[mayankk]

Found this somewhere, McLaren usurps ferrari's record by taking 56 points finishes on the trot.

[arun_kun]

Epic race after long time. Race was nerve wracking was rooting for KIMI. Long over due victory for the ICEMAN. Fantastic drive. The way he pulled out of the restarts shows his race craft. This picture says it all.

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Originally Posted by mayankk

Found this somewhere, McLaren usurps ferrari's record by taking 56 points finishes on the trot.

Maybe in this post-race chat.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal:

"From the point of view of sheer pace, Lewis totally dominated the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend - until loss of fuel pressure ended his race when he was serenely managing a comfortable lead. Until that point, he'd had the race in the bag, and it goes without saying that the entire Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is absolutely gutted that through no fault of his own he wasn't able to win here today. Lewis, too, is understandably disappointed - but he's also as keen as mustard to give it his very best shot to win the season's final two Grands Prix, at Austin and Sao Paulo. Jenson, too, drove a gutsy and spirited race, ending up fourth, having been overtaken at the end by Seb, who was on fresher tyres [than Jenson was] and whose car had been re-geared prior to the race for better top speed. To Kimi, who is of course an old friend of ours, having won nine grands prix for McLaren Mercedes during his time with us [2002-2006], I want to say 'Well done'. Today we saw a great drive by a great driver.

Last, here are two brand-new McLaren-related milestones for all you train-spotters out there. First, until Lewis's race came to an end on lap 20, he'd taken McLaren's aggregate of kilometres spent in the lead of world championship Grands Prix past the 50,000km mark.

And, second, in scoring 12 world championship points for fourth place, Jenson established a new benchmark in Formula 1: 56 points-scoring Grands Prix on the trot for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, eclipsing the previous record which had been held hitherto by Ferrari.

Neither of those stats provides much comfort today for anyone at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but they certainly both bear witness to a truly impressive magnum opus of on-track McLaren achievement in Formula One, going back all the way to 1966, and I salute all the many men and women whose sterling efforts have contributed to that.

Next we go to Austin, a new venue for our sport. Lewis won the last United States Grand Prix - at Indianapolis in 2007 - and you may be well sure that he, Jenson and everyone else in our team will be aiming to make it two United States Grand Prix victories on the trot for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes."

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by arun_kun

The way he pulled out of the restarts shows his race craft.

That was almost like Spa 2004, Kimi's 2nd win. Where he pulled away from Schumi's Ferrari.

[sa_kiran]

Originally Posted by mayankk

Found this somewhere, McLaren usurps ferrari's record by taking 56 points finishes on the trot.

And Ferrari got that when points were awarded up to 6th and 8th positions, unlike 10 now. It however, it does not take away much credit from McLaren. Looking at the last few races, McLaren can't go too far. Also, Lewis won't find Mercedes very much different in terms of reliability.

[arun_josie]

So, one of the boring circuit has produced the race of the year. Thanks to 2 safety car periods and vettel's spirited drive.
Hamilton unlucky again.
Great drive by Kimi and Alonso. Vettel was the outstanding.
18 races and 18 finishes for Kimi, the only driver with 100% lap record. 17 times in points, what a consistency for a driver who has returned to F1 after couple of years. That too with drivers like Maldonado, Grosjean and Perez around.

[navin]

Originally Posted by arun_kun

Epic race after long time. Race was nerve wracking was rooting for KIMI. Long over due victory for the ICEMAN. Fantastic drive. The way he pulled out of the restarts shows his race craft. This picture says it all.
Attachment 1010438

I love Kmi's radio conversations with the pit.

Then again his "instructions" would be exactly what I would expect from someone like Kimi. even at McLaren and Ferrari all he said he wanted was a fast reliable (aka competitive) car.

[GTO]

My God, what a race We needed oxygen masks after the finish, thanks to all the excitement and nail biting moments.

