I know that a lot (maybe even most) of the users here on Armor Games are American based, but I still would like to talk about the upcoming Formula 1 Championship this year!
Who is likely to become champion 2010 with the drivers?; Which team will be champion 2010?; Which rookie team will be doing great in 2010?; What driver will not fullfill the promiss to do great?; What's the best/most beautiful Grand Prix for this year's calendar of F1?; What Grand Prix would you visit if possible?; Etc...
So if there's anyone on Armor interested in this cool, fast and challenging sport... speak up!! =D
Actually, maybe two more laps to the race and Shumi would have caught Vettel. I thought the stewerts were a bit strict with their rulings, seeing that Buemi and Alguesuari both got drive through penalties for "avoidable situations". I was also very surprised by Roseburg's performance. He didn't even finish in the points! This was a great race to watch, and filled with excitement.
Right now I am mega-pissed, because I can't read a TV guide.
Not that it would have made much difference, since at the time it was on I was busy and wouldn't have been able to make it...
Either way, I'm glad to see Webber FINALLY convert a pole to a win, off the back of his, like, first decent start of the year. Now that everybody's talking, I can be slightly smug and say "well I was backing him since the start!" though I still say that Vettel's superior talent is being undermined by his car issues. Props also to Schumacher who snagged a respectable 4th, and I expect him to continue to generally improve over the year.
How many rounds are there left? It's nearly time to get down to the number crunching!
Barcelona... always a race to dread! Normally the driver that gets the pole, ends up winning the race... just like Webber did this year, but it can be discribed as nothing other than an "excellent, brilliant drive"!!! And mind you, this is also very good for the rankings! Now that 4 different drivers won after a total of 5 races, the excitement is still there, where last year it seemed to become a dull championship, this year it's completely different! =D
To start with the driver that has me talking about the most after the first European GP of this season... Lewis Hamilton. Where at first I thought this was a great formula 1 driver and a person that had a very correct and gentelman-like handling of matters, Hamilton is (unfortunately) turning out to become a really annoying irritating person... somehow he starts to whine with every chance he gets to do that! This time it was because a slower driver (I believe Di Grassi with a Virgin) came out of the pits and did a great job to stay out of the fight at hand between Hamilton and Vettel and still... Hamilton shouts that 'he did a poor job' and thought it was 'really dangerous'!?! If he thinks it's that dangerous, he should immediatley step out of the car and stop racing in my opinion... this is becoming like a flashback to the days when Ralf Schumacher was still in Formula 1... really hope Lewis brushes up on that! Still, in a weird way, he got (sort of) what he deserves... he made no mistake in the race whatsoever, but again had the unfortunate accident caused by the same problem we saw happening to both him and Kovalainen last season... somehow McLaren has some homework to do about those tyres rims exploding in high speed corners... now THAT's dangerous Lewis! =P
An what about the lesson Schumacher gave Button in 'how to make your car twice as wide on the racetrack'!?! What a great battle to watch between two former F1 champions! Unfortunately after a few rounds, Button gave up and let him go... it really could have been a nice battle to the finish if he hadn't forgotten about the times he was extremely motivated like in the earlier races and actually DID attack the driver in front! Still a great effort from both of them! Schumacher's climbing in results every race, let's hope he can continue this 'uphill momentum'! The chassis change I mentioned in an earlier post, prooves that widening the wheel base of the car is the right thing for Schumi, as to where his team mate Rosberg seems to be unable to cope with this change to his car... maybe they should change it back for him so he can continue his great start of the season, because this was a poor result for him... let's wait and see what the next race brings for him!
And Sebastian Vettel turned out to be the man to pity for this race... where he had a good chance to make a double with Webber, he got 'ipped' by Hamilton for a position with the pit stops and later on lost another one to Fernando Alonso because of braking problems that increased towards the finish... still a very good effort to bring his car to finish in 3rd place on the podium, with a bit of luck that Hamilton crashed 2 rounds before the end though, but still, a very good job and great result!
Chaime Alguersari does seem to be a driver to keep an eye on for the future... he's doing great things with a car that isn't all that great compared to the rest of the field! Hope he can continue doing this and maybe land a better seat for next year to step it up in the competition and score more points with a better car!
