Donkey of the race

[Daniel]

Kovalainen for me for whacking Bourdais.

[yodasarmpit]

Or Bourdais for whacking Kovalainen :)

[markabilly]

SB as in how do a red bull smell when it has no nose

Funny race ain't over and we already have a donKey

I was going to vote for vettel if he had the lead taken from him on lap 1, meaning he had to pass somebody, but he will win cause he did not have to pass nobody

[Daniel]

Yodasarmpit. How many times can you change direction to defend? I forgot ;)

[yodasarmpit]

I'm just having a laugh, I would actually say both played a part in the accident.
60/40 in favour of Kova being at fault.

[markabilly]

well, they never enforce that rule as I can recall....so if it were enforced, then HV for changing lanes without signalling and when unsafe to do so, but in the absence of the rule actually meaning something, then SB,

Plus since it looked like SB was actually going off anyway until he contacted HK, it looked like SB is still a winner

However, I am a believer that the anti-swerving rule needs serious enforcement, like I said when freddie was forced off and nearly crashed out in an earlier race (i can not remeber the name, too much drinking last nite)

[ioan]

Kovalainen for me for whacking Bourdais.

Bourdais for forgetting to turn on his brain.

[pino]

Kovalainen and Bourdais (once again).

[F1boat]

Kovalainen and Bourdais (once again).

Yes, easy choice.

[Dave B]

That was at least 90% Kovy's fault. Bordais could have been paying more attention, but he should never have been put in that position in the first place. Heikki was too busy letting his team mate have a free pass that he weaved far more than is acceptable.

[Tazio]

Everyone who posted 5 times or more about the Breakaway Series in the course of the weekend.
Which probably includes me :arrows: :laugh:

[wedge]

However, I am a believer that the anti-swerving rule needs serious enforcement, like I said when freddie was forced off and nearly crashed out in an earlier race (i can not remeber the name, too much drinking last nite)

It can be hard to enforce.

There's a gentleman's agreement made in driver briefings that a driver shouldn't alter his line in the braking zone to get the better racing line.

[ioan]

That was at least 90% Kovy's fault. Bordais could have been paying more attention, but he should never have been put in that position in the first place. Heikki was too busy letting his team mate have a free pass that he weaved far more than is acceptable.

The guy behind is at fault as long as the one in front doesn't brake test him.
Heiki did nothing wrong, he covered the inside line and than Bourdais decided to for the outside, but forgot to turn the wheel a couple degrees more.

[Ranger]

The guy behind is at fault as long as the one in front doesn't brake test him.
Heiki did nothing wrong, he covered the inside line and than Bourdais decided to for the outside, but forgot to turn the wheel a couple degrees more.

Kovalainen was changing line several times in the braking zone.

You can only move once and resume your racing line into the corner. Kovalainen couldn't decide what he was doing.

Bourdais is partly at fault but this is mostly Kovalainen's error.

[ioan]

Kovalainen was changing line several times in the braking zone.

Braking zone?! There is no braking involved where Bourdais ran into Heiki.

[markabilly]

How about naka, for last spot on the donKey podium?

the guy qualified well, was challenging for fourth and then just disappearred in to 11th....not sure how

[MrJan]

That was at least 90% Kovy's fault. Bordais could have been paying more attention, but he should never have been put in that position in the first place. Heikki was too busy letting his team mate have a free pass that he weaved far more than is acceptable.

The last move across the track was negligable though, Bourdais could easily have avoided that one but instead chose to be like a woman driving an X5 around Tesco car park. It was almost like he didn't realise the width of his own car. Heikki at fault for sure but the incident could still have been avoided if Seb wasn't away with the fairies.

[christophulus]

Watching it again, Kovalainen moved too much but Bourdais could've easily avoided him.

50/50 for me.

[yodasarmpit]

Having watched it a few times now, I'm moving more to a 50/50 stance.

[wedge]

Braking zone?! There is no braking involved where Bourdais ran into Heiki.

Yes it is or was it because Kovy brake tested Seabass?

[Dave B]

Can I add another donkey? Heidfeld for ignoring his team's instructions to pit, then losing 20+ seconds dropping back from a Force India of all things. I think he was enjoying the fight with Alonso too much to see the bigger picture.

[5001]

Kovalainen

[Malbec]

Kovalainen for me for whacking Bourdais.

