Reject of the Race - Italy 2021 (POLL UP)

[Londoner]

1. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. An inept, race-ending collision caused by total impatience on both sides. Spiced the race up no end though!

2. Nikita Mazepin. Absolute bellendry all weekend long. Haas must have the most toxic atmosphere in the entire paddock

Honourable mention to AlphaTauri, one car dead before the formation lap and the other barely alive enough to last a lap. The points streak is over.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

Lewis Hamilton, there's no other choice this week

[Klon]

ARTA - to quote motorsport.com

The 24-year-old was comfortably leading the field when the ARTA squad was handed a drive-through penalty for a pitstop infraction on lap 45.

ARTA couldn’t immediately serve the penalty as Ritomo Miyata stopped on track at the exit of the final corner with his Racing Project Bandoh Toyota having caught fire. This triggered a prolonged safety car intervention, with race control closing the pitlane as is the norm in SUPER GT.
At the end of lap 53, the pitlane was reopened while the safety car remained out on track, prompting ARTA to try and take advantage of the situation and minimise the time loss by bringing Fukuzumi into the pits.

As it turned out, the drive-through penalty Fukuzumi served under the safety car didn’t count and he had to head back to the pitlane soon after.

Worse still, it was found that Fukuzumi jumped the red light at the pit exit at the first occasion, prompting the race director to hand the ARTA team yet another penalty.
“The race director [told us] from here, 'you have to do two laps in the pits in a row'. I thought it included the second penalty [for driving through the red light], but that penalty hadn’t been announced yet, so I think we ended up doing an extra run through the pits ‘just for fun’.

Nothing in F1's race was this stupid.

[RAK]

1) Lewis Hamilton & Max Verstappen: One not leaving enough space, the other just not knowing when to quit. Lucky it didn't end up worse than it did, with Verstappen's car mounting Hamilton's frighteningly close to the latter's head.

2) Alpha Tauri: Gasly lost a potentially strong result here after going off in the sprint race; Tsunoda didn't even get to race on Sunday.

Dishonourable Mention: Nikita Mazepin - Abysmal performance on track, spluttering out to an ignominous retirement before the end.

[Enforcer]

Alpha Tauri for ending their interesting in their home race within 3 laps or so in the era of ultra reliability.

Also look at Mazepin for continuing to demonstrate that he's a massive twat.

Not going for HAM & VER, cos as stupid as the crash was, the race was much more fun with that happening.

[IceG]

Hamilton & Verstappen

[This Could Be You]

1. AlphaTauri: pretty embarrassing for both of your cars to break down so soon into a race, especially at a venue where the car should've had pace for points
2. Lewis Hamilton/Max Verstappen: Frankly both of them were handling wheel-to-wheel racing so badly today that a collision like that felt almost inevitable

DHM:
Nikita Mazepin: more appallingly inconsiderate driving causing more bother for Haas
Sky F1: the broadcast team had a bit of an off day- lots of weird statements, constant gaffes and clunky direction, plus mic issues earlier in the weekend
Sebastian Vettel: anonymous besides his time spent off-track
Giovinazzi: threw away another good starting position for the second week running

[Nessafox]

Ham-Ver rivalry. I laughed my ass off but sooner or later it's gonna get seriously out of hand and both need to grow up. Lewis a little bit more than Max maybe, but neither come out of this unharmed imo.

Alpha Tauri Not much to say about it.

Dishounorable mentions: Mazepin, Haas driver management and Giovinazzi not making a good case for Alfa to keep him by throwing away good results.

[Meatwad]

Hamilton and Verstappen for another crash, the championship contenders taking each other out is the definition of rejectful (thanks for that McLaren 1-2, though).

