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[LRW]

As for the Sutil naysayers.....TAKE THAT! That's how you drive after a forced 1 year sabbatical.

I would question your definition of 'forced'. Actions/Consequences and all that.

[Ferrari man 009]

It's sad how Ferrari screwed over Massa yet again, putting him in some strange no man's land strategy....he simply wasted time on old tyres for 3 laps and then came in so Lord Alonso would be safely past him and on his way. Massa outdrove Alonso today, and got squatted by his team not for the first time.

I'm sorry, but those 3 laps did not wholly contribute to a 21 second gap between the two. For me it was simple, Alonso was fed up following Massa, Vettel and Sutil and simply called for the stop first. Massa by the sounds of things was trying to do a 2 stop but I think when they saw Alonso's pace after the stop the team realised this wasnt going to work and pulled Massa in.

If Ferrari wanted to screw Massa's race, they would have done it at the first stop, not the second.

[Hammer278]

The penalty doesn't justify the crime. Some whinger makes a mountain out of a stupid bar fight and gets a driver suspended from racing for a year.

If you want an example of a guy who deserves to spend time behind bars, look for Steven Gerrard...his bar fight with live footage, plenty of witnesses was a different plate and he got off with almost nothing.

[Hammer278]

It's sad how Ferrari screwed over Massa yet again, putting him in some strange no man's land strategy....he simply wasted time on old tyres for 3 laps and then came in so Lord Alonso would be safely past him and on his way. Massa outdrove Alonso today, and got squatted by his team not for the first time.

I'm sorry, but those 3 laps did not wholly contribute to a 21 second gap between the two. For me it was simple, Alonso was fed up following Massa, Vettel and Sutil and simply called for the stop first. Massa by the sounds of things was trying to do a 2 stop but I think when they saw Alonso's pace after the stop the team realised this wasnt going to work and pulled Massa in.

If Ferrari wanted to screw Massa's race, they would have done it at the first stop, not the second.

Did you hear Massa's radio transmission right after Alonso went in? He was questioning the strategy, and his engineers says "You have a clear track now lets see what you can do"....and 3 laps later they bring him in, I don't know what they were waiting for. 3 laps changed their mind about making 2 stops to 3 stops? Check out Massa's post race comments, he's indirectly said Ferrari screwed him over so there you go.

[What's Burning?]

Webber is on suicide watch In Melbourne. What an abysmal start, I actually felt bad for the guy.

[LRW]

The penalty doesn't justify the crime. Some whinger makes a mountain out of a stupid bar fight and gets a driver suspended from racing for a year.

If you want an example of a guy who deserves to spend time behind bars, look for Steven Gerrard...his bar fight with live footage, plenty of witnesses was a different plate and he got off with almost nothing.

Firstly I couldn't give a damn about a pussie-arsed footballer, and it's irrelevant to our convo.

Regardless of how insignificant YOU think it was, he got into a bar-fight that was significant for FI to want to get rid. There are plenty of decent drivers currently without a drive, and I'm sure Sutil feels grateful for a second chance.

[Hammer278]

Did FI get rid of him, or forced to drop him since he had a pussyfied lawsuit charged against him? I don't think FI were against him during that time, rather they had to do without him since he had this bigger issue of some knucklehead who got his ego massively bruised and wanted to make life difficult for Sutil.

Sutil as a talent is one of the better drivers in F1 now, and I can name at least 6 drivers on the grid today who should call it a day and walk off to let your 'decent drivers' to come in and experience F1.

[Ferrari man 009]

It's sad how Ferrari screwed over Massa yet again, putting him in some strange no man's land strategy....he simply wasted time on old tyres for 3 laps and then came in so Lord Alonso would be safely past him and on his way. Massa outdrove Alonso today, and got squatted by his team not for the first time.

I'm sorry, but those 3 laps did not wholly contribute to a 21 second gap between the two. For me it was simple, Alonso was fed up following Massa, Vettel and Sutil and simply called for the stop first. Massa by the sounds of things was trying to do a 2 stop but I think when they saw Alonso's pace after the stop the team realised this wasnt going to work and pulled Massa in.

If Ferrari wanted to screw Massa's race, they would have done it at the first stop, not the second.

