Alonso and Hamilton hit with post-race penalties
by Jack Lamure on Apr 10th, 2011
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have both been handed 20-second post-race penalties following their collision in today's Malaysian Grand Prix.
The former McLaren team-mates and fierce on-track rivals came together towards the end of the race, with the Spaniard clipping the rear of the Brit's car as he pulled out to make a pass. Alonso lost enough of his front wing to be forced in to the pits whilst Lewis would lose pace and also be forced to stop.
The Ferrari driver has been punished for causing the collision whilst Hamilton's crime was changing his line more than once whilst defending his position. The penalty makes no difference to Alonso, who retains his sixth place finish, but drops Lewis once place to eighth, promoting Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi - who was himself thrown out of the opening round in Australia for a technical infringement - to P7.
What do you think about the stewards decision and the Hamilton-Alonso coming together?
Comments and Discussion
Wasn't their loss of positions already a harsh enough punishment?
What a farce! Lewis last year DID weave all over the track to keep Petrov behind, today I thought was fair. Alonso was just simply pushing Hamilton and yes he did get a little too close but how many times have we seen this in the past? Who was the driver representative this weekend? Grossly unfair on the pair of them in my view, last year the steward were praised for letting the drivers race each other. This puts us back to square one. All these devices like KERS & DRS are useless if drivers are going to be too scared of getting a penalty for trying!
Seems a bit harsh for Lewis. You'd expect him to try to defend his position, it's not his fault Alsonso went into the back of him (and I doubt it was on purpose in any case!).
Watching it on TV I didn't see anything on either side deserving a penalty. Though I've yet to watch a replay since the decision. It seems like more pointless meddling by the stewards.
Spot on.
Emanuele Pirro was the ex-driver on the stewards panel this weekend.
Thanks for that Jimmy
Exactly, all this decision will do is make drivers think twice about every pass they might or might not make.
This reminds me slightly of Spa last year, where Vettel hit Button and got a drive through. Not many people spoke up for vettel at the time (I suspect because he'd hit a popular Brit, but that is another discussion) but I felt the penalty was undeserved. Sometimes when cars drive fast and try to pass each other, they hit each other... its called racing. It happens. Unless an actual rule is broken, the stewards should stay out of it.
So funny ! Don't care to be honest as The Mighty RedBull took 1st and 4th without using KERS ! What does that say about how good their car are ? Kinky Kylie and Vettel are looking unstoppable ! LuV iT !
Why not just toss coins to decide the places. It would be much safer, cheaper and no chance of any real racing .........
Someone would complain that one team was running illegal aero parts on their coins that gave them an advantage upon landing.
Lol
I thought Hamilton's slide from 3rd to eventual 5th, 6th then 7th was caused by tyres dropping off considerably. Nothing of what I saw suggested Alonso had any involvement in the subsequent lack of pace, but I could be wrong.
So, from a rather massive Lewis fan, I concede that if he was weaving more than once to defend a place (on the lap before the Alonso incident apparently) then the penalty is within the rules.
Gutted, but his race was already ruined by rubber.
Absolutely. Which suggests that Alonso was punished for a mistake that ultimately didn't cost the other driver anything but cost him a 30 + second pitstop. Just sayin' is all.
Whenever there is a collision between 2 cars, there always seems to be to much focus on blame and loss, and not enough on whether a rule has been broken. Few would deny that the collision was caused by Alonso, it was his fault... Hamilton didn't really lose anything, but suppose he had? If he'd needed a pit stop and lost time, would that mean Alonso must be penalized accordingly? Is that how we do things now? Never mind the small issue of what rule did he break?...
"Causing an avoidable collision"? All collisions are avoidable, just don't go racing... The same rule has been used many times with little justification ... it seems that these days if there is a crash, there MUST be a penalty. Its ridiculous.
Just remind me, who is the president of the FIA at the moment....... and there you have it
Also Emanuele Pirro used to drive for Ferrari so he would have been harsh on Lewis to cost him places when he knew the "Lonz' wouldn't loose a position. Payback for Spain I recon?
Pirro never drove for Ferrari. He drove for Scuderia Italia, but I don't think he even drove with a Ferrari engine.
Very harsh and unfair punishment it's ridiculous. It's a racing incident nothing more.
It used to be called racing! WHat a farce which left a nasty taste after such a great race. Time to have a set of travelling stewards instead of the local berks, I suggest.
Does anyone think it's strange that both drivers got penalised? It was either just a racing incident or one of the drivers caused the collision, whether it be Hamilton making too many direction changes or Alonso getting too close. Seems to me like they couldn't decide who was to blame, so penalised both so it looked like they were doing something about it. Neither driver gained any advantage so would make sense to just put it down an a racing incident in my opinion
Richard, the weaving incident was a lap before the crash!