Lewis vs. Felipe, Round 2
by Craig Normansell on Oct 9th, 2011After Singapore you'd think that Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton might bury the hatchet and carry on trying to rescue their rather dismal seasons. And if you did think that, you'd be wrong.
Thanks to a little more contact in Japan, Felipe has boiled over again and has demanded the FIA step in to discipline the Brit. It all happened when the both of them were duking it out for 4th place and came together at the chicane, with the Brazilian attempting an outside pass when they touched. The Ferrari suffered a damaged floor and a piece of Massa's front wing landed on the racing line.
The calm before the storm...again - Sutton Images
Thanks to this errant piece of debris, the safety car had to be deployed.
If this was Canada, they'd be on the floor by now - Sutton Images
The stewards took a long, hard look at all the footage and even with Hamilton's unenviable record this season, decided it was a racing incident. After the race, both drivers had different takes on the event.
"The only thing I have to say is that I can't see anything out of my mirrors and they vibrate down the straight so much that I had no idea he was there," explained Hamilton. "Maybe it's something we can fix, but anyway I have no problems with him."
Unfortunately, Felipe saw it differently.
"I don't care, to be honest, about what he [Hamilton] said. The only thing I care about is what he did. He was so slow in 130R and he stayed on the right-hand side.
"I was much quicker, so I went to the left-hand side and I braked there. I stayed on my line; he moved his car and touched my car. There's nothing more to say. For what he says, I don't care. I care about what the federation says and what the FIA does."
More aggro between the two, and looks like it's a rivalry that might simmer nicely now the important stuff on the track has already been decided.
Comments and Discussion
More than anything today we were treated to seeing how the stewarding needs a massive overhaul as the end result was the same here as Singapore, yet no penalty was applied.
Personally i believe there was no penalty required in both incidents, people can't avoid contact all the time when racing. It's part of the deal, like the danger aspect; it's part of F1.
Ferrari (let's not point fingers at individuals) never pass up an opportunity to whine about something, especially when something in their armoury isn't up to scratch.
It's not Hamilton that needs disciplining, it's the stewards. You can't chop the balls off of an exciting driver just because those that deem it necessary didn't have any to begin with.
PS. The debris left on the track from this incident was going to be left (cars could fit either side), it was the debris left from the Webber-Schumacher collision that caused the Safety Car to make an appearance.
Round 2? After Monaco and Silverstone, it's at least round 4... can't think of any other incidents between these two, but there must be more. Sad to see that Massa's lost more in all of their "meetings" so far.
Not sure i agree, lewis almost looks broken. Massa already was who really came off worse?
More whining from Massa. Pity he can't speak up at anyone else who mistreats him - like his own team. Used to be a fan of his but he doesn't deserve it anymore.
Sadly agree