Zero interest then fellas. Hamilton won in the end. Not a bad race, bit of tension with pit stops, Vettel's best result of the season but all the real drama happened before the race started! After that the win was nailed on for Lewis if he kept it pointing in the right direction. He should walk the WDC now if his car stays healthy. How that pendulum swings. It's funny how the stream I was watching kept lagging until after the first couple of laps probably due to web traffic. All the interest is in the start of the race which doesn't say good things about the state of the sport. It must also be far from coincidental that all the action and controversy happens at the start. I'm sure it's scripted
Was flicking between this and the football. Hamilton was cruising it but seems a safety car got everyone back on hi tail and he did well to extend his lead enough to make that pit stop he needed. Sounds like I missed the best bit in the last 15 laps or so. Shame about Rosberg, but sets up the race for the title nicely.
I think so. He was miles clear and built up the lead to make hi 3rd pit stop and put on the tyres he hadn't used yet but safety car came in and bunched it all up with 20 odd laps to go. He then hat to build a 30 sec lead again on super soft tyres. Think he built a big enough lead to come back into 2nd before overtaking Vettel for the win.
And having to pit, got stuck behind Vettel for the time it took him to get up the road and drive straight around him without any effort
Main problem with street circuits is overtaking opportunities are very limited. See it here, see it at Monaco, see it at Valencia.
Valencia's been gone from the calendar Biscan for a couple of years but that was one of, if not the worst, tracks ever in F1. Great location though. All the action in this race was in the warm up lap and first couple of laps with Rosberg's problems. I agree to an extent that it was fairly processional but it wasn't entirely devoid of interest, some interesting tactical stuff going on and the field closing up again. I enjoy watching Singapore though because it's a street circuit, because it's a night race and it all looks amazing under lights in the dark.
More a case of going as fast as possible into the first corner with the aim of taking out as many rivals as you possibly can before disqualified or dying
Qualifying repeat of Japanese GP at Suzuka on BBC 1 now. Happened live first thing this morning. Won't mention the result yet in case anyone's watching it for the first time now. The result of qualifying might be meaningless if typhoon Phanfone drops in on the circuit. An abandonment would be a very likely scenario were that to happen. The forecast is saying that this is less likely to happen now but it's still a possibility. The big news coming out of Japan though is on massive changes to the driver line ups next season. Vettel will leave Red Bull for Ferrari to be replaced by Kvyat. Red Bull will feel confident that they have a new top driver and future WDC in Ricciardo off his brilliant first season with them. Alonso will leave Ferrari to join McLaren with the new Honda power which means that Button will most likely be out of a drive.
Just read about it. Sounds a bad one, hope he pulls through ok but severe head injury which required surgery doesn't sound good.
Who knows Running an f1 car into a tractor ain't fun If he's done that much it's glinting to be quite quite serious and I think f1 will have a much worse than massa style issue here. This rain was well forecast, it was tracked in and that crimes got firm so I dunno why a massive tractor is allowed out or actually order out to recover a car when there's buckets coming down
I get what you're saying. I'm not sure there should have been a race since all the drivers were aquaplaning straight after the safety car start and the severity of the weather / water was obvious and they red flagged it after two laps. But there are obligations to audiences and sponsors so the FIA, Ecclestone, the circuit and the teams want the race to go ahead as far as possible. Historically this has always superseded the concerns of drivers/teams. But it was an unforeseeable situation though I think, in one way. Sutil goes off after aquaplaning and hits the barriers. I don't see how the FIA and race organisers could have foreseen that particular wet patch and Bianchi hitting it and coming off almost exactly at the same time and in exactly the same direction as Sutil. You can't foreplan for that. It was a horrific fluke. The safest thing to do is always clear the crashed car from the run off area/tire wall immediately, it was just a sick and sad coincidence that Bianchi came off there and hit the digger loader. However, this should be massive provocation for a reassessment of that procedure and the safety of having industrial vehicles around the track. A lot of tracks have cranes that swing over from behind the barrier so a vehicle doesn't actually come over them. The loading is done behind the barriers/tire walls. This is much safer and I don't know why Suzuka has loaders entering the track area.
I do agree, i felt the car going out was just marginal at the start but then it stayed out too long and race should've started 2 laps before it did in earnest. An actual ideal would perhaps have reduced the race to 40 laps however. 1. there is history here on this conrenr of people getting narrow misses and injuries etc. 2. there is big history of rivers running across here and aquaplaning. 3. there is no attempt to change the design of run off etc. could it be designed to be grippy tarmac etc... i don't know 4. due to history of the corner. why is a big tractor used... why not place a crane there good suggestion.... again i'd not fancy being a steward having to run out there and hook up a cable to a car.... but why not a crane... i find these tractors are basically a stupid cheap way of doing this recovery. if someone can run off into tyre barriers there is a risk.. where there is a risk you say move the car fast. I agree... but to put a hazard out to move it is the issue at hand. I agree with you that there more than enough moeny gone into eccleston's corrupt pockets by now he doens't need yet more and all circuits should immediately be let hold back the cost of putting said cranes in. i really think stewards were put in danger big time as well as drivers....
i was going to suggest where the car came off was right near an exit any way so why couldn't the stewards etc push the car off, but that scenario could have ended as badly as this one sadly, or maybe even worst. does anyone know the time between the car crashing and the 2nd incident happen? i mean if it was 5 mins or so while safety car was going around, why take so long to remove the car, was it near enough immediately and just a sad coincidence of same area? does feel like everything is money driven now days, i know drivers get paid lots, but safety should be no 1 priority not keeping sponsors etc happy. didn't we have a footballer forced to play by the sponsors when he wasn't fit and it back fired? was that neymar or someone, i think it was a high profile player. any update? last i saw was critical after having operation.
