I wasn't suggesting Hamilton did it deliberately (á la Senna), it was just an observation.

 

IMO - Rosberg's fault 100%

Any racing driver that has reached the pinnacle of the sport would take the opportunity to overtake car that was in less than 100% condition. This was obvious to Hamilton because of the flashing light on harvesting and the speed difference. If Lewis hadn't tried to overtake or had lifted he would have had the following cars bearing down and overtaking him.

So he had to move towards the gap with full speed - this was his only option by instinct.

Nico had made a mistake with his mode causing his slow speed - his mistake - he wasn't reacting to anybody else's mistake or accident.

Nico's first response should be to sort it out in a safe manner maintaining his line/trajectory - not to deviate. He realised that Lewis would attempt a pass and hence he moved across the circuit to obstruct - Nico should then leave a car's width. It is irrelevant if he knew exactly where Lewis was or not. An accident on a straight piece of track before a braking zone has to be caused by somebody being at fault and not a racing accident.

Such a block against a striker bearing down on goal in football would result in a red card - ie a cynical foul - and NR would have similarly been punished here if the cars had been from different teams.

If the car/drivers positions had been reversed I feel the outcome may well have been exactly the same and LH would have been at fault.

 

I'm inclined to agree with you in the main here. I first viewed it as Rosberg's fault, that was my gut feeling. I can see the other sides to this and LH going for a gap that was evidently closing, however Rosberg was in the poop and he knew it, Lewis was always going to go for the gap and he closed the door, arguably too late. The fact is that according to the rule book, Lewis had a 'significant' amount of his car (they say the front wing, he has wing and front wheel) alongside whilst still on the track...

The FIA have stated that it was only for a fraction of second, but that is what this sport is all about, you can moss out on P1 by only a fraction of a second, or miss out on track position with an iffy pitstop but a fraction of a second, but you still miss out. To me, the letter of the law says who is or isn't at fault, not who is nearly at fault, or at fault, but only by a small margin.

It was a shame and hope it's not another nail in LH title bid, as the season is starting to look pretty dull already with NR big lead and someone boring (albeit effective) style.

LH fanboy? perhaps. It's a good story and he's putting GB on the motorsport map.

 

Anyway ... an eighteen year old won the Grand Prix. We should probably be talking about that ...

 

 

it's a fair point but it's less divisive

plus i only watched the first bit, when i was in the gym so missed out on the youngster's epic race

 

Another case where 99% of the 'race' is actually attrition and strategies whereas 99% of the interest is in racing for the first 4 turns on a well known difficult to pass track. Ah well. But as someone said Rosberg has a bit of backbone and won't duck challenges any more if he ever did. I expect more of the same to come as Hamilton won't go quietly into the night

 

Spain's always boring. But at least we had a race for the lead, although once Vestappen had got the hang of getting enough drive off the last corner Raikonnen had no chance to get past and that was that. I was certain the front two would need to pit again and therefore the real race was between Vettel and Ricciardo.

 

Spain is usually followed by Monaco, and Sector 3 times at Barcelona provides a good indication as to who is likely to go well in Monaco. Kvyat topped the sector times in Spain, with the two Red Bulls and the Ferraris making up the Top 5, although the Mercedes didn't feature on the race timesheet.

All post-race info is available on the FIA website http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formul...information-13

 

Rosberg was fully entitled to make the move, but he shouldn't have and this is why it's his fault. He knew he was down 180bhp because of his cock up with the engine mode and knew that Hamilton was going to pass him regardless of left or right side of the track, so what does Rosberg do? He waits to see which side Hamilton chooses for the easy overtake they both know is going to happen and heads in that direction on purpose (he states to close the door, but he had ZERO chance of keeping Hamilton behind), had he not done that and stayed on his left side of the circuit Hamilton would have passed without incident. Poor sportsmanship, driving someone off the circuit is not a racing incident it's cheating and churlish.

I know what Monaco brings, and expect it to be a borefest however, Monaco can spring surprises as it's very easy to make a mistake and crash, and what do I say people watch racing for ... yes that's right the crashes if not the 'racing'. Best races at Monaco are in the wet, the best driver of Monaco was Ayrton Senna - don't believe me watch this (FULL SCREEN)
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTJZTc1U1tM[/media]