Robert gets his prize; Lewis has a howler and Kimi is not happy about it

What a great day for BMW Sauber. A one-two in Canada for Robert and Nick. Exceptional driving from Robert who took full advantage of the hand that fate played him and drilled it home. A great driver gets his first win. He sounded matter of fact about it afterwards. He wants more and in the press tent people expect him to deliver more. The bottom line with Robert is this: he is driving the fifth fastest car but he now leads the world championship. What more impressive testament to his skills and commitment could you want.

If Robert had a day to remember, Lewis had one to forget, driving into the back of Kimi in the pitlane. Kimi was understandably angry afterwards. "If I go at 300kph and lose control and hit somebody, it is natural," he fumed in reference to his smash with Adrian at Monte Carlo. "But if there is a pitlane speed limit and two cars are stopped and you hit them, it is stupid. I saw a red light and chose to stop. Unfortunately someone else saw a red light and chose not to." To give him his due, Lewis apologised for his error and was clearly disappointed with himself.

Just one other thing in the short time available. Another great drive from Fernando, even if it ended prematurely(something we will find out more about). Watching him all over the back of Nick's BMW was compelling stuff. He had no business being there in the Renault. Another driver of rare ability and guts(as I always say). 

Anyway let's hear it for a great Canadian GP. Seven races in we have three four different winners. Great stuff...

STOP PRESS: Lewis and Nico have been penalised 10 grid places for Magny Cours. Is that about right? Too harsh, some journalists were saying that at the track. What do you think?

Comments

[Weasel]

Here is an excerpt from my post of Thursday June 5th:

"I am not in the habit of making predictions, but Q-bitza is in my subconscious for some reason, and not because of last year's scary accident."

Best race of the season - by far and what a fantastic achievement for Q-bitza, Heidfeld, Mario Theissen and all of the BMW Team. Wow!

[Philosophaster]

After all of Hamilton's mentions of Ayrton Senna in recent weeks, I can't say I was displeased to observe his foolish departure. It is a shame that Kimi had to suffer. Hamilton really should wait until he has been there and done that before bigging himself up. His explanation to Louise Goodman suggested that he didn't even consider himself to be responsible.

Thoroughly deserved victory from Kubica. I can't help for feel for Heidfeld - first Kimi, and now Kubica have pushed him aside.

Good to see DC up there again.

I follow F1 because of races like these.

[Lucy]

That's very harsh for the icredibly ice cool Kimi but then he has been moaning all weekend.
Lewis was clearly disapointed he didn't just ruin it for Kimi but also for himself.
Kimi sounds like what he did to Sutil was ok. Perhaps today was Karma biting him on the backside.
Still it gave us a fantastic grand prix.
Well done Kubica!
And great to see DC on the podium.

[Hamilton under investigation?]

Could somebody tell me if there is a precedent of something similar to what happened in pits today - and what sort of penalty was imposed (if any)?

[Weasel]

I should add, it is great to see DC on the podium again after a long drought - a steady and well driven race of which he can justifiably be proud.

As for the rest of the season, BMW is obviously a force to be reckoned with and the outcome of the season is far from a foregone conclusion.

As an aside, I note that, when it comes to talking about racing rather than privacy and behavioural matters, there is a conspicuous absence of posts by Jo J and Stelmara - strange that eh?

Also what has happened to the pro Alonso rabble from last season? With the notable exception of 'JaviervivaAlonso' Court Jester by Royal Appointment to the Ed Gorman blogs, the silence is deafening.

What was the result of the race you watched Javier?

[El Ponso]

Well, congratulations to ANON!
At long last a BWM’s victory. And not one but two! And Kubica is leading the championship. Well, well, well, can anyone ask for more?
Quite fitting that Robert won here today, same place where a year ago almost lost his life.
I imagine that the anti-Ham brigade are going to slaughter him. I’m not a Lewis fan but I would like to refer to a Pedro de la Rosa comment after the crash. He said that having two cars in front of him, as the driver is seated so low, the rear wings (of the said two cars) probably didn’t allow him to see the red light at the exit of the pit lane. Yes I know that he should have seen those two cars motionless but it was a tense moment and everybody was rushing out.
Not very lucky to say the least but sometimes you are given and others are taken.
A good try from Fernando as he continues his love affair with Heidfield. Some said during the race that he suffered a gear box failure but afterwards he himself stated in Telecinco that he was pushing so hard to overtake Nick that he tried something different in order to pass him at that bend but it did turn out wrong. Shame as he was on the points for sure.
Highlight of the race Felipe’s pass on Barri and Kova. Oh yes!
Anyway, the championship is now very much alive and not only between two cars.
Cheerio now. I’m gonna watch Poland vs Germany.
A second polish victory maybe?

[Phil H]

Nico getting a penalty seems a bit harsh. I'm guessing he couldn't see past Lewis, so just went at his speed and when Lewis braked, he had no chance either. Did he cause any damage to Lewis' car when he hit it? If not, he's only hurt himself and a 10 place grid penalty seems a bit unfair.

[IDR]

Happy to see Robert in first position, the man deserve it by far.

Anon the real one: Three hurras for your team,
BMW 1-2 for first time, and the pole leading the championship!

Sad seeing F Alonso having to do everything for trying to pass Heifeld. This has became an impossible thing for him. And I'm afraid that this has become an extra motivation for Heifeld.

Renault chose the wrong strategy, FA had 6 more laps of fuel before his first pit stop, and the team called him to boxes. The best estimated position for him after the first pit stop was 8th-9th.

Anyhow, I see that renault is in progress, good news.

Felipe, as Kovalainen a race to forget, but at least he has given us an amazing overtaking.

Hamilton, a silly thing has broken an incredible weekend for him.

[LUCAS]

We can always count on Hamilton to do something unexpected such as crashing in the pitlane or pressing the wrong button...

China 2007, Brazil 2007, Canada 2008 and counting...

I do not remember if Alonso has done something like that...

[Pau]

I loved Lewis mistake. I think he is showing future generations of young drivers HOW TO NOT BEHAVE IN THE PIT LANE. They will learn from him much more from Alonso.

Good that he gets 10 position penalty in France. He will most likely start behind FA. We always know what happens in this case. If RK is smart he will be able to open an important gap after the following race with Lewis.

[Juan]

Great Alonso, but awful strategy by Renault. It doesnt matter if he would have remained 3th after Heidfeld. He hat to go to the pit for one more stop. So if you consider this, he would have ended after position 8 (0 points).

Big error of Renault, who should have left Fernando in the track for more 6-7 laps as BMW did with Heidfeld, who brilliantly managed it to get position 2.

Britons, start seeking another national hero. This is just too ridicolous. WHERE ARE YOU A. PARKER???

Its amazing how mediocre are the 4 pilots at the 2 top-teams. Not surprinsing if Kubica gets to steal the championship.

Lets watch out.

[javiervivaespania]

As Ed wisely says, amazing and masterful driving by Fernando. He was blocked by Heidfeld. BMW was recommending Heidfeld to let Fernando overcome him because he was losing valuable time holding back Magic instead of trying to chase Kubica. If he had concentrated in driving forward instead of slowing down our Champion and blocking his way, Magic would have had no problem in passing him like a rocket.

Kubica was great too, he is the only driver with enough quality to challenge the Spanish champion. His style is very similar to Schumacher's, although cleaner. He could win this year. When Magic joins Ferrari, it will be more difficult for him, although it will be fun to see the duel.

As for Hamilton, bad luck, I do not think he could see the traffic light. And there is no irony whatsoever in this comment. I mean it,I think it was the officials' fault to play around with the traffic lights in a clumsy way. I would have liked seeing him fighting for the victory.

[Bob En]

Congrats Kubica and BMW. I'm still not entirely convinced by Kubica though. You can only compare a driver to his teammate and Heidfeld has lost his way this year.

Question - did Hamilton choose which car to hit? If he did then WOW!

[Jordi]

Poor Senna, he must be turning in his grave.

Martin brundle blaming the team, on ITV, was funny. He suggested that the engineers should have told him that there was a red light at the end of the pit lane.

Can you imagine the conversation between Ron and LH after the pit stop?

Ron: Careful Lewis, that light at the end of the pit lane, can you see it?
LH: What, the red one?
Ron: yes, red means stop!
LH: but.. there is no lollypop lady!
Ron: Stop lewis, stoooop!
LH: #@#$%% upssss!

[Derek Smith]

I understand Kimi's irritation but the two incident's are very similar. Both had an innocent party who was taken out for no fault of theirs. It was Kimi's fault at Monaco but it is not as if he drove into the back of Sutil on purpose. The same I think goes for Lewis' crash.

Kimi could take a lesson from Sutil on how to behave after such incidents.

Excellent afternoon's entertainment though. Mind you, having the two BMWs in line ahead does suggest unfortunate similarities to Jordan's first race win.

10 places at Magny for Hamilton promises some exciting racing perhaps.

