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[CookinFlat6]

Hey, CookinFlat6!! Thanks for humouring me with that great discussion.
Considering how much has transpired since your last post, I think it's best we let
it be, with you getting the last word.

But, make no mistake, just because I backed off does NOT mean I backed down!

p.s. thanks to everyone for the compliments. I'm happy not to have made a fool
of myself in defending my position and your words have proven that to me!!

Its all good sagi58, Im guessing youd be fun a lot of fun to hang out with

[sagi58]

Its all good sagi58, Im guessing youd be fun a lot of fun to hang out with

Likewise!!

[Hammer278]

Will they be able to fix the broken floor or do they have to get his car out of parc ferme to do that and start last?

If it affects his pace, maybe it'd be wise to just start from pitlane with a fresh car and gear the car up for overtaking?

[racechick]

The way Ross spoke, I would think they can repair it. He spoke of the team 'missing' the damage and so he went out with the damaged car.

[racechick]

Lewis on why he was so upset at Monza....he wanted to reward his team for all their hard work with a good result and felt he let them down, but he got over it quickly and went on to do a good race. He was frustrated that the hard work only produced 9th but is confident of good results going forward.
https://twitter.com/autosportnews/statu ... 7907282944" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Hammer278]

[What's Burning?]

F1.com Having ended the previous race in Italy in the barriers, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton entered the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix sorely wanting to make amends. On the eve of the 2013 Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, we remember how the then reigning world champion redeemed himself with a masterful drive under the lights...

When Lewis Hamilton crashed out of third place on the last lap of the 2009 Italian Grand Prix there was plenty of debate. Many criticized the Briton for pushing too hard and throwing away a guaranteed podium finish, while others praised his relentless pursuit of second-placed Jenson Button and his never-say-die racer’s attitude.

But whichever side of the fence you sat on, it was hard to argue that the 2009 season had been anything other than a huge let down for the reigning champion and his McLaren team, who headed to round 14 of the championship in Singapore with just one win (in Hungary) under their belts and, following the shunt at Monza, plenty to prove.

At least when Hamilton arrived at the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the second running of the unique night race he was again being talked of as a contender for victory - after all, for the majority of the year he’d been powerless to challenge the likes of Brawn and Red Bull, until McLaren’s dramatic mid-season resurgence. He also knew that whilst the likes of Button and Sebastian Vettel were embroiled in a world title fight, he had very little to lose.

“I remember my race in Singapore last year (2008) was all about damage limitation - I was driving with one eye on the world championship and wasn’t going to take too many risks,” he said. “I was happy to finish on the podium.

“This year, it’s very different - I know I’m out of the title hunt and I want to attack these last four races, pushing for as many victories as I can.”

Unfortunately, Hamilton’s hopes of attacking were hampered from the outset by a car that he found difficult to drive in Friday practice. In response, McLaren opted to give him a new MP4-24 chassis for Saturday, but that necessitated the team working overnight in incredibly muggy conditions to get it ready in time. They were rewarded emphatically, however, when Hamilton dominated final practice, ending up nearly three-tenths of a second ahead of Vettel’s RB5.

The scene was set for a thrilling qualifying battle between the two young chargers and they - along with Williams’ Nico Rosberg, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello, Renault’s Fernando Alonso, Toyota’s Timo Glock, McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and the BMW-Sauber pair of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica - duly made it into the Q3 shootout.

But moments after the drivers had completed their first runs - with Hamilton marginally in front of Vettel, but the German lapping very quickly - Barrichello put his Brawn into the barriers and brought out the red flags.

With no opportunities for quicker times, Hamilton duly took pole, ahead of Vettel, Rosberg, Webber, a rather fortunate Barrichello, Alonso, Glock, Heidfeld, Kubica and Kovalainen. Championship leader Button, meanwhile, had qualified his Brawn back in 12th, whilst Ferrari’s miserable season continued with Kimi Raikkonen 13th and Giancarlo Fisichella a distant 18th.

But there was still hope for those lower down the order - despite the tight and twisting nature of the Marina Bay track making it difficult to overtake, the slippery surface, combined with the proximity of the unforgiving barriers and the physical challenge of driving for two hours in intensely humid conditions, would likely lead to several drivers taking an early (ice) bath on Sunday evening.

