As Sebastian Vettel crossed the line in Valencia to record his second victory of the season, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said over the radio “great job Sebastian, well done, the best German victory today”.
And it was a great job, but it wasn’t the only German victory of the afternoon as a dismal England football team was knocked out of the World Cup in South Africa.
Vettel’s victory almost took a back seat in terms of viewing interest as Webber walked away from a horrifying accident soon after the start of the Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver slipped to ninth by the end of the first lap and soon pitted for tyres feeding back into clear air. He quickly came up behind Kovalainen’s Lotus and instead of gliding easily past, the Red Bull hit the back of him so hard that Webber flew up into the air, landing upside down. The car then ploughed on into the barrier at a ferocious speed. Amazingly the Aussie jumped out seemingly unhurt and complained of only a “couple of bruises” afterwards.
Although Webber was the one that hit Kovalainen it was unclear whether or not the Lotus was letting him past. Kovalainen admitted later that he was defending strongly as they were in fact fighting for track position – as Webber had already visited the pits – which seems faintly ridiculous, if admirably competitive.
Because of the Webber/Kovalainen crash the safety car was deployed and Hamilton, who had slowed while it was coming out of the pits seemingly unsure about what to do, passed it just after. Alonso, who was running third at the time didn’t think his actions were that innocent (perhaps they weren’t?) and once everyone had pitted and the safety car came in, he found himself all the way down in ninth, while Hamilton was still up in second. The Spaniard was furious and the stewards gave Hamilton a drive through penalty. However, the damage was already done and the trip through the pits didn’t actually change his track position such was the gap between him and third-placed Kamui Kobayashi. Nine other drivers are still under investigation as I’m writing this for behaviour behind the safety car so we’ll keep you posted on any news that arrives.
It’s worth mentioning Kobayashi as he had a tremendous race, driving with the same grit and determination that he showed in Brazil at the end of last year. He stayed out on his first set of tyres and ran as high as third – without, it’s worth saying, actually holding up fourth-placed Jenson Button as much as he might have done – until the dying moments of the race. He then fed out ninth after finally pitting and managed to overtake both Alonso and Buemi, the latter of which he slid past on the last corner of the last lap.
Hopes for an exciting race weren’t high before Valencia, but I must say it was not the procession we all feared. Most importantly though, it’s great that Mark Webber walked away from such a large accident.
On the bright side, Mark now has enough flying time to qualify for his private pilot’s license. Thank God he’s okay.
Webber’s accident was very scary, glad to see he’s OK, though upset.
On another subject, on some other websites Ferrari is “furious” over the race “manipulation”. A bit rich, don’t you think, coming from Ferrari? If anybody knows anything about race manipulation …
Clearly Hamilton’s actions weren’t “innocent”. Please, enough of treating him like he’s a little naive baby.
I think Alsono should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask the question “am i so innocent”. Enough with the whinging, ‘if you can’t stand the heat…’
- Weaving on the straight
- Racing in the pitlane
- Racing in the pitlane once again
- Running out of fuel in qualifying
- Overtaking Safety cars
- Berating team over strategy on the radio
- Claiming it was Vettels fault for the contact in turn 1
And thats just from this years championship. ON top of last years crashing into competitors at canada, etc, etc.
But its not only his fault. Its also racecontrol and the FIA stewards, needing half an hour to rewind a video seeing Lewis overtake the sc. The 5 second laughable penalties for cars that gained more than half a minute racing ahead of the sc. The idiotic and crazy decision to put the sc on track in the middle of the pack. The reprimands for weaving, racing in pitlanes.
This FIA has shot itself in the foot again today. I decided to boycot the Turkey race over the ridiculous decision to punish Schumacher at Monaco. I think im gonna boycot the British GP as well. I hope more fans will let the FIA know theyve had more than enough of this.
End of rant.
Thank you, Jack Torrance. Well said.
Ditto.
Lewis has some great moments for sure, shades of Villeneuve.
But he also has shades of MSC….the worst bits of MSC…and often
Safety Car? Cheating? Singapore 2008?
I love all the whinging about Hamilton. It sounds like the whinging we’re still getting about Schumacher, and the whinging we used to get about Senna.