It was bound to happen at some point wasn't it? Near identical cars and colour schemes, one lightning fast and the other bog-slow, it was almost inevitable that there'd be a 'is he lapping me or are we racing?' incident involving an RBR or an STR.

[ioan]

Can I add another donkey? Heidfeld for ignoring his team's instructions to pit, then losing 20+ seconds dropping back from a Force India of all things. I think he was enjoying the fight with Alonso too much to see the bigger picture.

What big picture? He knew he had no chance to make it into the points.
Also a stop at such an early stage would have cost him some 20+ seconds anyway!

IMO he made the right call.

[wedge]

Can I add another donkey? Heidfeld for ignoring his team's instructions to pit, then losing 20+ seconds dropping back from a Force India of all things. I think he was enjoying the fight with Alonso too much to see the bigger picture.

Ant said it was down to the driver and I agree with him. The numbers might not look right on the telemetry but it didn't really hamper Heidfeld that much because he did and awesome job of holding off Alonso. Lap after lap Heidfeld could hold the inside, tighter line through entry, apex, exit of Stowe with a damaged front wing and Alonso still had no chance.

[ioan]

Ant said it was down to the driver and I agree with him. The numbers might not look right on the telemetry but it didn't really hamper Heidfeld that much because he did and awesome job of holding off Alonso. Lap after lap Heidfeld could hold the inside, tighter line through entry, apex, exit of Stowe with a damaged front wing and Alonso still had no chance.

And to be honest if there is one driver who consistently makes the right decisions, than it must be Heidfeld.

[Malbec]

My donkey of the race? KERS. Dumped by BMW, not used by Macca, was Ferrari running it? If they weren't noone was. Its midseason and Max's great green innovation isn't being used by anyone. oops.

[markabilly]

do anyone know what the deal was with naka?

[ioan]

My donkey of the race? KERS. Dumped by BMW, not used by Macca, was Ferrari running it? If they weren't noone was. Its midseason and Max's great green innovation isn't being used by anyone. oops.

Ferrari used KERS and they are convinced that dropping it wouldn't help. I'd say they are the only ones who managed to build a car that works well with KERS.

[F1boat]

Ferrari used KERS and they are convinced that dropping it wouldn't help. I'd say they are the only ones who managed to build a car that works well with KERS.

Well, they are by far better than BMW and McLaren-Mercedes.

[K-Pu]

Kovalainen by his outstandong move...

[jso1985]

do anyone know what the deal was with naka?

Poor strategy on a average driver/car combo gives you mediocre results

[ioan]

Poor strategy on a average driver/car combo gives you mediocre results

The strategy was really poor.
Every driver that stayed out 1 lap more managed to leap ahead of his closest competitor.

Everyone from place 3 to 9 were withing 10 seconds or so and stopping earlier meant several positions will be lost.

Same happened to Kimi too but he stayed out 1 lap more and as a result lost less places.

[jso1985]

In the end one could agree that Naka's strategy gave him some spotlight and he actually got mentioned in the race commentary without the phrase "has crashed" attached to his name

[ioan]

This reminds me that Piquet didn't crash and also beat Alonso to the flag! :D

[woody2goody]

The strategy was really poor.
Every driver that stayed out 1 lap more managed to leap ahead of his closest competitor.

Everyone from place 3 to 9 were withing 10 seconds or so and stopping earlier meant several positions will be lost.

Same happened to Kimi too but he stayed out 1 lap more and as a result lost less places.

Also, one of the things that I think gets overlooked at Silverstone is that the first lap out of the pits on cold tyres was costing people a lot of time because of all the fast corners.

Nakajima's stop was a similar time to Kimi, but in just that ONE lap, he lost about 5 seconds. He was a good 2 secs in front of Raikkonen before the stop.

I think Martin Brundle was spot on when he said that Kaz had done no wrong and somehow lost 7 places. His lap times weren't any worse than Nico's for the most part.

[stevie_gerrard]

Bourdais and Kovalainen for being the only retirements in what has been quite an incident free few races lately for Formula 1. Considering 8 Engines are meant to last all season, I'm amazed we haven't seen more engine failures.

[race_director]

My donkey

The Race producer, for showing a 15th-16th battle for 80% of the race. for not showing the alonso come back move on hamilton.

Other than that. Kimi for yet again blowing away a good position from 5th to 8th



Webber for once again showing that we can only talk and cannot walk


And MAX and Bernie. for making f1 engine 100% reliable. i want to see blow out . oil all over the track. I am not able to recollect a blow out for a long time now.

