2012 Spanish Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

Wasn't it Frank's 70th Birthday this week?

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

KERS explosion in the Williams garage, with some injuries apparently. Let's hope everyone's okay.

Never seen an inferno like that! Crazy.

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Woah [twitter.com]

gav Wrote:
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> Woah
> [twitter.com]
> 9561302016001/photo/1

Oh my... Check this out

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

smoglessbutton4 Wrote:
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> Wasn't it Frank's 70th Birthday this week?


No it was on 16th April - every time the birthday was mentioned I thought "It was nearly a month ago"

It really disgusts me how at every Grand Prix sponsored by Santander they have their logo given out as a trophy. I know F1 is sponsor driven,but it's such offensively brazen advertising, nothing is sacred in f1. Vettel must have about twenty identical trophies on his mantelpiece. They could have the logo engraved onto it or something instead....
I'd be pretty peeved if I kept being given those abominations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2012 06:24PM by salvasirignano.

Sky's live coverage from in front of the garage.

[www1.skysports.com]

&feature=related

That looks NASTY. Aside from obvious injuries and important stuff... wonder how much ££ worth of kit went up there?! Williams are on a tight budget to begin with.

Apparently 9 being treated for minor injuries.

Was a good race well done by the williams team doing some thing both Sauber and Lotus should have done and bring their guy in early.

Have tbh never thought he would win a race so proved wrong. The Williams must have built a very good car this year, rubens has missed out yet again.

Great drive alonso as well getting everything he could out the car. Ferrari just got beaten on strategy today.

Good drive by Lewis keeping out of trouble and making the tyres last, I think he will look at this race as the one that got away though.

Shame about the fire hope all are ok.

Seeing the MS and Senna crash again MS is 100% to blame yet again he had his car in a stupid position if he was trying to pass, he never committed to the inside or the outside and there was enough room either side.

Not good! Wonder what the exact cause was?? I guess the garage would have been as busy as it ever has so worst time for it to happen! Hope everyone is ok! Surely put's a damper on what has been an amazing day for the team!

Looking on the bright side, the car showed genuine pace and during the last stint Pastor looked in COMPLETE control of Alonso (how many times will ever say that?!). It looked as though Pastor allowed Alonso to come upto him knowing he'd be using up tyres in the process! The guy just seemed completely unfazed, amazing stuff! We've had two NEW winners in the first 5 races! Grosjean/Perez/KK to be the next ones?

A few things I noticed during the race... Vettel was MEGA! I was obviously paying key attention to the gap between Button and several drivers, Vettel being one. Despite his pit stops Vettel drove upto the back of the Mclaren (twice?!) like Button was driving a HRT! (Was driving like a HRT though :p).

I think had things gone more to plan for Vettel he would have been a big force for a top 3, and had he started in the top 3 I believe he would have won the race.

Lewis was pretty sensational IMO. Button was sh1t. In fact worse than that.

Grosjean was steady but made a boo-boo with trying to pass Senna!

What I noticed more than normal was the gap between team mates. Lewis >>> Button. Vettel >>> Webber. Alonso >>>>>> Massa. Kobayashi >> Perez and Kimi >> Grosjean.

At this track you don't expect to see it, so I assume it was setup related and therefore tyre based. Lewis was so much quicker than Button despite traffic and arguably a worse strategy (looking after tyres in traffic!). Vettel as I said was stupidly quick and impressive, and Alonso too! Then Kobayashi had a shakey start but once in a long run he had seriously strong pace!

Rosberg was a chicane but did well to finish where he did. Probably an epic performance that's only obvious to the team? He looked as slow as Button yet came home with a strong result.

Interesting race, for me personally a fantastic result :D! I don't care if it's tyre related or not. William's win at Brazil 2004 was down to Michelin bringing a superior tyre to Bridgestone who just couldn't get it work at that track! Today, Pastor drove for me a perfect race! Never showed any signs of being under pressure, despite racing F1's hardened Schumacher beater!