In the last 10 laps, all 4 top drivers raced like true champions...Kimi & Vettel more so. Hats off to Kimi for his flawless drive, brilliantly timed post-safety car acceleration and keeping his car cool (though he was clearly under pressure, going by the now famous radio exchange). Vettel : What can one say! He drove like a legend. This, despite starting from the back TWICE! The points from this race alone might have won him the championship.

Alonso's race was completely overshadowed by Kimi's victory and Vettel's resurgence from the back. He allowed Kimi to pull away after the 2nd safety car, a crucial mistake. Even though he put in one fastest lap after another, it was simply too late. As a championship contender, if Vettel could jump from 24 -> 2nd, Fernando should have atleast won the race.

Can't wait for the USA & Brazilian GPs. Both are night for us (prefer it that way).

[navin]

Originally Posted by GTO

As a championship contender, if Vettel could jump from 24 -> 2nd, Fernando should have atleast won the race.

Umm... I think Vettel came 3rd and Alonso 2nd but point taken.

I suspect that is why Alonso was so quiet in the driver's room when Kimi and Vettel were chatting. He must have expected to be ahead of Vettel (on championship points) after he saw that Vettel was starting from the pit lane. I guess Ferrari must really have a average car. Kimi pulled away from Alonso with little difficulty.

As mentioned in the post race analysis going after Kimi when he was a good 3 seconds away and with some 6 laps remaining (do you really expect to catch and pass a driver at 0.5 secs per lap who easily pulled away barely 10 laps earlier) was a tactical error by Alonso. Staying back might have kept Vettel in 4th.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

He may not have gained any place but Vettel gained massively to cut down the gap on track with both the safety car periods. And that was crucial.

Really don't think it helped all that much. He was ~24s behind Hamilton before the 1st SC. After the SC he was ~16s behind Hamilton, but was the last car. But while Hamilton stormed away at the top, Vettel had to overtake cars and the gap was back up to ~24s when Hamilton retired. Same with his gap with the others (Kimi, Alonso, Button) as well.

Being on fresher rubber, he was able to overtake the slower cars quickly. I think he was faster than the leaders at some point (Alonso, Button) due to having fresher tires. But then, the leaders stopped and were on fresher rubbers than him (and faster than him). So he didn't gain much w.r.t the leaders with his pitstops, infact he lost time to all (Kimi, Alonso, Button) with his 2nd pitstop.

For eg: the gap between Vettel and Alonso was ~16s when the 1st SC was deployed. It went down to ~10 when the SC went back in. The gap was back up to ~17s in another 3-4 laps, after which it started coming down (Vettel on fresher tires than Alonso). The gap was ~12s when Alonso pitted and was back up to ~15s after Vettel pitted.

I think where Vettel was lucky was that some of the others - Webber, Maldonado, Massa etc - who would've posed bigger challenges to his progress, took themselves out of contention, which helped him get upto 4th before the second SC.

Originally Posted by deetjohn

And the best time to pit is the just before a safety car period and RBR got just that with the second safety car.

That's not always true. It depends on the race situation. In Vettel's case, all those who were ahead of him had also stopped before the SC. But it certainly helped him cut the gap to Button and evetually helped him move from 4th to 3rd.

[polopm]

The race was full of action and we all loved it, except when Lewis crashed out and Star Sports thought it was good time for the ad break and also ESPN HD dropping the race altogether. I cannot fathom the intelligence of the folks who run this HD channels.

But it was a stellar show from all the exec committee members of the Carbon Fiber Club (CFC) -
Founder (or shall I say starting lap) Chairman - Grosjean
Wild Wild West (el Latino) - Bruno , Pastor and Perez
Far East Champ - Kobayashi

All of them had a real busy day yesterday and we all can see how. Due to their spirited support, Seb Vettel had made his work look easy

Martin Whitmarsh would be thinking what kind of blunder he had done by signing onto Perez. Jensen chokes if he is not leading. Lewis was blitzing till the time the fuel pump gave way ( @Mayankk - I am sorry mate !)

