[James]

Not sure this is going to be the most exciting race, but we'll see.

[James]

Here's a bit of a scrap between Button and Schu mind you. Hamilton ahead of Vettel now.

[James]

Hamilton out with lap to go. :s

[Iceman]

Re****ingsult schumacher 4th....ill gladly take that!

[ange7]

Originally Posted by Iceman

Re****ingsult schumacher 4th....ill gladly take that!

if he wins more will you change your name back to "schumacher ".

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by ange7

if he wins more will you change your name back to "schumacher ".

No i'm not allowed

[pinkmichk]

*walks in head hung low with a sadface on*
was a good race until that puncture

[Iceman]

was a good race until the puncture, was a great race after it!! :P (im sorry)

[pinkmichk]

only thing i'm happy bout is schumi holding off button that kinda helps but otherwise meh 2 redbulls including 1 that really shoulda been pulled in for being dangerous and bloody alonso on podium

[Iceman]

Im quite happy, if schumacher had a fast car he'd be going well.....hopefully he get into top 3 in qualifying next week.

[Wildcat!]

Too bad for Lewis once again. String of bad luck, but I am sure he will be OK if he doesnt get discouraged. He is still the best driver out there!

As for Mercedes, I think its BS the changes they have made. Obviously they gave michael Schumacher a bit more pace, but how much more/ barely anything, and at the detriment of their best Driver at the moment, who they have completely set back. They arent gonna contend for the title anymore. At least Nico was contending before this weekend. Obviously these changes arent tailor made for him. Oh well, if the are satisfied with 5 or 6th place, that s fine, but its all theyre gonna get, if they dont think about Rosberg on their updates .

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Wildcat!

Too bad for Lewis once again. String of bad luck, but I am sure he will be OK if he doesnt get discouraged. He is still the best driver out there!

As for Mercedes, I think its BS the changes they have made. Obviously they gave michael Schumacher a bit more pace, but how much more/ barely anything, and at the detriment of their best Driver at the moment, who they have completely set back. They arent gonna contend for the title anymore. At least Nico was contending before this weekend. Obviously these changes arent tailor made for him. Oh well, if the are satisfied with 5 or 6th place, that s fine, but its all theyre gonna get, if they dont think about Rosberg on their updates .

why the hell would they be giving a car to Rosberg??? they have the most successful driver in the world in theur team, it's quite obvious to me that they'll be winning races soon, they need some more upgrades and they will be able to attack and not just defend.

[ange7]

Originally Posted by Wildcat!

Too bad for Lewis once again. String of bad luck, but I am sure he will be OK if he doesnt get discouraged. He is still the best driver out there!

As for Mercedes, I think its BS the changes they have made. Obviously they gave michael Schumacher a bit more pace, but how much more/ barely anything, and at the detriment of their best Driver at the moment, who they have completely set back. They arent gonna contend for the title anymore. At least Nico was contending before this weekend. Obviously these changes arent tailor made for him. Oh well, if the are satisfied with 5 or 6th place, that s fine, but its all theyre gonna get, if they dont think about Rosberg on their updates .

All the changes they made were OKed by Schumacher AND Nico given both have similar styles I don't see how mercedes are favoring schui or have screwed Nico. Those bbc commentators love trash talking schui

[Wildcat!]

Originally Posted by ange7

All the changes they made were OKed by Schumacher AND Nico given both have similar styles I don't see how mercedes are favoring schui or have screwed Nico. Those bbc commentators love trash talking schui

Of course Nico is gonna approve it. He doesnt have the credentials Schumacher has, but BBC or anyone dont have to tell me anything to see the obvous. He's been faster than Michael all season, and all of a sudden, he is not anymore. Its not some freaky coincidence. Each Driver has a certain afinity to a certain type of design and set up! My point is, they arent gonna START BEATING rED buLL mCLAREN or Ferrari this year, with a pro Michael car, which it obviously is. Rosberg, was contending for the title. Michael Schumacher is not and will not, not this year at least.

[ange7]

WEBBER!!!!
it don't happen often so ...
woooo hooooo
He was a machine today ... but the drive of 2nd and 3rd were impressive. Alonso is single handedly propping up Ferrari and vettel's job at scraping out a 3rd place was amazing..

[pinkmichk]

i've calmed down a bit now still not happy but moving on
i dont agree that they given better upgrades to schumi over nico i said before this race this will be his turning point in the season he drove good he happy being in the car now he settled back down into driving again (and you all know i aint a schumi fan)

[Wildcat!]

Originally Posted by pinkmichk

i've calmed down a bit now still not happy but moving on
i dont agree that they given better upgrades to schumi over nico i said before this race this will be his turning point in the season he drove good he happy being in the car now he settled back down into driving again (and you all know i aint a schumi fan)

Of course they did! Itds not even about upgrades, the redesigned their car for Schumacher, everyne knows that! They use to do it at Ferrari all the time, but that was understandable, because he was obviously the best and dominating. But in this case he is not, and the races have clearly shown it so. HE's got a long way to get back to the level of the top drivers, so this year, they c ouldve tried to turn Rosberg loose instead, and let Schumacher settle in slowly!

