That was def. not a smart move by Ferrari
^ That statement could be applied to almost anything Ferrari did during the race.
He's forgotten how to drive.
That was what I felt - as if I'm watching my own lame attempts at gaming. Sliding, spinning, oversteering, and some very aggressive moves I'd expect from a GT4 gamer, not a world champion.
I only saw one mistake by Kimi. He did a great job making up 7 positions at the start and after a great bit of driving he actually found himself in 3rd place. He should have pitted when the pits were opened with the safety car out, but that may have been the teams fault, and not his. Then, the only mistake I saw was trying that pass with cold tires.
I counted four major ones, and many small mistakes that we really shouldn't see from such a fellow. A stupid move on Glock, the slideoff on Kovalainen, etc:
If one driver showed some
very bad driving at Australia, then it's Raikkonen. Even ignoring his Saturday blockage on Kubica, which he wasn't punished for (while Glock got two!), his overtaking and driving were horrendous. Not quite the "machine" he was considered in testing...
He hopeless against Barrichello (who put up a fantastic drive, especially early on) until a mistake by the latter, about 19 laps too late - but once he overtook, he nearly forced Barrichello off the road. People bitch and complain about the Alonso/Hamilton battle at Spa's La Source, but
this is when it gets dirty. While Hamilton could escape to the runoffs (and Alonso knew that), Barrichello had nowhere to go, and had to stop completely as Raikkonen, from his inside line, just went straight to the outside, cutting him off.
And his move on Kovalainen was as insane as Massa's, and essentially the same type of move. He braked, just like Massa, an age and a half too late for the corner, hoping to cut Kovalainen's line and slow him down while recovering his own pace - it was Kovalainen's luck that he braked extra hard in order to avoid Kimi, else the two would've been out of the race. Running off the track was a miscalculation on his side - he carried more speed than he wanted.
The move behind Timo was just bad driving. Instead of waiting another corner for a better opportunity (he was catching up fast anyway), he braked hard enough to start locking the rears, fishtailing, and sending one to the grass. Doing that was an unnecessary maneuver.
Losing two places to Alonso and Kovalainen on the same corner... Well, that could be forgiven, considering the crash that happened right in front of him.
And people rave about how good he overtook 7 cars at the start - but to be honest, when so many ahead of you crash, there's nothing that impressive about gaining seven in a fast car. I was far more impressed by Sato's ten places gained, in what is unarguably the slowest car in the field.
At the same time, most of his overtaking wasn't that good to begin with. He pushed some drivers physically, making contact with their cars as he went. He touched a Red Bull on from the outside, pushed a Toyota, like a madman.
Not counting dropping a tyre onto the grass chasing Kovalainen and spinning it then?
That was Glock. The mistake with Kovalainen was when forgot the brakes on cold tyres.
Both. On one hand, he was still on track at the end of a race of high attrition; on the other, he very nearly wasn't when he hit Kubica.
An entertaining race, if not a classic one - a battle for the lead would've been nice. Brilliant to see Rosberg on the podium. Bourdais showed that a cool head travels well across the Atlantic - unlucky not to score more points than he did. A definate 👍 to no driver aids.
I'm split on Nakajima the same way. He also drove quite steadily, defending well against overtakers...
But Bourdais... Perfectly cool, not a single mistake. You can see the no-TC practice leaking from his car. He raced as if he was in last year's F1.
See why I said this? That was the best driving from Alonso I've seen in years, edging into every damn turn and going wide like... 20 times? Without losing a bit of control.
Yes, absolutely great driving from him. Stable, calculated - so unlike the Alonso we have seen at Canada or Barcelona last year. His double-move on Kovalainen and Raikkonen was awesome...
STR's holding up mclarens and Honda's holding up Ferraris certainly seems like closer racing in general.
Bourdais even pulled away from the Alonso/Kovalainen duo!
Kovalainen had a good race, the safety car didn't help him but didn't seem too far behind his teamate for pace, hopefully a few races down the line he will be right up there with Hamilton the whole race he certainly seems to have the ability.
Don't forget that it wasn't Hamilton who set the fastest lap of the race - Heikki took that honour.
Timo Glock....For Shame on track marshals to have that section
Yes, they said they'll discuss that in the GPDA meeting - such a thing to happen on an F1 track is inexcusable. Problem isn't the actual grass - problem were those two bumps right ahead of it. Kubica was very lucky he didn't repeat his 2007 accident on Saturday - he ran just like Glock, only had the luck of pulling in just a meter earlier back onto the track, and missed the two "ramps" that launched Glock into that frenzy of a spin.
Sadly $50 million more isn't enough to help Force India any time soon.
Don't forget Fisichella was on a fast lap, beating his previous split-times by more than half a second, when Sutil's crash forced him to slow down. There's a penalty for scoring a fastest lap under a yellow flag...
If they ran perpendictular to the track they'd be fine. It's not like they're raised above the surface of the road, just a tiny half inch gap.
If we can afford the bumps and niggles of a street-circuit, tram-lines shouldn't be a problem. I like the idea, though.
The sad part was, none of the Force India made it...... As the race progressed, many cars did retire from the race, but the retirement at the end was very unfortunate. After Massa retired a few laps after hitting Couldthard, I thought Ferrari had a bad day. It got worse when Kimi retired with just 5 laps to go. But the saddest part was when Bourdais retired with 3 laps to go! 
