What a damp squib that race turned out to be :thumbdwn:

Pre race the "experts" predicted lots of overtaking at three or so places on the circuit and plenty of safety car action.

Instead we get one of the most processional races of the season, which was a shame as on the face of it, the circuit looked good.

I'm not an Alonso fan, but I'm sure he would of tried a few moves at his home circuit, so it was a pity his car got damaged on the first lap.

Ferrari reliability definitely looks to be taking a turn for the worse, so Hamilton could well win the championship by default.

Lets hope the 2009 season brings the often promised "more overtaking".

Must admit I had high hopes for this one too.

I'm pretty convinced Massa should have recieved a drive through penalty, now I doubt there will be any at all. The usual Ferrari/FIA teamwork.

I don't like Alonso so did have a little smirk when he was very quickly taken out. Also felt pretty happy to see Kimi leave early as well, I hope his mechanic is ok.

Seems Massa has been fined for the pit lane incident. How on earth is this right in any way? It wasn't even his fault....it was the team who let him go! Stinks of the FIA trying to wriggle out of giving a penalty that would affect the result. They really are laughably inconsistent in their policing of the rules....they just seem to make them up as they go along. The GP itself couldn't really be more boring. Reminds me of the old Las Vegas circuit.

They even said that in the support races two teams had been given a drive through for the same offence.

The team will pay his fine and again the rest of the teams have been fecked over by the FIA/Ferrari team.

I missed the race (apart from the last two laps) because I had the bairn out swimming, sounds like I didnt miss much anyway, I feel much better :P

Massa keeps Valencia victory - F1 | ITV Sport

Felipe Massa has been allowed to keep his European Grand Prix victory after the stewards investigated his near-collision in the pits with Adrian Sutil.

The incident occurred on lap 37 as Massa and Sutil left the pits following their second stops.

Massa was released from his pit bay into Sutil’s path as the German driver accelerated down the pit lane' date=' but contact was averted.

The stewards deemed that although Massa had been released from the pits in an unsafe manner – breaching Article 23.1 of the sporting regulations – he gained "no sporting advantage" and should therefore not be given a sporting penalty.

Instead they issued Ferrari with an official reprimand and a 10,000 euro fine.

[/quote']

Actually a crash in the pit lane might have enlivened the race or rain!

Maybe there should be a new rule that if there hasn't been sufficient overtaking by, say lap 20, then they spray water on the track. That would make things more interesting.

Watching the replay of the Kimi pit incident, had the nozzle not got stuck he would have got out in front of Kovi's Maclaren. But then his engine let go so it proably would have been academic in the end.

I'm pretty convinced Massa should have recieved a drive through penalty, now I doubt there will be any at all. The usual Ferrari/FIA teamwork.

I'm not sure about that, as I don't think the FIA has penalised anyone else this season for a similar offence (though I stand to be corrected on that point), but having said that the application of F1 rules is somewhat sporadic and irregular, to say the least!

There has to be a first for every case and to the best of my knowledge there hasn't been anyone else investigated by the FIA for dangerous pit lane exits.

I really don't like to think that the FIA favor Ferrari, but you do get the feeling that, had it been a McLaren car, they would have instantly got a drive through. The FIA statement seems to dodge the issue really. This shouldn't be about whether anyone gained an advantage, but more a safety issue. The primary point of all rules in motorsport is to ensure the sport is safe. Even those that prevent people having an advantage like the use of weird fuel blends and ground effect are ultimately there to stop cars bursting into flames or flying off the road at 200mph. The fact of the matter is, the pitlane is dangerously narrow and it was purely the fact that Massa was aware of what was going on around him that he didn't pile into the side of Sutil!

I really like Massa and have no desire to seem him disadvantaged in any way but it does annoy me that there does seem to be two version of the rule book in use at any one time. It may be that Massa et al were not disadvantaged but had things been different or if Sutil was driving for position then he could have been at a loss.