All F1 drivers will tell you winning is everything, but the Hamiltons, Schumachers and Sennas really mean it. They go further to win. This attitude does not guarantee a career without controversy. But it does make them irresistible to watch.
Jack Torrance must have a selective memory, either that or he has only been following F1 for 18 months or so. The Hugo Boss comment says it all. Bravo.
Seems we have a lot of cry babies after this race. … shame, catch a wakeup and ADMIRE a man who KNOWS how to race.
Go Lewis – 2010 CHAMPION in the making.
Yes, Hamilton does push the boundaries of propriety but so what, they’re racing for money aren’t they?
I don’t think Singapore 2008 was thrown for money.
I don’t think Vettel drove into Webber in Turkey for money either. I’m not sure that it’s all down to money.
Ferrari is under suspicion for testing its car against the spirit of the regulations – so why not make as much noise about something else to divert everyone’s attention?
Also, Mr Alonso says his race was ruined by Mr Hamilton, but if Mr H had stayed behind the safety car ( as he should have done ) then Mr A’s position would have improved at best by one place – assuming Mr H had had a longer pit stop than Mr A when changing the car’s nose. So it seems to me that it was the unlucky timing of safety car deployment( after Vettel had gone by, but before H & A ) which ruined his chance of winning.
Do these guys have personal psychologists? Because if they do Mr A’s had better work on stopping him continually obsessing about Mr H before he starts to appear rather unbalanced.
You are right Alastair, and it reminded me this was not the first trouble Hamilton had with a safety car.
At China 2007 he disobeyed another rule regarding that sc, wich was to remain inside a certain distance. Instead, Lewis slowed down so much Vettel, then racing for Toro rosso, couldnt avod the car ahead, Webber, and took both cars out.
Instead of banning Hamilton indefinitly from F1 racing, the FIA took the unprecedented step in adjusting the rules AFTER the breach had taken place.
And since im not solely against Hamiltons actions, allthough he remains the worst in terms of breaching FIA rules, also the SIngapore race was an example of how feeble, a ruling and sanctioning body the FIA is.
Renault rigged a race so that one of their drivers could win it. One of the worst examples of race fixing in the history of F1. What did the FIA do? Give Renault a SUSPENDED one year ban IN CASE SOMETHING SIMILAR HAPPENS.
What utter paper tiger bloody ridiculous ruling is that.
Anyway, i thought, in line with the rest of the examples, yesterday was another black day for F1. The FIA does its best to chase fans away. Speaking from my own experience my interest is waning race by race.
Point of view from Italy.
Ferrari has been very quick to mount a case so that they had another excuse to justify the fact that the car is not (again) a world beater and that Alonso is not currently performing at his best.
You should have heard the bla bla of the italian tv commentators fed by Colajanni (the Ferrari spokesman, normally when he is interviewed I turn off the audio)and the false disappointment of Domenicali at the end of the race when in reality he should explain how Kobayashi went past the twice world champion Alonso (ah…yes fresh tyres…..buuuu!!).
As an expat also living in Italy i am in aggrement with Piero’s point of view, i think we are in a minority of two here in Italy.
Max we are indeed a minority but at least you are an expat. I am italian and I have to put up with this rubbish every time that the Prancing Horse is not performing.
Great run Vettel…. Vettel is my favorite driver now that Kimi is gone, but I swear everytime he wins there is a bigger story out there and the lead is buried…. Yesterday was all about Alonso and Hamilton in the end…. but to me it was about Vettel and Kobayashi
Max and Piero, you could well be talking about the commentators of several teams in the world cup. That blabla bla you reference is the main reason I don’t usually put up with watching football anymore…but taling about Ferrari again, it IS a very convenient excuse/divergence from a team that said they were “back again” after just one positive result in Canada, and then failed to get both cars into point scoring positions. If they fail to get it on in Silverstone most of us won’t buy into their dribble. Also, Ferrari whining about “unfair treatment” is VERY hypocritical and they shouldn’t go down that route.
In the past I usually sided with Alonso and disliked what Hamilton did, but this season has been the complete opposite, and I’m now wondering if Alonso is past his prime. Up to now I’ve seen nothing on track to justify the sacking of Kimi for him.
I think Hamilton had a lot going on. He had that Safety Car joining from the right and the Ferrari behind. I’m sure we’ve all experienced similar situations at junctions?
