He had a lot better luck this year.... last - well nearly last to 3rd - wow. I bet Alonso wishes the race was 3 more laps because he would have won I think, if it had been that much longer.
Lots of incidents and I think Webber got away with one.
Raikkonen was as good as ever on the radio as well:
quote:When the team advised Raikkonen of the gap between him and his rivals, the Finn was typically blunt: "Leave me alone, I know what to do," he told his engineer.
"Yes, yes, yes, I do it all the time," he added later on when they reminded him to warm the tyres.
Will Buxton on Speed brought up the fact that if he remembers correctly - Hamilton has had some sort of car issue in every race since he announced he was leaving the team. He certainly have a great race going...
Mallya also in hot water and KingFisher is not close top making a profit.... Wonder how much longer Force India will be around...
not good...
Arrest warrant was withdrawn... Apparently it got him to notice...
Apparently he still has a boat load of issues with the airline losing a ton, people not paid for months. Now - his other sponsor Sahara is apparently being investigated for some bond issues and having to repay investors a few billion at 15% interest...
Got to give Vettel credit for getting up to third place, though the two safety cars certainly helped. I was hoping Alonso would close the gap more, but at least he gained on Seb. I loved Kimi's replies. I'm sure other drivers think about saying those things, but just never do.
The return of US GP racing in about an hour. Hopefully it's a good race...but it's looking like Vettel will be long gone before the first lap is complete.
Interesting qual - Vettel had cooling issues in practice - going to be interesting if he has any in the race. Vettel had few laps in practice but yet sets fast times in practice #2 after only a couple laps. Looks like the track suits Red Bull really well.
Alonso has a long haul - it looks like the car is crap. Button - yet more problems with possibly fuel pickup or fuel pump - a pump they have used for many years. Team is in complete disarray.
That's the Qualification result, the order they start the race is much different. Grojean and Massa are both demoted 5 places due to gear box changes.
This is good for alonso as he will be starting on the clean side, but not for kimi who will be on the dirty side of the track.
Clean side = Racing line and more rubber.
Dirty side = Off line, very greasy, dusty and "green" especially for this race as it didn't have any support races.
Current starting positions:
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 3 Mark Webber Red Bull 4 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 5 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 6 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus Romain Grosjean - Five place penalty for gearbox change 9 Pastor Maldonado Williams 10 Bruno Senna Williams 11 Felipe Massa Ferrari Felipe Massa - Five place penalty for gearbox change 12 Jenson Button McLaren 13 Paul di Resta Force India 14 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 15 Sergio Perez Sauber 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 17 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 18 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 19 Timo Glock Marussia 20 Charles Pic Marussia 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 22 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT
Ofcourse, this is vettels championship to lose. I'm putting money on kimi and grosjean to stay out a lot more laps and finish ahead of RBR and hamilton.
Ferraris strategy would be to stay out as long as possible too and hope vettel gets stuck behind one of the lotus.
Great race. Very nice track and I think Hamilton had to really work to catch Vettel. I did find Vettel's response on the radio funny in a "look at that crybaby" sort of way.
I have to re-record the race. My wife decided to move the TV and the stand it was on. I was so irritated I moved everything and unplugged the race. By the time I realized what I had done - and got more pissed - when I got it back up - they were showing the replays of Hamilton's pass. GRRRRRRRRR
That 2.4 second pit stop by Hamilton was just unbelievable...
Of what I saw - good racing all over and it is a very nice track. Happy that no one was supremely stupid on the opening lap as well.
Really enjoyed the race. The track is one of the best designs Tilke has done. The run up to turn 1 at the start is great. I was surprised there wasn't more carnage. The track needs to come up with names for the turns.
I think Alonso only has a chance at the driver's title if Vettel DNFs in Brazil.
This is the crap that makes me hate Ferrari and F1 in general. I find myself rooting not for my favorite drive but just that Ferrari loses.
Let's say that Alonso is leading late in the race next week in Brazil with Webber in 3rd and Vettel in 4th. You don't think Red Bull will tell Mark to let Seb by so that Vettel wins the title? It's all about the team and winning the titles.
My daughter and I watched the race and we liked it a lot. It was great to see F1 come back to US. But I don't like what Ferrari did. The seal is there to prevent unauthorized replacement. But they did it to gain a advantage.
Breaking the seal made me laugh. That took bending the rules to a new level. If it had been McLaren that did it... I'm not saying the authorities are biased but IMO Ferrari get away with far more than the other teams.
The FIA does not have people in every pit and since they get a penalty I don't think the FIA requires the team to prove the tranny bad. Worse comes to worse for any team - they actually replace the transmission rather than just break the seal.
Any team could do it and the FIA couldn't/wouldn't do anything about it.
Breaking the seal made me laugh. That took bending the rules to a new level. If it had been McLaren that did it... I'm not saying the authorities are biased but IMO Ferrari get away with far more than the other teams.
I've been a Ferrari fan for 30+ years, but I have to agree that they seem to get a little more leeway than the other teams.