Hamilton beats Vettel to Shanghai win as Webber races from 18th to podium

2011 Chinese Grand Prix review

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Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix after a thrilling conclusion to the race.

Hamilton passed his own team mate, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and race leader Sebastian Vettel on his way to victory.

Mark Webber arrived in an unlikely third place having started 18th on the grid.

Hamilton was briefly under threat of not starting the race as the team discovered a problem with his engine before he left he pits to go to the grid. He made it out with only a few seconds to spare.

Once the lights went out McLaren’s race started to go better. Jenson Button burst past Vettel at the start, followed by Hamilton.

Vettel was left to protect his position from Nico Rosberg, who in turn had the two Ferraris behind him.

The leaders held station in the opening laps with just two seconds covering the top three. Button came in first but lost his lead as he bizarrely tried to stop in the Red Bull pit box where they were waiting for Vettel.

Vettel got out of the pits before Button, and Hamilton lost so much time on his worn soft tyres that he dropped behind Felipe Massa before pitting.

Rosberg made his pit stop early and took the lead after the Ferrari drivers had come in. But while Mercedes and McLaren committed to a three-stop strategy, Ferrari and Vettel would only make one more stop.

Rosberg and the McLarens made their second stops and quickly began catching the leaders again. Fernando Alonso was particularly slow in his middle stint and all three came past him very easily.

Vettel and Massa made their last stops, leaving Rosberg in the lead once again. But Button dropped off the pace and Hamilton pounced at turn one to take second place.

Their final round of pit stops set up an exciting showdown to the chequered flag with Vettel and Massa nursing their hard tyres and Hamilton closing in.

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He made a couple of attempts at passing Rosberg and finally got through when the Mercedes driver was briefly delayed by Pastor Maldonado.

A little over a lap later he was past Massa as well and cutting into the gap to Vettel.

Meanwhile Webber had made an improbable recovery having started 18th. He passed Massa, Rosberg and finally Button to take third place.

For almost two laps Vettel and Hamilton battled wheel-to-wheel but Hamilton’s superior pace, and Vettel’s apparent loss of KERS, eventually told. He pressured Vettel using the Drag Reduction System on the long straight, followed him closely around the opening corners, then dived past under braking at turn seven.

Michael Schumacher and Alonso had a length battle during the race and took the chequered flag with Alonso just in front of the Mercedes. At one point Alonso’s DRS was briefly open outside of the designated zone, though it seemed to have little effect on his race.

Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi were the remaining points scorers.

Behind them was Paul di Resta, who defended 11th in a wheel-banging moment with Nick Heidfeld.

All bar one of the starters was running at the end. The exception was Jaime Alguersuari, whose Toro Rosso shed a rear wheel following a pit stop.

Hamilton’s win moves him up to second in the championship. Vettel’s winning streak may be over, but he still enjoys a 21-point lead in the drivers’ standings.

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2011 Chinese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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225 comments on “Hamilton beats Vettel to Shanghai win as Webber races from 18th to podium”

  1. Poor strategy from Red Bull. But very nearly payed of so, maybe not.. But had they gone 3 stops, Vettel would have been hard to stop. Very interesting to see how much longer Vettel can keep the tires alive than anyone else and still be competitive! At other races this will play a big role I think.

    1. 2 stoppers might work elsewhere, but not today. But in fairness to RB, they wasnt to know what was going to happen in that race and noones really done a 2 stopper when they’re in contention for a win. Lesson learned, but it could yet be used later to better effect.

    2. In my opinion two things could have made the strategy work:
      1)Leading into the first corner
      2)and/or longer first (and possibly also second) stint (provided the times wouldn’t have gone up too much). Basically committing to two stops from the start.

      1. yea, it was as if the 2 stopper was an after-thought after they did the 1st stop and not something they planned before the race.

      2. I agree. A longer 1st stint mainly because at the end of the 2nd he lost big time last few laps..

        1. Dr Marko (believe him or not .. I usualy don’t) said that Vettel flat spotted the second tyres so they had to bring him in early. They wanted to do it 5 laps later but they felt the tyres wouldn’t recover from it and couldn’t communicate with Vettel so they just made the decision and hoped it would work out.

          1. Different strategies made for a nail-biting finish.

            Just over 10 laps to go (which is normally when the race is pretty much over) it was

            VET, MAS, HAM, ROS, BUT, ALO

            It finished.

            HAM, VET, WEB, BUT, ROS, MAS

            Shows what an amazing finish and an amazing Grand Prix it was.

          2. might be true because he suddenly was a lot slower. Plus I wonder what the blablabla25 they said on the pitboard meant.. if it was 2nd stint or last stint 25 laps.. As it turns out, the last stint was about 25 laps wasn’t it?

          3. @TommyB89,

            And if you compare the end result to the race order after lap 1, there is hardly any difference at all. Hamilton gained a few places and Webber moved in.

            The rest of them all finished in the same order.

            Amazing huh? All those strategies and messing about and in the end they simply end up where they started. Makes sense though when driving in circles :)

    3. He still stayed ahead of Button and Rosberg though, didn’t he? I think the only fly in the ointment with his strategy was Hamilton. I know his tyres would have been shod and he would have been going slower anyway but with one pitstop less and less traffic he had a good margin in hand.

      Hopefully we’ll get to see a proper, same-strategy no-problems race between the pair.

      1. VET and BUT came for their pit stops at the same time; HAM came in a lap later. It is really dumb of Red Bull to do a 2-stopper given that they were leading the race, given that HAM and BUT were on 3-stop strategies. Not sure if they were thinking that they would lose their position to Rosberg.

      2. They seemed to have quite a similar pace at the beginning of the race. It would have been a lot more interesting to see Vettel and Hamilton fight it out with similar tyres in the end.

        1. I wouldn’t be so sure, I think if Vettel’s tyres where fresher, Hamilton probably wouldn’t have caught him.

          1. And if the guys behind Vettel had managed to keep Hamilton behind for a few more laps it might have worked as well.
            Just look at the fight Rosberg put up for Webber.

    4. Whitmarsh said afterwards McLaren was initially on a 2-stop as well, but changed when they noticed the tyres degrated faster than expected.

      Vettel’s radio problems ment that Red Bull wasn’t able to receive feedback from him about how the tyres changed, which ment they were stuck on their 2-stop strategy.

      1. dansanter (@)
        17th April 2011, 11:30

        At the end of the day RB screwed up and Hamilton fought hard to take the win. There are many factors to talk about but its all Red Bulls responsibility and they failed on a few things. I think we will see many more races like this throughout the year between Mlacren Redbull and hopefully some more action up the front from Mercedes and Ferrari soon.

      2. They don’t need the radio to see whether tyres are degrading or not.

        1. yeah but they do get constant feed back to and from the driver.

          i dont like red bull that much. but i thought 2nd was a good save from being 3rd on lap one.

          and they were the only team to make 2 stops work ‘sort of’ ok he got passed but thats just due to that phase of the GP that doesnt mean it was totally wrong.

          vettel kept his head and didnt throw himself into lewis like he might of a year ago. so good performance all in all.

          could of been worse at least. they could of left him out far to long like ferrari did to fernando and mclaren did to lewis in sepang.

        2. Um yes they do. they have a code. “phase 1….phase 2”. ;-)

          I think the radio was a serious problem for them. Normally it wouldn’t have been, but because this was a tight race and strategy was crucial it was actually important for them to be able to have a conversation with Seb. if they had got feedback maybe that would have lead to them pitting a few laps later.

