haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS]) (11/09/85)
In the early laps of the European Grand Prix (at Brans Hatch on October 6), Keke Rosberg (Williams-Honda) was chasing Ayrton Senna da Silva (Lotus-Renault) for the lead. Subsequently, Rosberg collided with Senna, with Rosberg spinning, an Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW), who was third, running into Rosberg and destroying his front tire. Now, this all happened at Surtees turn. Rosberg was right on Senna's tail, and then, going into Surtees, Senna took the the turn wide. Rosberg saw the opening and charged for the lead, attempting to ss Senna on the inside. However, Senna swerved for the line again, slamming the door on Rosberg. Keke slammed his brakes, locked the wheels (no ABS in F1) and spun. Piquet could not avoid him, and punctured his front tire. The way *I* saw this (on CBC) was that Rosberg was getting past fairly, and Senna slammed the door in a not very sportsmanlike manner. If the other driver is going wide, it is entirely acceptable to pass on the inside. Sport Auto (as far as I could decipher French) also agreed with this. Now, Rosberg destroyed his tires in the braking and spin, and had to pit for new ones. He came out of the pits just under a lap behind Senna, with Keke's teammate Nigel Mansell maybe 10 seconds behind Senna. Senna caught up with Rosberg, but this time Keke shut the door on Senna and did not allow him to pass. Slowing down a bit at this point allowed Mansell to catch and pass Senna, giving Rosberg his revenge. Patrick Camus of Grand Prix International was not impressed. In volume 98, he writes of the incident: "On lap 7, Senna took Surtees wide and Rosberg attempted to push his way past inside the Brazilian. His ostentatious manoeuvre went unrewarded. Quite rightly, Ayrton stuck to his line an slammed the door in the Finn's nose." Did you see the incident? What did you think? Am I just biased? \tom haapanen watmath!watdcsu!haapanen Im all lost in the Supermarket I can no longer shop happily I came in here for that special offer Guaranteed personality (c) The Clash, 1979
rll9466@wucec2.UUCP (Richard L. Lantz) (11/11/85)
I (unfortunately) don't have cable, so didn't see the actual incident here,
but none the less have some views on the episode. These views are by necessity
quite generalised, but here they are anyway.
First Keke is known as a VERY agressive driver, and is some what inclined
to do manuvers that others might not. Senna, on the other hand, has been pre-
sented as a rather head strong, but talented individual. The final line is that
in all of the years that I've been watching F1, I've never seen Keke make a
mistake of that sort, and given the choice of blaming a former World Champion
or placing the fault on the 2nd year driver, I'll suggest that Senna made an
indescretion in his attempt to maintain his lead.
The second part is Keke's revenge. Revenge is never a good idea; the track
is a place for competition, not for feuds. I think that it presented all sorts
of possibilities for negative effects, and the only "good" that it did was to
make Keke feel better. This could well have made Mansell's victory look second-
class; keep in mind that this was also Williams' victory. He could have forced
an accident, or any number of other bad side effects. The fact remains that
Mansell won easily enough, and no accidents were caused so he came out alright.
Comments?
Rich Lantz rll9466@wucec2.UUCP
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