Japanese GP Race Thread ***SPOILERS***

You have just shown it yourself.

Hmm... he caught Hamilton through having a lighter car before his single stop. The safety car came out not long after if I'm not mistaken. Might have to go watch that part again... I shall report back.

Before the safety car Lewis was doing times 2-3 seconds slower than his normal times and both Webber and Vettel were catching him. It may have been a heavy car, but he was horribly slow through all 3 sections. There was no doubt that Webber could have won that race (or Vettel) if Lewis had continued the pace he was doing before the safety car.

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Shame we'll never know. I would've loved to see Webber win :D

Don't know about other races, but in this race they had their car set up for a completely dry race, so the cars were in the worst possible setup.

gav Wrote:
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> He probably didn't have the pace to win, but he
> was miles faster than Heikki (what is it with
> Renault's awful pace in the rain this year?).


My photo gallery: [viltzu86.deviantart.com]

Couple of things that I'd like to know... why did Sato lose his front wing? And what did Webber say that was so controversial?

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

He said something like "Its kids isn't it, kids with not enough experience doing a good job and they f**k it all up."
I felt so sorry for Webbo, he definately had the pace to win but as usual his luck was up to its usual tricks. What was also bad for him is that he was suffering from food poisoning and threw up in his helmet during the safety car period.

sasjag Wrote:
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> people down teh grid


thats what i meant, my spelling is sit as always

mikef1 Wrote:
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> What was also bad for him is that he
> was suffering from food poisoning and threw up in
> his helmet during the safety car period.

In hindsight I suppose that might have been a good thing then. I know I personally wouldn't want to win my first race, step out the car and have chunks all over my face lol. Seriously though, I thought Webber had the pace to win and I was absolutely gutted when Vettel took him out. He really deserves a [aussie]bonza[/aussie] result but bad luck, as always, singled him out. If it's not reliability it's an accident.

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Circuit Thermalito

Liverpool Waterfront Circuit (WIP)




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2007 01:33AM by Fincent.

have just read from page 6 to the current page! only watched the race properly today (well yesterday, Monday) cos i planned to watch the re-run (had recorded the live version and set the re-run to record anyway) but had to go to work so only saw glimpses of it on the big-screen, checked the results on teletext though.

firstly, @ Senna, whether Lewis copies Alonso's setup or not, he still has to drive the car. copying Alonso's setup is not a free ticket to automatically win the race with no effort. and if Alonso's setup is so good that Lewis has to copy it, then why couldn't Alonso do the same job as Lewis in the races where Lewis has outperformed Fernando?

if they both have the same setup, then it must mean that Lewis is as good as, or better than, Fernando.

i won't insult you, but you have posted many comments that simply don't make any sense, or are so far out of touch that people can't help but react angrily to them. then you claim to be the victim of other people's insults, when you have provoked those responses yourself.

Ferrari - wtf were you doing? how much of an impact could Kimi have had in the race had he started on the correct tyres...?

Lewis - what a fantastic job he did. apart from the stop-starting at the SC restarts, he drove a faultless race. and as someone said earlier, James Allen was bumming him when he said "fantastic bit of gamesmanship", then Brundle, the voice of reason, replied, "no, it was silly".

feel sorry for Vettel and Webber, both victims of circumstance, i won't blame either, but as they said, it was more down to Lewis. lol at Webber's comment though.

remember at Monza 2000 when MS was doing that down the back straight, Button got caught out and hit the barrier? i think it's ok to do that in the dry when you have a genuine chance of warming the tyres, but they should change the rules so you can't do it in the wet.

and what i don't understand is that after Monaco '04 when MS and JPM collided in the tunnel, the FIA changed the rule so they wouldn't notify the teams and drivers of when the SC would be going in, precisely so that drivers wouldn't start accelerating/braking heavily to warm their tyres/brakes which causes the concertina effect.

why has that never been implemented? i seem to remember everytime there was a SC after that incident, its lights still went out to signal it would be pitting at the end of that lap.

Lewis/Kubica incident - racing incident. Lewis didn't know he was there, Kubica went for an overtake. no problem for me, don't agree with the penality though.

