Heros and zeros at Germany

[Scott]

Can't say much more, except did you hear the radio transmission between Hamilton and the pit wall when he said something about changing his pit strategy and someone told him to just 'concentrate on driving the car and leave the strategy up to us'...hilarious slap down.

I guess I didn't hear it right...turns out he was asking if he could retire the car to save the engine and gearbox.  I'm astounded he asked to do that.

[Jericoke]

Can't say much more, except did you hear the radio transmission between Hamilton and the pit wall when he said something about changing his pit strategy and someone told him to just 'concentrate on driving the car and leave the strategy up to us'...hilarious slap down.

I guess I didn't hear it right...turns out he was asking if he could retire the car to save the engine and gearbox.  I'm astounded he asked to do that.

He's a competitor... who wants a racer who isn't embarassed about coming in last place on their team?

All the same... shouldn't a driver relish every second behind the wheel?  First, 9th, dead last?  There isn't even any testing to get bored of F1 driving.  Why not just go out and have some FUN?

[John S]

I think Lewis mentioned that the undertray of the car got damaged due to his offs after the puncture and even after getting the wheels changed it still felt like he was driving on ice.

He also had no pace and was recording lap times several secs off the pace of the cars ahead of him when he asked about parking it. The team only wanted him to stay out as rain may have intervened and he might just have come back into contention for a point or two. It's not in his, or any F1 pilot's, nature to have a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive in the park hoping to stumble across something of interest.

[johnbull]

Frankly I'm surprised the team didn't call him in themselves, to save engine and gearbox.

It was pretty obvious from his radio comments and his laptimes that he was only going to keep going backwards.

[lkjohnson1950]

I think the stewards got this one right for a change. They really need to put a stop to the Schumacher swerve. It is very dangerous as well as not very sporting. If you've won the pole all you need is a good start and you should get the lead. Rubens was not going to pass Webber and the violence of the swerve left them lucky neither car was damaged. If Webber had just stuck to his line, at the least he would have been on the inside for turn 2. That said, it was the only bad point in a superb weekend for Mark, and he deserved to win. It demonstrates that Vettel is not that far ahead of Mark in the skills department. Bravo.

Lonny

[PG_Gabriel]

C'mon, they showed the replays enough times, Webber had someone on his right so he couldn't turn away.  Lewis wasn't yet past him and turned across Webber's front end.  Who's fault was it then?

They never hade contact. did they, the replay was only showed once in america and the angle they showed they never tuched

[Monty]

There was definitely contact. Hamiltons car can be seen to skip sideways very slightly. I couldn't quite see if it was Webbers wing end plate that hit (this would explain the immediate puncture) or if it was wheel to wheel which would mean Hamilton was particularly unlucky.

[Alianora La Canta]

Heroes

Webber - anyone who can do a drive-through and still win by that sort of margin was on sparkling form, and so it was with Mark. If Australian productivity hits a 28-year low through all the hangovers, verbal replays and general lack of sleep, then that is only right and proper celebration

Rosberg - Great run from 15th to 4th, assisted by a good strategy but maximised completely. If the home crowd didn't get the winner it wanted, at least Nico (and Sebastian) will keep them happy for many years to come.

Fisichella - I thought after qualifying that the race was going to be irretrievable, yet he never gave up on it. Nakajima must have been incredibly surprised when Giancarlo went from 3 seconds behind with two laps left to a little bit in front of him a lap and a half later...

Zeros

Barrichello - I know he had a fuel rig problem and was on the wrong strategy, but please could he stop yowling and try to make the best of a bad day? This is not the way to keep a race seat.

Bourdais - Drove like a man who's already been told he's surplus to requirements for Hungary. That may well be the case, but if so, this was not the swansong Sebastién is capable of producing.

Raikkonen - does he have Force India-magnets in that car? (I suspect Sutil does too, but given his great qualifying and race up to the lap 28 collision, I'll let him off).