Are we destined to only have NASCAR as American motorsport in the future?

What an AWESOME sporting day Sunday was!

I really enjoyed Sundays stage of the Tdf. Great coverage as usual from Bob, Phil and Paul. The race is still wide open!

Then F1 from Hockenhiem. What an exciting finish! One of the best F1 races I've seen in may years. So many great battles. Then to finish it all off the McLaren boys on the pit wall suffer a brain fade and fail to pit Lewis during the SC! What the hell? Well, I think the last dozen or so laps of that race will be rememberd as the defining moments of LH's 2008 world championship.

Mike

Just ask Felipe Massa...

Anyway, Lewis is a great driver but if Ferrari put things into place again things will only go either way in the last race.

Nice to see Haykey gain his 1st win, abet at the expence of Felipe, sorry to see David Coulthard announce his retirement, and whats up with the Kimster ?  Nelson Piquet has come in his own as Toyota and Timo Glock. Disappointment in Bourbais after a good start, but still a few races to go.

And still not in the Lewis parade

Nice comments about Dan Gurney BTW. I've met him a few times and got to spend some time with him. He's a real gentleman and still scratching hard. His treasured Gator project went nowhere, too bad given the current gas situation. A very ugly looking motorcycle, but extremely practical. Very quick for such a small motor and it gets absurd mileage, nearly 100 MPG. Single cylinder motor and much better frontal area than a typical motorcycle.

And that surprised you?

With such a tight course there was no room for bravery. It was predictable, they needed to design the coursw with a few less kinks and more run-off for a more exciting race. I am impressed with how well everyone drove - I was expecting more carnage. Bad luck for Fred, not sure where to lay the blame for that one, he seemed to brake early and hard, not sure what happened in front of them.

Funny, that's exactly what they said about Valencia for the America's Cup racing. there is serious money involved and I think racing is suffering because of it. The quality of the track is seemingly the least important factor in deciding a venue.

I'm not worried about Kimi - no-one thought he would win the world championship this time last year!

Monza pole in the rain went to Kimi no, Lewis no, Bob Kubica no, F.Massa no

STR Driver Sebastian Vettel

race tomorrow OH BOYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Great racing @ Monza !!! Finally one driver to make us remember Ayrton Senna, I am speaking of Lewis of course but Vettel did great too, lot's of talent there. The last races of the tour will be awesome. But guys, Scuderia Toro Rosso is very, very different than Minardi, there is not a single "Minardi screw" in the car, in the team. A great engine from Ferrari and a good car by Adrian Newey, let's see what 2009 brings for them. My guess for the championship: Felipe Massa.

So surprise, surprise Lewis's appeal is deemed inadmisable. Pretty much what was expected, but still very dissapointing as it sets a very bad precident. We do not want F1 to end up like America's Cup! Races should be decided on the race track and not after the fact. The message it sends is "don't try too hard to overtake or you may be penalised". With a championship so close who is going to want to risk a move that in Hamilton's case cost 10 points? Far better to just follow the guy around and limit the damage right?

Yes, but because the appeal was rejected we don't get a decision on the situation and things remain cloudy.

There are maybe 4 situations that need to be addressed coming from this incident:
1. Did Kimi force Lewis off or did he leave room? And if one driver is forced off by another while atempting to pass who is responsible and who gained advantage? Where do you draw the line for safety.

2. What will satisfy the stewards if you cut the course? Apparently giving the position back is not enough.

3. How soon after "giving up the advantage" can a driver re-engage in their attack?

4. Should drivers not involved and a long way from the incident gain advantage by it? It makes sense to me that if you foul another driver they should have redress. So say Lewis did gain an advantage then he should be penalised that position. As it was Kimi spun off with no help from Lewis. Lewis now thinks he has won the race and as the conditions are apauling he slows down for safety and allows Filipe and Nick to catch up. After the race Lewis is penalised 25 seconds and drops to third. Now if Lewis knew he was going to be penalised would he have kept at least a 25 second gap? Of course he would have! Does it seem fair to retroactively impose penalties like this that gives advantage to drivers not involved? If they were going to give him a penalty it should have been during the race. The stewards were asked about it at the time and did not choose to give a penalty then. Once the chequered flag is out that should be the result. Don't hand out the trophys and pop the champagne and then change the result.

I think this needs to be sorted out for ALL the drivers. It is hard to play a game when you are not quite sure what the rules are.