Practice 1
http://www.formula1.com/race/result/771/28.html
Massa going best in Practice 1.

Practice 2
http://www.formula1.com/race/result/771/29.html
Gets quickest again!

Practice 3
http://www.formula1.com/race/result/771/23.html
LH beats Massa in final prac!

Qual
http://www.formula1.com/race/result/771/24.html
MASSAA POLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 0.26 tenths up Alonso followed by Kimi and Hammilton in 4th. BMWs, williams and toyotas follow. Renaults didnt make the final qual!

Race


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Discuss! =)

That just spoiled it. I refused to look at Qual, because i will be watching it in a few hours.

"[Spoilers INSIDE]"


Sorry if i spoiled it for you, but its not my fault.. Cant you read?

Kimi lost quite a bit to Massa and Kovalainen hasn't yet proven to be any fast. Although Kovalainen had some technical probs with the car he was still slightly faster than his team mate. The last part of the quali would probably have been legendary if there hadn't been that stupid fuel drinking contest in the beginning.

There is quite a chance that the race will provide a good show

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Quote from Dalek0220 :

That just spoiled it. I refused to look at Qual, because i will be watching it in a few hours. Someone lock this.

You followed a link to the quali results, ignored all the "spoiler!" signs and then post that "that just spoiled it". Maybe someone needs to come and physically prevent you from clicking that link?

Well ive been a massa fan since his sauber years and been going for massa ever since jpm was out of F1. But im wondering..

Is massa purely faster? or is it his newer engine? or is he on a lighter or heavier fuel stratigy? and what tires did the ferrari drivers have? All these can take an easy 0.4s off (0.4 being the split with the ferraris..)

It says "spoilers inside" in the thread name, what can you expect? The results perhaps? It couldn't be, no way! I should call you an idiot, but I don't name people.


What it come to the quali, well, top 4 will be tight in the race. Massa had many fast laps, Kimi was being easy with the overcooked engine in the practice sessions, and in the quali the last lap wasn't that spot on. McLarens were fast, Hamilton was a bit off on the last one, not sure but I think I saw he was stuck in the traffic though, could be. Major disappointment was the Renault, really bad performance, can't really blame the drivers, the car just seems to be awfully slow. Not what you would expect from the champion team.

What else... oh, the traction control in the BMW sounds the same than in LFS, although it's harder to hear under the engine but the awful noise is there

edit. I'm slow... I think both Ferraris had the softer tires in the fast laps, like most of the cars. But it's really hard to tell which driver was actually better though, we'll see tomorrow. Would be much more fun if the fuel burning was killed, but then we hadn't any cars on the track

well to be honest. Massa is fast, but if you compare him with Kimi he just haves more experience with Ferrari. Maybe Massa had slightly less fuel or maybe not. I would say he just knows the car better than Kimi. About the tyres. They all used soft compound. Would be pointless to use hard compound in quali as you are fighting for pole.

I beleave race will be great. If nothing goes wrong, like engine faliure or somthing similar beleave we should see Massa, Alonso and Kimi on podium.

Well i didn't know what was inside, i had a peep, and barfed

I think McLaren will win this. If Alonso is really on a good pace, he could surely be competitive with Massa. A Ferrari or McLaren result for podiums no doubt

Renault is just down the drain this season, you can already see that.

Yep, and i never thought id see a championship winning team go down the drain so fast these days..

fantastic result for the sliver arrows.

alonso is quite simply the best, but hamilton is amazing.

massa drove like a LFS noob.

Quote from mr grady :

fantastic result for the sliver arrows.

alonso is quite simply the best, but hamilton is amazing.

massa drove like a LFS noob.

McLaren, I'm just so happy they are back to their winning ways. 20 Billion points to Lewis for keeping it cool and taking second.

I havent sleep because I was watching F1 to see Massa's victory... Oh damn

Quote from mr grady :

fantastic result for the sliver arrows.

alonso is quite simply the best, but hamilton is amazing.

massa drove like a LFS noob.

Oh lawd you spoiled it for me!

j/k ;p

Anyway, the race was okay. The start was quite interesting, and I'm still wondering why the Ferrari's decided to take the lines that they took. I guess there's somewhat of an advantage to having the inner row at the start; is there actually a reason of balance why designers of a track make the first corner a right-hander, or are there rules as to where the pole starting location is supposed to be located in relation to the first corner?

