Spanish GP 2010 - Barcelona

[Hangaku]

Hamilton's laps
59 1:24.357
60 1:24.757
61 1:25.042
62 1:25.129
63 1:25.736
64 1:25.602

Webber's laps
59 1:25.903
60 1:25.298
61 1:24.920
62 1:24.828
63 1:25.699
64 1:25.247


Would not call that exactly cruising.
He eased off on the final couple of laps, but what was the reason to go 1:24s with less than 10 laps to go?

Well, he's trailing Webber by 11 seconds, and his pit crew radio in saying that Vettel's brakes are failing. If there is a chance that Webber has been told to look after his brakes to the finish line, you want to get all over the back of him as soon as possible. OK, it didn't turn out like that, but McLaren are surely wiser to take that chance - especially with Red Bull's reliability rating.

I don't believe that Hamilton's tire failure had anything to do with degradation. Martin Whitmarsh eluded to a possible circumstance regarding a rim failure, but without more data he said he wasn't able to comment further.

[ringo]

He was, he said he just wanted to finish and was cruising. His fastest lap stood way before the problem.

Hamilton's laps
59 1:24.357
60 1:24.757
61 1:25.042
62 1:25.129
63 1:25.736
64 1:25.602

Webber's laps
59 1:25.903
60 1:25.298
61 1:24.920
62 1:24.828
63 1:25.699
64 1:25.247


Would not call that exactly cruising.
He eased off on the final couple of laps, but what was the reason to go 1:24s with less than 10 laps to go?
Anyway, front tyre failures happen to him. At least two times before this one.[/quote]

They wanted to be able to capitalize on a redbull brake failure, if it is that Webber's car was setup like Vetell's. Alonso was also closing as well, i think?
But yeah, he sped up to be in range of time should Webber go into problems.
But yeah, slowing down by 1 second, is about right for cruising. droping 0.4 seconds a lap when the fuel load is going down as well is ok.
Had the team tell him about the tyres he might have slowed down more, but i guess nothing was appearantly wrong with the tyres.
In hindsight Slowing like Vettel would be ideal, but who knew?

The car is very good though, I think it can win in Monaco, a good quali and exteme downfoce couple with the reliability of the engine to last the fatigueing changes in engine speed could put the Mclarens right behind the redbull to swoop in.

[Morteza]

Fastest lap of the race. Almost if Redbull is geared to be fast specially for qualifying. In the race the Mclaren is the quickest once again. Or maybe it's the driver.

That's right. It's always been like this, Red Bulls are fast in qualifying but in the race it's the Mclaren who's got the the better car.just look how many overtaking Hamilton has done this season, this guy's really got the talent and I think he's the best out there.

how so? If the Macca was a better race package, why would they find themselves far behind Webber?

Here is LH himself....

“I think I drove a good race. I couldn’t keep up with Mark [Webber] on my second set of tyres, but I was able to get past Sebastian [Vettel] as I came out of the pits."

Right, I know Red Bull has got the best car(Everybody knows that ), but what I don't understand is that they couldn't do better in China for example. They've got all the pole positions this year but they have not won all races. What I see in the race is that Mclaren is doing better with what they've got than Red Bull is doing. The part which is not about the car but about the driver showing Hamilton is doing really well with a car which is not the best and setting 2 fastest laps this season.
This is my idea and you have the right not to accept it

[vyselegend]

By the way. Where's the rain?

It was at Spa!
Maybe you were watching the wrong race Panda?

[raymondu999]

I wonder though... would it have been an RBR 1-2 if Vettel's brakes had stayed intact?

[ISLAMATRON]

Ron Dennis, the McLaren chairman, revealed that concerns about the durability of his team's Bridgestone tyres, one of which had failed on Hamilton's car during the race here last year, had forced Hamilton and his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, to use a three-stop strategy compared with the Ferrari drivers' two. Moreover Kovalainen, who had qualified in second place despite running with a heavier fuel load than Hamilton, had to stop at the end of the opening lap to change a rear tyre damaged when Raikkonen's front wing touched it at the first corner

Dont you even read what you post? It says that it was done for both drivers... clearly a car issue if that, in the end a strategy decision which allowed LH to finish higher than 1 of the faster Ferraris.

