Thoughts on the Belgian Grand Prix

[Tim]

What a thrilling race! It had everything. Plenty of overtaking, a number of offs, a saftey car and a race in the end between cars on different tyres!

Still the two title contenders finished 1st and 2nd. Raikkonen did all what he could by winning the race. Alonso looked settled for 3rd only to find himself in 2nd after Montoya and Pizzonia tangle and retire!
Looks like McLaren are destined not to have a 1-2 finish!

Button nearly got second but in the end it wasn't enough and had to settle for 3rd. Webber after appearing to struggle early in the race managed 4th and benefited from switching to dry tyres towards the end of the race!
Barrichello managed to hang on and finish 5th while Villeneuve managed 6th and was the only finisher to make just a single pit stop and survived numerous fights particularly the one with Karthikeyan!
Ralf Schumacher finished 7th despite having to make 4 pit stops and Tiago Monteiro scored the final point for Jordan!

Fisichella crashed out pushing hard trying to make up positions while running a dry setup. He got caught out!
Takuma Sato ran into Michael Schumacher, that won't help Sato's chances for next year!
Trulli went off trying to avoid Monteiro while Pizzonia tangles with Montoya as he tries to unlap himself on dry tryes robbing McLaren of a 1-2 finish!

Thoughts ?

[danilen1]

my thought on the belgian gp is, what a p#$% james allen is... fernando, kimi and jense on the podium and he says, there are the 3 best drivers in f1... how can he compare jense to those two? they blow him away, he only inherited 3rd thanks to the 2 toyotas, monty and massa all making mistakes...

seems like mclaren have found some reliability, kimi pushed that engine for the whole monza gp and spa and it still held on. however with alonso only needing a podium to wrap up the DWC it all seems to be too late. my guess is we'll see mclaren win all the remaining races.

ps, GO VILLENEUVE.. hes beating massa in the points race, i think that proves hes a better driver.. and what with all the criticism hes had to put up with, it doesnt bode well for ferrari that they've signed a driver who is not as good as jacques.

[Julian Mayo]

A Race Of Lost Opportunity
In terms of improvement from starting position, Button, Webber, and Monteiro get equal votes from me. In terms of putting their cars in finishing positions where they had no right to be, Monteiro and Webber get my votes.
In terms of outright drive of the day Mark gets the final vote, to go onto slicks and keep it on the track showed his skill, and because they are my votes.
Pizzonia confirmed my thoughts.
Kimi deserved the win.
Monty must have been getting hungry.
Karthy has kamikaze blood
Alonso took his knitting with him, and finished a scarf during the race.
Schuey came very close to physically assaulting the other kamikze pilot, who has 3 races left in his F1 career.
Ralf is a bone-head, who broke the hearts of his team.
The rest pretty well finished where they deserved, through driver error, or tactical mistakes, or lost opportunity.
Is there a live radio radio broadcast available in Australia, by anyone with any knowledge or ability. Those inept, moronic," blind to all but Button" clowns sank further into the depths of inablility,waffle,oversight,stupidity,lack of perception,insight, and judgement than I thought humanly possible. Their output of sheer inane drivel was greater than I thought humanly possible.
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The Mountain is a savage Mistress.

[stiffpaper]

i seriuosly think that monty deserves to get at least a second.. a one-two for Mclaren... they deserve it man!

the stupid Pizzonia - dumb head... he was one lap behind..
he is monty's race destroyer. if monty had gone second..
he would be 3rd ahead MSchu in the driver's cup and 1st for constructor's cup.

its all PIZZONIA's fault... argh!!!


Ralf well.. he did ok at first... i was suprised he chased monty hahaha... anyway toyota had a screwed up strategy... it was the team strategy.. and Jensen was no good.. he was totally lucky... argh!! positive that BAR can get to the podium in BRAZIL? i dont think so..


stunning race by KIMI... hmmm... he flies! really flies...
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[stiffpaper]

[JayVee]

My take ...

Great drive by Raikkonen and an intelligent drive by The Cute. Both achieved their objectives.

Great race with lots of action and lots of overtaking. Button (as much as I hate listening to that James Allen) did a good job. He did the most overtaking on the track I think and that must be attributed to his ability.

Webber did a good job but I wasn't overly impressed with him. I expected more from him but he was overtaken on the track a number of times.

Barrichello didn't impress me either. I am saying this cause these 2 are supposedly really good wet weather drivers.
To their credit they finished in the points

JV, OMG, that was a great drive. I nearly voted him driver of the day. To drive that heavy car around and manage to keep it on track was great to watch especially that moment at Eau Rouge when he so nearly lost it!

Ralf did ok to finish 7th I thought. Considering his reputation

What about Monteiro I was hoping to see Karthikeyan in the wet. Kapel what happened there ? Are you sure they didn't swap helmets

Michael and Sato, it was unfair on Michael that is true but seriously Michael, it is not as if you've never done that sort of thing before At least what Sato did wasn't deliberate

Montoya and Pizzaman, again unfair on Montoya but what is it with Montoya and backmarkers ? Too many of those can't be blamed on the other party!!
Hold on, I am sure Montoya couldn't resist the Pizza. Ah that's it!

