2012 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE

[acosmichippo]

F*** maldonado. Twice he forces other drivers off the track to overtake them, and then has the gall to blame hamilton for the incident for not leaving him enough room. Can't have it both ways, man. I pretty much like all the drivers on the grid, but not him. The dude's reckless and childish.

Great job to ferrari for staying out of trouble and capitalizing on the opportunity. Same for Schumacher.

[madbrad]

Please dont crash into lewis at turn one pastor

You were close.

Indeed

Seriously, that was an eerie prediction. Kudos to you!

[acosmichippo]

Right, this is my take on the incident involving Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton.

First of all, it's a very difficult scenario with mitigating circumstances. It's still being discussed over in the stewards office and I fully expect Pastor to be penalised.

What seemed to cause a heated altercation in the chatroom (and yes I am still a little offended... see my earlier post a few pages back), was that I feel the blame for the accident ITSELF lies entirely with Maldonado. Yes, he was run off road, but Pastor did EXACTLY the same to Kimi Raikkonen earlier in the race. Kimi had the sense to back out, and the crash was duly avoided.

When Pastor was put in the same position, which often happens with overtaking "attempts" such as these, he made a point of driving all over the off-road section and ploughing straight back onto the circuit. This was only ever going to result in a collision.

However, what upsets me more, is that Pastor is renowned for getting far too reckless in these heated battles, and Lewis should have taken this into account. His tyres were shot, and Maldonado had the pace. He was going to get by at some point, and I think Lewis was silly to try and prevent this. Sharing track-space with Maldonado will always end in tears, and he still went ahead and tried to tame him.

Following Sebastian Vettel's retirement, the WCC was looking good for McLaren. But now, it's worse than ever.

So in summary, Pastor was entirely to blame for the accident, but Lewis, I think, should've foreseen disaster as soon as the Williams was in his mirrors.

I agree with you entirely. I don't know what happened during the live chat, but don't let the dickweeds around here get to you too bad. That being said, hindsight is 20/20, so I'm fine with Hamilton for fighting for position so late in the race. Someone has to tech Maldonado he can't just force other drivers off their line however he pleases - I mean obviously the stewards aren't going to teach him this.

[acosmichippo]

Can someone explain to me why Alonso did not get penalized for not returning to the winners circle with his car...does that not constitute a penalty? I remember a few races back when a Maclaren did not have enough fuel to return , they were disqualified...what am I missing??

That's your first post??
viewforum.php?f=14

Way to give a warm welcome. This is exactly what is wrong with this place.

[spankyham]

Super drive by Alonso, he definitely needed some luck, but he got it and took full advantage. It was also pleasing to see, at the end of the race that he was able to manage the gap to the cars immediately behind him. I'd assess that as the F2012 is about equal in pace to the Lotus and McLaren.

The real story though IMO is the speed of the Red Bull.

[geetface9]

Maldonado.My absolute worst driver on the grid. He cant do close racing , I knew he'd do that.

Don't blame Maldonado for what happened it was Hamilton fault for not letting him pass knowing that his tires were gone for good. Not very smart for him. Being stubborn sometimes doesn't pays off. Instead of some very good points he got nothing.

Lol Maldonados dad has logged on to defend an idiot.

MALDONADOS DAD!!

[andrew]

Im really surprised they didnt pull out a safety car for Vettel, maybe because Alonso was already leading and they didnt want to upset the fans lol.

Did they say what happened to vettel's car yet?

They reckon it was altenator failure.

As was Grosjean's. Both made by Renault.

I feel another conspiracy thread coming on.....

Nah, it's just the typical Renault build quality!

[RichardDG]

Where is the consistency in penalties for accidents at the Euro GP ?
Kobayashi and Vergne get 5 grid place penalty for the next event (plus monetary for Vergne) - whilst Maldonado just gets 20 seconds on race time (and thus loss of points) ?

[Jabberwocky]

I think it is all down to proportional blame.

JEV swerved into Kovy whilst Kovy was minding his own business.

Where as with Mal v Ham it was wheel to wheel driving that went wrong, (without opening a can of worms) Hamilton could of given him more room. So Mal was not 100% to blame.

As for Koby and Senna, Senna probably did not even know Koby was taking that maneuver as it was so weak, Koby should of know better and backed out of it.

[racechick]

20 seconds was ridiculous. Maldonado was off the track and returned to it dangerously. He ruined both his own and Lewis' race with a much greater los to Lewis.
The other penalties were inconsistant as well.
And should cars finnishing the race return to parc ferme and not stop on the track?

[bud]

Like Brundle said, Pastor left the track, all 4 wheels infact so therefore should have yielded and tucked in behind Hamilton. Look at it this way if he did make it cleanly through he would have given the place back for cutting the corner. So no matter which way you look at it it's 100% Pastors fault.

[vaptin]

The real story though IMO is the speed of the Red Bull.

Yes, Vettel qualified on pole by a pretty big margin, ran away with the lead for the race, from Lewis and Grosjean wasn't able to catch up too whilst Webber qualified 19th and ended up 4th.

Another point is the advantage of fresh tyres due to not making it into Q3, Schumacher finished ahead of Rosberg, Alonso and Webber obviously. I think we're close to drivers not being too bothered about Q3 anymore.

[bud]

The SC helped those guys though.

[LewEngBridewell]

Like Brundle said, Pastor left the track, all 4 wheels infact so therefore should have yielded and tucked in behind Hamilton. Look at it this way if he did make it cleanly through he would have given the place back for cutting the corner. So no matter which way you look at it it's 100% Pastors fault.

Tbh, I was expecting a grid penalty for the next race. The points lost here don't amount to much...

[cheekybru]

Please dont crash into lewis at turn one pastor

You were close.

Indeed

Seriously, that was an eerie prediction. Kudos to you!

my mate rang me up after they said lewis wouldnt get a penalty when it looked like he was gonna get 2nd and said "Im not even watching i know someones gonna crash into him or something on the last lap" we obviously both got some mystic meg in us