Formula One 2009

[Katsuya]

Wahey! From Minardi's first ever points in his first ever race to his first ever win. Well done, Mark.

Erm...Minardi's first ever points were in the Detroit Grand Prix about twenty years before Webber scored those points >_>

[Troy Maskell]

Wahey! From Minardi's first ever points in his first ever race to his first ever win. Well done, Mark.

Pierluigi Martini says hello.

He also says Google is your friend

Well done for Webber. One of the genuine nice guys of racing.

[Sam]

Gutted for Hamilton, he could have had a really good weekend this time out as it looked like that Mclaren was fast. Well done for Heikki for bringing the donkey with no updates home in 8th that's a really good performance considering that car was 1 1/2 seconds off the pace of Hamilton in the practice sessions.

Strong performance by Webber and also Massa getting back on to the podium. Also interesting to see Alonso speeding around at the end as well as Rosberg finishing 4th. Could Brawn GP be about to fall back down the grid? You would imagine both Mclarens will have the upgrades by Hungary and they'll improve the car further still whilst Ferraris 3rd shows they're making a steady improvement as well. Interesting to see what will happen in two weeks, I think Mclaren will certainly be up there.

[Zaz]

Wahey! From Minardi's first ever points in his first ever race to his first ever win. Well done, Mark.

Erm...Minardi's first ever points were in the Detroit Grand Prix about twenty years before Webber scored those points >_>

*European Minardi >_>

Just checked Wiki, and yeah, heaps of (relatively) points before him, but when he got them I swear there was a big fuss about it along these lines.

[Adam]

It was probably just because Minardi were then, as they were for pretty much all of their last years, the worst team on the grid, and we're always the only team who never got any points in a season. Couple that with the fact it was Webber's debut drive, in his home Grand Prix, and a big deal was made out of it.

[hugobomb]

What a great day that was. Minardi were always a favourite of mine, proberly because they always seemed happy to be there despite their obviously flaws (woefully underpowered engine). After rain wrecked havoc on the race, you found Mark in 5th place with Trulli bearing down on him. Despite the fact that he would still finish 6th even if Trulli caught him, I was willing Mark to hold on. Then he made a mistake and Trulli was right behing him with a couple of laps remaining. Thenn.... TRULLI SPINS! Mark goes on to finish 5th and has his own little podium moment was Paul Stoddard.

I was in a good mood about that for days

[Katsuya]

Aaaaand Bourdais has been fired. Toro Rosso will announce the new driver before the Hungarian GP, so...yeah, it's Algu-thingy. I'd love it if they suddenly turned round though and went "yeahhh...welcome Takuma Sato!"

[Fry_4000]

Bourdais getting fired was a while coming, he was put in his place by Vettel and has been again with beumi. next for the chop nelson jr.

[Katsuya]

Alguersuari made his debut today and didn't crash/kill someone as apparently half the field thought. Still, he wasn't overly quick, but for a first grand prix, it was good enough. A lot of people said it wasn't fair to make him debut at Hungary because the track is so difficult (by the by, it looked...different than it usually does. Like there was more colour or something...I dunno), but then again, it gives him the chance to seem more confident at Valencia which is his home GP, after all.

So...yeah. Kind of an odd weekend, I think, is ahead, since Webber was working the car a lot better than Vettel was, and the Brawn's still seemed a little off it. McLaren and Williams might be able to sneak up on Brawn this weekend...and therefore, my prediction for the winner is Heikki Kovalainen. I dunno, but he was doing well last year even before Massa broke down and he was gifted the win, and I have a feeling that the Red Bull/Brawn dominance is going to get rumbled a little bit this weekend. Especially if he uses the KERS better than Lewis tends to use it >_>

[Dan McG]

Yeah, I'm not sure about a 19 year old in F1, but I'm sure the same thing went around for Lewis Hamilton, and look where he is now, a former World Champion.

[erperro]

Something hit Massa in the head and KOed him, and he crashed badly. Hope he is OK

[NotoriousGTT]

Looks bad for Massa, hope everything is OK but it brings back bad memories of Senna.

EDIT - Also reminds me of Henry Surtees accident last week. Although he appears to be moving his arms as he was getting into the helecoptor so looks like he is ok.

Edited July 25, 2009 by NotoriousGTT

[Katsuya]

Erm...what?

The timing system has died, and nobody knows who's on pole, but Alonso seems to be #1, based on his pitlane walk consisting of "what time did you do?". Bizzarre...

[Sam]

Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Button, Nakajima, Massa

Vettel and Webber will have their work cut out off the start with Hamilton, Kovalainen and Raikkonen all close by and it being a long straight down to the first corner. Button is going to be on damage limitation one presumes.

[Katsuya]

Yahoo is reporting that Massa won't be racing tomorrow. I presume, therefore, that either they'll just have 19 cars on the grid tomorrow, or Ferrari will draft the test driver in and have a glorified test session.

Also...here's something I just realised: this is the first time, really, since 2007 that Alonso and Hamilton will be in cars at a similar pace, right at the front of the field...and one would assume that Hamilton will probably leapfrog at least one Red Bull at the start, so we could realistically see Alonso vs. Hamilton for the lead.

Oh, and they should totally do that every qualifying session. So funny/confusing.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

So despite a rather boring campain so far, Button provides the highlight of it so far when Alonso told him his time.

Button: 1:22.5 (or something like that), what did you do?

Alonso: 1:21.5

Button: FUCKING HELL!

That actually made me laugh. Also nice to see Hamilton doing better, great to see improvements to his car and hopefully he can get a good result in tomorrow.

[Sam]

Presumably Alonso was running on low fuel when he did that lap, I don't think he'll be much of a threat to the front runners once the first set of pit stops is done with. Wouldn't be surprised by another Red Bull 1-2 with Hamilton 3rd.

[Emperor DC]

Ferrari confirmed that Massa has a Fractured Skull and needs an operation, and also has bad concussion. I also heard he suffered a broken leg in the crash.

Anyone that saw a replay of when the thing hit him and the pictures will know he's lucky to be alive, certainly did not look like much, it simply looked like brake failure at the time. Just shows still how dangerous this sport is, despite all the saftey enforcements that have come into play over the years. Get well soon Felipe.

[Katsuya]

I had heard that it was a gash on his face and some swelling around his eye...so I think there's a lot of stories going around right now...but here's hoping that he'll make a full recovery.

Sheer interest...who is the Ferrari test driver? Is it still Luca Badoer?

[Emperor DC]

Np, it was not. Ferrari have released a statement confirming a fractured skull, a brain concussion and deep gash on his head, all need to be operated on. Obviously, he is not racing tomorrow. It's pretty serious. Everyone seems to be tight lipped, which continues to feudl speculation its a lot worse than speculated.

It was a really bad impact.