Belgium Grand Prix 2013, Spa-Francorchamps - Race 11/19

Reallly thought McLaren should have tried to do that one stop with JB, as commentary said they would have got 6th anyway (not racing for podiums, but thought he could have managed to keep Rosberg and or Mark behind him)

The softer tyre got him through to lap 17 or so, which means with quali as well it did at least 20 laps. So Im not really sure why the harder more durable tyre couldn't have lasted 27 ish

All three of those cars were equal in performance for majority of the race
 
Imagine if that happened to Vettel on the last race of last season though. Boy would you be mad.
 
Well over all a great weekend. 3 British winners in the support races and plenty of brilliant racing. It was a shame that Hamilton couldnt get a win, but I did predict Vettel would walk past him on the opening lap. The Mercedes just wasn't quick enough in the dry.

As always at Spa the fans made it great. The usual brilliant mix and great banter. The collective groan at Vettel when he snatched pole, and mass cheer when Hamilton pipped him makes it seem like more than just us Brits are bored or him. Seeing the different levels of cheering on the drivers parade showed a lot too. massive cheers for Hamilton, Webber, and van der Garde, massive boo for Vettel.

It's always good to see whog the driver of the moment is by looking at what shirts and hats people.are wearing and buying. This year it was Kimi by a mile. You couldnt move for Kimi flags and banner and hats. Hardly any rocket red though, seems people are defecting fast from McLaren now they are doing pants :p.

Walked up Eau Rouge as always and I'm still staggered at it. I've also got no idea how Belgian health and safety let's them manoeuvre tens of artic trucks about on the track while thousands of fans mill about. Very nearly got run over twice, and a tail lift nearly squashed someone.

Didn't manage to steal a.sign, and looked hard for bits of Force India at the chicane but they were all cleared away. It's impressive how fast everything goes. Within an hour of the race ending all the pit wall kit was away, all the advertising down, and all the cameras packed away. Yet all the cars were still parked up at the end of the pitlane for anyone with a camera to take some shots of diffusers.

Not looking forward to the drive home tomorrow, but other than that, top weekend.
 
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Got this tweeted at me earlier... As a McLaren supporter... It hurts, but it's true.

8y66.jpg
 
smr said:
Glory supporters, such shallow shallow people.
Click to expand...

It's just your normal non hard core fan. Most people don't form long term allegiances to a single driver or team. They buy what's popular or what they like. My GF has a Team Lotus (Caterham) top because she liked the look of it.

Is there anywhere that sells old F1 team merchandise? Seen some Rothmans Williams kit today that looked well cool.
 
Shame there wasn't some weather to make the race more, insane. Speed trap wise, the RBR isn't great with top speed still, there has been Ferrari's and RBR's since the first race looking insane in the first couple of laps in terms of getting in the slip stream. Both cars seem to get brilliant traction on cool tyres in the first couple laps. It wasn't the straight line speed as much as Vettel's traction through the corners before the straight and the ability to put the power down earlier.

The RBR didn't show anywhere near as strong pace later in the race, and Ferrari usually don't look as strong either, both cars are so phenomenal in the first few laps which are so crucial.

Think Maldonado got hard done by, without looking back through the pages, did anyone really think his little jink to the right was trying to get in the pits as opposed to just a quick reaction/mistake after being hit. I forget who it was but I saw straight away he left the track and was only alongside Maldonado going into the chicane because he kept his foot down while going off track. he should have backed off before the corner and conceded the space to Maldonado and tried again after.

Instead he puts Maldonado under pressure, on the weak side and screws him. But I think Sutil who entered the corner SO long after Maldonado didn't pay him much attention nor gave him much room for a very tight corner(from the angle Maldonado had been forced into). Ultimately I think the Sauber guy was responsible for the entire sequence of events. I was still amazed Maldonado kept his car on the straight several corners earlier when he came around it and almost went sideways on the curb, he did brilliantly to hold the car and keep going and didn't deserve being smacked into.

He's hit so many people and gotten away with too many so not much sympathy for him, but I think it wasn't his fault.
 
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Race Results and Standings

Code: 
[b]Pos  Driver               Team                          Time/Gap[/b]
 1.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault          1h23m42.196s
 2.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                       +16.869s
 3.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes                      +27.734s
 4.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes                      +29.872s
 5.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault              +33.845s
 6.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes              +40.794s
 7.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                       +53.922s
 8.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                 +55.846s
 9.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes        +1m09.547s
10.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari          +1m13.470s
11.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes            +1m21.936s
12.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari          +1m26.740s
13.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari              +1m28.258s
14.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari              +1m40.436s
15.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault            +1m47.456s
16.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault                +1 lap
17.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault                +1 lap
18.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth               +1 lap
19.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth              +2 laps

[b]Fastest lap: Vettel, 1m50.756[/b]

[b]Not classified/retirements:[/b]

[b]Driver           Team                         On lap[/b]
Paul di Resta    Force India-Mercedes            26
Kimi  Raikkonen  Lotus-Renault                   25
Charles Pic      Caterham-Renault                 8

World Championship standings, round 11:

Code: 
[b]Drivers:                      Constructors:             [/b]
 1.  Vettel        197        1.  Red Bull-Renault          312
 2.  Alonso        151        2.  Mercedes                  235
 3.  Hamilton      139        3.  Ferrari                   218
 4.  Raikkonen     134        4.  Lotus-Renault             187
 5.  Webber        115        5.  McLaren-Mercedes           65
 6.  Rosberg        96        6.  Force India-Mercedes       61
 7.  Massa          67        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         25
 8.  Grosjean       53        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
 9.  Button         47        9.  Williams-Renault            1
10.  Di Resta       36
11.  Sutil          25
12.  Perez          18
13.  Vergne         13
14.  Ricciardo      12
15.  Hulkenberg      7
16.  Maldonado       1
 
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