Bahrain GP 2012 - Sakhir

[Shaddock]

The latest rule applies while returning to the racing line to enter the next corner, after you've made your defensive move, where you must leave at least a car's width to the outside. This does not apply here as in the first incident Hamilton did overtake Rosberg by driving off track, so was already ahead of him when Rosberg was returning to the racing line, and in the second incident Rosberg did leave enough room for Alonso on the outside before entering the next corner.

Still looking for an answer as to why Hamilton was not penalized for going off track to overtake Rosberg. I'm not saying I want Hamilton to get a penalty, but if Rosberg didn't push Hamilton out of the track, which is what the stewards are saying, then Hamilton chose to go off track to overtake!

The last line of the Steward's statement re: Hamilton is more instructive:

6. Had a significant portion of Car 4 been alongside that of Car 8 whilst Car 4 still remained within the confines of the track, then the actions of Car 8 may not have been considered legitimate.

No lack of 'consistency' from Steward's re: Hamilton-Rosberg and Alonso-Rosberg decisions as both summaries and conclusions are identical. #howtheirony

sAx

This look like a significant portion of Lewis's car was alongside Nico's, possibly 3/4 of it whilst he was still on the track as dipping the two wheel doesn't count.



Now they are running side by side with Nico having two wheel off the track on a straight.



This must have been a very close call. But I'd rather the stewards be lenient than over zealous as in previous years.

[RB7ate9]

This must have been a very close call. But I'd rather the stewards be lenient than over zealous as in previous years.

I concur. I believe the zealotry that is happening with folks demanding action on Rosberg stems from how much the stewards have been previously handing out penalties, much to the chagrin of people just wanting racing on the track and letting the drivers do their thing.

If the investigation has yielded no penalties, it is my hope that actual dangerous and malicious behavior between drivers (rather than drivers taking risks for race advantage) are penalized; the incidents such as the Rosberg/Hamilton and Rosberg/Alonso are the results of racing (i.e. these are ok, but Schumacher/Barichello last year(?) is not).

Otherwise, cracking good result from Lotus, they had it all put together with speed (though the first and second sectors were still suited to Red Bull). Webber...*sigh* he's being consistent, but no podiums aren't doing him any favors. With the race between Mclaren, Mercedes, Lotus(now), Red Bull, and hopefully Ferrari/Sauber, consistency will boost the WCC, but keep Webber in 3rd at most in the WDC. Bring on the European Leg!

[GrizzleBoy]

I think it's important to properly analyze the statement made by the stewards.

I'll substitute "car 4" and "car 8" with "Hamilton" and "Rosberg".

6. Had a significant portion of Hamiltons car been alongside that of Rosbergs car whilst Hamiltons car still remained within the confines of the track, then the actions of Rosberg may not have been considered legitimate.

Looking at the images above, it shows Hamilton is clearly somewhat alongside Rosberg, but he has two wheels off track.

The stewards are saying that if he had arrived in this position with his car on the track and Rosberg proceeded to put his wheels off the road, then they MAY have seen the situation differently in terms of punishing Rosberg.

As it stands, they see Hamiltons going off as a racing incident and not a breaking of the rules.

Keep in mind that they never say that Rosberg did not budge Hamilton way off track and in part of their analysis, excuse Rosberg saying that he probably wouldn't have seen Hamilton (although that kind of doesn't make sense considering the move was supposed to be defending against a car he knew was there).

I think the reason they excuse Hamilton going round the outside is that they acknowledge the boistrousness of the move (even if it was within their permissable limits), the fact that Rosberg did indeed assist in putting Hamilton out there and that Hamilton was already being punished enough by having McLaren for his pit crew that day (lol).

[foxmulder_ms]

How cool a guy Raikkonen is He have no emotion at all during press conference. only "yeeeah I am disappointed"


Also, what a terrible job from Mclaren, hugely surprised by that.

Edit:

oh by the way, I found Alonso's cry after the Rosberg incident just pathetic.

[AnthonyG]

How cool a guy Raikkonen is He have no emotion at all during press conference. only "yeeeah I am disappointed"

He won't say it out loud, but Raikkonen wants this years title and he hopes he makes a chance for it...