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Wildcat!

Of course they did! Itds not even about upgrades, the redesigned their car for Schumacher, everyne knows that! They use to do it at Ferrari all the time, but that was understandable, because he was obviously the best and dominating. But in this case he is not, and the races have clearly shown it so. HE's got a long way to get back to the level of the top drivers, so this year, they c ouldve tried to turn Rosberg loose instead, and let Schumacher settle in slowly!

Oh im sorry i could have sworn i saw him hold of the reigning world champion for about 40 laps......really a sign of someone who isnt contending.........

[Iceman]

But you clearly are, he did a great job today and was a much needed answer for the critics. So what if the cars been made to suit him better, he's a 7 time champion, if Rosberg thinks he's gonna be number 1 then he might aswell leave the team and we can have Beardface back...........also some of the defensive moves today were stunning by him.....maybe you watched a different race....?????

[Wildcat!]

Hahahaha!!!!! LMAO! Enough said!!!! So now they did make the car to suit Schumacher, its not they didnt anymore!! OK! As long as we all understand that.

[Iceman]

Their qualifying speed, fine weather, and the difficulty of passing in Barcelona meant the odds were heavily stacked in favour of a dominant Red Bull one-two in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. It wasn’t to be. Their race pace was not as quick as expected, and although polesitter Mark Webber won as he pleased, technical gremlins again struck the RB6, meaning Sebastian Vettel had to rely on others’ misfortune for his podium finish. We take a team-by-team look at Sunday afternoon’s events…

Red Bull
Mark Webber, P1
Sebastian Vettel, P3
The result looked good for Red Bull, with Webber an excellent first after a superb race, and Vettel third. But while the Australian enjoyed a trouble-free Grand Prix that he controlled at will, the German said his RB6 had poor balance throughout. Then on the 54th lap failure of the left front brake put him off course in the esses, and a pit stop for fresh rubber and a quick visual checkover did not help him to regain lost pace. He was lucky that Hamilton crashed out with two laps to go.

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, P2
Felipe Massa, P6
Ferrari lacked real pace, and Alonso admitted that he was very fortunate that both Vettel and Hamilton struck trouble late in the race, promoting him from fourth to second. Massa said his F10 still lacked rear-end grip in sector three, and could not pass either Schumacher or Button. His cause wasn’t helped when he clobbered Chandhok while lapping him, generating understeer after damaging the left-hand endplate on the front wing.

Mercedes GP
Michael Schumacher, P4
Nico Rosberg, P13
The race proved that Mercedes are not fast enough, but Schumacher looked his tough and resolute old self as he robustly defended against Button on his way to a lucky fourth place. Rosberg got bundled down the order at the start when Kubica would not give way and he found himself on the grass, and later his pit stop was botched when he had to be pushed back to have the right front wheel nut retightened. His run of points-scoring finishes was ended by a 13th place.

McLaren
Jenson Button, P5
Lewis Hamilton, retired lap 54, accident
McLaren still lead the constructors’ title chase, but they would have been further ahead had Hamilton not suffered that tyre problem. He drove brilliantly to split the Red Bulls, and set fastest lap, but crashed out in Turn Three on lap 64 when, the team suspected, he suffered a similar incident to Kovalainen here in 2008: it is thought that a stone jammed between the left front upright and the wheel, machining through the rim so that the tyre exploded as the wheel collapsed. Button ran right behind Alonso initially, but lost his dashboard display early on. That meant he had to judge gearshifts, and could not activate the launch control system in his pit stop, resultant in clutch drag and delaying wheelspin. That put him behind Schumacher, and he could not find a way past thereafter. Nevertheless, he still leads the championship for drivers.

Force India
Adrian Sutil, P7
Tonio Liuzzi, retired lap 66, power loss
Sutil made a great start and was always in the hunt for points, and did a great job to stay ahead of hard-charging Kubica without making any mistakes. Seventh was just reward. Liuzzi struggled with his car on the soft Bridgestone rubber and was the first to switch to the harder primes, after which his car became good enough to match his team mate’s lap times. Right at the end, however, he stopped out on the track when his engine suffered power loss, but it did not affect his finishing position.

Renault
Robert Kubica, P8
Vitaly Petrov, P11
Renault had a rough opening lap, with Kubica coming together with Kobayashi and losing two places, and Petrov being too cautious. While the Pole then spent most of his race chasing Sutil, en route to eighth, the Russian hounded Kobayashi to finish 12th. Interestingly, they set near-identical best lap times in 1m 25.466s and 1m 25.470s respectively.

