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By and large, I concur with TrapezeArtist. The question for me is what the rules are regarding rejoining the track after a pitstop.
A Pandora's Box of questions opens up:
Should Gutierrez have looked to the inside in case there was any car leaving the pits?
Should any car always look at the pitlane exit when approaching Turn 1?
Should Gutierrez's team have informed him of Maldonado's presence?
Would Maldonado have expected a certain responsibility to be on Sauber's shoulders to inform their driver of his presence?
Should Maldonado have taken into account that Gutierrez may well not have seen him and not gone for the move?
It's the latter question that ultimately makes me find Pastor slightly more responsible, but it's a bit of a six of one and half a dozen of the other case, with the important exclusion of my original question, which you may know the answer to. Is there a regulation stating that a driver leaving the pitlane should have less priority in an overtaking move than in any other situation?
Besides this, when Gutierrez comes down the straight, you can already see Maldonado exiting, so Gutierrez could conceivably have seen him. Should Gutierrez taken into account Maldonado's opinion in this situation?
It may be more of an open-and-shut case than I realise because perhaps in F1 Maldonado is obliged to play it more carefully than were it a normal overtake, but until someone can tell me this is a Formula 1 agreement, I think it's an unfortunate collision.
I also wonder if the spectacle of the manner in which Gutierrez crashed provoked more of a penalty response? By and large, I loved the 'hands-off, let them sort it out by themselves' stewarding in Bahrain and would like to take this opportunity to commend the stewards for that.
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