http://www.spiegel.de/sport/formel1/0,1518,812471,00.html Summary: Munich district court found Sutil guilty of battery for attacking Lotus co-owner Eric Lux in a club. 1 year prison, suspended on probation for 3 years. The apparently only witness of the incident, his friend Lewis Hamilton, did not show up in court but wrote a letter stating that he did see nothing. Very sad, especially as Sutil surely is not the type to usually stage attacks, and there seemed to be a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes... Sutil hinted that Lux offered him to drop the case if Sutil paused for a couple of races and gave him some serious cash..
I thought it was the other way round; Sutil offered millions to a charity if the case could be dropped. Lux not happy about Sutil I suppose.
Sutil "not the type to usually stage attacks" with 'usually' being the key word tells me you do not know for a fact he has not been prone to such actions in the past of his wealthy and sheltered life . Some friend Lewis is right as certainly he was sent notice of all dates set for hearings since he was supposedly the only witness and Sutil's FRIEND, BS! That would be like me working security and excusing AJF for assualting Arie L. when he physically assualted 'punched' him in the pit lane years ago. Nobody is above the law and I would have damn well arrested AJ, think I'm kidding!! The ruling is justified (apparently there were other witness's hint hint) since the only 'contrived' witness said they saw nothing and then fails to show up in court and in my experience as a bailiff 99% of the defendants credibility is lost when a witness fails to appear on the defendants behalf. I like to call them idiots or people who are not a big enough person to back up their word and their selfworth as a reliable and HONEST person. Food for thought . I'm sorry if my outlook does not conform to yours or others and I realize a 'black and white' outlook is usually frowned upon in todays society but then again possibly that perspective is needed now more than ever?
Well I guess you and I both saw the same thing then right? Yet again in Indiana it may be ok to punch someone, I have arrested people for less. Anywho that was just an irrelevant extension of the whole 'assualt' topic.
That was a race in Texas. Sadly, Arie was correct about the scoring error....LOL! This broken champagne glass thing hard to tell, could have been a legitmate accident in a darkened bar hallway, but maybe not....
There seems to have been either alot of coverup for Sutil and this lawsuit has some validation, I'm leaning towards the latter since it went this far and he was found guilty by a jury of his peers. It saddens me in a sense of wanting too think that a F1 driver should know they are always be watched and under in spotlight just, us LEO's are . So where do we draw the line? Do we as race fans excuse such indiscretions or do we hold them just as accountable as any other citizen which is all they are? I know where I stand.
I'm reading "Blood and Smoke" by Charles Leerhsen....the early days of USA racing BEFORE the 500. Those were different men....altogether!!
The way I've heard it went down, is that Sutil and Lux had a big argument. Sutil was asked to go away, but he later came back with a broken champagne glass and ploughed it in Lux's neck. If that is truly how it went down, Sutil is a ****ing idiot and is very lucky to get away with a suspended sentence. If he had just punched him in the head straight away, fair enough...happens sometimes. In the end, I think he rather screwed himself of ever racing in F1 again, maybe even other racing series such as Le Mans.
Probation is not a suspended sentence, but yea, you describe it as attempted murder, here in the States!
Maybe some new rookie will come in to F1 because of his departure and win 7 championships... Or does history not repeat itself this quickly?
How big an argument could that be. Sutil displayed an embarrassing lack of judgment. Being an F1 driver he is a public figure and can´t go around attacking people even if provoked. Let alone an F1 Boss! In any case his chances of getting an F1 seat in the future don´t look good. Maybe he does deserve the punishment.
Silly on Sutil's side. Probably gonna cost him a drive in 2012. What a shame, he's one of the top guys out there.
I meant probation, although IMO it's (probabtion/suspended sentence...you don't do any time) a bunch of horse****. He's lucky Lux didn't go through Chinese courts, at best Sutil would then be lucky to ever see daylight again. Maybe Lux asked Sutil about his sexual orientation . I have no idea, but he screwed himself regardless.
http://espn.go.com/racing/f1/story/_/id/7526757/adrian-sutil-says-lewis-hamilton-coward-not-testifying Lewis not cool per Sutil...
Seriously Sutil? You stab a man in the neck (that's the place you stab when you NOT want to very badly hurt anyone, right? ) and you call your friend a coward? The fact that he says he only tried to spill the drink is laughable. How do you go from spilling your drink to stabbing someone in the neck is beyond me. Besides, only girls and homosexuals spill drinks on others. Take your pick .
LOL Some article said that Sutil broke the glass himself before the attack. Now Sutil argues that he was just trying to spill the drink and ended up stabbing Lux. Doesn't make sense. As for Lewis I would not be surprised he chickened out. He's good at driving but not at making decisions anyway.
I see what you did there . Either way it is a very sad state of affairs for him personaly and professionaly imho.
Stab him in the neck, really? The impression I had from the media reports back when it happened was that Sutil tried, as you said, to spill the drink on him - not stab him! - and Lux tried to benefit as much as possible from the incident (ie the "pause for X races and it's all forgotten thing).
How do you go from spilling to someone requiring 24 stitches? Trust me, that requires significant force...you don't get that from falling over and hitting him, because your very first reaction then would be to drop the glass, even if he held it, the stabbing occurred in a very odd position if he was falling. But then, in reports, he only says ''I was only trying to spill a drink on him''. He says nothing about tripping over. What, did the glass just break and the broken glass scattered around Lux's neck, requiring all those stitches? BS. Whether he was drunk or not, he went out there to hurt, not thinking it would destroy his career.
Regarding Lewis I think Sutil asked LH to go along with his story and perhaps Lewis' integrity prevented him from doing so. What I don't understand is why the trial was in Germany when the crime occurred in China. Was the club on German owned land like an embassy?
