Yea, and it's all down to his erratic driving behind the saftey car at the Fuji Grand prix and it is believed that it is due to his driving under the saftey car that lead to Webber and Vettels crash. Which they have both spoke out about at the drivers press conference and basically admitted that Hamilton was partialy responsible for the incedent.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/62978

This could be the twist in the tail of the championship, that could have a big impact!

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Interesting. He did do some incredibly daft things under the safety car, particularly the hard braking just prior to the original restart which nearly caused a 5 car accident.

Webber and Vettel said they both slow up because Hamilton had slowed considerably.

I dont see any need to be doing it either, which makes it all the more bizarre. Since when have drivers forgotten how to drive along at a steady speed?

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Steve Pearce - COME ON JIMMIE #48 D

I thought this had already been investigated? Apparently the Stewards at Fuji wouldn't ratify the official results for several hours until they had looked into this and cleared him of any wrong doing :
BTW checked out Youtube and all the Fuji footage has been pulled due to copyright issues

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Speed is life

As Ste said i think the Stewards and the FIA have a very good case here to penalise Lewis with Footage and the fact that Drivers have came forward and spoke out about this.
One bit i dont understand is that Drivers usually do this under the saftey car to try and catch out the other drivers to build a big gap and never been penalised before, It seems that this has purley blown up due to the nature of the weather.
I know what you mean Willy i though the Stewards had already looked at this excessivley and said they wouldnt leave it until they had come up with the final decision, it seems in the wake of the comments and this new footage that its being inspected again.

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Wonder if L H will get the result of the investigation after the race has started !! then be told to come in and let the field pass ,

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LMAO nice one Chris!

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The footage is out and it looks like Tost might have a valid case:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hWIfBkVQUk
It was Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost who reported it of the video footage.
If that link doesnt work then the full stoy is on here with a link to the video also:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/62981

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I think the Safety Car was to blame.

Look at that video... it simply wasn't going fast enough... Lewis backed off in order to avoid overtaking it...

Lewis reported that he had great issues with the safety car going slowly and Mark Webber being up his tail at the press conference in Japan... any sanction against Lewis would simply be a cynical ploy on the part of the FIA to keep the Championship alive.

Sean

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Supporting McLaren and Force India in F1 and Ralf Schumacher in DTM

Interesting. Vettel wouldnt have been able to see Hamilton, and was instead following Webber. Webber, would have realised he was about to pass Hamilton and braked, and the first thing Vettel knew about it was running into Webber.

Its unfair to pin blame on either Webber or Vettel really, its quite clear what caused it!

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Steve Pearce - COME ON JIMMIE #48 D

Sean, thats a daft thing to say. The F1 cars were having trouble going that quickly, so what do you expect from a great big safety car?

It would have been going absolutely as fast as it could.

Lewis accelerated up to the back of it then braked, and Webber lifted to stay behind him, before being run into by vettel!

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Steve Pearce - COME ON JIMMIE #48 D

Yea im sorry sean but i disagree also with what you said, Until that point Lewis was following the saftey car fine, he didnt really over accelerate either he went extremley wide and at the point and put his brakes on heavily which then Webber reduced his pace to stay behind (he was definatley not within 5 car lengths of the saftey car at that point) And in that type of weather the cars even struggle to keep up with the saftey car.
God knows what Lewis was doing but his part was equally responsible in the accident there is definatley no denying that after seeing the footage.
You cant blame the Saftey car though, its a saftey car for a reason, that is the car reponsible for holding the pace and whatever pace it carries the pack should obide by.

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Sorry, but that just simply isn't true... the F1 cars were quite capable of going much faster... look at the lap times once they released after 19 laps the first time if you don't believe me.

You can see from the video that the Safety Car simply wasn't fast enough, and Lewis had to brake... watch the video again... he braked, the Red Bull camp didn't and that's where it all went wrong.

But this is a young man facing this sort of weather in his first season of F1... for crying out loud, he did an excellent job... he drove a fantastic race, and to be penalised for this would be quite out of order.

Sean

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Supporting McLaren and Force India in F1 and Ralf Schumacher in DTM

Okay - fine!

But review Lewis's Press Conference after the race... he really did say it all... he was asking the team to get Red Bull to get Mark Webber off his back because the Safety Car was too slow and he felt an accident was going to happen... watching the video I see nothing to suggest this isn't the absolute truth.

Sean

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Supporting McLaren and Force India in F1 and Ralf Schumacher in DTM

Lewis...



I think that says it all.

Sean

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Supporting McLaren and Force India in F1 and Ralf Schumacher in DTM

I agree with you on that point and i remember after the race in the conference that Lewis saying that he was worried about the Red bull cars behind him were getting extremly close at times, i know that footage doesnt show off any of what Lewis was mentioning.
Frankly i dont think Lewis wont git penalised due to the weather that day, but he needs to clear up what was happening then in his point of veiw. For sure he was getting abit close to the saftey car but then he braked really hard and pulled out wide to avoid it, but he really did overdo it.
As i said before though it is the Saftey cars purpose to control the pace and the cars should stay with it, and Lewis didnt follow it (maybe just a lapse at the time) and his part was partially responsable to the accident, but im not sure on a penalty, if Vettel got a 10 place penalty then where does that leave Lewis?

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