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[madbrad]

Poor JEV, I feel bad for him. His team really screwed him!

[calvins48]

Losing 6 tenths in the pits destroyed Lewis' race. The pit stops ruin his race again. Jenson was never really in with a chance due to his lack of pace.

I'm sort of getting used to this now, unfortunately. It's become routine that McLaren send out a voice of false hope for the weekend and then screw it all up in some way during the race. When Lewis came into the pits, I just thought to myself, "How bad is this going to go?" And, it was a lacklustre 4.3 second stop. McLaren should be at least sub 4 seconds for a pit stop. It was terrible but it was steady and that just isn't good enough at this level. With a season this tight. Yeah, there's pressure, but deal with it.

Yes, McLaren's pace was poor during the race but you can't pass here; the race is and always has been won in two places - qualifying and in the pit stops. At McLaren, the drivers and team seem disjointed. They seem happy-go-lucky. Giving BUtton false hope. "Oh, it'll all work out in the end." "Erm, they'll be rain we think."

Red Bull really are the kings of strategy. McLaren need to take a page out of their book, also with pit stops.

"You win and lose as a team."

"The drivers are part of the team."

Both those statements are true but the fact remains - the team BACK IN THE GARAGE has a lot of control over a driver's race and can substantially hurt it or hinder it.
We saw today just how true this is with Red Bull giving their drivers awesome results with some smart cookies working out a great srategy and performing very well in the pit stops, and McLaren doing the opposite.

You can't sugarcoat it. Sort it out, McLaren!

[scotty]

*sigh* Yeah blame the pitcrew for losing 0.6-7s. But that didn't lose him the position to Alonso. That was as clear as day when you see the gap when Alonso exited the pits - he was probably 2.5-3 seconds ahead.

[calvins48]

*sigh* Yeah blame the pitcrew for losing 0.6-7s. But that didn't lose him the position to Alonso. That was as clear as day when you see the gap when Alonso exited the pits - he was probably 2.5-3 seconds ahead.

But he lost 4th. You know as well as all of us that every point counts.

[scotty]

What, to Vettel? How is that the teams fault though? If Hamilton did better in and out laps he'd have retained 3rd and ultimately not dropped to 5th, simple as.

[calvins48]

What, to Vettel? How is that the teams fault though? If Hamilton did better in and out laps he'd have retained 3rd and ultimately not dropped to 5th, simple as.

The fact remains, a 4.3 second stop hurt him. There's no getting away from that. He couldn't do better laps from lack of general pace and not being able to pass anyone because it's Monaco. Why are straws being clutched? McLaren were poor again. Simple as.

[andrew]

Hud the bus there!

We're the pit crew driving the car with him? No wonder he wasn't going fast enough to make up the time to Alonso, what with an entire team in the car. Bashing a team for a driver not driving fast enough is pathetic. What do you want them to do? Somehow stop time so Hamilton can squeeze in a pit stop and rejoin in the lead and then restart time thus ensuring a win?

Unless someone can point me to any pitstop errors I can't see how a resonably minded viewer of the GP can claim that the pit crew lost Hamilton the race. The pit stops were as error free and as slick as every other team. Either he didn't drive fast enough or the car set up wasn't entirely right for race day conditions. Simple as that, no excuses needed.

[FerrariFan63]

It actually looks possible that Ferrari could overtake McLaren in the CC.

I'm not saying that it's likely, but it's starting to look possible.

[scotty]

Straws are indeed being clutched, because it is blatantly clear that losing 0.7s in stop didn't cost him the position to Alonso. Go watch it on iPlayer and see the massive gap when Alonso left the pits for yourself!

[calvins48]

The pit stops were as error free and as slick as every other team.

Er, no. In a time when they needed a quick stop, it was 4.3 seconds. Mercedes was 3.2, Ferrari were something like 3.3. Sub 4-seconds was crucial in how close things were during the race and every tenth of a second counts.

The guys seemed tentative and hesitant during the stop. Hamtilon was going as fast as he could, what was he going to do? Pass a guy by driving straight through him? He tried that in the past, it didn't work.

[FerrariFan63]

Straws are indeed being clutched, because it is blatantly clear that losing 0.7s in stop didn't cost him the position to Alonso. Go watch it on iPlayer and see the massive gap when Alonso left the pits for yourself!

How did Hamilton lose all that time? I just watched the race on iplayer as I had to be out today. And Hamilton was way behind when Alonso came out. What do the relative times of the drivers before, during, and after the stops tell us?

[andrew]

A 3 second pitstop would have made no difference as Scotty has pointed out.

You need to accept that the pit crew did a good job. Granted not the fatest but error free.

[scotty]

Hud the bus there!

We're the pit crew driving the car with him? No wonder he wasn't going fast enough to make up the time to Alonso, what with an entire team in the car. Bashing a team for a driver not driving fast enough is pathetic. What do you want them to do? Somehow stop time so Hamilton can squeeze in a pit stop and rejoin in the lead and then restart time thus ensuring a win?

Unless someone can point me to any pitstop errors I can't see how a resonably minded viewer of the GP can claim that the pit crew lost Hamilton the race. The pit stops were as error free and as slick as every other team. Either he didn't drive fast enough or the car set up wasn't entirely right for race day conditions. Simple as that, no excuses needed.

I admit the stop was slower than others, but when you see the gap after Alonso stopped too, to try and then turn around and solely blame the pit crew for the loss in position is just a total joke. There is just no way to claim that it did seeing the gap when Alonso exited the pits, there just isn't. Unless it is our old friends at the head injury ward again.

[Besson]

Alonso put in a lap 2-3 seconds faster than Hamilton's inlap. he had been saving tyres for that moment.

unless Lewis knew Alonso and Ferrari's plan (he couldn't) there's nothing he or Mclaren could of done.

[scotty]

Straws are indeed being clutched, because it is blatantly clear that losing 0.7s in stop didn't cost him the position to Alonso. Go watch it on iPlayer and see the massive gap when Alonso left the pits for yourself!

How did Hamilton lose all that time? I just watched the race on iplayer as I had to be out today. And Hamilton was way behind when Alonso came out. What do the relative times of the drivers before, during, and after the stops tell us?

We never saw. Not on my Sky feed (or the iPlayer replay later) anyway. Hamilton must have lost around 3-4 seconds to Alonso in that one lap period though, to go from the distance in front to that far behind though.