Maldonado says Perez contact was a “mistake”

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Pastor Maldonado says his collision with Sergio Perez in practice was not intentional.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Maldonado blames mistake for clash (Sky)

“It was a mistake from my side because I lost the car. I was trying to pass Perez quite quick, cold tyres – it was the out lap – and I lost a little bit the car.”

Maldonado set to get gearbox penalty (Autosport)

“Following examination of his car by Williams after qualifying, it was found that there was a problem with his gearbox – perhaps as the result of a crash in final practice – that means he will face a further five place drop.”

Formula One teams get 115m windfall (The Guardian)

“‘The current deal pays the teams 50% plus some extras which means it pays them about 59%. The new deal is basically 60% plus a little bit more so it is going to be about 63%,’ says a person with knowledge of the IPO.”

Alan Baldwin via Twitter

“Had a very quick chat with Bernie earlier. He denied saying anything about more races under new Concorde agreement.”

Aerodynamics head leaves Mercedes F1 team (Reuters)

Mercedes GP head of aerodynamics Loic Bigois has left the Formula One team to join unidentified rivals, principal Ross Brawn said on Saturday.”

Pirelli in new push for Q3 rule changes (Autosport)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “We will offer what is needed and that can be anything from an extra set for those in Q3 to make them run, through to full qualifying for everybody. We are open to whatever solution the sport feels is best, but we feel running cars in Q3 is important.”

Q&A with Red Bull’s Christian Horner (F1)

“Mark was competitive throughout all three sessions. He took two sets of new super-soft tyres into Q3. His first time was fine, then he dropped a little bit of time in the first sector and when he arrived at the end of Mirabeau I think he was about one-tenth down on his best lap, so the last three-quarters of the lap was phenomenal. He did an incredible job. He was so quick through the Swimming Pool section and in the last three corners he nailed it.”

Why is this season so tight at the top? (The Independent)

“‘We are all terrified that somebody will unlock the secret and win everything,’ [Jenson Button] said on Wednesday. ‘Unless, of course, that’s us!'”

Prost sees both sides in F1 "entertainment vs sport" debate (James Allen)

“You cannot compare to what we had 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Now the public are quite pleased to see that it is not all the time the same driver or same car. That is the worst thing for F1 today – if one car or one driver is dominating too much.”

Can Monaco be made even safer? (Formula Umm…)

Our own Damonsmedley on safety standards at Monaco – an important topic in light of yesterday’s GP2 and GP3 crashes (see below).

Ian Parkes via Twitter

“Lewis and Jenson have written get-well letters to a McLaren fan who broke back and left leg in a fall from a grandstand that gave way on Thursday”

Formula One Betting: Monaco Grand Prix Preview (Unibet)

My pre-race column for Unibet.

Comment of the day

Nick.UK looks ahead to the Monaco Grand Prix:

Rosberg has had some electrifying starts in his time at Mercedes. He and Massa have a habit of shooting forward far quicker than others, though the latter seems to get caught out quite often being unable to find a way through the pack to make up positions, which also often leads to actually loosing positions sadly.

I have a lot of confidence in Rosberg to take the lead, despite the stats and track conditions being against him. Maybe I wouldn’t be if it was not Webber in front of him, but the combination of who I consider to be one of the best starters and one of the worst adds up to make it a real possibility that Rosberg will take the lead.

I, despite having money on Rosberg to win, would love to see Webber to win also. Webber is my favourite driver (and my title bet is with him) and I think it would do wonders for him if he was to take a win over Vettel on pure merit. It would not only boost his confidence but I think it would put a dink in Vettel’s too.
Nick.UK

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Graigchq!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Fernando Alonso led home a McLaren one-two in the Monaco Grand Prix but all was not well within the team.

Team mate Lewis Hamilton complained he had not been given the chance to challenge Alonso for the win.

Felipe Massa was third for Ferrari.

