Maldonado, Hamilton and others get penalty points

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Pastor Maldonado picked up more penalty points after being penalised by the stewards on three separate occasions during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Lotus driver was given two separate drive-through penalties for colliding with Sergio Perez and speeding in the pits, plus a ten-second time penalty for overtaking Will Stevens during the Safety Car period. He was also given two penalty points for the clash with Perez, moving him onto a total of six over the past two months – halfway towards a race ban.

“The stewards were certainly very strict today, very tough on driving with me and many other drivers,” said Maldonado.

Team mate Romain Grosjean also picked up two penalty points for an unsafe release from the pits, when he drove side-by-side with Felipe Massa down the narrow Hungaroring pit exit. Grosjean is also on six penalty points for the year so far.

Lewis Hamilton was given his first two penalty points for colliding with Daniel Ricciardo, while Max Verstappen moves onto a total of five having picked up three for driving too quickly during the Safety Car period. The stewards did not penalise Verstappen for his collision with Bottas, ruling he “took reasonable actions to avoid contact”.

Two further penalty points were handed to Daniil Kvyat for going off the track at turn while overtaking Hamilton, who left the circuit at the same point.

However Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo were cleared over their collision. The race stewards announced they had “examined the entire sequence of events leading up to the incident” and ruled that “no driver was wholly or predominately to blame”.

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    97 comments on “Maldonado, Hamilton and others get penalty points”

    1. Still very surprised by a drive through for Lewis. Considering it was caused by locked tyres, I can’t help but feel that a 5s penalty was the most severe they should have gone.

      1. I disagree. I think Hamilton deserved that penalty as the incident was clearly his fault. Although I’m surprised that after all Rosberg has done, he still hasn’t got a single penalty in almost 2 years.

        1. @ultimateuzair Cuts course, gets away with fastest lap – “He’s so intelligent!”

        2. I often say that every good move is a small lockup away from an ugly crash.

          While on the edge, it didn’t look to me as if Hamilton had entered the corner too hot. His move was well positioned, at controllable speed, and well seen by Ricciardo. If it wasn’t any of those things and Hamilton had still made it past, we would be applauding him…

          Lockups (especially seeing as they often start small and get worse) at the end of a braking zone aren’t necessarily caused by reckless or poor car control, so I think the stewards should be more lenient. A traction problem during fair racing sounds to me like it should be treated as racing incident.

      2. @fluxsource Who locked those tyres? Penalty was very correct indeed, a little bit harder and Ricciardo might have not even finished the race and suffered the same as Webber did in Korea 2013.

        And then why did Ricciardo not get a penalty for his impossible move? Because in essence he did nothing wrong. He was still on the track driving his line whilst Rosberg obviously unaware Ricciardo was still there just did not give him room.

        1. It was a mistake at the corner, but as others have mentioned it was on cold tyres. It was a gross misjudgement, nor a aggressive push off the track. I felt it was inconsistent with other penalties (or lack of) given this race. And if a penalty was to be given then I feel 5s would be more appropriate.

          1. I believe you are correct that other penalties should have been given. For example, when Hamilton drove Bottas off course.

        2. More appropriate question… why did Rosberg not get a penalty? Answer: because he broke his own car and had to drive around the track (literally, apparently), thus no action “warranted”.

          “Warranted” is usually FIA speak for “the problem corrected itself”.

          1. But when hamilton hit ricciardo he also damaged his own car and had to come in for a new nose, whereas although Ricciardo had slight damage put in the fastest lap the very next one so can hardly claim was hindered by the collision.

          2. Hamilton broke his own nose and needed to pit for a new one, so that argument doesn’t stack up

        3. For me Ricciardo should have gotten a penalty, he dived in the corner, missed the braking point and the racing line, and then didn’t give room to Rosberg when he returned. It was a pretty amateurish move from him.

          Imagine if it was the other way around, and Rosberg finished 3rd, there would be an outrage.

          1. disagree, “returned” from what? he never left the track. And you usually have to go off a “racing line” to make a pass you know, how else are you going to do it? drive through a car? nothing out of the ordinary there.

            Yes I agree it was a little too aggressive but this is racing and you take chances when you can. I don’t see any penalty for the incident.

            Rosberg didn’t give Ricciardo room on the exit, Ricciardos car was there and he wasn’t going to budge. Simple as that.

