F1 2016 (Bound to contain spoilers!)

No, Australian: it’s nearly midnight here.

Bit too exciting at the end for a tyre preservation procession 😉

Oh dear, and predictably NR thinks he did nothing wrong because he “had the racing line” – well that sure isn’t the racing line you’re on here Nico

Ha, confused, me! Who knew you were in Australia during the Austrian gp…

Slam-dunk guilty from onboard cameras on Nico’s car – what a complete arse he if thinks there’s someone else to blame.

Well apparently LH “turned into him” because he “went a bit deep in the corner” as he was “struggling with his brakes” and he thinks he is in the right because he’s on the inside so can go as wide as he likes and force LH off. I think he should check who is under investigation for causing a collision…

Ze Germans just love driving into other drivers.

A hint of Schumi v Villeneuve there. Britney had lost the corner fair and square and so ‘forgot’ how to drive. A dnf for the pair of them would have suited him just dandy.

Then he had a second attempt as LH tried to rejoin.

Thing is when LH goes in hard he knows exactly what’s going to happen. Britney seems to be more of the hit and hope school.

That crash was completely of mercs own making, keeping Lewis out for 3 laps longer than was needed to give Rosberg track position was never going to end well.

I would say the the crash was entirely of Britney’s making as she completely failed any attempt to make the corner.

Now LH is in front of the stewards. Haven’t said why yet…

Indeed – it wasn’t LH being wound up which caused that – the only blame which can be laid directly on Merc is them not giving NR enough of a kick up the backside when he was last an arse.

edit: you’d assume the stewards would want LH’s take on the incident – though probably only if they were considering issuing a penalty…

There’s a bit of a question of passing under the yellow by Lewis.

He’ll likely be alright as bits were flying off the other Merc

What yellow?

The first yellow just a LH was overtaking NR was a flag and not the light initially shown on TV.

The LH past the flag marginally before starting his overtake on NR’s now knackered car.

Touch and go as a) LH may not have seem the flag and b) you can overtake a clearly damaged car under yellow caution anyway (otherwise you could be sick behind a car doing 10 mph on its way back to the pits).

Yellow flags but just after LH overtook ‘Britney’

What were the yellows for?

Not sure, possibly the Perez incident

the Anthony Davidson analysis

What were the yellows for?

Either for all of the debris coming off Rosberg’s car or for Perez ploughing into the barriers up ahead.

@Andyd- LH actually past the first yellow marginally before starting any overtake. It was a flag on the right of the circuit but came out just as LH was approaching where the martial was stood and was probably a bit distracted by the amount of crap flying off NR’s car.

10 second penalty for Britney.

nice lederhosen race overalls

ginge is filing for divorce 😉

Good evidence!

That’s what I was wondering, hence the leading question – you can hardly penalise a driver for passing a car which is causing yellow flags by dumping rubbish on the track. Though I presume NR being under investigation for not stopping effectively nullifies any penalty for overtaking him under yellow.

Will be interested to hear Nico “not my fault” Rosberg’s reaction to the ruling, though somewhat disappointed it wasn’t a 15s penalty to at least drop him a place (I’m nasty like that).

edit: have finally managed to watch the replay, and whilst I still can’t spot the yellows, if it was where LH overtook NR, then almostly certainly for Perez as you see him in the barriers just after.

Why Britney?

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/08/09/top-ten-f1-driver-nicknames/%5B/url%5D

mark webber

In response to a call from the pit wall at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix to let Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg pit first…
“Don’t think so mate. Britney’s in the wall”

We are looking like a bunch of idiots and it’s disrespectful to 1500 people who work their nuts off to prepare the cars and this is why it needs to end.

Toto’s comment above rather annoyed me – there are 1500 people working to build RACING cars – not ‘after-you, no after-you kind sir’ cars. Let them race or split them up and have a definite No.2 in one of the cars.

Yes I believe team orders are allowed so if you don’t want them to scratch the paintwork tell them to hold station. Otherwise leave them alone and don’t whinge – though in this case I did think Nico was out of order and got what he deserved, a drop from 1st to 4th.

Presumably team orders today would have told LH not to try to get past? So penalising the driver who wasn’t to blame for the incident (according to the stewards). In fact isn’t it going to be LH penalised most of the time by team orders? And isn’t it NR who’s been responsible for most of the incidents? So NR now has added incentive to create another incident…

In fact isn’t it going to be LH penalised most of the time by team orders?

I suppose that depends upon who they think will consistently win them more points. In the past few years, that has to be LH. Also, assuming they take into account that the rest of the pack will eventually catch them technologically (and Ferrari already are except they keep screwing the strategy), who’s more likely to come out best in a scrap? That definitely has to be LH.

But, it’s a German manufacturer, run by German management, and NR is ze German driver. Who knows….

I thought the suggestion was that team orders would be to maintain station, and given NR is incapable of passing LH on the track…

Presumably team orders today would have told LH not to try to get past?

Not necessarily.

LH spent 3.5 seconds longer in the pits waiting for his tyres to be fitted. If he was within 3.5 seconds of Rosberg the team could fairly ask him to let him by.

LH was told towards the end (not sure which lap) that it was ‘Hammer time’ which doesn’t suggest ‘hold station’

Well there’s a surprise:

I loved that he said he “didn’t expect Lewis to turn in”.

Why the hell not? That’s what generally happens when you get to a corner!

Yeah, that was the funniest part – in Nico’s head LH was supposed to keep going straight off the track because Nico had the inside. I’m not sure he’s yet worked out that the racing line isn’t to drive straight past the apex, and that actually he doesn’t have the right to push other drivers off the track in the middle of a corner.