official F1 World Championship 2011 Thread

[simonlang]

Nothing to do with bashing Hamilton, the UK press and F1 fans seem to forget that McLaren has 2 drivers, its always Lewis that gets the press.

tell me about it ... its the same with the press and ferrari. but not lmited to one nation, its international. goes as far as bashing and calling for the head of the other drivers race engineer lately. ;)

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

[san.W10]

Hamilton says Schumacher's move during qualifying was dangerous

Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated after he was unable to complete his final run in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, labelling his incident with Michael Schumacher as dangerous.

The Briton did not cross the finish line in time to start another run after he was overtaken by Mark Webber and Schumacher during his warm-up lap.

Hamilton admitted he was surprised by the situation, as he believes Webber's and Schumacher's moves were dangerous.

"You could see on TV. I would have to watch replay," said Hamilton. "Jenson was in front of me, he slowed down to get his gap and I was coming to the last corner trying to make sure I had a gap between him and me.

"It wasn't that big and then just was I was coming into the chicane, I looked in the mirror and saw Mark diving inside me. And then I didn't see Michael but he came past me and we nearly crashed with me to the left. It was quite dangerous."

Hamilton had looked like one of the favourites for pole, but his failure to complete the final run left him down in third, which he labelled as good enough.

"It is what it is. But we are still on second row so that is good enough," he said.

Schumacher, meanwhile, said Hamilton had pushed him onto the grass.

"I had Webber in front because Hamilton slowed down. I don't know what was in front of him, if he really had to slow down that much, but it was tight for all three of us so we all had to push somehow to make it through and do another lap.

"At that moment I was set to do a lap because I didn't know whether Kobayashi, or somebody, may go out [to set a time]. I tried my best and Lewis pushed me a little bit wide onto the grass. I made it through, but a bit of an awkward start of a qualifying lap."

The Mercedes driver said he final lap had not been compromised too much by the incident, but he still believes Hamilton was driving too slowly.

"Not really [compromised], luckily nobody else - or at least Kobayashi - didn't go out again to set another lap, because that would have meant I would have been shy by probably a second. Which was a bit stupid - at the last chicane everybody was driving so slow.

"I saw my time, so I knew I had to go through somehow otherwise I wouldn't make it. I just missed it [the flag] by a second. Bit of a shame, but it didn't make a problem in the end."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95149

[ahmz]

I guess it's ok for him to slow down and get a gap but not for others (Massa).

[StealMySoda]

Yawn. Surely the FIA must see how bad it is for F1 to have somebody a run away leader, the reason why last year was so fantastic was because it was close to the end. I don't think I'm going to even both watching the last few races of the season!

[TheLegendOfMart]

Woah that was an exciting qualifying, Jenson only 9 thousands off pole. If tyre wear is a problem i think Jenson will take the race tomorrow he looks after his tyres.

Yawn. Surely the FIA must see how bad it is for F1 to have somebody a run away leader, the reason why last year was so fantastic was because it was close to the end. I don't think I'm going to even both watching the last few races of the season!

Its not Red Bull/FIA fault that the RB7 is a strong car, just like Brawn dominating in 2009 its what happens.

If you skip races you miss some real gems, i nearly didnt watch Montreal but im glad i did.

[Eddo89]

The thing about this runaway business is that if you look at Mark Webber, one would easily believe the Red Bull is only the 2nd best team. And he supposedly is a very good racer.

It is that simply Vettel is making the car look invincible. Just as Alonso probably dragged the team from clear 3rd to being competitive to being 2nd.

It is really up to the other drivers to catch up. And the writing was on the wall for a while, Vettel had in the past shown he is extremely fast but is prone to mistakes. Now he got rid of his mistakes, I really don't think you can say this wasn't out of the question.

[simonlang]

And the writing was on the wall for a while,

actually since the pre-season tests in winter. early noises appeared claiming redbull between 0.7 and 1s ahead of others.

and while ferrari reacted to run underweight to win the winter-test championship in 2010/11 and then fired their technical director, mclaren panically tried to implement redbulls EBD for melbourne. and newey? was, again, at least one step ahead of others already had new upgrades in the pipeline.

others should be aware of all next year, newey always finds some magical trick.

as boring it might be for some, i prefer it that way. red bull has done an incredible car (they, contrary to ferrari learnt about the mistakes in 2010 and took the right decisions) reliability is there and vettel is doing the rest. remember, he lost something like 70 certain points due to bad reliability in 2010, only that made it look like it was very close. had vettel had alonsos or webbers reliability in 2010 the wdc would have been finished few races to go again.

i agree with those, said that its up to the other drivers to mount a challenge to vettel. not like they did not have had some chances, but they did just not use it.

congrats to vettel, who should be the youngest double-champion ever in a few hours :D

[TheLegendOfMart]

Haha.

[san.W10]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WezuMV7kMlI

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Brilliant race as always at Suzuka. Congratulations to Jenson Button for winning the GP and to Sebastian Vettel for winning his second world driver's championship.

Man of the race: Jenson Button. Brilliant drive.

Reject of the race: Lewis Hamilton. He was lucky not to be punished for the collision with Massa; once more he was overshadowed by his team mate.

