2012 European Grand Prix

  • Thread starter Matty
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"Masters Vettel and Hamilton manage to beat impressive Maldonado and Grosjean."

Who could say Hamilton would be the reliable one this year? Very well matured.
 
Peter.
Well that settles it. Tomorrow is going to be the worst race since Valencia last year. Unless Lewis can stop him.
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Huh? But the Red Bull hasn't been that great over race distances this year. Vettel has got plenty of cars behind him that are much better with tyre wear in these hotter conditions - surely the Lotus cars or Kobayashi are favourites being so high up the grid and having the superior race pace+tyre conservation?
 
Vettel was 3 tenths clear of anyone in Canada and only finished 4th so there is hope for a good fight for the victory.
 
Ardius
Huh? But the Red Bull hasn't been that great over race distances this year. Vettel has got plenty of cars behind him that are much better with tyre wear in these hotter conditions - surely the Lotus cars or Kobayashi are favourites being so high up the grid and having the superior race pace+tyre conservation?
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The Lotus is the best in these high temperatures, but it seems that the Red Bull is also strong in these warm conditions. Shame for Grosjean though, he should have gone out a tad earlier, and he might have been able to clinch pole.
 
I see 2 scenarios.

1: Vettel goes from P1 and tries to win as fast as he can, and looses the lead in pit stop one of two. Leaving the victory open for Hamilton, Maldonado (if he manages not to hit something or someone...) or Grosjean.

2: Vettel plays it smart and conservative, saves tires and waits for Hamilton (or whom ever is in P2) to pit, then shreds the rest of his tires and pits coming ahead. Repeat for stint 2 and 2nd stop. Win.

...or maybe Schumi could win, who knows :rolleyes:

Peter.
The Lotus is the best in these high temperatures, but it seems that the Red Bull is also strong in these warm conditions. Shame for Grosjean though, he should have gone out a tad earlier, and he might have been able to clinch pole.
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Grosjean made one mistake that lead to a second one, and lost 2 or 3 ths on his fastest lap. Then there were no more tires or time to try again.
 
Well i'm going to go ahead and make some predictions for the podium:
Top 2 will stay the same
1st Vettel
2nd Hamilton
3rd Grosjean

Due to the nature of the track I don't think Webber will be able to do anything from wayyy down the grid, at best I think he's looking at 11th. He may if he's lucky be able to scrape a point or two.
 
I am watching 3 teams for the win for tomorrow:

1. Williams
2. Sauber
3. Force India

If they have a good strategy for tomorrow these teams will be the one to watch for the win.
 
FranciscoJR
I am watching 3 teams for the win for tomorrow:

1. Williams
2. Sauber
3. Force India

If they have a good strategy for tomorrow these teams will be the one to watch for the win.
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Out of this three I'd want FI to win considering I'm from India.
 
Anghammarad
Vettel will win, comfortably. :grumpy:
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Alonso is so not going to be happy with you mate. :sly:

FranciscoJR
I am watching 3 teams for the win for tomorrow:

1. Williams Lotus-Renault
2. Sauber
3. Force India

If they have a good strategy for tomorrow these teams will be the one to watch for the win.
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Basically I'm in favour of any team that hasn't won a race this season but has the capability on any given day to get it done.
 
So I missed quali whilst I was out and the results do look rather interesting.

Maldonado came up trumps again, Alonso and Webber really didn't. Kobay did well, Kovalainen beat Vergne which clearly shows how wrong Toro Rosso have been since even before the start of this year.
 
Ardius
He beat both Ricciardo and Vergne ;).
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Both of them? (I say that in bold because BBC Sport claimed Kova to be 17th on the news report, though 16th on the results page) Well, in that case, it can be simply said that Toro Rosso are, frankly, in ruins.
 
Yep, Kovy did a 1-lap run late in Q2 and beat Ricciardo by 1 tenth of a second but was 2 tenths slower than his Q1 time.
The Caterham's have good race pace too so can feasibly beat STR tomorrow if they play their strategy right.
 
Ardius
Yep, Kovy did a 1-lap run late in Q2 and beat Ricciardo by 1 tenth of a second but was 2 tenths slower than his Q1 time.
The Caterham's have good race pace too so can feasibly beat STR tomorrow if they play their strategy right.
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Torro Rosso has really gone critically wrong in dropping both Buemi and Alguersuari. At least they had a solid lineup before, that could give results, as well as develop the car. Having 2 rookies means that they are unable to develop the car for each other as well as they could with some experience under their belts.

Now they're paying for their mistakes.
 
The start of the race tomorrow will be very important. I'd expect Vettel to do an excellent start as usual, and Grosjean not so much, as usual too.

