Raikkonen fumes at Perez over “stupid move”

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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An unhappy Kimi Raikkonen blamed Sergio Perez for costing him points in the championship with a “stupid move”.

The pair collided at the chicane which left Raikkonen with a puncture but he Lotus driver was able to recover to tenth place to claim a point.

“It was a really disappointing day,” said Raikkonen. “Because of one stupid move from Sergio we’ve lost a lot of points to Sebastian [Vettel] in the championship and you can’t afford to lose ground like that.”

“He hit me from behind and that’s about all there is to it. If he thinks it’s my fault that he came into the corner too fast then he obviously has no idea what he’s talking about.”

“It’s not the first time he’s hit someone in the race; he seems to expect people to be always looking at what he might do, then move over or go straight on if he comes into the corner too quick and isn’t going to make it without running into someone.

“Not the ideal weekend but there’s nothing we can do about it. At least we got one point back at the end.”

Fernando Alonso also raced wheel-to-wheel with Perez and was ordered to give up a position to the McLaren driver after cutting the chicane to stay ahead of him.

“His approach reminds me of my own in 2008 and 2009,” said Alonso, “because when you are not fighting for the championship, you can take more risks, while for me today, it was important to finish the race and bring home as many points as possible.”

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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150 comments on “Raikkonen fumes at Perez over “stupid move””

  1. It’s funny to me how Raikkonen thinks Perez should be punched in the face for what happened, but the stewards didn’t even think the incident needed investigating.

    1. To clarify, that’s what the BBC are reporting that Raikkonen said about Perez.

      1. I believe the stewards are wrong not to punish Perez. He cleary was way too far behind to even try that move.
        Now Perez clearly thinks everybody should get out of his way. All of his moves bar one on Fernando were “let me through or we crash” !
        He must be stopped!

        1. 100% agree. mclaren made a mistake signing him way too early in his career. even Lewis was not as bad(yet close) as Perez in dangerous mistakes

          1. McLaren signed him up for the sponsor money they are expecting from Carlos Slim/Telmex. I don’t understand why he isn’t under investigation for reckless driving.

        2. The attempt at passing was fine. There was a gap, Perez was close enough, but Kimi decided to deviate from the normal racing line at the last moment and Perez had nowhere to go.

          A racing incident. If anything it was silly of Kimi considering his whole championship philosophy is to consistently get a decent points finish.

          What’s with these old guys like Alonso, Kimi, Button? Always complaining. All they want to do is sit back, drive within the car, take no risks.

          1. The attempt at passing was not fine and Perez should have been penalised.

            Just look at the first attempt Perez made on Kimi. There was no contact, so Kimi gave him at least a car widths room, and Perez still did not make the corner. He was going too fast and out braked himself.

            That and the following move that eventually put him out of the race were reckless and not on.

            Well at least even with Hamilton gone, McLaren will still get plenty of practice at rebuilding the car.

          2. “The attempt at passing was fine. There was a gap” – you probably think of disapearing gap, aren’t you!? I saw the same kind of gap in Suzuka 1990 shortly after the start ;-)

          3. As couple laps before when he couldn’t even make apex him self? This time around he was even further behind. Keep telling it to yourself mate, he was playing roulette on the streets of Monaco :)

          4. I echo Kimi4WDC is saying that in Perez’s previous move on Kimi, both of them were forced off apex – which shows clearly that Perez was on a line in which he himself did not intend to round the apex according to rule. That second last attempt was worse than the one on Alonso when only Alonso was forced to cut the apex. If Perez is not to be punished for his last move on Kimi and the move on Alonso, he is definitely punishable for the off-apex driving at least.

          5. “but Kimi decided to deviate from the normal racing line at the last moment and Perez had nowhere to go”

            That’s what drivers do in turns, he didn’t deviate, it is a very tight chicane. Perez himself dived in to racing line with no chance of driving the chicane clearly.

          6. No, Kimi took a significantly tighter line into the corner. Watch carefully.

        3. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
          26th May 2013, 20:36

          Yet, thats exactly how Martin Brundle said Senna drove, he would put you in a position where you would have a crash and leave it up to you to avoid it. No one ever said he should be banned now did they?

          1. I think there’s a rather famous example where Jackie Stewart interviewing Senna does exactly that, questions Senna’s driving methods and the amount of crashes he had. Martin Brundle was not being complementary when he said it either. Bottom line is you should not contact another car on track, full stop. F1 is not a contact sport. The older guys, Webber, Alonso, Raikkonen, Button will very rarely if ever make contact with another driver when passing. That respect should extend both ways but it doesn’t seem to at the moment with guys like Maldonado, Perez and Grosjean, even guys like Hamilton have been guilty in the past. There is an unacceptable attitude that it is ok to jam it up the inside and let the other guy get out of the way, basically bullying your way through that took hold with Senna, was propagated by Schumacher and now a lot of drivers do it because the cars are so safe they know the consequences will be essentially zero if they crash.

          2. Well, actually some did say that Ayrton Senna was driving dangerous, so the debate was also on back then. It seemed to me as if Perez went to late for a gap, which he didn’t have a chance to exploit and Kimi closed the gap too late, thus the Stewards deemed it a racing incident. But a driver who is trying too eagerly to exploit impossible gaps usually don’t finish.

          3. Yes, Senna drove dangerously, but he got away with it. Then Scummi masterclassed Senna’s ruthlesness and alo got away with it. Nex Hamilton came with similar degree of aggressivness but clamed down thankfully. Fact is, Senna and Schummi shouldn’t have gotten away with it ! And today we wouldn’t be talking about the “if driver no longer goes for a gap..” crap.
            Perez made a great move on Button.
            But with Kimi there was NO gap.

          4. Sure guys, nice answers. And maybe I should also blame SCH for the bad weather I had this year… Incredible how blind supporterism is. Getting back to the matter at hands: the situation seems very clear to all of you, but for instance Villeuneuve blamed only RAI for the move, after seeing all the images under different angles (including from PER’s car). He only blamed RAI and never had a doubt that he started to turn too early in the corner to block PER.
            I don’t have a strong opinion on this, but if that’s not all that clear for F1 drivers and stewards, then maybe you guys should moderate your views and question your certainty.
            Have I said supporterism?