Image © Williams/LAT

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80 comments on “Maldonado says Perez contact was a “mistake””

  1. Pastor Maldonado says his collision with Sergio Perez in practice was not intentional.

    I can believe that. No matter how I approach the incident, I just can’t see it being intentional. Maldonado had nothing to gain from it. When he hit Hamilton at Spa, I believe it was because he felt Hamilton had robbed him of a faster qualifying time. But here, Perez didn’t do anything to him, so there was no reason for Maldonado to deliberately hit him.

    1. @prisoner-monkeys I agree. I reckon he was just over-confident and misread the situation.

  2. Andy Redden (@andyredden-on-f1)
    27th May 2012, 0:09

    Maldonado’s sheer idiocy and incredible attempt to give an excuse for his actions are taking away from everything he achieved in Spain.

    1. Why the hell did he get the penalty in the first place?, it was practice.

      PRACTICE

      he and the others were PRACTISING.

      Didier Drogba doesn’t get a red card for diving when he’s kicking about in the park or training.

      1. @sushi-meerkat no, but I’m pretty sure if Drogba went over and punched an a player of the opposite team in the face while both teams are warming up, he’d get a lengthy ban… or a prison sentence.

      2. Poor sportsmanship is poor sportsmanship, no matter which session it occurs in. This isn’t the first time Maldonado’s childish temper has gotten the better of him. It’s a pity, as he clearly has talent.

      3. If it were testing you might be right. But this isn’t- it’s part of the Grand Prix, and drivers have to drive sensibly. I’m surprised anybody has taken exception to this penalty.

        1. If it was dangerous I’d agree, all he did was cut Perez up.

          What really grabs my goat is how some forum goers on this site and others are going on and on about it, how it somehow “takes away from his Barcelona win”… what the hell? he banged wheels with another driver, that doesn’t take a win away. Its sheer lunacy

          If Hamilton banged wheels with someone that would be considered F1 porn, and we’d all have to go to the bathroom to release tension.

          1. Andy Redden (@andyredden-on-f1)
            27th May 2012, 1:47

            Theres a massive different between banging wheels with someone and obviously attempting to hit another driver with your car deliberately.

          2. Cutting somebody up is quite a bit more serious if you hit then in the process. In the same way that moshing in front of somebody and actually nutting them are two very different thing.

            And you’re right, Hamilton never received anything other than praise whenever he hit somebody completely needlessly last year…

          3. Theres a massive different between banging wheels with someone and obviously attempting to hit another driver with your car deliberately.

            Yeah I know that massive difference, so should you.

            F1 cars are fragile, when they hit each other, they fall apart, everyone knows this, so they don’t ram each other on purpose because if they did they wouldn’t be racing anymore.

            Maldo didn’t ram Perez, he didn’t try to scare him, he didn’t hussle him for position, all he did was bang wheels.

          4. Bang wheels in a totally unnecessary way that may have caused Perez’s retirement from Qualifying. The way his left front wheel lost steering seems very suspicious to me.

          5. Eleanore (@leucocrystal)
            27th May 2012, 3:46

            I caught sight of some flying bits of car (which tends to happen when two cars collide!), flying back in Perez’s direction. They’re still in open cockpits, and that is still dangerous, no matter when it occurs.

          6. @sushi-meerkat What i don’t understand is why you would bring Hamilton into this? You sound so childish.

          7. @sushi-meerkat: You either seem like an anti – Hamilton fan or a hardcore Maldonado fan.

            Perhaps your memory is short. In 2006 Hungary, Alonso was given a 2 secs time penalty in all 3 qualifying sessions for brake testing Doornbos. Even that was a PRACTICE!

            In other words, crashing or having the intent to “scare” the other driver is illegal.

    2. sid_prasher (@)
      27th May 2012, 9:45

      I think he was trying to be cute and cut across Perez. In the end he mis judged it. I don’t think it was intentional but it was stupid and dangerous. This perhaps even contributed to the crash Perez had in qualifying…definitely deserved a penalty.

      1. he turned in too early, and to be honest, if he can’t control an F1 car in the dry, on very sticky tyres, at about 50-60mph, then he shouldn’t be in F1

      2. @sid_prasher For a guy who had a superb control of the car on the last race, and than two weeks later come and say he lost it in low speed because of cold tyres, it’s very suspicious to me.

        1. sid_prasher (@)
          27th May 2012, 11:29

          I agree @caci99 – I don’t think he lost the car…he deliberately cut across Perez (in my opinion) but i don’t think he wanted to touch Perez.

    3. I dont see any motive for MAL to take anything out on Parez. I think it was a misjudgement of where Parez was.

  3. Here’s an idea, Pastor: man up, apologise for being stupid, and don’t do it again. We might forgive you then.

    1. Apologize ? Doesn’t exist in some race champs ! He ruined Perez rhythm and car let alone Q and race, hopefully MAL won’t make one of those “mistakes” in the Race. Won’t be surprise if he thinks PER is guilty of him not been on pole !

      Actually will be very cool to see those two coming from back !

  4. Having looked at the off-board shot of Maldonado’s “””mistake”””, I can’t help but feel the mistake was in fact, a “major brain failure”.

    Can anyone spot a point where the car seems to be leaving the racing line in such a manner that would suggest he “lost the car”?, I certainly couldn’t. Only after the impact did he have to use opposite lock, before that his car seems perfectly planted on the deck.

    I think he’s bloody lucky to be starting the race tomorrow. It’s a shame really, such contrast from his mental performance last week.

    1. @beneverard

      I think he’s bloody lucky to be starting the race tomorrow.

      I could maybe understand your stance if the accident had been along the lines of the Suranovich-Daly incident in the GP3 race. As it was, Maldonado appears to have done nothing more serious than misjudge the turn-in point on cold tyres. It was a low-speed contact that did not put anybody in any immediate danger the way Daly’s airborne car did. So I think all the claims that Maldonado could, should and otherwise would have been banned from racing today are a massive over-reaction.

      Ask yourself: if Maldonado had not hit Hamilton at Spa last year, would people still be decrying this as an intentional act? Or would Maldonado be entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty?

    2. Can anyone spot a point where the car seems to be leaving the racing line in such a manner that would suggest he “lost the car”?, I certainly couldn’t. Only after the impact did he have to use opposite lock, before that his car seems perfectly planted on the deck.

      This is the key part. If MAL had “lost” the car, he would have jammed on the opposite lock to try and keep the front end away from Perez and on the racing line. Instead, he was turning the wheel towards Perez, with the car gripping perfectly.

      1. @jleigh – Some of your reactions to this are very extreme. Are you sure you weren’t involved in a road rage incident with a Venezuelan recently? I’m beginning to think you wanted Maldonado banned from racing before this, and you’re only using the incident to justify the stance. Whatever happened to innocence until guilt is proven?

        The stewards evidently think that this was not a deliberate act on Maldonado’s part, and penalised him accordingly. Since they have a wealth of data and camera angles and testimonies that we do not, shouting about it on the internet isn’t going to change anything.

        But I am curious to know … why haven’t you commented on Dmitry Suranovich?

        1. I’m curious to how you find these reactions extreme when you yourself admit he deliberately crashed into Hamilton because the latter supposedly ruined his qualification time. But maybe you, like FIA, think that was more or less okay because it was Hamilton that time?

  5. Nick.UK (@)
    27th May 2012, 0:14

    Thank you for comment of the day!!

    On the Maldonado incident, I would really like to see an onboard from ealier in the lap just like what was shown of Schumacher at Spain (BBC). I don’t want to jump in a lynch him until I’ve seen better angles. It didn’t look like he lost control to me when I saw it live, that’s for sure. My overall opinion of Maldonado seems to be as up and down as his grid positions lately. He was brilliant in Spain, but this was a very polarised performance to say the least!