LOL Seems I got a little carried away with writing when I look back on my previous post! Oooops... XD
I'll post my usual race statistics first and then add the races to come at the bottom... it's only been 5 races, so there are still 14 races to go this season! =D
=============================================== # Race results GP Barcelona - Spain: 1 WEBBER - Race winner! 2 Alonso 3 Vettel 4 Schumacher 5 Button 6 Massa 7 Sutil 8 Kubica 9 Barichello 10 Alguersari =============================================== # Drivers Championship: (I added the positions before the race to show the change in ranking, seemed more clear...) Now: Before: _____ Points: __1_ ___1___ Button____ 70 __2_ ___3___ Alonso____ 67 __3_ ___5___ Vettel____ 60 __4_ ___8___ Webber____ 53 __5_ ___2___ Rosberg___ 50 __6_ ___4___ Hamilton__ 49 __7_ ___6___ Massa_____ 49 __8_ ___7___ Kubica____ 44 __9_ __10___ Schumacher 22 _10_ ___9___ Sutil_____ 16 =============================================== # Constructors Championship: _1 McLaren Mercedes____ - 119 _2 Ferrari_____________ - 116 _3 RBR Renault_________ - 113 _4 Mercedes GP_________ - _72 _5 Renault_____________ - _50 _6 Force India Mercedes - _24 _7 Williams Cosworth___ - __8 _8 STR Ferrari_________ - __3 _9 BMW Sauber Ferrari__ - __0 10 Lotus Cosworth______ - __0 11 HRT Cosworth________ - __0 12 Virgin Cosworth_____ - __0
2010 FIA Formula One World Championship Race Calendar: (Races printed in bold are held.)
01 GP BAHRAIN (Sakhir) - 14 March 02 GP AUSTRALIA (Melbourne) - 28 March 03 GP MALAYSIA (Kuala Lumpur) - 4 April 04 GP CHINA (Shanghai) - 18 April 05 GP SPAIN (Barcelona-Catalunya) - 9 May 06 GP MONACO (Monte Carlo) - 16 May 07 GP TURKEY (Istanbul) - 30 May 08 GP CANADA (Montreal) - 13 June 09 GP EUROPE (Valencia) - 27 June 10 GP BRITAIN (Silverstone) - 11 July 11 GP GERMANY (Hockenheim) - 25 July 12 GP HUNGARY (Budapest) - 01 August 13 GP BELGIUM (Spa-Francorchamps) - 29 August 14 GP ITALY (Monza) - 12 September 15 GP SINGAPORE (Singapore) - 26 September 16 GP JAPAN (Suzuka) - 10 October 17 GP KOREA (Yeongam) - 24 October *!* 18 GP BRASIL (Sao Paulo) - 07 November 19 GP ABU DHABI (Yas Marina Circuit) - 14 November
Hamilton is (unfortunately) turning out to become a really annoying irritating person
glad I'm not the only one whos see's it..... I wasn't a fan of Anthony Hamiltons role "controlling" certain aspects of Lewis (I thought he should be more like John Button who seems to have a very positive aspect on Jenson) but now he is gone Lewis seems a bit lost :O
earlier races and actually DID attack the driver in front!
Last year Button made some magnificent over-taking moves so perhaps this could be a bit of a confidence thing he didn't have a great qualifying in the new car so hopefully next race (his "sort of" home race at Monaco) should be better..... even thoguh you can't really overtake there I am hopefuly he will have a more positive race.
