crazy ass race. The Stewards had no control over the race and honesstly, alonso and Fisi's penalty have more to do with the stewards that messed up on the red light than anything else.

Going through a red light at the pit exit is one of the most basic mistakes that an F1 driver can make, and yet two experienced drivers from two top teams managed to get it wrong when that first safety car came out, and they paid a heavy price. In both cases it seems that their teams missed the opportunity to warn them.

The way it works is quite simple. The red light comes on as the safety car queue approaches the pit entry, and it goes off when the last car in the queue passes the pit exit. It is triggered manually by the FIA's Claudio Garavini, who watches the races from the start/finish line.

There's a simple reason why the light stays on until the queue has passed - if not, a car could potentially leave the queue, make a pitstop, and emerge in the middle of the pack. If it drives straight through the pitlane it could even emerge in front. Oddly, some people couldn't quite grasp this concept on Sunday, including Felipe himself.

"Everybody was stopping at the same time to change tyres and fuel," he rued. "The pitlane was open, and then when I go out the light was red. I didn't even look because I never expected to stop and change tyres when the pitlane was open for everybody to be disqualified for a thing like that. For me it's a kind of a joke.

"They [the FIA] need to be clever enough to see that the pitlane was open, everybody was stopping at the same time. We saw in the past that some drivers were disqualified because of that, but they were stopping alone, they were stopping when the safety car was coming. I was behind the safety car, the pitlane was open, and I stopped. I never saw something like that. It's a bit of a strange situation."

Suggestions by Massa that the light should not have been on or that the penalty was unfair were frankly wide of the mark. Having said that, at most circuits the red light would probably have turned green as Felipe, the first man to leave his pit, approached the exit.

But the layout of Montreal means that the red stays on for longer than normal, because the safety car and the queue have to negotiate the tight first corner complex. The pit exit represents a significant shortcut and brings the cars out in the middle of Turn 2.


Felipe Massa follows the race from the back of the Ferrari garage following his disqualification © LAT
And that of course is exactly what happened to Juan Pablo Montoya at the very same track in 2005. Furious because a radio miscommunication meant he got caught behind the safety car, he came in the next lap and charged out of the pits through a red light. When he got to Turn 1, he barged his way into the middle of the queue, almost banging wheels with David Coulthard in the process.

A black flag and an inevitable exclusion soon followed - that was based on precedents set in the cases of Jarno Trulli in Austria in 2001, and Heinz Harald Frentzen in Australia a year later.

You would have thought that with the Montoya example still relatively fresh in people's minds that teams and drivers would have been on top of the situation, but clearly not all of them were.

Massa got the end of the pitlane and didn't even look at the lights, and just blasted straight out. Behind him Fisichella hesitated, but in effect reacted to what Massa was doing and followed. It was the less experienced Kubica who did the right thing and stopped.

Massa's error wasn't quite as blatant as Montoya's, but the back of the queue was still making its way through the first couple of corners, and after checking his speed, he slotted in at the back behind Tonio Liuzzi.

As you will have heard from team radio transmissions over the years, teams always frantically warn drivers to avoid crossing white lines at the pit exit, and yet in the heat of the moment neither team seemed to have done that in the case of the red light. Perhaps because all the cars had gone past, their natural assumption was that the exit light was no longer an issue, but as noted, Montreal is a special place.

"He did not pay attention," said Ferrari boss Jean Todt of his driver. "He was concentrated on going out, and not having any car passing him. And we did not tell him anything. It's in the rule, if you have a procedure where you say be careful, you will have the red light, you don't have to see it. We did not say [anything] to him, and he did not pay attention."

"If the safety car is going past, then the red light should be on," said Renault engineering boss Alan Permane. "When the last car goes past, the green light goes on. That's it. [Fisichella] kind of followed Felipe out, he did hesitate, and then just went. I'm sure it was a bit of brain-fade. To be honest, I don't want to go too much into it..."

Intriguingly, both teams mentioned that thanks to the slightly curving pit exit, they could not see the lights from the pit stand, from where all messages are of course sent. It would thus make sense that next year in Montreal (and at any other track where there are similar visibility problems), teams ensure that one crew member in front of the garage is charged with keeping an eye on the lights, and passing that information to the pit wall.

Montreal may be an extreme case in terms of the red light delay, but the issue could crop up again elsewhere this season. In the past, when the safety car came out, people came straight in and there was always a very good chance that the light would be green for the simple reason that the safety car could be pretty much anywhere on the track, and the queue would be forming behind it.

Under the current rules we're going to see a lot more examples of groups of cars leaving the queue, dashing into the pits, and racing each other out. And there will be other tracks where the track layout or the tardy pace of a couple of stragglers trying to join the queue mean that the red light will again be on...

2009 - Indian Grand Prix

Ron's reasoning from the McLarens not winning was hilarious.

Still great run by Kimi and Lewis did ok despite the performance defecit.

Yeah the wet races are great - add that spice when its needed. Though in all my years of watching F1 that has to be the wettest ive ever seen a track - with so many cars flying off. Shame about Kimi though - he's just so damn unlucky - especially in Germany. Alonso was good though - better than Massa winning.

BTW - did you guys see Massa and Alonso's little spat after the race;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpt0s_A6e24

Can anyone translate Spanish