Was there a clause in Kimi's contract which did not allow him to be bought over by McL ?
Fernando drove like a true champion controlling everyone behind him and taking the fight to Kimi as well.

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

So he didn't gain much w.r.t the leaders with his pitstops, infact he lost time to all (Kimi, Alonso, Button) with his 2nd pitstop.

With a two-stop strategy, well, that was to be expected. The front runners were all on one-stops.

Interestingly, towards the end of the race, the battle for 3rd position was intense between JB and Seb. If only Button could've held on a little longer..
You see, Button WAS giving vettel a good defense, but initially, when Alonso, Button and Vettel were all spaced within DRS distance of each other, it was harder for Seb since on both the DRS zones, both he and Button were able to open their wings. This negated any offense he tried to mount on Jenson. And further, Jenson could only dream of overtaking the Ferrari considering its straight line speeds.

After that however, Alonso started to pull away, setting his sights on Kimi. It was then that Button lost his DRS advantage and subsequently Vettel overpowered him.

Ultimately, what happened, happened, but if Fernando had remained closer to Button instead of chasing Kimi (full credit to 'Nando for fighting till the end though), it would've bettered his championship prospects, since Vettel could possibly have finished in 4th!

Also full credit to Button for keeping the door open for Vettel on his overtake move - true champion-like stuff, by all the front running guys actually!

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by polopm

Martin Whitmarsh would be thinking what kind of blunder he had done by signing onto Perez. Jensen chokes if he is not leading. Lewis was blitzing till the time the fuel pump gave way ( @Mayankk - I am sorry mate !)

Was there a clause in Kimi's contract which did not allow him to be bought over by McL ?
Fernando drove like a true champion controlling everyone behind him and taking the fight to Kimi as well.

Whitmarsh and co will have whole of winter to think about the decision of signing Perez. At the moment Perez isn't inspiring any confidence at all, in fact he has done worse after the decision was announced.

It seems Kimi was approached by McLaren (and possibly Ferrari) but clearly he wasn't interested. Kimi is happy where he is.

[sa_kiran]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Whitmarsh and co will have whole of winter to think about the decision of signing Perez. At the moment Perez isn't inspiring any confidence at all, in fact he has done worse after the decision was announced.

It seems Kimi was approached by McLaren (and possibly Ferrari) but clearly he wasn't interested. Kimi is happy where he is.

McLaren will struggle next year, that is guaranteed. Lewis will strugglw in Mercedes. So, unless Ferrari give a good car to Alonso, next year will be very boring; Vettel may win the championship with many races to spare. Kimi will remain a dark horse, it will be interesting to see how good a car can Lotus give to him.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by navin

I suspect that is why Alonso was so quiet in the driver's room when Kimi and Vettel were chatting.

I think that has got more to do with Vettel and Kimi being very good friends of each other and not so much with Alonso. But yes, Alonso certainly would've expected to close the gap by much more than 3 points.

Originally Posted by navin

I guess Ferrari must really have a average car. Kimi pulled away from Alonso with little difficulty.

Ferrari probably is an average car in qualifying, but I don't think it's an average car in the races.

Originally Posted by GTO

As a championship contender, if Vettel could jump from 24 -> 2nd, Fernando should have atleast won the race.

I think that's unfair on Alonso. Vettel was fighting with cars which were slower than his and then most of his more difficult opponents self-destructed. Alonso was fighting cars which were more or less equal to his all race long.

Originally Posted by sa_kiran

McLaren will struggle next year, that is guaranteed. Lewis will strugglw in Mercedes. So, unless Ferrari give a good car to Alonso, next year will be very boring; Vettel may win the championship with many races to spare.

Next year, there is no big rule change like ban on EBD to put RBR on the backfoot at the start of the season. Seeing how strong they have become towards the end of this season, they are likely to remain ahead next year. Don't count out Jenson. If he can have a very good car under him, he can win the WDC as he already showed once. He will also get the team's undivided attention as team leader.

Next year we will have 5 WDCs on the grid, in different teams. I hope all their teams produce competitive cars.