    1. Well said, congrats for COTD :)

    2. i too would like to see webber sweep the table here

      1. he looses places at the start, if over comes that he may just do what you say…
        i believe he will dive over to cover Nico and get passed by Ham up the inside…
        would be nice to see Webber win though…

    3. Anyway he won’t say that he intentionaly bump into Perez even if it’s the case … F1 is like that, you have to tell what should be told not what it is. It has always been liike this and I don’t see it changing, however it seems to me that the team are a bit more media friendly than by the past …

      1. @nick-uk…congrats on COTD…I agree…I’m stoked for NR, and I too thought it was possible from him to get a better start than MW, but alas it wasn’t to be…doesn’t take away from me being happy with who won and happy that NR took second place.

  6. To be honest, it looked like Maldonado just made a mistake, I don’t believe he was ‘using his car as a weapon’ as the BBC seemed to think… I reckon her just misjudged his distances and where Perez’s car was (which, at Monaco, can surely be understandable)

    On the penalty, you have to look at it as he did crash into another car, therefore it was his fault (whether it was a mistake or on purpose) and he has to take the penalty, it’s just a shame really…

    1. I’m sorry but I honestly don’t understand how anyone can see it as a mistake. He was in full control of the car (see my above comment), yet well over a car’s width off the racing line.

    2. I haven’t seen the incident so cannot comment on this one, I did however see the earlier incident with Lewis so expect he fully deserves this penalty which is why I was so surprised he didn’t screw-up in Spain.

  7. While it’s difficult to say for sure, I think that if Pastor had kept going at the trajectory he would have hit the wall on the inside of the Portier. I’m not saying I’m right, it’s just how the replays look to me.

    It’s as bad as his collision with Hamilton last year, and I can’t see the stewards tolerating another similar incident. I’m actually amazed they’ve tolerated this one, all things considered. It’s a shame, because I really thought he had matured this year, especially with his win in Spain. He has lost a lot of the respect he has built up this season.

    1. @lin1876 Lewis was reprimanded for the incident at spa 2011 (personally I felt this was ridiculous). Was Maldonado? If he was then his penaly should be far more severe for repeating such a serious offense (if the stewards can prove beyond doubt that both instances were intentional)

      1. @3dom

        Lewis was reprimanded for the incident at spa 2011 (personally I felt this was ridiculous).

        Hamilton was reprimanded for (unintentionally) provoking Maldonado. Maldonado didn’t just attack Hamilton because he felt like it – he attacked Hamilton because he felt Hamilton had cost him the chance to better his qualifying time. At the time of the incident, a dry line had appeared on the circuit, and lap times were falling rapidly. In his haste to set a lap time and avoid elimination, Hamilton caught Maldonado at the Bus Stop, and the overhead replays clearly showed Hamilton forcing Maldonado wide. he didn’t push Maldonado off the track, but he did push the Williams onto the wet part of the circuit. This cost Maldonado several seconds, which would have allowed him to qualify further up the grid. If he had set a better lap time, Maldonado may have only netted an extra place or two, whereas Hamilton was all but assured of a Q3 berth (and ultimately qualified second) by setting a fast time. The ability to qualify higher than another driver does not excuse Hamilton from his responsibility to respect the rights of that other driver to set a fast lap time in qualifying. The stewards felt that because Hamilton had pushed Maldonado wide, he unintentionally provoked the Venezuelan. Since he didn’t actually break any rules, he was given a reprimand rather than a penalty. When you look at the incident in the wider context of the season, it makes sense – Hamilton simply didn’t respect anybody (except maye his own team-mate) last year. His frequent clashes with Massa, tagging Maldonado out of the race in Monaco, and accusing Kobayashi of wrongdoing the very next day without watching a replay of the incident beforehand, all speak to his state of mind. He just showed no respect for it.

        Was Maldonado?