          5. @palle the clear difference between Senna in 1990 and now is that Senna could have backed out of it, and that was at a dangerous speed. Neither of those apply to Perez’s incident.

        4. In fairness, his move over Button was fine !

        5. Yeah, we are in danger of seeing racing going on. Sure it was not clever, he had been getting more and more on the edge. But in the end he punished himself for a misjudged move by not finishing instead of a healthy dose of points, so I see nothing wrong with this being deemed a racing incident.

          1. Its not racing incident if you do it over 10 times in race. It was just simply reckless driving. If it was BTCC wreckfest, it might be ok but thats supposed to be F1.

        6. While I think perez was being a little optimistic with his move on kimi, there was no way on earth that kimi was going to make that corner even if there had been no collission. He clearly pulled across to block perez in a big way. Both were at fault but kimi purposefully moved off line which clearly perez would not have expected.

          1. http://i.minus.com/i1Lwqn3jD5RgK.gif

            Perez doesn’ even have full control of his car and Kimi had his racing line going into the corner first.

    2. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
      26th May 2013, 19:59

      Maybe he deserved a stop/go penalty, or a drive thru, BUT he didn’t continue the race, so ..that’s why has no penalty.

      1. @sorin That isn’t how it works at all. If a driver is deemed to deserve a penalty and doesn’t finish the race, they get a penalty for the next race. As with Grosjean today.

        Perez didn’t get a penalty because the stewards didn’t think he deserved one.

        1. so grosjean should have plodded round at the back, taken a 10 second stop go and have a fresh start for the next race?

          1. Well the car was unsafe because the floor was broken. The FIA would take a very dim view if there was an incident and Lotus sent him out knowing the car was damaged. And you can’t just send someone out to circulate, they have to be doing competitive speeds otherwise they’d just be getting in the way.

        2. to Keith Collantine: the stewards didn’t think he deserved one.
          It would be perfect if they shared their info with us, because, as a spectator, I see that that was absolutely his fault. He was not close enough at the moment when Kimi was turning into the corner.
          I remember Kimi was close enough to Perez in China. The Finn was side-by-side (his front wheels were in front of rear wheels of Perez’s car). There the stewards again didn’t blame the Mexican.
          So, there are two accidents between these two racers who shared both roles of attacking/defending racer. In both accidents I blame Perez. It looks like he is protected. I am curious why?

          1. @slava In China Perez was on the racing line and not required to get out of Raikkonen’s way.

            Whereas in Monaco Raikkonen had clearly pulled off the racing line to defend his position. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Perez was already committed down the inside and couldn’t get out of the move. It was a racing incident.

          2. @keithcollantine That tends to be my view, too.

          3. @keithcollantine my view exactly, and the correct one.

    3. @magnificent-geoffrey maybe they were but then Perez whent out of the race so they decided to leave it there and then.

    4. Some might say the decision to not penalize Perez was perhaps affected by the fact that José Abed FIA Vice President and former President of Mexican Grand Prix organising
      committee was one of the stewards.

      1. Maybe that is also the reason of letting Perez “back” in front of Alonso?

    5. Paulie Walnuts
      27th May 2013, 1:34

      Well that’s because the steward’s have egg on their face. Had Alonso closed the door the same way as Kimi there would have been a similar outcome. There logic was that it was the lead driver’s responsibility to recognize the banzai charge of the rear driver, move over jump the chicane and concede the place??? If they acknolweldged Checko’s fault in the Kimi incident then they would essentially be admitting their mistaken ruling in the Alonso incident.

      1. Alonso gained an advantage by cutting the chicane, which we’ve seen dozens of times before a driver is not allowed to do without surrendering the place. Being forced off the track is not considered a defence. It wasn’t for Hamilton at Spa in 2008, it wasn’t for Alonso at Silverstone in 2010. The stewards were consistent.

        The Raikkonen/Perez thing was a racing incident and the stewards were right not get get involved. Perez moved to Raikkonen’s left about the same time Raikkonen moved that way to defend. It happens.

        1. Keith thanks for bringing in the histories. But what about Sergio’s second-last move on Kimi? In that move both cut the apex and did not make the corner as (from what I see and know) Sergio was forcing Kimi to cut the apex and in the end Sergio himself cut the corner. Isn’t not being making a corner and forcing another driver not make it reprehensible? Or was Sergio not penalised only because he did not gain an advantage while cutting that corner?

        2. In the Nouvelle chicane you must make a tight turn to the left, it’s not “defence move”, because other option is running trough the chicane.

          I think Alonso had no options but to drive wide, he coulnd’t drive over the yellow cornerstone, because it could hit the bottom and send you flying. Perez did a bit too aggressive move and Alonso did what he had to do.

          With Raikkonen the situation was different, Perez dived absolutely too late, and Raikkonen was already turning to the chicane, he didn’t even have a real chance to make an evasive move. Raikkonen knows how important the WDC points are. If Perez had had a real chance for overtaking he would have tried to avoid the collision. Now it came from nowhere.

  2. Trenthamfolk (@)
    26th May 2013, 19:23

    justified complaints in my opinion. Perez was acting like an idiot today and deserved his DNF. Perhals he’ll learn, unlike Grosjean…

    1. I wish there had been Maldonado around fighting for position with Perez.

    2. Perez was driving brilliantly up to that point and what happened was a racing incident. Yes he was too aggresive on that move but I hate how people bash on drivers who actually try to race and overtake instead of going for a stroll round the monaco circuit, like most drivers do.

      If Perez deserves to get punched in the face, I wonder what Kimi deserves for this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8hVVM0Voo

  3. I think what’s especially worth mentioning is that Raikkonen has kept his points-scoring streak going, he’s still in for a record, i’m delighted with that. It would be a shame if it would end with that crash.

    1. No wait, not crash, that collision.

    2. Like that’s really an important stat??

      1. Yeah, actually, it is an important stat. Kimi’s on the verge of breaking Schumacher’s consecutive points-scoring record.

