Anybody else think Maldonado got off lightly?

[UrS4boy]

He claims Hamilton was driving too aggressively and it is Hamilton's fault that he (Maldonado) T-boned him. I think Maldonado was an impatient idiot who could have easily taken 2nd away from Hamilton elsewhere on the track, in a much safer location, without punting Hamilton out of the race. Hamilton might have hung onto third but with his tires going he might have only been 4th, but still in the race.

I think Maldonado got off lightly with the 20 sec penalty = 12th instead of 10th. I would have also given him a grid penalty and put him further back for the start of the next race.

[BennyBoo]

I say it was Hamilton's fault haha

[Ian Simmonds]

It is one of those times where you really couldn't see Button falling into the same trap. Whilst Maldonardo was clearly in breach of the rules, Hamilton was in breach of forward thinking. He'll roo the lost points in time.

[a4kquattro]

ok cool. I'm not the only one that thought hamilton was at least partially at fault. he didn't have to push full wide there. Its not like he didn't know P. Maldonado was there...

[Colesy]

Considering Maldonado has form from when he deliberately crashed into Perez where he was given a 10 place grid penalty it's hardly surprising that he thinks he can get away with ramming Hamilton. He should have been banned after the Perez incident and maybe this wouldn't have happened. It's hard to prove that he deliberately rammed Hamilton this time but he definitely didn't try to avoid hitting him. Hamilton was defending his position within the rules so how anyone can say it was his fault is beyond me.

The F1 heirachy punish anyone severely for accidents so surely deliberate aggression/absolutely idiotic driving should be punished to a greater extent?! They have been better generally this season but this last race they've definitely got it wrong with Maldonado and with the Perez crash. With Maldonado's form Hamilton was probably naive to think he wouldn't ram him off but that's not how it should be...

Another ****** weekend for McLaren overall, using a jack which has failed in practices several times surprisingly fails in a race! This cost Hamilton 10 seconds which would have probably kept him away from trouble with Maldonado. Thought new tyres 10 laps from the end of the race might have been a good call rather than having them lose all grip like they did. A new strategy guy at McLaren wouldn't go amiss.

[Rusty]

It was the moment where the new and improved, more mature and very impressive Lewis Hamilton of 2012 reverted back to the dark old days of 2009/10 where he would fight for every millimetre and end up in the wall with nothing to show for his efforts, other than a solid reputation as "a racer".

He could have allowed Maldonado through, kept what little life was left in the tyres and lost a minimum amount of time but that's not his way, as he said in the post race interview with Sky. Fair enough but if he loses the championship by 10 points, he'll regret missing out on that 4th or 5th place.

Maldonado messed up the easiest overtake he'll ever have on Hamilton and took both of them out of the running, thus showing that he's not worked out how to play the F1 game as well as Vettel/Alonso/Schumacher etc. I remember saying loudly to the missus "you don't go wheel to wheel with Maldonado!... oh ****" just as it happened

Maldonado should have taken to the escape road rather than spear into Hamilton but that said, I thought Hamilton had to leave a car's width at the edge of the track under the new rules, although I'm not sure that overrides the rule that the first person into the corner owns the corner.

Overall, I'd say it was something like 75% Maldonado making a hash of things and 25% Hamilton being too racy in a situation that he could never win. I thought to myself, "what would The Professor do?", that's what Hamilton needs to ask himself now, rather than "what would Senna do?". It's coming up to the time where he needs to build a new team around him with a secondary team mate and start to work his way towards the two world championships that he can no doubt win in the next 10 years and leave the lunatic racer mentality behind as a legacy to take him round the after dinner speaking circuit for years to come.

[Jonnybravo]

Considering Maldonado has form from when he deliberately crashed into Perez where he was given a 10 place grid penalty it's hardly surprising that he thinks he can get away with ramming Hamilton. He should have been banned after the Perez incident and maybe this wouldn't have happened. It's hard to prove that he deliberately rammed Hamilton this time but he definitely didn't try to avoid hitting him. Hamilton was defending his position within the rules so how anyone can say it was his fault is beyond me.

The F1 heirachy punish anyone severely for accidents so surely deliberate aggression/absolutely idiotic driving should be punished to a greater extent?! They have been better generally this season but this last race they've definitely got it wrong with Maldonado and with the Perez crash. With Maldonado's form Hamilton was probably naive to think he wouldn't ram him off but that's not how it should be...

