Who watched the Formula One art Spa this weekend?

[FinallyGotOne]

So what the heck was with the graffitti on the track? Anyone else see the SCH LOSE that appeared to be spray painted on the track?

[175K911]

More importantly, what was Vettel thinking when he took out Button?

[FinallyGotOne]

racing incident. Vettel will be having a lot of those I imagine! I'm no fan of Hamilton but he had the car this weekend. Weber stalled the start, what the heck was that? That was ONE FUN race to watch though!

[5String43]

Oh, man, Spa! What a great place, what a terrific race!

Graffiti? Really common all over Europe at pavement-oriented sporting events. And (shrugging on my Nomex underwear, here) if that one was aimed at Schumacher, that's not surprising, as he is not well regarded as a sportsman, given moves like the one he made on Barachello last month, parking in the final corner during quali at Monte Carlo to spoil qualifying for others a few years back, deliberately crashing Damon Hill out, deliberately trying to crash Jacques Villeneuve out - great driver, for sure; but not a popular guy, thanks to his really selfish and dangerous tactics. He is the one I most enjoy seeing lose, but that's just me.

As for Vettel (adding another layer of Nomex), well, what can one say? He made a stupid mistake that put the second-place runner out. I thought that he got off lightly with just the drive-through. I would have liked to have seen him also receive a 10-place grid penalty at Monza. It was, after all, his second crash of the race, and was the same kind of poor judgement that put him out when he crashed into Webber during an ill-conceived passing maneuver earlier in the season. The team needs to sit the kid down and 'splain the facts of life to him, sez I.

That said, given unlimited time and money, I certainly would love to spend an entire race weekend - hell, make it two weeks - soaking up a Spa F1 weekend. Then I'd spend the rest of the time tramping around the history-rich region of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge country, I expect most of you know).

[3.6rs]

Originally Posted by 5String43

Oh, man, Spa! What a great place, ...

That said, given unlimited time and money, I certainly would love to spend an entire race weekend - hell, make it two weeks - soaking up a Spa F1 weekend. Then I'd spend the rest of the time tramping around the history-rich region of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge country, I expect most of you know).

Correct, a great place to be (my country).
It would be even more enjoyable if we had a government ! We had elections more then 2 months ago without results untill now.
Some countries had the blacks versus whites many years ago, wel we have the Flemish against the Walloons, anno 2010. And there is no improvement...I'm on the good side !

[Por_sha911]

It was a real snooze-fest!

[NaplesBound]

That sounds like a great weekend. I always love Spa. Looking forward to the new Korean circuit too. Hope it's a good one, but Tilke designed it...

Chris

[Peter Zimmermann]

Great race. Vettel/Button, unfortunate for both. The rain started, Button braked sooner, Vettel didn't allow for that possibility and locked up his rears. Racing accident.

Way too many penalties in F1 these days.

Schumacher, 21st to 7th. Good drive for F1's old man.

Speaking of Ruben's, I think his depth perception needs to be checked... we'll have to check with Alonso.

Monza next.

[175K911]

If nothing else, F1 is exciting to watch again. The point chase is pretty much wide open at the moment, and it's great to see so much action on the track. Even qualifying has become something to watch again too.

[Miguel Antonett]

Cool race, definitely a driver's track- and it showed... depending on who's your fab driver of course... Vettel needs to calm down though. Nowadays F1 has gotten lots better and competitive than when Schumi's era - finally!

[Zeke]

Qualifying was better. The race could have used some of the rain that kept threatening but never did until the very end. Great track!.

BTW, Webber had some mechanical problems with the clutch at the start or he might have gotten off better. No matter, they still have 6 races to sort it out.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Yes and didn't enjoy it one little bit

[Por_sha911]

Vettel reminds me of Mario Andretti: he would either win, crash, or blow it up. Period. Second place is First Loser. The track looks hard enough to drive as it is but the rain just throws everything up in the air. In a way, I liked it. Back in the day... a race was won by a strong car and a skilled & brave driver. Seems like these days the drivers are skilled and the cars are high quality but its all down to computers and gadgets.

