Session of incident (Qual or Race): Race
mpr timecode of incident: 1:30:05
Lap of incident: 33 (LFS count)
Cars involved in incident: 48, 71

On restart 48 (me) moves to middle of track (just on pit exit line) to defend from 71. 71 moves to inside and once there moves his wheel to the right, even though he has racing room. I drive dead straight, but the loss of control from the contact makes a crash at the chicane inevitable. I am out.

Watch the replay, or Webber / Vettel in Turkey in 2010 - much the same except Vettel (71) is still behind when he turns into Webber (48)

Session of incident (Qual or Race): Race
mpr timecode of incident: 50:40
Lap of incident: 18 (LFS count)
Cars involved in incident: 48, 04

04 taps 48 (me) in the rear at tight left causing me to half spin before I am finished off by another driver. I lost 5 positions.

Maybe - I just saw the times for the session. I hope for him that qually told the truth.

Quote from PMD9409 :

Was too early in the straight to get enough speed/air under the car and causing it to flip IMO. Was pretty epic though, tough car to continue so well after that.

Grats to Rosberg, solid win.

/bed

It was a bit of a radical way to try to stall the front wing.

Sonicrealms Racing,60,rudolfa,Rudolf Rood,Netherlands

Sonicrealms Racing 2,48,Storm_cloud,Dave Southword,England
Sonicrealms Racing 2,49,aragorth,Krzysztof Łazowski,Poland
Sonicrealms Racing 2,50,Joku123,Sampsa Jurvansuu,Finland
Sonicrealms Racing 2,51,blb,Boris Mignien,France

With cars out of position this is going to be a mental first few laps. I think Sauber could be slow on heavy tanks as I expect them to try to baby their tyres and try two stopping.

All the Chevrolet's will be backed up behind Dario - he looks worryingly slow again in FP3

Yeah, I dislike this "Shift-S if you crash!" culture, because it has shifted the responsibility to avoiding collisions under yellow away from the person who has control of their car and onto the person having an accident.

I agree with Clarkson - anyone who ignores yellows, piles into a crash scene at racing speed and then blames the stationary car for causing the crash should be taken outside and shot infront of their family.

FA Cup this weekend - any predictions for the finalists?

I'm going for Everton and Chelsea, so a repeat of the 2009 final

Agreed about the perception of the "show". Less than hardcore viewers will probably only appreciate just how mind-bogglingly good Lorenzo and Stoner are when they are gone.

I would watch a race with just those two in it, but CRT keeps the Tornado employed and swearing in live BBC interviews, so it serves a purpose

Yeah, but there's no engine restriction so they can run them for 200km then bin them. CRT will have to run the same engine for 600km+ hence they have to dial it down and all the CRT bikes are 20-50kmh down on the straight.

Not as big an issue at Jerez though.

If they gave CRT 18 engines then they could be much closer. They have to turn down the SBK engines they have quite a lot to get them to last. Last year Max Biaggi used 28 engines for 13 weekends.

I think this is one of those secret millionaire type tests. This guy is looking to see who will buy him S2 then reveal himself as a mega rich tycoon and lavish rewards onto whoever is the most charitable amongst us.

Could be age I suppose with Dario. I think I heard he was hampered in preseason testing with the pedals on the new car as he still right foot brakes, so perhaps he is just a little behind the curve on getting to grips with a car that has new characteristics. The tyres are different aswell aren't they?

Great from Seabass, again.

Dario is beginning to worry me though.

Alonso is arguably a pay driver as he brings to Ferrari what Maldonado and Senna bring to Williams - a big sponsor, in Santander. He also brings two championships, bucketloads of talent and the best evil laugh since Dick Dastardly, but Alonso and Santander are linked - they bring plenty enough to cover his wages and much more.

There have always been pay drivers - Alonso was a pay driver at Minardi, Schumacher a pay driver a Jordan.

The only difference is that due to massively spiralling costs to compete and the march of technology it costs tens of millions to buy a seat these days. Cut costs and that reins in the big teams and allows the lower order to compete.

Racing incident, having mulled it over, although I would side on Vettel being more at fault - if one applies road traffic logic...

Vettel seems to consider these "idiots" to be some kind of racing underclass. This is a fault amongst many top drivers - remember Hamilton's "monkeys at the back" comment? When you drive on the road in traffic you have to assume that everyone else in control of a car is retarded and blind, unless they prove otherwise. If Vettel used this logic, instead of driving within a few inches of an "idiot" then he may have finished 4th.

HRT's race is just as important to HRT as Red Bull's is to Red Bull. I remember a quote from Martin Brundle when he was called into Ken Tyrell's office one day. Ken was poring over a lapchart and said (paraphrasing) "you lost 0.5s when you were lapped by Piquet. Do you have any idea how much money it would cost to make the car 0.5s a lap faster?".

Remember, it's not even points that count - it's finishing positions. Lotus (Caterham) finished 10th in the constructors title last year because of Trulli finishing 13th somewhere. A single race could have a massive effect on the championship (and therefore future revenue) for these guys.

It's exactly the same as last week's incident. Grosjean had lost the corner but put his car into a position where contact was inevitable.

Nice to see Helio win.

Senna drove very well too. Williams have a tidy car this year.

Great stuff from Perez and Alonso. Hamilton did well too and Webber showed good pace again after getting a bit hamstrung being held in the pits to avoid unsafe release. Clearly Vettel made a mistake - not sure where he wanted the HRT to go and he should have been penalised.

Can't see any mileage in any Sauber / Ferrari conspiracy. Sauber no doubt remembered Maldonado chasing Alonso last week and with their 2nd place are 21 points ahead of Force India and 29 ahead of Mercedes - constructor places are worth so much.

2nd place in GP2 race 1 won the charge to T1 easily. As they diagonal the straight it's not as clear cut as say Silverstone or Hungary.

I am undecided about whether the hard tyre is a good or bad option for Vettel.

You would expect him to take a little pain off the start, but then probably be able to hold whatever position he has. He will be able to run a few laps longer, but once the other drivers pit and take fresh primes they will be a lot quicker, so I can't see any benefit there as they get the undercut. Three plus points for him:

• Staying out longer will maximise opportunities if it starts dry and gets wet later, as if it rains in a small window he could pit first time for inters whilst the others stop first for new primes and again in response to the weather
  
• Staying out longer means he will have more opportunity to gain a big enough gap to the midfield prime runners so he can get in and out and retain track position.
  
• He should be mega in the last stint - but will it be too late? Will he have the straine speed to make up places?
  

A full day of dry running today. Race pace running order looks to be McLaren and Red Bull, then Mercedes. After that, Lotus and Alonso - although Lotus didn't look tremendously planted.