Italian GP 2008

[Scuderia_Russ]

Oh puh-leeese. He did nothing wrong to Alonso - he didn't touch him, and was moving quicker at that time - all he did was take up the racing line.

Pushing Glock off was unfortunate, but I honestly don't think he saw him - he was looking in his mirror to the inside, presumably to try and spot him in case he was trying to come pass.

And finally the move on Webber was very similar to to what Kimi did to Lewis in the last race - and you didn't complain about it then. In fact you said that Lewis should have backed off. In this case Lewis was ahead and had the inside line.

Very typical response from a blind Hamilton lover.

Message starts off "He did nothing wrong"

Then "So and so did something similar in some other circumstance some other time and got away with it"

Yes, Lewis Hamilton fans, if you know the sport well enough, you can come up with an example of someone else doing something similar to Hamilton in the past. But seriously, Hamilton pulls this kind of sh!t almost every race now! So come up with all the excuses you like, at the end of the day, Hamilton keeps putting himself in questionable positions, which is nobody's fault but his own.

I am by no means a Hamilton fan but I can recognise that all he did was race hard. He didn't break the rules. If you watch his helmet on the Glock overtake he was looking dead ahead and not in any mirror. And if you look at the Webber overtake you will see that there was enough room for Webber except Webber turned into Hamiltons car! Anything else isn't even worth talking about.

[The FOZ]

I am by no means a Hamilton fan but I can recognise that all he did was race hard. He didn't break the rules. If you watch his helmet on the Glock overtake he was looking dead ahead and not in any mirror. And if you look at the Webber overtake you will see that there was enough room for Webber except Webber turned into Hamiltons car! Anything else isn't even worth talking about.

I don't know about you, but whenever I drive ANY car, I have the mirrors set so that I only have to shift my eyes to them, rather than crane my neck around to see in the mirror what's going on. I think it's reasonable to suspect that F1 drivers have their mirrors aimed properly, too.

[ESPImperium]

Well done to Vettel and STR.

Vettel was due a podium, and he did it with his first P1 as well, now thats the way to go!!!

First ever P1 in the shitory or Red Bull/STR and even for all the engineers at STR who are essencially the same team as was Minardi not that long ago. Those guys deserved a break in the sport.

And puts a much needed injection of life into the sport.

Im gonna say that that was the race of 2008, altho Canada and id say that Monaco are in there with a shout as well, and with Spa as well minus the controversy.

[myurr]

I am by no means a Hamilton fan but I can recognise that all he did was race hard. He didn't break the rules. If you watch his helmet on the Glock overtake he was looking dead ahead and not in any mirror. And if you look at the Webber overtake you will see that there was enough room for Webber except Webber turned into Hamiltons car! Anything else isn't even worth talking about.

I don't know about you, but whenever I drive ANY car, I have the mirrors set so that I only have to shift my eyes to them, rather than crane my neck around to see in the mirror what's going on. I think it's reasonable to suspect that F1 drivers have their mirrors aimed properly, too.

So you think that the Ferrari mirrors should be changed then? They are arguably among the worst on the grid for the reward vision they give. And we have seen both Massa and Kimi having issues with this in the past.

Don't you think that there's also just a little bit of a difference between an F1 and the cars you've been driving? In terms of G force, vibration, amount of aero parts between the mirrors and the view, size of the mirrors, etc.

So you've gone from saying that I'm a blind fanboy for mentioning events from the last race as a comparison to this race, to seriously suggesting that Hamilton is the antichrist because he's the first F1 driver ever to have issues spotting a car behind him in his mirrors?

[gcdugas]

Dispite the fantastic performance in the wet by Lewis, I was quite disappointed by him as a racer. (trying to avoid foul words now) HOW ON EARTH WASN'T HE BLACK FLAGGED? What a little bastard!

Try driving with your eyes 20 inches above the ground in that spray before you say this. I am not winking at Lewis but his were far from the only dodgy moves all day. - GCD

Apart from the things mentioned above he also nearly cut the nose off Alonso while overtaking him before T1. That's 3 dirty incidents by him + several questionable overtakings in Della Roggia (Massa was forced to fall back after a similar passing).

