Canadian GP 2008

[Ray]

The only reason that Lewis was behind both Kimi and Robert after their stops is because he was lighter than both by a good bit. I hate to see accidents, but it's worse when the crap that ITV spews is hit by daylight. I'm also really tired of seeing the face of Anthony Hamilton. I wish I could flip a switch and make it illegal to show that man on TV for good. He had nothing to do with the incident at all, yet the TV went to him. For what? I didn't know this was the Hamilton Bunch. Get away from him and for good.

FOX did a horrible job overall televising the race. Luckily Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett were on to make it bearable. No prerace show, they started the coverage about halfway through the formation lap, and no interviews! Christ! I can't wait till SpeedTV gets back to covering it, even though they are owned by FOX, at least they don't suck.

One more shot. I read on a forum that Lewis hit Kimi because he was texting Peter Windsor how good he was doing in the race! What? I thought it was funny!

[mike]

i think it good for Hamilton
at least he can now be called the "moving chicane" as oppose to standing 1s

[flynfrog]

The only reason that Lewis was behind both Kimi and Robert after their stops is because he was lighter than both by a good bit. I hate to see accidents, but it's worse when the crap that ITV spews is hit by daylight. I'm also really tired of seeing the face of Anthony Hamilton. I wish I could flip a switch and make it illegal to show that man on TV for good. He had nothing to do with the incident at all, yet the TV went to him. For what? I didn't know this was the Hamilton Bunch. Get away from him and for good.

FOX did a horrible job overall televising the race. Luckily Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett were on to make it bearable. No prerace show, they started the coverage about halfway through the formation lap, and no interviews! Christ! I can't wait till SpeedTV gets back to covering it, even though they are owned by FOX, at least they don't suck.

One more shot. I read on a forum that Lewis hit Kimi because he was texting Peter Windsor how good he was doing in the race! What? I thought it was funny!

I expected the covrage to be terrible but wow not that bad.

On the other hand I can only read about half of your post then I get distracted by the kitty

[JiMbO]

perhaps antony hamilton should be driving the mcclaren instead of lewis.... at least when he crashes its into a childrens playground instead of the back of a ferrari

[timbo]

Congratz to BMW, thumbs down to Lewis, that's all obvious. I'd like to mention Massa's performance over last few races - he does good, showing pace and ability to fight thru the circumstances.

[bizadfar]

Well... I heard many times that the Mercedes' version of i-drive is overcomplicated and shouldn't be used for tunning the radio when approaching the traffic lights Turns out to be true...

Smells like team orders.

More than obvious. And good for them. Surely they had no clue about upcoming gearbox failure on Alonso's car. The dicision was made by the team, who favored 1-Robert 2-Nick 3-Fernando, over 1-Nick 2-Fernando 3-Robert. They didn't favor Kubica, but more like favored the 1-2 And that is 100% justified as for me. This team is amazingly efficient and Nick did a tremendous job too holding back Alonso.

PS: I think if Alonso would be out of the race before Nick let Kubica pass, we'd see some racing between the BMWs and a 'frozen order' after Kubica's pitstop.

disagree, we have seen Ferrari many times cover off the same situation easily. Ie Kubica pits early, Heidfield holds the crap out of Alonso. When it's time for Alonso's stop, too late.
Even I bet Kubica didn't need to pit earlier to overcome Alonso, he was evidently on the wrong strategy.

[enkidu]

I quite like Lewis's driving style, to be truthful he is a breath of fresh air for F1.

But.... The accident did make me wonder. He was heading for Kubica originally, now you can look at this 2 ways. He was just trying to steer clear of both cars or he realised he wouldn't stop he aimed for Kimi. What a great move! Take out the main title challenger, exactly what I would have done. Plus Lewis and Kubica are friends off track and have been racing together since karting. Did make me chuckle

[ben_watkins]

It was a bad mistake to make by Hamilton.. Which will cost him quite dear this championship..

But how come Kimi didn't get a penalty this race from his crash into Sutil at Monaco 2 weeks ago?

[Ted68]

It was a bad mistake to make by Hamilton.. Which will cost him quite dear this championship..

But how come Kimi didn't get a penalty this race from his crash into Sutil at Monaco 2 weeks ago?

In my opinion, the Monaco incident was a racing accident whereas the Montreal shunt was from drivers who weren't paying attention.

[axle]

Lewis is going to have to take the blame for a silly mistake...he'll move on but a more humble "I cocked up" interview would have been better received.

I though McLaren had judged the pit lane situation well...they put more fuel in Lewis - fueled him {edit][-]to the END[/-] longer than everyone else...because they didn't want him to waste time waiting at the end of the pitlane...without the 2 cars parked he'd have been able to just slow and then sail through the lights...brimmed full and able to take an easy win.

But at the critical moment and in the midst of a hectic pitlane he forgot to check the light, what a newbie mistake...probably looking at his telemetry...

Really silly mistake, one you should just hold your hands up to. It was nothing like Kimi's crash in Monaco.

I don't agree with the 10 place penalties for him and Rosberg. I think it's too harsh. 5 places maximum, if you must...though I wouldn't have penalised Nico - he was following Lewis who by hitting Kimi pulled up in a much shorter distance (suddenly)...Nico only tapped Lewis and I think it's a bit harsh.

What a mess...

