2016 United States Grand Prix - COTA, 21-23 October

[ME4ME]

Just imagine if it was Rosberg or Verstappen who had made that Alonso-move yesterday. They'd get an instant drive through.

[Vasconia]

Just imagine if it was Rosberg or Verstappen who had made that Alonso-move yesterday. They'd get an instant drive through.

I am not an Alonso fan but I would say that he is not between the most privileged/protected drivers when we speak about penalites. And Vestappen is an extremely protected driver with many controversial moves and almost no penalites.

[Vasconia]

People complain when there is no wheel to wheel racing and then complain when there is wheel to wheel racing. ALO was driver of the race he gave us entertainment in what would have been a dull race. Good damage limitation by Rosberg hoping he wins next week to get this nearly wrapped up.

+1. This is true racing. The Alonso-Massa-Sainz battle was by far the best one.

The Spaniards made an awesome race.

[Vasconia]

The race was not obviously super exciting but it had some interesting moments.

The start was quite predictable but this time Lewis did a decent start which worked even better because Nico was super cautious, so much than he forgot that other cars can overtake him. His race was compromised and there was a moment when Kimi was putting some pressure on him that I though it was going to be a disaster. But finally he managed to end second, not his best perfomance but least he saved the day. I dont understand why he pussed until the last lap when there was no need for it.

Perfect performance by Lewis, with a great pace and taking care of its tyres.

I tought Ferrari and Rb were going to be closer but they had great problems to keep with the pace on certain moments. Kimi had a terrible second stint, for example.

Sainz did a great race, with an excellent pace and defending himself perfectly well from Massa. Excellent. His battle with Alonso in the last two laps was the best thing of the day. Alonso was on fire yesterday!.

[basti313]

Not sure about the comparison's between Alonso-Massa and Rosberg-Kimi in Malaysia, those two incidents are quite different.

True. I would rather compare this to Vet-Mas, Ros-Ham (Austria) or Ros-Ves . All were penalized for running the outside car off the track, even without contact.
But this weekend it was completely the other way round...Mag was penalized for track limits, after Kvy was breaking too late and running him off the track.
Consistency, please. [-o<

People complain when there is no wheel to wheel racing and then complain when there is wheel to wheel racing. ALO was driver of the race he gave us entertainment in what would have been a dull race. Good damage limitation by Rosberg hoping he wins next week to get this nearly wrapped up.

+1. This is true racing. The Alonso-Massa-Sainz battle was by far the best one.

The Spaniards made an awesome race.

I agree with the good races from Sainz and Alo. Also Massa was good.
I do not agree with good racing at the overtakes. To me this looked like the Ros-Rai battle...running behind each other and then a divebomb. I do not count that as good racing, it rather cost us a nice move. I expected a more elegant attack by Alo. For example into turn 13 after preparing it in turn 12 by putting Massa on the inside line. Or something at or after turn 1 or into the S corners. Something like Ves did on But.

The same for Alonso vs. Sainz. In the end the one and only attack was a DRS attack without even making the corner. Is this really true racing for you?

[Vasconia]

I agree with the good races from Sainz and Alo. Also Massa was good.
I do not agree with good racing at the overtakes. To me this looked like the Ros-Rai battle...running behind each other and then a divebomb. I do not count that as good racing, it rather cost us a nice move. I expected a more elegant attack by Alo. For example into turn 13 after preparing it in turn 12 by putting Massa on the inside line. Or something at or after turn 1 or into the S corners. Something like Ves did on But.

The same for Alonso vs. Sainz. In the end the one and only attack was a DRS attack without even making the corner. Is this really true racing for you?

The overtakes you describe are obviously better but I also like how fast Alonso reacted to Massa´s doubts when Saiz went to wide in that turn. It was agressive but not too much, racing is also those overtakes, not only the super clean ones. Those moves have been part of F1´s history.

About the Sainz-Alonso battle I liked the full battle in the last two laps rather than the overtake itself which due to the DRS.

I also liked how Sainz defended his position against Massa, increasing the gap on certain sectors in order to avoid his atttacks.

[zac510]

Someone ought to drop Alonso a note and let him know that they expect more elegant overtaking moves in the future

The problem with expecting perfect manoueveres and races all the time is that you're always left disappointed.

[WaikeCU]

Anybody else noticed how many drivers didn't respect track limits? Especially off turn 11 and 19.

[basti313]

Anybody else noticed how many drivers didn't respect track limits? Especially off turn 11 and 19.

Sure. Media reported, that they got a "drive everywhere" by Charlie in the drivers meeting as you do not gain an advantage by running wide on COTA.

[sosic2121]

Ferrari is doing what williams was doing when they were. Able to fight mercedes in 2014... Screwing all

Not easy to be a ferrari driver these days and keep high motivation

+1

[iotar__]

Alonso Massa wasn't even close to 50/50 and one evidence that is enough to show it is that Alonso ended up +2 m off track. It happened because the only way to make this overtake stick was to send the other driver off completely on purpose and without even trying a clean move. Not even trying to make a corner. Penalised offence, previous BS ones:

- Nasr Palmer - the worst of them all and an outright parody, Nasr did less than 10% of Alonso's move 10 s
- Rosberg - Verstappen - much better overtaking attempt and Rosberg stayed on track and made the corner just fine, bigger space, no contact - 5 s
- Rosberg - Raikkonen - not even close, later phase and with the amount of cooperation Massa gave here there wouldn't have been a contact at all - 10 s
- Sainz - Wehrlein (one of the early races) - not even close and Sainz made the corner just fine. 10s (?)
- even Rosberg Hamilton -reverse of course but the pushing off part can be compared, Rosberg again makes corner just fine
- and several others like Vettel Massa 5s

Where is your 'clarification' now? Where are your arrows on frames ? "Where is he going, it's not a corner, is it"? F1 crowd is as hypocritical as it gets.

[RedNEO]

The race was not obviously super exciting but it had some interesting moments.

The start was quite predictable but this time Lewis did a decent start which worked even better because Nico was super cautious, so much than he forgot that other cars can overtake him. His race was compromised and there was a moment when Kimi was putting some pressure on him that I though it was going to be a disaster. But finally he managed to end second, not his best perfomance but least he saved the day. I dont understand why he pussed until the last lap when there was no need for it.

Perfect performance by Lewis, with a great pace and taking care of its tyres.

I tought Ferrari and Rb were going to be closer but they had great problems to keep with the pace on certain moments. Kimi had a terrible second stint, for example.

Sainz did a great race, with an excellent pace and defending himself perfectly well from Massa. Excellent. His battle with Alonso in the last two laps was the best thing of the day. Alonso was on fire yesterday!.

Yeah was great to see, Alonso was aggressive and I liked it. Some people will always find something to complain about but atleast it's given people something to talk about unlike the rest of the race.

[FW17]

Anybody else noticed how many drivers didn't respect track limits? Especially off turn 11 and 19.

Sure. Media reported, that they got a "drive everywhere" by Charlie in the drivers meeting as you do not gain an advantage by running wide on COTA.

Gain against what? Grass or gravel?

[SunsAnvil]

The final move lacked finesse and seemed a bit of a dive down the inside however I am pretty sure that Alonso knew that he risked spending another 2 laps behind Massa versus passing 2 drivers before the end of the race and that made it a very easy choice for him.

[PlatinumZealot]

Just imagine if it was Rosberg or Verstappen who had made that Alonso-move yesterday. They'd get an instant drive through.

Sarcasm? You picked the two people that have gotten away with the most indescretions!