The Official Belgian GP Thread 2010***SPOILERS***

[Mazda Baiter]

Well, after the enforced break F1 is back!

Will Force India be able to repeat last year?

Will the McLarens be able to catch up with the Red Bulls and Ferraris?

Will Marky Mark be able to carry on his good form?

Will Vettel trip over his bottom lip?

Will Massa get told to move over for Fernando?

Will Lauda have a good retort for Ferrari?

Will Williams, Renault or Sauber establish themselves as the "best of the rest"?

I'll be having steak and chips and some Leffe beer. (£2 for 1 litre at Morrisons.)

Qual
Vet
Liu
Alo

Race
Web
But
Mas

Over to you.

[Mazda Baiter]

BBC broadcast times from BBC.co.uk/f1
Friday 27th August

FP1 09:00
FP2 13:00

Saturday 28th August

FP3 10:00
Qual 13:00

Sunday 29th August

Race 13:00 (coverage from 12:00)

[paulmurr]

Moulle Frite and Kwack for me, and I'd like to see Webber, Hamilton and Sutil on the podium.

[akaMG]

i doubt red bull will be very good here, defanatly a mclaren track
didnt sauber have the highest trap speed at canada a while ago? they might get a podium if so, repeat what force india did last year,

Qualy
1 ham
2 but
3 kob,

race,
?

[10 Pence Short]

Red Bull will be awesome in sector 2, Ferrari more or less on par and McLaren relying on straight line pace to be fastest in sectors 1 and 3.

Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren.

[NewMetalSystem]

You can't overtake in sector 2 though - whereas McLaren have the Bustop and Les Combes. I think we'll see Lewis win from Alonso and Vettel. Jenson will be 4th after another poor qualifying session. The Force India's and Sauber's as best of the rest.

[BenElliottRacing]

akaMG said:

i doubt red bull will be very good here, defanatly a mclaren track
didnt sauber have the highest trap speed at canada a while ago? they might get a podium if so, repeat what force india did last year,

Qualy
1 ham
2 but
3 kob,

race,
?

Last year red bull were 7/10ths faster in sector 2 iirc

[akaMG]

BenElliottRacing said:

akaMG said:

i doubt red bull will be very good here, defanatly a mclaren track
didnt sauber have the highest trap speed at canada a while ago? they might get a podium if so, repeat what force india did last year,

Qualy
1 ham
2 but
3 kob,

race,
?

Last year red bull were 7/10ths faster in sector 2 iirc

i see, i thought spa was more biased to a higher top speed,

[anonymous-user]

Mazda Baiter said:

W
I'll be having steak and chips and some Leffe beer. (£2 for 1 litre at Morrisons.)

Qual
Vet
Liu
Alo

Race
Web
But
Mas

I'll be having..... probably a really good shower in rainy Francorchamps, and whatever their local beer is! Really looking forward to this, only the 2nd GP I've attended.

Qualifying:
Alonso
Massa
Hamilton

Race:
Alonso
Hamilton
Vettel

Anyone else going?

[BoRED S2upid]

I hope MB's prediction is correct completely different race result to Quali can only mean a pile up and we haven't had one of those for a while.

Its almost garanteed to rain in Spa and probably at the Oulton Park Gold Cup where I will be on Sunday.

[Paul 8v]

I'd like to see the McLarens up that high but will they really have sorted the car out that much? I think they were starting to fall behind in my opinion. there's a way to go for all the teams to match the pace of the Red Bulls.

I'd love a wet track to sort the men from the boys

Edited by Paul 8v on Monday 23 August 14:05

[Mazda Baiter]

Who said you can't overtake in sector 2?

I think I have seen overtaking happen at every corner at Spa since 2000. It just takes balls. Luckily there are a few ballsey drivers on the grid at the moment...

If Kobayashi can keep it on the black stuff, expect a good finish. If it is wet/dry, bet on Jenson.

[Steamer]

Paul 8v said:

I'd love a wet track to sort the men from the boys

Edited by Paul 8v on Monday 23 August 14:05

Was it Spa where Lewis & Kimi had that really scrappy finish in the wet a few years ago?

[Derek Smith]

NewMetalSystem said:

Jenson will be 4th after another poor qualifying session.

You didn't feel the need to stick your neck out then?

[Rude-boy]

Qual -

Web
Ham
Vet
Fred
Buttons
Massa

Race if dry:-

Ham
Buttons
Web
Vet (was 1st until broken tear duct causes him to have to nurse himself home)
Fred

Race if wet/changeable:-

Buttons
Ham
Fred

[_Batty_]

Steamer said:

Paul 8v said:

I'd love a wet track to sort the men from the boys

Edited by Paul 8v on Monday 23 August 14:05

Was it Spa where Lewis & Kimi had that really scrappy finish in the wet a few years ago?

where Hamilton was disqualified after the race. yes.
i was there!

[Steamer]

_Batty_ said:

Steamer said:

Paul 8v said:

I'd love a wet track to sort the men from the boys

Edited by Paul 8v on Monday 23 August 14:05

Was it Spa where Lewis & Kimi had that really scrappy finish in the wet a few years ago?

where Hamilton was disqualified after the race. yes.
i was there!

I was only thinking about that the other day (forgot Hamilton's penalty though). Shame Kimi ended up in the wall, but it was damn exciting - proper 'heart-in-mouth' moments there.

[10 Pence Short]

NewMetalSystem said:

You can't overtake in sector 2 though - whereas McLaren have the Bustop and Les Combes. I think we'll see Lewis win from Alonso and Vettel. Jenson will be 4th after another poor qualifying session. The Force India's and Sauber's as best of the rest.

The McLarens aren't going to get near the front row in qualifying. If they don't make the overtakes at the start, they won't see which way the Red Bulls went. The Ferraris will probably be close enough to be a target during the race, assuming they're the ones hurt the most by the new wing test.

If you're relying on the teams winning due to who has the fastest race pace, then I'd expect a 1-2 for Red Bull (Vettel, Webber), a 3-4 for Ferrari (I think we know which order that will contractually obliged to be) and a 5-6 for McLaren (which is most likely to be Hamilton, Button).

In reality I think Hamilton will have the pace and the balls to get 3rd or 4th and split Ferrari and perhaps a Red Bull if one has any issues.

In the grand scheme of things, McLaren haven't had the time to do anything fundamental to improve their pace and, assuming the new wing test doesn't kill the others, there's no reason why the performance differentials will be dissimilar to the preceding two GPs.

[Alicatt1]

Friet stoofvlees and Rochefort 10 voor mij

[Mazda Baiter]

Rude-boy said:

Vet (was 1st until broken tear duct causes him to have to nurse himself home)

I'm stealing that.