Webber fumes at “first-lap nutcase” Grosjean

2012 Japanese Grand Prix

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An unhappy Mark Webber hit out at Romain Grosjean following their clash on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix.

“I haven’t obviously seen what happened at the start but the guys confirmed that it was first-lap nutcase again, Grosjean,” said Webber after the race.

“And, yeah, the rest of us are trying to fight for some decent results each weekend but he’s trying to get to the first corner as fast as he can at every race.”

Webber said the crash was “immensely frustrating” and referred to Grosjean’s ban for causing a crash at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, saying: “maybe he needs another holiday”.

“He needs to have a look at himself, obviously, it was completely his fault,” Webber continued. “You know, how many mistakes can you make? How may times can you make the same error? First-lap incidents, it’s quite embarrassing at this level for him.”

Grosjean said he had been trying to avoid a collision in the first corner: “Well, yes, after the ban I’m very careful at the start. I kept my line and trying to avoid any contact with Perez which was on the left. I was focussing on that and didn’t see the delta speed with Mark.”

Grosjean added he was “just trying to avoid any contact, that was my main objective and yeah, it didn’t work. It was a stupid crash.”

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2012 Japanese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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89 comments on “Webber fumes at “first-lap nutcase” Grosjean”

  1. Keith, great choice of photograph for Grosjean.

    It just had me in splits for a while.. for some reason he really looked like a nut job in that snap

    1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      7th October 2012, 12:09

      You clearly have a unique sense of humour and perception of ones personality. He looks perfectly normal and decidedly calm to me.

    2. @todfod – after reading your comment I scrolled up twice. Spot on :)

    3. FlyingLobster27
      7th October 2012, 14:16

      “So THAT was what I hit!” :D

    4. “If I pull up this face, will you let me go this time?” ;)

  2. how can Webber be so slow in this part ?

    It was obviously a huge mistake by Grosjean but Webber looks to slow down the cars behind him in order to protect Vettel

    1. Seriously? You’re implying Webber was on team orders at corner 2 of lap 1 to defend Vettel’s position?

      Warning, warning! – conspiracy theory alert! Putting aside how ridiculous such team orders would be at such an early stage in the race, you clearly don’t remember Webber’s reaction to team orders in the past – he ignored them.

    2. It’s a corner, the cars slow down for corners.

      The cars ahead of Webber slow down the same amount, it only looks like Mark was slow because Grosjean didn’t slow down, his car even starts to understeer just before impact as he’s going in too hot.

      Perhaps Grosjean should go back to GT racing where the cars have brake lights.

    3. @frenchfrog I thought that too

      Grosjean bashing reminds me a lot how a number of senior figures in MotoGP had treated Simoncelli prior to his tragic demise.

      Let’s remember Grosjean is not being accused of deliberately driving into anyone to stop them winning a race and his points will not be removed from the season’s records as has happened in the past when a certain individual was accused and found guilty of doing just that.

      Compare today’s incident with Kimi and Alonso with the one between Lewis and Grosjean in Belgium. Kimi, realising he had no where to go moves wide onto the grass and slows slightly to move in behind Alonso.

      Lewis did not do this in Spa and the resulting interlocking of the wheels of the McLaren and the Lotus caused the first corner carnage we all remember well.

      I’ve watched it back several times, and Lewis didn’t even move far enough over to touch the white line near the edge of the track. Grosjean was slated by many and of course banned for 1 race. (video footage inc) http://wp.me/p2HWOP-8l

      Webber slags off Grosjean for what was today a closing speed misjudgement. If I remember rightly, in Valencia 2010 he was on a long straight – massive wide track – no other cars in sight – and he claimed he ‘misjudged’ the closing speed after ramming into the back of Kovaleinan – something Martin Brundle called “utter stupidity”.

      Short memory Mark?

      1. I don’t think Mark is implying he has never made a similar misjudgment in his entire career. What Mark clearly is saying, is that, “You know, how many mistakes can you make? How may times can you make the same error?”.

        1. Watch the BBC compilation of Grosjean’s first lap incidents (UK only) http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19509199. Not all of his “7 first lap incidents” are really his fault.

          plus the YouTube footage of Monaco and Spa http://wp.me/p2HWOP-8l and the different way Hamilton and Raikkonen deal with very similar situations.

          As I said above today was a closing speed error – not the the same as others.

          1. Not every single one was his fault, sure, and he wasn’t penalized for every single one either, but he did get a 1 race ban for Spa and he did get penalized for this one.