        1. It’s pretty non-comparable because Schumacher made the record with a points system for the top 6 finish (and two races with the top 8 finish points system but he finished those races in the top 6 anyway).

          Certainly Schumacher’s run was more impressive – even though it will be beaten most likely.

    3. He adopted Maldonado’s helmet slogan :-)

  4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    26th May 2013, 19:41

    Kimi was drunk or sugar-excess for the icecreams
    But seriously, Perez maneuvre was not “stupid”, was reckless, and I think Perez time to shine has really come. If 2 world champions start to moan about him, and one more starts just insulting as a resource, it can only mean he’s on the right path. I didn’t see anything wrong about it, and if the steward didn’t investigate neither Perez nor Kimi, it must be a simple Monaco race incident. I still think, however, Kimi should have checked his mirrors knowing he was under attack

    1. If World Champions complaining about you is a sign of being on the right path, then Grosjean is going to be a mega star. I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t complained about that guy.

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        26th May 2013, 19:45

        Haha, Yes!

    2. absolute rubbish. pointless drivel. I can’t for the life of me see whats wrong with what Raikkonen did. You don’t go braking extra late into a corner and expect everyone to just move out of the way. If this is your attitude in life then it must say something.

    3. Kimi knew that he was under attack. Why do you think he kept moving more and more to the left as the race progressed? Driving a defensive line at some points of the track was the only thing left to Kimi, as he couldn’t drive faster with often less than a second to Hamilton before him.

      Perez should have known when enough was enough, as his overtaking moves got more aggressive with each lap. At some point he had no chance to stay on the proper track anymore and THAT should be serious enough to stop and think.

      We all know what the result was: Perez complained, that Räikkönen didn’t make it easy enough for him!

      I personally think, that his confidence and aggressiveness can be big assets to a young and upcoming driver. But they must be tempered with realistic expectations and a fair and proper behavior in duels. Sometimes it’s better to take a bit less of a risk and that’s what Sergio Perez has still left to learn. Let’s hope he does that, or he’ll crash into Button at some point this season.

      1. Have you watched the race? Did you notice the lack of overtakes and impressive car trains? That’s because people do block. Perez was doing sniping moves where he wasn’t even making apex him self all day, and the last that get him in trouble with Raikkonen was by far from furthest away on a guys who was going for the block.

    4. Doesn’t look like we watched the same race. Perez was acting stupid, he had nothing to lose but the championship leaders do. I really enjoyed 3 incidents. 1. When Raikkonen squeezed Perez’s stupid move, serves him right. 2. Perez prevented from getting into the pits and had to retire. 3. Raikkonen finished in the points on the last lap!

      I guess Perez doesn’t need a penalty as he got what he deserved.

    5. Grosjean and Pastor should be triple champions with in the next decade, am I right @omarr-pepper ?

  5. Kimi nearly lost that place in the first attempt why on earth did Perez think Kimi wouldn’t close the door next time? When he launched the assault kimi was already going left. Stupid/Silly to think he could still muscle his way in there.

    1. why on earth did Perez think Kimi wouldn’t close the door next time?

      On the basis of “I’ve warned him once, he better jump out of the way this time,” I imagine.

    2. So if a driver makes it hard to pass they should just give up trying???

      1. If a driver makes it hard to pass you should just barge him out of the way?

      2. If a driver is trying to barge past, you ust give up defending?

  6. yeah pretty reckless driving from perez. Deserved a lesson.
    But how can Alonso not be angry about him?! At least now we might know why he didnt fight with perez and sutil, so he wont crash.

    1. Alonso isn’t angry because it was a fair move. He was leaving room for Alonso, who went off track, and that’s when Perez moved back on line. That’s why he got out of the car and shook his hand instead of getting out and shouting, which is kind of what I was expecting when I saw Alonso walk towards Checo’s car.

      1. exactly @repete86, its good to see that Alonso recognizes it for what it was. Perez had been getting a bit more reckless with every move he pulled off, in the end Kimi was less carefull about points for the championship than Alonso had been, closed the door and that was the end of Perez run of overtakes.
        Sutil also risked more than others were willing to risk, but was not as reckless as Perez, so he made it to the finish. But it was good to see both of them daring the others and making a race out of a procession.

        1. Please watch the distance Perez was coming from and compare how much space there was on outside, Kimi was clearly going to block. I don’t think he realised that anyone driving in F1 is capable of driving into a barrier on purpose, hence what it looked what Perez did.

  7. I think Alonso was well aware of just how manic Perez’s driving was and that is why he said he took over the kerb to avoid collision. I’m so sick and tired of this gamer mentality among GP2 drivers. There’s no place in sport for people with no sense of sportsmanship.

    1. That was an odd race from Alonso. When he stopped trying to pass Kimi, he let a 3 second gap be built. I figured it was so he had clean air, so I assumed he was going for 1 stop. After the red flag it felt he was lost. He didnt defend from Perez, who did the same move on Button one lap earlier, and just let Sutil through.

    2. Trenthamfolk (@)
      26th May 2013, 21:13

      Yes, agreed…

    3. Have you actually ever watched a full GP2 race???
      I think many of us would agree that there is better “racing” in GP2 than in F1. If somebody told me I’m racing GP2 style I would actually take it as a compliment. Yes they do crash from time to time in GP2, but they also pull some amazing and smart overtakes..
      What F1 need’s is more RACING, not just “SOLID DRIVES”. For solid drives better watch rallying…
      I’m also tired of Alonso and Raikkonen putting all their titile hopes on a “consistency strategy” and expecting other drivers to be respectful of their consistency title bid since the first races. If you are 5th or 6th during a race and behind you there is a train of 5 cars, don’t expect them not to be agressive..
      I think that part of this mediocre approach to the championship is thank’s to the current points system. Finishing 5th (10 points) give you more than half of what you get by finishing 2nd (18 points) when before you 5th only gave you one third (5th- 2 points) (2nd- 6 points).
      While I think it’s a good idea giving points till the 10th position, i think that winning and podium finishes should give you a bigger gap of points towards the rest of the field…

  8. I’m a Perez fan, and I’m not sure what penalty should be applied here, but that was a very unintelligent and reckless move. What exactly was he thinking? Starting the dive for the position so late, and so far behind, how does going around the outside into the first part of Nouvelle do anything but giving Kimi the preferred line through the rest of Nouvelle and the approach into Tabac? Trying to outbrake, when you will not have a good line to defend against a counterattack, and zero margin for error should Kimi do anything but surrender spinelessly? The inside move was working earlier, and if it didn’t work on Kimi, then it was not going to work at all there.

