Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Bort]

I'm sorry 'Stormbreak', but if you are going to punish Hamilton for that, then Raikonnen should also be punished for punting Sutil off the track at Monaco. I probably missed this due to having Spanish commentary, but why was the light red anyway? I assumed the pitlane was open as they all came in at the same time.

During a safety car period if the safety car and the train of cars is passing the pit straight/exit the pit lane exit will close so they can pass. Hamilton was just being a numpty.

Excellent race, very glad for Kubica.

[Kieran76]

Both were driver error, lets not get too upset by these things. At the end of the day the people racing are human and will make mistakes.
Of course Lewis would do his best to avoid saying it was his fault, these guys have egos the size of small planets, you have to if you want to be one of the best.

[Rossco]

Go DC!
As possibly the only DC fan on the forum I will say.

DC FTW!

Get in there!

Ahem, GO DC!!!!!

I love him! So glad he got a podium today, brilliant for him.

But still gutted at LH and his efforts. Really poor mistake by him. I don't think he should be penalised or anything for it though. That would be a bit harsh I reckon.

[NW2013]

He'll be penalised 10 places at the next GP as will Rosberg.

[VR46]

Pleased for Kubica and the BMW team. Hamilton was 100% at fault, 10 place drop next race is getting off pretty lightly in my book.

Championship is now very close, any of the top four could win it this year.

[stormbreak]

I'm sorry 'Stormbreak', but if you are going to punish Hamilton for that, then Raikonnen should also be punished for punting Sutil off the track at Monaco. I probably missed this due to having Spanish commentary, but why was the light red anyway? I assumed the pitlane was open as they all came in at the same time.

Well Raikkonen lost control of the car and his incident was unavoidable. Hamilton was in the pitlane (which is far more dangerous for an incident to take place by the way), should have known that there would be a red light at the end of a pitlane (Fair enough it is easy to miss, but shouldn't these rules be clear to them as drivers? Fisichella, Massa and Rosberg are also guilty of this). He would have also seen two stationary cars... The fact that he received a penalty shows that the officials feel that it was avoidable.

There is no point arguing about it now as you can't change what happened, but it is clear that Hamilton was the one to blame. It worked out in the end for him in a way, if Raikkonen was not there he would have been disqualified and lost the lead for the WDC to him. In that sense I feel a race ban would have been acceptable for the next race, but that is not good for us as spectators so I am glad he only received a 10 grid drop penalty.

Edit: Btw, it was a good MotoGP race today.

[Roddie]

Would he have been disqualified from the race or just been given a stop/go or timed penalty? Can't remember what happened to Rubens when he passed the red light in the pit lane earlier in the season.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Montoya was disqualified for jumping the red light at Canada a few years back, whereas I believe Barrichello just had a stop and go.

[Roddie]

Interesting... Have there been any other people jumping the red light this year? Seems like there have been plenty of people coming in when the pit lane's closed because they need to refuel but that replay of Barrichello shooting past the red light is the one that sticks in my mind.

I think they need to sort out the rules for the safety car, being penalised because you need to refuel is ridiculous and (the pet-peeve of my brother and I is) the rule that lets you unlap yourself; this just seems to make the SC completely pointless if not more dangerous considering it means you have some cars crawling and others racing by at full speed.

I think it was in the first round of this year's GP2 where just about every car pitted under the safety car to get their mandatory stop out of the way. There were plenty of near crashes in the pitlane, people overtaking the safety car and parts where there were literally no cars following it! Hilarious viewing for sure, but definitely suggests that the rules need a looking at.

[Largo]

I think Bernie sits in a sort of control booth with this pad covered in buttons for like "pit lane lights" "tyre explosion" "brake failure" "race leader drive thro penalty" etc and he flips them on and off randomly to make F1 more exciting

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I like the unlapping procedure, simply because it avoids the situations that you always used to see whereby a potentially decent battle for the lead was spoilt because the second place driver had to manoeuvre his way through lapped cars, thus allowing the leader to build a gap.

I do, however, agree that this is dangerous because the lapped cars then race round the track at near full speed in order to catch up to the back of the train, thus, as you say, someone defeating the point of the safety car. Surely it would make more sense for the lapped cars to drop back, allowing the leaders to take up their correct positions. They wouldn't get the benefit of unlapping themselves, but it makes better sense than the current rules.

[toythatkills]

But in those situations there shouldn't be a decent battle for the lead. If you've worked hard to build a 50 second lead, you wouldn't want it cut to 0.5 seconds because someone else screwed up. Having the car behind have to pass lapped cars would give the car in front a small window to pull away, which would be much fairer.

I can see why it's better for viewers to have cars unlapped, but it's hardly fair.

EDIT: Saying that, I imagine it'd be confusing as hell for lapped drivers behind a safety car to know who to let past and who not to when the race resumed with everyone bunched up. It'd be bedlam.

[TheForce]

nice weekend of motorsports,

excellent win for Pedrosa and a nice battle with Rossi and Stoner

big congrats to Kubica, he drove an amazing race he (and BMW) really deserved to win this race.
Stupid mistake from Hamilton and I couldn't understand why Raikonen was so quick to get out of his car, (seemed) he didn't even try to see if he could still drive with it to get it repaired...

both MotoGP and F1 have quite interesting leaderboards now, could be a good battle for the championships.

[Alastair]

...I couldn't understand why Raikonen was so quick to get out of his car, (seemed) he didn't even try to see if he could still drive with it to get it repaired...

Generally can't replace rear wings these days as they are integral to the gearbox or diffuser some other part that can't be changed in a hurry. I was more surprised at Hamilton as his looked drivable. Maybe they both stalled?

Great win for Kubica, really well deserved. Would be good to see him fight for the championship this year.

Not seen the motoGP yet but glad to hear it's another good race.

[Rossco]

Yeh thats what I thought at first, why did LH get out but he probably just stalled. No-one mentioned it again though on the programme which was strange.