Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Paulos G]

Should be an interesting race tomorrow. Vettel appears to have done well to get third on the grid.

[Richard.John]

Could well be Vettel for the win. Hamilton looks stronger than before and I hope Nando does well. F1 is a funny old game and it's obvious now, after three races, that the Brawn team will not walk away this year, such is the pace of development.

[TheForce]

Nice MotoGP race, good win for Lorenzo and excellent performance from Pedrosa, never expected the Honda's to keep the pace like they did !
excellent result for the championship, keeping it all close together.

looking forward to today's F1 race as well, I don't think the Toyota's will be able to keep this position till the end of the race, Vettel in topform again , could be very interesting today!

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Pretty stellar job by Trulli to outqualify his team-mate so comprehensively with more fuel on board. Interesting to see that Hamilton's pace was genuine as well. Should be an interesting race.

[charlaph]

Great moto GP race, everyone except Rossi should be happy today. Lorenzo and Pedrosa especially and if their confidence is back then the next few races should be VERY interesting, especially if Stoner doesn't get gubbed in the opening laps and is in the mix. Can't wait for the next round now. I wonder how Rossi's feeling though - having Pedrosa getting under his feet and losing out to his teammate will not sit well with him I bet.

[fallenangle]

I'm not a huge F1 fan, I watch but I can't say I'm too bothered about who wins. What I've really enjoyed over the last two seasons is the BTCC on ITV4. Far more exciting than F1, real(ish) cars, three sensible length races and the coverage of the entire meeting, including all the support races, is very thorough.

Just been watching the first race today from Thruxton - good stuff

[Largo]

Oh..he just mentioned CBBC commentary, i thought you guys were all just making that up as a joke until now heh

[abigsmurf]

They're losing a second a lap on the top 3. Pending car trouble or a mistake I think the people in the top 3 is set in stone now.

[TheForce]

great performance from Button, he really deserved this win ! I thought Vettel would be faster, but he did great as well getting to P2, Trulli can't be too happy though, they lost a lot of time by going on the hard tyres for the 2nd stint... I think he could have been 2nd or fighting with Button if they would have changed to soft as well...

Ferrari got their first points as well... I wonder if they are happy with it, Massa being lapped by the leaders must have hurt as hell, last year championship contender, now fighting with ForceIndia....

[Flabio]

Trulli just seems to me to lack the nerve to really gun it on race day. He's outstanding in a qualifying run, but never seems able to convert it into race pace. Although going on the harder tires for the second stint was definitely a mistake.

[NW2013]

Oh..he just mentioned CBBC commentary, i thought you guys were all just making that up as a joke until now heh

I looked for that on the red button but couldn't see an option, just TV or no commentary.

[Senna]

Yeah brilliant race from Button - very clinical, aggressive when he needed to be, and then coasted in the last stint.

I got really frustrated with the BBC commentary today (the TV one that is) - when Button pitted the first time and had managed to get ahead of both the Toyotas, they didn't pick up on the fact that this mean he was now effectively in the lead once Raikkonen and Hamilton pitted. About 5 minutes later it suddenly dawned on them that Button had got past.

Did people see the couple of laps where Piquet Jr (not a patch on his father) was in front of Barrichello. What lines was he taking?? He was all over the place. Reminds me a bit of Massa when he first started in the Sauber a few years back. I had to laugh when Barrichello kept on raising his hand - must have been thinking how on earth did you get into F1 (although the answer is pretty obvious)?

Methinks Piquet Jr is a shoe-in to be replaced by Di Grassi at the earliest opportunity. A tragedy as well that Alonso is effectively raicng his heart out for a solitary point. He needs to get into a top-line F1 drive for next year.

Still to watch the Moto GP race, looks like it is a good one though. And I see Loeb is leading another WRC rally

[NW2013]

And I see Loeb is leading another WRC rally

WRC is pants these days with a minimum number of manufacturers and running the same streches of road over the weekend. Bring back the days when rally GB (if they even have it this year) actually meant going a fair way around the UK instead of a couple of tracks in Wales.

To be fair to Loeb it's not his fault he's so good and no one has an answer but you expect him to win now as he rarely makes event ending mistakes.

[Kieran76]

I got really frustrated with the BBC commentary today (the TV one that is) - when Button pitted the first time and had managed to get ahead of both the Toyotas, they didn't pick up on the fact that this mean he was now effectively in the lead once Raikkonen and Hamilton pitted. About 5 minutes later it suddenly dawned on them that Button had got past.

This annoyed me as well. You could clearly see Button take the lead and they were talking about something else instead. I thought the first half of the race was excellent but it fizzled out at the end. If you are relying on Trulli to make the closing stages exciting then you are always going to be disapointed.

[Shez]

lol yeah it's something that has been leveled at Trulli time and time again - He's never on it during a race, fantastic at qualifying but he's always been the same in race conditions.

Highlights for me:

Button brushing by Hamilton (which effectively won him the race, great move)

Alonso clearing Trulli in what for me was the move of the race, just a shame his car lacks pace.

Rubens getting angry with Piquet, and the result his driving go super aggressive.

Ferrari scoring some points, i'm not a Ferrari fan, but we need them competing.

Heidfeld beating the consecutive race finishes

Lowlights:

BMW so far off the pace, Ok their cars where damaged, but they seem to be going backwards not forwards.

Heikki, being so far off the pace, in what is clearly a one driver team - The first rumblings of discontent came from Heikki this weekend, and I hope his car get's some development or his career is going to be taking a huge backwards step.

Piquet his Kers, and the way he was able to Hold Barrichello off for quite some time - Not a fan of Kers at the moment, I think it's been misconceived as an overtaking tool, when the reality shows it's far more use as a defensive tool.

Races are still dictated by pit stops and all these tyre choices, less stops and less tyre choices please!