The Motorsport Thread 2011

JJLehto wrote: I recognized that name, Grosjean. He was given the seat after pretty much one race when it was decided Piquet was terrible. Funny, look how great he worked out in that bad ride! Least Piquet got a good shot at Flav. That whole situation pissed me off.

That was R. Grosjean.

Wasn't the F1 guy Sebastien Grosjean?

James wrote: JJLehto wrote: I recognized that name, Grosjean. He was given the seat after pretty much one race when it was decided Piquet was terrible. Funny, look how great he worked out in that bad ride! Least Piquet got a good shot at Flav. That whole situation pissed me off. That was R. Grosjean. Wasn't the F1 guy Sebastien Grosjean?

No, its the same guy. After loosing his Renault seat Romain spent last year racing in FIA GT's (he was damned spectacular at Le Mans for Matech racing in the Ford GT, he would have won the GT1 class if an LMP2 prototype hadnt lost controle at night at the pitlane entry and destroyed his car.) Auto GP and then back to GP2. Obviously he wants back in F1 and is a current title challenger. 

Qualifying now...

Indeed.  He's talking and hopefully it's just whiplash and nothing more.

He went in sideways, which I think helped.  If it had been like Rosberg's this morning (who missed the barriers, thankfully) and gone in forwards, then it could have been a lot worse.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:15.606	1:14.277	1:13.556	1
2	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.397	1:14.545	1:13.997	2
3	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.087	1:14.742	1:14.019	3
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:16.051	1:14.569	1:14.483	4
5	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:16.092	1:14.981	1:14.682	5
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.309	1:14.648	1:14.877	6
7	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.207	1:14.275	1:15.280	7
8	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:15.858	1:14.741	1:15.766	8
9	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:15.819	1:15.545	1:16.528	9
10	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:15.918	1:15.482	no time	10
11	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:16.378	1:15.815		11
12	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.616	1:15.826		12
13	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:16.513	1:15.973		13
14	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:16.813	1:16.188		14
15	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:16.600	1:16.121		15
16	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:16.681	1:16.214		16
17	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.358	1:16.300		17
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:17.343			18
19	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:17.381			19
20	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:17.820			20
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:17.914			21
22	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:18.736			22
107% time: 1:20.471
23	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	no time			231
24	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	no time			241

Ah well, I post the results when I get em lol and you know how F1 news is here.
I dont sh*t until the race starts

I wonder if the KERS and DRS will have such an impact at Monaco?

Perez has a concussion which will proabably rule him out of tomorrows race.

Dont rule Jenson out, he's my tip for tomorrows win.

James wrote: Vettel will win unless his car blows up or he hits a wall.  It's a tough overtaking circuit.  Schumacher in 5th... could we see him on the podium?

Yeah...pole on Monaco + the way he's been. I'd be very surprised if he was beaten on the track in any way. It will need a crash But that's why Monaco is great.

Likewise, this is probably the best chance Schumi has
Perez is quick, scored points in his debut until the team was penalized, and from the short time he's been here I like what I have seen from him.

Honestly, this field is amazing. Te best I've ever seen (which is only since '03) but I still have to believe this is one of the best fields ever. Like NASCAR the overall competition is going up. Making the top 10 doesn't seem so easy a task now, with a few middle of the road teams and lots of very talented young drivers. Let's not forget Kubica isn't even here!


Edited by JJLehto - May 28 2011 at 19:06

James wrote: Indeed.  The accident unfortunately meant Hamilton lost the chance to take pole.  He was certainly quick enough to do so. How much of a significance do you think pitstop strategy will be? If Perez was racing tomorrow, would he be in a rebuilt car?  I know they used to have a 3rd car for such instances but have they changed the rules now? I hope Perez a quick recovery too.  He's only 21 and seems to be a quick driver.  To be in the top 10 I thought was impressive.  If he had registered a final time, it would have been interesting to see how high he'd have been.

There's no 3rd car anymore but teams are allowed to bring a spare tub with them to the races. Perez's race tub is destined for the scrap heap now so the mechanics would have been working overnight to build up a new car around that spare tub, but only if they know he's going to race. Button had a similar crash there in practice in 03 and was forced to sit out the race weekend as a precaution, though there was no real sign of injury. As Perez has confirmed concussion and a sprained thigh I dont think there's any chance he'll be taking part in the race.