[RPM]

Interesting body language from Frentzen at the end of the race. Was he ordered to move over? I was surprised how quickly Kubica opened up a gap on his team-mate once Glock went into the pits- he turned a 10 second gap into 25 seconds in something like 10 laps. Is he really that much quicker (albeit with a lighter car)?
Nevertheless Kubica is clearly up there with the best, and it was great to see a BMW victory.

[ALLMAN]

First comments from L. Hamiltom after he ruined Kimi's race:

"I apologize to Kimi IF I have ruined his race."

IF? IF? What the heck does he means with that "IF"? What kind of pathetic apology is that?

Seriously, this guy represents a danger to all the other drivers.

[Abu]

Stupidity by Hamilton. full stop. He panicked when he saw ferrari and bmw ahead of him. Well he keeps on emphasizing on the length of his lead. Everyone should know that you can easily lose your lead in this track. Raikkonen should have won. Well Lewis should be disqualified for the next race!

[AndyG]

Some people have short memories. Ayrton used to do strange things.

Remember when he biffed Brundle-Fly up the back at Imola in 1993. He followed up with an embarrassed quote along the lines of "I lost the ability to brake".

Hamilton looked very Senna-like today. Too much so!!

[Phil H]

Well at least Magny-Cours has the Adelaide hairpin. Lewis will have plenty of chances to banzai his car up the inside of people there to get the 10 places back, anyone remember his move on Kubica there last year?

And Massa's move on Heikki and Rubens will take some beating for overtake of the year.

[Jaime,California]

The irony is why wasn't the McLaren garage at the end of the pit-lane? As Ed has pointed out here many times McLaren were penalized last year to have their garage at the end of the pit-lane. The Williams team should complain since this breach by McLaren meant that Rosberg exited his pit stop right after Hamilton. (Please don't try to tell me that it depends on the times the teams use at the pit stop) Last garage is a long way from the William's garage.
To compare Raikonnen's accident in Monaco during a race in wet conditions at 160 mph with Hamilton's in a pit lane at 30mph is so petty that merits no comment. Though keep it up and then you would find pathetic excuses (color) to justify Hamilton's dislike by some in F1.

[Bob M]

Well this was good news for punters. Kubica was a ridiculous 12:1 bet AFTER qualifying. Truly amazing. After Monaco he was 32:1 to win the championship, before Montreal he was 22:1, and now he is 11:1. That is still good value. Kubica is the real deal. His performance today was 100% awesome. His performance this hear has been very consistent. He genuinely can win this championship. What is ridiculous is to think that Kimi is slightly better than 1:1. I am gong to write more about this market later this week.
While I am an Englishman, I am not specifically a fan of Lweis Hamilton. I am a fan of great racing, great racers, and great races. Some of the commentary above, centred on Lewis and Fernando is so "last year". Calm down guys. Personally I think Lewis' accident is 100% understandable. I would suggest that ANY leading driver in Lewis's position (as kind of proved by Nico) would have done the same. If Lewis had been first, HE would have seen the light and stopped. IF Kimi had been behind, then he would not have been looking at lights, he would have been looking at cars in front, AND have been assuming that they would have been moving. No doubt about it, 100% Lewis' fault - however, I would give him a little bit of credit, and say that it was understandable. Additionally, the whole safety car/pit lane rules need to be reviewed.
Lastly, Nick Heidfeld (aka Frentzen by RPM above) - no this was never his race. So lay those ghosts to rest. And "Bob En", what are you talking about: "not convinced". Just look at his record this year in qualifying and points scoring - it is totally impressive!
Kubica's performace was truly brilliant - let's leave it at that. What an incredible day!!!

ps Ed - Timo was ok too!

[Jordi]

Well Andy G, 15 years is not a short time. So, what exactly happen in Imola in 1993 that was so Hamilton-like?

[Carlos]

Great race for Kubica, and well deserved. He is coming into his own now. Of course, with a little help from Lewis's sympathetic crash supporting his Dad Anthony who smacked a $660,000 Porsche Carrera GT in a children's playground just the other day.

And I thought that was the tree trying to be like the apple. Guess not...

[Lucy]

I knew this would bring out the Hamilton bashing brigade.
Even javiervivaespania can appreciate Hamilton made a mistake and that speaks voulmes.
I'm sorry Jaime but Kimi ruined Sutil's race and Heikki's in Turkey and completely got away with both which is very unfair but that's the corrupt FIA for you.

And as for Rosberg he was incredibly lucky with his penalty go back and look at the footage Nico reverses after hitting Lewis which is illegal
and dangerous his penalty could have been a lot worse.

[Jon T]

Wow, what a race. I think it had pretty much everything in it you could want in terms of action.

Great stuff by Kubica and Heidfeld, RK did a phenomenal job to overcome traffic etc, a thoroughly deserved win and my congratulations to him, BMW and Peter Sauber's staff for a memorable victory, hopefully not in isolation! I strongly doubt they have the resources to turn this into anything other than a one-off victory this year but it would be great to have a third team challenging for wins more regularly.

DC's hero of the hour again, proving once again that all the negative press in the world can be turned around with a solid result. A lot of people with points to prove looked solid, KN was impressive again and NP Jr. finally showed some potential to be racy, albeit briefly and inconsistently.

Great stuff by Alonso. I took a thorough dislike to him last year and I've never rated him as anything other than lucky to be in a good car versus a bad Ferrari and McLaren for his two WDCs but he's certainly gaining my respect this season with some solid drives that might turn his fortunes around yet. Unlucky at the end but he was driving well nevertheless.

What more is there to say about LH? Utter disaster, and certainly half the blame rests on him so I think the punishment's fair cop for him and NR for wrecking Kimi's race. The driver's first job, though, is to nail it out the pits as fast as possible and although he could have stopped if he was looking for the light, it's surely the team's job to keep their drivers informed and tell them that they should be looking in the first place!

Canada has a history of safety cars and red lights, surely they must be getting it by now so why can't they control their drivers properly?

Here's a talking point or two to reflect on from this: who ultimately has responsibility for handling a red light in the pit lane: the driver in the car or the team on the pit wall? Why?

Also, there's been a lot of criticism of the safety car rules lately, in particular shutting the pit lane when it's deployed, disadvantaging those who are low on fuel. Do you think the current rules work fairly right now and, if not, how would YOU regulate the safety car? I'd be fascinated to know how you'd propose to solve the current situation and what problems it might face. The current rules are here:

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/sporting_regulations/6839/

Anyway, roll on France and, I hope, even more interesting times!

[Abdul]

I don't know how can Hamilton think that he was breezing it before his accident. He left his pit behind Kubica and Raikkonen, so even if there was no accident, he would've been third at that time. And even before the SC came out, about four or five laps before, both Kubica and especially Raikkonen were posting faster times than him, and were closing the gap on him. How was that breezing it?

[Adele]

Lewis was perfectly aware of the condition in the pitlane in case of a safety car, especially in Canada (where there seem to be "victims" of this every year). He commented on it the day before, Massa and Montoya has recently received penalties for just that. It was rather a silly mistake. If he "indeed" couldn't see the light, he still could have seen Kimi and Robert in a stationary position. He could be lucky that Kimi is such a gentleman! The penalty is just.

But at least some good did come from the situation, Robert has his first win, and a well deserved win it is!

[Anon (the real one)]

I can't really do anything now, as I'm stuck in an airport in LA usng some obscure Wifi, but I am over the moon!

Shame for lonso.

Peter Sauber finally gets his hour of glory as his cars slaughter the opposition.

Coulthard proves me wrong! YAY!

My dad has been pestering me all weekend about how he thinks Lewis is the best driver on the grid. Eeek...

I'm sorry for Lewis, but as long as it helps Robert!

Andy G- I eally hope you're joking. Please. Lewis can be Senna, but not today, OK?

Ten-place penalty for Lewis- ouch.

Rubensgets oe over his teamate! Lead driver now! YES!

Thank you to all, and enjoy the post race analysis.

A reminder that I predicted that BMW would win because I wouldn't be able t see them do it. 100% right!

Vive BMW-Sauber!

[LAK]

Accidents do happen.. Now I wish that McLaren's garage was at the end of the pitlane.. I agree with Derek Smith, Kimi shouldn't justify his accident in Monaco, and blame Hamilton for this one.. Hamilton ruined his own race, his chance to win and lead the drivers' standings, so if there's anybody more sorry than Kimi, it's Lewis!
We certainly might see interesting racing next race with Hamilton battling in the middle..

[D]

^
Oh, Anon! That you should miss not only BMW's first win, but a One-Two! That's a bitter pill. You really do have my deepest sympathy, mate. You must be seriously gutted.

But what the hell was the post-race all about? From the expressions on their faces, Robert and Nick looked as though they were about to be sent off to Paris for some punishment after getting the result the wrong way round. It looked like a funeral.

Made up for by DC, though - beaming like a Cheshire moggy who's just found the cat-flap at a creamery. Such a shame they hadn't bought his Superman cape to drape round his shoulders on the podium. That would have been nice.

