[asr245]

I liked Massa's message - "I think he's afraid of me"

Surprised that Vettel-Ferrari transmission a lap or two after he was overtaken didn't make it. I found that funny as well. It went something like
Ferrari - "His rears are overheating. Keep up the pressure"
Vetter - "Why weren't they overheating 2 laps ago!!"

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

And both Mercedes and Ferrari are well matched, Vettel made a mistake on sector 3 and Lewis' lap was also not very clean. Cannot wait for the race tomorrow.

This season is made interesting by the evenly matched PUs from Ferrari and Mercedes.
I expect either Mercs or Ferraris to have an upper hand on different tracks that suits their machines.

Originally Posted by shibujp

He did it again today. McLaren at P7 after the spectacular blow up yesterday was unthinkable. Whether the car is seriously up on pace or whether it is all Alonso will be evident tomorrow. Sticking my neck out I would say it's mostly Alonso.
Drive on,
Shibu.

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Good lap from Alonso, no doubt. But am I the only one who feels that Vandoorne is simply not good enough for F1 and by comparison, Alonso looks like a driving genius?

I've a feeling that any top driver (Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, etc.) can match Alonso's performances in that McLaren.

ALO is the man of the moment right now. Enjoying all the attention he can get at Indy.

Originally Posted by shibujp

The race might have looked totally different had Verstappen's move on Raikkonen and Bottas stuck which would have pushed him to 3rd with Raikkonen and Bottas behind him. As it was wretched luck for Raikkonen and Vestappen. Given the impact that Bottas had on the race the leader board would have looked quite different too.

Cautiously optimistic on McLaren. I hope they have being given their Mojo back by Honda.

Drive on,
Shibu.

Originally Posted by Hatari

Fantastic race up front! This is turning out to be a great battle.. nice to see the Merc strategy guys finally earning their keep after 3 years of practically being on holiday!

The 2 top teams are on a different planet, lapping everyone upto 4th place.

Shame about Alonso's 2nd corner incident, being higher up would have given us a better idea on pace.

The 2nd corner incident between Kimi and Max changed the race for all midfield runners too.
Both the Ferrari and RBR cutting across the full traffic, probably out of control due to damage sustained during the impact caused Massa to move unexpectedly and thus pusing ALO out of track. Otherwise we would have been treated to either a series of fights to defend positions from Fernando or maybe some more 'radio jems' from him.

Originally Posted by thatfastdude19

P7 for Alonso in qualifying and P12 at the end, despite a poor first lap, gives me a reason to hope for McLaren-Honda.

Real fun.

Regarding Quali peak power/peak performance of Honda PU.
Alonso was 1.9 seconds slower than pole this year at Spain. In 2016 he was 1.9 seconds slower than pole too. In 2015 he was 2.3 seconds slower than pole.

They're where they were in Quali performance a year ago and definitely further behind on race pace. Either the Honda PU is currently less efficient in order to produce performance or the others have made a step or most probably both. Either way its clearly race pace where the biggest gains need to be made and that is about efficiency gains which means power gains in this formula.

Peak power was upped by 15 hp after the intake and Fuel Injection upgrade according to Japanese press and the vibration problems are much better now due to the better low end torque, but race power is still bad most likely because of fuel saving and maybe poorer harvesting, which will only become better with the first two major upgrades expected for Canada and the summer break - hopefully.

I think they've found about 0.4 seconds a lap relative to Mercedes/Ferrari since the start of the season - plus whatever needed to match Mercedes/Ferrari improvements who obviously haven't stood still. So it could be as much as 0.75 - 1.0 seconds per lap all together. Probably the fastest improving team on the grid.