The Finishing Straight - Abu Dhabi (by HappyDude88)

THIS will be the final edition of ‘The Finishing Straight,’ as I will be doing a comprehensive review of the 2011 Formula One season after next week’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

        The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a race that provided the fans with some much-needed overtaking, but questions have been raised about the DRS (Drag Reduction System) and its worth following Sunday’s race.  All of the passing on Sunday was done artificially and for the sport, it isn’t a good thing.  On that sense, I would agree with Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine when they have already admitted how bored they’ve been with artificial passing this season.  However, what choice do you have on a circuit which is one of the dreariest on the current calendar?  I’d rather watch a procession around Imola than another event in Abu Dhabi.  The facilities are top class and probably the best in the business but the track is very second-rate.  Once again, Hermann Tilke’s race circuits let the audience down and configuration changes will be required to ever make a classic Grand Prix here.  We have to put up with Valencia every season being a snooze fest and no-one wants to see another example again.  It is shame to give the circuit the thumbs down, especially when you think of the spectacular twilight setting in Abu Dhabi.

SPECIAL: Setting is brilliant, but the racetrack is not great

        I’ve been a fan of DRS this season and it has at least made overtaking more possible on a number of circuits.  It has been a case of trial and error this season, which was always expected in its debut campaign.  We saw the device being used far too easily in Istanbul and Spa, yet it was still difficult to overtake in Melbourne, Barcelona and Monza.  DRS is part of F1’s bright future and I wouldn’t scrap it, but we need to make it the right spectacle for the fans and give the drivers a chance to defend their position without feeling the need to give it up without a fight.  Abu Dhabi was okay last weekend, because at least the artificial element meant it wasn’t a follow-the-leader event, but for the sport, we can’t have many races like this otherwise the predictability effect creeps in again.

        It has been well documented that Lewis Hamilton has had a tough 2011 season, both on and off the track.  However, Abu Dhabi showed signs that he was coming back to his best.  In India, he looked distracted all weekend as the speculation over his doomed romance with Nicole Scherzinger took centre stage.  The performance he gave on Sunday reminded us of why Lewis is world class and still on his day, one of the best drivers in the business.  Despite his rough times, he still has at least matched Jenson Button’s win tally of three for the season and Mark Webber’s fourth place in the drivers’ championship now looks vulnerable, with Hamilton just six points behind.  It is often said that bouncing back quickly from disappointment is one of the strongest points in an individual.  Hamilton has done that and in commanding fashion and I truly hope that he can use his success on Sunday as a real stepping stone to a better 2012 campaign.

LIMPING: Vettel tours home after his sudden tyre failure

       For once, Sebastian Vettel got a dose of bad luck at the weekend.  A sudden puncture on the second corner of the race ended his hopes of matching Michael Schumacher’s record for wins in a season.  By his incredibly high standards, Sebastian had a very scrappy weekend.  He crashed on Friday and looked unhappy with the car throughout practice.  As expected, he produced the perfect lap to earn another pole position in qualifying, but I never believed he would win on Sunday, especially when you consider how invincible he has been at Silverstone and Suzuka in the past and been beaten fair and square this season.  The cause of the puncture doesn’t look like it will be revealed, although my theory is low tyre pressure.  I’m only saying this, as Red Bull had significant problems with tyres in the early stages of the Belgian Grand Prix, with tyres close to structural failure too.  At least he saved his bad luck for when both championships had been sewn up.

