2011 Malaysian Grand Prix Discussion

Valrys · Post by **Valrys** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:27

Go Hispania! Only half a second away from D'Ambrosio, and within 107% by a second

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:28

a tad surprised Mclaren felt the need to do that, their times were comfortably in, just a waste of tyres. *edit: - Anthony Davidson suggests they didn't use softer tyres

But HRT get in, oh this could be interesting tomorrow, particularly if it rains, that heap of junk could pull itself up to something

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:31

HISPANIA ARE IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:32

Lotus

Hats off, guys! That's the kind of performance I expected from them before Australia, and I thought they were just calling BS. I'm happy to have been proven wrong

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:35

Either Buemi has hit a bug in the air or his on board camera had a rain spot.

Bang! Who says Button can't bring one lap pace? Where did that come from?

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:36

I dont understand why what happened at Melbourne had to happen at Melbourne, why isnt Barcelona round 1 so we can get the crap one out of the way?
Lotus now cutting down to only 2 earth seconds slower than the front runners, Hispania getting down to 5 from 7 seconds. Although Hispania were the best over the speed trap of the new three...

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:38

I'm surprised to hear Hispania making the 107% cut.
Sadly, I cannot watch the qualify now: we don't have cable tv at the moment, and now my internet connection is a bit messy, so streaming is out of the picture as well, so I'm relying on your "narration". (Better than the Hungarian commentary on TV for sure!)

GwilymJJames · Post by **GwilymJJames** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:40

ADx_Wales wrote:I dont understand why what happened at Melbourne had to happen at Melbourne, why isnt Barcelona round 1 so we can get the crap one out of the way?

Because then people would be complaining that they start with a crap track and why not start with a decent track, like Melbourne?

I can remember the Bahrain reaction last year.

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:41

I am surprised by the toro rosso's constantly getting up the trumpet of the car ahead and then backing off on the penultimate straight before starting their laps, surely that can't be good for their tyres?

This is interesting barely nothing between Ferrari, mercedes and Toro Rosso, can we see a giant killing?

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:43

Bahrain 2010
It was an equally awful race.
Not just for the new bit that didnt work.
Not just cos schuey was back.
Not just because Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes could possibly have been in for a close battle at the front (more fool me).
Not just because there were 24 cars on the grid.
No gimmicks either, no kers, no catflap.

Having a dull race at melbourne also highlights the fact that its not the tracks that create dull races, Melbourne has rarely been a bore. 1998 possibly.

But its clear to see that they are too conservative in the first round of the last 2 seasons, thats down to lack of testing, So Barcelona is the best place for it, seeing as they test there, and it doesnt matter if its a dull race, its at Barcelona, its a dull track, we dont have to bother watching.

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:47

Goodnight Schumacher, you are off for an early bath! 11th on the grid

GwilymJJames · Post by **GwilymJJames** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:48

Q2 fallers: Schumi, Buemi, The Squire, PDR, Barrichello, Perez, Sutil

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:49

Those McLarens are absolutely mighty around here. Button for pole position anyone?

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:50

Shizuka wrote:I'm surprised to hear Hispania making the 107% cut.
Sadly, I cannot watch the qualify now: we don't have cable tv at the moment, and now my internet connection is a bit messy, so streaming is out of the picture as well, so I'm relying on your "narration". (Better than the Hungarian commentary on TV for sure!)

There's always Live Timing for you

Liuzzi would still make 107% going by Q2 times.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:50

Di Resta beats Sutil. Nice.
Schumacher does a Q2 drop. Fail.
Heidfeld does a Q3 - Like he is supposed to do.
Kobayashi does a Q3 - Nice job.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:51

Ferrim wrote:There's always Live Timing for you

Flash and Javascript-based sites are virtually unavailable for me now.
I tried to load Speedtest.net, but it didn't load even after 10 minutes.

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 09 Apr 2011, 08:52

@ Wizzie: - Possible, hamilton diid do a lock up at the first corner and that could have been a difference maker.

Got to say having looked at the footage of Schumacher's lap he did look ragged and missed a couple of apexes, so not a good way to bow out at all.

"It's like an Agatha Christie novel, only you don't have to go through 450 meaningless pages before someone tells you who did it." :lol:

seriously why is David Croft not on main commentary? That quote is diamond!

