F1 - Indianapolis

[schmunk]

no heineken we dont want huge heads on our beers!!

Yes we do! *But* we need pint-and-a-bit glasses to accommodate it...

[idimmu]

got back from prague the other week and the beer there is served in 0.5l with extra room ontop to accommodate the 1-1.5" head you get

i actually quite liked it

[BigFatCat]

Banks' pubs used to (do they still?) use 24oz glasses to give a full liquid pint, plus a nice bit o' froth. Mild, mmmmmm.

And what were Spyker doing in the midfield?

[kalniel]

Yeah, very good race for the spykers.

Poor Button though - loads of determination but he ends up with a rubbish pit stop and then gets passed on the track by his ex-test driver driving his ex-car..

[this_is_gav]

that 10 place penalty in the next race is ridiculously harsh though isnt it? surely if he had kept going it would just have been a 10 second stop-go? they could just have given him that for the next race?

i like sato, he's a mentalist

It depends on what he did. If it were double-waved yellows, there's no excuse.

He said in his interview that he was being passed by Button rather than him passing, but if Button was ahead going into the yellow zone, then Sato has to give it up. You can't race into an area with marshals on track - you're supposed to be ready to come to a complete halt.

I thought it was a bit of a poor race to be honest. It had a lot of potential to be decent, but given the nature of the track, nothing really developed. There was little happening up front (1 moment throughout the race). The top four was the same at the end as at the start, and there was only ever 1 position change (Heidfeld and Kovalainen passing Kimi at the start, then Kimi getting them back through the pits and Heidfeld spinning off).

[frazered]

good race, surprised as the us ones are usually pants

[kalniel]

I thought it was a bit of a poor race to be honest. It had a lot of potential to be decent, but given the nature of the track, nothing really developed. There was little happening up front (1 moment throughout the race). The top four was the same at the end as at the start, and there was only ever 1 position change (Heidfeld and Kovalainen passing Kimi at the start, then Kimi getting them back through the pits and Heidfeld spinning off).

So you didn't like fisi's storming through the field? Or Buttons numerous scraps including going side by side with fisi for three corners? The Super Aguris were quite happy to overtake too.

[Tarffie]

Unfortunately overtaking doesn't always make an entertaining race. Fisi moved through the back markers like he was lapping them, except for that mini battle with Button that lasted a few corners. The only overtaking Davidson managed was past Button towards, which I could probably do in my Focus looking at his current form. And it was inevitable Sato would end up in the gravel, it always is when he tries to overtake from the off.

[kalniel]

Unfortunately overtaking ≠ entertaining race.

What does then? We got overtaking, we got drivers sliding on the edge of grip and making mistakes, we got drivers on different strategies, different tyres. We got team mates actually fighting with each other. We even had a (minor) multiple crash.

Finally, a brit won.

What else is there to make it entertaining?

[TiG]

If people didn't find that an entertaining race i'd suggest you go watch some other sport

TiG

[MadduckUK]

agreed

[Tarffie]

Sentence fixed.

Were you all watching something else? I don't see what happened of note to put this down as an entertaining race? Button getting overtaken by everyone and Alonso managing to get alongside Lewis at one corner?

[this_is_gav]

If people didn't find that an entertaining race i'd suggest you go watch some other sport

TiG

Dude, I've watched F1 for 2 decades now, and have seen all races dating back to 1979 I think it is. Perhaps that's the problem - I've seen the some of the 'golden ages' and it's all just too predictable now.

Fisi coming through was good, especially the battle with Button and going around the outside of Wurz - it was kinda inevitable though - he was a full 2 seconds a lap faster, with the longest flat-out section in F1. The only moment that got me excited was lap 38 for the lead.

Montreal on the other hand was a through back to the way races used to be 5-10 years back. It was just mad - a touch boring with the safety cars, but it had me on the edge of my seat pretty much all the way through - you got the impression there was always something about to happen.

[TiG]

No way was montreal more exciting than the US race. Sorry but for me overtaking and wheel to wheel racing is what is exciting and as stated here there was loads.

When have we seen really proper pressue on the guy leading the race and an actual challenge for the lead recently, we haven't. Alonso had a proper go and it was great.

From my point of view we had excitement and action all the way through the gp. Great start, lots of pressure.

Passes galore and wheel to wheel action from a lot of drivers in the twisty section.

I'll agree to disagree but US was a great race

TiG

[Stoo]

The US GP would have been even better had the cameras actually watched the mid-field battle more rather than looking at a couple of bored mclarens and ferrari's circulating for the last 14 laps..

[this_is_gav]

When have we seen really proper pressue on the guy leading the race and an actual challenge for the lead recently, we haven't. Alonso had a proper go and it was great.

Sepang had the same feel for me, with Hamilton just about holding off the Ferrari's for the opening 10 laps or so - I got the impression that if Massa had overtaken Hamilton then he would have started hounding Alonso too - that was just total pressure, and a much better spectacle in those early laps than the US race.

I don't know - looking back it perhaps it does seem a better race than it did at the time. Part of the way through the race I looked at the live timing and couldn't believe there was still half the race to go. It just didn't seem to zoom by.

Given the nature of the track I felt it was inevitable that there would be a lot of overtaking - there normally is at Indy.