o_O Belgium O_o

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RacyBacy
Oh, do the results usually go in a different thread? I thought it would have been wiser to keep everything "Belgium" in the same thread.
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Don't worry đź‘Ť I just made a thread of it.(then I have something to do :) )
 
Don't worry, chaps. Tomorrow will be the most exciting race of the season. Why? Because my cable provider just lost the rights to ESPN, which carried the F1 coverage. They never bothered to inform me either! I have only missed one race in three years and they do this to me...bastards! I guess I'll have to get my lazy-arse down to a bar that's playing it on their TVs. :(
 
Hey guys I have an idea.Why don't I make myself a race reporter so that I can give the results and information when a race or qualifying is completed(just an idea then you don't have to check other site's :) )
 
:eek: Minardis aren't last! w00t w00t!

This is going to be the most entertaining race of the year.
 
The idea of these race threads is indeed to keep all discussion and results together in the one thread, plus just to generate a bit more interest and discussion. So posting practice/qualifying/race results in another thread really isn't necessary, but feel free to post those results in this sort of thread from now on Pink the Floyd, you can be the official results man if you like.

Sadly my connection to GTP once again died last night so I was unable to post, but I will just say, I'm expecting a standard race. The weather report for the Liege region was the closest I could get to Spa-Francorchamps and it shows rain throughout the afternoon, so Bridgestone should come to the fore. Raikkonen and Barrichello both had unfortunate moments, but Raikkonen's pace still wasn't that great considering he was on full wets. We should also remember it was raining significantly harder at the end of the session when these guys had to run. Either way, the race should be interesting, I'm looking forward to it.

Bring on the 7up.
 
I find it ironic that Mark Webber is going to BMW next year and really looking forward to it, but he outqualified both the Williams cars and both the BAR cars -- mind you the teams did have there worst qualifying session of the season, while Sauber had there best:tup:
 
Finally a wet race. I was so tired with dry races. With rain racing is more equal and the minardis aren't last, only with rain can they do something. Go Renault
 
Renaults good traction should help them.
 
I think this is going to be a great race. Too bad Kimi starts only tenth. The grid is very interesting. Bad qualify for BAR and Williams, good for Minardi (YAY! :D) Webber, Sauber and Renault.

I think this is going to be a great race for Jaguar. Webber has good starting position and they´ve been pretty fast during the weekend (Wirdheim fourth in free practise).

I hope this will not be a Schumacher-show™. But I believe that Schumi will win, and Renaults will follow as second and third.

Okay, 2 and a half hour till the race..

See ya
 
I said the launch should be interesting, and boy, was I right!

DAMN! Alonso is out!

And now Coulthard has a tire down.

This is a very interesting race so far. It's more entertaining than the last F1 race!
 
Well this race has been GREAT so far..

Much has happened, though Webber is out :(

GO KIMI! This could be his day this season..
 
Kimi wins and Michael is world champion. That´s OK.
 
Final results of the Belgian Grand Prix F1:

1 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren Mercedes 44 - 2
2 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 44 +3.1 2
3 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 44 +4.3 3
4 12 Felipe Massa Sauber Petronas 44 +12.5 4
5 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber Petronas 44 +14.1 2
6 15 Christian Klien Jaguar Cosworth 44 +14.6 3
7 5 David Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 44 +17.9 3
8 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 73 +18.6 3
9 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 44 +22.1 2
10 16 Ricardo Zonta Toyota 41 +3 laps 2
11 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan Ford 40 +4 laps 5
O 5 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams BMW 37 +7 laps 3
O 4 Antonio Pizzonia Williams BMW 31 +13 laps 2
O 9 Jenson Button BAR Honda 29 +15 laps 2
O 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi Cosworth 28 +16 laps 2
O 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 11 +33 laps 0
O 14 Mark Webber Jaguar Cosworth 0 +44 laps 0
O 10 Takuma Sato BAR Honda 0 +44 laps 0
O 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi Cosworth 0 +44 laps 0
O 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan Ford 0 +44 laps 0
 
Yeah, I feel sorry for Kimi. Very bittersweet, and michael winning the championship on that race kinda takes focus away from raikkonen.
 
