After being robbed of a possible two victories in Bahrain and Australia due to technical problems, Sebastian Vettel finally, and convincingly, won in Malaysia.
As can always happen in this part of the world, the heavens opened before qualifying and instead of the rain easing during Q1, it got worse and worse meaning that any cars that didn’t venture out onto the circuit in the first part of the session were never going to set a competitive enough time to make it through to Q2.
The two teams that fell most foul of this though were the most experienced in the paddock: Ferrari and McLaren. With these two contenders safely at the back of the grid, the Red Bulls, which had qualified on pole (Webber) and third (Vettel), only had to worry about each other and perhaps the Mercedes of Rosberg that was also on the front row.
Webber produced a brilliant lap in Q3 to get pole, being the only one in the top ten to attempt intermediates rather than full wets, and finished more than a second faster than Rosberg. However, his opening corner wasn’t so brilliant as, thinking that there was no threat from Rosberg, he left a gap on the inside going into the first corner, which Vettel immediately dived through. The Australian tried his best through the following corners to regain the place, but the damage had been done. It must have been a hard pill for Webber to swallow knowing that he had gifted his team-mate the race so early on.
Apart from the pitstops the leading three of Vettel, Webber and Rosberg remained unchanged throughout the Grand Prix. Further back though was another matter. Hamilton drove a great race and was in typically good form overtaking almost ten cars within a few laps. Button on the other hand got stuck in traffic and after pitting very early to go onto the harder compound, he then had to endure nearly three quarters of the race on the tyres. Even with his famously smooth driving style, it was a tall order. Despite being very quick soon after pitting, the World Champion struggled near the end of the race and lost a place to Massa. He would have no doubt lost another to Alonso, even though the Spaniard had a gearbox problem, if the Ferrari had not blown up while trying to get past the McLaren.
The Malaysian Grand Prix confirmed a few matters which have been discussed in depth both on the Motor Sport site and on the rest of the Internet. Firstly, if the Red Bulls could finish a race without any trouble they would be devastatingly quick. They certainly were in Sepang and you got the impression that they probably had another second to give if they were being pushed. Secondly, Formula 1 racing without fuel stops isn’t as boring as Bahrain would suggest, nor is it as thrilling as a damp Australia suggested. The old issue remains: if the cars have such huge amounts of downforce, they will be very hard to overtake. You only need to look at Hamilton closing down on Sutil in the final stages of the race at a rate of nearly two seconds a lap only to get onto the tail of the Force India and have no hope of getting past.
This isn’t going to change in the near future, so for the time being let us admire a sublime race and deserved win by Vettel, rue Webber’s missed opportunity, enjoy the overtaking exploits of Hamilton and another great finish for Renault’s Kubica, and tip our cap to Alguersuari who looked very impressive on a Grand Prix track for one of the first times in his career.
I think Mark Webber needs better rear view mirrors on his RED BULL to see what’s behind him.
He left the door right open for Vettel at he first corner and threw the race win away to his team mate (??)
His body language on the podium afterwards said it all.
i agree that Alguersuari looked very impressive for the first time, that season left alot of questions as to was it to early for a him to, and too big of a jump. But today, he showed he has much improved with some sublime overtaking moves. But not only that, he did keep Schumacher behind him for 20 laps, and even though the car finds it hard to pass is still an improvement from last season when he had problems keeping it on the track.
I also agree with Peter Geran in that Webber didn’t look too happy, i think he had the top step in mind.
but the race was made to look easy for Red Bull, with Mclaren and Ferrari making a mistake in quali, it would have been soo much better for jenson if he hadn’t gone off in to the gravel.
oh and i would just like to add that Vettel should really learn how to celebrate with composure, a pretty bad winner, but i suppose he has the right to rub it in everyones face,
I have always liked Mark Webber but he just does not have the “killer instinct” needed against a teammate like Vettel. He should have anticipated that Vettel was going to be right behind him going into the 1st corner and shut the door. His whole career is one of missed opportunities, mostly of his own making.
