FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[vroom vroom]

Also, it's good to see Sky Sports F1 using their 24-hour channel properly. The program for the race started at 6:30am, it's just gone 11am and it's still going! They're using their virtually unlimited time-slot properly, unlike Australia and Malaysia. Keep it up for the rest of the season, Sky! Awesome coverage; I can't get enough of Formula 1 at the moment!

Was also funny to see Martin Brundle walk past Lee McKensie from the BBC and David Coulthard from the BBC during his grid walk! We also got a shot of Eddie Jordan and Coulthard congratualting Nico Rosberg during his post-race celebrations with his team.

I have been watching the German broadcaster RTL. After qualifying yesterday they were interviewing Rosberg and you could see Ted Kravitz standing in the background the whole time. That little blonde woman was chatting happily away to him and he was just staring down at the ground looking completely miserable.

[What's Burning?]

Oh yeah, looks like Mercedes has sorted out their situation with the car gobbling up rear tires. Should make things going forward very interesting...

Wonder which will be the first team to join the double DRS club.

[andrew]

Instant classic. Congrats to Nico, Norbert, Ross, and the entire Mercedes operation, and to everyone else for a great show.

Hope the results stand. . . .

Nico and Lewis would be a great pairing -- but only if things don't work out at McLaren.

I was thinking this as well. Maybe Lewis should try and head to the Merc seat next year.

If anyone was following McLarens strategy, could someone explain to me the logic where they brought Hamilton in for the 2nd stop and that put him right back behind 2 slower cars? Then 2 laps later, Button was brought in and he comfortably got out ahead and was sprinting away. The gap between both drivers before the stop was 2.5 seconds, when they cleared the traffic it was 14 seconds. I'm confused.

Dont start me on pitstops!! Im trying to put it out of my head!!. Agree on the merc thing, Ive been saying that for sometime...I think he'd work great with Brawn.....as you say only if Mclaren doesnt work out. See how the rest of the year pans out.

He's leading the championship and you're both still whining. The engineers arent good enough? put your CV in if you think they don't know what they are doing Covering Webber has been mentioned its a logical reaction so what's the issue?
I'd hate to see the reaction if what happened to Jenson happened to Lewis.

Did you notice how McLaren deliberately made a mess of Buttons stop and he is now behind Hamilton in the drivers championship? Ooh the conspiracy. Proof beyond all reasonable doubt that Whitmarsh is favouring Button.... oh wait.... So both drivers have had a bit of bad luck so I guess (feel free to stop me if I'm wrong) they are, are they not, treating each driver equally. Surely not(!)

[Hammer278]

I was gutted for Jens when his wheel stuck(honestly-even though I wanted Lewis ahead of him),but he only lost 6 seconds. Lewis lost far more than that due to inefficient stops in Malaysia. The wheel was an accident not poor strategy.
But yes, despite all Lewis now leads.

Really? I thought it's justice halfway done.

[zurich_allan]

Oh, and just spoke to my friend at Mercedes to congratulate him. He's very happy as he's responsible for manufacturing parts of the braking system, and is now rightly gloating over many who had been predicting the car would eat its tyres - of course efficient braking plays a large part in ensuring low tyre wear, especially if you look at - say Rosberg today compared to Perez (who was in 2nd at one point) - lots of puffs of smoke and locking up from the Sauber, but nothing of the sort from the Mercedes.

[LewEngBridewell]

Great race again today. One the finest things for me, apart from Nico Rosberg's maiden Grand Prix victory, was another great points haul for Williams, on the eve of Sir Frank's birthday. Senna did really well, despite the contact at the first corner, and Maldonado finally made it to the end of the race.

I was really surprised by the pace of the Merc, having thought it would drop away in the race. Nico Rosberg took a fully deserved win, and I doubt there's many in the paddock who aren't pleased to see this. It was a shame for Schumacher, but that's what happens when the stakes are high (I hate to think about the outrage on this forum if that had been Lewis Hamilton....) Seemingly, only McLaren make mistakes.

As is was, Jenson Button's final pitstop was extremely costly, and the chance to hunt down Nico Rosberg with new tyres went flying out the window. It was a shame, but 2nd and 3rd was a good way of increasing the team's lead in the WCC, and cementing its drivers at the top of the WDC.

I bet Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel are none to pleased after their slide down the order, but Mark Webber's confidence should hopefully be getting a great boost from finishing ahead of Seb again.

