yeah button hamilton touched

it was an ALMOST DNF for him :D

1) Used to find the BBC commentators irritating, and now I simply can't stand them. They immediately put all blame on Vettel for the accident with Webber, then proceed to scold both Red Bull drivers for dueling. A few laps later, as Hamilton and Button engage in an equally dangerous battle (and even touch wheels at one point), they can't stop gushing about how they're two "strong competitors" who are just "motivated to win" etc etc. Talk about hypocrisy.

2) Anyone who blames Vettel for the accident is out of their minds. Even Red Bull is backing Vettel now, claiming that Webber was equally if not more at fault (link).

Vettel had been lapping significantly faster for at least three laps (we now know that it was because Webber had to engage fuel saving mode- link) and he had every right to make a pass. He didn't want to be held up by Webber, as it may have cost both drivers if Hamilton was able to gain more ground.

During the passing attempt itself, Vettel was way faster because he wasn't in fuel saving mode and he was in Webber's slipstream. He moved to the inside line well before the corner, and he was quickly passing Webber. Webber almost forced him onto the grass, despite the fact he had already lost the position to Vettel, and put Vettel on the dirty line.

Granted, Vettel shouldn't have made the sudden move towards Webber, as that's the point when the contact occurred. Nonetheless, it was Webber who forced the entire situation to occur, and he should have allowed Vettel through.

I wouldn't say Webber is completely in the wrong, because it is his right to defend against another driver. However the "other driver" in question was his teammate, who was much faster and under pressure from behind. It was selfish of him to try and hold position when he knew he was slower.

Both drivers should have handled the situation differently. But then again these sorts of things happen in the blink of an eye when you're racing an F1 car, so hindsight is 20:20. Still, I don't think it's fair to blame Vettel for the problems that occurred.

3) Looks like a two-horse race between Red Bull and McLaren. The Red Bulls should be way ahead - especially Vettel - but reliability and bad luck have cost them. In the end, as McLaren continues to improve, they may look back at the first few races and wish they pulled out a few more points.

4) How did you guys find this race boring? It wasn't quite up to the standards of Australia or Malaysia but it's one of the better tracks on the calendar (I didn't always think so) and during the final 20 laps there was some very good drama involving four of the best drivers in the world.

5) Impressed with Button. Might be eating crow by the end of the season when I predicted Hamilton would destroy him in the driver standings. Money's still on Vettel for the championship but horrible luck and a few awful decisions have cost him so many points it's beginning to look more and more difficult.

On to Montreal! Praying for rain...

another of the interviews found on F1.com say that Webber was going slower due to orders
The comments by Marko seem to just say that Webber knows the situation and shouldn't have raced Vettel... but why the hell not?
If nothing happened and Vettel dropped back people would just say "ohh great racing!" like they did with Button / Hamilton
So you can't point out the events that led to Vettel trying to pass Webber cuz that's a part of racing... the actual point of blame or idiocy is when Vettel decided "Im gonna turn-in ROAAAAR" and boom

Vettel's car was much faster than Webber at that point in the race. He was being pressured from Hamilton behind, and held up by Webber. The best strategy from a team perspective was to allow Vettel to pass, increasing the likelihood of a Red Bull victory.

I agree that Vettel should not have turned in, but Webber should not have forced him way out there in the first place and created a dangerous situation battling his teammate.

For the record, I think the Hamilton/Button duel was pretty silly too. The difference is that both drivers knew when they were beat and backed off before it turned ugly. Still probably shouldn't have been racing so hard; obviously ego played a role. If I were a McLaren mechanic/manager I would be very displeased with how close they came to a crash. They could've ended up like the Red Bulls and handed Mercedes a pair of podium finishes.

It all made for good entertainment though, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it either way.

webber has no right to be mad, as he knew vettel had the pass, but squeezed him away from the braking line. The actual racing line would have taken webber farther to the right, but for some reason he continued straight ahead and squeezed vettel to the left, even after the pass was complete. Of course, vettel was wrong to turn into webber.. he could have kept straight and just pinched the corner instead.. but webber shouldn't have forced that option either, considering they are team mates.

Keep in mind that all this happened in a split second at 250+kph in 2 very twitchy F1 cars. It's kind of unfair for us mere mortal drivers to pass judgement on the split second decisions of these driving gods. :)

Good race though.

Couldn't agree more with your entire post, bang on.

soooo button is a cocksucker apparently. anyone catch the race highlights on the f1 site?

Lol what happened?

team: Lewis let up a little and save your tires
hamilton: If I let up will button pass me
team: he has no orders

ugh.... Schumacher was doing so well in practice... wtf happened -_-

they blamed the option tires but blegh -_-

HELL YEAH!

