Alguersuari unhappy with chicane penalty

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Jaime Alguersuari was unhappy to be given a penalty for cutting a chicane for the second race in a row.

The Toro Rosso driver said:

I really don’t understand why I got the drive-through penalty. It’s the second time in two races that I have got one of these!

As far as I am concerned, although I did cut the chicane, I did not gain any advantage, catch the drivers ahead of me or pull away from those behind. The actual penalty did not make much difference to my race, but it was annoying all the same.
Jaime Alguersuari

Nico Hulkenberg cut chicanes on at least three occasions during the race but received no penalty. This frustrated Mark Webber who spent several laps stuck behind the Williams:

I lost a lot of time behind Hulkenberg, he seemed to spend every second lap going through the chicane, but the stewards left him alone which was frustrating. I got him in the end, but I lost a lot of time.
Mark Webber

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    Keith Collantine
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    26 comments on “Alguersuari unhappy with chicane penalty”

    1. I thought that if you did it once (when you’re not defending or attacking another driver) it was ok, but if you did it three times (regardless of whether you’re defending/attacking or not) you get a penalty? Very poor, inconsistent application of the rules by the stewards.

      1. They have used a “three strikes” rule in the past on some occasions but it’s not necessarily done that way at every race.

        They use dedicated timing loops to detect this kind of thing more and more – they installed one at the Rettifilio ahead of this race and one at Raidillon ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, for example.

        1. http://twitpic.com/2nvggg

          This is Jaime cutting the chicane. He avoids the mess as does Vettel and a Lotus. It seems though he takes two places from the Force India’s.

          I had no idea it was on the first lap as the drive-thru seemed to be given quite a way into the race.

    2. Not completely sure about Alguersuari, although the fact he was doing this repeatedly might have helped in getting him the penalty.

      With Huelkenberg i was also thinking he should have got a penalty. Although that might be influenced by Brundle saying so.

    3. Second time in two races. Made even more ridiculous by the fact nothing happened with Hulkenberg.

    4. I haven’t seen Alguersuari’s chicane cutting so I can’t compare it properly to Hulkenberg situation. We saw 3 he cut the corner 3 times and first time he wasn’t fighting directly for position. Stewards regularly turn a blind eye unless you do it too much, just remember Alonso cutting the harbor chicane in Monaco lap after lap unpenalized in 2005.
      Fans often complain that stewards are interfering too much with racing, if the stewards ordered Hulkenberg to yield we wouldn’t see one of the few overtakes in the race and I think that would have been a shame.

      1. That’s the annoying thing. We didn’t see it last race, we didn’t see it this race.

        1. It is true, things are better this year compared to previous year with showing back of the grid but much of the action from the back isn’t shown on tv.

    5. Is Hulkenburg a pun or a mis-writting?

      1. It was a typo!

      2. ?
        Hulkenburg should have an Umlaut on the ‘u’ but can also be written as Huelkenburg, if you can’t get an Umlaut on your keyboard.

        1. Berg, not burg. Hülkenberg and Huelkenberg are both correct, as Calum points out. Hulkenberg is not.

    6. Conspiracy theorists will note that Toszt didn’t send a letter supporting Ferrari for the recent court-held funfair, while Sir Frank Williams did…

      And it is understandable why those who benefit most from a 5-way WDC (B’s FOM ?) wouldn’t have wanted to make WEB’s race easier.

      Does anyone have the names of Monza 2010 stewards ?
      Would also be nice to know who chooses them/how isolated (physically & communication-wise) they are, etc.

      Anyway… nice race, very entertaining season, and great website !

      1. FIA’s official page says stewards on this race were Lars Österlind, Dr. Gerd Ennser and Emerson Fittipaldi

        1. Strange considering Fittipaldi highly rated Hulkenberg

      2. I’m guessing Tost didn’t write a letter of support for team orders because it’s Mateschitz’s supposed wish to let his drivers race each other.

    7. It definitely wasn t fair to give Jaime a penalty and to Hulkenberg not… Was dissapointed by Fittipaldi and co…

    8. I haven’t had a close look at the replays or lap times yet so I’m not passing judgement on whether they were right or not in punishing Alguersuari but not Hülkenberg.

      1. It seems very inconsistent, because not only Hulkenberg cut the chicane 3 times (at least that many were showed on TV… Webber seems to be complaining that there were lots of occasions) but in one of them he made Webber lose quite a lot of time. Ultimately that probably cost Webber a couple of positions, but that’s racing.

        Surely it would constitute a ‘gaining an advantage’ kind of situation… Webber actually had to slow down! Plenty for a deserved penalty, in my opinion.

    9. Wow, Jaime you’ve just gone and let slip a world first through your fingers, you could have been the first ever driver to be happy at being penalised.

      Poor show Jaime, poor show.

    10. I’m expecting some serious CAPS LOCK action and more than a dozen exclamation marks on Alguersuari’s next tweet.

    11. Isn’t it an “advantage” that Hulkenburg keeps pushing the envelop on his braking points to defend his position against Weber and doesn’t suffer any “traditional” off-course consequences. That is his advantage, being able to push the limits in order to defend with no consequences, he should be penalized.

    12. Didn’t see any footage of Alguersuari but saw all three of Hülkenberg especially that last one he opened a lot of breathing space between him & Webber so I think he should also have been punished.But I think the FIA didn’t.

      1. It was on the first lap at the chicane, he clearly picked up a couple of places.

    13. And Teflonso picked up 7 points more and a place by methods against the rules in Hockenheim and he wasn’t punished. If it is correct that the rules are applied ad hoc to create the most exiting season, then they should write that fact plain in the rules, I would respect that.
      As of now in my mind I deduct 43 points from Ferraris taly because of Hockenheim…I hope they remove the rule next year and we will see the negative consequences, when several teams start using TO in this way.

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