    Pure lack of sense and driving smarts there. Five grid spots and a three-race probation would be fair. I love the aggression as a fan, but he needs a penalty equivalent of a rolled up newspaper in the nose for sheer idiocy.

    1. ^”if it didn’t work on Kimi, then it was not going to work at all there.” Was not intended as an insult to Kimi, more that he should have either preserved the position or tried somewhere else, because Kimi was wise to the intent to move there and that way.

  9. Sergio’s move on Raikkonen was reckless. It was pointless to go for that gap, he was way behind Kimi.

    But I think that his move on Alonso was perfectly clean, I don’t understand why everyone is complaining. I mean, there’s no space for two cars on that corner, Perez was in a better position, so that was it.

    Anyway, I’m surprised he didn’t get anything for his drive. I mean, I thought that his drive in China was a bit on the limit and he was a bit aggressive even in Bahrain. Today he made a stupid move, he needs to calm down a bit.

    1. The move on Alonso was not clean… what if instead of a street there had been a wall? Alonso would’ve crashed… and I don’t like Alonso at all but I think he shouldn’t have given up the position, the move was not fair and Perez never actually overtook him completely! He did the same with Kimi; he keeps pushing until the other driver has to move in order to let him pass. It’s ok to be aggressive but this is recklessness. His move on Button was perfect and it’s great to see things like this in Monaco, but he needs to know where to draw the line.

      1. what if instead of a street there had been a wall?

        Then he wouldn’t have tried that move: what’s your point exactly? Because that is not a valid one at all…

        1. it’s exactly my point! he only made that move because he knew he would push him off the track… it’s not a fair move and that’s not how you should overtake!

    2. I Also don’t understand why everybody is complaining on Perez move on Alonso.. If Alonso didn’t like giving the position back he should have overtaken Perez after that as Perez did after giving the position back to Button…
      And about Perez being agressive in China, I’m sorry but the one who started it was Button. He was the first one trying agressive moves on Perez and expecting him to behave like a number 2 driver at Ferrari would do… Same in Monaco, I think Button’s moves on Perez in the opening laps were quite agressive for most “team mate driving standards” but instead of crying, Perez kept driving and beat him again on track…

  10. It’s a pity he had this crash because he was going to have a great result, also is good in a way that he does all this aggressive driving now that he doesn’t have anything to loose, yes crashing with title contenders is stupid but at least it wasn’t a dangerous maneuver that got him a penalty.

    1. is good in a way that he does all this aggressive driving now that he doesn’t have anything to loose

      Well, how do you think Grosjean earned himself the reputation of a crash-pilot? Each and every time he does something stupid (like he did today), fans and experts will exclaim, that the Frenchman still hasn’t learned anything from his several crashes/contacts/issues in 2012, for which he even received a race ban.

      Do you want Perez to follow the same path? Surely not, because it would be very difficult to get an anchor like that off your back. Take Grosjean’s crushed mental state into account, which he showed at some points during the last season, and you have the perfect recipe to the destruction of a talented driver’s career.

      1. Well you’re right, but if this is the worse Pérez will be driving it’s not as bad I guess, I mean he didn’t even got a penalty whereas Romain got a race ban.

        Mind you, even without a penalty he is paying the consequences for his aggressive driving (brake failure), so yeah he must calm down a bit.

  11. Yeah, I’m gonna have to side with Kimi on this one.

    I mean I still admire the guy for trying but that was a stupid move, really. You cannot overshoot your breaking point in Monaco just like that and commit to an overtake while you’re still 2-3 car lengths behind someone and hope everything is gonna be alright. It’s really the only way to do it in Monaco but if you’re going to do it then it has to be beautifully planned and executed or else if it doesn’t work it’s your ass.

    Take the move that he pulled off on Button for example, now that’s a clean classic out-breaking maneuver and it worked fine. He was already alongside him when taking the entry to the corner, took a good line through it, Button lined up behind him and it all went smooth.

    The move on Alonso was a good one as well. But you have to notice that Alonso can’t go racing wheel to wheel on that occasion to try and defend either(just as no one else can through that stupid corner), so he has to bow out and cut the chicane because there’s really no other way for him to go. Not that it’s an issue but just goes to show you that you cannot have half-moves there and you just have to make it stick entirely to make it work. Same thing happened numerous times before when Button tried that same move on him or the first time he tried it on Kimi. One almost always has to back off.

    Now there are some occasions when you can try going wheel to wheel there but again the driver entering the chicane on the left almost always has to back off because there’s no line they can take to out-traction the other driver or exit the chicane wheel to wheel. Those are just some of the things you have to take into account when you try to overtake in that spot and Perez failed to do that completely. It’s either a move you can pull off or you can’t and you need to have the skill to realize whether it can be done before you actually commit to it from a mile back.

    But that was just an “IM GOING IN” moment and he went totally banzai hoping Kimi would see him and let him through. That is not how you overtake, though.

    http://i42.tinypic.com/15f18ra.jpg – You can clearly see at that point he’s absolutely lost it.

    That is the exact moment of collision. Now any driver at that point would think, alright, I can’t make this move because there’s really no way I can fit in there so I’m gonna back off this time. However, he can’t do that because if you watch the replay he’s already started locking up a long time ago and basically lost control of his car. Now you might say that Kimi should’ve given him room but it’s not Kimi’s job to watch out for people losing control behind him.

    I honestly don’t see how anyone can try and justify it because at that point despite whether the stewards disagree with me or not there was just no possible clean overtake to be made there. There could have been a very awkward one if Kimi had actually stopped to let him through to avoid a collision but as I said that’s just not how overtakes are done.

