I'd hate to be steward because every time a look at it and with different pictures, I change my mind.
Well a driver is allowed to make one move to defend his position, which seems to be what Perez did and had it been on a straight and Vettel not in front I suspect it would have been seen as that as the move began before Massa began to draw his wheels close. Massa needed to be alert and jig left too. I suspect the speed of impact and the near collision with the current world champ made the decision a little harder/meaner.
He has definitely come in by about half a car's width, but his steering wheel shows he just kept it straight and never actually turned left. Massa should have known Perez would try and defend his line, so was also daft to be so tight to Perez at that point. 50/50 for me. Both drivers could have been more alert to the potential for a collision.
Pity we can't see the brake and steering inputs that the stewards can see. It almost seems that Perez was thinking of a move up the inside of Vettel and not looking for Massa.
True, any non-right bias on the wheel would make him shift left on a right hander. So he didn't need to have input on the wheel good point Sarge.
Relative to Vettel there is hardly no deviation on the proper line. Perez makes the greater deviation.
Brilliant Emsc, thanks for that. It's a tough one and for me a racing incident, not because Massa is at fault but because I feel that the lead car has the right to move and there is more than 1 cars gap. Like I said, I wouldn't want to be a Marshall.
So you're not allowed to defend? Massa had half a track to overtake on, plus, I got my ruler out and to me the gap between Massa's and Vettel's line decrease by about 2 mil on my screen. It doesn't sound like a lot but put it into track perspective and that's the difference between going into Perez and not. And another thing, if drs wasn't ever invented none of this would have happened. drs should be scrapped.
I can't take credit for the image, just did some research and found a photo online on reddit or something. Di Fredsta, he defended so late. Massa was basically right on his back bottom before he defended!
Massa should never have been that close to Perez in the first place. The guy had already been on the radio laps before saying he had no brakes, so Mass just needed to keep a wide berth of Perez and would have overtaken Perez on the inside of the corner in the same way Rosberg defended against Hamilton at the start
Massa let himself down to be honest, 30kph faster down the straight or something with his prey unable to get away in the twisty bits. New tyres yet always mucking up the chicane, should have just played it safe and then bombed it down the two straights.
