The Official 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix Thread ***Spoilers**

[Doink]

Been wondering today, both weekends now Kimi's has had bad luck, it'll be very interesting to see what happens when he and vettel come across each other during a race, do they have number 1 and 2 status still and which is which, who's gonna be told to move over?

[hairyben]

007 VXR said:

garyhun said:

Maybe I've missed something but what's the issue Bernie has with Marussia?

i think he fined them 2mil for not racing in oz

Although if they get both cars out for china I wouldn't bet against them passing mclarens total race laps this year...

[Mermaid]

Doink said:

Been wondering today, both weekends now Kimi's has had bad luck, it'll be very interesting to see what happens when he and vettel come across each other during a race, do they have number 1 and 2 status still and which is which, who's gonna be told to move over?

Kimi knows what to do - move over.

[DanielSan]

Doink said:

Been wondering today, both weekends now Kimi's has had bad luck, it'll be very interesting to see what happens when he and vettel come across each other during a race, do they have number 1 and 2 status still and which is which, who's gonna be told to move over?

If strategy is the same I'd imagine it's a case of race on but don't bash into each other.

[Clevers]

Today's race felt a little contrived to me. They were absolutely desperate for someone to challenge the Mercs after Australia and a lot of people spent the weekend talking up Ferrari's chances and then, well, blow me, some elementary tactical errors from Mercedes take place and Ferrari are gifted a simple win with no over taking on track.

All of a sudden it's game on? Can't help thinking the whole thing looked and felt very strange today.

[col68]

Clevers said:

Today's race felt a little contrived to me. They were absolutely desperate for someone to challenge the Mercs after Australia and a lot of people spent the weekend talking up Ferrari's chances and then, well, blow me, some elementary tactical errors from Mercedes take place and Ferrari are gifted a simple win with no over taking on track.

All of a sudden it's game on? Can't help thinking the whole thing looked and felt very strange today.

Don't think you could be further from the truth.....did you watch the race?.......Vettel passed Rosberg on the road and would have done Hamilton also, who decided to Box.....great result, on merit.......just watched Valentino win in quatar, mega race, and a great day for the racers......

[Leithen]

El Guapo said:

Leithen said:

Too soon to write off Rosberg yet IMO.

Some of us have been writing him off since 2006

The last couple of years must have been painful.

For all it's speed, the 2015 Merc looks to be less well balanced and more of a tyre muncher than it's predecessor, for the moment at least.

It appeared that they opted for a higher downforce setup today, which might suggest that it's got a few handling traits that are unhelpful. It's possible that Hamilton has either the ability to drive through such characteristics, or simply doesn't mind the way it behaves. It's a long season, I'd expect more podiums for Rosberg and a few wins too.

Hamilton is the clear favourite for the championship, but today must have complicated matters.

[deadslow]

Clevers said:

Today's race felt a little contrived to me. They were absolutely desperate for someone to challenge the Mercs after Australia and a lot of people spent the weekend talking up Ferrari's chances and then, well, blow me, some elementary tactical errors from Mercedes take place and Ferrari are gifted a simple win with no over taking on track.

All of a sudden it's game on? Can't help thinking the whole thing looked and felt very strange today.

F1 cub reporter for the Daily Mail?

[heebeegeetee]

Clevers said:

Today's race felt a little contrived to me. They were absolutely desperate for someone to challenge the Mercs after Australia and a lot of people spent the weekend talking up Ferrari's chances and then, well, blow me, some elementary tactical errors from Mercedes take place and Ferrari are gifted a simple win with no over taking on track.

Eh? He passed both Mercs!

Jeez.

[NRS]

Norfolkit said:

Dr Z said:

Very pleased after Ferrari has answered my prayers. If only I had some money on this!

Now, I think some pace advantage enjoyed by Ferrari could've been due to the high track temps, so it will be interesting to see how well they fare in the cooler races. And of course, a huge development race is now on too and the gap between the Merc and Ferrari could ebb and flow throughout the season. This could turn out to be a good season after all.

Ferrari have definitely closed the gap to Mercedes and I would say are the only genuine challengers to them.
But I'm not sure how much you can extrapolate today's race across the rest of the season. Track temperatures were extreme today and while Ferrari handled them much better it's unlikely that similar temperatures will be seen again this season (maybe Hungary). In Australia, Hamilton finished 34 seconds in front of Vettel, in Sepang, Vettel finished 8 seconds in front of Hamilton, the true respective pace will be somewhere between the two.
I suspect Merc will be on top at the majority of races but with Ferrari relatively close and ready to pounce on the slightest slip up (unreliability, pit stop cock ups or wrong strategy), certainly closer than Red bull were last year.

