2016 China GP - Reject of the Race

[Samster]

So many candidates, this one is going to be hard.

1. Channel 4's Crappy Highlights Package Amazed this hasn't be mentioned yet. They skipped so god damn much yet showed pretty much all of the safety car period. With the sort of strategic position swapping we have going on, I kept suddenly finding the running order flip flopping around with no explanation as to how it had happened. I just spent half of that coverage having no clue what was going on. I didn't even know Hulkenburg had a penalty until reading this thread.

2. Joylon 'Snail' Palmer 22nd on merit, enough said.

Dishonorable Mentions

Ferrari I don't care that you still managed to finish 2nd and 5th, there is no excuse for colliding teammates.

Lewis Hamilton The safety car saved his ass. It's like he's trying to see how far behind he can win a championship from.

Renault Add them to the growing list of teams Manor might beat this season.

Force India The SC didn't help but how do you go from 3rd and 4th on lap 3 to not even scoring with both cars making the finish?

Haas From 3rd or 4th best car at Bahrain to distant 8th best fighting Saubers and Manors in China. Here's hoping this is a blip in performance rather than the norm.

Chinese Marshalls As rejectful as ever.

[Spectoremg]

So many candidates, this one is going to be hard.

1. Channel 4's Crappy Highlights Package Amazed this hasn't be mentioned yet. They skipped so god damn much yet showed pretty much all of the safety car period. With the sort of strategic position swapping we have going on, I kept suddenly finding the running order flip flopping around with no explanation as to how it had happened. I just spent half of that coverage having no clue what was going on. I didn't even know Hulkenburg had a penalty until reading this thread.

That's a very good point. Did they also skip a chunk of about seven or eight laps at the end?
Anyway.
1. Vettel - just because the Mercedes are STILL a long way ahead and it's getting you down there's no need to blame someone else for your own crash!
2. Palmer. He's what the site's all about!

[CoopsII]

1 - Renault - The cars look nicer than they go.
2 - Vettel - Cocked it up then tried to blame the car that he didn't make contact with.

[AndreaModa]

1. Channel 4's Crappy Highlights Package Amazed this hasn't be mentioned yet. They skipped so god damn much yet showed pretty much all of the safety car period. With the sort of strategic position swapping we have going on, I kept suddenly finding the running order flip flopping around with no explanation as to how it had happened. I just spent half of that coverage having no clue what was going on. I didn't even know Hulkenburg had a penalty until reading this thread.

Yeah fair point. To be honest in an action-packed race I find it pretty hard to follow the order if it's compressed into highlights anyway. Yesterday's race was a good case in point, it seemed like it was just a series of pit stops broken up only with DRS passes but there we go.

[dr-baker]

1. Channel 4's Crappy Highlights Package Amazed this hasn't be mentioned yet. They skipped so god damn much yet showed pretty much all of the safety car period. With the sort of strategic position swapping we have going on, I kept suddenly finding the running order flip flopping around with no explanation as to how it had happened. I just spent half of that coverage having no clue what was going on. I didn't even know Hulkenburg had a penalty until reading this thread.

Yeah fair point. To be honest in an action-packed race I find it pretty hard to follow the order if it's compressed into highlights anyway. Yesterday's race was a good case in point, it seemed like it was just a series of pit stops broken up only with DRS passes but there we go.

More action-packed races => harder to do decent highlights packages => people will either have to subscribe to Sky Sports F1 in UK, or just turn off from the sport altogether if it's too hard to follow what's going on coherently

[watka]

Tricky to make a decision between 3 candidates in my mind, but he's what I'm going with.

10 reject points to Jolyon Palmer - so, so slow all weekend. It's been a while since anyone was beat fair and square by both Manors (if you exclude Caterham). Made it worse that everyone finished the race so he gets a big fat 22nd next to his name. The Renault is trash this year but I think Magnussen's position (17th) is a better indication of where the car is - they should be beating the Saubers and Manors.

6 reject points to Nico Hulkenberg - it's not so much that he held up cars in the pitlane, but rather that he knew it was against the rules and was prepared to take the penalty for it because he believed he'd gain a net advantage. It's not as if that rule isn't there for a reason.

Dishonourable mention to Sebastian Vettel. It was a racing incident, pure and simple. He would have gone for the gap in Kvyat's shoes.

[AndreaModa]

I see our (former) overlords have already made their decision!

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Decided to change my votes in light of me voting in a sleep-deprived state and before fully digesting the events of the race pretty much as soon as the chequered flag dropped. I was up all night watching movies... Anyway, my earlier post has been deleted.

