Originally Posted by Si_Crewe:
“Y'see, you've accidentally pointed out the fundamental difference in the situation there.
In Monaco Hamilton took a dive up the inside of Maldonado, Hamilton tried to avoid it by going off the track, to the inside but they collided.”
I like the use of the phrase "they collided"!
Originally Posted by Si_Crewe:
“If the same thing HAD happened in Spain it'd be unfortunate but just a racing incident IMO.
As it was, Maldonado avoided the collision in Valencia in the same way that Hamilton tried to in Monaco but then rejoined the track unsafely and CAUSED an unneccesary collision.
The two incidents are totally different.”
The fact that Maldonado initially avoided a collision but then didn't avoid another one is, I would suggest, completely irrelevant! Would it have been better is he
hadn't avoided the first one, as Hamilton didn't at Monaco?

Would we then all be saying "Oh well. Never mind! That's motor racing!"? I somehow think not!
Both incidents
could have been avoided if the overtaking driver had backed off and let the other car past. Neither did. As a result, Hamilton
caused the crash in Monaco, and Maldonado
caused the crash in Valencia. The reason the drivers were
deservedly penalised was because they were both "avoidable accidents". What happened at any time prior to that accident is irrelevant.
I must admit I'm struggling to understand the apparent desire to demonstrate that Hamilton hasn't done
exactly the same thing as Maldonado.
The Regulations define "incidents". They don't talk about "degrees of dumbness" or any other subjective matters. There's nothing in the regulations to say that rejoining the track when you're alongside another car automatically warrants a greater or lesser penalty than braking late and ploughing into someone, or cutting a chicane and punting someone off. The reason is that all incidents are different to a greater or lesser degree, so the stewards look at the
facts of each specific incident. If it was
dangerous, such as Vergne's move on Heikki at Valencia, the stewards will punish the driver accordingly. If someone lost it, went off the track, spun round and rejoined in front of another car which was doing 200mph,
that would be deemed dangerous. Maldonado's move might have been "dumb" but it wasn't dangerous, so he got the same penalty as anyone else pulling a "dumb" (but not dangerous) move which resulted in an incident.
If drivers weren't capable of being "dumb" we wouldn't
have any accidents ... but they are ...
all of them ... so we do!
I originally mentioned the Monaco incident because I wanted to make the point that the only way Maldonado could have avoided it was to slow down and swerve off the racing line, but because Maldonado
didn't do that, Hamilton described him as "frickin' ridiculous"! Basically, Hamilton blamed Maldonado!!

My question then was; why is Maldonado now being vilified by some Hamilton fans because he's now blaming Hamilton??
I just sounds a bit hypocritical, that's all!