Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Santander 2012

[RTSolvalou]

I felt that if Alonso had have gotten past, Pastor would have come back and closed the gap again and probably gotten the same result, but that was a great stack of laps to watch.

 

[niky]

That was a good part of the strategy... pitting first and pitting when they were sure Alonso wouldn't be able to mount a "hot lap" blitz to open up the gap before he pitted.

To be fair... Charles Pic helped a bit. But it was mostly down to good pace from the Williams. Before the slowed Pastor down, Alonso wasn't taking more than a second or two a stint out of Maldonado. Then they played that cute cat-and-mouse game to ensure Alonso used up his tires first.

 

[hornet_burnout]

I had Live Timing and that was pretty much it, but more complicated.

The laps when Alonso was catching up, Williams were telling Maldonado specifically to slow down in certain corners. From live timing, you could see that Alonso was bunching up behind him in certain turns, then Maldonado would put in a monumental third sector to increase the gap to over 1 second at the start-finish straight.

The Ferrari was very fast today, but it simply didn't have the outright pace of the Williams at any time. This is not like Alonso's run behind Perez, where he had a legitimate chance to overtake.

Not to take anything away from Maldonado, because I thought it was a masterful drive.

Thanks.

Maldonado and his team worked even harder on tire and "anger" management than I thought. 👍

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

To be fair... Charles Pic helped a bit. But it was mostly down to good pace from the Williams. Before the slowed Pastor down, Alonso wasn't taking more than a second or two a stint out of Maldonado. Then they played that cute cat-and-mouse game to ensure Alonso used up his tires first.[/B][/COLOR]

Honestly Charles Pic didnt make him loose a lot of time, if you watch live timing at that moment he lost 2 tenth on that sector comparing to the lap before and after and if you watch closely, Pic actually pull to the left to let alonso pass. 2 tenth is normal when you overtake someone. Maldonado lost much more time on the last part of the track when he was held back by someone (I dont rememeber who).

 

[Seismica]

One thing that should be noted; all of the drivers know this track well from testing. That is where I think Maldonado excelled, because he's driven around this circuit so much to the point where he can consistently deliver his underlying pace. His poor consistency and the fact he pushes the car to the limit means he usually makes mistakes (See Australia, Bahrain). I still think that the Ferrari and the Williams were evenly matched, but the key really was who can lead for the final stint. It is 10x easier to look after your tyres when you're not in the dirty air of a car on the same strategy as you. I think Alonso had the quicker underlying pace, but not by much (As I said, very little between the two cars). Once Maldonado was ahead there was little Fernando could do other than wait for Pastor to make a mistake, which he didn't. Had Alonso been ahead in that final stint I have no doubt that he would have pulled away.

Honestly Charles Pic didnt make him loose a lot of time, if you watch live timing at that moment he lost 2 tenth on that sector comparing to the lap before and after and if you watch closely, Pic actually pull to the left to let alonso pass. 2 tenth is normal when you overtake someone. Maldonado lost much more time on the last part of the track when he was held back by someone (I dont rememeber who).

Yep 👍 when Alonso was still ahead and Maldonado was trying to keep up, a Marussia or a HRT was in his way for the end of sector 2 through until the chicane in sector 3. Alonso got past when he backed off on the straight, whereas Pastor lost 2 seconds because he couldn't get past in the slow corners and it also greatly compromised his line into the chicane and cost him time all the way down the main straight (It also cost him time from the DRS as it put him out of the 1 second zone).

 

[RodrigoDLL]

Yep 👍 when Alonso was still ahead and Maldonado was trying to keep up, a Marussia or a HRT was in his was for the end of sector 2 through until the chicane in sector 3. Alonso go past when he backed off on the straight, Pastor lost 2 seconds because he couldn't get past in the slow corners and it also greatly compromised his line into the chicane and cost him time all the way down the main straight (It also cost him time from the DRS as it put him out of the 1 second zone).

Right. It was the HRT of the disastrous Karthikeyan. He should have received a drive through as well. He let Alonso through and blocked Maldonado. Why only Pic received the penalty can fuel the good old conspiracy theories about Ferrari, being Alonso's home GP... I am glad it did not cost Maldonado the victory.

Karthikeyan sometimes seems to forget he is so far away from the rest of the field (and his teammate) and there is no point in trying not to lose a couple of seconds to blue flags. It is absolutely stupid. Just get out of the way!

 

[Ardius]

I'm surprised this hasn't made it here, though it was only really shown and discussed on UK Sky F1:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqx67b_sp...acher-s-weekend

Schumacher received no penalty for this incident (though he has been penalised for the Senna incident in the race). He was however given a reprimand.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I'm surprised this hasn't made it here, though it was only really shown and discussed on UK Sky F1:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqx67b_sp...acher-s-weekend

Schumacher received no penalty for this incident (though he has been penalised for the Senna incident in the race).

WTF!?

He really loved to use his car as a roadblock. Further adding to his ******* credentials.

 

[Ardius]

As was said in that video, Michael is under pressure this year and he keeps making these shocking errors of judgement.
The shame for him was that he started the season pretty well (compared to Rosberg) and suffered from bad luck in the races. If he just has a string of weekends with no incidents he wouldn't be under pressure.

 

[ExigeEvan]

As was said in that video, Michael is under pressure this year and he keeps making these shocking errors of judgement.

I admit he's had a long career, but there's far too many examples of him being an absolute ******* to give any excuse. Any.

 

[RTSolvalou]

Haha that's awesome.

 

[Jsoccer9]

What did Hamilton do to provoke such a move from Michael?

 

[Seismica]

Maybe he would have preferred it if Hamilton had accidentally crashed into the kerb on the exit and came to a complete stop on the racing line.

If that at happened Schumacher would know from experience that such an incident is 100% accidental, and not intended to block an opponents qualifying lap in any way.

 

[Ardius]

What did Hamilton do to provoke such a move from Michael?

Apparently Hamilton had blocked him a fair before the incident. But seeing as it was a practice session Hamilton did not need to let him past.
While Schumacher has every right to be annoyed that Hamilton wouldn't let him past...its something best left after getting out of the car rather than on the track.