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[andrew]

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.

Thanks. Nice of the BBC to advertise it(!)

Just watching the highlights and am thinking that instead of all this padding they could have shown Q2 and Q3.

[Ferrari man 009]

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.

ok, so if Massa was out-driving Alonso so much, how come he didnt fly past Sutil (which Vettel and Alonso did at some stage in the race) and put Vettel and Alonso under more pressure?

The fact is Massa finished a pitstop behind Alonso. He was as fast as Alonso in Qualifying and the first half of the race, but over the whole 58 laps Alonso was much more consistent and that is shown in the results. Lets also remember that Alonso was sat on Massa's gearbox for the first 20 laps, Massa at no point pulled a gap more than 2 seconds to Alonso!

@ Andrew - I was watching Pointless on BBC1 last night and they advertised it at the end of the show (8PM) and guess there were other reminders through the evening.

[Hammer278]

If you watched the race, Massa was also fighting dirty air with Vettel in front of him. So if Lord Alonso was unable to overtake his mediocre teammate, I think it would be considered tough for Massa to do the same against Vettel.

Massa said it himself, after his 1st pitstop he was in dirty air most of the time and just used much more of his tyres than required trying to make up time. Alonso was given a clean pair of heels thanks to great timing and strategy by Ferrari...not to mention Alonso got incredibly lucky twice when Sutil was out of shape just as Alonso was catching him, and Rosberg who pulled off again just as Alonso was catching him. Lots of things went his way today, not just the pitstop. As you might know, taking the time difference between the two Ferrari drivers into account is not fair on Massa since both were in very different circumstances after their 1st pitstops.

[Ferrari man 009]

ok, heres a better comparison then. Both drivers were in clear air during the final stint.

Alonso's FL was 1:29.560
Massa's FL was 1:30.239

[Hammer278]

Lol so what if Alonso was faster in 1 lap?? The argument here is why did Ferrari waste Massa's time on old tyres when they could've pulled him in as soon as they saw Alonso has benefitted from the early stop!

I don't know if you're trying to convince yourself, but I don't need any convincing since Ferraris history is clear on how they treat their drivers. So its no surprise to me what happened today...let's just agree to disagree on this.

[andrew]

@ Andrew - I was watching Pointless on BBC1 last night and they advertised it at the end of the show (8PM) and guess there were other reminders through the evening.

Shows how much I watch BBC1!

I was watching Last of the Summer Wine on Yesterday then Air America on ITV somethingorother so would have missed any reminders shown in the evening. Such is life.

[LRW]

I was watching Last of the Summer Wine ......

You have this on constant loop, don't you.

[andrew]

I was watching Last of the Summer Wine ......

You have this on constant loop, don't you.

It's probably the best programme on TV at the moment.

They show one every evening on weekdays then 3 on Saturday.

[andrew]

I'm shocked at just how far back McLaren are! Hopefully Lotus can keep up with Ferrari and Red Bull for the whole season. A Raikkonen championship would be almost as good as a Vettel championship.

Tyres look too fragile again though. Not so good.

[FerrariFan63]

This was an excellent race. Three different drivers from three teams on the podium.

Kimi simply managed his tyres better than anyone, and was fast when he needed to be, conservative when he needed to be. Lotus held up well last year, so it's encouraging that they may well be able to maintain their relative pace to Red Bull and Ferrari.

2nd and 4th is good for Ferrari, putting them first in the CC. Massa faded a bit once he lost out to Alonso, but fourth is a good solid result and surely the podium beckons.

Red Bull surprisingly slow in the race, but I'm sure they'll be back. There's obviously speed in the car, as we saw in qualifying.

I was expecting Mercedes to do much better in the race than they did. Even if Rosberg didn't drop out, I don't think he would have beaten Hamilton, or at least wouldn't have been better then fifth.

With all the action at the front, I didn't really concentrate on anything behind the top teams, so won't comment further.

[Jabberwocky]

Today was a podium of championships.

1st place 1 WDC
2nd place 2 WDC
3rd Place 3 WDC

As for the race. Kimi was awesome... how many races are won by over 10 seconds when the guy in 2nd place is still pushing

[LewEngBridewell]

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.

Thanks. Nice of the BBC to advertise it(!)

Just watching the highlights and am thinking that instead of all this padding they could have shown Q2 and Q3.

They did advertise it... at the end of the qualifying highlights yesterday!

[LewEngBridewell]

Despite the fact that my favourite team are way off the pace, I really enjoyed that race. I was worried it was going to be a Red Bull cakewalk, so it was brilliant to see Kimi take the Lotus to victory.

There was some great racing at the front, really professional, and everyone kept it together.

Pretty surprised to see Pastor Maldonado make such a simple mistake. Maybe letting the frustration get to him? He's been openly disappointed about the pace of the Williams all through the weekend.

McLaren have a lot of work to do, but if any team can rescue a dire situation, it's that one.

[andrew]

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.

Thanks. Nice of the BBC to advertise it(!)

Just watching the highlights and am thinking that instead of all this padding they could have shown Q2 and Q3.

They did advertise it... at the end of the qualifying highlights yesterday!

I didn't watch it right to the biter end. I found something better to watch.

[LewEngBridewell]

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.

Thanks. Nice of the BBC to advertise it(!)

Just watching the highlights and am thinking that instead of all this padding they could have shown Q2 and Q3.

They did advertise it... at the end of the qualifying highlights yesterday!

I didn't watch it right to the biter end. I found something better to watch.

I thought Q1 was very entertaining!