The regs only state the following, so I guess it depends if it's an "order" or not.

39.1 Team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited.

Hamilton was very sporting about it, saying that was what he expected to happen. There won't be any action on this, of course, if the same happens at the next race with McLaren, then there will

 

At least a precedent has been set this season now, so if McLaren have to do something similar in Brazil there shouldn't be any problems should there ?

 

The team orders thing is a bit of a joke and they should just drop it IMO. There hasn't been any action taken in recent years on these things. Heikki would have absolutely done the same thing, as would every other driver and team in the pitlane, so none of them want this rule to be upheld.

 

Team mates are allowed to let each other past as long as no instruction comes from the "team", ie it is a private agreement between themselves, Hamilton's carrying some luck, two dnf's for Kovalainen due to mechanical failures, still this seems to happen in some teams it was always Rubio and not Schumi that had Ferrari failures.
I don't suppose Ferrai will be broken hearted if they don't win the drivers title, manufacturers will be the first goal.?

 

I think Ferrari will be gutted if they don't win the Drivers' Championship.

They've had the better car overall this season and for a vast amount of the season it has been a 1 man McLaren team against a 2 man Ferrari team.

Ferrari have shot themselves in the foot several times, mainly with their traffic lights release system, and they only have themselves to blame. They have also been trying every trick in the book off the track to get the job done. They want this title badly.

The season is far from over yet, but there was a real air of resignation amongst the Ferrari ranks post race at China. Their drivers haven't really been up to the job this season, especially Raikonnen who, although fast over several laps in races, lacks consistency and seems to suffer with motivational issues. Massa has outdone himself this year, the test driver has done well in a great car, but he only seems to be able to win off pole and is terrible in the wet, and in my eyes he really isn't a racer.

Hamilton needs to curb his enthusiasm and his lack of experience has been his key downfall this season, but the one thing he has been is consistent (barring his brain f uck moments) and bloody fast. the guy has masses of natural talent, but he just needs to learn how to harness it correctly.

 

This is exactly why I'd like to see Massa win. Depsite being an outside contender for last year's championship, and despite being one of only two real contenders for this year, people still seem to like to write him off as just the number two driver, or worse "test driver", which is patently not true. He gave Schumacher a closer run as team mate than either Eddie Irvine or Rubens Barichello managed the year before too.

It's probably fair to say that if Massa doesn't win, it'll be more the team's fault than anything he's done, whereas if Hamilton doesn't win, he can only blame himself.

Hamilton came in at the top with a big bang, but Massa's been around for a few years but more than anybody has raised his game. And for that reason, he deserves to be a champion. I have no doubt Hamilton will be a champion, and probably more than once, but taking into account performances and mistakes, he's not the best driver of 2008, Massa is.

(Okay, so maybe Kubica is, or possibly Alonso, but you know what I mean ).

 

Most boring race this year.

Kimi really didn't go out of his way to explain Massa's pass on him, did he?

 

I nicked this from the Autosport website:

So, here we are. One race left. Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Below are the results so far this year:

Lewis Hamilton
1st: 5 times
2nd: 2 times
3rd: 3 times
4th: 0 times
5th: 2 times
6th: 0 times
7th: 1 time
8th: 0 times

Points collected: 94pts.

Felipe Massa
1st: 5 times
2nd: 2 times
3rd: 2 times
4th: 0 times
5th: 1 time
6th: 1 time
7th: 1 time
8th: 0 times

Points collected: 87pts.

Hamilton can win the 2008 Formula 1 Drivers World Championship if...
*He finshes fifth or higher. (98 pts or higher)
*If he finishes sixth and Massa finishes second or lower. (97pts to 95pts in Hamilton's favour)
*If he finishes seventh and Massa finishes second or lower. (96pts to 95pts)
*If he finishes eighth and Massa finishes third or lower. (95pts to 93pts)
*If he scores no points and Massa finishes third or lower. (94pts to 93pts)

Massa can win the 2008 Formula 1 Drivers World Championship if...
*If he wins the race and Hamilton finishes sixth or lower. (97pts each, goes to deadlock [see below])
*If he finishes second and Hamilton finishes eighth or lower. (95pts each, goes to deadlock [see below])

If the 2008 Formula 1 Drivers World Championship goes to deadlock...
*Felipe Massa will be the 2008 Formula 1 Drivers World Champion. As specified in the Sporting Regulations, if points are equal the amount of wins gets taken into consideration, and so on until a winner is found.
*If Massa wins and Hamilton finishes sixth or lower, Massa will have 6 wins to Hamilton's five, therefore Massa will be champion.
*If Massa finishes second and Hamilton finishes eighth or lower, both will still have five wins obviously. Massa however, will have three 2nd places to Hamilton's two 2nd places, therefore Massa will be champion.

 

Bit more seriously though I think the top players have definately been making too many mistakes or performing too poorly for any of them to be regarded as great drivers.

Hamilton - Stunningly quick when his heads screwed on but if things go bad he goes psycho trying to recover it and just gets worse. Very early Mika Hakkinen

Massa - Not as flamboyant as Hamilton but on the right track VERY quick and this year hasn't had so many dips in form. When he does suck at a track though it is badly

Raikonnen - Would be ok if he could be ar$ed

 

Massa's a duck egg, he's only won from the front, he hardly deserves anything, a racer he is not, put him head to head and his arse falls out!!