Poor Ralph!
Yes, I also hope Ralph will be okay - it sure seem to me that he was unconcious there for a while - he didn't move at all for long time - then he seem to come around.
Why doesn't MS get black flagged? He changed line more than once at the start (his usual lame-a$$ technique), and passed Ruben before the start (even though by just a little bit) ... and yet he's still out there. WTF? This is utterly annoying. I guess I'll watch Euro2004 (soccer) instead. Spain-Portugal starts in 20 minutes ...
Yes. Its great news that Ralf is not injured too seriously. But I believe Michael and Rubens will be penalized one lap and Sato declared winner. Andy
Yea I am still wondering on that one. I guess he went in and everyone else was so slow on the straight that he came out ahead.... ...I guess. That is the only way it could happen and be legal...
Yep I wondered the same thing about changing lines more than once. I guess I'm not the only one who thought he jumped the restart.
I watched JPM run and jump over a wall like a Speed Racer Cartoon. Start from behind the pack and work his way up to 3rd place. I was impressed. As for the red-tape rules of F1 ..... when the rules guys are more important than racers skills, its not a sport any more. What a shame
According to Sato's post-race, that's what happened. The cars on track had to dodge all the debris, so they were very slow around the track. News Flash: The '04 USGP to be featured as an episode of "Survivor". Zsolt gets a point. Three laps down. The one guy that has trouble keeping up with the pace car. Speaking of which: I wonder what happens if the safety car completes more laps than twelve of the racers -- does the pace car driver get a point? Or does he get black flagged for not having the correct FIA inspection sticker?
Pretty eventful race. The most important outcome is that Ralf is okay and that he gets a clean bill of health in the medical tests. Great race from Michael. (Everything he did was legitimate, I have no idea where you folks are getting the black flag BS from). The run he did against Rubens when the first SC dropped was incredible: he was able to pass RB pretty much exactly on the start/finish line (P swap 0.0 seconds into the new lap), making his overtake as close to the edge as you can get it. Amazing stuff. The swapping of direction at the start was also completely legit as far as I see it; the driver is allowed one move to defend position before taking the racing line, and even then, looking at it from Sato's in car replay you can see MS drift in the outer direction well before Sato was anywhere near close enough to overtake. A good drive from Sato. One thing I'd like to know is why Montoya was gesticulating at another driver (as if yelling at him to go ahead) during the second safety car, all this happened just meters from the wrecked car of his possibly seriously injured teammate. Can't wait to see some Fchatter pics
I also am a little unclear about how MS could have maintained 1P after pitting. I don't see how he could have done it without passing under the flag.
The other big topic for the race: Rubens Now someone tell me that guy was NOT putting in a 10/10 today! My respect of him grew. No more BS about him not being a race car driver, did you see him try to pass? I can imagine Ross just cringing on that one.
The FIA/race steward overseeing the IndyGP are seriously inept. How on earth could it have taken them that long to rule against JPM? How do you let a guy bust his hump, only to blackflag him a handful of laps from the finish? Amazing bumbling of regulations today.
Most of the drivers were slowly picking through the debris field. JPM went bashing around the turn, apparenly mindless of the debris, and almost passed Webber(?), so he had to slow to let the more cautious driver pull around the response vehicles in front (or get tagged for passing under yellow).
Yes Rubens did brilliantly. But the thing that amazed me the most was how long he was able to go on his second stint. The amount of fuel he had on board must have been enormous! Excellent pace.
Most of the drivers were slowly picking through the debris field. JPM went bashing around the turn, apparently mindless of the debris, and almost passed Webber(?), so he had to slow to let the more cautious driver pull around the response vehicles in front (or get tagged for passing under yellow).
Agreed, Rubens did a fantastic job. But the thing that amazed me the most was how long his second stint was. He must have had a huge amount of fuel on the car, and yet he still kept up great pace.
