2012 Abu Dhabi GP - Yas Marina

[CHT]

After the first safety car vettel was still at the back and after the 2nd safety car he gain one place. And your point is?

He also gained 35 seconds and got to change his tyres and nose cone. Your answers just belie your lack of understanding of how this race panned out. And you can't even name all these great overtakes Vettel made, despite hating on everyone else calling him lucky.

It was strategy, and most of that came down to luck thanks to Seb's mistake behind the safety car, and the two safety cars closing up the field that gained Vettel all the places and let him even try for the overtake on Button. With that strategy he ended up always having a tyre advantage over the people he was racing. Even then the majority of the places he gained was through incident or overtaking whilst people were in the pit lane.

It was a solid drive with a huge dollop of luck that led to the raw figures you keep yelling about flattering Vettel.

Just curious why you have selectively ignore te fact that he was suppose to be on a 1 stopper and he was forced to make an unschedule stop during the sc period which drop him to the back again?

[Cylinder]

Dude go read the lap chart it will give you a more accurate and unbiased info.

I need to read the lap chart to see that Vettel barely overtook any top drivers in this amazing race of his??

Typical Vettel-fan logic, You'd be a legend on Planet F1 or Autosport forums you know, they love this kind of logic...

"Vetele is GR8 he got passssss 21 drivaz 2day wiv sum wiked overtaykes, non of dem iz on da tv doh.....but dey iz on da lapz chartz....go go sebi!!!"

[jz11]

Massa played rough with Webber and forced him out(again Maldonado didn't do that), sadly this kind of tactics are allowed (Hamilton and... you name it), what i think Massa was calling for punishment was the way Webber rejoined the track, kinda cutting infront of Massa that induced his spin.

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

well, from this vid it seems that Massa simply didn't expect Mark to come back at all after he pushed him off the track, there was more than enough room at the exit of the last corner for both in my opinion, its just that he was at the exit at full throttle, jerked the wheel and off he went, if he would have stayed on the track behind Mark, I think the he would have been made by the team to give the place back, just as Vettel was ordered to over the radio with Grojean

about Maldo, can't find the replay now, but I remember Mark being whole (no distance between cars) car ahead when starting to turn in and a locked up Maldo sliding into him, Mark obviously tried to shut the door too soon, both at fault, but that's just racing... you see this stuff in almost any racing series, starting from junior carts

edit: anyway, front suspension on cars today is too strong to allow this sort of clashing

[CHT]

Dude go read the lap chart it will give you a more accurate and unbiased info.

I need to read the lap chart to see that Vettel barely overtook any top drivers in this amazing race of his??

Typical Vettel-fan logic, You'd be a legend on Planet F1 or Autosport forums you know, they love this kind of logic...

"Vetele is GR8 he got passssss 21 drivaz 2day wiv sum wiked overtaykes, non of dem iz on da tv doh.....but dey iz on da lapz chartz....go go sebi!!!"

Could you be kind enough to share with us in your opinion who are top driver and who are not and why?

[Intego]

...
You cannot name the overtakes made by Vettel today on top drivers?
...

Let's name all top driver passes:
Alonso vs. Button at the start
Vettel vs. Button
Did I forget one that is to call a top driver's pass? So what's the fuss about it?

[Redragon]

Just to spice a bit.

What a great overtakings Webber-Alonso and Alonso-Webber have brought us for the las couple of years. Some on the Grid should learn how to fight at the limit respecting other premises an using every single inch available.

[the user]

He drove the wheels off that Ferrari today, brilliant performance. If the race was 1 lap longer and he got into the DRS zone, I am not sure that Kimi would have won this.

Alonso was Monster today, monster. This man is what you call a racer, I know this because when I watch Sky Sports F1, I can SEE HIM overtaking other TOP DRIVERS, I also see him dragging a truck to within 1 second of the race win.

He needs to keep going and not be dis-heartened, the bottom line is, the gap is less now than it was last week.

You call the ferrari a truck? Now that is a major exaggeration..

[Cylinder]

Dude go read the lap chart it will give you a more accurate and unbiased info.

I need to read the lap chart to see that Vettel barely overtook any top drivers in this amazing race of his??

Typical Vettel-fan logic, You'd be a legend on Planet F1 or Autosport forums you know, they love this kind of logic...

"Vetele is GR8 he got passssss 21 drivaz 2day wiv sum wiked overtaykes, non of dem iz on da tv doh.....but dey iz on da lapz chartz....go go sebi!!!"

Could you be kind enough to share with us in your opinion who are top driver and who are not and why?

I'll give you the full story, as soon as you find me these amazing overtakes from Vettel in today's race.

