Suspended jail sentence for Sutil

2012 F1 season

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Sutil was found guilty of grievous bodily harm

Adrian Sutil has been handed an 18-month suspended jail sentence by a court in Germany.

Sutil received the sentence along with a ?óÔÇÜ?¼200,000 fine after being found guilty of inflicting bodily harm on Eric Lux in a nightclub in Shanghai last year.

The former Force India driver told the court he had apologised and claimed he had only meant to spill his drink on Lux when he wounded him with a champagne glass during the fracas. Lux is the CEO of Lotus owners Genii Capital.

Sutil is without a drive for 2012 having lost his seat at Force India to Nico Hulkenberg last year.

2012 F1 season


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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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140 comments on “Suspended jail sentence for Sutil”

  1. Call me cynical, but I guess he’s done a Gachot then.

    1. The difference is Gachot’s sentence wasn’t suspended.

      1. Im not always on fights but I guess I should spend a couple years in jail, just for enjoying fridays. Im just like Rebecca Black.

      2. What a story!

  2. Does this mean having a conviction against him, it will make getting into the US (and others) difficult? Less chance of getting a drive in the future?

    1. I think he’d be more worried about what the FIA might do… suspend/revoke his super license?? At the very least some sort of fine which they will donate to a chartity.

      1. And by ‘charity’, he means Bernie… common knowledge he doesn’t mind bribery these days lol.

        1. When Michael Schumacher was excluded from the 1997 championship, part of his punishment was that he was forced to become a spokesperson for the Make Roads Safe campaign. Part of this involved touring Europe over the 1997-98 winter break, demosntrating a seatbelt simulator, which was basically a seat mounted on a runner that stopped abrupty – like in an accident – to demonstrate the effectiveness of seatbelts. Schumacher literally had to do this hundreds of times in front of crowds.

          I like to imagine that Jacques Villeneuve was at each and every one of these demonstrations, gleefully pushing the button that started the seatbelt simulator.

          1. No wonder he’s in such good shape

          2. And that is why Schumi is still so keenly involved with road safety campaigns today.

      2. From the reaction by Sutil’s manager posted in this article it seems they have already cleared the matter of the FIA possibly taking interest in this matter, stating there is no such worry.

    2. Definitely will make it harder. He wont be able to travel under the ESTA program and so will need to visit the country embassy to get a full visa. This will make getting into the US and Australia much more frustrating.

      1. so its not all bad news for Sutil then

    3. If you have powerful friends these restrictions count for nothing. A rich friend of mine with a sentence for cocaine dealing on their record, now lives and works in LA quite happily and never had the slightest problem getting in, ‘mummy had a word’. They’ll send you home for sending the wrong tweet, but privilege opens all doors.

  3. Anyone find that fine a little excessive? Some people get fined a two digit some for an assault and a far smaller sentence than that.

    I guess it’s relative to his earnings, but for an assault (a seemingly provoked one at that) doesnt warrant a fine that big in my opinion. People have done far worse and recieved far less punishment.

    1. Mark Hitchcock
      31st January 2012, 11:32

      It’s a suspended sentence. That’s never excessive.
      People can usually expect to get actual jail time for a serious assault like this.

      1. I wasnt contesting the suspended sentence, just the fine. If people get fined 6 figures sums for assault in Europe is it any wonder the economy is in such a state!

        1. Lol, well fines issued as a result of crime has nothing to do with the economy for one. Second, as you say, it will be a means tested fine. Here in the UK fines are issued based on the ability of the defendant to pay. The aim is to ensure a fine does the same ‘damge’ to the offender equally across the board of people with differing incomes.

    2. @jamesf1 Well they’re in a far better position than we are to judge to what degree it was provoked, whether it was intentional and what the extent of Lux’s injuries were.

      But clearly if you hit someone in the neck with a glass you’re on very risky ground. He could quite easily have ended up on trial for something far more serious than GBH.

      So I don’t think an 18-month suspended sentence is necessarily excessive, based on what little we know.

    3. People have done far worse and recieved far less punishment.

      Sutil nearly killed him. He hit Lux just a few millimetres away from his carotid artery. If he had nicked it, Lux could have died before an ambulance arrived. Sutil essentailly committed assault with a deadly weapon.

