Interview from Maldonaldo on the incident: "It was a difficult moment, there was no reason from my side to have contact and from the side of Lewis. It wasn't rainy conditions and we need to understand what happened. There was no need for contact after the chequered flag." When asked if he agreed with Hamilton's claim he had deliberately moved into his McLaren, Maldonado responded: "No, no, I don't." _______ I can see this one rumbling for a while...
Maldonado had been knocked out, and his lap was spoiled by other drivers including Hamilton (whether you think Hamilton was wrong or right to dive round the outside it definitely compromised Maldonado), he's obviously going to be furious. Not saying he was right, he was completely wrong, but you said it was understandable in other circumstances but not in this one. Just saying I see it the other way, everything happens so quickly in qualifying that you don't have time to gather your emotions and are more likely to behave stupidly. He was massively out of order though, I don't think anyone can deny that.
Exactly. Sit back and count the Hamilton-haters, however. Why would Hamilton want to smash into a Williams? If he wanted **** on his car he'd drive into to Blaydon and and park up.
Why would Maldonado want to smash his car up? Nobody in their right mind would be stupid enough to wreck their own car. I think we're being too unfair to Pastor, not too keen on him as he's a pay driver, but he isn't stupid.
I'm not condoning the incident by any means, but I have seen a lot worse go completely unpunished (Schumacher v Hill 1994, for one) with nowhere near half the fuss being made of it. Back of the grid at worst, end of, move on.
Surly both drivers would have been wanting their right hand side of the track on the run down to Eue Rouge. (even though ultimately redundant.) Hamilton jerks sliglty, maybe a show of intimidation to Maldonado, maybe he wanted that part of the track? But what happened after that was lunacy. Maldonado had a mile of space to avoid a collision but appeared to choose to cut Hamilton up in the most reckless of ways. The stewards will take a good luck at it, I'm.sure. What concerns me is that Hamilton's reputation precedes him so any involvement could be looked at quite harshly.
I am a little cool on this event, I beleive that there was some bad blood between these guys, I mean come on... Monaco- Pastor pushed out and DNF'ed. Today he was overtaken by a obviously faster Hamilton who did not spare an inch for him, quite rightly so.. But I do feel that Maldonado had to vent his anger, he just did it at totally the wrong time and place, as he is a rookie, he should be given another chance, Mclaren fan-boys would say he needs to be banned for life, but we need to look at this in a sensible way. Nobody has mentioned that he might be taking back the line for Eau Rouge as it is critical to do so, taking the wrong line there can mess your whole corner up, may even be similar to the incident in Montreal.
Hmm looking at the video above a few times it looks to me like neither makes any really movements but really they just bump into each other while taking different lines. You really need to see onboard footage to make a definitive verdict though.
I don't even think he should be punished. Lets just write it up as a racing incident and move on. As another poster said, there has been far worse before. Look at the Prost-Senna examples.
Well, that's what we saw. Don't see any reason for him to cut up Lewis other than bitterness or ridiculous stupidity.
I agree there have been plenty of events like this Schumacher+Hill... Ayrton+Alain... it just happens, you sometimes cannot control your actions when you so much believe that you have been hard done by. He should be let off.
I think they will both get a penalty regardless of the final chicane, Hamilton deliberately slowed to allow Maldonado to get along side him and then started nerving him after la source flicking his car towards him at least twice Maldonado flicked back and they collided, 10 slot grid penalty for the pair of them I shouldn't be surprised. especially with Hamilton's record this year.
Using incidents in the past is no way to justify this. Schumacher, Senna and Prost should all have been punished for their crimes.
He'd never punish a Brit. He's way too biased to be on the panel. Hamilton should get a reprimand, which would probably result in a penalty of some kind considering how many he's had now.
Wonder if Williams has lost the plot then... If I were Frank Williams I wouldn't risk my teams reputation and a large amount of F1 points with a nutcase like him just for some money..but then again...hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I don't believe Mansell would be bias. Being a driver with so much passion, I'd like to think he'll look at it for what it is and understand that sometimes emotions boil over... from both sides. I'm not even sure Hamilton would deserve a penalty anyway. Knock their heads together, tell em no more, otherwise future incidents could result in race bans.
Its clear for me - MALDO went extreme left trying to push Hamilton out to the grass. Hamilton would not see the extreme steer - hence impact. decision - ban Maldonaldo for this and final warning as to future conduct. Hamilton - warning on driving into corners where others cannot see what he is doing.