How come this is all the way down here? The Bahrein threads are higher in the home page…. Weird.
I think the editor had the idea of keeping it at the bottom to hide it from Tanveer and his comments. Two days since the GP and no comments yet. So far it has worked. Lets see how long before a comment on how Kimi would have made mincemeat of the Red Bulls if he had been driving appears now the it is on top.
Dear all,
I apologise this was hidden down at the bottom of the homepage. I had a small technical hitch on the weekend which meant that the closest I could get it to being visible, was at the bottom of the homepage.
Best
EF
Brian, you make me laugh! I was worried about Tanveer as well… maybe he was busy in Sepang, loosening Schumachers wheelnut…
I have never understood how McLaren can spend so much money building cars but be so negligent when it comes to race strategy. Any club racer at your local track knows that rain is always changing and never predictable so you get a quick lap on the books before you get cute with strategy.
Brilliant race for Vettel. Let’s be honest, the kid should have 75 points right now which would only lower the others point totals. Funny how no one mentioned Alonso driving around Massa in the first corner of Bahrain as easy as pie, but when Vettel gets around Webber all sorts of questions pop up. The kid has been the fastest in the sport this year and I can’t see any one as fast as him over one lap in F1. Go Vettel and Red Bull!
It’s interesting how little coverage the media has given to the terrible weaving Lewis did down the straight to hold off Petrov. Many people didn’t seem to like first the antics of Senna, then Schumacher, where the most outrageous, dangerous moves went unpunished by the stewards and FIA as they were one of the “leading drivers”.
So it’s sad to see they are still condoning that behaviour. It’s a black mark against both the new FIA regime and the ultimately the change in the stewards setup. I wondered what Johnny Herbert thought? No one can complain when a driver next takes out someone for the championship or parks it on the racing line in qualifying. The FIA are continuing to teach drivers its ok and so that behaviour trickles down to all forms of motorsport and the drivers that come after them. Which is very sad.
I don’t think that Hamilton was blocking…he was trying to break the tow. Petrov made no move to pass Hamilton, in fact he matched Hamilton’s every move, trying to keep the tow. i was surprised that there was even a warning.
I heard my name!
Ha ha!
Ok…So I have some (possibly controvertial) thoughts on the meeting which most people haven’t really talked about:
1. Hamilton actually made a mistake in Q1 when he spun at the final hairpin which cost him a very high grid position, a certain podium and, possibly, an outside shot at victory (if Vettel had failed to finish again).
McLaren and Mercedes sent out their four drivers into first qualifying around the same time but of their four drivers, only Hamilton failed to make Q2.
Why?
Because his mistake at the last corner cost him exit speed and momentum otherwise he – like Button, Rosberg and Schumacher – *would* have gotten safe passage into Q2 and then Q3.
Ferrari actually messed up more than McLaren did – by going out even later – and their pair (unlike Hamilton) had virtually *no hope* of making Q2.
McLaren’s F-duct and their powerful Mercedes engine gave them a huge edge on the long straights in S1 and S3 and was confirmed so by Button’s/Hamilton’s speed trap readings during practice.
So, there is every reason to believe that if Hamilton didn’t fluff Q1, he would have been on the podium.
The commonly held belief is that Ferrari and McLaren cost their four drivers grid position but – to be fair – only Ferrari made a fatal mistake whereas Button and Hamilton scuppered their own chances for Q2 via errors.
2. Alonso is turning up his revs moreso than Massa.
Alonso is going to be in engine trouble and – of the main Championship challengers – is looking ripe for engine-change grid penalties later in the year.
In China, Alonso will be on his 4th engine and will have 4 more ‘fresh’/'new’ engines left to use thereafter. [In the final race of the year, Alonso will be able to utilized the one he changed in Bahrain - as per rules.]
Massa has one more engine than Alonso and in my view he’s been smarter about the short-comings of the Ferrari engine than Alonso.
