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Quote from mythdat :Bit more interesting race this time, mainly thanks to BMW's impressive pace

ITV and Hamilton share the golden arse award - ITV for choosing to go to an ad break rather than show the press conference, and Hamilton for cocking up the start, driving into the back of Alonso and then making gestures at anyone who "dared" to try to race him... a true backmarker monkey drive today

ITV-F1.com showed the press conferenece Live
Quote from mythdat :then making gestures at anyone who "dared" to try to race him

Really - what was all that about? He did it 2 or 3 times in a row I think. And to think that the onboard camera isn't something that's hidden...
Probably he was having too many monkeys in front of him and not behind his back, so his brain screwed up badly and he thought he was still qualifying, with the monkeys being on their slow-down lap and not racing, as they actually were.
Excuse my stupid question but what does it mean when he puts his fist in the air?
Quote from evilpimp :Excuse my stupid question but what does it mean when he puts his fist in the air?

FU for holding me up.
=/ wow...
Probably in the next issue of News of the World we'll learn that it means that he likes some peculiar extreme sex practices.
does any1 have a video of the hamilton-alonso crash with the telemetry of Alonso's car?
Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :does any1 have a video of the hamilton-alonso crash with the telemetry of Alonso's car?

Yeah, Renault, no one else will have that yet.
I'm curious too. Alonso on autosport pins the accident to a difference of speed, saying that the McLaren was a lot faster than the Renault, but he doesn't evaluate the accident further. That amounts to saying water is wet.

I haven't seen any commentary by Hamilton yet.

Edit: here it is:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66443

"I had the crash with Fernando which really lost us the race altogether. I'm always the first to blame myself and I feel that's the right way to go."

Hamilton also played suggestions that Alonso had brake-tested him when the two made contact.

"I have no idea. I was behind him I went to move to the right and he went to move to the right as well and I ended up on the back somehow. It's racing," he said.


Nothing conclusive, and I'm still curious.
There's some PR crap on McLaren.com:

Quote :Lewis Hamilton: I am really disappointed and feel like I let the team down today as I always am the first to blame myself. The whole weekend has not been ideal starting with the accident on Friday, but I will keep my chin up and bounce back at the next race. I messed up at the start as I didn't hit the switch early enough and therefore had not engaged the correct engine setting, and the anti stall kicked in. I lost a lot of places but things were still salvageable at that point. Then I had the incident with Fernando. I was behind him, and I moved to the right, and he moved to the right and that was it - a racing incident I guess. I am confident that we have the pace to be fighting at the front so the confidence is still there. I have had such a good run in Formula 1 until now, and it was almost inevitable that at some point things would go wrong. However there is a long way to go in the Championship and I intend to win it."

Basically admits he was a numpty at the start, but won't take responsobility for driving into the back of another car
Yeah Hamilton's fault. Alonso lost some traction driving on the curb, and Hamilton failed to notice Alonso's car right in front of him.
I would not be surprised if Kovalainen ends up with more points at the end of the season than Hamilton.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/he ... detail/080406182936.shtml

Quote from article linked above :"The McLaren was just a lot faster than my car and he crashed into me," the 26-year-old, who finished the race tenth, told the Spanish broadcaster Telecinco.

After the race, Renault technical boss Pat Symonds was keen to rubbish the brake test rumours by showing pundits a print-out of Alonso's telemetry data.

Quote from Autosport :Autosport.com has seen the telemetry data of Alonso's exit from the first corner, and it shows that the Spaniard was flat on the throttle from the exit, did not touch the brake and gained speed in a totally predictable manner.

Quote :When asked about the view of some experts in the paddock who believed it could have been a brake test, Symonds said: "Well, they are not as expert as they think then. We have the data and there is nothing untoward there. You don't need to be an expert to see that."

Who was the expert? Hamilton's Dad?


Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66448
Quote from mythdat :ITV and Hamilton share the golden arse award - ITV for choosing to go to an ad break rather than show the press conference, and Hamilton for cocking up the start, driving into the back of Alonso and then making gestures at anyone who "dared" to try to race him... a true backmarker monkey drive today

Well said.

I don't think this one race is an opportunity to write Hamilton off - the real proof of his character & skill will be how well he bounces back (depending of course on how competitive the McLaren is). It was a pretty embarassing grand prix all round for the British drivers - all of whom seemed to manage to drive into someone. And what is it about Coulthard's car that makes other cars want to hump it every other race?
#93 - Gizz
yep bad race for us brits, but still some great drives...

