GP Azerbaijan – Vettel and Hamilton, this is not the case: with great power comes great responsibility [VIDEO]

It seemed like a quiet Sunday of boredom on the most singular and anomalous of tracks, a labyrinth of curves with a motorway junction, immersed in the heart of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. After Bottas' mistake on Raikkonen on the first lap, the three hundred hour procession, peppered with the first safety car for Kvyat's stationary car, didn't bode for anything too exciting.
As if by magic, however, Baku transformed itself into the stage of a crazy, excessive, unruly GP, with the (too many) debris that turned into the perfect fuse to explode the hottest souls, above all those of the two contenders to the title. With the stakes starting to get very high, more for the meaning and importance of the challenge than for the title itself (the two have won plenty of them after all) Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel behind the safety seemed to be suffering, they bit the brakes, eager to free all the knights available and beat them to death. The fair play of the first matches, the great sportsmanship of both, is giving way to something more genuine, true, natural. Seb and Lewis on the track are as ruthless as any self-respecting champion, they don't look at anyone and it's normal for the tension to grow race after race.

The two, very different, have strengths and weaknesses, which clearly emerged in the Azerbaijan GP. Lewis Hamilton is capable of tripping himself even when he is the fastest on the track. Certainly deserving of the victory for his performances behind the wheel, the Englishman was once again a victim of himself, of his equivocal character, of his desire to seek trouble and controversy. The borderline behavior behind the safety car, the clear (successful) attempt to send Vettel to the mental hospital, to annoy him, provoke him, to play cat and mouse by braking in his face, despite falling within the limits of the regulations, betrayed a unsportsmanlike, an inclination towards cunning already recorded in Abu Dhabi 2016, to give a nearby example. When will Lewis grow up, raising his spirit to the immense level of his class?

If Athens cries, Sparta does not laugh. I consider Sebastian Vettel a very loyal driver, but a four-time world champion, with the great responsibility of the dream in red, cannot stumble clumsily into the first pitfall of a long battle. The fallacy of the reaction was a reckless gesture, a deliberate and reckless move that only tarnishes Seb's great human depth. The German has the advantage of performing at his best in a race, of never giving up, and above all of having an atavistic hunger. But, against such a strong Mercedes, he cannot afford the luxury of giving in to his nerves and indulging in gratuitous hysteria. He needs maximum self-control. In Baku it went more than well, he could have been disqualified and instead after the Azerbaijani lottery he even gained two points in the championship.

The great rivals will meet again on the Ring (never a more appropriate name) in Spielberg, Austria. Ferrari will have to prove that the second qualifying catch by Mercedes was just a coincidence, a set-up error and an idiosyncrasy with a fairly indecipherable track. Mercedes, after the performances in Canada and Baku, will want to demonstrate that they are back on pace. With the hope that Vettel and Hamilton look each other in the eye and shake hands, after all Dijon '79 entered the F1 epic for the spectacle and correctness of Villeneuve and Arnoux, certainly not for the teasing and low blows . The duel of the decade between Vettel and Hamilton is a gift that must be kept with care, woe betide you if you waste it by throwing it away.

Antonino Rendina

Follow @antorendina