            And a closing speed error on the first lap is still a mistake on the first lap (which is what I think Mark was really getting at). Grosjean had more than enough time to slow down to avoid Mark if he had been paying attention. I’ve watched the footage over and over, and I just can’t understand how an F1 driver at that level couldn’t avoid that kind of a collision. But you know, if this was the first time Grojean had made a mistake on the first lap I would be willing to forgive it and call it a simple brain fade moment. He’d still get a penalty, but I wouldn’t get overly angry with him (like Mark in 2010, it was stupid but sometimes it happens). Everyone has those moments, and even as strange and foolish as that mistake is it can and has happened to the very best. He is a repeat offender though, and a driver who just recently received a 1 race ban for causing an accident on the first lap. I would think he would have been on his best behavior for the first few turns at least if only to not get himself into more trouble (don’t jump on that and think that I mean he should crawl through the corner and curtsy to the other drivers, but he also shouldn’t plow into any of them). A deserved penalty, and if he takes another driver out again in such a blatant manner I hope he gets another race ban because he obviously didn’t learn from the last one.

            Also, if you in any way think that Hamilton was even partially responsible for the Spa incident then we are definitely not going to see eye-to-eye on this discussion.

          2. All I was trying to say was

            1) This is not the 7th such incident.
            2) Webber Valencia 2010 (8 years F1 experience) was beyond absurd
            3) Hamilton could’ve tried using a bit of the grass like Raikkonen today – now he’s out of the WDC.
            further:-
            Hamilton was in front of the stewards most races in the first part of 2010 – no ban.

          3. No, but he has been banned already for first lap incidents. That is the consistency I’m getting at here.

            It was indeed, and he hasn’t done that since (he did run into Massa in Italy last year though, but it was the hip thing to do in 2011).

            Nope, Hamilton established a line from the start and Grojean moved across the whole width of the track and made contact. There was no need for Hamilton to move over any farther or jump onto the grass heading into a braking zone. Nor did he have any reason to back off just because another driver can’t tell whether he has cleared someone or not. Let’s be serious here.

            2010 or 2011? I didn’t start following heavily until part way through 2010 so I don’t know how often he was involved with incidents then. I will assume you mean 2011 (my apologies if you didn’t). Indeed he was, and he got hell for it last year, but he was also mainly involved with a single driver and never once caused a Spa-like accident. And remember, Massa also received a penalty for one of their collisions and was also being told over the radio to destroy Hamilton’s race on one occasion. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that’s kinda odd.

            Also, Maldonado hasn’t received a ban either. Grojean is special even in the stewards eyes.

      2. Actually, I think i agree with you, and remember: Webber was a lot more experienced at that point.

        1. @thejudge13 I’m afraid this incident and the KOV incident in Valencia were vastly different. If I remember correctly KOV braked quite early compared to Webber’s braking point – in the order of 50m+ – and that contributed significantly to the accident. Here Webber was driving at the normal speed for that corner and RG just drove into him. Webber has had first corner incidents in the past however he learned from them, think of Nurburgring ’05 for example. Given the scrutiny post-Spa surely RG would be a little conservative. He has made some great first corner moves, i.e. Valencia, however as the old saying goes “to finish first first you must finish” – maybe Romain needs to focus on that for a while.

          As to your blame of Hamilton for the Spa incident I’d simply say the stewards got their penalties right – and how much of a penalty did Lewis recieve?

          1. I think you should watch the video link I posted on the KOV incident. Webber tracks him down a long and very very wide straight for several seconds – not what an experienced driver does with a car that was far slower – a point made at the time by Martin Brundle.

            I didn’t blame Hamilton – just as I wouldn’t have blamed Kim today. I just suggest the smart thing to do at times is avoid contact – like Kimi did twice today with both Alonso (almost) and Lewis (after final pit stop).

          2. Even so, it happened only once in Webber career, twice tops. Grosjean has hit cars one way are the other on 7 occasions this season, all of wich were his faults. A mistake can happen, making a mistake 7 times, isn’t a mistake, but a bad habbit.

          3. He has made some great first corner moves, i.e. Valencia

            Yeah, thats because his driving at the start is either all, or nothing. He risks a lot at the start. Sometimes it pays off and he makes up several places, like in Valencia. But this season at least, most of the time it ends in tears. You just cant drive all or nothing in F1. This is not karting. People want to see the top drivers fight it out for the championship, not have them being taken out by Grosjean every other race.