Overall though the race was fanatstic. I especially loved the Massa-Rosberg battle lasting the whole 1st sector non-stop! Wow!

Newey designed cars were actually better than Ferrari today. i can't really understand how Kimi set that best lap in the end as his car seemed to be all over the place every time he showed up on the screen.

It was the Carbon Industry brakes that Ferrari used. They were chosen because Monza in like Canada and very hard on the brakes. Heikki had issues with that too. Lewis's fastest laps were aided by the brakes finally coming up to temperature. Sure there was a dry line late in the race but this also aided brake temperature. - GCD

Well Vettel... he was the best ever since yesterday and till the checkered flag.

[JamesS]

Hamilton + Webber incident:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BhsmXOPO-JY

Clear cut to me. Webber drove into Hamilton.

[Scuderia_Russ]

I am by no means a Hamilton fan but I can recognise that all he did was race hard. He didn't break the rules. If you watch his helmet on the Glock overtake he was looking dead ahead and not in any mirror. And if you look at the Webber overtake you will see that there was enough room for Webber except Webber turned into Hamiltons car! Anything else isn't even worth talking about.

I don't know about you, but whenever I drive ANY car, I have the mirrors set so that I only have to shift my eyes to them, rather than crane my neck around to see in the mirror what's going on. I think it's reasonable to suspect that F1 drivers have their mirrors aimed properly, too.

Classic quote. I don't think F1 drivers crane their necks but they certainly have to turn their heads left or right to look in their mirrors.

[dumbdave]

I think Webber wasn't anticipating being hung out to dry quite so thoroughly, harsh but fair racing.

Im not sure about the comment on Coulthard damaging his car defending - Nakajima simply turned in on him, he wasnt actively defending that piece of track in any risky way, without jumping on the brakes there was no where for him to go & he had no reason to expect Nakajima would turn in before he had completed the overtake!

Hamilton is increasingly demonstrating an erily schumacheresque attitude to other drivers & in the way he overtakes cars, its had him penalised before & will likely do so again if he continues showing so little courtesy on the track. There is racing & then there is sportsmanship. Hamilton has a bit of growing up to do i think.

[gcdugas]

OK, Renault have done what I thought they never would and that is reach fourth with Toyota. I think they blew it today. If you are a mid pack team and the weather is questionable, they why do you compound risk by placing both drivers on identical strategies? When I read this article I cringe. Both cars into Q3 but no points. It can only be called a strategic blunder. Look at BMW, Robert and Nick were on different strategies. Yes Robert was outside P10 and could adjust his fuel but that is beside the point. I still think Toyota should have had at least one car on a PLANNED two stop strategy. Back when Rubens was at Ferrari and even until this day Ferrari use two different race strategies when the weather is suspect. Renault used different strategies today also. It just makes sense to hedge your bets when the weather is a big unknown. Two cars in Q3 but no points... ugggh.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

What a fantastic race, I was totally spell binded. And congratulations to Vettel and STR (I feel soooooo sorry for Bourdais tho!)

About Lewis' driving today. I feel that Glock should quite rightly feel a little agrieved by that incident, lewis wasn't looking in his mirrors there, as Martin Brundle put it, he probably wasn't even expecting Glock to be there considering Glock's line out of the corner and the subsequent traction (or rather lack of traction) he would have had. I think race control should have told Lewis to give the place back.

