Honestly, that is what would have made the race worth watching. I woke up only to see the podium cars pull in but now I will most certainly watch it in full later today.WhiteBlue wrote:This early race end for Vettel stole the suspense from the race.
I am not entirely convinced a race with Vettel would have been better. People have said before that Red Bull's race pace was getting less impressive, but then Vettel ran away from everybody in the first ten laps and controlled the rest of the race.Vasco wrote:Solid drive from Lewis and Fernando....it would have been a mighty battle for the lead had Vettel not had the puncture.
My pet bet is that there was a fleck of carbon fibre in the dip in the kerb, and that he picked it up.myurr wrote:To be fair it is possibly due to pushing that hard on the exit from turn 1, and therefore running over the kerb, that caused his puncture.
I don't think you can extrapolate what happened in one corner to the rest of the race.Shrieker wrote:I think Vettel would've done it. As someone else have already mentioned, he was gone after the first corner...
It had to take Hamilton's worst ever season and a WDC level teammate to beat him. his unbeatable lifetime record is gone. I am sure it will not happen again.Shrieker wrote:I think Vettel would've done it. As someone else have already mentioned, he was gone after the first corner... But now I unfortunately believe whatever Red Bull are doing for Q3 and the first laps of the race, Webber doesn't have. It's not just the tyres. And very well it might not be just an engine mapping thing. So even with the exhaust positions mandated and engine maps banned, Red Bull may still retain some of their Q3/first laps of race magic until others finally work out what it is - if ever. Having said that, Webber scoring pole in Silverstone which had restriction on engine mapping is worth a mention; maybe it's just Vettel managing to extract that little bit extra with the engine mapping settings.
Hamilton has won, good for him but he was kinda robbed of his chance to challenge Vettel. I don't think he cares (at least for now) given his recent woes though. Also congrats to Button in becoming the first team mate to beat Lewis over a season.
I've said it before and say it again, Button was never worried about beating Vettel, he knew he couldn't with the car he had and just got on with the job. Lewis on the other hand wants to win and took many risks with an inferior car, most ending in tears. But there were some uncharacteristic mistakes too - like his spin while leading Hungary or like his clash with Kobayashi at Spa. After being beaten by a driver like Button the only consolation he might get from 2011 is winning at Interlagos putting him in front both in terms of qualy performance and race wins which will only be scant anyway.n smikle wrote: It had to take Hamilton's worst ever season and a WDC level teammate to beat him. his unbeatable lifetime record is gone. I am sure it will not happen again.
Last year some people (especially McLaren) were b***ing about ride height control. They went silent later on; maybe it's not something as drastic as that but little aggressive changes to the car here and there that could only be used for a few laps that can make a difference.raymondu999 wrote:Shrieker - if not engine mapping, what area are you thinking in?