Singapore-Rosbergs drive thru?

[kevsmev]

Just watched the highlights again and something occured to me regarding the above.
NR got a drive thru penalty just before the safety car came out, MB said that he couldn't take the penalty under SC conditions yet they implied it was ok for him to follow the SC in to serve his penalty, although he didn't come in. If the race dosn't actually restart until after crossing the start line, then am I right in saying that he would not have been allowed to follow the SC in?
Kev

[FourWheelDrift]

kevsmev said:

If the race dosn't actually restart until after crossing the start line, then am I right in saying that he would not have been allowed to follow the SC in?Kev

Didn't think about that, but I would say you are correct.

Coming in straight away he would also have been out right at the back. So the extra laps he then did could mean he might have been able to still be ahead of a few cars especially if Patrick (not in any way like Flavio) had asked Nakajaffa to slow down and make a big gap in front of him for Rosberg to come back out into. He didn't though, I think he came back out in front of Fisichella, Liuzzi and Heidfeld.

[SmoothCriminal]

I thought once the saftey car peels off the leader sets the pace and there's no overtaking before the line it's also probably to do with whether the pit lanes open or not.

[Jasandjules]

Yep, I didn't think the Pit Lane would be open as soon as the safety car came in, so following it in would have been another breach of the rules!?!?!?

[paulrockliffe]

He didn't follow the SC Car in, I assumed at the time that it was because the SC condition didn't end until they'd crossed the start-finish line, but no one in commentary confirmed it.

[garycat]

paulrockliffe said:

He didn't follow the SC Car in, I assumed at the time that it was because the SC condition didn't end until they'd crossed the start-finish line, but no one in commentary confirmed it.

Yeah I noticed that, he did another lap under green before coming in so the team must have corrected the instruction.

[Project 644]

garycat said:

paulrockliffe said:

He didn't follow the SC Car in, I assumed at the time that it was because the SC condition didn't end until they'd crossed the start-finish line, but no one in commentary confirmed it.

Yeah I noticed that, he did another lap under green before coming in so the team must have corrected the instruction.

He did the full three laps under racing conditions. This meant that he made up enough time to come out in 14th? place rather than dead last.

[mrmr96]

Project 644 said:

He did the full three laps under racing conditions. This meant that he made up enough time to come out in 14th? place rather than dead last.

Exactly. The pack spread out over those laps so he could rejoin mid field rather than the 'bunch' passing him so he'd be last.

There's no incentive to follow the SC in, so whether it's legal or not is a moot point most of the time. (An exception to this being is the car is desperately out of fuel and needs to come in or run out.) Any other time the team will choose to leave him out, so the legality of a hypothetical scenario is irrelevant.

[llewop]

mrmr96 said:

Project 644 said:

He did the full three laps under racing conditions. This meant that he made up enough time to come out in 14th? place rather than dead last.

Exactly. The pack spread out over those laps so he could rejoin mid field rather than the 'bunch' passing him so he'd be last.

There's no incentive to follow the SC in, so whether it's legal or not is a moot point most of the time. (An exception to this being is the car is desperately out of fuel and needs to come in or run out.) Any other time the team will choose to leave him out, so the legality of a hypothetical scenario is irrelevant.

I don't think the laps behind the safety car count (nor is he allowed to do his drive through under SC), once the SC had gone in he was allowed his 3 laps before having to do the drive-through.

[Ponk]

What I don't understand is why the team didn't bring him in straight away when it became obvious a safety car situation was inevitable but before the announcement was made.

[Project 644]

Ponk said:

What I don't understand is why the team didn't bring him in straight away when it became obvious a safety car situation was inevitable but before the announcement was made.

Because of the wonderful way that Charlie whiting and Bernies other haemeroids work. They would have ignored a non-requested drive through and made them do another one, or would have said that the penalty was a stop-go just to show that they are in charge.

[Ponk]

Was there not a brief gap between the penalty being announced and then the SC coming out? I thought there was but might be wrong. Was a real shame, Rosberg would have been right up Lewis's chuff without that.