Either that or Alonso has felt just how fast Massa really is and the pressure is making him use more power.
In my view, Alonso has been turning the revs up on his engines in order to look good v Massa…but it hasn’t worked…Massa got the jump on Alonso off the line for the second race in succession…and that is why he is leading the Championship.
If Vettel hadn’t hit trouble in Bahrain, Massa’s lead over Alonso in the standings would now be larger.
Alonso – as I said before the season started- is finding out that Massa is a far harder nut to crack than Fisichella, Piquet and Grosjean were.
If you look at the difference in fastest laps Sutil vs Hamilton, i seriously doubt that the latters fail to overtake the FI-car, was down to the current downforce levels in F1. Sutil simply was very very quick and kept Hamilton at bay. Lets also not forget Button outqualified Hamilton again. and if it wasnt for the mistake in Q1 – as Tanveer mentioned – Hammy wouldv been in Q2 most likely.
I also agree Ferrari has got to do something with their wet weather goofs. Even if Alonso said it was mainly his fault, the team should kick him, and Massa out for a lap when a track is wet and rain is falling. With such a fast car it must be even more frustrating for Di MOntezemolo to see his cars start P20+.
Yea. I agree with Mr Torrance:
The Force India also uses the very powerful Mercedes engines and they too – I understand – have their own version of McLaren’s “F-duct” drag-minimization ‘device’.
Plus Sutil is no slouch either.
There’s a commonly held belief amongst some of the English motor sport press corps hierarchy that Hamilton-Alonso are the only two “greats” of this era but, to be frank, there is a lot of talent and fast drivers on this grid.
Vettel and Kubica – in my humble opinion – are possibly superior…and without the lying, cheating and black-mailing history and histrionics! Massa too is fast. Button is probably under-rated. Rosberg’s possibly coming along. Etc…
So, when a Hamilton comes up onto the gear box of a Sutil, to assume it’s only because of the areo situation … well, it means that the driver’s underying talent level (in this case, Sutil’s) is being wholly dismissed.
Brundle, for instance, assumed that if Massa had let him through in Australia that Alonso would have simply “had” Kubica!
Well, that to me means that Brundle thinks Kubica is nothing in relation to Alonso…and that’s a terrible underestimation by someone in Brundle’s position.
Reasonable romp, due to the grid “inversion” scenario, but not very memorable.
Alonso will recall its very real challenges for him, and he coped well. Ferrari are on the edge of the top step, but the whole package looks un-gelled, somehow. The car is rapid, but runs over warm, and Massa’s seemed tail happy.
Webber clearly laments his very average start, may have been scuttled by the tire stop drama anyway. Doubtful he would have had more than 3-4 seconds, even ahead of Vettel.
Nico had a lonely solid run, (aided by great pit work) and maximized the cars ability.
Hamilton was ripping through, and I’ll take the “breaking the tow” explanation. World champions might avoid the F3 optics tho’.
Alguersuari and Petrov were game and got credit for actually racing in a racing car. Times we live in.
Kubica a fine drive again, but I wish he’d wear his original helmet livery and Renault a little French blue on the car, please.
Notice a sad trend here, corporate assimilation of the helmet. Somebody design Vettel a good Deutsch knight’s helmet scheme, since we’re going to see a lot of it.
Alonso’s gone back to his original tho’ and good for him.
Malaysia’s a great country, (if hotter than hades sometimes), very upbeat feeling, however those vast empty stands at Sepang do worry.
I’ve asked folks in Kuala Lumpur about F1, and they are mad for it, but more outreach is needed to populate the venue.
Many seats filled at locally viable prices, than very few at the international going rate, a concept worth trying.
Spaghetti Culture is back at Ferrari!
He he…
:o)
Di Montezemolo got rid of most of the non-Latins in the team…and they are in the midst of paying for it.
Even Sauber suffered Ferrari engine-related failures in Sepang!
Lucky for Massa that his dear friend Rob Smedley is one of the few non-Latins on the Scuderia’s payroll!
HA!!!