Since MrDayCee hasn't gotten to it, I will post the results of the grand prix of Monaco:
1. Mark Webber 2. Sebastian Vettel 3. Robert Kubica 4. Felipe Massa 5. Lewis Hamilton 6. Fernando Alonso 7. Nico Rosburg 8. Adrian Sutil 9. Viantonio Liuzzi 10. Sebastian Buemi Note: Michael Schumacher would have finished in 7th, but he passed Alonso coming to the checkered flegunder safty car, which is illegal. He was relegated to 12th. ---------------------------------------------------- Championship standings T1: Mark Webber 78 points Sebastian Vettel 3: Fernando Alonso 75 points 4: Jenson Button 70 points 5: Felipe Massa 61 points T6: Robert Kubica 59 points Lewis Hamilton 8: Nico Rosburg 56 points 9: Michael Schumacher 22 points 10: Adrian Sutil 20 points ---------------------------------------------------- Constructors points: 1: Red Bull 156 points 2: Ferrari 136 points 3: McLaren-Mercedes 129 points 4: Mercedes GP 78 points 5: Renault 65 points 6: Force India 30 points 7: Williams 8 points 8: Torro Rosso 4 points ----------------------------------------------------- For those of you who missed the race, it was loaded with safety car periods. On lap 1, Nico Hulkenburg crashed in the tunnel, causing the first one. The second one was caused by Rubens Barrichello crashing in Massenet (turn 3). The third one was caused when a drain cover came off in Massenet. The final caution was brought out when Jarno Trulli collided with and went over Karun Chandhok's car in la rascasse. As for the rest of the race, there was minimal passing, as usual for Monaco. Fernando Alonso was able to get to 6th after starting from pit lane in last place. Mark Webber lead almost every lap and almost got a "grand slam", but teammate Sebastian Vettel took the fastest lap of the race.
Ahh, Monaco, a track I know well from playing too many racing games :P I remember Webber expressing some modest reservations about Monaco, given it's such a tight, serpentine circuit, but he's right: the team have everything right, it's almost like it's charmed. Maybe Vettel was right after all.
Sorry guys... had a short absence from this thread... but I did see the race though, sweeeeet... =P
An epic race on a historical circuit and it was (as usual) packed with incidents, this time with a starring role for the Williams drivers and (I should have known!) Jarno Trulli... I mean, what a horse's a.. that guy always turns out to be! Somehow they finally started to forget him and his ever-so-irritating 'Trulli-Train' from when he was still with Toyota, so I guess that's why he decided to get back into the spotlights with a (sorry, I can't call it other than) STUPID-STUPID-STUPID 'double-decker-action' performed in the final rounds of the race... and unfortunately, it worked... and now everybody recalls his name again.... darned! *sighs* Webber, Vettel and Kubica were the guys that claimed the prizes, but I have to praise two people after the race...
1st: Alonso! What a great race, manouvering himself from last position to 6th with a great tyre strategy and some well deserved luck! Excellent job!
2nd: Schumacher! I mean... the guy's really back in town and we all could have known he would try something like this! LOL Who else than Schumacher and Brawn would have come up with such an interpretation of the GP rules?! Overtaking Alonso after crossing the 'Safety Car line' and before the 'finish line' was a boldly but very ballsy move! And better yet... who ultimately gave his veto to the action taken? Yes... Damon Hill!! Hahaahaa, what a great coincidence that (of all people) HE was the one residing as track official for this race!
And last, but certainly not least... a BIG applause for (again) Alguersari! He did a great job and is growing in experience by the minute... keep an eye out for this guy I tell ya!
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Luckily, Waluigi payed attention and did a great job for me and posted the Monaco results, but I promiss I will now 'regain consience' again and pick up where I left at from now on! =D
Next up on the calendar: GP Turkey, anyone have any predictions? =)
I forgot to mention this in my last post! Maybe you haven't heard about it, but there are some developments around the upcoming GP in Korea! Since they are not confident that it can be held this year, they suggested another circuit to take it's place instead... Magny Cours!!! Never thought they would return to race there again... let's wait and see what further news comes out in the next couple of months! =D
Hey Strop, that seems like a good website with all the needed info on Formula 1! But it's very heavy on my eyes, with all that info jammed onto one page... 0_o Does seem a good source though!
Yes, Webber is looking good for this race and they managed to take over the record of consequetive poles in one season from McLaren, but Hamilton DOES have an advantage with a higher top speed down th straights! Don't know if it's going to help him at the start though... see, the Red Bulls have had good starts every race before this one, so it's going to be tough for him to overtake Webber at the green! =P
I just realised today that I know the Istanbul track back to front: I've raced it several hundred times in Racedriver: GRID. Scary blind (and steep) left hander and right hander going over the crest that I never figured out the proper racing line for, and I don't think I've ever quite managed to keep 270km/h AND hit all the apices in turn 8... the closest I get is in an Audi RT10 :\\ These guys are crazy.
