Hopefully Hamilton's car troubles are sorted for the race. He races well from second as he's the type of driver that enjoys chipping away at an opponent. Nico just has to see that he doesn't crack again under the pressure when braking. The race is on too late here in the UK so i'll have to catch up with this one tomorrow
The money payout mirrors the points payout. Not as bad as it used to be when only the top 6 got points, but still very toploaded. MotoGP and IndyCar have much less steep points curves.
I watched the highlights this morning when I got to work (before I officially started), skipped through a fair amount of it and watched the best bits. There was no way I was staying up late and risking a sleepless night just to watch it. I have a baby so its early mornings rather than late nights. It is annoying having to settle for highlights for some of the season, but at least you are getting what you pay for with the BBC. Having watched a fair few races on Sky with friends I just couldn't justify hundreds of pounds for half a season and with a format I think is sub par and a presentation team that fall short of the BBC's offering. Anyway.
Lewis took second for no other reason than he spun out mid-race and lost 6 seconds on track. I think he had every intention of winning if he could. The race is too tight for him to have any other motives or motivation.
I'd love to see McLaren have a good season next year and be competitive again, but honestly if they had better cars they could do it with the the drivers they have. Jenson is already a superb driver and Magnussen (a bit cocky but oh well) has a lot of promise too. I think Alonso is too aggressive, plus he has a tendency to be a whiner... as he demonstrated at Silverstone running Vettel out of track repeatedly and then complaining on the radio when Vettel finally did it to him.
While I also don't like seeing a reduced field, I don't believe the payouts should be equal across the board. They should be something that is more fair and that helps to enable smaller non-works teams. I do think the extra payment to Ferrari should be eliminated.That's not right. It should be equal across the board. I was disappointed with the reduced field the last two races.
A good race by both Merc drivers and well done to Nico for holding on to the lead this time. There was a period where Hamilton closed an almost 7 second gap after his spin where I thought Nico had messed it up though. The team should apologise to Lewis after that late call to stay out on wrecked tyres nearly seriously dented his championship. I thought it was lewis pushing too hard but after reviewing the incident the rear was lost very easily. Still, an excellent recovery drive and a good day at the office.