The race took longer than planned because of the safety car periods. I suppose they needed to end the broadcast sooner because otherwise it would have bumped into the next show.

http://video.google.pl/videopl ... 727&q=kubica+montreal

Robert Kubica crash.

Quote from Blackout :

So Lewis is now officially a driving god when he wins a freak race with 4 safety car periods in a far superior car?

Yes, during which the whole field get the chance to catch up with him again and on every occassion he draws out a new lead.

Maybe 'driving god' is a little premature at this stage but it's not bad for a rookie (erm, with six podium places in six GPs).

Give him time, it's only been 6 races. Hamilton has been at McLaren for 10 years.

edit.

Quote from dungbeetle :

Yes, during which the whole field get the chance to catch up with him again and on every occassion he draws out a new lead.

Actually he was very lucky with the first SC as he had just pitted on the previous lap.

No surprise from Hamilton, but good job anyway.

Biggest surprises of the race for me were the Super Aguri drivers. Davidson making it up to 3rd (!) and Sato overtaking Alonso on the brakes into the last chicane. It reminded me of the few races for BAR where Sato was very fast, before he became an unreliable mess.

That was the most horrible impact I ever saw in racing. I just can't believe he is not seriously injured.

At the same time it's a shame that Lewis' first win came under such circumstances, from the crash onwards I couldn't enjoy the race.

But hats off to Lewis, he is unstoppable. Yesterday I asked the question here who of the two McLaren drivers would be the first to make a mistake. Turns out we only had to wait until the first corner and it wasn't the rookie who made it. IMO LH is doing everything to indicate he will be the best driver of all time, who would have expected that just one year after Schumacher leaves?

PS: WTF was the pit exit light red when Massa and Fisi came out and WTF aren't races red flagged when there are crashes like this?

Quote from J.B. :

PS: WTF was the pit exit light red when Massa and Fisi came out

It was red, and they should have got DQ'd for it. Like they did.

Quote :

and WTF aren't races red flagged when there are crashes like this?

I would have red flagged it, it should have been red flagged, if there is a major accident it should be red flagged.

Quote from duke_toaster :

I would have red flagged it, it should have been red flagged, if there is a major accident it should be red flagged.

That crash, while spectacular, was not as major as it seemed. A red flag is used when it's going to take a considerable amount of time to prepare the track for racing again, such as a multi-car crash (think Spa a few years ago).

The FIA often uses a pace car where a red flag should be used, but I think under today's circumstances a pace car was fair.

Also, red light is red light. It doesn't matter if it should have been green or not, the fact is they drove through a red light while others waited and were rightly punished.

I think it must have been clear that he was not seriously hurt when they got to him, if he was badly hurt it would have been red flagged straight away. Also you must consider how close the accident was to the medical center.

Shame Hamilton hasn't done anything great before being called great. I'd love to see him have a problem. But finishing races (which Coulthard was great at) and passing Alonso in Melbourne seem to have been enough to compare him with Senna, Prost and Schumacher.

Oh well. I'm sure he'll be able to prove himself before long, but he hasn't yet in my book. Could barely drive a GP2 car for a race distance without spinning or stalling once. Gave him lots of practice passing (aka nudging people onto the grass at high speed).

maybe the fia should bring in "can reset" to their servers . but seriously twas a good race and had lots of action. like it should always be.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Shame Hamilton hasn't done anything great before being called great.

'Driving god' may be well over the top, but to say he hasn't done anything great is preposterous. He's won every championship he's taken part in. I don't know what constitutes a great driver in your book, but if he isn't great i don't know what that says about every other driver he's raced.

He may have spun and stalled in GP2, but he still managed to win the title.
I'm not going to compare him with Schumy or Senna quite yet, but they made mistakes, and won championships by blatantly cheating. They are still considered great though.

I really think your going to end up eating your words on this one.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I think it must have been clear that he was not seriously hurt when they got to him, if he was badly hurt it would have been red flagged straight away. Also you must consider how close the accident was to the medical center.

Kubica was conscious and complained about a severe pain to a leg, so it's probably broken.
I think he's been lucky, the crash has been quite bad in my opinion, both the Italian commentators (including ex F1 pilot Ivan Capelli) were very worried.

Edit: here's a nice photo sequence.

Quote from duke_toaster :

I would have red flagged it, it should have been red flagged, if there is a major accident it should be red flagged.

