official F1 World Championship 2012 Thread

[Zoom7000]

http://youtu.be/-VzF5Nkq1bg

Mayhem! Bad, bad error from Grosjean! Could have killed Alonso in the process!

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Man of the race: Nico H?lkenberg

Reject of the race: Two contenders imho - Maldonado and Grosjean

[MightyJordan]

Reject of the race: Two contenders imho - Maldonado and Grosjean

I'd opt for Maldonado there for jumping the start, and then seeing karma come round to kick him up the arse after the restart. :p

Fantastic drive from Jenson. Hopefully we'll see some more wins from him this season; that'd help to blow the WDC race wide open.

[Lovell]

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Belgian GP: Romain Grosjean gets one-race ban for start crash

Romain Grosjean has been given a one-race ban for triggering the Belgian Grand Prix start crash.

The Lotus driver moved across on Lewis Hamilton on the run towards the first corner of the Spa race, causing the McLaren to take to the grass.

The two cars then made contact and ploughed into Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and the two Saubers.

Grosjean said he could not be sure who had caused the crash.

" a very good start and then boom - it was the end of the race. I haven't seen the images and I need to see them to have any point of view," he said.

"But the main thing is that everybody is OK. That is the most important for me."

But the Frenchman was widely held responsible and has now been given a one-race ban for next week's Italian GP.

Lotus has former Virgin racer Jerome D'Ambrosio as a reserve driver.

Source: Autosport

[MightyJordan]

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Belgian GP: Pastor Maldonado gets double grid penalty for Timo Glock crash and jump-start

Pastor Maldonado will be demoted 10 places on the Italian Grand Prix grid as a punishment for both jumping the start in Belgium and colliding with Timo Glock.

The Williams driver had already been given a three-place grid penalty at Spa for blocking Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying.

He then made a premature getaway in the race, before being tagged into a spin as the crash involving Romain Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and the Saubers unfolded.

Maldonado rejoined, only to collide with Timo Glock's Marussia at the restart, ending his race.

Although Glock was able to continue, the stewards ruled that Maldonado's actions in the clash deserved a five-place penalty.

They also bestowed an additional five-place drop as he had been unable to take the usual drivethrough penalty for a jump-start in the race due to his early retirement.

"The driver failed to finish the race so the usual penalty for a false start could not be imposed," said an official statement.

Maldonado accepted the blame for the start error.

"I made a slight mistake at the start because the clutch slipped out of my hands before the red light switched off," he said.

Source: Autosport

[TheLegendOfMart]

Disgusting. I guess bringing big sponsors into the sport gives you a free pass to do what you want.

Maldonado needs banning from the sport.

[Noir Angel]

Although it does seem to me that the FIA have banned Grosjean in a somewhat reactive manner simply based on how bad that pileup was I can't really argue against the FIA's decision it was a dangerous manoeuvre but I do agree that Maldonado gets away with far too much. It's just lucky that Alonso wasn't injured more severely, and Lewis loses even more ground through no fault of his own. Great drive from Jenson, but disappointment for Lewis again.

[what]

The thing with Grosjean is that he's had many similar incidents at the start this year. Remember the one at Monaco? It could have been a lot worse than it was, but it was the exact same mistake. A race ban may stop him from being quite so aggressive on the start.

Maldonado shouldn't be in Formula 1. He is a complete moron. He even crashed on a PR stunt in Venezuela ffs. Here's a list of penalties he's had so far this year (remember he was the top of the list for number of penalties last year as well):

Chinese GP: 1) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Impeding Heikki Kovalainen during Q1, reprimand

Bahrain: -2) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Drops 5 places on the grid for taking a replacement gearbox

Monaco: 3) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Breach of Article 16.1 of the FIA's Sporting Code, 10 place grid drop

Canada: - 4) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Investigated for impeding Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) during Q1, racing incident, no further action

- 5) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Drops 5 places on the grid for taking a replacement gearbox

Europe GP: - 6) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Speeding in the pitlane during FP3, 66.1 km/h fined ? 1,400,

7) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Collision with Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) Drive through penalty post race, 20 seconds added to elapsed time