        Race stewards have returned to their bad 2008 ways this season.  Why did Bruno Senna get a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags?  I never saw any evidence of this on the worldwide feed.  Perhaps he did, but if the evidence doesn’t come through our TV screens, no wonders why the normal fan would have a quizzical look on their faces.  Senna’s penalty seems harsh but the stewards didn’t come down hard enough on Pastor Maldonado.  Maldonado picked up a similar penalty and it was deserved, only for the clueless Venezuelan to then battle Jaime Alguesuari when the leaders were lapping the pair.  Not only that, he blocked Mark Webber and when Webber rightfully showed his displeasure, Maldonado was stupid enough to run side-by-side with the Red Bull in an episode almost as distasteful as his attempt to drive Hamilton into the wall during Belgian GP qualifying.  Generally, he has done well in a rubbish motorcar and has put Rubens Barrichello in the shade more often than not, but Maldonado has more lapses than anyone on the grid.  He needs to sort himself out; otherwise it could lead to a more dangerous occurrence in the future.  I’m sorry but his behaviour at the weekend deserved a black flag, get out of the car you naughty boy and head for the airport with your head held in shame.  A 25-second penalty added to his race time is a peanuts penalty.  Jean Todt has done so well in his FIA role, but giving the stewards more option to penalise those regular offenders with black flags and race bans has to be a priority for future.  It is the only way to teach lessons into some of these drivers.

         Vitaly Petrov was the hero of the Red Bull pits last year, when his valiant defence of Fernando Alonso denied the Spaniard the world championship.  This season started so well for the Russian, with a wonderful podium finish in Australia but his campaign has gone downhill rapidly since.  In Abu Dhabi, he toured home in a distant 13^th and then launched a sensational outburst at his Renault team on Russian television, criticising them for a severe lack of development and dismal race strategies which have left him and his team-mate Bruno Senna, fighting too many losing battles.  Petrov has since apologised to the staff and Eric Bouillier has drawn a line under the matter, but he needs to control his drivers.  I understand Vitaly’s frustrations, but having a quiet word with Bouillier would have been better.  Speaking to the media like that doesn’t do any favours and it could throw his future with the team into doubt.  GP2 champion Romain Grosjean looked very competitive in Friday practice, Senna has kept him honest and of course, there’s the Robert Kubica factor.  Renault has more drivers than a job agency and errors in judgement like this from Petrov will not help his future prospects.  Wonder what Bouillier would have done if Nick Heidfeld had said this?  Sacked him would be the answer, oh wait, he did that earlier in the season. 

MOVING: Daniel Ricciardo continues to outperform Liuzzi

       The form of Daniel Ricciardo at the underfunded Hispania racing team has not gone unnoticed.  He is now outperforming Vitantonio Liuzzi on a regular basis and now it looks like he will be rewarded with a Toro Rosso drive next season.  This was a smart move by Dietrich Materschitz to place one of his promising youngsters in a new team to help develop his maturity and experience.  This news though means that Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguesuari might now be fighting for one seat in that team, which would be a tough break for both.  Buemi retired at the weekend with hydraulic problems.  It is his third retirement in the last four events, but all have been mechanical reasons and have cost the Swiss driver points in all of them.  Both Buemi and Alguesuari deserve another go at Toro Rosso next season, but it looks like one will be the unlucky loser and I fear for Buemi’s career, as he has been at the team longer and is older than his Spanish team-mate.  Formula One is a tough business and that is about to be proven again.  If Rubens Barrichello remarkably ends up staying on at Williams, both Adrian Sutil and Buemi, two very talented and solid Grand Prix drivers could be left in the wilderness.  It will be a tougher break for Sutil, considering he is staring at a top ten finish in the drivers’ championship, has outqualified Paul di Resta five times in seven races and picked up 60 per cent of Force India’s points.  Throw in Nico Hulkenberg into the mix, plus Grosjean, Senna and the possibility of Kimi Raikkonen returning to the F1 paddock and there will be some very disappointed and frustrated racers who won’t be on the grid come Melbourne next March.

         Driver of the day in Abu Dhabi was Fernando Alonso.  Hamilton may have won and is Driver of the Weekend, but Alonso’s performance on Sunday was sensational.  On Friday, the Ferrari was struggling to stay in a straight-line, let alone get around corners!  So, once again, Alonso surprised no-one, expect maybe himself with a gritty, fighting challenge to Hamilton and McLaren’s package superiority.  In that sense, it is a shame Vettel did retire, because it did deprive us of a classic three way scrap for the victory.  Perhaps Brazil will give us that chance next weekend.

