[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by Hatari

B. alonso was holding off vettel for 30 laps!! and he said like monaco even in hungary it is almost impossible to pass anywhere but the end of the start-finish straight, so all he had to do was get a good exit of the last corner.
He went on to say at any other circuit vettel would have passed him after 2-3 laps.

So, my point.. MS holding off RB for 6 odd laps is good, but no where close to extra ordinary (RB pitted lap 56, caught MS 3-4 laps later and passed him on lap 66)

I'm copying this from a comment on another site. In short, the difference between MS and Rubens was much larger than the difference between Vettel and Alonso. That is the reason, MS holding up Rubens for even those laps was an achievement.
But yeah, it is nothing compared to what he did at Spa 1995 where he held up Damon Hill fwho was on intermediates on a wet track, while driving on slicks .

But Barrichello’s performance advantage over Schumacher was far greater than Vettel’s over Alonso.

Barrichello was on new super-soft tyres, Schumacher was on mediums which he’d spent all but the first 15 laps of the race on.

Barrichello reduced an 8.085s gap to Schumacher to 0.433s in three laps – that’s 2.68 seconds per lap.

Alonso and Vettel were both on mediums and had put them on at the same time.

Vettel took five laps to cut Alonso’s advantage from 4.103s to 0.821s – that’s 0.66 seconds per lap.

[2theMax]

Originally Posted by Hatari

A. I've been watching F1 from 1995, dont think i have missed more than 5-6 races since then.

B. alonso was holding off vettel for 30 laps!! and he said like monaco even in hungary it is almost impossible to pass anywhere but the end of the start-finish straight, so all he had to do was get a good exit of the last corner.
He went on to say at any other circuit vettel would have passed him after 2-3 laps.

So, my point.. MS holding off RB for 6 odd laps is good, but no where close to extra ordinary (RB pitted lap 56, caught MS 3-4 laps later and passed him on lap 66)

Good you are a ardent follower like most of us in this thread. yes it was not extraordinary but enjoyable. there are few drivers like Schumi, Senna, hamilton, Montoya who have the guts to defend their place at any cost. It is these instincts that make the sport fab. we need more drivers like Petrov, Bruno, kobyashi etc., of the new lot rather than the Goody Karun's.

By the way I don't see any penalty for Sutil for Pit stop safety ???

[Cesc]

Red Bull really had a rocket out there yesterday. If not for all those funny incidents in the pit lane, they would have lapped almost everyone yesterday.

Originally Posted by KRRaj

Vettel needs to grow up. He is acting very silly.

Schumi, well, good defending, but carried it too far. If there was no wall, I wouldn't worry, but it was too close for comfort.

Vettel is definitely not helping his cause by all that gesticulating. I like the guy but feel that he is losing it much too often these days. Careful of what you grow into boy.

About MS - I was really happy by the way he was defending up until he tried to slam Rubens into the wall. It would always have been difficult for Rubens to overtake from the other side so Michael did well to take the line he did on the start-finish straight. But once RB squeezed into the inside he definitely should not have tried to run him against the wall. Any accident then and there would have been horrendous. If not for the wall, that move still would have been kinda ok. But hey Michael is Michael. What else could we expect? His reputation as the most successful driver in the history of F1 has for long been tarnished by incidents like these - sometimes with good reason and sometimes without. IMO A driver of his standard should not need to resort to cheap tricks.

Whatever the level of safety standards (and there is no doubt that they are excellent) in F1, nobody should take liberties with potentially serious accidents. It took only a flying spring last year to put Massa in a career threatening position so one never knows what's gonna happen.

At one point this season, it was looking as if MS was getting closer to Nico. This race he was outqualified by 7 grid spots. What's going on in there?

Originally Posted by KRRaj

Steve SLater should remain, IMO he is great for laughs. He got Webber's father's name wrong. Called him Alan Jones .

Lately I also have reintrepreted his role as an official comedian. Each time he makes those idiotic comments I have a good chuckle. Sometimes it really gets irritating though.

Originally Posted by Newpunter

If i did half the mistakes at work that Steve Slater does at his, I would be out of a job by now.

He makes at least 3-4 brain-dead comments each race now. Which is equivalent to these many mistakes per workday. So as you said, almost all of us would have been long fired by now if we made even half those errors. Hmmm ESPN-SS has good job security - they can give the government a run for their money

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by 2theMax

By the way I don't see any penalty for Sutil for Pit stop safety ???

Penalty for Sutil? Why?
He was the innocent vicitim in that accident, where Renault pit crew released Kubica into his path.

Originally Posted by Cesc

He makes at least 3-4 brain-dead comments each race now. Which is equivalent to these many mistakes per workday. So as you said, almost all of us would have been long fired by now if we made even half those errors. Hmmm ESPN-SS has good job security - they can give the government a run for their money

His mistakes are still OK, got used to them now, but worse is he continues to blabber away to glory even when the pit-to-car radio comes on

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

His mistakes are still OK, got used to them now, but worse is he continues to blabber away to glory even when the pit-to-car radio comes on

Yes, that is truly frustrating.

These commentators are making matters worse by the way they are handling the mike

I still dont understand, why should the penalty for the present race be levied for the next race. Why cant they penalise 10 grid points for this race, why Belgium Pure politics.

Anyways, we've all got to know now, M S is still the same great driver that he was before retirement. He'll give us great moments once again. But please give him a good car to defend.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

I still dont understand, why should the penalty for the present race be levied for the next race. Why cant they penalise 10 grid points for this race, why Belgium Pure politics.