[Hail22]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fbfTnyQ1Q[/youtube]

[raymondu999]

How cool a guy Raikkonen is He have no emotion at all during press conference. only "yeeeah I am disappointed"

He won't say it out loud, but Raikkonen wants this years title and he hopes he makes a chance for it...

It was absolutely surreal seeing the Lotus hunt down the Red Bull, more so since they have the same engine - the performance difference would have to be down to the chassis.

Blame aside for the Rosberg v Alonso/Hamilton situations; I thought it was weird seeing him do that. Rosberg has usually been very docile if someone makes a move on him. I remember seeing Turkey last year Rosberg was just creamed around the outside at the last corner by Jenson Button. Not normal given that the last corner is a hairpin. Then we had Vettel (who let's face it - overtaking is not one of his stronger traits) just fly around the outside of him at places like Blanchimont and Turn 9 in Melbourne. This was a lot less docile (I thought) than that. I wonder if there's an element of being sort of "self-starstruck" for Rosberg. Kinda like, "I'm a winner now - I'm one of you boys. You can't push ME around."

[cheapracer]

then why would ****** willingly drive his car off track and into a massively dusty area?

Because they are F1 drivers who got there partly by not lifting where others might.

hamilton should have been penalized since he overtook rosberg off the track

If Rosberg himself had not also left the track that might have played out however ...

[jamsbong]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fbfTnyQ1Q[/youtube]

I think it is cool that Rosberg (indirectly) point out that Alonso's interpretation of the rules is incorrect. hahaha...
Also it has been good to see that the stewards has not gone crazy about penalty and publishes their reasons for it. Welldone!
Alonso is currently beating himself up for not knowing the rules earlier.

How cool a guy Raikkonen is He have no emotion at all during press conference. only "yeeeah I am disappointed"

He won't say it out loud, but Raikkonen wants this years title and he hopes he makes a chance for it...

Kimi is the king of understatement. Thus famously known as the Iceman. He always let his action speaks his mind. The aggressive charge through the top 10 is so typical of Kimi. It is the Kimi that all fans love to see.
With exception of China, he has improved every race. One more place to go, 1st place on the next race??

[jamsbong]

On side observation. Vettel is back again. he had taken 3 races to come on strong. I think it is partly because he didn't had a chance to test the new (Sauber-ish) exhaust pre-season.
That's why he went as far as to revert back to old specs to make sure he has a familiar car to drive in China.
Finally, he has caught up with the understanding of the Sauber exhaust and is able to tune the car to his liking.
Webber has a good pre-season session and this gave him great advantage on the 1st few race.

[cheapracer]

Kimi is the king of understatement. Thus famously known as the Iceman.

Great driver but he obviously is inarticulate and inarticulateness should not be mistaken for "cool".

[raymondu999]

I never saw that as inarticulate. He's an out and out racer - and he just doesn't like the media. He feels it's unnecessary, that's all.

As a small anecdote - I chased him down in the paddock once - and as I called him out, he looked at my direction with his Oakley shades, smiled, waved, and jogged away. He kept periodically looking back to see if I was still pursuing him, which I was, but the smile was always there. He finally stopped, smiled, put his hands on his hips and looked at me. I caught up. All I wanted was a photograph together and an autograph.

As I was brandishing my autograph book and a pen - he said cheekily, "I just wanted to see if you were willing to chase me to get the photo."

He's a great guy Kimi. His nonchalance I feel should not be misconstrued as inarticulateness - he just can't be bothered to talk to the media.

[jamsbong]

Kimi is the king of understatement. Thus famously known as the Iceman.

Great driver but he obviously is inarticulate and inarticulateness should not be mistaken for "cool".

I actually understand everything he says and prefers his way to explaining things as it is concise and not tediously long.

[Maelstrom]

Kimi is the king of understatement. Thus famously known as the Iceman.

Great driver but he obviously is inarticulate and inarticulateness should not be mistaken for "cool".

He's a driver not a public speaker. He doesn't need to be articulate. He does his talking on the track. Also he's known as the iceman more for his calm, unruffled approach than public speaking skills.

[raymondu999]

Speaking of the circuit - why do you folks think the Renault engine was so mighty here? I thought of engine cooling requirements but then decided that can't be it - as we didn't really have engine issues. All I can think of is maybe a torque curve that's very drivable under traction and so reduced wheelspin out of the traction zones.