Hamilton 1:35 dead! That's incredible! Vettel responds with a 1:35.1, Webber 1:35.2, Button 1;35.3

GwilymJJames · Post by **GwilymJJames** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:00

Does anyone remember the way Legard used to get orgasmically excited whenever the first driver to cross the line in Qualifiying registered as 1st?

Brundle's no better.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:02

The 4 drivers are within four tenths. Brilliant. It's not over yet!

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:04

@ GilwynnJJames; - why I am using 5live commentary :lol:

Surprised none of the other teams aren't doing a hard tyre gamble? If I Kobayashi or Heidfeld it's what I'd have done

Wow that was tight! Vettel Pole, hamilton second, webber third, Button fourth. 3/10ths separate the top four

GwilymJJames · Post by **GwilymJJames** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:07

sswishbone wrote:@ GilwynnJJames; - why I am using 5live commentary

They don't offer us that here...

Finger time... 8-)

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:08

Vettel Pole.
Crap Race Tomorrow.
Unless Hispania offer us the inability to get past backmarkers on Vettel's Trump-Card.

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:09

Thank you McLaren for making a season out of this.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:13

That shot of fred at the end of Q3 made me choke on my cereal

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:15

patrick wrote:That shot of fred at the end of Q3 made me choke on my cereal

Is he a mechanic or is he employed by Red Bull to do that constantly annoying thing he does if and ONLY if Vettel gets pole?

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:17

ADx_Wales wrote:
patrick wrote:That shot of fred at the end of Q3 made me choke on my cereal

Is he a mechanic or is he employed by Red Bull to do that constantly annoying thing he does if and ONLY if Vettel gets pole?

no, freddy alonso, he won a few titles a few years back i believe

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:25

I thought Hamilton could break the Red Bull streak with that 1:40, and so I was happy, then Vettel out of nowhere pulls out a ridiculous time, I was shocked and disappointed.

Then I realized HRT qualified, and it all didn't matter anymore

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:26

Nicely poised, there - let's hope the McLarens can stay on terms tomorrow. Be nice if someone gets a run on Vettel at the first corner, otherwise he might just scurry off.

Post by **mario** » 09 Apr 2011, 09:53

Paul Hayes wrote:Nicely poised, there - let's hope the McLarens can stay on terms tomorrow. Be nice if someone gets a run on Vettel at the first corner, otherwise he might just scurry off.

I'm not so sure that Vettel is in a position to simply run off into the distance, truth be told. All of the top four drivers would have been giving it everything, and although Vettel did eventually pull out that lap, the fact that Hamilton was able to push him so hard suggests that McLaren are probably much closer this time around. I'm quite happy that this is the case, because if McLaren were around the level of Ferrari - Alonso's six tenths away from Button alone - we'd be in for a boring race, and season. Now, however, Red Bull do have serious competition, and it's coming from an unexpected direction.
Yes, Red Bull are using KERS for this race (the increased cooling vents are a give away), which does nullify some of the advantage that McLaren has - but, even so, I guess that Vettel will be keeping his eves open in case Hamilton makes a move up the inside in the opening laps.

And we have seen time and time again that whilst the recent Red Bull cars have been very quick in qualifying, they haven't always had the same performance advantage in the race - and Red Bull did seem to suffer from slightly worse tyre wear in Australia than McLaren. Now, tyre wear is expected to be higher here that it was in Australia, so Hamilton is probably still in a decent position to compete for the win, and Webber and Button are potentially quick enough to be major factors in this race too.

Peter wrote:I thought Hamilton could break the Red Bull streak with that 1:40, and so I was happy, then Vettel out of nowhere pulls out a ridiculous time, I was shocked and disappointed.

Then I realized HRT qualified, and it all didn't matter anymore

I wondered how long it would be until you pointed that out. Being able to qualify well within 107% is a good sign of progress (even Karthikeyan, who was the best part of a second off Liuzzi, is about 1.5s within the 107% cut off time); moreover, this is a circuit which is a pretty thorough test of a cars aerodynamics, so it's not a bad performance, all in all. My only concern, as I've said before, is whether there could be any mechanical problems that emerge over the course of the race due to a lack of testing.