How many employees does McLaren have?
You get the feeling that when a decision is required in the heat of the moment, everyone from the tea lady to Ron Dennis gets a vote. By the time the votes have been counted real life has moved on.
PS
If Ferrari hadn’t mucked up Massa’s pitstop in Australia, the Brazilian would have scored 2nd place to Button.
Remember, Kubica – ever the predator – was able to leap frog Felipe’ because Ferrari cost him an extra 5 seconds in the Mebourne pits!
Lauda noted the return of Spaghetti Culture last year.
They didn’t learn from Malaysia, 2009…where they messed up Massa’s Qually and Raikkonen’s Grand Prix tyre stop really badly…did they?
Tanveer-
That Latin/Non-Latin comment is extremely condescending. Far as I know Ferrari is what it is today due to the Old Man’s extreme “Latin-ness”. The are but far and large the most famous and respected name in racing, and it’s because of people like Mauro Forghieri, Eugenio Dragoni, Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali, not to mention the drivers….
I agree with the underlying message that incompetence ends up being rewarded with bad results, but let’s not start the discussion of ethnic merit in F1
Ok Mario…you’re right and i’m sincerely sorry if I offended you in any way.
Please accept my apology in the spirit intended.
I wasn’t the one who coined the term, though.
You have to blame the Lauda’s of the world.
Perhaps Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, Jean Todt – amongst others – moving off to make way for the Stefano Domenicallis and the Aldo Costas is merely coincidental to the laughable and chaotic nature of some of the things that have happened at the Scuderia over the past 2 years?
Again, Mario, I am sorry.
Apology accepted. It wasn’t quite offensive, but these discussions can end that way easily. In the end I think that while some of the personnel changes at the Scuderia have some effects on their overall results, there is a lot of other factors that come into play.
I understand where the term comes from, and trust me, being a Brazilian descending from Italians and Portuguese, I know what the Latin temperament is like. It generally warrants extreme results, on both sides of the spectrum.
But I also think that the team was, especially in 2008, not bad at all. Remember Felipe was 2nd place. There was some BS going on, especially that refuelling fiasco, but you can’t just blame that on the fact that Domenicali is there rather than Brawn. In fact, if anything, Domenicali and the Italians would be much MUCH angrier at a mistake like that than Brawn or Todt, and much more demanding as well. I guarantee you they were extremely disappointed at that mistake but they also probably did a lot of work to fix it.
Sorry, but I simply don’t think it comes down to where they are from. That’s too simplistic and – like I said before – using it as the main argument to describe the team’s actions sounds condescending. And the Lauda’s of this world tend to be that way a lot of the time.
The other thing that should be noted is that these guys, Costa, Domenicali, Tombazis, Rivola…they have extensive rap sheets. They are experienced people in the world of Motor sport, and with the possible exception of Rivola, they have been at Ferrari for a long time, going back into the Schumacher years, some even before. They most definitely are qualified to do the job and do it well.
That Vettel! What a talent. But you’ve got to feel sorry for Webber — he’s closer on pace than I would have predicted but the cruelty of comparison at this level makes him look a chump. Where will he be driving next season?
And despite some of the bizarre stories in the mainstream — and specialised — press, that Schumacher! What a talent. Analyse the times and he and Rosberg are well matched on pace. This won’t be reassuring for Nico …
Don’t ever underestimate the effects of a three year layoff. Imagine Eric Clapton picking up a guitar for the first time in three years … he’d sound fantastic, of course, but he’d be a long way off the subconscious fluidity of old. Nick Faldo today says Tiger Woods will be lucky to make the cut at the US Masters because of the debilitating effect of a …. five month layoff.
Mario, with all due respect for the extensive rapsheets….managing wet weather is a very simple and straight forward excersize. Brawn hardly ever made a mistake in that departement. Its very simple, if your fellow teams are going out, you have to go out as well, despite all the clever tactics, just go out and set a time. Plenty of space for cleverness afterwards. Also, in a race, if your fellow competitor pits for different tyres, you follow him. No risks, no gambles, straight forward stuff. Williams and later mclaren was very good at ruining their own races by not following Brawns tactics. But now Domenicali does his best to play second fiddle.