    Opportunistic moves are another thing, but if you want to do a clean overtake then you have to plan it and execute it as it should be but never in the hope of another driver letting you through because otherwise you’d crash into them. That’s just not how it goes and that’s the way it is, really.

    1. I agree, If he wanted to make that move he needed to either get Alongside Kimi, or back out. You can’t duck your nose in and then be upset when the guy in front doesn’t see you because he was never going to see him.

      When Perez passed Button, you can visibly see the moment when Button see’s him and reacts to it, with Kimi, he never saw him.

    2. That picture says it all, just sad that Kimi had a puncture for that.

  12. Has anybody heard why lotus didn’t put super sorts on kimi’s car today after the red flag? Considering how good they are on tires, that move baffled me and could have kept kimi out of perez’s over-ambitious move

    1. I think they were banking on there being no more stoppages to the end of the race and other cars coming into trouble with the supersofts at the end of the race; on the softs they would have been in a good position either to attack directly or pass if cars ahead had had to make an extra stop.

  13. Interestingly, J Villeneuve, commenting on Canal + for the French TV, put all the blame on Raikkonen here.
    He mentions how he started his turn way too early, closing the gap on Perez who was already commited…

    1. Ha ha that is no surprise, JV would do that he has always disliked Kimi.

  14. This is exactly how Grosjean’s Spa pileup was building up last year. He was getting dumber and dumber with every race and all the while he was getting little to no meaningful penalties until he finally wiped out quarter of the field in one corner and everyone was suddenly outraged.

    They need to bring Perez back to earth with a more serious penalty before his ridiculous aggression and disrespect reach too high level.

    To be fair to Grosjean, his incidents were mostly down to recklessness and lack of awareness, while Perez seems to suffer from too much aggression combined with a lack of respect for his rivals.

  15. To throw in something else;
    I believe Hamilton’s move on Webber was just brilliant. And Webber responded masterfully!
    If only Lewis made it stick. That would be overtake of the season for me. It doesn’t get any better.

    1. I think it’s time we had a ‘most spectacular failed overtake attempt of the season’ contest. The naming could be better than the one I came up with though.

      1. Fair enough. Made me laugh!

  16. Perez was crazy, but Kimi moved off the racing line in the braking zone (yes he did, that isn’t the racing line he took into the chicane).

    To be honest, I see it being 50/50. Perhaps Perez can punch Kimi in the knackers or something, I dunno.

  17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g80-CFe7_Ko
    Perez was moving in to the spot and Kimi kept closing the gap, Perez did try to abort the pass BEFORE hitting Kimi, but too little too late, Kimi already had made up his mind to close the gap completely, both drivers tried to bully the other to back down, thus, race incident, both lost the chance to let the best of them make the decision on this one. Of course the Defender always think the attacker is at fault, otherwise the defender would just sit back and enjoy the position, but with out attacking positions we would not have racing.

    1. I would also add, not to sound biased, that a good attack is clean, swift and leaves the defender with no recourse than to concede the position, or a great pass is to take it with out the defender even knowing the pass just happened.

      1. It looked like attacker was not aware of the attack either same for the move few laps before the incident.

      2. And Checo pulled it on Button at the very corner, it was clean and Button was beaten fair and square. Evident from the fact the Perez was able to make the corner and so was Button. But from then on he just started over-reaching. First it was marginal with Alonso and then with Kimi, it was just plain day-dreaming. Also in the light of the fact that Kimi had closed the door similarly in the previous laps, just makes me wonder what was he thinking?

        1. The issue is that breaking late, and talking left side in the chicane is not the Best path for top speed. So, that is risky for the one approaching faster as the centrifugal force can through it away or just won’t allow him to take the curve and turn.. so, it will end going straight and will be penalized by missing the chicane. But as Kimi was little slower he was trying to take advantage of the Faster path expecting it would minimize Perez chances. Which it worked fine for 1 or 2 times earlier. Why it didn’t work when they had contact ? because Perez came out from the tunnel Faster than Kimi and that put him in the position to put the nose of the car in the Gap, but then Kimi defending his position closed the door a little late producing the contact for both. That’s why Race stewards didn’t penalized Perez or Kimi they both were kind of right. One driving faster one covering his position… they both could avoid the contact.. Perez just awaiting probably other lap, but he needed to try his move fast as with red tires, tires degradation won’t be helping later as Kimi had a harder tires and will last little more. But Kimi is not free of charge as well, as he could leave the spot and fight back in the next lap. But he knew Perez car was in little faster to try that back. Both went for everything or nothing.. and both lost several points. Good for Kimi that rescue 1 point. But a shame of Great and spectacular race!. Besides that, not other scenes were able to applaud but by sure, D’Resta and Massa probably offered good excitement as well. I hope we could have more spectacular and not boring races hopefully soon.

  18. Yeah, perhaps it was a mistake trying to overtake Kimi. But if it wasn’t for Perez and Sutil, the race would not have been as exciting as it was. It would have been an static and boring carrousel of cars just waiting for somebody to make an obvious mistake to pass. Until today I thought it was impossible to pass in Monaco. This is a good change.

  19. Räikkönen, I think you caused your own loss today. You should’ve just ran wide and if Perez didn’t make the chicane, he would’ve had to give the place back anyway. If he did make it though, then it was a perfectly fair move. Either way, Räikkönen shouldn’t have turned in like he did and closed the gap on Perez when he couldn’t back out of it.

    1. @vettel1

      Either way, Räikkönen shouldn’t have turned in like he did and closed the gap on Perez when he couldn’t back out of it.

      I already made a post that would address this issue.

      Closed what gap exactly? Do you realize what a tight entry it is for that corner? You’re never going to make a move stick there by sneaking in with your front wing somehow. There was absolutely no gap at that point and Kimi was already turning in for the corner which he was very well entitled to do so.