          KERS may have lost them the race too. If it gives you 0.3 secs a lap and if it didn’t work for 17 laps then that would account for all of the deficit Vettel had to Hamilton.

          …Anyway. Great race. Fun to watch.

          1. Nope, no radio needed we could all see the problem from Live timing, total screw up by RBR. It was so obvious, no crystal ball needed either.

        3. If Vettel had done a 3 stopper then he would have had to overtake.

          Hamilton only made it work because he overtook. But despite being in the lead didn’t make it work because he didn’t overtake as much and as quickly.

          Now I’m not saying Vettel is the worst overtaker and that is quite clearly shown by Spa, Turkey Silverston all 2010 etc… but II think RBR may have made the right decision for some like Vettel to go 2 stops.

          The best stratergy for Vettel goes like this.

          POLE > Lead at first corner > Stop minimum times > Winw

          He can go from 2 row or so > lead at first corner, but otherwise you’re pushing it, and he candrive overtake in the pits, but that is about all.

          Ever since Canada then Silverstone and a bit of Spa Red Bull ahve realised this.

          In Silverstone after pitting due to a puncture he wacked cars as he tried to overtake slower cars coming back. In Spa he hit a force india and button.

          In Canada despite coming 4th or so at that stage he radioed in and asked if he actually had to overtake anyone to win the race, believing that his stratergy actually could mean he would win without overtaking.

          1. Well, Vettel overtook Hamilton just before his 1st stop. There you go.

          2. Ehm … no he didn’t. That was Massa.

          3. yep he did. Before HIS pitstop, not Hamiltons.

          4. Hilarious Analysis on Vettel!

          5. Vettel overtook Hamilton but this showed a potentially important part of the race that hasn’t really been discussed, at that point Hamilton’s tyres were shot – he was seriously struggling for pace.

            Button was due in the lap before but didn’t box so Hamilton also had to run a lap longer than intended. This really hurt him because the lap that Button pitted Hamilton was obviously struggling for grip. It was fairly easy for Vettel to pass him (would have happened anyway as it was on the lap that Hamilton was supposed to pit) but I suspect that Hamilton lost lots of time on that lap before his pit stop due to shot tyres. He recovered that loss with good driving and overtaking.

          6. love it!

            i’ll be watching for this in future.

            CotD has to be:

            The best stratergy for Vettel goes like this.

            POLE > Lead at first corner > Stop minimum times > Winw

      3. I think that is only a bit of a weak excuse for RB. Vettel heard what the team said, just they couldn’t understand him.

        Had they told him to get into the pits he would have stopped to go to a 3 stopper.

        The 2 stopper might have worked for Vettel if only Massa and Rosberg could have kept Hamilton behind for just a tad longer. Great battle.

  2. Fantastic drive by Hamilton, what a race ;)

    And Webber did not bad for a number 2 driver :D

    1. Yeah, sad to see the BBC commentary team ignore Lewis almost till they couldnt anymore, focusing instead on Jenson. Shame.
      Great race from a great driver.:)

      1. @rantingmrp
        to say that the current commentary is biased towards Jenson is putting it mildly

        1. Well you have 2 British commentators, and we are talking about 2 British drivers. They all know each other and would have had many conversations I would think. I’d say the commentators just get along better with Button and thus, without meaning to be, are more interested in seeing him do well.

          1. That may be true but you can tell in Brundle’s voice that he enjoys watching Lewis as a racer far more than anyone else

          2. I think most of us are able to see the BBC team give credit where it’s due, and don’t have a discernible bias in their commentary.

        2. The bias towards Jenson is a lot less since Legard’s exit. He really felt the need to bring up “Button’s wonderfully smooth driving style” every time Button was on TV.

          I wonder how much he would have eaten those words during this race though. Button flat spotted his tyres at the end of the second stint and cleary didn’t make it all the way to the end on his last stint either. 2 tyre management fails in one race.

      2. d1sciple (@)
        17th April 2011, 12:00

        What? Really? I didn’t notice this at all. You are referring to the BBC, right? They were very pro-British, which as a British commentary team you’d probably expect, but bias towards Button I didn’t see.

      3. Complete rubbish.

        I can’t believe after a race as good as that the best thing you can some up with to talk about is some silly nonsense about which drivers the commentary team allegedly prefer.

        1. The most memorable thing in the BBC coverage was Coulthard trying to avoid wearing the Mclaren T-shirt and the mechanics basically forcing his hand a little there. Considering his still in contract with Red Bull the sponsors wouldn’t be too happy. Lol!! He got himself into a dilemma there.
          After that he was kind of confused.

        2. Yeah I agree.

          I think, probably like everyone else, the commentators were struggling to understand how it was all unfolding. They realised that Vettel was under threat for the lead fairly late I think. …But then to be fair it’s hard to read now and things just unfold all of a sudden in a way your not expecting. This is great…but also bad. It really depends who you want to win the race. The guy who’s tyres start to go just becomes an impotent sitting duck at a certain point. Hamilton is having an interesting time. Last race he was the victim of it and this race he profited from it. It’s all a bit of a roller coaster ride.

          1. I reckon that they should change the TV graphics now. They have to tell us what tyre everyone is on but also how many laps the tyres have been used. I think they should include the number of laps they have been used for both the race and the qualifying rounds.

        3. Trenthamfolk (@)
          17th April 2011, 14:48

          Some people just sit there and wind themselves up about nothing. It’s their purpose in life to find fault with everything. Even when their man wins, they still moan. Very British!

        4. Nothing else left to complain, I guess :-(

          1. Sorry, wrong post reply. I was replying to Keith’s accurate remark about the negative comments concerning so-called bias from the commentators.

            Thought y’all were supposed to be F1 racing fans? Y’all sound like Football Fan Boys to me…

      4. At least ITV were biased with both drivers.

      5. There was no bias, they always focus on the leading driver in the team. Button qualified ahead of Hamilton and even took the lead at the start of the race. So naturally they focused on him. Same situation with the Ferraris, the focus was on Massa.

  3. This race had it all, brilliant driving, great strategy, drama and lots and lots of overtaking. Lots to analyse Keith! But question marks are hanging over Alonso, after 3 races even Massa has started getting his head around driving the Italia 150, is adaptation a weak part of Alonsos character?

    1. Trenthamfolk (@)
      17th April 2011, 10:45

      @Bigbadderboom His overall character is pretty flimsy to start with, lets face it!

      I’m really pleased to see Massa showing what he’s made of, but how long before Alonso throws his toys out of the pram and Ferrari hobble Massa to allow him his ego trip?

      1. i thought considering his bad races recently he was looking fairly chilled after the race.

      2. After having Alonso pretty much push him off at the pit entrance here last year, Massa had a point to prove, and prove it he did. Excellent stuff by the Brazillian, who looked a lot better last season just before Germany and after that lost it again. Maybe his groove is back and here to stay?

      3. Can I suggest you visit planetf1.com? Plenty of opportunity there for you berate the dastardly spaniard.

    2. Maybe his DRS opened up on more than one occasion where it wasn’t supposed to open?

      You get no points for post race press statements, but it gives us a bit of extra insight. I’m looking forward to those.

    3. is adaptation a weak part of Alonsos character?

      I’m not so sure as he adapted well from Michelin to Bridgestone’s, Brundle commented last year that when there’s a problem with the car Fernando adjusts his driving style very well, he’s done well at three teams and performed very well in a dog of a car at 09. One of Fernando’s biggest problems seems to be his poor starts of late.

      1. Well I think he was a bit unlucky in Malaysia and Australia but today’s was a shocker, and he was lucky not to loose more ground. Not much good being 3-0 up in qualifying vs your team mate only to be behind him after turn 1 ever race.