You have to admire Lewis Hamilton's class, though. Kimi drives in to the back of the grid's tail-enders.: Lewis only drives in to the back of World Champions.

Is nobody going to congratulate Timo Glock?

A parting thought. Wonder what would have happened if Lewis's pit had been at the end of the lane instead of fifth down the row.

This is disgraceful. The President of the FIA should go to the circuits and assert his authority over Bernard Ecclestone on this issue. Oh no, sorry, I forgot: he can't, can he?

[D]

^
Ed >

Do we know what Mo M says about the issues involved?

[Felipe]

@Lucy, Javi has always been very polite but always gets bashed. I agree with you, I don't like the Hamilton bashers coming out of the woods, but I have a small satisfaction for all the people that are infatuated with him. Didn't see the race or quali and read all the comments after the race, and it made me smirk reading the comments written after quali. Actually feel sorry for Ham, especially since he also gets over the top criticism as well as praise...

Great job by Kubica, if he hadn't been taken out of the Australia race (nothing to do with him) he would be even further ahead. Definitely driver of the year, amazing what he's doing with an inferior car.

What's up with Ferrari? seemed like they were a lot stronger this year, but are probably doing worse than last year.

Kova is slowly becoming more disappointing

[David Hodge]

Congratulations to BMW and to Robert for their first win. I think Robert was very honest in the interviews - he more or less said that BMW will win with luck as they are not quite as fast as McLaren/Ferrari. He proved that today - the opportunity was handed to him and he did not need to be asked twice. Well done.

The pitlane. Hmm. Well since no overtaking is allowed behind the safety car, why was Kimi alongside Robert? Should he have not been BEHIND him and perhaps Lewis/Nico might have seen the traffic jam. Yes Lewis, you goofed. Admit it. Then I would like to ask the FIA stewards why Kimi gets no punishment for taking out Heikki and Adrian in successive races, both in "lack of concentration" scenarios but Lewis and Nico get grid penalties. I'll throw a conspiracy theory out there - the permanent representative on the stewards is Alan Donnelly, who is a confirmed Max Mosley ally. Since a non-red car was involved in this incident, particularly a silver car, do you think a phone call to Max took place?

[David Hodge]

I know this is a family blog but can anybody answer a question for me?

Louise interviewed Fernando afterwards then James Allen came on and apologised for Fernando's language! I played the tape back again and I did not hear anything apart from Fernando being his usual polite self. What did he actually say? Was that interview editted and James was reacting to the full interview?

[Verbal]

Punishment is MORE than justyfied, LH avoided Kubica swearving into Kimi. But no doubt the Blind McLaren fanatics will be crying wolf AGAIN.

[Jaime,California]

Didn't Lewis run into Alonso's Renault earlier in the year? Lucy, maybe you can look that race up as another example of the corrupted FIA not doing anything against rogue drivers. Perhaps you were expecting a crane to lift Lewis to the McLaren garage avoiding the reversing rule and therefore "breezing to an easy victory" thus continuing "fifteen straight podiums as God's chosen". This dude is eating some serious humble pie.

[Stelmara]

To Mr Weasel
Sorry to see that you are missing me. I am insulted that you compare me to JoJ (whatever his name is) as I am a real motoring racing and formula one fan. If it's an argument you want you really must learn that women never loose, it's just a matter of time;-))))
Make no mistake Weasel when I have something to say I will say it!

Lewis made a mistake, shame as it would have been a much better race for us all if the pit incident had not happened and I would bet Kubica would rather have beaten Lewis and Kimi on the track to get his first win.

Stella x

[kohque]

Kimi is spot on in his comments. Nico and Hamilton got penalized because they didn't look at the red lights, due to inexperience, silliness, etc. How would you penalized Kimi? Oh, god! He didn't brake properly in the rain, coming out of a tunnel at 300Kph...! Yes, plese, take some points out of his driving license... Geeez... I would have hoped that Hamilton had the guts to say it for what it was..."stupid".

Why did Kubica and Kimi came out a bit sooner than Hamilton? It could be because their tanks were fuller and needed less time to be refuelled. Just enough to get in front of Hamilton.

If you all remember, Kimi was closing the gap with Kubica real fast. He was doing a heck of a race, and it is no wonder he was so upset. He may have won the race if it wasn't because of "Senna". And please, don't tell me Hamilton was doing really well and great. I know that. But I also know that had Hamilton pitted without safety car, Kimi could have closed the gap running 2 or 3 laps in front.

"Big-head" Hamilton hardly apologized. He mentioned the "incident" almost in a dismissive way... He just wanted to let his fans knew that he was driving like the star he is... Kimi? Well, IF, IF I did something...ufff, c'mon boy, breath... let it out... And still, some of you complain about Kimi's comments??? What's wrong with you, Hamilton fanatics?

Renault did something really stupid. They should have either let Alonso kept running or fill the tank up to the full. Instead, they behaved as if they had a winning car, and fuel up just for one more stop, leaving him with no options, but trying to pass Heidfield in order to climb up positions. He wasn't third. He was 8th at best...

Kubica had to thank Hamilton. I doubt he would have been able to keep Raikkonen behind for too long with the BMW. Apart from that, I am really happy for him.

Anyhow, Magny-Cours is looking good for Kimi to regain the championship lead.

[Jaime,California]

Is punishment too harsh? Hahahahaaaaa..... Oh, Ed, you are precious. If it had been Kimi stupidly running into Lewis's car (use a lot of imagination)what kind of penalty would be fair? If you want people to take your blog seriously you have to do serious reporting. Massa was DISQUALIFIED for running the red light last year!!!!!! So, if nobody had been in front of Lewis he would have surely ran that red light since his TEAM failed to inform him to look at it or in front of his car. I'm laughing so hard at your hypocrisy that I'm having a hard time completing this post. In the Gazzetta forum there is a petition to revoke Lewis's superlicense. Now, that's a tad harsh.

[Jose M. Doval]

I want to comment a little about Heikki. What happens with him? He's dissapeared from every race in the last times and APPARENTLY he has the same weapon than Lewis... Is it true? or maybe he's been the puppet that Lewis want to share the box. How many time will take Heikki to discover he's not receiving the "equal treatment" promised by McLaren statement? I think it's happening the same than last year with FA. McLaren is putting all the eggs in the same basket (Lewis one) and maybe they'll have the same medicine than last year at the end of the season. At the beginning of this one Heikki showed the ability to be fighting with Lewis, Felipe, Kimi and Kubica using a competitive car, but no more since... how many races? It's very sad to see one of the best teams of all times doing this kind of things and is absolutely AWFUL to see the MAIN ROLE played by Anthony Hamilton race after race being followed in the boxes by more TV crew than his own son... Get out of ther Mr. Hamilton (dad), and get out too Mr. Dennis! You're working now against McLaren, one of the mytical names for all of us

[Heimat]

javiervivaespania, don't you know why Ham hit Kimi? It's easy, he's from UK, they drive LEFT side LOL

[Kaz]

I'm not too sure about Massa's 'amazing' overtaking manoeuvre. From what I can see, he was far behind the 2 cars in front, so wasn't pressuring them. Kova made the pass on Rubens but forced both cars to run wide, and Massa simply braked as normal and took the racing line. Don't get too carried away with this!

[Aaron James]

Too harsh? In real life if you run a red light you get punished.

If you run a red light and cause an accident in the process you get in very big trouble.

Lewis screwed up, big time. He ruined Kimi's race in the process, and he would have lost quite some points to Kimi as well. The way he took him out ensured he didn't lose any points.

So it's only fair he should suffer the sort of points penalty starting from < 10 places at Magny Cours ensures.

[Citizen Kane]

I'm starting to apreciate Hamilton more and more. It was a brilliant Schumacher (on Hill) kind of move where he realised in a second that Kimi and Robert had passed him and he knew he had no chance to regain his position so he decided to take Kimi out cos he is more afraid of Kimi than Robert.

Another thing that surprises me is that Ed has managed to write an entire blog without mentioning anything about Max - but I guess it is your sister publication's time to do that - cos they did reason something like this after the crash - stupid pitlane rules - stupid FIA - stupid Max... omg lmao it is Max's fault Hamilton rams into Raikkonen - stop the press

Btw so where did Kimi show the finger - are all British people blind

[Dirk]

More than a few readers comparing Kimi's high speed crash at Monaco, with Lewis' fender-bender incident. How can one possibly compare the two incidents...

[Antonio Xixon but in UK]

I have been very busy lately, but read more less all comments. Just a quick resume since I stopped blogging. My congratulations to the McLaren mechanics that have been giving precious extra seconds to Lewis along the championship. It is a delight to see these chaps in action. It may happen that other teams mechanics are quicker (Force India, etc), but I don't get to see them in TV...

Mosley's affair. Nothing that I wasn't expecting. Sorry Ed, but politics are like that, and what you thought impossible happens. I guess that he'll be retiring soon, but has proved the point: don't take anything for granted.

