On any other circuit, I would agree with you. But around Baku, a driver is more exposed down the main straight than at any other venue. The leader might have the advantage of setting the pace, but even if the following driver misses the jump, they can catch up.
Seemed fine to me, had quite the gap after the first restart and was on his way after other restarts before having to come in for a team error.
When the stewards handed the penalty to Hamilton, Ferrari saw an opportunity - that if Vettel could build up enough of a buffer, he could come out ahead of Hamilton. We see it all the time when drivers get time penalties and immediately push to build up cushion and keep their position.
Yes but the penalty in itself was arguably manufactured in its own timing. Considering that the stewards knew they'd have to call Hamilton in, once they made that order, they decided Vettel next to make sure that his punishment would decrease the chances of running off with the lead. Had the race gone the way most of us think it would have Lewis first and Seb second, they would have done punishment after the race as they said they were going to. The only thing that would have rectified the situation on all ends, would have been to call in Vettel first to serve the penalty, then Lewis.
His race was also destroyed by something out of Vettel's hands. It was Mercedes' mistake that ruined Hamilton's race, so why should Vettel pay for it?
No, not the point. You do something like what Vettel did you shouldn't at the end of the day come out of ahead of your opponent for such action. In reality all Vettel has to do is see an anger management counselor and drive the rest of the season without incident. Because he basically got the equivalent of a stern finger waging. I too don't think a race ban was merited but any other series and in the past this series have made such actions a dsq, if it happened so what Vettel was in the wrong should have never done it, and that's the price you pay when you think you can act on your own accords in a sanctioned situation.
In the eyes of the stewards, it was. If Mercedes had put the headrest in properly, we wouldn't be having this discussion. And if Hamilton wants to complain that another driver from another team didn't get penalised enough because of a mistake his own team made, then he might as well concede the title this year.
I mean you would like that, he has the full right to question why the FIA wouldn't punish further. I don't care about a manufacture show for views. What I care about is drivers racing and doing what they're paid for. Playing bumper cars in the car park with multi million dollar cars (one of which you're not driving obviously) is not up to them, not in the job description and shouldn't warrant a finger wave. Had this been any other driver that wasn't in a shout of the WDC lead I think things would have gone quite different.
That Hamilton would become the championship leader.
Oh yes how horrible, a guy that decided to be a moron on track with a multi million dollar car cause he had a hissy, loses his wdc lead. The tragedy, the injustice, oh dear.
Seriously, it's a stupid notion to think that this shouldn't have gone that way had the headrest situation not had happened. Had Vettel won because of simply a headrest and not done his antics, that would be perfectly fine. Being a moron especially of his stature should warrant losing something like the lead, cause clearly he doesn't have the foresight to think about that.
The fact that I have to argue with you because of your incredible bias, is vastly annoying and old.
I think this is by far the best outcome and hopefully will put all the talk of it to rest (in a few days, at least...). Those saying Vettel has not been punished are probably forgetting he was already punished by a 10 second stop go and 3 penalty points on his license. Yesterday's ruling adds community service to that, along with a public apology for his actions. Plus any further misdemeanor is going to result in an FIA tribunal instantly - Vettel is on probation.
What were people thinking would happen? They weren't going to ban him for a future race, and a retrospective disqualification from the Azerbaijan results would overrule (and therefore diminish) the actions of the stewards.
Exactly this, a ban to me would be far too harsh. Going back and saying "well your dsq" would do exactly as you said, undermine and show that media and fans have a major influence to the point, long time stewards of the FIA have to go back on their original judgement. The work had been done and there was no justifiable way to go back.