        1. not really mate.

          it was his mistake in malaysia. tho again he had 2 very slow stops.

          today was bad luck. check the race out again(lots going on so lots missed by those not looking at it, which is understable). his pit stop was 6 seconds. before his stop he was right in the lead gaggle.

          after that he had no chance. as he was stuck behind michael. and then they tried to hold him out longer to turn it into a 2 stop. which didnt work(was never going to)

          there is no huge panic. massa drove great. but if it wasnt for the bad stop alonso would of been there too.

          but they as a team need to buck up. as they are losing points. but is there a problem in fernando speed or driving compared to others. NO.

          1. Sorry I was referring to the starts but I forgot to quote Steph’s comment saying he’s had bad starts before I started the comment.

            I don’t think Alonso’s race was particularly bad today, but by his own admission he had a rotten start.

      2. Gotta agree with Steph on Fernando’s ability to adapt. His starts have been haunting him for a while now. Alonso has lost at least a position in his last 4 starts, and the last time I remember him moving up a place at the start was in Hungary 2010. Its surprising to see Fernando as one of the poorest starters on the grid, especially since he was absolutely stellar off the line in 2005, 06 and occasionally in 07 .

        1. i am glad to see that people’s perception about alonso being the best at everything are changing. Like strategists, fans must be able to change their minds about their favourite drivers when they don’t perform, or make mistakes. And alonso is one of them. He is making poor starts, and mistakes. He lookes very much like last year. Let’s not forget that he is not going to stay in f1 for ever. He is not at his prime. “That’s for sure”.

          1. Exactly. Many silly mistakes by Alonso since last year.
            Great strategy by Hamilton, great non-strategy by RedBull. :)
            Fantastic race for Webber and Nico. Michael also did a good job.

      3. Funnily enough Alonso’s adaptation to Bridgestone is often cited as a reason by some as one of the reasons Hamilton matched him in his first year.

        1. Yer that was part of the reason Hamilton was so close to Alonso. I remember that Mark Hughes has said many times that Alonso was much faster than Hamilton in the early McLaren tests on the super grippy Michelins.

          I don’t think that’s really an issue this year though, lets not forget Alonso has still outqualified his team mate in every race, beat him comprehensively in Aus and in Malaysia he was going to finish a long way in front until he made a misjudgement trying to pass Hamilton. Today Massa had the measure of him but I’d put it down more to Massa’s form improving than any problem with Alonso adapting to this or that.

          1. So he’s a bad adaptor…and not a bad adaptor?

            Of course he was faster on the Michelins, he’d been running them for years. The Bridgestones if anything “reset the clock”

            I just hope that if Massa continues this way we won’t hear excuses about tyres (about Alonso) detracting from his (Massa) improvement.

    4. 3 poor starts in a row…not good thing. still I have faith in him.

      1. Lets not forget this time last year Alonso was behind Massa in the WDC and everyone was saying Alonso was being ‘found out’.

        Once again however Alonso made a poor start and Ferrari lost out due to strategy. Alonso in Australia could have finished 3rd but Ferrari pulled him in when Petrov was behind him and he lost out and no one else pitted ahead of him. In Malayasia they should have pitted as soon as Button pitted and they may have got 2nd or at least 3rd and avoided the collision with Lewis. Today they thought they were as good with their tyres as Red Bull and tried their luck and Massa could only get 6th. They need a huge improvement over all aspects.

        1. Your right about last season of course, and I was myself critcal then as well. I think the difference this year is that he doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes and his development as a driver has stalled. When you look at the grid, especially the young drivers, they are all improving their weak areas, Vettel seems to be making his car last and being less rash and Lewis is also looking after his car better and makes less rash decisions. I’m not sure of it’s arrogance or simply bad luck, but Alonso should have far more in his locker to be finishing behind Massa for the 2nd race, maybe it’s a lack of hunger and desire!

          1. get real guys. his bad starts are a problem but other than that what did he do wrong today?

            he was right on massa/rosberg/lewis before his SIX SECONDS STOP. for the second race in a row!!

            then his strategy was a wild gamble.

            in terms of driving i cant see any errors in his driving today. I think you are all well over reacting and not watching the facts infront of u. massa raised his game but its about time too. but there actual pace was pretty equal up to the stop that changed it all….

            sorry to burst all your bubbles but alonso hasnt had a break down

          2. I don’t think it’s a case of “getting real”, Alonso is the lead driver, he leads development and has a massive input into the team. He is no rookie and has been at Ferrari long enough now to have run out of excuses, the car is designed around him through his own input and feedback. Ferrari enjoy one of (If not) the biggest budgets in F1. He is a double WDC and is not above criticism. He came good last season and probably will do the same again but it may be too late this year, for me much of Ferraris problems must be centred around Alonso. He gets all the prefernces yet finishes 2/3 times behind his number 2.

          3. @ bigbadderboom

            i think your well over reacting.

            also what excuses? dont hear any from fernando. unless your listening to the phantom british press.

            they messed up his strategy. tho he never accused them of that. like mclaren got lewis wrong last week(which he did say, over and over).

            people are making out like fernando has forgotten to drive. which is just tosh

          4. I’m not over reacting, i’m making a point about responsibilty. I didn’t say Alonso made excuses I said he has run out of excuses, in reference to people making excuses for him. And it’s also about Ferrari having (It appears) to have put all their eggs in one basket. Fact, Alonso has lead development, Ferrari have a dog of a car (at the moment), you answer then, who’s at fault?

          5. Ferrari don’t provide the best car to their drivers and then don’t help them strategically by planning the pitstops. Releasing them into slow traffic, messing up pit-stops etc is not going to help when you don’t have a car as fast as RB.

            So no use blaming the driver. Alonso lost a lot of time fighting Schumi and the difference between Macca, Ferrari and Merc was not much in this GP. Hence gaining track position through clever pitsops was a necessity and Ferrari fared badly in that.

            Whoever is in charge of changing tires at Ferrari needs a kick up his back side. Terribly terribly slow!

          6. Alonso is not responsible for producing the car, he can only give development and feedback to the team. He is not an engineer. He has proven over the years that he is excellent at car development over the course of a season but ultimately it is upto the team to provide him the car to challenge.

          7. I think what we can safely say is that on his day Massa is as good as Alonso, something I said before last season and was proved right, sadly only once.

    5. “is adaptation a weak part of Alonsos character?”

      I’m not so sure as he adapted well from Michelin to Bridgestone’s, Brundle commented last year that when there’s a problem with the car Fernando adjusts his driving style very well, he’s done well at three teams and performed very well in a dog of a car at 09. One of Fernando’s biggest problems seems to be his poor starts of late.

    6. One of the best parts of the race was seeing Massa whoop uo on Alonso, he simply outperformed him the entire race, it’s a shame the 2 stop strategy left him on the hards with all the faster guys coming through at the end, but his defense was admirable and he kept Button behind for awhile. A race 10 laps shorter and he, along wtih Rosberg who was amazging today, would have been on the podium!

      1. “A race 10 laps shorter”…and the other guys would still have been in front due to different strategy geared for that race…

    7. I think Alonso is saving energy on a dog of a car. I really do believe he will up the ante one the 150 is back on pace.

      1. Saving energy. Can’t he do that in the 3 week break?

        He got out driven by Massa today, pure and simple.

        1. Trenthamfolk (@)
          17th April 2011, 12:20

          Damn right John H… I like Massa… he is Ferrari’s only redeeming feature!

