F1 returns to action this weekend to the Fuji Speedway. It's the first time in exactly 30 years that a race has been held here; the first being in 1977. Things have moved on since then, with the track being redesigned and being made a lot, lot safer with huge run off areas, but the massive straight still remains.

After a slightly boring race at Spa, hopefully we can have a good race here to forget all the rubbish which has happened to McLaren and F1 in general.

Who will reign supreme this weekend? It looks like it's neck and neck, with it being a 1-1 in Practice sessions so far.

P1:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40810

(Fastest speed on the straight was 208mph, set by Webber. Interestingly, Raikkonen, the pacesetter, was 9mph adrift).

P2:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40813

Ten place grid penalty for Rosberg:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40812

_

Thoughts for qualifying and the race? Post up people!

It might just be time for the Spykers (Sutil in particular) to crack into the top ten. Other than watching out for the teams that have a smaller budget than most; I suspect it shall be another battle between Ferrari v. McLaren. Maybe the Renaults will get into the mix and surprise someone.

yeah. My Prediction is that Sutil will get a break and smash into the top ten. He was 9th fastest there, and hes good at Quali, i hope.

But my bet is on Massa this weekend, or Hamiliton. It might be between them for pole and the race. But it will be interesting to see.

Plus with Roseberg penalty it will be interesting to see what they can do with that. But i think he will be quite light on fuel for quali, but we'll see can he move up or not.

The rest of the feild i think will be pretty normal, unless it rains, expect to see a normal race really

^Rain has been forecasted for Saturday and Sunday, GO RAIN!

Anyway my prediction is for a Hamilton win. So, there we go, please win, Hamilton.

The quali is on at a ridiculous hour in the morning tomorrow, and when it's being re-reun, I'm out playing snooker, so I'll have to DVD it and then watch it, which is annoying.

Anyway hopefully it will be a good race. Can't wait for tomorrow. Hopefully we can have a totally mixed up race, even more so than the Nurburgring.

i can't wait till the race starts. It's going to be one tough race i can say that.

I always hope for Kimi to win but I also really want Lewis to win the championship.. I'm torn between the two. So I will say I hope for Kimi to win but Hamilton to finish ahead of Alonso to keep his points lead. I think Alonso and Hamilton are driving themselves into a whole with all this crap lately, we will see if they can get out or not.

BAH! Bad conditions meant Saturday practice has been abandoned...only after many delays to see if they could do any running at all.

Well I didn't watch the qualifying, but i watched the live timing...
A Honda & a Toro Rosso in Q3? Wow, those tempremental Renaults must make a lot of people happy! Trulli's out though? That's unusual.

Lets see what happens tomorrow, hopefully Alonso can win...:S
On the other hand, great news for Button and Vettel, who beat a BMW..however, I reckon Kubica has more fuel...

Qualifying was tense!

The fog this morning was unreal, you couldnt see the cars! Glad it cleared for qualifying.

Hamilton narrowly escaped being out in Q1, Ralf crashed which is a shame for him. But hed already made it through >.<

Button starts from 6th!! Wooot! Great news for him, if it rains tomorrow then we could see him scoring some good, well deserved points.

Vettel got into the top 10 aswell which is brilliant, hope we can see him have a good race.

Poor from the Renaults, they really struggled in the slippery conditions.

But the best bit was the final few minutes, Alonso seemed like he was easially going to take pole, Hammy was not really up there, Kimi was looking like his main rival, then Hammy comes into the pits bolts on a set of scrubbed Inters and heads out, knowing he can only have one shot at it. Hes out there, no traffic, just him and the silver car, he needs to be inch perfect, cant afford any slip ups, hes through sector one faster than anyone, dancing the car through the bends, through sector two faster than anyone, hes two tenths up on Alonso, just the last few corners, hes controlling it brilliantly, onto the straight theres a slow car infront, he gets the slightest of toes then shoots past it, goes over the line.....POLE! Squeesing Alonso out by 7 hunderedths of a second! I was so happy!

What amazes me is that, he came to this circuit, never even seen it on a simulator before and beats his double world champion teammate who had driven this track before to pole position.

What a fun quali session.

Renault deffienetly not so fast in the wet, and neither were the drivers.

Honda and Jenson, woah, i knew Button was great in the wet, but not that good. Brilliant, i saw a bit of his driving and he was so much better in the wet than everyone, imagine if he was in a McLaren or ferrari today.

Vettel also was amazing. i was always doubting what he could really do, but from today i'm voting for him as world champion.

But Spyker, damn, they can't seem to get it right for the wet, the drivers couldn't get any heat into the tyres, so Sutil never even got a chance at showing what he can do in the wet.

i was also surprised by Massa's pace in the wet. In Q1 it was properly wet, and he was able to challenge Alonso, to bad it dried up a bit, where mcLaren deffinetly had advantage.

Another dissapointment came in the form of a BMW, that of Kubicas. I just guess hes not a wet driver. Plus another good run for Webber.


But predictions for tommorrow, i really have no idea at all.

What amazes me is that, he came to this circuit, never even seen it on a simulator before and beats his double world champion teammate who had driven this track before to pole position.

Alonso only did a few parade laps (i.e. not going all out) in what is now a 2 year old car (The R25). Plus they both had 2 practice sessions to come to terms with the circuit, so essentially, they were both even coming into quali.

Rosberg got a good 6th, but that darned engine penalty will drop him down to 16th :(.

^^Yeah, that to annoyed me. If Roseberg never had that penalty imagine what he could of achieved in the race. He would of ended up with 8 points, just 4 behind Kovy, and more than Fisi

Oh, qualifyings will start here at 3.30 pm. So i will wait to see them.

Bad news from BMW. But it's interesting to see what can others do. Hami must be a god. I'm kidding but how?

Oh, qualifyings will start here at 3.30 pm. So i will wait to see them.

Bad news from BMW. But it's interesting to see what can others do. Hami must be a god. I'm kidding but how?

Hes magical! Everything he achieves astounds me. No one could have predicted what he could achieve this season. He just seems to get into a zone sometimes where he is near unbeatable, he knew he would have to put in a stellar lap time to beat Alonso, and he just did it, under such massive pressure he delivered. And he does it time, after time, after time.

Hes magical! Everything he achieves astounds me. No one could have predicted what he could achieve this season. He just seems to get into a zone sometimes where he is near unbeatable, he knew he would have to put in a stellar lap time to beat Alonso, and he just did it, under such massive pressure he delivered. And he does it time, after time, after time.
It's impressive, doesn't it? I can't realise how he achieved such a good time. Anyways i'm waiting for the qualifyings here. Tomorrow it will be a great race.

^^Yeah, that to annoyed me. If Roseberg never had that penalty imagine what he could of achieved in the race. He would of ended up with 8 points, just 4 behind Kovy, and more than Fisi

Hang on, which race are you talking about exactly? :p

It's impressive, doesn't it? I can't realise how he achieved such a good time. Anyways i'm waiting for the qualifyings here. Tomorrow it will be a great race.

I cant wait for the race either, its on at 4:30 or something daft, then repeated at 11:00. I think i may get up to watch the live one!

What i want and what will happen tomorrow, will probably vary quite a bit, i want Hamilton to win, Alonso to spin off and come around 6th. Button to excell in the wet and get to around 5th, Rosberg to fight his way through into the top 10, Massa to beat Raikkonen to 2nd place, Vettel to score some points and Kovi to do well.

What will probably happen (Knowing Britains luck) Will be Hamilton 2nd, Alonso 1st, Button DNF with hydraulic failure. Then Rosberg around 11th, Kimi 3rd, Massa 4th, Heidfeld 5th, Kubika 6th, Vettel anywhere below 10th and Kovi 12th.

Well thats my prediction but GO HAMILTON!

I just heard that Kubica don't know this track so well. He only knows this track from games. Weird. He hasn't raced in this track before.

^^sure, the only drivers who know this track are Sutil and Yamamato. Its a new track so no ones been here yet

Hang on, which race are you talking about exactly? :p
this one, fuji

Fortunately I didn't watch 'Wonder kid' get his pole today.

Thats all I have to say really has I didn't watch the qualifying but I think Kimi won't disappiont :D lol.

I think its about official, Mark Webber has THE worst luck of any driver ever!

Just crazy stuff. Would not want to be Vettel right now.

Awesome race really.

I think we shouldn't spoil it for everyone still to watch it.
But watch every second, amazing race

What a race at the end!

Sure Lewis ran away with it at the end but there was a great finnish (:D) behind him. Heikki and Kimi head to head at the end great stuff. Amazing stuff between Massa and Kubica as well, bumping each other and driving each other off course for the last few corners with Massa getting by him my 2-3 car lengths.

Best race I have seen for pure carnage and racing this year.

Haha, Alonso crashed!

Yeah, fantastic race.
If you were to pick driver of the day, you can't really.
Massa was brilliant despite more misfortune, kimi also amazing race, kovy a podium finish, from nowhere. Lewis dominated brilliantly.

I feel sorry for both vettel and Webber, but it was vettel's fault, and webber has the right to be angry.

Alonso's crash means that lewis is so so close to winning the WDC.

Another mention is sutil, who just lost a point to luzzi, he was ahead of luzzi, but i'm not sure what happened.

Also to Luzzi getting the first point for STR, another great moment

I got up a 4:20am and hoped for a good race. At first it was "why have i got up" as for 23 long & slow laps was done bhind the safety car. But once the safety car went it the real racing and skill started.

As normal ferrari bent the rules and got away as always as ferrari are the FIA darlings. At the end of it all lewis won a race he really deserved. From pole and behind the safety car to pitting and re-emerging still in the lead, and also being unfairly hit by kubica and still won gets my vote for driver of the day.

But every driver did well but alonso washed away his chance of a 3rd stright world title.

Bring on china.

As normal ferrari bent the rules and got away as always as ferrari are the FIA darlings.

How do you mean? Did something happen at the start? I kind of...missed it :s

Or are you talking about Kubica and Massa at the end?

Ferrari used what bridgestone call the "wet" tyre or as most others know ir as the imtermediate tyre when they should have bein on the "super wets" or normal wet tyres when they was behind the safety car.

Not suprisinigly only ferrari didn't know that they had to use those tyres but all other teams did. That to me is both not suprising and normal ferrari, always cheating the rules.

It was a stupid move by ferrari, but what would of been the outcome of the race if they hadn't done that.

For sure it would of been nowhere near as exciting.

But the sad thing was that Button raced with no nose, it was sad to see all his efforts put to waste

Looks like the championships over for everyone except Hammy...*yawn*

Ferrari used what bridgestone call the "wet" tyre or as most others know ir as the imtermediate tyre when they should have bein on the "super wets" or normal wet tyres when they was behind the safety car.

Not suprisinigly only ferrari didn't know that they had to use those tyres but all other teams did. That to me is both not suprising and normal ferrari, always cheating the rules.

That's not cheating. They just made a mistake. Every driver/engineer decides which tires to put on his car. Thats how Winkelhock led a few laps at Nurburgring at his first race.

I think it was unfair when Luici was allowed to overtake all the cars and even Safety car just because he has entered the pit. But not for ferrari or anyone else. At least it was strange.

I think it was unfair when Luici was allowed to overtake all the cars and even Safety car just because he has entered the pit. But not for ferrari or anyone else. At least it was strange.

Most likely because he was lapped whilst in the pits.

Not sure if anyone else was though.

No, it was just Luzzi.
He started from the pits, then had to go into the pits again and ended up being lapped.

But if it wasn't for Luzzi the race might never had started, his lap confirmed that it was ok to drive around the circuit

No, it was just Luzzi.
He started from the pits, then had to go into the pits again and ended up being lapped.

But if it wasn't for Luzzi the race might never had started, his lap confirmed that it was ok to drive around the circuit

Man, I feel so out of it! I can't believe I missed practically half the race! It was lovely to see the cars actually race in the wet, but I don't think the drivers like it a whole lot! Sato was complaining on how cold it was in the cockpit behind the safety car.

I also thought it was funny/surprising to read Wurz describe the conditions as being 'like running through your house with your eyes closed'.

Awesome race. Even at the start behind the safety car it was more fun then most F1 races.

To start with my hero of the race, Vettel. And I feel really sorry for him making that mistake. He said he was looking somewhere else, saw everyone slowing down, and when he looked in front he was already in the back of Webber.

Too bad the Ferrari team was messing up in the beginning, could have been a good fight between the McLarens and the Ferraris.\

Though the F1-drivers are weird, saying it was so dangerous to drive, but still doing 300+ on the end of the straight:rolleyes:.

Great race, great fights, enjoyed it alot. :)

Sato was complaining on how cold it was in the cockpit behind the safety car.

I guess that he was glad then with that fire, to warm him up.:D

Apparently Webber threw up in the car. Great end to a great day i guess


Edit:
Glock also won the GP2 series today. So i think he might just get a drive with a team for next year, so i think it will be interesting now, because it might now come out who's driving for who.

But apparently Prodrive is already got 2 drivers, de la rosa and gary paffet, the McLaren test drivers.

