Formula 1 - Round 13 - Belgium, Spa Francorchamps

33 public posts in this discussion.

Post 1

Epic track, Kimi has won the last three Belgium Grand Prix

Adelaide Time
Fri 05 September 2008
Friday Practice 1 17:30 - 19:00
Friday Practice 2 21:30 - 23:00
Sat 06 September 2008
Saturday Practice 18:30 - 19:30
Qualifying 21:30
Sun 07 September 2008
Race 21:30

2007 Winner
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Pole Position
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari - 1:45.994
Fastest Race Lap
Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 1:48.036

Webber's 07 Belgium GP
Qualified - 8th
Finished - 7th

2007 Pole Position
[media]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=kBmcjp-vAaY[/media]

Post 2

Spa is a Classic, but its Singapore I'm waiting for.

Post 3

This is one of my favourite GP's on the tour. But yes, Singapore is the one I'm hanging out for this year!

Post 4

We should all invade OD's place for the Singapore race and try and teach him a thing or two.

Sept 28th 9:30pm race.

Post 5

I concur. Dan - prepare the lounge, ready the beer.

Post 6

Teach? Car's going round in circles - I get it ;)

Happy to be "taught" though :)

Post 7

Lewis on pole.
Webber a very respectable 7th, beating the better torro rosso cars.
Lot of drivers look to be heavy, maybe expecting incidents due to spa's changeable weather.

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.887 1:46.088 1:47.338 12
2. Massa Ferrari 1:46.873 1:46.391 1:47.678 16
3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.812 1:46.037 1:47.815 16
4. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:46.960 1:46.298 1:47.992 14
5. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:47.419 1:46.311 1:48.315 18
6. Alonso Renault 1:47.154 1:46.491 1:48.504 18
7. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:47.270 1:46.814 1:48.736 19
8. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:47.093 1:46.494 1:48.763 20
9. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:46.777 1:46.544 1:48.951 19
10. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:47.152 1:46.804 1:50.319 16
11. Trulli Toyota 1:47.400 1:46.949 13
12. Piquet Renault 1:47.052 1:46.965 15
13. Glock Toyota 1:47.359 1:46.995 13
14. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:47.132 1:47.018 15
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:47.503 1:47.429 12
16. Barrichello Honda 1:48.153 9
17. Button Honda 1:48.211 9
18. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:48.226 9
19. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:48.268 9
20. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:48.447 9

Post 8

Quote from OverDrive;352461:
Teach? Car's going round in circles - I get it ;)

Obviously not, then. :P

Post 9

Lovely, damp at the bottom of the track, dry up top.

Post 10

Holy hell those final laps!! unreal.

Post 11

:o

LOL... Sucked in Raikonen, well done Hamilton. What a last three laps that was.

Great race, great track.

Post 12

Amazingly entertaining last few laps. Best of the season, perhaps.

Post 13

Aint over.. Lewis got a penalty of 25 sec for cutting chicane.
McLaran appealing.

Massa is the winner, Nick 2nd, Lewis 3rd.
Glock got a 25sec penalty as well for passing under yellow, Webber gets 8th.

Post 14

That's f*cking bullshit, pardon the French. Leaving the chicane was due to being forced off, and then he still let Kimi have the position back before attempting to overtake again.

There's something very wrong with that penalty decision. Extremely dissapointing.

For those who missed it:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by5mhWfPRD8[/media]

Post 15

sucked in Hamilton.......... learn to press the breaks around corners so you dont get a penalty...... sucker

Post 16

He had his nose in front into that series of corners and was forced wide by Kimi. Hamilton took the only course left to him and that was to avoid the corner altogether. As long as you don't make up a place or gain an advantage from the move the stewards let it be.

Hamilton gave the lead back to Kimi and was completely behind the Ferrari before finally passing him. I am amazed at the decision, as rec has said there is something not right there especially when you consider Kimi did not leave room when Hamilton was well up beside him and he also hit Lewis' rear at the hairpin.

I await the result of the appeal with great interest.

Post 17

Such a good race, its completely wrong the FIA or should I say Ferrari's Instant Assistance, took away Hamiltons win. McLaren seem to have a good case, as reslo said Kimi gave Lewis no choice but to cut the chicane and according to McLaren, Lewis was 6kph slower than Kimi after giving back the lead, so what f**king advantage?

