2013 Spanish Grand Prix
- Why the Spanish GP was better in person than on TV
- Ferrari one-two in Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend
- Spanish Grand Prix gets lowest rating of 2013 so far
- 2013 Spanish Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- Ferrari join Lotus in criticising tyre revisions
Nomore (@nomore)
12th May 2013, 14:47
The Red is back
Kingshark (@kingshark)
12th May 2013, 15:03
I know! I can feel nostalgia from 2004 already. <3
Calum (@calum)
12th May 2013, 14:50
Great for the title battle!
Embarrassing for Merc though, especially in front of Dieter Zetsche et al.
tmax (@tmax)
12th May 2013, 14:51
Tire Bore ….. I can’t go any slower than this :)
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 15:47
@tmax that was another message that caught my attention: drivers shouldn’t be complaining about not being able to go slow enough!
tmax (@tmax)
12th May 2013, 15:54
@vettel1 yep ….. I got a feeling they were trying to say that . “To be a complete driver it is not enough how fast you can drive a car but also how slow it can be driven around ” !!!
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 15:58
@tmax it really is turning into a tortoise versus the hair contest: that’s not how it should be. When the fastest cars on outright pace (the Mercedes and the Red Bull) perform that badly in the race it’s gone too far. Hopefully this was just an anomaly due to the punishing nature of the track.
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
12th May 2013, 14:56
Damn that grid penalty! It cost us the 1-2!
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 14:58
4 stops for the majority of the field is too much – some even had to do 5 because of how bad the tyres were. They need to be toughened up; that was a clear show of how Pirelli have gone too far. And I’m an advocate of degradable tyres…
puneeth Bharath (@puneethvb)
12th May 2013, 15:04
Dint see the complaining when Vettel won last week… Guess the tyre complaining only happens when Redbull are off the pace..
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th May 2013, 15:07
I don’t know where you were looking but there was tons of it.
Eggry (@eggry)
12th May 2013, 15:21
@puneethvb @keithcollantine I think he’s saying @vettel1 ‘s opinion, not all of fans and drivers, teams.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 15:46
@eggry I’m guessing they were also, and they couldn’t be more wrong.
puneeth Bharath (@puneethvb)
12th May 2013, 15:39
I meant complaints from @Vettel1 … I dint see him complaining about tyres after last race when Vettel won in a dominating fashion…
I know there have been a lot of complaints about tyres from many people regardless of the results, which actually is consistent…
John Miller (@maki)
12th May 2013, 15:11
+1
tvm (@)
12th May 2013, 15:25
@puneethvb ?, ? and ? Red Bull themselves complained over the tires after the last win…
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 15:45
@puneethvb last race we had racing and not 4 stops almost unanimously. I did also specifically state in my rating of the race that the lack of a battle for the lead was a negative and that the tyres were verging on being too influential – they crossed that line this race, which was reflected by the Sky commentator’s discussion. It’s not just me that think it went too far this week.
David-A (@david-a)
12th May 2013, 14:58
Super Alonso today. Hamilton’s race pace in the Mercedes was almost laughably bad by contrast.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
12th May 2013, 15:07
@david-a
Monaco is going to be hilarious. I fully expect Mercedes to take pole position, and then lap about 3 seconds/lap slower in the race. But since you can’t overtake, the opening 20 laps are going to be a 15 car train stuck behind them.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
12th May 2013, 16:07
@kingshark: You’ve read my thoughts on this one. Monaco shouldn’t be all that punishing to the Pirellis but there’s still a good chance this will happen…
Slip a Gutierrez, a Maldonado or an anxious Grosjean in there and we’ll have the same scenario as we did in today’s GP2 race, with everyone kicking, bumping and running into the back of everyone.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
13th May 2013, 4:19
@tony031r
Indeed. Monaco is going to be the holy mother of trains that even Trulli would be proud of.
GeeMac (@geemac)
12th May 2013, 15:01
Who says the fastest drivers don’t win races these days. Alonso was in another world, fantastic drive.
As for Mercedes, the less said about them the better. They were as poor as Alonso was good. Rosberg did a stellar job to come home in the points.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 16:06
@geemac in general they do, but I’d say Hamilton is much faster than 12th place, and Vettel is definitely faster than Massa. So it’s not exactly the case: for wins yes but overall throughout the field the top ten definitely wasn’t in order of fastest drivers/cars.
