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Bloody hell, what a great race. Lewis and Webbo were on fire. In the pre-podium ante chamber Lewis was clearly overcome by emotion and maybe he was having a 'Senna moment'; ie he was in the zone all race.
So much to talk about but the two key issues for me are:
a) Pirelli have done a fantastic job and stuck to their brief. Bridgestone would never have agreed to tyres going off like these. For RBR and Macca, qualifying is no longer relevant (see Webbo today). Saving the soft tyres for Sunday is. Three stops would seem to be the default setting now. Thank the Lord that refuelling has gone. The true strategy now is rubber management and that is proper 'Grand Prix' racing.
b) I don't believe we need the flappy wing, partly because of point a). Lewis and Webbo proved they could overtake at other spots on track.
Lewis's engineer said he had driven a magnificent race. Nuff said.
Comments
TOIT must face up to the folly of hiring a guy who's incapable of racing in the wet. The Championship was lost at Monaco, Silverstone and Monza.
You've got to wonder how they'll do next year, Kimi's quick undoubtedly but both drivers are prone to driving around a technical imbalance rather tha solving it. In these days you need a driver with a good technical brain, not just one who's devastatingly quick...
What's the deal with Kovi? His is no where with speed compared to Clewlis, but his problems. Is it his driving style? or just bad luck-Webber style.
Fisi should just go. Rubens should also, but is having a go which cannot be said for Jenson. Must have already signed the contract I guess.
Boring race! You would think by this stage of the season some teams would be more competitive. I wished it rained!!!
Yes Fisi should go, he really is stinking the place up. Held up Raikkonen for 4 laps FFS!!!
Unfortunately it seems that Force India have resigned him for next year.
I cannot for the life of me imagine making the deicision that RBR did. Think about the stratgey for a second:
We come in for tyres and run the risk of at least some of the people behind us not doing so, and consequently release them with over half a minute lead; or
We stay out until it is clear that we cannot drive on the tyres, and everyone else that matters has changed theirs, and we come in and lose a couple of places on the road.
Stupefying!
Button is just about the arsiest bloke out there. The gods truly smile on this boy. He is also enjoying the kind of conditions that reward his tyre-saving style (which wasn't always the case last year)
Schumaker is being humilliated. That's just a fact. It's not just that Nico is going twice as fast, but he looks like a complete idiot at setting up his car.
Whatever TOIT says, there is no way that Massa is not fuming over Alonso's little pit lane trick. It was deliberate and shows that all is not well.
Speaking of which, what is the story with the race stewards? Pretty much a case of anything goes, it seems. On 2 occasions during the race, there were two cars on the pitroad trying to outbrake each other into the pits - safe?? On another occasion, the rules were stretched to breaking point on the re-start. Whilst the rule says that you can start overtaking from the last safety car marker, it seems that this was interpreted as, "you can go into the corner immediately after the last safety car marker with so much speed that you need to use the guy in front of you as armco to make it 'round the corner".
There is this pattern developing that the stewards get all finnicky about the application of the rules whilst in Europe, but pretty much take a moral holiday on the fly-aways.
Algernon is becomming a very entertaining lad, I have to say. He's quick, agressive, and so far, fairly sensible. It wouldn't surprise to see him on the podium before the year is out.
In fact, the quality of almost all the steerers in the field is really very good for the most part.
It really has been a fun year so far. Now let's watch Europe fuck it all up, like they do with everything else.
Thereof. They just react straight away, and put their drivers on the same
Strategy and always fuck it up.
Alonso! Don't blame him. He's already had two races blocked
Behind Massa. He's just rubbish in the wet.
Schumi was painful to watch. I still think he will come good
With some mods to the car, yet people will say look at Nico and
His results! The biggest difference that I can see is the qualifying speed
Between the two. It helps to start at the pointy end. I mean has
Nico actually overtaken anyone?
I'll give schumi 2 dry races and I reckon he may pass the car keys
To Nick.
When Clewlis learns to use a screwdiver instead of a hammer
He will win. JB will be found out when it's dry and Vettel will
Win, as long as it's dry.
Thoroughly enjoyed it - even if I didn't do too well in the Comp.
Team Lotus did well as well - most of the field were pretty tight together.
It would have been interesting if Mark started from p10 to see where he would have been?
TOIT?
Sutil? Di Resta is spanking him. Yes, I said 'spanking'. A new SuperJock.
Bad luck for Nico. What is Brawn's fuel consumption issue? Top revs too much, gearing wrong?
+, I think, an honourable mention for Hispania. After Albert Pk we all expected them to fold but well done to them. There's a chromosone of Minardi in there, God bless them. No-one likes us but we don't care ...
Of course it helps if you have the fastest car in the field.
What a race. 3 races in and strategists must be scratching their heads.
Going flat out was yesterdays race. Now, a tyre bank is more important than speed, unless your Williams, Hispania, Virgin or Lotus. Then it doesn't matter.
Wonder if Sam Michael will last the year out.
TOIT need to rely on strategy or weather. Same with Merc, although this was a big improvement.
If only Kubica was driving...
Well done Di Resta.
The last 15 laps esp were fantastic, If only it was 3 laps longer...
Seeing the race after the hoopla was interesting. Whilst it is true, that Webber's drive was fantastic, it also true that Hamilton was inspired. For that matter, Vettel did almost everything humanly possible to hold the lead against a patently quicker car. Rosberg exploited Mercedes only card as well as any man could. The Toit boys never gave up, but I find myself wondering how anyone with lesser talent than those two could have kept the cars so high.
The fact is that we saw something wonderful in China. The very fact of a tyre that is so different from one compound to the other, and from one lap to the other, was enough to show us how good these drivers are. And they are VERY good.
I really think that it was a privellege to see these guys showing their skills driving machines that were at odd times completely uneven seemed to take away the veil of technology that shields the drivers' talents for so much of the time, and showed us what they can do on their own. It was pure magic.
I don't think that I would be comfortable singleing out drivers from Shanghai - unless you want to count Perez trying to be the new Kobayashi. Instead, I'm going to remember a celebration of racing from a bunch of really good racers.
Great to see Macca are real challenge for RBR, it's very important RBR not to take a huge lead now as Brawn did in 2009, otherwise they risk to kill the championship anyway.
Merc simply cannot do anything more at the moment (also because they are only racing one car), and so TOIT (unusually apatic Fernando, who is quite demotivated recently, and unusually lively Felipe, who is trying his best not to get sacked).
Who knows where could Renault be with Robert, who by the way left the hospital, now we have to wait August to know if he can be in F1 in 2012. To see if he will be back to the top, we'll have to wait much longer, of course.
Well done Sauber and Lotus.
Yes, with DRS it seems a bit like Disneyland F1 in comparison to the '70s and '80s, still it is better to see surpasses than not to see them!
Now Turkey, one of the very best track, where unfortunately we may be seeing F1 for the last time. Bernie is apparently asking double money to confirm the GP, but Istanbul mayor said it's too much, considering Turks were not conquered by F1 and there are not enough crowds to justify the investment. Apparently, though, Bernie would be very keen on finding a solution as he adores the track and the country. Let's hope not to lose Turkey, we're already going to lose Melbourne, and Budapest is still there (and there will remain at least until Russia arrives), and new tracks tend to be like Valencia and Singapore......
Singapore, Valencia and Abu can take a hike for all I care. Tilke is also helping with the new one in Austin but it looks like its nice and hilly like Turkey.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8961713.stm
[Edited on 1-5-11 by viges]