Mercedes were trying to find a way to speed up their pit stop releases, so asked Bottas to engage 2nd gear (instead of 1st) to see what happened. Got a lot more wheelspin and lost control of the car.
It's fair to say that Red Bull and in particular Max are putting Mercedes under far more pressure this season than Seb managed in 2018. In addition, with Mercedes no longer developing their 2021 car, they need to find other ways to catch up and they aren't working.
263 for quali I think. Don't mind Vettel down in 12th cause he could make good places in the race - Gasly on the other hand really has nowhere to go in a standard race.
Norris has a huge say in how this race plays out now... the longer it takes Perez and Bottas to get past him the further out Max and Lewis can get...
I did the exact same thing, was really tossing up going Tsunoda for the dollars bump or Hamilton for the points bump.... Decided Hamilton and the points where the way to go despite Hamilton losing more dollars.
My goodness Russell needs to get into a better car, the amount of times he's been in contention and dropped away for reasons outside his control is just ridiculous now...