2010 Belgian Grand Prix ***SPOILERS***

Of course the cars all have power-steering, but still... you're pulling god-knows how many G, massive compression, it's still a touch damp, and you're using one hand...

Try driving one-handed on a racing sim... even that's not easy.

Petrov...balls

Makes this bit very interestingly hectic though...

Spa is awesome. All new tracks should be built within 5 miles of the Spa circuit in order to create this amount of awesome.

Formula One Belgian Championship.

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impressive Hamilton, he made everyone else look like a bunch of pussies.....

bad luck for Michael yet again, he was doing a reasonable job with tricky condidtions but at the end of Q2 conditions where improving by the second... it didn't help having his teammate righ in front going a bit slower than him

and nice to see the 2 Williams inside top 10

well done robert p3 without 2nd run great job Renault and maybe a podium likely tomorrow but Fernando 10th what was that you must have a setup thats more suitable for rain you must Fernando. But overall very cool Qualifying and very interesting and also well done webber hes is on the top right now.

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"And thats the bottom line cause Alonso0506 said so"

alonso0506 Wrote:
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> Fernando 10th what was that you must have a setup
> thats more suitable for rain you must Fernando.
>



Alonso, he regrets not going out on options straight away in Q3




LS's Tip of the week
ESSENTIAL OILS aren't essential unless you're an engine, a gearbox or a twat

One of the best quali sessions of the year.

Should be a good race, Webber is going to have to defend like hell if they get off the grid in order.

Alonso have left himself in a position to be taken off at the start now.

Well done to Kubica been up there all weekend.

Pole positions have been a poisoned chalice this year, and they have also not been converted to wins often at Spa either. Webber is going to have to use his experience to keep the lads behind in check.

I really feel a great deal of sympathy to Sauber. Both cars going off the track within 2 minutes of each other was desperately unlucky. If they can use their respective F-ducts through Eau Rouge and along the back straight, they could have a chance of points.

I also notice David Coulthard has looked at Alan Hansen's punditry, using the old 'schoolboy error' to describe Petrov's excursion across the track. I laughed.

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"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Great work by the top 3, particularly Hamilton and Kubica.

Nice to see Massa ahead of Alonso, but a pity that he made the mistake on his last lap, he possibly could've got one or two positions higher considering he was first out. Neither Ferrari driver seemed in particularly great form though during qualifying. A podium is still achievable in the race considering the nature of this event.

LS. Wrote:
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> Alonso, he regrets not going out on options
> straight away in Q3

He'd probably do the same every day of the week though, because if you only have one good set of soft tyres in Q3, you would always save them for the second attempt

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X (@ed24f1)

Massa looked awful throughout qualifying... apart from when it mattered.

At one point, as he was behind Alonso, just as the camera cut away he was at a 45 degree angle to the track, and looking like hitting the wall quite hard... I was staggered to see him appear still behind Alonso. If you saw a Ferrari making a mistake it was almost invariably from Massa - that's been the story of his season - he looks on the verge of crashing every time the camera cuts to him... yet somehow he's getting away with it.

Cracking session - somehow - Alonso and Kubica excluded - the normal pecking order has generally been retained. Kubica was epic - over-achieving by several rows, and he didn't even bother going out at the end when half the top-10 improved, which was a mistake in retrospect.

The fighting after the red flag was brilliant - warm up lap and 1st flying lap too. :D :D :D

It's all set up brilliantly for tomorrow - unless he gets overtaken or gets him earlier, Hamilton will surely be ahead of Webber on the climb up Kemmel.

Sooo. Montreal gave us the best dry race I can remember in the past 20 years. Silverstone gives us a classic race. Spa shows us qualifying sessions which are better than 95% of races. Is Tilke paid to create the exact opposite?

gav Wrote:
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> Massa looked awful throughout qualifying... apart
> from when it mattered.

Well that's been his problem all year, really. Apart from Bahrain, I don't think he's had a perfect Q3 lap.

In the races, he has been fairly good. He's had some bad luck, but his pace compared to Alonso hasn't generally been too bad.

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X (@ed24f1)

Quote
SchueyFan
In the races, he has been fairly good. He's had some bad luck, but his pace compared to Alonso hasn't generally been too bad.

I think the exact opposite. Alonso has had some terrible luck this year (especially earlier in the year) and has countless times been held up by Massa in races. The only good race I can recall from Massa is Hockenheim (and it was a fantastic race), but while his pace has been OK, his racing and races have been poor.

Given Alonso's own lacklustre season, is says quite a bit that (even Hockenheim corrected) Massa is still 30 points away. Not much normally, but Alonso had a poor start to the year with penalties.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Massa looked awful throughout qualifying... apart
> from when it mattered.
>
> At one point, as he was behind Alonso, just as the
> camera cut away he was at a 45 degree angle to the
> track, and looking like hitting the wall quite
> hard... I was staggered to see him appear still
> behind Alonso. If you saw a Ferrari making a
> mistake it was almost invariably from Massa -
> that's been the story of his season - he looks on
> the verge of crashing every time the camera cuts
> to him... yet somehow he's getting away with it.
>
>



i wouldnt be suprised it the way the car direction is heading to Alonso's driving style by Ferrari to maximise their return for the largest driver wage in F1.