[dienstuhr]

Originally Posted by Peter Zimmermann

Schumacher, 21st to 7th. Good drive for F1's old man.

I loved seeing Nico Rosberg steal back his 6th place from Schumacher at the end of the race after the last Safety Car. The old dude never saw it comin'.

d.

[KTL]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

It was a real snooze-fest!

Funny you should say that because this race was one of the more exciting F1 races i've seen this year! Still, exciting is a relative term. I really dislike how the standing start of the F1 races is such a determining factor of the outcome. In this race, instead of the usual leader-checks-out-on-everybody (which did occur, but not to the end), it was nice to see the weather & strategy play into the drama of the race near the end (where Hamilton almost gave it away staying out 1 extra lap on drys) to make it interesting.

RE: Vettel, I think he's getting a slightly bad rap. He is seriously fast and just needs to keep that in check. He was going to get around Button eventually and just got too aggressive at the wrong spot at the wrong time. I agree that this instance seemed like a "racing incident" (contrary to the huge screwup where he took out himself and Webber a few months ago) and the drive thru penalty was really meaningless. He didn't intentionally ram Button, and the resulting damage already did the damage to his race. Sure he shouldn't get out of jail free for taking away Button's race. But what's done was done. What I found funny/ironic was Steve Matchett's comment how this is racing and not parading, when he and Will Buxton were pseudo-debating the incident. Oh really? Not paradiing??? Most of the time the F1 races are exactly that- a seriously fast parade!

I would give Barrichello a bigger failing grade than Vettel at this race. He just totally blew it. Great guy and a shame what happened. But he is better than that and just underestimated the grip when the rain started coming. I can't believe Alonso's car suffered NO damage from that incident!

Good to see Robert Kubica continuing to keep the two (sometimes three ( #3 = Ferrari) frontrunning teams honest. Looks like factory Renault team is continuing to progress and it'd be a shame to see them lose Kubica to another team just as they're hitting their stride.

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate Hamilton's celebrations? Congrats on winning, but the fist pump-o-rama is so annoying. Be a little more humble? Maybe I just assimilate it with Tiger Woods' celebration, of who i've never been much of a fan?

[barndoor]

That was an excellent race ! Very exciting

I wish Massa would have got on the Podium.

Schumi was on it.

Vettel was all over Button,and then it was all over......

and Kubica drove very well.

All in All in very good race.

[Amail]

Great race! I had Alonso-Vettel-Hamilton-Kubica, but I was very happy to see Hamilton take the win. Been a big fan of his since his debut. Sucks to see Alonso's race implode like that. Really sucks that Button got creamed.

I don't buy into the "Button braked early" argument - Vettel didn't hit him in the rear. Looking at footage again, his front wing rocks as he comes out from behind Button, first the right side down, then the left side down. Once the left side was down, around he went right into Button's radiator. I think what happened is he jumped out into clear air too quickly for the conditions. Car was unsettled, braking, and aero put a lot of downforce on the left side. The left front tire found great traction as he was unwinding the wheel from moving out from behind, and momentum took over.

Button couldn't have kept everyone behind for much longer with a broken front wing. Vettel should have taken him in the second sector where the RB6 really shone.

He's trying too hard, and needs to learn some patience.

[Por_sha911]

KTL Green = sarcasm

[Peter Zimmermann]

Originally Posted by Amail

I don't buy into the "Button braked early" argument - Vettel didn't hit him in the rear. Looking at footage again, his front wing rocks as he comes out from behind Button, first the right side down, then the left side down. Once the left side was down, around he went right into Button's radiator. I think what happened is he jumped out into clear air too quickly for the conditions. Car was unsettled, braking, and aero put a lot of downforce on the left side. The left front tire found great traction as he was unwinding the wheel from moving out from behind, and momentum took over.

Jenson said he didn't brake early, Christian Horner said Jenson did. Unfortunately for Vettel he was right at the bump when it all went wrong, and he flat lost control under braking. The drive through penalty was BS...

[5:04]

As a Vettel fan and strongly disliking Hammy it was a tough race to watch. A good race with action to the end, not to mention spa is my favorite track on the current f1 schedule.

There needed to be more rain though