So that leaves, a seat at Toyota, Williams, Renault, Spyker to be filled,

So my prediction will be.
Toyota - Glock
Williams - Sutil
Renault - Piquet
Spyker -Karun Chandock (indian owner what indian driver)
Spyker - Whoever brings the most money


Plus yesssssss
Spyker get a point at last, get in there Sutil
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6905.html

^Yeah, Webber threw up in the cockpit during the safety car period due to food poisoning.

It marked the end of a difficult afternoon for Webber, who, suffering from food poisoning, had actually vomited in the cockpit during the initial safety-car period.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6898.html

It was a great race with lots of action going on in the track. But it was a shame Vettel crashed into Webber, if it wasn't for that he could have challenged Hamilton for 1st place and could have scored his best finish ever. Obviously he was very angry but I would be furious too if somebody crashed into me when i was coming 2nd.

Anyways the final 2 races of the season should be interesting, but because of Alonso's crash today i think Hamilton has the drivers championship in the bag. Can't wait for china next week.

EDIT: Ferrari claim that they did not start on extreme wets because of a late notification.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6902.html

And big news, Vettel is penalized over his collision with Mark Webber and will drop 10 grid places in the Chinese GP.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6904.html

^^
Yeah i heard.
I believe ferrari for some reason, it was probaly just a misunderstanding.

But yeah, Vettel sort did deserve that, but it won't make much of a difference, he would be at the back anyway

Come on!

What a race! I am so glad i got up early to watch it.

The ferrari tyre incident, in my eyes they knew about it. Funny how every single other car got the message clear and followed it, but Ferrari "we didnt get that memo" i think tried to gamble and try and surprise them all. It didnt work!

What a drive from all of them, the visibility was near enough zero, i have so much respect for them now (not that i didnt before) but to go 60+ laps in those conditions, fight with other cars and try and get the best out of it is astonishing.

I was gutted for Webber, he is easially the unluckiest driver in F1, no doubt. Looked solid for 2nd place then through no fault of his own was taken out. Bad for Vettel aswell but it may have been down to him having a lapse in concentration.

Kimi drove like an absolute legend! What a drive from him, he was 21st at one point and looked unlikely to score at all. But he fought his way through and with a change in strategy was able to get on the podium.

Massa was a bit poor today, he went off the track so many times, had 4 times through the pits and still managed to get to 5th, good job but couldve been so much better.

Coulthard was fantastic, just shows what a difference rain makes. Button was the same, even with no wing at all he was out there still posting times, albeit a bit off the pace, but without that he couldve been right up there in 4th or 5th.

But Hamilton, i was amazed by his driving before, but now i simply cannot explain it, he has driven one race in the wet in a formula one car, comes here in appaling conditions to a track he has never driven on untill friday and completely controlls the race, i cant remember him making any mistakes through the entire race. How he does it is astonishing. Now the championship is so close he must be able to smell the polish on the trophy!

Alonso, that has summed up his season really, when hamilton is on it, and is flawless, Alonso just crumbles, making several mistakes and eventually aquaplaning into the wall in great style. He must have spun thinking "Bye bye championship". I wanted that to happen, it has been coming to him all season for his attitude towards McLaren.

Two races left, if Hamilton finishes infront of Alonso next weekend, game over and we have a rookie world champion. Alonso needs a Hammy DNF and then to beat him by 2 places or more in Brazil to take this. It will be so hard for him to do, i for one dont think he can.

Amazing spirit from Kimi though, theoretically he could still win it, but that shot is so far out, yet he still pushes to the limit, hoping for it to fall for him.

One last word, COME ON HAMILTON!! BRING IT HOME!!

I think Massa just had more bad luck today, he was hit by Wurz, and both Ferrari drivers lost it behind the safety car, just whatever happened with massa meant he had that penalty.
But Massa and Kimi were Flying around the circuit, and ITV never even showed half their overtaking.

but yeah, for sure Hamiliton to win it this year, he just deserves it, you can't fault him.

Also i want to point out, that this weekend made Lewis and Alonso equal, since now they both have races where they never scored points, so the score now represents there pace, and Lewis's 12 point lead shows that he really has been the dominant driver

I think Massa just had more bad luck today, he was hit by Wurz, and both Ferrari drivers lost it behind the safety car, just whatever happened with massa meant he had that penalty.
But Massa and Kimi were Flying around the circuit, and ITV never even showed half their overtaking.

but yeah, for sure Hamiliton to win it this year, he just deserves it, you can't fault him.

Also i want to point out, that this weekend made Lewis and Alonso equal, since now they both have races where they never scored points, so the score now represents there pace, and Lewis's 12 point lead shows that he really has been the dominant driver

Never actually thought of it like that, but your absolutely right. Imo Hammy deserves it more than Alonso.

It was a really great race. A fantastic race. At the end Kubica fought with Massa. Lucky Massa. It was a really great fight between Massa and Kubica.

Alonso was unlucky. He's a a good driver in wet conditions but he crashed to the wall.

Ferrari made a mistake with the tires so in the first laps both cars went through the pit lane.

Webber and Vettel were so unlucky. I'm really sorry abou them. Anyways Vettel has a talent. But he crashed Webber. Webber got angry from this silly mistake. He threw his steering wheel. How can you throw a 40000€ steering wheel? lol

BMW didn't make a good start. But they earned some points. They tried. Well done.

Where's Button? Very unlucky.

Renault was good and i saw, that they have found the right specs in raining conditions.

Hami won the race and he was incredible. I think that now he can shout the word "title".

Hami just amazes me, how the hell could a driver in his 1st season do the Japanese GP in extremely wet conditions without any mistakes and come 1st!

makes me proud to be British :p

I cant wait for the race either, its on at 4:30 or something daft, then repeated at 11:00. I think i may get up to watch the live one!

What i want and what will happen tomorrow, will probably vary quite a bit, i want Hamilton to win, Alonso to spin off and come around 6th. Button to excell in the wet and get to around 5th, Rosberg to fight his way through into the top 10, Massa to beat Raikkonen to 2nd place, Vettel to score some points and Kovi to do well.

What will probably happen (Knowing Britains luck) Will be Hamilton 2nd, Alonso 1st, Button DNF with hydraulic failure. Then Rosberg around 11th, Kimi 3rd, Massa 4th, Heidfeld 5th, Kubika 6th, Vettel anywhere below 10th and Kovi 12th.

Well thats my prediction but GO HAMILTON!

To be fair that isn't a bad prediction, some of it is right! But you're 100% right about Britain's luck. I know Webber was no doubt the unluckiest person in F1 ever, but Button was very very unlucky aswell. His pace in the early stages meant that he was virtually guaranteed at least a podium finish. But, when he went to overtake Heidfeld, his front wing got knocked off and he went back down to 20th position and only really made up ground due to attrition. Made me seriously, seriously pissed off but I suppose a STUNNING drive by Hamilton (kinda) made up for it. I'm trying to get the good points to outweight the bad ones!

