Head To Head Jenson Button vs Lewis Hamilton

[F1ang-o]

I think it was FP2 were JB set his/ the fastest time, early in the session? This time was not beaten because it rained & the road/track was greasy. But this is irrelevant, as has been said, it's quali that counts at Monaco.
Last year LH didn't crash into anyone, they (FM & PM) turned into him. Similar overtakes had been made earlier by MS on LH ...pass without incident & LH re-taking the place from MS....no contact.
Racing..see a space & go for it, or sit in a Monaco procession & get by with a little help from your friends/Pit Crew.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Racing..see a space & go for it, or sit in a Monaco procession & get by with a little help from your friends/Pit Crew.

Or sit in a Monaco procession for most of the race and then make desperate half hearted attempts to pass near the end, resulting in a dnf and the chance to save face by not driving in absolutely last

 

[F1ang-o]

Fernando tried to pass LH early in the race..but after the 2011 MS pass, (it was commented that LH was caught napping?) Lewis with his new wing mirrors ....was not caught out this time.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Yes well spotted F1Ang, the pesky and increasingly ineluctable Alonso tried again to jump LH who was not caught out this time, possible as a result of bigger mirrors. Unfortunately Alonso seems to be on the same wavelength as the Ferrari team and he/they managed to mug McLaren and grab the place anyway.

Alonso/Ferrari are on a different level to Hamilton/McLaren at present, they look sharp, street-smart, pro active and experienced. With the wily Alonso just about a match for Lewis, McLaren need to improve overnight or they might as well give Alonso the WC and start concentrating on next year and build around Button who will lead the team after Lewis leaves

 

[The Artist.....]

It has been commented elsewhere that had hamilton sat a couple of seconds behind rosberg during the first stage of the race, he might have been able to protect his tyres to do to rosberg exactly what alonso did to Hamilton! Alonso used his smarts... Was it guaranteed to work? No, of course not- normally, you'd expect drivers on new tyres to be faster..... But in this case, it didn't work out that way!

 

[Brogan]

With the wily Alonso just about a match for Lewis,

Alonso has won a race and come second, Hamilton hasn't.
Alonso is leading the WDC, Hamilton isn't.

Just about a match? In my book and I suspect almost everyone else's, that's called beating him.

 

[The Artist.....]

Brogan - especially given all the hot air that has come out about Hamilton beating alonso in 2007!

 

[Brogan]

Well Hamilton did actually beat Alonso in 2007; Hamilton finished second, Alonso third.

 

[The Artist.....]

Yes- I'm not denying that! But if finishing on equal points is beating- then being ahead on points cannot be called anything but alonso beating Hamilton... It's just about consistency!

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Yes again it comes down to the unpredictable tyres, McLaren went for the textbook solution, 'wait till the tyres start going then pit' however the cleverer strategists would have noticed early that the tyres were likely to last a lot longer than expected, I noticed this from my deck chair.
Anyway Mercedes and clever Ross Brawn went for the undercut and maybe McLaren should have reacted to this and changed their strategy.

As for Red Bull/Vettel, theres another fiendishly clever pro active combo, they decided that clear air was the key to making the tyre strategy work so Seb was inserted back into the race perfectly positioned to go on a sprint

McLaren/Lewis combo seem all at sea, no communication, textbook and plodding strategies, reacting to others instead of being pro active and leading the way somewhere

edit, just saw @brogans post so heres the reply;

Alonso has won a race and come second, Hamilton hasn't.
Alonso is leading the WDC, Hamilton isn't.

Just about a match? In my book and I suspect almost everyone else's, that's called beating him.

In driving this year, Hamilton and Alonso have been matched, Lewis has made less mistakes than Alonso, in fact Lewis would be leading if it wasnt for the teams mistakes, so by your argument if hadnt made mistakes then he has more than matched Alonso.

Thats why I was careful to point to the Lewis/Mac combo vs the Alonso/Ferrari one

 

[ExtremeNinja]

The small difference I would point out is that whilst at McLaren Lewis beat Alonso, now Alonso and Ferrari are beating Hamilton and Mclaren.

I wouldn't say that either are driving better than the other at the moment.

 

[Brogan]

if Lewis was leading then he has more than matched Alonso.

But he isn't so he hasn't.

 

[RasputinLives]

He isn't leading so he hasn't matched Alonso. I'm sorry but Alonso has been a cut above the whole field this season so far. Please note I said so far and this season.

 

[Quintessentially]

It has been commented elsewhere that had hamilton sat a couple of seconds behind rosberg during the first stage of the race, he might have been able to protect his tyres to do to rosberg exactly what alonso did to Hamilton! Alonso used his smarts... Was it guaranteed to work? No, of course not- normally, you'd expect drivers on new tyres to be faster..... But in this case, it didn't work out that way!

Alonso had Massa as his rear guard safe in knowledge that if he went to cruise mode Massa will play ball and not attempt a pass. Hamilton had no such luxury and to be honest Alonso’s inlap was almost 2 seconds quicker than Webber’s who was in clear air, so he would’ve jumped him too. Vettle on the other hand was effectively gifted track position thanks to poor communication. Hamilton's race engineer must’ve been taking a nap because that was schoolboy stuff.

 

[The Artist.....]

Alonso had Massa as his rear guard safe in knowledge that if he went to cruise mode Massa will play ball and not attempt a pass.

But this is Monaco - where a Caterham managed to stop a McLaren making a pass all race.... The only cars that were overtaken all race were Marussias, HRTs and Toro Rossos! Even if Hamilton went into cruise mode, just by positioning the car carefully, he would have been un-overtakeable!

 

[Quintessentially]

Yes it’s difficult to pass but not impossible as you say. The whole idea is to minimise tyre degradation and measuring your driving to keep a car behind cannot be considered as having the same effect as driving with a rear guard. Looking as the lap chart, Alonso was sometimes able to drop to just over 4tenths ahead of Massa knowing very well that he won’t be hurried into a mistake or into thrashing his tyres.

 

[Lewywo4]

Fernando tried to pass LH early in the race..but after the 2011 MS pass, (it was commented that LH was caught napping?)

Alonso also tried to immediately overtake Lewis at the start, because of his slow getaway. According to SPEED's Bob Varsha who reported that Lewis radioed his engineers to ask,...." why didn't he launch the way he expeced it to do when the lights went out "

It seems as though at the start, that Lewis wasn't napping at all.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Maybe Lewis requested an 'aggressive' map and the team gave him a more 'cautious' map without telling him.

 

[Josh]

Maybe he just had a bad start...

 

[RasputinLives]

To be honest I considered that a case of Lewis catching some of Jenson's moans that weekend. You watch his start, it wasn't that bad - neither Webber or Rosberg got much of a better one - neither did Alonso really and apart from the unfourtunate Grosjean and Schumacher they were pretty much in grid order after first 2 corners. Why? Because its the shortest start of any GP, none of them had any dry practice starts at all and its Monaco Baby. I think Lewis just had dreams of jumping in the lead off the start line and was frustrated when he didn't because he knew he'd be looking at the back of Nico for the foreseeable future.

Honestly. Take a look and tell me what was wrong with that start. A Goldfish in a bag to anyone who comes up with it. Oh and simpley saying "he didn't over take anyone" isn't an answer!