Bradley Downton has slammed the driving standards on show at the 2017 United States V-Prix as "idiotic" after incidents cost both Downton cars and resulted in the retirement of Championship leader Nathaniel Powers. "I don't know what some of those guys are even doing out there to be honest," Downton fumed in a post-race interview. "They're driving like they're in bumper cars, it's idiotic. Some of the driving standards on display recently have been poor, but today was just appalling."
"Hugh firstly was unbelievable. Johan was on the racing line and as tight to the kerb on the inside of the left-hander of that quick chicane as possible, and Hugh attempted to go around the outside - fair game. But I think he realised halfway through it wasn't on and he wasn't going to make it, and tried to cut back across while still alongside, and just drove into the side of Johan. That caused an unnecessary and pointless collision and resulted in chaos behind as Johan ended up stranded in the middle of the track." "That left the two Ingram's and Klaas nowhere to go and they ended up caught up in it all and with significant damage. Aleksy was also involved and then Nathaniel arrived. I'll admit now Nathaniel was a bit too quick into the incident zone but he was looking down at his steering wheel to change some settings and was on the brakes as soon as he realised - the replays and data show that." "What happened afterwards in the pitlane however is inexcusable. Nathaniel had entered the pits properly and turned into his pit box while Stuart was nowhere near the 'fast lane' that cars are supposed to drive in and instead ran completely into the back of Nathaniel while he was entering his pit box. For one car to run into another at racing speeds or in a sudden incident zone isn't right but understandable, to run into someone in a pitlane at slow speed when there was plenty of time to turn and avoid is ridiculous. The moron deserves to be slapped with a ban and you can guarantee this will go to the stewards, I'm off there now." Downton is the second team principal to slam rival teams drivers following an incident-filled race after Nick Forrest of North Star slated the tactics of rival team FIRST and the actions of Jochem van Snelheid. "Jochem was bang out of order," Downton agreed when asked to comment. "As for Arden, I'm not sure if he fell asleep or not, but that was very stupid." "To end on a positive, I'd like to pass congratulations to Allar and the DS Mathershaw team. Once again a team out-strategised us and it's something we need to work on. I think we've been complacent in the last two races but have put both drivers on the same strategy to try and ensure a fair fight for the title. Allar would have beaten us regardless today however, he was absolutely on it and we stuffed up on strategy. Huge props to him however, great drive."
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