Did you hear Massa's radio transmission right after Alonso went in? He was questioning the strategy, and his engineers says "You have a clear track now lets see what you can do"....and 3 laps later they bring him in, I don't know what they were waiting for. 3 laps changed their mind about making 2 stops to 3 stops? Check out Massa's post race comments, he's indirectly said Ferrari screwed him over so there you go.

Maybe he should have come in the lap after Alonso but if you read the interview, it suggests to me that Alonso decided to come in 4 laps earlier than scheduled because he was stuck behind a pack of cars. Massa wasnt scheduled to come in until the lap he did is how I understood it. What do you expect Ferrari to say to Alonso "No, you cannot pit and pass 3 cars because you have to wait for Massa to pit". If I was Alonso i'd have done EXACTLY the same thing and in truth it worked as P4 became P2.

[Hammer278]

I said nothing about Ferrari giving Alonso the pitstop first. My question is why wait few laps before bringing in Massa when he is clearly losing time hand over fist compared to his teammate? Added to that, he questioned them right after he saw Alonso peal in and the feedback was "You have a clear track, keep going"...yeah clear track with crap tyres for an extra 4 laps, thanks very much!

[racechick]

I was Pretty pleased with that race, it wasn't the most exciting but showed a rough pecking order. Pleased with Mercedes, good qualifying pace to get track position but difficult to judge they're race pace with them having to switch strategy, but a clear improvement on last year.
Lotus looking good, well one was. Kimi making a two stop work sealed the race. I wonder if they could pull that off if the track was warmer? Maybe then more cars could make the tyre do a two stop.
The Ferrari's looked very strong, both up there and fast. I think Alonso must be a very happy boy tonight! But why do that trick to Massa at the first race! He was the stronger driver. How to make his head go right back down just when he's got his confidence back!!Grrrr!
Red bull not running away...good
McLaren weren't sandbagging, they're in trouble, more so in quali I think.
Force India impressed and Suthil immediately faster than Di Resta, as I thought he would be.
Tyres that only last 5 laps seems a bit ridiculous to me, but maybe they'll refine that, and maybe the unexpectedly cold weather made them worse than they should have been. The mediums were better.

[Besson]

Felipe Massa:

"I felt really good during the fight for the positions, but i've lost some time during the second stint. It looked like Fernando's pitstop was way to early, that's why we decided to stay out, but in reality we lost 2 positions at that moment". Listening to Massa's words we understand that the drivers could decide their strategy, and not the team hierarchy.
"The first race and Fernando and I had a great fight, he made his stop early, it turned out to be a very intelligent move by Fernando, he not only passed me, but also Vettel".

fin

[andrew]

Does anyone know if the delayed part of qualifying was shown on the BBC at all?

[racechick]

Well unless Felipe was going for a two stop, of course stopping first would be quicker, because you come out on fresh tyres that go quicker than the one on older tyres, so you get ahead. I'm sure Felipe knows that, so it's very strange.

[racechick]

Does anyone know if the delayed part of qualifying was shown on the BBC at all?

I think it might have been shown at 5.15 this morning. I' think that's what I heard.

[Hammer278]

Well unless Felipe was going for a two stop, of course stopping first would be quicker, because you come out on fresh tyres that go quicker than the one on older tyres, so you get ahead. I'm sure Felipe knows that, so it's very strange.

Nothing strange about it. I don't know where he got those quotes from, but these are Massa's words right after the race:

Asked whether he was pleased with how his strategy panned out, Massa said: "No, I'm not pleased. When you are there fighting with a car and I was second and close to Sebastian and then suddenly a car behind stops ... he [Alonso] stopped pretty early to be honest - it was a risk, but it worked.

"Looking at the degradation we had on Friday we had 15 laps on the tyre and he stopped after lap 11 on the tyre. It was a risk, but it worked, the track improved after and it was much better to keep the pace with more rubber on the track and he didn't have any car in front. It worked.

"For sure when you are behind it's always easy to stop before and try to take a risk, but it worked. For sure, you are always a little bit disappointed to lose two positions and then after I was always behind and trying to overtake and I was using a lot the tyres as well. I'm a little bit disappointed because of this but overall I'm happy and the way we started the season was very positive."

__________________________________________

3 times referring to Alonso's early pitstop, add his comments during the race to Smedley and its clear he smelled a fish. The order from there was to "keep pushing" and after 3-4 laps he was pulled in after conveniently losing a second a lap to his teammate.