Doesn't really address the fact that he's been guilty of this sort of thing on several occasions.

Maldonado drove into Hamilton. The camera doesn't lie. It's idiotically sanctimonious to say he needs to "mature as a driver" - maybe he does, but this is no evidence for it. He was at the end of a race, and was taken out through no fault of his own.

Well I think this call from the stewards is a bit of a stretch and quite inconsistent as cars do not always come back on to the track in a slow controlled manner any time they are pushed over the white line. They have treated it as if he has jumped a chicane or coming back from being far of the track. This was not the case.

Especial when Charlie Whiting says it is not permitted to run to the white line in defence if the other car is alongside and this is what Lewis did.

Clearly article 20.2 was not applied when Lewis was off track at Bahrain and rejoined the track ahead of Nico Rosberg.

Worth noting that the Penalty is applied under article 20 and not article 16 which relates to incidents. As such the stewards decision does not appear to state that Maldo caused a collision just rejoined the track in the incorrect manner.

Good to see Forza Ferrari providing the comedy as usual.

50/50. Haha! Good one!

No. Lewis probably didn't feel the need to discuss the incident with the press. He wanted to put the incident behind him instead of mulling over the incident. Of course he knew what happened - but he doesn't want to discuss it and lay blame to anyone. That shows maturity. And he wants to move on and focus on Silverstone in two weeks. He wasn't inattentive of what happened.



Lewis was only off track because of Rosberg's robust defence and rather late change of direction. And Alonso was also off track as well but didn't overtake. And the penalty is applied under article 20.1 because Maldonado did not rejoin the track safely, as constituted by the collision. The issue was Maldonado tried to rejoin the track in an unsafe position.

The stewards will only take previous incidents into account if the driver has been officially warned for his behaviour. If that's not the case, they will review each incident objectively, regardless of the drivers involved. If this had been on lap 15 and had involved Pic and Kobayashi (a bit of an aggressive driver himself) I would have expected a drive-through penalty, and I doubt we'd even be having this discussion!

It's also very easy to point to previous incidents, but there are quite a few drivers out there with "form"! If you're a fan, they're "daring" and "a true racer" ... if you're not, they're "reckless" and "dangerous".

He HAS been reprimanded twice before (at least) for deliberately ramming another car.

The end result is another race that Lewis finishes in the wall. It’s up to him if he wants to avoid such things happening. I’m quite happy for Lewis to chalk up the DNFs and leave the points finishes, podiums and the wins for the other drivers.

We have a great win for Alonso back on top of the drivers’ championship and a podium for Michael. Good times.

A "reprimand" is one of the four "non-appealable" sanctions available to the stewards; the others being a drive-through, a 10 second stop-go, or a time penalty. If you're given (eg) a drive-through, you don't also get a reprimand as it's a separate penalty. However, the reprimands are cumulative in that any driver who gets three in one season will automatically be given a ten-place grid penalty.

I'm only aware of one reprimand for Maldonado this season ... and that was for holding up Heikki during qualifying in China.

An official warning is a different matter and that's when the driver's previous issues will be taken into consideration. Essentially the driver will be on probabtion and any further infringements will incur a penalty. I'm not aware that Maldonado has been officially warned.

I think I have to eat my words (or my post from several pages back), that was an insanely exciting GP - the 2nd half at least. Alonso drove magnificently, but I think Grosjean was so unlucky, he deserved a proper chance to race for a win. Enjoyed seeing Schumacher get a podium again as well, quite funny how he didn't know it until he crossed the line



He would be leading the championship, no question about it - he was leading going into the race today! I wouldn't be surprised if these pit stop errors end up costing him the championship...



I think that's a rather derogatory and entirely unfair post. I'm not convinced if another car drove into the side of your car at 100mph that you'd have been able to do anything about it either. Maldonado getting past Lewis was NOT inevitable - there were only 2 laps to go, Valencia is a tight circuit and if Lewis positioned his car cleverly then he would have had a chance of staying ahead. He probably wouldn't have, but I don't see why Maldonado should have benefitted from an unfair overtaking manouvre. Lewis was on the racing line, Maldonado was off the track. He moved onto Lewis' line and into Lewis, who had no obligation to give up the racing line (and would probably have been castigated for not trying to defend if he had done...), and hit him. Very clear that the McLaren was not at fault in my mind. Maldonado neds to learn when overtaking is possible and when it's not, and I doubt a simple drive-through 20s penalty will do that sufficiently...

You really are delusional.

