Bourdais penalised for blocking

[Viktory]

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080802173512.shtml

5 position penalty for blocking Heidfeld.
In my opinion Bourdais should not have got a penalty. A driver, I think Fisichella, overtook him while also on an outlap, forcing bourdais to back off, Heidfeld and Bourdais were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The penalty is too harsh I would say.

[ioan]

The decision was right, Bourdais was taking a nap in the car, and destroying Heidfeld's chances in the process.

[ArrowsFA1]

What was Bourdais supposed to do? I don't think he intentionally held up Heidfeld in any way. If drivers want a clear racetrack then they should demand we go back to 1-by-1 qualifying.

[truefan72]

stupid penalty,

regardelss of his speed, there was more than enough of a gap between heidfeld and bourdais for him not to make a difference.

This to me was the worst BS blocking penalty i've seen in a long time. Heidfeld looked out of sorts and was well back of Bourdais when he came into the final turn. Bourdais himself was behind another driver and couldn't very well run into the back of the car in front of him to please an underperforming Heidfeld, who couldn't even keep his car on the tarmac. At the very worst it was "traffic on the track"

I was ( as well as the speed tv crew) laughing at Heidfelds' hand gestures as it seemd to be such a cop out for a poor lap. BMW are right to hold off on resigning him. I always hate drivers who complain to the stewards instead of taking a good look at themsleves or their strategy as a result for their times. I'm sorry, a BMW should have done 3-5 laps and be done with Q1, not struggling to make it at the end of the session when many cars mid-pack to down are out there fighting for Q2.

sorry to go on a rant here but this just pissed me off.

[El Sween]

What was Bourdais supposed to do? He was starting a lap and had been impeeded himself. Why not just give the top four teams the front four rows and have done with it.

[Allyc85]

Shocking decision by the stewards, its hardly like he knew Heidfeld was there and did it on purpose!

[VkmSpouge]

Poor decision, I don't Bourdais clearly impeded Heidfeld and even if he did I'm not sure what else Bourdais could have done to avoid it.

[markabilly]

Seems unfair to SV after seeing it again.....BUT why was NH back there fooling around and having to depend on one last lap to make it into the next round??

No one to blame but the team and NH for such stuff...(but atleast he did not run out of gas like a certain Massa last year....personally I think that if Beemer had hired FA (and kept the Kube) they might have a driver leading the championship, and certainly be atleast second in the WCC.

As to the Kube, well if Ferrari do not do an about face, it will be Beemer's Kube who has the only shot to derail the Hamster from the wdc

[mirek01]

Bad and poor decision from stewards to penalize Bourdais. NH was just slow today and he was searching for excuses. :dozey:

[ioan]

Oh poor Bourdais, he got penalized for holding up a driver who was on a flying lap while he was tooling around half asleep! :rolleyes:

The rules say you have to make sure you do not impede on another drivers flying lap while you are on an out or in lap.
What's so difficult to understand?!

[El Sween]

It's all down to your point of view.

[truefan72]

ioan are you just a contrarian or did you actually watch the Quali

Heidefled was miles away from SB coming into the last corner. Ended up wide of the tarmac and then chose to blame SB for his own weak performance. I would have been ashamed if I was Mario Theisen to walk up to the stewards box to lodge this complaint.

It was beyond evident that SB played no part in Heidfelds lap, unless he though he was going to make up 300 ft in a braking zone , where he clearly saw the car in front of him dealing with another in front of that car.

This is GP racing and there are cars on the track. Get a better time earlier on and perhaps show some grit. Then he won't have to embarass himself infront of millions of people.

...then again you like Massa, who is another driver who yammers about cars getting in his way constantly. :)

[ioan]

ioan are you just a contrarian or did you actually watch the Quali

Heidefled was miles away from SB coming into the last corner. Ended up wide of the tarmac and then chose to blame SB for his own weak performance. I would have been ashamed if I was Mario Theisen to walk up to the stewards box to lodge this complaint.

It was beyond evident that SB played no part in Heidfelds lap, unless he though he was going to make up 300 ft in a braking zone , where he clearly saw the car in front of him dealing with another in front of that car.

This is GP racing and there are cars on the track. Get a better time earlier on and perhaps show some grit. Then he won't have to embarass himself infront of millions of people.

I think the stewards knew better than you how far ahead Heidfeld was Bourdais.



...then again you like Massa, who is another driver who yammers about cars getting in his way constantly. :)

This is gratuitous and has no relevance on the topic. Anyway I'm happy that Felipe is doing well! :p :

[Valve Bounce]

Anyone have a Youtube link please?

[Hawkmoon]

A rubbish penalty.

Drivers used to just deal with traffic. It was part of qualifying. Now some of them whine every time a car gets anywhere near them. The worst part is that the Stewards facilitate this nonsense by handing out penalties.

Heidfeld should stop looking for an excuse and start pulling his digit out if he wants to retain that drive.

[gloomyDAY]

Did anyone else break out laughing when Heidfeld raised his hand?

