Race steward Johnny Herbert confident about penalising Felipe Massa in Indian GP – Formula 1 news
Race steward Johnny Herbert is confident that his decision to penalise Felipe Massa of Ferrari at the Indian Grand Prix after his accident with Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes is absolutely just and correct.
Massa, on the other hand believes that the penalty that was imposed on him at the debut race of the Indian Grand Prix held Sunday, October 30, 2011 was not justified and he was not the one to be blamed for whatever happened.
The collision between Massa and Hamilton took place at the end of turn 4 when the latter was trying to overtake Massa. Hamilton’s attempt to overtake the Brazilian in order to regain his lost fifth position in lap 24 proved to be rather futile, when a collision
resulting in the former damaging his front wing completely paralysed Massa’s race. Not only was he imposed with a drive-through penalty but he later had to retire from the race as well.
The two drivers have been at feud with each other since the start of this season, and this accident only served to add fuel to their on-track misunderstandings.
Herbert explaining his version of the situation in a column for The National, said, “We looked at replays to see if a punishment should be given for the incident. After looking at it from different camera angles and studying all the data available to us,
it was clear that Massa knew where Hamilton was before he chose to turn across him.”
From recent reports, it is pretty clear that the steward’s version of the situation is justified and backed by solid evidence and hence it is very fair. Massa who is very disturbed at the moment on being given a drive-through penalty should accept it with
an open mind realising his mistake.
Massa had gone wide at the turn where both the drivers were wheel-to-wheel, and in such a scenario, a contact was inevitable. Although Hamilton tried his best to avoid contact, but it was too late.
“There was nothing Hamilton could have done to avoid it. He did try to get out of the move, but it was not in his control and the contact was made,” said Herbert.
The question raised by the steward is that if Massa knew where Hamilton was, and he could clearly see him coming from behind, why did he first move to the right indicating his intention to open way for Hamilton, and then suddenly move on the inside sweeping
across the Briton.
Let’s see how both of the drivers fare in the remaining two races of the 2011 season, scheduled for Abu Dhabi and Brazil respectively.
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