The Motorsport Thread 2011

Stop the presses
Vettel on Pole!

1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:27.039	1:25.610	1:25.049	1
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:27.090	1:26.075	1:25.454	2
3	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:27.514	1:25.801	1:25.574	3
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.091	1:26.066	1:25.595	4
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:27.349	1:26.152	1:25.851	5
6	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.374	1:26.485	1:25.982	6
7	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:27.475	1:26.654	1:26.296	7
8	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:27.697	1:26.121	1:26.646	8
9	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:27.901	1:26.740	1:26.659	9
10	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:27.013	1:26.395	no time	10
11	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:28.246	1:26.764		11
12	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:27.392	1:27.027		12
13	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:27.625	1:27.145		13
14	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:27.396	1:27.236		14
15	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:27.778	1:27.244		15
16	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:27.620	1:27.255		16
17	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:28.055	1:27.572		17
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:28.780			18
19	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:29.673			19
20	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:30.445			241
21	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:30.692			20
22	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:30.813			21
23	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:31.564			22
107% time: 1:33.103
24	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	no time			23

I missed it, so wonder what happened to Kam? Sucks he didn't even get to put a time in and now is out! Was one of the better mid pack drivers, sad way to miss a race!

That's a lap record for the track.

Kamui had a fuel feed problem and stopped just before the pit, so was not able to post a time.

^Koby will still be in, he's already proved in practice that the car is well inside the 107% rule (I thin Sauber are generally at something like 102%) so there will be no reasons for the stewards to keep him out. The rule only exists to stop uncompetative cars getting in the way.

Nice lap from Rosberg.


Edited by sleeper - May 07 2011 at 18:14

I was hoping the Stewards would wave it for Kam since it is an outside circumstance and him/the team were never close to missing the limit.

And yeah, in terms of qualifying Vettel is truly unstoppable, but as we've seen he can be bested in race (barely)

I was trying to find someone else to start with 4 poles in modern times, not even Schumi!
Mansell started with 6 straight poles in '92. Could be others

A(nother) brilliant Turkey GP. A lot of overtaking and not a moment to turn your eyes of the screen. Let alone fetch some more coffee. There is no doubts this is a vintage F1 season and miles better than the snore fests from the 1990s when I started to follow this sport. 

Brilliant entertainment and F1 is blowing NASCAR out of the water at the moment when it comes to entertainment. Which frankly is a shock... I wonder what will happens in the narrow streets of Monaco GP. That is a mouthwatering thought !!! 

Yeah Torodd did you mean that for yourself personally? Because the two are in no way competing, hell most Americans only guess Formula One is "some type of racing" or have no idea at all.
I also am sure it would be nowhere near the popularity of NASCAR Though I of course havn't followed that one for years now. Despite the fact I said I'd watch this season missed every race!

As for Turkey was a great race indeed. As James seems to only care about, (though we all know you just want to be a pain in the ass as always!) Vettel wins again but it was an entertaining race indeed. Like years when Schumi would dominate, there was often plenty of excitement behind him so it was great times even if the result was predictable. Though I started following 2003 on so I dont know how awful things may have been.
Related note, while exciting I don't know if it feels right calling it "vintage" since...well most of the excitement this season has been manufactured, but hey in the end who really cares? Being an idealist is no fun

Congrats to Webber who finally had an easy race Buemi  for grabbing a 9th place finish and Kam who started from last to score the final point.

James wrote: It's different to Schumi's times though.  He was never this dominant.  He used to be in the thick of it a lot more than Vettel.  Vettel tends to lead from start to finish. Yes, the race behind him was much more interesting but unfortunately I missed all of the race except the last 5 minutes.

I found Schumy's domination, particularly in 04, to have been really dull as the racing behind wasnt as good and he tended to cruise around, not even trying. I dont think Vettel will have that luxury with the race pace Ferrari have shown in Turkey, lets hope they find a little more.

I dont find the racing manufactured. Tyre wear is just another aspect to deal with and there's nothing new about that. KERS is the same for everyone so again its the same, who deals with it best. The DRS wasnt set right for this race though, it made overtaking just a little too easy but it was spot on in China and Malaysia.

The next race is at Barcelona, and that'll be a real acid test for the new rules as we've had too many snore fests at that track in the past.


Edited by sleeper - May 09 2011 at 09:55

Do they still have a race at Spa?  I always liked that track.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/10/vettel-gets-in-trouble-in-turkey-for-driving-then-drinking/

Taki Inoue was a bizzarre chapter in the F1 annals and the results of some team desperate scrapping for money. But he outpaced his teammate Max Papis in Footwork and was probably a lot faster than given credit for.

I thought we had seen the end of the Inoue's of this world. Then the Hispania teams comes along and proves me wrong. But to be fair; the class of 2010-2011 is many miles better than the class of 1994-1995 which really had some drivers unfit to even drive a milk float. Just see how much Michael Schumacher is struggling now against today's drivers. Even the Hispania drivers are great compared to the likes of Inoue, Papis and Rosset.