2011 Belgian Grand Prix - Super Seb takes a step closer

TOP: Vettel was in impeccable form again at Spa

DESPITE concerns with blistering tyres, Sebastian Vettel took a giant step closer towards a successful defence of his world championship title today.  The young German won the Belgian Grand Prix at the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit to record his first win since success in Valencia over two months ago.  It was a drive full of control and confidence, on a day where his rivals made mistakes and failed to take opportunities of a rare Red Bull weakness.

     Formula One made a welcome return from its summer break with a dramatic qualifying session on a damp track.  Before the race had begun, the paddock was still talking about the incident at the end of Q2 yesterday between Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado, when the Williams driver seemed to make a deliberate attempt to take Hamilton out of qualifying altogether.  Dangerous it certainly was and Maldonado was given a five place grid penalty for his actions.  However, Red Bull had more pressing concerns, when tyre manufacturer Pirelli came to them at around 5pm yesterday, claiming that the super soft tyres their cars had qualified on were close to structural failure.  After rival teams rejected a request from the constructor leaders to change their tyres, the concern on the faces of Adrian Newey and Christian Horner could be evident before the start of the race.

     It got worse for Red Bull when Mark Webber made his customary shocking start.  Just like last year, the Australian’s anti-stall mode kicked in and he was swallowed up by the front pack.  Vettel led into the first corner, but was overhauled by the time the cars got to Les Combes by the fast-starting Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes.  Behind them, chaos ensured at one of the trickiest first corners in Grand Prix racing.  In his first start for nearly a year, Bruno Senna misjudged his braking capacity and smashed into Jaime Alguesuari’s Toro Rosso.  The contact rebounded Alguesuari into Fernando Alonso and whilst the senior Spaniard got away with the impact, his compatriot was out with broken front suspension.  Further back, Timo Glock’s ambition got the better of him, as he slid into the side of Paul di Resta’s Force India.  The resultant concertina saw di Resta take a bite out of Jenson Button’s rear wing, whilst the two Lotus cars of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen also got into an unfortunate tangle.  Button was lucky to escape injury as debris from Senna’s damaged front wing removed his right-hand mirror and lodged into his front wing.  After McLaren messed up his qualifying effort yesterday, it looked like he had another major fightback on his hands.

     Vettel drove back past Rosberg as soon as the DRS was activated, but soon pitted, as did his team-mate to get rid of the iffy tyres.  Button soon followed, though that was for the cosmetic repairs that he needed from the first corner skirmish.  Rosberg regained the lead, but was soon passed by the recovering Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.  On lap 8, Alonso and Webber showed their massive respect for one another, as the 35-year old Aussie produced great bravery to pass Alonso on the inside of the 185mph flat-out Eau Rouge kink.  This sort of stuff is why he has re-signed with Red Bull Racing for the 2012 season.  

MESSY: Hamilton's crash ended another disappointing day

     Five laps later, Hamilton’s dramatic weekend took a turn for the worse when he was pitched into the barriers by the Sauber of Kamur Kobayashi.  Hamilton had just passed Kobayashi and went to defend the Japanese driver from an immediate attack.  However, he moved across too soon before he was a car length infront of the Sauber.  The inevitable contact had Hamilton heading straight for the barriers.  He sounded rather dejected in interviews afterwards following another trying weekend which ended in grave disappointment.

     The safety car was deployed to clear away the wrecked McLaren and Vettel pitted for another stop, whilst Alonso and Webber elected to take track position, rather than pit.  Felipe Massa had moved upto fourth ahead of Rosberg, but was passed immediately on the restart by the fired up German.  Within two laps of the restart, Vettel was back infront and took command of the race from there.  Alonso looked good for second, but struggled for pace on the medium compound tyre and he was no match for Webber, who stormed past again with ten laps to go, far more comfortable on the same rubber.  Meanwhile, Button had produced an ultimate masterclass in how to overtake and with only three laps to go, passed Alonso with ease to take the final podium place.  Having been as low as 19^th, it was another great fightback.  However, no-one could stop Vettel, who cruised home to his first victory at Spa, on a circuit which was meant to be one of Red Bull’s weaker circuits in the final races.