Yesterday was fantastic: Kubica got a reward for perseverance. I loved the BMW's principal face in the podium. Good work. Lewis made a mistake and he'll pay for it. As other people have been penalized for other things. What surprised me is that he didn't have the guts to recognize it was his fault. When Louise from ITV asked him about it, and if it was his fault, he started to mumble about "not racing conditions", etc...and effectively didn't admit it...impressive. He could have said, "yes it was my fault, but it was because...", nope!. So I don't see why Kimmi should be apologizing for anything. Anyway, silly way of complicating his life. Grandfather Coulthard giving a show of how to make your team to reconsider when everyone is putting you with half foot out of the team. Good show by the Toyotas, and...Fernando getting frustrated behind Heifield and his team's strategy. I don't understand why they made him pit...it is crazy. But never mind, hope we get more races like this one.

[Philip N]

Hamilton made a very stupid mistake- clearly not tactical- why is he penalised and not Kimi for ruining Sutil's race in Monaco?

[RichyS]

Well, the vast majority of comments above never fail to amuse me. It's as though the rabid fans/haters have watched some other race...

Alonso drove pretty well, but nothing spectacular. It's easy to look good when your car is light and the other (Heidfeld) is brimmed to the finish. As others have pointed out, he'd probably have acheived nothing better than 8th. Glock on the other hand -- with a large slice of luck from Toyota's strategy punt -- finished just off the podium in a car that's probably not as good as the Renault. And he held of a Ferrari for the last few laps too (though admittedly it was his fault that Massa was able to pass Trulli).

To be honest, I'm not sure it was that great a race. It had a feeling of 'Touring Cars' to it. Fun, but only because someone is likely to crash at any moment.

Re. Hamilton's pit-lane incident... I wonder if he and Rosberg were able to see the light until the last minute. Since they're both basically lying on the ground, and had 2 cars side-by-side in front of them, visibility can't be great. Judging speed at ~30mph can't be easy either -- especially if you're used to doing up to 200mph at the same circuit. I know I have trouble judging my approach speed at roundabouts when coming off the motorway. God knows what it must be like for F1 drivers!

One final point on the pit lane light issue. I wonder what it was even doing on. On the basis that it takes around 25 seconds to perform a stop (from entry to exit), does it really take the SC (and train of cars) 30 seconds to get from the final chicane to Turn 2? The SC driver is driving the door handles off an AMG Merc SL. They're not tardy! Personally I think the rule is a little silly anyway. It's not like the cars are closing at raciong speed. If a driver can manage to make a safe exit under normal racing conditions, surely they can be trusted to exit safely with the SC passing. We've seen too many silly accidents and races ruined (e.g. Massa's black flag last year) for this to be working.

As for the penalty... I think it's probably a little harsh. Is it the same as Kimi's Monaco accident? Well, both were silly accidents that should not have happened, so in that respect both are probably worthy of the same punishment. However, these post-event punishments are another silly FIA rule. Racing is racing, and accidents happen. If there are no punishments (as used to be the case), then there can be no arguments over bias, etc. Can you imagine how the FIA stewards would have managed the successive Prost/Senna crashes at Suzuka? Would we be talking about Alain Prost, 5 times World Champion? 'Karma' (otherwise known as what goes around comes around) tends to even out the incidents over a season.

That is all.

[Bradley Lord]

It's worth noting that the sporting regs only provide for three sanctions in the event of an incident being punished:

16.3 The stewards may impose any one of three penalties on any driver involved in an Incident :
a) A drive-through penalty. The driver must enter the pit lane and re-join the race without stopping ;
b) A ten second time penalty. The driver must enter the pit lane, stop at his pit for at least ten seconds
and then re-join the race.
c) a drop of ten grid positions at the driver’s next Event.

Historically, the FIA has punished infringements in the pit-lane much more harshly than racing incidents on track, for the simple reason that it's a place where extra care should be taken (hence the speed limit).

If any driver goes through the red light, for example, he is black flagged and excluded from the race (as Massa and Fisichella were last year).

Lewis himself drew the distinction between a racing incident at 200 mph and one in the pit-lane. It's something the stewards have distinguished between too, hence punishment for Lewis in Canada, and not for Kimi in Monaco. One was totally avoidable, the other the result of a simple mistake on track.

[Oliver]

With all due respect, Mr. Gorman, it would be nice if we could read a post only about Robert Kubica and his leadership. In my bad paid opinion, the car crash is very important, but there's a new driver leading the Championship and it deserves to be told separately.

Regards.

[Alfredo Nieto]

To David Hodge:

You want some conspiracy theory? Try a bit of this one: I am convinced that Lewis CHOSE to crash into Räikkönen rather than Kubica because he knows that Ferrari is his true rival.

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHIVKAmFat8

He was clearly behind the BMW but he ended crashing into Kimi. Coincidence? I think NOT!

[brian lee]

Wow i bet none of you guys ever made a mistake .
No matter who wins i think Hamilton has proved he is the fastest driver in the best car ,
Boy how i hate racism.
Brian.

[monaco73]

Well, It's clear that the two incidents, (Monaco and Montreal) are entirely different. In Monaco, Kimi lost the car under braking, at one of the fastest parts of the track in changeable weather, under racing conditions. It was a mistake, which caught out both drivers.

This was plain -panic mode- from Hamilton. His mind was on the fact the lead had slipped away, rushed out of the pitbox and was concentrating fully on the gearboxes of the cars in front.

Totally different to Monaco and its ridiculous for commentators to suggest otherwise! James Allen over at ITV saying *go figure* about why Kimi had no penalty at Monaco is just...well...silly. Senna-esque was it? Hamilton was paying no attention to the flashing red light or the need for caution due to a safety car.

It was an error that should not happen at this level of F1 and the punishment metted out the the stewards is just, I think - although it seems tough on Rosberg who arrived at the scene as the incident unfolded, but these guys need to be careful under safety car conditions!

Hamiltons own comments were also beyond the pale, after the accident... claiming to be in front...it was a poor stop...and by the time he saw the red light it was too late.

I think Hamiltons reputation has taken a huge blow, especially after the arrogance and pre Montreal comments and hype...I can get the team in whatever direction...team leader...etc etc.. Yes, he is a racer, good when things are in shape in the front or charging through much slower backmarkers, however, put the pressure on with the more experienced guys and the mistakes happen time and time again. The reference to going into the back of Alonso this year is interesting too!

Too much time in a simulator and not enough time mixing it up at the front wheel-to-wheel yet. And the guy needs to learn some sensibility, humility and wind his neck in.

Crashing into a car at a red light, 10 minutes after a safety car, is simply panic and inexperience.

Brilliant to see Kubica up there on the top step though!

[Richard]

@jose m doval -

Yes of course you're right. McLaren are going to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to win two world championships - drivers and constructors - and then deliberately sabotage the potential of one of their cars. Not only will this ensure the team lose the constructors title, but it will also mean that the second driver can't help the first to win the drivers title by taking points off his rivals, fight a rearguard action etc.

What do you think the sponsors would think of that?

You should either educate yourself about F1 or find a blog on another subject that you're more familiar with.

Well done RK - great first win (but BMW still not quick enough in a straight fight with LH and KR)

LH - bad mistake. Could be decisive in the title fight. Penalty a little harsh so soon after Kimi got off scot free. If the red light is so easily obscured by other cars, something needs to be changed, but that doesn't explain why you drove into the back of a stationary car. I expect the panic of seeing rivals ahead in the pitlane was a factor - the double edged sword of being so competitive - reminds me of Schumacher a little (that's not necessarily a positive thing before anyone starts to criticise me for comparing LH to a legend!)

KR - don't be too upset after your recent driving

FA - don't let the frustration of a slow car get the better of you. It's making you look accident prone when that has never been the case previously. You need a good car next year, and you won't get one if you keep crashing!

[jordi]

To David Hodge:

I had to play the interview back a few times to get it. Alonso said "we ****** up the strategy"

Regards.

[Lestat the Vampire]

Is the penalty too harsh? Well, I don’t remember anybody here complaining last year when kubica was penalized in Japan’s Grand Prix for a race incident with the “golden boy”, when they crashed under heavy rain and it wasn’t Kubica’s fault. Then Hamilton caused an accident after doing something absolutely forbidden by the FIA, which is speeding up and braking behind the safety car. And of course according to you, he shouldn’t be sanctioned, because it wasn’t his fault. Now, he ruined Raikkonen’s race crashing into him with a red light in the pit. It’s obviously his fault, he even apologized to Kimi. Actually, if Raikkonen hadn’t been there, LH would have skipped the red light. So why is the penalty too harsh? Is it because your golden boy got it? It seems that all decisions by the FIA involving Hamilton are fair when they favour him and when they sanction him, it is unfair, harsh and a result of the hate that Moxley profess towards McLaren.

Why can’t you just accept that sometimes the spoiled brat deserves to be penalized? How come it is fair when the FIA sanctions Alonso for holding Hamilton in the pit, when there’s no rule whatsoever which says so, and it’s too harsh when they penalize LH for ignoring the red light crashing into Kimi’s car as a result of his reckless driving and ultimately ruining Raikkone’s race?

