[Dr Evil]

Nice to see the Finn in Nico coming to surface today
Should be an interesting race, can't watch ot at home though as the lamp in my projector expired and it's currently my only display...

[Kaotik]

Sigh, Lotus ruins 2nd place, possibly victory with crappy pitstop tactics

[Lightman]

Originally Posted by Kaotik

Sigh, Lotus ruins 2nd place, possibly victory with crappy pitstop tactics

Not the first time it happened. At least Nico won so there is no clear 'leader' of WDC yet .

Kimis battles were great though!

Still McLaren is the quickest race car but not necessary quickest quali car, which is great for us!

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Dr Evil

Nice to see the Finn in Nico coming to surface today

Did he become really awkward on camera ?

[Gerry]

Originally Posted by Kaotik

Sigh, Lotus ruins 2nd place, possibly victory with crappy pitstop tactics

It was very funny though.

[Dr Evil]

Originally Posted by Davros

Did he become really awkward on camera ?

Excuse me but we do a have small minority here whom can handle cameras! Kovalainen is one.

[Bludd]

Great job by Rosberg, the car doesn't seem to eat it's tyres anymore.

Shame about Alonso making that mistake going out on the marbles against Maldonado.

Good job by Vettel too, managing to get up there from 11th, but the tyres weren't able to handle it the last few laps.

Hamilton had some great battles too.

[DJ12]

Shame Hamilton had a penalty, would've been good to see someone challenge Rosberg. He had it too easy with Hamilton getting all the traffic after pitstops (and from starting 7th).

Not taking anything away from Mercedes though, thoroughly deserved win.

[DarthShader]

Rosberg never had to run in traffic, plus they got the tyres in the optimum working range according to Brawn, so it all worked out for him.

Kimi got to learn how Pirellis can be. I was quite astounded when I saw he ir running Softs on the last stint. What were they thinking?

For Bahrain, I predict Hamilton will end up on 3rd place.

[AlphaWolf]

I was impressed to see Perez set the record (unofficially) for locking up the wheels.

[Silent_Buddha]

Hamilton has been pretty consistent this year. Finishing 3rd in the first 3 races which also puts him in the driver's championship lead thus far. Probably would have finished first or second if not for the 5 place penalty to start.

Makes me wonder if he's being a bit more conservative and taking less chances than he has in previous years. I don't really watch F1 anymore so I can't tell.

Fantastic to see Rosberg win the race.

Also nice that 3 races in, we have 3 different teams finish first. If the rest of the year stays this competitive maybe I'll try to catch a race or two.

Regards,
SB

[Kaotik]

Oh for f's sake, what the hell was Lotus thinking? I hadn't paid any attention on it earlier, but indeed, Kimi ran on softs 20 laps in the end before losing performance, while Grosjean and everyone else were on mediums

[Gerry]

Does Raikkonen not share any of the blame here? Is it basically completely the fault of Lotus?

[Kaotik]

Originally Posted by Gerry

Does Raikkonen not share any of the blame here? Is it basically completely the fault of Lotus?

Alan Permane made the decisions at least according to Finnish F1 broadcaster (translated by me from their headline: "Lotus Trackside Operations Director Alan Permmane defends the strategy he chose for Kimi Räikkönen after the Chinese GP")

[Silent_Buddha]

Sure but at the end of the day, the driver has to agree to and sign off on the strategy. Just look at McLaren which changed its strategy for car setup for the Chinese GP due to Hamilton being uncomfortable with what they were doing going into it.

Regards,
SB

[Kaotik]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Sure but at the end of the day, the driver has to agree to and sign off on the strategy. Just look at McLaren which changed its strategy for car setup for the Chinese GP due to Hamilton being uncomfortable with what they were doing going into it.

Regards,
SB

In case of Lotus & Kimi, there's small difference though, Hamilton for example has experience on how the Pirellis tend to work over years (even though they of course change a bit year to year, it's still helping) vs Kimi having just winter tests + 2 races behind him, and IIRC never really ran "out of tyre performance" before this

[Dave Baumann]

Originally Posted by DarthShader

For Bahrain, I predict Hamilton will end up on 3rd place.

And Webber 4th?

[Kaotik]

Kim's tyres were medium after all - Lotus just had made some markings in them, making it look yellow'ish in moving car

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/04/1...prix-f12012-9/

[Davros]

Just watched a bit of the replay of the Malaysian gp on sky and they've ruined it by adding background music

[Bludd]

Exciting quali. Schumi out in Q1 because he didn't make another run and the track was rubbering in.

Vettel rocked to his first pole of 2012, a tenth faster than Hamilton while Webber is in P3.

Button P4, Rosberg P5, Ricciardo P6 (fantastic!), Grosjean P7, Perez P8, Alonso P9 and Di Resta P10. Kimi is in P11, because he gambled on saving tyres from the race.

Were Force India punished by FOM for not running in P2? They weren't on the world feed during the quali.

[DJ12]

Should be an intersting race. don't think seb has a chance though to be honest.

[Davros]

@Bludd, no (wrt force india)

[Bludd]

Originally Posted by Davros

@Bludd, no (force india)

Just because Bernie says so? I think they were given a slap on the wrist. Paul Di Resta was in P5 or something in Q2 and that should have been given screen time.

[Dr Evil]

Originally Posted by DJ12

Should be an intersting race. don't think seb has a chance though to be honest.

I guess that makes Vettel the favourite to win then.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Bludd

Were Force India punished by FOM for not running in P2?

Originally Posted by Davros

@Bludd, no (wrt force india)

Originally Posted by Bludd

Just because Bernie says so?

your saying you think force india were not punished because bernie told the fia not to punish them ?
I dont think the fia have a punishment for not going out we've seen teams in the past not go out to save tyres and that was in quali not practice
ps: 2 other drivers were not on the tv feed

As for bernie, there seems to be 2 reasons for leaving them out, as a deterrent, but if that is the case he would have had to of said to the team before practice 2 "if you dont go out I will cut you from the feed" ,and i'm sure the team would let it be known what bernie said to them.
2 spite, for giving f1 bad publicity, but then the leaving them out would just create more bad publicity.