Quote from herki :

Oh dear, I read "GO HERKI"

sorry for OT

Go Herki!

Feel better now?

And come on guys, Sato is not the psychotic wrecker he's made out to be. He's a good guy who's had a tough couple of seasons. Biscuits on me if he takes anyone out in T1.

Good job for Super Aguri (even if there is some controversy about their chassis!)...and it's not even that they were running lighter fuel load than other teams as you can run what you like in Q1 and Q2. BMW however, I wouldn't be surprised if they pit before McLaren et al, but who knows, maybe that's just genuine pace! Lets hope so, it could make for a great season.

Quote from jtr99 :

And come on guys, Sato is not the psychotic wrecker he's made out to be. He's a good guy who's had a tough couple of seasons.

Exactly. Guess who his team mate was in the British F3 season in which Sato won more races than Ayrton Senna? Hint: his surname starts with "Dav" and ends with "son". Although I admit he has had his fair share of incidents.

I like Sato a lot. There I said it.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I like Sato a lot. There I said it.

I like Sato too, hes an exciting driver and never know what he is going to do next.

Looks like it could be a good season with the times being close and no one team seeming utterly dominant than the others.

Is there a website from where I can watch todays race? Go Kubica go! Polish powa!!!

Race starts in 10mins!

Coulthard goes head hunting but he may find his own head on a platter by the end of the week.

yeah... he dove in from very far away...
Congrats to Raikkonen, alonso, hamilton!!

Did Massa run soft tyres in the race? he only made one stop so if he did use the soft ones, he did a great job to make them last 30 laps with a full fuel load......




Hamilton done well, well done Hamilton

I was surprised with Hamilton as well, but Coulthard drives worse then a demo user

Quote from mikey_G :

I was surprised with Hamilton as well, but Coulthard drives worse then a demo user

and he isn't a demo user...

Kimi dominated and was just too fast. Hamilton did a great job especially at the start with a superb move and fending off Alonso. Bad luck for Kubica I was gunning for the Polish guy. Webber pulled a Redman in pitlane. lol @ Coulthards passing attempt and nearly decapitating Wurz or atleast scraping his knucles hehe

Wohoo! The long dry season with no wins for Kimi is finally over, and he had to change team for it! Race was nice to watch, Kimi was great but Kovalainen even managed to spin, but good performance for the first race from difficult positions. Very noob looking misjudgment from Couldhard, going to the dirty part ended up dangerously. Sad that I missed the first 20 minutes, dam clock didn't wake me up!

Releasing the inner tifoso!

Not to slouch Kimi's great win, but Massa really gave the best performance of the day.

Quote from Gunn :

Not to slouch Kimi's great win, but Massa really gave the best performance of the day.

Well, it's kinda hard to do better than win from the pole isn't it? Massa did a great drive, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. He actually got lapped by Kimi, which in my opinnion tells a lot about his race performance and pace.

Nice start of a season, but DC really has issues
And McLaren...

Kimi was too fast, actually its probably more accurate to say the Ferrari is too fast. Hopefully mid-season Mclaren will catch up so that Hamilton can steal a win.

Hamilton was superb, 3rd place on his first ever Grand Prix and he overtook the double world champion on the outside into T1.

Kimi was his usual cold lifeless self, I just can't like the guy.

Kimi's performance wasn't really anything spectacular. I mean, he got the pole and won the race with a clear margin but made few errors that could have cost him a place or two if the other drivers had been a bit closer. I missed the first 50 minutes of the race so I have no idea how the maclaren drivers were battling it out but I get the impression the Mclaren wanted Alonso to win and Hamilton to lose. Hamilton was quick, will be interesting to see which one is eventually faster, kinda like with Ferrari. Let's hope the Malaysian GP is a bit more interesting as well .