      3. @thejudge13, Unbelievable, you bring up the case of Simoncelli as a defence of Grosjean!
        The talk about Simoncelli was that he was to crash prone, he crashed into other riders by taking stupid risks and was a danger to himself and anyone near him, the fact that he died in a crash he caused involving other riders just proved that the talk was correct, however as he paid the ultimate penalty for his behavior and no-one else was injured he was forgiven. But the talk was right.

        1. @HoHum Was merely used as an example of band wagon jumping… just like ill informed people who infer this was Grosjean’s 7th such 1st lap incident.

          Simoncelli got slated by Lorenzo when he himself was underperforming and under pressure. BBC MotoGP commentator’s in 2011 regularly suggested Simoncelli was getting overly criticised

          Check out @willbuxton who points out Melbourne, Monaco and Silverstone were not grosjeans fault.

          Also I simply posted video evidence suggesting Hamilton experienced a similar scenario to the one Kimi had today. Kimi took to the grass and survived – Hamilton didn’t and is out of the WDC.

  3. Give him a break. He isn’t going through the best of times. We all know, GRO is a good driver

    1. @malleshmagdum

      Give him a break.

      Isn’t that exactly what Mark encourages?

      maybe he needs another holiday

      1. @mads – Hahaha! Completely agree with what you’ve said!

        1. D’Ambrosio back please!

          1. Why? What part of his drive in Monza was Lotus worthy to you?

          2. wannes cauwelier
            7th October 2012, 12:52

            no kers and D’Ambrosio finished 13th at his debut for Lotus. GRO has 7 finishes out of the 14 he had permission to start

          3. @tony031r

            As far as I recall his KERS didn’t work in Monza and that’s a huge disadvantage on that circuit

          4. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
            7th October 2012, 13:11

            @tony031r
            Plus his name sounds like Ambrosia, a company that makes the finest, creamiest rice pudding a human could ever hope to taste!

          5. @tmekt I know he had no KERS in the race. He finished 13th because other drivers in front had a heap of trouble. Otherwise he would have classified 17th or 18th. Add that to the poor quali session and FP times / pace…

            As for Romain’s finishes, he has 9 classifications (7 of them in the points, 3 of them on the podium) and 5 DNFs. It’s not a good ratio but not nearly enough to justify replacing him with someone of D’Ambrosio’s calibre.

            Nothing against Jerome, I’m sure he did his best at Monza, but I can’t imagine how he would be a better option for Lotus than Grosjean.

          6. He had no testing, bar one day at Mugello and was within 7 thents of a second all weekend of Raikkonen, who’s been in the car for the entire season. That is not as bad, Massa was further away from Alonso for a lot of races.

  4. You have to wonder now at this point if the FIA is considering revoking his F1 license. But nevertheless there will be red steam amongst the Lotus team at Grosjean for this. I can’t see them resigning him for next year at this rate surely he will lose his seat at Lotus next year…

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      7th October 2012, 12:01

      Look at how Lewis did last year, and compare it to this year.

    2. The FIA probably won’t revoke his licence. They did it with Yuji Ide because he was both slow and dangerous. Romain is not slow and he is a podium scoring driver in a top team. Revoking his licence will cause too much of an undesired stir.

      However, if the FIA are willing to put up with Grosjean, I’m not so sure about Lotus. A driver who retires, gets penalised / banned and attracts general hatred from the fans and the rest of the drivers is definitely not a good option for a team who has WDC-aspirations. Grosjean does not have a contract for 2013 yet, there are tons of decent drivers available on the transfer market and Boullier lost his temper towards a driver of his in the past, for much less.

      Romain needs to prove he is fast, safe and consistent in the next 5 races or so…otherwise, there’s a chance he might not like the overall outcome of his actions on track.

      1. hey did it with Yuji Ide because he was both slow and dangerous. Romain is not slow and he is a podium scoring driver in a top team.

        But there is a huge difference between the Super Aguri and the Lotus… however, that said, IMO Ide is not as capable as Grojean, but he’s quite careless too.

  5. Last time Webber was mad & cursed a driver was Vettel in Japan, 2007: “kids they **** it up”.
    Look what happened to him. Take heart Romain.

    1. Drop Valencia!
      7th October 2012, 11:35

      Even Better, when he said KIDS, he meant Vettel and Hamilton!

