Michael Schumacher Penalized for being aggressive At Hungary GP
Another bad day unwrapped for the seven times Formula One world Champion, Michael Schumacher, at the twelfth race of the season. After having a disappointing finish at his home race, the German Grand Prix last month, the Mercedes GP driver not only returns home with another poor finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix, held this Sunday in the beautiful city of Budapest, but also carries a bad omen with him for the upcoming race.
The German got much frustrated and angry during the race when the Williams’ driver, Rubens Barrichello attempted to over take him on Lap 66. The track of Budapest is bumpy and tough as well as carries a large number of tricky and harsh corners. On one of the very few straights that the track offers, Rubens Barrichello of Williams came out behind Schumacher’s Mercedes while the former was fighting for the final points.
Barrichello was pulling his Williams quite steadily, grabbing the fifth slot for a long time after the race started with harder tyres. On lap 55 he had a pit stop, switched to softer tyres and as he came out of the pit he found himself following Schumacher, his old teammate. Soon Barrichello was quick enough to move alongside the German on the long straight. As he tried to overtake the old champion he was squeezed so close by, that the Williams car almost touched the pit wall.
The Hungarian Grand Prix stewards mutually decided, following the race, that the clash with Barrichello was an intentional hostile attempt by the German and must be taken seriously. Therefore, he had been handed a 10-place grid penalty for the aggressive act which will be implemented in the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix.
After going through a post-race investigation the stewards commented about Schumacher’s action saying that, “he illegitimately impeded car 9 during an overtaking maneuver”. Though the whole episode had been taken very offensively by the Mercedes’ driver, however his team has accepted the decision saying that the stewards are in a better position to decide and the team does not wish to take any action against their decision.
The Belgian Grand Prix is scheduled to take place at Spa-Francorchamps from August 27-29, 2010.
The team had been much disappointed by the act of the forty- one year old driver, calling it a very negative outlet of his frustration as he had not been able to perform well all through the season though a lot of expectations as well as hype was created regarding his performance before the season started.
The racing icon has returned to the track after a gap of three years as he announced retirement in the year 2007, but had not been able to show even the shadow of the great racer he had once been.
So far Schumacher had been able to grab a total of thirty eight points while staying at ninth place in Drivers’ Championship so far. The best finish that he had been able to give so far during the season was his fourth place finish twice; firstly at Spanish and later at the Turkish Grand Prix, while the worst being his fifteenth at the European Grand Prix.
He was expected to get back to his form at Hockenheim, Germany last month but once again that was a disappointment as he was hardly able to finish at ninth place only having just another two points under his belt.
Now as the twelfth race of the season has also passed and he comes home pointless from the race once again, the hopes to see him shine on the track again are getting dimmer. For the upcoming race he will have to fight all the young racers and the penalty will be an additional setback for him.
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