Belgium Grand Prix 2011, Spa Circuit - Race 12/19

The nearest confirmation of Lewis' reprimand is that "It was not for his post Q2 qualifying lap" - which can only mean it was for the love tap on Maldo in the bus stop chicane. Still would like some actual confirmation of that, though!
 
Kenai said:
What I think has happened here, start to finish is that Hamilton was a bit annoyed that Maldonado gave him no room at all around the last corner (be it maliciously or incompetently).

After turning the hairpin, Maldonado moves to pass Hamilton and Hamilton, a bit annoyed by the previous move jinks out and back in quickly to try and put the willies up Maldonado a bit.

Maldonado takes exception to this and goes to return the favour however hugely misjudges how Hamilton proceeds to follow the racing line and so rather than just jinking towards him as Hamilton did, he ends up clattering into the side of him and causing the accident.

I think both of them were behaving irresponsibly though I think Maldonado should get the lion's share of the punishment as not only did he start the shenanigans by giving Hamilton no room on the last turn, he was also the one who was incompetent enough at trying to scare another driver that he actually caused an accident doing it.
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That's what you saw? :confused:

Looked like Hamilton went wide to let him past/get out the way, twitched on the damp track then Maldonado just carried on straight when the pair of them should have been turning right (for the corner).

5 place grid drop is tame to say the least. Surely they'd look at his steering wheel tracer?
 
synaesthesia said:
The nearest confirmation of Lewis' reprimand is that "It was not for his post Q2 qualifying lap" - which can only mean it was for the love tap on Maldo in the bus stop chicane. Still would like some actual confirmation of that, though!
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From the official F1 site.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/8/12454.html

Williams’ Pastor Maldonado has been dropped five places on the Spa grid as a penalty after clashing with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for Sunday’s Belgium race. Maldonado, who had qualified in 16th, will now start the race from 21st.

Hamilton and the Venezuelan banged wheels towards the end of Q2. The Briton, pushing to complete his final flying lap of the session, initially made slight contact with the Williams. But moments later Maldonado appeared to veer to the left into the McLaren on the exit to La Source.

As a result of Maldonado’s penalty, Lotus’s Heikki Kovalainen, Force India’s Paul di Resta, Lotus’s Jarno Trulli, Virgin team mates Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio will all move up a place on the grid. Hamilton, meanwhile, was given a reprimand for his involvement in the incident.
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Make of that what you will.
 
Yet again the FIA shoots itself in the foot by not being transparent.

If they'd come out and say that Hamilton got the penalty because he jinked to the right to 'provoke' Pasta - fair enough.

If they said he got the penalty for barging Pasta out the way at the end of Q2 - wrong, but fair enough.

Now they're not only setting a precedent for penalising someone just for being involved in an accident, they're adding fuel to the 'FIA stewards hate Hamilton' fire.

Retardedness of the highest order.

In other news, McLaren are apparently very confident in their race pace. It's currently sunny and dry in Spa, although rain is forecast.

I hope it starts dry, Hamilton takes the lead, and about 5-10 laps in it throws it down and Button makes up some ground :D

Also, the GP2 sprint race was very incident filled, but the FOM cameras apparently managed to miss most of it - including a massive crash for Leimer at the top of Eau Rouge. Hopefully they'll get their eye in for the F1 race.
 
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Spunkey said:
Yet again the FIA shoots itself in the foot by not being transparent.

If they'd come out and say that Hamilton got the penalty because he jinked to the right to 'provoke' Pasta - fair enough.

If they said he got the penalty for barging Pasta out the way at the end of Q2 - wrong, but fair enough.

Now they're not only setting a precedent for penalising someone just for being involved in an accident, they're adding fuel to the 'FIA stewards hate Hamilton' fire.

Retardedness of the highest order.
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I agree with you.
 
So the decisions aren't really much better than before, with a driver on the board. Would be good to know what they thought compared to the other three that make the decision.
 
Complete and utter **** Seriously Hamilton seems to be damned no matter what happens.

Just hope he can keep a cool head and get out front tomorrow, Would be great to see him win it, Would wind up that idiot Maldonado no end. Idiot shouldn't be in an F1 car if he is going to be driving about like that. Surely his boss Frank will have a word or two to say?
 
I wish their statements where far more in-depth, stating which article was breeched and exactly what the drivers did to breech such statements and also say which data backed it up. Radio/telemetry/video or what not.

So hammy gets a slapped wrist, but we latterly have no idea what for, I can only assume it's for the last corner nudge. Hopefully more info in the pre race show.
 
AcidHell2 said:
So hammy gets a slapped wrist, but we latterly have no idea what for, I can only assume it's for the last corner nudge. Hopefully more info in the pre race show.
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That would be my guess. Although even that seems wrong to me.

Maldo's 5 place drop is too light. Although having rewatched the incident and listened to what he had to say afterwards I suspect they decided they couldn't attribute it to malice rather than incompetence and hence the feeble punishment.
 
If they feel the accident was due to incompetence, isn't that worse?

Also just heard (sorry to be a bit of a twitter/RSS feed) that the tyres Vettel will start the race on today are quite badly blistered from him pushing so hard for the last few laps of Q3.
 
Indeed. So that's two new rules created by the FIA at Spa 2011 already :D

The first rule of course being that no overtaking is allowed during qualifying any more.
 
what a bunch of amateurs

now new tyres if you blistered your fronts through running too much camber
 
Todge said:
If they give one championship contender new boots and not another there is sure to be a lot of complaining. And why 17? I assume that's all they had left on the truck or something. They might as well have just said 16 since you wouldn't dare only swap one tyre out.
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surely everyone should have the option of new tyres
 
F1 shooting itself in the foot again, apparently Pirelli recommended a maximum camber angle on the tyres and not to exceed it Mclaren and Red Bull chose to ignore it and have blistered their front tyres whereas supposedly Ferrari ran the correct camber and didn't.

Now they are allowing them to change the fronts, even as a Mclaren/Hamilton fan how can that be fair if they decided to push the limits of the tyre thats their tough luck if it's knackered the tyres!
 
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