By the way, what ever happened to those 15 podiums in a row? Why is the so called “best driver of all times” who drives the best car alongside the Ferraris third in the WDC? Maybe he is not that good, or maybe, there’s something or someone missing in McLaren who helped a lot last year in Hamilton’s great season.

One more thing Ed, I thought BMW had the third best car in the grid behind McLaren and Ferrari. You say here that he drives the fifth best car, so could you tell me, please, which cars are the third and the forth? I honestly can’t think of any car apart the two mentioned which are faster than BMW.

By the way, congratulations to Kubica! Here we have a fantastic driver who is going to achieve great things in the future.

[Alex]

Congratulations to Robert, he clearly is an excellent driver and this win has been expected for a while. A nice drive from Timo too as one other poster said.

Regarding Hamilton's crash... this is the same red light that Massa and Fisichella missed last year as it is not too big or bright. Kimi was [?] wrongly trying to overtake Robert in the pitlane after the BMW came out ahead. This lead to Kimi being in the wrong place, alongside Kubica, Lewis arrived, possibly partially unsighted, but at least crashed into the correct car.

Why is Lewis being given a penalty for this when Kimi escaped in Monaco ?

For a surface that was "unlikely to last the day" we got an excellent race, the marbles made for very unforgiving corners and some spectacular sideways action.

Amusing to see the haters back, read the posts 2 days ago and they and all gone mysteriously quiet, Lewis, for the second GP running, on dodgy surfaces was showing a Rossi like dominance..... it reminds me of Sir Frank William's words early on in 2007 who said "if he gets any better, we could all be in a lot of trouble". Mistakes or not, dodgy grid penalties, but watch and appreciate, he is becoming the dominant driver in F1.

[Pau]

The campaing of the British Press to forgive Lewis penalty has just started.

I do not think it is too harsh, Lewis already crashed against Fernando in Bahrein and got no penalty, while Kubica got a drive-through after crashing against Lewis in Fuji. Time he gets a penalty and behaves!

[Michael]

I don't think you can relate kimi's crash with lewis' ,kimi was exiting the tunnel going down the hill at 180 mph on a greasy track on dry weather tyres . FAR FAR less avoidable than what in happened in canada ,Lewis had that long pit stop , saw raikkonen and kubica in front and probably was too busy thinking how he has lost the lead rather than where he was going. So hamilton 100% to Blame in Canada, Kimi in monaco completely excusable.

[F1-Insider]

My; this really has brought out the Hami snipers hasn't it? How quickly people forget, in qualifying he was electric, almost Senna like (yes folks Ayrton made a number of mistakes in his career and he WAS the best).
I would suggest that the FIA (flog……….. OK OK) look at the positioning of the lights, maybe with modern technology a simple indication at each pit in the name of safety, after all safety is every thing nowadays (how did Senna/Sterwart/Clark used to race)?
I want to know why the safety car was sent out in the first instance. Was the track really that dangerous for the drivers that the safety car had to be called?
You must understand that I am not for nano a second saying it was called out to close the group and …………….-----------………….. No no, couldn’t possibly be that, what am I thinking!?!
Good to see Kubi get his win but it was a bit of a hollow win, I hope he gets another one where he bits the other top guys on the track soon. It all certainly mixes up the championship.
On Hikee, disappointed in him, not looking anywhere near as good as had expected him to be, he is certainly no Alonso is he? Most of the drivers can be facts up front, the real racers are fast throughout the entire field and both Hami and Alonso are racers (Kimi too when he can be bothered).
So where will Alonso be in 2009, the new cars should suit all the racers so we should expect some great racing.

On the FIA scandal, looks like this is off limits at present doesn’t it?

[Lestat the Vampire]

I’ve read here some people who compare what happened in Monaco between Raikkonen and Sutil with what happened here. That is preposterous, in Monaco, Kimi lost control of his car driving at top speed on wet tarmac and couldn’t help crashing into Sutil. How can you be so mean to criticize him for that? It was an unfortunate incident and no one’s fault.

On the other hand, what happened in Canada is a completely different story. Hamilton was so Impatient for recovering first position that he made a terrible mistake ignoring the red light and crashed into Kimi’s car. He didn’t lose control of his car, he was supposedly driving at 50mph and he could and should have avoided the crash.

By the way, I don’t want to be too suspicious here, but it seems to me that when Hamilton realizes that he is going to crash into Kubika’s car, he turns the wheel left and crashes into Kimi. Was he trying to avoid the crash or, once he knew it was impossible chose the most dangerous competitor for the WDC? Wouldn’t it be more effective to turn right in order to avoid the crash?

[Mathew]

One thing that the FIA should look at is the restart after the safety car is used. With all the technology available to them, surely it is possible to keep the time differences that were between the cars before the safety car is used and afterwards. It seems entirely unfair that drivers should be penalised through no fault of their own and have to surrender the time that they have built up on the chasing cars. What would happen if a car purposefully stopped knowing that his teammate who was perhaps 15 seconds behind the leader just to get the safety car out on the track.

[Heini]

There's no escape from screwing up in the pitlane. And both Nico and Lewis earned the same kind of penalty because they had all in all the same kind of situation. They both hit the car in front of them. Whom they hit doesn't matter.

And for Kova... He said after the race that he was ordered to drive slowly by the team. The surface of the tires was pealing of and they feared that the tires would blow up. Ok... did Lewis have same kind of problems? It didn't look like that at least before he had to quit the race. Others must have had problems with tires too, but I got the impression that McLaren had significant problems with them. I was very disapointed with Heikki's race because I know he can do a lot better. Hopefully McLaren can develop the car so that it won't eat tires so fast (I don't believe Kova has the wrong driving style). And soon.

[Wilhelm K.]

Huh! You people really think there is similarity between Monaco and Montreal crashes ? Monaco = Racing accident , Montreal = rookie error .

Lewis should be very very ashamed now.

[Jose M. Doval]

@Richard
dear Richard,
thank you very much. It's amazing that you're so worried about my F1 education.... You don't know me and you don't know something about me but, despite of it facts are facts and they're talking clearly against the people in charge at McLaren. How many years without a title? ANd how much money spent? About the sponsors there are more than one that left the team after last year affairs, and be sure than Santander will be the next one soon. Can you explain me (becuase you're so clever and F1 educated) why the BMWs and the Ferraris are always fighting so close both cars of the same team but this doesn't happens with the Macs? I've been supporter of McLaren since more than 20 years being Williams my second option, maybe because I know Nigel Mansell and play golf with him frecuently, but aniway you'll have more knowledge about F1... I'm talking only about what I'm seeing. That's all, clever man!

[jordi]

Jose M. Doval
I agree with you, in fact I asked the same question after Monaco. Heikki was very strong at the beginning of the session, when he had same strategy than lewis. Since then he had a few bad days, but also he is been in a different strategy than LH. We all know who decide the strategy at Mclaren and we can all see that Heikki has been qualifying with lots more of fuel than his "equal" team mate.

[Bradley Lord]

For the conspiracy theorists on Lewis hitting Kimi and not Robert, wasn't he just aiming for the gap? There was space to the left of Kimi's car, and a pit-wall to the right of Robert's. He was simply trying to put the car in the gap, while stopping at the same time. And because the wheels locked, he slid straight on.

[PHILOSOPHASTER]

ALLMAN

Well said. How could Hamilton not have ruined Raikkonen’s race? And the comparisons with the Raikkonen/Sutil accident at Monaco are ludicrous. Raikkonen locked up under braking at 300 km/h on a wet surface whilst on the racetrack…

Whitmarsh has stated that there was only a small problem with the pit stop, of Hamilton’s making, and that the team warned him of the red light. However, Whitmarsh’s whingeing is a bit hard to understand. Hamilton caused an avoidable accident.

Rosberg failed to stop, and was also rightly given a penalty for the next race.

JAIME, CALIFORNIA

Are you aware that cars are speed-limited in the pit lane? Stationary time is the primary factor that determines relative pit stop lengths.

You are right about Hamilton causing avoidable collisions. ITV went as far as to suggest that Alonso braked early in Bahrain. This time, Brundle seemed to be blaming everybody other than Hamilton.

What has happened to Brundle? He used to be brilliant.

Good point about Massa being disqualified last year. Montoya met a similar fate two or three years back.

ABDUL

Raikkonen was the fastest car on the circuit in the lead-up to the safety car being deployed, so it is interesting to see how things would have panned out.

Does anybody know if the organisers are facing a penalty? It took a long time for somebody to put the fire caused by Sutil’s brakes out.

JOSE M. DOVAL

There are many who wish to see less of these hangers-on. What purpose do they serve? F1 Racing went so far as to include Hamilton Sr as a candidate in its personality of the year poll last year.

BRIAN LEE

Please grow up. F1 is one of the few sports where race/nationality isn’t an issue for true fans. It is only a few members of the rent-a-crowds that turn up when a particular driver is doing well who behave in such a manner.