On race day conditions were as muggy as they had been all weekend. As the sun dipped below the horizon and the hundreds of floodlights came on, a huge crowd began to filter into the grandstands lining the circuit, all anticipating a titanic contest.

With most of the field starting on the hard tyre and seemingly fuelled for a two-stop strategy, it looked like being a straight fight to the flag between the leading contenders. As the red lights were extinguished and the race got underway, Hamilton made a good start and headed the field into the opening turns. Behind him, Rosberg jumped ahead of Vettel who had his hands full fending off the fast-starting Alonso. He eventually managed to keep the Renault behind him and scampered away at the front with Hamilton and Rosberg.

Further round the opening lap and the other Red Bull of Webber was trying his luck passing Alonso, only this time it ended in the Spaniard’s favour with Webber completing the move by running off track and thus having to give Alonso the place back. Taking advantage of the situation, Glock stealthily slipped by the pair of them. Having started out with victory a realistic possibility, Webber’s miserable evening’s work ultimately ended with his car nestled in the barriers at Turn 1 after his right-front brake disc failed late on in proceedings.

Untroubled by the action behind him, Hamilton maintained a steady gap until the first pit stops, secure in the knowledge that he was running heavier than both Rosberg and Vettel. Still, he would have been pleased to hear that Rosberg had slithered his threatening Williams wide coming out of the pits and earned himself a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line. As Rosberg later admitted, it was a ‘silly, silly mistake’ and one that ruined the German’s hopes of a podium.

No sooner had Rosberg been given his penalty than the stewards had their hands full with another incident, deploying the safety car as Force India’s Adrian Sutil clumsily tangled with Heidfeld whilst trying to recover from a spin. In the ensuing pit stop shuffle, Rosberg plummeted further down the order.

When the safety car returned to the pits, Vettel wasted no time in hunting down Hamilton, taking full advantage of his lighter fuel load. The German closed to within a second of the Briton, but lap-after-lap Hamilton calmly absorbed the pressure until Vettel was forced to pit again on Lap 39.

The Red Bull was topped up with fuel and sent on its way with a new set of the racier supersoft tyres. But just as Vettel seemed set to mount a final, furious challenge for race victory, he too was hit with a drive-through penalty, this time for speeding in the pit lane.

In an instant Hamilton’s last major threat was removed and he was able to make a steady final stop and then nurse his McLaren to the finish, relinquishing the lead to Renault’s Fernando Alonso for just four laps before the Spaniard made his final fuel dash.

“This is the perfect end to a fantastic weekend,” said a delighted Hamilton afterwards. “The race was physically very tough for all the drivers, but it was actually quite straightforward for me.

“I made a good start and I knew I was running longer than the guys behind me, so I was able to bridge the gap back to them. It was a very nicely controlled race in that way. The team did radio me about a small problem with KERS - but I didn’t have a problem in the cockpit and was able to just disable it and then re-engage it. It worked fine after that.”

Behind Hamilton, it wasn’t all bad news for German drivers as Glock kept Alonso at a safe distance to score a superb second place, equalling his career-best finish.

“It was important to get in front of Fernando (Alonso) on the first lap and I was disappointed I didn't do it at the start,” said the Toyota driver. “I saw he was fighting with Mark (Webber) and I just dived in and made the pass.

“It paid off because after that our strategy worked well; it was the key point in my race. I was just concentrating the whole race on my speed and we didn't make any mistakes.”

Third place went to the feisty Alonso, who battled hard to give Renault their first podium of the year just days after the team’s former bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds had been banned for their part in the controversial race at the same circuit in 2008.

With the podium places settled, late race interest focused on the battle for the title. Vettel smashed off part of his diffuser on Marina Bay’s unforgiving kerbing, but fought his way back to fourth at the flag. Unfortunately for him, his gutsy drive didn’t count for much as finishing right behind - and limiting his losses - was champion-elect Button. Fifth place edged the Briton closer to the title, especially as his closest points-rival, Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello, could only manage sixth.

But the evening belonged to a rejuvenated Hamilton, who went a long way to answering his critics with a consummate performance under Singapore’s lights.

“I wanted to redeem myself after the last lap in Monza,” he said with a smile. “We came here hoping for a good result - and we got it!”

