Poll Out of Ten - 2014 Japanese Grand Prix

[mjo]

Well, a strange race. A shame about the idiotic use of red flag/safety car at the start, yet the race wasn't a wheel-to-wheel thriller, but intriguing nonetheless. A tad anticlimatic to end with a red flag, but I hope Bianchi's ok.

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't think I can vote until I know the Bianchi situation.

 

[The Artist.....]

Laps 1-42 get an 8. Lap 42-> gets a -1,000,000..... Um...

 

[Titch]

It seems I was destined to miss this one. I was going to watch the catch up on BBC but life got in the way. Anyhow it would appear to have been a strange race, with rather sombre overtones. I hope Bianchi makes it through.
Obviously I haven't voted.

 

[Jen]

I've voted, an 8 if anyone is interested in the midst of all the angst.

I'm not being hard-hearted and I hope Jules recovers but ffs it is a dangerous sport, even now, and the endless weeping, wailing and concern really gets on my tits.

If anyone wants to delete feel free

 

[FB]

4 - safety car start, Mercedes scamper away, driver seriously injured. All in all a bit of a shit race. Big up for the Red Bull boys and JB who really made an effort.

 

[siffert_fan]

4 For the reasons cited by FB.

The Merc advantage is so huge, they could stage-manage the entire season and, if done properly, no-one would be the wiser.

Having just watched 10 hours of REAL racing, with titanic fights for the lead at the Petit Le Mans, F1 looks rather dull.

 

[marksawatsky]

Having just watched 10 hours of REAL racing, with titanic fights for the lead at the Petit Le Mans, F1 looks rather dull.

Agreed, Sportscar racing is pretty good, F1 could incorporate some ideas from that series

 

[Il_leone]

Bianchi's accident is a bit freakish - to spin off and hit the recovery vehicle. In light of this I think we will see regulation change no doubt

 

[RasputinLives]

As I said in chat - 19 years earlier, at the last wet race in Suzuka, Martin Brundle went off in his Mclaren at the exact same corner and missed a recovery vehicle by inches.

Scared Brundle so much he never raced again.

Freakish maybe but it seems it has form.

 

[teabagyokel]

I don't think, given the conclusion of that race, that I can award it any more than a 3.

OK, we had a straight fight between the Mercedes, there was a great performance from Button and some excellent overtaking at Red Bull. There were some other negatives, the inconsistency of Safety Car deployment, the farce of the first two laps and Alonso losing his chance in such an anti-climactic way.

I doubt the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix will be one we can look back to with any fondness though, so 3.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I gave it four points, because that is what it deserves...

 

[sushifiesta]

The race itself seemed pretty decent to me but it was spoiled by Bianchi's crash and the fact I had to split the race between four separate trips to airports today (currently at number 3). I'm still giving it a 7 because there was a fair amount of excitement from a proper Lewis/Nico battle.

 

[Jos the Boss]

For the racing, I gave it a 9 as I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time, but looking back I probably won't be able to appreciate this race half as much as it should have been due to the unfortunate ending, all thoughts go out to Jules though

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I gave it an 8 as I thought it was a great race, and had more excitement in a shortened race than most full ones. I'm not taking into consideration in my score Bianchi's awful accident of course.

 

[Il_leone]

I think a lot of it could be put down to the race organisers who knew the typhoon was coming and the heavy rain as well but would not budge in order to try and get as much crowd as possible

 

[Road of Bones]

I'm with Jen here- awful what happened to Jules, but I enjoyed the race until then, though it helped that I watched it on Sky+ and was able to whizz through all the guff and SC laps. I thought Lewis drove superbly, as did the Red Bulls, but I enjoyed seeing JB yet again demonstrating his uncanny ability in the wet. How he keeps dragging that evil McLaren into positions that flatter it really makes me wonder why McLaren would even consider dropping him next year...

 

[Il_leone]

I think the low ratings could have been avoided if the organisers decided to start the race earlier when it was actually much more easier racing conditions

 

[Dario Resta]

I've voted, an 8 if anyone is interested in the midst of all the angst.

I'm not being hard-hearted and I hope Jules recovers but ffs it is a dangerous sport, even now, and the endless weeping, wailing and concern really gets on my tits.

If anyone wants to delete feel free

Sorry Jen, but you are being hard-hearted. Motorsport has to be acceptably dangerous. Agricultural / building site vehicles have no place on a race circuit. Any vehicle that a car can go under, even partially, doesn't belong. I don't call it weeping, wailing etc. It's quite rare for racing drivers to show any real emotion after a crash, but today seemed different, and it's a bit unfair to downplay people feelings in that way, drivers or fans. Yes, maybe Jules didn't slow down enough, but he has probably the second worst handling car out there, so is always more likely to lose control in those conditions.

It appears contact with the recovery vehicle ripped the roll hoop off Jules' car. That is not an acceptable risk. We've got away from barriers that shred drivers, like Cevert and Koennig so why run the risk of an accident like this? Bloody hell, Brundle even mentioned his own similar experience several times over the weekend, and that was 20 years ago!

 

[Mephistopheles]

If they had moved the start time forward then I would have missed it live and so would many others, logistically it is not a simple task of bringing an event like this forward a couple of hours and what about the support races?