I'd like to think similar results will come during the season and I for one am looking to put a bet on for Monaco for a surprise winner, and Pastor might just be that. He was epic last year till Lewis punted him off and he and the team will be full of confidence. My other choices would be Kimi or Nico.

As for the overall championship standings, again i am getting very tempted to bet on an Alonso 3rd title! The guy has come through with a dog of a car to lead the title (with Vettel!). For me, Alonso's performance with this car has been something amazing, something I can't imagine any other current driver doing! For me, Alonso has been the best driver this year by a good margin! People might love to talk about Vettel and Lewis being the current star's but what Alonso has done so far IMO proves they still have along way to go match this guy!

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

Good post Chet. Hard to disagree with you there, especially the Alonso bit at the end. To be at the top of the championship driving that dog of a car is stunning. It will be interesting to see where they go from here - clearly they've got an aerodynamically decent car now... they just have to make it work at every track.

The Schumacher-Senna incident was pure stupidity all-round. Senna was weaving around all over the place the in braking zone, something that's a big no-no in my book. I can see what Schumacher was thinking - he saw Senna coming over to the outside, so he went to go to the inside (in avoidance as much as to overtake) only for Senna to straighten up and stay in the middle of the track. I know it's generally the fault of the guy behind, but for me Schumacher couldn't really do anything about it... he's good, but he's not a mind-reader. He hasn't just ploughed into Senna.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2012 08:42PM by gav.

gav Wrote:
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> Good post Chet. Hard to disagree with you there,
> especially the Alonso bit at the end. To be at the
> top of the championship driving that dog of a car
> is stunning. It will be interesting to see where
> they go from here - clearly they've got an
> aerodynamically decent car now... they just have
> to make it work at every track.
>
> The Schumacher-Senna incident was pure stupidity
> all-round. Senna was weaving around all over the
> place the in braking zone, something that's a big
> no-no in my book. I can see what Schumacher was
> thinking - he saw Senna coming over to the
> outside, so he went to go to the inside (in
> avoidance as much as to overtake) only for Senna
> to straighten up and stay in the middle of the
> track. I know it's generally the fault of the guy
> behind, but for me Schumacher couldn't really do
> anything about it... he's good, but he's not a
> mind-reader. He hasn't just ploughed into Senna.

i agree there, Alonso is taking the maximum of every opportunity this year and it's paying off so far, now the team need to step up and give him a consistent car for the remaining races, he'll do his job.

about Schumacher Senna, i think the same, Senna move under the brakin which i think they've talked a lot during past years about avoiding it, if you want to move, do it before the breaking, but Senna went to the inside, and Michael tried to position the car on the outside to continue the attack on the other corners, every driver did it the whole race, but Senna then under the breaking area aimed the car slightly to the outside, Michael was commited already so he aimed to the inside, but Senna then stayed there..





imo Senna was the biggest clown of this weekend.

also last year the incident Schumacher mentions he did something similar, he waived under braking

What a hero...[www.telegraph.co.uk]

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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

Alonso and Kimi carrying you to the top of the podium?, how AWESOME!

Bruno does not have to move to the left though, MS left his move to the inside far to late. Bruno stayed in the middle which he is allowed to do, he moved to block then moved back to the racing line. Many have done this and no one has complained before. For me MS just totally got it wrong he never went to the outside or inside there was always a car gap.

Many drivers today were still moving over in the breaking zone and no one else crashed into the back of another car.

gav Wrote:
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> I know it's generally the fault of the guy
> behind, but for me Schumacher couldn't really do
> anything about it... he's good, but he's not a
> mind-reader. He hasn't just ploughed into Senna.

I see what you're saying, but I think this was a case of Schumacher misjudging the braking distance for a car on worn tyres. Senna did change direction under braking which wasn't right, but that doesn't explain the speed difference with which Schumacher rammed up the back of him.
It reminded me of Magny Cours '92, one generation down the line.

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