*SPOILER:* F1 result inside

[Russ]

Michael Schumacher completely destroyed everyone again, apart from 1 man.. his team mate Rueben Barrachello who was 13 seconds behind him.

Although the top two were guessable after qualifying.. not many would of guessed Alonso in the Renault to be 3rd and only half a minute behind Shoomy.

My personal favourite this year, Ralf came in 4th a whole minute behind his older brother and 6 seconds infront of his team mate Montoya.

The one half of the British contingant for this year Jenson Button was next over the line, only 2 seconds behind Montoya, and Trulli in the Other Renault was 7th.

Choultard took the final point which has got his championship rolling.

I loved the race, good strat to the season. Although there was a Rari 1-2, dont count your chickens and presume its gonna stay, everyone in the top eight drove especially well.. long way to go. hope you all enjoyed it..

Right, wheres me bed.

[blockers]

I didnt think that the race was anything special really....lets hope that Williams/Mclaren get their act sorted.

Was very impressed by Renault, Alonso was very fast off the line without an lauch control.

[dkmech]

Maybe there never was launch control? Maybe he was doing it manually all the time?

To me the race was a disappointment. I am annoyed with Mclaren, I expect more from them. Good job to Alonso. Condolences to Raikkonen.

Lets hope Malasia will be better.

[Spunkey]

bit of a let down i thought really. I was expecting things to be a lot closer after looking at the times from testing. as much as i am a ferrari fan, im also a racing fan, and the one engine rule and qualifying that took longer than the race ruined the show.

Like Martin Brundle said in commentary, F1 is about the pinnacle of motor sport, racing to be first, pushing everything to its possible limits and beyond. This new one engine rule will lead to teams knocking off 3k rpm off their engines for the last 10 laps of a race and driving with an egg under their right foot. Its not supposed to be about endurance or attrition for gods sake!

It was brought in with the aim of giving the cash-strapped teams a chance of cheaper engines, and meaning the big teams wont have to spend as much cash on engines.
Whoever thought of that one is just plain retarded. A more reliable engine needs extensive design and testing .: the big teams will spend shhhedloads on developing their engines instead of building them, and the littler teams still will have to buy up the crumbs from cosworths bargain basement. Over the last three - four years the GPWC (not Ferrari) has done nothing but turn the world's ultimate racing series into a boring procession. And on top of all that this season, Ecclestone has finally proved he is a money grabbing kerr, by saying he wants to cut the costs incurred by F1 teams, and then having an 18 race season, with two new races for which the teams need to transport hundreds of people and millions of £s worth of equipment thousands of miles. Im sorry but thats just contradictive idiocy.

Sorry for the rant, but i needed to vent

[TiG]

So many interesting things come out of this race though, I personally think that the renaults work better off the line because of one thing, and that is the revs they use is much lower, they get the same speed as other cars appox with 2000 less revs.

Renault's engine seeming to peak at mid 17k's, while honda's etc peaking 19.5/20k mark. Now to me that would indicate that its quite concievable that if both machines go from idle RPM (whatever that is i don't know) to 8k RPM up to race speed, then i'd imagine that the renaults could be lightning off the line.

Ferrarri was dominant, have bridgestone pulled a superb tire out of the bag?, will hotter temperatures kill this tyre off?. will those hotter temperatures suit the michelin a lot better, only time will tell.

Button did well, I hope that his performances in the BAR this year will establish him as a definite title challenger with a top drive come 2006/7. Because lets face it to come 6th after who he finished after is superb, qualifying too, his engineers being interviewed as he's doing his flying lap, "The car is only capable of a 1:25:20" button comes in with a 1:24:90 ish, whole of bar garage looks stunned and huge amount of applause goes round.

Never judge a book by its cover guys, It may be a very red cover, but lets hope we get some rainbow pages inside

TiG

[TomWilko]

Button did well, I hope that his performances in the BAR this year will establish him as a definite title challenger with a top drive come 2006/7. Because lets face it to come 6th after who he finished after is superb, qualifying too, his engineers being interviewed as he's doing his flying lap, "The car is only capable of a 1:25:20" button comes in with a 1:24:90 ish, whole of bar garage looks stunned and huge amount of applause goes round.

This was very encouraging, if he keeps goin like this i think him and Alonso could be the two dark horses on the grid!

The race was disappointing i felt however...in fact so much so i nodded off for the last 10/15 laps i think it was! I don't like it when any driver/s just run away with it - particularly Ferrari!

[Stoo]

After mixing it up last season (made it more enjoyable IMHO), the first race of this season was a massive step backwards, Martin Brundle summed it up perfectly with the "they weren't even battling each other, only themselves" when referring to the rest of the field. I do wish that the FIA wouldn't keep trying to castrate F1, how long before they make all the cars powder blue and baby pink and cover everything in cotton wool?

Button did really well, and would have done a lot better if his tryes hadn't gone off like they did, He probably would have kept hold of that 4th place.
The ITV bloke really annoyed me on the Saturday qualifying though with "good to see Button as high as that on the grid, but I doubt he'll be there come the end of the season." Now there's confidence for you

[dkmech]

Like Martin Brundle said in commentary, F1 is about the pinnacle of motor sport, racing to be first, pushing everything to its possible limits and beyond. This new one engine rule will lead to teams knocking off 3k rpm off their engines for the last 10 laps of a race and driving with an egg under their right foot. Its not supposed to be about endurance or attrition for gods sake!

True

It was brought in with the aim of giving the cash-strapped teams a chance of cheaper engines, and meaning the big teams wont have to spend as much cash on engines.
Whoever thought of that one is just plain retarded. A more reliable engine needs extensive design and testing .: the big teams will spend shhhedloads on developing their engines instead of building them, and the littler teams still will have to buy up the crumbs from cosworths bargain basement.

Teams will use as much money as they have available to spend. Whether the engine does 300km or 500. And they do need to make less of them. As for bargain basement - Jordan and Sauber have the same engines as Jaguar and Ferrari this year, because one year old "endurance" engines do not exist yet. They may have to settle for year old stuff next year, but maybe they'll be able to push the big engine suppliers further. "we had this last year - give us something new." or "how about you give us a massive discount to buy this crap".

Over the last three - four years the GPWC (not Ferrari) has done nothing but turn the world's ultimate racing series into a boring procession.

Ferrari had their part in turning the sport into procession. Not just by dominating the sport, can't blame them for that, but by eradicating competition within the team. Things like Austria and Indianapolis come to mind.

And on top of all that this season, Ecclestone has finally proved he is a money grabbing kerr, by saying he wants to cut the costs incurred by F1 teams, and then having an 18 race season, with two new races for which the teams need to transport hundreds of people and millions of £s worth of equipment thousands of miles. Im sorry but thats just contradictive idiocy.

Sorry for the rant, but i needed to vent

More races means higher exposure for the sponsors, new markets, such as middle east and china (also return of USA GP not that long ago). That will hopefully bring new sponsors in and increase their investments. And i am pretty sure the teams will be subsidised by Bernie (although i am not going to defend his personal motives for anything) for the travel costs and the extra cars they have to make.

This was very encouraging, if he keeps goin like this i think him and Alonso could be the two dark horses on the grid!

How is Alonso a dark horse? He already won last year. He was fast in testing. He has the ability and a decent car.

Lets hope Malaysia will be a bit more encouraging, as Michelins prefer the heat.