What he did was this: while turning through the apex of one of the hairpin corners, on his final qualifying lap, he botched it, hit the brakes, came to a halt on the other side of the road, and stalled the car. All very slowly. During this time, Fernando Alonso of Renault was posting the fastest sectors of the qualifying rounds. Also hot on it was Kimi Raikkonnen of McLaren. Both looked ready to bump Michael from provisional pole position. It looked dodgy from the start- and since I'm a Michael fan, and am willing to admit it, believe me- it looked VERY dodgy.
Anyway, it screwed up the other's laps, as it was an automatic yellow flag, and stewards had to push Michael out of the way. It was stupid.
Race stewards looked at all of the evidence available, including team radio transmissions, video, car computer output, etc. and decided late Saturday night prior to the race on Sunday to disqualify Michael from qualifying- meaning that he started from the very back of the grid. He's damned lucky, in my opinion not to have been black flagged from the fucking race. He protested (with team support) that it was all an accident, and that he hadn't intended to block the lane. I believe that it wasn't something that they were holding onto as an option at the start of the session. But I believe that he panicked when he saw his pole position disappearing, and botched a fake incident. It just wasn't consistent with his driving- either before or after it happened. If he had damaged the body work at least a bit, it would've probably convinced some of the stewards. But not the gentle off-course turn followed by an even gentler tap. Not even I was convinced. And I sure wanted to be convinced.
So the shit storm hit. Plenty of drivers spoke to the press, blasting Michael's sportsmanship- and I really can't blame them. It was bad. But I do think that some of the criticism was just vitriol- people who had been waiting in the wings for years to see a vulnerable moment. So, if he had said that he was sorry, and not been such an arrogant prick about it, perhaps they would've been mollified. I would've been impressed by his candor and class. But as it stands, it's a disappointing example of a certain kind of personality. I still love watching him drive, and will wear my Ferrari gear on race weekends, but I'm still saddened. I think he made it a hell of a lot harder on himself than he had to.
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well, at least this wasn't seen by 2 billion people--more than likely half of them kids. i bet if my 2 year old had seen this move she wouldn't have cried and asked me "why man hit the other man and fall down?"
it may be a shitty thing to do in F1, but at least no kids got to see that and needed explanations and amelioration. although i respect Zidane, i think restraint at that point would've worked best. also, F1 is pretty much an individual sport (yes, I do know about the pit crew/team); MS's move didn't really impact "a team" per se. but Zidane's red card fucked the French--as they missed a PK which blew the cup. had Zidane been in to take that PK, he probably wouldn't have missed.
Oh absolutely! I think that that French wack job was out of line, and it's a damned shame that his team suffered. But my question is- didn't they know he could be a little ...unpredictable...prior to naming him team captain?
And I thought that the French fought duels over honor, rather than headbutting.
well, he's not really a nutcase; he's pretty much like the Michael Jordan of soccer; so I think him being captain was ok; but i cannot believe that those idiotic taunts got to him like that. in all fairness, Materazzi (the recipient of the headbutt) is a fucking cunt. you should see some of the bullshit he's been doing in his career--hitting/kicking people in the balls/etc. check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlaqsOPlt-0
Ah. I don't know him from Pele. It's a damned shame though. I'm thinking that the whole ideal of sportsmanship isn't really very common at all.
it's not. and soccer is divisive. and intensely nationalistic--really tribalistic. i have no fucking idea why they all try to paint it as a "unifying" sport. it's what we, humans, do best. divide. conquer. remember bukowski: "hate...the only thing that lasts." oh, how right, how right. fuck these people who swear by love. love is temporary. it's thin. it doesn't stand scrutiny. it's the first step towards hate. hate is clear cut. raw. inherent. hate is the truth.
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