The fine line between genius and Maxdonado

"I did not want to let them by because they wrecked my race,  Sure I was aggressive but I was correct, in fact the stewards did not penalize me"

Max Verstappen


Let's keep this short and sweet,  while you could argue the first corner incident between Versappen and the whole Ferrari team was a "shit happens" racing incident,  it's harder to argue it was the smartest move by the Dutch "teenage sensation".    Max was clearly beaten off the line by the two red cars behind him on the grid and tried a Kamui Kobayashi style dive bomb into a space that was not really there.

Vettel was not without fault here, if anything a four time champion should know better than to just concentrate on his teammate.



But there is much less of a justification for the way Verstappen behaved later in the race when he once again displayed  some rather dodgy defensive moves against Raikkonen, Vettel and Perez,  all of whom eventually passed him anyway.







Is there any doubt Max is a huge talent?  No,  but he's got a lot to learn about being a grown up, the quote above along with his result today,  show it.

By the way,   he came within inches of the outside wall at Radillon on the first lap.  a crash there would not only have been huge for him but it would likely have taken off most of the field behind him.

More troubling is that the penalty happy FIA seems blind to his conduct,  something I'm sure has nothing to do with how packed the stands have been,  how could we be that cynical...

Rosberg did his job superbly,  Hamilton took advantage if his good luck with a very controlled race,  truly a champion's drive.   Ferrari and Red Bull could have had a nice battle today but it was not to be.

Great day for Force India, Williams were a bit disappointing but can we give "driver of the race" to ol' Fernando?   I think he and Hamilton had the most fun.

The same can not be said about Magnussen though and Renault need to figure out why the head protection collar came off in the crash

RESULTS - 44 LAPS:

POS	DRIVER	CAR	GAP
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1h44m51.058s
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	14.113s
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	27.634s
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	35.907s
5	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	40.660s
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	45.394s
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	59.445s
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m00.151s
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m01.109s
10	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m05.873s
11	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m11.138s
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari	1m13.877s
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m16.474s
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m27.097s
15	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m33.165s
16	Esteban Ocon	Manor/Mercedes	1 Lap
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1 Lap
-	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Spun off
-	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	Gearbox
-	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	Tyre
-	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	Collision
-	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	Collision

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP

POS	DRIVER	POINTS
1	Lewis Hamilton	232
2	Nico Rosberg	223
3	Daniel Ricciardo	151
4	Sebastian Vettel	128
5	Kimi Raikkonen	124
6	Max Verstappen	115
7	Valtteri Bottas	62
8	Sergio Perez	58
9	Nico Hulkenberg	45
10	Felipe Massa	39
11	Fernando Alonso	30
12	Carlos Sainz	30
13	Romain Grosjean	28
14	Daniil Kvyat	23
15	Jenson Button	17
16	Kevin Magnussen	6
17	Pascal Wehrlein	1
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	1
19	Esteban Gutierrez	0
20	Jolyon Palmer	0
21	Marcus Ericsson	0
22	Felipe Nasr	0
23	Rio Haryanto	0
24	Esteban Ocon	0

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP

POS	CONSTRUCTOR	POINTS
1	Mercedes	455
2	Red Bull/Renault	274
3	Ferrari	252
4	Force India/Mercedes	103
5	Williams/Mercedes	101
6	McLaren/Honda	48
7	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	45
8	Haas/Ferrari	28
9	Renault	6
10	Manor/Mercedes	1
11	Sauber/Ferrari	0