      You also need to bear in mind that Sutil was prosecuted under German law, not British or American. If Sutil was found guilty of criminal intent – ie that the attack was pre-meditated – then he was lucky to get away with the sentence that was given. It could have been much worse.

      1. Criminal intent is not something you can be found guilty of.

        Every offence has a mental element that needs to be established in order to prove quilt (along with showing the defendant did the act of the offence itself) but that is merely part of the required ‘building blocks’ of establishing guilt. The mental element for an offence like this can be established using a recklessness test. This is a lower degree of intent than pre-meditation for which the latter is far more sersious. Basically with recklessness the defendant is acting without giving thought to the possible consequences of his actions but is still culpable unless other special circumstances exist, such as being below age of criminal culpability for example, or any other available defence.

        I don’t mean this to sound patronising by the way @Prisoner Monkeys, it’s just a pet hate of mine when the law is missquoted on the internet lol.

        1. thats quite interesting and i particularly like the part about “establishing quilt”. a typo of course but your honour that is why the defendant is holding a duvet in the dock.

          1. Haha, that has been bugging me all day! F1 Fanatic needs an ability to self edit posts.

    4. Hard to tell really, without knowing what happened in detail. I would expect that the judge is the one to decide on it. She, as well as prosecution, Lux and Sutil are the ones with the fullest knowledge of it.

      But the fact its a suspended sentence, softens down the sentence by quite a bit. And if Sutil / his lawyers feel its excessive, they will probalby look at overturning it.

    5. Sutil got a hefty fine and suspended sentence.

      To me it looks like the deal was struck between both parties.

      1. To me it looks like the deal was struck between both parties.

        According to the German media, the judge suspended the trail and blocked both parties from offering plea deals to one another.

        1. Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that.

  4. To be honest, I expected something much worse for him.

    But I still can’t figure out how it passed from spill his drink on Lux to make a cut on his neck.

    1. 1. Drink alcohol
      2. Get mad
      3. Drink more
      4. ??????
      5. Stab neck.

      See it’s easy

      :P

  5. It seems all along that Lux was really mad and took it deeply personally, he seems to be somewhat of an arrogant person (“How could you do this to me?”). He wanted Sutil to visit him in Luxemburg in order to apologize, but he seemingly fled from him until the Brazilian GP. And he wanted to come to an agreement out of court, but for a double digit million figure, which is absurd.
    Sutil really shouldn’t have done what he did, since it might have somehow cost him his career. This mighty men with the money know how to get you, and I think partly that’s what this was all about.

    1. @magon4

      It seems all along that Lux was really mad and took it deeply personally, he seems to be somewhat of an arrogant person

      Based on what?

      1. Based on what?

        Well, there was this report which states that Lux wanted Sutil to voluntarily leave the sport, and that he repeatedly threatened to destroy Sutil’s career if he did not apologise. Of course, we only have Sutil’s word on that, but if it’s true, I’d say that’s pretty arrogant of Lux to demand that Sutil leave Formula 1.

      2. I am basing myself on Sutil’s explanations at court, which is a shaky thing to do; but from the many interviews and profiles I’ve seen about Sutil here in Germany, it doesn’t seem to me that he wouldn’t be willing to try to make things right.
        The 10 million + demand from Lux and the fact that he seemingly avoided Sutil for the better part of the season to then expect him to go to Luxemburg at least paints him as someone who wasn’t really willing to “solve this between men”.
        Maybe Sutil should’ve just gone to Luxemburg, but then what? Of course, Keith, this is speculation; but it also at least seems somewhat typical behavior of a top manager.
        Having said that, the injuries where dangerous, for sure, and Sutil doesn’t seem to really to admit to any intended assault (he says it was an accident, and the court didn’t buy it).

        1. sounds like a bit of bad lux really.

  6. An unfortunate situation, which should really act as a lesson to us all.

    1. Absolutely, it shows what one moment of madness can do to us.

    2. What’s the lesson? Never stab Eric Lux in the neck with a champagne glass in a Chinese nightclub?

        1. in that case, noted!

      1. @geemac Ditto! One thing I should probably scrub off my -do-before-I-die list.

        1. Reluctantly… ;)

  7. I didnt understand the sentence. Is the jail time suspended for 18 months or the sentence is 18 months in jail that is suspended for some time?

    1. I believe it is eighteen months, suspended for three years.

    2. 18 months, but he doesn’t have to serve, unless something (bad) happens in these 18 months.

