Lewis on pole and Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus make up the first three rows of the grid. I don't really understand the regs but apparently Vettel can pick what tyres he wants to start on from 9th after not posting a time in Qualifying. Webber had a bad day at the office ...

8AM race start time and it's live on the beeb.

 

But how do we define "competitor". Is the competitor just the driver on his own, or is it the whole team? Take Hamilton in Malaysia: the team had underfuelled the car. If the driver had been on his own he'd have raced as hard as possible and run out of fuel, and scored zero. To be the fastest, or as close as was possible, he had to drive slower. If the team had started him on more fuel, he'd have been slower all through the race.

 

Webber's now last. Which presumably means he can do what Vettel did last year and change what he wants to suit the race, and start from the pit lane.

I can't believe Red Bull did that with Vettel. You can understand Sauber and McLaren not having a serious go at Q3, but Vettel must have been in with a chance of being near the front. Or maybe they really don't have the pace.

 

A one make series is the only place to see pure racing.

The race win is determined by the designers, engineers, mechanics, strategists, pit crew, driver and team principle.

It's a complicated team sport and that's what I enjoy about it. The problem wasn't in what the teams did/attempted. The goal is to take maximum points regardless of how that's achieved.

We shouldn't hate the players, it's the game at fault. Making the cars fuel up for the full ~2 hour race and designing the tyres as such that protecting them is key often means the final result is decided long before the last lap.

 

What they actually need to do is shorten the time the car loses in the pits. Admittedly we'll never go back to the unrestricted speed limits, but if the track had a short cut missing out a section meaning that pit stops cost you 8-10 seconds instead of 20, you'd find they'd go for it then.

 

5 world champions and 5 different manufacturers in the top 5 .....

 

Quite enjoyed that.

 

Was a good one. You couldn't make up what happened to Webber. And he has a three place penalty for the next race.

 

Probably the best race this season so far. Plenty of action.

I do feel a bit sorry for Webber though. how do you motivate yourself to keep going when you're getting all that cr*p thrown at you. I guess his world championship would be a tall order now.

Glad to see Vettel not having things go completely his own way andd some great performances from some of the mid-fielders too.

and the good news is that most of the early starts are done now and I can at last get a lay in on a GP Sunday.

 

Another ... average race to watch. KERS and DRS make overtaking so easy, there is no point in the driver in front trying to respond it's just so artificial. Then the tyres, now all we are finding is people driving at 8/10ths because driving flat out will muller the tyres and therefore a driver must not go as fast as he can. F1 needs a long hard look at itself.