      1. @aced you haven’t addressed my issue though: I’m not arguing that Perez was abmitious in trying to overtake from that far back but Kimi moved over when Perez had his front wheels alongside Kimi’s rears, when he was fully on the brakes already. There was nothing he could do to back out of it then, which is why I think Kimi is equally at fault. He should’ve just done as I stated above.

        What differentiates this from say Grosjean’s is that Perez didn’t just drive straight into the back of him, he was actually in a car’s width space at the time when Kimi moved over (that is clearly evident from the on boards) when instead he should’ve checked his mirrors and drove straight on as I’ve already discussed. He cost his own race IMO.

        1. @vettel1

          Here is a very good example that someone else posted on another forum of how you should back out from a stupid move like that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOmozDspnQ#t=03m10s

          The problem with the gap that you’re implying there was is that the angle at which Perez was approaching the corner he would have almost had to stop before he could turn in. In addition to that he would have never been able to turn in before Kimi turned in first. So by that logic there really was no gap to go for. His judgement was way off. Schumachers wasn’t.

          You can’t just say, oh there’s some space so I’m going to fit in my car there. That space has to lead somewhere for it to be actually called a gap instead of a shrinking one.

          Perez shouldn’t have committed to a move that was never going to stick but instead most likely cause an accident. He was the one who should have avoided it.

          Now on a rational note Kimi should have probably tried to avoid it by getting the hell out of there, but it never should have been his job to do so in the first place. Therefore, in my opinion, it was causing an avoidable collision on Checo’s part.

        2. Kimi drove a defensive line as he had done for many laps before, since Perez had already tried to do the same move before. He didn’t turn into Perez, it is a tight chicane he was always going left at some point that is why it was always a disappearing gap. It was never a real gap for Perez.

          You are contradicting yourself, saying:

          There was nothing he could do to back out of it then
          when instead.
          he should’ve checked his mirrors and drove straight

          If there was nothing he could do to back out then perhaps it was his mistake as he shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
          Why would anyone expect the driver who is in front to drive off the race track?
          If the driver in front is expected to skip the chicane and drive off the race track, for a overtaking move to work, then again the move shouldn’t have been executed to begin with.
          None of these moves would have been possible if the chicane was a real wall. But instead because the chicane has a run off area, Perez was expecting drivers to jump out of his way and use the run off area so that he could pass them.
          There was simply no way Perez would have been able to make the chicane without almost stopping on track, from the line that he was taking.

      2. Perez can’t just magically disappear once he’s committed.

        At least the Kimi fans will now agree that it was Kimi’s fault when he hit Perez in China.

        1. The problem with your logic is that if you were to commit to going through a red light and ending up causing an accident you would get away with it by saying “I couldn’t back off once I committed to it”. You shouldn’t have committed to something that was wrong in the first place, mate.

          1. That’s why you get an amber light before the red light….

        2. @aced If Perez had squeezed Raikkonen like that, the Kimi fans would be in uproar at Perez’s reckless driving. Perez can’t do right in this situation to those fans. Maybe you aren’t as biased as some, but Raikkonen was fully aware of Perez down his left so turning in like that was an error on Raikkonen’s part.

          1. Perez was fully aware that Kimi was about to turn left at the chicane ahead that is the way the race track goes, why did Perez take a line that would make it impossible for him to make the chicane?
            Why should Kimi be expected to go strait over the chicane because Perez who was behind him had decided to take the wrong line, the track is a chicane to the left not a straight line.

        3. Perez on Kimi in China = Chilton on Maldonado in Monaco.

    2. Still seems basically like cheating to me to either force the driver right in front of you to move out of your reckless rampage of make him run wide and having to give up the place all the same in the end.

      Face it, Perez is getting more and more stupid with every passing race, as his sense of entitlement and agressiveness increases. It has to stop.

      1. I don’t see why you should be calling him stupid. After all he had a cracking race up until that point and gave a lesson of how you overtake two world champions in Monaco.

        I just think that move in the end sort of tainted what could have been an amazing race. F1 fans should seriously learn to criticize respectfully and give credit where it’s due for once.

        1. +1

          If Kimi, Button and Fred don’t want to be overtaken then pick up the pace. I didn’t see anyone trying to overtake Perez.

        2. Paul (@paulmaster)
          28th May 2013, 19:37

          +1

      2. But I agree with you on the part that you shouldn’t use a technique like “forcing another driver to move out of your reckless rampage ” as you put it to make a move stick.

    3. Actually Kimi was taking the exact same defensive line that he has been taking for 25 laps.

      So no, I cant see how anyone could say that Kimi turned in on him, there was always going to be a sharp left chicane in front of him and a wall, Perez knew there was never a gap to begin with.

      He never should have been there in the first place.

      1. Kimi drove that line for 25 laps? No wonder he was fighting a McLaren this weekend then.

    4. Quite simply Perez had committed (whether it was reckless or not, but that isn’t the issue) and Räikkönen moved across him causing his front wing damage. He’s as much at fault for that.

      1. Can’t really understand how Perez being reckless or not is “not an issue” when that’s the whole point. By the rules it might be that both are at fault or even that Raikkonen is at fault for closing the gap when Perez already had his front wing next to Raikkonen’s rear wheels.
        But the reason Raikkonen is not penalized is because it would be utterly ridiculous since by reason Perez should not be there in the first place. Raikkonen is taking a defensive line expecting Perez to come in at a speed with which he can actually make the corner. Instead Perez comes in at a speed he can’t actually make the corner in the first place, which is just pointless, risky and stupid. The exact same thing he did a couple of laps earlier, that one just ended up in them both cutting the corner, this one ended in Raikkonen trying to make the corner with a defensive line and thus a crash. Can’t see how someone could defend Perez here, because what you’re effectively saying is “Raikkonen shouldn’t have tried to make the corner, because he should’ve known Perez is a human missile” or “Raikkonen should’ve stopped his car on the corner and waited for the human missile to go past.” I mean what kind of racing is that?

        The reason Perez is not penalized is because he already DNFd, it’s problematic by the rules (i mean he did have his front wing there, but ofc you can do that if you come in too fast), and being stupid is not a crime. There’s a vid on YouTube btw where Schumacher/Raikkonen have the exact same situation last year and Schumi makes a split second decision not to try it. Really, whoever here said Perez is having Schumi-like moves is flattering him.