Alex (@smallvizier)
12th May 2013, 16:14
Is that based on their drives today, or their reputations?
Hamilton’s car was capable of 6th place. That’s what Rosberg achieved. The reason he was so far down was his inability to adapt and ‘feel’ his car – to the point where his engineer came on the radio and said, “this is how Rosberg is doing it.” So he fully deserved his low placing.
On the other hand, Massa certainly did have a good car – a race-winning car. But he also qualified within 0.001s of Alonso, set at least one fastest lap, and made several overtaking moves. He drove well and deserved third.
It seemed to me that the race was pretty fair. I’d certainly have preferred less tyre wear but the drivers who kept their heads and drove the best still came out on top.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
12th May 2013, 15:01
(1) Congratulations to Ferrari. But because of the tyres, the next race is not guaranteed.
(2) Embarassing for Mercedes – their latest upgrades achieved exactly the opposite of what it was meant to do – increase race pace, and lessen quali pace.
(3) Whitmarsh will never learn – still trying to make Jenson look good.
(4) The tyres are now a farce – tyre saving from lap 3, drivers can’t race, driving to lap delata, another delamination. When will the FIA come to their senses?
Awful awful race.
aldoG
12th May 2013, 15:18
+1. Couldn’t agree more. Very well said.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th May 2013, 15:48
@kbdavies +1 also: eloquently summarised, the only thing I think is missing from that is the championship battle implications!
Illusive (@illusive)
12th May 2013, 15:03
So many pitstops, in the end it was kinda funnny when Rosberg on 3stops could manage to stay ahead of Dir on a rather fresh tyres. Great race by Alonso, great overtake at first lap.
Slr (@slr)
12th May 2013, 15:03
Very happy Alonso won, he was superb. I was disappointed that Perez wasn’t allowed to race Button.
D (@f190)
12th May 2013, 15:03
Well I think that race shows what a true great Hamilton really is !
G.Villenueve
12th May 2013, 15:06
Not bad for a #1
Kingshark (@kingshark)
12th May 2013, 15:04
Fantastic race from Ferrari. Surprised by how slow Red Bull. Mercedes better than I expected.
Eggry (@eggry)
12th May 2013, 15:11
Good to see both Ferrari did well. Mercedes was disastrous. I think still we’re seeing tyre defendant order than settled real order.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
12th May 2013, 15:32
Wasn’t Withmarsh saying that “some wil try three stops and regret it” just before the race? Team orders or not Button was on a three stopper and ended up in front of Perez who qualified a bucket of positions in front of him…
On a funnier note, the staff at McLaren should be happy. Looking at how 2012-esque things are starting to be at Mercedes and at how Sutil seems to have inherited all the “german bad luck” from both Schumacher and Glock this season, McLaren could very well have a shot at 4th place in the WCC without actually doing anything significant in terms of upgrading a dog-of-a-car. Just leave it on to Pirelli and the gods…
sebsronnie (@sebsronnie)
12th May 2013, 18:36
I guess I’m the happiest Lewis fan in the world at the moment. Nothing to do with his performance however. Rather, apart from the pole-sitter, I’m pretty sure I got a perfect Predictions score… Sorry Lewis but I’m rubbing my hands in glee!
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
13th May 2013, 6:26
@sebsronnie Me too!! Merc made our day!!!
karter22 (@karter22)
13th May 2013, 15:45
I guess I was right @vettel1 , I knew it would be between VET and RAI. The mercs would go back and maybe ALO didn´t work his magic on the straight but it sure was present in turn 3! That pass on both kimi and HAM was just sublime to say the least!
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
13th May 2013, 16:20
@karter22 I have to say that was pretty impressive: it did remind me of Vettel’s pass on Alonso last week – he made them look like he was driving a different category of car!
I wasn’t expecting the degradation levels to be this bad though: if it was a three stopper I think there may have been a more competitive race at the front, but as it was hats of to Alonso for putting in a pretty dominant show. I just was kind of disappointed that they positions were pretty much set after the second stint!