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By Brad Spurgeon, About.com Guide to Formula 1

Do Spectators Pay For Grid Position Penalties?

Saturday June 21, 2008

The French Grand Prix looks almost like a foregone conclusion after the two Ferraris qualified on the front row for tomorrow's race and Lewis Hamilton is being thrown back 10 spots on the grid from his third place qualifying position after his error in Montreal. Heikki Kovalainen, his teammate at McLaren Mercedes, is being thrown back five spots on the grid after apparently going "very slowly" on an out lap during qualifying and impeding Mark Webber. I'm getting tired of grid position penalties for the slightest infraction. Hamilton was already punished for his mistake in Canada. Are these penalties that get carried over from race to race impeding the pleasure of competition from a spectator's point of view? Have your say in the poll:

Comments

June 22, 2008 at 6:39 pm
(1) Kyle says:

How was Hamilton punished for Montreal? He didn’t finish the race because of his distraction, but the person punished during the race was Kimi, simply for being where he was. If Luis’s distractions cost him on the starting grid maybe he’ll be more careful next time.

Kyle

June 23, 2008 at 3:52 am
(2) formula1 says:

Well put, to a degree. But what about Kimi running into the back of Adrian Sutil in Monaco? Okay, that was not a procedural error – but there had to have been an error in judgment somewhere, as with Hamilton…. No?

July 8, 2008 at 2:59 pm
(3) bedKeelmRen says:

tests time mashine

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