LESTAT THE VAMPIRE

Agreed. Kubica was given a drive-through penalty for having the audacity to overtake Hamilton, who should have backed off.

I think that Ed classified the two McLarens and Ferraris as four cars.

F1-INSIDER

Safety car decision was strange, but Hamilton was told about the red light.

[Richard]

@ Pau - I agree that the stewards had no choice but to give LH a penalty yesterday.

However, the other situations you mentioned were different to each other. LH's crash into the back of FA in Bahrain was a strange incident, but it wasn't an over-ambitious overtaking attempt that went wrong. Also, it didn't really impede FA very much.

RK's attempt to pass LH in Japan was a clumsy attempt to overtake and it was never going to succeed. It clearly did impede LH, and it had the potential to end his race.

I am also of the opinion that LH, knowing he was going to be unable to stop, seemed to steer left into KR's Ferrari. It could have been an attempt to scrub off more speed by getting a little sideways, but it could just as easily have been a choice to take out his main rival rather than the BMW. Talk about thinking under pressure - a Schumacher trait? Having said that, if he'd hung back from the safety car a little more, he may have been able to create a gap before entering the pits, and still come out in front. Question is, would he have driven through the red light? I guess we'll never know!

[Lucy]

It really annoys me when people say Kovalainen is being hindered by his team there have been times when he has been faster than Lewis plus he's had two of the fastest laps in races Lewis has had none.
As much as i like Heikki there's only so many times unlucky can be used to as an excuse yes there have been times when it really was out of control like when Kimi ruined his race in Turkey (which some of you seem to forgot was another incident he got away with) but sometimes you have think about the man himself he just doesn't seem to have the fight and detrmination that the other top 4 have. It's starting to seem that Heikki perhaps isn't at the level that Lewis,Kimi Kubica and Massa are and as much as we wanted and thought he would be one of the best he isn't showing that at he moment. You can't blame his team for that that's like saying Heidfeld is in a worse car than Kubica as he doesn't often perform as well look at the amount of drivers who are performing better than their team mates do you think they're in superior cars? Different drivers perform better than others and some of that has to be blamed on the driver not the team.

[Marianne]

I'd really like to point out that Kimi is somewhat wrongly quoted here. Yes he said Lewis' mistake was stupid, but he said too that he isn't the one to condemn others because he has made mistakes himself, and referred to what happened in Monaco.

It isn't fair to make him look like an idiot. He acted VERY well towards Lewis just minutes after the crash. Some other driver might have just hitten Lewis, Kimi kept his cool. Give him some credit.

Hamilton made a silly mistake and he should assume it was his fault and apologize to Raikkonen. Yes, he spoilt it all for himself, but he also ruined the chances of Raikkonen. He was sorry, but only for himself. He has to learn to accept he makes mistakes, it would add to his credit as a driver, and help he become better. Don't compare Raikkonen's incident in Monaco with Lewis's pit lane incident in Canada. It's not the same. Don't blame or be surprised at Kimmi's reaction after the incident. If it had been the other way round, Lewis would have gone mad, and walk directly into the FIA's offices to lay a formal complaint.

[Maverick]

Lewis Hamilton is a disgrace to F1. Incidents like this does not happen by chance, they are done deliberately when you know that you have lost things out of your hand. Mr. Hamilton lost his cool when he saw tht he was beaten up in the pits by Robert and Kimi.

What is more disgraceful is tht Hamilton chose purposefully to run behind Kimi and not Robert, behind whom he was approaching fast. He knew tht if he goes down, better to take off Kimi than Robert as Kimi is the real threat for the championships. Ed and all the other British journalists....this is the same Lewis you were comparing to Senna 2 weeks back.....wht a joke !!!

[do they follow the same races?]

haha javiervivaespaña i think sums up the way spanish fans see things; all sports not just F1..and i live in spain so experience it first hand:
if Heidfeld had let Alonso by and stopped defending the position then Alonso would have passed him easily... and that makes him Magic because..???? surely they don't take themselves seriously!

[Aaron James]

It's not a matter of the penalty being harsh or lenient, it was, thanks to Lewis' ignorance of both the red light and his team's instructions, the ONLY option left to the stewards.

Article 16.3 of the sporting regs (as Bradley mentions above) clearly states that the only option available was a 10 place penalty at the next event. Lewis having retired both is car and Kimi's, could not server a stop go, or a drive through penalty and therefore the only alternative sanction was a 10 place grid penalty at the next event.

So the FIA got it bang on correct.

[Michael]

They should develop a technology that means while the track is made safe ,after the saftey car period the cars line up in race position in the pit lane. There race lead before the saftey car was deployed is accounted for and a green light signals that driver to go . The lead they had between the next car ,before the incident is the time difference between each Green light.

[Jim Leasor]

Does anyone read all these posts, anyone that is with the power to take any action?
It's not a normal situation a red light at the end of the pit lane but even if LH did not see it, surely he must have seen the two stationary cars in front of him? To punish him and NR grid places at the next GP is ludicrous - these men are GP drivers not children in a sand pit at kindergarten.
But look, any safety car situation is not normal and really this was to blame for LH runing into KR, it is most ironic that a safety car situation often creates another accident as well as taking any hard earned advantage from the leading drivers. I mean how can it possibly be fair when a time advantage is wiped out because a safety car is deployed and why should luck and strategics be allowed to help a driver gain places from making a pit stop during the safety cars deployment? Surely it is possible to stop the clock on every driver behind the leader at the time the safety car comes out and then set it going again once the race is re-started?

[Leshite]

i don't think hamilton and nico should be penalised because they only did an honest mistake. how come raikonnen wasn't penalised the time he hit sutil out of the race?

[A Thorn]

I cannot believe the overall and unjustified arrogance of Hamilton. I hope he fails miserably during the course of the season!

IF he ruined KR's race? And still the apologists back him up. He should grow up and realise that if he didn't have the best car underneath him, he would be back in F3 by now and a talent such as Anthony Davidson would be in his car!

[Pip]

If you look at the footage LH goes left as there is a gap between KR and the wall, there is no gap on the left, I'm no LH fan, the guy is too far up himself for that, but the punishment is fair and should make for a more interesting reason.

It was Lewis' mistake and Niko and only theirs. If you are at the pit lane and with a safety car you have to be cautious, it doesn't matter whether you see the red light or not. Hamilton should have known that there was a light there, and shoul have made sure it was green before speeding his car. But he wasn't looking for it, he was only worried by the fact that two other racers had an advantage over him.
About safety car rules, yes, they might be stupid and perhaps they should be changed, but why don't you claim on this when the safety car brings an advantage over Hamilton, or about penalizations. If Hamilton gets punished it is unfair, but nobody think it unfair or harsh when other racers are penalized.

On the other hand, Kubica made an excellent race and an excellent job at quallifying. He is top of the best. Polish people and BMW fans should be proud of him.Heidfield was also good.

[Michael]

WHat are you talking about ?,an honest mistake , they ignored the Rules for the sport ,RAIKKONEN's Crash WAS WHIST RACING !!!they may punish drivers for causing aviodable accidents i.e schumi/villeneuve jerez 97. but not for losing control that would make the sport ridiculous.

[Michael]

It's pretty arrogant of LH to assume he had won the race anyway. Had the saftey car not come out K R or any other driver still may have
Won.

[Nikos Bogiantzis]

Here is who was to blame:

1. THE RACE DIRECTOR who despite his best efforts dared bring out the SC when 'the chosen one' was ahead

2. THE FIA (well-known as pro-Ferrari) a.for introducing dubious rules regarding safety car, refuelling, red lights etc b.for not introducing a 'RED LIGHT' board that detracts+expands in front of the driver's head in such a dangerous situation

3. THE TEAM VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES for not telling him 3 or 4 times that the light was red

4. THE BRAKES that went too cold during the pitstop

5. KIMI and LOLEK who a.had the audacity to be ahead of him (after all Lewis said that just before the smash he was FIRST and would probably have won) b.lined up alongside and didn't leave any space for Lewis to escape

6. THE MONTREAL CIRCUIT that, in addition to causing a race-shambles, does not have a pitlane wide enough for 3 cars abreast

7. THE PIT EXIT LIGHTS for flashing strangely

8. DIVINE INTERVENTION against Kimi for the Monaco incident

9. THE SUN for glaring onto the lights making them even harder to see

End of story.-

[Michel Angstadt]

The Lewis Hamilton regular goof-up was a thrilling event, but I honestly think he chose to try to get to the narrow escape route available to the left of Kimi. He was too close to avoid hitting the Ferrari but he tried.

Imagine leading the race, going in to pit, and coming out to find two cars in front of you. I think most ordinary mortals in the midst of a race would not have noticed the red light.

But then Lewis is no ordinary mortal. How was the saying? Oh, of course, "He's the next best thing since ... Ayrton Senna."

