Formula 1 2012

[Axi]

I'd say Malaysia is the hardest physically and Monaco is the hardest technically, but Singapore is probably a good mix of those.

[Bigbazz]

All I can say is.. Amazing qualifying from Jenson! He had it in the bag the whole time, nice to see things being juggled up a bit even further. Spa is my favourite race of the season, my favourite track in general. Hopefully this will be a race to remember.

[Deleted]

WTF, craziest thing ever seen

[Krolikn]

What a start...

[Deleted]

People like Gossjean and Maldonado should go diving golf cart

[Wilian]

Anyone can link video of the crash at the start? Missed first 5 laps or so >.<

[Coffer]

Anyone can link video of the crash at the start? Missed first 5 laps or so >.<

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 07:07 PM ----------

Grosjean has been banned for one race.

Very well-deserved and it's been a long time coming now.

[Ligier]

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 07:07 PM ----------

Grosjean has been banned for one race.

Very well-deserved and it's been a long time coming now.

Pastor Maldonado given two grid penalties for the next race for jumping the start and for a collision with Glock. I think penalties are being given too quickly and harshly these days and personally I'm uncertain Romain Grosjean's ban is really that worthy. The last driver to take a ban actually got let off for 3 races before he had to take it. That driver was, of course, Michael Schumacher, who got away with alot in his career. I have to say, though, I've never seen that many cars take off compeltely off the ground at once before, it was quite violent. But F1 has been quite well behaved with starts lately, so something like this was always going to happen one day.

[Xanjori]

Grosjean needed the ban to send a message, to be frank some of the newer guys up this season are driving poorly when it comes to safe driving. To risk something like that going into the first corner which is hugely contested is madness, you're literally asking for trouble. Alonso seemed lucky as hell that he didnt take a tyre to the head, it coulda been so much worse that crash. People need to drive more responsibly, especially off the grid. Hell Maldonados false start coulda caused havoc too, he was lucky not to cause anything there.

The newer drivers need to be sat down and talked to about their race conduct, because so far theyre being a slight blight on whats been an amazing season. Theyre probably lucky so far in that the big 7 or so are taking most of the spotlight and theres not been much need to dwell on some of these incidents.

And great drive from Jenson, imperious from Saturday to race end, great stuff and a huge win for him. Championship back on!

[Wilian]

I say well deserved. And Ligier, just because Schumacher has been the puppy of the jury in the past (the shit he got away with was just plain silly) doesn't mean this sort of behavious should be tolerated.

Grosjean have been a bloody risk in many races and this time it was not far from hitting on Alonso's head with a flying car. He got what he deserves.

[Farra]

Grosjean have been a bloody risk in many races and this time it was not far from hitting on Alonso's head with a flying car. He got what he deserves.

100% agree, I like Grosjean, but he really needs to sort out the recklessness.

Was a decent race none the less, would have liked to have seen some rain just to mix things up a bit, Jenson had it far too easy, congrats to him none the less though! Well deserved, can't wait for Monza now, the McLaren's are looking strong.

[Bigbazz]

I just finished watching the race... Have to say I thought it was an amazing race, best of the season so far for me. Even with little action up front for the 1st place with jenson driving a flawless race, the action behind was just amazing. Grosjean yet again showing he's hopeless at race starts, and Maldonado being his crazy self.

Awesome race.

[Coffer]

As usual, take them with a grain of salt.

Sebastian Vettel
Q: 6 | R: 10 | Average: 8 | F1R: 10
On a day when the Macca was a class above the rest, he genuinely outpaced Button in the second stint. Not only that, but he had to cut his way through many drivers, his teammate and the extremely aggressive Schumacher included. And that's with an extremely low top speed compared to the others. If that doesn't make up for a poor qualifying session I don't know what does.

Mark Webber
Q: 8 | R: 6 | Average: 6.5->7 | F1R: 6
Had no answer whatsoever to his teammate.

Jenson Button
Q: 10 | R: 9.5 | Average: 9.75->10 | F1R: 10
Splendid all around. Nothing more needs to be said. Loses half a point for being slightly outpaced by Vettel, but it's nowhere near enough to bump him from the top. Driver of the Weekend

Lewis Hamilton
Q: 5 | R: N/A | Average: 5 | F1R: 5
He must be regretting his decision to change the rear wing. His setup choice means that he wouldn't have made much progress through the field, though.

Fernando Alonso
Q: 7 | R: N/A | Average: 7 | F1R: 7
Extremely unfortunate. Thank goodness he's okay. Made a mistake in Q3 but the top two places would likely have been out of his reach anyway.

Felipe Massa
Q: 4 | R: 8 | Average: 6 | F1R: 7
Had genuinely good pace considering the circumstances. His last stint was great, but for some reason he dropped back near the end, which cost him a better finish.

Michael Schumacher
Q: 6 | R: 8.5 | Average: 7.25->7 | F1R: 8
Nothing more he could do. Not with that joke of a car. Good defense against Vettel and Raikkonen.

Nico Rosberg
Q: 3 | R: 6 | Average: 4.5->5 | F1R: 5
That car is a joke. Like Michael, there's really nothing more that he could've done.

Kimi Raikkonen
Q: 8.5 | R: 7.5 | Average: 8 | F1R: 8
Could've done better, but he did get held up by Schumacher.