          1. I like Massa… he is Ferrari’s only redeeming feature!

            Haha, that was great!
            It’s not COTD, but I think it voices what a lot of people feel.

            Let’s hope Ferrari’s only redeeming quality can have a scorcher next race in Turkey, where in won in 06, 07 and 08!

        2. Agree 100%!

        3. I’m happy Massa had a good race today :-)

          But lets face it, Ferraris strategy wasn’t good for either driver. Alonso had once again a bad start, stayed behind Massa, then they got Massa in, as we a know new soft tyres will be 2 to 3 seconds faster alap, so once Alonso came in he was obviously going to be behind Massa. But then he found himself also behind Schumacher which practically killed his race. Once he got past Schumacher (Merc was a lot faster on the straights all weekend) he was 11s behind Massa and had his tyres destroyed by all the overtaking attempts. Instead of going for 3 stops at that point Ferrari decided to go for a very long last stint which didn’t do anything anymore either. He was 20 seconds down 6th place and had the hard tyres until the end so I suppose a he did from that point was bring home the car (at first it looked lie he could go faster but then it was over).

          Glad Massa had two good performances in a row and now his favoutire track coming up :) but don’t write off Alonso until he is mathematically out of it.

          1. yeah it was a pathetic strategy and thats being kind to ferrari

            tho pitting a lap later wasnt the problem that was fine. cos he would of got that pay back later like he did in sepang.

            the problem was the pit stop was again over 5 seconds. putting him out of reach and behind michael.

            he managed to get past tho it took a while(great driving from michael). but they tried to eek it out to a 2 stop. but like you say that was stupid cos his tyres were already shot from racing with schumi.

            alonso needs to kick some butts behind closed doors. cos the car tho no where near red bull or mclaren. is ok enough to compete. but you cant race if your throwing away 3 seconds every 15laps due to rubbish pit stops.

            I am amazed none of the BBC or websites have picked up on how bad ferrari pits have been this season.

            reminds me of williams in 95 when damon always would be ahead of michael but lost 4seconds at every pit. But like fernando damon seemed to get the blame then too. by people not looking at the bigger picture.

          2. I guess they should have tried a 3 stopper for Alonso after getting stuck beind Schu for so long.

            Hard to tell, when it was clear for them that Lewis and the others on a 3 stopper had a fair chance of getting past Massa, proving the 2 stopper wrong today.

      2. Well it’s possible maintaining a decent pace will save his engines for the 2nd half of the season.

        Alonso is still head and shoulders over Massa, one race result doesn’t change that.

        1. Agreed. Massa showed last year that he is better on this track, but much much worse on the remaining tracks.

          Everyone seems to be over-reacting a bit much about all of this.

          Strange crowd…

          1. Massa showed last year that he is better on this track, but much much worse on the remaining tracks.

            How? Alonso barged his way past Massa. He’s generally always been rubbish at this track.

          2. Massa was quite quick before Hungary, if he can recapture that, I don’t see why he can’t take the fight to Alonso.

          3. I would actually like to see Massa give Alonso a fight. It would be good to see 2 drivers push each other, instead of one driver just setting the bar every weekend.

            But I do agree with Riise. Massa only performed better than Alonso in one race, it is a little early to say that he will be constantly on top form.

    8. But question marks are hanging over Alonso, after 3 races even Massa has started getting his head around driving the Italia 150, is adaptation a weak part of Alonsos character?

      I think that’s just wishful thinking on your part.

  4. Andy Redden (@andyredden-on-f1)
    17th April 2011, 10:40

    Just a great race all round. Pirellis worked great. DRS was in just about the right spot and KERS is playing a larger role than previously thought. Great to see the winner go from net 5th and overtake 4 guys to win the race.

  5. Hamilton winning was the best thing thats happened for the Championship and F1. Nothing personal Seb, but F1 and its fans didnt need you winning today. Its a lot closer now and with 3 weeks to get those updates out, its game on.

    1. A fantastic performance by Lewis in a thrilling race.

      I wonder how many out their can still harp on Hamilton’s so-called lack of tire management skills?

      1. well, he was stopping 1/2 laps after Jenson whose no tyre-destroyer. So we should be tipping our hat to Lewis for it today. Lewis said correctly afterwards that he needed to take Vettel when he did, otherwise his tyres would have gone and passing would have been harder. Well done to him.

    2. Its a lot closer now and with 3 weeks to get those updates out, its game on.

      Interestingly enough that is what I was hoping Hamilton would say in the interview room, when they asked him how he felt about closing the gap to Redbull. I know drivers have to have a certain amount of PC when they are in there, but if it were myself I would have just winked at the camera and made some cheeky remark like that. Competition is also psychological, and if you are funny, not only will it endear you to the fans/media/paddock, but it can give you a mental edge over your competitors.

      Kudos to Webber for his funny bit in the interview room.

  6. Strategy for Vettel was poor but RB7 is still outstanding. just look at Webber. They even didn’t use KERS. Other teams have to improve significantly before Turkey if they want to match Redbull.

    1. True, but the problem seems to be that Red Bulls weakest link is on the pit wall, poor call on strategy today for Seb, poor judgement in quali for Mark. I think the it was the strategists at McLaren that bridged the gap this weekend.

      1. Yeah, Mclaren’s strategy was awesome. but strategy shines only if others failed it. Good car is always important…or we could expect another Redbull crash in Turkey? :D

        1. could->should

      2. Only last week we were booing McLarens bad strategy though. It was a pretty close call on what strategy would work best, not that clearly a 2 stopper just would not cut it.

        1. Actually it was shaping up to be a pretty bad day for McLaren strategy again today.

          I remember on the lap before Vettel DRSed Hamilton, thinking, surely they have to bring him in now, then Button on the next lap and they can both keep ahead of him. And he ended up ahead of both of them, though that was Jenson’s fault too. Then they made the right tyre call and their mistake was erased.

          But that’s three races in a row with suspect pitstop timing from McLaren (Australia too late, instead of under-cutting Vettel’s 1.6s lead; Malaysia too soon when Vettel was still +2s ahead and Hamilton had no soft tyres left). They will need to look at this as one day it really will cot them a win that was theirs to be had.

          1. Completely agree – I think this is an overlooked issue in this very busy race. I was very angry at McLaren at this point of the race – Button had good tyres, Hamilton did not.

            If you analyse the charts, on coming in, obviously, Hamilton and Vettel were side by side. Hamilton was blatantly struggling for grip and needed to box. After all of them had stopped, Hamilton had lost 3.74 seconds to Vettel. That’s HUGE. A combination of a lap of fresh tyres for Vettel and a lap of awful tyres for Hamilton.

            To be fair to McLaren though, apparently they called Button in the lap before and he didn’t come in. Admittedly that would still have meant 1 bad lap for Hamilton as his tyres had started to go that lap, but it would have been closer to the correct strategy and minimised the impact of the tyre degradation.

            Though I hate to say it – Button was *potentially* very harmful for McLaren today. Fortunately it came together in the end.

            As you say McLaren need to get their act together, strategy has been part of their downfall for the last couple of years – they often come out second best.

      3. Webber had the best strategy of the lot (fresh soft tyres for the last stint). How can you claim Red bull got it wrong?

        The 2 stop strategy of Vettel, Massa and Alonso wasn’t much worse that the 3-stop of Hamilton, Rosberg and Button.

        Was it bad just because Hamilton finished ahead of Vettel?

        1. I just watched the 12-minute replay on the BBC site and Hamilton was about 5 seconds behind of Vettel and finished 5 seconds ahead of him. I know he had tyres 7 laps younger, but he made up 10s in 10 laps on the same compound. If it was the strategy’s fault Vettel would have finished 4th. Or maybe he should have and Vettel’s that good, equally a possibility.

      4. Poor start by Vettel. If he went sraight ahead instead of moving over towards Hamilton, he may have been able to maintain the lead, or at least taken 2nd place.

  7. Strategy and skill came to dominate this race. That it manifested itself in Hamilton is neither here nor there.

    F1 is back.

  8. This really tells Mclaren’s pace on the track. Even after being passed by the 2 ferraris before the pitstop and then having a 3 stop strategy, lewis managed to catch up with vettel and pass him. Finally, nice to see someone on the top step who isn’t Vettel. I was really curious whether the gamble mclaren did yest by sending out lewis for just 1 flying lap in Q3 will do any good. Guess it paid off well! Excellent strategy from Mclaren.

    1. d1sciple (@)
      17th April 2011, 12:07

      I’m not sure about that. Webber showed the true Red Bull pace, which was much faster than the McLarens overall. Once the McLarens switched to a 3 stopper they were always on fresher tyres than Vettel. Once Vettel switched to the hard they were noticeably slower than the softs, again Webber showed that. When all on the hards the newer ones were faster, which we’d expect. On the same strategy I think Vettel would have won the race, he would have only needed to pass Rosberg to do so, which Hamilton, Button and Webber all managed.

      1. Webber had 3 fresh soft tyres as he got booted from Q1 and having used the hard first, he used the option tyres at the optimum time.

    2. I agree with d1sciple, this was probably more about McLaren and the other 3 stoppers better reading the tyres today.

      The best strategy for the race was Webbers, that is Red Bull as well.

  9. Excellent race!

    A pity that Massa didn’t use a 3-stop strategy, as I think he could have been 2nd or 3rd, considering his proximity to Hamilton before their strategies diverged.

    1. Agreed Ed.

      I was really rooting for he and Rosberg to make the podium.

      But that takes nothing away from such an incredible race. My room mate and I were jumping and screaming at the tv during the last 20 laps or so.

      Simply incredible. So much action, so much strategy. And a race where every top driver, bar Alonso drove superbly well.

      It’s going to be hell trying to vote for driver of the day :)

      1. the top guys all drove well.

        and that includes michael and fernando. they had great battles despite being on weaker strategy.

        1. I don’t think Michael lost out at all due to strategy. It was the correct move to do 3 stops considering his grid position.

          1. i meant more due to poor grid position on michaels part.

            so year michaels 3 stop was right

    2. If Alonso had been on a three stop and Massa on a 2 stop, he would have finished ahead of Massa.

      Thats how big a role strategy played today. It also highlights how big a mistake Ferrari made. Both drivers could have gained a lot more points had they had the right plan.

  10. I’m curious to see what is going to happen with Alonso and his DRS, since both the BBC and OneHD picked up on it opening on the main straight. It didn’t just happen by accident; the aerodynamic load would keep it closed if the mechanism somehow became loose. So on the one hand, you’ve got the possibility of the FIA failing to enforce the DRS system since Alonso was able to open it out of the active zone – both on the other hand, you’ve got Alonso leaning on the DRS button in a section of the circuit where he knwos the DRS is (supposedly) unavailable.

    1. @PM, I think it’s going to difficult to take action against Alonso for this, it was obviously a software failure on behalf of the FIA’s equipment (Unless those conspiracy theorists think Ferrari have circumnavigated around the FIA equipment). It was strange though, did it activate itself? or did Alonso activate it when he saw the system was active?

      1. The system can’t activate itself. The only way it can open is if the driver presses the button or pulls the trigger or does whatever it is that he has to do in order to activate it.

        However, if a software glitch meant that Alonso could use it outside the DRS zone and his control panel was telling him that he could do it, it does beg the question: why? Why did he use it? He had to know that he was outside the DRS zone, and the rules clearly state that it can only be used within the designated section of the track. Alonso had to consciously choose to press the button to work his rear wing. It may simply have been a reaction to seeing the button light up before he realised it was a mistake – but this is Fernando Alonso we’re talking about. He doesn’t make mistakes. Not ones like this.

        1. Is it just for that one lap that the DRS was opened? or was it a repeat occurrence?

          1. Only one that we know of because a cameraman spotted it and the BBC managed to get a replay for their own feed. The OneHD “commentators” picked up on it, too. But it could have happened several times without being noticed.

          2. Laranja Mecanica
            17th April 2011, 11:30

            Of course ALO did it only to incense PM

          3. Oh, so he should go completely unpunished for illegally opening his DRS?

          4. Perhaps he didn’t open it PM and it was a software glitch – not that he pressed the button… has that crossed your mind?

          5. Software glitches can cause a car to speed in pitlane too. The same penalty applies whether it is intentional or not.

            He may get away with it if it opened at an inconvenient time. i.e. if it slowed him down, they may decide that it is like cutting the track and losing time.

          6. Laranja Mecanica
            17th April 2011, 12:20

            Strange, no spiteful comment about Massa stepping over the pit lane.

          7. Laranja Mecanica
            17th April 2011, 12:27

            …the pit lane line

          8. Score one for the US coverage for a change then. The announcer (Varsha) spotted it live.

          9. @Laranja. I noticed that too, but there were 2 lines. I believe only the left-most one counts.

        2. That is incredibly off base. If it is a software glitch that let it open in the first place (which it clearly was), there is no reason why a software glitch could not have opened it without any driver input. You can’t have it both ways. Obviously the technology is new and the FIA need to look into what hapenned, but there is zero evidence to suggest Alonso even tried to activate it.

          1. I don’t think any of us have enough knowledge of DRS electronics to be sure. However you should assume that activating DRS must rest with the driver making the final action to trigger the device, purely for safety reasons. Wouldn’t it be good to get some in car footage to find out. If he did activate it then he should be publicly warned as this is the first instance of this kind of offence. (Sorry PM, you know I’m no Alonso fan but I like to think I’m not biased)

          2. there is no reason why a software glitch could not have opened it without any driver input

            Actually there is every reason: the software doesn’t actually open the wing. The software allows the wing to be opened, but the driver has to open it himself.

          3. No really PM.

            If you press the button when the system does not allow, the DRS will not open. There is a safety lock during race conditions.

            The software is controlled by the FIA remotely and is dependant on the FIA’s GPS system. During qualifying for example, the FIA unlock the system to allow it to be used on any part of the track.

        3. If they are going to penalise Buemi for accidentally pushing a speed limiter button in Malaysia, there definitely is a precedent for penalising Alonso.

          Having said that, I admit that Buemi’s case was more serious, considering that it was in pit lane, and it’s a quantitative rule – either over or under speed limit.

          1. BTW, no penalty for Button for getting into the Red Bull pit? Even if Seb Vettel came out in front of Button, he lost some precious time there. Don’t know if there is a rule about this, but there should be.

          2. no penalty for Button for getting into the Red Bull pit?

            There is no rule that says a driver must pull up in his own pit. I suppose you could penalise a driver if he deliberately pulled into a rival’s pit to hold that rival up and get his team-mate back out in front.

        4. What absolute drivel. You could easily have a software glitch that automatically triggered it. Just as he only needs to press the button once to activate it, then it’s supposed to close automatically when braking commences, if the signal for opening continues then it would reopen when the brakes were released. Or it could be a glitch that triggered it without him even pressing the button – just as we’ve already seen glitches that didn’t open wings when the button has been pressed. There’s any number of possibilities, there’s no evidence whatsoever that he repressed the button, unless someone provides in car evidence of him doing so.

          1. Because of the concerns over safety, the software was coded in a way that the only way the wing can open is when the driver presses the button – the software that opens the wing is separate from the software that senses the wing is active.

          2. The coding intention is irrelevant as the coding is clearly buggy – we have wings not opening, and now we have wings opening when they shouldn’t. Whether or not there are two separate pieces of software is irrelevant as both can be flawed. If the software is poor it could open and close by itself a hundred times.

            However you misread my point anyway, which is that no 2nd button press is required.
            The first software senses that it is ok for the wing to open – no bugs required.
            Then the wing is allowed to open at button press – I imagine like most drivers Alonso’s system is set to one press to open then auto close under braking – he doesn’t need to lean on it as you suggest. This one press sends a continuous signal for the wing too open, that is only over-ridden when the brakes are hit or the car moves outside the area.

            If the signal to open is still being transmitted when the brakes are released the wing will reopen (and can do so perfectly legally within the zone). All that need go wrong is that the signal continues too long, a really simple bug where the signal to open is caught in a loop. No 2nd button press required.

            In this instance it wasn’t caught in a loop but just out of sync with the right part of the track and surprise surprise we now find that Alonso gained no advantage, he simply pressed his button once as usual and he was disadvantaged.

            Never let a total lack of evidence hold back a good conspiracy theory.

          3. Just a thought, how does the system that monitors DRS know where it is on the track?

            I’m guessing GPS or some local cell network?

            Neither of these are immune from interferance – could that have played a part with the sensors thinking they were elsewhere on the track?

            In other words, the software is ok but the hardware wasn’t…

    2. Well, maybe he was doing exersice for DRS in quali :P

    3. I am curious as well. Can’t they go back to telemetry data to see how many times the DRS system was activated outside the zone?

      1. Sure they could do that. To learn how to improve their system. Even if Alonso pushed the button or hammered on it with his fists or banged on it with his head, when he is not in the DRS zone nothing should happen. Maybe it didn’t deactivate after the zone or anything but still, this shoudn’t happen.

        I didn’t notice any of that (German tv because stream didn’t work well for me) so I don’t know how severe the incident was, but if it was something big then someone shoud probably get penalized.

    4. I am a bit curious about that as well. From the images, I gather the system told Alonso it was available, so he pushed the button.

      He did let it drop after that, so possibly he realized it was not supposed to work there and let it go.

  11. I still think vettel will comfortably win the title as he as the best car, with some interesting battles for 2nd spot. Hamilton is faster than button but jenson will beat lewis more so than lastyear due to the tyres. I still think none of the teams fully understand the tyres.

    1. d1sciple (@)
      17th April 2011, 12:15

      Button destroyed his tyres more than Hamilton today, with Hamilton also going faster and pushing more. That bodes badly for Button for the rest of the year. Could be closer and closer over after Turkey, so don’t give the title to Vettel just yet.

    2. Over the length of a season, I just cant see Button beating Hamilton. Hamilton is a far superior racer, and can pull off something special when the situation demands it. On the other hand, Jenson cannot do anything but cruise the car along at a pace that suits the tyres.

      1. I think Button lost out after his stupid mistake of stopping at Vettels pit box. That possibly upshet him, and probably triggered him into mistakes.

        Hamilton was really into a groove, feeling confident after saving a set of softs on saturday.

        Great racing overall.

        1. I didn’t like their race overall’s at all :)

          1. Haha, good one! I quite liked them and thought it was a shame we saw them for 5 minutes after quali.

            You’d think red Bull with their “fun” image would be doing more stuff like this. Though I notice a lot of the fun has gone out of Red Bull since they started competing for championships, they are much more like a normal team.

  12. Tyres tyres tyres. Yawn.

    1. Yep, everybody is so happy with all this strategy ****. I would certainly prefer tyres that could withstand all the race in one stint, with no mandatory change. Better a processional race than a gimmicky, Mario-Kart style race such as this (voted 1 because 0 is not possible. Of course I know I am in the minority.

      1. I agree. The hard tire should be able to just about last the whole race but be much slower than the soft.

        1. Knowing what the race result is going to be after 3 corners is not going to endear F1 to a TV audience.

          1. How would that be? There would still be the option of using the much quicker but much less hard wearing softs to mix up the strategy, it would simply mean that it would be possible to get through the race without stopping (while most likley having to drive very conservatively to make sure they last). I like the bigger difference this year but it seems wrong that hards last such a short time. I also dislike how the tyres grip drops off a cliff

      2. I didn’t know Mario Kart had pitstops.

  13. Incredible. You still have to talk of him. Guau-Guau

  14. I find it odd Horner saying a 2 stop strategy was the best when after the first stop Redbull was essentially in the lead of the race.

    Mclaren did their first stop one lap later which meant Lewis had to do a lap longer than they had planned hence his massive loss of time after the first stop.

    Ironically, had Webber started in the top 10 he may not have got 3rd as he would have been forced to run at the same pace as the slightly slower cars of Mercedes, Renault, Ferrari etc during all his stints without finding free air. So the curse that was qualifying turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

    1. d1sciple (@)
      17th April 2011, 12:16

      Horner is saving face, they’ll deal with things in private. He knows they should have gone to 3 stops and it cost them, it was a negative decision from Red Bull. Webber’s pace shows it.

      1. Webber was on a completely different strategy from all of them. There is no comparison at all.

  15. You don’t suppose all the praise has began to get to the head of Perez. He seemed to be doing great for a while, then he seemed to forget and probably thought he was in a GP2 race.

    1. Foolish incident from him. He is a great driver though, give him time.

      1. i agree. early days to judge him for one mistake

        1. Same as it was too early days to proclaim him the best thing since sliced bread after his first race.

          He’s a rookie. He’ll learn and get better. And he put his hands up and apologised instead of making excuses. So it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.

  16. Such a shame for Nico he wrestled that car all day and didn’t get on the podium with only better cars infront of him. With the way it panned out on the first pistop he was a good distance away from Vettel. Nico would of won that race if he was in a Red Bull or McLaren.

    1. d1sciple (@)
      17th April 2011, 12:18

      He would’ve been on their strategy, so I don’t think that’s true. Rosberg really needs to work on spacing between cars. He got overtaken twice far too easily, where he could have ducked back and fought harder.

      1. At that point he was conserving fuel, thats why they looked “too easily”

    2. Making that mistake at the hairpin cost him 2 places that he may have been able to hang on to though. Pitting early also gave the impression that the Mercedes was faster than it actually was for the duration of the race. But you’re right, he should have maybe got 3rd.

  17. It was a brilliant race, but as far as I could see, the stand out drive was Webber. 18th to 3rd with no retirements from the top cars.

    Hamiltons drive was by far the second best. 2011 could become another great season.

    1. David Johnson
      17th April 2011, 12:12

      For sure Webber drive was great !! But best drive of day, I’m not sure ?? He didn’t have KERS but that means he has a car equally to the Mclarens in raw pace, remember vettel was 0.7 secs ahead on pole (maybe 0.4 in race trim) AND more importantly he had THREE sets of brand new options, 2 more that Hamilton who saved a set ?? Not to mention he had quite a bit of free air….Webber had a great drive…but it wasn’t as amazing at it seemed !!