I find it very frustrating to be honest. They made the same mistake 4 races ago with Fisi and Kimi, and several other instances over the last 3 years say to me this last goof wasnt just a one off. This is a structural problem and shows Domenicali, likeable as he is, is no leader. I wish Montezemolo would get someone else for strategy. Pat Symonds for instance.
Marty,
Schumacher was a horrid 1.1 seconds off Rosberg in the wet – supposedly Schumacher’s speciality!
,,,and they were all on the same tyre and fuel loads. At least 9 of them were. Only Webber was the out-lier.
Schumacher barely made it out of Q2…and then all the four young German drivers put in faster times…even Hulkenberg and Sutil – in inferior cars!
Imagine where he’d have been on the grid had Ferrari not blown Q1 and Button/Hamilton not cooked their own goose?
Of the ‘Grandee Teams’ only Schumacher’s been out-qualified 3-0 and out-raced 3-0 by his teammate.
The troubling thing is that Rosberg wasn’t being talked about in the Vettel/Hamilton/Alonso/Kubica category at the start of the season.
I think Vettel, Kubica and Hamilton would absolutely dismantle Schumacher.
Schumacher was already running into a brick wall with Alonso-Raikkonen, circa 2003-2005.
That brick wall of talent is even stronger now. Higher.
Schumacher thrived when the grid was weaker, when Ferrari were significantly stronger (due to unlimited budgets and testing), and when his team-mates were Number 2s in actuality as well as contractually…
Well, those circumstances are history.
There’s too much talent and parity now.
He came in ultra-fit. He came in with sky high motivation. He got the same testing as Rosberg in that car. He had the luxury of GP2 tests and karting tournaments.
What more excuses are his fans going to come up with?
There’s a rumour out there which suggests he’s going to pack it in – or Mercedes will force him to pack it in – after the German GP.
Too many tickets have been sold for him to be shoved out of the car before the German Grand Prix.
Mario, sadly, I agree with Jack Torrence (above) about the endless gaffs under Domenicalli.
I mentioned how they screwed up Massa in Q3 in Malaysia last year.
Well, they did the same thing with Raikkonen in Q3 in Spain only a few races later!
And it’s not just in Qualifying!
In 2008, Raikkonen was in lead of the Championship at the half way point (inspite of Hamilton taking him out at the red lights in the Montreal Pits and then losing a commanding lead due to a broken exhaust in France the race after) but then they changed the front suspension to suit Massa…until they changed it for Raikkonen for Belgium.
It cost them the title. Including the pit gaff in Singapore…the race where Renault cheated for Alonso.
The only point I wanted to truly make was that Domenicali’s problem is not due to his nationality.
A team like Ferrari cannot, I agree, keep this kind of management if it isn’t producing results. They’re going to need to find better people soon, Italian or not. Or maybe Domenicali will learn with time, and get better.
I bet on the second option, given their modus over the years.
Peter Windsor made a lot of gaffes at Williams. Was it “spaghetti mentality” that caused him to raise the lollipop early in Portugal 1991? Or to try and place the wheel on Il Leone’s car right in the middle of the pitlane, contravening all sorts of rules?
Or was that “boiled beef” mentality? ;-)
No.
That was Peter Windsor merely being his incompetent self.
Windsor is an utter joke…Has proven himself to be an utter joke with this fiasco of USF1 or USGP or whatever-you-want-to-call-it team…
…You know, the team that was supposed to be the United States’ answer to F1…but with an Argentine Pay Driver bought by Argentine tax payer dollars!
Mercifully, his laughable and defunct venture has kept him off Speed TV where he, no doubt, would have made every excuse in the book for Hamilton not handily winning each and every one of the three Grand Prix races thus far this year!
Pathetic!