Driver of the day, Alonso The Cute Just look at what happened to his highly acclaimed teammate
And he can do a cardigan and win the title now. In fact I am willing to bet that Raikkonen will have at least 1 dnf before the end of the season and Alonso doesn't even have to show up

ITV coverage thanks for agreeing
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I'm back and yes supporting Alonso "The Cute" in the Ferrari!

[Kapel]

Incident packed race...Rain didnt show up,but the exicitement of a wet race was still there..

Kimi has lost his lucky charm when he visited the lap dancer..N so the misery
Alonso picked up his charm when he visited

Patient & consistent,thats what getting Alonso recently.He was lucky to be in the race,as JV nearly took him out at La Source(JayVee,i wonder what ur reaction would have been if it had happened )
Klien almost had a run on Alonso too He's living safely & dangerously too...Anyway,he would be crowned champion with 6 mins 7 kimi probably with 8-9 wins in 2nd place.

Points system nowadays gives important for being consistent by no chance of recovery Will it be changed we'll have to see..

Unfortunate 3 drivers...First Michael,thanks to Tukumaheru hritheew Satoireiy,then Montoya from the Pizza man...I think its a lesson to always let the backmaker unlap himself...what difference its gonna make to the drivers,atleast they'll finish the race!!!
Lastly,Truli...Behind Monteiro on a charge,Monteiro accidently hits the Pit limiter button he there went truli crashing in order to avoid crashing into him...

Button for once drove & showed what he's capable of(reaching the podium only )
Rubens was ok,so was Webber..Cos u expect more fro them when conditions r damp..
JV i think was the most impressive,not to mention Monteiro,perfect race for him(Narain doesnt deserve a seat next yr now,though they made a wrong tyre choice on him,he should have finished ahead of him even in the old car!!! )

Thanks to Fisi crashing (he's a good driver in wet) & chaos in the pitlane,with wrong tyre choices made,unnecessary accidents...this was a good race.
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An F1 Idiot!!!

[cmlean]

Alonso is just in cruise mode. He will do all he has to without putting his championship in jeodardy. Whether he wins it in Brazil, Japan or China, he is just delaying the inevitable. The object is to finish each round as the rest crash out around you. Smart boy this one. For that, I give him my drive of the day.
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289 - 11 pins to go to 300
Another F1 idiot.

[F1greyhound]

MCLAREN are totally dominating the sport now just like FERRARI did for a long time. However while KIMI driver-wise really proved to be the new MIKA and is in total control of his machinery almost as MICHAEL, JUAN demonstrates what value a teamplayer AND great racer RUBENS has been for the red team. No way you crash with a backmarker and risk the Constructors Championship. He is FAST but ERRATIC.

RENAULT might end up the lucky winners of the Constructors even if they also finished only with their No.1 car. FERNANDO avoids any mistakes now and deserves to become the youngest ever Champion. But next year will be harder..

BAR had a decent package for the latter part of the race, JENSON did his best job to finish on the podium. He will surprise a few people when he gets the chance in a top car. TAKU drove very determined and also well in the damp conditions before he made that error. While I was extremely disappointed for MICHAEL I still think it was a pretty ordinary race accident without the need to punish TAKU.

WILLIAMS made a quiet job and MARK quietly moved through the field in the latter stages to compensate for the initial lacklustre impression. Still maybe the most overrated driver of today. ANTONIO spoiled not only his birthday..a pity NICK might be out for 2005.

FERRARI just dont get it right anymore this year. Most problems are caused by BRIDGESTONE but even the car is not really 100% and the team decisions are less than perfect. MICHAEL might have had minute chances of winning(see RALF) had they not put him on slicks too early, a mistake done by most teams on Sunday. RUBENS probably couldnt do much more.

SAUBER chose a ridiculous strategy for JAQUES, pure coincidence(countless errors of many opponents) and thanks to his ability that he got points. FELIPE ran well over the weekend but too early on slicks, as he was most times doing better than RUBENS FERRARI will look forward to his services.

TOYOTA made even more of a mess from their strategy and they could actually have won that race, a minimum of 12 points was on the cards and the 3rd place in the Constructors. When will they get this chance again?

JORDAN have a pretty underrated driver in TIAGO who got my driver of the day vote. Altogether he is really cute while NARAIN has to improve on keeping a cool head..
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[JayVee]

[JayVee]

[JayVee]

[Byron Forbes]

As far a Webber goes - 1/ he's not "over rated" anymore! 2/ No one would have put money on him to finish 4th when he started 10th - same improvement as Button.

Even though Sato's incident with Schuey was bone headed on Sato's part, at least it was for position. How Pizzonia gets off with a fine for taking out Montoya is a joke - even though the actual incident was not quite as bone headed, running into the back of a podium placed car when you're a lap down is piss poor form on Pizzonia's part.

McLaren and Kimi's ordinary luck continues - Montoya should have given McLaren an extra 8 and Renault/Alonso 2 points less. And another car or 2 could have been in front of Alonso too. Alonso is all class though and will probably be a very deserving champion this year - he has pace AND race craft and Renault have pace AND reliabilty.

[Julian Mayo]

Sato has copped a 10 place grid penalty in Brazil, for his tangle wlth Schuey.
Piia Boy has copped an $8000 fine.
Sato was fighting for position.
PizzaBoy was trying to unlap himself.
Please explain
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The Mountain is a savage Mistress.

[Ed]