      1. he doesn’t have to serve, unless something (bad) happens

        That’s a bit of a vague way of putting it. A suspended sentence meance Sutil is convicted, but he won’t have to go to prison unless he assaults someone else before the probationary period runs out.

        1. Or misses anything else the court asks him to do, I don’t think he would have to assault someone, something less severe could put him into jail already.

        2. Doesnt necessarily mean just an assault. It’s any offence in the next 18 months (although minor traffic ones wont be an issue).

          1. Nevertheless, it’s more than “something bad”.

  8. We don’t know the exact circumstances so we can only speculate whether the sentence is fair or not. I just hope this won’t destroy Adrian’s future as a racing driver. No matter what he did to Eric Lux, he is still one hell of an F1 driver and I also still believe he is not a bad person. Here’s to Adrian’s return to F1 in 2013.

    1. Well said. I think he’s a decent driver and I hope he can get back in the game.

    2. Girts, that’s not how a justice system works. If you’re convicted, that means there is enough evidence to prove the facts, regardless of what else we know or don’t know or who was there or not there. Otherwise there would rarely be convictions or a stable society. If the defendant contests the way the facts have been established, then he needs to appeal.

      1. Criminal cases only need to be proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ to a jury. If you have an incredible advocate for the prosecution and an inexperienced defence advocate, the jury can be made to believe anything regardless of the evidence right before them. I’ve been to many court cases, including murder trials (don’t worry I wasn’t the defendant lol) and the way you phrase your questions and present your case is everything. All you have to do is plant a seed of doubt in a jury members mind that there is another plausable scenario as to what happend, and they will argue over it for hours sometimes while deliberating.

        1. Criminal cases only need to be proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ to a jury

          that is, if there actually is a jury involved (as is the case in the USA, the UK and other countries, but not in Germany!)

          1. Ah ok. I was just speaking generally. I was not aware Germany did not use a jury system however.

          2. No problem, the things you can find out on a F1 blog, eh @nick-uk! :-)

            It tends to be a bit more fact finding based without the Jury, with Judges being professionals with a thorough judical backgroung, but in the end its still people having to decide on the merits of evidence presented to them in each case.

        2. A good point but I think Sutil was able to afford a strong advocate.

      2. I basically trust German courts and I think the court has acted in good faith. If they have found Sutil guilty, they obviously believe to have seen enough evidence. Adrian most probably broke the law but it doesn’t necessarily mean he was morally wrong. We don’t know how the incident developed. I don’t think Adrian just had had a bad day and decided to attack Lux without any reason. Maybe Lux provoked him, laughed at him or whatever. And even if Adrian acted the way he shouldn’t have, I still don’t want to see him leave F1 because of that.

        1. Fully agree on that @Girts, Yes, he his reaction to whatever Lux said to him was crossing a line, but it’s a shame if his driving career is finished by it.

        2. “Adrian most probably broke the law but it doesn’t necessarily mean he was morally wrong.”

          LOL. Are you serious ? By definition, if you brake the law, you’re morally wrong.

  9. How about some information about what actually happened? Did he stab at Lux? Where they arguing and if so about what? Report the news for us Keith instead of just a verdict.

    1. The verdict is the news, the event happened months ago. There’s a recap in the third paragraph.

      1. If I remember correctly, what was reported at the time was hear say as no one would go into any detail of what fully happened. The hearing will have been based on evidence. We’ve not heard the ofifical line have we on how everything unfolded.
        Adam Cooper tweeted he had seen CCTV footage and that Sutil was pushing the approaching aggressor away from him. If that’s the case then in no way is this sentence justified.

        1. There’s an article on speedtv.com under the formula 1 section where Adam Cooper talks about what he had seen on the CCTV footage.

          According to Cooper, Lux was standing over a seated Sutil and they were apparently having a discussion. At some point Lux attempted to grab Sutil by the left arm and pull him out of his seat. At this point Sutil attempted to push Lux away with his right hand (the hand the glass was in) and this is when the injury occurred.

  10. I don’t understand this story at all. Sutil committed the act in China, so how can a court in Germany issue a fine and suspended sentence?

    1. Whilst abroad, I think you’re also bound to behave by the laws of your home country as well as those in which you are/have visiting/visted.

