Official 2014 Belgian Grand Prix thread ***SPOILERS with monkey seats***

2014 Belgian Grand Prix




Previous Winners


2004 - Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes)

2005 - Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes)

2006 - Nobody (Race not held)

2007 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

2008 - Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

2009 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

2010 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes)

2011 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault)

2012 - Jenson Button (McLaren Mercedes)

2013 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault)

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

About time we got a thread up for this

Let's see what these commenters on another website think about the upcoming event...


*If this is too innappropiate, please do inform me :P

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2014 10:51PM by smoglessbutton4.

LMAO Monkey seats, and double LMAO for the seminal race. :D

Loving being back at Spa, all 3 Practice sessions have made good watching.

Fingers crossed for a miracle Kimi win!

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Spa has just remembered its Spa and dumped half the world's weather on the track.

LOL at BBC. Stotting down, Eddie just dumps his umbrella in the middle of the pitlane, Coulthard refuses to share his (not even with Perry!) before they abandon ship and head for a garage! Suzi couldn't stop giggling, which is probably the most natural she's been since she started in F1.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2014 01:25PM by gav.

That's some hardcore rain. Absolutely peeing it down. Hail in there too! This could be a fun quali, hope it's not delayed.

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Just switched to BBC for a bit, see DC still has his umbrella up even inside the garage. Brilliant.

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the Caterham looks much better and actually quite nice with the new nose design.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Excellent Pole by Nico, one way or another he's got the sweet spot right now when it comes to quali.

Surprisingly normal grid order considering the weather conditions. I expected Williams to be higher up, but nothing else really. The domination of Mercedes here was just scary. Vettel being best of the rest is what you'd have considered totally standard before the season started but after Ricciardo's recent performances it seemed a bit unusual too I guess.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2014 03:37PM by EC83.

By the way, a bit OT I know, but this GP2 support race looks like it'll be mental. Would've been nice if this weather had happened 24 hours later!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2014 03:49PM by EC83.

A bit too mental... red flagged after one lap.

Red Flag because of another deluge in the GP2.

Anyhoo..

About the F1, aside from the Merc dominance.. notable performances;

Magnussen, because judging by the "meh" status of the McLaren he did well, and we'd probably also be told off for ignoring him if we don't mention him

Bianchi, put a Marussia into Q2, job done.

Lotterer ended up out qualifying his team-mate by a second despite not having sat in an F1 car for about 12 years.

smoglessbutton4 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> About time we got a thread up for this
>
> Let's see what these commenters on another website
> think about the upcoming event...
> [i846.photobucket.com]
> /Seminal_zps730c85f0.png
>
> *If this is too innappropiate, please do inform me
> :P


It can also mean "highly original and influencing the development of future events", which I gather is the original intention proper.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

It's been spitting with rain again. This start will be fun!

Edit: Alonso having a Ralf 2001 moment.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2014 02:01PM by EC83.

Big Mercedes explosion in 3, 2, 1... Wow.

Can't remember the last time any team boss was as publicly annoyed as either Niki or Toto, nevermind both.

I don't envy Nico right now.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2014 04:01PM by EC83.

Agree EC83

Wow, I thought the Mercedes top-brass might be a little more balanced, but they're all out for Nico very, very publically. Some of the strength of words coming from Lauda and Wolff makes you wonder if they're going to keep out of the seat for Monza as they are absolutely livid. I think away from the track, when they come to look again they'll be a bit calmer, as Hamilton wasn't free of blame, but the strength of word against Nico surprises me.

Personally I felt it was primarily Nico's fault as he should have backed out, but Lewis shouldn't have just cut across him.

Credit to Hamilton for his response. In Monaco he sulked, but here he handled it much better, keeping his emotions back a lot (publically at least) and speaking with a clearer head. He was right that the team should have pulled him in earlier too, but you can understand them wanting to keep him out as it's Spa, and anything can happen.

[Hello Morbid, if you don't mind I'll preemptively ignore the inevitable response] Some strong defending from Magnussen. Most of it was tough but just about fair, but it looked like he pushed Alonso onto the grass up the Kemmel straight (hence the pending investigation) and if he did he's getting a penalty, and it might not be a small one. You can't do that at 200mph (though Alonso's not immune to that himself).

Some of the driving standards today were decidedly poor.

Massa was appalling. Utterly appalling. Nearly a minute behind Bottas without any obvious issues.

Maldonado didn't let us down. After trying to use telepathy to drive his car on Friday, today he thought he'd steer it by using Bianchi's Marussia.



OK, happy Gav. Ricciardo was faultless again. Who'd have thought arriving in Melbourne that Red Bull, and Ricciardo indeed, would have beaten Mercedes-powered cars on track, fair and square - three times -and at Spa too! Even after Rosberg pitted for a new wing he should have had the pace, but then he destroyed his tyres panicking behind Vettel, and Ricciardo did his level best to capitalize.

Good to see Kimi back at the front and he had an excellent race. He's got a fantastic record here and Alonso had no answer to him, and it's not many times in the past decade you could say that of an Alonso teammate.

Alonso himself was good, and his overtakes around the outside of Rivage (I can't say I've ever seen a driver do that) made for great viewing, but ultimately his inability to overtake in a more conventional sense (with equal tyres on a straight) cost him today. Kimi made every chance he was given count.

Shame about Lotterer - potentially his one F1 start and his car broke before the end of the first lap.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, I thought the Mercedes top-brass might be a
> little more balanced, but they're all out for Nico
> very, very publically. Some of the strength of
> words coming from Lauda and Wolff makes you wonder
> if they're going to keep out of the seat for Monza
> as they are absolutely livid. I think away from
> the track, when they come to look again they'll be
> a bit calmer, as Hamilton wasn't free of blame,
> but the strength of word against Nico surprises
> me.
>
> Personally I felt it was primarily Nico's fault as
> he should have backed out, but Lewis shouldn't
> have just cut across him.

Really? Looking at the replays there was plenty of room on the outside for Rosberg even after Hamilton took the racing line - it's almost as though he thought he had space to turn in again (having moved his wheel straight for a split second before turning right) when he clearly didn't. Furthermore, it was something he simply didn't need to do after just 2 laps of a race as Toto and Niki have alluded to. Entirely Rosberg's fault.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2014 05:41PM by Diax F1.

20 sec penalty for Magnussen!
Great race in general, enjoyed it a lot

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Massa was appalling. Utterly appalling. Nearly a
> minute behind Bottas without any obvious issues.
>
> Maldonado didn't let us down. After trying to use
> telepathy to drive his car on Friday, today he
> thought he'd steer it by using Bianchi's
> Marussia.

I'm told that Massa had debris in his engine or something...

Also, what happened to Grosjean that made him pit at the end of the first lap? I had thought when I saw him going into the pits that it was him who tagged Bianchi...

*Also, the booing on the podium. Whilst I believe that certainly Lewis wasn't to blame there, I found the booing simply disgusting

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2014 06:04PM by smoglessbutton4.