OT: Racing 2011 (Spoiler Alert)

[toonarmy]

Great race at Sepang. The DRS actually proved to be successful today, as there were several passes on the main straight. Red Bull remain the clear top team, and McLaren appear to still be second-best despite Lewis having some difficulty late in the race, not to mention being given a penalty along with Alonso. The big story IMO was seeing Renault pick up a podium and be competitive with both cars. Petrov unfortunately had his steering column break late in the race after going airborne.

[Dave]

Fantastic race. What a turn-around for Heidfeld; fantastic start, competitive mid-race, and a solid drive to close out a podium finish.

Hamilton and McLaren made a meal out of the tire strategy, haven't read any post-race explanation but they didn't do themselves any favor. Interesting to see Button smoothly work his way to a second-place finish.

The rest of the field better hope Red Bull continues to have KERS issues.

On the other end of the excitement spectrum, I thought last night's NASCAR race was brutally boring. Almost fell asleep just thinking about the race.

Looking forward to IndyCar at Barber this afternoon.

[Rodster]

It's starting to look like 2000-2005 all over again, isn't it? Hopefully Adrian Newey gets bored and decides to hang it up.

[pk500]

On the other end of the excitement spectrum, I thought last night's NASCAR race was brutally boring. Almost fell asleep just thinking about the race.

The Cup race would have been interesting if the fuel strategies of Busch and Smoke paid off. But they didn't, so that show ended up straining the fast-forward button on my DVR remote more than any other this season.

Looking forward to IndyCar at Barber this afternoon.

Sorry to throw a wet washcloth over your hopes, but I hope it's a nice day for a parade in Birmingham. Barber may be a gorgeous track that's fun to drive, but it doesn't spawn very good racing. Very few overtaking zones. But I'm still watching because, hell, it's IndyCars!

[toonarmy]

Fantastic race. What a turn-around for Heidfeld; fantastic start, competitive mid-race, and a solid drive to close out a podium finish.

Hamilton and McLaren made a meal out of the tire strategy, haven't read any post-race explanation but they didn't do themselves any favor. Interesting to see Button smoothly work his way to a second-place finish.

The rest of the field better hope Red Bull continues to have KERS issues.

On the other end of the excitement spectrum, I thought last night's NASCAR race was brutally boring. Almost fell asleep just thinking about the race.

Looking forward to IndyCar at Barber this afternoon.

No kidding about the KERS issues with Red Bull. Vettel is silly good right now and he knows it. I'm eager to see how well McLaren can play catch-up with their cars.

No matter how hard I try to get back into NASCAR I just cannot seem to do it. I watched much of the race last night at what should be a very exciting track, yet I found myself bored out of my mind. I will watch the race from Talladega next week, and if that does not do anything for me I think I may give up on NASCAR for the rest of the season other than when Kimi races trucks.

I've been looking forward to the IndyCar race as well. Looks like it will come down to Penske and Ganassi (big shock there).

[toonarmy]

Was finally able to find some video of the incident in which Lewis was assessed a penalty. What a f***in disgrace of a decision!

[EZSnappin]

Sure look like he makes two blocking moves on the straight. Find it hard to argue otherwise.

Enjoyable race. The tires are certainly helping to make things interesting.

[Rodster]

Sure look like he makes two blocking moves on the straight.

IIRC the rules stipulate only one blocking move allowed.

[toonarmy]

Sure look like he makes two blocking moves on the straight. Find it hard to argue otherwise.

Enjoyable race. The tires are certainly helping to make things interesting.

Not sure I would call them both a blocking move necessarily. If that is the case then Vettel should have received a penalty on the first lap.

[toonarmy]

Pretty ho-hum IndyCar race. Ruben Studdard sure can sing the national anthem. I'm pretty sure everyone knows Kimball has diabetes by now. Seems like that's a huge deal to the broadcast team. That Kanaan guy certainly can drive a car. There's some girl that seems to be pretty good too.

[Smurfy]

It might be if the drag reduction system really is causing the problems Ross Brawn describes in this link here. Assuming that's all true - and you'd imagine it is - then Michael spent much of qualifying with absolutely no idea of how his car was going to behave when he next tried to turn a corner. Nico's Q3 lap, which I don't remember seeing (it was probably shown, but I can't remember a thing about it), was apparently blighted to a slightly lesser degree by the same issue, which would explain why he suddenly started going half a second slower than he'd ran in Q2.

Okay, thanks. Can I strike my criticism of Schumacher from the record?

Fisi should have done. Fresh air, which is the only thing he was defending into the last chicane, can't overtake you...

I certainly agree he made a mess of it in the chicane, compromising his run down the pit straight. But that was more about Fisi's goof up and less about Kimi's "brilliant" pass.

[GB_Simo]

I certainly agree he made a mess of it in the chicane, compromising his run down the pit straight. But that was more about Fisi's goof up and less about Kimi's "brilliant" pass.

Which is precisely what I was hoping to imply, mate. I think Raikkonen's pass was ballsy and well executed, but it owed at least as much to the hapless Italian ahead as it did to the Finn's talent.

As far as those penalties go...in my race recap, which is now live for anyone who visited the blog last night and wondered where it was (I'd stayed up to watch the NASCAR, you see, and spent quite a lot of Sunday asleep as a consequence. I'd love to tell you it was worth it, but...no), I suggested that if Alonso's is worth a penalty, then so are two efforts by Maldonado in the first couple of laps alone - one piece of contact into turn 4 first time by, one clip of Perez while the pair were jousting down the home straight. The Sauber-Toro Rosso battle into the turn 9 hairpin later in the race, with the two cars banging wheels on exit, was tag team wrestling in comparison to Alonso tickling the back of Hamilton's car. Having to replace the front wing was sufficient penalty for a simple and very small misjudgement, so to go whacking an extra 20 seconds on to his time is a nonsense.