Yeah, I really like Massa too, and on a side note it was great to see Kubica, Hamilton and Massa all having a bit of a friendly chat behind the podium. Being a highly amateur racer myself, I'm almost always in agreement with a lot of the penalties that people get and I'm not one to get all high and mighty about how 'amazing' Hamilton is, the majority of driver penalties that get dished out are fair, but like you say....there's the odd one, like today, where it's a tad odd!

I felt like 3 hours of my life had be taken away from me :thumbdwn:

To say it was total boredom would be an understatement!

Ferrari + FIA = Smell.

How could he not get a drive through? I liked the look of the track too and expected a bit more from the race. Maybe next year with the rule changes it will show off the circuit better.

Maybe next year with the rule changes it will show off the circuit better.

How often have we been told that next years rule changes will mean closer racing and more overtaking? I think it happens about this time EVERY season!

Motor racing, like pretty much every other sport, revolves around money - the bigger your budget the closer to the top spot you'll finish (though Toyota and Honda are doing their hardest to re-write the rulebook on this one), no matter what the rules are.

I can't see next year being radically different than this year - with Ferrari, Maclaren & BMW competing at the front, with the rest fighting for the scraps.

For closer racing you have to tune into the lower formulas and touring cars (now a contact sport), etc. to see real driving battles - but having said all that, I'll still tune in every two or three weeks between March and November next year in the vane hope that it'll improve!!

And at least the next race is at Spa, which is probably the best circuit of the year

As long as you have downforce of any significance, it will always be difficult to overtake.

Just watched it on Sky +

OMG how boring....

Zzzzzzzz

@ jlwah. I agree you will still have the same three teams scraping it out at the front, but at least a move to more mechanical grip may help bring more overtaking opportunities. A believe they should never have left slick tyres. Should allow them to use more ground effects and cut the wings down by half. Maybe that'll help them overtake?

I went for a drive in my new car instead.... and had set it up to record but my digibox recorder thing decided that it was too boring and didnt record it for me...... first gp i havent seen for quite some time lol

getting fed up with no action against Ferrari and no action against pit lane racing side by side - which already has a rule stopping it!

And many people are saying there is a sensor in the fueling rig. Again, a breach of the rules as every team must use the same, unmod'd rig! The overiding engineer is standing behind the car, so cant see the pitlane.

This system needs banning.

I agree.

Quite right, although I can't see much action being taken against them. Unless they paint their cars silver. It's obviously a very dangerous system with a lot of room for error. How many more mechanics must go to hospital. Definately wants banning.

i'd like to get a good look at the other pit lane Incidents that got drive through penalties over the weekend. I think its a poor do but i'm not the one making the decisions.

It was pretty dangerous, the fact that massa seemed to want sutil to yeald and back off to let him out didnt make it any better.

ITV missed it live, then when I saw the first replay I thought that should have been a penalty, then I saw another replay, and I thought that Filipe backed off when he saw the other car.

As for "modifying the fuelling rig", I can think of 2 ways of obtaining that signal that don't require any more modification of the rig than fastening a switch to the ring handle, or pulling a signal out of the dataflow (and that second method is certainly legal).

i'd like to get a good look at the other pit lane Incidents that got drive through penalties over the weekend. I think its a poor do but i'm not the one making the decisions.

It was pretty dangerous, the fact that massa seemed to want sutil to yeald and back off to let him out didnt make it any better.

But Sutil was a lap down and therefore would have been blue flagged as soon as they got on the track, so why not let the lead driver out first (apart from Force India not liking Ferrari following Monaco)?

The situation wasn't helped by the ridiculously narrow pit exit and as for it being dangerous, they're only doing 80kph in the pit lane and they get closer than that at 300kph out on the track!!

I don't understand why there is a call for Massa to be penalised when nothing happened and yet Nakajima runs into the back of Alonso putting him out of the race and has merely a racing incident!

Out on the road, if you drive into the back of someone it's your fault, no question.

I agree that there is considerable variability in the application of the rules in F1, but that's true of any sport.