      1. This can’t be right. German courts can’t prosecute you if you go to Amsterdam to smoke some pot.

        1. The difference being, that assaulting someone is very much a criminal offence in China as well as in Germany, while the smoking of pot is not a criminal act in Amsterdam, NL.

    2. There is probably a clause in the German penal code stating that if a German national commits a crime, then he or she can be prosecuted for it in a German court, regardless of where the actual crime was committed. Furthermore, the Chinese authorities may have co-operated with the German prosecutors to overcome the issues of jurisdiction.

      1. Luckily for him or he might be hanging from a rope…

    3. Do you think Sutil would protest a German court deciding over it instead of a Chinese one then? I for certain would rather be on the stand in Germany, especially if it would be my home country.

  11. Booohoo, now the last thing for sutil to do is play the piano!

    1. Or the violin.

      1. A small one at that.

  12. May be this a rationale justice, but all I can make out of some of the statement floating around like Lux expecting Sutil to come to Luxemburg for apology and asking more than 10 million for settlement, put Lux in my hate list. I mean, imagine Sutil went to Luxemburg and would have paid 11 million, would that sufficed Lux for what he did to him.
    All Sutil did was absolutely wrong and he is paying price for that (for not having a seat in-spite of stellar 2011 and this sentence ) but this arrogance and don’t-even-stare-at-me attitude of such corporate individuals id definitely loathsome.
    Sorry Kimi, this team is now officially my most un-favorite team on the grid.

    1. The problem is we don’t know what happened, @vickyy .
      Although I would love to be really forgiving, I still have feelings of revenge towards the ### who stalked my girlfriend. I won’t act on it, because he’s a lunatic. But the feelings are there, even after 5 years.
      So if Lux thinks Sutil acted intentionally and the only thing Adrian does is saying that it was an accident, while Lux could’ve been dead… I can understand him, although there could be more mature/gentlemanlike ways to react.

  13. Keith (or anyone) – did Hamilton testify in the end or not? Just curious
    Cheers

  14. 18 months in the cage is a very ,very long time for a driver. But by the time,he comes out,he might be out of shape and the market without free seats.
    He’s a great driver and he has developed in these last 3 years like no one else,and I hope he can get back to F1.
    Hang in there adrian!

    1. 18 months in the cage is a very ,very long time for a driver.

      But he’s not in prison. That’s what a suspended sentence is – he’s convicted of a crime, but he is free to go. He will only do jail time if he commits another offence before he probationary period is up.

    2. A bit like the Renault suspended sentence after crashgate. It basically means nothing unless you are stupid enough to break the law again within the time frame.

      I have no comment on the sentence. Obviously people in court have seen things we can only speculate on but I would say that I think it’s a great shame that this all probably prevented Sutil getting a drive in 2012.

      When you see some of the drivers next year its sad that he won’t be on the grid because he’s quite an exciting driver.

    3. “But by the time,he comes out,he might be out of shape ”

      Or he can be in a great shape if he uses his time properly by working out and if you ignore a certain part of his anatomy that might be subject to some intense and repeated deformation. Poetry in motion.

  15. Considering the seriousness of this incident, an 18 month suspended sentence seems fair. However, if things like Lux threatening to destroy Sutil’s career or asking for a hiatus from F1 are true, then I wonder why did the Judge not consider these facts if they are true. I mean, Lux did not agree to an out of court settlement and on the contrary came up with unreasonable demands. That is a very wrong thing to do.
    The bigger question is how will the F1 teams react to this and most importantly, what will the FIA do. If this ends Sutil’s career then it is a very sad and sorry end.

    1. Seems some journalists are baffled by the sentence as well – @adamcooper on Twitter:

      Still gobsmacked by the Sutil decision given that CCTV showed the other guy attacked first and Adrian just tried to push him away

      1. That is pretty interesting. I would assume that the court would have had that piece of evidence but it seems like they did not. If Lux assaulting Sutil first is true then that is really disappointing considering Sutil’s punishment.

        1. @BasCB, if Lux attacking Sutil first is true, then it seems to be a very poor judgement by the court. It is Lux who should be punished since he provoked the incident. What Sutil did can be seen as an act of self defence and a person can do any reasonable act to save his life in the face of eminent danger.

          1. I guess the trick is in the “if” there @rave0803 Obviously the judge did not see it that way.

            I guess Sutil will appeal if he feels its not a balanced centence.

          2. sorry, @rdave0803, looks funny without the d in there!

