BetterMakeWay

LOL Alonso kind of deserved the win after dominating the practice sessions and having bad luck in qualy. Also i like how he shook hands (left hand) with Hamilton

pinguhk

2009 Formula One calendar

29 March - Australia (Melbourne)

5 April - Malaysia (Sepang)

19 April - Bahrain

10 May - Spain (Barcelona)

24 May - Monaco

7 June - Turkey (Istanbul)

21 June - Britain (Silverstone)

28 June - France (Magny-Cours)

12 July - Germany (Nurburgring)

26 July - Hungary (Budapest)

23 August - Europe (Valencia)

30 August - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)

13 September - Italy (Monza)

27 September - Singapore

11 October - Japan (Suzuka)

18 October - China

1 November - Brazil (Interlagos)

15 November - Abu Dhabi

MiamiPhill

Damn, Heidfeld didn't make it out of Q1.

MiamiPhill

Qualifying positions in Fuji:

1. Hamilton (McLaren)

2. Raikkonen (Ferrari)

3. Kovalainen (McLaren)

4. Alonso (Renault)

5. Massa (Ferrari)

6. Kubica (BMW Sauber)

7. Trulli (Toyota)

MiamiPhill

Any other delinquent up watching F1?

MiamiPhill

Final positions after 67 of 67 laps:



1. Alonso (Renault)

2. Kubica (BWM Sauber)

3. Raikkonen (Ferrari)

4. Piquet (Renault)

5. Trulli (Toyota)

6. Bourdais (Toro Rosso)

7. Vettel (Toro Rosso)

8. Massa (Red Bull)

formuleuno

I recorded it and watched the race this morning.
First off, that first corner you knew was going to be a spot of huge trouble. And that proved to be the case as Alonso pulled off his second win in a row.

To those who think Lewis Hamilton is the next GREAT driver, they have something else coming. He didn't have to be a hero at today's race even though he got passed at the first corner...Realizing that those who overtook him weren't a factor to him in the championship. He had Massa well behind him. Until he realizes when discretion is the better part of valour, he will have these things happen to him more than often than not.

Now..on to the penalties, I think Seb Bourdais was hard done by the penalty given to him when Massa tried to overtake. F1 needs full time stewards who are the same people from race to race. PERIOD. Hamilton's penalty was doubful, but he had already punished himself enough after the 1st corner. Massa's penalty was correct, but there are people who suggest that Lewis was coming in anyway because his tires were shot after the first corner. Had Massa left Lewis alone, he would have all but eliminated the gap to Lewis in the championship.

Good job to Robert Kubica, imagine if BMW pushed a bit harder after his Canadian GP win...He could be a legit contender as well.

formuleuno

BTW..Big bummer that the Canadian GP got dumped from the 2009 calendar because of Abu Dhabi. Sorry to say, but Bahrain isn't THAT far away. They dont need 2 races there. North America has no race now and guess where a good chunk of F1 sponsorship money comes from??? US GP in 2010!!!!(I hope)

bardel

Have to say I think the penalties given out today were yet another steward farce.

Let's look at them in turn.

Lewis v Kimi in turn 1. The penalty is for forcing Kimi off track, firstly, show me a picture where Lewis pushed Kimi off the track. Yes, Lewis went in too hot, but so did Kimi and about 4-5 other drivers. At the point when Lewis went off the track he was 1-2 car lengths ahead of Kimi and it was in fact Heiki that left Kimi no room on the track. Also, consider any overtaking move on a bend in F1 and show me where the car that made a pass on the inside didnt then run their opponent off to the outside of the track, this is called "hanging them out to dry". You see this happening all through the race, even the Ferrari drivers do it... Frankly this kind of decision, apart from being blatantly wrong is just ruining the sport. I've no doubt that Lewis was too hot headed in this manouvre and that he should have played the long game, but the penalty was just ridiculous.

Massa v Lewis. Well, we can argue this one all day probably, could just be classed as a racing incident. If you compare it to the Kimi v Lewis incident in Spa, Lewis cut the chicane to avoid the accident because Kimi left him no room, maybe Massa should have done the same today? Or maybe Lewis should have punted Kimi off in Spa and not got a penalty there??? In the end, I think the penalty was just on the grounds that Lewis was ahead of Massa going into the 2nd bend and should have given up the corner as he was beaten. Lewis was relegated to the back of the pack which ultimately destroyed his race.

Massa v Sebastian Bourdais. This has to be the biggest joke of the day right? Bourdais is coming out of the pits, fighting for position, is ahead of Massa going into turn 1, has the inside line and Massa drives right into the side of him making no account of the position Bourdais has on the track... And for this, Bourdais gets the penalty???!!! Yet Massa thinks he did nothing wrong for holding position on track against Lewis and then takes the view from the other side of the fence when it happens to him, talk about two faced.

And of course lets not forget that actually racing / overtaking off the track goes unpenalised too for Massa v Mark Webber, makes you wonder what all the hoo haa is about running Kimi off track in turn 1 since Ferrari do their overtaking off track too???

No wonder people think that F1 has a Ferrari bias (or anti Mclaren). F1 steward decisions of late suck and they are ridiculing the sport.

*rant over*

Good result for Robert though, brilliant defensive driving against Kimi in the closing stages, was really good to see. What was wrong with Heidfield though?

formuleuno

Now that Alonso can't come over to BMW (he said no to them even before Renault locked in 4th place in the constructors), Nick Heidfeld is just kicking back again because there is no pressure on him. If Seb Vettel could have gone somewhere it should have been BMW. He used to test for them (he raced in the USGP for Kubica after he had that nasty crash in Canada). And of course for BMW, he's a German driver as well, which would have been a win-win all around. I think Nick is lucky that neither Alonso or Vettel got signed by BMW for next year.