Admittedly, I'm more impressed by the efforts of Heikki and, to a lesser extent, Trulli. Both drivers had closed up to within 0.5s of the Williams duo in qualifying (and only a tenth or two further behind Force India), so, here at least, it does seem like they have genuinely reduced the gap between themselves and the tail of the midfield.
Not only are they well clear of Virgin Racing, but on a fresh set of tyres (whereas Williams and Force India probably only have scrubbed sets of tyres available to them), which could well be worth a few tenths of a second a lap (see Perez in Melbourne), they might even be able to keep within sight of the tail of the field on Sunday, which would be another big boost to their confidence.

solarcold · Post by **solarcold** » 09 Apr 2011, 11:42

Yahoo Hispania in! I was so nervous I couldn't really count it properly what 107% has been like in Q1, so what a relief when the reporter said they qualify! I always beleived that will happen, Tonio and Narain FTW. I think they'll be same pace with MVR after 1-2 weekends.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 09 Apr 2011, 11:45

Wizzie wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8r9KrO1DX0

And here's Heidfeld's brake problems.

0:17 or so for an "I've never seen that before!" :lol:

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 09 Apr 2011, 11:47

Wizzie wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5BlX6wYMzg&feature=player_embedded

Oh dear.

Are these guys morons or what? They knew one of their mates had fallen to the ground and they carried over with the car (literally) regardless :shock:

eytl · Post by **eytl** » 09 Apr 2011, 12:45

If it stays dry tomorrow (famous last words), it's a four-way shoot-out for the win and everyone else is battling over 5th place. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that if Schumacher starts on primes and gets through the first lap cleanly, he could become a real factor (more famous last words).

Some other observations: interesting how it's Red Bull 1-3, McLaren 2-4, Ferrari 5-7, Renault 6-8, Mercedes 9-11. Di Resta outqualifies Sutil ... hmmm. On one hand I'd really like to believe that Lotus can genuinely challenge the midfield in Q1, but I have a bad feeling that they might have just come up about 0.3-0.5s short in raw car pace. The gap from them back to Virgin means that the back of the field has become a bit dull (sacrilege I know), although I'm going to join the bandwagon and say that HRT could give Virgin headaches sooner rather than later.

Post by **Ataxia** » 09 Apr 2011, 13:04

Heidfeld 6th. This pleases me.

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 09 Apr 2011, 13:05

eytl wrote:If it stays dry tomorrow (famous last words), it's a four-way shoot-out for the win and everyone else is battling over 5th place. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that if Schumacher starts on primes and gets through the first lap cleanly, he could become a real factor (more famous last words).

That's very optimistic! We've been waiting for 20-odd races now for him to finally come good and kick into his "real" comeback... Sadly, I just don't think it's going to happen.

Be happy to be wrong, mind. Be nice to see the old bugger mixing it up with them!

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 09 Apr 2011, 13:15

eytl wrote:although I'm going to join the bandwagon and say that HRT could give Virgin headaches sooner rather than later.

Why Enoch, why? :cry:

Branson's Boys are going to give HRT hell tomorrow if they haven't already been experiencing it over this past season and a bit! :lol:

P_Friesacher · Post by **P_Friesacher** » 09 Apr 2011, 16:28

eytl wrote:...although I'm going to join the bandwagon and say that HRT could give Virgin headaches sooner rather than later.

Yeah. If they're not carful being lapped.
Better?

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 09 Apr 2011, 17:53

I'm in favour of changing the blue flag rules just to give the slower car the "awareness" that there is a quicker car close to them, it should be the responsibility of the guy trying to pass, its how so many overtakes happened back before all the talented became whiny, only Senna had gripes when he couldnt get past, but there were so many times that he was able to get past because he was good at it, apart from that moment in hungary that made Murray Walker lose his voice as Mansell went past (was that not a great move?).

what's one backmarker going to do? end the world? no. If you cant get past backmarkers without them bending over to the rules then you arent a race (or dare i say championship) winner.

S951 · Post by **S951** » 09 Apr 2011, 18:17

HRT should be ok in terms of reliability Williams gearbox was pretty good last year along with the hydro, the engine is decent aswell. Can't see anything else that would fail unless of course it is their own doing which we can't rule out lol and bacon yes Heidfeld in 6th is good

Bleu · Post by **Bleu** » 09 Apr 2011, 20:12

Phoenix wrote:
Wizzie wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8r9KrO1DX0

And here's Heidfeld's brake problems.

0:17 or so for an "I've never seen that before!"

Schumacher had similar problem 15 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z16eeKbz1Oc