Is Hamilton desperate or what?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I did.

Good to see Hamilton pay homage to the greatest.

Loved the sound of the old McLaren. The cars from the late 80s/early 90s just sounded fantastic. That was the highlight for me.

Mine was watching Senna take Hakkinen, Schumacher, Wendlinger, Hill and then Prost in the space of 7 Corners.

This is why Hamilton wears Senna colours. This is why he is the greatest.

[andrew]

Piquet power-sliding round turn 1 at the Hungaroring to overtake Senna showed immense skill and cajones. That has got to be one of the best moves ever.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Great move, no matter that he had a far better car.
The oversteer correction on that overtake was almost good enough to forgive his offsprings antics.

[marcush.]

Marcush,

What about Button? Do you think he will be competitive at Spa and Monza or able to take points off Hamilton?
I think Hamilton is favourite, but his advantage could easily be whittled away with a DNF or a mistake. Ferrari and Red Bull are coming...

as you know i have a soft spot for Button ,but in all honesty Hamilton is just too spectacular to nott be overwheming everything else.Of course Button will deliver and haul a good load of points home.Beat Hamilton ? lets see if he can surprise us with
a bag of new found speed .He was quite often tantalisingly close to Lewis this year.
who had thought that being a possibility...I think Jenson does well to his reputation as a driver this year .

[Shrieker]

Of course not. Button was trailing Silver Homes, and knew that if he closed the gap to launch a passing attempt, Silver Homes would have turned up the wick and fought back. That would have possibly resulted in the scenario at Turkey, where Silver Homes did fight back after a passing attempt, and almost wrecked both cars out. No, better to take the smart path rather than risk an accident with someone who has previously displayed the tendency to raise the risk factor.

That's the point. When was the last time you've seen Lewis take anybody out ?

Racing is a risky business. If you can take a bigger risk and get away with it, doesn't that make you better ? His limit is a wee little bit further and it can make all the difference when the task is at hand.

That said, I think in Istanbul Button backed off a little in the exit of T1 when Lewis counter-attacked. From my pov that was what prevented contact.

But maybe Lewis new Button would do that; what do you say, hmm

[ringo]

It could be that the blown diffuser isn't very much suited to his driving style. I would imagine the fastest way of taking a corner with a blown diffuser being to brake early and then just floor it through the apex and out of the corner. Which is pretty much the opposite of what Lewis is good at.

I don't think we can make this judgment yet. Look how good he was doing in practice and qualifying. I think he just had an average day. He could not do better than 4rth, so that may have took the fire out his belly.

Next race, he needs to be desperate. The other teams are closing fast, and he needs to up the gap. He has to win in Hungary. He can't continue collecting seconds and thirds. Mclaren need to imrpove the car to atleast 0.4s gap to redbull; that's all he needs.

dont be so ridiculous, he does not NEED to win at all.

what he does need is for the mclarens to be more competetive and allow him a chance of a win. a podium finish would be a good result this weekend.

I am getting a little nervous for him and that mp4. Double wins are like a dime a dozen now. We have Alonso, Vettel, Button, Webber, Hamilton, with double wins, webber has 3.
Hamilton needs to make sure 3 races to the end, he can be comfortable with podiums and 4 and 5th. Getting those wins in the end are more stressful than getting them early out or in the middle.
Not saying he should go ballistic like vettel, but he should still take calculated risks to win, if he's not on pole.

What's more, it's clear that Massa is not allowed to finish ahead of Alonso, this gives alonso an advantage in getting points his teammate worked for. While the other teams are splitting points amongst their drivers.

[marcush.]