Quote from Hyperactive :

Kimi's performance wasn't really anything spectacular. I mean, he got the pole and won the race with a clear margin but made few errors that could have cost him a place or two if the other drivers had been a bit closer. I missed the first 50 minutes of the race so I have no idea how the maclaren drivers were battling it out but I get the impression the Mclaren wanted Alonso to win and Hamilton to lose. Hamilton was quick, will be interesting to see which one is eventually faster, kinda like with Ferrari. Let's hope the Malaysian GP is a bit more interesting as well .

I doubt they really cared who won at McLaren. Both drivers were on very similar pace and when it came down to it the extra lap or two that Alonso did was enough to put him ahead. Just like the extra lap Lewis did at the first stop may have put him ahead of Alonso if he had not already got ahead. If Lewis had finished 2nd the media would have gone crazy over here, something they'd like and there sponsors.

Those BMWs were mighty off the line (even Kubica on the harder tyres). Fisi seemed to need his usual encouragement/wake up calls down the radio, Renault really need to replace him ASAP with a driver capable of pushing the team forward. After two strong seasons I can't see Renault just dropping off like that.

What a great T1 for Lewis, don't think he probably excepted to pass Alonso but he had to back out of it because of the BMW. Still great race craft on his part to see the opening.

I'm glad both drivers in McLaren seem to be able to drive at a similar pace, going to keep both of them on there toes and be a strong contender in the constructors. I'm not too sure how Massa will cope under pressure, a lot of the time during his Sauber years he would just lose it.

Coulthard was doing okay, shame he messed it up big time. That corner seems to catch many drivers out over the years. At least he put his hands up and took the blame for it.

Honda, what an embarrassment. First of all you build such a rubbish car and then when Rubens is clearly quicker than Button they don't give any instruction to let him past and eventually Rubens just has to sling it up the inside after 15laps. Yet when it was the other way round last season Rubens was getting told to let Button past, guess it's to do with Nick Fry and his love for Button

All in all a pretty good season opener, Rosberg drove an awesome race as well. I just hope McLaren can find that little bit extra, but then as Martin was saying maybe Ferrari are running to the limit on cooling etc. Might prove costly if they have engine problems at Sepang.

Keiran

edit// Davidson taken to hospital - [http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news ... vidson_taken_to_hospital/]

WOW... Sato finished and he didn't take anyone out :jawdrop:

Congrats to Kimi and Hamilton

ahh poor Mr Satellite dish face, i think this may be his last season

mad

Quote :

Not to slouch Kimi's great win, but Massa really gave the best performance of the day.

I couldn't disagree more, personally I thought Massa was lacklustre coming up the field as in previous years when top drivers start at the back they motor up to the top 8 or so and Massa just didn't. If Massa was driving well then we're not going to see much overtaking this season.

Hamilton's performance was the best rookie race since Jean Alesi. I hope he can keep it up because I would like to wave a banner with his name on.

You know the other thing I found a bit odd was that Jenson was banging on about this understeer again, the telemetry showed none and Barichello was much faster in the same car. Even after they added more front wing the understeer was still there...maybe its to do with his driving style, smoothness isnt suited to F1 anymore.

Cars in the end are still cars, the art of driving it shouldn't change radically. Just that this track is mostly consist of slow and short corners where you just point the nose in then find traction for exit, not really ideal for drivers who use early turn-in and a shallower line. What Button does best is semi coasting at the turn in and carry loads of speed, without putting much strain on the front tires, it's unatrual for him to battle the understeer with aggressive turn ins, I think that explains why understeer doesn't show up on telemetry, he doesn't fight the understeer, he just give up some speed and avoid understeer actually happening.

btw anyone noticed alonso is much smoother this race around.

Quote from Blackout :

Well, it's kinda hard to do better than win from the pole isn't it? Massa did a great drive, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. He actually got lapped by Kimi, which in my opinnion tells a lot about his race performance and pace.

He did a two-stopper even though he had to use soft compound for 30 odd laps. He let Kimi past when Kimi was on fast laps before pitting. He finished 6th despite starting from the back of the grid and having to fight his way through all of that traffic. Clearly a better drive than Kimi's clean air run.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I couldn't disagree more

Perhaps you just didn't understand what you were seeing.