Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Rossco]

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12433_4135377,00.html

The story confirming the appeal will be heard on the 22nd but there is this quote at the bottom:

McLaren said they were told twice by the 'race control' officials that Hamilton's move was "okay", but the driver was subsequently demoted to third place and now leads the drivers' championship by just two points.

I didn't know that. They were told TWICE that the move was fine and still penalised afterwards. Bit dodgy!

[Alastair]

I didn't know that. They were told TWICE that the move was fine and still penalised afterwards. Bit dodgy!

They were given an opinion by two people involved with the race, Charley Whiting and some other guy. They were not told it was OK by any sort of steward, that's the difference. It's the stewards that make the decisions not Charley or the other guy whose name evades me.

I'm going on holiday tomorrow so am going to miss the race. Ironically I'm going to Italy and not that far from Monza either! I'll record it though. Hope it's good.

It's on ITV1, Sunday at 1200 - 1510 by the way.

[Rossco]

Ah I see, cheers for clearing that up.

Well maybe it's worthwhile having some sort of officials in place during races in the future so things like this could be sorted at the time avoiding costly penalties. Is that ever a possibility or would the idea get shot down immediately?

I've got it Sky +'d anyway on series link, don't usually watch it live, always busy but it's good as I can skip the adverts, I hate em! Really ruins live sport when you actually miss parts of it!

[Alastair]

No adverts next year

The stewards normally give decisions within 15 mins or so but as this incident was within the last 5 laps they didn't have time. An actual link between the teams and the stewards would be rife for scandal and calls of favouritism I'd say. They just need to have rules that are fair and stuck to under all circumstances.

My reaction when I watched that incident was one of "I know he 'gave back' the position but it doesn't really look like he's lost the gained advantage, wonder if he'll get a penalty?" I think the appeal will be thrown out.

[VR46]

Hope you both have a great time Alastair.

[Roddie]

FA to BMW then. It will happen as I doubt he wants to spend another two years in the wilderness waiting on a possible Ferrari seat.

Yeah that could be interesting, at the start of the season I was sure they'd be dropping Heidfeld for 2009 but he's actually had some pretty good results recently and constructors do seem to love having a driver with a matching nationality.

The new rules for next season are set to shake things up a bit and Alonso already took Renault to the top before so it could happen again.

[Richard.John]

Clearly BMW are on the rise. They are the most likely of the non title winning teams to make it to the top. Honda are proverbially sucking Fernando's $$$$ right now but he will be taking a big risk if he goes there, unless Ross has shown something to convince him that they can really make a winning car. Robert is his friend, though, and that might not be the the best as you have to destroy your team mate to get ahead in F1. Senna and Berger worked but that was because Gerhard mentally accepted that Ayrton was on another level. FA and RK are similar I reckon so we could get fireworks, but it would be a dream team, the best pairing in F1.

[Roddie]

I agree, so I think if it happened it could just end up the same way as Alonso and Hamilton at McLaren last year. As we've seen, having 2 of the field's top drivers in the same team can be counter-productive and the likes of Alonso, Hamilton and Kubica maybe need team-mates who are less skilled than themselves; the same way Ferrari always gave Schumacher a back-up driver.

[VR46]

God it's wet at Monza, scary stuff on the fastest track on the calendar, and as I type Heidfield spins.

Massa must be dreading it, sure we all remember Silverstone ....

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Vettel pole, Massa sixth, Hamilton in 15th - should be an entertaining race tomorrow if the forecast for more rain is correct.

[VR46]

Too right, hope for (in theory) Massa's sake there is no Safety Car, hard to see there not being though - judging by practice and qualifying.

Hamilton & Kimi were miles off the pace in Qualifying 2.

Going to be a very entertaining race, wet or dry

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I was flicking between qualy and the footy earlier. Was there any specific reason for Hamilton and Raikonnen being off the pace?

[Roddie]

Not sure about Raikkonen, Hamilton started the second session a little bit late because he tried a lap with intermediates, but Massa managed to squeeze into the top 10 while Hamilton and Raikkonen were doing fast laps as well, so it was a bit strange.

[PeteJ]

Is it due to rain tomorrow? Could be a cracking race if so!

[VR46]

Yep they reckon it will rain tomorrow Pete.

Roddie - yes it was strange, Kimi & Hamilton were out at the same time as Massa but were a couple of seconds slower lap after lap.