The Motorsport Thread 2011

JJLehto wrote: No, it was not Button's race. lol Be realistic about this...if it continued on and they got past Vettel (and honestly that would've been tough he could've held em up till the end) you know he would not have gotten past Alonso. Not being a fan or anything but Button doesn't have it in him  He would've rode around on his gearbox like back in 04 when he finished 2nd to Jarno Trulli. Trulli for god sakes! He's smooth as glass and a solid driver but he has no extra gear in him. Hami could've gotten by. I agree the changing tires and allowing damage repair I didn't like at all but it's not even like they were cheating or shirking the rules. It was allowable. Can only be mad at the FIA..not any team. NO ONE liked that ending I mean it went from the most exciting race in a long time to watching them ride around for 3 laps. Hami did a rough day, never seen him have such a bad outing but happens.

He'd have got passed Alonso before Vettel, you silly fanboy.

lololol

But really, a snowball's chance in hell. If you couldn't pass Jarno Trulli you ain't getting by Alonso. Hami could've though, he had one of the few passes in that race! Great overtaker.

JJLehto wrote: lololol But really, a snowball's chance in hell. If you couldn't pass Jarno Trulli you ain't getting by Alonso. Hami could've though, he had one of the few passes in that race! Great overtaker.

Anything is possible.  Alonso's tires were dodgy.  He wasn't controlling the car as well as Vettel and Vettel's tires were much worse.

Hamilton would have taken someone out and got a drive-through penalty.

Hildebrand crashes on the final corner and Dan Wheldon takes the win! Hildebrand finishes second. Graham Rahal is third.

An Englishman and a part timer has just won the centenary Indy 500

 

JJLehto wrote:   And part timer? He races the full indy schedule.

...... hopefully after this win, yes. But he and his team Bryan Herta Motorsport was only scheduled to run Indy 500 this year. But with the price money earned today, who knows ? 

That red flag ruined the race. McLaren reckon Vettel was only 1 or 2 laps from his tyres falling off the cliff and loosing as much as 3 seconds per lap, he would have been a sitting duck then. I dont like the fact that the teams could change tyres on the grid but I do understand that its (and repairs as well) for safety and the fact that we've never been in this situation before. Maybe a change to the rules stating that you cant change tyres in red flag conditions unless you have a puncture.

Brian, your talking complete bollocks, Buttons proved on dozens of occaisons that he's one of the best overtakers out there and I can pull out dozens of examples to prove it (including passes on Alonso, like Monzo 04) starting with his round the outside move on Webber at the last race, its his defense thats a bit shoddy (whitness China). Oh, and you seem to have forgotten that Trulli was outperforming his team mate Alonso for the first half of 04 before he fell out with Briatore, but there's no point in comparing different era's of racing like that any way, overtaking was never going to happen back then and even today it  would still take a massive performance advantage or a mistake from the guy ahead at Monaco.

Jenson drove brilliantly today and would have won if McLaren hadnt ballsed up the strategy with that unecessary second stop for super softs as that second set wasnt going off and he was still pulling away from Vettel.

Hamilton was a bit scrappy today to say the least, it was clear he was having to play the long game on strategy and that collision with Massa at the hairpin deserved the penalty, as did Di Resta's a few laps earlier. I think the clash with Maldonado was 50/50 though, Lewis was alongside and Pastor just turned in on him, ruining a great race from the Monaco specialist.

Massa's crash was his own fault, he must have been really slow out of Portier for Hamilto to get alongside and the outside of the tunnel is so incredibly dirty with rubber, diesel and other crud that never gets cleaned away because nobody in their right mind puts their car out there, he should have backed of because the crash was inevitable.

And Red Bull fluffing pitstops, thast a real shock.

Montreal next. The Pirelli tyres are supposed to recreat last years Candaien GP at all tracks, so what happens when we get back to Canada?

And congrats to Wheldon for winning the 500 again, its criminal that he doesnt have a full time ride out there.

Indy 500 final lap

Yeah he drives brilliantly but eh, what can I say? He's doing well in good equipment. He's good but I'm not impressed with him.
And yikes wasn't talking sh*t on Hami but cmon you don't think the wing damage had something to do with it? I mean it's Monaco, Hami just tapped him. Not like he crashed him or something chillax. I was just saying that must have had part to do with it.

Without doubt that flag ruined everything. Soon as it happened I knew Vettel had it sealed.
Still don't think with those few laps Button would've gotten by but we can't know amirite? What I do know is regardless a great ending was killed.

And yeah what the hell were McLaren thinking? The whole thrilling ending could have been unnecessary and an easy win for Button if they didn't muck that up. They also had their own pit stop issue. It was a strange day for Hami and McLaren.
I didn't think anything of the KERS but whenever you have odd pit stops in conjunction with an obviously preferred driver, you can't help but wonder "how accidental was that bad Webber stop?" Team orders still exist though as we know, just not as publicly.



Edited by JJLehto - May 29 2011 at 16:26

James wrote: That's pretty fail to crash like that.  You're going in an oval, how can you mess that up?

Yeah you should've seen it live.
OMG rookie took over the lead! He's coming around the last turn.
OK, he didn't turn....he's in the wall
WTF!?

He obviously took the lapped car way too fast, I know he was a rookie but still seems almost inexcusable. Especially leading the 500! If I wasn't sure I would've slowed way down.
So we all agree the Monaco GP was a pretty big disappointment? I almost can't even enjoy the rest of it that ending sucked so hard.


Edited by JJLehto - May 29 2011 at 16:29

That Hildebrand mistake makes me feel sorry for him. This was the luckiest (but at the end deserved) Wheldon victory.