Renault pitlane error cost Adrian Sutil and Robert Kubica the race
It was a frustrating day for Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil on Sunday at the Hungary Grand Prix. After the Renault team released him from the pit lanes too early, Kubica and Force India’s Sutil collided in what could have been an avoidable collision, costing both drivers the race.
It was during lap 15 when the chaos occurred in the pit lane. The safety car was deployed after pieces of debris from Vitantonio Liuzzi’s car, Sutil’s teammate, were being picked up off the track. Cars everywhere ducked into the pitlane to seize the opportunity to change tyres, Sutil included, but as he was heading in, Kubica’s lollipop man gave him the all-clear signal too soon and their cars collided.
"A real shame as it's my first DNF [Did Not Finish] since Australia, and even more disappointing as it wasn't our issue," added the German driver, whose car was so damaged he couldn’t continue in the race.
Kubica was able to return to the track in the beginning, but was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty moments later for an unsafe release from the pits, of which Renault was later fined $50,000.
“It was definitely unsafe from their part," said Sutil of the Renault team. “They released him into my path and I just crashed into him, and my car was damaged too badly to continue."
Kubica was less than sympathetic towards Sutil, as he himself was unable to complete the race due to damages sustained from the crash.
"I saw the lollipop go up and I started to go but unfortunately we collided, forcing me to retire with damage to the front suspension," he said.
For Kubica the most disappointing part was not being able to finish when so many Polish fans were in the audience. Kubica started in sixth place, and felt that had the accident been avoided he would have had good results in the race.
The Renault team still managed to pick up some points despite Kubica’s early retirement thanks to Vitaly Petrov’s fifth place finish. Force India wasn’t so lucky; with Sutil out of the race, partner Liuzzi couldn’t gain any lead and finished in 13th place with no points.
Renault wasn’t the only team fined for pit stop errors over the weekend. Mercedes GP also received the $50,000 penalty for the unsafe release of Nico Rosberg. When he started down the pit lane Rosberg’s right wheel came off, hitting Williams mechanic Nigel Hope in the back before coming to a stop. The runaway wheel didn’t cause Hope any serious injury luckily, and Mercedes will begin an investigation into the cause of the incident.
"It was a disappointing end to a difficult weekend today,” said Rosberg. “We needed to have a good pit stop to stay ahead of Kubica but unfortunately we had the problem with the right rear wheel. It's disappointing to have my first retirement of the season but these things happen and we will learn from the experience.”
Rosberg still found time to joke despite his obvious disappointment, and is looking forward to making up for Sunday’s forced retirement in the Belgium race.
When he learned Hope was struck by the tyre Rosberg joked that: “After I heard that my tyre hit big Nige (Nigel Hope), one of my old Williams truckies, I was more concerned about my tyre than him!” He jovially exclaimed. “But seriously, it’s great that he doesn’t have any serious injuries and I’m sort for the incident. We’ll come back in Spay ready to do better.”
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