It was all going up to plan for Hamilton and Mercedes until lap 25 as he was going second from Kimi, and Vettel ahead, but yet to pit for new tyres with only 11 seconds advantage which meant that he would come out of the pits far behind Lewis and his teammate. But then, the "miracle" Seb was hoping for happened: Grosjean retired from the race after his tyres were not put on properly, and this brought up a VSC which allowed Seb to stay ahead after pitting for a new set of softs and then comfortably win the race.
It didn't take long for some fans to label Haas' retirement as intentional move that would help Ferrari win the race. And it sounds convenient, right? After all, Haas are Ferrari's second team, they should obey their engine supplier's orders. However, here are a couple of things that may change your mind:
Why did both Haas cars retire, when only one was needed for a VSC?
It would indeed be a little suspicious if it was only one of the cars that retired. But a few laps before Grosjean, it was Magnussen's rear left tyre that was not put on properly, and he had to retire from what would have been the best finishing position in his F1 career.
Why did he pull off outside of the track though? Did he not receive the order that his retirement is supposed to bring out a safety car? Or did he forget about it? My answer is neither of these. It was just an unfortunate sequence of mistakes from Haas' mechanics as well as the left gun's failure that caused a loose tyre to both cars and forced them to find a place on the track to pull off and retire the car in the nearest place they can.
If Haas did that on purpose, would they sacrifice both cars and give up their 4th place finish? Absolutely not!
Haas' Mechanics are not Actors
This one speaks for itself. When the cars retired, everyone in the garage felt gutted. There were mechanics crying, there was frustration all over the place that could be felt even if you watch it on TV. The mechanics recognised their mistake. If it was done on purpose, would you see a scene similar to the above? I doubt it.
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