Japanese Grand Prix 2012, Suzuka - Race 15/20

Well, I wasn't expecting to see Hammy down in 9th. Unless there is some serious DNF action up front, I sense the title is slipping yet further away...

Still, he'll be a contender next year :p
 
dannyjo22 said:
I've been saying that since July and no one's listening :p

Not only win Vettel win, the Mclarens should take points off Alonso too.
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I have to admit I haven't taken too much notice of Vettel as I wrote him off a while ago. People are going on and on about how well Alonso is doing, but the Red Bull has been off the pace for at least half of the season and Vettel seems to have done almost as well in it. I can't stand the guy, but would certainly have to re-evaluate him has a driver if he won the championship.
 
Pretty good qually session, albeit with some unexpected results. Merc very slow, thought they would go fairly well here. Red Bull back with some epic pace, but Sauber popping up there once again as well!

Not good for Hamiltons WDC chances unless there is a tangle up front. He has gone wrong somewhere with the set up, but will benefit him in the race though?




Grid before penalties applied

Code: 
[b]Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap   [/b]
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.839s
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m31.090s  + 0.251
 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.294s  + 0.451
 4.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m31.700s  + 0.861
 5.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m31.989s  + 1.059
 6.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.022s  + 1.183
 7.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m32.114s  + 1.275
 8.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m32.208s  + 1.369
 9.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.327s  + 1.488
10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes no time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m32.272s                                   Gap **
11.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m32.293s  + 0.792
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m32.327s  + 0.826
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.469s  + 0.968
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m32.512s  + 1.011
15.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.625s  + 1.124
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m32.954s  + 1.453
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m33.368s  + 1.867
Q1 cut-off time: 1m33.370s                                    Gap *
18.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m33.405s  + 1.376
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m34.657s  + 2.628
20.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m35.213s  + 3.184
21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m35.385s  + 3.356
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m35.429s  + 3.400
23.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m35.432s  + 3.403
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m36.734s  + 4.705


Grid after penalties - http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/grandprix/japan/results#tab_grid


Also some tech updates on F1.com - http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Starting to look like another Vettel title at the moment. They really need to improve that Ferrari.
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After what he did in 2010, to win the title, as an outside in the last race of year - anything is possible. He could become a triple World Champion.
 
Vettel was always going to win the title if it stays dry, the ferrari just isn't fast enough in the dry. Tha mclarens have got faster and so have the red bulls after a blip when they got caught altering the ride height. They have had good bad weekends but when the cars fast it's almost untouchable.

Ferrari have nothing to fight back with in the dry. They are hoping on retirements or some amazing luck. They will have a good stint in the first 3rd of the race and then fade.
 
I don't like that these drivers can carry on setting fast laps with yellows. Kobi beat his sector time which spoon is part of but they then broke the sector down to say he wasn't going faster than before at that point where the flags are shown.

One day another huge accident will occur. It started when they allowed Mika to get away with taking one hand off the wheel to prove he was in control of the car while not slowing down.
 
I liked the old way of doing when they had 3 laps to get their best one..no yellow flags then.
 
Rubbish qualifying, Hamilton didn't seem to quite have it, not sure why, but I'm fairly confident on a fresh set of tyres that he could have gone 4th quite easily considering the gap he had to Button in Q2, then Kimi screwed everyone completely :(

At least with Hamilton in third (after Button going backwards) we'd have had an element of a fight at the front and championship wise, some level of competition. Hamilton getting caught and being so far back also pushes up Alonso a position, maybe more. As said it will take pretty much a miracle for Hamilton to gain points on Alonso/Vettel in this race now, title isn't out of the question yet, I wish people wouldn't make such grand statements, there is entirely no reason Alonso can't DNF two races. especially as with limited engines its ever more likely that Alonso has to use a more used engine and more used parts which can fail.

Bah, we also needed Hamilton upfront because this year RBR have been a bit crap off the line and Mclaren have been decent, Massa or Alonso in third would have a great chance of getting ahead due to their fantastic starting but now Red Bull have very little reason not to be 1/2 into the corner and dominate the race completely :(
 
dannyjo22 said:
I don't like that these drivers can carry on setting fast laps with yellows. Kobi beat his sector time which spoon is part of but they then broke the sector down to say he wasn't going faster than before at that point where the flags are shown.

One day another huge accident will occur. It started when they allowed Mika to get away with taking one hand off the wheel to prove he was in control of the car while not slowing down.
Click to expand...

So you think yellows at one corner means you should back off for the whole sector? if he slowed for the yellow flag area then that's just fine surely and as they should be doing, otherwise the rest of the track is green flag.
 
Watched quali earlier but only just come on here. My verdict... Meh.

A 2011 special with Vettel running off into the distance and everyone else just having their own fight. The only interesting thing will be to see who out of Alonso and Hamilton can make the most ground from where they start, although I think Button has slotted in between them hasn't he?
 
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