        1. The reason Perez is not penalized is because he already DNFd

          No it isn’t. If the stewards want to penalise a driver who’s retired from the race they give him a penalty for the next race, as happened with Grosjean in Monaco.

      2. @vettel1

        Again, overtakes are not made by forcing another driver to let you through because otherwise you’d crash into them. I can agree with you on the part that Kimi perhaps should have turned in a bit later to avoid the whole thing but Perez at the same time had no business charging like that in the middle of nowhere.

        It does look brave on TV and exciting but from a drivers point of view that is just terrible judgement. There’s just no gap there, you can’t possibly argue that if you take into account the nature of the corner and the angle at which Perez was approaching it there ever was a chance of a clean overtake to be made there.

        Take note from a very similar situation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOmozDspnQ#t=03m10s

  20. Both of them, Raikkonen and Perez, got what they deserved because you can’t defend and attack like that.

  21. I dont know what the stewards were doing today, they were rewarding Perez for driving others off the track. It started first with Alonso, it was wrong that he had to give that place to Perez.

    Then Perez obviously gained confidence and saw that the stewards were doing nothing, and he only got worse as the race progressed.

    Perez’s own words afterwards confirms it. Where he said should Kimi should have avoided the accident by skipping the chicane. When you are supposedly doing an overtaking move and the other driver has to go off the race track for you to complete your move then it isn’t overtaking and the move isn’t on to begin with.

    You cant just point your nose and dive into any little corner and expect the other driver to yield by driving off the track race. That is simply wrong, and not racing at all.

    Perez didn’t try this little move at any other place on the circuit, because if you push others off the track at other places there is walls and you will crash.
    Kimi was taking a normal defensive line, as the driver in front he had a right to choose his line. And he was driving a defensive line because Perez had already tried his little trick earlier. Perez knew that the space was always closing.

    Perez would never have been able to make the chicane in the first place, even if Kimi wasn’t there. There would never have been an overtake on the cards if Kimi didn’t yield completely by going off the race track. So that tells you this move was never there to begin with.

    The FIA is basically telling Perez that it is okay to push other drivers off the track. This can not end well, Perez would have been better off getting a penalty, or a reprimand at the very least. Now he will just keep on doing this.

    1. “I dont know what the stewards were doing today, they were rewarding Perez for driving others off the track. It started first with Alonso, it was wrong that he had to give that place to Perez.”

      What are you people watching??? Was it a different race? Alonso cut the chicane to maintain his position.

      1. If Alonso maintained his line in the chicane, Perez would have crashed into the side of Alonso’s car. The gap was never there to begin with.

      2. If Alonso did not take avoiding action he and Perez would have crashed. The FIA made the wrong call, that is why they could not do anything about the situation with Kimi, because they would have to admit they were wrong in the first place.

        1. Alonso has a brake pedal. You press it for a bit longer in that situation…

          1. F1 drivers brake as late and as hard as possible.

      3. Alonso had nowhere to go. He could either have crashed into Perez or cut the corner, and that is what he did.

        1. @wsrgo he was already at turn-in: he could’ve easily braked more, and if not then he still should’ve given the place back. Perez forced him wide through skill.

          1. @vettel1 I’m not saying Alonso shouldn’t have given the position. It was hard racing, but fair and within the rules.

  22. To me that kimi was just taking his normal line, albeit knowing perez was going to do that. Nobody has to give anybody any room. That’s not a rule. Kimi just decided he didn’t want to race perez and started driving his normal line rather than give perez the respect enough to race with him.

  23. Kimi finished in the points after surging up from 16th to 10th by the final lap. Sergio DNFed with brake failure that was no doubt induced by a lack of front downforce caused by Raikkonen turning in on Perez and squeezing him into the armco on the run-up to the chicane – just as he tried to do the first time Perez attempted to pass him. Tell me whose race was ruined more – the guy who still has a 23-race points scoring streak intact, or the guy who had his best race of the season wasted?

    1. This logic is just flawed. Just because one has more to lose doesn’t justify reckless aggression. BTW, Checo just might have wrecked Kimi’s chances of challenging Vettel for WDC. Does that automatically mean that Checo’s at fault? Please try to assess the incident on its own merit, not by it’s ramifications on results.

      1. Look, if you can’t beat Perez (who was in the 5th or 6th best car) and you had the 3rd best car you don’t deserve to be challenging for a championship.

        1. So you’re in fact saying, that Alonso wouldn’t be a worthy champion either? If not Räikkönen or Alonso, there would only be Vettel left.

          This Monaco race wasn’t indicative for car performance anyway, or we wouldn’t have seen the whole field (even the bottom two teams Caterham and Marussia at times) drive lap times within a second of each other for large parts of the race.

          It became very clear to me soon after the start, that the upper half of the field was suffering under the conservation mode, that Mercedes was driving at the front. Later in the race it was made public, that Red Bull would need to preserve their tires and so the top four places were filled with the two best cars of the weekend. They did all they needed to keep the rest of the field behind them, but never got close to their top performance.

          Kimi in fifth place could do nothing about them in the end, but do what everyone else was doing: follow the car in front of him as close as possible without wrecking your car or tires. He might not have tried to pass Webber or Hamilton before him, but with the third-best car of the weekend, a finish on fifth wouldn’t have been out of place.

  24. “You can’t just point your nose and dive into any little corner and expect the other driver to yield by driving off the track race. That is simply wrong, and not racing at all.” Precisely. That is not racing.

  25. It wasn’t too long ago Perez completely shut the door on Kimi in a more aggressive manner.

  26. Perez will hit some cars in front of him at every race. He’s kept on being unprofessional like that in all of a few past races. Just an low-class driver that doesn’t deserve to be on F1 track. He’s not quick, he just can’t control his car and forces a passing by threatening to collide. Cheap trick.

