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At the point of impact, either Max locks up his left front tyre, or his left front and Vettel's right front touch. So Vettel is much further alongside than halfway. Edit: it's Vettel's front wing that touches Max's front left tyre.
I wonder what Max said just after the incident; I could understand if he had said he never saw the attack coming, and turned into the corner normally.
But if he didn't claim that, he did indeed turn into a car that was already alongside. Which would make him the one who caused the accident.

Here's a few different views of Verstappen-Raikkonen incident. It looks quite deliberate, if not disrespectful towards other's safety when viewing from Max's car:

He had to turn and take the corner at some point or he'd have run wide. He can't make his car disappear.

He doesn't have to make his car disappear. All he has to do is not run into Vettel, and give him room. In this case on the inside. The alternative to staying alongside on the outside would have been to see the position
was already lost, as Vettel was alongside. Just to make myself clear; if Verstappen had just remained on the outside there was a good chance Vettel would have had to fall back again and try later.

he knew exactly what he was doing.

I think you are somewhat underestimating the challenge of negotiating a sweeping fast left hander. The fact that I am yet to see an expert pundit blame Verstappen for that collision says it all.

The inner line is 'NOT' the racing line.

Max "It's never my fault" Verstappen is back.

After today's 2 incidents with both Ferraris, can we safely assume Verstappen will never drive for this team in the future?

Magnussen rightly termed 'Stupid' by Leclerc:

I think I mentioned already that i've no idea how that got overlooked, and Magnussen has got form for moving late as well. They really need to stamp this out before a car gets seriously airborne, because that is what the endgame for moving about like this is.

Just watched the race. Quite a good race I think. I really expected Danny Ric to get and keep that gap down below 5 seconds so he would get the P3. Vettel certainly was clumsy in the Verstappen incident, I agree with the stewards that Verstappen re-entered the track improperly after his off in the Kimi incident, and Magnussen's move was indeed a disgrace. Good on Danny Ric, I really was cheering for him today.

I understand Max sat out his 5 seconds with his pitstop, so Ricciardo staying within 5 seconds would have been worthless. Did Max, or not?

Ahh, he did in fact. I'd missed that, makes sense now.

Best of team radio:
https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2018/10/SAY_WHAT__The_best_team_radio_from_Japan.html

Vettel going for his version of 'that' Senna quote in regards to his move on Verstappen..... read into that what you will.

Vettel is the German Senna; the modern day Ayrton.

That was as cozy of a win as Hamilton could ask for. The championship is over now. I'd lay odds 99% that Hamilton wins it. Well deserved too. No major errors all year and he has made the difference for Mercedes; winning races and controlling the championship while Ferrari had the stronger package.

Mercedes have upheld their end of the bargain too as they have now eclipsed Ferrari in development yet again. Ferrari are truly defeated and they will have to have doubts about whether they can hang with Mercedes for an entire season. We've seen two years in a row where they were in an extremely close battle for the championship before Mercedes pulled away in the later part of the season. Hamilton and Mercedes are truly making an assault on the record books and there's at least two more years where they will be up front. We'll see if Ferrari or Red Bull can overthrow them but Hamilton will firmly be the favorite going into next season.

For Vettel, this has been a train wreck of a season. At this stage, this season has to be considered the worst of his career or at least second worst (behind 2014). There are mistakes almost every session now and I can't help but wonder whether he's in a bad place psychologically. He's at the age when most drivers produce their best performance level; combining their talent and speed with the savvy and experience that they didn't have as youngsters. Instead he seems more shaky and impatient than ever before.

He'll need to have a good off-season to get away from the scrutiny and the cameras for a while and hit the reset button because this season has been a disaster. I think having Leclerc come to the team might light a fire under him. The alternative is that it could spell the end of his time at Ferrari. Make no mistake, if Charles gets the better of him, Vettel will be let go after his contract is up.

Magnussen rightly termed 'Stupid' by Leclerc:

After today's 2 incidents with both Ferraris, can we safely assume Verstappen will never drive for this team in the future?

My word I'm surprised he only called him stupid.

I basically look at both KMag and Verstappen as being racing thugs.

Pretty much. One of them is a highly talented thug, however.

Yeah which is a shame because he's the future of the sport.

I do find it very difficult to warm to verstappen

I'm stuck on a vicious cycle with Max. Every time there's a few races and he doesn't do something terrible, I start to think to myself 'okay, Max is finally calming down, he's a bloody quick driver, there's a lot to like about him...'

And then he does something like hit Kimi after cutting the chicane and blame Kimi for it. And I'm back to square one.