Jaime Alguersuari has lost his tenth place finish in the Belgian Grand Prix after being given a 20-second time penalty by the stewards.
They decided he had gained an advantage by going off the chicane late in the race and keeping Vitantonio Liuzzi behind.
Alguersuari’s 20-second penalty relegates him from tenth to 13th in the final classification. Liuzzi inherits tenth place – and the final point – ahead of Pedro de la Rosa and Sebastien Buemi.
2010 Belgian Grand Prix
HounslowBusGarage
29th August 2010, 17:21
Not sure we saw this in the race coverage, did we?
Shame for ALG, but good news for Liuzzi in the surprisingly rapid FI.
Steph (@)
29th August 2010, 17:50
No, I don’t think we did see it.
BasCB
29th August 2010, 18:04
But i think i saw it on the red button afterwards. There was not much to see actually. Just Alguersuari going off track there and getting back where he was.
Liuzzi was behind him and stayed behind, but argued he would have passed him there. He might be right when judged by how he was pushing Jamie there.
bosyber
29th August 2010, 18:37
Pity for Alguesuari, good for Liuzzi. I think both drivers had a good drive, couldn’t say one really deserves it much more than the other, but that’s up to the stewards.
I guess they decided to have another think about the whole “cutting to defend” versus “cutting to overtake” punishment after Schumacher’s Canada race.
Marco
29th August 2010, 19:12
I have no doubt who deserved the point more… Liuzzi was miles away from pace of his teammate today and he was even slower then Alguersuari…
Marco
29th August 2010, 17:28
Such a pity for Jaime… :( He was so strong all the weekend compared to Buemi… He outclassed him completely in qualifying and also in race… He definitely deserved a point after dropping to 21st place at the beginning of race and then recovered perfectly to 10th…:( Liuzzi had rain tyres, and Jaime was on intermediates, he wanted to stay ahead of him, in spite of that tyre disadvantage… I wonder when this bad luck end… Another lost race after strong showing in Silverstone…:(
TommyB (@tommyb89)
29th August 2010, 18:01
Disappointing. I though you could go off as long as you don’t overtake, if you’re defending it’s ok.
Some people are reporting he actually overtook Liuzzi by going off and others saying he just defended by going off. Would love to know what it actually was.
slr
29th August 2010, 18:44
Maybe the stewards saw this incident, the same way Martin Brundle sees these kind of incidents. If you cut a corner and fail to lose a position, it’s the same as cutting a corner to gain a position.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
29th August 2010, 19:52
But they didn’t see it that way with Schumacher in Montreal. Mostly because they’re not the same stewards, I guess.
TommyB (@tommyb89)
30th August 2010, 12:57
Exactly my point.
US_Peter
29th August 2010, 23:13
Bummer for Alguersuari. He’s been much more impressive than Buemi for me this year. When Webber retires I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Jaime is the one that gets the seat at Red Bull and not Buemi.
Marco
30th August 2010, 0:00
Jaime is definitely a better driver then Buemi… Buemi is only a “one lap man”, but he can t transform his one lap qualifying speed into the race… He had 9 tenths advantage over Alguersuari in Bahrain quali, but on another day (sunday), he was suddenly 3 tenths in average slower… And it happened also in Barcelona, Silverstone and Istnabul Park… I am looking on race data carefully and even in Alguersuari s worst race in Valencia, Buemi couldn t repeat his 9 tenths advantage from qualifying and in race it stayed only on nearly 4 tenths…
TommyB (@tommyb89)
30th August 2010, 13:03
Jaime lacks one lap pace but I think he’s been very impressive in his racing this year.
Buemi keeps getting taken out on Lap 1. I think it’s the 6th or 7th time.