And finally, we enjoyed some massively exciting racing towards the second half of the race! This is why I've always enjoyed DRS, this is why I've always supported Pirelli and their tyres. The race, once again, benefited from these things.

[calvins48]

Oh yeah, looks like Mercedes has sorted out their situation with the car gobbling up rear tires. Should make things going forward very interesting...

Wonder which will be the first team to join the double DRS club.

McLaren looked like they were chasing it pretty close, as did Red Bull and Lotus. If anyone's gonna have it, it probably won't be until Barcelona or maybe even later.

But how will it work with their cars though? The Mercedes F1 W03 was designed from the ground up with double DRS in mind and integrated into it. The rest of the teams will have to find a way to integrate double DRS without affecting the overall performance of their cars. Having said that, it might be easy to do.

[calvins48]

Oh, and just spoke to my friend at Mercedes to congratulate him. He's very happy as he's responsible for manufacturing parts of the braking system, and is now rightly gloating over many who had been predicting the car would eat its tyres - of course efficient braking plays a large part in ensuring low tyre wear, especially if you look at - say Rosberg today compared to Perez (who was in 2nd at one point) - lots of puffs of smoke and locking up from the Sauber, but nothing of the sort from the Mercedes.

Rosberg did lock up his front-right and went wide during the early stages of the race on his worn Options, but I get your point.

[zurich_allan]

Great race again today. One the finest things for me, apart from Nico Rosberg's maiden Grand Prix victory, was another great points haul for Williams, on the eve of Sir Frank's birthday. Senna did really well, despite the contact at the first corner, and Maldonado finally made it to the end of the race.

I was really surprised by the pace of the Merc, having thought it would drop away in the race. Nico Rosberg took a fully deserved win, and I doubt there's many in the paddock who aren't pleased to see this. It was a shame for Schumacher, but that's what happens when the stakes are high (I hate to think about the outrage on this forum if that had been Lewis Hamilton....) Seemingly, only McLaren make mistakes.

As is was, Jenson Button's final pitstop was extremely costly, and the chance to hunt down Nico Rosberg with new tyres went flying out the window. It was a shame, but 2nd and 3rd was a good way of increasing the team's lead in the WCC, and cementing its drivers at the top of the WDC.

I bet Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel are none to pleased after their slide down the order, but Mark Webber's confidence should hopefully be getting a great boost from finishing ahead of Seb again.

And finally, we enjoyed some massively exciting racing towards the second half of the race! This is why I've always enjoyed DRS, this is why I've always supported Pirelli and their tyres. The race, once again, benefited from these things.

Being honest, I don't actually think it would have made any difference. Having seen the rest of the race, and given that Button was going to come out 10+ seconds behind Rosberg in any case, it looks like Rosberg would have been able to manage that gap, or possibly even increase it in any case - his tyres never showed any sign of going off toward the end. Button would only have been able to get even remotely close had the tyres dropped off as McLaren were hoping / predicting. So 2nd was the best Button was going to get anyway, and as he got that second place, he didn't really lose out at all.

[zurich_allan]

Oh, and just spoke to my friend at Mercedes to congratulate him. He's very happy as he's responsible for manufacturing parts of the braking system, and is now rightly gloating over many who had been predicting the car would eat its tyres - of course efficient braking plays a large part in ensuring low tyre wear, especially if you look at - say Rosberg today compared to Perez (who was in 2nd at one point) - lots of puffs of smoke and locking up from the Sauber, but nothing of the sort from the Mercedes.

Rosberg did lock up his front-right and went wide during the early stages of the race on his worn Options, but I get your point.

Not really, that was more to do with misjudging the braking zone on tyres that had been worn at a comparable stage to every other car as opposed to tyres worn earlier than everyone else which was what most fans and pundits were predicting.

[LewEngBridewell]

Great race again today. One the finest things for me, apart from Nico Rosberg's maiden Grand Prix victory, was another great points haul for Williams, on the eve of Sir Frank's birthday. Senna did really well, despite the contact at the first corner, and Maldonado finally made it to the end of the race.

I was really surprised by the pace of the Merc, having thought it would drop away in the race. Nico Rosberg took a fully deserved win, and I doubt there's many in the paddock who aren't pleased to see this. It was a shame for Schumacher, but that's what happens when the stakes are high (I hate to think about the outrage on this forum if that had been Lewis Hamilton....) Seemingly, only McLaren make mistakes.