      3. I also disagree, look at the first lap where HAM and VET drove within millimeters of each other, this is the level of driving expected. Ham should never have locked his tyres, and the late braking which caused the lockup was his decision. Clumsy, by the standards the best racing drivers in the world should be performing too.

        1. Riccardo locked his tyres to pass Rosberg.
          What about his standards?

          1. Hamilton’s lock up led directly to contact which was *entirely* his fault, Ricciardo’s lock up just caused him to go deep into the corner, he didn’t run into Rosberg as a result of the lock up, the contact came when Rosberg cut back underneath, with responsibility for the contact being roughly shared between the drivers.

            1. exactly. some people need to think a bit about their comments.

          2. Riccardo saved it though until Rosberg run straight into him.

          3. Oh I agree, Ric’s lockup looked amateurish as well, and as with ham’s lockup, I feel that he would agree it wasn’t driving to the standard he would expect of himself, however, that lockup did not lead to contact.

            Penalties are given out due to incidents not the poor driving that leads to the incident. When a driver locks his wheels, for any reason, there is not a penalty investigation. The lockup may be the cause of contact however, and it is the contact itself which is the breach of the rules. When there is contact, there is always a decision made as to whether to investigate. I’ll admit, and if the logs are still accessible from the live comments, I immediately blamed Ric for the incident and stated that I foresaw a penalty for him. On seeing the replay I changed my mind and stated that I believed it was a racing incident. Why, afterall, Ric locked up and shortly after contacted another car.

            Simply because Ric was not sliding out of control into that car, on the contrary, he was driving in a straight line, under full control of his vehicle at the time of the contact, having, since his lockup, regained control, negotiated the corner and chosen his line. His mistake may have fallen well below the standard expected and his punishment was a slow exit from the corner, which ultimately would have set him back several laps in his pursuit of Ros, hurt his tyres, stripping them of their life and grip.

            Now Ros drove very well at the start of the incident. He didn’t panic and attempt to go deep into the corner himself, on the contrary, and this I believe suggests he was fully aware of Ric’s actions, he broke earlier than usual, at least from what I could see. He went slow in to give himself a faster exit, compounding ric’s error. Unfortunately after he turned, he chose his line at a point where Ric was in his blind spot, which is rather large on those cars. Their chosen lines intercepted as Ros drifted onto the racing line at the point he selected, I think the only error he made was underestimating Ric’s recovery from the situation.

            No fault to either driver, thus, racing incident. A correct decision from the stewards.

            And no, it is not acceptable to put another driver in a position where he has to brake to avoid an accident, in a race – it’s very much the equivalent of pulling out in front of someone at a junction and justifying the action because you gave them enough room to make an emergency stop. Thus saying that ric should have braked is a non argument, ros caused the incident by squeezing his line. Through no fault of his own.

      4. Hamiltons the lockup was caused by braking too late for the situation- he did not adjust for Ricciardo going side by side, like he should have, and that is the end of the story, hamilton has admitted to the mistake also. why do people defend was is so blatent to see?

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          27th July 2015, 14:37

          @williamjones at the start of the race they did not drive within millimeters – Vettel squeezed Hamilton and Hamilton didn’t take him out even though he had every right to. That was Hamilton’s biggest mistake. He needed to nudge Vettel and then push him off the track.

          It’s ridiculous that Ricciardo didn’t get a drive through with that stupendously amateurish (but also wonderful in terms of outcome) lockup. Hamilton locked up a little and I think that prevented him from being able to come out of the corner correctly. That’s called a racing incident because he had no choice once the car locked up… It’s not like he intentionally locked up the tires so he can take out Ricciardo.

          Crazy stuff!!!!

          1. Vettel has major previous in squeezing people from starts. Its unbelievable he has never been pulled up on it.

          2. There is never, for any reason a time when a driver has “every right” to take another driver out.

            Crazy stuff from you.

            1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
              27th July 2015, 20:15

              @Williamjones – then what do you do if the other driver squeezes you off?

            2. @Michael – You hold your line, what else can you do! Then if there is contact, it’s not you taking them out, it’s them taking you out. If you seriously believe that if someone is squeezing you hard, running you out of road that it’s ok to deliberately smash your vehicle into theirs in an attempt to destroy their race because you think they might not give you the gap they are suposed to, then I maintain my accusation that you are crazy!

          3. They all had plenty of space at the start, you are going overboard with the squeezing stuff.
            Otoh, locking tyres and losing control of your car is your fault, and if you cause an incident that way, you are punished. Pretty straight forward really.

