Donkey of the Race - Spa

[Ranger]

Massa - Did I miss something? 13th in a Williams

Commentators said he had debris removed from his car during a pitstop - by then it was too late.

Donkey has to be Ferrari for a professional foul at the start. They are pretty lucky it was only 5 seconds but it was pretty costly.

Rosberg gets an honourable mention but it was a fairly clumsy racing incident - although he was at fault.

[steveaki13]

Donkey has to be Ferrari for a professional foul at the start. They are pretty lucky it was only 5 seconds but it was pretty costly.

Rosberg gets an honourable mention but it was a fairly clumsy racing incident - although he was at fault.

I agree about Nico

I also agree that the Penalty is pretty lenient.

I remember back in the early 2000s in particular cars getting 10 second actual stop and go penalties for this. Now its just a 5 second add on? Wow

[N4D13]

Donkey has to be Ferrari for a professional foul at the start. They are pretty lucky it was only 5 seconds but it was pretty costly.

It's rather hard to blame Ferrari for that. They were quite lucky - Alonso's car wouldn't start but they managed to get it running during the start, which meant that he wouldn't have to start from the pitlane. A 5-second penalty is nothing compared to what he would have had to endure had he been forced to start from the pitlane. So I'd actually congratulate Ferrari on their swift reaction rather than blame them.

Edit: and yes, the penalty was too lenient. I expected a drive-through, and there's also the fact that starting a car's engine during the warm-up lap and having the driver overtake during it doesn't really come across as a really sensible thing to do. I would expect the rules to become much more stringent in the future to avoid a repeat of situations like this.

[Tazio]

No blatant donkeys but I think Nico ruined Lewis' race, although it was not too terribly egregious.

[steveaki13]

Nico all but saying Lewis was at fault too. Be interesting to see what happens.

[Bagwan]

Everyone seems to be burning Nico on this , at least a little bit .

But , it comes down to the fact that they touched , and that isn't good .

Moments before they touched , Nico was right along side , and he wanted to force Lewis to leave room .
Lewis knew he was there , in those moments before , but thought Nico had backed out , and took his line .
Nico was perhaps in process of backing out of it , to make a cut back to the inside , as that's the next logical move , hoping that your opponents exit is compromised , and yours is bettered , but not quite soon enough .


You can judge it as Rosberg sticking his nose in .

You can judge it as Lewis cutting his nose off .

Or , you can judge it as both , like the stewards obviously did , and wring your hands at the approach of the new guy to the fun at the front .


By the way , Eddie did a great job up there today .
I think he should get a permanent position there .

[driveace]

Rosberg for spoiling what should have been a 1 2 ,and lots of points for the "Team " AND for NOT being a "Team" player
Merc for keeping Hamilton out ,when there was little if NO chance of a safety car too
Vettel and Massa for being shown up by a number 2 driver !

[steveaki13]

Rosberg for spoiling what should have been a 1 2 ,and lots of points for the "Team " AND for NOT being a "Team" player
Merc for keeping Hamilton out ,when there was little if NO chance of a safety car too
Vettel and Massa for being shown up by a number 2 driver !

Interesting point.

Mercedes maybe rightly from their point of view blamed Lewis for stopping Nico winning in Hungary and now Nico has arguably stopped one of them winning this race.

These two are causing Merc a lot of headaches. Both are making errors and along with their own reliability they are screwing themselves over at the moment.

They should have had a 1-2 in most races, but more and more they are losing their dominance.

[keysersoze]

Magnussen, for the punk move on Alonso. Good that his penalty took him out of the points, though it cost Fred 5th place.

[Tazio]

Shame for K-Mag but the kids are supposed to understand these things when they get to this level. Good call, and I bet he will thinks twice about trying it again!