The 2012 United States Grand Prix Thread

[Ed]

This is the place to discuss everything related to the nineteenth round of the 2012 season taking place at the Circuit of the Americas between the 16th and 18th of November.

To submit your 10 'n' Pole Picks for USA click here, to register in the competition click here

Track Layout



The event timetable for the United States Grand Prix.

Friday
1st Practice 09:00 local time - 15:00 GMT
2nd Practice 13:00 local time - 19:00 GMT

Saturday
Practice 09:00 local time - 15:00 GMT
Qualifying 12:00 local time - 18:00 GMT

Sunday
Race 13:00 local time - 19:00 GMT

For the latest Formula 1 News check out the F1 news page

[Thaddeus]

Thanks for your coverage during the race.

I went for Hamilton, but it was a tough choice between him and Massa. Button did well too, but I think that Hamilton deserves it.

Be interesting to see if he can maintain this form at Interlagos. I hope we have an exciting finale to the season, and the Brazilian circuit is one of my favourites.

[jido]

Hamilton was the king of the COTA on Sunday.

I chose Massa though, he drove like a hero.

[Ed]

Thanks for your coverage during the race.

You are welcome, hope we were quick enough!

What does everyone think of the Ferrari move to allow Alonso to start from the clean side of the track by creating a false penalty for Massa ?

To me it shouldn't happen and it leaves a bad taste but at the same time, Ferrari to their credit didn't hide it and pretend that Massa had a gearbox issue that needed replacing plus it was really a clever tactic

The problem I have is that a few drivers who were going to start on the clean side now had to start on the dirty side

But how much different is it to when a driver is penalised say 5 or 10 places on the grid but they choose to start from the pitlane to change engine, gearbox, setup, tyre choice, etc ... ? We saw a number of drivers do that and benefit greatly from it.

Perhaps the penalties should be points deductions rather than grid positions!

Thoughts ?

[Thaddeus]

The problem with points reductions is that it's very hard to see how to make that fair. If someone ended up winning then a 5 point (say) reduction would still see them gain more points than anyone else, but if they were 8th-10th they'd get none.

I think that Ferrari's move was dastardly and clever. To be honest, I have no problem with it. I'm more annoyed by the fact that this season was very, very exciting and unpredictable and Red Bull have done their job so well that it's in danger of becoming a procession with Vettel getting constant poles and winning yet another title.

I like Vettel, but I like close competition more.

[jacfan]

Unfortunately I never saw the race as it wasn't on until very early in the morning.