    Behind Webber, Button and Alonso, Michael Schumacher produced one of his best races of the season to finish fifth.  It was a remarkable feat, having started last after a wheel fell off in the early stages of qualifying yesterday.  This is a special result on a special weekend for the great German, who was celebrating his 20^th anniversary of his F1 debut in a Jordan.  After a promising start, Rosberg had to settle for sixth, as he was hobbled by fuel consumption concerns like he was in China.  Adrian Sutil earnt some more strong points for Force India in seventh, whilst Massa could only manage eighth, as he had to make an extra unscheduled stop to replace a punctured tyre.  Vitaly Petrov and Maldonado completed the points scorers, with the latter scoring his first ever championship point and probably adding insult to injury on Hamilton’s dark mood following his hooligan antics 24 hours earlier.  After his delay, Senna had to settle for 13^th in his first drive for Renault, while di Resta narrowly missed out on points in 11^th. 

     With a 95 point lead, Sebastian Vettel has ended his summer drought and it is now not a question of if, but when he seals his second world championship.  He could take a massive step forward at Monza; the final European event of the season in a fortnight’s time.

The Finishing Straight - Monaco (by HappyDude88)

THE Monaco Grand Prix provided plenty of talking points, recriminations and celebration.  This is my view of an action-packed weekend;

     Lewis Hamilton’s weekend in Monaco was an absolute disaster.  It ended with a ‘joke’ about his racial colour which was distasteful and disgraceful.  Having said last week in the Spanish blog that I had been impressed with Hamilton’s discipline throughout the season so far, Monaco was totally the opposite.  In qualifying, he had been flying.  He was fastest in Q1 and Q2 and had a golden chance of snatching pole position from the king of Saturday qualifying, Sebastian Vettel.  McLaren made a grave mistake by gambling on just the one run for Hamilton, and when the red flag came out for Sergio Perez’s big accident, their strategy had backfired.  Before this, Hamilton claimed he had been held up by Felipe Massa as he came out of the pits, which certainly seemed a bit far-fetched.  To compound matters, Lewis cut the chicane at the Swimming Pool and had his one qualifying time deleted.  He started out of position in ninth and then frankly drove like an amateur who had failed their driving test miserably on Sunday.  Granted, he pulled off a spectacular pass on Michael Schumacher early on, but his run-ins with Massa and Pastor Maldonado were daft.  

CLUMSY: Hamilton and Massa got into a banging match

     The lunge on Massa into the Loews hairpin, where it is impossible to overtake was clumsy to say the least.  The pair interlocked wheels and continued their race into the Monaco tunnel.  Hamilton forced his way through, which pushed the Ferrari onto the dirty marbles and left Felipe clattering into the barriers.  This bought out the Safety Car.  Lewis got a deserved drive-through penalty for causing the collision, and had the cheek to blame Massa on his team radio; “I went up the inside and he turned in on me.  That was on purpose!”  Well Lewis, if that was on purpose, then I shall eat my summer hat!!  If he wants lessons on purposely turning into corners, then ask Michael Schumacher, he’s a proven expert!

      His run-in with Maldonado was just as bad, and it cost the rookie his first championship points.  After the red flag interlude, for which Lewis should have been disqualified for driving around with a rear wing about to collapse for at least two laps, he dived up the inside and rammed into the Williams at Ste. Devote.  His claim was that Maldonado turned in early, but the replays will indicate that when Lewis made contact, he even used the pitlane exit, not the track!  Stick to the road and you might have a point. . .  He got a time penalty after the race, which did nothing to his finishing position, so it was pointless and it isn’t going to get back Maldonado’s points place.  Afterwards, he called the race stewards a “freckin joke,” blamed Massa and Maldonado, slagged his team off for a diabolical pitstop, then said this; “I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m black.  That’s what Ali G says!”  Martin Whitmarsh ordered his driver back to the race stewards to apologise and Hamilton was ensured that the matter would be resolved there and then.  On Tuesday, it was clear that Lewis had regretted his words and he apologised to his fans, Massa and Maldonado via his Twitter page; “To Massa and Maldonado, with the greatest respect, I apologise if I offended you.  Both of you are fantastic drivers who I regard highly.”

