Spanish GP *spoilers*

Is it a retrospective drive-through for ignoring yellow flags though? If they deem it serious (ie there double-waved yellows) then it could be an out-right disqualification.

Amazing drives from Vettel and Lewis, Vettel especially given the circumstances. He's steadily showing, bit by bit, that he's got everything it takes.
Good to see the great early laps from Alonso and strong drive at last from MS too.
It'll be interesting to see how the investigation pans out, but doubt it'll change anything - the Macca drivers and Webber were a mile clear of everyone behind, as said already, and excluding them altogether for this would be ridiculous.

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quietly, Jenson was probably the man of the race for me... yeah he @#$%& up his start so maybe that negates a compliment, but he really fought for that 3rd place, i think he was probably the driver who overtook more cars on track today??
i'm sure he can beat Lewis on sundays, he just needs to match him on qualy's

good job from Michael on what apparently was a not very pleasent car to drive... shame Alonso couldn't compete more with the guys ahead, but he's definitely trying

Vettel's victories are not getting easier, so there's hope for nice battale ahead... finger crossed that the ban on the diffusers tightens the front

off to watch porn.. have a nice one

I think that's Heidfeld who overtook the most cars.

Please feel very lucky that you have those two as commentators, ours (the Hungarian) genius was screaming for at least a minute that how come the Red Bulls' top speed is only 291 and how could they screw up the setup like that. He never realized it that it was only the indicator that got stuck on 291 (as it very often does) and he didn't take it as a hint that he kept this speed throughout the whole first corner. There's an online chatroom on the tv channel's website where you can post stuff and they sometimes read it out loud during the race, and it was riddled with messages implying what should the aforementioned commentator do with his close relatives and gentleman sausage. None got read out this time



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2011 06:08PM by pankykapus.

What a spectacular race! If there was any doubt that the new regulations were a breath of fresh air, that's dispelled it, especially because the Spanish GP is usually a complete borefest. Amazing drives from Lewis and Vettel, and also Jenson.

Look what I found on Youtube:

[url=

]Alonso's start today[/url]

It seems to replicate his start in 2007, only this time he kept it on the track and he started further 4th not 2nd.

DC, and Brundle nailed it with Jenson.

On the same strategy he will never beat Lewis. At least, not on raw pace. But today he proved he could get close on a different strategy... Without his shite start I believe he still would have been 3rd, but the gap would have been very very close. He lost 20 seconds to Vettel due to that start... How much did the rest cost him, like having to come through? Well thats uncertain but the 35 second gap certainly IMO would have been about 10 seconds or less to Vettel at the end.

These kind of drives will keep Jenson in the hunt, and these kind of drives are why Mclaren signed him. He isnt as quick as Vettel or Lewis (or Alonso!) but he can RACE them over a season.

I think what Jenson also proved today was that the Mclaren was a genuinely a quick car, a race which can race the RBR's. Webber on fresher rubber was able to claw 3/4 seconds to Jenson, but once 2 seconds behind he could not get any closer with Jenson managing quicker times.

Was the Mclaren the quickest car? I doubt it, but it was at least as quick, and that bodes well! I am 100% sure that yellow helmet is the last Vettel wants in his mirrors. He knows Lewis will give him a hard time and its about time Mclaren gave their drivers machinery to fight with RBR.

Monaco will be an interesting one... Mclaren's slow sector performance all year has been pretty fantastic, even what looks a horribly stiff car. Vettel hasnt been great at Monaco, and both Lewis and Button fair pretty OK here... This (and Canada) is a race I have pinned down as a Lewis win, but if Vettel does it, then IMO it would be mightily impressive because he has alot of pressure to do well here.

Also, could we see an exciting Monaco GP?! When was the last that happened? 2004?

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

if FIA goes ahead with the diffuser tweak... Alonso could become the biggest threat for Vettel's championship imho..., the guy is fantastic.. a shame his machinery is inferior atm... but he'll get there..

I know I'm a bit biased but IMO what Massa did today showed where Ferrari is (despite his DNF), and Alonso did a great job by taking the only chance not to let the RBRs and McLarens fly away by pulling off that move in the first corner and keeping them behind until he could.

BTW whattheheck was that 3 seconds off the pace with the prime tyres at Ferrari?

Vettel's victories are not getting easier, so there's hope for nice battale ahead... finger crossed that the ban on the diffusers tightens the front

if FIA goes ahead with the diffuser tweak... Alonso could become the biggest threat for Vettel's championship imho..., the guy is fantastic.. a shame his machinery is inferior atm... but he'll get there..

They aren't banning or tweaking the diffusers at all. They are changing the engine mapping to stop it igniting as much fuel when the driver is off the throttle. This will stop the engine pushing exhaust gases through the diffuser under braking, thus removing a bit of downforce during it. Ferrari are also running this system, and if anyone thinks this is going to be a shake up of the grid, they need to think again.