  6. Webber sure makes a lot of judgements based on something he admits he hasn’t even seen. I appreciate he’s upset about how his race was affected but I don’t really see that Grosjean did anything dreadfully wrong. Any other driver and the stewards wouldn’t have handed out any penalty, let alone anything as harsh as a stop and go. It’s a shame but I think that Grosjean has been turned into something of a villain in the eyes of the stewards and will receive disproportionately harsh punishments if he’s anywhere near an accident from now on.

    Shame as he’s a good fast driver and he needs nurturing not punishing out of the sport.

    1. It’s a shame but I think that Grosjean has been turned into something of a villain in the eyes of the stewards and will receive disproportionately harsh punishments if he’s anywhere near an accident from now on.

      I do not know how you could defend Grosjean’s driving in Spa and Suzuka. They were blatant driver errors that destroyed multiple drivers’ race. He might have speed, but doesn’t have the common sense or awareness standards required by formula 1 drivers today.

      1. I’m not defending those incidents. I’m saying that while he’s made some stupid and dangerous mistakes in the past, it doesn’t mean that any crash he’s involved with is automatically in the same league. He’s had his punishment for those incidents and his performance should now be looked at objectively. All I saw today was the sort of first corner clash that happens at virtually every race. Of course, he’s to blame, but the punishment and the reaction from some pundits is totally over the top. Especially when other drivers got no punishment for doing worse.

        1. He is a repeating offender. Obviously the previous punishment haven’t worked out. Yes, one feels sorry seeing a fast driver destroying his own race and that of the others, but too much is too much.

          1. But there was nothing that unusual about his accident here; it’s the sort of accident that just happens in racing. The only way to avoid it would be to slow down, get out of everyone’s way, and let the other drivers overtake him.

            I don’t see any evidence that he hasn’t learned from the punishments he’s received. It was just one of those textbook first corner accidents you’d get from basically any driver. To say he shouldn’t have those sort of accidents implies that he now needs to drive in a way that’s different from every other driver. Effectively he’s being told not to race any more.

            I agree he needs to keep his nose clean but what’s the point in slapping massive punishments on him for pure racing incidents? Unfortunately I think he’s been so demonised that regardless his fantastic pace, his career in f1 is probably going to end soon. And that’s a sad loss from the sport.

          2. @mazdachris, great assessment, I completely agree.

  7. Blistering speed, coupled with crippling clumsiness. Gotta work on that Romain.

  8. I’m really sorry for Grosjean. He is throwing away his carreer. He is very, very fast, but he keeps doing stupid mistakes. I watched the interview and he was clearly sorry, he clearly didn’t want to take any risks. I think that he gets confused too much. It’s like he can’t think about two things at the same time at the start. Today he was focused on Perez but he seemed to forget that there were cars everywhere.

    I don’t know, I hope that he will learn eventually. It would be a shame if he doesn’t.

  9. I thought the “first lap nutcase” tag was quite amusing, I can it sticking (unfortunately for Grosjean).

  10. Even if people here consider Webber a bit of a hypocrite you still have to admit calling Grosjean a first-lap nutcase would suit Grosjean quite well. When Rosberg and Whitmarsh even start giving Grosjean these terms you know they have some meaning towards them

    Whitmarsh “classic Grosjean” I loved that one the best.

  11. @mazdachris I agree. Other drivers have made silly errors too, but it is brushed off as ‘one of those days’. @todfod

    1. @malleshmagdum
      The problem with Grosjean is that he has ‘one of those days’ every other weekend.

  12. Time for Webber to deploy that right hook, perhaps?

    1. haha. It was fun and games when Webber said that, but not today.

  13. “First lap Nutcase” – A little too long to be a nickname. But I think it will stick!

    But seriously, RoGro needs to take a hard look at himself. I am shocked that Maldonado seems to have turned a corner but Grosjean hasn’t. Maldonado has now had three incident free races in a row and he has also been fast on each of these occasions. I never expected him to grow up so fast.

    But RoGro seems to be going from one first lap incident to other. Webber is bang on money when he says Romain needs another holiday.

    This championship seems to be going down to the wire. If Massa finished 20 seconds behind Vettel, I have no doubt in believing that Alonso would have been right with Vettel. It should be a fun five races.

    But I do not want RoGro deciding the championship for us in the first lap of Brazil. He better behave himself by then.

    1. FlyingLobster27
      7th October 2012, 14:26

      “Maldonado seems to have turned a corner”- without hitting anyone. :D
      But seriously, yes Maldonado has managed to stay out of trouble after a Belgian GP he definitely deserved a ban for (he impeded in quali, jumped the start and collided while climbing back up the field; he basically failed every single stage of the race). But it was Grosjean who got the ban, so he’s being looked at a lot more now, and more so certainly because Pastor, the focus of our attention before Belgium, has seemingly tidied himself up.