[racechick]

Nice read

[Hammer278]

'Nothing we can do' to catch Red Bull - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says there is nothing Mercedes can do to close the gap to Red Bull this year and believes the pace Sebastian Vettel showed at the Singapore Grand Prix represented the true gap to the rest of the field.

Vettel has won the last three races for Red Bull, with his most dominant display coming in Singapore where he was two seconds per lap faster than his rivals at times. With the title race now looking very one-sided and teams shifting their focus to 2014, Hamilton said Mercedes was powerless to respond to Red Bull's dominance.

"If you look at the onboards, he [Vettel] is on the power at least 20 metres before everyone else, which is a huge advantage," Hamilton said.

"There's nothing we can really do. We're always asking for more rear downforce and we always want to get on the power sooner. But the last time I was able to put the pedal down that quickly was in 2007 when we had traction control. It's a lot different."

Hamilton finished fifth in Singapore after losing out behind the safety car, but still thinks Mercedes was well off the pace of Red Bull.

"I think that's the true pace of their car," he added. "Perhaps they have a lot more in the bag then we get to see. So they are just cruising generally. On the restart everyone is pushing flat out so there's no reason why they could be able to pull away that much quicker."

However, Hamilton said he is still improving all the time at Mercedes.

"The last couple of races haven't been that good for me, but before that I have been growing an understanding of the car, growing an understanding of how to extract the most from it and we have grown as a team in terms of how we communicate," he said. "I hope this weekend is even better in that sense.

"We are constantly making changes, even after the last race weekend there have been things we can improve on in terms of communication. So hopefully we'll see a better weekend this weekend."

_______________________________________________

[racechick]

I just put the exact same Hamilton quote....about traction control, in the Vettel thread. Hmmmmm.

[spankyham]

At this point in time, I think Fernando and Lewis at Ferrari could be one of the greatest driver pairings ever. They have both matured since their days at McLaren and, within the Ferrari driver hierarchy, they could both compete and complement each other to the teams ultimate benefit.

I admire the respect they show each other and this is another example of how they have both matured.

Red Bull's car, not driver unbeatable says Hamilton

He is on the cusp of an ultra-rare fourth consecutive world championship, but Sebastian Vettel is not the best driver in the F1 field.

That is the view of Lewis Hamilton, who said his old McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso is better than the German.

"Fernando is the strongest driver I've raced against in my life," the Briton told Germany's frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

As for Vettel, Hamilton added: "He is not unbeatable; his car is unbeatable."

But Hamilton, the 2008 world champion who now drives for Mercedes, said Red Bull's Vettel will surely win the 2013 title.

"When I see him on Sunday before the start of the drivers' parade, I'll probably congratulate him," he said.

[Hammer278]

No thanks mate, he's fine where he is at Mercedes. They can both be cool and mature in their current respective seats....no move arounds needed.

[spankyham]

No thanks mate, he's fine where he is at Mercedes. They can both be cool and mature in their current respective seats....no move arounds needed.

I don't think there's any likelihood of it happening, so it's pure speculation on my part - just based on my read of them. I mean they are strong and mature enough now IMO. On the other hand, I just couldn't see a Lewis and Vettel or Fernando and Vettel pairing working at any team.

[Hammer278]

No thanks mate, he's fine where he is at Mercedes. They can both be cool and mature in their current respective seats....no move arounds needed.

I don't think there's any likelihood of it happening, so it's pure speculation on my part - just based on my read of them. I mean they are strong and mature enough now IMO. On the other hand, I just couldn't see a Lewis and Vettel or Fernando and Vettel pairing working at any team.

I know, it's just I don't even fancy the thought of it....Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari is a very depressing thought, as bad as Alonso leaving Ferrari to come to Mercedes.

Alonso and Ferrari fits perfectly, since it reminds me of those dreaded Schumacher-Ferrari days VS Hakkinen-McLaren.....and I hope to see the new version from next year onwards, Alo-Ferrari VS Ham-Merc. They need to get past the NEWEY factor though.

[bud]

I think that's a bit of a disrespectful dig at Seb considering Webber has the same car and can't seem to match Seb.
It's almost as though Lewis is being a sore loser.