The Motorsport Thread 2011

^You were in luck James, you didnt get to see much of Vettel today. Unusual failure as the tyre came of the rim without, seemingly, much reason. However, bad driving on Vettels part as he clearly went round the track far to fast and the flailing rubber wrecked his car, he would still have scored points if he'd taken it easier and got back OK.

Great drive by Hamilton.

^It is. Interesting to see that he didnt blink, at all, during that poll lap.

Surprise of the century

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:40.478	1:38.516	1:38.481	1
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.782	1:38.434	1:38.622	2
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:40.227	1:39.097	1:38.631	3
4	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:40.167	1:38.821	1:38.858	4
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:41.380	1:39.058	1:39.058	5
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:41.592	1:39.623	1:39.695	6
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:41.120	1:39.420	1:39.773	7
8	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:42.605	1:40.554	1:40.662	8
9	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.595	1:40.205	1:40.768	9
10	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:41.064	1:40.414	no time	10
11	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:41.311	1:40.874		11
12	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:40.955	1:40.919		12
13	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:41.737	1:41.009		13
14	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:41.391	1:41.079		14
15	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:41.386	1:41.162		15
16	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:41.613	1:41.240		16
17	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:42.258	1:41.760		241
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:42.979			17
19	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:43.884			18
20	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:44.515			19
21	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:44.641			20
22	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:44.699			21
23	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:45.159			22
107% time: 1:46.766
24	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	no time			23

It appears the Lotus name debacle has finally been sorted out, from next year Team Lotus will be Caterham F1, Renault will be Lotus and for good measure Virgin will be Marussia.

Apparently we may have to wait a while longer before we see Kubica back. Reports are that its taking longer than expected for his berves in the right hand to regenerate, so he doesnt currently have the dexterity needed for the controles of an F1 car. Its thought they'll start next year with either Senna or Grosjean, and that they'll have to step aside when Kubica's ready to come back.

I fell asleep through most of the race.  From the highlights I saw, it seems I didn't miss much.

Rowan Atkinson's reaction was the highlight.

MillsLayne wrote: topographicbroadways wrote: Has anybody watched the film "Senna" yet? I saw it twice recently. Absolutely amazing docu and portrait of an incredible racer. Anyone who's not seen it should definitely watch it.    Has it been released in English?

Released in English, its made by a group of Englishmen! Most of the narative is in Portuguese because that was Senna's main language, same applies to the Italian journalists that appear regularly (only for their own language).

topographicbroadways wrote: Has anybody watched the film "Senna" yet? I saw it twice recently. Absolutely amazing docu and portrait of an incredible racer. Anyone who's not seen it should definitely watch it.

topographicbroadways wrote: Decent first race in India today. Has anybody watched the film "Senna" yet? I saw it twice recently. Absolutely amazing docu and portrait of an incredible racer. Anyone who's not seen it should definitely watch it.

It's a brilliant documentary and the last 20 minutes are some of the most powerful and difficult to watch film I've ever seen, even if it does kind of gloss over his foibles.

Not the most exciting of races but a damn good track in India and it looks like it has a better chance of gaining a local following than most of the recent new races have.

These Hamilton/Massa clashes are turning into kindergarten stuff now. Massa sees Hamilton approaching and turns into him just to get Hamilton punished and with no regards to any lifes or the state of his own car. And that after we lost two fine young men in accidents. This is so, so childish.    

Grow up, Felipe !   

And yes, I thought this was all Hamilton's mistake until I spotted the head movements of Massa just before the accident (on the replays). That's what the stewarts spotted too and landed Massa with a penalty. 

It seems like the Indian GP is giving India and the Indian people a lot of positive PR. As much as $ 400 mill will give you. I like Eddie Jordan's new Indian shirt, btw. Will check out the shops in Glasgow to find a similar one or ask an Indian friend of mine.  

The track is good too so a big victory to India as a whole. Congratulations ! 

........ Texas next.......