I think its about official, Mark Webber has THE worst luck of any driver ever!

Just crazy stuff. Would not want to be Vettel right now.

Awesome race really.

Did you see Vettel crying his eyes out? Felt so sorry for the man. Guaranteed a Red Bull company 2-3. Just think he lost his concetration a little bit. Could be costly.

But the sad thing was that Button raced with no nose, it was sad to see all his efforts put to waste

God, I know. :( Totally sucks..

^Yeah, Webber threw up in the cockpit during the safety car period due to food poisoning.

And big news, Vettel is penalized over his collision with Mark Webber and will drop 10 grid places in the Chinese GP.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6904.html

About Webber, I heard about that. It must be pretty damn nasty for that to happen. Didn't fault his progress until Vettel did, though.

But about the penalty, I think that's ridiculous. Yes, I feel very very very sorry for Webber and for Vettel, but he didn't do it maliciously (obviously) did he? In my eyes it's a very (unfortunate) racing incident and I don't think a penalty should have come out of it.

_

BEWARE: This is going to be long.

Qualifying thoughts (irrelevant now, but whatever)

What an absolutely stunning lap from Hamilton, definitely showed Alonso who’s boss around here. When I turned on the telly, there was four minutes to go in Q1 and Hamilton was down in 18th place and could only get one lap in on his intermediate tyres to get through. He did it, and with style. Just goes to show how good this man is under pressure. But from then things didn’t go so well (by the way I knew Hamilton was going to be on pole, I just didn’t know where everyone else was starting, because I’d seen it on the projector screen in my snooker club) because he was down in 4th place behind Alonso and the Ferraris. Alonso seemed to be quicker than him through and through, and so did Massa and Raikkonen. Seemed very likely that Alonso would grab the pole in the dying minutes, but then, WOW, what a stunning lap from Hamilton to take pole by 1 tenth of a second. Just brilliant. Good we got to ride on board with him aswell; as he nearly crashed into the back of another car on the way. But it’s a fully deserved pole from him and he finally has the upper hand on Alonso now, which is good, and it puts him in good stead for the race. Go Hamilton for the win.

Alonso; slightly on the back foot now, being beaten by his team-mate for the first time in three races. He needs to put in a special performance tomorrow. But you never know, all of this could be totally void because we could have a surprise winner if it’s wet (GO BUTTON!).

I guess Ferrari might be a little disappointed with their qualifying performance. They just had the edge all the way through Q2 and Q2, but when the track dried out, the McLarens had the advantage. They start 3rd and 4th and if Raikkonen or Massa don’t get a win today then I think their championships are over. They keep saying “if McLaren have an engine penalty we will be right back in there” but so far it just has not happened and if current trend continues then I can’t see it happening all year. 3rd and 4th is not ideal but their longer run pace is a little better than the McLarens I think and who knows, the might have been carrying a hell of a lot more fuel than the McLarens; we just don’t know it. What we do know is that they need to pull something out of the bag tomorrow to get a win and to keep both of their slim title chances alive.

Also, what brilliant qualifying from Honda, Jenson in particular. Starting 6th place tomorrow, get in there! I wasn’t really feeling confident of them getting past Q2 (or even Q1) really due to their poor practice times but then the rain came, and so did the rain master. Stunning few laps, up to 5th at one point. 6th, highest starting place of the season, and a really really good opportunity to score some “damn good points”. Hopefully they’ll have a lot of fuel on board and things stay wet because if they get some points today it could really really help their 2008 car with them getting more money from the points. Really excited, can’t wait. Barrichello, starting 11th (I think, I might be off on a few of them because I can’t go onto the ITV F1 website because it will show me who has won). Good qualifying from him, just didn’t really have the setup today to match Button which is a real shame. Hopefully he can get some points because he really really deserves them today.

Williams, Rosberg starting 17th after his engine change which is a shame because Rosberg has been in the points for the last few races and it will be really really tough for him to do it from there. Wurz starts down in the lower teens. (I think?)

Another star performance was from Vettel, getting his STR up to 8th place (7th I think, after Rosberg’s engine penalty) which is really great. He even said he bet his mate £20 he will get into Q3 and he did, so he made some money aswell! Who knows, they might actually get some points today, which would be great for the new boy and for them. Anyway it was a great qualifying session, what with the rain and all, and I’m really looking forward to the race.
_

Race thoughts:

What an absolutely bloody crazy race. The craziest race I have ever seen in my life and it will probably go down in history as one of the craziest races ever, with one of the best drives in the history of F1.

But, what an absolutely brilliant drive by Lewis. Absolutely amazing. If anyone doubts his skills now, you are either deluded and/or blind and deaf. It's not ass kissing, it's not opinion, it's a fact that today was one of the best drives ever.

Unfortunately I didn't get up to see the whole race, but I saw that it was going to be started from the safety car, and ITV skipped around 20 laps behind the safety car which I thought was a bit harsh, some of the stuff could have been interesting. But anyway my heart was beating like a drum, mainly for Button because I knew he had a chance of a podium, and when both Ferraris pitted for tyres (kinda obvious Ferrari knew, how come everyone had the memo and yet a world champion team didn't?)

But when it actually started, it was brilliant, brilliant stuff. Lewis driving stunningly, keeping Alonso behind him and extending his lead aswell, which was great. The really crap thing was that Button, who went down the inside of Heidfeld in a fantastic move, got clipped and his wing fell off so he had to pit after a few laps (after doing comeptitive times with no nose), and he went down to 20th and he didn't really recover from that, and he was looking good for a second place or a podium behind Hamilton, which pissed me off no end. I'm still mad now but Hamilton's drive kinda outweights that now.

So yeah, by first pit stop time, Alonso pitted and when he came out in the train of cars his race was pretty much over. Down to something like 10th or 12th and never really recovered, but Lewis' inlap was much quicker than Alonsos so he could get out infront of everyone and not really be held up, but then Kubica tried to go up the inside of him and hit him, spinning him. So then he was down to something like 6th but kept the pressure on to keep leading the race.

Few laps later it was Hamilton leading, then a surprise package, Webber and Vettel. It was such a bloody shame when Vettel punted Webber out of a guaranteed podium place (see Webber throw his steering wheel out of his car?), which was very very unfortunate. Shame for Vettel, shame for Webber, but ridiculous that Vettel has a penalty.

Then I saw Alonso crash, and after a few ''oohs'' and ''aahs'' from me I knew that the championship is virtually over for Alonso now barring anything, and rightly so. Hamilton has been the better driver over the course of the season and he deserves the title. Alonso crashing out...that's karma for you. I expected Raikkonen and a few others to get punctures by driving over all the crap on the racetrack, but they were lucky that they didn't.

