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[bud]

When Hamilton bumped Maldonado on the last corner in Q2 - it was risky, but they were racing the clock.
Hamilton saw his chance and took it - fair enough.
What happened afterwards was just plain dangerous.
Nevermind the safety of Hamilton and Maldonado - it's the marshalls and spectators that were put at risk unnecessarily.
Schumacher was penalised 10 places for pushing Barrichello close to the wall in Hungary last year - and there was NO contact.
Deliberate contact in a non-racing situation is inexcusable.
End of.

Well said!

p.s. watch the Rugby last night?

[davyb]

Hello everyone first time on here, i have kept quite about all whats been going on with lewis this season but i have had enough now. Maldonado should have been sent home for what he did, is f1 going down the same road as top flight football. If this was lewis no doubt he would have had points taken off him, sent to the back of the grid or worse sent home, so why should this little upstart be aload to get away with what he did. Its clear that bernie doesn't like lewis and he favors Vettle but all he keeps on doing is stopping a fantastic driver showing the world what he is able to do. As for the comment i made about is f1 going down the same road as football what i mean is that one team ie- Manchester united is given prefrence over everyone else on fifty fifty chances. I am sorry to mone on my first visit to this forum but i have loved my f1 for more than thirty years and it really sickens me to see the sport go down this road, just let them race the best will come through, all the best lewis for tomorrow.

[PartsaS]

The penalty was Racing accident?? Realy???
THis was a childish, stupid, dangerous move, while qualifing was over! In football thats a red card! And in almost all sports that would mean at least disqualification!

[leothopkins]

Rubbish poll.
Where's the "He shouldn't have been punished as it was a racing incident" option???

I believe at that point the "racing" was over, so no racing incident to be had.

What I'd really like to see is the on-board from BOTH cars before making any rash judgment on this.

Absolutely !! - I also practice competition kick-boxing as a hobby......Would you find it acceptable if I was competing against someone and I punched them in the face again after the fight, while they were on the way to the changing room? - I see no difference here!

This CANNOT be called a "racing incident IMO - as they were no longer racing".....after the checkered its a full course yellow to the pits pretty much and as far as I am aware any attempt at over taking is forbidden.
But I agree - We should have seem on-board camera footage from both vehicles. - Also IMO the stewards decision happened too quickly, what I think should have happened is an overnight investigation and conclusions based on camera footage, driver statements and most important of all - car telemetry data.

I would be very surprised if they had the time to look through the data in the short space of time it took the stewards to make a decision. (I could be wrong)

[Ballsy]

I think the punishment was a little on the light side, but Hamilton did seem to provoke him by turning into him.
Maldonado should have been the bigger person and let Hamilton be the baby he is.

[racechick]

I think the punishment was a little on the light side, but Hamilton did seem to provoke him by turning into him.
Maldonado should have been the bigger person and let Hamilton be the baby he is.

Thats laughable. Maldonado comes off the racing line after the chequered flag has dropped to crash into another car for no sane reason..and you call the victim of his actions the baby???

[LewEngBridewell]

PM is getting a penalty for that? WTF if any penalties are handed out it should be for both drivers for there lack of safety on the cool down lap

I have watched the video multiple times and think that it was LH being over aggressive,

LH deserves another penalty this year (6th this season?)

Sigh........

[andrew]

So it's ok for Hamilton to shove another driver out of the way thus ruining the other drivers fast lap? That's all I need to know right there.

Just a couple points though:

1. We still don't know what Hamilton's penalty was for and are just making assumptions (assumption being the mother of screw ups)
2. We have not yet seen the on-board footage from either car so car commenting on footage from camera angles which are not 100% clear.

Going to the actual contact, I'm still in 2 minds about Hamilton's actions. Looking at this clip, he does appear to move towards Mandy. Right before the contact Hamilton's nose is seemingly pointing into Mandy's path, I think. It's difficult to judge it with the curve of the track as I'm trying to see the car relative to the white line.



I think this was posted earlier but it has changed my mind a bit about Hamilton's actions. I had thought he was virtually blameless on the run down to Eau Rouge, but I'm not so sure now. Why is he waving his hand? Guess he must have known Mandy was there, despite claiming Mandy was in his blind spot.



