I think he purposefully sandbags to let Bottas get a little joy in his heart before getting real in Q3 to low key flex, but mostly to crush his confidence. When you look at it from that angle you understand why Rosberg won once and got the fukk outta there. He knew Lewis was coming for his ass if he stayed.
Side note: it is REALLY fun to go on F1 Reddit and laugh at some of their takes. The new thing I'm laughing about today is them pretending Max is a prodigious driving talent, and Albon (or the car) is terrible, when the truth is the entire team and car is built around Max and his driving style/needs. It's gonna KILL Max fans when Lewis retires and hands off the Merc empire to George Russell and he smokes Max too.
The reason I love F1TV Pro is for the onboards and ability to listen to the team radio when they're out on track. People just don't know how cognizant Lewis is on what's going on. He's asking sector times after each hotlap and they're giving him back sector times, as well as where he's losing out around the track. He's getting gaps to drivers ahead and behind on preparation laps. He's double checking if he has enough margin to take another cool down lap or another flying lap. During the race he's getting sector times, gaps, traffic warnings, info about who he's racing IN ADDITION to instructions to hop amongst different settings. Virtually the only time they aren't communicating is when Lewis needs to get his head down or when he's in a braking zone/corner. I don't listen to Bottas' onboards, but I bet they're feeding him as much info. People get mad because of Mercedes and Hamilton dominance, but they really work at the shyt. I'd kill to be able to listen to what goes on at their mission control during a race.
Man I been saying Verstappen ain't quite as good as they think he is
. He had a good few outings when he moved from Toro Rosso to RBR, and Helmut found his new Wunderkind and put all the resources behind him. I don't think Albon, or even Gasly, are as bad as they look against him. I swear man, one win and they said he's going to break records and be a world champion several times over
. Put his ass back in a team that's not tailored to him and he's going to fall back to regular ass driver. I think they put Kvyat in too soon, and pulled him too early.