        He was given a five-place penalty. A lot of people thought it was far too light and were demanding that he be banned from racing, but it’s pretty obvious the stewards were willing to be lenient on him because he acted in anger. It wasn’t a cold, calculating move designed to knock Hamilton out of qualifying so that Maldonado could advance to Q3. That doesn’t excuse what he did, but I’m willing to bet that the drivers’ steward – whoever it was – took Maldonado’s side and pointed out that if another driver had forced him off the dry line for the sake of his own lap time, then he would be furious and would probably flirt with the iea of taking revenge.

        1. What a lot of bullshιt. Because he provoke him? There is no such thing. He didn’t provoke anything. Hamilton was on a fast lap too and Maldonado took the last corner wrong so Hamilton pass him so he won’t lose more time and he had every right to do it.
          Just because Maldonado was displeased we are calling it provoking? Then i guess anyone who passes anyone on track is provoking since it makes the other guy displeased.
          Your Maldonado love is ridiculous when you have to resort to silly phantasies about “provoking” so you can defend him.

          1. Also he never accused Kobayashi and Maldonado at Monaco WAS Maldonado fault, His own team(Williams) admitted that Hamilton did nothing wrong(they could say it was their drivers fault so it’s as close to admission as you get) later on and Brundle was apologetic about his live comment after seeing pics and video again.
            It just seems that the stewards where watching more BBC instead of different angles of the incident.

          2. @solo

            Hamilton was on a fast lap too and Maldonado took the last corner wrong so Hamilton pass him so he won’t lose more time and he had every right to do it.

            Overhead replays clearly show Hamilton forcing Maldonado off the dry racing line and onto the wet circuit as they come out of the Bus Stop. Whereas Maldonado’s sector times suggested he could have picked up an extra two places with the lap he was on at the time, he never bettered his qualifying time.

            Just because Maldonado was displeased we are calling it provoking?

            If Lewis Hamilton was as innocent as you are clearly making him out to be, how do you explain the stewards reprimanding him and giving Maldonado a light penalty for the incident? Did they just have it in for Hamilton?

            Your Maldonado love is ridiculous when you have to resort to silly phantasies about “provoking” so you can defend him.

            I don’t have any particular liking of Maldonado. Nor do I dislike him. He simply doesn’t rate with me. If I had to rank all 24 drivers on the grid, he’d probably come in somewhere around 16th. Ahead of Hulkenberg and Ricciardo (who just aren’t performing this year), but behind di Resta and Vergne.

            No, I’m not defending Maldonado because I’m a Maldonado fan. I’m defending Maldonado because I believe in the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven, because I can understand – though that does not necessarily mean I agree – with someone acting rashly when angry, and because I’m not under the mistaken belief that butter doesn’t melt in Lewis Hamilton’s mouth.

          3. The stewards were lenient with Maldonado because it was Hamilton. In any other profession it would be described as institutionalized racism. Make your own mind up.

      2. @3dom I think both got some punishment, but I think the stewards were quite lenient. I think Maldonado was given a 5-place penalty, while Hamilton was reprimanded.

  8. Yes, Pastor, your dog ate your homework. Now go stand at the back of the class.

    1. Fool me once… Hadn’t he given Hamilton that shunt in Spa I might had considered his explaination. But again? I don’t buy it.

      Could the gearbox problem be just the team taking the opportunity to change it now that he is starting this far down?

  9. Surely the stewards and the team would have enough angles and data to prove one way or another whether Maldonado had deliberately caused the incident with Perez. The stewards should only be penalising the drivers for such an incident of the can prove that it was deliberate. For that reason it seems as though he is guilty until proven innocent.

  10. Pastor claims it was a mistake. I wonder what James Hunt’s opinion of that would be?

  11. Matt (@agentmulder)
    27th May 2012, 0:38

    I don’t understand what Maldonado is playing at. He had a chance here to prove that Spain was a turning point. To this point both Williams drivers have been average pilots that depend more on factors other than driving to keep their seat (Maldonado the PVDSA money, Senna the name). Maldonado bins it into walls, Senna into other cars at the start.

