The official 2009 Belgian Grand Prix thread ***SPOILERS***

chet Wrote:
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> Should be RedBulls still easy. Fight will be for
> 3rd.

I'm not so convinced.

Even if they are heavy, being down in 8th and 9th leaves them open to first corner collisions, but also could get them stuck behind a train, possibly led by Heidfeld or Kubica, as I don't know how good their race pace will be. It does allow them to have a short stint on the less favourable tyre though.

I think Kimi, Trulli and Rubens are more likely for the win still.


And Red Bull will definitely have no team orders yet - but if Vettel loses a couple more points to Webber, then it could start coming into consideration considering the Red Bull pace isn't as dominant any more, and Barrichello is upping his game.

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X (@ed24f1)

Trulli, Heidfeld, Kimi, Vettel, Webber and Rosberg all look good weight wise in the top 10. I do expect Trulli and Heidfeld their racepace to collapse abit in the race, so I really think and hope Kimi can pull this off, it's Spain 2008 for godsake

I sure didn't expect Barrichello to be the lightest. Either his lap was bad, or Fisichella's, Trulli's and Heidfeld's laps were incredibly awesome, or both.

Anyway, the patriot in me, who had been on life-support until last week, is hoping for a Rubens's win and a Button's non-scoring finish.


SchueyFan schrieb:
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> I think Button is just feeling overwhelmed by the
> expectation at the moment. You could see this from
> his fiery response to the press conference on
> Thursday.

What did he say?

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Um dois três quatro cinco seis sete oito nove dez
Eins zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht neun zehn
One two three four five six seven eight nine ten
Один два три четыре пять шесть семь восемь девять десять

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> chet Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Should be RedBulls still easy. Fight will be
> for
> > 3rd.
>
> I'm not so convinced.
>
> Even if they are heavy, being down in 8th and 9th
> leaves them open to first corner collisions, but
> also could get them stuck behind a train, possibly
> led by Heidfeld or Kubica, as I don't know how
> good their race pace will be. It does allow them
> to have a short stint on the less favourable tyre
> though.
>
> I think Kimi, Trulli and Rubens are more likely
> for the win still.
>
>
> And Red Bull will definitely have no team orders
> yet - but if Vettel loses a couple more points to
> Webber, then it could start coming into
> consideration considering the Red Bull pace isn't
> as dominant any more, and Barrichello is upping
> his game.

Vettel has two laps on Trulli, Nick and Kimi with Webber having an extra lap, so 3. Webber with 5 on Rubens, and 4 on Kubica and Giancarlo ... thats a lifetime at Spa!

One lap is say approx 1.45 (from todays times)... So in total it works out about 210 seconds to make jump for Vettel... easy given their pace.

A 2 lap difference at Spa is massive. The problem as you say is just the start. Its my hope, for Jenson's sake that Lewis jumps them both through the lap. Unlikley but its the only hope Jenson has got!

If RedBull stick to the pack the race is theres.

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

Red Bull WON'T win! :D

Chet, you think Red Bull will win?! Not a hope in hell. From there a podium would be an stunning result, and I'm thinking Rosberg could beat the pair of them if Williams are stronger on race fuel than they have been on lighter tanks.

Fight is between Kimi and Heidfeld for me. Disappointed for the title race that Rubens is so light. That's a pretty poor performance by both Brawns.

I'm surprised they've filled Button up. Given their straight-line speed, and how fast they are in the sector before the critical one and how quick they've been in the slipstream all season, I'd have thought they'd try and make the race happen themselves and get a bit further. I thought they'd even manage to get past the KERS cars, especially now we know they're both heavy. As it is, it's just going to be a case of following each other around, probably finishing in 8th or 9th.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2009 07:19PM by gav.

RedBull haven't been up there for the whole weekend. I can't see why it all suddenly would work for them in the race. I think Kimi has a very good chance of winning here and possibly Heidfeld and Barrichello too. But I'd put my money on Kimi.

omg

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Lex Wrote:
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> What did he say?

Someone from the British press asked him if he even wanted to win the championship, or something along those lines.

He replied:

‘I don’t think people are saying that seriously,’ ‘Who would possibly say that? “Does Jenson want to win the title or not?” It is a pretty silly question, isn’t it? ‘Why the **** am I here? That is not a question, is it? In reality that is not a question. “Does he want to win the title?” No, I want to finish second or third. You know what I mean.

‘What I would like to do now is stand up and walk away, have a good weekend and then we will talk about it afterwards.

‘When you have one bad race there are always silly questions. This is not the part of the job you want to think about too much. I want to focus on the driving.

‘I would say last weekend was the first bad weekend I’ve had this season. But I am in the best position of the four front-runners, so I am not feeling any pressure.’