LEWIS HAMILTON GOGOGOGOGO!

He's toast if there's no safety car in the first 10 laps of the race tomorrow. Everyone else is starting on the hard compound. If there is a safety car... and let's face it, it's quite likely... then he should be alright. After that he just needs an error-free race and he should be a lock to come across the line in first. Can't see the Red Bulls passing him with their massive straight line speed deficit.

The start will be fascinating. Vettel is great at the start and once again he's got the clean side of the track, so I could seem him slipping past Webber on the first corner again. He pretty much has to be on the podium this race if he wants to keep his championship bid alive.

Wtf was up with Button in qualifying? It's not a bad result but he never really got a solid lap in any of the three qualifying sessions. He's been so impressive over the past few races I expected him to give the Red Bulls & Hamilton a challenge again.

Btw, does anyone else think Robert Kubica is one of the best drivers in Formula1 right now? He impresses me almost every single race and he rarely makes mistakes anymore. I'd love to see him get a drive with Ferrari next year.

Oh, and what the hell happened to Mercedes? Car is just not right for this track perhaps, but Schumacher in 13th? That's inexcusable.

Also... what's the deal with Massa? I remember him being a dominant driver in years past. He looks average at best so far this year, usually being outperformed by Alonso.

As always I'll be praying for rain during the race tomorrow... hoping for another roller coaster of a race similar to what we saw in Melbourne.

you get a spring to the head at 200 km per hour and tell me how you recover.

well apparently the Option tires fucked them up cuz they were doing great in the practices and the first round of qualifying was okay still ugh :/ wtf

Don't think I've ever seen someone as unhappy as Alonso on the podium today! LOL

Mr. Sourpuss or what?

Shame about Kobyashi going out at the beginning. I thought his start was reminiscent of how he raced last year!

Where can I download F1 races?

I lost respect for Schumacher after today's race.

^^ what happened? i missed it

He pulled some pretty shady blocking moves on Kubica and Massa, causing both Kubica and Massa to damage their cars.

In both cases the other cars were clearly WAY faster than him.

One of the most exciting races of the year. The fact the tires performed so poorly was fantastic because finally, teams had to pit more than once, and the tire strategy contributed greatly to the outcome. As a bonus, cars were forced to deal with lapped traffic -- something we haven't seen in a while.

Lewis was the best driver out there and deserved the win. Nice to see all three top teams fighting for the lead. Kubica had a shot as well, if not for the damage to his car. Disappointed both Force India's were dealt bad luck with collisions and punctures.

After his performace today, I predict MS retires (again) after this year.

Alonso seemed to be upset about traffic, but I wonder if he was specifically thinking of Buemi because technically Buemi was fighting him and Lewis for the lead haha.

Great show today, all in all. Sorry I chose not to go.

THIS HAS BEEN THE MOST EXCITING F1 RACE SO FAR THIS YEAR!

I thought I'd lost all faith in the 2010 Formula 1 season but this race pretty much makes up for it, really intense action from the beginning and even til the end people were still trying to catch the guys in front of them(Kubica on Rosberg and Webber on Vettel) and having extensive coverage on the TSN feed was nice to see, finally get to watch the post-race interviews without switching over to SPEED(or in this race, FOX)

Some funny moments in the race is where Martin Brundle commented on Massa and Liuzzi and said something like "It looks like Massa was determined to get Liuzzi outta the race" on the 2nd corner :rofl: :rofl: it was hilarious, Massa hit the Force India like 3x consecutively on Lap 1 and when Vettel asked his race-engineer if he could push his car and set the fastest lap on the race and the race-engineer was like "Don't even think about it!" hahaha

Best race by FAR! Now I only hope the other tracks will deliver and did you guys notice how the grandstands for this race was FULL?! Unlike other races in Bahrain and China?! WTF and Bernie didn't want to bring the race back to Montreal...seriously... and now Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are 1-2 in the Drivers standings :)

stupid fox news coverage on ninjavideo.

anyone have the bbc coverage? Torrent and all?

What a great race. Races are so much better when teams have some inconsistency to complain about - tires or weather :thumbsup:. All in all I'd say it's been a pretty good year so far. More of the races have been exciting, than have not.

About Vettel, I also loved it when he practically said, WTF dudes - you want me to PASS but go slower?!

I've been impressed by Kubica since he had that big year at BMW two years ago. I really hope he finds a better drive next year. Maybe Mercedes if/when Schumi decides to go back to proper bumpercars.

if you know how to use usenet

you can download the bbc, rtl, etc coverage (even an HD feed but its like 9GB)