    I was hoping that with a more competitive car we would see the drivers mature. I thought Spain would be the start of an upward journey for Pastor, and that the win would give him confidence and aid him in becoming a more consistent, level headed driver. Watching the replay, it seems very clear to me that Maldonado intentionally goes after Sergio and rams his car. If he had lost control, had wheel spin or a suspension issue, that would have shown up on the telemetry the FIA gets.

    The penalty tells me that was not the case. If you’re mad, give the guy the finger on your way past. Still mad after, have words or what have you once you’re out of the car and can only do minimal damage to the other guy. It was bad enough in Spa where runoff areas exist, in Monaco it’s inexcusable.

    Beyond my disappointment in Pastor, I am really confused with how the FIA choose how severe to make a penalty. I understand that the gearbox and fuel sampling regulations have mandatory penalties written in the rulebook. Fair enough, it’s a rule, you change a gearbox, backwards you go. But using that as a comparison, and knowing how the FIA takes safety to be paramount, why is it that intentionally ramming someone is worth the same as an engine? Why does Pastor only lose five more places than Schumacher, when all Schumacher did was accidentally rear end a slower, swerving car? This is the second time Maldonado has pulled this crap. Where do they draw the line? And don’t even get me started on the excuses, or this post will overload the naughty-language filter very quickly.

    1. @agentmulder you are totally spot on. If the stewards can prove such a serious offense then the penalty should be a serious one also. A repeat of a serious offense should be punished further.

    2. You are right, once again I wish Barichello was still driving for Williams to give us, and Williams a benchmark for the car.

  12. I must say watching MAL come out with his excuses on Sky was quite entertaining, with all the pundits clearly thinking he was lying, yet not being able to say it to him.

    1. Yeah I wish one of them had the balls to say, “come on pasta, no need to lie to us it’s only making things worse” I think Eddie Jordan would have pressed him more and let pasta know his feelings.

      The Sky team still look hopeless, Damon Hill looks constantly uneasy..

      1. Yes, i agree. I am/was a fan of Damon Hill but seems Herbert is better suited for TV work.
        Better stuff to tell and better answers. Good of Christian Horner to throw Martin Brundle in the pool though. That made me smile, cheeky Brundle told Horner he owed him a new Iphone after that….
        He should have traded up and asked for a Samsung Galaxy S3 instead.

  13. Thank the heavens that Sergio was there to prevent Maldonado’s car from spiralling into the wall after it lost control with smoke everywhere

  14. @prisoner-monkeys, I hope you read the Guardian article for an explanation of how the BUSINESS of F1 is run, you seem to be good at internet searches so please check Bernies history in F1. You will find that Bernie approached the teams in the days when circuit owners paid “starting money” and “prize money” to individual teams to stage a race, Bernie offered to organise the calendar and find other means of getting revenue for the teams ie. he offered to work for the teams but in reality he was working for and he sold the teams out when he sold them to CVC.

    1. …. working for HIMSELF and….

  15. Perhaps Maldonaldo is the real Hulk?

  16. Collide with car thus causing a 100 mph crash later=10 grid drop
    Stop on instruction in case you aint got enough fuel in case of a random check=24 grid drop

    As Ron said `wheres the consistancy `

    1. Hamilton was disqualified from qualifying breaking a rule McLaren brought in the rulebooks, he didn’t get a penalty, that is why.

      1. The thing that bothers me is that if Mal rear right had connected with Perez front left( the one that would later fail in the swimming pool area ) He could have flipped an injurired all in the vicinity.

      2. Yes while Ferrari got a rule aborted when they violated a rule they created. How nice.

        1. @Solo, I agree they should have been punished more.