Anyway to the Ferraris, their championship is pretty much over but you can't say they haven't fought for it. Raikkonen giving Kovi a hard time on the last few laps and Massa giving Kubica an even harder time. Near the end it was practically a fight between those two!

But yeah as I said the title is basically over, for Ferrari anyway, as McLaren have had the better drivers and have been the better team over the course of the season. Shame, because they have raced hard all year.

Behind them things were even more nuts I have to say. Some good battles going on, Massa spinning out early because of Wurz, then Wurz coming in to pit, and then Button not even finishing after a really really promising start.

Not really much to say about the back of the pack, waaaayy less interesting than the front because there were so much more battles there. Have to say congrats to Sutil for getting his point, well earned from him.

I have decided that rain is one of the best elements around and I hope we have some in China next time out.

For the meantime, GO LEWIS HAMILTON!

_

Race Report:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40863

The Massa vs Kubica fight, the commentators actually compared it to Gilles vs Arnoux. Which is one of the most incredible fights every.

If you haven't seen it, you need to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3tXJm9tYGM

it was great, Kubica went wide, then got back, pushed massa wide, and despite that Massa still got back on track and took 6th. Seriously, after Massa went off i thought Kubica has got it, but then Massa came back of a part of the track which i'm sure was very wet to take position.
All the more reason i love Massa's driving

EDIT:
Its already on youtube with some crazy japanese commentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5sOZWbyfSk

The Massa vs Kubica fight, the commentators actually compared it to Gilles vs Arnoux. Which is one of the most incredible fights every.

If you haven't seen it, you need to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3tXJm9tYGM

it was great, Kubica went wide, then got back, pushed massa wide, and despite that Massa still got back on track and took 6th. Seriously, after Massa went off i thought Kubica has got it, but then Massa came back of a part of the track which i'm sure was very wet to take position.
All the more reason i love Massa's driving
Yep. It was a great fight. I enjoyed it. In a while i thought that Kubica got him but Massa had not said his last word.

Also i realised that despite the rain the crowd attendance was so high. Nice.

Also i love this mercedes amg black series ( safety car) .

i though it was commical at the start, i watched it live, so it felt like the safety car would never go away.
Then they found out the Safety car couldn't run the whole race, which we thought it would have to, so it ended up there was a 2nd one on stand by, damn

^^There is always a 2nd safety car stand by.

And a 3rd...they use the Doctors car in case the 2nd one fails, to date it has never happened. Notice the AMG V8 is more pronouced over the scream of the F1 cars, I find it funny that the Safety car can pull away from a F1 car driven by the best drivers in the world. I understand why, with the cars turning into boats on sodden tracks like this, its just quite funny. I think the F1 drivers will be happy this race is over... they've earned their wages for the day i'd say! Lol

I find it funny that the Safety car can pull away from a F1 car driven by the best drivers in the world. I understand why, with the cars turning into boats on sodden tracks like this, its just quite funny.

Well, it's not as if the F1 cars are racing the safety car. The safety car is driven pretty much balls out just to give the F1 cars a reasonable pace.

A lot of the time the lead car in the field will let the safety car go ahead for a bit so that they can get enough room to warm up the rear tyres.

Also, the safety car is driven by a former F1 driver, Bernd Maylander.

Well, it's not as if the F1 cars are racing the safety car. The safety car is driven pretty much balls out just to give the F1 cars a reasonable pace.

A lot of the time the lead car in the field will let the safety car go ahead for a bit so that they can get enough room to warm up the rear tyres.

Also, the safety car is driven by a former F1 driver, Bernd Maylander.

Yeah I know, but its still quite amusing. Its lucky they dont use Quattro Audi's like they do in DTM... they'd be buggered! Lol

lol, i reckon it'd be funny if they used a Ford Mondeo. The F1 cars would go so slow, the engines would overheat and everyone would retire!

^^i saw the GP2 safety car they had last weekend was actually a Ford Focus.
Thankgod it never came out.

^That's a crime against motorsport, having a Ford Focus as a safety car! British Superbikes have an Audi RS4 which is cool, and a Cayenne aswell, but they gotta have the daddy, the AMG V8, as the F1 safety car.

About the Massa/Kubica battle, it was really really great. I thought Kubica had it, but Massa won it back. Incredible driving from the both of them. Great action to cap off an action-filled race.

^That's a crime against motorsport, having a Ford Focus as a safety car! British Superbikes have an Audi RS4 which is cool, and a Cayenne aswell, but they gotta have the daddy, the AMG V8, as the F1 safety car.

Then the A1GP has the godfather:
http://photos.a1gp.com/thumbnails/2007/a1gp-2007-01/race1/0BQIWSH0FJ5YBL0W79YF402CLVY9_600.jpg

And as medical car:
http://photos.a1gp.com/thumbnails/2007/a1gp-2007-01/race1/0VUIJNK0P5U3R40D6ER5T09UKZ29_600.jpg



About the Massa/Kubica battle, it was really really great. I thought Kubica had it, but Massa won it back. Incredible driving from the both of them. Great action to cap off an action-filled race.


If Kubica would have Massa given the room to stay on track he would have got it, but the asphalt which is lying as a run-out zone has more grip then the normal track. That's why Massa got in front of Kubica.

Doesn't take anything away from the awesome fight they had. They both said it was their personal best part of the race. Which i can imagine

^Damn, why doesn't F1 have the 599? The pinnacle of motorsport needs the pinnacle of the road car world!

Anyway yeah, it was an awesome fight from both of them, it was their best part because they both had a slightly disappointing race by their high standrds, but at least they still got points.

Best would be a LP640 Safety Car. mmmmmm now that would be the business.

Photoshop anyone lol ?

Best would be a LP640 Safety Car. mmmmmm now that would be the business.

Photoshop anyone lol ?
Hehe. That would be awesome. But the black series is a great car for a safety car. Right?

Hamilton under investigation!

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/10/6923.html

Hamilton under investigation!

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/10/6923.html

I saw that, and I've seen the youtube vid, and I agree with Webber. Hamilton slowed down quite a bit, Webber couldn't get passed, and Vettel didn't notice and went into Webber.

What is especially alarming is when Webber says that they all agreed that they keep a constant speed behind the safety car pre-race due to the conditions, yet Lewis did not.

What kind of punishment can they give, though? 10 places down at Shanghai?

^^ I'm guessing that yes. They could have given him a few seconds penalty in the final result of the Japanese GP. But I doubt that will happen. It's been too long since the end of the GP.