      For me, the incident should now be drawn underneath the line and we must move on.  However, Lewis Hamilton is a lucky lad to not face any further action from the FIA for his derogatory comments.  Whether it was a joke or not, it doesn’t matter, his comments have no place in today’s society and he is experienced enough now to know better.  I hope in Canada, I can talk more positively about Lewis Hamilton rather than all the negatives of this race.

      Away from Hamilton’s horror weekend, the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix was the worst for serious accidents in a single weekend since the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.  In Melbourne a decade ago, Michael Schumacher walked away from rolling his Ferrari in practice, Luciano Burti suffered a suspension failure in his Jaguar during qualifying, which ripped his car into bits and pieces and finally, there was the tragic collision between Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve in the race that led to the fatality of 52-year old trackside marshal Graham Beveridge.  In Monaco, it was the drivers who were more at risk.  

     First, Nico Rosberg crashed during Saturday morning practice, when his Mercedes got unsettled under braking for the Nouvelle chicane.  Rosberg only narrowly missed the tyre barriers head-on by millimetres.  After this scary incident, race director Charlie Whiting insisted that the speed humps in the chicane be removed for qualifying.  It was this action, plus the strength of today’s Grand Prix cars that saved Sergio Perez’s life in qualifying.  

WRECKAGE: Only minor injuries for Sergio Perez after this shunt

      The Mexican rookie had done a brilliant job to reach the final part of qualifying, when he got off-line in the tunnel.  On the notorious bumps, his Sauber went the same way as Rosberg, but the side impact with the wall did its job, even though it was terrifying.  The lack of flailing movement from Perez inside the cockpit just added to the distress for his father and the Sauber team inside the pit garage.  It was a crash that bought echoes about Karl Wendlinger’s shocking shunt at the same place in 1994.  The Austrian went into a deep coma when he crashed his Sauber car in almost the same way as Perez did just a fortnight after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger.  Perez was ruled out of the race by concussion and a thigh injury, but he was released from the Princess Grace Hospital on Monday morning, following two nights in hospital for observational purposes.  He should be fit and raring to go for the next event in Canada next weekend. 

      24 hours later, and another driver was admitted to hospital in a far less significant impact, which could have been tragic.  Vitaly Petrov was released from the same clinic a day earlier than Perez, with minor concussion and bruising after a brush with the barriers which again worried many seasoned observers.  His crash came on lap 69, during a traffic jam, which nearly saw the three race leaders, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button end up being caught up in the melee.  The incident began at Tabac, when Maldonado passed Adrian Sutil and the Force India driver grazed the wall, puncturing a tyre.  As Sutil limped around, Hamilton braked to avoid him and was whacked from behind by Jaime Alguesuari.  With the Toro Rosso using the McLaren as a launch pad, Petrov’s Renault was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Remarkably, Sebastian Buemi, Rosberg and the three leaders got through the wreckage undamaged.  Again, although he had removed his steering wheel, there was a lack of movement from Petrov inside the cockpit, with the Russian complaining of pain in his ankles.  Thankfully, there were no broken bones, but it was the last thing Formula One needed after Perez’s brush with life 24 hours earlier.  In fact, the sport has had three lucky escapes this weekend and it is time to make some radical safety improvements to the Monaco circuit.  The harsh will say that racing cars have just simply outgrown the streets.  Well, without Monaco on the calendar, there’d be no point of a F1 world championship.  Just some urgent track resurfacing and barrier movements should be needed to improve the safety levels around the Principality.  However, this weekend was definitely a wake-up call.