Congratulations to Kimi for the race win (super performance) and Michael Schumacher for the championship title.

I thought this was a stunning race and this most exciting of the season so far. Full of crashes and coming togethers! Loads of problems for cars ... engine failure/tyre punctures/wings broken. Lots of action and overtaking.

Alonso was unlucky with his car dumping oil on his rear tyre, and Button was lucky after his 205mph tyre failure. Both retired.

Montoya's move on Trulli didn't work out like the one he pulled on Schumacher and he was unlucky not to finish after damage to the rear of his car after a puncture.

Pizzonia had a good race too, and I thought he showed that he could race with the big boys. At one point he was leading but retired due to gearbox problems.

Coulthard had an eventful race to say the least! Tyre failure and smashing at high speed in to the back of a car. Then he pitted and returned with a new nose cone and salvaged some points finishing in 7th. Gritty performance by him. Same applies to Barrichello who finished 3rd with a great race. Both drivers used the pace car to their advantage to get some points.

Memorable race. đź‘Ť
 
w00t!!!!!!! I´m so happy for Kimi!!!!! YAY!!! Oh, and congratulations for Schumi 'bout his championship win.

Great race, I must say. Really interesting. Kimi did awesome job by winning the race. I pity Coulthard due his lack of luck. I was really scared after three Michelin tyres popped in the race.. I´m just paranoid 'cause of the bad luck Kimi have had this season. But good taht his car worked well.

Schumacher is the world champion, surprise! Well, we all knew that.. His race was great in my opinion, ' cause he didn´t win! :D Barrichello did amazing job by climbing from far behind to third. 👍

Sauber had a great race. 4th and 5th are good positions for a team that is normally in the middle of the pack. Nicely done there..

Jaguar.. Too bad Webber retired in the start. But Klien got some good points there. His overtake from Panis was pretty impressive, and he looked really fast after the safetycar..

Renault had pretty bad race. Alonso spinned due to his own oil on the track or something and poor Trulli was bumbed by Montoya. :(

Williams was good, and Pizzonia was doing great, but then his transmission broke. That was probaly his last race of his F1 career, so third place would have been great. Montoya was aggressive as usual, and I wasn´t surprised at all, when he bumbed trulli..

Well, I´m not going to comment Minardi and Jordan..

There were loads of tyrefailures today. And all of 'em were Michelins. Hmm.. Good that Button crashed to Baumgartner instead of a wall with those speeds. Coulthard has a tyre failure there too, and so did Montoya, but they didn´t crash. That´s good.

There was some impressive overtaking in Belgium today. By far the most exciting race so far.

And oh.. one more thing..

THIS THREAD HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN FINNISHED!
SuomenLippu1.jpg


Laters all :D
 
I'm going to reserve all my rude words and negative emotions until I've had time to sleep and disconnect. All I will say is the race was by far the most exciting of the season, anyone who doubted Rubens' class should be somewhat silenced too.

Oh, Finnished eh?

2004 World Champions - Michael Schumacher - Ferrari
 
What a race, a superb race by Kimi, and a load of crashes.

The Start: Both Renault have a wonderful start and take the top spots. Shumacher manages to install himself behind the Renaults while he is being chased by both of the Mclarens and the always-aggressive Montoya.

La Source: DC manages to steal 3rd by jumping on the inside of the Ferrari, and geting away with a better accelaration. As 20 cars get together in the tight corner, Weber slams in the rear of Barrichello's car. Weber looses his front wing, and leaves carbon fiber all over the place for his fellow racers to pick up. Barrichello gets a message from the crew that he needs to come in for a new rear wing.