  27. I really don’t think you can say this was one guy his fault… Yes, the gap was small and he was late, but Kimi was moving around in the braking zone BEFORE the turn-in-point came. At the point of braking, you can’t do what you want. When the other guy is with his front wheels at the rear of the car in front, contact is inevitable at that point when Raikkonen steers in because Perez can’t make himself dissapear under braking. You can’t brake harder than the limit. By my knowledge, changing from racing line in the braking zone isn’t allowed.
    I’m not saying Raikkonen is in fault here, but he is the only one who could have avoided the accident. Turning in on Perez in the braking zone might not have been the smartest thing he did recently.

  28. The thing about Perez is, McLaren’s order to let Button through enraged him. It motivated him to make an inch-perfect pass on Button later. He realised that the chicane was his strong point, he could do it again.
    He saw Alonso struggling in front, and dashed up the inside of the Ferrari. Only here he was further behind, and Alonso had started turning when Perez filled the inside line. Seeing Perez, Alonso had to take evasive action, and cut the corner, went straight through. Charlie Whiting ruled that Alonso should give the place back. It was hard racing, but fair. Thus Perez got the confidence that he was indomitable at the chicane, and could pass anybody and everybody. All he needed to do was just barge up the inside of the car in front, and his rival would be forced to cut the chicane, and would have to give it up.
    But that was expecting too much. Looking at the replays of the incident with Raikkonen, it is hard to imagine what Perez was hoping to achieve. He was just too far back, and simply lost it. You can’t just barge up the inside and hope the other guy goes straight through. The onus is generally on the overtaking driver. Raikkonen wasn’t aware of Perez’s barge, he was taking the same defensive line going into the corner that he had been taking for the last 10 laps or so.

  29. I am a major supporter of both drivers, for different reasons.
    Kimi for his sportmanship, clean driving and his denial to the bloodsucking media.
    Sergio for his racing aggression and the fact that he is the only driver, after so many years, to remind me of Ayrton Senna.
    This gif is from another user http://i.minus.com/i1Lwqn3jD5RgK.gif.
    You people should watch carefully again.
    Look at the two cars in front of RAI.
    This is the racing line! Kimi is nowhere near the racing line and he is clearly trying to block PER.
    In addition, you simply just CAN’T turn on a __
    | turn like this \
    It’s easy to blame someone, the hard for most people is to look at the actual facts.

  30. I wouldn’t be all in flames concering Perez though- he’s clearly learning a lot, his style is agressive and he was proved right twice before making a bad call concerning Raiko, a call which is clearly a racing incident and that’s it.
    One can always admire more experienced drivers like Button (who seems to know how to avoid young crazies), and bemoan a loss of points for Raiko in this one, but it’s moves like that that will teach Perez how to become a great driver, and keep racing interesting for us to watch.

  31. So now everyone know more than the F1 officials. If Senna, Nuvolari, Bandini, Piquet, Gerhard, Villeneuve, Reutemann would have been cry babies like Kimi (who thinks nobody should pass him) then, Formula One wouldn´t exist anymore. In fact, if these cry babies continue being jerks this sport is going to loose its freaking attraction.
    KImi, this sport is about passing and over taking, you don´t like it? Take up golf.

  32. Seems once the faster driver put the car’s nose besides your car, you MUST leave room to the coming car. Right? that’s what Alonso did when Sutil passed to him. That’s what same Perez did once Button did it to him in the same chicane and Perez lost his place. And actually there is a reason, if the front car is going slower the back runner will be approaching to it. So, front car have exactly the same choice… take same path, brake little late, and don’t give room to the car chasing you. But it’s much easier to think… I am WDC everyone else has to respect me? Definitely NOT. I agree Perez went too far. 6th and 8th would be much better to bring points to home for McLaren. But McLaren will be sure Perez understand that. The other reason I see Perez was catching Kimi was because Kimi was with Yellow Tires which are little slower than Red ones. But definitely Perez was giving the extra that a Hungry driver needs to show. Many people already mentioned why if even Hamilton driving like that was getting podiums or wining races… The reason is… he had more competitive car. Even Lotus… may be thinking that if McLaren finalize Perez Contract.. they could probably replace Grosjean or Kimi if Kimi moves to RB or Ferrari next year. The more competitors or media talk about you… the more they are afraid of you!… What would Perez will be capable to do if McLaren still improving the car little bit more. And Perez still accommodating himself to the Car Driving. By sure, more excitement moments! F1 is about racing and not about just strategy. Alain Prost still my Hero because a combination of Speed and Strategy… not just speed, not just strategy but Senna was the Faster driver taking the Pole positions and running away at the beginning of the race… but later, Prost was catching up all front runners because his car settings were expected to work much better with low weight because less fuel in thank, but every single driver use to pass in an aggressive way and not even polite in 80’s – 90’s era. Those who think it is not nice to drive like that… watch NASCAR where you will NEVER see any take over like Sutil, Perez, Hamilton.

  33. You want dangerous passing moves look a Chilton’s that is stupid get a punch in face, or Grosgean’s both punish by stewards. Perez is kicking this guys butt and they can’t take it, Perez took every chance was giving to him, Kimi open the door and hit Perez trying to close it late, kimi hit Perez not the other way around.
    I only wish Mclaren can make the car been fighting for win, Perez could have pass all Mercedes and red bulls easily !

  34. Perez should be pounched in the face several times for this flagrant ramming in Raikinon’s car and several other similar and quite unacceptably stupid moves at the Monaco GP 2013.

  35. Perez= Stupid
    Grosjean = Nincompoop
    I mean Perez in a Mc Laren is equal to monkey with a knife in hand. Can swish…. in any direction on any one.
    Grosjean is just not for F1 . . He is for Rally Driving.
    McLaren have got wrong partner for Button.
    Lewis was and will always be the right man for McLaren.
    As far as the incident goes, I echo Kimi’s words.
    That wasn’t a professional move and also not professional on the part of BIASED STEWARDS.
    Perez should be penalized.

    1. By the current rules once faster Car wing is alongside the slowest back tire, the driver in front most leave room, Kimi didn’t leave it, in fact hit Perez before the turn, Kimi lost his cool under pressure ! 6 was better than 10 or nothing risking damaging cars to defend what was lost

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