The idea of keeping the safety car going round whenever possible is that it keeps the Grand Prix moving for TV schedules (reducing the number of laps a bit slower rather than a longer wait then the same number of laps as it happened) and means they don't have to do another start, huge load on transmission the most likely place for another accident. It also means there's something else to look at and makes the whole situation less awkward. Obviously there are times when the race has to be red flagged because the track is blocked or if something is going to take time, having the cars behind the safety car makes no difference to the quality of medical assistance available.

Given the way F1 cars are designed even with possible spinal injuries they can still get a driver out very quickly, somebody commented that it took along time to get him out of the car, it didn't really, only about 5 minutes, although it seemed a lot longer. The longest I remember seeing personally was a 944 which crashed round Corum at Snett, went sideways onto the barrier flattened it, the barrier then acted as a ramp and launched the car through a marshals post and into a hard landing. Everyone just went silent, really really horrible, incredibly the marshals had all got out of the way in time and it then took 40 minutes to cut the roof off the car and lift the driver out, thankfully he was only shocked and bruised in the end of the day.

Quote from ajp71 :

It also means there's something else to look at and makes the whole situation less awkward.

Good point. But there definatly have been occasions when the cars got in the way of the rescue vehicles. In the Australian GP where the marshall was killed I remember the ambulance in which the marshall was being transported waiting on a curb to let the saftey car and field through.

I like watching Hamilton and I'm pretty shure he got the potential to get in one line with Senna and others of the greatest drivers ever.

Quote from The Moose :

'Driving god' may be well over the top, but to say he hasn't done anything great is preposterous. He's won every championship he's taken part in. I don't know what constitutes a great driver in your book, but if he isn't great i don't know what that says about every other driver he's raced.

He may have spun and stalled in GP2, but he still managed to win the title.
I'm not going to compare him with Schumy or Senna quite yet, but they made mistakes, and won championships by blatantly cheating. They are still considered great though.

I really think your going to end up eating your words on this one.

There is no eating of words to be done - I will consider him good when he does something good. Bringing the best (2nd best earlier) car home on the podium is not that great really. He's done one overtaking move, one blocking move, is starting the cheating already (Schumi Swipe off the grid), and hasn't had a problem.

Obviously he's good. But we have no proof whatsoever he's that good. When that proof comes, be it in the form of a storming drive from the back, or coping in really wet/changeable weather, or some reliability issue then I will be the first (ish) to proclaim him worthy of the hype.

Earlier you accused someone of not seeing Hamilton's strengths because they prefer Button. I accuse you (and many other people) of not seeing the lack of facts in Hamilton's favour. But Button, Rosberg, Sutil or Heidfeld in the McLaren and I bet they'd do just as good a job.

Be honest here lads Hamilton made the rest of the field look like NOOBS the only cool head in the field.

10/10 on that performance

And to use the argument of Oh but there was 4 SC periods (sorry thats just weak) he can only race in the situation he finds himself in - the other drivers around him were losing concentration that much it looked like a Noob Fest

That was one solid performance showing maturity beyond his years - so I suppose yeah he did actually learn from GP2

here a pic of RK accident

This was the first race I used the live timing data from Formula1.org and I have to say it is pretty good, knowing the timing information gives you a much better idea of how everyone is doing. Watching Hamilton peel off lap after lap that was a second or more a lap faster than anyone else until after the final saftey car was a great way to watch his progress. Frankly it was not a 'Senna' like performance, it was far more like Prost or Shumi. He did exaclty what was needed, banged in the fast laps when required and never put a wheel wrong. Accusing him of being anything other than great is like saying Ronnie O'Sullivan is not great for knocking in a 147 or similar. Yes he is 'just doing his job' but he is currently doing it better or more consistantly than everyone around him. Funnily enough that is how you win championships.

http://www.gazzetta.it/Fotogal ... 7/06_Giugno/10/KUB/22.JPG

you can see his feet in this picture,ouch ! i feared the worst when i saw the crash.he also clipped that stationary car parked against the wall,that is one hell of a lucky guy. not sure he was conscious during the crash like his team are saying though. he says he cant remember anything which is an obvious sign of concussion,i think he might not race until the latter part of the season purely for health reasons. lets hope for a speedy recovery and hopefully some tyres against that concrete wall for next year !
Tango
ps i like the montreal circuit but have always had doubts about the safety aspects of the track,ecclestone moans all the time about silverstone yet they aint no concrete walls at the edge of that track.

wow see his feet thats amazing.... good pic btw

Here is a few pics from Autosport, you can really see the energy involved and the total destruction of the car.

He's leaving hospital tomorrow. Unbelievable.

So many bizarre stories from Montreal that this one barely got any coverage.