Official F1/Motorsport thread

[VR46]

yep well done Fernando, and well done Rossi, tied up the Moto GP title yesterday. Seven World Motorcycling titles in ten years, the man is a god. He'll win it again with Yamaha next year, then maybe onto four wheels ....

[Alastair]

Yep, echoing everyone else's sentiments, well done to Alonso and a great effort by Renault.

A real shame for KR though as he's def had the faster car and been a faster driver but if McLaren can't get the reliability together he'll have to wait. I'm sure his time will come though.

Rossi is the 2-wheeled Schumi, the difference is that everyone loves him for it.

Not so bothered about missing the A1 now then if it was that poor, I read the write up on teletext and it did sound a bit dull. Give them time though.

[VR46]

any idea how many were at Brands on Sunday ?

[Darwock]

Saw the race in it's entirety but had to rush out before the podium - how did Alonso react to his taking the crown? I was thinking back to when he won his first race and he seemed very ambivalent about that at the time. I hope he showed some passion for it.

Congrats to him, I did find myself willing Montoya to run up his arse behind the safety car to keep it alive for Suzuka, but the championship was a foregone conclusion anyway. I agree with the previous post that it's been a fairly dull championship overall.

[Morcerf]

any idea how many were at Brands on Sunday ?

About 80,000 according to Radio 1 this morning. Although maybe that was over the three days.... sounds high.

But I was there, and it was certianly an enjoyable day. The sprint race was a little bit disappointing, and there wasnt as much overtaking as I was hoping for to be honest, but I'll reserve judgement until we've had a few more races.

We had excellent seats in front of the pits, and was great when Aus, Brazil and GB were in pits all at the same time and we (GB) managed to leap frog both Aus and Brazil to take the lead. In fact, most of the pit stops from the other teams were just downright shoddy! Inexperience I guess! Gutted when we had a fault though and had to retire :-(

Piquet Jnr was fantastic tho - the lead he was able to pull out once he was past Aus was amazing, considering all equal equipment.

Main disappointment was lack of flames when the drivers used the boost button! :-)

[Richard.John]

Saw the race in it's entirety but had to rush out before the podium - how did Alonso react to his taking the crown? I was thinking back to when he won his first race and he seemed very ambivalent about that at the time. I hope he showed some passion for it.

Congrats to him, I did find myself willing Montoya to run up his arse behind the safety car to keep it alive for Suzuka, but the championship was a foregone conclusion anyway. I agree with the previous post that it's been a fairly dull championship overall.

Let's just say he was pleased with himself, and quite rightly so.

[Richard.John]

A great summary from James Allen.

http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?T...en&PO_ID=34174

[Darwock]

Bit of an odd way to close it off!

Anyway, Michelin have won the world championship for the first time since coming back to F1. Congratulations to them.

Erm yeah... Michelin have won the championship.. hooray

[Richard.John]

Also it seems that Heidfeld will not be returning to Williams. It will be interesting to find out, once the season is over, what soured the relationship between FW and NH. OK he's off to BMW, but they didn't sack Burger Boy or Halfie last year so what is going on?

[Alastair]

No more BAR next year by the look of it. Another manufacturer takes to the grid as Honda completely buy out BAR.

There is also an interesting comment in that article saying that Sato has been offered a seat with an unnamed 11th team that would be new to the grid next year and Honda may supply engines. Certainly going to be all change anyway.

[VR46]

umm interesting, no wonder Button was so desperate to stay, prehaps Honda want to win something now Moto GP title is out of their grasp Rossi's bike is even faster in a straight line without slip-streaming, how the mighty have slipped. That'll teach them to belittle Rossi's achievements

[Alastair]

Button obviously knew that it was about to happen. Seems Honda are desperate to win races and then championships, they certainly have the money to do so. It now looks like a very shrewd move by Button (if he can deliver).

[VR46]

Could finally be Rubens time as well, should be a very very good year next year, Alonso, KR, Montoya, Button, Barichello, plus prehaps Ferrari all fighting for the title, and bound to be teething problems with the new engines ....

[Alastair]

Lets hope so, F1 needs to build momentum and keep it going after this season.

A new champ every year for the next 5 would suit me Even better if every season went right to the last couple of races too.

[Richard.John]

It's easy to forget that Honda powered cars won the WCC from '86 to '91 and the WDC titles from '87 to '91. "POWERED by HONDA" is a legendary term in F1.