AUGUST 7, 2006
Michael escapes another penalty
The exclusion of Robert Kubica from the Hungarian Grand Prix was a great shame for the young Pole, who had a brilliant debut weekend as an F1 race driver. Sadly his car was found to be two kilograms underweight at the end and so had to be excluded
© The Cahier Archive
The exclusion of Robert Kubica from the Hungarian Grand Prix was a great shame for the young Pole, who had a brilliant debut weekend as an F1 race driver. Sadly his car was found to be two kilograms underweight at the end and so had to be excluded although the FIA Stewards did make a point of saying that this was not deliberate and had been caused by the excessive tyre wear. The exclusion of Kubica had one important knock-on effect, however, as it promoted Michael Schumacher into eighth place and thus he gained a World Championship point, despite the fact that he had retired with a broken suspension. This should not have been allowed because Schumacher went unpunished for an illegal move on Pedro de la Rosa, during which he drove across a chicane and did not allow de la Rosa to overtake him, as he should have done. Normally such an accident would have resulted in a drive-through penalty or at that stage of the race a time penalty. Even if it was going through the motions - because Tiago Monteiro was too far behind to have gained much from the penalty - it should at least have been noted that Michael had been punished.