Alonso apparently told Italian media that his car was set-up for the race and these comments below are encouraging: As long as he survives the first lap without contact, I think he'll easily finish on the podium. I'm a bit worried that Alonso and the other frontrunners will pit early and get stuck behind Vettel, Button and Hulkenburg, basically giving Vettel the win. Hopefully JB can hold him up in the first stint, and if necessary the other JB will react to blue flags in the same way that Toro Rosso drivers do.
All the post race interviews are xxxxxxx plays down pace of car. Seems everyone is 2s a lap off the pace and who ever wins will do it in a terrible car lol.
After qualifying 0.757 ahead of his teammate and being within 0.8 of Gutierrez, Bianchi said: âI am happy with where we ended up on the grid for tomorrowâs race, but I am a little disappointed with my lap to be honest. I made a small mistake which cost me lap time and there was certainly more to come. I think we have struggled a little more today perhaps, but I have confidence in our race pace and so I am looking forward to tomorrowâs race. It will be key to get a good start and ensure the cars behind us stay behind us, then I am sure we can continue our trend of getting closer to the cars in front and hopefully feel the full benefit of our upgrades. I think it could be an interesting race generally because of the tyres and the track conditions, and I hope we will be able to take advantage of some circumstances which might work in our favour.â What a driver! FORZA BIANCHI!! please log in to view this image
Nice To Be Back - But What Has Gone On? I have been away from F1 since Malaysia Qualifying and today's Qualifying, and was wondering if someone could sum up the news and rumours for me, as I am busy unpacking at the same time. Cheers. Looks like I missed an interesting Malaysian GP.
He was over a second quicker than Vergne! Very impressive. Goes without saying that Bianchi impressed, but very poor from Gutierrez, compared to Hulkenburg. Pic is also failing to show why he was picked by Caterham 'on talent' rather than the 'pay' basis VDG was chosen on. Really wouldn't be surprised if Pic was replaced by Kovalainen. Looking forward to Caterham bringing their 'real' 2013 car to the next race though, rather than this slow hybrid car they have at the moment.
Bianchi's clearly a good driver, just how good though can't be determined until he's faced sterner opposition than Max Chilton.
Malaysia was fairly routine. Typical Vettel win from pole, Webber backed him up with the best car. Mercedes picked up the scraps, bringing both cars home in thoroughly uncontroversial circumstances, unchallenged from behind, unable to challenge Red Bull. Everybody managed to find the right pit box during their stops. Maldonado spun into retirement. A boring race which has left everyone with nothing to talk about for the last three weeks.
Good to have you back Eternal basically what's happened is: - Red Bull are at war - Vettel said sorry in Malaysia after passing Webber then totally contradicted himself the other day by admitting he would do it again - Some believe that Horner is not in as strong position as TP at Red Bull as previously thought - Some believe Lewis has preferential treatment at Mercedes not as much of a storm regarding their team orders as many saw it as necessary due to fuel and perhaps due to Brawn being very clear over what he expected of his drivers - McLaren thought they made a step forward in Malaysia but now have stagnated despite updates - Consensus is that Webber will leave RBR at the end of the year and possibly the sport - The drivers and many fans are unhappy with Pirelli and their tyre choices - Alonso has laughed off suggestions that Massa has gained the upper hand over him due to him being out qualified in the last four races
Couple of golden quotes from Kimi putting the debate about the current formula into perspective. Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos - Racing Magazine) To all of you: we have a kind of racing now which is all about managing and controlling your pace, whereas if you go back to 2008 with different aerodynamics and refuelling, it was a sprint all the time. Which type of racing was more challenging and which type of racing did you enjoy more? KR: It is what it is, really. We have to get our best out of it. Years go by and rules change. It’s not easy to get things right, last year and this year, but it’s the same for everybody and it makes a big challenge but it’s also part of F1. Q: Which did you enjoy more? KR: It makes no difference, because this is what we have and you’d better like it or do something else.
This is random but made me [video=youtube;Hk1GnB331WQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Hk1GnB331WQ[/video]
I can remember back in 2010-11 when McLaren and Ferrari would qualify a second slower than Red Bull and then bullshit about how they would be faster in the race. Funny how things change. A bit yeah. No one went out in the first 10 minutes of Q1, first 5 minutes of Q3. Even the end of Q3 seemed a bit dull for some reason, possibly a bit anticlimactic having spent 5 minutes staring at an empty track.
Speed trap data, Webber's going to need to change his setup. [TABLE="class: raceResults, width: 715"] [TR] [TH="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Pos[/TH] [TH="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]No[/TH] [TH="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Driver[/TH] [TH="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Time of Day[/TH] [TH="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Speed[/TH] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]1[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]9[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Nico Rosberg[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:36:19[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]319.8[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]2[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]10[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Lewis Hamilton[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:37:03[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]319.4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]3[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]19[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Daniel Ricciardo[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:20:21[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]319.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]4[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]4[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Felipe Massa[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:43:14[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]319.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]5[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]18[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Jean-Eric Vergne[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:19:59[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]318.7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]6[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]3[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Fernando Alonso[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:33:13[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]318.4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]7[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Paul di Resta[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:42:51[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]317.6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]8[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]15[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Adrian Sutil[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:17:51[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]317.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]9[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]22[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Jules Bianchi[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:11:36[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]317.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]10[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]8[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Romain Grosjean[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:16:40[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]317.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]11[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]23[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Max Chilton[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:11:49[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]317.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]12[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]7[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Kimi Räikkönen[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]15:00:23[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]317.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]13[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]12[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Esteban Gutierrez[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:20:35[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]316.1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]11[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Nico Hulkenberg[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:31:59[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]316.1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]15[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]6[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Sergio Perez[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:16:15[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]315.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]16[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]20[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Charles Pic[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:12:21[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]314.6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]17[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]21[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Giedo van der Garde[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:19:13[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]314.1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]18[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]5[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Jenson Button[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:16:28[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]311.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]19[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]1[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Sebastian Vettel[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:42:39[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]310.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]20[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]2[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Mark Webber[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:16:52[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]309.8[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]21[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]16[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Pastor Maldonado[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:34:09[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]308.8[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]22[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]17[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]Valtteri Bottas[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14:19:04[/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]308.7[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
Interestingly Hamilton was consistent rather than nailing it in any one sector. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2013/895/7202/best_sector_times.html
I suggested yesterday they would put half a litre less in webbers car and i get criticised for it....hmmm. Actually this was too obvious and I don't believe it was more than a error...technical or human, or perhaps......
He was smiling afterwards (when he parked up). Should be a tasty but clean start between Ham and Raikk. I think Niki Lauda has less of a role at Mercedes than he thinks.
I wonder if it was a bit of a reminder to "know your place". Incidentally, I much prefer Suzi to Jake. Edit: And there is definitely a sexual tension between her and DC
