Grand Prix 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

This one's gonna be a classic.......

After the utterly amazing Indian Grand Prix where it's facilities wowed pretty much everyone worldwide and to be honest we are so lucky to have an Indian Grand Prix at the moment........

Thats would you would think if you were the BBC or any major commentator, for the fans it was a pretty dour race with little or no action throughout apart from the now routine crash between Hamilton and Massa and the rather humerous reaction of Rowan Atkinson in the Mclaren pitlane.

Sebastian Vettel continues to dominate the 2011 season with yet another win in the old jewel of the British Empire with Button consolidating his position in the WDC with another second place as his stock at Mclaren continues to rise.

However at the other side of the garage things aren't quite so rosy with Hamilton adding to his list of high profile accidents which included yet another crash with Felipe Massa. But this time it was Massa who was given a penalty as it was perceived by the stewards that he had turned in on the Mclaren, a decision which bemused the Brazilian as he felt he had given Hamilton enough room and he had the racing line, but both sides (and fans) have differing opinions and a definitive answer is unlikely to come any time soon.

Ferrari and Alonso continue to go through the motions as they wind down and focus on their 2012 after a poor season by their standards, while the car hasn't been awful like their 2009 car, Fernando is rarely anywhere other than third or fourth come the chequered flag. Ferrari have been a team that has been caught out my the ever changing EBD rules and clarity over this for 2012 should help them regain top end competitiveness at the start of next season.

In the midfield it is still close as drivers are fighting for championship places and also contract extensions as very little has been agreed for 2012 although we are now in November and approaching the second last race of a very long season. At Toro Rosso Jaime Alguesuari continued his impressive turnaround with yet more points in India to take his season haul to 26, more than Paul Di Resta and 11 more than his team mate Buemi which could be crucial with the likes of Ricciardo waiting in the wings for a possible seat and there is always the possibility of a Red Bull seat at some point in the future as there is still a question mark about Webbers future, particularly past 2012.

We go to Abu Dhabi for the third time and while the first two races have been pretty lacklustre with a lack of action and overtaking (just ask Alonso), with DRS maybe we might have more this weekend, but then, we can only hope really, just like we can hope Vettel isn't top of the podium by Sunday evening, but that usually ends up to be false hope as I expect another dominating performance from the young German.

For Galahads supreme circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/yas-marina-circuit/
 
The gap between Hamilton and Alonso after the stops was over 2 seconds, Alonso lost a few tenths at most behind the HRT. Definately didn't affect the outcome.

Look at their respective pitstops, Lewis' was around 3.5seconds and Alonso's around 5.5 seconds. He lost 2 seconds in the pit stop alone. He also lost time in the final sector and pit entry due to traffic and then didn't have the best of exits out of the pits in the tunnel. Without doubt, it would have been close had he of had a normal / fast pitstop and pitlane run.

I am not suggesting it would have affected the result as Lewis was much faster on the harder compound.
 
Look at their respective pitstops, Lewis' was around 3.5seconds and Alonso's around 5.5 seconds. He lost 2 seconds in the pit stop alone. He also lost time in the final sector and pit entry due to traffic and then didn't have the best of exits out of the pits in the tunnel. Without doubt, it would have been close had he of had a normal / fast pitstop and pitlane run.

I am not suggesting it would have affected the result as Lewis was much faster on the harder compound.

Also on that lap(hamilton's out and Alonso's in) Hamilton was held up lapping Barichello..so they both had misfortune with slower cars.

Alos isnt that pitstop time only for the time the cars are stationary. The car in the pitlane shouldnt have affected the stationary time.
 
Why did Alguersuari and Maldonado get penalised after the race? Bruno Senna who did a similar offence and was under investigation after them got a drive through penalty.

And what is the point in given them 20s and 30s time penalties? They should have grid drops in my opinion, especially the driver who got the '30s' time penalty.
 