Dishonorable mentions to:
Mazepin (another crash with Schumacher )
Red Bull (without the bad pit stop, Verstappen and Hamilton wouldn't have crashed, and they really screwed up by not telling Pérez to give the position back)
AlphaTauri (one driver failed to start, the other just lasted a few laps, at the track where they won last year)
Giovinazzi (threw away another chance at points, now Alfa Romeo is 19 points behind Williams)

[Alextrax52]

AlphaTauri: The era of ultra reliable cars yet one car was out before the race even started and the other spluttered to a halt after 10 minutes. Throw in the accidents from yesterday and this was one to forget

The pit crews: Let’s not forget that the accident between the two protagonists would never have happened had these guys not faltered in an area where they’re normally so good. Red Bull’s disaster dragged them back towards Hamilton and had the Mercedes guys been a half second faster then Lewis would have had time to cut an attempt from Max off. That really started it all.

Antonio Giovanazzi: And that my friends is exactly why Alfa Romeo have only 3 points and are going to lose 8th in the constructors to Williams. A complete inability to capitalise for the second weekend running

Nikita Mazepin: His worst performance since Bahrain. Slow, hit his team-mate, locked up heavily and took it out on a polystyrene block before his Haas mercifully cried enough. He’s the reason why Haas is a toxic place right now.

[rachel1990]

1 HRH Hammy and Max Max Max. Neither would give up and that was the consequence. Sometimes one has to relent.

2- Mazipen. Even by his usual 'high standards that was very poor driving by him. Racking up the penalty points.

HM- Red Bull group. 1 didn't start(yuki) 1 barely started(gasly), 1 crashed out (Max Max Max) and the last one got a 5 second penalty (Perez). Poor all round.

Hm tv coverage. We seemed to miss a lot of overtakes and some actual incidents that brought out yellow flags. And the commentary was little better. Crofty mixed up.Gio and Kubica plenty of times. Ffs.

[Har1MAS1415]

1. Max Verstappen
2. Max Verstappen's pit crew
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Antonio Giovinazzi
5. Nikita Maze-pain-in-Haas' arse

DHM to Perez for his penalty.

[Har1MAS1415]

Add AlphaTauri to the ROTR list.

[koshiro]

Alpha Tauri: 3 laps totalled between both drivers sums up one of its worse GP in memory.

Red Bull pit crew: Usually the top pit crew on the grid, their awful pit with Verstappen was the spark that started the chain of events that ended with with both championship contenders out.

DHM:
Hamilton/Verstappen feud. I will just give it a dishonourable mention, because it shows how competitive and hard fought this championship is going to be, and frankly, you can't condemn them for fighting. But in any case, they deserve a mention for how bitter and excessive this is becoming: the British, not leaving any space, basically forcing Verstappen to hit him; and the Dutch risking waaaay too much with that move (probably with his temper boiling after the pit stop mess, and having flashbacks of Silverstone's incident).

Perez: His overtake on Stroll and not giving back the position immediately was simply stupid.

[eagleash]

Hamilton; might put Max in with him as well but in my mind HAM was already 'ahead' as RoTR before the incident.

Mustspin.

[dr-baker]

1. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. An inept, race-ending collision caused by total impatience on both sides. Spiced the race up no end though!

2. Nikita Mazepin. Absolute bellendry all weekend long. Haas must have the most toxic atmosphere in the entire paddock

Honourable mention to AlphaTauri, one car dead before the formation lap and the other barely alive enough to last a lap. The points streak is over.

This. Plus the poor pit stops from Red Bull and Mercedes that led the respective drivers to be in those positions.

[Rob Dylan]

I agree with all the above statements, and I want to give more time to Sergio Pérez for being very unsportsmanlike in his corner-cutting. Deliberately driving onto the racing line and full-throttling it in both the sprint and the race was, even if it "worked for them" as a strategy, just poor behaviour and I think he should have got a reprimand for just flagrant and shameless rule breaking. All he had to do was slow down slightly, let the dude past and overtake him again a lap later.