LH left his head in bed i think today, complete washout...

as for DC... i will probablyget roasted here but closing the door that late is gona cause problems, yep buttons car was not pefectly under control and just before impact JB looks to go strait! ... but imo DC is closing the door in those situation way to late....
It looks to me as if Coulthard is braking early, and leaves Button absolutely nowhere to go except to the right and thus into Coulthard. I could be wrong though, as I don't know for sure where the actual braking point of that corner is.
Quote from kamkorPL :http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=sPbQY8G3QS8

2:53 - Looks clearly like it's Hamilton mistake. imo

Congrats for Ferrari and BMW. Let's see what will Barcelona bring.

edit: Better quality:
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=NP0LT7l5ohg

i think its just a racing accident if Alonso did not lift off the throttle or brake tested Hamilton. Alonso was just ridiculously slow out of that corner and block hamilton a little bit too late.

Quote from Jertje :It looks to me as if Coulthard is braking early, and leaves Button absolutely nowhere to go except to the right and thus into Coulthard. I could be wrong though, as I don't know for sure where the actual braking point of that corner is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/h ... t/formula_one/7333277.stm

Quote :"When I caught up with DC he was struggling. "He moved across for his racing line but it was too late - I was already committed.
"Hitting him in the side was me trying to take avoiding action.
"That's not the first time he has done that. He left it too late and there was nowhere for me to go.
"I was already committed. The move wasn't at the apex, it was earlier on and the problem is that he came across in front of me and I couldn't slow the car down quick enough.

DC needs to use his mirrors more often. they are there for a reason
Lonso did not move late or chage his line rapidly. After watching the replay all I can see is that Haemitlon just closed his eyes kept on full throttle hoping Lonso to vanish. Few seconds later when Haemitlon opened his eyes he had lost his front wing.

As for Buttock's accident with Gouldharp it looks like Buttocks just brakes too late, loses the car a bit and couldn't stop anymore on time to avoid the car in front. Maybe DC could have anticipated that move somehow but it was not DC's fault imho at all.
Quote from Gizz :yep bad race for us brits, but still some great drives...

LH left his head in bed i think today, complete washout...

as for DC... i will probablyget roasted here but closing the door that late is gona cause problems, yep buttons car was not pefectly under control and just before impact JB looks to go strait! ... but imo DC is closing the door in those situation way to late....

How much earlier did you want Coulthard to make Button aware that he wasn't getting down the inside? Coulthard left just enough space for one car from the moment he exited the previous corner. Button just stuffed it in the gap with no hope in hell.

Hamilton... what a boy. That was not what I'd call a cool head, `stalling` on the grid, rear ending Alonso, trying to take the next corner at the same speed with no wing and then putting his fist out to all the "monkeys at the back."
Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :i think its just a racing accident if Alonso did not lift off the throttle or brake tested Hamilton. Alonso was just ridiculously slow out of that corner and block hamilton a little bit too late.

Alonso was slow and has acknowledged general car performance problems, but taking a look at the replay I think that Hamilton had time to correct his action but forgot the head at home, so he wasn't able to see.

As for the blocking, Alonso's moves appear to be progressive and steady, although slow because the car is crap.

The early rumours of people who erroneously chatted about Alonso brake testing Hamilton have already been dispelled with telemetry data, as Autosport acknowledges.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66448

As suspected, yet another example of crap commentary and the media smelling an interesting story in an otherwise boring race. Hamilton should have realised he had a great run, it was a fast chicane like section and Alonso's line was awful compared to Hamilton, he was always going to be slow out of the turn. Why can't they admit that Hamilton can do wrong? Hamilton can because he always admits when its his fault. In GP2 his best drive came after he spun from a good position, he is prone to mistakes.

It should be interesting to see if he keeps his head when racing Kubica on a level playing field, because in Autosport they done a feature and explained how competitive they were. They reported on one incident where Hamilton wrecked his car pushing to beat him, and his team stopped him early in a practice session fearing he would do it again attempting to beat the track record Kubica just set.
I think a lot of people didn't give Alonso the benefit of the doubt because of his behaviour last year and the levels he seemed to be prepared to drop to.

And as for all those Hamilton haters, same old same old. I don't think he can do anything right and at times he does and says everything wrong and is the only one to ever do so.

I don’t know what it is about certain people, Casey Stoner attracts the same kind of criticism.

FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG