Formula One ( F1 )

Starting Grid

S Vettel
M Webber
L Hamilton
F Massa
F Alonso
N Rosberg
K Raikkonen
R Grosjean
P Di Resta
J Button

Good job by Di Resta, but Mclaren look really off the pace. Massa looked very good. But the rapidly drying track caught out a few of the big names. Perez was dire. Rosberg may be the fastest person when its raining, but when its dry, he is lacking just a little bit.

Race is about to start. Rumour is that it may rain again during the race. If it rains heavily, I think Rosberg could win it. For some reason he was far ahead of the others when it was very wet. If its dry, it will be Vettel versus Hamilton and Webber, as usual. Massa could gate-crash the party, as will his formidable teammate.

Vettel in front, two Ferraris behind, and Lewis fighting for his life against Kimi, who is much faster than Lewis, but can't get past. Brilliant start!

The Lotus is excellent this year. Top car.

The Lotus is excellent this year. Top car.

Thank you! Feels good man.

Been saying it for a while - Kimi FTW!!

That was an awesome race. My heart was properly pounding at the start!

Time to start celebrating me thinks.

Kimi drinking the champagne before spraying it, the man is class with good priorities.

Really good to see Kimi doing well, and Massa doing a decent job too. id like to see him give Alonso a run for his money in the next few races

I'm calling Ferrari for both championships this year.

I think that's a good call. But if Lotus have reliability on their side, as well as a reasonable range of upgrades, then Kimi could bag the Driver's Championship from a hungry and sharp Alonso. Vettel can't be written off yet, though I think Jenson and Perez can be. Diddums.

McLaren now talking about using last year's car. That's really bad. I have to say, in the interviews Button sounds completely hopeless about his chances.

Lotus FTW! Kimi pisses it on a two stopper when everyone else is on 3, gets fastest lap at the end on old tyres and says he only really pushed during that lap and that this was his easiest ever win. He says this is the best car he's had since the dominant McLaren days! It's very rare that a driver is so complimentary about his car. There are also plently of developments planned for the E21 I can tell you. The prospects are good!

I'd love to see Kimi take it but I don't think Lotus have a chance in the development race against Red Bull and Ferrari. I think it'll go down to the wire between Alonso and Vettel again. But it looks like this season is going to be even closer than last year! All we need now is for BBC to get rights to screen all of the races live!

Just a vague hope, probably not to be realised, but wouldn't it be wonderful to see Lotus win a constructor's championship again?

Just a vague hope, probably not to be realised, but wouldn't it be wonderful to see Lotus win a constructor's championship again?

It would if it was actually Lotus and not a venture capital firm who had bought the rights and won a costly legal battle in order to use the name.

details details.

I think that having 2 teams called Lotus temporarily, did muddy the waters somewhat. I fear the ghost of Colin has nothing to do with this incarnation.

^ very true. It's not the lotus of yore by any measure.

OT, kind of miss the Brawn Button / Barrichello team, they were great to watch and button smashed it in that car.

McLaran have got form in terms of using last seasons car before- remember the season that they simply wheeled last years cars out with essentially a fresh coat of paint as the new car kept breaking?

It would if it was actually Lotus and not a venture capital firm who had bought the rights and won a costly legal battle in order to use the name.

This, if anything you'd be cheering for Caterham as opposed to "Lotus" who are Group Lotus, the part of the company that produced road cars. As opposed to Team Lotus (now Caterham) who had raced in F1 under Chapman.

Of course these days their links with Chapman are about as strong as my left foot so it's really a moot point.

Whereas Team Caterham are called that because the team owner decided to buy Caterham Motors, a far tidier arrangement.

Ignoring the fact that the race team is really Renault/Bennetton/Toleman I'd say it works on an emotional level, expecially with the JPS colours, and that's fine with me.

It may not be Team Lotus, but Fernandes' effort wasn't either - they just bought the name from David Hunt, who bought it from the receivers. It was nothing to do with Chapman's team.

It's connection with the road car company makes it a more legitimate Lotus team than Caterham.

Although Lotus F1 Team actually has nothing to do with Group Lotus anymore...

Anyway

Ignoring the fact that the race team is really Renault/Bennetton/Toleman I'd say it works on an emotional level, expecially with the JPS colours, and that's fine with me.

It may not be Team Lotus, but Fernandes' effort wasn't either - they just bought the name from David Hunt, who bought it from the receivers. It was nothing to do with Chapman's team.

It's connection with the road car company makes it a more legitimate Lotus team than Caterham.

Like I said neither of the Lotus teams were in any way connected to Chapman, well, Team Lotus were in name but that's it. The modern Lotus car is as much a Lotus as the old Renault (read Lotus) was a Lada:

Nothing more than a sponsor. They don't make a single component for the car which I find a bit ridiculous to be honest.

But it's nice to have a JPS-style livery back.

I'd like to repost this because it's just too good (and worringly, accurate) to only be posted once:

http://sniffpetrol.com/2010/09/29/lotus-and-lotus-fight-over-lotus/

BBC analysis, its fascinating.

It shows that for race speed, there are 4 groups for the last race

A)

1. (2) Alonso
   
2. (1) Raikkonen + 6.175
   
3. (3) Vettel + 9.292
   
   

B)

1. (4) Massa +17.652
   
2. (5) Hamilton +21.153
   
3. (6) Webber +28.213
   
   

C)

1. (12) Vergne +51.564
   
2. (11) Perez +58.612
   
3. (9) Button +59.656
   
4. (10) Grosjean +61.164
   
   

D)

1. (7) Sutil +66.419
   
2. (8) Di Resta +68.807
   
   

Looks like mccarthy could right on the money about Ferrari. And it seems like the sewage works for Jenson. Lewis' optimism may be misplaced, unless their upgrades are stupendous. I enjoyed that article, and all of its quasi-scientific speculation.

Group A and B should see some nice fights...

It's badly skewed though, because Webber had no KERS off the line, and that continued for 20 laps.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/motor-sport/kers-curse-strikes-mark-webber-again/story-fnec578q-1226599343874 (with video of start)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21891323

And now Webber goes fastest in first practice.