      One driver who must be feeling the pressure now is Jaime Alguesuari.  Whilst Sebastian Buemi collected another point for Toro Rosso, Alguesuari is on seriously borrowed time, especially with the highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo sitting in the wings of the Toro Rosso garage.  Alguesuari struggled all weekend and was knocked out in Q1.  Even worse, he was comprehensively outpaced by the two Lotus cars and spent the first half of the race behind Jarno Trulli.  His race-ending incident, against Hamilton’s McLaren, considering he was a lap down in the melee won’t have impressed anyone.  Franz Tost is known for sacking drivers in mid-season.  Both Scott Speed and Sebastian Bourdais have felt that in the past, and more performances like this and Alguesuari will join them in the ‘Unemployed’ category.  As much as I don’t like to see these things happen to racing drivers, Jaime needs to raise his game and quickly if he doesn’t want to get the boot.  One man who has received the boot is Nick Wirth.  Wirth was the technical director of the Virgin Racing team and another shambles in Monaco has led to his departure.  For the second year running, Timo Glock suffered a scary suspension failure, where he looked to be driving on three wheels.  The Virgin’s are the best part of five seconds slower than the frontrunners and are nowhere near the midfield in Formula One.  In fact, Hispania seem closer to them, than they do to Lotus.  Excuses run very thin in this business and Wirth has paid the price for the 2011 chassis, which is simply, a dreadful racing car.  Handling a Skoda might be a better job and I know from Glock’s body language, that his frustration is plain to see.  Having said that, rookie Jerome D’Ambrosio finished again and the Belgian is doing a creditable job, considering the resources he has at his disposal, which is certainly very limited.

TOP: Another classy weekend for Sebastian Vettel

      Finally, it is time to crown my Driver of the Weekend.  Despite good efforts from Pastor Maldonado and Jenson Button, it goes to the runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel.  Vettel has never gone great around Monaco in the past, despite a fifth and a second place before.  His form over the weekend was once again immaculate.  His driving ability can’t be questioned and he did a wonderful job holding off Alonso and Button on far quicker tyres.  He turned Red Bull’s disastrous pitstops into a race-winning performance.  Of course, he received some well-judged fortune, through the late race suspension, which allowed everyone to change their tyres for the last five laps, but I think Alonso and Button would have struggled to get past anyway.  The champagne is on ice and Sebastian Vettel is walking away with the 2011 world championship.  Canada’s next; another weak Vettel circuit?  Well, considering his form in Barcelona and Monte Carlo, let’s make him the race favourite again then!

2011 Monaco Grand Prix - Vettel lucks in at the Principality

A MISTAKEN tyre strategy and a red flag helped Sebastian Vettel to be the new king of Monaco.  The German held off stiff challenges from Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button yesterday to win the Monaco Grand Prix.  It is his fifth win from six races in 2011, cementing his place as the runaway leader of the drivers’ championship.  His main challenger, Lewis Hamilton had a dog’s dinner of an afternoon, incurring two penalties and then sensationally blasting the race stewards in a post-race interview.

KISS: This will be the sweetest of wins for Sebastian Vettel

      The Monaco Grand Prix was building into a dramatic and nail-biting finish.  Vettel was on worn soft Pirelli tyres, which he’d had on his car from lap 16 onwards.  He only got those tyres after Red Bull had two awful pitstops in less than a minute, and put the wrong type of tyre on.  Despite this, Sebastian managed to master the quicker Alonso and Button behind him.  He then got a huge slice of luck, which could have ended in a cataclysmic disaster.

       With six laps to go, Adrian Sutil struck the barriers at Tabac, and was limping with a right-rear puncture.  Lewis Hamilton hit the brakes to avoid the Force India, but was clobbered by the Toro Rosso of lapped Spanish driver Jaime Alguesuari.  The Toro Rosso rebounded into the Swimming Pool guardrail, leaving the Renault of Vitaly Petrov with absolutely nowhere to go.  The Russian hit the same wall, and was briefly knocked unconscious in the crash.  The three race leaders were right behind the drama and only just avoided the stricken cars.  The safety car was deployed, shortly followed by a red flag.  Petrov complained of pain in his left ankle, and remained in the car as the paramedics attended to him.  He was admitted to the Princess Grace Hospital, with concussion and light bruising, and thankfully, was released last night.  Following Sergio Perez’s horrifying crash in qualifying on Saturday, which knocked the Mexican driver out of the event – Formula One can count itself lucky to have had two major escapes in the jewel in the crown of the racing calendar. 

