The Official 2009 Japanese Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

quite a good race, vettel was immense, just in another league compared to the rest!
Kimi did great in the ferrari, his 2nd stint was amazing pullling Nick back in, just pb sectors lap after lap. He has scored the most points of anyone since hockenheim!

in the safety car restart, why cant lapped cars overtake and go to the back of the train anymore?





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2009 10:07AM by DJSKYLINE.

Probably cos it was just the end of the race or near to it. I mean if they had the laptime for the cars going to the back would've been high therefore leaving less time for proper racing

With such a great qualifying and a promising grid, am I the only one who thought the race was a huge anticlimax?

So yeah, it's great the gaps are so small, but obviously there's hardly overtaking when the speed differences are so minimal.

It's been a good championship so far, but most races have been dull. A bit like 2007.

Just do something about the racing! Bring an Irish priest to the track, reverse the grid occassionally, make the track wet 15 minutes before the race,... Make the races better!

Sorry for this rant, but here's someone in a bad mood for waking up at 6.30am for what seemed to be a much promising race.

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Bring back the racing

antihero schreef:
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> but here's someone in a bad
> mood for waking up at 6.30am for what seemed to be
> a much promising race.

Here's someone who woke up an hour too late because his alarm didn't go off :|

I parked myself in front of the telly at 3pm, cup of tea and some toasted muffins to get me through the race.......woke up to see the safety car, did I miss much?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

I thought Button drove a better race than Barrichello, and has driven a better season overall than Vettel. Does that not make him "deserving" of the Championship? Silly people making silly statements whilst in rant mode. *sigh*

The race itself was pretty good, I thought, if sometimes lacking in action. Trulli surprised me, kudos to him for a great drive! Did you see the press conference afterwards? All 3 drivers seemed genuinely delighted with their race, which was refreshing to see. Suzuka obviously has a positive effect.

Vettel was dominant! The Brawns probably went as quickly as they could, and like I said, Button drove better than Barrichello to finish only one place behind him. I'm pretty certain that both will be promoted and Rosberg penalised, however - unless I've missed something critical, he doesn't really have a defence for setting personal best times in S1 and S2 on the lap that the safety car was brought out.

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Please find us on [en.wikipedia.org] for more information.

the highlights of the race were Kovalainen mugging Fisichella and Barrichello whining about Raikkonen despite not being any faster himself

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Locke Cole Wrote:
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> I'm pretty certain that both will be promoted and
> Rosberg penalised, however - unless I've missed
> something critical, he doesn't really have a defence
> for setting personal best times in S1 and S2 on the
> lap that the safety car was brought out.

Apparently he does have a defence. No penalty. Results stand and the constructors championship goes on to the inevitable conclusion at Interlagos.



Locke Cole Wrote:
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> @ Gav, just to be clear, the five-place grid
> penalty is 'absolute' rather than 'relative'. So
> for example, Rubens qualified 5th in the session -
> his absolute penalty is to drop 5 places, so he
> starts 10th, irrespective of other drivers behind
> him also incurring penalties. In effect, think of
> it as the penalised drivers being given "set" grid
> positions, and then everyone else moving up to
> fill the gaps as necessary.

You were saying?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2009 11:04AM by gav.

gav Wrote:
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> Locke Cole Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm pretty certain that both will be promoted
> and
> > Rosberg penalised, however - unless I've missed
> > something critical, he doesn't really have a
> defence
> > for setting personal best times in S1 and S2 on
> the
> > lap that the safety car was brought out.
>
> Apparently he does have a defence. No penalty.
> Results stand and the constructors championship
> goes on to the inevitable conclusion at
> Interlagos.
>

yup

"The Stewards met with the drivers and the team representatives and considered the telemetry data, GPS records, timekeeping and video evidence. This evidence showed a 'low fuel' message on the drivers display had overridden the time delta information preventing the driver from being able to accurately follow the timing information.

[www.autosport.com]





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2009 11:10AM by DJSKYLINE.

and the skulduggery continues unabated

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@ DJS - That's a pretty awesome excuse. Fair play to Williams for spotting that and getting him off.

@ Gav - Yeah, my information was apparently incorrect. I think the way the yactually worked it out was ridiculous, though. It's as though they were searching for any reasoning that would give Rubens an advantage over Button. Does that mean to say that, if the drivers in P1,2,3,4 and 5 all ignore a yellow flag and all receive a penalty, then they will still end up P1,2,3,4 and 5 after the penalties, because they'd just all drop behind each other in succession? Crazy decision-making IMHO.

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K*bots UK, specialist providers of 'fun science' Curriculum Enhancement days for Primary and Secondary schools in Britain.
Please find us on [en.wikipedia.org] for more information.

Yes, its definitely a great loophole that Williams used!


Locke Cole Wrote:
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> It's as though they
> were searching for any reasoning that would give
> Rubens an advantage over Button.

Well according to Peter Windsor, most of the media in the paddock expected exactly that to happen.