    2. Sooner or later the Maldonado will have a special steward there for him to look at his every move because this is just getting ridiculous. In general the amount of infridgements during and after the SC in the pitlane were horrendous. Not what you’d expect for the top drivers in the sport. I understand you occasioanlly make a mistake but overtaking under yellows or speeding in the pitlane are essentials…

      1. Not sure why you want the drivers to be perfect. Surely there’s a correlation between this being the best race for years (maybe better than Canada 2011) and there being a lot of incidents. I think we need to have drivers on the edge, making mistake sometimes as it is far better to watch, certainly better than watching them cruise around following each other and not going for overtakes. Infringements are a natural progression of mistakes, maybe we had too many drivers pushing a bit too hard and going from just mistakes to infringements but I’d prefer to be talking about infringements than talking about how boring the race was.

      2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        27th July 2015, 14:51

        @xtwl Lewis was so lucky he was far away from Maldonado because he might have been penalized for Pastor’s move on Checo. I’m sure the stewards were checking where Lewis was on the map to see if they could put that on Lewis instead of Pastor:-)

        Now Pastor is out of his mind as a driver (Massa belongs in that category too especially when Lewis is around him) he turns into Pastor:-)

        1. Sorry but most of the time Massa and Hamilton is fifty fifty with portion to blame in their incidents. You are also going overboard with your “Hamilton is blameless and gets all the blame for other drivers too”.

    3. Maldonado received three penalty points for speeding under SC in Malaysia. Now he gets zero for overtaking under it and for speeding in the pit lane. Why they do create a system and give points randomly?

      1. And Grosjean gets two for team’s fault and Massa’s anxiety. Pathetic.

        1. Yeah, that is just ridiculous. By all means fine the team, or dock constructor points in extreme cases, but no way that is was Grosjean’s fault.

        2. @michal2009b I actually think that Grosjean incident was far more dangerous and Romain in general is far more dangerous than Pastor. The stewards were harsh on the Perez overtake, it’s not as if Perez was on the outside, as in the Rosberg/Ricciardo, Daniel got no penalty… Yes Lotus should have controlled Romain better but Romain almost chopped the legs of the Sauber mechanics.

        3. While I agree that the unsafe release is the fault of the team, not Grosjean, why the comment about Massa’s “anxiety”?

          1. Massa was ahead of Grosjean as they came down the pit lane and the Frenchman ended up ahead. They were racing and RG overtook him. Massa was either anxious to get wheel to wheel with him or switch the limiter off too late.

            1. I don’t believe any of that is related to the penalty Grosjean received. My understanding is that the penalty was for the unsafe release that put the Sauber mechanics at risk as Grosjean ended up alongside Massa in a narrow pitlane. I think the overtake on the pit exit was a non issue.

            2. Of course the penalty was for an unsafe release but we saw many times cars exiting virtually side-by-side and unless someone got unfairly in front in the fast lane there were no penalties. I do believe if Grosjean would have stayed behind Massa it would have been OK. I can’t see the Sauber held up as well. But he passed him legitemately that’s way I don’t agree with the stewards because he didn’t gain a place via stops but Massa’s slow(anxious)-reaction.

        4. Same goes for Verstappen, the team told him to speed up a lap too early. punish the team not the driver

      2. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
        26th July 2015, 16:16

        FIA should immediately standardized this penalty point stuff

        1. That’s why I am against penalty points system, 5 and 10 second penalties because it always creates controversies, we know how consistent stewards are.

    4. Wait, let me get this straight:

      Maldonado overtakes someone under safety car, causes a crash and speeds in the pit lane but only gets the same amount of penalty points as Grosjean for something that was the team’s fault, Hamilton’s single collision and Verstappen’s SC speeding.

      Bit weird, if you ask me…

      1. Formula 1 logic is illogical.

        1. FIA is one F (up.. in the name) short of FIFA.

          1. LMAO!!!!

        2. There’s logic in Formula 1?

          I think they must have a board on the wall and they throw darts at it to decide on penalties.

      2. Kevin (@rammsteinfan)
        26th July 2015, 18:37

        No Verstappen gets 1 point more!!! So freaking unfair…

    5. Maldonado is not an accident waiting to happen because he makes it happen, all the time. He is not F1 material, just his sponsorship money. When he manages to seriously injure someone or himself, people will ask why hasn’t he gotten a race ban yet to calm him down?

