How odd Forza. In spite of quoting Domenicali, your words suggest that he is wrong! P.S. My opinion is that the only way Alonso could have passed Button was for the latter to run out of fuel. When Alonso closed in, Button turned on the style again: he had taken out an insurance policy by nursing his tyres on the final stint and had plenty of rubber to use or abuse as and when necessary. Alonso made a valiant attempt but in my opinion was the third best driver on the day, in a car which was close to the McLarens all weekend.
Thread: Sebastian's Suzuka Awards ? And where did the old format with commentary rating and such go? BUT, ALO, PER, PET, MSC impressed me most in this race. Rating 6/10
I actually found it pretty boring as well because of little overtaking and it wasn't one of the races this year where there has been so many elements to comprehend. I gave it a 7/10 because it's not like it was Valencia and it was a lot better than last year's race.
I was hoping Buttons tyres were shot so that the last couple of laps were a battle for the win between Alonso & Button, although I did suspect Button was just taking it easy, when Alonso got to DRS activation distance I thought maybe it was gonna happen. But then Button put the hammer down when he needed to. I think he should've done it a lap earlier to keep Alonso outside the DRS, and he wasn't wise to keep going for Sebs inside at the start, but apart form those 2 small errors it was an almost flawless performance. Button controlled Alonso perfectly. I think the Ferrari fans are as partisan as the guy that gave Ricciardo Rookie of the day after Perez beat the FI's and a mercedes. As to entertainment, I think someone called it more intriguing than entertaining, I think that was an apt description. I guess that shows how having a bad DRS zone that's too easy like in Canada and Turkey is more preferrable to a bad one like Suzuka
Very interesting. Thankyou both Lasagna and Miggins. I agree that DRS was not utilised well this time. The single zone the FIA dictated was 100 meters too short; but they should have had two of them anyway! Prior to the announcement, there were several threads in various fora where I suggested they should use the start finish straight and the section out of Spoon to 130R. And I still do not know why this was not done. As some will already know, I have been banging on about DRS being little but a gimmick unless it is much more within a driver's control. That said, I have acknowledged that it has given us some very entertaining races this season. But if it is here to stay, I'd like to see far more use of it. And the same goes for KERS!
I'm not sure it just didn't have me on edge of my seat basically it was a simple straight forward race with no real surprise elements involved, Hamilton and Massa coming together again was far from a surprise.. I honestly have to think hard to remember the key moments and thats not usually the case. I noticed Hate worldwide scored it 2/10 which was my first choice but I gave it an extra 2 because Button won.
I thought it was up there with the best of the season, it may not have had overtakes by the second, but it was close racing which no-one knew who was going to win until 2 laps to go. I thought Monza was a complete bore but people rated it a 7 or so, so i clearly know nothing.
I'd have to agree with that in part. The on-track action was not thrilling at the front. Very much of the old style 'let's wait until the pitstops to overtake' philosophy of old. An intruiging race, maybe, but exciting, no as only once did it look like there would be an on-track change for the first 3 positions.
I think that not so bad. With so many overtakes this year one with intruige and tension makes a nice bit of variation. Monaco was another race like that. Not the best, but i was never bored.
I'm assuming that you didn't watch the red button, as you would have heard Jenson mention that he missed his pit board for 1 lap when Alonso was closing him down, so the gap went from ~5 seconds to ~2 seconds all of sudden. This caused Jenson to a) ask him engineers why they hadn't mentioned it on the radio and, b) him to put his foot down, a lap later than he too would have liked, and pull away from Alonso pretty convincingly. My 2p on the driver of the day. I think it's close between Alonso and Jenson, and I'd probably share it evenly between the 2. To add to the comments about Jenson above and elsewhere, Alonso was also perhaps fortunate (towards the end of the race) that Vettel was reminded that he was better off getting to the end of the race in 3rd to take the championship (and not waste all those rather dull T-Shirts) rather than risking attacking Alonso, which Vettel mentioned that he could have done had he really wanted to, apparently.
Aloonatron, no I don't have the red button function (I don't watch enough TV to bother with a set top box, although when digital comes out I might have to, or just get rid of the TV and watch everything on line)
Good comment Aloonatron. I also believe this explained why Button allowed the gap to close more than perhaps he should, if - as seems very likely from his reaction when he realised the gap was a lot smaller - he could turn the wick up at will (which I personally believe he could and did do without difficulty). It's a great shame you did not see Sunday's red button coverage Miggins; it was one of the most illuminating, entertaining and throughly absorbing I've seen! (Although I was not in the UK to watch it live, I have since seen a recording of it).
No worries. I hope that my comment didn't come over as patronising or condescending, as is always the danger with there message boards ) The good news is that the Forum is (usually) available on the iPlayer, so hopefully you can watch it there, and as others have pointed out, it is well worth a watch. The whole mood of the show switches to a more relaxed one, and drivers/team principles tend to be a bit more chatty and they have the time to explain themselves a little more too. All in all you get more information as well as more of a feel of the atmosphere around the pits too.
Winners of the Suzuka awards are : Best Driver: Jensen Button Worst Driver:Bruno Senna Best Rookie: Sergio Perez Best Team: Mclaren Worst Team: HRT Race rating Average: 7.69 Awards were a bit slow being posted this week, my apologies
Best Driver Jenson Button (5) Sebastian Vettel (4) Lewis Hamilton (3) Worst Driver Felipe Massa (3) Lewis Hamilton (3) Michael Schumacher (2) Bruno Senna (1) Best Rookie Paul Di Resta (5) Sergio Perez (5) Jerome D'ambrosio (2) Pastor Maldonado (2) Daniel Ricciardo (1) Best Team Red Bull (7) McLaren (6) Ferrari (2) Worst Team HRT (5) Mclaren (3) Williams (2) Ferrari (2) Renault (2) Virgin (1) Red Bull (1) Best Race Canada (9.50) China (9.48) Hungary (8.82) Belgium (8.32) Germany (8.30) Malaysia (8.21) Monaco (8.10) Silverstone (7.87) Turkey (7.77) Suzuka (7.69) Spain (7.25) List shortened in areas
I have seen the F1 forum after the race once or twice, when I've watched it elsewhere, but the 7am start meant I watched it from the comfort of my bed. didn't know it was on iplayer so I'll probably have a look. And no I didn't find it patronising or condescending, but I can see how you thought I could've been, that's the problem with text, no tonal inflection or body language to understand the subtext. I thought I'd written more than I had in reply and thought I'd said I'd take that 'mistake off', but it seems that omission has made my reply bluntly churlish. lol.
