Just re-listened to the first part of Seb's interview. Apparently no KERS by him on flying lap. Vin, the tires really could make this race.
So, you guys want to still diss the crazy Russian Petrov? He's in right behind Alonso and ahead of Massa in the RENAULT. Sad.
There was nothing much to diss except his accidents. Good showing for Renault, makes you wonder if Kubica migh've been fighting for the front row with Lewis or at least might've given Alonso and Button a hard time.
Petrov isn't very good, I'm afraid to say (I cautiously type this post on my laptop from a sports cafe in Kiev at the moment) Kubica is very good - I imagine if the Koob was in the car, he would be closer to the McLarens, definitely ahead of Alonso, without question.
I'm having some Vettel 2011 World Championship t-shirts printed tomorrow. Congrats to him on winning the title! I think Lewis was a bit shocked at grabbing P2. In the words of Vettel "obviously" McLaren were not as dreadful as was predicted and Lewis was stellar. The guy can drive. As much as I like Massa he needs to go. The guy is clearly focusing on Alonso and not his own driving. Alonso drives for himself and no one else.
We've seen his racecraft is pretty decent and has had glimpses of 'goodness' in pace. Let's see how the season shakes out. No excuses, second season, missing Bob. Is it time to start talking about Heidfeld and Felipe's potential replacements yet? jk
What I've learned so far from qualifying: 1) RB/Vettel will be dominant this year 2) McLaren's win the sandbagging of the year award 3) Alonso will have a tough way to the title, if at all 4) Rosberg is still controlling the old Shoe 5) MB can be lucky if they bag a win this year 6) Sauber wasn't kidding with their testing times 7) Even if Kubica had been around this season, it wouldn't have been his anyway 8) This is Massa's last Ferrari season 9) No 8th WDC for MS => in short: 10) Gonna be a great season!
In addition to the above (which I mostly agree with, except McLaren weren't sandbagging, they came out with a *major* aero upgrade between testing and qualifying), we should bear in mind that how things stand at the beginning are never how they stand at the end. Remember last year when Ferrari were dominant at the very beginning and McLaren sucked, then McLaren looked to be fastest mid-season, and towards the end, it was Ferrari and Red Bull. Vettel definitely looks to be in the catbird seat, but it's way waaaay too early to make any predictions about the next 7 months from one qualifying session
What? Where did I go wrong? We make bets about the season earlier than that... Which btw look again fairly encouraging, although I will loose the TR>MB one.
Still early and I will reserve judgment until the cars hit some high speed circuits..that said it's red bull's to lose and I think that the best got better. Now let's see some of the famed Ferrari "race pace" lol.
If the Redbull cars chew up the tyres fast then one of Mclaren boys will nick it, I'd have my money on Button. If Redbull can keep that sort of pace up for 58 laps its game over for the rest. As I understand Redbull or Vettel at least did not even use his KERS to get pole... However its all speculation because I'am not sure anyone knows fully how the tyre wear will effect any of the cars, but we do know what drivers are good at preserving them.
That's about right. I am still in shock over how fast Red Bull is. No one will even touch them. It's 2004 Ferrari all over again. MB and even Ferrari are just plain slow. They made good in testing but that just isn't enough. Sad but true :/ MB is saying KERS was working intermittently for Michael in Q2 but who knows. What would that have been worth? .300? Doesn't matter ya know.
We are lucky Kubica is not racing He would have made up the 3 tenths that Petrov was behind Alonso and put the Renault ahead of Ferrari