      The sooner he gets out of F1, the better.

      1. The fact Maldonado hasn’t received a race ban yet shows that penalty points system should go because it’s useless.

      2. Not F1 material? Dude has more wins than most of the grid. Has scored points with solid drives this season. If he wasn’t F1 material he wouldn’t have scored points this season or had a race win.

        Don’t exaggerate, bro.

        1. The same season he got that win the car was good and he kept on binning it. He doesn’t just make massive mistakes in F1 he did it across all feeder series. This season with one of those solid drives he also came very close to losing it and had to make 2 massive saves. The great F1 drivers drive on the edge, he crosses it.

          1. His win was measured and he won. If we take wins for people that bin a great car then that’s not going anywhere.

            His solid drives were solid. He didn’t lose the car and binned it, he scored and it was a very good save which takes a lot of skill.

            So he has backing. Big whoop. All drivers have backing in one way or another. But hey let’s keep forgetting that but only use it when it is Maldonado.

            The guy makes mistakes. Lewis made mistakes today, Rosberg made mistakes, Sainz, Max, Grosjean and Massa have made plenty in their career but let’s just blame Pastor.

            Give it a rest with the Pastor hate. I get not liking him which is cool but the way people treat him is like he is worse than Yuji Ide and is the scum of F1’s history.

            1. He make big mistakes almost at every race. The guy is nice, but simply not good enough. Loads of drivers waiting in the line would be better suited for the seat.

            2. It’s not that he is the only driver who makes mistkes, be he made it constantlly and he also destroys other drivers races almost every time. Just check that relation misktake+other-direver-race-end and you will find why he is no F1 material

            3. I didn’t make any reference to his backing, the thing is I actually want him to do well but he constantly makes the mistakes, Hamiltons stupid mistakes were a few times over a season, Maldonado constantly does it over every category and season. Even my partner who hates F1 has said without my prompt “Is there something wrong with this guy”, as for Grosjean, yes he made some big mistakes but he also learnt. Don’t get me wrong, some of Maldonado’s results haven’t been just his fault, other people have bumped into him, but race after race he seems to get himself in trouble.

        2. Brogan (@brogan-fraser)
          27th July 2015, 3:06

          Pastor Maldonado is the worst driver on the grid, no competition.
          He’s scored 2 points this season, hardly anything to rave about!! The Sauber boys have scored more points, in an inferior car!
          Yeah, he’s not F1 Material, He shows absolutely no consideration or care for any ones safety, and constantly ignores the rules.
          Hell if it wasn’t for his financial backing, he would still be banned at Monaco..for what…Ignoring the rules and critically hurting a Marshall.
          The man should be banned from racing for life with the kind of attitude he’s got.
          Steve, its not that he makes mistakes, its that he makes reckless, dangerous ones…and he never learns from them…like ever!

          1. Do you actually know that he has no regard to safety? Like have you literally talked to him? Because I don’t know you can come to that assumption without knowing the guy or being there.

            None of the F1 drivers have said anything. None of the previous F1 drivers that drove against him have said something.

            Also last time I checked Pastor has 12 points which is more than Sainz and just a few behind Perez. So where that 2 came from? I don’t know.

            The Monaco thing is in the past like way in the past. Several drivers made dumbass mistakes in categories which they are ashamed of.

            He is F1 material. Has scored points and has a win. More than I can say of other drivers that are supposed to be way better than Pastor.

            Now we bring up that race win. Kept a faster Alonso on a Ferrari from passing him. That car compared to its competition wasn’t as strong as WilliamsF1 last year compared to its competition.

            If we go back to every single driver and the mistakes they have made like Lewis or a Massa then might as well call everyone not F1 material.

            1. Brogan (@brogan-fraser)
              27th July 2015, 4:10

              Sorry about the points mixup, that was a mistake in my reading, oh yeah! Because that was all of last season!!!

              Do I know that he has no regard for safety, I dont need to talk to him, the evidence is in his driving, and ohh because he almost killed someone by disregarding safety!!!
              Yes it was in the past, but he doesnt really seem to have learned since then!

              Of course none of the drivers have said anything, its bad PR to do so.
              Several drivers have made mistakes, absolutely, but very few have almost KILLED a man!

              The win was a fluke, nothing more to it.

              Any car in clean air is going to have an advantage.

