Flying Finn

Yea, best driver on the grid my ***.

Hard to say who is, maybe it's Alonso but not because of what he did yesterday.
Finished 9th behind Vettel, Grosjean, Senna and Maldonado who all started behind him, how that translates to a best driver on the grid is beyond me.

ltc

You're not viewing the whole picture.

Alonso is driving for a backmarker team, driving a car that is at least 5 seconds a lap off the pace of the faster cars on the grid and he has to get out of the car and change his own tires at every pit stop.

Now, doesn't that justify him being the best? What other driver could overcome such handicaps to succeed?

Not to worry, Sauber is coming to the rescue. Bolt a Ferrari front wing to a current Sauber, pay a vig or two to Bernie and Charlie Whiting and before you know it, Alonso will have a WDC with Ferrari.

Watching Alonso lose the WDC 2 years ago at the final race has got to be the single most satisfying viewing experience ever. It proves karma is a bitch.

Adam@Autometrics

Incredibly fun race to watch. The last 10 laps were truly epic. Even more so considering it was all dry and with all the marbles. Very happy to see MB improving to be the fastest car in the field (I have to wonder how they corrected their rear tire wear so quickly and effectively). It should make for an exciting championship. If Ferrari could get their act together, it would be even better.

I thought Jenson and Lewis both looked like World Champions yesterday, but Vettel... looks more like he did a few years back. Ironically, Nico looked a lot like '11 Vettel.

I wonder how long it will be before we see all teams using the double-DRS. That was a brilliant idea, and I'm glad it was found to be legal. I think it will be critical to add 2 DRS zones to each track, though.

I think i've already enjoyed this season more than the entire '11 season (excluding Montreal).

TwentySix

Brilliant! Fantastic! Gotta get that Brit-speak out of my head Watched the BBC coverage on iPlayer with no commercials

Excellent race, fantastic to see that the RB's are not dominating. Some really great battles... Congrats to NICO! He was untouchable the entire weekend. I wonder how things would have gone if Buttons pit stop wasn't messed up, he had a great heads up race. Lewis seems to have calmed down from last year and is looking strong. Poor Kimi, it was hard to watch him slide back so fast, he was really looking good Love that Webber is leading the RB drivers, without the best car on the grid SV doesn't look like anything special.

2 Williams in the top 10? Happy Birthday Sir Frank!

multi21

Bittersweet day for me. I'm so glad MB has finally got a car to contend with the front runners (hope that wasn't a fluke yesterday), but seeing Schumacher pull off with a loose wheel is heartbreaking.... I can't believe that happened I sure hope he wins at least one more race before the year is up.

The commentators on Speed were saying he had Nico's back and allowing him to get free from the pack as he had an extra stop to make. After his retirement he was on pit wall cheering on Nico to the win. Class act all the way!

I'm not down on Vettel like some of you are. He qualified out of the top 10 with a slower spec car to Webber and managed to bring it up to 5th. Not a bad day I would say.

Kimi continues to impress. I know he lost a ton of positions toward the end of the race, but he is doing a great job this year and it appears his tires were shot when he was holding up the train.

Sorry to be the contrarian, but I think Alonso drove an exceptional race once again (No A. Wayne did not hijack my account). If you look at yesterday's race, it was completely in the dry, no safety cars and it really showed how SLOW this years Ferrari is. No split set ups for wet and dry and the Saubers with the same engines were all over the Red Cars. The fact that Massa still cannot score a single point 3 races in and Alonso is in 3rd for points shows he is doing more with less. If the Scuderia doesn't get significant upgrades for the European leg of this season, I think it's over for some heads of departments in Maranello.

ilko

Are you guys fielding a car at this year's race?

stuttgart46

Great race. I hope this is a sign of things to come.
Good for Rosberg, I'm glad to see him get the win. Best drive of the day IMHO was Button.
Glad we only have to wait a week to do it all over again.

ltc

Why is the Ferrari so slow?
They have the largest budget in F1 and they have the best driver (both race and development) in the history of the sport.

Yet they fail to win a WDC...like Kimi and Michael did.

When do the excuses end for Luca? I know, Santander money still looks pretty good.

