2010 Belgium GP: RACE *** Spoilers ***

FA real unlucky with that accident and still can't believe the Ferrari survived that. Made a heck of a driveback until he crashed it.

MS, good race until he let Rosberg pass him. Rosberg must have had a wet setup which explains quali speeds. Rosberg, good race. Very good result for Mercedes considering starting positions.

Hamilton, heck of a driver, love him or hate him.

Webber, opportunity lost. I think 2nd was a disapointment today.

Kubica is great, he deserves a faster ride, just not enough available.

Overall, exciting race.

Alex

 

Had to find out now, so googled it:

Results
185 cm =
6.06948 ft (decimal)
=
6' - 0 8/10" (feet, inches and tenths-of-an-inch)

I know that Justin Wilson was 6'3''.

 

Interesting.

 

Does anyone want to hazard a guess who I picked for this weekend?

I'll give you a hint...He was doing great but didn't finish

Screw commentators curse, me picking someone is a much more accurate way to predict who won't finish the race :/

 

Alonso, Button, Senna, Barrichello.

 

Button!! I picked the HULK arghhhhhhh nowt zip nada zero

 

No rain setup during qualifying. They were both blocked. Nico was blocked and Schu was directly behind Nico. Terrible affect on their qualifying positions. Great race for them considering.

I believe Nico had a wide open hole after the safety car which afforded him the passes. Schu was stuck in traffic. Too bad for Schu really. Chance got the best of that outcome.

 

According to Nico's comments after the race, he had a wet set up. But yes, good results in the race either way. On the restart, Schu had to lift through eau rouge because of traffic which allowed NR through. I agree, tough ending to a good race for MS.

Alex

 

Amazing how this subject keeps coming up.

The part about MS having a contract for the following year 2007 is accurate. The part about LdM forcing MS to make a decision by Monza is accurate.

What is not accurate is the MS was afraid of being #2 to Raikkonen. Both MS's father and wife were pressuring him retire. That is public knowledge. He had announced his proposed retirement mid 2005, after that is when Ferrari signed a pre-contract with up front $$ to Raikkonen, about $6 mill, to cover their butts if MS left. Not before. That is public knowledge. So the retirement was planned before Raikkonen, who was suggested by MS as his successor. No fear involved. A MS consideration was also Todt and Brawn staying, which by then, Brawn had already been approached by other teams. Rumor is he had already accepted a retainer pre contract with Honda.

At this point, I do wish MS had stayed retired.

From June 2005, I worked for a wealthy man who had in his employee the Son of Willi. Willi and this man would have dinner periodically, I had information I guess you could say first hand. Or is that second hand? Whatever, that is Willi Weber, MS's manager. I believe I would put much more credibility in these private conversations than in the words of some jaded journalist looking for attention.

Willi lost some money when he prematurely had MS caps made up when it was thought that MS would replace injured Massa. But I would guess a couple of $$ million mean nothing to this man.

 

It looks like the "Golden Boy" is made of Fools Gold

G

 

Yup I had button

Another 18 points go to waste...

Most of my pics where looking good over the season, but in almost every race my pick was doing good they crashed or had some sort of failure :/

 

Ouch! [I was thinking the same - Certainly our "man in the pitlane" (Will Buxton on Speed) wasn't shy in saying "questions are being asked of his maturity".......]

Any similar mentions on the BBC?

Cheers,
Ian

 

Definitely the best race so far this season. Typical Spa. Webber could have nailed it here if the car or he didn't make that silly start. Vettel not completing the race was another bonus for Webber.

Speaking of Vettel, i don;t think that was a penalty. It was friggin raining at that section and i think the car aquaplaned and Seb struggled to catch it and smashed into Jenson (unlucky) instead.

Another fruitless race by Ferrari. They really shouldn't have ask Felipe to move over a couple of races ago

Entertaining race by both Merc drivers.

 

Button was taken out of the race by SV's bad driving, Button was penalized by SV. The stewards decided that SV should also suffer and handed him a penalty. I am not sure if they considered SV's body of work this year but that may have been a factor.

Button was unfairly taken out of the race and the stewards rightly issued the penalty.

How many times has SV crashed into people while passing? He did it 2 or was it 3 times in this race and then there was the one with Webber in Turkey. How many times should it be allowed without penalty?

 

Well, you have a point. But consider this. That particular corner was one of the first corner the rain decided to pour. It wasn't on purpose. You could argue that Turkey, he knew it was coming. But this, look at his hand movements in the car. It totally caught him out.

As for the penalty, he already had to visit the pits to get a new wing. So i don't see how another penalty would ease the pain on Jense.

F1 definitely needs overtaking. If small issues like this get punished, it will make the drivers hesitate to overtake.

 

Great race by Hamilton. Gotta give him credit. He kept his cool when he went off.

Massa did OK. Alonso screwed his race yesterday so no big surprise, albeit disappointing to go out with a spin.... Hmmmmmm. Luca can't be happy.

You have to give Petrov some credit. Coming from dead last to 9th is darn good under the conditions.

I think Vettel's drive through penalty was uncalled for. To me, his car stepped out on the rain. It wasn't reckless and it wasn't intentional. I can't see how you can penalize a driver for that.

What's the point of driving if you can't be aggressive anymore? No risk, no reward.

 

+1 on all account. Well said mate.

 

Vettel did himself no favours today IMO, aggressive or not and I like aggressive.

 

Button's race was ended by Vettel, if you want an eye for an eye you could black flag Vettel. A drive through is very light. If he did not crash into a few more people he would have still been in the points.

I strongly disagree with those of you that think SV should not have been penalized. How will you feel when SV takes Alonso or Massa out at Monza? Will you say that is just racing then? I think not

 

So according to your logic, Barichello should be handed a 5 spot grid penalty next race for "penalising" Alonso?

 

+1

The penalty was ludicrous and discourages drivers from trying to make that thrilling move. I'm not a SV fan, but this had me steaming when they handed it out.

 

I disgaree on the black flag mate. As i pointed out, it wasn't on purpose.

As for him crashing into either the Scuderia drivers, i suppose it depends the circumstances. Not that i care anyway. I think the Scuderia has done its fair share of mistakes this year that indicates they don't deserve either titles.

Here's a silly move, however...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfCFbrfUnY

Yet, no penalty was handed out. The FIA needs to understand that when it rains, the circuit can be unpredictable. The problem is, the FIA is just not consistent enough with it's rulings.

 

It is up to the discretion of the Stewards just like it is up to the discretion of the police to give you a ticket when they pull you over for speeding.

 

+1

I'm still hoping JT is keeping his head down, gaining support (there's still a lot of Mad Max's votes he needs to get changes thru) and learning. Hopefully, he'll present a package of changes for next year that are sensible and reasonable. We'll see I guess.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I did not say I thought he should be black flagged. I was just saying that his bonehead move ended Button's race and a black flag would be the only equivalent penalty.