Keep your eyes on Maldonado, he has the inside line and may find himself in 2nd in T1. But Hamilton will not concede this easily and Pastor is a bit of a loose canon... Let's see what happens between those 2!
 
I was very disappointed to see Vettel on pole. We had such a good fight in Q3, but then Vettel just showed up and cruised to pole like he wasn't even trying. It just didn't feel fail.

With Red Bull changing 70% of their car for Valencia, I did have one idea on how the FIA could keep costs down - a limit on the total number of parts that can be changed on the car over the course of the season. The teams would be free to change those parts whenever they saw fit, provided they did not go over the limit. Furthermore, if they put a part on, find it does not work, and so replace it with another part, it only counts as one change (so as not to punish teams who develop upgrades that don't work).
 
prisonermonkeys
I was very disappointed to see Vettel on pole. We had such a good fight in Q3, but then Vettel just showed up and cruised to pole like he wasn't even trying. It just didn't feel fail.

With Red Bull changing 70% of their car for Valencia, I did have one idea on how the FIA could keep costs down - a limit on the total number of parts that can be changed on the car over the course of the season. The teams would be free to change those parts whenever they saw fit, provided they did not go over the limit. Furthermore, if they put a part on, find it does not work, and so replace it with another part, it only counts as one change (so as not to punish teams who develop upgrades that don't work).
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That sounds like it would just be terribly inconvenient rather than an effective way of cutting costs.

Meanwhile...

http://[domain blocked due to malware]/instances/400x/22416619.jpg
 
Peter.
That sounds like it would just be terribly inconvenient rather than an effective way of cutting costs.
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The idea is to cut down in-season spending, which can be even more expensive than developing the car in the first place.
 
prisonermonkeys
I was very disappointed to see Vettel on pole. We had such a good fight in Q3, but then Vettel just showed up and cruised to pole like he wasn't even trying. It just didn't feel fail.
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This^^

I don't mind seeing him on pole but when we was 0.3s from 1st to about 13th in Q2, then we are 0.3s from 1st to 2nd in Q3 it sort of destroys that feeling you had in Q2 where you had no idea who would get through, and a single small lock up could drop you 8 places. I would have preferred to see him got top by like 0.050s or something. I'm hoping Vettel can't do a 0.1/0.2s quicker lap almost every lap during the race.
 
I find it funny that rather than compliment Vettel on somehow finding 5 tenths from nowhere people are complaining about it. Give the guy his dues he pulled it out qualifying, its something he's pretty damn good at!
Complain about everyone else not finding that time.

Do the same people moan about Loeb being too good? Is sport not about being the best? We should be demanding the competition to be better, not to be worse.
 
This will be make or break for Hamilton. If he can put a move on Vettel here, and win the race without hitting people, It'll be safe to say he is #1.

But Vettel will pull a 5 second gap in the first 3 laps, and it will go down like last race. Who picks the better tyre set-up.
 
Ardius
I find it funny that rather than compliment Vettel on somehow finding 5 tenths from nowhere people are complaining about it. Give the guy his dues he pulled it out qualifying, its something he's pretty damn good at!
Complain about everyone else not finding that time.

Do the same people moan about Loeb being too good? Is sport not about being the best? We should be demanding the competition to be better, not to be worse.
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I get the feeling my post came off different to how I meant it. What I was trying to say is that I love the close season we're having right now. I hope this is not some sort of sign as to what the season is going to become. I'd love the idea of it going down to about 4 different guys all going to it in the last race of the season.

prisonermonkeys
Interesting choice of words - "fight" is certainly one way of describing Maldonado's driving style.
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Pastor can "fight" all he wants with Vettel, just hope he doesn't take Hamilton off track :grumpy:
 
Ardius
I find it funny that rather than compliment Vettel on somehow finding 5 tenths from nowhere people are complaining about it. Give the guy his dues he pulled it out qualifying, its something he's pretty damn good at!
Complain about everyone else not finding that time.
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I wont complain about someone being the quickest but it would be sad if the rest of the season is a one horse race. I think it was pretty obvious that Vettel was the quickest in free practice and that he was going to be difficult to beat in Q3. He didn't suddenly find half a second, he just drove as much as needed in the first qualifying rounds.

The Red Bull seems to be back in the same position as last year unfortunately. The most probable race scenario is that Vettel pulls out a 10 second lead in the first stint and then just drive as fast as needed to win the race. Hamilton will be second and when he starts to claw back time to Vettel and get the gap down to 3 seconds everyone will think he's going to have a chance but then Vettel will just drive as fast as necessary to keep the gap to the end. Grosjean will finish third after Maldonado makes a mistake and breaks his suspension in a shunt with the wall.

Alonso will finish sixth.
 

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