Williams
Rubens Barrichello, P9
Nico Hulkenberg, P16
Initially the two Williams ran nose to tail in team order, but whereas Barrichello was able to convert 17th place on the grid to a solid ninth place result, Hulkenberg lost pace and ground after an off-road moment following his pit stop robbed his FW32 of downforce.

Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari, P10
Sebastien Buemi, Retired lap 43, hydraulics
Alguersuari had a messy race, running right behind Sutil and ahead of Kubica early on before a sticking front left wheel nut lost him a lot of ground in the first pit stop. Later he carved up Chandhok when he misjudged a lapping move, and got a drive-through penalty for his troubles. A point on home ground was thus welcome, but he was disappointed that he could not convert good race pace into something better. Buemi walloped De la Rosa on the opening lap and needed a new nose at the end of it, later got a drive-through for an unsafe release into Trulli’s path, and then retired with hydraulic problems.

BMW Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, P12
Pedro de la Rosa, retired lap 18, collision damage
Both drivers were involved in first-lap incidents, Kobayashi with Kubica, and De la Rosa with Buemi. The Japanese driver lost ground, and the chance for points; the bitterly disappointed Spaniard had to pit to have a shredded left rear tyre replaced, and retired soon afterwards with undertray damage which could not be repaired.

Lotus
Jarno Trulli, P17
Heikki Kovalainen, did not start, gearbox software
Lotus lost Kovalainen as his car was fired up on the grid and a software glitch promptly selected two gears at once. But Trulli drove a strong race, albeit it in a car that he said did not have the same edge that it did in practice, to finish best of the new teams just ahead of Glock’s Virgin.

Virgin
Timo Glock, P18
Lucas di Grassi, P19
Virgin got both cars home, and Glock really charged after Trulli’s Lotus and kept the Italian honest throughout the race. They finished just 1.4s apart. Di Grassi showed great presence of mind to keep out of the way of Hamilton and Vettel in Turn One on the 18th lap.

HRT
Karun Chandhok, retired lap 28, collision damage
Bruno Senna, retired lap 1, accident
Senna’s undertray had been repaired after damage was discovered that had lost him downforce all through practice and qualifying, but he got caught out in Turn Four on the opening lap after a spectacular start, and crashed out. Chandhok started at the back after a gearbox replacement, but made good progress until he was assaulted by Alguersuari and had to pit for a replacement nose. Soon after, further damage sustained in the incident forced him out.

[Iceman]

Although it was not the best weekend for Mercedes in general, who slipped further behind the other three big teams – Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari – in terms of raw pace, Schumacher beat team-mate Nico Rosberg for the first time this season and showed characteristic ruthlessness in passing Button following the latter's pit-stop on lap 16. The McLaren driver had lost time in the pits with a clutch problem, and as he arrived at turn one Schumacher swept around the outside of him to gain fifth place.

"I didn't really know where Michael was on the outside of me," Button said. "He turned in and if I didn't back out of it we would have crashed. So he didn't really give me a lot of room there. There you go, you'd think with his experience he would know. It wasn't really the right move."

No doubt Schumacher will take such comments – routine during his former years – as another promising sign that he is recovering his form. And Button conceded that having passed him, there was nothing he could do to reclaim his spot, despite having the faster car.

"It's tough to overtake here, and Michael's not silly," the Briton said. "He knows where to put his car, so on a track like this you're not going to overtake him.

"He was putting it on the inside, and I couldn't pass on the outside because he just pushed me wide every time. He didn't make a mistake, so it was very frustrating.

"Fifth place is OK, but it's frustrating because the car was quick here. That's a positive and a negative, because I didn't get to use the speed."

Schumacher described the skirmish as "interesting" but said he was still not happy with Mercedes' pace.

"All we could do was to hope for reliability problems of others in order to make up positions and that's not really what you want to do," the 41 year-old said. "In the end the gap to the front was just too big to be happy after this race. For Monaco, we hope that the characteristics of the track will suit our car better."

Local favourite Fernando Alonso, who delighted the estimated 92,000 crowd by claiming second spot thanks to Lewis Hamilton's late retirement and Sebastian Vettel's brake problems, was also of the view that his team needed to work harder to catch Red Bull.

"I feel extremely happy after the result today and when you gain two positions in the last part of race, unexpected positions, it feels great," said the Spaniard, who climbed to second in the championship as a result, just three points behind Button.

"But we need to improve. We worked again to maximise our potential. We know sometimes we will be third, sometimes fifth, sometimes first hopefully."

[Iceman]

Thu 13 May 2010
Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30
Sat 15 May 2010
Practice 3 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00
Sun 16 May 2010
Race 14:00

[pinkmichk]

one of my fav races in the season cant wait although will miss qualies will have to follow those on my phone as out on saturday

[Iceman]

hopefully i will have phone back by then so ill be able to keep ya up to date!!!