Why did Alguersuari and Maldonado get penalised after the race? Bruno Senna who did a similar offence and was under investigation after them got a drive through penalty.

And what is the point in given them 20s and 30s time penalties? They should have grid drops in my opinion, especially the driver who got the '30s' time penalty.
Yes agreed. Its not a penalty at all. And as it was given after the race the stewards could see it was no penalty. In the case of Maldonado, it was the second infingement for ignoring a blue flag in the one race. He should have had a harsher penalty not a let off.
 
I don't like the circuit, or rather it's closer to hating it. So this may have coloured my view of the race.

Driver #1 overtakes driver #2 in the first DRS zone. Driver #2 overtakes driver #1 in the second DRS zone. This happens all the way down the field.

Apparently it is of satisfy both those who like to see overtaking regardless of how it is carried out and also those who hate DRS because it is a false way of pretending that something is happening.
 
Well yes. Thats about it with DRS, but in the absence of enough good tracks and with too much aero, its what we're stuck with. It is artificial but the race was the best one there so far.
Of course driver 1 could get really clever and wait till DRS zone 2 before making his move, then driver 2 couldnt get him backLOL
 
Well yes. Thats about it with DRS, but in the absence of enough good tracks and with too much aero, its what we're stuck with. It is artificial but the race was the best one there so far.
Of course driver 1 could get really clever and wait till DRS zone 2 before making his move, then driver 2 couldnt get him backLOL
Yes, but Webber (more than once) wasn't that clever.
 
So a half decent race, well in comparison to the first Abu Dhabi race.
Personally I don't think there would have been a fight between Seb & Lewis, Seb had pulled out a good second lead before he hit turn two.
Is anyone wiser about his mysterious puncture? Was it the floor of the car that RB were so keen to hide from Ted, low tyre pressure or just really unfortunate like Lewis's puncture off the kerb in Singapore?
I loved the fight for third between Jenson, Mark & at times Massa. Even though the overtaking was DRS artificial it still showcased Mark & Jenson's tough but fair racing, there's a few down the pit lane that could do with studying that.
Mightily impressed with Fernando driving the socks off that Ferrari & getting a thoroughly deserved podium, at times I thought he would snatch the win.
The backmarkers, oh gosh. What on earth were they doing?!
I was so disappointed with the standards of the Williams drivers this weekend, Pastor was a very lucky man to get away with just one drive through for multiple ignoring of blue flags. Just what was the point of the post race time penalites if they don't make any difference? They may as well have :clip:
Overall I was very happy with the podium, it's good to see Lewis's mojo back, that bode's well for Brazil.
I just hope McLaren & Ferrari come out of the box running next year and realistically challenge Red Bull...now that'll be a season to see.
 

Wow even the other drivers (well at least Jenson) don't even consider Mark Webber a worthy opponent, he just does not seem to count anymore...I couldn't help but feeling sad for Mark on the one hand, on the other hand it was pretty funny:))
 
I've never heard or read anything about any of the other drivers saying Mark not being a "worthy opponent" are you sure you aren't just putting your own view forward? Mark has had a bad season but then again so has Lewis these things happen.

Find an article where all the other drivers say this and but the link here and I will apologize, otherwise it isn't a good idea to just say something and put it forward as fact
 
I'll jump to GF1's defence here and say 'worthy' might not have been the word our German friend meant to find. I think what he's taking from that interview is that when asked if the Mclaren was closer to the Red Bull Jenson completely dismissed Webber's performance and said they could only grade it when Seb was there. It is kind of saying we don't consider Webber's performance to be a marker for us which is kind of dismissive of him.
 
Yes but in another interview I.e the press conference just before that Jenson said about his scrap with Mark, that Mark was a tough competitor and a great driver did he not?

Maybe Jenson is confused.

I have no issue with someone giving an opinion but it crosses the line when they state that it is the drivers opinions when they cannot be sure it is.
 
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