Sort of strange that the advantage of having the pole position is almost canceled out by not being on the inside of T1 (that is, if the person in 2nd place has a good start)

What has happened to B.A.R? They have sucked all weekend.

Honda, stopped getting called BAR a long time ago. Theyve just went down the pan big style this season, for whatever reason. button says the car handles like shit and when he trys to push it harder it just shreds tyres, so there is a massive fundimental flaw with the car somewhere.

Quote from Jertje :

Sort of strange that the advantage of having the pole position is almost canceled out by not being on the inside of T1 (that is, if the person in 2nd place has a good start)

It was quite surprizing to see both Ferraris taking so bad lines into T1. And Massa going off some laps later, what a mistake. Massa had all the cards to win the race and he basically lost it all in few laps. Just way too careful into T1

Alonso was great, even better than Räikkönen in Australia, didn't make any mistakes. Hamilton was a bit unsure under pressure but still did good job. I guess Räikkönen had some engine worries because he didn't push any harder in the mid stint to get closer to Hamilton. He could have passed Hamilton on his pitstop but in the end he lost just few seconds to him. Sad to see Rosberg losing it all for mechanical failure...

Quote from DeKo :

Honda, stopped getting called BAR a long time ago. Theyve just went down the pan big style this season, for whatever reason. button says the car handles like shit and when he trys to push it harder it just shreds tyres, so there is a massive fundimental flaw with the car somewhere.

Sorry didnt realise they stopped using the brittish american racing tag,

Its a shame, it would of been nice to see button up there fighting with them

Massa Pole Position On Board Lap!!!



Enjoy. Ill keep trying to find good videos of the race etc.

Great first 5 laps or so The tyre and engine issues seen by Hamilton and Räikkönen make me wish for changes though. Artificially forcing both compounds to be used is annoying and I'd much prefer to see an all-out fight for the pole with minimum fuel and then deciding race fuel afterwards. Grrr. Decent race though

I thought Brundle's view on Massa's overtaking move was good - no point overtaking twice. He'd got alongside, so no need to try and also out-brake him.

Unfortunately, Massa learnt how to drive as a Ferrari test-driver, so can do quick unimpeded laps. But so far his race-craft ability could be measured with negative numbers. At least he tried though.

Didn't see much of Alonso, which was a shame. Would like to have seen the only proper Ferrari driver (Kimi) to take the fight to him, but Kimi's engine and strategy was compromised.

Once again Hamilton impressed - a great opening couple of corners. I hope he can take the pressure throughout the season, but I still don't think I'd be able to bring myself to support him - he's too 'Ron Dennis' in his ways to be truly human.

Heidfeld and Rosberg caught my eye - shame Niko couldn't finish though.

Quote from mr grady :

massa drove like a LFS noob.

My thoughts exactly!

Pretty good race though. I would also like to see the tyre rules changed. In the 2nd stint when Hamilton was on softs he was beginning to close on Alonso. Now that would have been an interesting race if he had been able to continue that pace.

I was also impressed by both Williams. Wurz coming through to 9th from last place and Rosberg seemingly on for 6th iirc. Shame about that reliability. I hope Williams can keep it together and have a good season.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I thought Brundle's view on Massa's overtaking move was good - no point overtaking twice. He'd got alongside, so no need to try and also out-brake him.

It is bit strange but the finnish commentator Mika Salo said exactly the same thing about that Massa's pass.

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Anyways, the thing for this season seems to be the radio problems. According to one finnish F1 site, Kubica had radio problems too. Well, luckily for the Spyker, I guess the radio was the only thing that worked well in that car

During one on board Massa lap he really seemed to be 'off'.. Shifting randomly, braking too early.. It doesn't help that I find it somewhat of an obnoxious kid though.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Once again Hamilton impressed - a great opening couple of corners. I hope he can take the pressure throughout the season, but I still don't think I'd be able to bring myself to support him - he's too 'Ron Dennis' in his ways to be truly human.

what???

he can have 3 heads as far as im concerned.

he has shown what a great RACING driver he is.

what a credit to the Mclaren team and his country he is.