I don't think anything will happen out of this to be honest. I don't think there was any intent whatsoever from Hamilton to make Webber brake and for Vettel to go into the back of him. If it's accidental, it's fine. That's why I think Vettel's penalty is bullshit. No malicious intent and yet he gets penalised?

I see nothing wrong with it to be honest, kinda clutching at straws if you ask me...

Well, if Hamilton intentionally slowed to make Vettel crash into Webber, then that makes no sense. Why would he try to illiminate 2 cars that were ahead of one of his rivals, Kimi? Without that shunt, Kimi wouldve been completely out of it.

They investigated this incident after the race and didnt punish Hamilton because he didnt intentionally brake so that they would collide. If he gets some penalty for this then i will be very shocked and very confused.

Also, what punishment could they give him? They cant really take away the win from him. He wouldve almost certainly won the GP anyway even without Vettel hitting Webber, he was pulling over a second a lap away from everyone after the second safety car. No way could Webber have won it.

He says he had to keep braking hard because of the brake compound he was using. That seems fair to me.

It's not because he intentionally slowed down to make people crash. It's because he may have caused a dangerous situation, and therefor an accident. Which, if it turns out he did brake too hard(I can't find any vid on youtube that haven't been put offline), he did.
Vettel has been punished for crashing into Webber. Did he mean to do that? Everybody who has seen his reaction must agree that he didn't.

What I think, is that Vettel nor Hamilton should be punished. I think the FIA should drop Vettel's punishment.

I found a video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QJurnfxRm4

He pulls right, but Webber slows with him, then Vettel just runs into him. No one should be punished for this. Vettel especially. He looks to me as if hes also trying to get some room to heat the rear tyres a bit.

After watching it over and over, why is Vettel straight behind Webber, following him so closely anyway? Everyone else is offset to one another apart from Vettel. Anyway, Hamilton does slow a bit too much imo, i can see why they are investigating it, it does look a bit wrong for him to slow that much, but i dont think he should be punished for it. Hahaha! one person describes it as he "dramatically swerves right"! He keeps right after the corner, then brakes. Where does he swerve in that video? I think the only thing that you could pin on Hammy is not following the saftey car close enough. Imo, this is more Vettels fault than Hamiltons.

What I found alarming, and what I said before which people have seemed to ignore/not read, is that it was agreed by all the drivers that in the event of a safety car, and in such conditions, the lead car must keep a constant speed.

Webber and Vettel are complaining that the pace that Lewis was setting for the rest of the field was was way to varied, in that there was little to no rhythm.

Vettel says he was distracted by Hamilton when he went into Mark. He reckons that Hamilton's pace was so slow that he thought he was retiring.

Quote from Vettel in Shanghai press conference (taken from F1-live):
"I was looking to the right and I was sure he (Hamilton) was retiring, there was no power anymore and yeah, all I can say is that by the time I looked back I was already in Mark’s rear end so… It’s not to blame anybody but for sure the reason was the rhythm was not there."

And Mark, being, well, Mark:

"I think he did a [really bad] job behind the safety car. He did a [really bad] job and that’s it. He spoke in the drivers’ briefing about how good a job he was going to do and then he did the job the opposite way, so we know for next time, it’s no problem."

So, basically, Webber and Vettel are complaining about the pace that Lewis was setting, in that it wasn't consistent like it ideally should have been. As a result, it caught Webber out, who had to slow down, and Vettel, who thought Hamilton was retiring.

If Hamilton had kept a constant speed, his tyres would be cold and so would his brakes. Surely he needed to speed up and slow down to keep them at higher temperatures.

Drivers do this all the time when theres a safety car out, always varying the distance between themselves and the safety car. They always brake, speed up, brake, speed up. I agree that in these conditions he shouldve done a better job, but you cant punish anyone for this accident.

Hamilton under investigation!

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/10/6923.html

How dare the FIA acuse Hamilton of anything we all know 'the wonder kid' does nothing wrong don't we :rolleyes: ????

I wouldn't like to be a Hamilton Fanboy today :D !

Seriously he should be docked ponts if he is found to have caused the Vettel - Webber accident but hey I would say that I want Kimi to win the Championship.

If Hamilton had kept a constant speed, his tyres would be cold and so would his brakes. Surely he needed to speed up and slow down to keep them at higher temperatures.

Drivers do this all the time when theres a safety car out, always varying the distance between themselves and the safety car. They always brake, speed up, brake, speed up. I agree that in these conditions he shouldve done a better job, but you cant punish anyone for this accident.

I know that, but it was found that in those conditions, a more constant pace needed to be kept due to the obvious visibility problems. It think what they are trying to say, is that the pace varied too much.

I don't know if anyone will be punished, and quite frankly I don't quite care what happens to whoever. I was just laying all the cards on the table so everyone knows more about what happened and why Hamilton is being investigated. It's not just because of that incident itself, it's just that that incident may or may not have been caused by what some drivers consider an inconsistent pace.

How dare the FIA acuse Hamilton of anything we all know 'the wonder kid' does nothing wrong don't we :rolleyes: ????

I wouldn't like to be a Hamilton Fanboy today :D !

Seriously he should be docked ponts if he is found to have caused the Vettel - Webber accident but hey I would say that I want Kimi to win the Championship.

Wouldnt like to be a Kimi fanboy this season, oops, sorry Nemphis! :D

Just to add another few pieces of wood on the fire (or however that saying goes), it's not only Webber and Vettel who were critical of Hamilton's driving. Button, Alonso (does he really count? :p), Heidfeld, Franz Tost, and 'others' have spoken about it too.

Button is believed to have said:
"When I was behind him it felt really inconsistent. I don't know what he was doing really. He came through the last section and he kept slowing down. He knew the safety car wasn't coming in and he kept hitting the brakes hard in the last sector so everyone would bunch up. Then he'd shoot off and brake again."

Warming up the brakes or the tyres is fine and dandy, but it becomes a much weirder situation when a fellow racer points it out.

Wouldnt like to be a Kimi fanboy this season, oops, sorry Nemphis! :D

I'm not a Kimi fanboy lol



urrrmmmm well ok yeah I am.

Seriously though I think Kimi has done a great job this season and after all he has been given a car that has had some reliability issues and cost him races unlike Alonso or Hamilton or have both had very little or no reliability issues at all this season.

Yeah, Hammy's behaviour was a bit unfair, even to Alonso at the start. Everyone I was watching the GP with agreed that he didn't do what he should have done when he was being the safety car...

I keep watching and watching this video, seeing new things every time. Going into the first corner Hammy is close to the safety car, upon exiting the corner either he accelerates hard or the safety car doesnt accelerate much (He appears to be along side it at one point) and Hammy moves right to avoid getting too close to it. He remains on the outside of the bend into the second corner, Webber and Vettel keep to the inside making it look like they are travelling a hell of a lot faster than Hammy. Hammy appears to me to slow down to give him some room between himself and the safety car, Webber sees this and slowes down, Vettel watches Hamilton when he really should be focusing on what Webber is doing and crashes into Mark.