              Massa..never almost killed someone,
              Lewis..never almost killed someone.
              They also didnt break the rules 3 times in one race!! That must be a new record.

              I cant understand supporting someone that almost the whole paddock and fan base despises, Martin Brundle can barely hide his disdain for him!

            2. Enough white knighting jesus

            3. None of the previous F1 drivers that drove against him have said something? Man, you have to read the quotes of the drivers after he crashes them… look for Hamilton comment at Monaco and Perez comments in their first years… and he didn’t learn a thing. He need a race ban soon or he eventually will kill someone.

    6. Shouldn’t Maldonado have gotten a black flag after all these misconducts?

      1. It’s a legitimate point of debate actually :)

        Seeing as the penalties were more sort of procedural rather than reckless driving I’m not sure the stewards would have a clear safety argument to bring him off

        1. I’d categorise overtaking under the Safety Car as a safety issue, personally.

    7. Who is giving the stewards penalty points for some of their asinine, incomprehensible decision making? Boy, I sure would like to know.

    8. Maldonado is unreachable in this topic. He’s the unchallenged World Champion of penalties, mistakes and clashes.

    9. In general I think we saw poor driving standards today. Lot of penalized and unpenalized contact across the entire grid. Look at Ricciardo’s car: Two big thwacks to the same sidepod at the same turn and a broken front wing and yet he finished on the podium!

      1. That’s the main reason it was such a good race, it was unpredictable.

    10. Why did they give Kvyat penalty points for overtaking by going off the track?

      1. Fair question… 10 sec penalty plus the 2 penalty points…

      2. Indeed, that seem harsh, we’ll have to watch it again to understand.

    11. I generally would prefer more lenient stewards, deciding in favour of a racing incident rather than a penalty more often, but I think even within the route of stearding in the past months/season, they´ve been particularly exaggerating it this weekend. I am counting no less than 4 different decisions that were harsh, harsher than expected and by that obviously too harsh.

      1. I completely agree. The FIA is blaming radios for making F1 boring. They will never accept their inept stewarding is also a big issue.

    12. I thought Kyvat passed Hamilton when they got back onto the track

      1. Yes, but he got into the position to do so by going off the track. There would not have been an opportunity had he stayed within the track limits.

        1. Hamilton went off as well. And he made the move on track. I can still understand the 10 secs penalty, but penalty points to his license is unacceptable.

    13. Its time to get Maldonado out of the car…I’m surprised one of these drivers hasn’t walked down to his pits and re-arranged his jawline for him yet. Whatever money he’s paying to keep that seat, it’s costing the team too much.

    14. How does Verstappen have almost as many penalty points as Maldonado? That makes no sense.

      On a side note, I want Maldonado in F1. He’s entertaining at least.

    15. Did Riccardo leave enough room while taking the outside line against Hamilton? This was after a restart with cold tyres and they were not on the same kind of tyres.
      The stewards don’t always get it right or are never consistent.
      Maldonado vs Perez? I have seen worse that went unpunished.

      I think enough with racing penalties. Concentrate on rule infringements.

      1. Ricciardo did a very clean and superb move on Hamilton.

    16. While I agree that the collision between Lewis and Ricciardo was clearly Lewis’s fault I find it astonishing that Lewis gets penalty points for that collision. Yes there was damage, (more so to lewis anyway) Ricciardo came straight back on track and lost no time Lewis, yes he had some damage but he was setting fastest times after so I don’t think it cost him anything more. Also Kyvat certainly doesn’t deserve any points for what he did, and yet Nico gets away with nothing yet again!

      1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
        27th July 2015, 1:40

        @fifthlion when he passed Massa before the SC the move was IMHO a little too strong. Maybe the Stewards had that into consideration when they had to penslize him or not… that they had been lenient on that previous move and therefore had to apply a penalty for the issue with Dan.

        1. I don’t think it’s nice that they give out penalties to everyone for their contacts… I would understand giving penalty to Hamilton taking into account his previous contacts, but Ricciardo should have gotten something too since overall he made as many contacts as Hamilton did in the end.

    17. I have a question that someone might be able to answer. There were a lot of drive through penalties today, whereas the typical penalty to issue throughout the season has been a 5 second penalty. Were the stewards inconsistent today with their awarding of penalties?