Here’s an interesting comment from Alonso after Malaysia. He was asked to name the best current drivers in F1. “Hamilton, Kubica, Vettel, Massa, Schumacher.”
The man must be a fool Tanveer!
And here’s Hamilton’s comment on Schumacher: “In a very short time he will be an extremely difficult opponent for all of us.”
And Rosberg: “I have the strongest teammate in Formula One. If I’m equal with him at the end of the season, it will be a success for me.”
Some armchair pundits might like to think they know more than F1 drivers, but most of us know whose opinions deserve the most respect.
As for this supposed rumour about quitting after the German Grand Prix … maybe if you were 11 years old and knew nothing about anything you’d take that seriously. You might as well start a rumour that Obama’s going to quit the next time he can’t get a policy through Congress. No one gets to the top of anything if they’re a quitter by nature.
But what has Schumacher done this season to be talked about in the Vettel-Hamilton-Kubica-Massa-Alonso category?
It’s all PR talk (which is what F1 is about – Hype and PR) based on his past record … and Alonso would naturally put him there becasue that’s who he beat for his last title half a decade ago!
Of course Rosberg will say it.
Who else has Nico been paird-up against since his rookie year? Nakajima and Wurz!
LOL
So, Hugo Boss, you think that the quality of the grids (drivers/cars) and the Ferrari situation of the earlier 00s are the same as now?
With all due respect to you, Hugo, you’re dreaming if you think the circumstances for Schumacher are the same now as they were then.
You can’t take Hamilton’s words at face value.
According to Hamilton, he “blew away” Alonso in 2007…
Surely you can see the difference between polite PR-speak and on-track performance?
Hugo Boss,
What I find interesting about your Alonso quote is that the Spaniard doesn’t mention Rosberg.
So either Alonso doesn’t rate Rosberg – even after Malaysia – or he’s being kind to Schumacher by including him.
Rosberg was totally out-gunned by Hamilton around the *outside* of one of the quick bends at the back of the Melbourne circuit which is worrying for a Rosberg supporter (hence justifying Alonso’s non-inclusion of him in his list). OR…Hamilton is extremely special.
Either way, it doesn’t bode well for Schumacher who’s only appropriate benchmark is Rosberg…and the tally there is 3-0 in *both* qualifying and during Grands Prix.
Of the Grandees:
Ferrari – Alonso 2-1 in Q; Massa 2-1 in the GPs
McLaren- Button 2-1 in Q; Hamilton 2-1 in the GPs
Red Bull – Vettel 2-1 in Q; 3-0 in GPs.
This year there’s no hiding in qualifying. It’s as pure as the old days and everyone wants to be ‘high up’ on the grid because a longer fuel stint won’t compensate for a weaker grid position.
Schumacher really needs to start out-qualifying Rosberg. Soon.
* Sorry…
Vettel 2-1 in the GPs also but only as a result of a DNF beyond his control.
We won’t let blind prejudice get in the way of the facts, will we … Schumacher and Rosberg have been very close in pace; the differences at Bahrain were three to four tenths in Rosberg’s favour and then 6sec over race distance. At Melbourne Schumacher was 0.5sec and 0.4sec FASTER in P2 and P3 and .04sec down in qualifying after a minor baulking from Alonso. And close again at Malaysia until a quirky final qualifying where circumstances differed for the drivers.
I was at Albert Park and Schumacher looked very composed. The human eye is not a stopwatch but from trackside you get a strong sense of who’s under control and who’s not. Rosberg looked good too for that matter.
If Schumacher had returned and after three races was half a second down — or worse — on Rosberg and looking ragged, I’d be the first to say no fairy tale folks, the old champ hasn’t got it anymore.
An earlier post drew a comparison with Tiger Woods at the US Masters. Good point. If Woods doesn’t win or at least make the top 10, is anyone going to say he’s obviously past it now? Everyone will figure out that five months away from the cut and thrust have dulled the edge that made him number one. They’ll say he’ll need time to hone it and then it will be back to business as usual.
