Malaysian GP

Woden

Enjoyable race there this morning I thought. Impressed again by Hamilton doing well with the pressure from the ferrari's although not as consistent as Alonso over the course of the race. Massa still looks sloppy imo as Brundle said he already had him on that corner and then went to try and out break him as well. Looks like its shaping up to be a decent season

Somewhat unrelated it always seems to be the British drivers that have there fathers are the races! hang over from kart and stuff?

Ghost Train

yep, good race

mr_angry

I didn't think it was a great race tbh. There was certainly no challenge to Alonso out-front. He ran way with it really. Hamilton did very well to fend-off both Massa and Raikonnen, although the former was his own worst enemy. The Ferrari's lack of pace in the mid-section was pretty mystifying.

While its shaping up to be a good battle this season, the worrying aspect is how difficult it appears to be to overtake. Once a driver gets into that 0.5 second turbulance, it seems to be impossible to gain any further ground. That doesn't really bode well for much excitement above and beyond the race result.

Dcully

Agree totall with mr angry.
Apart from the first few laps it was a dull affair.

I watch F1 for the speed more than anything but it is so far down the pecking order in terms of racing and overtaking.
Any form of GT and tintop racing and almost all forms of open wheel racing offer far superior racing and overtaking.
Looks life this season will be no different than previous ones in this respect

Bring back slicks.

steviec

I'm not convinced that there's such a big problem with overtaking. There were plenty of moves further down the field - it's not impossible.

But the fact it's so difficult meant we saw many laps of exciting racing between Massa and Hamilton. Massa was so much faster but Hamilton defended beautifully. If it wasn't hard to overtake Massa would have gotten past in a lap or two, followed by Kimi and it would have been a procession from there. Doesn't seem like they had the pace to catch Alonso regardless.

So the very fact that it's difficult to overtake means a slower car can get in front and stay there with good defensive driving and solid tactics, which I think is more interesting than a sport where overtaking a slower car is just a formality. Within reason, but I don't think F1 has it too wrong at the moment, there were some decent overtaking moves throughout the field.

I dunno, personally I think saying F1 needs more overtaking is a bit like saying soccer should have bigger goals so there'd be more scoring. The fact it's so difficult and so rare is what makes it so special when someone pulls it off.

I'm all for removing driver aids and anything else that means there's more skill involved and more scope for mistakes, but I wouldn't find it as interesting if cars can just zip past eachother and then whoever has the fastest car just wins and there's no way to answer it with good tactics or a good start like McLaren did today.

As for the race itself, I was surprised by the relative pace. It seemed that, once things calmed down after the first stint, the Ferraris just couldn't catch the Mclarens.

I think the weakness of Ferrari's driver line up is beginning to show though. All through Winter testing Massa was faster than Kimi and people were saying Massa has raised his game, I think the reality is that Kimi actually isn't all that good. He won with a dominant car in Australia but I don't think there's a driver on the grid that wouldn't. I've said that about Kimi for quite a while - he wasn't as good as Nick at Sauber and he's just edged out some mediocre team mates while enjoying some success thanks to very very good cars McLaren provided him, gotta be the easiest career path an F1 driver has ever had. And now we see he's consistently slower than Massa when Massa doesn't screw up (which is quite regularly), and it's not like Massa's particularly fast to begin with.

It's a long Season and it will be interesting to see how things develop. Hamilton looks like a definite star if McLaren let him race Alonso, though I may just have to seek out and assassinate James Allen if he starts winning races. I do wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Ferrari, they've lost a lot of important people and car development may suffer as the Season goes on. Never mind McLaren, they weren't exactly comfortably ahead of Heidfeld and Wurz in this race either. I'd love to see BMW and Williams challenging for race wins this year.

Dcully

I think the reality is that Kimi actually isn't all that good.

LOL,i wont even comment on this statement

pburns

My impressions from the race?
Hamilton - v impressive but Steve Ryder/James Allen need to shurrup or they'll make the guy unpopular with all the hype. Same goes for his dad. Why do Button/Hamilton need their dads hanging about hogging the limelight?

Alonso's better than Kimi, Hamilton already better than Massa... (Ducks for cover:D )

Rosberg - carrying on from where he left off in Malaysia '06 - very impressive. Can't take him 100% seriously though - he's too goddam pretty...

Kubrica - he's good but not the next Schumi despite the hype (are you listening Daddy Hamilton???)

oneofakind32

Massa is fast, he just needs to mature as a driver. I think he can win a world tital but maybe not this year.
I would like to see Kimi win a championship before he retires because he lost in 2005 to Alonso because of that engine rule that kept landing him back down the grid and yet he still managed to come from 10th to win on a couple of ocasions. He looked like a world champion in a Mc Laren in 2005 but sadly he dosnt seem to look it in a Ferrari in 2007
Hamilton has yet to prove himself IMO. He has shown great maturity and skill in his first couple of races but we have to see him hang at the front with Alonso or Kimi for a full race distance

oneofakind32

As for the race, it was real snoze. The 2nd of the season but at least the tital race is looking good