why no penalty for Hamilton?

Whitmarsh is relieved :
“He stayed calm, came back, overtook two cars, came fourth, and got some valuable points. He’s conducted himself very well after the race. He’s been probed provocatively by various members of the media, who wanted some reaction about his penalty, but I think he stayed calm. He’s been mentally strong this weekend and just done a fantastic job.”

This suggests he doesn't normally stay calm , mid-race , doesn't normally conduct himself well in interviews , and isn't normally mentally strong .
And , Martin knows it .

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Originally Posted by Bagwan

First , let me say sorry for calling you rude .

You are passionate about your favourite driver , and defend him with fervour .

Hamilton should have known he had a pack of cars right behind him in the first place .

"No driver in their right mind would spin their car into the path of another intentionally ."
The key part of this statement is the phrase is "in thier right mind" .


At that point , Lewis was under huge pressure trying to hold on to the lead .
He knew , especially with guys close behind , that he had to be fast , or wait for them to go by before spinning it back around .

Simply , he made the wrong decision in the heat of the moment .

It could happen to any driver out there , but it seems like it happens to Lewis a lot .

And , whether you like to believe it or not , I would criticize any driver in this situation .

Now , please excuse me while I go and ruin the sport .
Have a nice day .

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I have no doubt you will. And no matter what happens, I'm sure people like you will continue to be the reason the sport becomes stale and why drivers will spout PR bull at each press conference and interview. God forbid they actually give an actual real opinion.

You're right that it could happen to any driver out there. Does that mean he deserves to be banned for a race? Absolutely not. It's even ridiculous to suggest such a thing.

This is one of the funniest threads I've ever read! :laugh:

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Originally Posted by Bagwan

Ah yes , you're playing the "WAAAAH , I always get picked on !" card .

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No, I'm expressing sarcism in the light of,what I see as, a complete overreaction on the part of some here.

IMHO Hamilton did what any driver would have done, and that was to try to get out of that vulnerable position asap. He was square on to approaching traffic at the exit of a chicane with cars heading his way. He'd just made an error which he was probably pissed about, and was watching a possible (likely) victory disappear. Yellow flags warned approaching cars of the incident and he was in clear view of those cars. This wasn't a scary or dangerous situation, and barely warranted a penalty regardless of the driver involved.

It was the kind of thing that tv commentary would probably have passed of with a "woops!!" comment a few years ago, but now people cry "penalty" and the stewards oblige.

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Originally Posted by The Black Knight

I have no doubt you will. And no matter what happens, I'm sure people like you will continue to be the reason the sport becomes stale and why drivers will spout PR bull at each press conference and interview. God forbid they actually give an actual real opinion.

You're right that it could happen to any driver out there. Does that mean he deserves to be banned for a race? Absolutely not. It's even ridiculous to suggest such a thing.

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My favourite driver is Jacques , so I am not so sure what you mean by my not liking drivers to speak out .

I am also not sure why you are saying that I want him banned for a race . I suggested nothing of the sort .

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Originally Posted by henners88

Thats ill founded and absolute assumptive rubbish and you know it.

We have seen instances in the past like Monaco this year where Lewis has handled himself badly and Martin's words in that interview suggest he is defending a driver that has come under criticism in the past. Unless you are a mind reader I think you are basing your assumption on nothing other than bias to which I know you are often keen to point out that you don't support any team or driver but your posts often show something very different Bagwan of late. Martin makes no comparison to how Lewis usually behaves and your assumption that in private he is normally mentally weak I feel is completely false. You are entitled to your opinion like the rest of us, but putting your opinion forward like it is a fact is counterproductive in this type of debate. You know how passionate some of his fans are on here as you have previously mentioned and I think you were after a reaction with that comment. Poor form.. :down:

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To a certain degree , you are right that I knew a reaction was forthcoming , but Whitmarshes comments do go directly to my point .

He felt the need to essentially praise his driver in this interview , for getting it right in the interview , and in the race .
After his spin , when normally he would not have been calm , he never put a foot wrong , is what Martin is saying .

I don't count myself clever to figure that this refers to previous situations when he didn't act suchly .

"your assumption that in private he is normally mentally weak" is not what I was saying at all , or what Martin was saying either .

What he said was : “He stayed calm, came back, overtook two cars, came fourth, and got some valuable points."
and : " He’s been mentally strong this weekend and just done a fantastic job.”

This clearly implies that , in the past , he has not been so calm in such pressured circumstance .
I believe the "mentally strong" reference , being it mentions "this weekend" refers to both his dealings with the press , and his work to come back for those "valuable points" .


It has to be said , that Lewis was much more calm in the interview than was expected , and kudos to him for that .
However , I do have a hard time imagining him really not knowing why he was punished .

Don't you find that hard to understand ?

He also , as Martin said , seemed to get his head back into it quickly , and salvage some of those points , so good on him for that as well .

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

No, I'm expressing sarcism in the light of,what I see as, a complete overreaction on the part of some here.

IMHO Hamilton did what any driver would have done, and that was to try to get out of that vulnerable position asap. He was square on to approaching traffic at the exit of a chicane with cars heading his way. He'd just made an error which he was probably pissed about, and was watching a possible (likely) victory disappear. Yellow flags warned approaching cars of the incident and he was in clear view of those cars. This wasn't a scary or dangerous situation, and barely warranted a penalty regardless of the driver involved.

It was the kind of thing that tv commentary would probably have passed of with a "woops!!" comment a few years ago, but now people cry "penalty" and the stewards oblige.

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It was a "vulnerable position" , but "wasn't a scary or dangerous situation" ?

Were there yellow flags ?

If he was "in clear view of those cars" , how come he couldn't see them when "He was square on to approaching traffic..." .


The potential for a crash was pretty high , and he's lucky he has some good drivers around him .



What would you guys have said if it had caused a pile-up ?

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Originally Posted by Bagwan

Yes , I do neglect to reference that because those two having a long running string of insults going back and forth all the time that you have obviously failed to notice .

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Oh, so that's OK then is it? A tad hypocrytical, no?

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Originally Posted by SGWilko

Oh, so that's OK then is it? A tad hypocrytical, no?

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No , but more than a tad irrelevent to this conversation .

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Originally Posted by henners88

We've obviously interpreted it differently.

Anyway back to the incident itself....
Watching the race again this afternoon and this incident in particular its obvious evasive action was required of Lewis after his car car to a stop sideways on the track. The back end of his car was so close to the edge of the track as it stood, an oncoming car would have had to have driven over part of the grass had he stayed where he was. The Lotus slowed right down in anticipation of this and made it through safely as Lewis attempted his spin. Perhaps Lewis would have been wiser to have simply driven forwards to the inside of the track at this point rather than spin to rejoin? It was a pressured situation and its fine for us to judge but he was losing the lead and was in the middle of an incident he hadn't anticipated. Most armchair experts would have sat there and settled for 10th place no doubt, but I think Lewis was more quick thinking rather than experiencing this famous 'Red Mist' b*ll*cks that we love to see levelled as an explanation for a variety of ill favoured cock ups. As I said previously a penalty was harsh IMHO and it seems it had no bearing on anyone else's race other than for Lewis. :)

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DiResta mentioned he might have felt aggrieved , had there been points at stake .

Which brings me back to that question , of whether those who feel that Lewis was treated harshly would feel differently if there had been an incident caused by Lewis's move .
I am wondering if it was OK merely because he was able to pull it off without an incident occurring .

If something had happened , would it have so OK ?