The Motorsport Thread (was the F1 thread)

Heavyfreight wrote: A really odd race that one.  Hamilton gains five places off the grid but then gets tagged and loses a rear tyre.  Gets back to the pits and out again but then aquaplanes off.  Keeps engine running and gets put back on the track for safety's sake; gets back on the lead lap under the safety car and then makes a daft tyre choice and gets lapped again.  Finally finishes ninth; no points but I bet he learnt a lot.    The British press were making fun of him and saying how the balloon has now burst for Hamilton; typical of our lack of support for our sportsmen.  The fact that this was the first race of the season where he wasn't on the PODIUM didn't seem to figure.  As far as they're concerned the fact that he wasn't on the podium this time means that he's no good.  Funnily enough he still finished the race; even after that horrendous crash in practice and he is still LEADING the championship.  Not bad for a rookie and I'm sure that he'll be on the podium again before the season is over.   Shame about Raikkonen's car.  He really doesn't have much luck; but then I remember the same problems with Keke Rosberg and car reliability.  I think that the Finnish style of driving is more aggressive and takes more out of the cars mechanically.

Hungarian GP this week:

1.  ALONSO       Mclaren       1m20.919s
2.  KOVALAINEN   Renault       1m21.283s
3.  HAMILTON     McLaren       1m21.338s
4.  ROSBERG      Williams      1m21.485s
5.  HEIDFELD     BMW           1m21.517s
6.  RAIKKONEN    Ferrari       1m21.589s
7.  MASSA        Ferrari       1m21.620s
8.  FISICHELLA   Renault       1m21.698s
9.  TRULLI       Toyota        1m21.857s
10. KUBICA       BMW           1m21.906s
11. SCHUMACHER   Toyota        1m21.912s
12. WURZ         Williams      1m21.987s
13. WEBBER       Red Bull      1m22.325s
14. COULTHARD    Red Bull      1m22.483s
15. DAVIDSON     Super Aguri   1m22.510s
16. BUTTON       Honda         1m22.550s
17. SATO         Super Aguri   1m22.556s
18. BARRICHELLO  Honda         1m22.727s
19. LIUZZI       Toro Rosso    1m23.136s
20. VETTEL       Toro Rosso    1m23.148s
21. SUTIL        Spyker        1m23.673s
22. YAMAMOTO     Spyker        1m26.307s

Vettel has replaced Speed at Torro Rosso after a massive fall out between him and the managment, apparantly Liuzzi is just as pissed off at Berger and Tost as Speed is, but has more to loose by speaking up.

Its good to get back to some on track action after the complete bitch fest that is the ongoing spy scandel...

Qualifying results:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.425	1:19.661	1:19.674	17
2	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:19.570	1:19.301	1:19.781	17
3	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW	1:20.751	1:20.322	1:20.259	22
4	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:20.435	1:20.107	1:20.410	19
5	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:20.547	1:20.188	1:20.632	22
6	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:20.449	1:20.455	1:20.714	24
7	10	Robert Kubica	BMW	1:20.366	1:20.703	1:20.876	23
8	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:21.645	1:20.590	1:21.079	25
9	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:20.481	1:19.951	1:21.206	20
10	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:20.794	1:20.439	1:21.256	22
11	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:21.291	1:20.718		12
12	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1:20.285	1:20.779		12
13	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	1:21.243	1:20.865		18
14	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:20.408	1:21.021		9
15	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:21.018	1:21.127		12
16	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	STR-Ferrari	1:21.730	1:21.993		16
17	7	Jenson Button	Honda	1:21.737			6
18	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:21.877			6
19	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:22.143			6
20	19	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:22.177			7
21	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	1:22.737			9
22	21	Sakon Yamamoto	Spyker-Ferrari	1:23.774			7

Interesting qualy, Ferrari dont seem to be all that fast, Massa especially, and I guess its going to be McvLaren domination. Alonso was a bit naughty, held up Hamilton in the pits with the result that Alonso had one last lap and got pole whilst Hamilton couldnt start a final flying lap before the chequer, and he was definitely faster. McLaren will have to be carfull with these two now.

Hamilton dominates....but Kimi was always right behind. So, major kudos for out cooling the ice man.

Tense race. I think McLaren have it this year, but I wouldnt bet on which of their drivers gets it. Kimi is too far behind and Massa beginning to get overshadowed by the other three.

I hope McLaren win their appeals, the stewars shouldnt have penalised the team at all, and they have already proved that the stolen Ferrari documents were never used in the design of any part of their car, and Caughlin will probably never work in motorsport  again. 

Problem for McLaren is that the next two tracks (Istanbul and Spa) are both suited to the Ferrari more than their car, so I doubt this championship is done just yet.

It was a very exciting race, the last laps were great, Kimi did a great job but it was not enough to overtake Hamilton, back there Fernando was behind Heidfield but he could not reach him as well, nice battles!

memowakeman wrote: I just read in a local newspaper that Alonso´s future in McLaren uncertain, seems that he is not happy anymore due to all the problems and tension McLaren has, also i read that Lewis had a discussion with Ron Dennis. I hope those problems wont affect the team and his drivers at the end of the season.

sleeper wrote: ^Pat Simonds has already said Renault would take Alonso back in a heartbeat, but I dont think McLaren are ready to give him up just yet.

memowakeman wrote: sleeper wrote: ^Pat Simonds has already said Renault would take Alonso back in a heartbeat, but I dont think McLaren are ready to give him up just yet.   I heard the same thing today´s morning, things are tense inside McLaren, Ron Dennis says that Fernando has the doors open and he could leave at the end of the season, if he leaves then i think he would be back in Renault.     In other news, Bourdais will jump (at last) to F1 next year with Toro Rosso, a very weak team but he is a good driver, hi will replace Liuzzi and be Vettel´s team-mate

To be honest I wouldnt be surprised to see Alonso jump ship after this year, I have the feeling that if they're partnered for another year the relationship betweeen Alonso and Hamilton will go the way of Prost and Senna. Its never a good idea to have two incredible talants both working well at the same team, I cant think of a time that it has truly worked in the last 20 odd years.

As for Bourdais, I feel sory for him (and Vettel) having to work with Tost and Berger, they have badly mismanaged and undermined their current drivers, constantly letting them know that they arent wanted, good luck to them.