I not so sure about this anymore and it's not so clear cut in my mind, but as I said, the footage isn't too clear. Definately not a racing incident but I think both of them were playing sill beggers. Heck, it's a good kick up the backside the pair of them need. But seeing as the race stewards can't dish out my kind of justice, Mandy's 5 grid penalty is fair enough for his part in these shenanigans. However, given the extent of the damage caused (virtually none) calling for him to be thrown out of the race is a bit too extreme.

[Hammer278]

When Hamilton bumped Maldonado on the last corner in Q2 - it was risky, but they were racing the clock.
Hamilton saw his chance and took it - fair enough.
What happened afterwards was just plain dangerous.
Nevermind the safety of Hamilton and Maldonado - it's the marshalls and spectators that were put at risk unnecessarily.
Schumacher was penalised 10 places for pushing Barrichello close to the wall in Hungary last year - and there was NO contact.
Deliberate contact in a non-racing situation is inexcusable.
End of.

This.

[andrew]

The BBC coverage just cited Hamilton shoving mandy out of the way in the final corner as the source of the reprimand. I'm surprised that they havn't had Mansell in front of the camera to explain the stewards decision.

[Peng]

So it's ok for Hamilton to shove another driver out of the way thus ruining the other drivers fast lap? That's all I need to know right there.

Hamilton didn't ruin Maldonado's lap his team mate Barrichello did.

At most the barge/nudge whatever you want to call it cost Maldonado a few tenths so it wasn't as if he was going to improve his time as Barrichello had already completely ruined his lap.

Hamilton had to put in a good lap to get into Q3 and was being held up by much slower cars the fact that Hamilton was actually ahead during the touch goes to show how much slower Maldonado was.

And even if you want to believe what Hamilton did was too aggressive/rash/idiotic or whatever it doesn't give Maldonado the right to purposely crash into another driver out of spite.

I think this was posted earlier but it has changed my mind a bit about Hamilton's actions. I had thought he was virtually blameless on the run down to Eau Rouge, but I'm not so sure now. Why is he waving his hand? Guess he must have known Mandy was there, despite claiming Mandy was in his blind spot.

Did it cross your mind at all that Hamilton was waving his hand because Maldonado's line put him on a direct collision with Hamilton and maybe he was confused as to why Maldonado wasn't turning? at no point in that video does Hamilton turn right into Maldonado so i cannot for the life of me understand how people can claim Hamilton was at fault.

Personally watching the videos i would say it looked more like Maldonado just fell asleep at the wheel and didn't realize he was driving straight into Hamilton, he at first tried to overtake him and than seemed to just take his hands off the wheel and drove straight into him.

The sad thing is if it was Hamilton smashing into Maldonado he would have gotten a multiple race ban and the haters would be in an uproar, yet when someone else smashes straight into Lewis the haters need to find atleast 1 possible reason for why he was to blame for the accident its actually quite sad reading this forum at times.

[Hammer278]

So it's ok for Hamilton to shove another driver out of the way thus ruining the other drivers fast lap? That's all I need to know right there.

Just a couple points though:

1. We still don't know what Hamilton's penalty was for and are just making assumptions (assumption being the mother of screw ups)
2. We have not yet seen the on-board footage from either car so car commenting on footage from camera angles which are not 100% clear.

Going to the actual contact, I'm still in 2 minds about Hamilton's actions. Looking at this clip, he does appear to move towards Mandy. Right before the contact Hamilton's nose is seemingly pointing into Mandy's path, I think. It's difficult to judge it with the curve of the track as I'm trying to see the car relative to the white line.



I think this was posted earlier but it has changed my mind a bit about Hamilton's actions. I had thought he was virtually blameless on the run down to Eau Rouge, but I'm not so sure now. Why is he waving his hand? Guess he must have known Mandy was there, despite claiming Mandy was in his blind spot.



I not so sure about this anymore and it's not so clear cut in my mind, but as I said, the footage isn't too clear. Definately not a racing incident but I think both of them were playing sill beggers. Heck, it's a good kick up the backside the pair of them need. But seeing as the race stewards can't dish out my kind of justice, Mandy's 5 grid penalty is fair enough for his part in these shenanigans. However, given the extent of the damage caused (virtually none) calling for him to be thrown out of the race is a bit too extreme.

