Wasn't the pit stupid?

Before pit: clean air, non full tank, new tyres.

After pit: FULL tank

There was a lot of time to plan better strategy. Hasty.

you've lost me completely.

If you're referring to his first stint, his tyres were ruined.

I'm refering first pit stop. After Massa collided him. Hamilton pit in next lap.

as kids like ash said, I think I heard his tires were ruined so he had to pit then

As ash said - he had flatspotted his tires during the turn 1 lockup. After the Massa incident, he was in last place, and would not have been able to push on the flatspotted tires. They had no choice but to pit him.

Sure, it's stupid to have to pit at lap 2 because you ruined the tyres already.

Ooops! I didn't get that info.

Thanks.

His tires were ruined, he had to pit.

Initially, I thought you are refering to his strange behaviour in pits when he couldn't get the car out of his pit position. I wonder how nervous he was then. Mentality is still his problem.

Tyres ruined indeed and a SC would have saved him which wasn't completely unlikely with all the incidents going on.

Massa had a major lockup in hungary and didn't pitted on lap 2, so this argument doesn't stick...

It's not even close. Felipe's lockup was only a bit harder than usual. Hamilton was "saving his life" with this lockup. He ruined his tires or it was tactical move - but the second option doesn't seem to fit the situation.

I think they needed to check the suspension wasn't damaged as well - no point risking a big accident.

Take a look at a replay... the onboard from Hamilton's car while he is waiting for the pack to clear after his spin clearly showed the damage to his right front tyre. There seemed to be more smoke from his LF at turn 1, so I should imagine the damage to that tyre was at least as bad as the visible damge to the RF.

Hamilton pitted because his huge lockup in Turn 1 ,like u see in this movie.

Yikes - when did they start doing that?

Anyway, Hamilton destroyed his tyres and the move on Massa was just a bit too much given he must have known he destroyed them already.

... and why?

Funny how Hamilton's tyres were destroyed and yet he managed to stay with and overtake Massa. :\

They weren't in great shape, who knows if it could have been Kimi-esque Germany risky to leave him out - but were they going to pit if Massa hadn't kerranged him?

ITV pitlane report Ted Kravitz said when Hamilton came in his tyres were all the way down the canvas due to the flatspot so you can just kindly stfu ;)

Indeed - seems like FIA's headache is getting too much and I sense something changing...

Viva la revolution!

What do we want? Transparency!

When do we want it? NOW!

What do we want? Fair and open stewardship!

When do we want it? NOW!

..and so on....

Me don't think so.Start / Massa / etc

Well you can't tell from a video of a moving tyre. I believe the word of a person who was actually 2 feet from the tyres ;)

If you watch the footage I think the tyres were buggered more due to the spin than the lockup.

Sounds like a pretty bizarre thing for Kravitz to lie about.

I think Massa was on softer tyres and he lost times in turn 1 or 2 because of Trulli

Watch again. It was because the lockup

He was losing several seconds a lap when his tyres were down to the canvas in China last season. Yet he passed Piquet and Massa within a lap and a half of flat-spotting them here, his pace seemed fine. Strange.

http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0167239cb1.jpg

Stole this from another post, but it's a good illustration of the damage that Lewis had done to his front tyre, although it's not down to the canvas

Hamilton got past Massa, because Massa run wide there.
Thanks.

There was no profile left after that look up.


Both championship contenders seem to crack under championship pressure. That should get interesting.

doesnt look down to the canvas to me, id say it was a mix of lockup, massa punted the left rear tyre too, possibly damaging the tyre/suspension,

he was at the back, possible safety car situation

all the teams have contingency plans for events like this btw

i dont think switching to one stop was right, but ho hum

i think they probably would of tried to stay out aslong as possible, but probably pit early if massa didnt clout him

great pic btw

I agree. This it good. They should put footage after every race there.

Two factors, he flat spotted his tyre is one of those, the other one is he was already behind due to the collision with Massa. If he didn't collide with Massa, I'm pretty sure that he would stay with the old tyre.

He probably would of after the penalty, to play for a SC. The problem with a tyre like that is that you will keep locking it and make it worse, especially as he was going to be passing people after the penalty. Massa hitting him was probably the best result for him, as massa lost 4-6 points, while hamilton lost 1 at most!

Are you people kidding? You can see the damage to the tire in the Hamilton onboard from the start. Just look, it locks up more than once. Even the green paint is totally gone from a sizable area of the tire even while he's still trying to slow down.

I can't understand why it's even a topic of argument--his car was likely sounding like it had a serious miss in it with the horrible sounds his tyre was making on the track--like a flubflubflubflubflub sound. Heck road cars with even mild flatspotting are horrible to drive at highway speeds--imagine an F1 car with a flat spot that's at least as deep as the treads on those tyres, from the first corner!

Also, look closely at the vid from the Massa incident. Some of the bodywork front of the RR gets shattered off on impact.

How did he pass Piquet and Massa on such a fubar tyre?

Now I can just...



Bond you're my new definition of fanboy.

I guess he did not...

[img]http://www.autosport.com/gallery/picture_free.php/dir/2008hun4/image/l__26y5132-2[/img]
[img]http://www.autosport.com/gallery/picture_free.php/dir/2008hun4/image/l__26y5134-2[/img]

I suggest you to see videos of both starts if your brain is capable to understand your boy can do wrong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRA6ojtjT60 - Massa in Hungary.

Seriously, I haven't noticed anyone so obsessed as you.

You should see yourself on the mirror...
What's your point?

The "stupid" was Massa's engineer for not telling him that Hamilton had a flat spotted tyre, so let him go.

Massa's lock up was momentary, Lewis locked for a couple of seconds, more tyre damage, bigger mistake, bigger consequences.

Good answer.

What were the consequences? We never got to find out.

Hamilton had to change his tires ASAP.. flatspot like this can literally shake the car apart, cant drive with square tires, it was hell of an ugly lockup..

http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0167239cb1.jpg

I am sure that lockup made his tires worse, but hadn't he been put into a spin by Massa on lap 2 I think he would have carried on, for a while at least.

He seemed to still have good pace, afterall he caught and passed Massa, and McLaren and LH might have decided to continue until any effects of the lockup would have made him lose too much. So a later pitstop to change the ruined tires might have come earlier than planned anyway, but he probably wouldn't have come out last, and wouldn't have had to carry as much fuel right after the pitstops.

But he didn't. He stayed out and passed Piquet and Massa on track. Before being t-boned. We saw with Kimi in Germany a few years back the effects of a really bad flat spot then, but I think the cars handle it better these days. The onboards with Hamilton didn't show anything like the vibration I remember seeing in Kimi's car that day.

Cos he still had a faster car? Cos at those moments in time, he was a better driver?

The guy abuses his tyres. It's not a stretch to think he's also learned to drive pretty damn well on square tyres.

Geez.

After Massa hit him he went from top 6 to plumb last, my guess is they thought they might as well switch strategies, give him some fresh tyres and see what happened.

I bet the team called him in to calm him down. Get him off the track before something else silly happens.