When the incident takes place towards the end of the race, the normal procedure is to investigate it after the race and decide the penalty. In this case, a 25 sec penalty wouldn't hurt him much coz he was already out of the points.
I guess this was the best thing to do or else we would hear a lot of people whining about how the FIA always favours Schumi. It's strange though that other drivers seem to get away with just warnings this season while Schumi seems to get penalties not consistent with his wrongdoings. At Monaco, he was penalised 25 seconds for a rule that wasn't clear whereas Lewis got away with warnings on multiple times for breaking rules that were quite clear.

[Hatari]

As it turns out RB wasnt the only one to overtake MS, Kobayashi overtook him on track as well

Here's what Eddie Irvine had to say..
"He's always done stuff like this and has intimidated people for a long time, but he got away with it because he was Michael Schumacher. He was the 'the' Michael Schumacher, but this Michael Schumacher isn't getting away with it."

I think he's bang on.
Now these moves just seem to be from a driver past his prime trying desperately to hold onto his past glory

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Hatari

As it turns out RB wasnt the only one to overtake MS, Kobayashi overtook him on track as well

Here's what Eddie Irvine had to say..
"He's always done stuff like this and has intimidated people for a long time, but he got away with it because he was Michael Schumacher. He was the 'the' Michael Schumacher, but this Michael Schumacher isn't getting away with it."

I think he's bang on.
Now these moves just seem to be from a driver past his prime trying desperately to hold onto his past glory

What a saying by an old man who's lost his senses

This shows the amount of bureaucracy against M S this season.

Sadly, he will still emerge a winner very soon

[Ford_madhan]

^^Nicely said PAVAN. These guys do not have the guts to face the lion when it was younger and now they are trying to intimidate him because the lion is getting older. But one factor will not change, a lion is a lion be it younger or older. :-)

[Mpower]

It seemed to me like Vettel was helping Webber take 2nd by putting a gap between him and Alonso. But there was no radio transmission to that effect. Nobody naps in F1 esp during a safety car restart is when you can take or lose 2-3 positions in one shot.

Interestingly with a car that was 1 sec faster per lap, Vettel could not overtake Alonso. Need a guy like Hamilton for that.

Originally Posted by good.car-ma

Poor Vettel. Eitehr he really was napping (which i dont think was the case) or the team bungled in trying to nullify Webbo's disadvantage due to the SC. If it was team orders, this is the way to impose it,

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Interestingly with a car that was 1 sec faster per lap, Vettel could not overtake Alonso. Need a guy like Hamilton for that.

Stealing or keeping a position from Vettel is like stealing candy from a child.
He's the best in putting down lap times. But, he just can't overtake or defend.

This season he's started 7 races from the pole and won just 1 of those.

[Cesc]

Article appears on BBC:

BBC Sport - F1 - Schumacher 'sorry' for blocking Barrichello in Hungary

Schumi admits the manouvre was hard and stewards were right to hand him a 10 place grid penalty for Spa. Good for him to admit as much.

Apparently he wanted to make it hard for Rubens to overtake him but did not realize that he was endangering Rubens in the process. Says he changed his opinion after watching the incident outside 'the heat of the moment'.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by Cesc

Article appears on BBC:

BBC Sport - F1 - Schumacher 'sorry' for blocking Barrichello in Hungary

Schumi admits the manouvre was hard and stewards were right to hand him a 10 place grid penalty for Spa. Good for him to admit as much.

Apparently he wanted to make it hard for Rubens to overtake him but did not realize that he was endangering Rubens in the process. Says he changed his opinion after watching the incident outside 'the heat of the moment'.

I'm glad he did that. The incident was bad enough but such things happen now and then; it was his initial reaction that really was infuriating. But as long as he admits to his mistakes, its alright.

I hope those here who were convinced that Rubens Barrichello was at fault or that the stewards were wrong see the incident in a different light now.

[Cesc]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

I'm glad he did that. The incident was bad enough but such things happen now and then; it was his initial reaction that really was infuriating. But as long as he admits to his mistakes, its perfectly alright.

Absolutely spot on. Things happen. That move was really dangerous. It takes a lot of courage to own up though and we definitely have to give him credit for that.

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

I hope those here who were convinced that Rubens Barrichello was at fault or that the stewards were wrong see the incident in a different light now.

We all have our biases but we should not let them color our judgements. A spade should be called a spade.

[jraj]

I dont think Michael has appologized.I would be terribly disappointed if he applogized.

BBC might have made it look that way delibarately.

This is what Michael had to say in his official page

Michael Schumacher - Official Website - presented by Motorsport-Magazin.com

"Regarding the overtaking manoeuvre with Rubens, I indicated pretty early that I would move towards the inside and not simply give up the line, and there was just enough space for him to pass me without touching each other. It was a hard fight, and this is what we are here for, but I accept that the FIA stewards saw it as too hard. I look forward to the break now and to coming back out of it stronger in Spa."

I still dont understand what all the fuss is about.The fact that Rubens went past itself shows that the move was a hard one but not as killer as suggested elsewhere.

"Dangerous move of the career" was put into Ruben's mouth by Jordan who can never keep his motormouth shut when it comes to Michael.

...And can someone please explain what was the history that Rubens kept talking about?

It was Rubens who had history behind his mind and wanted to overtake Michael at any cost yesterday and then crying over that now?Common,it was his choice to pull that move,then why cry now?

In anycase,Michael's move wasnt as dangerous as throwing the steeting wheel onto the racing track.For all we know that could have even bounced off the track and done a Felipe Massa to someone following the said Gentleman's car,isnt it

For the dangerous moves list,maybe we can do a quick search on Youtube with Senna\Prost\Mansell as the keywords.LOL

PS:Coming back to the race,was this the most chaotic SC\Pit stop session or have we had anything worse than this?One can remember Massa with his fuel hose at Singapore and Lewis blinded for a moment behind Kimi at Canada.But this really took the cake,isnt it?