The Official 2016 German Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS with bratwursts and mustard***

So I'm guessing as there's no thread already this race was a pile of arse?

I was in the Lakes. Missed it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2016 12:20PM by Laton.

Not much happened in the race but Rosberg's penalty was shocking, it is almost like there is a conspiracy against him from winning the world title.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2016 06:33PM by robracer.

The only thing that's strange about Rosberg getting a penalty was that Hamilton didn't get one for Canada 2016, USA 2015 and a few other which I can't name out of my head.

Penalty in itself is well deserved imo, you can't just brake into a corner in a way that forces the opponent off the track, especially when he's beside you. Sky Sports-commentators actually were talking about wanting to see such maneuvers, but it was simply pushing another driver off the track by just going straight into the corner. Punishable imo.

That being said though, it's the same for the Hamilton-maneuvers vs Rosberg in the mentioned GPs. It's a bit different in that the incident happened driving out of the corner. However Rosberg was well beside Hamilton who just was like racing-line or even "running wide" and pushed Rosberg away, off the track, for him to lose a few positions. So here are two rules in action which imo contradict each other:
1. You need to leave enough space for a car on a side of you
2. The right for the driver in front to choose his line
Hamilton chose the racing line and was thus on the outside of the track when accelerating out. Rosberg was even further on the outside, however he also was on Hamilton's side, thus Hamilton should have given him room. Didn't, Rosberg lost positions. Punishable imo.

xSilvermanx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The only thing that's strange about Rosberg
> getting a penalty was that Hamilton didn't get one
> for Canada 2016, USA 2015 and a few other which I
> can't name out of my head.
>
> Penalty in itself is well deserved imo, you can't
> just brake into a corner in a way that forces the
> opponent off the track, especially when he's
> beside you. Sky Sports-commentators actually were
> talking about wanting to see such maneuvers, but
> it was simply pushing another driver off the track
> by just going straight into the corner. Punishable
> imo.
>
> That being said though, it's the same for the
> Hamilton-maneuvers vs Rosberg in the mentioned
> GPs. It's a bit different in that the incident
> happened driving out of the corner. However
> Rosberg was well beside Hamilton who just was like
> racing-line or even "running wide" and pushed
> Rosberg away, off the track, for him to lose a few
> positions. So here are two rules in action which
> imo contradict each other:
> 1. You need to leave enough space for a car on a
> side of you
> 2. The right for the driver in front to choose his
> line
> Hamilton chose the racing line and was thus on the
> outside of the track when accelerating out.
> Rosberg was even further on the outside, however
> he also was on Hamilton's side, thus Hamilton
> should have given him room. Didn't, Rosberg lost
> positions. Punishable imo.

The issue with Rosberg's last two on-track demeanours were that he could have turned in earlier but chose not to, as if he was trying to prove a point - forcing both himself and his rival off the racing line and towards the edge of the track limits. Choosing to force off another driver is a no-no (and he has previous - hell, the whole rule about leaving a car's width when defending was clarified properly by the FIA because he kept forcing drivers off in Bahrain in 2012: [www.dailymotion.com] )

Having a look back at the two manoeuvres you brought up, I can understand why it doesn't seem consistent given Hamilton ran wide on both occasions and Rosberg was forced off the track. Wonder if the difference between the two is that those were during race starts, and the benefit of the doubt was given due to lack of grip on cold tyres - although notably Hamilton did make an attempt to turn into the corner in both instances.

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As I said in another post, thats the difference between Hamilton and Rosberg, Lewis knows how to bend the rules a bit in his favour. Nico instead does it treacherously, and I consider his penalty fair as he is a reincident in the matter

In spite of that i still think F1 is waaaay overruled and thats the main cause of all this issues, combined with the tarmac run-offs.

I always look at Hungary 2002 (or was it 2003?) and how Kimi overtook Montoya and I wonder if that wouldnt be penalized now. Nevermind Villeneuve vs Arnoux, do that today and you´ll be banned from driving even a lawn mower.

Unfortunately Rosberg's inevitable collapse has happened far earlier than even I thought I would so unless something extraordinary happens could be quite a dull end to the championship battle. Hopefully Red Bull can continue their development push and battle for some more wins though at least.

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X (@ed24f1)

it is clear that there wasnt any penalty. Sorry, but you cant argue that verstappen movein the breaking zone which is completely unallowed. Moreover, i dont get the comments that nico didnt turn? he was full lock and it is obvious from the pictures.

Leaving this aside, the main reason why i dont accept this penalty is that hamilton has done it in numerous occasions, bahrain 2014 being another one to these mentioned before. And it was definately not a race start in bahrain.

However, all this is irrelevant as the main problem is that rosberg has no answer to hamilton. he may have won two qualies straight but messed up the races. if hamilton were 4th after T1, he would have fought back effortlessly. rosberg for some reason was right on the back of daniel ric. in lap 1 and lap 2, but as soon as the DRS was enabled rosberg was 1 second behind. And this, on tyres that were 3-5 laps fresher than riccardos.

Go watch the onboard again - Rosberg didn't start turning in until he was virtually at the outside edge of the track (an explanation perhaps for why he was at full lock).

---

I just thought he braked really late (which he clearly did, knowing he needed to pounce quickly) and didn't think he could have made the corner had he turned in earlier (he'd have likely locked up and slammed into Verstappen or spun into him). It's not the sort of move Hamilton pulls or indeed the one Rosberg pulled in Austria, I just thought it was a ballsy move up the inside, something we've seen time and time again and every time it succeeds the driver gets praised, Verstappen more than most.

Verstappen wasn't forced off, he could have made the corner perfectly well, but he wanted to continue to duke it out with Rosberg, soas he too braked late he needed to duke it out around the outside - if he'd just braked near the normal point he'd have been able to just cut back under Rosberg, so Verstappen was as much to blame as Rosberg was in my opinion. Nothing wrong with the move in my opinion. Nothing at all.

the bottom line is that there is a stark inconsistency between what stewards at one race decide compared to other stewards at other races. I have seen many situations in which the driver behind wasnt penalised, including verstappen's own move on Ericsson in china 2015. A stupid, siucidal attempt that was described as INCREDIBLE by everyone, whereas in reality ericsson was pushed off his racing line.

moreover, verstappen (and i dont know why everyone misses this point) moved significantly under breaking in hockenheim. Rosberg had no choice but to move, and this inevitably reduced the breaking power he used.

Vettel slowed a lap early at the finish. :D