F1 is getting embarrassing now with the overhyping of this kid, Hamilton has spoken out, Alonso has spoken out, Jackie Stewart has spoken out and basically said "come on now, im a 70 year old man and I would have won 3 titles in that rocketship".

He's good, but people need to reel it in now, it's getting silly.

[Richard]

Oh, I seem to have wandered into a fanboy forum. No more bleating about "how many overtakes did Vettel make" please, or this thread will be locked.

Back on topic...

This was an amazing race, a great result for Kimi and he deserved it. Terrible shame for Hamilton to repeat Singapore. Sauber are still getting more valuable points in the race against Merc in the WCC. Nice to see Force India battling again, they seem to have been left out a bit recently.

Above all, this race showed how reliability ans consistency bring greater rewards in a tight season. It's how F1 used to be and should be, I hope that continues to the end of the season and into 2013.

[myurr]

After the first safety car vettel was still at the back and after the 2nd safety car he gain one place. And your point is?

He also gained 35 seconds and got to change his tyres and nose cone. Your answers just belie your lack of understanding of how this race panned out. And you can't even name all these great overtakes Vettel made, despite hating on everyone else calling him lucky.

It was strategy, and most of that came down to luck thanks to Seb's mistake behind the safety car, and the two safety cars closing up the field that gained Vettel all the places and let him even try for the overtake on Button. With that strategy he ended up always having a tyre advantage over the people he was racing. Even then the majority of the places he gained was through incident or overtaking whilst people were in the pit lane.

It was a solid drive with a huge dollop of luck that led to the raw figures you keep yelling about flattering Vettel.

Just curious why you have selectively ignore te fact that he was suppose to be on a 1 stopper and he was forced to make an unschedule stop during the sc period which drop him to the back again?

Because the way the race panned out that was actually an advantage. You see when he pitted the first time for tyres and a new nose, he was able to close right up to the back of the pack. So he started at the back, but had tyres that were 15 laps fresher compared to everyone else. All those ahead of him then had to pit a few laps later (most pitted around 10 - 15 laps later if memory serves) leaving him with track position and free air. He was then able to pit and come out ahead of a slow Grosjean who had been holding several other drivers up. Had Grosjean not been holding people up he likely would have been near the tail end of the top 10 instead of a net 4th.

Right after his pit stop the second safety car came out closing him right up against the podium contenders whilst he was on fresh option rubber and they were on worn prime tyres. It was this that let him mount his challenge for the podium.

So the change in strategy actually worked to his advantage by always having a tyre advantage over his competitors whilst the two safety cars negated, to a large degree, the lost track position.

[raymondu999]

Guys, honestly - let's move on to the positives and stop this pointless bickering.

[Dragonfly]

It was an entertaining race and the post race comments are even more entertaining

[Cylinder]

Guys, honestly - let's move on to the positives and stop this pointless bickering.

What positives are there for you? Tell us and we will discuss.

Some of the driving today was an embarrassment to be honest, Maldonado.........again, lost the corner in my view, but turns in anyways, to be honest, Webber should have known that was coming.

Mclaren.....where do you start. Not only did they they say goodbye to the race win.....but when they say goodbye to Lewis you wonder if they are saying goodbye to more race wins in 2013 too.

I thought Hamilton was monster in Quali, I think that may have been genuine case of the driver making a difference as well as the car being fast. Very very impressive qualifying in my opinion.

[Phil]

Show why. What moves did Vettel make? Where would he have been had he not gained 35 seconds under the two safety cars? He was incredibly lucky with how that race panned out, and in terms of what he did he just drove fairly fast. In free air when they were both running, Hamilton was a few tenths a lap quicker, so you can't even say Vettel had field leading pace. He was just quick enough to take advantage of the way the race panned out, rather than being spectacular.

You mean the two safety cars - the first being where vettel had to pit because of his broken front wing putting him practically back at the grid *again* - which is where he was when the race restarted, or the second safety car that only yielded him *one single* position (which he might have got anyway even if there hadnt been a safety car)?

The point being that he otherwise would have had to stop during the race, and certainly would have lost positions, not gained one.

No, the point being, that his error with Ricciardo compromised his race heavily and him pitting during that first safety car phase nullfied *any* advantage he would have had at that point. Remember, Vettel ended up pitting twice (compared to pretty much everyone else who only pitted once). Had he pitted during the race under normal circumstances, he would have been a lot higher up the grid and would have lost a lot less (20 or so seconds) compared to during the safety car which effectively dropped him from, what was it 12th (when being Ricciardo) to 21st. There was simply no good to come off that early pitstop other than it served as an act of punishment for misjudging Ricciardo's intentions.

[CHT]

What did vettel said on the radio when he tries to avoid Ricardo? I thought the champagne joke on dc was a little unrespectful