multi21

It truly is... everyone was given a clean sheet of paper to start their car and the top 7 are separated by a blind of an eye...

consolidated

Williams come back was short lived. Impressive Q3 from Vettel and RB.

Times
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:59.431
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:59.486 +0.055
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2:00.050 +0.619
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2:00.175 +0.744
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 2:00.541 +1.110
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2:01.218 +1.787
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 2:01.712 +2.281
8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 2:02.213 +2.782
9 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 2:03.078 +3.647
10 Jenson Button McLaren 2:04.053 +4.622
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 2:02.351
12 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 2:02.369
13 Felipe Massa Williams 2:02.460
14 Sergio Perez Force India 2:02.511
15 Valtteri Bottas Williams 2:02.756
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 2:02.885
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 2:02.074
18 Adrian Sutil Sauber 2:02.131
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 2:02.702
20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 2:03.595
21 Max Chilton Marussia 2:04.388
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 2:04.407

Land Jet

These cars suck, no power, no traction, and no sound. The FIA should be eliminated.

Flying Finn

Put a MB power plant in there and its the best car by far, Newey hasn't lost any of his mojo.

consolidated

Mercs will drive off if it's dry tomorrow, hopefully leaving a good Vettel/Ricciardo/Alonso/Kimi battle for third. Merc needs to bank points before RB gets back to Europe, you know they're coming.

Jbossolo, prepare yourself for more bitterness my friend.

Hulk is making Perez look quite ordinary.

Which makes Button look even more pedestrian given Magnussen having bettered him in qualy 2/2.

gums

There will be safety car appearances, race will look artificially close

996FLT6

God the engine sounds like ........ ****!!!! Mike

Land Jet

Button is mediocre at best. He never would have been WDC if the FIA hadn't given him a half season advantage on the rear diffuser that year.

consolidated

Lewis with a very good Vettel impression, interesting how the cameras ignored Hamilton and the front pack focusing on midpack fights, clever F1 and I liked it.

RB did well, but with more fuel use. Sector 2, the aero sector where RB should be strongest, still bettered by Merc's sector times. Mercedes the strongest package no doubt now.

I thought perhaps RB didn't have their engine turned up but their fuel use doesn't show this, clearly it's Merc that has even more reserve. Hamilton was out in front, with his engine turned down in tire and motor conservation mode by mid-race while running long stints. RB seemed closer as did Ferrari but the real gap I believe is still quite large.

Haven't read what was going with Kimi's car, the gap to Alonso was huge.

My993C2

Raikkonen got a puncture to his right rear tire in the early laps of the race and by the time he was able to limp around the track to the pits to get a new tire, the rest of the field was long gone and it was game over for the Iceman. That is why Kimi was so far behond his Spanish teammate.

The Red Bulls cars have definitely improved since their disasterous off season testing and will likely continue to improve. Plus it looks like Red Bull did the right thing by signing Ricciardo, as the boy is definitely a racer. But the Merc is so far ahead of everyone else. They don't even have to race hard and they can build a 5 second lead on anyone chasing them within a lap or two. I am going to make a bold prediction and say Mercedes wins every race this year and surpasses the '88 McLaren team who won every race but one. The only thing that will prevent Merc from winning every race will be an accident between Hamilton and Rosberg.

Circuit Motorsports

I feeling that the off season 'woes' for Red Bull weren't as bad as they were making them out to be. I'd say it was 75% gamesmanship, 25% Newey didn't get lucky again.

Red Bull has other issues that will cause a bigger problem at this rate. Ricciardo has the driving skill to the #1 over Vettel it would appear but is being treated like a #3. Again, BS stuff hits the 'other' guy at Red Bull and ruins the race for him.

I dig the way the cars require more 'driving' this year. The inability to easily put power down is probably my favorite change so far. It's separating the drivers a bit more. Hamilton is doing that masterfully, as is Bottas, Ricciardo is doing it quite well with it too. Vettel hasn't figured it out yet.

Hopefully the racing gets better, it should once they are back on the continent.

consolidated

Looked to me like Vettel out qualified and then passed Ricciardo, this is why they race no?

Already with the sabotage at week 2? You seem to know the relationship of $$ to motorsports, why in hell would they not fully support both cars and drivers right now, when they want both cars to rack up points? No reason, none at all.

It was just the LAST race that Vettel's car was broken in qualy and DNF'd the race. I would sound like a moron to suggest the team is favoring Daniel because of that. I say give it a few more weeks before getting your conspiracy tin hats on.

RajDatta

Racing has been mediocre at best. Add to that the lack of sound. Not enjoying F1 like in the yrs past.

Good to see some new names doing well. Massa has grown some *****. Interesting to see how that plays out. Would be nice to see Kimi have a normal race.

McLaren back to looking mediocre. Looks like a 3 team race this yr.

993-CT

What a snoozefest....

And good on Massa for ignoring Williams.... were they going to call Button and tell him that Bottas was faster than him? With DRS and room for passing at this track, Bottas should have got it done it on the track...

RajDatta

The only issue is, Massa was complaining to the team earlier in the race when Bottas was racing him and had the team back Bottas off. Can't have it both ways, you either race or you use team orders.