[Jeff Bellamy]

Once upon a time you didn't have all these nonsensical conspiracy theories and bad feeling when a driver made a mistake that threw up an unusual result. Personally, I think it's good that these things happen because it shakes up the order a little, and someone other than a Ferrari or McLaren driver is now leading the championship. The status quo will doubtless be restored in France.
I think we can all agree that LH suffered from brain fade, for whatever reason, and made a mistake. It happens, and I don't think there's a single driver in F1 who can claim not to have done so. Senna, who was generally regarded as the best around made plenty, notably at Monaco when he crashed because he lost concentration. No one does it on purpose, or with any agenda. The idea that LH crashed into KR because he had overtaken him is just daft. This was still early in the race and there was plenty of time to get the lead back.
For those who like to compare the performances of Alonso and LH, how many times did Alonso make contact with the wall and other cars at Monaco, and how did he finish the race at Montreal? Mind you, I'm sure that none of those incidents will have been his fault!
Someone has also posted something daft about Heikki not receiving fair treatment at McLaren. It's true that HK does have bad luck and has been the victim of unfortunate incidents that are no one's fault, but his lap times are generally close to LH so the equipment can't be that different.
All this nonsense detracts from a great 1 - 2 for BMW, which everyone should welcome.

[D]

^
El Ponso >

Many thanks for relaying Pedro de la Rosa's comments to us.

It has long been inevitable that something like this would happen, with a measly single traffic light at the end of the pit lane.

Did Pedro suggest how best the problem could be cured? He is, after all, head honcho at the GPDA. Shame that neither Lewis Hamilton nor Kimi Räikkönen will be bothering to help them consider the best solution. And somewhat ironic.

I have always thought that - given its importance - the pit lane merits, in addition, a gantry that would enable drivers not at the front to see the lights displayed at a height that gives them line of sight above the cars in front.

(It could, of course, have a hinged mounting to enable it to be swung out of the way when necessary to give access to large vehicles when the pit lane is not being used in earnest.)

^
Stella >

Quite right! You are indeed a lover of motor racing and I welcome and enjoy your postings.

As to the issues you raise, I have been wondering whether the Lord Chancellor will be minded to ensure that Max Mosley will find himself before a female judge when he argues before a court his right to privacy when he is flogging prostitutes.

^
Weasel >

I wish nothing other than to be just one of the guys here in this wonderfully democratic forum but it seems to me that you do owe Stella an apology on this one. We'd all applaud you if you offered it.

^
Kaz >

Despite the aberration caused by the slippery surface at that point, Felipe Massa's slingshot overtake was the finest I've enjoyed since Michael Schumacher went into tiger mode at Interlagos in 2006.

You really should watch it again, particularly the view from above by helicopter, before you belittle it. He launched it from so far behind and he emerged from it so far ahead.

I'm sure it will earn him praise from the maestro mentor himself.

^Brian Lee >

There's nothing "racist" about criticising a racing driver - any racing driver - for doing something that was not merely stupid but which was dangerously irresponsible.

^
Jordi >

Many thanks for deciphering what it was that Fonzie said and telling us (well, as far a we can guess it - a consonant would have helped! Or was it edited here, too??)

^
Bob M >

Thanks for that. Looking forward to your fuller posting on the subject!

^
IDR >

If you did your invaluable fuel-load-corrected grid calculations on this one, I'd love to see them - though I guess the Safety Car deployment might have made them difficult.

Without your corrected batting list I find it very difficult to judge just who is how quick truly, when push comes to shove in the final minutes of qually.

^
Ed >

Ten place grid penalty at Magny-Cours? Why, certainly. What they did was bloody dangerous. They knew the light was there and if they couldn't see it they should have assumed it was showing red, not green.

I'd make them both start from the pit-lane (without a preferential fuel-load option) at Magny-Cours. Not only would it be symbolic, it would remind them that the pit lane light is there to be obeyed.

That said, Nico's offence was far less serious; it was more of a braking misjudgement than a full-on charge. Lewis should count himself lucky that he didn't get a one-race suspension for it.

So, what they should really do is let Nico start from the light itself and make Lewis start from the far end of the pit lane and then be made to wait for ten seconds at a red light before being released.

Seems right to me.

[Nicholas Shubitz]

Hamilton was not punished for running into Alonso earlier in the season was a racing incident. Hamilton fans would agree that a penelty there would have been wrong. In light of that incident, a penelty for Kimi at Monaco would be wrong too. It was also a racing incident (Kimi's in far worse conditions for all those out there trying to compare it to a dry pitlane).

There is a great difference between these two incidents and Hamilton's latest which was not a racing incident. There is a rule in the pitlane which is that you must stop at the red light. Hamilton is being punished for breaking the rules and being reckless outside of a racing incident. The FIA is being completly consistant here.

[17 points in two races]

As you can see with my name, I was expecting things like these!!!
¿Has anyone loose a Championship with 17 points ahead and two races left?
Do you imagine if in the two races, FA hits Hamilton as the Briton did to FA IN Bahrein?

[Mark]

Back to driving lessons!!
Probably the most overrated pilot in history.

[rdjohn]

When Kimi pitted, he could see the red light from his box. For some reason the Ferraris were in the last box rather than the first, like normal.
As McLaren were in box 5, Lewis had a much longer time to reach the full pit lane cruise speed. The fact that two drivers from down the pit made the same error suggests that stopping from this speed is not a simple as it might seem.
Lewis had done a long fill and was on hard tyres and so was in an excellent position to sew up the race. But yet another excellent race was ruined by these stupid safety car rules, and now the 10 place penalty will probably rob us of a great French GP as well.
The Stewards should have concentrated on a penalty for the track organisers. It is hard to believe that Silverstone and Magny-Cours are threatened whilst this crumbling relic of a circuit is allowed to prevail.
Well done to Robert and BMW though!

[jms]

oh my God
Can anyboby punish Hamilton?
Noooooo, Kimi should be punished to be ahead Hamilton.

Indeed, Hamilton should be this season champion already, by law...

[Bradley Lord]

Jim, responding to your suggestion that "It's not a normal situation a red light at the end of the pit lane", it's worth referring to the regulations:

40.11 Subject to the requirements of 40.6 above, whilst the safety car is in operation, competing cars may enter the pit lane, but may only rejoin the track when the green light at the end of the pit lane is on. It will be on at all times except when the safety car and the line of cars following it are about to pass or are passing the pit exit . A car rejoining the track must proceed at an appropriate speed until it reaches the end of the line of cars behind the safety car.

Given that the safety car and line of cars were passing the pit lane exit at the time, it's perfectly normal that the red light should be on.

"I mean how can it possibly be fair when a time advantage is wiped out because a safety car is deployed and why should luck and strategics be allowed to help a driver gain places from making a pit stop during the safety cars deployment?"

Those are the rules, and they're the same for everyone. After all, they penalised Barrichello earlier this year, helped him in Canada. Lewis benefited from a Safety Car in Monaco, lost out under one in Montreal. That's life.

"Surely it is possible to stop the clock on every driver behind the leader at the time the safety car comes out and then set it going again once the race is re-started?"

How would this be implemented? How would one restart the cars at the same intervals? It's not practical and the only solution would be aggregate timings, which was previously used in F1 (think back to Hill against Schumacher in 1994 at Suzuka). The consequence was that cars fighting on the road for position, were actually NOT fighting for position because of aggregate timings. It was confusing and made for poor TV.

Just because Lewis and Nico made mistakes during a safety car period doesn't call into question the notion of using the safety car, I don't think?

[Phate]

I think that the punishment for Lewis is way too HARSH! I do not understand why he has to be punished so badly just because he mistakenly hit Kimi's car. Mistakes do happen and after all Lewis is an ordinary person justlike everyone of us he did a mistake just like Kimi did once to Sutil and Kovalinen. Now because it is Lewis then harsh punishments have to fly it is totally unfair. and i do not understand why the safety car had to come out for Sutil's car to be removed, which by the way was totally out of the drivers'way when Lewis was leading the race but when Trulli's car which was a bit in the way had to be removed the safety car did not come out. is it me or are things a bit unfair in F1?

[Tato Dulanci]

Hamilton should be punished with copying two thousand times:
"I will not ram neither Alonso nor Kimi any more".
(Apart from the ten places in the grid, naturally).

[supercampeaobrasileiro]

Was a terrible mistake by LH but i am not a great fan of grid penalties because, from a selfish perspective, it spoils the purity of the racing! I am not clear as to why he received the penalty - he made a mistake during a race - is there a culpability test? Is the rule, the more stupid the mistake, the more risk of penalty?

Anway, congrats to robert for an excellent drive and to massa, who once again, proved that he can overtake and came from dead last to 5th - another mature display from massa who did not let frustration take a grip and overdrive the car, especially at the end with glock in front. Was just a shame that ferrari managed to mess up his pit stop or massa could have made the podium and led the WDC.

All in all a great result for the championship as it gets even tighter at the top!

[Michael]

Rule Breaching = Penalties .

[Michael]

Lewis Should have been Alowed to queue at the end of the pits first .As over taking under the saftey car is not alowed anyway.