          3. I wonder if the sentence would be any different if Hamilton had actually been there as a witness. I’m a little puzzled by his absence especially being a good friend and a witness. Unless Hamilton knows Sutil is guilty or seems to take the term friend lightly.

    2. I actually believe it should be none of FIA’s business. It’s as if Boy George wasn’t allowed to sing or release albums anymore because he has spent some months in prison.

      1. He shouldn’t be banned, but surely it falls into the ‘bringing the sport into disrepute’ section. And I believe Hamilton’s hooning led to the the FIA introducing punishment for traffic offences. If a traffic offence results in punishment, an assault worthy of a suspended jail term certainly should.

  16. I’ve seen Lux get a lot of stick on the net but I can’t for the life of me understand why. On the most basic level he was the victim of an assault and any assumption more than that is based on gossip and speculation which isn’t exactly concrete and is why I haven’t really wanted to comment much on this whole thing.

    I can’t really comment on the sentence because like I’ve just said I’ve no clue as to what went on but I think of the face of it Sutil got off lightly avoiding any real jail time.

    On a very different note I’ll be interested to see what happens with his career now as he’s been stagnant for years and now without a drive.

  17. Well guys you got some fundamental things wrong about this case and german law:
    It wasn’t Lux who went in court it was Sutil! Lux reported the incindent to a federal prosecutor who found Sutil guilty and Sutil received a 12month jail sentence which was suspended to 12 month. (german: Strafbefehl / penal order?)
    Sutil found this unfair and appealed the Strafbefehl which automaticaly leads into a court case. The judge sentenced an even higher punishment to Sutil than the procecussion demanded (3years suspended to 18month). This is very unusual

    1. Correcting you there, the procecussion asked for a longer sentence (21 months) and a higher fee (300,000), so that last bit of info is not quite accurate. He got 3 months less and 100,000 less.

  18. Seems like a fair sentence to me.

    Can’t say I’ll miss him an awful lot.

    1. It’s a suspended sentence. He will still be in F1.

      1. He will still be in F1.

        Only if he can find a drive.

  19. I don’t think Eric Lux is arrogant. If anything, the man weilding a champagne glass at Lux’s neck is the arrogant one. There is a big difference between a bunch of fives and being glassed, Adrian Sutil picked up the closest thing to hand and attacked Lux with it. A good job, atleast for Eric Lux, that it was a glass and not a knife.
    You can rest assured, that if you or I had done that, we would be behind bars and rightly so. Adrian Sutil is a lucky man, lucky to have his freedom, and lucky that he didn’t kill Eric Lux! If in attacking this man, is in some way aided the demise of his F1 career, in that he has only himself to blame.
    No wonder Lewis Hamilton wanted nothing to do with this trial, I would turn the other way too!

  20. This is ******* ridiculous. Absolutely. If Sutil’s fellony was so bad why they did’n judged them earlier ? This looks like revenge from a very very frustrated person. All the cameras (according to Zimmermann) showed that Sutil’s “hit” was unintentional. It’s a shame that such a talented pilot at the height of his career could be dragged in mud just to justify some interests. Shame, shame, shame !

    1. talented pilot at the height of his career

      He hasn’t got a drive…

  21. Yes, “he hasn’t got a drive” because MONEY talks loder than talent in F1. Look @ what is happening at Williams. A team with tradition who did’n cared about talent. The bigger the bag the best chances. 2 drivers perfectly suitable for HRT. Need another prove ?

    1. Sutil always carried Medion’s millions to FI…
      Talent? Yes. Top? No, too erratic/inconsistent. Paydriver? Yes, always been.

      1. Yes, but he succesfully managed to overtake his “pay driver” status. The quintesential pay driver is Bruno Senna. No offence.

        1. Neither of them are a quintessential pay driver.

  22. Sutils lawyers should have used the line that lux guy used in the media in last few days, that all he wanted was a face to face apology. the court should have just made him apologise face to face, as thats all lux ‘claims’ he wanted, which is bull anyway, he wanted sutil penalised as heavily as his lawyers could work the system. the situation sounds like the guy got a smack on the gob which he deserved for provoking sutil, and suffered no injuries, then he used high paid lawyers to get revenge on Sutil. is that being synical?