I think you are right there ,but possibly draw the wrong conclusions.
Ferrari is the threat ,they will favour Alonso no doubt.So he will NOT have to fight at least one contentder for the win wich is a big advantage.
Vettel and Webber come out worst ...they will take points of each other to the point of taking the other or themselves out + these two seem to be the ones who are not gifted with racecraft but have to rely on car performance only.
Hamilton has the ADVANTAGE of a teammate who is laid back enough to Not take him out and only a tad slower than him,so bagging good points for the team and strong enough to be directly behind him but not doing silly things.
the wins will come.no question there.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

The pace Ferrari showed at Germany means they are looking pretty good at moment.
We Will see what Alonso is made of in the next 3 months.
And anyone suggesting Lewis can limp to the flag is mistaken. 8 races left 34 points behind Alonso, this is nothing if Alonso wins the next 2 races and Lewis comes in 5th. Possible if Red Bull and Ferrari finish ahead of them.
As Button said, 0.3 seconds you can find, but 0.7? that is some way back.

Spa and Monza will be different as the macca likes straight lines. But Ferrari will not be laying down for those 2 races and will probably have a low downforce config.

[Just_a_fan]

Mine was watching Senna take Hakkinen, Schumacher, Wendlinger, Hill and then Prost in the space of 7 Corners.

This is why Hamilton wears Senna colours. This is why he is the greatest.

The irony is that Senna never considered it to be anything special. After all, he said, the car had traction control (and ABS?)!

That's why I liked him.

[marcush.]

If you can find 3 tenths why not 7? It is not like you could not see they are there...as someone else does indeed clock these times...
Or to put it in other context ,to improve on lap time by 7tenths per lap ,on a 75seconds lap (Hockenheim Qualy) that is: just 1% of everything you need to improve... considering what they know now ,this is entirely feasible.(flexi wings ,ebd,Q3 retard map, you name it).

If you go to the simple details of sector times,then Alonsos perfect time was :
1.13.783 he actually did a 1.13.793
the perfect Mclaren time was 1.14.214 wheras Button did a 1.14.427 ...so he let go
2 tenths somewhere.. the difference in car was just 431 hundreds...

So Alonso missed his perfect lap by 1hunderedth of a second ,Vettel by 5 hundredth!

and Vettels theoretical best was 1.13.741 ,he actually did a 1.13.791...



Of course it is a bit blunt to just add up the sectors but sometimes you have to just make it stick ...

on a sidenote ,both mercedes drivers missed their own dreamlap by only a few thousands in Q2 but missed the Mercedes combined dreamlap by 2tenths! so if it was
driving only they could have learned from each others? but that would have been 7th on the grid at best so who cares..

[Super racing]

All this talk of finishing positions but in reality the WDC will probably be decided by a DNF(mechanical or otherwise) because of this stupid points system.

Button on his best day cant beat Hamilton on his worst as we saw in Germany, Hamilton was relaxed and saving fuel & tires and Button still could not keep up and was locking tires and going off track trying to. Button was lucky that Webber had mechanical issues or MW would have passed him or crashed trying.

[vall]

Button was lucky that Webber had mechanical issues or MW would have passed him .....

... and then comes Hamilton's turn

[vall]

Button on his best day cant beat Hamilton on his worst as we saw in Germany, Hamilton was relaxed and saving fuel & tires and Button still could not keep up and was locking tires and going off track trying to.

I believe when LH was told to save fuel, Button was told something else...... Guess what

[rifrafs2kees]

The endless Button bashing has gotten old. Yeah, Hamilton is faster...so? For the many who like Hamilton and Mclaren, me included, who do u prefer be Hamilton's team mate? This is the best pairing Mclaren have had in a long long time. Lick it up and run away with it. I had very little appreciation for Button but he's proven to be very good. If for whatever reason Hamilton was out of contention, Button could win the championship with a little bit of luck, hard work and ramped-up determination. I mean the guy is at worst 2 spots down from Hamilton on average. And they get along. Can't ask for too much more.

[Super racing]

Button was lucky that Webber had mechanical issues or MW would have passed him .....

... and then comes Hamilton's turn

Wrong, as usual, did you not see Hamilton pass Webber? Hamilton would have just turned up the wick if MW passed JB.

I believe when LH was told to save fuel, Button was told something else...... Guess what

What? This idea people are shooting around that there were team orders at McLaren this weekend(or any other weekend this year) is absurd, plain and simple Button CAN NOT match Hamilton.

LH was told to save fuel after his pit stop and then told to use max fuel about 5 laps from the end, so what?