[colin grayson]

well I for one am delighted with the result ; BMW have achieved their main objective for the year ...with a bonus , a 1-2 !!! you couldn't expect the BMW main board to keep pouring in huge sums of money to be the nearly team , but now super mario must be flavour of the month !!
but kimi shouldn't be upset , he should be delighted !!!! his average points obtained vis a vis hamilton in canada looked to be about -1 [ +2 to -4 ] ; with hamilton's 10 place penalty in france should be at least + 6 , so a big gain for him over the 2 races compared to if the accident hadn't happened ; let's face the fact , the BMW isn't yet a serious championship contender ...next year maybe?

anyway , I'm delighted for

kubica , fine drive for his first win

heidfeld , should help his confidence no end , he is a better driver than the results this year indicate

DC , extracted the maximum from his strategy and his car ; some compensation for the fact that he has lots of luck this year , all of it bad ; funny how everyone said he should retire after his flat out accident in monaco , but no one said the same about kimi when he had one at the same place

yet another unforced error from alonso , wonder why HE didn't get a penalty for T boning heidfeld at monaco , a clearly avoidable accident ; or are the spanish contingent here correct ....other drivers are supposed to get out of his way ; BMW were clearly afraid that he would do something stupid again !; if ferrari really have signed him for 2010 , i bet they are starting to wish they hadn't

black mark of the day ? McLaren ; whether or not hamilton could see the red light or not is irrelevant ...his team should have told him that the light was still red

if pit safety is paramount , should kimi have been allowed to run alongside kubica like that , kubica was clearly in the correct lane ; like the safety car / pit light situation that needs resolving imho

and javier ,I having only just realised why you make such peculiar comments ; let me explain ... the basic idea in motor racing is to finish in front of your opponents , not to pull aside to let them through ; do things make more sense to you now that has been explained to you ?

[M.C.]

Great race Kubica, well done!

Wow all the haters are out in force, they obviously don't believe in karma and have such strong christian values, you guys must be our mothers pride and joy.
Blessss

[Rufus Theodore]

LH is very competitive he show his dad that he can crash and even more expensive car that the one he crashed. Is HK car the same as LH? are you guys sure of this? I mean HK is a very good driver and is a sec per lap slower than LH!!! Looks estrange to me, not the order but the gap is far too big. He is probably driving FA car from last 3 races last year.

[kohque]

To Hamilton's apologists:

Apology 1: He could not see the red light. Dumb. The red light is clearly visible high up in the right side, as pointed out by James Allen. Moreover, McLaren's garage was one of the nearest to the entrance, so he had all the pit lane to look at the "train-crossing" red lights. He just didn't look.

Apology 2: Kimi did it too... Pleaz, use your "technological expertise" to give it a try to Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpxPjBZh0LE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZElAn6OvGiM

These ones should be enough to "start your engines".

The guy had more than half an hour to prepare the answers to Louise Goodman, and this is the best he could say:

Louise Goodman: "It looks like you didn't see the red lights at the end of the pit lane..."

Hamilton: "Uhh...mmm..well... I don't know what really happened (yeah, right!).

I was comfortably in the lead. It looked like an easy win (it is not about you, Wonderboy, it is about the incident).

Excuse 1: We went into the pit stop... It wasn't a great pit stop (Or maybe you were a bit light and needed more fuel)...

Excuse 2:...and I saw the two guys in front of me, battling in the pit lane. I was trying to make sure I didn't get involved with these two guys (riiight, as if you could fly over them or get in 2 wheels, etc.)

Excuse 3: And then I saw the red light, but by the time I had stopped and I see the red light it was a bit late (That's probably a lie. Please, watch his gestures at the moment of the crash. He looks clueless about what just happened. If he stopped and then saw the red light, it means he didn't look at it).

Excuse 4: I mean, it is not a racing incident as such, but I think it's really unfortunate (It is a racing incident because it happened during the race, and it ain't unfortunate. It is plain stupid).

Louise Goodman: What kind of information was the team giving you? Where they coming through the radio where they should be telling you to watch out for the red light? Shouldn't they?

Excuse 5: Yeah, but it was a bit late so... (his team must be proud of him, no doubt. If he cannot use his eyes, someone in his team should be ready to yell "red light" at him...)

Lie: I mean, it's one of these things, I guess. It is a lot difference as if you crash into the wall and you are angry at yourself. I am not, it's not like that (It is, unless pushing off ITV's camera was just a gesture of how cool you are)

Dismissive apology: I apologize to Kimi IF I ruined his race, but you know, this sort of stuff happens, you know (yes, now we know... We also know how really sorry you felt...)

In the next question Louise asked him if it was a consolation to have put Kimi, his main rival, out the race as well. His answer, not surprisingly, is: "No, to be honest... I was so quick, I was in front, I was ?? (laughs)... Next time (what about Kimi? Do you know who he is? Do you know you have a rival?)

[Michael]

CAN anyone explain to me What Kubica and Raikkonen where doing Infront of Hamilton , Despite overtaking Being prohibited under the saftey car ???

[Bradley Lord]

Michael, they had faster pit-stops than Lewis, and thus reached the end of the pit-lane before him. This competitive situation during pit-stops is allowed.

re: Colin Grayson's comment, it's an interesting point as to whether or not McLaren should have warned Lewis. It's a fair point to make, as ITV did. But equally, shouldn't a driver know that 'red means stop'? It's so basic you don't even get taught it in driving lessons.

I remember when Fisichella did it last year, he complained of no warning from his team, which was fair enough - but only up to a point. Everybody knows, especially an F1 driver, that you don't go through a red light. Responsibility has to rest with the guy in the cockpit, don't you think?

[Andy]

You have to say the irony is amusing to say the least. Louise Goodman was asking Hamilton about his father's minor accident and Hamilton responded with, "Yeah, I asked my dad how it was possible to crash a supercar at 30mph" (laughs all round), and then Hamilton Jnr goes and crashes an F1 car at 50mph. Hmmm, he won't be living that one down in a hurry!! :o)

To me, Hamilton's coming across as still a little bit inexperienced and slighty arrogant and over confident.

Kubica on the other hand looks very assured, quick and subdued!! For him to be currently leading the driver's championship is a fantastic achievement! Well done Robert!

Andy

[Mauro]

I really cannot understand how it is possible to compare a race crash (Monaco GP) with a pit-lane crash. Somebody here is wondering why kimi is in anger... the real question is: would anybody else be quiet when crashed from behind while standing in the pit-lane waiting for the green light? Please, try to imagine the same situation but with Hamilton crashed from Alonso.... I suspect that a lot of people here would have a different mind.

Finally, please, check the last 3 laps before the safety-car entrance on the track.... there was a clearly quicker driver.... on a red car. I suspect that kimi knew to be in advantage for the victory of the GP. He had good qualification with a lot of fuel loaded... that's why he was fast during the pit-stop (and passed Hamilton).....

Bye, Mauro

[Xeron]

Michael, obviously you dont know what overtake does mean!

All in all, a very good race for BMW and a well deserved debut victory for Robert Kubica. The Pole drove very well and put in some quick laps when he needed to establish an advantage over Nick Heidfeld. The lead that Kubica now takes in the drivers championship seems unlikely to last as BMW doesn't appear to have the out and out pace of the McLaren or the Ferrari, but that doesn't take the shine off his stunningly good season so far.

Following Lewis Hamilton's dominant display in qualifying, I was fairly sure that the race would be a walkover for the McLaren driver. Granted, the size of the margin in Q3 looked to be partly down to lower fuel and Lewis' ability to put in mega laps in qualifying trim. However, it looked like a fairly easy Hamilton victory was in the offing. After the race Lewis himself said he was strolling to an easy win. But I think it would have actually been a good bit closer than that suggests.

At the start of the race, Hamilton made a good start and began to pull out a small but significant lead over Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari initially fell back but then Kimi picked up his pace and reeled Kubica in very quickly. Had the safety car then not emerged it seems likely that Raikkonen would have been stuck behind the BMW, trying and failing to find a way past. But, of course, the safety car did come out and this neutralised Lewis' advantage. When the pitlane opened, the top three all dived in for tyres and fuel. Raikkonen and Kubica then both emerged in front of Hamilton by some way - or at least they would have done had the red light not been on.

My question therefore is how would the race have played out if the red light incident not occurred? Why did Lewis lose two places in the pits? He came in first and would otherwise have emerged third. Did McLaren fumble the stop? Was Hamilton's car being topped up with extra fuel that caused the stop to take longer? If it was extra fuel, was this to make up for a lighter run in Q3 or to provide some strategic flexibility for later in the race? Was there some other reason?

We know that Kubica made a further stop for fuel and, given the similarity of their stationary times, it seems likely Raikkonen would have needed to stop again too (Kimi appeared to be continuing on the hard tyres, which also backs this up). Hamilton, now back in third place, appeared to have taken another set of the soft tyres and so he too would have had to stop again, although we don't know when. Much depends on who -