[Knock-on]

Alonso nearly had a Donkey of the race moment with Lewis. Alonso had gone wide off track and Lewis was storming past when Fred regained track and swerved right into Lewis forcing him to avoid the accident and relenquish the place.

Did anyone else think this was a bit cheeky?

[race_director]

Alonso nearly had a Donkey of the race moment with Lewis. Alonso had gone wide off track and Lewis was storming past when Fred regained track and swerved right into Lewis forcing him to avoid the accident and relenquish the place.

Did anyone else think this was a bit cheeky?

sounds like u expect alonso to park side the track and let Hamilton through.

Alonso is still 2 time champion and has the highest number if wins among current driver's

[ioan]

Considering 8 Engines are meant to last all season, I'm amazed we haven't seen more engine failures.

Just wait and see what happens when they all ran off of new engines available!

[MrJan]

My donkey

The Race producer, for showing a 15th-16th battle for 80% of the race. for not showing the alonso come back move on hamilton.

Would you rather have watched one man drive around 20 seconds in the lead? The reason that the 15th-16th battle was shown was because A) English driver at English track, and B)Because everything else about the race was exceedingly dull.

[Knock-on]

sounds like u expect alonso to park side the track and let Hamilton through.

Alonso is still 2 time champion and has the highest number if wins among current driver's

And your point is????

Lewis is current WDC and has a higher start to win ratio. Does that have any bearing on the question?

All i was saying is that after making a mistake, he shouldn't have swerved across track like that, forcing another competitor to take avoiding action just to secure his place. It was a bit classless from a driver I regard very highly.

[wedge]

All i was saying is that after making a mistake, he shouldn't have swerved across track like that, forcing another competitor to take avoiding action just to secure his place. It was a bit classless from a driver I regard very highly.

Agree with race_director. Very easy to sit in your cozy armchair and point fingers.

Alonso had tank-slapper. You don't get much of a choice at where to 'park' the car.

[ioan]

All i was saying is that after making a mistake, he shouldn't have swerved across track like that, forcing another competitor to take avoiding action just to secure his place. It was a bit classless from a driver I regard very highly.

Lewis did exactly the same thing last season, not sure what race was it, maybe France?!

Edit: or was it Spain?

[MrJan]

Lewis did exactly the same thing last season, not sure what race was it, maybe France?!

To be fair Knockie is just being a plum here :p : Alonso had a tank slapper and not enough control of the car to get out the way.

[race_director]

And your point is????

Lewis is current WDC and has a higher start to win ratio. Does that have any bearing on the question?



yes it does. if we look at both of them. Lewis has always won only when given a car which is 1 sec of the field. but alonso has won even when he has been in busted car . last year he was in similar postion. use to qualify down the grid but some how come up and take points. he even won 2 races.

In this regards i consider Alonso as the best racing driver on the grid along with Kimi and Massa iat present .

Kimi and Massa also had bad race starts this year, but i never seen them hopeless. they tried hard and now see where they are. In fact last year it was Massa who lost the championship. due to his error's

[race_director]

Lewis did exactly the same thing last season, not sure what race was it, maybe France?!

Edit: or was it Spain?

spa with kimi and cutting the chicane , got stripped of the win

[Knock-on]

To be fair Knockie is just being a plum here :p : Alonso had a tank slapper and not enough control of the car to get out the way.

I may be mistaken but I thought he had full control at the time. Would be nice to see a clip.

[ioan]

spa with kimi and cutting the chicane , got stripped of the win

Not that one. There was one where he went out on the grass and than violently cut back on the track in front of another car.

[race_director]

Not that one. There was one where he went out on the grass and than violently cut back on the track in front of another car.

yup france. cut the chicane. i think he passed vettel but got drive through for that also :)

[Bezza]

Driver of the race was Fisi

Donkey of the race was Hamilton

Discuss.

[wedge]

Donkey of the race was Hamilton

Discuss.

Cracking overtaking moves on Heidfeld and Alonso and an off at Club.

I'd say he was more hero than zero.

[jens]

I'm not entirely sure, what to make of Bourdais vs Kovalainen collision.
But generally no donkeys except BMW, Renault and McLaren, who have managed to design a car, which was completely hopeless on that particular circuit.