About the Alonso incident, okay yeh he could have cut back across Fernando a little bit later but where he did cut acorss Alonso didn't actually have to do much to avoid him, if anything at all (I've only seen head on footage as opposed to onboard with Alonso so please correct me if I'm wrong on this) but it looked a bit to me like Fernando saw Lewis cutting back across and though "Buggar me, he's comming in a bit bloody early" and swerved across a little to aviod a collision as some sort of guy insticnt reaction(I think this because Lewis still cut infront of him and never made contact, if contact was to have occured because Lewis was not totally in front of Alonso it would have heppened regardless of where Alonso turned UNLESS Fernando applied the brakes, or came off the throttle.) Hard but (just about) fair I think - if however it is shown Alonso had to slow down to aviod collision I stand corrected. If its the latter I still think Lewis had the position and should at least be given a fine...but not a time penalty...the conditions were atrotious and people were driving "badly" all over the place. (I say badly in inverted commas because it wasn't poor driving, just unusual because of the conditions if u get what I mean and I couldn't think of a better word to use)

About the Webber incident I think that's the LEAST touchy issue here. The rules state you must leave a cars width...and that is exactly what lewis did. Because Webber turned in to the corner with a Mclaren effectively parked next to him contact occured...why is it that Webber didn't take the outside line through the corner, Lewis had track position and the inside line, Webber should have given way or made an attept round the outside...he didn't and contact occured. It's clearly Webber's fault.

I like Webber, he's a character, we need characters in the sport, but all too often we see him point the blame at others, standing up high on his pedestal pointing his finger in a patronising manner, at those who've crossed his path. I Have simpathy for him somethimes, but on this occasion he has bout as many legs to stand on as a snake.

BTW, how great was it to hear the Italian national anthem ringing out for STR (and Minardi) its great to see they are still classified as an Italian team desipte the Red Bull ownership.

[yzfr7]

I like Webber, he's a character, we need characters in the sport, but all too often we see him point the blame at others, standing up high on his pedestal pointing his finger in a patronising manner, at those who've crossed his path. I Have simpathy for him somethimes, but on this occasion he has bout as many legs to stand on as a snake.

Well, in the end, not even Webber said anything about the incident. He waved his hand at the time, but not a word after it. That says it all. Or not?

And what about Piquet, what a huge fuel load for him. I really thought there wasn't such big tanks in F1 anymore.

[modbaraban]

Well, I agree that with Webber it was the most marginal case. It's Webber who turned into Lewis, but of course there wasn't any room left in the corner. I think most would just drive straight ahead cutting the chicane in that situation.

With Glock it was blatent, purposeful or not. He should have left enough room at least assuming that the car that was there a second ago might still be somewhere around.

I didn't notice any news on Hamilton apologies. I guess that was just all right for him.

With Fernando it seemed to be something personal. Like "serves you right for whinging the 2nd season in a row" or something. A bit of a revenge or punishment. That's my personal perception though.

I am not winking at Lewis but his were far from the only dodgy moves all day. - GCD

Care to name a few? You see. I really did enjoy the race. The others seemed to fight with great sportsmansip, several times the newly clarified rule was followed too. Well, apart from Nakajima doing Sato-like kamikazi move in parabolica I guess it's the best race of the season (even regardless the unbelievable result). It kept me on my toes from start to finish.

[jon-mullen]

I'll make no bones about it and make my biases clear: I love Alonso and really don't care for Hamilton. That said, I think Hamilton's pass on Alonso today was fair and if any two guys should be allowed to race each other hard, it's those two.

However, some of Hamilton's passes have been less than brilliant. Seeing him start from that far back in the pack reminded me of Interlagos last year. Of course he had every reason in the world to race that one hard and finish as best he could, but he acted like other cars owed it to him to get out of the way because he was racing for a championship. I think he does believe some of his own hype and his ego certainly isn't deflated by the awesome performance of the MP4.

[modbaraban]

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to prove some conspiracy theory, or anything, but did anyone notice a black/white flag TV overlay with McLaren-Mercedes written next to it and no driver name?

[shotzski]

Yes I believe Lewis's moves on other drivers were shocking, but I think he just showed them how it's like to drive with in the rules, literally. After all, it's his co-drivers who have said that there are rules, therefore he rightfully should be penalized. And now, they are the ones complaining. His overtake move on Alonso I think was personal. (I don't mean to offend anyone) Alonso wouldn't stop talking, being bitter. So I guess it's a little payback. Peace!