Alonso - looked more ragged than Lewis, probably didn't deserve to retire though. would like to see the start of his accident.

good battle between Massa and Kubica at the end.

would like to see a dry race at Fuji next year just to see if it's a bore-fest like a lot of other circuits.

pretty much certain of Lewis becoming champion now, bar anything strange, unbelievable to think that considering before the start of the season we were all wondering what realistic expectations for him would be (i personally said to be close to Alonso most of the time and to occasionally beat him and maybe pick up a win would be a great achievement, how wrong was I?!)

edit for typos

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2007 02:35PM by Muks_C.

i think it's ok to do that in the dry when you have a genuine chance of warming the tyres, but they should change the rules so you can't do it in the wet.

Weather conditions should have nothing to do with it. They do not need to warm the tyres, and if nobody is allowed to do it then it is a level playing field.

And nobody better start with this "cold tyres and brakes is dangerous" rubbish because NASCAR, IRL and CART all use this type of rule and if F1 drivers are the best in the world then they can cope with some cold tyres and brakes.

This starting and stopping under the safety car business is dangerous and has caused several stupid accidents.

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Yes absolutely. You just have to look at the carnage that sort of thing causes in on-line games (like r-factor) to realize how ridiculous it can be.

I'm sure Webber will be bringing this up at the next Drivers meeting (and maybe his lunch again!!).

there you have it. Lewis dicking about under the safety car, slams on the brakes (after being far too close to the back of it in the first place), Webber brakes to avoid passing Lewis (something which happened several times throughout the SC period) and just like what Vettel said in his interview, Vettel was watching Lewis playing games and hits the back of Webber.

FIA needs to sort the safety car regulations out, because whilst Vettel made a rookie error, the source of the accident was Lewis.

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Best thing about that video is the traditional cry of the shocked Japanese spectator. "Argh". Awesome. :D

Other than that, agree with what Dave said, but then were fairly sure what had happened anyway.

It's hardly like its an unprecedented incident either. I can think of two examples of it (Monza 2000 and Monaco 2004) but I'm sure there are others, and the FIA did nothing.

Actually the FIA introduced a ruling about it, but as of yet they have NEVER enforced it

40.7 Any car being driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or which is deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers at any time whilst the safety car is deployed will be reported to the stewards. This will apply whether any such car is being driven on the track, the pit entry or the pit lane.

Lewis broke the rules, and Vettel gets punished.

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Not only did Lewis break that rule but he flaunted the five car legnth rule too:

40.13

When the clerk of the course calls in the safety car, it must extinguish its orange lights, this will be the signal to the drivers that it will be entering the pit lane at the end of that lap.
At this point the first car in line behind the safety car may dictate the pace and, if necessary, fall more than five car lengths behind it. As the safety car is approaching the pit entry the yellow flags and SC boards will be withdrawn and replaced by waved green flags with green lights at the Line. These will be displayed until the last car crosses the Line.

The wording or article 40.13 should mean Lewis would get away with that one. "may dictate" and "if necessary" would be the argument there. However in 1997 at Silverstone, Villeneuve was given a suspended ban for following the safety car too closely, yet at several points during the Fuji safety car periods Lewis was much closer than we ever saw Villeneuve to the back of safety car.

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Exactly. Lewis has been allowed to get away with his fair share of misdemeanors this season, when he's been in F1 for a bit longer it will be harder for him to do that.
But him blaming Mark Webber for the accident really pissed me off:

"When we were behind the second safety car, I was constantly on the radio to my engineers to tell the Red Bull team to get Mark [Webber] to make a little more of a gap because I couldn't go any faster because the pace car was in front of me, so I was trying to keep the distance with him and then I'd move over because I couldn't see Mark and then he'd just appear alongside me, so he kept out-braking himself. I felt something was going to happen, and I guess my instincts told me right."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2007 11:12AM by mikef1.

Thats very poor. Very disappointing attitude he's been developing.

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The guys got awesome driving skills but his attitude sucks. Unfortunately the better he gets the more he reminds me of Schumacher!