Did Hamilton and McLaren break the rules at Montreal?
I think deriding Hamilton’s performance and ability by pointing at technical infractions is rather like blaming the disallowed goal for England’s exit from the World Cup. They just weren’t good enough.
So two races in a row Alonso and Ferrari cite others for their race results?
Perhaps the other teams just have better cars, with better drivers and can read races and strategy better?
The Ferraris were quite near the front into the first few corners at Valencia. Perhaps if they raised their qualifying performances they’d be at the front and better able to control the races?
Well, at Canada you could say those backmarkers are the same for everybody.
But yesterday it was different. If the FIA had sorted the video earlier, there is no way Hamilton wouldv finished 2nd. If the FIA had given all those other cars a drive through there was no way Alonso would end in 8th place, or near Kobayashi. ‘unlucky’ say the other teams. Just go and rewind the tape and see the time advantage had over the Ferraris whilst pitting. It was at least 30 seconds, if not more.
And i have to dismiss the comments about not having a world beating car. The F10 is very fast in race trim and looked competative all weekend long.
Anyway, my 2 cents.
Horray Santiago…. Finally someone agrees with me about Kimi being sacked as bad…. Kimi would have never carried on the way Alonso did on the radio about Hamilton.
I will say the signing of Alonso has sucked the life out of Massa. I know he will never say it but he is #2 now. That garbage move Alonso put on Massa in the pits in China would have had Massa crazy if it was Kimi, but as he is now a #2 there is nothing he can say or did say….
Jack, your 2 cents is worth nothing.
Indeed Michael, he didn’t really say much about his own incident with Hamilton at Montreal 08 and I dobut he’d made such a fuss about this one. This I’ve become an even bigger fan of Kubica, the best performing driver for me of this season…and there’s an interesting rumor regarding Mr. Kubica’s team-mate at Renault…
I admit I may have gotten a little carried away about Ferrari’s performance in Valencia in my previous comment, hopefully they’ll shut me up come Silverstone :)
Ha… I forgot about Montreal ’08… Alonso might have taken out a gun and shot Hamilton if he had run him over the way he ran Kimi over in the pits…. He woudl claim the Prime Minister of England was agianst him and it was all a big plot to help Hamilton
A friend of me noted:”Imagine if the FIFA would allow all kinds of cameras, and let FIA stewards work them. That would end in total chaos. It would take them half an hour to see wether Lampard shot did cross the line.”
Alonso’s apology mentions being 30 points behind the leaders.
Well that’s what can happen if you have a jump start and don’t get past traffic?
I’m reminded of Patrick Head’s comments from the last podcast but one about needing drivers that seem to have blinkers when it comes to their own mistakes as they need to concentrate on the current race and drive, not labour on past mishaps.
Maybe now Mark will understand what means “fighting for position” and what means limits.
In Turkey for sure he didn´t knew it.
FIA made two huge mistakes. The first was deploying SC behind Vettel and the second one was the time they took to punish Hamilton.
With that they didnt manipulated results but there was a lot of influence on them.
I’d call Webber’s accident “spectacular”, not “horrifying”. Now if he had hit the fence (Mike Conway at Indy), then it would have been much different…
So why was the safety car deployed? Kovalainen drove on, and Webber was out of the car and OK…
Steve, Charlie Whiting, seeing the magnitude of the accident, deployed the safety car and medical car WHILE the shunt was in progress so as to control the field and get the Med car to the scene as quickly as possible in anticipation of serious injury.
The responsibility of the wrong events in this race are up to the FIA sticking to out fashioned safety car rules and not being proactive to update tem when refueling was banned during grand prixs.
Considering the evolution of the F1 safety car rules and its results, they need to be amended; my proposal would be to close the pits until the entire grid comes to a formation, especially now that refueling is not an issue, as in other categories damaged cards are allowed to go into the pits to be fixed and wait for the pits to open to go out.
I have been travelling (Denmark, London, Kent) so hadn’t had a chance to comment but it seems as if Schumacher needs to be replaced fairly soon.
Mercedes should do everything in their power to get either Kubica or Raikkonen in their car to show Nico Rosberg the way.
Before the season started, I repeatedly wrote (on these blogs) that “Schumacher would get dismantled by the current Aces on the grid”…but I didn’t realize it would be *this* bad!