It's not because he intentionally slowed down to make people crash. It's because he may have caused a dangerous situation, and therefor an accident. Which, if it turns out he did brake too hard(I can't find any vid on youtube that haven't been put offline), he did.
Vettel has been punished for crashing into Webber. Did he mean to do that? Everybody who has seen his reaction must agree that he didn't.

What I think, is that Vettel nor Hamilton should be punished. I think the FIA should drop Vettel's punishment.

It's all well and good saying that he could have caused an accident. I hate it when the FIA and other governing bodies say stuff like ''Oh he could have caused an accident.'' Most of the time accidents don't occur. It's not what could have happened, it's what did happen. An accident did happen on Sunday but it was no way near dangerous. A shunt like that is just a tiny, tiny knock to F1 drivers.

However I do agree that Vettels penalty is ridiculous. I seriously cannot see any logic whatsoever behind that. So there was an incident. Should Raikkonen be penalised because he crashed in Practice at Monza? No..it's one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.

Also, after watching the video, I can safely say that if any fault is to be placed, it should be on Vettel. However, I just think it was an accident which shouldn't really have happened, but there you go, it did. It's understandable that Hamilton was a little juddery, because he needed to warm his brakes. Should he sacrifice brake temperature and he vulnerable down into the first corner just to make other people happy? No, it's his own race and what he did was justifiable.

And besides, I agree with Beaver, why was Vettel so close to Webber anyway? Surely he knew that people would be warming their brakes and accelerating to get heat into their tyres? That's what you do in safety car periods, and Vettel was just following Webber only a few feet behind him. I guess he just lost concetration (which you shouldn't really do, anyway) and ran into the back of Webber.

Hamilton was just driving the way he does, and I see nothing wrong with it. Yes, he agreed to keep a consistent pace with the other drivers but if he didn't he would have been vulnerable.

Exactly, if Hammy had kept the same pace consistently with the safety car, when the race re-started, into turn 1 he would have had cold brakes and cold tyres, that would probably cost him a place or 2.

I must have watched this a hundred times now, and i cant see any justification for penalising Hamilton for "causing an accident"

If someone crashed into someone else in a warm up lap when one driver was warming their rear tyres and the guy infront was warming his brakes, would you penalise them for "causing an accident" No, because as we all know such things are neccasary procedures, just as Hamiltons braking. It was just an unfortunate accident, but if its anyones fault, its Vettel's, but he doesnt deserve a punishment for it!

ITV have a pole on Lewis driving
look how damn close it is
http://www.itv-f1.com/Home.aspx

Wow, thats close!

I do hope the FIA dont do anything about it, punishing Vettel was daft enough, but to punish Hamilton for basically warming his brakes and tyres would be beyond rediculous!

I have to conclude that, after massive amounts of analysing of the video (no, i dont have anything better to do) that Vettel was the one to blame. Hamilton slowed, Webber slowed accordingly, no problem. Vettel shouldve been watching Webber, not Hamilton, he hit Webber of his own fault. Hammy should not be punished for this.

I do hope the FIA dont do anything about it, punishing Vettel was daft enough, but to punish Hamilton for basically warming his brakes and tyres would be beyond rediculous!

He wasn't just 'basically' warming his tyres and brakes. Like Button said, Lewis was slowing down quite a bit in the last sector, meaning, even more so than what may be seen as required from Button or others.

I mean, Lewis was going so slow for so long that Vettel was positive that he was retiring. Therefore, he probably would have not expected Webber to have slowed down in order to not pass Lewis.

I don't think anyone was expecting Lewis to keep the same pace right through the lap, that's ridiculous. They just wanted Lewis to consistently slow down, and consistently speed up and not make any rash decisions.

It's also not just about that one decision, as he apparently displayed a less than ideally consistent pace throughout the majority of the safety car period.

Well yes, i suppose i have to agree with you there Timbit.
Nevertheless:

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40952

YESSSS!!! WOOOOOOOOH!!!

Oh great, he played the 'it would be bad for the sport' card. Good one, Lewis. It seems to be the phrase of the season...

What gets to me is when he says "There's been some real strange situations this year where I'm made to look the bad person and, by the looks of it, this weekend be given a penalty. If this is the way it's going to keep going, it's not somewhere I really want to be.".

Yep. We're all out to get you Lewis. We all think you're a no goodnick.

I don't know, but that seems be a quite retarded thing to say. I mean, other drivers have had it worse than Lewis. Sounds like he just need to harden up, I mean, it hasn't all been that bad. Sheesh.

He's a race driver in the most popular motorsport category in the world. Not everyone is going to like you. People will even hate you. People looking down on you or picking you apart are just things race drivers, especially in F1, have to learn to take.

Yeah, he does have to learn to take them, but remember. Hes a rookie! He never expected to have to deal with this kind of pressure and the amount of people laying into him from time to time. He will no doubt learn from this and become stronger towards future incidents.

Well the good news is, at least, is that Vettel has his penalty amended, so he'll start where he qualifies :)

Can't say I'm not surpised after all it would be tragic for the sport if 'the wonder kid' got punished wouldn't it :rolleyes: ????

I was hoping he would have got a 10 place penalty or points deduction to help Kimi win the Championship :mad: !!!

Can't say I'm not surpised after all it would be tragic for the sport if 'the wonder kid' got punished wouldn't it :rolleyes: ????

I was hoping he would have got a 10 place penalty or points deduction to help Kimi win the Championship :mad: !!!

Oh my god!

Whenever Hammy gets a decision towards him your all like "oh wonder boy, always gets his own way, no one will punish him because he is the chosen one, blah blah blah"

But i can guarantee if it had been Kimi being investigated you wouldve been all "This is all bull, he didnt do anything wrong etc." Give him a break! He obvously didnt do anything worth punishing him for, otherwise he would have gotten a penalty. Vettel also got his penalty removed, you never mentioned that, but if that was Hammy you wouldve been like you are, commenting about him being the "wonder kid"

Just accept the fact that he has beaten Kimi, this was just not meant to be Kimi's year!

Oh my god!

Whenever Hammy gets a decision towards him your all like "oh wonder boy, always gets his own way, no one will punish him because he is the chosen one, blah blah blah"

But i can guarantee if it had been Kimi being investigated you wouldve been all "This is all bull, he didnt do anything wrong etc." Give him a break! He obvously didnt do anything worth punishing him for, otherwise he would have gotten a penalty. Vettel also got his penalty removed, you never mentioned that, but if that was Hammy you wouldve been like you are, commenting about him being the "wonder kid"

Just accept the fact that he has beaten Kimi, this was just not meant to be Kimi's year!