Alonso has proven the old adage "the grass is always greener" and "be careful what you wish for"

Prediction.
Alonso retires from F1 with only 2WDC and is quickly forgotten at Ferrari...his name will be like Moses, stricken from Italy.

morganabowen

I totally agree, lots of passing and wheel to wheel racing. Some tire strategies were questionable and others were right on. Kudos for Nico and MBZ( did you see Schummy's face at the end? Beaming like a proud dad), it was their day This is turning out to be one of the better and competative seasons in the past few decades.

74goldtarga

Strategy and tire management are king. Sauber and Lotus didn't do such a great job with this - Perez and Kimi staying out way too long. Conversely, Red Bull were spot on with the strategy even though the car is relatively (to the front cars and last year) slow. I don't think I've ever seen so many cars in contention at the end of the race. The contrast to last year is startling, it was the perfect marriage of driver and car last year with Vettel and RBR - hopefully it will be awhile before we see that kind of dominance again.

chris walrod

Webber's Wheelie!

333pg333

He does seem to have a predilection for 'getting air'!!!

Don't see that the Ferrari is so much slower than the RBs in the race? The RBs seemed incredibly slow on the long straights compared to most others.

ausgeflippt951

This was the best F1 race I'd seen in a long time. Wow, great race.

I have to admit -- I've really been rooting for MB for the past couple years, and it was great to see Nico get his first win. Schumi's wheel issue was so tragic. I'd like to learn more about their lugnut-attached-to-wheel configuration. Sounds similar to how NASCAR does it (only with a single lug)?

This only reinforces me rooting for MB.

enduro911

Definitely an entertaining race. What is up with Mclaren's pit crew? Dennis must be having a ****hemmorage. Congrads to Nico though. He drove very well and both he and the team deserve to win. Pity about Michael though.

Ferrar is proving that having a great driver(s) and a big budget doesn't cut it without someone who brings innovative ideas to the table. I fear without Brawn and Byrne coming up with new stuff, or at least Todt keeping everyone in check to allow them to do their best, that Ferrari is going to continue to go backwards. Alonso's tenure there reminds me a lot of Prost's. When he first go there, he had a good car and almost won the championship. From there, the car got worse until he eventually was fired. Tough to argue with all that institutional capital to buy talent down the road though, so I think Ferrari and Alonso will be going on a second blind date.

Kein_Ersatz

For Rennlist posterity and future search archives . . .

I was able to acquire entrance to the track on Saturday. Ticket scalpers were around the Metro station exit, but very low key. Lots of security around, so no outrages scalpers were evident.

Since I was only looking for 2 Saturday grass tickets (they are sold as Saturday / Sunday - one pass for both days tickets), and all grass tickets were sold out at the booths (and no scalpers had grass tickets), the scalp prices were higher then I wanted to pay for stand seating, (I just want grass viewing on Saturday as I could not come back on Sunday) but a lot less then face value (50%) for 2-day stand tickets.

So the local scalpers came up with an alternative.

Grass seating sections are not gated, just the stands. So once in pass the front gate, no ticket need be shown again to enter the "grass viewing" areas (though security is around and early exit before end of day rush may need to show a ticket). There is one grass seating area next to the main stands that as gated and was not considered grass seating, but it has its own more expensive seating section. The open grass seating is a walk past the stands to the right.

So the local scalpers arranged for an escort who went with us thru the front gate, using "C" section tickets. They hand us 2 tickets to use to walk in with while the scalper escort used a third ticket to go thru with us.

Once inside, away from main gate, we exchange $60 total and handed back the tickets. I think they would have been willing to even take us in to the "C" stands with the tickets, but once in we may not have left and gotten back in and may have had issues with "seaters". So we opted to just watch from the grass stands.

At first it appeared that tickets were needed to exit during the day, but at days end, the gates fly open and the masses just walk out. The wait for the Metro train (on Saturday) was 45mins, but the crowds are well managed in queue blocks. On Sunday i would expect it to be 3 to 4 time worse to get back.

And I read that close to the race start on Sunday, scalp tickets drop thru the floor in value. But it is a long walk to get to the stands, so missing the start of the race is probable if you wait too long on Sunday.