Im just wizzing through to watch it a 2nd time, damn not being able to jump to a point in time or rewind grrrrr.
When rejoining and then stop-starting for whatever reasons, the rules say your fine to get straight in and race however you have to accept that your way behind everyone and the only people you can hope to beat are future disconnectors and the likes. If things like hardware made it really bad to drive then you shouldnt have taken part, you'd have been much better sitting this one out and just accepting it and allowing everyone else the chance to have a clean fair fight on the track. You'd expect the same from others, and in a controlled & organised environment you really need to show more respect to the other people on the track, a mobile chicane can be a real f*cker to race with because you dont know what the other person is going to do. It causes problems.
If you had phonecalls you HAD to answer, spectate.
Ultimately YOU are responsible for the car your driving, and through whatever reason their are problems they are your doing. If you have distractions, irratic frames, a bad ping, or a sh*t controller... those are things you have to accept responsibility for, as they arent at the control of anyone else.
The correct thing to do was accept it was never going to be your day and just sat it out from spectator or something, attempting to take part while risking ruining the race and enjoyment of it for everyone else so you could pick up scraps points was never going to be a popular move.
With that said though, ignoring the fact that i dont think you should have been out on the track in the first place or that you were nothing more than a completely unpredictable moving hazard... there isnt quite the evil scheming on display that the thread seems to be making out there is.
I was kinda expecting some noticeable cases of team tactics which schumi would hold his hand up and say he'd never thought to do such a thing, then pat James on the back for it, but tbh its quite the let-down
The laptimes were consistant (consistantly bad) but mistakes made every lap, crawling through obviously tricky corners were done lap in lap out, there wasnt anything that stood out that was being done from 1 lap to another, he was shit through T1, T2, T3, T4...... and for the most part everyone gets past the crawling car without any issues, DuVeL included.
First incident - Lap 7/36
Blue flag comes on last banked corner, plenty of distance behind to carry on, same sh*t speed through the chicane and stayed on usual line, stayed tight and moved right over off the power after the hairpin.
There wasnt any weaving, changing of racing line, and no slower speeds than any other lap.
My verdict - Bad luck, wrong place at the wrong time, no sign of intent there.
Similar thing happened to one of the 1st guys towards the end.
Second incident - Lap 9/40
Blue flag appeared over race S/F line, moved off racing line and braked early enough.
Nothing to report.
Third incident - Lap 10/42
Particularly slow out of 1st sector hairpin, allowed Spankypants through and picked up speed 1/4 down the straight. Plenty of time with blue flag up, very little attempt to come off the throttle, move off the racing line or as mentioned 'drive onto the grass for some people' in this particular case.
Went from just before 1st split to just before 2nd split making zero attempt to move over and let the car through.
DuVeL lost about 1 - 1.5sec in 1 sector alone.
My verdict - Either A) 100% intentional blocking of DuVeL, B) Complete disrespect to another leading driver, C) All the above.
I vote C.
I have nothing against James, Spankypants or DR, and nothing 'for' DuVeL, there are incidents where something has been made of nothing, but then there is also pretty damning proof that he had no intention of moving over to let DuVeL past. There was ample passing time, and this was shown for everyone else at the first viable opportunity or as claimed 'driving off the track and onto the grass' and yet this 'generosity' was never considered for a 30 second strip of track. Places where James previously moved over to allow people through wasnt done, instead the racing line at race pace was the call.
James, i think your really wasting your time here, you cannot defend your actions here, you shouldnt have been on the track in the first place with the conditions you had, and not content with being a mobile hazard for everyone (95% un-intentionally, 5% intentionally) and then you decide to hold someone up for 1/3 of the lap. You cant defend letting everyone by the moment you realise they're there, and then give the 'F1 give you X warnings/X distance' excuse, because thats clearly you applying 1 rule for 95% of the drivers and a seperate one for the guy that just happens to be on the tail of your teammate.
People would understand if it was 1 issue, but you took controller issues, team tactics/driver blocking and a disrespect for everyone else on the track, and for some reason expect people to be understanding. 1 problem, fair enough, 2 and your pushing your luck, but start doing everything you can to ruin races and you'll find very little understanding or sympathy for your actions. Its clear for me to analyse what you had little control over and what you had intent for, most of it was accidental cases of being a major pain in the butt for everyone, but the last incident you knew exactly what you were doing. Was that a kicking out offense, not really, but combined with everything else you did its completely undefendable.