It was a BS concern, Mclaren could have ignored it if they wished... guess we'll see what they do at Turkey this year.

[vall]

I wonder though... would it have been an RBR 1-2 if Vettel's brakes had stayed intact?

hard to know. He was some 18 sec behind Alonso with 10 laps left. Many things went wrong for SV today, including he hit traffic on his out lap; that's way LH could come ahead ofter the pisstop

[vall]

Ron Dennis, the McLaren chairman, revealed that concerns about the durability of his team's Bridgestone tyres, one of which had failed on Hamilton's car during the race here last year, had forced Hamilton and his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, to use a three-stop strategy compared with the Ferrari drivers' two. Moreover Kovalainen, who had qualified in second place despite running with a heavier fuel load than Hamilton, had to stop at the end of the opening lap to change a rear tyre damaged when Raikkonen's front wing touched it at the first corner

Dont you even read what you post? It says that it was done for both drivers... clearly a car issue if that, in the end a strategy decision which allowed LH to finish higher than 1 of the faster Ferraris.

It was a BS concern, Mclaren could have ignored it if they wished... guess we'll see what they do at Turkey this year.

Because you clearly also read selectively, I repeat it again, with some parts highlighted:

The most intriguing news that came out of this weekend’s racing is that Bridgestone apparently forced McLaren to put Lewis Hamilton on a three-stop strategy during Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix because it was worried one of his tires might explode.

That tidbit of information popped out during the post-race press conference yesterday after Felipe Massa led Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen across the finish line.

Speed TV reporter Peter Windsor asked Hamilton how come he was on a three-stop while everybody else was on two and young Lewis let this slip:

"I guess I can tell you now that Bridgestone was worried about my tires," he said. "They had a problem (of course it was BS' fault, not LH's) a year ago when one blew out (on Hamilton’s McLaren) and so they forced us to adopt a three-stop strategy for this race in the interests of safety."

[ISLAMATRON]

Yes, BS dictates racing strategy to McLaren... They will tell McLaren to have a 12 stopper at Monaco next week... and McLaren and their multi million dollar simulators will agree to do so because that is the best strategy to win.

[raymondu999]

It could be that I'm just thick here... but who does BS stand for? All I can think of is Bruno Senna

[andrew]

Can I just highlight the pointlessness of having an argument over Hamiltons defective tyre/wheel?

McLaren have not yet confirmed what went wrong so how the hell can a bunch of armchair enthusiasts like us know what went wrong.

[ringo]

So soon after the Spanish Grand Prix’s completion McLaren are unable to diagnose the exact cause of Hamilton’s retirement, which took the team completely by surprise, but with Bridgestone suspecting the tyre was not to blame, they will now send the parts back to their factory to investigate the reasons for the failure.

Problem with the car not the driver overusing the tyres. Could be a wheel rim problem, or maybe a stone came between the tyre and the brake duct sheild that is flush with the inside of the tyre, cutting the tyre wall.

[vall]

Yes, BS dictates racing strategy to McLaren... They will tell McLaren to have a 12 stopper at Monaco next week... and McLaren and their multi million dollar simulators will agree to do so because that is the best strategy to win.

according to LH, it was BS (stands for BridgeStone) to forced them to do 3 stops. It was not my words but LH's on the post race press-conf..... So, despite their multi million dollar simulators Macca obviously agreed.

[andrew]

Problem with the car not the driver overusing the tyres.

The driver controls the car so they have to manage their tyres.

[Paul]

What I enjoyed about today's race was teams instructing drivers on how to overtake. I always thought that drivers learn that a good exit from last corner before a straight improves your chances to overtake while in karting, but at least in Baby-Bulk's case that's not true.