But congrats to Kubica, he's at least won a GP now...and the WDC is definately going to be interesting this year.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

Argh talk about frustration...I couldn't believe it!

End of the day he cocked up, can't say more than that, we all make mistakes. Although this incident does bring me back to an old theory of mine that I started thinking about when Masaa & Montoya were both DQ'd for jumping the red light at Montreal...

...You know how at the start of the GP formation laps the teams somehow feel the need to pass on infrmation such as "Don't forget to warm the tyres" (Humm...I wondered what all those other cars were weaving on the track for?!) now if they REALLY feel the need to pass on such useless, basic information at the start of the GP why on earth do they not say to the driver as he leaves his pitbox "Red light @ end of pitlane...stop for it." seeing as stopping for a redlight is JUST AS BASIC as warming your tyres. I find it astonishing that teams fail to do such a simple task in order to preserve a race finish. Look were it got them back in '05 and now...DNF, what a lot of good that does you eh?!

I must admit I found Kimi's comments a bit laughable (but expected and understandable) He called Lewis' mistake "Stupid" but did admit that "people make mistakes, I did at Monaco" but highlighted the differences between crashing at 300KPH and at pitlane speeds. Fair point...BUT...

1. Kimi ploughed into the back of Sutil at Monaco when there was no overtaking manouvre
2. In a race which should have been all about damage limitation for him by that point.
3. whilst pushing (too) hard on the FIRST LAP after a safety car period (stupid mistake IMHO)
4. And more so because he wasn't exactly under huge pressure from behind forcing him to pish so hard.

So Kimi, point taken, but I see both incidents as equally stupid, caused by the same motivation (Focuses on moving up the field after a safety car perios) but in different circumstances. However I still stand by the fact that Kimi's was a racing incident, thus you CANNOT justify penalising him for it, however lewis' accident was an unwarrented error, and 100% deserves some sort of penalty.

spekaing of which, It's a shame about the 10-place grid penalties, (from a Lewis & Nico supporters' viewpoint) I thought maybe a 5-place penalty would suffice, but you can't argue with it, Lewis caused an avoidable accident...I AM however pleased to see the rules being enforced across the board, in that Nico was also penalised for the same thing.

On a more positive note...totally chuffed for Robert, I'm a huge fan of his and its delightful to see him bag his forst GP win, which perosnally I think is thouroughly desereved.

The accident did make me wonder. He was heading for Kubica originally, now you can look at this 2 ways. He was just trying to steer clear of both cars or he realised he wouldn't stop he aimed for Kimi. What a great move! Take out the main title challenger, exactly what I would have done. Plus Lewis and Kubica are friends off track and have been racing together since karting. Did make me chuckle

I doubt that's the case, its a fair and cynical point to make, but he braked so late I doubt he'd have had the time to choose a target and justify it in his mind. If you look at the replays the only area of space for him to aim for is to the left of Kimi, to the right of Robert there's nothing but wall. End of the day he'd have much rather have finished the race than take out Kimi, as he looked set t win it.

Oh and Kimi talking about it costing him victory...I seriously doubt it.

[sebbe]

Kubica was already passing by Ferrari's garage at a steady speed and Kimi chose to go out and put his car side by side with Kubica.
Why isn't he penalized for doing that? He sure was trying to gain an additional position, but you shouldn't be able to do that in the pits.

My question is very simple "Is it legal to drive on the right side of the street in the pits?"
Kimi was clearly on the left side of the blue strip that divides the garage zone and the street zone.

Thank you

[timbo]

1. Kimi ploughed into the back of Sutil at Monaco when there was no overtaking manouvre
2. In a race which should have been all about damage limitation for him by that point.
3. whilst pushing (too) hard on the FIRST LAP after a safety car period (stupid mistake IMHO)
4. And more so because he wasn't exactly under huge pressure from behind forcing him to pish so hard.

OK, OK
So there's NO difference between driving at Monaco at the RAIN (also do you think following another car with today's car aero much helps braking?) and cruising at limiter at dry Montreal pit-lane (one of the widest in the Championship btw).
Yeah, it's mistakes, but the degree of stupidity is a bit different to me.

Hamilton makes stupid mistakes. Part of his style (China, Brazil, Bahrein...).

I bet he was screaming - F**k red car's ahead of me!!!! Then... oops it stands still...

[WhiteBlue]

Kubica was already passing by Ferrari's garage at a steady speed and Kimi chose to go out and put his car side by side with Kubica.
Why isn't he penalized for doing that? He sure was trying to gain an additional position, but you shouldn't be able to do that in the pits.

My question is very simple "Is it legal to drive on the right side of the street in the pits?"
Kimi was clearly on the left side of the blue strip that divides the garage zone and the street zone.

Thank you

There is no rule that you cannot race in the pit lane. Speed is limited but you can race and overtake other cars left or right as you like.

You can even pass the checkered flag in the pit lane and it counts for the lap as Schumacher and Ferrari demonstrated in Silverstone. you can do everything that isn't explicitly forbidden.

the restrictions work the other way round. team members are not allowed to work in the fast lane except when a car is starting from the pits. they also may not be in the slow garage lane at any other time but directly before a pit stop and during a pit stop. this is all indicating that the pit lane is racing territory.

[JamesS]

I bet he was screaming - F**k red car's ahead of me!!!! Then... oops it stands still...

He panicked, no doubt about it.

Bloody shame we have to wait two weeks for another race.