I understand the Hamilton penalty more. I'm not totally sure I agree with it, but he did make two moves down the front straight with Alonso behind him. Where I struggle is that his direction of travel didn't alter drastically, while Alonso always had plenty of passing room and was never close enough to use it so it's not as though a block was thrown at any stage. The business with Petrov last year, when the Russian was close enough to make a move and Hamilton weaved down the straight like a piss artist at closing time, seemed worse to me. In saying that, rules are rules, but the application of this one doesn't seem to be at all consistent.

[GB_Simo]

Fun times for all you WRC fans as the Jordan Rally saga rumbles on.

The cars, trucks and equipment would usually arrive via Syria but with the continued serious unrest in that particular nation, they can't do so this year. As a result, they're arriving via Israel instead. The boat was due to get in on Sunday but an engine failure delayed that to Monday. Then early today. Then later today.

Now there's a storm attacking the port at Haifa, where the boat would be docking if the seas weren't being quite so awkward about the whole business. Shakedown is scheduled for tomorrow, with the rally starting on Thursday, but the only team ready to go is Autotek, whose Ford Fiesta S2000 and necessary equipment came in via Greece and Israel at the back end of last week. As long as the rally covers 66% of the scheduled route it's an event, but the longer this goes on, the more you wonder whether it will.

[toonarmy]

Announced today that MotoGP is coming to Austin, TX starting in 2013, with a 10 year contract. Does this mean the US will now have 3 MotoGP races each year? Is Laguna or Indy being dropped? If the US is going to have 3 rounds per year then wow!

[GB_Simo]

If I'd approached you on the weekend of a Cup race at Talladega last year and said, "Of course, the really compelling action this weekend will be in the Formula 1 race," you'd have had me arrested.

[Rodster]

My perfect F1 weekend, Lewis wins and Capt Morgan is outclassed by Massa the entire weekend.

[Dave]

In the middle part of the race, where guys seemed to be passing each other randomly depending on strategy, I began to wonder if the (mandated) tire degradation and DRS were too gimmicky for my taste.

But then it came down to the end and all strategies were out the window and there were cars charging to the sharp end of the grid and oh my, what an entertaining race.

[toonarmy]

Exhilarating race in Shanghai! McLaren pulled their act together quickly at the last minute leading up to the race and somehow came out victorious. Lewis drove an impressive race. Webber sure made up serious ground. It appears that the new tweaks this year are making for better racing. I never would have thought Shanghai would be the scene of such entertaining racing as we saw today.

[Dave]

This NASCAR race is mind-bogglingly stupid.

[pk500]

Exhilarating race in Shanghai! McLaren pulled their act together quickly at the last minute leading up to the race and somehow came out victorious. Lewis drove an impressive race. Webber sure made up serious ground. It appears that the new tweaks this year are making for better racing. I never would have thought Shanghai would be the scene of such entertaining racing as we saw today.

Could not agree more. That was the best motor race I've seen so far this young season, two wheels or four. There was action and strategy EVERYWHERE.

Great tire management and courageous passing moves by Lewis, and Webber sliced and diced like a Ginsu 2 knife to finish on the podium.

I was a big skeptic of this movable rear wing. But it has combined with the rapidly wearing Pirelli tires to create some superb racing and excellent strategy options. So what if it resembles a video game a bit -- it's entertaining as hell.

Special props to Sebastian Ogier, who won Rally Jordan by two-tenths of a second over Jari-Matti Latvala, the closest finish in World Rally Championship history.

[Smurfy]

If I'd approached you on the weekend of a Cup race at Talladega last year and said, "Of course, the really compelling action this weekend will be in the Formula 1 race," you'd have had me arrested.

Well, if you told me that and we were in Talladega I'd not only have you arrested, I'd throw away the key and request the death penalty. Life's confusing enough without days like today.

Fine drive from Lewis. Don't know what to say about Button's first pit stop.

[toonarmy]

Don't know what to say about Button's first pit stop.

I'm pretty sure he decided he could get out of the pits faster if he pitted with the boys from Red Bull, then upon seeing that they were pissed and waving him on thought better of the idea. Either that or some of his drinking buddies dared him to pull off the stunt. In any case the McLaren folks had to be doing a community face-palm.

[Rodster]

Ferrari boss demands improvement
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90868

"This cannot and must not be the team's level," said di Montezemolo on Ferrari's website. "It's a very delicate moment.

"I expect our engineers to act with determination and know-how, unleashing the maximum of their capacity to improve the performance of the car in a short time.

"I want Ferrari to be at the level that both we and our fans demand it should be."

That's what happens when you turn your operation into the Italian National Racing team. Actually Luca, you are where I want your team to be although I still root for Felipe. Why do I think this is a setup for Flavio to come in and run the team?

[Jimmydeicide]

Its all good so far but me thinks if Red Bull are allowed to use their Kers system sometime this season you will see that gap again.
Great race ,Webber and Hamilton were awesome.

Late to the party for this race but thank you DVR

[DChaps]

Hooray, it's MAY 2011!!! 100th Anniversary of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing!

With no cable or internet access at home for several days I have been kind of out of it. Just saw this scary V8 Supercars crash. Amazing that the drivers were ok.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... ar-drivers