[ioan]

Cracking overtaking moves on Heidfeld and Alonso and an off at Club.

I'd say he was more hero than zero.

I wouldn't say he was zero either, but surely he was closer to zero than to hero.

[Dave B]

sounds like u expect alonso to park side the track and let Hamilton through.

Alonso is still 2 time champion and has the highest number if wins among current driver's
One's past achievements don't give one the right of way over another driver; however in this instance it looked like a genuine mistake from Alonson rather than any malice or stupidity.

[leopard]

The point is the fight at midfield wasn't less interesting than that at the front. Fernando and Lewis' cars were at similar pace, while the pace of Renault was slightly behind BMW that made him difficult to make overtaking on Hidfeld who was driving defensive, Fernando actually can push Heidfeld off...

Agree that every mistake drivers make is done undeliberately, they are purely driving and committed to perform their best. They will have to forgive the mistake, but no malice, and also no forget... ;)

[truefan72]

Lewis did exactly the same thing last season, not sure what race was it, maybe France?!

Edit: or was it Spain?

...and the difference was he got penalized for it in France, didn't he?
He was actually trying to avoid slamming into the back of the STR,and while he didn't gain any places he was assesed to have been driving off the track and therefore took an advantage over Webber.

Of course we all know this was ridiculous, and funny enough in the histry of F1 seems to be the only guy brought in for that.

I do recall, Alonso running Hamilton off the track in 2007 at Spa, right at the start. Alonso's a great driver, but he ain't no saint.

[Knock-on]

I agree it was just a racing incident neither Alonso or Hamilton were at fault really. I'm sure Fernando did not deliberately, push Lewis wide, what would be the point?...

All this rubbish about comparing their career stats is just irellevant really, they are both World Champions and driving under performing cars.. This hatred people for certain drivers just seems to cloud their judgement when analysing incidents like this. If someone hates a driver so much, its very easy to assume that every mistake they make, is done through sheer malice... For god sake Lewis did a doughnut at the end of the race to entertain the fans, big deal... Felipe took a flag from a marshall in Brazil 2006 which was deemed illegal but to penalize either of the two would be totally outrageous!!

Donkies of the race for me were Bourdais and Kovy... :s mokin:

Oi! I don't hate Alonso or anyone else :/

When I saw it on telly, it looked like he chopped completely across the track. I haven't watched a replay so cannot be sure if it was deliberate or not. I was just offering an opinion.

For the record, you will normally find me supporting Alonso.

[Knock-on]

Sorry Knock-on I wasn't referring to you when I wrote that BTW... Before that several posts were pointing the finger at both Lewis and Fernando, and I was just pointing out that neither were to blame. Lewis tends to get the majority of the blame on here for whatever he does, so just trying to give a balanced opinion... No offence meant ;)

No problem. I shouldn't support Alonso after his shenanigans at McLaren but the bloke is just an awesome racer and you can't help admiring that :)

BTW, it takes a lot more than that to offend me :D

[wmcot]

I agree it was just a racing incident neither Alonso or Hamilton were at fault really. I'm sure Fernando did not deliberately, push Lewis wide, what would be the point?...



I agree. Alonso was just trying to keep it in control and get it back on the track - not a lot of time to check your mirrors and signal! I doubt he knew if anyone was coming up beside him!

[Knock-on]

I agree Henners. He has also shown a lot of class in interviews which enhances my respect for him.

That's why I was surprised at this move although as I have said, I may be wrong as it was a 2 second clip I saw in the middle of a race.

[ioan]

I agree Henners. He has also shown a lot of class in interviews which enhances my respect for him.

It looks like everyone has to mature a bit one day. Good for him.

[Knock-on]

I hope that wasn't a loaded response to Knock-on ioan??

I'm pretty positive it wasn't ;)

I can't mature any more without passing away.

My backaches from to many Motorbike crashes, my hairs going grey and I have developed a rather worrying habit of having a little nap after dinner.

I'm past it :D

[ioan]

I can't mature any more without passing away.

My backaches from to many Motorbike crashes, my hairs going grey and I have developed a rather worrying habit of having a little nap after dinner.

I'm past it :D

It wasn't about you, it was about Lewy.

PS: I know you can't mature anymore! :p :

[race_director]

for me there are only 2 donkey in F1. u guessed it right. now 3 actually after brtish GP

1) lewis hamilton
2) His dad
3) His GF