Bring on Korea next weekend.

[ahmz]

Yep it was a pretty good race and I was actually surprised that the Ferrari was able to stay on the pace whilst on the Medium compound tyres.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Yep it was a pretty good race and I was actually surprised that the Ferrari was able to stay on the pace whilst on the Medium compound tyres.

True - Alonso in particular was faster than I'd have expected.

Honourable mention: Michael Schumacher. 6th in the Mercedes GP, on the same pace as Hamilton for most of the race - brilliant.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Amazing stuff, i knew if it came down to tyres Jenson would clinch 1st place. Got a little bit anxious near end of race Alonso was getting too close for comfort but a well deserved win for Jenson.

[san.W10]

Jenson was bitching about opening lap move of Vettel, even after the race. lol

this year has been really good in terms of racing, lets see how the rest of the year turn out & how Hamilton handles Button.

[MightyJordan]

Jenson was bitching about opening lap move of Vettel, even after the race. lol

Well he had every right to! Tiff Needell agrees too: "Vettel Champion again - but I'd have slapped a drive through on him for that move on Button. A very bad example to all the wannabees!"

[simonlang]

congratulations to vettel! he is now the yonugest double world champion :laugh:

i did not quite get some of the top drivers strategies tho and will be interesting ot hear if massa suffered the same as hamilton ( a slow puncture) or what else was the reason why he always had to pit the lap where it was the worst from him and the best for alonso. once he even pitted before alonso, therefore the gap seemed to be much much bigger than it really was.

mercedes with schumacher showed how to do. if you miss the lap, you better dont pit but stay out for at least 4 or 5 laps longer, giving you fresher tires at the end.

button was good as well, but i just think vettel would have won this if he wanted;

reject of the race: has to be mark webber. and im still counting: since abu dhabi last year he is always happy to roll behind alonso on the race track not attacking him. more and more i understand why redbull is so full of praise for vettel. with webber they would not be worldchampions.

[mps69]

Good race indeed, well driven by Button again.

Think this goes to show Vettel is good, but is he really that good at overtaking when the pressure is on. We've really yet to see him fight for a place. Yes I know the team told him to not take chances, but that was quite a bit into the race.

And once again Hamilton showing he can't manage his tyres, what is it going to take to get him to understand he can't just waste they rubber the way he does. He's too hot headed, if he would just take a leaf out of Button's book he's be winning and competing more.

[Jimmy0]

Brilliant drive from Button. But the real congratulations has to go to Vettel! Had an amazing season and I can see him breaking a few more records before his career is over.

[Lovell]

Good race indeed, well driven by Button again.

Think this goes to show Vettel is good, but is he really that good at overtaking when the pressure is on. We've really yet to see him fight for a place. Yes I know the team told him to not take chances, but that was quite a bit into the race.

And once again Hamilton showing he can't manage his tyres, what is it going to take to get him to understand he can't just waste they rubber the way he does. He's too hot headed, if he would just take a leaf out of Button's book he's be winning and competing more.

What pressure? Vettel didn't have to do anything but cruise to the championship, and Hamilton had a puncture and still came 5th, Jenson has 1 more win than Lewis.

[simonlang]

qualifying results:

[MightyJordan]

Bloody hell. Good job, Lewis! Only the third driver this season to get pole position, and the first non-Red Bull driver. And he's ended Vettel's 5-pole streak. :)

Great to see Button in 3rd too. I would have preferred it if Lewis and Jenson swapped places, but can't complain too much. :p

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Petrov handed five-place grid penalty for India after Schumacher crash

Vitaly Petrov has been handed a five-place grid penalty, plus a reprimand, for his part in a collision with Michael Schumacher in the Korean Grand Prix.

The Renault driver was in a slipstream battle with Fernando Alonso down the long straight into Turn 3 following the first round of pitstops on lap 16, which resulted in the pair arriving the corner too fast.

While Alonso was able to take avoiding action to steer around slow cars ahead of them, Petrov had nowhere to go and slid into the back of Schumacher - putting both cars out of the grand prix.

Petrov was called to see the stewards after the race and, following an investigation, it was decided that he would be handed a five-place grid penalty for the Indian GP as well as a reprimand.

AUTOSPORT revealed earlier in the weekend that from this weekend's race in Korea, stewards would reserve the right to add a reprimand on top of penalties under the totting up system – so serial offenders run the risk of facing further sanctions.

Source: Autosport

Fully justified.

[simonlang]

ferrari really needs to try harder to destroy massas race, because today he was fighting like a monster. even a full lenght more pitstop (6.4 seconds instead of those 3.2 for alonso) did not send him behind. and glad for alonso this was not a normal race track because on a normal race track if you miss the braking point by 50 meters you are done.

and still massa was in front. so what did ferrari have to do. of course, pit massa then release him right into traffic of some force india. for several laps! and let alonso stay out for 4 laps or so longer. then it was done.

i dont see this working anymore, anyone seen how massa waved away after crossing the start/finish line? clearly he is on his way out - and after today rightfully so - maybe partnering schumacher at mercedes next year?