[UncreativeUsername37]

I can't nominate Hamilton or Verstappen for creating the kind of moment we'll worship in twenty years. Besides, they both did the right thing; back down and you're down points on the other contender instead of even.
I'll say AlphaTauri, for a quick double breakdown post-2009. Second nomination to Giovinazzi for losing such a massive chunk of points.

[Batty]

Red Bull as a whole is my option.

1. Sergio Perez cut chicanes to pass twice (v. Stroll in Sprint & v. Charles in race)
2. Max Verstappen's botched pitstop
3. Max and Lewis having their thing - Okay that is not rejectful.
4. Checo getting a 5 second penalty which cost him 3rd. He could have passed Charles later and held off Bottas to keep the 3rd. Instead it is like a 6 pt swing to Mercedes thanks to him getting that 5 second penalty.
5. AT having a mare in the sprint & race adds to the RB fam.

[razta]

Merc and RB (Especially RB) Pitcrews - the one thing they both train hours for, the one job they had to do... they both failed.
Had they actually done their jobs properly, we wouldn't have had the collision. As both Max and Lewis would have had Lando in between them.

[Aislabie]

I don't think Mick Schumacher is getting enough discredit for hitting Seb and his own teammate in the space of one sector

Also David Croft for calling crashes for both Gasly and "Number 99, Robert Kubica" on lap 1

[mario]

Red Bull as a whole is my option.

1. Sergio Perez cut chicanes to pass twice (v. Stroll in Sprint & v. Charles in race)
2. Max Verstappen's botched pitstop
3. Max and Lewis having their thing - Okay that is not rejectful.
4. Checo getting a 5 second penalty which cost him 3rd. He could have passed Charles later and held off Bottas to keep the 3rd. Instead it is like a 6 pt swing to Mercedes thanks to him getting that 5 second penalty.
5. AT having a mare in the sprint & race adds to the RB fam.

It could also be noted that Red Bull were unashamedly screwing Perez over in qualifying by insisting that he had to tow Max around on both Q3 laps, compromising his own qualifying performance and putting him further down the field.

[Bleu]

1. AlphaTauri. 21 laps completed out of 142 possible.

2. Hamilton/Verstappen.

[CoopsII]

I can't nominate Hamilton or Verstappen for creating the kind of moment we'll worship in twenty years. Besides, they both did the right thing; back down and you're down points on the other contender instead of even.

This. This, this, this. A hundred times this. This. Put your partisan feelings to one side, you know it to be true.

[Fetzie]

1. Sergio Perez and RedBull:
Cutting corners and overtaking off track, twice. Not giving the place back because "we didn't know if we needed to", twice.

2. Alpha Tauri:
Not actually taking part in either of the competitive sessions in any meaningful way.

[James1978]

Red Bull are giving me serious reminders of why I hated them in Vettel/Webber days (though I liked Webber then and like Perez now even though he's becoming a bit of a doormat).

[Francis23]

1. Verstappen: why not both him and Lewis you ask? Well Lewis was mature enough to know the move wasn't on on lap 1, whilst Max let his teams slow stop get to his head and went for a gap that was always closing, failed to check that Lewis was alright afterwards, then proceeded to moan about the same thing that he did himself
2. Alpha Tauri: Monza is usually their happy place...unfortunately not this year

DHM: Perez, common sense to give the positions back

[Pacific Edge]

Alpha Tauri's luck Lady luck didn't just desert Alpha Tauri, she tripped them, kicked them in the head then left.

Pitstop mishaps Some for both Verstappen and Hamilton, putting them together,

Perez Blew a podium

[Rob Dylan]

Ok doke, it's been three days now, so as usual our poll is up for deciding Reject of the Race. I had to choose here for my fourth candidate between Sergio Pérez and Nikita Mazepin. I chose Pérez for the reason that Mazepin was joint winner of ROTR in the Netherlands, but also conversely because Pérez magically avoided ROTR in Spa, and so deserves another shot at the prize at Monza

Vote using the poll at the top of this thread

[Londoner]

Find out whose tale of woe earned them ROTR around Monza right here today!