As is was, Jenson Button's final pitstop was extremely costly, and the chance to hunt down Nico Rosberg with new tyres went flying out the window. It was a shame, but 2nd and 3rd was a good way of increasing the team's lead in the WCC, and cementing its drivers at the top of the WDC.

I bet Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel are none to pleased after their slide down the order, but Mark Webber's confidence should hopefully be getting a great boost from finishing ahead of Seb again.

And finally, we enjoyed some massively exciting racing towards the second half of the race! This is why I've always enjoyed DRS, this is why I've always supported Pirelli and their tyres. The race, once again, benefited from these things.

Being honest, I don't actually think it would have made any difference. Having seen the rest of the race, and given that Button was going to come out 10+ seconds behind Rosberg in any case, it looks like Rosberg would have been able to manage that gap, or possibly even increase it in any case - his tyres never showed any sign of going off toward the end. Button would only have been able to get even remotely close had the tyres dropped off as McLaren were hoping / predicting. So 2nd was the best Button was going to get anyway, and as he got that second place, he didn't really lose out at all.

It makes you wonder where Schumacher would've finished in the end. He got jumped at the pitstops immediately before he retired. The battle for second could've been even more interesting than it was.

[racechick]

I was gutted for Jens when his wheel stuck(honestly-even though I wanted Lewis ahead of him),but he only lost 6 seconds. Lewis lost far more than that due to inefficient stops in Malaysia. The wheel was an accident not poor strategy.
But yes, despite all Lewis now leads.

Really? I thought it's justice halfway done.

Im being nice.

[McLaren]

I think credit has to go out to every driver out there today.With so much wheel to wheel racing,so many overtakes.3 abreast on a few occasions.Yet the only DNF was due to an error witha wheel nut.

Big thumbs up to 2012 it's looking like it could be the best year I've seen for a long time if it continues in this way.

[bud]

Great race again today. One the finest things for me, apart from Nico Rosberg's maiden Grand Prix victory, was another great points haul for Williams, on the eve of Sir Frank's birthday. Senna did really well, despite the contact at the first corner, and Maldonado finally made it to the end of the race.

I was really surprised by the pace of the Merc, having thought it would drop away in the race. Nico Rosberg took a fully deserved win, and I doubt there's many in the paddock who aren't pleased to see this. It was a shame for Schumacher, but that's what happens when the stakes are high (I hate to think about the outrage on this forum if that had been Lewis Hamilton....) Seemingly, only McLaren make mistakes.

As is was, Jenson Button's final pitstop was extremely costly, and the chance to hunt down Nico Rosberg with new tyres went flying out the window. It was a shame, but 2nd and 3rd was a good way of increasing the team's lead in the WCC, and cementing its drivers at the top of the WDC.

I bet Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel are none to pleased after their slide down the order, but Mark Webber's confidence should hopefully be getting a great boost from finishing ahead of Seb again.

And finally, we enjoyed some massively exciting racing towards the second half of the race! This is why I've always enjoyed DRS, this is why I've always supported Pirelli and their tyres. The race, once again, benefited from these things.

Being honest, I don't actually think it would have made any difference. Having seen the rest of the race, and given that Button was going to come out 10+ seconds behind Rosberg in any case, it looks like Rosberg would have been able to manage that gap, or possibly even increase it in any case - his tyres never showed any sign of going off toward the end. Button would only have been able to get even remotely close had the tyres dropped off as McLaren were hoping / predicting. So 2nd was the best Button was going to get anyway, and as he got that second place, he didn't really lose out at all.

It's hard to say, in clean air on fresh tyres I'm in no doubt Jenson could have lapped 6 tenths to a second a lap faster than Nico. in that situation this would have forced Nico to keep pushing and use his tyres even more.

[Hammer278]

I think credit has to go out to every driver out there today.With so much wheel to wheel racing,so many overtakes.3 abreast on a few occasions.Yet the only DNF was due to an error witha wheel nut.

Big thumbs up to 2012 it's looking like it could be the best year I've seen for a long time if it continues in this way.

I must agree. Props to Maldonado, I was on edge both times when Lewis made his move, first one being quite tight but it was fair racing all around.

Perez was quite aggressive though on Kobayashi, he almost ran Koba off the road on the back straight. Being teammates, maybe Peter Sauber needs to have a small chat with Perez.