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      11-18-2018, 01:32 PM   #60
darkbluemn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkoral View Post
Regardless of how you feel, I found the following the best video the whole incident before and after, as seen by Ocon starting with his pit stop and both radio communication of Ocon and Verstappen:

https://streamable.com/fkpqj

As Ocon exits pits, he is shown blue flags with Hamilton behind. Ocon says on radio, blue flags are gone, he starts closing on Verstappen. He is told he can pass Verstappen if he wants.

Verstappen on radio says "I have this Force India behind me pushing."
"Understood," is the response from the RBR pit wall, "he’s out there on fresh supers."

Then look at the closing speed of Ocon on Verstappen. No F1 driver on the grid is going to slam on the brakes with that kind of closing speed just because he is the leader. He went well past him (or at least even) so Max knew he would be on the inside of the next corner. Did he think Ocon was going to disappear or drive off track?

In hindsight, when Force India told Ocon he can pass Verstappen if he wants, it should have been stressed to make it clean, he is the leader.

And I think RBR should have have amended their statement "Understood, he's out there on fresh supers -- let him go, Hamilton still x seconds behind, you're not racing Ocon"
The similar situation happens all the time in race. If the race leader yield to slower car every time, he will not lead any more. At that moment, at position of Max, he has to pick a decision. His decision was made based on the experience and history of this race that 15th position car never fight with leader. Ocon definitely know Max will fight and keep better line, his decision was whether to fight back, and you can definitely see the acceleration into Max's inside line. If look at the corner before, Max already protects his line which told the car behind that he needed his line.

To make it simple, Max already showed the signal that he wanted his line and he knew who was behind. Ocon knew the situation. Max would not expect Ocon to fight that hard, neither would anyone else in the race. That being said Ocon made a decision that was unpredictable which caused the accident.

Maybe the right statement for Ocon should be "You can pass Verstappen with caution and no fight".
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