      Surprisingly, the race wasn’t stopped and a result given and the drivers lined up on the grid for a restart behind the Safety Car.  Sadly for the neutrals, new tyres were allowed for all the drivers, which meant that Vettel’s tyre disadvantage had been wiped out.  It meant that he could have a fairly processional run to the chequered flag.  The McLaren team did a sterling job to fix Hamilton’s rear wing, which had been badly mangled up in the multiple crash with Alguesuari and Petrov.  However, Lewis wasn’t out of the wars just yet.

SMASH: Hamilton's hopeless attempt ended Maldonado's race

     As the green flags waved again, the Brit attempted a hopeless overtaking lunge on the Williams of Pastor Maldonado into the Ste. Devote corner.  Maldonado was knocked into the barriers, losing his chance of world championship points for the first time in his short career.  Remarkably, Hamilton escaped undamaged and went onto finish sixth.  After the race, he was given a 25-second time penalty for causing the crash with the Venezuelan.  Earlier in the race, Hamilton tried an ambitious lunge at Felipe Massa into the tight 30mph Loews hairpin corner.  The two interlocked wheels, and continued their fight into the tunnel.  Lewis charged through and pushed the Ferrari onto the marbles, which left Massa in the wall and out of the event.  The Brazilian’s crash bought the Safety Car out for the first time this season, and it’s fair to say, he looked unimpressed as he strode away from his damaged chassis.  Hamilton got a drive-through penalty for causing this collision.  After the race, he called a stewards a ‘freckin joke’ for the incidents, called Massa and Maldonado ‘stupid,’ blamed the team for a kamikaze pitstop, then made a jokey reference of being victimised to BBC’s Lee McKenzie by responding; ‘I don’t know, maybe because I’m black, that’s what Ali G would say.”  The comments were disgraceful and an hour later, Hamilton went back to the circuit to make his peace with the race stewards, who accepted his apology.  Whether the FIA will want to bring him into disrepute remains to be seen.

      McLaren had a terrible weekend with race strategy.  They covered a possible Safety Car for Timo Glock’s Virgin with Button, which turned into the wrong move.  A horrendous miscommunication led to no-one being in the pits with Hamilton when he arrived for tyres on lap 25.  The possibility of another race victory slipped through their fingers.  Behind the first three, Mark Webber recovered from a horrible pitstop in the early Red Bull chaos to finish fourth.  The Aussie pulled off a stunning pass on Kamur Kobayashi to clinch fourth spot with two laps remaining.  Kobayashi still finished an outstanding fifth, having made a one-stop strategy work to perfection.  It is the Japanese’s driver best finish of his career, and a much-needed boost for the Sauber team after Perez being hospitalised by Saturday’s smash.  Sutil recovered from his puncture to end up 7^th behind Hamilton, with the final points going to Nick Heidfeld, Rubens Barrichello (Williams first of the season), and Sebastian Buemi’s Toro Rosso.  Scotland’s Paul di Resta clashed with Alguesuari and Jerome D’Ambrosio during the race and also earnt a drive-through penalty for his risky overtaking attempts.  He finished 12^th.

      In the celebrations, BBC pundits Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard were thrown into the Red Bull party pool by an ecstatic Vettel, who now looks uncatchable in the championship.  Vettel’s achievement will however be overshadowed by F1’s worst weekend of serious crashes in a decade.  Luckily, there were no serious injuries.  As for Lewis Hamilton, he has a lot of soul-searching to do before the circus meets up in Montreal in a fortnight’s time.