Seems standard procedure to drag Vettel to the stewards over some frivolous accusation after each session these days. I don't think Grosjean should get a penalty, he had a Toro Rosso in front of him and Webber behind so he couldn't really speed up or back off any more. He would've been better off on the inside as it turned out, but he wasn't far from the corner and if di Resta had been a few tenths further back Grosjean would've been parked on the apex when di Resta was turning in, it's impossible to judge that when you're being caught so fast. It's just one of those things. Excellent performances by Button, Kobayashi and Grosjean. Hulkenberg came back excellently after his crash as well. If Vettel can convert this the title race is back on. I don't think anyone will really challenge him but I've got a horrible feeling he's going to break down or get a puncture or something.
Okay guys: 1) what happened to Hamilton? 2) why is everyone blocking everyone? 3) why does the BBC's article have Perez driving for Mercedes?
True, it was autosport with the heading. They write one thing as the title, and mentioned the true facts in depth in the article to grab the people's attention.
This is Vettel's championship to lose now. He's got a car nearly a second faster than Alonso and wherever it is, it's atleast the 2nd best car.
1) He was off the pace all session, said they made a setup change before qualifying which made the car worse (which translates as Whitmarsh sabotaging his car if you're GUEST). Raikkonen spun at Spoon in Q3 which meant everyone had to abort their final runs, which seemed to catch Hamilton out more than anyone else. 2) Because people on outlaps/inlaps were slowing down massively out of 130R and couldn't see people on hot laps closing on them. 3) Benson wrote it.
Kobayashi has set his sights on a home podium, the F1 equivalent of showing your squadmate a picture of your family and telling him how you are only one day from retirement.
How is Alonso being slowed down there? They are already slowing down into the apex and he has a clear run to it.... please log in to view this image
All i see in that picture is that Alonso's left wheel is where his right should be. And couldnt get closer to the grass because of Vettel.
[video=youtube;TZ8cnvSFQLo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ8cnvSFQLo[/video] Very close and very debatable.
Looks like they got it right with the reprimand. Vettel does force him off line, but it was minimal. Definately not worth a grid drop.
From autosport forum: --- Alonso did 17.7 in S3 of his Q3 lap, his fastest of the whole Q, while the fastest S3 time of the whole qualifying was a 17.6! Considering Alonso already lost time in S3 because of his lower speed on the back straight due to the yellow flags in the turn leading up to this straight, he might have lost half a few hundreds of a seconds at max. --- So Alonso did 17.7 in S3 while Vettel did a 17.6 on his best run. I don't see any blocking therefore.
So the stewards acknowledge that Vettel blocked Alonso but don't deem it worthy of punishment, that's interesting.
