Schumacher gets 5 place grid penalty

[Scott]

Monty will be pleased...

Watch the video if you have access to it.  Senna moved gradually over to the right down the straight, with Michael following.  Then Michael went left, Bruno also jigged (not much, but certainly was a move), so MS went right again.  Senna also moved right again, and MS was at that point committed. 

Could he have avoided?  Yes, he could have hit the brakes instead of being hard on the throttle.  Should he have?  Perhaps, since the resulting crash took them both out.  Should he get a penalty?  IMHO, no.  Just racin'...

[Dare]

With the results he's had this year will he return next
year?Will he even be offered a seat next year?

[Dare]

Michael saw it a little different



Schumi blames 'dangerous' Senna
As expected, no one accepted responsibility for the Michael Schumacher/Bruno senna crash that put both drivers out of the Spanish GP.

14 laps into Sunday's grand prix, Schumacher, who had pitted, came up behind Senna, who had not, with the duo fighting for position.

Schumacher, though, appeared to misjudge the braking point in the rundown to Turn One and slammed into the back of Senna's Williams.

The incident will be investigated after the grand prix.

However, Schumacher, who called Senna an "idiot" over his team radio, reckons the blame rests squarely with the Brazilian who had an incident a lap earlier with Romain Grosjean.

"I want the stewards to clarify what happened. He moved to the right, but he shouldn't move back in the braking phase to the left that sharply," he told Sky Sports F1 HD.

"I'm just behind him and I don't know how sharply he is going to move. So it was all very dangerous.

"We had a chance of good points today so it is doubly frustrating. I have to say I don't know what he was trying to prove but in Brazil last year he was driving into my car and today he was doing funny things.

"A lap before he had an accident together with Grosjean so I don't know what he was going through his mind."

But, as expected, Senna believes it was Schumacher who was in the wrong.

"Look it's racing and incidents happen. At the end of the day, I was not expecting him to hit me, I thought he was going to dive for the inside," he told the BBC.

"He probably misjudged me a little bit. He came with good speed on the straight and I had to brake.

"When I saw he was moving I thought he would dive on the inside so I moved a little bit to the left and then he just hit me."

[lkjohnson1950]

Looked to me like Senna was weaving around and that's against the rules isn't it?

[Ian]

Senna did move more than once, he should have been penalised.

[Dare]

Senna did move more than once, he should have been penalised.

looks like he inherited more than a name from his uncle

[Scott]

Wow, we all agree with MS? 

[lkjohnson1950]

MS made a serious misjudgement in his braking point, but Senna left him no where to go.

[John S]

Senna did move more than once, he should have been penalised.

looks like he inherited more than a name from his uncle

Have to agree with both of you.    Schumi is no saint but Bruno was certainly not just an innocent in that shunt.   

[cosworth151]

I agree with you all that it looked like Senna made more than one move. Ironically, it looked very much like what Schumi used to do.

[lkjohnson1950]

Got that right! 

[Monty]

You Shumacher fans make me smile.
He makes a really rookie mistake and you blame Senna????

The phrase 'one move' refers to the rule that you are allowed to move to block and then return to the racing line.
Actually Senna hardly moved at all. The space on the inside was large enough to drive a truck through.
Schumacher simply underestimated his braking point.
Even I could have accepted this as a racing accident if Schumacher had just said "Senna was travelling slower than I expected" but oh no Teflon Schumacher has to publically rant about the innocent Senna.
Schumacher was never very good and he has now completely lost it. Why can't he take his hundreds of millions and just get out of our sport.

[Alianora La Canta]

Thanks to the clarifications inscribed in the regulations this year, the second move is only banned if less than a car's width remains during the second (or subsequent) move. There were acres of space to the left of Senna during his wobbling, so there was no longer anything with which to punish Senna. Whereas there is definitely scope for a penalty against Michael given that he should have known the Mercedes was much better at braking than the Williams. He simply miscalculated its braking point and failed to adjust his corner strategy accordingly.

[Scott]

Didn't realize that Ali (the bit about one move only if it closes the space to pass).  OK Monty, we'll give it to you...this time

[Ian]

But monty, what other driver gives us so much fun on here, MS is like marmite, you either love or hate it.