2016 F1 Spanish Grand Prix

[Roman]

I am already looking forward to the frame-by-frame discussions and proofs that Ham/Ros is to blame
Can someone please hand me some Popcorn?

[wesley123]

Oh please. Respect? For years everybody kept saying Nico is not aggressive and does not have the spark in him that world champions do. Now when he defended his position, you are saying he was wrong? Stop being biased, and stop defending Hamilton blindly. There was no room on the track, Nico covered the track before any part of the Hamilton's car was alongside. Hamilton should have braked, that's all.

Edit: Offense was multiple times more aggressive than the defense, don't forget that. Rosberg was leading, why should he leave any room when he is not entilted to? (Lauda's words).

Oh sure, I'm defending Hamilton. I already said it: They are both equally stupid. They were both to blame.

However, that doesn't change that a bit of decency on track isn't too much to ask. Rosberg crossed the whole track in his defensive move. That's a bit over-the-top and I'm surprised that isn't illegal

[GrayGreat]

Oh please. Respect? For years everybody kept saying Nico is not aggressive and does not have the spark in him that world champions do. Now when he defended his position, you are saying he was wrong? Stop being biased, and stop defending Hamilton blindly. There was no room on the track, Nico covered the track before any part of the Hamilton's car was alongside. Hamilton should have braked, that's all.

Edit: Offense was multiple times more aggressive than the defense, don't forget that. Rosberg was leading, why should he leave any room when he is not entilted to? (Lauda's words).

Oh sure, I'm defending Hamilton. I already said it: They are both equally stupid. They were both to blame.

However, that doesn't change that a bit of decency on track isn't too much to ask. Rosberg crossed the whole track in his defensive move. That's a bit over-the-top and I'm surprised that isn't illegal

There is no such rule.

[Just_a_fan]

It reminds me of a similar crowding of Alonso by Rosberg in Bahrain 2012. That time the outside of the track wasn't bumpy grass...

[GrayGreat]

Sounds like a bit of respect to me to not cross the whole track to defend. The defense was waaaay too agressive

Oh please. Respect? For years everybody kept saying Nico is not aggressive and does not have the spark in him that world champions do. Now when he defended his position, you are saying he was wrong? Stop being biased, and stop defending Hamilton blindly. There was no room on the track, Nico covered the track before any part of the Hamilton's car was alongside. Hamilton should have braked, that's all.

Edit: Offense was multiple times more aggressive than the defense, don't forget that. Rosberg was leading, why should he leave any room when he is not entilted to? (Lauda's words).

That's not all. Lewis didn't defend aggressively when nico passed him before, so why Nico shouldn't do the same as far as he knew he was too slow before the corner ?

It's Hamilton's fault if he did not defend. Its not a friendly soccer game. It's formula 1. Guy in front can do pretty much what he want unless someone is alongside him before the defensive move or if he moves twice, and both these things did not happen as far as I am aware.

[GrayGreat]

On another note, Hamilton has ran Rosberg off the track plenty of times in the past, where were all of you people back then?

[zeph]

In fairness, HAM avoided ROS and went onto the grass, which is how he lost control and spun. ROS closed the door, but that's what you're supposed to do when you lead.

Racing incident.

[Just_a_fan]

However, that doesn't change that a bit of decency on track isn't too much to ask. Rosberg crossed the whole track in his defensive move. That's a bit over-the-top and I'm surprised that isn't illegal

There is no such rule.

There is a general rule about crowding and "abnormal change of direction". The question, of course, is how does one define "abnormal"? Usually there is the defence of "taking his normal line" such as at the exit of a corner where the line goes out to the track edge.

The stewards will decide and until then it's all just jaw-jaw.

[jurinius]

Oh please. Respect? For years everybody kept saying Nico is not aggressive and does not have the spark in him that world champions do. Now when he defended his position, you are saying he was wrong? Stop being biased, and stop defending Hamilton blindly. There was no room on the track, Nico covered the track before any part of the Hamilton's car was alongside. Hamilton should have braked, that's all.

Edit: Offense was multiple times more aggressive than the defense, don't forget that. Rosberg was leading, why should he leave any room when he is not entilted to? (Lauda's words).

That's not all. Lewis didn't defend aggressively when nico passed him before, so why Nico shouldn't do the same as far as he knew he was too slow before the corner ?

It's Hamilton's fault if he did not defend. Its not a friendly soccer game. It's formula 1. Guy in front can do pretty much what he want unless someone is alongside him before the defensive move or if he moves twice, and both these things did not happen as far as I am aware.

Great I was expecting this kind of answer "it is not a friendly bla bla" Racing drivers follow official rules but many times they are doing thing on the track for the best, eg "Let someone have a clean way even under blue flag waving". Rosberg is the championship leader now, we can say that Lewis has nothing to loose here if this is going to happen again. Lets see then Nico muscle until the end...

[Shrieker]

Hamilton shouldn't have gone onto the grass, he should've stayed on the tarmac and let Rosberg hit him instead.
It'd be %100 Rosberg, no questions asked then.

[DeanHP]

My first post after being a serial stalker on this site!

I think ROS probably saw HAM move to the inside and just underestimated how quickly he was coming through and closed the door.

HAM probably thought ROS was going to leave a car width and wouldn't be too aggressive. With that closing speed there was no way he would have been able to move to the outside so he had to take to the grass.

Racing incident for me! Quite disappointed that Lauda came out with strong comments already. I wish we had more footage!

[Shrieker]

On another note, this has turned out to be quite nice for F1.
First time the top 4 are in the same shot since black&white tv as David Croft puts it

[matt_b]

Lewis had nowhere to go but the grass but fortunately for him he took Nico out on his way to the gravel or it would've been another boring race with Nico unchallenged. We actually have a race today between 4 drivers, enjoy it!!!

[SectorOne]

"any driver defending his position on a straight and before any braking area may use the full width of the track during his first move provided no significant portion of the car attempting to pass is alongside his. Whilst defending in this way the driver may not leave the track without justifiable reason."

"For the avoidance of doubt, if any part of the front wing of the car attempting to pass is alongside the rear wheel of the car in front this will be deemed to be a 'significant portion"

It all comes down to whether or not Hamilton had his front wing next to Rosberg´s rear wheels before leaving the track.

It was bound to happen this, two never give up drivers going at it will eventually cause friction.
I´m actually surprised it hasn´t happened more often.

[wesley123]

Rosberg left more than enough space on the left, Hamilton's at fault.
What a bunch of nagging fanboys here.

You can't really move to the left when you are already on the right