It won't surprise me to see Hamilton on the podium 2 or 3 times, but I can't see Merc competing throughout the year for top 3 spots / constructor wins.

 

Amen brotha!

 

Check out the 3 minutes before the qualifying live on NBC

 

Q2 & Q3 will be aired in the hour leading up to the GP, incase you guys didn't know that. NBC announced it on Twitter.

 

Damn, that was good quali.

 

Love that they keep F1 feed on during commercial. One thing NBC doing better than Speed so far.

 

Wow, didn't expect that finish. Thought vettle had it in the bag. Mercedes faster than mclaren, lol.

 

Yeah, that's nice, but they REALLY need to work on their stats. They got people messed up a couple of time during qualifying (apparently Bottas qualified for Q2 twice) and then they screwed up the final stats, listing Grosjean as a Ferrari driver and showing RB as having scored only 15 points - failing to count Webbers 8 points.

Great race, though. Looks like tires are still going to be the main issue for the first few races just like last year. Fantastic to see Kimi win it - and rather easily at that. Guess Hamilton gets the last laugh. Good showing for FI, too. Wonder if Hulkenberg is having second thoughts...

l8r)

 

Kimi Best!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW

 

Kimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Great finish. It was nice seeing Kimi take 1st place and the Ferrari showing good pace. OTOH, Grosjean barely scored any points. Thank goodness "Finger Boy" didn't walk away with the race based on times in quali. Redbulls definitely have the pace they apparently don't have tire wear characteristics down.

Who would've thought Merc would swap places with McLaren. Great job by Merc & Hami! Checo didn't beat Button and didn't score points. LOL! Great showing by Force India, really happy for Sutil. It would've been nice to see what the Hulk could've done in the Sauber if it wasn't for a fuel cell issue. This years FI seems like the Sauber of last year based on tire wear.

1st race done!

 

Very much enjoyed this race. Smart, clean, and overall excellent racing. Even if Merc pulled off a successful 2-stopper, don't think they or anyone had an answer for Kimi...

There is a lot happening at McLaren that is not in the media. Lot's of changes to come. You guys just watch. Hami left for more than what was reported in the media. Looks like he made a good move as well...

 

What a race. First of all, I have to hand it to NBCSports for the terrific job they did covering the race. I especially liked the live feed during commercials, something NASCAR has done for a long time. Also, except for Bob Varsha, everything seemed the same with the broadcasters, almost as if Speed were still doing the races. And, to have P1, P2 and qualifying is great. I think many of us were worried about how NBC was going to do pre race coverage.

Now to the race. From the start, I thought Seb was going to run away and hide. I still am not quite sure how he lost the lead except for the fact that his supersoft tires went off early and he was unable to manage his tires.

I was very excited and happy to see Felipe do a great pass and get up to second behind Seb. He kept Alonso at bay for awhile and looked really good all day. Webber did one of his usual pathetic starts. Geez, why did RB keep him for this year? The only thing predictable about the guy is that no matter how good a starting position, he will blow it and go back 6 to 8 positions.

Another great surprise was how racy the Mercedes looked. Both Rosberg and Lewis were in the mix and showed that the team has definitely made improvements over last year. In fact, Lewis' move to Mercedes is not proving to be quite prophetic. After seeing how hapless the McLarens were, I wonder how many people are now questioning the wisdom of Lewis moving to McLaren?

Finally, what a superb drive by the Kimster. He completely fooled everyone. He drove with the same verve he did back in 2007 and in his McLaren days. I heard that Lotus had worked on tire strategy during the winter tests and it sure paid off. He seemed to get the most out of his tires and they also had less graining than the other drivers. Kimi has to be the most liked driver on the grid. No nonsense, no bull, just focused driving.

All in all, it was a fabulous race and if this is indicative of the rest of the season, what a season it is going to be!

 

Yes! That's my boy!!!

Fantastic race, good from start to finish. I Lol'd at Weber's start, some things just don't change. Curious to see if Merc have completely solved their rear tire issues, Nico did get a call about wear/heat asking him to manage it... Only time will tell.

Can't wait for Malaysia!

 

Great Race, tight battles & passes!

Ferrrari are going to be tough, massa there battling strong. I'm not a massa fan....cant stand him actually, but if he builds on his confidence, watch out.

too bad for RBR, keeping weber....maybe RBR felt tha tif he stayed with them, he wouldnt spill any RBR beans? With all the resources that RBR has, why cant they just gather up all their used clutches, buy some tires from someone & have weber repeatadly do standing starts & RBR develope a launch control logic / assist for the hairy bastard...All the teams hard works gets squandered several seconds after the light go out...what a shame.

 

Apparently an ECU issue cost Weber the start and KERs:

http://planetf1.com/driver/18227/857...ue-cost-Webber

And PDR is blaming tire strategy for not doing as well as Sutil:

http://planetf1.com/driver/18227/857...bed-of-seventh

It seems Whitmarsh may be willing to revert to the MP4-27 if they can't get the MP4-28 figured out in time:

http://planetf1.com/driver/18227/857...-work-this-out

I'm thinking part of the problem may be getting to terms with the pull rod suspension in the front, as Ferrari had the same issue last year when they were trying to sort out their car. The McLaren seemed pretty bouncy on some corner entries, which lead to Steve Machette commenting on how the car may be too stiffly sprung.