    2. But I do not want RoGro deciding the championship for us in the first lap of Brazil. He better behave himself by then.

      Completely agree. Better give him another holiday or special training before that happens. He is blistering fast, but sadly not mature enough in his drivecraft to handle that speed served to him by Lotus.
      As I saw it, either he didn’t slow down – carried too much speed into the corner – or he accelerated too soon – his speed was suddenly much higher than both Webber and Perez and his car began to understeer – which is why he couldn’t cut under Webber, but hit him.
      As Webber probably knew he didn’t make any errors in that incident, he is right in assuming that he was torpedoed from behind due to someone elses driver error, hence I don’t think he needs to have “seen” the incident before grilling Grosjean.

  14. Romain Grosjean: A really fast driver who is future WDC material, if he can make it past lap 1.

    1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      7th October 2012, 12:56

      So not a future WDC then :P

      1. Not if he doesn’t learn at least. However, we should realise that he’s more or less a rookie, having had less racing experience than Daniel Ricciardo (22 vs. 25 races) has. If he works on his starts, I could see him winning a race! Maybe not in this season, but if he’s retained at Lotus (assuming he gets a good car), probably next season!

    2. Perhaps he will make a good WRC driver, then he can only stuff up his own weekend.

      1. Great idea, but who would you put in his seed though?

        1. Seat, I mean

          1. Nasty mistake there ;)

  15. “First lap Nutcase” what would have happened if it was Hamilton to speak those words? :)

  16. The worrisome part is that Grosjean said he was doing his best not to hit anyone, so basically he admits that he isn’t able to deal with multiple drivers around him. He may be fast, but he is not F1 material.

  17. the guys confirmed that it was the first-lap nutcase again Grosjean,

    maybe he needs another holiday.

    yeah… it’s quite embarrassing at this level for him.

    I can’t stop laughing! It might sound stupid, but as far as I am concerned Grosjean can hit Webber every race, just to get these comments. I just love it that Webber actually says what he thinks!

  18. Gotta say, i’m pretty sure Webber said:
    ““And, yeah, the rest of us are trying to fight for some decent results each weekend but he’s trying to get to the first THIRD corner as fast as he can at every race.”

    just saying

  19. Here’s what Crashjean has achieved so far this season:
    Australia: crash with Maldonado on lap 2.
    Malaysia: crash with Schumacher on lap 1, spin on lap 3.
    Spain: crash with Perez.
    Monaco: crash with Schumacher at the start.
    Britain: crash with di Resta at the start.
    Germany: crash with Massa.
    Belgium: crash with Hamilton (and many others after that) at the start.
    Japan: crash with Webber at the start.

    That’s a pretty impressive list…

    1. And he still has 5 more races to top it up. Well 5 races if he doesn’t get excluded again.

      1. ;-) LOL and Crashjean is also good… I almost started to feel sorry for him, but considering the list – no, he should never have had that Lotus seat.

    2. The collision in Australia was Maldonaldo turning in on him, clouting his front wheel.

    3. If i were to be honest, I’m surprised Alonso didn’t get a penalty for what happened in Monaco, since it’s more or less what Grosjean did in Spa. He squeezed him into Michael, and caused a big crash. Apparently Leave-a-tha-space doesn’t apply to the great Alonso (also referring to him and Kimi in Suzuka).

  20. if you take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt8ngsLHh7o,
    you can see that before T2 Webber is very close to Button then slows his car and the distance between him and Button increases while the one between Button and Vettel remains the same.

    I don’t say that Grosjean didn’t make a mistake, I just say that Webber is really slow in T2 and Grosjean had just a fraction of second to brake when he realize that Webber was slowing so much

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      7th October 2012, 14:49

      I totally agree.
      It was obviously still Grosjean’s fault, because had enough room to go up the inside, and he had enough time to brake.
      But Mark was going a little slower than (i think) Grosjean expected. The kid’s got amazing talent, and raw speed, just like Maldonado, but he really has to clean up his racing, also like Maldonado, even though Crashtor has gotten better these past few races. Oh! and hey! Lets not forget he finally got his first points since his Spanish win.