Romain Grosjean
Q: 7 | R: 1 | Average: 4 | F1R: 1
Go HOME, Romain Grosjean. 7 first lap incidents in 12 races? Are you kidding me? You're even more dangerous than Maldonado. Excuses won't save you. You do not belong in F1. Worst Driver

Paul di Resta
Q: 8 | R: 7 | Average: 7.5->8 | F1R: 8
No KERS throughout the entire race, so he was quite unfortunate. Did well to finish only 30 seconds behind his teammate.

Nico Hulkenberg
Q: 7 | R: 10 | Average: 8.5->9 | F1R: 9
Kept his cool against the likes of Webber, Massa, Raikkonen and Schumacher. Very nice.

Kamui Kobayashi
Q: 9 | R: 7 | Average: 8 | F1R: 8
I can't be too harsh on him. Early overheating issues + everyone bumping into his front-right tyre + THAT meant that he should've immediately retired, but he kept it going and even finished on the lead lap. Good performance considering the circumstances.

Sergio Perez
Q: 8 | R: N/A | Average: 8 | F1R: 7
Extremely unfortunate, but I seriously cannot give him a higher rating than Kamui.

Daniel Ricciardo
Q: 7 | R: 7 | Average: 7 | F1R: 7
Good drive but outshined by Vergne.

Jean-Eric Vergne
Q: 6 | R: 8 | Average: 7 | F1R: 8
Great drive all around.

Pastor Maldonado
Q: 9 | R: 1 | Average: 5 | F1R: 2
The pastor strikes once more. I think he has some sort of affinity towards the backside of the HRTs and the Marussia Virgins. (Yes I went there.)

Bruno Senna
Q: 4 | R: 7 | Average: 5.5->6 | F1R: 5
Destroyed by Maldonado in qualifying, did what he could in the race.

Heikki Kovalainen
Q: 7 | R: 1 | Average: 4 | F1R: 2
This is why he's overrated. Pedro almost beat him. Pedro. And this was on a day when he wasn't even doing all that much better compared to Narain.

Vitaly Petrov
Q: 6 | R: 6 | Average: 6.5->7 | F1R: 6
At least he beat the Marussias. Can't say the same for Heikki.

Pedro de la Rosa
Q: 8 | R: 7 | Average: 7.5->8 | F1R: 8
Outqualified his teammate by two seconds, but they were far more evenly matched on race day. At least until the Indian lost it. Good fight with Heikki, considering how pathetic his car is. Constantly proving that he's still a good driver.

Narain Karthikeyan
Q: 4 | R: 6 | Average: 5 | F1R: 6
Hey, we can't be too harsh on him this time around - he was genuinely matching PdlR and the retirement wasn't his fault!

Timo Glock
Q: 8 | R: 8 | Average: 8 | F1R: 8
Considering Maldonado hit him early on, he did a very fine job beating Pic and keeping up with Petrov.

Charles Pic
Q: 5 | R: 6 | Average: 5.5->6 | F1R: 5
Just wasn't good enough.

Predictions for the next race? Also, Jerome d'Ambrosio will be replacing the banned Romain Grosjean at Monza, but Lotus still won't be running the double DRS. I hope he does well.

[Bigbazz]

Spa is very similar to Monza in that they are both high speed and low downforce circuits, with only a few days its pretty certain that most teams will be taking the same car to Monza, so Mclaren is going to be the fastest. The rear wing issue with Hamilton won't be a problem this time so lewis will be fast.

Otherwise I have no idea.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Predictions for the next race? Also, Jerome d'Ambrosio will be replacing the banned Romain Grosjean at Monza, but Lotus still won't be running the double DRS. I hope he does well.

You shouldn't be able to replace a banned driver. One of your drivers gets himself banned? Tough, you only run one car.

Brilliant race from Jenson, if Lewis can get his act together we could well see a 1-2 lights to flag race in Monza this weekend for McLaren.

[Wilian]

I really hope Kimi gets his car working proper this time around.

Lotus has already proven to be a fast car when settings get right. Kimi has already (once again) proven to be a really fast driver even when car won't hold up all the times (hence all the podiums, but expesially last one with all the issues.)

Now combine settings got right by Lotus and Kimi and he's standing at the first podium while rest just smell his back gasses. I hope that's what will happen in next race.

[Northern Goblin]

The Lotus cars are Championship winning cars, their settings on race weekends have been a problem but the biggest tell has been how Grosjean has underperformed, I'm not confident he's capable of handling what is at times a raw powerhouse.

With the experience of a season under their belt to get the fine tuning right, and a better secondary next year, Lotus should be look to be a strong contention for the CC.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

What with Eddie Jordan's speculation (and the resulting half dozen posts on the BBC website by Alguesuari and Benson), I personally do not think Hamilton would ever go to Mercedes. At least, not with their current performance. Lotus is the only team I would even think about joining if I were in Hamilton's shoes right now (i.e. RBR and Ferrari are closed avenues) and I really wanted away from McLaren.

[Coffer]

What with Eddie Jordan's speculation (and the resulting half dozen posts on the BBC website by Alguesuari and Benson), I personally do not think Hamilton would ever go to Mercedes. At least, not with their current performance. Lotus is the only team I would even think about joining if I were in Hamilton's shoes right now (i.e. RBR and Ferrari are closed avenues) and I really wanted away from McLaren.

EJ may be a mindless nutjob, but I wouldn't really throw the theory out the window just yet, especially considering what Bernie said about Schumacher. I do think that it would be a waste for all 3 sides (Lewis himself, Macca and Merc) if he goes, though.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Di Resta would be a better fit for Merc in their current place IMO. Hamilton would just get more and more frustrated at Merc.