> The only blemish was that they didn’t give Coulthard his stop go
> penalty until AFTER he was passed by Schumacher.

I’d hardly call it a blemish. One of the more exciting parts of the
race, I would have thought.

> David CLEARLY jumped the start and

David clearly had a dragging clutch, as was obvious in one of his pit
stops.

> I don’t it should have taken them several laps to determine this.
> Drivers in the past have been notified at the end of the first
> lap that they have received stop-go penalties for less
> obvious incidents.

I have no problem with the Stewards double-checking the telemetry from
the start-line computer. What harm can it do.

> Dare I say that the stewards in order to spice up the proceedings
> for the US market waited for David to bring Michael back to
> Mika to prevent Michael from running away at the start?

I doubt anybody has that convoluted a mind, or was paying that much
attention to the race situation. They would have been looking at the
telemetry print out and deciding whether it was punishable. DC did,
after all, clearly make an attempt to stop the car creeping before
finally blasting off. Then the team has to be informed within 20
minutes. Then the team has three laps to call the driver in, so the
stewards were hardly the only factor.

> A dangerous situation as Coulthard had
> nothing to lose now that he is no longer in championship contention.

And yet there is no reason to assume that he would do anything
unsporting. He hasn’t in the past.

> Therefore any incident between him and Michael would benefit Mika.
> Hence Michael’s comment’s at the post race interview about
> Coulthard’s unnecessarily aggressive tactics to keep him
> behind.

Michael’s post-race comments should be taken with a pinch of salt. DC
drove comfortably within what is regarded as acceptable practice when
blocking these days and made considerable effort to avoid taking MS
out when Michael gave him an easy opportunity to do so. In fact,
Martin Brundle commented on the amount of trust Schumacher was putting
in Coulthard when he pulled the overtake.

> A dangerous situation
> considering Coulthard has a problem with Schumacher and is something
>Michael should never had been subjected to.

Coulthard has a problem with Schumacher? Not sure I understand that.

> Other than that a great result for Formula 1.

Well, who won was relatively immaterial, wasn’t it. The fact is that
it was a great event…lots of close racing throughout the field;
plenty of overtaking; plenty of incident, but no accident; no safety
car; a podium place in doubt up to the line.

The only thing which would have made it better would have been if
Mika’s car had survived. Then we would have seen the two relatively
evenly-matched best drivers in the world in two relatively
evenly-matched cars go head-to-head on a circuit where overtaking is
possible. Now that would have given the US audience something to get
excited about, whoever won.

Incidentally, I have a sneaking feeling it might have been Mika (or
even DC but for the clutch problem). I think the McLarens might have
had the edge in race trim once the track dried.

Funny to see Michael making one of his trademark errors when not under
pressure. He really should have eliminated those from his repertoire
by now .

–
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)

"In the end it’s always a matter of more accelerator and less brake" –
Frank Gardner

The Ferrari Gallery:
http://www.zing.com/album/ff/ff/b3/7/ffffb37f.html

>Falcon Freak <Falcon_Fr…@bigpond.com> wrote:
>>The only blemish was that they didn’t give Coulthard his stop go penalty
>>until AFTER he was passed by Schumacher. David CLEARLY jumped the start and
>>I don’t it should have taken them several laps to determine this. Drivers in
>>the past have been notified at the end of the first lap that they have
>>received stop-go penalties for less obvious incidents.

>Would it really have made that much difference?

>The Stewards know that they have a certain amount of time within which
>they have to make their decision as long as they are within that time
>then there isn’t a problem.

>If they had called him in earlier then we would have missed one of the
>best fights of the whole race!

After the team is notified of a stop go penalty they have three laps
to bring in the driver … What happened was the Coultard was told he
would have to come in so he should slow down and jerk Schumacher
around to allow Hakinen to catch up or (hopefully) pass.

It was a good fight and although i hate to give Schumacher credit for
anything good he did very well to pass Coultard when he was trying so
hard to jam him up….

Would it really have made that much difference?

The Stewards know that they have a certain amount of time within which
they have to make their decision as long as they are within that time
then there isn’t a problem.

If they had called him in earlier then we would have missed one of the
best fights of the whole race!

–
Emma – The Chocolate Monster              
http://www.excalvehs.demon.co.uk/main.htm

Gavin Pyper – GA Racing – Alfa Romeo – British Touring Car Championship
Stefan Johansson/Guy Smith – Johansson Matthews Racing – Reynard 2KQ – ALMS