The ruling was changed after Hamilton's move on Rosberg, therefore under the current rules Hamilton would have been penalised for that overtake
Now I'm confused, I thought with the new ruling that would have been ok as Hamilton had a significant part of his car alongside when Rosberg pushed him wide, i.e. Rosberg was in the wrong. I think Vettel got it becasue when he went off he wasn't pushed off so to say. It's becoming like the offside rule, not so much a rule but more a guide line that will be massively open to interpretation
This, the rule was changed after Bahrain. Personally I believe Seb has a very short temper and not a person to be rattled. If he feels he's being played around by somebody, aka "Lewis affecting his race on purpose to help Jenson out" he's going to flip very quickly. With Alonso being known to previously have a temper I think Seb is about equal in temperament with what Alonso was like when he was 25, it's just stereotyping that Germans don't get ****ed off or show "passion". Seb is very easily pissed off, but that's part of the game as you only need to see Lewis or Alonso losing their tempers too often to lose a WDC in the same way. I hope Seb recognises he now has to play this carefully, or he will gift this title to Alonso before America comes round. Even I would say Seb wouldn't deserve this title this year if he keeps letting his heart rule over his brain! Though in a positive light this is quite possible the toughest season he has ever been in and this will only make him mentally stronger down the line and they don't come tougher than this year in my opinion so other season in retrospect will be "easier to cope with".
Re: Hamilton's Vs Vettel's moves. The 2 incidents aren't really comparable, as one was at a corner, and the other was on a straight. The point with Vettel was that he may have got his nose in front going into a corner, but anyone can do that by breaking later and it doesn't mean that you are going to get around the corner ahead, which he never did until he did or looked like doing without having to go off the circuit. That kind of late breaking works when you are on the inside, as you force the other car out wider, but Seb wasn't there, he was on the outside. This gave button control of the corner and the option to defend it, which he did and Seb should have given in and waited until next time, or gone in and took a different line to give him better traction out of the hair-pin, as he looked to have better rear end grip at that stage. Once jenson had the inside of the corner, Vettel was left with few options other than hoping that Jenson would be scared and back out. The Hamilton Rosberg overtake was just a clear case of a driver in front trying to run a faster driver than him off the road as he comes past, which is why he got the penalty, rather than a driver defending at a corner, which is what Button was doing. This also had the added danger of it being at higher speeds on a straight, rather than the slower speeds of a corner, a hair pin corner in the Button/Vettel case, no less) Basically, there's defending, and then there's running someone dangerously off the road. As for the new rule, Vettel was on the outside, so getting half his car past wasn't really an issue as anyone can come steaming down the outside and break a bit later, that doesn't mean that the other guy then has to move out of your way, or that you can go wide and use the run off to sail past them, IMHO. Agian, if he had been on the inside, then the new ruling would probably have applied, but he wasn't. The silly thing with the Button/Vettel incident is that if he'd have bided his time he would easily have passed Button, but that's hindsight for you I guess, and maybe he thought that he was in with a change of getting Alonso.
The FIA have changed it so they get to punish someone whatever the outcome, either one driver for driving off the circuit, or the other for crowding him. I find it ridiculous that they punish someone for taking a longer route and driving through all the ****e that accumulates off the track. The thing is, in real time no one had any issue with it, it was seen as good racing, both Sky and the BBC's commentary teams and the people I was watching with said it was fine initially, and then upon seeing replays the majority decided that technically it was an infringement. Racing is supposed to be instinctive, you need a diploma now to work out what you can and can't do, you can't place four wheels over the white line and gain an advantage, you can gain time (as long as it's not in qualifying), but not a place, keeping a place is a grey area, you can't weave but you can move once, as long as no significant part of the other car is alongside, you can only make one change of direction, but you can come back across if you leave space on one side etc. It's a mess. They're oversanitising the racing in my opinion, they'll end up introducing overtaking lanes next, maybe lay-bys for people using team orders and a bus lane for HRT and Marussia. Maybe that's what they had in mind with the Olympic Stadium proposal.
According to Charlie whiting having your front wing alongside the rear tyre of another counts as a significant portion of your car along side, but that was clarified post Bahrain so its iffy ground. Its also a unusual situation being a straight.
I think you are being a little disingenuous if you can't see the difference between the 2 incidents though. The point is, they are fundamentally different incidents. One was on a straight, the other going into a corner. Which, IMHO, makes the very question of comparing the 2 faulty in the first place. I think that the 2 incidents show what sort of issues you get with racing when you try to write everything down in black and white, which is why you have stewards who make decisions, as people will try to be a little "cheeky" and try to argue a point or ruling that isn't really applicable. The point still remains that Vettel got it wrong, and was rightfully penalised. Now if you want to argue that 20 second post race drive through penalty on a track where it takes about 12 seconds to do a drive through is fair, then you might have something.
Sorry... but that's utter balls. Hamilton was trying to get back on the lead lap as he's totally entitled to, he didn't slow down after passing Vettel, he went after Alonso. If Vettel lost time it was because he engaged in a fight that he didn't need to. His 'stupid' comments, arm waving from the cockpit and Horner acting like Hamilton was in the wrong are all nothing but sour, and had that been Hamilton acting that way, people would have been all over him like a dose of clap. To me, it seems like we're maybe starting to see beneath Vettel's veneer lately.
