly can't tell whether Brundle and Crofty didn't realize that Lewis was surely going to run out of tires, or whether it was their job to fool the audience and keep them watching.

Wolff has said a lot of things that you didn't believe. So why this?
2s faster? What fairyland Universe do you have to be in to believe that claptrap?
Not even Max could manage such a feat in the RB19.

The 'entire GP' is just the race. Grand Prix.
For it to include quali, you'd have to state that separately.
Otherwise let's add in practice.

And qualiy should not even be a factor really.
Lewis is a better driver on race day than you'd like to give him credit for. Always has been.

Giving MV and 8 and Lewis a 6 is biased to all hell.
MV started 5th and finished 5th.
Lewis started 10th and finished 2nd.
The fact that Max got a title is incidental. That's not how it's judged.

The marks given are for the entire GP i.e. qualifying and the race.

For qualy + race, the Mercedes car was in a league of its own. The fact that Lewis messed up qualy is on him, hence the lower mark.

"Starting from P10 I don't think it's a 2 car race "

That's putting it mildly. It's not a 2 car race at all - there's no doubt there.

It's good to see you taking issue with his silly comments though. But I think you're being very mild - milder than if it was me you're replying to, for example.
But it's appreciated anyway, we need more of this on here.

"George let Lewis eat into that 11 second lead. George knew full well that Lewis was using up his tires with that charge, and that he would eventually run out of tires."

Oh so you're a mind-reader now?
Even if George was able to pull away at will, even with that factored in, Lewis still raced from 10th to 2nd and that had nothing to do with Russell.
And he did it in the dry without safety cars and red flags.

"Fact and result are: with the same machinery, George won comfortably."

You're just being idiotic now.
You'd make that statement if Lewis started from the pitlane wouldn't you? :) Haha.
This is the problem with you RB people. You create the bad atmosphere with your BS. As soon as the BS smell begins to dissipate, someone like you comes in to top it up.

Hamilton started halfway down the grid in 10th. Russell started on pole, was running in clear air, no cars to wait behind or overtake.

Lewis was the faster car and driver in that race.
He outperformed everyone else.

Yeah, but my point is, George let Lewis eat into that 11 second lead. George knew full well that Lewis was using up his tires with that charge, and that he would eventually run out of tires. So as long as Lewis didn't get threateningly close, there was no good reason for George to push and go faster.

By the time the gap was down to 5 seconds, there were only a few laps left. So unless Lewis could keep closing the gap at 1.5+ seconds a lap, George was safe. So it was all coolly played by George.

Fact and result are: with the same machinery, George won comfortably.

come on man. lewis started way behind George and then on the last stop pitted earlier than Russell and still took a 11 second lead down to 5 before the tires went. Had he started on the front row George wouldn't have looked so dominate nor would he probably would have won.

Starting from P10 I don't think it's a 2 car race - you never know what happens in traffic. Aside from that you could argue that with the grid advantage (and clean air advantage at times?) Russel should have finished at more than 7s in front of Lewis. Also Zhou got a 6 starting 13th on the grid and finishing 13th or sth like that. I really think Hamilton drove better than Zhou. But we can agree to disagree :)

That's not only impression Mike, that's what Wolff said to the Austrian broadcaster ORF. RUS was managing and taking it easy.
Would HAM have managed to close the gap to RUS, he would certainly have cooked his tires by then.

"In what was effectively a 2 car race, Lewis came P2. And it's wasn't even all that close."

A 2 car race? Yeah it they lined up 1-2 on the grid. But Lewis was in 10th to Russells pole.
Hamilton had more pace and had it been a 1-2 start, Lewis would have put Russell in the shade with the pace he had.

It's not a 2 car race when on car starts halfway down the grid and other is on pole.

Lewis closed the gap to under 5s and it settled back to 7.
Oh I'm sure you think Russell was just managing his race.
Regardless, Lewis still finished 2nd and caught Russell up.

"Toto said that George could have gone 2 seconds faster, if he needed to."

Bwahaha. And suddenly you're hanging onto what Toto says? Since when? Oh since he says something you want to hear.
2 seconds faster??!! Are you crazy. Even on new softs, the fastest lap Lando set at the end wasn't 2s quicker!

Lando on brand new softs, took the fastest lap off Lewis by 0.6s.

Jeez man. At least form your arguments with some glimmer of rationale.

"Given the car, Lewis should have been hammer and tongs with George. But he wasn't."

Why? Both in the same car, Russell in clean air should have been able to keep the gap back to Hamilton, but instead Hamilton got past 9 cars and closed Russell down despite Russell having 6 lap newer tyres.

He started in 10th, do you need reminding of that?
I guess at least Hamilton has a competitive team-mate to be up against, unlike MV who is scared to have that in his team.

Came off 2nd best? :) Dude, Russell started on pole and had clean air all the way.
Hamilton started 10th, overtook all the cars in front of him and closed Russell down to under 5s.
That was a better performance than Russell's.

Meanwhile Max started 5th and finished 5th after letting cars overtake him. And somehow he gets a higher score? Biased as f.

Ok Max got the title, but his race was not better than either Merc driver.

Mike tt, your bias is laughable, from a poor start Lewis came off second best overtaking 8 cars from 10th to finish P2 whilst George controlled the race from his start position, yet Max scored an 8 for starting 5th and finishing uhhh let me think 5th

The marks given are for the entire GP i.e. qualifying and the race.

For qualy + race, the Mercedes car was in a league of its own. The fact that Lewis messed up qualy is on him, hence the lower mark.

Of course you would Mike tt silly me ?

Relative to the car, I would say the 8 for Max sounds about right. RB didn't even bring a proper rear wing. It was the Spa wing, with what looks like 2 big bites taken out of it by King Kong.

The other thing is, Max was really only racing Lando. He let the Ferraris by easy, no reason to fight them.

Norris got a 7. That sounds about right too, the McLaren car didn't look all that mighty last weekend.

excellent point you've raised, Max quallied in 5th and finished in 5th.still worth an 8 ?!!