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Nickv Wrote:
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> gav Schreef:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Oh uh... investigations ahoy! Hamilton, Button,
> > Webber and Alguersuari under investigation for
> not
> > slowing down under yellows.
>
>
> Just wait until Mr Kolles shows his face to file a
> protest against all cars with blown diffusers. And
> with Kolles being Kolles, I wouldn't be surprised
> if he gave it a go.

Ta-da!!!!

Well he's not protesting the Spanish result, but he will protest in Monaco unless an immediate ban is brought in before this weekend.
Oh dear...

I find it amazing that both Lewis, and Vettel managed to lap Alonso, who lead the first part of the race.

Either Ferrari just never got that hard tyre working, or Vettel and Lewis held back at the start.

I suspect the former, because Ferrari have been known to been pretty good tyres. Massa's China result relative to Vettel is evidence of that. So maybe its too hard for the Ferrari? But again looking at the times, Vettel and Lewis were on fire. Im not so sure Jenson on a 4 stop race would have been able to pull out the same lap times. Webber certainly couldnt... Yesterday was all about two drivers on the top of their game going head-to-head!

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

Red Bull have accused Ferrari of espionage. The stupid pit call Ferrari made, where they pitted Alonso with 26 laps to go, was apparently caused by a fake call to Webber, which Ferrari reacted to to cover him. Red Bull claim this has been an ongoing issue and used the opportunity to check if Ferrari were actually doing it, and when they reacted to a fake call in a bad time for a pit stop, they knew it was true.

So the reason Alonso lost time was purely down to them covering a fictional pit call.

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i think ferraris biggest mistake was when they pitted alonso 1 lap after vettel (this was alonsos 2nd stop). he was only 0.7 of a second ahead of vettel before the pit stops and it was ridiculuous to think that piting a lap later could put him ahead of vettel again. He should stay out in my view. It was a risk but it was worth it because even being 2 second per lap faster, vetel needed 9-10 laps to evertake fernando. then it was about time for his (vettels) pit stop anyway. Then, when alonso had to make his next stop he would jsut put the hards and go until the end with them.i dont think this would guarantee him a victory, but it was definately a lot smarter than just copying red bulls strategy.

Saw the article of Helmut Marko's claim.

The FIA will confirm that, but it was wrong for Helmut to outright make such a claim. Such things should be dealt with behind closed doors, not blabbed to the media.

If it was just a radio call with no pit crew reaction from RedBull, then maybe it is suspicious, but if the pit crew reacted too (still knowing it was fake) then I hate to be captain obvious but Ferrari would have reacted to that.

If FIA or RBR can safely back up such a claim then surely a punishment as harsh as the Mclaren fine has to happen. espionage is espionage. The cause and effect for this case is arguably alot larger than Mclaren's case. This is real time, effecting race results as they happen. If Ferrari are doing something illegal, then I fully expect an equal punishment of $100 million and 0 WCC points. Agree??

It is no doubt an interesting claim though.

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

If Red Bull have known about it for a while, maybe they just used Webber as a pig for slaughter at Abu Dhabi last year, after all.

Ferrari's hard tyre pace was abysmal. They effectively lost a lap in the final half of the race. Luckily for them the hard tyres don't return until Silverstone, so they have 3 races to fix the problem.

In the past races, their race pace has been excellent on the soft tyres, and reasonable on the hard tyres. Now the hard tyres are even worse.

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X (@ed24f1)

The FIA will confirm that, but it was wrong for Helmut to outright make such a claim.

Teams do it all the time. The amount of teams that have claimed Red Bull to be violating front wing regulations (see how that fuss disappeared over blown diffusers?) was ridiculous.

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Monaco is going to be fantastic - if Schumacher can pull something out of the hat with qualy pace, it would be a wonderful swansong to his year.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

DaveEllis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Teams do it all the time. The amount of teams that
> have claimed Red Bull to be violating front wing
> regulations (see how that fuss disappeared over
> blown diffusers?) was ridiculous.

Industrial espionage is different.

The teams have rights to protest what they believe are illegal (no matter how stupid it is!). This however imo is completely different, and far more serious if its true. The claim is pretty serious as im sure you understand. This isnt a protest for clarification of what is illegal or not legal. Helmut is directly saying, redbull suspect Ferrari are using information about RBR's strategy for their advantage.

The two situations are incomparable, and Helmut must have some serious raw evidence to present before he splurts this out in public otherwise he will look pretty silly.

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

danm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Monaco is going to be fantastic - if Schumacher
> can pull something out of the hat with qualy pace,
> it would be a wonderful swansong to his year.

Didn't know he's announced his retirement? Sounds like big news. Any sources?

Edit: No wonder you pretended not to see this post. Seems you're living in a sad fantasy world regarding Schumacher at the moment.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2011 12:46AM by EC83.