Grand Prix 2011 Indian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Is the season over yet?

Unfortunately the answer is no as the F1 circus rumbles onto India for a brand new track, but after problems with the construction of the track, there is a degree of hesitation as not everyone is overjoyed about the prospect of a race there at the current moment in time. Added to the fact that it is another Tilke track, many fans aren't optimistic for an exciting race, but we've been proven wrong before. After all, we thought 2011 would be a close championship!!

Red Bull reasserted itself as the best car on the track after a dominant win in Korea with Vettel taking yet another win as he continues to rewrite the record books in the same way as Schumacher used to, just not as controversially as the elder German. Mark Webber had his strongest races recently pushing Hamilton very hard for second place, perhaps showing that he still has it for next season.

Hamilton put a long list of poor races behind to finish second in Korea after taking his first pole position of the season and it turned out after the race that he was running with tyre bits in the front wing which was costing a good couple a tenths a lap, something which would surely have cost him a true crack at a third race victory of the season, but at the very least it shows that he's getting back to his best, but a split with his partner might explain a less than happy mood recently.

Ferrari are constantly lingering as the team behind the top 2 and they are almost in a race with themselves as they are far quicker than Mercedes but not quick enough (mainly Massa) to challenge the Red Bulls and Mclarens for victories, particularly on a consistent basis after the problems with the EBD after Silverstone.

In the midfield there is a serious log jam as Mercedes, Renault, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso fight over points and championship places as a lot of money is at stake for 4th-8th in the championship and it's probably the best place to see action at the moment as the racing has been close and extremely well fought with different cars being better at each different circuit with none having the best all round package of the 5 teams. Now even Team lotus is getting involved in the action as they are starting to beat some of these cars on pure pace which will no doubt please the owners, and Kovalainen beating Petrov on pure pace in Singapore would particularly have pleased the team after the rows with Group lotus this season.

No-one knows what to expect from the Indian track, but early reports indicate it's better than previous Tilke tracks, but then it can't be worse than Bahrain and Abu Dhabi really.... We hope so anyway.

For Galahad's superb write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/buddh-international-circuit/
 
Lets look at it from Lewis' point of view then. In Singapore Massa comes barging into the media centre, interrupts his interview with sarcastic applause and goes on to slate him publicly, whilst supposedly expecting they deal with it behind closed doors.

To be fair wasn't his Massa's finest moment and shouldn't have done that, but he did go up to Hamilton and try to talk to him twice before that incident.
 
....
Anyway this wasn't the weekend to be conservative, the tyres were hanging on very well and it looked as though the leaders' stops were all strategic rather than by tyre wear necessity.

I thought that the Mercedes team played it very well. They managed to get Schumacher ahead of Rosberg in the final pit stops. Putting Rosberg on the slower tyres before Schumacher was very effective. Until then Rosberg seemed to be managing his race comfortably, I didn't notice any sign of drop off in sector times to say his tyres were done.
 
I thought that the Mercedes team played it very well. They managed to get Schumacher ahead of Rosberg in the final pit stops. Putting Rosberg on the slower tyres before Schumacher was very effective. Until then Rosberg seemed to be managing his race comfortably, I didn't notice any sign of drop off in sector times to say his tyres were done.

Schumacher was catching him though and I for one was looking forward to a little Merc battle. I think either way Schumacher was quicker, if only we got to see some on track action. There was far too much decided in the pit lane this race.
 
I thought that the Mercedes team played it very well. They managed to get Schumacher ahead of Rosberg in the final pit stops. Putting Rosberg on the slower tyres before Schumacher was very effective. Until then Rosberg seemed to be managing his race comfortably, I didn't notice any sign of drop off in sector times to say his tyres were done.

Mercedes were covering off Hamilton with Rosberg, it was said when Hamilton's radio came out that it might have been a double bluff, it was, whether Mercedes fell for it or not I don't know. Probably decided to split the strategies between the two.
 
Massa said:
I don’t understand why I have the penalty. I braked later than him, I was in front and on the grippier part of the circuit and I didn’t see him on the left. So he was behind and he touched my rear wheel. If it was Lewis or not I would do the same.

Asked if it had become a feud with the Englishman, Massa said, “Maybe for him. All the incidents are him touching my car. So I didn’t do anything wrong.