Another ****** weekend for McLaren overall, using a jack which has failed in practices several times surprisingly fails in a race! This cost Hamilton 10 seconds which would have probably kept him away from trouble with Maldonado. Thought new tyres 10 laps from the end of the race might have been a good call rather than having them lose all grip like they did. A new strategy guy at McLaren wouldn't go amiss.

Agree fully with the above

lets not forget the Maldanado incident at Spa as well

[Rocco]

this are races

Maldonado is noob and Hamilton is Hamilton
but anyway i prefer guys like this that gives good spectacule than other bored ones

i cant understand WTF are doing Massa and Button latelly in their respective teams

[DJones]

As far as I'm concerned it would be Hamiltons fault even if he wasn't involved cuz I don't like the arrogant git!

[willg54]

Maldanado is is an amateur driver in what is a pretty quick car...his skills soon run out.

I watched the crash a few times at work today (i can tell you were all pretty pissed off with mal) and he's clearly off the race track and instantly tries to rejoin. If that was any driver like Webber, Alonso or Vettel for instance, they know the score and would have backed out. But because he's inexperienced and thinks he can get away with it and it's no surprise he crashed into Hamilton. On the other side, Hamilton should have known what he's like and given him space as it was inevitable but at racing speed, you can exactly just pull 6ft across the track instantly! but, hamilton is a racer, and no racer should give up a position easily.

As for the McLaren pitstops...what a shambles! I know there's alot of people in the s*** there right now.

Big bonus for me were the 2 renault alternator failures, my favourite thing to see in a race

well done to Shumy though, right place at the right time

[Error404]

if it was called during the race he'd have got a drive through for causing an avoidable collision, therefore 20 secs is about right i recon. As much as I'm not a LH fan he had track position and Mal was 100% in the wrong... already off the circuit and plenty more run-off, he didn't need to try to rejoin into the side of Lewis. Great result for Lotus

[UrS4boy]

Well, he did it again.

This time taking out Perez (again!!). 10,000 Euro fine. Big deal. He needs a bigger slap than that to smarten him up.

I know that F1 drivers have to have a big ego but this guy's idea of himself is HUGE.

"while the controversies surrounding Maldonado are an increasing liability - especially as Maldonado is also thought to be getting a growing reputation within some quarters of the team itself as something of a 'hard nut' and difficult to get along with.
Maldonado waved off such concerns. "I hope to get my championship back on track in the next few races and put the team up at the top again," he said."

Excuse me? "my championship"??? Umm....what about the Williams team, Pastor?? Don't they have anything to do with it?

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/181788/2/maldonado_must_learn_to_back_off_says_salo.html

[R5T]

Personally think the Perez incident was a general racing incident, it was wet, he lost a bit of control and got it wrong, Perez is an extremely aggressive driver and i do like him, Maldanado on the other hand ... Yes he has talent, but i think he deffinitely got off lightly with the hamilton incident. Mind you, if it was Shumacher that done it, you can be sure that he would have recieved a 10 place grid drop, a fine, and a time penalty ... along with all the usual "Eddie Jordan" Rant, and everyone saying "hes past it". Either way .. I still blame Hamilton for everything

[Bullysteeth]

As far as I'm concerned it would be Hamiltons fault even if he wasn't involved cuz I don't like the arrogant git!

[Sonic]

I had a front-row view of the maldonado/perez incident at silverstone.. i was on the 1st floor balcony of the BRDC building at brooklands

I really dislike Maldonado.. he's appears to be deliberately carving himself a reputation whereby nobody wants to go side-by-side with him for fear of not making it out in one piece. A "do or die" approach, where he's either coming past you, or you're going out and possibly him as well.

This needs to be stamped on immediately, in my opinion he's now on the verge of deliberate dangerous driving rather than just racing incidents - and after the maldonado/hamilton incident at spa, the maldonado/perez incident in monaco, the maldonado/hamilton in valencia and the maldonado/perez incident in perez he should be facing a ban, not just a grid penalty. He's consistently being a **** and needs punishing/removing from the sport.

I foresee more crazy moves from him in the future until he's banned... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt5nt7IdyPs