Or maybe everyone won’t figure that. There’s always got to be one…
I couldn’t care less about Tiger Woods.
I golf 5 or 6 times a year but couldn’t bother wasting my Saturday or Sunday afternoons during Summer watching it on TV.
So, lets look at Schumacher without the Tiger Woods comparisons:
The Bahrain track – in it’s 2010 iteration – was/is an unusually long circuit at nearly 2 minutes per lap and that is why a 4-5/10ths gap there would be the equivalent to a 3-4 tenths gap elsewhere.
Right?
Then, P1 and P2 is never going to be representative of anything…as seen by Massa/Alonso/Vettel (the three current WDC leaders) being towards the bottom quartile of the time sheets in the Friday sessions at BOTH Australia and Malaysia – all three amongst each-other (materially below Webber) testing out race day simulations, etc.
In Australia Schumacher complained about Alonso and Hamilton supposedly ‘blocking’ him…but it was rubbish and pure excuses…because they were all ‘blocked’ by someone or another in some capacity.
The Malaysian gap in qualifying in the wet (Schumacher’s supposed speciality) – when both he and Rosberg were on the same spec tyres and fuel loads – then went out to 1.1 seconds.
Schumacher, in fact, was on the cusp of not even making it out of Q2…INSPITE of the Ferraris and McLarens not participating!
What will happen in China when at least some of the McLaren and Ferrari drivers make it to Q3?
Again, Rosberg isn’t being talked about in the Vettel-Hamilton-Kubica-Alonso-Massa category – in the Ace category – so, leaving all “blind prejudice” aside, we’re only left with pure final qualifying (i.e. the most telling) numbers and then the running orders.
There are too many excuses now…but perhaps the only legitimate one would be that the Australian Grand Prix wasn’t a fair comparison because Alonso’s poor start off the grid precipitated an incident at the first corner which forced Schumacher out of position…
…which, unfortunately, doesn’t explain why he then was out-gunned by a rookie Virgin driver…and then couldn’t do anything about Algersauri until the very end.
This is how I would rate the drivers thus far:
1= Vettel
1= Kubica
3. Massa*
4= Alonso
4= Hamilton
…all tightly bunched up…then:
6. Button
7. Rosberg
It’s hard to put Schumacher ahead of any of them so far…and it’s going to be very tough for him to crack the Top 5.
And where do you put Sutil and Algersauri?
As I said, I hope for him (and his fans) that he can start legitimately out-qualifying Rosberg SOON.
We’ll see.
*Ferrari screwed up poor Massa’s Inters-to-Slicks pitstop at Melbourne, costing him 5 seconds – enough time for the Predator Kubica to leap-frog him and steal 2nd (and 3 points)…otherwise Massa’s lead over Alonso would be more (even after taking into account Alonso’s 2 points lost when he turned up his revs too much in Sepang).
Hello again Mr Tanveer,
I see your needle is stuck in the groove again. I do however give you full marks for consistency (but not brevity).
I also noted the absence of Webber in your ‘rankings’ and am looking forward to your meal of humble pie as the season progresses.
You should not discount the possibility of the Brawn Merc team getting better and better relative to the others and Nico and Michael getting amongst the leaders. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Keke sat Nico down a couple of months ago and told him how to win a WDC by accumulating points all season without necessarily winning many races?
If Webber had covered the inside line, then whoever went around the outside at the first corner no doubt would have had the inside line for turn two.
Agree Steve,
When Brundle dismisses Hamilton’s weaving as ‘breaking the tow’. we’re in a sorry state of affairs; to have one rule for others and another for the interests of British ratings is ridiculous.
The rule clearly states you can change your line ONCE! Regardless of what Petrov decided to do after that first move does not change that rule.
If Petrov indeed got a better tow it’s up to Hamilton to either; 1. defend the inside line, 2. brake ultra late (as is his suppossed specialty)and hope his opponent outbrakes himself, or 3. try and get a better run into the next corner.