  21. Grosjean really is worrying.

    I slated him after his first season when he was absolutely dire, but gave him a pretty good mark at the halfway point this year. At that stage, he looked like what he was supposed to be: a fast rookie who makes rookie mistakes. But to come from Spa where he came close to killing a driver for absolutely no reason (he drove all the way across the track to crash into Hamilton when he had acres of space around him), to t-boning another driver because he wasn’t watching in front of him is just scary. First corners are a minefield on any track. It’s one thing to make mistakes. It’s another thing entirely not to have the capacity to know what’s going on around you.

  22. The Sky post race analysis of Hamilton v Raikkonnen, and the onboard of Raikkonen and how quickly he adjusted the wheel to avoid an incident with Hamilton that showed the difference in awareness between the two. Grosjean needs to look across the garage and take a leaf out of Kimi’s book.

    Before anyone says it, yes Kimi had 1st corner contact this weekend, but only because Alonso did pretty much the same as Grosjean did to Hamilton at Spa, and Kimi had nowhere to go…. Racing incident, which was unavoidable. Quite different to misjudging your braking and driving someone off the road.

  23. I disagree with Webber’s opinion that Grosjean needs ‘another holiday’. What he needs is more experience. Let’s not forget that he hasn’t completed his first full F1 season yet and that he has never had the luxury of the unlimited testing that the likes of Webber used to enjoy when they were F1 rookies. Grosjean should be penalised for repeated mistakes but race bans would only complicate the already difficult learning process further and thus are the wrong way to go. If he still keeps regularly crashing into other drivers in a year from now, then fine, throw him out. But, for now, give him more time to learn from those mistakes instead of more time to ‘reflect’ and ‘think’.

    1. +1

  24. The problem with Grosjean is that he’s had plenty of time to learn from his mistakes & yet still makes the same mistakes.

    Im not just talking about his time in F1 either, I remember watching him in the Euro F3 series back in 2006 & he was making very similar errors & getting the same critisism. from other drivers. He then moved into GP2 & was again making some of the same errors & had a couple 1st lap incidents in his run with Renault in F1 at the end of 2009.

  25. To be honest I don’t think much to the incident, he was trying to avoid the Sauber, that was pretty obvious to me. You can’t blame the guy for being over cautious and not moving slightly more to the left, considering his recent ban.

    Grosjean should probably be glad that Mark doesn’t head up up the GPDA anymore.

    1. He steered the wheel but forgot about the pedals? Surely drivers at this level can be expected to do both, no?

  26. Grosjean is basically saying he can only concentrate on one car at a time. Pathetic explanation for one of the best drivers in the world (apparently).

  27. Mark has every right to be so angry!!! A good result in Japan would have really moved him up the drivers table, and this time it looked like he was really comfortable and confident in the car!

    All that work down the drain – too bad we can’t have a mix of f1 and ice hockey style fights!!!!

  28. I think Mark’s quote was “I think he’s trying to get to the THIRD corner as fast as he can”.

    Brilliant! Haha

  29. Webber slowed down way too much for that corner.
    More than the cars in front, and all the cars behind bunched up more than usual, behind him.
    So the accident wasn’t all Grosjean’s fault.
    Webber is not the greatest driver, and seems to be overly defensive to any hint of criticism in interviews.
    Just my 2 cents.

  30. any insurance company will ping the driver behind for someone rear ending another driver on the road, and it makes sense, only the person behind can react to whats happening in front of him. Mark was reacting to what he thought could happen in front of him, decided he’d be cautious and behind him he has GRO thinking he can overtake someone at that point.

  31. I wonder if Lotus use their cars as weapon…..Kimi kick Alonso out and this first corner NERVOUS made another great driver into a spin and nearly kick him out. I am surprised why FIA didn’t take any action against Kimi. Why not a drive way through penalty for Kmi as well. As far as Grosjean is concerned, I suppose he should be demoted and sent back to GP2 where he actually belongs.

  32. That incident cost MW and RG quite a lot of points. You’d think that RG would flash on the fact that all of these first lap incidents are costing HIM a lot of points, and he’d be way higher up the point table if he actually finished these deals without any wing changes. Having said that, I thought MW slowed significantly more than the others through the 2nd corner. Ultimately, RG is at fault, but when I saw the race and further replays, it appeared to me that MW really backed up on corner entry. But, even if MW went through the corner slower than what RG and others were expecting, it doesn’t change the fact that the common denominator in these incidents is RG. You’d think he’d figure this out already, but somebody ought to tell him that races are never won at the first corner, but are frequently lost there.

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