I just watched off my Tivo.

Brillian tdrive from Hamilton and I have to admit when Alonso for passed and lost 4th I jumped for joy.

Agreed Hamilton is the real deal and I am excited for him. I am a fan of the Red Cars but its hard not to cheer for the kid.

The fact that the drivers championship is a three way tie for first says it all. However, I would expect that McLaren will drop the ball sooner or later and we'll see cars with parts falling off and not finishing. Jim wasn't the only one who enjoyed watching Nick pass Alonso. If BMW have made the improvemens to get them running with Ferrari and McLaren it will liven things up a lot at the front.
Interesting to see so many Honda engine failures. Maybe they're pushing a bit too hard or maybe they're trying to distract us from the hideous paint scheme on the two works cars.
For now though, hats off to Hamilton. I think this young man has a lot of peoples respect and deserves it too!

Hamiltons car was making a lot of smoke Sunday, I suspect his engine might not be 100% and he is supposed to keep it for the next race.

Probably is and some of us whities are blessed too.

Think under the new rules he only has to go through the qualifying sessions on that engine to avoid the 10-spot penalty. He shouldn't have to do the entire race on it.

Nope, however you qualify the car is how it has to stay at the start of the race. You'll often hear the Speed announcers talk about parc firme - that's what it means.

What's with the Alonso hate (or dislike)? Agreed that Hamilton did a great job for all of his starts. FA is still top level along with KR etc. And don't forget that FA still beat MS for the GP championship - twice.SmileWavy

I don't think anyone is saying that they hate Alonso. I think he is an awesome driver. Personally I just don't want to see him beat Kimi.

It's going to be a great year. IMO there are four (not three) front runners- Massa, Hamilton, FA and KR.

I think it will be McLaren's year but we'll see. I also think BMW Sauber will gather a lot more points that the Japanese.

And WTF happened to Renault?

Or Toyota or Honda?

Toyota and Honda were not up to the same level as Renault who seem to have gone from Hero to Zero. The cyclic nature of F1 is what makes it interesting from my point of view and why you have to follow it year to year. A team can be dominant for a period and then just drop off the chart for whatever reason. Look at Williams for example. About ten years ago they were very strong - now they are mid pack. I'm sure they will be back again at some point. It's all about engineering, team chemistry, a little good judgement and unfortunately dollars. Although money spent does not automatically guarantee success (see Toyota).

I agree with the 4 front runners, and it should make it an interesting season, especially if BMW do make it up to the front on a regular basis.

I have a few UK friends who were telling me this would be Button's year.

Yeah right. And July 4th is a British holiday.

If FA beats Kimi Ron will no doubt be a very happy man. I think he let Kimi go for a song and paid dearly for FA.

Renault claim it was the Michelin to Bridgestone change. But I think FA knows how to develop a car too. Heikki Kovaleinen was fast when the car was fast last year, not so now. It remains to be seen if KR can develop the Ferrari (and later Hamilton on his own).

I do not like him. Much the same way lots of people hated MS.

He is not a class act at all. His antics annoy me.

Wonder why Kimi was so far back during the restart? Rewatch, FA is doing his usual crap almost causing the cars behind him to wreck.

At least Massa has enough class to just drive and not play brake check games.

I did not like the way he started pointing fingers last year at Renault saying they were sabatoging him.

I also think Ron Dennis was a jerk for saying BMW was grandstanding during the first race and they are just in the way. Hello? Ron? Yeah, BMW has caught up to you ans passed your WC. Ut oh!

The motor should be OK, if you look at footage of the other cars, a lot of them were doing the same thing.

The latest Ilmor McLaren engine is very impressive, it really made a few 'important' people sit up and take notice when it sat idling at the end of the pitlane for over three minutes before quali 3 in Malaysia last week, and then went on to win the race. That is brutal treatment for one of those powerplants.

The new friday testing rules mean that the two-race engines do not have to run in Friday practice, they go into the cars on Saturday and stay there for Sunday. If they come out at any stage on those two days you lose ten places. Kimi's engine had that water leak in Aus and they allowed him to run only seven laps with it in Saturday free practise in Malaysia before qualifying, though he had two full sessions on Friday with another engine in the car.

I am loving this season so far, shaping up to be a total classic right to the finish. FA for me this year as I am a big McLaren/Ron Dennis fan. Kimi is still great though and am loving being able to enjoy Ferrari race, now that the other driver they had last year has left the building. I hope you guys get to see some of the non-racing stuff in your coverage over there, the body language is hilarious sometimes.

I will be in Spain and hope to see some of these guys for real- I haven't been to an F1 race since 98- in Melbourne. Coulthard moved over for Hakkinen (the Australian press went nuts) and Schumacher had a hissy fit when his car broke. Threw the steering wheel down and walked away. Big $ fine but he didn't feel it I'm sure.

I'm an FA fan too but like all of the top four. I just think Ferrari's won enough for awhile- and I never cared for MS- a fantastic driver though no doubt.

I like FA but do not consider him one of the greats; as some seem to do.

For me, the cut above include:
-- Ayrton Senna , Jim Clark, Ascari, Fangio, Schumacher, and maybe now Hamilton.... Time will tell.

johndglynn - I see you're in Northants. That's where I'm originally from. For those that don't know, Northamptonshire, and Northampton in particular, is the home of both Ilmor and Cosworth.
Cosworth were the creators of the DFV which dominated Grand Prix racing for years. They went on to make a great series of F1 and Indy engines for Ford until they pulled the plug last year. Ilmor used to make the Indy car engines for Chevy and later Mercedes as well as all of the modern era F1 Mercedes engines. The two companies are on opposite sides of the town, can't be more than 25 miles apart.
I know that a few years back the Ilmor engine used to get particularly oil thirsty on some of the tracks with sustained high g's. Hockenheim was the worst if I recall correctly. One of the ways around this was to over fill the oil before the race which would show itself in the smokey starts. It often got comments from the TV announcers but it wasn't really a big deal. I suspect this is no different.

Yep am in Northants though am an Irishman. I have a friend working for Ilmor in Brixworth, very impressive place. Also have a couple of buddies working for Renault and you would not believe how much they loved Fernando. Not because he brought them the championship, just because he loves to drive, loves to race and is just such a nice guy. Same thing Hakkinen, the guys who worked with him adored him, such a great guy to work with and neither have any interest in the 'being famous' side of things. That gives them the upper hand in recent times for me but that is just my opinion.

Check these two videos out - this is the real FA, no media BS, just enjoying what he does. This is a brilliant bit of footage you might not have seen, from the slippy Hungaroring last year. Personally I like F1 without the commentary, just the cars on track. The Michelin wets were definitely superior so draw no conclusions from this other than knowing these two guys really enjoyed this.

Both those videos are superb, nice finds!