British: - 8) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Caused a collision with Sergio Perez (Sauber) Fined ?10,000 and given a reprimand

German: -9) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Speeding in the pitlane during FP1 66.0 kmh, fined ?1,200

Hungary: - 10) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) Caused a collision with car no 11 Paul di Resta, drive through penalty

Spa: - 11) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) The driver of Car 18 impeded Car 12 at Turns 18 and 19, drop of 3 grid places

- 12) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) The driver of Car 18 jump start, 5 grid drop penalty

13) Pastor Maldonado (Williams) causing a collision with cAR 24 on Lap Five. 5 grid drop penalty

(crossed out the gearbox penalties though iirc one of them may have been caused my Maldonado anyway)

Just to make that clear: he's had THREE grid penalties handed to him in this weekend alone.

[Noir Angel]

I hate pay drivers anyway. So much so I wish the FIA would place more stringent tests before they start issuing drivers superlicenses.

[Noir Angel]

Jenson Button admits that he was left disappointed after Lewis Hamilton posted some of McLaren's technical information on Twitter.

Frustrated be McLaren's decision to run the team's old rear wing in qualifying for the Belgian GP which contributed to his eighth spot on the grid, Hamilton took to Twitter to vent his frustration.

"Damn, WTF!! Jenson has the new rear wing on, I have the old. We voted to change, didn't work out. I lose 0.4 tenths just on the straight," he wrote.

"Nothing I could do. Now, it's about picking up every point I can from there. Jenson should win easy with that speed."

While the former World Champion later removed the tweets, he was at it again on Sunday, this time posting telemetry data.

While McLaren have decided not to take any action against Hamilton, Button admitted to being let down by his team-mate's actions.

"I'll say disappointed," Button said of his feelings on the matter. "We work so hard to improve the car and to keep things like that private.

"I didn't want to see it on Twitter. It was the whole telemetry from qualifying. It wasn't just the rear wing. I was very surprised and disappointed."

While Hamilton may have been left frustrated by the weekend's action, Button enjoyed quite the opposite, winning the race from pole.

Source

Quite the furore over Lewis's posting of his telemetry on twitter, an admittedly silly thing to do. Opinions?

[Lovell]

Looks like a brain fart Lewis seems to be in a bad place mentally.

[what]

I think he was just getting carried away with tweeting, trying to do one better than Alonso who has taken loads of pictures from his training and inside the Ferrari facilities. They were in a race to 1 million followers.

Lewis is definitely more susceptible to letting his emotions dictate his public behaviour though.

[Noir Angel]

That I agree with. Up until now he's done a reasonable job of keeping a lid on them this season but this is a bit of the old emotional Lewis coming through. What's odd is that he apparently agreed with the team's decision to use the high DF rear wing so he must share some of the blame. The old F1 adage is that you win as a team and lose as a team.

[philcruicks]

Lewis Hamilton 'set for move to Mercedes from McLaren'

Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of leaving McLaren to drive for Mercedes next season, according to BBC F1 chief analyst Eddie Jordan.

The former team boss says Hamilton will replace Michael Schumacher, who will retire from driving for a second time at the end of the year.

"I believe Hamilton and Mercedes have already agreed personal terms and a deal could be imminent," Jordan said.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/19489930

[MightyJordan]

Funny GIF of the first-lap incident at Spa (not embedded, as there is swearing)

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

FP1 result:

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FP2:

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[MightyJordan]

Little extra note: Paul Di Resta's got a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox.

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[Noir Angel]

Great performance from the McLaren boys there, Ferrari tried to play the team role and failed, amusingly badly. Would like to know what went wrong for Alonso on his final run there. A front row lockout on Ferrari turf is always satisfying!

[Noir Angel]

Apparently the roll bar failed in Alonso's car just before the start of Q3 and they didn't have time to fix it, which explains his poor pace and why it was he that gave Massa the slipstream. Could prove to be pretty costly if my suspicion that Massa won't be quick enough to interrupt the McLarens plays out.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Man of the race: Sergio Perez

Reject of the race: Sebastian Vettel