      1. Webber started the race on Hard tires, so obviously he stopped only for soft tires during the race. Everyone on 3 pit-stop strategy whet for only one time on hard tires. Webber was the ONLY driver to start the race on hard tires. Considering the fact that he had a car which was atlest .7 a lap faster than any other car, I am not surprised.
        This has been done by quite a few drivers in the past, Im sure we can find atleast comparable drives from other drivers. I remember Kimi, Schumi and Hamilton doing something similar in the past but I dont remember the exact races.
        My drive of the day is still Hamiton, winning the race with the fastest car is not difficult for ANY of the drivers in the top teams, as always in F1, car is more important than the driver. A driver can maybe make a difference of .5 of a second but if ur car is HRT then its 23rd at best even if you are the best driver in the world.

  18. Everything almost like before. Red Bull Team learnt today they have a F1 supercar for really. If 3 stops ran like that for Webber since the 18th position I only can imagine the advance Vettel would put over all the field with 3 stops. Now Red Bull Teams knows for sure that they shouldn’t hesitate about the calculs around the extra stint: it’s a full advantage for them.

    1. Vettel could have done nothing, had he a 3rd stop, maybe end even behind both mclarens, like Horner said.

  19. Everything almost like before. Red Bull Team learnt today they have a F1 supercar for real. If 3 stops ran like that for Webber since the 18th position I only can imagine the advance Vettel would put over all the field with 3 stops. Now Red Bull Teams knows for sure that they shouldn’t hesitate about the calculs around the extra stint: it’s a full advantage for them.

  20. A superb drive from Lewis. The race seemed to have gone away from him somewhere around the start of the second stint. It was great to have Lewis show that he can take care of the tyres and make them work much better than Button. Sometimes i think that story is over milked. Lewis is no fool, he obviously can adjust himself to suit the conditions and today was ample evidence of that fact. Great tho that Seb did not win this one,I hope this is the beginning of Mclaren’s ascendancy.

    1. couldn’t agree more kho.

      people don’t believe Lewis can change his driving drive to conserve his tyres but i think as the season goes on you will see him get even better in this regard.

      great race from him today. in my opinion the best passer in f1 today with more raw pace than any driver on the grid. and that’s not only me saying that Alonso said it earlier in the season.

  21. I’m already thinking for who to vote in the best driver poll. Massa was superb, Webber was good until half race when he started going really fast. Massa’s result is nowhere satisfying for his race and he beat again Alonso, who has had three bad starts out of three. He drove matching Vettel and could have won if he had Rosberg’s strategy.

  22. We all know Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest ‘raw’ drivers the sport has seen. But at the same time we’ve doubted his credentials as a ‘complete’ driver (Alonso, Schumacher etc.)

    His heart has all too often ruled his head and he has ended up with far less than was available (even just last week!)

    I don’t know about you but I think this race weekend we have seen the continuation of Lewis’s growth with regard to the long game. So often one of his few weaknesses.

    Knowing pole was pretty much locked out Lewis (and team) decide to build some reserve for the race. Just pushing enough to make a respectable grid slot.

    Holding back at the correct points during the race, tyre and car preservation in mind. And then pulling out those reserves at just the right moment to strike and pull away.

    Vettel & Red Bull are in a league of their own right now and justifiably so. But Lewis and McLaren showed that with all the right moves, they can be beat!

    What a classic!

    1. I do think if the fia get around to banning redbulls cheat wing then we will see a much less competitive red bull. I am still amazed they are still allowed to run it given the evidence.

      1. Let’s see how quick McLaren is without the best engine on the grid. Can’t wait for 2013 when the contract runs out for them and having to use Cosworth engines.

        1. Mercedes would be stupid to stop supplying the only team that gets them regular podiums.

          1. You’re right there Icthyes. What’s good for Mclaren is also good for Mercedes, even if it’s not their factory team winning.

          2. Mercedes would be smart to put them with Red Bull if they were intending to get more, merc engine + newey + vettel + red bull = Game over

          3. Newey + Mercedes tends to = BOOM! though ;)

        2. Aren’t they making their own V4s in 2013? No Cosworth required Britney ;)

        3. how sad?
          because your fave driver/team is unable to win you begrudge McLaren’s success.

          and for sure McLaren would not be using Cosworth since they are setting up their own performance engine division for their production and future race cars.

      2. Do you want some cheese with that?

        Point out this obvious evidence to the FIA, I’m sure one of us armchair hacks are much better at picking apart the complex engineering of an F1 car by looking at still pictures and selected portions of TV footage than they with their years of experience are able to.

        1. The obvious evidence is clear to see on tv. The wing should remain a certain height above the track. Also there was a great article linked by Keith discussed how red bull bought a cfd company specifically to model this type of deforming wing.

          1. charley says it’s legal so get off your high horse Lee, enjoy the victory while you can since it’s unlikely you’ll repeat it in 3 weeks time when red Bull sort out the KERS problem.

            @toro
            What cheese? last time I checked vettel was still 21 points infront for being the more consistent driver out of the lot. So you lot can just drink your pints of “bitter” after the european tour where you’re still nagging about the points gap.

          2. Calm down Nico!

          3. @Nico WDC ’11

            I am not sure if you are aware but Hamilton won the race not me. Although I would love to be one of the drivers I am not yet signed by any of the teams….. So I can enjoy the races but alas I have no grand prix victories to enjoy as of yet. Plus I am not aware Charlie has approved their method hence the tests being beefed up. Unfortunately the tests are out of date and need to be able to simulate the air flowing over the wing rather than the highly sophisticated method of putting weights on the end of the wings.

          4. People are looking at symptoms and trying to draw conclusions about one component of a complex car. It’s difficult to draw a line between an outcome (in this case the apparent lower ride of the front wing) and its cause. But if their engineers deem it correct then that’s what it is.

            I’m just surprised nobody else has cracked it fully yet – which implies to me it’s more than one part and is a combination of lots of parts of the car, which is not easy to replicate.

            @nico
            The cheese comment was to Lee, and probably unnecessary in retrospect (lack of edit). I can’t follow this tree structure but that’s where I thought I put it.

          5. @Toro Stevo

            Red bull have purposefully designed it to get around the test. They bought a CFD company that pioneered the method of combining internal and external force models and so red bull are able to design a wing that only deforms when air is moving over it. The tests are far to archaic to be able to cover this as all they do is put weights on the end of the wings to test deflection. Getting around the test does not mean that the wing is legal, it just means that the FIA are finding it difficult to prove it is not legal. The tests are there to verify parts are adhering to the rules they are not the rules themselves. As I have said in a post below, it is akin to an athlete (and yes this does happen) finding a way to take performance enhancing drugs so that they are not detected in the tests or by taking a new drug that the test do not yet cover. They are still cheating it is just that the blood tests can’t prove it. The big difference with these front wings is that through video and still images it is obvious that there is a lot of deflection that should not be there while the a performance enhanced athlete is just suspicious as there is no visual proof of the drug taking.

            Don’t get me wrong, I think it is extremely clever stuff, especially as they have had to work out how to lay the carbon fibre in order to get it to act this way, but it is still cheating as the rules state that the wing should be rigid and it clearly is not under race conditions.

      3. Evidence that it doesn’t pass the rigidity test?

        1. Evidence that the rigidity tests aren’t functioning properly to rule out flexing.

          1. It reminds me of the famous “water-cooled

          2. oops, sorry about that.

            It reminds me of the famous “water-cooled” brakes where all the water would be jettisoned on the parade lap to make the car featherlight and then it would be topped up before weighing the car after the race as there was nothing in the rules that prevented it (funnily enough, did anyone else notice the guy stopping Hamilton from drinking water before he was weighted?)

            Similarly Red bull passes the test when stationary but have gotten around it on track. Though I do have to say it’s not as noticeable before which means the tests are having some impact and showing up Red Bull’s claims of innocence.

