Well, that was fun, despite, or perhaps partly because of that creepy dodgems-by-Hitchcock sound. But Nico Prost, eh? Like father, like son Gotta feel for Heidfeld.
Hope Heidfeld gets interviewed before he's calmed down. Thought he might punch Prost as they walked back!
Abt demoted for apparently no reason?? Edit: Apparently failed to take a drive-through, but I can't remember it ever being announced during the race.
Couple of gifs of the Prost-Heidfeld accident: [video]http://giant.gfycat.com/NeighboringMasculineEasternnewt.webm[/video] http://giant.gfycat.com/QuickBlueHorse.webm
What a gent Nick Heidfeld is; shades of Tupac in there too I ain't mad at him.... Not so sure about that, TBH
What a bad piece of driving by Prost. Worthy of a ban. That kind of defending wouldn't even be allowed in a formula ford race is was so amateur.
[video=youtube;HCK7i3-o_bY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCK7i3-o_bY[/video] It's available online in it's entirety, so give it a go!
Prost has been given a 10 place grid drop for the next race. Not entirely sure that's enough for moving in the braking zone, causing a big accident, then being unrepentant about it.
What appalling driving by Prost. Really shocking. That barrier that Heidfeld hit was crap as well. Can't believe the angle that was sticking out at on a straight. The barrier should have gone right across it.
nb My five year old son just saw the clip of the crash and immediately said (of Prost) "Why did he do that?".
I'll be interested to hear how the viewing figures look after a few races compared to the other stuff on ITV4 e.g. touring cars. My thoughts, compiled whilst watching: My GOD did that formation lap go on forever. Problem with street races is the almost inevitability of safety cars - I bet they were cursing Senna's car getting stuck. And that moving restart was so boring! ( ) Music is much better when it stops, doesn't really add much to the racing. For all of the experience on the grid there were some poor mistakes - most notably Prost, quite what he was doing I have no idea. From an F1 standpoint, shocking to see how far some drivers have fallen, but interesting to see other "forgotten men" like Di Grassi and Chandhok showing that they still have it. Driver of the day - Montagny/Heidfeld. A really encouraging start for the series I'd say - the technical issues will be resolved, and if it gets time to keep going the cars will get faster too. I have to say on a personal level it reminds me of MotoGP in that I'd watch it if it was on but probably not go out of my way to watch regularly (for now).
It was one of the worst errors I've seen in an open-wheel series for a long time. If anyone still has doubts about the need for outlawing late defensive moves in the braking zone, they should see this. It was straight out of someone's top drawer of old-school tricks. Heidfeld was very lucky to be able to not just walk but run away from this. His head was close to hitting the top of the barrier, which almost certainly would have killed him, and as his car disintegrated in mid-air, there was a moment I feared a tragedy. Prost's sentence does not fit the crime and his unrepentent attitude afterwards, actually suggesting Heidfeld was at fault, was sickening. Since all cars have the same chassis, I'd have liked to see him have to donate his and inherit Nick's. (The team will have an enormous workload in fixing it). I'd also like to see him have to denote the first 25 points he collects during the season, should he be so lucky, to Nick, for depriving his reward for a magnificent effort. I'll stop short of suggesting he should also be thrown at a wall at a three figure speed to see how he fares...
The commentary also highlighted an issue regarding the crash. Those sausage kerbs do no favours at all, if they hadn't been there, Heidfeld wouldn't have been launched. As for the actual race, having watched it now, i thought it was OK, it's still clearly a work in progress, but it's a good foundation to build upon.
He would't have been launched, but instead he would have hit the barrier hard at high speed sideways. Whilst it looked spectacular, I think the angle he ended up hitting it at and the subsequent rolls actually helped dissipate the energy of the crash better than if he had hit it side on and stopped immediately. Nasty crash either way and totally avoidable but for a mindless piece of driving from Prost.
