[John Stiels]

Firstly, Congratulations to Hamilton and Mercedes for a great and well deserved win. Shame Rosburg had a DNF. Kimi showed in the last lap why he is one of the great champions on the grid as he managed to absorb the charges of a faster Redbull with fresher tyres. Redbull will be nuts not to install him into Webber’s seat next year.
Well, unfortunately, the stewarding did not match up to the quality of driving and level of professionalism shown by the drivers today. After looking at the race 4 times, there is no doubt that the drive through penalty for Grogean was quite unfair. I say this because it was inconsistent, considering that other drivers; particularly both Redbull drivers did put their 4 wheels outside the racing line without incurring a drive through penalty. Grogean was very aggressive in his overtakes during this race, with one or two contacts with other cars, particularly Button’s Maclaren. But the nature of the track had alot to do with that. And we cannot rule out that the other driver had some contribution to the incident. After all, it is duel for position; the car behind will seek to take the position ahead. the Car ahead will do its very best to defend to keep that position. That is motor racing.
The incident in question warrants closer examination. If Grogean had not cut the chicane, will an accident had ensued. After looking at it, l am very certain that would have been the case, and Grogean will be in the bad books again for reckless driving. So l don’t think it is good judgement to punish a driver for causing accidents and also punish him for avoiding an accident. The applies for the incident with Massa. To my mind, the stewards got it wrong, a caution would have been a better way to go. Imagine what would have ensued if the decision had not been taken. Grogean would have been at the sharp end of the race towards the end and he could have won it or finished 2nd. Which would have given a lotus 2nd and 3rd podium. I must confess that l am a Hamilton fan and l am estatic that he won it comfortably today, particularly since tyres robbed him of a win in Silverstone. That said, l am equally interested in what Grogean would been able to do with the opportunity presented to him by the outcome of where he found himself after turn one at the start of the race.
I may be pointing the finger at the stewards in this article, but when they get their decisions wrong, it cost loss of revenue to the team affected, affects the punished driver in terms of loss ofvaluable points and deprives the audience the spectacle of a potential outcome of end of race duel for the win. To not say anything about it is to say this sort of thing is alright.
What do you think?

Edit: Duplicate thread closed by moderator

Lotus unhappy with Grosjean’s “very harsh” penalty

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[tmekt]

The penalty is “consistent” in my opinion, Grosjean’s overtaking maneuver happened outside the white line and usually when that happens the driver is punished. Vettel was punished for the same thing in Germany last year and I think there was a similar incident in Singapore as well (one of the Saubers if I’m not mistaken, could’ve been Webber too, I don’t really remember it that well).

Now with the Red Bulls. I really doubt any significant advantage was gained (which probably was the case with Grosjean – he gained a place, Red Bulls probably a tenth or two) on terms of the whole long race. These are usually overlooked when they don’t happen when overtaking and rightfully so – would you want your favorite driver to be given a drive-through penalty because he went a few inches wide on corner exit?

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