Bahrain Grand Prix 15th April *Spoilers* "ON-TOPIC"

great race for us massa 1st, raikkonen 3rd. What a whapping performance by dc! back row - 7th is very very good! shame the car let dc and mark down.

If it was a rule he would have a penalty and why would mclaren themselves complain he finished 2nd. What he did at the start thats racing!

okey, enough arguing, the point is that the championship tabel is very close, so things should get interesting in the next 2gp's in europe.

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Scuderia Ferrari Forever

Peat Wrote:
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> I love the way Massa is saying that he has
> 'answered his critics' now. All he has proved,
> liek he has done twice before, is that when he is
> out at the front and not in direct combat he can
> win. He is just another Ralf Schumacher.

Yeah. I'm yet to see Massa win a race where he doesn't start pole position.

I think Kimi did alright in the race. Pushed when needed, saved the engine towards the end since Hamilton was clearly faster than him. McLaren had some really good strategy yet again for Hamilton though. They seem to be doing a big effort to keep Lewis going with top results. Now that the championship is tied like that it should get very interesting. Techinically, Kimi is the leader though. 1 win, 2 podiums, against 3 podiums from Lewis and 1 victory, 1 podium and a 5th from Alonso.

As for Alonso, poor race IMO. Granted his car wasn't very good, but still, not like him to drop from a victory at Malaysia to a 5th place now.

Drives of the day: Nick Heidfield and David Coulthard without a doubt. Nick was superb all along as he kept up with the top four, and then that move on Alonso looked so easy! Great stuff. And David did very well also. Sorry for him that his car gave up in the end.

We have seen worse waving across the track from Schumacher in the past, yet it was hard at the legal limit what Lewis did.
Nonetheless the guy makes me get back my interest in F1 with every drive he does, and I´m sure he is due for a win quite soon.
All in all the whole race was very close for the McLarens, Ferraris and the BMW of Heidfeld...that+s the Top to beat. And behind there is the rest in a big bulk, which is cool cause it gives you interesting fights.
Though I´m not a Massa fan it was a victory that is ok, though there also could have been two other winners if anything went wrong (related to sheer speed and time gaps at the end). Massa had the luck he lacked in malaysia on his side today.

Brilliant!!! I know it's early days yet, but this year's Championship is shaping up to be absolutely fantastic!

Best Bahrain GP to date IMHO, lots of brave overtaking. Massa and Hamilton both impressed me, and so did Jarno Trulli (when was the last time that happened...?). I think DC did a sterling job, very unfair for him to retire.

Just OT... I'm a big Hamilton fan and I'm more tolerant of ITV's coverage than most on this forum, but today even I was glowering at the pre-race coverage today, thinking "shut the %^&* up about Hamilton and tell us about the other 21 dirvers". Hopefully this ain't gonna continue...

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Joe_Satriani Wrote:
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Techinically, Kimi is the leader
> though. 1 win, 2 podiums, against 3 podiums from
> Lewis and 1 victory, 1 podium and a 5th from
> Alonso.

Technically, Alonso is the leader - ignoring his win, his best position is second place, Raikkonen's best place is 3rd.

I'm annoyed at all the Hamilton hype too, not that I don't want to see it, but more that when he messes up, as he surely will at one point, being a rookie, all that hype will look stupid. He can only fail to meet expectations when ITV pump him up like that.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2007 05:27PM by Lemming.

Missed last 6laps, went pub.

But was good race, Rubens didnt do aswell as hoped but he made some good moves

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

"I'm annoyed at all the Hamilton hype too, not that I don't want to see it, but more that when he messes up, as he surely will at one point, being a rookie, all that hype will look stupid. He can only fail to meet expectations when ITV pump him up like that."


It's only gonna get worse, we're just have to get used to it i guess.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2007 05:30PM by mikef1.

was quite a good race!

firstly i have to say i was mighty impressed by DC, he drove like a man possessed! sorry to see him retire.

well done to Nick, but his move against Alonso wasn't spectacularly amazing, considering how Alonso's car was going. If Nick did that on a Alonso when his McLaren was at 100%, then it would be the real deal. and i say this as a fan of Nick.

well done to Massa for keeping his head, but as others have said, he's yet to actually fight for a win.

good job from Lewis also, pity his 2nd stint wasn't great.

Kimi - where were you? asleep at the restart? not acceptable mate.

and the thing about Massa saying he'll take Lewis off the track, he didn't actually say it. Ted said that Massa said it, but all Massa said was "i'll be a bit more aggressive next time, and will close the door a bit earlier to not give him a chance"

talk about ITV sensationalising things to make a controversy out of nothing...sheesh!

Renault - rubbish

Ant D did well, shame about his engine, but he should have got off the track A LOT earlier than he did.

oh and didn't i say Lewis and Massa were lighter than their teammates, with Lewis being the lightest of the 4? still though, Alonso was just fundamentally slower than Lewis, Kimi we're not sure cos he was behind Alonso for too long to make an impact on Massa or Lewis.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2007 05:47PM by Muks_C.

"Ant D did well, shame about his engine, but he should have got off the track A LOT earlier than he did."

I don't know why but i immediately thought of the mirror discussion we had here.

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About Kimi at the restart, I saw him driving slowly to make a practise start, so he let a gap, but at that moment massa gave full throtlle so raikkonen couldnt get the gap back

but coming down the back straight, he should have been aware that any second now the race would be underway again. it wasn't the right time to make another practice start. the 3 guys in front of him were ready, so he should have been ready too.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Being from the same team, is it possible for them to coordinate the restarts, or is it every man for himself now?

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I dont see ITV, so I will speak a bit about Hamilton. As i said, this guy is just AMAZING. In his third GP beats the double world champion (btw my favourite driver). I cant see the limits for this guy, i think he will fight for the championship until last races and if not it's because he still doesnt know some tracks. He is the most talented driver i've ever seen.

you mean could Massa have let his engineer know when he was about to start the race again, so he could let Kimi's engineer know?

dunno, i presume it would be every man for himself. i doubt Massa (or Kimi in the same situation) would care about what his teammate is doing.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

I don't understand why SA pitted Davidson on lap 28 and out with soft tyres, and then back in again on lap 39 for hards.

You'd think if he could run half the race on softs, you'd send him out on hards for 1 stop. Surely you don't lose 1 second per lap just on the difference between soft and hard tyres

mikef1 Wrote:
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> "Lewis needs to watch his weaving I think he
> messed up alonso's start but he still got 3rd"
>
> Yes Lewis drove really well but his weaving is not
> acceptable really, i bet Fernando will have words
> with him afterwards about that.


I got the impression he didn't know which way to go. 'Should I go round the outside of Massa or stay on the inside...maybe I'll try the outside..no hang on, inside...hrmm...oh @#$%&! Corner!'

"you mean could Massa have let his engineer know when he was about to start the race again, so he could let Kimi's engineer know?"

Yes, something like that. To me it seems that there was a miscommunication of some sort for Raikkonen to leave a gap like that.

"As i said, this guy is just AMAZING. In his third GP beats the double world champion (btw my favourite driver). I cant see the limits for this guy, i think he will fight for the championship until last races and if not it's because he still doesnt know some tracks. He is the most talented driver i've ever seen."

Nice words.

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about Lewis' tiny bit of weaving, i think it was simply to block anyone overtaking him. him jiggling his car a bit puts off anyone from behind having a go down either side of him, as they're not sure which side he'll stick to. Brundle said it was a bit naughty.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael