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Two years ago, the FIA made the wise decision to be a little more lenient when it came to penalising Formula 1 drivers for incidents in the interests of encouraging good racing. That made a lot of sense as to be too harsh hardly incentivised overtaking.
Yet still the 'racing accident' verdict is sometimes a little too rare. Valtteri Bottas's penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix is one such example.
Looking at the incident closely, there are several factors at play. From Bottas's perspective, he made a good start, was well-placed in third on the run to the first corner and was seemingly more interested in holding that place than challenging Hamilton for second. His positioning on the run to the first corner certainly supports that idea.
