F1 Official Thread - Grand Prix of Britain

[zk1mpls]

Well, Mark's pissed. Were those boos in the crowd?

What's F1 without the politics?

Should be an intense post-race interview coming up.

 

[Sinner]

WOW.

 

[Thierry Henry]

Webber is pissed!!!

 

[zk1mpls]

This has got to be one of the most unhappy podium celebrations in recent memory.

 

[VinMillerHearn58]

This has got to be one of the most unhappy podium celebrations in recent memory.

Forced smiles, forced smiles all around

 

[zk1mpls]

Wait... no podium interview?

Brundle again?

 

[VinMillerHearn58]

Scumbag Vettel SMH

 

[zk1mpls]

Mark trying to compose himself.

 

[Thierry Henry]

Mark looks like he wants to smack him in the face

 

[zk1mpls]

Mark is really displeased. At least Lewis had the balls to admit Nico should've have the podium.

 

[zk1mpls]

Mark looks like he wants to smack him in the face

Was waiting for him to hit him on the head with the champagne bottle. Really feel bad for Mark and Nico. :\


Helmut Marko saying Mercedes has a clear number 1 and number 2. Right.

 

[VinMillerHearn58]

They can't even get a straight answer from the Red Bull team

 

[Sinner]

Gonna need more time to read ALL the interviews before I post more! LOL

 

[raffstylexx]

didnt see the whole race...

what was that Lewis pit at mclaren? or he visited mclaren pit crew?

 

[zk1mpls]

Mark actually flipped the bird to Vettel right after he got past him. Oh boy. Should be an intense meeting.

 

[VinMillerHearn58]

Webber flippin the bird towards Vettel after he passed him.

 

[zk1mpls]

Christian Horner acting like he doesn't acknowledge Red Bull protecting Seb over Mark.

 

[Thierry Henry]

They can't even get a straight answer from the Red Bull team

Fraud Bull

Mark actually flipped the bird to Vettel right after he got past him. Oh boy. Should be an intense meeting.

whaaaatt? I didn't see this

 

[zk1mpls]

Mark Webber's dad's saying Red Bull, as a European team, is favoring the Euro driver (Vettel).

 

[Thierry Henry]

Oh well, at least my man finished on the podium

Anyways, I'm out it's about to be 6:30 AM and I haven't gone to sleep :x

 

[Sinner]

Seb has apologized, but its more damage-control than anything else. 

I'm not a fan of team orders, but if your boss give you an order, you follow it... it applies to any job.  The "he's a passionate racer" excuse doesn't cut it. 

 

[zk1mpls]

There will be no team photo at Red Bull. They have decided to cancel it.

Race - Vettel secures controversial victory in Malaysia
24 Mar 2013

Sebastian Vettel led team mate Mark Webber home to what should have been a celebratory Red Bull 1-2 in Sepang on Sunday, but the success was sullied by a post-race argument between the two drivers. All through the race the radio messages between Vettel and Red Bull’s team management told as much of the story as the on-track action.

Webber led much of the race after a timely switch to dry tyres following the use of intermediates on a wet surface in the opening laps. Vettel complained for much of the time he was following Webber, and continually asked his team to tell him to move over.

As far as the Australian was concerned, he had the race in the bag and Vettel was bound by team orders to follow him home as they conserved tyres and fuel. But Vettel launched a huge attack to take the lead on the 46th lap, and pulled away after a brutal bout of side-by-side running which enthralled the crowd.

Eventually, Vettel was able to pull away to a triumph which equalled Sir Jackie Stewart’s 27 wins. Later Vettel claimed to have realised only when they removed their helmets in parc ferme that he had made a mistake in overtaking Webber, but he had been warned on that 46th lap by team boss Christian Horner that he had a lot of explaining to do after the race. Vettel apologised to Webber and admitted that he had got it wrong, but the Australian was unimpressed.

Further back, Lewis Hamilton said he didn’t feel that he deserved his first podium finish for Mercedes, as team mate Nico Rosberg was repeatedly instructed by team boss Ross Brawn not to pass him as they both had to turn their engines to maximum fuel-saving mode. Rosberg honoured that instruction, but Hamilton said that he felt his team mate had driven a more intelligent race, as he himself had given in to his natural competitive instincts to take the fight to the Red Bulls and as a result had taken more out of his car.

It was a disastrous day for Ferrari, as Fernando Alonso ran into the back of Vettel in the second corner after the start, and then crashed going into Turn 1 on the second lap after gambling that a damaged front wing would hold out until his first pit stop.

Front row man Felipe Massa lacked the pace to stay with the leaders, but took a solid fifth ahead of the duelling Lotus’s of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, which lacked the speed they had shown in Australia. The black and gold cars, however, were able to get to the finish with only three pits stops to their rivals’ four.

Nico Hulkenberg fought hard throughout to take eighth for Sauber, with Sergio Perez claiming another two points for McLaren ahead of the feisty Jean-Eric Vergne in his Toro Rosso.

