How amazing would Force India be if they had Sutil and Bianchi as their two drivers. They are my two drivers of the day. Special mention to Alonso and Raikkonen as well.
Indeed! Di Resta should just be grateful he has that drive which he doesn't deserve. Still, Jules has time on his side.
please log in to view this image LOOSEWHEELNUT.COM I don't always win but when I do, Alonso is 2nd and Vettel 3rd.
Well I enjoyed that an awful lot more than I thought I was going to! Some decent racing, and very happy with the result. I still call myself a Caterham fan despite them stabbing me in the back and dropping Kovalainen, but the pace just wasn't there for them this weekend. I think Chilton reeled in a 17 second gap to Van der Garde, who I've been less than impressed with. Bianchi on the other hand looked stunning. I bet they're glad they didn't keep Razia, that decision could get them 10th in the championship this season, and if any of the back-markers are going to get a point, surely it's going to come from Bianchi.
Well done Kimi you were in beast mode today brother , Lewis fair play to him didn't have the pace of the ferrari,Lotus and one of the redbulls so 5th is not a bad result . Lewis looked really happy in the interview said the car felt good but as we knew lacking downforce . So on that note im not to optimistic about Malaysia. As for Mclaren it actually makes me feel bad seing how much they were struggling (at least they got a few points) Button said he doesn't expect any change for next week's race aswell, i think these flyaway races will be testing mode for them also alot of talk about mp4- 27 making a return but don't think the current regs will allow it. So conclusions of this weekend, well this was a topsy turvy weekend there is no representive pecking order. Malaysia should give a better picture especially because of hotter temps. Tyres should be very interesting.
Bianchi's fastest lap was 1.8s quicker than Chilton and Vettel 1.2s off Raikkonen. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2013/893/7191/fastest_laps.html
Lewis Hamilton - 5th: "I'm happy with our result today and it's much better than we expected for the first race of the season. The car felt really good out there; I had a strong first stint and was able to make the supersofts last longer than most of the others. We'd planned for two stops but converted to a three-stop strategy during the race. I don't quite know where we lost the ground to the cars ahead so we'll have a look at the race again now and figure it out. The important thing is that we have a car that we can really work with and the team have done a fantastic job to get us to this position. Thanks to everyone here and back at base for their support over my first race weekend with Mercedes. Now we'll look forward to Malaysia next weekend and hopefully build on this positive start with an improved performance." Nico Rosberg - DNF: "An electric problem finished my race which was a shame as I was on a two-stop strategy and in a good position to score a decent result. There are lots of positives that we can take from the weekend however. The team have developed a solid car over the winter, I had a good qualifying pace and the car also ran well in the wet. It looks like we have started to close the gap to the frontrunners and we can build on that." Ross Brawn: "We had a very good opening stint of the race, making the super-soft tyre last until lap 13 for Lewis and lap 14 for Nico. That convinced us that a two-stop strategy was feasible this afternoon. However, the balance on the medium tyre was not what we needed. Having committed to two stops, and adjusted our pace accordingly to preserve the tyres, the decision to convert to a three-stop strategy compromised Lewis relative to those cars who had gone for three from the start. The behaviour of the tyres is something we will have to think about and understand over the next days. Nico was running strongly when he was forced to retire. We saw a drop in voltage from the battery and that stopped the car. Overall, we have made a good step with the car and learned a lot this afternoon. If we can put the pieces of the puzzle together, we have the ingredients to race well." Toto Wolff: "We learned a lot this afternoon. We had to switch our strategy from two to three stops, which of course compromised Lewis in terms of his pace and also the final result. As for Nico, we need to work hard to ensure that technical failures do not cost us the chance of strong finishes. We can see that we have a solid basis to work from, now we need to keep our heads down and work hard to improve further."
was it lacking downforce?why was merc lacking straightline speed then?it was way down compared to the others.
Bianchi made a late third stop which explains his best lap. Still a great performance from him though.
Hmm thats a good question , i would have to some diggin but overall there downforce is lower than lotus,merc and redbull Mind you there SS stint wernt to bad got consistant proformance but the mediums stint was not working as Brawn pointed out. I honestly think they had setup issues and didn't optimize the car but its the first race hopefully they have a better understanding now.
Ferrari (Massa) had the two fastest pit stops but it was close between the top teams: Massa - 21.509 Massa - 21.511 Webber - 21.515 Button - 21.538 Vettel - 21.596 Alonso - 21.606 Perez - 21.705 Webber - 21.717 Massa - 21.754 Hamilton - 21.778
Pretty good race, but there seems to be significant gaps between car manufacturers which will be exaggerated by the tyres for the first few races at least. That might be a recipe for some boring processions. However, I think people are being too easily swayed by the respective lap pace between some of the team-mates (ie. Rosberg looking strong in quali, then Hamilton). It's noticeable that nearly all the ones who thrived in wet qualifying went backwards in the race, which has to be down to set-up. I expect most of the drivers to be a lot closer in consistent climate conditions across a weekend. Very happy Red Bull struggled, and that Ferrari and Lotus look so good in race pace. I'm not sure how Red Bull can legally be 1 second faster in quali, so let the conspiracy theories begin (no rationale please)!