  23. themagicofspeed (@)
    31st January 2012, 15:42

    Well, given what ive read about Eric Lux wanting to destroy Sutils career etc and avoiding him, and all the other rubbish directed at Sutil about wanting him to leave F1, if thats true then Eric Lux got what he deserved, smarmy, arrogant man. HE is the sort of person I dont want to see in F1, not Sutil. He’s overblown it beyond all proportion and milked the situation to damage Sutil’s career, which has nothing to do with something that happened outside of his job as an F1 driver. Personally if whats been said is true, i dont criticise Sutil one bit.

    1. Wow, that is quite something you write there @themagicofspeed! Now, Eric Lux might not be the nicest person in the world, but certainly you cannot be serious about saying its perfectly fine if he ends up having his neck stitched because of a large gut he got from some kind of fight with Sutil?

      I can understand one lets things go out of control, especially with alcohol involved in it. But that’s quite a big step away from condoning what Sutil did, even if it was never meant to hurt Lux as it did.

      1. themagicofspeed (@)
        31st January 2012, 17:41

        @BasCB Sutil shouldnt have done what he did but Lux’s reaction to it was cowardly, unsporting and vindictive and rather than being a man about it and meeting with Sutil to allow him to apologise and settle discreetly out of court, he went hell bent on destroying Sutil’s F1 career because of an incident that happened outside of his role as an F1 driver, and for that reason i cannot respect him.

        1. Said that way it makes a lot of sense @themagicofspeed

  24. ive got no sympathy for anyone who tries to get rich on the back of a fight and then when he fails takes the guy to court. Utterly reprehensible by a man with no shame. I feel sorry for Sutil. Anyone can make a mistake in the heat of a moment. It takes a special type of lowlife to coldly try and use that position to his advantage.

    1. themagicofspeed (@)
      31st January 2012, 17:36

      @antonyob – amen to that. thats exactly what i was thinking too. Lux isnt as sweet and innocent in all this as people think.

  25. This is so sad. Not that Sutil was given this sentence, but the fact he committed the crime.

  26. I’m surprised by some of the responses here. There may well be more to the story than meets the eye and, as I said in my earlier comment, there’s a lot we don’t know for sure about what went on in that nightclub in Shanghai.

    Taking it at face value (excuse the pun) if someone hit me in the face with a glass I wouldn’t consider a fine sufficient – particularly if they were a well-paid motor racing driver.

    And I certainly would not want to have to meet them again in person for an apology. I’d expect them to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

    I’m not trying to portray Sutil as a thug and Lux as a saint. Perhaps Sutil was provoked and Lux is conniving. But some comments here appear to be judging both in blindingly stark black-and-white terms, which tends to make me suspicious.

    1. Kieth,

      Have you seen Adam Cooper’s (speedtv.com) article regarding what he saw on the CCTV footage from the nightclub? Curious as to your opinion if you haven’t yet seen it.

      Jeff

    2. “particularly if they were a well-paid motor racing driver”

      Keith – what on earth has that got to do with anything? It’s completely irrelevant to whether or not he should be facing criminal charges.

      I’ve read quite a bit about the case, and it seems that Sutil was indeed threatened, and rather stupidly went to throw his drink in Lux’s face. He ended up glassing him.

      Now, there’s nothing in Sutil’s past to suggest a propensity for violence, and he’s a man that deals with incredible pressure when in a cockpit and doesn’t make rash judgements. In fact, that’s part and parcel of being an F1 driver.
      So the idea that he deliberately glassed Lux, whilst sat in a public bar having a drink with one of his best friends just doesn’t make sense.

      It was obviously an accident which could have had very serious consequences. If it was deliberate – fair enough, he should get the book thrown at him. It clearly wasn’t. That doesn’t excuse being punished but you have to take into account the circumstances.

      Personally, I think he’s been hard done by.

  27. I agree with Keith. When Sutil picked up that glass, thats ‘intent’. He may have been drunk and lost his temper, he may not have wanted to hurt Lux, but the intent was there. I could shoot someone in the leg and argue that I never meant to kill them! The answer to that would be though, then why use a gun? Sutil used a weapon, and there was the potential there for serious harm to Eric Lux. As others have said, Lux could have been killed if the glass had cut an artery. Prisons all over the world are full of people who didn’t ‘intend’ to kill others, but did anyway. When you cross that line, there is no way back.

