I just think they just need to settle down when it comes to penalties... not everything has to be penalized. If every move is going to be scrutinized, we may as well just turn the sport in to a time trial. We (or I at least) watch the sport for those moments of excitement, I don't want to see it snuffed out.
Surely I should get one for saying Perez would win Malaysia too Still my favourite and least favourite race of the season!
I witnessed the racism. Utterly disgraceful. I've really nothing more to add, since to do so might itself appear to generalise the behaviour of bigoted ignoramuses, all too willing to fall under the next fascist who perceives their collective and cowardly, 'anonymous and safe in the crowd' weakness. Disgraceful.
Pat Fry: Then there was the incident when Fernando went off the track in his duel with Vettel: once the telemetry was working again, we spotted there was something not quite right at the rear, so in the final laps, we asked him to be cautious, avoiding the kerbs. When the car was in parc ferme, I have to say we could see the damage was quite bad, also affecting the aerodynamics. AMuS: A hole in the floor, a broken piece of the diffuser to a resulting damage to one of the rear shock absorber. Alonso was driving from his race engineer Andrea Stella in the final dependent slower. A finish was more important than a duel Sergio Perez to take risks. The damage to the car have increased the degradation of the tires.
Caught up with the race last night, great drive from Lewis, Perez and Massa (who played the team game). Very much agree that the Vettel penalty was harsh, also if I am not mistaken when Alonso began to attempt the overtake there was a shed load of space on the outside leading into the chicane so why did he stick to the inside where Seb had already planted his car? I think he was trying the 'brave' overtake rather than the sensible one and when he realised that he had messed up he made out that he had been 'forced' onto the grass when in reality he was going for a gap that personally was not there
I think it depends whether or not you view the 'Curva' Grande as a corner. If it is then the move is legal, even if a little dangerous considering the speeds. However if it's a straight (as its flat out) then he has broken the rules as there isn't a car lengths space for Nando's car
Alonso had a fast closing speed and couldn't really go the other way. As you can see here, Alonso had every right to move left and in the final frame, Alonso has a "significant portion" of his car alongside Vettel. The gap was there, and then Vettel forces him off the track: please log in to view this image The onboard from Vettel: please log in to view this image
Just because Alonso made a meal of the situation - which I am not justifying by the way - does not negate the fact that what Vettel did was dangerous, just as what Schumacher did to Hamilton last year was dangerous. I can't recall enough to compare it to Alonso/Vettel last year however.
My thoughts on the GP (most likely wrong so be gentle with the flame throwers!) Not having a go at Perez.. but surely he lucked into 2nd place by being "****e" in Qualifying? Had he got into Q3 he'd most likely have had to start the race on Mediums, those tyres at the time with the heavy fuel load weren't going to last as long as the Hards did.. Once the time came for the change to the Mediums, the fuel load was down, the track had rubbered in even more and I believe track temp dropped from what it was at the start of the race so, his tyre stratergy was bang on at the time, we all know with these tyres if you can "switch" them on then you'll go miles quicker than anyone else around you. Whilst he caught Hamilton at the end, I believe he (Lewis) had it under control, by his own admission, he was pretty much in cruise mode with 20 laps to go! With regards to the Alonso-Vettel incident, I don't think Vettel did anything wrong, he most likely didn't realise Alonso was beside him and by moving to the left I bet he thought he left him enough room to down the inside, once Alonso went on the radio to express is thoughts on the matter, it was only a matter of time before the stewards gave Vettel a Drive-Thru, (The stewards were a bunch of homers??) - NOTE, just seen screen grabs put up by Forza, it does appear that a decent amount of Alonso's car was beside Vettel's so the benefit of the doubt I gave him (not seeing Alonso) may not be deserved! Shame Button had to retire, drove a solid race up until then, with him being a few seconds off Hamilton, he could have possibly held onto that second place, even with Perez's run through the field! RedBulls need to up their game, Vettel whilst he drove well at Spa got his 2nd place due to the first corner incident, Webber's gone off the boil completely too! If McLaren keep up their pace and can start getting both cars home, they'll be favs to take the constructors! Kimi did well with his finish, Monza was damage limitation for non-Merc and Ferrari powered cars, he's still in the hunt and no going to tracks where it should favour the Lotus, Title may be "realistic" for the top five (Button is out of it!) but I think it'll come down to a fight between Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel, another dodgy race for Button and McLaren will have to put their eggs in Hamiltons basket! No more real "power" circuits left, next few should see the RedBull and Lotus come back into contention, but, has they've proven lately, the McLaren is a solid performer on all tracks now and we know Alonso will get the most out of his Ferrari, should make for a cracking finale to the season!
It's all I have to say. please log in to view this image It's about a hands difference? maybe a hand and a half. Seems Seb wanted to repeat what Alonso did to him and it looks he went too extreme on the matter. In all honesty I think Seb was focusing more on putting Alonso in the same situation to last year rather than watching the road to see if he could of given him a tyres width of more room. A tyre width would of made it smack bang identical!
I actually think the penalty is harsh and whilst I dont dispute that Vettle made it deliberatly difficult he had the racing line and was infront. Naughty? Yes, but nothing more! However unfrotunately you cant compare last years because the rules have changed in relation to leaving a 1 cars width at all times. Obviously the rules should now be rewrote to say "you must always leave a cars width at any point on the track incase a car might try and overtake you at any point, even thgough they will be behind....." What happened to the inside line theory in a corner? Ever since Charlie came up with the strange theory that if a driver shows his nose cone you have to yield it seems to have gone stir crazy! People trying to run off line around the outside and expecting the leading driver to alter their own racing line so that someone can just drive rounf them?
Just on another Seb point, and one for Silver as he LOVES this kind of thing (see Valencia thread), I noticed Seb never waved to the crowd. Jenson did. Petulance, immaturity, hotheadedness (is that a word!) etc etc?
That's quite possibly one of the worst pieces of journalism I have ever seen, he does not seem to care now about being seen as bias in favour of certain drivers...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19545870 I like Andersons technical input but where did he get his Psychology Masters Degree from that allows him to say.. " They used to be pretty close but they seem to have drifted apart, probably as a result of their different characters. Hamilton can be a bit of a spoilt kid at times and Button is a fairly grown-up man." Stick to the techie stuff Gary and leave the tabloid bollocks to others writing for the BBC!
