I think it's ******* stupid.

Sometimes I don't understand why the FIA does things the way they do... The race was finishing under the SC, so why the hell do they have the SC pull off? Just lead the cars to the damn finish line like any other freaking series that allows races to finish under yellow.

Yeah, Schumi shouldn't have passed Alonso, but it's not a big deal. All they have to do is put him back behind Alonso in the results. So stupid.

Oh, and I bet Damon Hill had a big hand in making sure Schumi got a big penalty. Hill is a pussy and has an axe to grind with Michael. I bet he was salivating at the chance to penalize him.

Is Damon Hill an official or something?

He was on the board of stewards. One of the changes that Todt made when he took over as president of the FIA is that at each race, a former driver will be on the board of stewards. Driver representation is something the drivers have been asking for for years, because the rest of the stewards have never been drivers, so there was nobody who could understand or represent things from the drivers' point of view. As for Damon Hill having an axe to grind with Shumacher, well, if someone deliberately crashed into me on track (or anywhere else), I'd have an axe to grind with them too. Call it karma.

Karma is karma! What goes around, comes around!:tiphat:

Michael should know better... its not like the rule was placed this year.

I loved this race. Alonso did a stellar job conserving tires and passing the 6 slower cars. I am also glad that the kangaroo won this race...

but next race in Turkey, Massa better get back with the program.. he owns that track.

So I re-read the rule and it seems pretty clear. Something along the lines of "In the event a race will end under caution, the SC will pull into the pits on the last lap and the cars will accelerate to the finish line maintaining their current position."

So either there was some miscommunication or a brainfart on MS's part... wateva!

Ah, but the plot thickens! The key phrase is ""In the event a race will end under caution . . ." Apparently, it has now come out that right before the SC went back into the pits, the lights and flags went back to green! So now there's some ambiguity (go figure). Mercedes is appealing the decision on that basis. Should be interesting to see how it turns out. If that race was in fact intended to end under a caution (which I think is everyone's assumption, including my own) then shouldn't the lights have remained yellow all the way to the very end? Why flip them back to green in the final seconds. I can understand Michael's confusion.

Nobody else got confused except MS :shakes head: but you are correct, it should have ended under yellow, somebody fked up.

Of course, just to play devil's advocate, MS supporters would phrase things differently. They'd say that it wasn't a case of MS being the only one confused at all, but rather a case of MS being the only one astute enough, sharp enough, on the ball enough, to seize the narrow opportunity. Everyone else was just asleep at the switch, they'd argue. (I'm not a fan of MS myself, btw. But I have to respect him for his abilities.)

Oh yes, of COURSE! Michael has those CATLIKE REFLEXES and he POUNCED! (Can you tell I'm not a big fan either :icon17: )

If the lights went green then they should reverse the penalty.

Rubens Barrichello should be penalized for throwing a temper tantrum. What if that steering wheel would have hit Massa in the head…………..

I agree. That would've been awful. "Remember that spring from my car that nearly took you out last year? Yeah, that didn't work. Let's try a steering wheel instead."

As an aside, however, the stewards no longer have the authority to investigate incidents on their own. The race director (Charlie Whiting) must request an investigation in order for the stewards to investigate. And Charlie didn't request one for what Barichello did, so there's not much the stewards can do. I believe I heard the guys on Speed explain that this provision is new for 2010.

The FIA bugs the hell out of me sometimes with how they officiate races.