I would have to agree, between the conservative qualifying using up an extra set of tyres, the hard tyre going on early (and then again later because of the qualifying) it does make it a bit closer than it probably will be later. It looks like the Ferrari will be like the Lotus from a few years back in that it's probably too good on it's tyres and it's worked in a very extreme race, but for a lot of the other races it would be a benefit to take a little more out of the tyres to get the maximum performance. There's also questions about the Mercedes and the engine setup in terms of reliability and how much more they can get out of it now they may feel pushed and have got a shock for their complacency.

[andyps]

Derek Smith said:

Two questions, if anyone can help:

After the pitstop, LH asks: Am I all right?

The team replied that they would look at the video.

Any idea what he was talking about.

At the time I thought it maybe related to whether a wheel was fitted correctly, but haven't watched again to see if there was anything to suggest that.

[SpeedMattersNot]

What a brilliant race.

Not just because someone other than the Mercedes won, but up and down the field. Some clumsy bits but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Vettel looked so comfortable today and I think the car was very easy on its tyres making his job a bit easier. Rosberg on the other hand looked exhausted!

[Vaud]

SpeedMattersNot said:

What a brilliant race.

Yup, some brilliant moves all down the field, too close to call for race win until late part of the last phase.

Driver of the day for me was Vettel, but only just from Max V.

[Derek Smith]

andyps said:

At the time I thought it maybe related to whether a wheel was fitted correctly, but haven't watched again to see if there was anything to suggest that.

Thanks, Andy. I've watched it a second time (I'm obviously nerdier than you) but can see no problem with the pit-stop. He didn't block or impede anyone.

Derek

[London424]

Derek Smith said:

Thanks, Andy. I've watched it a second time (I'm obviously nerdier than you) but can see no problem with the pit-stop. He didn't block or impede anyone.

Derek

From memory I think his question was about whether his nose cone was loose.

[MG511]

London424 said:

From memory I think his question was about whether his nose cone was loose.

I thought he was asking about delta times behind the safety car?

[anonymous-user]

Clevers said:

Today's race felt a little contrived to me. They were absolutely desperate for someone to challenge the Mercs after Australia and a lot of people spent the weekend talking up Ferrari's chances and then, well, blow me, some elementary tactical errors from Mercedes take place and Ferrari are gifted a simple win with no over taking on track.

All of a sudden it's game on? Can't help thinking the whole thing looked and felt very strange today.

They were talking up Ferrari's chances precisely because there was a chance this could happen!

2 things made it possible.

1) Poor Mercedes strategy.
2) Ridiculously high track temperature which affected Ferrari less than Mercedes.

The Ferrari in the hands of Vettel was quick enough to capitalise on that.

[leglessAlex]

Mermaid said:

Doink said:

Been wondering today, both weekends now Kimi's has had bad luck, it'll be very interesting to see what happens when he and vettel come across each other during a race, do they have number 1 and 2 status still and which is which, who's gonna be told to move over?

Kimi knows what to do - move over.

But would he? On the one hand he might not care enough to listen to team orders and just get on with it but on the other hand he might not care enough to fight for his corner and just do what he's told.

Given his pace it's probably not too long before we find out! Him and Vettel will probably be fighting for position at some point in the next few races and then we will find out what will happen. As was pointed out to me in the Vettel thread it's probably a bit too optimistic to think they'd let them race, but you have to hope.

[Tony2or4]

col68 said:

.......just watched [????????????] win in quatar, mega race, and a great day for the racers......

Bloody thanks for that! Not having BT or Sky or whatever, I was going to watch the MotoGP highlights tomorrow, being careful to avoid any news reports etc until then. Now you've saved me the effort.

[Mr_Thyroid]

Clevers said:

Today's race felt a little contrived to me. They were absolutely desperate for someone to challenge the Mercs after Australia and a lot of people spent the weekend talking up Ferrari's chances and then, well, blow me, some elementary tactical errors from Mercedes take place and Ferrari are gifted a simple win with no over taking on track.

All of a sudden it's game on? Can't help thinking the whole thing looked and felt very strange today.

They're all lizards. Mechanical lizards, controlled by George W Bush and Prince Phillip, who are real lizards, in human skin.