  28. But Sutil can’t have just walked up to Lux, and whacked him with a bottle for fun.
    I’m not taking sides but Lux does sound like a slippery character.
    The courts do recognize physical and mental abuse

  29. themagicofspeed (@)
    31st January 2012, 21:17

    I’d be interested to know what Lux was saying to Sutil to provoke such a reaction – even when drunk, you don’t lash out so dramatically unless somebody directly and seriously insults you. He must have said something quite bad, I assume – as others have said, there was an intent – however i think its important to ‘split’ that intent as such –

    Did Sutil intend to do something to Lux with the glass, wether pouring drink on him or indeed attacking him with it? Yes.
    Did Sutil intend to hurt, or even kill Lux? I don’t think so. I dont know either of them, or what was said, but its questionable that regardless of what was said, that you would deliberately go out to seriously injure or kill somebody in front of a packed nightclub full of witnesses.

    All of this aside though, Lux’s reaction to it makes him the lesser men of the two. Sutil tried to apologize, and instead of accepting his genuine apology and perhaps some form of compensation and leaving it at that, he really tried his hardest to ensure maximum damage to Sutil as a sportsman, which for me is underhand and unsportsmanlike and i don’t want people like that in charge of F1 teams. If the two had met, Sutil had compensated him for the injury and damages, and the two sort it out between them like the professionals they are expected to be, this would be a different story. In the global press this is hardly the sort of press our sport needs.

  30. To anyone’s knowledge, has anything like this happened before in F1? Is there a precedence for whether or not Sutil will lose his license (I mean, besides the Shumacher example)? Maybe someone like Gilles Villeneuve smacked some people around or something? Haha!

    1. Hmm… Alan Jones injured his hand after a fight on Chiswick High Road in 1981, don’t know if any legal proceedings came out of that.

      However it was late in the year and he didn’t race in 1982 anyway (as will most likely be the case with Sutil this year) so it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Jones raced again in 1983 and again in 1985 and 1986.

    2. James Hunt hit a marshal in a race in 1970 (I think it was Formula 3, but I may be wrong). He continued his career but not before the marshal attempted to sue. This was well before the FIA introducing the concept of “disrepute to the sport”.

      As for the original entry, I feel sorry for both parties, but for different reasons.

      It can’t be nice to be involved in a fight like that in the first place, especially since it’s pretty clear neither Eric nor Adrian had intended on being involved in one prior to its occurrence. Getting as serious an injury as Eric obtained is considerably worse. I can understand completely why the court had to hand out a substantial penalty to Adrian, even if they completely believed him (which itself has not been fully confirmed yet). Yes, there’s an issue of “intent”, but there’s also an issue of “disproportionate consequences”. I don’t know what to believe of the other things that have been written about Eric’s response to the incident but I can see why he would have been extremely upset about the whole thing. Nearly getting killed by someone, no matter the circumstances, is a tough thing to forgive.

      As for Adrian… …I still believe it was basically an accident with near-tragic consequences. Remember he was initially charged with grievous bodily harm but only got convicted of bodily harm (one severity level below). It’s not too big a stretch to say it’s derailed his 2012 F1 chances (the judge implied as much in the summation) and it’s possible it could affect him a lot longer than it ultimately affected Eric. Yes, Adrian did something wrong and inevitably had to face the consequences for it, but he seems to have done his best to make amends. That shows character.

      1. Remember he was initially charged with grievous bodily harm but only got convicted of bodily harm

        That is just due to size limit of the article. He is convicted of the German equivalent of grievous bodily harm (“Gefährliche Körperverletzung”). since the only important part in the distinction between the two in the German justice system is whether a (in this case improvised) weapon or not.

    3. Thanks for the responses guys. I think it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, and I’m glad for your input. Cheers!

  31. I’m going to get on my high-horse…

    I find it pretty appalling that so many of you joke about such a serious incident and defend a person – who has now been found guilty – just because he’s a ‘nice’ F1 driver. Sutil could have killed the guy. He may say it was an accident and he tried to throw a drink at him … but that excuse isn’t really credible when you’ve driven a champagne glass into someone’s neck.

    If the courts found Sutil guilty, then you can be sure there was more to this than we know. And for sure the courts inspected the CCTV closely. The fact that Lux tried to grab him first – if correct – is pretty irrelevant. Or are you going to cry Provocation?

    Plus: Hamilton finding an excuse not to testify for his good friend speaks reams. He obviously wasn’t prepared to lie.

