KICK ralf out!

[Steven]

for me this is it!
Ralf must be kicked out of formula one, if not possible today, at least at the end of the season.

Apparently he does not know the meaning of a blue flag. All credit to Fernando, who did his very best for the race, until finally he came across a Williams car

ooooooooooh I'm sooo furious aaaaaaaaaarggghhh

[KeithYoung]

he did nothing wrong. Alonso should have passed at nouvelle. You cant go in the marbles around that corner and expect things to go smooth. Ralf did nothing wrong, and I have seen much worse from lapped cars and they got no punishment.

[Steven]

I don't think so, seen from the camera in the tunnel, Ralf did give full throttle still when he saw Alonso coming, and that is really not what I would expect from a car that is a lap down.

Ok if both men were battling for a position, but that was not the case for sure

[KeithYoung]

Ralf was at full throttle and Alonso was already faster, so why let off when he was obviously going to be passed by the chicane anyway? Why should he lose time in an unconventional spot for the same outcome? Its easiest to let them by under braking, where the slower car can brake early, there was a perfect oportunity less than 10 seconds away. If i were ralf, I would be going as fast as I could to get to that chicane, cause you wouldnt expect Alonso to pass in the tunnel, and taking your time to get there will only slow both you and alonso down. Ralf did nothing wrong, any other driver would have done the same as him, and would have been right in doing it.

[rumpelstulskin]

i think it is again a question of schumacher brothers "not seeing" things when they are being passed. ralf had seen alonso and it might be ore prudent to pass at the chicane but if alonso is passing in the tunnel let him go, why drive him to the wires .. it is upto the FIA really but somewhere the FIA should send a signal to the lapped cars to let the real battle go on.

[Steven]

first of all, I think Alonso is a fair enough driver to know whether he should be disappointed in himself, or be angry about another driver... and he sure was angry about Ralf.
second, I am quite sure they did not touch, but I think it is in ralfs obligation to let a FAR quicker driver pass by, even if he loses time by that. He just kept pushing in the tunnel, while if he would have backed off just a little during accelleration, Alonso would have passed before the tunnel.
third, it's no coincidence at all that it are always dubious incidents with ralf this year. he seems to be a magnet to alonso, as well as his brother is to montoya

[rob2004]

get off your high horses....

if there is anyone who was a nuisance today it was nick heidfeld and da matta

ralf had been slow but before they went into the tunnel there was still quite a difference between them

with regards to michaels warming up his brakes in the tunnel
i put that at the same level as alonso's ambitious move on ralf just stupid

you can understand michael and alonso being very pissed off tho'

in the end the fault lies by the people that didn't get the points so schumi and alonso

[Monstrobolaxa]

Usually when I'm in a race I only let someone pass (after being shown the blue flag) in a braking area....it might be true that in Ralfs case he didn't help Alonso at all, but in terms of aceleration both cars are relativly close to each other so in the tunnel probably ralf thought that Alonso wouldn't have the balls...and would pass him in the braking area. If I was Ralf I would exactly what he did.....go flat out in the tunnel and brake eariler (a thing that he has become used to...according to P. Head ). Another thing is that blue flags are essentially showed before braking areas or on long straights.

It's easy for us that are watching to coment on what a driver did or didn't do....but don't forget that if you were in their seat you don't know what you would do, even if you think you would ease of before the tunnel....with their experience you'd know that it wouldn't be very good for your lap time. And besides that we're all watching the race from our couch...they're in a car doing over 200km/h under 3m from the barriers...suffering over 2 g's in most corners...so mentally they're tierd and physically too.

In spite the fact of hateing Ralf....and being a Alonso fan, I really think Alonso has most of the blame.

[pompelmo]

Alonso made a big mistake, NOT Ralf
Who overtakes someone in a tunnel???? No one!
Even I do not overtake slow cars in tunnels!
That is simply stupid!The drivers see in tunnels verry little!
If I was Alonso I would wait for another 300m to overtake Ralf
in the schicane!
Alonso probably didn't know that the tarmac is very slippery in the tunnel
especialy on the dirty side of the track!

[inspectah]

You seem to be forgetting that in the situation alonso was driving away from michael schumacher, so every second he spent behind the younger schumi was a second that schumacher was going to catch him. So he wanted to get past ralf, but ralf didnät seem to want to let him. That is why he had to try overtaking in the tunnel. Ralf shouldn't have held him behind so long.

[Guest]

Ralf is one shi%%y asw&pe, ain't he? Hehe one just gets the feeling that one of these days someone's just going to 'ave a go at him (I'd just like to see a pit-lane brawl hehe).

Ok after looking back at the race, IMO this is what happened:
- RS held up FA from around Noghes corner onwards
- RS would not let FA pass under blue flags
- RS slows down before start of tunnel, FA takes opportunty to pass
- RS accelerates, not allowing FA to pass
- FA has no option but to stay on outside line
- FA loses control and hits wall
- FA uses colorful gesticulation at RS while reversing in a cloud of smoke, debris and sparks
- RS has a wry smile, then gives himself a mental note to add another tally to his 'how to f*&k everyone else up while I'm still allowed an F1 car" list

[Guest]

ralf admitted in German television he had only gears 1to 4 left ,so he cought trulli a bit by surprisenot going faster thru the tunnel,he had no option other than to overtake really so really it was ralf being an idiot..he could not even have raced baumgartner

[Guest]

lol. i dont think they will kick ralf out for that... especially since he didnt do anything wrong... toomba, you from spain?

[Steven]

no I'm from Belgium

But... let's say I support good drivers that take a chance once and a while. You haven't seen Kimi doing that stupid when he had to let pass someone in the past races.

Ralf is simply annoying me (and many others) the last years, with this year simply being incredible. Some examples:

- bump into Sato at Bahrain "not saw it coming"
- hit alonso when he was at the inside in Imola (he probably didn't see that either)
- push Alonso in a fight when he should simply let him pass in Monaco (well.. stupid or blind then)

[Renault-BAR]

Well, while I think that Ralf is mainly at fault here, I think that Alonso should have been more careful. I like his agressive style, don't get me wrong (just look back to Sepang and Australia where he literality used the whole width starting straight, grass included to overtake).

But I don't think that Alonso should have been aggressive at this track, although he was being pressured by Michael and had to do something. Michael was almost three seconds behind anyway. Obviously being a Renault fan I was really disappointed but Alonso should be blamed also.

Coming back to slower cars being lap and ignoring blue flags. Renault were really slowed down alot by slower cars. That's one of the reasons why MS got closer to them. And then later on while being pressured by Button, Trulli was slowed down by Heidfeld although Heidfeld could have allowed Trulli to pass at the hairpin. IMO, Heidfeld probably deserved the drive through penalty more than da Matta did.