I didn't think it was against the rules? I thought the number of moves you can make was in the braking zones. It probably wasn't the best of things to do but not illegal.
And I'd rather see much less steward/after race penalty intervention in F1 anyway, let them race it out.
I was happy that he got away with it. But I thought the rules were pretty black and white about it.
Although trying to break the tow isn't exactly the same as swerving to block...
PS. After the Felipe baby last year, this year his race engineer got on the radio and said "good boy Felipe".
So he's now 1 year older and have gone out of the baby stage~ lol
So your saying the warning flag, which has been the stewards arsenal for years, is totally pointless? You push the rules you get a warning, you do it again you get punished. It's called 'proportion'. Which the stewards are now wisely using.
I think some people on here actually need to go racing for real to understand how this sport works.
I know i sort-of just came into this discussion, but i agree with Intre 110%. Great racing by LH too, was kind of the only reason why i watched the race til the end. Massa fan, was dissapointed he couldnt push as much as Lewis did at the beginning. Great stuff by Petrov too, taking on Lewis.
Clearly Lewis wasnt ment to do what he was doing. But if he got a DT, that would have been stupid. It wasnt mid corner or close to the corner and there was no contact. Petrov still had a small chance to pass on the turn, and in the end, why would you want to be 'neat and tidy' for your opponent? Give as little space as possible in a fair and decent conduct, make it hard for the opponent. I swear there are too many robots on the field these days. The more i think about it, Lewis didnt even need a warning, didnt even deserve that, only deserved it because the rules are the rules and you must follow the rules, but on say 'racing morals', Lewis was fine.
The Hamilton maneuver was hard on the border, but it was no way a DT. He got a warning for that and thats enough, considering he wasn't actually blocking Petrov, he was trying to get him out of the draft.
Anyway, big Kudos to Hamilton for passing again some cars where others seem to fail. Ferrari had to wait till the moving roadblock Alguersuari went into the pits to get by (this should set Schumachers Melburne performance to a better light). But overtaking seems to be still nearly impossible if you keep in mind that Hamilton got stuck behind Sutil and Massa / Alonso behind Button but were nearly 2 secs faster when they had a free track...
Also there was no single pass in the top 5 drivers... Red Bull being in a league on their own but with the usual safety gap between the cars, Rosberg boring but efficient behind etc. Could have been closer without the McLaren / Ferrari fail yesterday, but I somehow doubt it would have changed much on the result after lap 5...
Btw, Ferrari build quality being italian this season again? I think that were 3 engines being killed.
Ferrari is in deep sh*t. I was disappointed in Alonso but apparently he had problems with his gearbox and then the engine blew up. They've used half of their motors already and there's still 16 races to go. If they can't fix things up their season is going to end in tears.
Good race by McLaren, especially Hamilton. Too bad Button got stuck behind the Ferraris and Toro Rossos, he had potential to be higher. Renault and Force India are getting better and I'm sure they will mix up the scorings more during this season.
Alonso said in an interview after the race that his clutch broke during the warm lap, so he must shift gears down while braking and then give a gas kick to engage the gear again. Impressive pace for him knowing this
Amazing race for Kubica, I really like seeing him where he belongs
Yep, the clutch went and when downshifting he had to guess the gear for the turn then accelerate to get the car on gear... With that in mind, I think he was BY FAR the best driver of the race, managing to keep on pace with that problem. He also said this was the hardest race of his carreer.
A good, but not great, race. Happy to see Vettel get the win he deserves, and some great drives from Rosberg and again from Kubica. A fantastic drive from Hamilton in the McLaren, he really made it a race worth watching as he cut through the pack. Impressive from Alonso too, showing he has the skill to drive round a problem and still do the business, just sad that his car gave up before the flag.
Not much has been said about the championship, but it's really hotting up as we get closer to the European leg of the season.
1. Massa 39 2. Alonso 37 3. Vettel 37 4. Button 35 5. Rosberg 35 6. Hamilton 31 7. Kubica 30 8. Webber 24
With regards to Alonso using the throttle to shift down. How does this work? I mean, he's braking as normal but dabbing the throttle to downshift, why is this? To rev match?
Could be rev matching if it was a manual gearbox and not just some electronics gadgets waiting for an electricial signal to do their job. So maybe it is a backup system to tell the e-helpers to do the rev matching when there is no correct signal comming from the clutch.
That tyre-gambling-playing stuff still annoys me. Like how some cars appear to be 1,5-2 sec faster again than the one in front of them, but once they get behind that rear wing they're stuck, unless taking "divebombing" risk like Alonso tried. Or how long Button did on his tyres.
Not a bad race to view, though still the same conclusion as previous GPs. Hope it improves on the Euro circuits...
It was a great watch, and driver like Hamilton is needed for todays F1.. but imagine if everyone would behave like that in every race, what circus would that be.. rules are rules, and you have to obey them..
Changing engines does not allways mean an engine is thrown away. They can be used again. I believed some engines were replaced as a precaution and may be used again later on in the season. Maybe they will be used in a less demanding event.
I think Alonso had one engine replaced as a precaution, they said in the commentary that he could not use it again for qually or race but it could be used in free practise sessions.
What would the race look like if all frontrunners qualified in front? I swear next Bahrain. Somehow, rain's needed for fun factor. Not saying today's race was boring though... Just imagining how would it be with all fast guys in front.
that's what I thought the whole race also.
