2011 Belgian GP **SPOILERS** + Race statistics

Maldonado was on a hot lap, but after Barrichello made a mistake at Blanchimont trying to overtake Kovalainen, it was unlikely Maldonado would have improved. He was never going to get over the line in time for another lap. None of that group did. There was 2 minutes 1 second left on the clock when he completed the previous lap.


Maldonado shouldn't be racing today. You can't deliberately drive into someone, despite Hamilton being a tit in jerking towards him before that.

What he did was no different than what Mucke did at Silverstone (just Mucke was more extreme) and he got away with @#$%& all too. Both of them deserved to have been banned from the next race (Spa for Maldonado, Le Mans for Mucke).

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
theRacingLine.net
SportsCarArchives.com

Senna did a good job. The race, however, will be telling as Heidfeld always made up positions steadily throughout. We'll see how Senna does...

The thing about Heidfeld is he's not exactly a 'medium' driver, he just won't ever make it to the top as a) age isn't on his side and b) he takes the car to where it SHOULD be, unlike the top drivers who punch above their weight in inferior equipment.

Maldonado is an ok qualifier but every time there's a race on he rarely turns up. He falls down the field each time, and his lack of points shows that. If he ever lost the backing of PDVSA, he'd be out of a seat.

---

GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

In all fairness to Pastor. Though what he did was wrong, I appreciate that it was perhaps payback for Lewis ruining Monaco for him. As much as I disagree with it, I cant help but feel in the future Lewis might give him more room when in close formation :p!

Still nothing justifies what he did. But then again have we all forgot Alonso at Hungary on Robert Dornboss (??). He had a 1 second penalty applied to him for each qualifying session. IMO Being in the best car at the time he got off easy!

Most people called for his head at the time but as far as I remember it was split.

But yeah, im generally of the opinion that 5 place grid penalty is nothing. I hope FW has given him more than a slap on the wrist!

edit - BTW Jenson on podium still my bet! Any news on weather?

Wet start and drying would be perfect for him!

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2011 01:06PM by chet.

Enjoyable piece on MS.

wow from Webber!

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Racing incident there. Lewis didn't check to see if he was there and moved across, and Kobayashi was always taking that risk. Equal blame?

I don't see how it could be equal blame. Kobayahsi was always going to be going there, and Lewis drove into a space without even thinking. Maybe Kob was clutching at straws, but that only brings it to 90-10 Lewis fault.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
theRacingLine.net
SportsCarArchives.com

Button seems to be on fire, great stint.

Awesome race in general so far.

---

Great race.

Senna was disappointing with the incident, and after pace.

I felt if Vettel won this one then it's game over. Now i know, its game over!

But yay Button podium :D:D!

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Niki Lauda tells it like it is.

---

EC83 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Niki Lauda tells it like it is.


Although Lauda tend's to lay into Lewis whenever he can, his views of this incident were perfectly balanced. Well expressed and fair.

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

great race, Jenson's flying.. he's driving beautifully... nice comeback from Michael, he must've enjoyed that...

and what a first stint from Alonso, it was impressive to see him go for the lead with such determination, it reminded me of Kimi 2009..

bad mistake from Senna, never tought he was going for the win in T1, if anything i taught Algersuari was the risk element in the start

with the Hamilton incident. it was his own fault, he might not have done it on purpose but he's got to remember he's sharing the track with other drivers that want his position as bad as him... Montoya was an expert doing that and he cost McLaren a constructor championship and even his first win.. i'm sure Mclaren will be supportive and all, but it seems he's forgeting that he's costing the team valuable points... it's not just the drivers championship that 400+ people work hard for, there are other stimulus and everytime he abandons a race due to avoidable incidents he doesn't seem to care much "just another race i don't finish"... (really?)

i don't know, after hearing the engineer telling him "remember what we talked about, take it easy with the tyres", i get the feeling they know he's a bit impetuous and at anytime might put in the wall what they been working for... i might be exagerating, but he's abbandoned a lot of races for avoidable accidents, and if you can't compete against Red Bull at least compete against the others but abandoning races, you're not competing against anybody


EDIT-----> Looking at the video, it seems he had DRS opened with Webber 4 secs clear ahead...






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2011 04:52PM by Slash.

Quote
Slash
EDIT-----> Looking at the video, it seems he had DRS opened with Webber 4 secs clear ahead...

He had it open because he was behind Kobayashi at the detection zone.

Oops, sorry Schuey and Slash!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2011 07:01PM by gav.

Yup - only it wasn't SchueyFan who posted that!

---

Bugger!

I just put that in a filler because I could remember red and yellow in the avatar and forgot to check afterwards.

Sorry SchueyFan and Slash!

Yet another faultless drive by Vettel, he's still definitely the dominant force in F1 at the moment, acceptable result for Webber as well since he made a dog's dinner of the start as usual, epic move on Alonso into Eau Rouge, I've only just ventured out from behind my sofa on that one.

Another brilliant drive by Button, epic result considering he was driving half a car at times, and excellent overtakes as well. Another decent showing by Alonso... but with the Ferrari's indifference to the "blings" he really needed more people up front to under-deliver today, and that didn't happen.

Very very good performance by Schumacher, last to 5th and consummately out drove Nico today, and no clumsiness, can't ask much more than that.

Hamilton was a bit unlucky, as much as I love to see racing I feel Kobayshi really should have let him go, he'd just got fairly overtaken by a much faster car. Yet, Niki Lauda is correct in saying that Hamilton should have kept straight and not drifted back onto the racing line. Stewards decision on the matter was entirely correct since it was a simple racing accident.

As for Bruno... all I can say is Doh! That was a bit of a let down... but at least he finished on the lead lap for probably the first time in his career.

Finally but not least Stefan Mucke got a point... who'd have predicted that?

Quote
Jim
Hamilton was a bit unlucky, as much as I love to see racing I feel Kobayshi really should have let him go, he'd just got fairly overtaken by a much faster car.

I've seen this said a few times, but Kobayashi wasn't defending his position - he was just keeping to the line in order to minimise his loss. Hamilton can't just assume he isn't there.

I honestly thought Hamilton was unconscious there. No movement from him other than limbs flailing about and no attempt to brake for the secondary impact. Thought we had another concussion for a moment.

Several buttock-clenching moments in that race. The Webber-Alonso battle into Eau Rouge and Vettel around the outside of Rosberg in Blanchimont to name two.

Kudos to Webber and Alonso.

Theres few drivers I would trust making that move work again!! As Webber said, he needed to trust Alonso. Well played by both. Move of the year so far IMO. Although it wasnt as strategically important as past overtakes, simply in pure awesome it wins! One of F1's best corners against arguably F1's best driver. Webber and Alonso showed us racing beyond the limit doesnt have to result in contact .

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL