[khoj]

What a huge let down ESPN HD is showing 2011 champion league highlights, may they crash & burn

[treadmark]

Vettel wins the Italian Grand Prix! That's his third career win at Monza and his 32nd career victory. Mark is P3
Alonso is second - 5.4s behind - ahead of Webber, Massa, Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Hamilton and Button

"You drove like a lion" is told #Alonso on the radio. Happy to take another podium in front of the Tifosi.

End of fastest race of this season may be an era, need to wait and watch how 1.6 will perform from next year on these fast circuits? Going to miss these real machines.
Happy to watch good friends (Alonso and Webber) together on a podium.

[D33-PAC]

Yup that's it. Fingerboy AKA always smiling boy (not Ricciardo) has almost officially sealed his 4th WDC.


He will officially seal it by India or Abu Dhabi, leaving the US GP and Brazilian GP a bit pointless.

Hamilton's championship revival has been nuclear bombed too, giving him less psychological hope for the upcoming races which equates to less spice due to his lesser motivation (if that is the case).

One may argue that the Ferrari and Mercedes are improving and that gives them solid podium hopes, but none of that matters if there is a massive deficit which cannot be reduced.

Vettel will have to retire in at least two races for the field to level, and the RBR is a fortress of a car.

I don't see what the point of going around the world and racing is if this is how it is going to be. The winners are decided at the factory ....and more importantly by the chief aerodynamicist .

Just find out who Adrian Newey is working for before the first GP of a season and wah-lah. Your WDC driver predicition will be 50% correct.


I rate this race a 3/10. 3 for some interesting mid-field battles and an Alonso podium (alonso podium being a good thing).

[nipcarlover]

OK race today.

First of all, I hate ESPN for putting so many ads in the middle of the race and not showing the race in HD and showing some random cricket stuff.

Not much action, with very little tyre deg. End was quite exciting with fighting going on on many parts of the track.

Congrats to Vettel, he won as expected. Real surprise for me was Hulkenberg, who managed to hang on to a decent place in 5th after the start.

Disappointing for Hamilton, without the puncture, he would ahve been a lot higher, pace was excellent, setting fastest laps constantly.

Sadly, this was the last time the V8s roared around Monza, V6 turbos from next year.

Looking forward to the under-the-lights racing in Singapore.

[Maky]

Originally Posted by khoj

What a huge let down ESPN HD is showing 2011 champion league highlights, may they crash & burn

They took away my ESPN saying I must contact cable guy and subscribe to it, The hell...
I had to watch Monza on grainy buffering Internet stream >.>.

Oh! And that's Championship wrapped up then. Fingerboy 2013 WDC : /

[Aditya]

Another superb performance from Vettel. He really is in a class of his own. Retirements are the only way others (probably only Alonso) might catch him. Hamilton was very good. But, poor luck has seen him out of this year's championship race. Raikkonen's first lap misadventure has probably sealed his fate as well.

[tharian]

Fingerboy is actually not in a race according to me. What's the fun in building a big lead as soon as you clear the first corner?
Your not racing. Its more like a solo endurance race to show how good the car is which is pointless for viewers.

[Hatari]

More booing for Seb! Alonso will be kicking himself to miss out on P2/P3.. even though Bulls were quicker, if he could ahead of Vettel at the first corner, it would have made for a better race given the gearbox trouble.

Nice move by Fernando on Webber. Shame it didnt rain.

[Mnjdnght]

Originally Posted by zenren

RBR are on a league of their own in qualifying!

Looks like we'll see 3 groups by lap 10 or so -
VET, WEB, ALO running away
MAS, HUL, ROS in their own battle
a huge train forming behind the remaining group

Would be interesting to see if HAM, RAI and GRO starts the race on hard tyres and tries a different strategy instead of getting held up behind the McLarens and Toro Rossos. Will be difficult to overtake all of them without ruining the tyres.

You turned out to be dead on! Great prediction.

[jraj]

Originally Posted by tharian

Fingerboy is actually not in a race according to me. What's the fun in building a big lead as soon as you clear the first corner?
Your not racing. Its more like a solo endurance race to show how good the car is which is pointless for viewers.

Err,pardon my ignorance,but I didn't understand this statement.

So what do you expect a Pole starter to do - engage reverse gear and go backwards for a while before starting his race?

[tharian]

Originally Posted by jraj

Err,pardon my ignorance,but I didn't understand this statement.

So what do you expect a Pole starter to do - engage reverse gear and go backwards for a while before starting his race?

I'm a viewer , if someone leads the championship , i would want that lead gained from proper racing and not just by leading without any actual racing.

Reverse gear? Lets not take it that far already. And yes that would be great if fingerboy could do that . Least we'll know how good he is when it comes to wheel to wheel to racing .

Regards

[Maky]

Originally Posted by jraj

Err,pardon my ignorance,but I didn't understand this statement.

So what do you expect a Pole starter to do - engage reverse gear and go backwards for a while before starting his race?

Funny!

Anyhoo...I think the person you quoted was trying to say Vettel has it too easy and that the spectacle is ruined as a result of RBRs supreme dominance in that we don't really have a race in the top end. The Pole to Flag victories that RBR so regularly racks up are boring to the viewer was his point.
Memories of 2011.

[asr245]

Another boring race.

This is the problem. As soon as you have relatively 'normal' wear tires, races get more or less decided on Saturdays. If you higher degradation tires, overtaking becomes too easy and teams make a lot of noise.

Nothing but a DNF for Vettel can spice up the WDC now. Else he would have it sealed by the time they reach India.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by asr245

Another boring race.

This is the problem. As soon as you have relatively 'normal' wear tires, races get more or less decided on Saturdays. If you higher degradation tires, overtaking becomes too easy and teams make a lot of noise.

Nothing but a DNF for Vettel can spice up the WDC now. Else he would have it sealed by the time they reach India.

Absolutely. Pirelli should have allocated the Medium and Soft as done in 2011.
Although, I dont blame them for succumbing to all the whining earlier in the season, led by Red Bull/Mercedes.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by asr245

Another boring race.

Agree. More of a high speed parade than a race - at least at the front.