Eau Rouge: The cars are all over each other, trying to gain positions. Button and Massa collide, Button looses his front wing but manages to drive away. Weber comes up the hill and looses control of his car due to the front suspension failure (provided by the lack of a front wing). He then crashes into Sato, who spins, forcing a Minardi to lock-up and spin as well. As Sato's and Weber's car manage to stop on the side of the road, a "fast" Pantano comes up and gets a lovely surprised when Bruni installs himself in front of the Jordan. Pantano then crashes into the Minardi to come to a complete stop. The furious Cosworth then decides to start a fire, both drivers get out safely and the fire is extinguished.

As the smoke settles, and damaged cars go by the reckage, 4 cars are left, frozen at the infamous corner. The Renaults still have a lead over the rest of the paddock, the Mclarens are split up by Shumacher, and Montoya has had a good start with a stable 6th spot.

The flags come out, with the "SC" boards as well, the beutiful SLR safety car comes out, as everyone watching seattle back on their seats, they realizes : Spa is back.

Then cars jump into the pit lane. Barrichello, Button, Massa, Baumgartner all take their cars in for repairs. Button gets a new front wing, Barichello has to be patient as his rear wing is being replaced. The rear of Massa's car is being inspected by the Sauber machanics and the Minardi team can't figure out what's wrong with Baumgarter's car.

The safety car comes in on lap 4 and Raikonnen manages to steal 4th from Shumi at the restart. Shumacher seems to have problems with his Bridgestones not warming up enough to fight off the Michelin runners. Montoya overtakes Shumi at Eau Rouge.

The Renaults are in front, followed by Raikonnen who managed to get passed DC. Then Montoya is getting away from Shumacher who is starting to put in some better lap times.

To be continued...
 
Eagle
anyone who doubted Rubens' class should be somewhat silenced too.
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Rubens only made it up that high due to the safety car. They changed his rear wing during the first safety car period and he just made it back out in front of it. If the safety car hadn't been there, then Rubens would've lost a lap.

He was running a minute behind Schumacher but gained 56 seconds during the 2nd safety car period.

Rubens got 3rd due to fortuitous use of the safety car.
 
He still raced extremly well. I think there was more then luck involved ;)
 
What a great race. It was really nail biting right until the end. Now if only they were ALL like that. Long Live Spa!

Oh and it's interesting to note that Kimi actully had trouble downshifting and had a damaged underside of his car for a large part of the race.
 
Taking advantage of the safety car is all part of the game, something we saw repeatedly throughout the race. To be dead last after having a rear wing changed and to just get on with the job and climb all the way back to 3rd through luck and skill is quite an achievement. Coulthard did likewise, regardless of the fact his car was severely damaged he limped home, got things fixed and scored 2 points. Now look at Montoya, he suffered a puncture just like Coulthard and countless others, and just seemed to say "Stuff it" when he got back to the pits. Perhaps there was indeed suspension damage as a result of the wheel banging against components at the rear of the car.

I honestly felt disappointed with the end of the race, and not simply because I wanted to see Michael win again. In my opinion Spa was far and away the most interesting and exciting race of the season, and I think James Allen was right when he said that when you can have races like that, there can't be all that much wrong with Formula 1, you just need to put it on excellent circuits like Spa and not montonous ones like the Hungaroring.

The problem was that after all the build up and excitement of the first 30 laps, the finish had nothing of the intrigue. With 11 laps to go it looked like we were set for a scintillating finish, Schumacher's tyres were up to temperature, Raikkonen was racing hard and everything looked promising. Then we were hit with another pace car and once again got to enjoy Raikkonen almost completely stopping on the circuit as he backed the pack up and ensured Schumacher had no heat or pressure in his tyres. I know there's technically nothing wrong with it but it screamed unsportsmanlike at me (and before you mention it, I deplore Michael's various unsporstmanlike behaviour in the past, and I don't want to see Kimi doing it). I mean we have two of the best drivers on the planet in two of the best cars, it wasn't necessary. Kimi should have been able to hold off Michael regardless, so why not give us a straight fight to the finish? I'd rather see Kimi win in a blaze of glory having held off the greatest driver on Earth in a tense finish, than the sort of finish we were treated too. After the rest of the event it felt like a let down.