Wheres Kimi's penatly for getting an advatage by driving on the run off area and clearly getting more speed then hamilton???

Wheres Kimi's penalty for making two moves in the braking zone of the la source hair-pin after hamilton gave back the lead??? only one is allowed.

Its Hamilton vs. Scuderia FIA Ferrari

(I still want to see Kimi win the championship)

Post 18

Ferrari's Instant Assistance... that is f*cking gold. :D

And seemingly true, in this situation. :(

Post 19

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5UnPeyzcHM[/media]

Post 20

He didn't even give the position back. What a c*nt. :P

Post 21

Show that to the appeal board and its an open and shut case I would hope.

Post 22

Quote:
Motor racing great Niki Lauda, a three-times world champion and former Ferrari driver, said stripping Hamilton of victory was “the worst judgment in the history of F1''.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24323428-23770,00.html

Post 23

Yeah I read that.... This is going to be a serious serious issue if the appeal fails.

Post 24

The plot thickens..

Quote:
McLaren have revealed that they were assured by FIA race officials during the Belgian Grand Prix that Lewis Hamilton had done enough, by allowing Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to repass him, to prevent the British driver from being penalised for cutting a chicane earlier in the duo’s epic battle.

“From the pit wall, we asked race control to confirm that they were comfortable that Lewis had allowed Kimi to repass, and they confirmed twice that they believed that the position had been given back in a manner that was 'okay',” explained McLaren’s F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh in a statement released on Tuesday.

Following the race, however, Hamilton was handed a 25-second time penalty by the Belgian Grand Prix stewards, after it was ruled he had gained an unfair advantage over Raikkonen. As a result, Hamilton was demoted from first place to third and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was declared the winner of the Spa event.

“If race control had instead expressed any concern regarding Lewis’s actions at that time, we would have instructed Lewis to allow Kimi to repass for a second time,” added Whitmarsh.

Post 25

Date set...

Quote:
The FIA International Court of Appeal will meet in Paris on September 22 to consider McLaren’s appeal against the 25-second time penalty handed out to Lewis Hamilton in last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. A decision is expected the following day.

Hamilton dropped from first to third place in the Spa results after stewards decided he had gained an advantage by cutting the final chicane during his late-race battle with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, whose team mate, Felipe Massa, inherited the win.

McLaren insist Hamilton was not at fault as he immediately relinquished the lead to Raikkonen following the incident. The team also claim that they were twice told by race control that their driver’s conduct appeared to be within the rules.

The Court must first decide whether McLaren’s appeal is admissible. Hamilton’s 25-second penalty substituted a drive-through, due to the incident taking place so late in the race. Drive-through penalties are not normally open to appeal.

Post 26

Why is it that just because the penalty was late in the race mean its not usually open to an appeal? How stupid is that.

Post 27

Im guessing drive-thru penalties are harder to work out a reversal for, than a stop start or straight up time penalty.

Post 28

Then all drive throughs could not be appealed, not just the ones late in the race.

As for overturning them its simple, subtract the time taken to do the drive through and reposition the driver in the lineup accordingly.

Post 29

Man this has made me so frustrated and angry, more-so than any other "bad call" in F1 I've seen.

I'm going to be deeply dissapointed if this isn't rectified, and on top of that I'd love to see some sort of investigation as to why this clear Ferrari favoritism is happening.

Post 30

Well we should have seen this coming.

Quote:
The FIA’s International Court of Appeal has thrown out McLaren’s case against Lewis Hamilton’s recent Belgian Grand Prix penalty on the grounds that their appeal was inadmissible.

Hamilton had 25 seconds added to his Spa race time for gaining an advantage by cutting a chicane whilst fighting Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the lead. This was given in place of a drive-through penalty, as the incident occurred late in the race, and drive-throughs are not susceptible to appeal under the International Sporting Code.

The Official Formula 1 Website

Post 31

So they didn't even grant the appeal. Pathetic. Well instead of an appeal, McLaren should request a reappraisal of current "rules" and regulations, as well as an investigation revolving the decision - not to change the decision, but to find out if the people who made the decision should even still have a job.

It's outright wrong that if something possibly very dodgey went down, it can't even be investigated in any way, shape or form.

Post 32

Ah - another dodgy rigged sport Jamie loves... ;)

Post 33

Seems that way. Shocking news, it really is.