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X (@ed24f1)

Gav, im going to put a quid on both drivers. Pretty confident they can do it...

Barachello's lap was set on the softer rubber... The slower rubber.

Brawn made a huge mistake with Button, and in Q3 with Rubens. I bet he regrets not going back in with the others...

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

"I'm not feeling any pressure" ... lol

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chet Wrote:
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> Gav, im going to put a quid on both drivers.
> Pretty confident they can do it...

Your theory is almost entirely based on no real gaps forming, on a train following whoever leads. Using that theory, Hamilton, Button and Nakajima have a chance. On paper, it's correct... but in reality they'll probably lose by more than 20+ seconds.

Gosh, Glock just keeps getting completely pwned in qualifying by Trulli. Trulli quite a bit heavier and quite a bit faster! Yet I bet Glock'll still end up ahead of Jarno in the race...

Heidfeld's really sneaking in there...Barrichello kinda looks out of it and I just feel the RBRs are too far back to make a proper impressio, despite fuel loads...Kimi, Heidfeld...the romantic in me wants to say Fisi has a chance as well, largely because I've written them off to myself a few times this weekend and yet he grabbed pole being looking ridiculously light. Yep, I'm going to say Fisi has a chance!

gav Wrote:
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> chet Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Gav, im going to put a quid on both drivers.
> > Pretty confident they can do it...
>
> Your theory is almost entirely based on no real
> gaps forming, on a train following whoever leads.
> Using that theory, Hamilton, Button and Nakajima
> have a chance. On paper, it's correct... but in
> reality they'll probably lose by more than 20+
> seconds.


Thats right, because I think the gap from RedBull to whoever leads will never be more than 10seconds to the leaders first stop.

We will see tomorrow. If iam right Brawn are gonna lose out bad, in particular JB. If RedBull do not perform as expected they will see this as a lost opportunity to take 18points.

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

If you're right, then Button is going to be in the top 6, being a podium spot at one point before the 1-stoppers stop.

I can't see it at all. The Red Bulls will be 8 seconds down at the end of the first lap alone. Any train that does form will quickly disappear here given the number of overtaking opportunities, and Red Bull, despite the theory, just aren't fast enough - they're on a similar pace to Brawn.

lol I expect Button to be alot slower thn the RedBulls, and maybe a pitstop in front by the time they pit... With his fuel he should be at the very least 1 second a lap slower.

Anyway.

One thing for sure, tomorrow has got the ingrediants for one awesome dry race. Dont get them too often, but reglardless of any moisture, tomorrow will be nothing short of awesomee.

I just pray for a super quick starting Lewis, a good first lap to get in front of the RedBulls.

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

Anyone able to record the F1 Forum for me 2morrow? Got a @#$%& dinner thing which is really at the @#$%& wrong time. I'll try to get out of it but looks unlikely.

chet Wrote:
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> lol I expect Button to be alot slower thn the
> RedBulls, and maybe a pitstop in front by the time
> they pit... With his fuel he should be at the very
> least 1 second a lap slower.

He will be. What I meant was that they qualified in that order, primarily because, on that fuel, that's the order in which they were fast to slow. Your theory is dependant on the guy at the front being the slowest of all that queue and holding up everyone up to the Red Bulls. It's not going to happen - someone in the top 10 will invariably be slower than the guy in front.

Agreed it looks like an epic race even before the start... only fear is that it will end up with a bit of an anti-climax with a regular winner getting their mitts on the silverware (Kimi most likely) - while that's not going to be a bad thing in itself, it would be brilliant to see a someone with zero or few wins to their name at least fighting to the death.

Though as I've said, it would be nice from a championship point of view if one of Webber, Vettel or Barrichello got a big haul of points. Ideally a 1-2-3, with Button nowhere. I guess I'm neutral there though - you'd be mortified at that! :P

Here's hoping the run from la source to les combes is happy happy kers time!

you'd be mortified at that!

More than that ! Ive pretty much sulked the whole day yesterday (only FP!) and today it was worse! Tomorrow a bad result will send me into God knows what!!

And worse, Jenson will think the whole world is against him. Like I do now !

If anything he needed Spa to be a comeback for him, a strong race and at least a podium and he would be back to his usual self. (I still say its his helmet!)

Instead he's going to be constantly looking over his back and thinking about everyone else. Its not an easy situation to be in. Track to track the teams are changing. It's not like in previous years where a Mclaren or Ferrari would turn up and be sure to win... The teams and cars just seem to be so track dependant. In what other season has there been two teams dominate races as easy as pie, then turn up the next week and be slow! Happened to both RedBull and Toyota! Crazy season.

As much as we'd like I dont think a Force India could win or get a podium, but talk about running before walking. They've not scored points before have they, in either season? No top 10 qualifying I dont think, so a pole is just so strange!

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