  17. These Pirelli’s continue to astound me. Now according to Pastor’s explanation of the incident, his car had cold tyre’s and soooo much grip that he wasn’t expecting, one little tweak of the wheel and bang! It turned into Perez.

  18. So what do people want Maldonado to say? “I deliberately hit Perez”? He is not going to say it.
    Schumacher never said “I deliberately hit Villeneuve”, Alonso never said “I deliberately held up Hamilton”
    Hamilton never said “I deliberately lied to the stewards”. Drivers cannot say these things directly because that would open them up to larger penalties.

    Hamilton apologized to the press and was sorry for his mistake. Maldonado has also said the same thing – it was a mistake. People should stop asking him to be sacked and banned from the season and everything.

    1. Yeah he should have admitted it. If he has all this money then surely he can just say what he wants and still buy his way into a team? If he were honest or funny it would reflect alot better on him.

      Although having said that perhaps you are right and drivers before him set precedents by not telling the truth when they made mistakes and only recognise they made a mistake rather than saying something like: yeah I wasn’t in a good mood with him so I thought I’d mess with him for lolz

  19. Only the most blinkered individuals think the driving was anything other than idiotic.

    For me the real shocker is the inconsistency of the FIA. How can technical infringement (ham Spain ) warrant a far more sever penalty than risking a driver’s life?

    For those who keep referring to Maclaren being the source of the rule , that is irrelevant to what penalty is applied . If it wasn’t, teams with the longest F1 histories would be consistently more heavily penalised – which would be unfair and is not the case .

    1. It is a clear penalty, you get disqualified from qualifying for it. That is why they were at the back. I’m not saying it’s faire, but it’s written in the rulebook.

  20. Mercedes GP head of aerodynamics Loic Bigois has left the Formula One team to join unidentified rivals

    I wonder if Ferrari snapped him up. They are in dire need of aero guys, perhaps they offered him a salary he couldn’t refuse.
    Autosport are reporting that Ferrari have said no deal has taken place though. Who knows.

    1. @julian There are words that it is Ferrari who has hired him. I guess we will find out soon.

  21. “We are open to whatever solution the sport feels is best, but we feel running cars in Q3 is important.”

    As the rule is anyone who gets into Q3 has to start on their qualifying tyres, I think that those who don’t run in Q3 should have to start on the tyres they got their best lap from Q2 thereby satisfying the same requirement as all the other drivers in Q3.

    If they don’t set a time in Q3, perhaps they should also have to go and ask the stewards to be allowed to start (giving reasons for not driving) as per the 107%-ers.

  22. isnt it ironic, schumacher used to get away with dirty things like this all the time, like parking a broken down car in the middle of the road to get a red flag situation so he can pop in another car, or cutting up hill to win a championship. and today people are celebrating his performance in qualifying! in the same way, people will forget this little indescretion (which was only in practice anyway), and will be chearing for him in another event.

  23. Why not run Q3 as they ran the whole qualifying some years ago? Each driver is sent out in turn and get to set one flying lap. The order could be determined by Q2 results, which would also make the positions in that session more important. In that way everybody would have to run.

  24. Wow, Maldonado is a **** liar…

  25. Now he is complaining that about the penalty.

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99916

  26. If you believe Maldonado intentionally rammed Perez, I honestly doubt you have any knowledge whatsoever about open wheel racing.
    Over-aggressive driving during practice for which he deserved the penalty? Yes.
    Intentional ramming? You must be kidding…

    1. He didn’t rammed intentionally. In my opinion his idea was to “scare” Perez by cutting across or even worse, ‘brake testing’.

      He wouldn’t ram intentionally and he misjudged it just like we misjudged him after Spain that he has grown up!

      1. That’s exactly what I think. But look what other wannabe experts write here in the comments.

    2. So right, in open wheel racing history never happened deliberate crash among drivers.

    3. @spankyspeed Agreed. It was foolish, we can all agree on that, but intentional? I think people are just looking for drama that isn’t there.

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