The other hard luck story of the day concerned Perez’s team mate Jenson Button, who ran in a respectable fifth place for much of the race, led briefly during the third round of pit stops, but then had a disastrous pit stop of his own when the right-front wheel was improperly secured. He climbed back to 12th, before being called in to retire with imminent mechanical problems late in the race.

Force India also had a horrible time. A delay in changing the wheels on Adrian Sutil’s car seriously held up team mate Paul di Resta, who pitted at the same time to switch from intermediates. The Scot then fought back mightily and was on target for points when he suffered a similar problem at his next pit stop. Sutil later had a recurrence, and both cars were eventually withdrawn.

Valtteri Bottas was 11th for Williams in a race in which team mate Pastor Maldonado had one off-track adventure which broke his front wing and later stopped out on the circuit, while Esteban Gutierrez took 12th for Sauber from Jules Bianchi’s splendidly-driven Marussia and the Caterhams of Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde. Pic was hit by Vergne during a mix-up in the pit lane, when Toro Rosso made an unsafe release, and both required new noses. Toro Rosso were later fined for the incident.

Max Chilton was the final finisher for Marussia in 16th place, as Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo joined Alonso, Di Resta, Sutil, Maldonado and Button on the non-finishers list.

The controversial result catapults the repentant Vettel into the lead in the drivers’ world championship with 40 points from Raikkonen on 31, Webber on 26, Hamilton on 25 and Massa on 22, while Red Bull have a comfortable lead in the constructors’ stakes with 66 points from Ferrari and Lotus on 40, and Mercedes on 37.

 

[zk1mpls]

Didn't know Seb apologized

Sebastian Vettel apologises after defying team orders to win 2013 Malaysian GP
Sepang victor ignored instruction to hold position
By Pete Gill. Last Updated: March 24, 2013 11:47am

A chastened Sebastian Vettel has apologised to Mark Webber after defying team orders and overtaking his team-mate for victory of the Malaysian GP despite being instructed to hold position behind the Aussie following the final round of pit-stops in Sunday's race.

Following an angry confrontation with Webber before a grim-faced podium ceremony, Vettel told reporters in the post-race press conference: "'I should have behaved today. I made a big mistake.

"It's not a victory I am proud of. It should have been Mark's."

Both during the press conference and in a subsequent interview for Sky Sports F1, Webber pointedly refused to confirm he accepted Vettel's apology before talking cryptically of "taking my medicine" during the upcoming three-week break before the Chinese GP.

"It is still very raw," said Webber. "I was completely reassured twice that we were not going to abuse the cars on each other.

"It is very hard for everyone to understand the whole situation. There are a lot of people that think they understand the whole situation, but unfortunately it is not possible for them to understand everything.

"There were a lot of things on my mind in the last 15 laps of that Grand Prix to be honest, so if the medicine is enough we will see."

Webber's displeasure was abundantly clear as he stood alongside Vettel on the Sepang podium, telling Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle: "After the last stop the team told me the race was over and we turned the engines down to go to the end. I want to race as well, but the team made the decision which we usually do before the race and say that is how it is going to be and look after the tyres and the car and get to the end.

"But Seb made his own decision today and will have protection as usual and that is the way it goes."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner - who accused Vettel of being "silly" as he diced with Webber for the lead of the race - confirmed that a "clear instruction" was given to Vettel to hold position.

"We let the drivers race until the final pit-stop. At that point, the drivers' interests became bigger than the team's," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

Instead, Vettel opted to attack Webber as the Australian returned to the track following his fourth and final stop just in front of the sister RB9. What followed was breathtaking wheel-to-wheel action which culminated in Vettel overtaking Webber for the 27th grand prix victory - and the most controversial.

Still definitely lost a lot of fans and respect for that one. Seb's radio transmission to the team to get Webber out of the way was just wrong. Not even comparable to Nico's situation.

 

[Sinner]

Hahahahahahaha...

 

[zk1mpls]

Still funny the second time around. What did Nicole say?

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton goes to wrong pit stop box

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton made a mistake at the Malaysian Grand Prix when he tried to make a pit stop with his former team.
The British driver, 28, was world champion with McLaren in 2008 but joined Mercedes for the 2013 season.

He pulled into the pit lane for a tyre change and came to a halt where his former colleagues were waiting. "I don't know how that happened. The teams look so similar. I have been stopping in that pit box for years. "[It's] an easy mistake and hopefully one I won't make again."Hamilton soon realised his mistake and drove further along to his new Mercedes team pit box.

It was only the second race of the 2013 season, with Hamilton finishing third behind the Red Bull one-two of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber .
McLaren mechanics waved Hamilton through as his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger smiled at the error.

"I don't know how I got it wrong, a big apology to my team," said Hamilton after the race, who pointed out that former team-mate Jenson Button had made a similar error in the past."I just did a Jenson, for years I was used to driving into the McLaren pit stop."

The McLaren team tweeted: "Smiles in the garage after a well-worked double pit stop with an unexpected twist."
Later adding: "Feel free to pop in and say 'Hi' any time, @LewisHamilton!"

McLaren's response

For those curious about Hamilton saying he "pulled a Jenson":



You could hear the crowd laugh (I think):