You're right. Kimi could have completely surrendered, pulled over, and let Perez drive by. However, since we are talking about a race and not a leisurely Sunday drive, that isn't a real option. You don't become world champion by letting someone steal your position by taking a line they can't hold.GrizzleBoy wrote:No he would not.
Raikonnen took an abnormal line into the chicane.
The normal line is to brake on the right and swoop left, which is why Checo made previous overtakes. He put his car up the inside (left) while cars were braking on the right.
Kimi was drifting to the left before he even got to the turn, BUT he had the whole other half of the track to position himself if he needed to abort his move.
Perez on the other hand could only brake harder and lock up to try and abort his move as Kimi gave basically no room to even abort his move once he committed.
The fact of the matter is that BOTH drivers made aggressive moves. Kimi is not innocent in this.
Like I said earlier, if Grosjean was sitting in that Lotus, we'd right now be talking about his lack of spatial awareness and how Button/Alonso were able to defend without making contact and all he could do was drive someone into a wall (which is against the rules).
But it's Kimi, so meh.
Compare it to the overtake on Alonso. His entry position there is a full car width to the right. Kimi's line was the line that Perez took on Alonso and Kimi took that line before Perez was alongside. There is no line inside of that. To someone who has never driven a race car it may look like there is, but it is an illusion. Anyone with more than a few hours of seat time should know that. There is a reason that not one other driver is on Perez's side, they know he made a dumb move.