Yup, that was an interesting one!
Things did not go well for McLaren. Rossi caused a bit of an issue by being out of position under the safety car and getting in the way, but at least he didn't cause any real incidents.
Team orders are banned if they will affect the outcome of a race, and in this case that held true. In this case Verstappen was completely within his rights to ignore team orders. If anything it's increased my respect for him.
Really happy for Ricciardo! He was keeping pace with Vettel just about the whole race. Really epic drive from him.
I thought the safety car coming out AFTER the guy had left the track was a bit pointless.... Helped tighten up the pack again, though, so it did increase the "interest" level, but...
From what I could pick up in the interviews after free practice, Mercedes were really struggling for grip on this track and the car just wasn't suited to it somehow. I'm really glad as it allowed the top teams to be much more equal and you could see who is better at managing a tricky car. It is a pity for Hamilton that he had the engine fault, he was up there with the top group and could possibly have caught Kimi. So your prediction was pretty good
It's such a different track from Monza, different surface, different temperature, different air moisture content, different types of corners, etc, all of which affect how a particular car with a particular setup will manage.