Thats the thing if Kimi did it I would jokingly say 'its bull' but I would look at the evidence and if he did wrong I would say 'Kimi has done wrong' and admit it but at the end of the day Kimi would never do anything like that so I will never have to say that so I'm cool :D.

My 'beef' is with Hamilton saying:

"It looks like this weekend I'm probably going to given a penalty and I think it's just a shame for the sport,"

Talk about being big headed has if a punishment for him would be ashame for the sport ???

"If this is the way it's going to keep going then it's probably not somewhere that I want to be."

If Hamilton thinks his F1 career is gonna be full of podiums, glory and race wins he needs to look at the reality of the sport and see that things don't go your way all the time, take Honda and Button this season for example could their season get any worst ????

I really wanna emphasise that I think Hamilton is a good driver but I get the feeling you guys think I hate him which is untrue I just don't think he is great and 'god like' like the F1 media seem to portray him.

Kimi is still in the running and remember ......


...... IT ISN'T OVER TILL ITS OVER !!!!!

Thats alright then, i got the impression that you just thought he was lucky and wasnt that good of a driver.

I think he was talking about he fact that he was being investigated for something in which he saw nothing wrong with.

Its not over till its over, i agree with you there, but Kimi's chances of winning it are next to zero. Its between Hammy and Alonso.

but Kimi's chances of winning it are next to zero. Its between Hammy and Alonso.

You are gonna regret saying that lol because if Kimi wins the Championship thats my Signature :D !

Your going to regret putting "2007 = Kimi's year !" under your name. Because if/when Hamilton wins the championship ill put that in my sig!

Well either that or a post you made a while ago which said something like "Face it, its Kimi's year people!!"

Well the good news is, at least, is that Vettel has his penalty amended, so he'll start where he qualifies :)

Thank God. I'm very surprised that STR didn't appeal the penalty that had been given to Vettel in the first place, as it was totally, totally ridiculous. Anyway it's nice to see that the correct decision was made regarding Vettel, and hopefully he can qualify well in China.

That's the last time the FIA bring whacky-backy into the courtrooms.

About the Lewis decision; that was the correct one waswell. It's nothing about being the 'wonder kid' or anything like that, it's all about common sense. The FIA only launched an investigation because some of the drivers were moaning about how he was driving ''eratically.''

And when he says it would be 'bad for the sport', he doesn't mean that it was bad that he was investigated, it meant that it would be bad for the sport if he got a penalty for just doing his thing behind the safety car. Giving him a penalty, in my opinion, was 100% non-justifiable as in my eyes he has done nothing wrong.

Anyway, good decision and the Chinese GP thread will be up in a minute guys.

A point that I had someone make to me was that Hamilton's tactics were certainly not something that had never been seen before. Schumacher, Hakkinen, and various other drivers have all done the little "hard-braking" move, but I think what ticked me off about Hamilton was that he was doing it virtually a lot more than just a lap before the restart, it was for lap after lap in the last sector, and I knew someone was going to run into someone else eventually (personally, I thought Webber was going to crash into Hamilton). Vettel's penalty was completely unnecessary, as was the investigation at Hamilton.

As for the Hamilton is better than Kimi thing, I have to disagree. Hamilton has had one bad starting position (German GP), and he wound up 8th. Kimi almost took 2nd spot in Fuji coming from something like 21st, even with the rain, and it wasn't the first time he's had that kind of a drive. Face it, Hamilton has been so good this year because he has driven virtually flawless in every race and hasn't had the car have any problems. One retirement could change everything around, as we saw with Alonso at Fuji.

As for the Hamilton is better than Kimi thing, I have to disagree. Hamilton has had one bad starting position (German GP), and he wound up 8th. Kimi almost took 2nd spot in Fuji coming from something like 21st, even with the rain, and it wasn't the first time he's had that kind of a drive. Face it, Hamilton has been so good this year because he has driven virtually flawless in every race and hasn't had the car have any problems. One retirement could change everything around, as we saw with Alonso at Fuji.

Dont you think thats just a tiny bit special?

A rookie, comes into an F1 car, makes flawless drives nearly every race? Name another driver that has done that? He has driven outstandingly, near perfect on some occasions when a double world champion makes countless mistakes.

He came 9th in Germany, from technically a lap down in 19th. He started 10th and got to 4th by turn 2!

Also, no one said Hamilton was a better driver than Kimi. Personally i couldnt pick a best driver out of all of them, they are all brilliant and some are better at some aspects than others.

He rightfully deserves the title of World Champion.

Flawless? Well, maybe a few, but certainly no one who has had the results he has had. Senna, Mansell, maybe Villeneuve (Gilles), and a few others, but certainly no one I can remember (unless backrunners count, because they can drive "flawlessly" and not make any mistakes, it just means they don't finish very well).

I think there are two things regarding Hamilton, either he shouldn't be called a rookie, because he clearly has not shown how he is one, or he is a robot. Personally, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Flawless? Well, maybe a few, but certainly no one who has had the results he has had. Senna, Mansell, maybe Villeneuve (Gilles), and a few others, but certainly no one I can remember (unless backrunners count, because they can drive "flawlessly" and not make any mistakes, it just means they don't finish very well).

I think there are two things regarding Hamilton, either he shouldn't be called a rookie, because he clearly has not shown how he is one, or he is a robot. Personally, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Exactly, he doesnt look like he is a rookie. He appears to have been there for years. If you brougnt someone who had never heard of Hamilton and had never seen an F1 race before, they would think he was a seasoned driver. But the fact is, he IS a rookie, which just makes everything that he has achieved even more astonishing!

If Hamilton wins the world championship, then he is the best in the world, simple as that. No ''Oh but this and that, Kimi this, Alonso that..'' stuff, they didn't win it, Hamilton did.

He fully deserves it if he wins it tomorrow, and I will be gunning for him aswell.

A great day for British sports aswell, three Brit drivers in Q3 (DC, Button and Lewis), and England pulling off one of the greatest victories EVER against Australia in the RWC today!

If Hamilton wins the world championship, then he is the best in the world, simple as that.Well, not always. Remember Jacques Villeneuve, not Gilles but Jacques? The "great" driver... ROFL. In the year of 1997 he had the best car and definitely wasn't the best driver(as now). ...But he got the championship...once.

Hamilton is great, he really is maybe the perfection itself and might win other titles, he might overtake even shumi after years. But he has the best car now(stolen or not, lol). Someone said what would it be if Hamilton was driving for Honda. There are so many factors that you and I can't imagine.

And I basically meant that nothing is that simple as it looks.