LS's Tip of the week
ESSENTIAL OILS aren't essential unless you're an engine, a gearbox or a twat

gav Wrote:
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> I think the exact opposite. Alonso has had some
> terrible luck this year (especially earlier in the
> year) and has countless times been held up by
> Massa in races. The only good race I can recall
> from Massa is Hockenheim (and it was a fantastic
> race), but while his pace has been OK, his racing
> and races have been poor.

I disagree. I think Alonso actually had a lot of very good luck at the start of the year. For example, the Safety Cars in Melbourne, China and Monaco gave him a great chance to get points (China did benefit Massa as well). A lot of his those situations were due to his own mistakes, not bad luck, such as the jump start in China, the crash at Turn 1 in Melbourne and the crash in practice at Monaco.

It evened out a little bit in the middle of the year. At Montreal, Massa had the Turn 1 crash which I believe was a racing incident. They both had bad luck in Valencia with the SC situation. At Silverstone, he had bad luck with a Lap 1 crash (possibly his fault though, I haven't closely seen the video, but i've seen people blame both drivers) while Alonso also had bad luck with the SC timing - but he probably should've yielded to Kubica before that, regardless of whether Charlie told the team. At Hungary, Hamilton got past in the pits due to Massa having to slow down in the pit entry to avoid Alonso's stop.

It depends on what you call a good race, I suppose. I mean, I followed his lap-times, and Hungary was quite a good race for him. His pace was even, sometimes faster, than Alonso's pretty much the entire race, but lost a chunk of time when he came out behind Hamilton. Bahrain, Malaysia and Monaco were also solid races off the top of my head.


I agree that Massa should be closer to Alonso, but I think that's due to his qualifying, not his racing.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2010 09:04PM by SchueyFan.

Every track that's given us a good race this year hasn't been designed by Tilke. That tell you anything, Bernie?

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Quote
LS.
i wouldnt be suprised it the way the car direction is heading to Alonso's driving style by Ferrari to maximise their return for the largest driver wage in F1.

That's worked well at RBR, with Webber leading Vettel, despite the team favouritism (arguable against, but all 'dubious' decisions have ended up working to Vettel's favour (and downfall in Istanbul) - much the same as the Button-Rubens dubious decisions all favouring Button last year - though that did work out in the team's favour).

In my opinion, so far Ferrari have been 1-sided all year, but only once has it been through team choice - Alonso was destroying Massa and the first chance Massa had to get one over him, the team ordered him to move over.

Quote
SchueyFan
I disagree. I think Alonso actually had a lot of very good luck at the start of the year. For example, the Safety Cars in Melbourne, China and Monaco gave him a great chance to get points (China did benefit Massa as well). A lot of his those situations were due to his own mistakes, not bad luck, such as the jump start in China, the crash at Turn 1 in Melbourne and the crash in practice at Monaco.

Bad judgement, perhaps, and maybe some good luck and racing to rescue races, certainly, but even in the races where Alonso had potentially race-wrecking penalties or made mistakes, he finished around or ahead of Massa. We're not talking about the sort of luck Hamilton had in Monaco 2008, where a mistake which should have ended his race actually won it for him. As I said, even with all of Alonso's errors, he's still 30 points up (Hockenheim corrected - 44 points otherwise).


I like Massa (it's difficult not to) and was heartbroken when he had the title won and then snatched from his grasp (as much as I was throbbing with excitement at the same time), but all season when a camera has shown a Ferrari making a small mistake you barely need to check the helmet to know who's behind the wheel.

Even today, when we saw a Ferrari in the gravel at Rivage, I immediately thought "well, that'll be Massa then", and the BBC commentators said "that's Alonso, isn't it?" I had to do a double check and thought it was Alonso myself, however, later in the lap, Alonso was on for the fastest time and it was indeed Massa who was recovering. Even when you don't think it's Massa, it's Massa!


How much says Alonso finishes ahead of Massa tomorrow?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2010 09:53PM by gav.

With Massa, it needs to be remembered that (1) he's got probably the toughest teammate in the entire field in Alonso, and (2) he's always been a driver who looks very strong when the car is fast and fully underneath him, but struggles badly when the car is difficult and off the pace. In previous years he generally had a much more driver-friendly car than the Ferrari has been this year, and he had Kimi for a teammate, who although fast wasn't consistently fast like Alonso usually is, and certainly wasn't the dominating influence within the team that Alonso is.

Whenever the car has been on the pace this year(Basically Bahrain and Germany so far), Massa has been right up there with Alonso.

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"At one point, as he was behind Alonso, just as the camera cut away he was at a 45 degree angle to the track, and looking like hitting the wall quite hard... I was staggered to see him appear still behind Alonso."


Thought exactly the same ended up shouting out Massa's gone, oh, no he hasn't.

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Waiting for March.

gene says apparently that alonso has a wet setup. if it dont rain, assuming others have dry setups, i think fa will not score.

and surely lh will be in p1 by le combes.

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Championship leader Mark Webber starts the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position after a rain-affected qualifying session in Spa. Watch Belgian Grand prix 2010 Live Streaming Spa Belgian F1 Online here. The 13th round of 2010 Formula One Season Belgian Grand Prix 2010 will kick-off on the 29th of August in Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium.

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