Hey man. Look the 2nd video gives you all the "angles" you want...Lewis was driving STRAIGHT when multiple contact happened, that moron hit his sidepod and his front wing, and his right wheel!!

I dont care if Lewis was making hand signals or doing puppet shows at that time, thats not against the bloody rules or racing spirit. Maldamoron veered so freaking hard he ended up on the GRASS!!! That was very much negative intent, its complete proof...if that was a DRIVING error, he might as well get out of an F1 car and start driving a Ford Fiesta as he might be mentally handicapped.

It's bullpoo he got a lame 5 grid place penalty. He should've been barred for 3 races or something, this would teach stupid thugs like this to think twice before letting their bottom do the thinking on track.

On the flip side, imagine if Hamilton did what Maldamoron did? I'm sure guys like f1ea and co would be screaming and clawing at their throats for the stewards to kick him out of F1.

[andrew]

So it's ok for Hamilton to shove another driver out of the way thus ruining the other drivers fast lap? That's all I need to know right there.

Hamilton didn't ruin Maldonado's lap his team mate Barrichello did.

At most the barge/nudge whatever you want to call it cost Maldonado a few tenths so it wasn't as if he was going to improve his time as Barrichello had already completely ruined his lap.

Hamilton had to put in a good lap to get into Q3 and was being held up by much slower cars the fact that Hamilton was actually ahead during the touch goes to show how much slower Maldonado was.

And even if you want to believe what Hamilton did was too aggressive/rash/idiotic or whatever it doesn't give Maldonado the right to purposely crash into another driver out of spite.

Mandy still had a chance of getting into Q3 despite being stuck behind Barrichello. Hamilton may have had to put in a good lap, but so does every other driver. Hamilton has no right to shove another driver out of the way, just the same as no other driver has that right.

As I have said earlier, Mandy shot himself in the foot by taking revenge coming out of La Source. If he was steamed he should have just gone to the stewards afterwards. Taking matters into his own hands was stupid, and as you say he (and no other driver) doesn’t have that right.

IDid it cross your mind at all that Hamilton was waving his hand because Maldonado's line put him on a direct collision with Hamilton and maybe he was confused as to why Maldonado wasn't turning? at no point in that video does Hamilton turn right into Maldonado so i cannot for the life of me understand how people can claim Hamilton was at fault.

I honestly don’t know. It depends on the angles. On one hand he’s taking his line, on the other the pair of them are playing games and he was trying to block Mandy. I guess we will honestly never know for sure and a common consensus will never be reached.

Personally watching the videos i would say it looked more like Maldonado just fell asleep at the wheel and didn't realize he was driving straight into Hamilton, he at first tried to overtake him and than seemed to just take his hands off the wheel and drove straight into him.

The sad thing is if it was Hamilton smashing into Maldonado he would have gotten a multiple race ban and the haters would be in an uproar, yet when someone else smashes straight into Lewis the haters need to find atleast 1 possible reason for why he was to blame for the accident its actually quite sad reading this forum at times.

Yes, it doesn’t look like an aborted overtake. Brain fade of the highest order! I don’t agree with your haters analogy (for the most part). I think it is just a case trying to understand what happened. I don’t think there is any debate over Mandy being a twit.

As for Hamilton getting a ban, I doubt that would happen. Maybe a bit of a conspiracy theory but I think he has a bit of a guardian angel in MrE. Realistically, Hamilton is Vettel’s closest rival for the championship. To ban him, would definitely settle the championship and lessen the attraction of this years season. Banning Hamilton at this stage would not be a good idea, from the commercial side.

[racechick]

Ayone see maldonado interviewed? Not a guy I'd trust anything with! Slimy comes to mind...And Im trying to be polite.

[Peng]

Mandy still had a chance of getting into Q3 despite being stuck behind Barrichello.

He had no chance of getting into Q3 don't be silly.

16 - Pastor Maldonado - 2:08.106

10 - Vitaly Petrov - 2:03.466

Are you trying to tell me Hamilton cost him close to 5 seconds?

At most he may have gained 1 position but i am 100% sure he was already much slower than his 2:08.106 time before Hamilton even caught up to him but i cant be sure until i can rewatch the qualifying which currently isn't up on BBC iplayer .