        2. It is akin to an athlete taking a new drug designed explicitly to be untestable. Just because it does not pass the test does not mean it is not cheating.

  23. I would never have expected Webber to get on the podium – At best, I thought he was looking at a point!.

  24. Yet another boring race where the winner won by saving tyres, oh wait ;)

  25. One can not blame Massa or Alonso for the final positions today. The car has pace,the drivers are fine. How can Ferrari have this kind of strategy knowing these tires are dogs after a few laps. keep the cars on fresh rubber and forget about the rest. The final 10 laps told the story. Ferrari should have adapted during the race.

    1. Alonso did fine the last 10 laps. Massa shouldn’t have tried to follow Vettel so closely. He simply ruined his tyres too early.

  26. There are reports of Alonso complaining about the car. I disagree. Today the car did fine. The head honchos screwed it up.

  27. Bring back refuelling!!! The ban hasn’t really changed things for the better.

  28. Classic race, and thanks to the magic of Australian television I am now watching it again.

  29. Keith Collantine says:April 17, 2011 at 12:43 pm
    Complete rubbish.

    I can’t believe after a race as good as that the best thing you can some up with to talk about is some silly nonsense about which drivers the commentary team allegedly prefer.

    ————————————-

    Hi Keith

    I like both drivers but its always very obvious that the bbc f1 team do have a slight preference for jenson. This has always been very obvious to those who watch.

    I respect that a person in your position you wouldnt want to upset your fellow media/broadcasters. But your scathing comment to your site viewers/posters seems a bit hostile – Surely if many people are raising these opinions you should allow without having to be so hard on them – after all they have every right to voice their opinions on your site?

    If you really think the favouritism topic is so much nonsense…then it really raises a few questions as to how you interpret the issue. In my opinion also as well as many others…there is no doubt plenty of consistant hints by the broadcasting team of having more of a warming towards jenson…after all to start with DC, MB & Jake Humpries are a very good friends of jenson’s.

    Im just quite amazed how you have attacked this obvious issue.

    1. You should hear the rubbish Brundle used to say about Coulthard, while Coulthard was still racing and he was his manager. You would have thought Coulthard was the best thing to hit F1 since Senna. Coulthard is a competent driver but he just didn’t have it

    2. Well, if this bias is obvious, how about you come up with some specific quotes that shows this bias. Because I’m betting that for every gushing comment about Button, I can think of one made about Hamilton. Or Vettel. Or Kobayashi.

      And even if this bias existed, I think the commentary by Mark Brundell and David Coulthard is all the better for them showing that they are fans first and commentators second. And as long as they highlight mistakes as well as moments of brilliance (which imho they do quite consistently whenever they catch them), I really don’t see the problem if they keep their current level of (apparent) fanboyism.

      To paraphrase Keith: seriously, if after a race like today, all you can think to comment is “I wish the commentators weren’t so obviously biased against Lewis and in favour of Jenson”, then the only conclusion I can make is that you are not actually watching the race to enjoy it, but seem to be watching it to find fault somewhere. Anywhere. Because that was quite some way down the list of things to jump out at the viewers today.

      :rolleyes:

    3. Brundle was wax lyrical about Hamilton and his overtaking during the whole race. Even this quote: “Hamilton would have stuick on up the inside, that’s the difference between him and Jenson in this race.” How is that Button Bias? I don’t get this opinion at all.

  30. Mountain Man
    17th April 2011, 16:08

    Nail biting race…..but Button Should have gone to Specksavers…….

  31. This race has made me proud to be a formula one fan. Overtaking and various strategies throughout the race, hats off to all the drivers for a brilliant race.

  32. Great race, and in my opinion not ruined by Legard shouting all over it.. thank you BBC.

  33. Christopher Vissing
    17th April 2011, 17:44

    1 retirement, 23 to the flag.. that’s a hell lot of finishers!!
    Fantastic race!

  34. yep it was a great grand prix and the bbc commentary was enjoyable…. for once!

  35. matthewf1 (@)
    17th April 2011, 18:08

    Such a good race, so glad I got up this morning. The tyres really made things interesting, and it was great to try and work out where drivers would come out after pit stops and what the final order might be.

    It’s amazing what a difference a week makes. Last week Lewis was nowhere on hard tyres but he seemed the best on them today.

    Webber was superb, he proved me wrong today with a drive I didn’t think he could manage, so credit to him.

    Really pleased to see Nico leading for a while, shame he couldn’t keep the pace up, and Schumi definitely looked more like his old self, some of his overtaking was a treat to watch.

    Lots of discussion on the commentary it seems. I think it is quite poor to be honest. I like DC, but Brundle, well you can actually hear him sweating trying to keep up. They seem to miss a lot every week, like today they took ages to realise that Nico was leading after the first round of pit stops. Last week they forgot Webber had a fourth stop to make even though they said he was on a four-stopper earlier in the race. And Brundle definitely favours Jenson. I think he’s a bit jealous of Lewis’s success, same goes for Schumi, who he also doesn’t seem to like.

    In summary, a super race! Roll on Turkey!

    1. I have to say the TV feed was incredibly poor too. How often was a battle going on for position while the camera was following two drivers doing basically nothin special?

      1. yeah it happens all the time u got 2 drivers battling and we see the crew sat in the pit lol

    2. yeah schumi drove well i thought. had a great battle with fernando. 2 drivers racing very well wheel to wheel. good to see

    3. In a very relative sense, I can’t believe you’re knocking Brundle to be honest.

  36. I`m POlish, and also a big Kubica`a fan.I really miss this guy, but from today Hamilton is my God. This driver is just awesome. Complete driver. Aggressive when he suppose to be, not losing his head, clever, brilliant overtaker. I`m loving this season even Robert is there, probably any more. Congratulations Brit-People for having HAM.

  37. I`m loving this season even Robert is not there…….I wanted to say

  38. Most of the time Keith lets the fans do the talking on f1fanatic and offers his own take on matters without necessarily taking sides. It’s an admirable and engaging approach and is fundamental to a successful blog.

    Today however I can only 100% agree with Keith’s stance against people accusing the BBC commentary duo of having any particular bias for any driver(s).

    All they can be accused of is being out and out fans of F1 and motor racing in general and of course they celebrate their fellow countryman’s success just as much as the ‘next guy’. But never do they fail to see and acknowledge any other notable event by any other driver in a race.

    Brundle’s an absolute legend in my book, Coulthard is still getting used to the role. This race was phenomenal and they both did nothing but convey that.

    1. Oops, sorry, misplaced post…

  39. One of the best Grand Prix’s i have seen and also one of the best drives i have seen from Hamilton. Even the most hardened Hamilton Haters have to agree that pound for pound he is in the top 3 drivers in F1 (number one in my opinion)

    Great race for Webber aswell, to get podium was just unbelievable. Also have to mention Rosberg. Great drive and if it wasn’t for his critical fuel levels he could of had more influence on the race at the end.

    Overall Fantastic race. PROUD F1 FAN :)

  40. This was the best Grand Prix I have watched in 14 consecutive seasons of not missing a single race! Edge of seat stuff all the way. Wall to wall triumphs and disasters. It was so exciting, I buried old enmities. I forgave Fernando, enjoyed Nico’s pace, revelled in Vettel’s energy, loved the commentary for the first time ever and even managed to enjoy DC’s contributions! Lewis was a star, as were Mark Webber, Felipe Massa, Paul Di Resta, Kobayashi, Schumi, Petrov, Perez and Kovalainen. Also felt really sorry about Jenson’s understandable mistake ( his pit box all last year). Can we have lots more races like these – please?

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