1. Jolyon Palmer - I think dinizintheoven summed it up well by paraphrasing his dad
2. Haas - Already fell short of their 'points every race' target pretty much as soon as they declared it. Gutiérrez briefly held fastest lap of the race towards the end though, which is nice.

[UncreativeUsername37]

I see our (former) overlords have already made their decision!

That's +260 points for Palmer as far as I'm concerned

[Nuppiz]

Yes. He was too fast in the first corner and his lockup to avoid crashing into Rosberg and Ricciardo triggered everything. He indirectly caused all the mess.

I forget to say Raikkonen returned to the track in front of Nasr which resulted in a contact between the Brazilian and Hamilton.

I just saw the onboard from Vettel's car (here) and I couldn's disagree with you more. Yes he locked up in the first corner, but he was about as much on the outside as possible and only got hit because Vettel got caught out by Kvyat diving in. In fact had he not been so far outside there would've been even less room and the contact would've been much more severe.

As for rejoining the track... well he admittedly could've been a bit more careful, but from that angle it was really hard to see if a car was going to cross his path. All in all the whole chain of events resulted from the actions of multiple drivers, and it's just plain silly to put all blame on Räikkönen.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

I see our (former) overlords have already made their decision!

That's +260 points for Palmer as far as I'm concerned

Agreed. Screw democracy.

[CoopsII]

I see our (former) overlords have already made their decision!

That's +260 points for Palmer as far as I'm concerned

Agreed. Screw democracy.

Pshaw. I knew this would happen. Deleting original posts to 'keep in' with Jenoch, trying to pressure Biscione into awarding more points than is normal and disrespecting DanielPT at every turn.

I made that last one up.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

I see our (former) overlords have already made their decision!

That's +260 points for Palmer as far as I'm concerned

Agreed. Screw democracy.

Pshaw. I knew this would happen. Deleting original posts to 'keep in' with Jenoch, trying to pressure Biscione into awarding more points than is normal and disrespecting DanielPT at every turn.

I made that last one up.

I adore Jenoch, and as someone who had read much of the original site as well as listened to every podcast at least twice, even I must say that I like the democratic solution that bisicone came up with. Don't get me wrong, I'm still interested in our former overlords' choice as well, but if it weren't for the GPRejects folks, none of us would be here, so I'm in favor of whatever they like best.

[DanielPT]

I would go with Vettel before Palmer, but that is my view. Vettel had a very rejectful moment in hitting his team-mate and then tried to gallantly pin the blame on someone else. Sure Palmer had a bad race and was very poor but being beaten by Manor's is not what it used to be (although being beaten by Haryanto is quite a feat), but I consider Vettel reject moment when Ferrari is trying to prove they can beat Mercedes in the race is more worthy of the award.

[Rob Dylan]

1. Palmer last in a full-grid finish.
2. Reliability - races like these are where those Mercedes Red Bulls and Ferraris should be retiring and allowing the midfield teams to grab some points, but even with all the early madness, the points were still snatched by the same old

[DemocalypseNow]

A potential civil war has been avoided for now, with Palmer earning our ROTR. Just.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

That's +260 points for Palmer as far as I'm concerned

Agreed. Screw democracy.

Pshaw. I knew this would happen. Deleting original posts to 'keep in' with Jenoch, trying to pressure Biscione into awarding more points than is normal and disrespecting DanielPT at every turn.

I made that last one up.

What's even more awkward is I actually (somewhat half-heartedly) suggested introducing a ROTR vote in the chat a while back and even then it was met with a lukewarm response...

[DOSBoot]

1. Renault: Any slower, and they'd be going backwards.

2. Vettel: Still blaming others for his mistakes.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Haas: Yeah they had a little bad luck with Grojean's wing problem, but I was expecting much better from the team after the safety car period. Let's hope it's not a sign of things to come.

Force India: Threw away a very good opportunity that day.

[Ciaran]

1. The marshals
2. Renault

[watka]

I like the use of the official F1 font in the standings on the main website! Are you sure we won't get sued?

[golic_2004]

Dishonorable Mentions:

Haas: Yeah they had a little bad luck with Grojean's wing problem, but I was expecting much better from the team after the safety car period. Let's hope it's not a sign of things to come.

They did predict that it would be a tough weekend in China. Every team will have it's "off" races at some point or another. Let's hope for better things.

[CoopsII]

I like the use of the official F1 font in the standings on the main website! Are you sure we won't get sued?

Ever since we started with the adverts Biscione has been coining it in so much he's now richer than Bernie and, with that in mind, he's threatening to sue him!