He re-joined by driving into another car, which is why it was an un-safe re-joining of the track.

If he had not have driven into another car, it would have been a safe re-join and he would not have received a penalty.

The ONLY reason Lewis ended up into the wall was because Maldonado drove into him as he was re-joining the track.

How you can say that is NOT Pastor's fault is beyond me.

While I agree PM was at fault I am not convinced LH did everything he could or should to have avoided the situation happening and getting the best race result he could have hoped for from that position in the race and with his tyres the way they were. Bad racing from PM but poor race management from LH.

Yeah Lewis has always had a flaw that he drives as if cars around him are not there and he has paid the price for it again.

The other car was moving to and hit him as much as he hit it. As the car rejoining PM get the blame but this is not say that Lewis could not have avoided him.

Delusional and many more derogatory words available.

He has clearly shown his bias and shown him self up on this forum today with his childish biased views.

He didn't need to take avoiding action, he was on the race track and the other car was not on the race track.

As for saying Lewis showed immaturity, he didn't. He showed frustration at some other car shunting him into the wall, causing him to have zero points in a championship that looks like it'll probably go down to the wire and where every point will be desperately needed.

What would you have liked, for him to jump out and do a Frankie Dettori jump? Of course he is going to throw the wheel away.

The maturity is judged by actions in front of the camera afterwards. You have Pastor claiming it wasn't his fault blaming the other driver, and then Lewis ignoring the question and deciding to not cast blame.

He knows after having done so before that there is little point to it and has matured.

Your bum chum Pastor, has yet to learn that.

So under forza's logic in spa 08 when Kimi squeezed Lewis, he should have driven off track then straight back on and taken Kimi out, makes perfect sense now and it would have gotten rid of that endless discussion on that incident after the race.

It's was kimi's fault for " driving without a brain " and being reckless.

Instead, Lewis made the right decision and drove off and rejoined safely, without taking anybody out.

I never knew there was any controversy about that one!

Seemed pretty cut and dried to me!

Just a tiny weeny one that still splits opinion after 4 years.

Just a thought that there seem to be much less controversy raging over stewards decisions in the last couple of season since they have added an ex-driver as adviser.

Did he drive like this when Grosjean overtook him on the outside in the same corner as the Maldonado incident? No. Hamilton knew Grosjean was there and gave him the space. And unlike Maldonado, Grosjean stuck to the track limits and gave Hamilton no choice but to give him space. Maldonado didn't and Hamilton didn't need to move over as he had a racing line. Hamilton knew what he was doing - it's only due to Maldonado's stupidity that this happened. If he was smart, he would have kept behind Lewis into the corner and got the cutback mid-corner on the apex and would have sailed past him with superior grip. He didn't need to go all the way on the outside. If this was Lewis, we would be criticising him saying he made an unnecessary move and was going for gold like he used to. It's only fair Pastor is criticised.

BTW ToonArmy came up with a great example. Are you going to suggest that former bum chum Ferrari driver Kimi was at fault for not giving Hamilton space in Spa 08 at the Bus Stop chicane? He had the racing line and did what anyone else would have done with a brain. Hamilton isn't the one with the brain here. What if for example it was Alonso in the same situation and he had the racing line and had the same contact with Maldonado? Knowing your pro-Ferrari bias, you would have said Alonso was not to blame. By your logic that Hamilton was driving without a brain, then Alonso would have been driving without a brain if the same happened to him.

However, I still think Lewis could have just let PM take the inside line and just let him go instead of fighting for a dead position that was never going to be Lewis's at the end of the race. He would have lost more time defending as well.

But another thought. Hamilton was ahead at the point of collision. It's not like they were side by side. Maldonado looked like he T-boned Hamilton.

Maybe or people resign themselves to poor decisions by the stewards. Nothing we can do........

It doesn't take much to kick it off though, does it?

There's always been controversy, and there always will be, but in my opinion it got absolutely out of hand a few years ago with all the conspiracy theory nonsense. Thankfully, things have settled down a bit.

Yes what I have been saying all along. Or he could have left him room to come back on track and may be stayed ahead for half a lap more.

Yes - he could have left a gap and left him pass - but he was NOT required to do so and as such Pastor is in the wrong and Lewis is in the clear.

You keep denying that Pastor caused the accident, but how else did Lewis end up in the wall?

Why don't you take a drive to your nearest dual carriageway, attempt to join it and crash into a car on the inside lane as you join.

Let me know whose fault the police think it is and who had right of way.