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X (@ed24f1)

that Ferrari has enormous potential - not been "developed" according to them since Hungary and yet kimi can still stick in 4th.

I.Tz No Problem
For all your home and business I.T needs
[www.itznoproblem.com]
enquiry@itznoproblem.com

this Race was one of the worst i saw for a long time ago (including the brazil 08)
But my point is the Fernando got screwed yesterday by that Fia dickheads but Fernando still managed to gain 7 positions wich is more than everybody else. An thats the bottom line because alonso0506 said so.

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"And thats the bottom line cause Alonso0506 said so"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2009 02:00PM by alonso0506.

You could just put that last sentence as your sig so you don't have to type it everytime.

The Rosberg thing was actually an error with the Standard ECU, not a Williams issue, according to James Allen's twitter page. I'm sure if it was a Williams message overriding the FIA SC information, he would have got a penalty, or Williams would have got a fine

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X (@ed24f1)

Rubens was awful today.

Button was alot quicker and did alot more with that car than Rubens, as in Singapore! Button is shite at qualifying but has brilliant race pace. Rubens should have been ahead of Kimi and Nico, no doubt. Quite a major disapointment for me there.

A poor race too.

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

Delighted with the result, Vettel driving flawlessly from the front again. Pleased for Trulli and Toyota too, beat Hamilton on genuine pace and wasn't embarrassed by the KERS of the Merc, maybe this will be the turning point for them...?

Shame Webbers weekend was pretty much over after the crash in FP3, basically handed the Constructors to Brawn because of that. But I'd have taken second in the Constructors at the start of the season so can't complain, I'm just amazed Red Bull were/are actually in the hunt.

Hoping for Button to do a Hamilton '07 now and hand the title to Vettel, although when it first happened it was fairly unlikely, so twice is nigh on impossible. If Button does win it, he deserving of it, made a much better job of it than Rubens at the beginning and completely blitzed everyone in the first 6/7 races.

Not a fantastic race action-wise, but a nice return for Suzuka.

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For me a good race but could have been better. Delighted for Trulli/Toyota - great drive by him. Vettel absolutely dominated, flawless drive - and with Webber getting fastest lap it does give the impression that, had fate not completely conspired against him (beyond the fact that *he* broke his car on Saturday), then only one Brawn would have scored any points.

Good race by Hamilton and Raikkonen - Hamilton's KERS disappearing again did make for a bit of excitement in what I have to say was not always the most riveting Grand Prix. I think Button did well to recover and was genuinely faster than Barrichello, whose excuse of having a crap setup seems fair to say. Still, luck really went with Button - Sutil and Kovalainen removed themselves out of his way (I was a bit annoyed with Kovalainen about that but I always had a fear that, with Sutil involved, a crash might happen - which is one of the reasons I thought Button wasn't right up with them) and then when Kubica started to threaten him, BMW came to his rescue. Heidfeld was racing Kimi around the pitstop window and then I know they said they had to top up Heidfeld's engine or whatever but I'm sure I just saw them holding his car back for what ultimately seemed to me to be no other reason except to fail to beat Kimi and then completely screw up Robert's race as Nick stubbornly refused to let Robert through despite him being on a different strategy and a hell of a lot quicker at the time. Nick is perfectly entitled to do this, but it doesn't really give the impression that they are team-mates who would hold the door open for each other...

Second nasty shunt for Alguersuari in as many days, glad to see he's fine but I doubt he'll be so fond of Suzuka as the other "rookies" will be. Had to say Brundle's comments did kinda remind me of Webber's comments about Vettel back in Fiji '07 (in a more family-friendly manner though). Should you put "kids" in F1 cars? As a case in point, Vettel "****ed everything up" in Fiji but just two years later and he's winning the same Grand Prix in masterful style. I remember Schumacher stuffed his car into the wall or into other drivers (France 92 anyone?) several times in his first few seasons. Thing is though, is the massive reduction in testing going to make a big difference in the development of young drivers? Is it right that they learn their trade as F1 drivers not in the relative safety of an empty test track but just by hurtling around increasingly diverse circuits surrounded by what may well be 25 other drivers next year?

zulu_85 Wrote:
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BMW came to his rescue.
> Heidfeld was racing Kimi around the pitstop window
> and then I know they said they had to top up
> Heidfeld's engine or whatever but I'm sure I just
> saw them holding his car back for what ultimately
> seemed to me to be no other reason except to fail
> to beat Kimi and then completely screw up Robert's
> race as Nick stubbornly refused to let Robert
> through despite him being on a different strategy
> and a hell of a lot quicker at the time. Nick is
> perfectly entitled to do this, but it doesn't
> really give the impression that they are
> team-mates who would hold the door open for each
> other...
>

Well, there was Montreal 2008, where Kubica won thanks to 1-stopping Heidfeld letting 2-stopping Kubica through for the team, otherwise it would have been Heidfeld's win...