Malaysian GP 2011 - Sepang

[andrew]

There was a warning from a moderator above which you ignored. The team orders thing opens up a can of worms and as it does not apply today it is irrelevent in this thread, in terms of Ferrari at least.

Could have is pointless. We are better to focus on what actually happened rather than idle conjecture. No malice intended, just better if things are kept factual and on topic.

[Dragonfly]

As I said earlier the car is below the expectations. Now I can confirm that it's even lower.
Fighting with Force Indias and dominated by Sauber.

[zeph]

A poor showing by hamilton indeed, but I'm lolling more at Alonso, who made such a hash of getting past Hamilton in a car that was so clearly struggling.

True. That was a critical error of judgement on his part. He would have gotten past anyway, but his zeal got the better of him. I'd expect more from someone with his experience.

[mep]

During the race its even slower than in quali.
It remains a shame.

[komninosm]

Nice race. The usual boring excellence from Vettel, grrreat job by Heidfeld! And ya gotta love that knife between Webber's teeth.

Alonso could have done better were it not for that critical error and a tardy pit crew. Ferrari had lousy stops today.

And did I see a very nice overtaking maneuver by Perez again?

I still don't understand how Alonso ended up 4 second behind Button by lap 28, when he overtook him several laps earlier. How slow was his pit stop?!

[andrew]

As you say, poor pitstop.

[zeph]

Yeah, Ferrari did not get ANY stop right today. Not for Alonso, not for Massa.

If I was Ferrari's crew leader, I'd be busting balls right now.

[andrew]

Ferrari seem to be at times returning to their mid-90's mess with silly mistake after silly mistake.

It's kind of iminous for the other teams that Vettel is so fast despite carrying the extra weight of a KERS unit that he can't use. Or is this just a bit of smoke and mirrors from Red Bull trying to wrong foot everyone else?

[Tamburello]

Long live KERS, Long live DRS and long (or should that be short?) live Pirelli!

The most entertaining race of the modern era? Could be. There were battles out on track for every single position except for P1 throughout the race and then there were the strategy battles besides, to stay nothing of the dramatic reliability and damage incidents...

[zeph]

RBR still looks strong, KERS or no KERS. And Vettel is very good. I hope that these two races are not an indicator of what's to come.

[zeph]

There were battles out on track for every single position except for P1

But that is the point. Who cares about all the excitement if it is always gonna be the same guy winning?

I'm sure there was a lot of exciting racing going on behind Schu in his heyday, but who remembers that, and who cares?

[Tamburello]

There were battles out on track for every single position except for P1

But that is the point. Who cares about all the excitement if it is always gonna be the same guy winning?

I'm sure there was a lot of exciting racing going on behind Schu in his heyday, but who remembers that, and who cares?

Well you can't have everything. Perhaps if Heidfeld hadn't have got in front of Hamilton at the start there would have been more a fight earlier on for Vettel (not saying he wouldn't still win. He is the best driver at the moment, in the best car).

I don't think it was like this in recent times at all, not in Schumy years, not for a long time.

Anybody who did not enjoy this race should simply stop watching GP racing, IMO. They're never gonna be satisfied.

[manchild]

The Priellis are a joke.

Write a complaint to Mad Max who forced out Michelin from F1 because he insisted on a single tyre supplier. We could have had battle of Michelin, Brigdestone, Goodyear and Pirelli but that wouldn't be uniformed as certain people like it to be (even when they are being spanked).

[zeph]

I did enjoy it, despite knowing a lot of the excitement has been artificially created. Like Alonso once said: "F1 is not a sport, it is entertainment."

At least it is good entertainment now!

[andrew]

I'm struggling to understand the Alonso/Hamilton coming together.

The speed differeince between the 2 seemed huge, almost like a brake test. Not saying that is what happened but that is the only thing I can think of to compare the speed difference with. Was Alonso just far too eager with usuing his KERS?