I will also say that after the repeated pace car periods, nothing has changed since Monaco. Cars were still frequently and dangerously warming their tyres and brakes, and I think that the way the leader can roar off at 200km/h or more and then suddenly come to a complete stand still is dangerous and shouldn't be tolerated. I think you should be required to keep up with the pace car until the end of the lap - that's what it's there for, to set the pace. I don't think you should be able to use it to gain an advantage, in the same way you're not allowed to pass under Yellow flags. I think they need to change something to do with the pace car system to make it safer and fairer.
 
Rubens can't drive, its obvious the only reason he got into 3rd and in front of 6 other finishers was because of the safety cars. :indiff:
 
Well I just got done watching the replay of the race and I have to say it was definitely a very good race. I do not have much else to say other than that, as a lot has already been said. But I will say that Spa is just a great track and forever needs to stay on the schedule.
 
Firestarter75
Rubens can't drive, its obvious the only reason he got into 3rd and in front of 6 other finishers was because of the safety cars. :indiff:
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Silverstone 2003.
 
chaser_fan
Don't worry, chaps. Tomorrow will be the most exciting race of the season. Why? Because my cable provider just lost the rights to ESPN, which carried the F1 coverage. They never bothered to inform me either! I have only missed one race in three years and they do this to me...bastards!
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What did I tell you! :(
 
Eagle
Taking advantage of the safety car is all part of the game, something we saw repeatedly throughout the race. To be dead last after having a rear wing changed and to just get on with the job and climb all the way back to 3rd through luck and skill is quite an achievement. Coulthard did likewise, regardless of the fact his car was severely damaged he limped home, got things fixed and scored 2 points. Now look at Montoya, he suffered a puncture just like Coulthard and countless others, and just seemed to say "Stuff it" when he got back to the pits. Perhaps there was indeed suspension damage as a result of the wheel banging against components at the rear of the car.

I honestly felt disappointed with the end of the race, and not simply because I wanted to see Michael win again. In my opinion Spa was far and away the most interesting and exciting race of the season, and I think James Allen was right when he said that when you can have races like that, there can't be all that much wrong with Formula 1, you just need to put it on excellent circuits like Spa and not montonous ones like the Hungaroring.

The problem was that after all the build up and excitement of the first 30 laps, the finish had nothing of the intrigue. With 11 laps to go it looked like we were set for a scintillating finish, Schumacher's tyres were up to temperature, Raikkonen was racing hard and everything looked promising. Then we were hit with another pace car and once again got to enjoy Raikkonen almost completely stopping on the circuit as he backed the pack up and ensured Schumacher had no heat or pressure in his tyres. I know there's technically nothing wrong with it but it screamed unsportsmanlike at me (and before you mention it, I deplore Michael's various unsporstmanlike behaviour in the past, and I don't want to see Kimi doing it). I mean we have two of the best drivers on the planet in two of the best cars, it wasn't necessary. Kimi should have been able to hold off Michael regardless, so why not give us a straight fight to the finish? I'd rather see Kimi win in a blaze of glory having held off the greatest driver on Earth in a tense finish, than the sort of finish we were treated too. After the rest of the event it felt like a let down.

I will also say that after the repeated pace car periods, nothing has changed since Monaco. Cars were still frequently and dangerously warming their tyres and brakes, and I think that the way the leader can roar off at 200km/h or more and then suddenly come to a complete stand still is dangerous and shouldn't be tolerated. I think you should be required to keep up with the pace car until the end of the lap - that's what it's there for, to set the pace. I don't think you should be able to use it to gain an advantage, in the same way you're not allowed to pass under Yellow flags. I think they need to change something to do with the pace car system to make it safer and fairer.
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Well said.

RSCosworth also made som good points. If The Bridgestones had had the same post-safety car performance as the Michelins, it would have been interesting to see whether Michael could have passed Kimi.

Either way a great race. Hungary and San Marino and Barcelona should be dropped.
 
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