Looks like the weather may determine the winner this weekend.

Racing in the rain neutralizes any motor advantages

And the FIA has arranged a police escort for EMS incase the weather grounds the medical Chopper gets grounded again. We'll actually get qualifying and a race in.

Also reporting Malaysia will not be back after this year. Thankfully, there's one less Tilka track we don't have to bear...

I don't have cable anymore, but I've seen the results. Was the race any good?

Other than Hamilton being back on track (he won), it was pretty good. Vettel passed Ricciardo in spectacular fashion, rubbing tires as he completed the pass, and finished second, Verstappen third, Ricciardo fourth and Raikkonen fifth.

The commentators tried to make a big thing of the Driver's Championship being "tied" -- jeez, guys, it's only the second race. Little Max is in a dead heat with Hamilton in the category of "unnecessary whining", demanding that a slower car get out of his way, even though the car was 10+ seconds ahead. He claimed he was feeling wake turbulence at that distance. It was good comic relief.

There was some good racing overall, though, and an enjoyable race. Wet track for a few of the opening laps.

Pretty good racing throughout the field. The VSC followed by the safety car screwed up Vettel, otherwise he may have had something for Hamilton or even been in front after the tire stops.
Kimi holding up Vettel for so long didn't help either.
Alonso did an amazing job considering the top speed problem. They were about 9 mph off on the straights and China has some long straightaways.
Stroll got taken out by a bad move by Perez on lap 1.

WTH happened to Bottas during the SC?
Commentators seemed to think he spun trying to get some heat in the tires (swerving)?

They didn't come back to that before the race was over, but I switched off before the podium celebrations and the post-race discussions.

It's a good guess, however, that he spun while trying to heat up the tires, it's easy enough to do. Don't ask me if I ever spun out on a shut-down lap after a practice session, I'll plead The Fifth!

Alonso to run in the Indy 500.
Mclaren Honda Andretti teaming up and he'll miss Monoco. Sure will be a boost to the Indycar Series and their ratings.
Sure didn't expect to wake up to that news.

quote:

They didn't come back to that before the race was over, but I switched off before the podium celebrations and the post-race discussions.

In his post race interview Bottas didn't go into details but fully accepted responsibility for the mistake of spinning on cold tires while trying to warm them behind the SC.

quote:

Alonso to run in the Indy 500.

Good for him. I expect Honda will arrange a drive for him wherever, whenever he wants just to stay put at McLaren and keep being as outwardly supportive as he is. Can you imagine the "original" Alonso in this situation? It would sure make for some different headlines!

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Alonso to run in the Indy 500.
Mclaren Honda Andretti teaming up and he'll miss Monoco. Sure will be a boost to the Indycar Series and their ratings.
Sure didn't expect to wake up to that news.

Whoa!! Win-Win. Alonso reminds everyone of his huevos grandes (? - you get the point) and a huge boost for Indycar/Indy 500. Like any series, you have to know the players to care and after decades of floundering following the split, Indycar has got its feet back on the ground. It may be as entertaining as any racing now IMO. Alonso's choice here is huge.

Alonso has been quite vocal about how F1 is about saving rubber and fuel ... and that isn't racing.

I agree.


But boy-howdy does he pick the wrong teams and the exact wrong time ...

The church bells are ringing in Maranello, Italy.

GO Seb!

LH was on quite the charge at the end & likely could've provided some action had it not been for the 5 sec penalty.

Zak Brown also alluded, in the pre-race grid walk, to the possibility of Alonso taking a TBA seat at LeMans....

Yes, The five second penalty seemed rather suspect to me… And I'm no fan of Lewis Hamilton.

I hadn't heard of anyone being called on that penalty before but maybe its an attitude adjustment

I'm no fan of Hamilton and it was really nice to see Vettel win again

after two races half of the comments were about how Vettel and Hamilton were tied...well, duh..

they need to shut up more and listen

Read an article today in which Vettel implied he was "controlling the pace" My guess is he was cruising and controlling the gap and saving wear on the engine and tires? Hamilton was closing but Vettel knew this and I think if Hamilton got close my guess is Vettel would have upped the pace.

Lots of car problems this weekend. We've been spoiled in the last few years by the reliability.
Not a Lance Stroll fan at this point but Sainz sure made a boneheaded move to take him out.
Alonso was amazing to see how slow his car was in a straight line but he was so much faster in the corners that he would pass on whichever side he didn't get blocked. Then get passed on the next straight. I suspect he is doing the other races for fun and just waiting to see if the next big engine upgrade makes hanging around next year look like an option, or not.
Kimi was pretty mediocre for the second week. He and Bottas are looking like #2 drivers at this point except for on qualifying day.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Yes, The five second penalty seemed rather suspect to me… And I'm no fan of Lewis Hamilton.

In my view, it was a team error that caused Hamilton to cut across to the pit entrance in front of Ricciardo, not a deliberate move by Hamilton against Ricciardo. The penalty was against the team more than against Hamilton, and in my opinion was justified.

I'm enjoying this season.

It's interesting that some teams do better on certain tires. Merc cant make the supersofts work like redbull can, on the other hand nobody runs the softs better than Merc...

But when vettle is quick, he grills weenies with gas.

The cars are fast. But so quiet.

Also, verstappen is frikking fast. He's gonna win one or a few this year.