Anyone else think that Hamilton's penalty was ridiculous ? There are loads of first-corner incidents like that all the time, are the stewards going to start giving out penalties every time someone makes a mistake like that ?

Hamilton locked his wheels, which was certainly a big mistake. But then he was just pretty much a passenger until he could get control of the car again. Massa went off the road and basically drove into the side of Hamilton, which seems totally different in nature to me. Yet they both got the same penalty ?

F1 really is a complete farce.

It is another Ferrari biased FIA (Ferrari Internal Advisor) influenced load of tosh.

How can the first corner incident where Raikonen lost very little time, be the same as when Hamilton has to wait until the entire field
(except for Nakagima who was in the pits already after a collision with Coultard) had passed and he was effectively just one place
up from being totally last.....

Surely it should not be the same penalty as Hamilton was inconvinienced much more then Raikonen ever was

Gonna have to very strongly disagree with you both here, both penalties totally fair and totally deserved, Massa's stupid move speaks for itself, Hamilton's not as obvious but just as bad.

It's not just about Kimi, he caused absolute chaos for the entire pack with his ridiculous move at the start, took Kimi off, almost swiped his teammate off the track, wrecked his tyres so couldn't continue anyway, and didn't even make the corner. Absolutely stupid and well deserved the punishment just to drive home how much of a p k he was, let alone the carnage he caused (and it could have been so much worse).

It's all well and good talking about the Ferrari bias (which I tend to agree with occasionally) but there's also far too much of a Hamilton bias in the general public in the UK........

While I respect Hamilton as a pure blooded racing driver, he clearly isn't very intelligent and you really do have to ask the question why there is so much controversy around him all the time.............

And for the second season running, he's left his brain behind for the last few races. Perhaps it's some big conspiracy with Bernie to take it down to the wire, but Lewis seems to be doing everything he can to lose the title. Again.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see him win the championship and I'm a huge Ferrari fan.

I could understand Hamilton's penalty if it was the norm for this sort of incident. But please tell me when the last time was you saw a stupid move at the first corner penalised in this way ? That's my main problem, I agree it was a stupid move but it cost him, it didn't benefit him, and this sort of thing doesn't normally get penalised.

Oh *****, now I've just seen Bourdais's penalty which gives Massa another point. Another complete joke, Bourdais didn't do anything wrong, it was Massa's fault. What a suprise !

I do still back Hamilton to learn from his errors last year and this to win a few World Championships in his career.
He will gain a drivers maturity with time, but even some of the very best F1 drivers have come off after not giving way
(Senna & Prost both in McLarens in Japan I think it was) and they tend to go all out to get in front. Damon Hill has one
less world championship than he really ought to as Michael wasn't going to give an inch in Australia. A touch more patience
and I do believe he would have found a safe way past before the flag. Alas we will never know for sure.

Nice guys also tend to finish further down the grid, champions will have the 'win at all costs' focus, but with maturity as an
F1 Driver will come the realisation that a tiny bit of control is needed when the red mist comes down, looking at the bigger
picture of the championship and by staying directly behind Masa till the chequered flag over the last 2 remaining races should
still win the championship. I'm not actually suggesting he follow him, but merely he doesn't make an error pushing too hard to
get past, when the points will allow him to finish safely behind and still take the title.

However it is never going to be the same at the final Grand Prix when Hamilton (hopefully) crosses the line to become the
2008 FIA F1 Champion like Nigel Mansell & Damon Hill (or James Hunt) did before him without Murray Walkers commentary.

I agree, makes a complete joke of it all.

This wasn't quite the same, normally they would have been alongside each other and slightly outbraked himself getting into the corner. This one he was well behind, and deliberately didn't brake in order to get past him and in doing so sent him off the track. I'm sorry, but this has not happened before and was totally right to penalise him.


Totally agree with you on this one, absolute b*******s, Massa should have given him room


Don't fully agree with the nice guys comment, of recent times, except for the big Schu, the others have all been nice guys. Hakkinen, Alonso and Raikkonen are all nice guys on track and have all won world championships, Alonso has his moments, but never as ridiculously stupid as what Hamilton does on a regular basis - in some ways I wish Alonso had simply kept his head down and got the job done at McLaren, if he had he would have won the championship last year and would also have walked away with it this year too, and Hamilton would really have had to earn his position............

With Kimi out of it I wanted to back Lewis for the title (as I don't really like Massa) but he really doesn't make it easy to support him does he..........

They (FIA) want it to go t the last race. TBH, Hamilton is suffering from the typical British Sports Person syndrome - a lack of consistency - especially when the pressure is on!!

If he wants to be World Champion this year, he needs to pull his finger out and just do what it takes...any mistake he now makes for the next few races will see him lose points, get flagged etc. He's got that sort of reputation now...and he will not get any benefit of doubt...

Just look at Alonso - I was never a fan of his until yesterday. I think the guy is truly awesome! That's what it takes to be a double world champion...just watch him next season!

Agree, got great respect for Alonso this season, has kept his head down, his mouth shut, and driven his socks off punching way above the weight of his car............

Next season with no aero rubbish, proper slicks, and much more competitive BMWs and Renaults definitely has the potential to be something quite special

Sorry if seen before, but made laugh, sure one or two of ya will appreciate it...

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I just hate the politics of F1 and the fairly obvious Ferrari bias.