      1. The majority of penalties were under the safety car. Verstappen was speeding under the safety car, Maldonado over took under a safety car but yes they were inconsisten, especially for the penalty points. Dont believe its fair that Maldonado didnt get penalised for speeding in the pit lane/ overtaking under the safety car. I also feel Rosberg should have been penalised for the collision with Ricciardo and Hamilton was lucky to not get penalised for forcing Kvyat wide, where the Red Bull driver was penalised for overtaking him and given a 10 second penalty and two penalty points

        1. Kvyat’s case was very unfair. Even if you gave him time penalty, penalty points was totally unnecessary and unfair.

    18. Does the penalty points get deducted from the total championship points? LH is then at 200 points as opposed to 202?

      1. Penalty points apply to the superlicense and have no impact on the championship standings. They stay on the license for a full calendar year. An accumulation of 12 points earns the driver a one race ban. If Maldonado earns 6 more points before November 2nd (he received one point on that date in 2014), he will be banned for a race.

      2. No, but that’s a cool idea

        I think they should!

        1. Yeah but there’s way too much scope for controversy. I think the championship points should be separate, we need something black and white when altering championship points because it’s so important. There’s not enough consistency in penalties, Maldonado may be more likely to be in the end of unfair of bias rather than Rosberg for example. That would mean that if Maldonado somehow got a legitimately good result then that may be negated by penalty points that may be more unfairly deducted from him due to his history.

    19. The penalty points system is so unnecessary……If it was brought in as the ultimate deterrent, it has failed…or Pastor would be a model driver by now.
      The stewards with drive throughs, and time added on etc have got it(mainly) right…even a late infringement can see time added on to the race finish, and any severe act on the track, they can impose a ban on the drivers involved .So lets just ditch the points system

    20. Maldonado deserved more than 2 pentaly points today. He is a joke.

    21. though Pastor can’t be defended for passing under SC(though i didn’t see it) and speeding in pits i think his penalty was a bit harsh. 2 drivers who never yield clipping each other isn’t a surprise its racing, yet maldanado will always get the blame.

      They had to give lewis a penalty because they gave one to Pastor

      1. Current system seems to give different penalty for speeding in the pits taking account how much you break the speed limit. Maldonado drove 91.6 km/h.

        His passing under SC – at the restart he overtook one of the Manors before the line.

        1. like i said i wasn’t complaining about the speeding or the pass(just said i didn’t see it). it was the accident penalty that was harsh.

    22. I wonder if the stewards were not conciously or unconsciously being very strict because of Jules’ family being there and safety being on everyone’s mind. Perhaps it was an order?

    23. They were very brutal in the race. There were so many points and penalties for everything, most of which I think were perfectly justified, but the points for the overtake, which happened when the other car was also off track (and wasn’t even penalised in the race unless I’m mistaken, for which I apologise), plus the pit lane one for Grosjean was unneeded. Two points? Are they incapable of working with multiples of one?

      Also, Maldonado should’ve got more. He got 3 penalties in the race, in my opinion 4 points would have been better.

    24. I was surprised at some of the steward’s decisions during the Grand Prix and also that there seemed to be quite a few more drive through penalties issued than in recent races where I thought it had become the norm to issue time penalties, I don’t know if this was an actual policy shift, maybe influenced by the relative length of the pit lanes at the different circuits, or just that I had got the wrong impression from previous races.

      I probably would not have complained if all the collisions had been ruled as racing incidents and so no punishment handed out but in the context of some of the other decisions I was surprised at some of them.

      The Maldonado drive through after hitting Perez, I am no fan of Maldonado but at the time I thought it would be ruled as a racing incident and was a bit surprised when Maldonado was punished, I thought maybe his past had influenced the decision.

      The Hamilton drive through, of all the on track accidents I thought this was the most deserving of a penalty, although given the context I could see why some would argue it was a racing incident.

      Verstappen giving Bottas a puncture, I understand his drive through was for speeding behind the safety car and not for his contact with Bottas even though in his post race interview I got the impression Verstappen thought he had being punished for the collision.

      The TV coverage didn’t analyse this incident much but from what I saw and given the other penalties handed out and considering Bottas’s race was ruined by getting a puncture I was certain that Verstappen would receive a penalty so I was very surprised when he didn’t.

      The Rosberg and Ricciardo collision, my view after seeing the replays was that it was borderline racing incident but overall it was Rosberg’s fault and again given some of the other decisions and penalties handed out I thought Rosberg might have being penalised.

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