:rolleyes:
 
I thought that the Mercedes team played it very well. They managed to get Schumacher ahead of Rosberg in the final pit stops. Putting Rosberg on the slower tyres before Schumacher was very effective. Until then Rosberg seemed to be managing his race comfortably, I didn't notice any sign of drop off in sector times to say his tyres were done.

After the initial warm-up lap, Rosberg was either matching or faster than his times previously on the soft tyre. Michael was faster, but was just maintaining a gap. He said this in the interview, that he didn't want to get in the dirty air and kept the tyres so he could jump him this way.
 
Asked if it had become a feud with the Englishman, Massa said, “Maybe for him. All the incidents are him touching my car. So I didn’t do anything wrong.

:rolleyes:

He never does anything wrong. We should all look up to Massa for a measure of how to always be perfect and never make a mistake. Those damn orange kerbs, why would the Indian's do that to Felipe? They must have purposely built them into the corners just to catch him out.
 
This was Hamilton's second worse finish of the season after Malaysia, barring retirements.

Ironically, Hamilton also qualified in second there, and Button finished second.
 
Just read Massa's comments after the race...

First Massa says he didn't didn't see him on the left. Then he goes on to say he knew Hamilton was on his side. Which is it?

To me it looked like Massa saw Hamilton in his mirrors, thought it was too narrow and therefore Hamilton would yield. However at the turn in Hamilton was definately alongside Massa's car and therefore had the inside as Massa would have been unable to turn in without obviously making contact, but he did so anyway.
 
My view on the 'incident' is that Massa was at fault for the incident. He either should have seen Hamilton coming (like Lewis should have seen Massa coming in Japan) or, if he did see Hamilton coming, then Massa should have known better than to risk an accident. However, to start calling Massa 'unprofessional' and 'unsafe' is just ludicrous. If Massa was an unsafe driver than he would have his superlicense suspended. If Massa was unprofessional then he would have been kicked out by Ferrari long ago. Also, to say that Massa is incapable of clean racing is wide of the mark. Remember Fuji '07 and Canada '11? And to say that Massa can't help driving into other people who are in his space I point to Sebastian Vettel (Belgium and Turkey 2010) and Hamilton in Monaco '11, as well as many over drivers. And we don't name all these drivers as unsafe, do we? Sure, this incident today, on viewing further replays, was stupid by Massa, he has no history (as far as I'm aware) of this type of incident so can't be labelled as deliberately driving into other people. This isn't targetted to everyone on here, only a few, and I'm sure this was said in the heat of the moment, as they feel strongly about he incident. But other F1 drivers shouldn't really be named as 'unsafe' with only one major incident to base this opinion on. Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso (as well as many other F1 drivers) have done stupid things yet we don't regard them as unsafe, do we?
Regarding the conflicting stories from Hamilton and Massa about speaking to each other, I'm more likel to believe Massa as Hamilton has a proven track record of lying to skew circumstances in his favour (AUS/MAL 2009).

For te record, I'm a big fan of Massa AND Hamilton, I believe Hamilton is one of the main attractions about F1, he is like a breath of fresh air to the sport. But he and Massa can make stupid mistakes, as shown here for Massa and Monaco for Lewis.

I think the best phrase for this incident and others this season, regarding who is at fault for the majority, is 'six of one and half-a-dozen of the other'.
 
When Martin said Drive through, I thought Lewis' race was over then, could of put thousands on it being for Hammy! Pleased when it wasn't for him, however I have discovered a new found hate for Felipe Massa. He seems to think that he can't do anything wrong, when he can and is.
 
Haha yeah after the words "drive-through for car" I said 3 in my mind , but surprisingly it was 6.

mjo, you can't said you are more likely to believe Hamilton over Massa because of Australia 2009. Almost certainly all drivers have lied at some point in their careers, it's just that only Hamilton has ever being penalised for it.
 
mjo, you can't said you are more likely to believe Hamilton over Massa because of Australia 2009. Almost certainly all drivers have lied at some point in their careers, it's just that only Hamilton has ever being penalised for it.
You mean Massa over Hamilton and I can only judge from what incidents have been made public. Reputation is everything.
 
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