    It sickens me when stars get special treatment. And it looks like Sutil has got special treatment because any normal Tom, Dick or Harry wouldn’t have had their sentence suspended.

    Okay, I’ve got down again.

    1. I was wrong about Lewis not testifying…

      According to Germany’s BILD magazine (my translation – original article* in German):

      “The McLaren driver testified only in writing, not as a witness in Munich.

      Sutil, sour, told BILD: ‘Lewis is a coward, I don’t want to be friends with someone like that. He is not a man. Even his father wrote me an SMS and wished me luck with the process. But from Lewis came nothing. He has changed his mobile phone number. I could no longer reach him.'”

      * http://www.bild.de/sport/motorsport/adrian-sutil/nach-der-verurteilung-zoff-mit-feigling-hamilton-22383018.bild.html

    2. From the Telegraph*:

      “Hamilton said in a written statement to the court that he could not remember the details clearly.”

      * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/9052279/Adrian-Sutils-F1-future-in-doubt-after-suspended-18-month-jail-term-over-altercation-with-Lotuss-Eric-Lux.html

    3. Okay, last entry, from motorsport.com*:

      “The report revealed previously unheard details of the incident, including Sutil telling Lux in the Shanghai nightclub: “Don’t you know I’m a formula one driver?”

      Lux said he replied: “Don’t you know I’m a formula one team owner?”

      Video surveillance footage of the incident showed Sutil seated on a couch next to Lewis Hamilton, who declined to appear as a witness, before Lux approached.

      Sutil responded with a gesture – a “nudge” according to the driver – towards Lux’s neck. A doctor testified that the injuries necessitated a movement with “medium power”.

      2008 world champion Hamilton said in a written statement to the court that he could not remember the details of the scuffle.

      Former Virgin driver and new Lotus reserve driver Jerome d’Ambrosio, however, did appear, testifying that he heard a glass break.”

      * http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sutil-wanted-lotus-seat-in-lux-case-settlement/?v=2&s=1

  32. Thank God it wasn’t Hamilton that did it! The world was have imploded.

  33. Personally I think he is hard done,yes he has done something he shouldn’t have but on the other hand I guess this will hamper his F1 life for sometime.

  34. Lewis Hamilton is really the most disgusting person I’ve ever seen. Always thought the media had created an image of a selfish man who only thinks of himself, but with him not appearing in court to testify really shows what a coward he is. He really is a small child, whenever trouble’s coming wether in F1 or in private he hides and tries to be invincible. What a very very poor character he is. I wonder why they have been friends in the first place or why anyone would be friends with someone that selfish

    1. I would normally be constructive but what a load of garbage this post is.

  35. If all the things that have been said about Lux are true, I like Lotus even less than I did before. I thought there treatment of Heidfeld last year was deplorable and yes, while you can’t go around stabbing people in the neck, it does sound like it wasn’t intentional and wouldn’t have happened if Lux wasn’t forcing himself onto Adrian and provoking him.
    I only wish Raikkonen was with a different team as he is one of my favourite drivers.
    They had better treat him well!

  36. My wife always said Hamilton had all the charactaristics of a rat, and I think Adrian Sutil feels that way too. However, its Adrian Sutil who got himself in this mess. He can try a deflect his anger and blame Hamilton for the outcome of the trial, but if anyone looks ‘childish’ in all of this its Adrian Sutil.
    What is Lewis Hamilton supposed to do? Put his own career at risk by defending a fellow driver who’s career has been forever tarnished! I think Lewis has enough enemies in the paddock without creating more of them, so I can’t see how not defending Sutil is a bad thing. None of us were there that night in Shanghai, none of us saw Sutil attack Eric Lux. Hamilton was there, and knows more about what went on that we do.
    I was in a fight once and had people who I thought were my friends turn on me, and I took the can. Thats life, you have to accept it and move on. A real ‘man’ excepts responsibility for his actions, and that includes glassing people in Chinese nightclubs.
    The sad thing here is that this is supposed to be a professional sportsman here, behaving like a high street chav on a saturday night. Its embarrassing, embarrassing for the sport and embarrassing for all concerned.

  37. Why does’nt Sutil keep his mouth shut about Hamilton. If he really wants to pick someone, why in the hell does’nt he have a go at Mark Webber, then perhaps he will get some satisfaction, even if it is being sat on his ass.

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