This decision is silly. Stop making F1 a "soft" sport.
Next thing you know drivers will complain about breathing too much exhaust fumes.

[weeflyonthewall]

Oh poor Bourdais, he got penalized for holding up a driver who was on a flying lap while he was tooling around half asleep! :rolleyes: !

Codswallup. If anyone was tooling around half asleep it was Nicki boy. The lad was way off pace and looking for anyone to blame for a miserable showing. He has more excuses than my dog has flees!

[Ranger]

I think the stewards knew better than you how far ahead Heidfeld was Bourdais.


And you should know that sometimes the stewards get it wrong.

Bourdais had cars in front of him whilst he was trying to do his Q2 lap. Maybe for Nick's sake Seb should have rear-ended the cars in front of him.

Nick would have made Q2 had he not run wide in the final turn. Or BMW shouldn't have run with such a dumb qualifying strategy when everyone is on track in the last few minutes.

Nonetheless, the penalty is rubbish.

[ShiftingGears]

I will have to wait until I see footage until I say whether or not the penalty is as farcical as Alonso "blocking" Massa in the Italian GP qualifying in 2006.

Nick, frankly, needs to find why he's underwhelming in qualifying, and fix it.

[ShiftingGears]

Oh poor Bourdais, he got penalized for holding up a driver who was on a flying lap while he was tooling around half asleep! :rolleyes:

"Towards the end of the lap I had one car in front which was on an out lap. He saw me and accelerated. He then overtook Sebastien Bourdais before the last corner, and then Sebastien was right in my way. I was hoping it was so obvious he would be penalised right away and I could still get into Q2."

So Heidfeld is admitting that Bourdais got penalised for being held up. However I don't think Nick sees that irony.

[ArrowsFA1]

I think the stewards knew better than you how far ahead Heidfeld was Bourdais.
Do the stewards judging these calls have any experience of racing :confused:

[Dave B]

If BMW didn't have this rediculous insistance on leaving their qualy runs until the last minute when the track's busy then they've really only got themselves to blame.

Nick was just plain old-fashioned slow yesterday, and Sebastian is suffering as a result.

[ioan]

Bourdais had cars in front of him whilst he was trying to do his Q2 lap.

You mean he was overtaken during his Q2 lap by a Force India that was on an out lap?
Good one! :laugh:

[ioan]

Do the stewards judging these calls have any experience of racing :confused:

You should ask them or the race director!

[markabilly]

Do the stewards judging these calls have any experience of racing :confused:


Ask MaX :confused:

Many comments come to mind........

[Storm]

What was Bourdais supposed to do? I don't think he intentionally held up Heidfeld in any way. If drivers want a clear racetrack then they should demand we go back to 1-by-1 qualifying.

1 lap quallies solve all these problems of course...but in this case he looked to be really slow in a corner where most cars are going to be coming in really fast (whether completing their hot lap or building up speed to start a new lap).

It did look from onboard pictures that he slowed down a lot in the final corner making a mess of Heidfeld's hot lap.

[Ranger]

You mean he was overtaken during his Q2 lap by a Force India that was on an out lap?
Good one! :laugh:
No, because that wasn't what happened.

He was overtaken on his outlap (whilst warming his tyres... something Nick should consider doing) by someone else on an outlap.

He then had to roll off the throttle so he wouldn't:
a) be held up on his flyer
b) screw the last-corner exit which would have cost him down the straight.

And so, therefore, by protecting himself and getting himself into Q2 he was penalised because someone in a much faster car can't get his act together and not run off track.

The penalty was by all means rubbish.

[Garry Walker]

Idiotic decision it was.

[speeddurango]

Nah, it was basically a situation where Bourdais had to let 2 cars go before he could get onto a fast lap, but unfortunately there's a third car also coming along unexpectably. Bourdais wouldn't even know Heifeld was there while busy dealing with 2 cars passing him and having to start his fast lap. Heck, even if he had seen Heifeld what should he do? He was already in the last turn.

[ioan]

Heck, even if he had seen Heifeld what should he do?

Go faster? After all he was supposed to start a "quick" lap. I maintain that he was napping in the car, how else could he have been passed by a Force India on the outside of that turn?

[MAX_THRUST]

Funny the lap Heidfield was on was so slow up to that point he wouldn't have got into the next round of qualifying anyway regardless of Bourdais. He lnows if you make a big enough jesture in the car you might get a penalty against some one. I agree the penalty wasn't needed.

[MAX_THRUST]

Because he was making space to get a clear lap himself.............I some times wonder what it is that you see, or know?

[ioan]

Because he was making space to get a clear lap himself.............I some times wonder what it is that you see, or know?

And doing that in the very last corner while he is being passed by a Force India means he was concentrating on his coming timed lap?
Send him back to the other side of the pond, he didn't yet figure out F1.
:laugh:

[MAX_THRUST]

I didn't say concentrating I said making space............concentrate dear boy.

[ioan]

I didn't say concentrating I said making space............concentrate dear boy.

Whatever, still it was wrong. :D