Thetownend.com

Hamilton fastest in practice  - hopefully upping the ante after Silverstone.

I know practice sessions have hardly any bearing on the race but think its about time for another win.

Hearing is due next week though re the spy scandal with Ferrari.  Just hope McLaren are cleared....

*Cue Dachauer*  :D

Second practice mid way through,  Ferarri currently 0.8s quicker than MacLaren.

I think it's goint to be tough for MacLaren again this weekend.

On an slightly related note I see Murray Walker makes a one-off F1 return in the comm box for five live this weekend.

I wouldn't be suprised to see a Ferrari one-two to be fair. Hamilton's due a finish off the podium by now, podium will be:

1. Raikkönen
2. Massa
3. Alonso

I just hope it rains at the Nordschleife on Sunday, that's when you find out who's a proper driver.

The Ferraris will always have the upperhand however even in the practice session I expected Massa to have clocked a quicker time tbh.

For Hamilton to finish higher than the Ferraris would show a truly remarkable driver.

I'm going for

Raikkonen
Hamilton
Massa

No bloody way, I am German :wink:

Yes, it's for radio 5 isn't it?

I was patiently awaiting your input  :mrgreen:

Like I said cue (or queue) is not something I understand :wink:

 :soapy tit wank:

 :wink:

I reckon Alonso will start to outperform Hamilton soon.

I want Massa to win the whole thing this year, he's ace he looks like a cartoon and is as tall as Carson. He has also matured beyond all recognition since he's been at Ferrari but without losing any of his raw pace, he's learnt from the best but without picking up all of Schumacher's cuntish traits. I fucking hated Schumacher.

most do but he is the best driver of all time without any doubt

My dislike for Alonso is significantly more than any other driver.  His arrogance, bad attitude towards Hamilton does my head in.  Pathetic accusations to justify why his performances haven't quite topped Hamiltons.

Without a shadow of a doubt, he single-handedly dragged Ferrari out of the duldrums and made them World Champions. People hated him for a perfectly good reason though; Adelaide '94, Jerez '97, Spa '98, etc. Although I never did get to see the likes of Ascari and Fangio.

senna was better

Me too (this seaon anyway). I think I've hated him ever since he won his first title and this season has made it even worse with the shit he's been spouting. Although his excuses are no different to Hamilton's excuses for not doing better at Silverstone.

But Hamilton moves on and gets on with it whereas Alonso (who I still think looks like dastardly from wacky races) is always whinging and passing the blame.

You reckon? I'd say they were close given the fact Senna usually had quality drivers in his team. I'd say Senna and Prost were of similar calibre but Senna was prone to a few to many errors.

Although Donnington '93 (?) in the wet was a bit awesome

Dunno senna is the only driver i have really heard of

To be fair Hamilton has accepted blame like that pit blunder at Silverstone and doesn't dwell on negatives for long.

My missus reckons Alonso looks like the man from Garfield.

I don't like Alonso, I think it is his arogant attitude in general.
I have yet to see Hamilton come storming through the field and pass a great number of cars, so it is difficult to really assess how good he is, as yet

Genau, Dachauer.

That's pretty much my feelings, although he hasn't had that oppurtunity yet. Maybe he'll bollocks up qualifying on purpose so he can show how far he can go through a field.

When Massa started from the pit lane at last grand prix he did a sterling job making his way through the pack.......some brilliant driving there.

I'd Nurburg Hamilton's ring.

Unfortunately so would most of the British population

Sorry to piss on all your bonfires, but it'll be a Raikkonen hat-trick this weekend.

I fucking hope I'm right  :wink:

what 1st 2nd and 3rd?

clever boy.

Hat-trick of victories.

Did I forget the lowest common denominator of intelligence when I failed to make that clear in my first post?  :doh:

there's always one, and it's often me.

What? He's going to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd?

I was planning to go to this GP as it is only about 40-50 miles from me. Apparently it is about 100 Euro ish (£75) to watch the practice day, qualifying and the GP. God knows what you can see though!!

Hamilton's stuffed it. Hope he is OK.

Edit #1 - Tyre deflated at max speed and plowed into barrier. Suspension failure. Not nice.

Edit #2 - taken to the medical centre with a neck brace attached and IV inserted. Not sure whether he'll race tomorrow.

Edit #3 - watching the incident again, it looked horribly like the accident which killed Ayrton Senna. Very nasty.

ron dennis reckons it was a faulty wheel nut gun. hamilton was a passenger, nothing he could do.

Bollocks Ron. That looked like classic suspension failure. Don't feed us bullshit.

Qualifying order

Raikkonen
Alonso
Massa
Heidfeld
Kubica
Webber
Kovalainen
Trulli
Schumacher
Hamilton

Hamilton will start 10th, if indeed he starts at all. I personally don't think he will, but we'll have to wait and see.

he didn't lose conciousness so they might let him start, don't suppose we'll find out until late morning tomorrow.

I don't think they will let him race

surely if he did race he would have to start at the back because he would be in a new car?

Or a re-build and start from P10.

Source: Martin Brundle on ITV

 :D

yeah, just saw it, it'll be a late night for the mclaren pit monkeys!

So long as they use the same engine, not a problem.

I'm still unconvinced by Ron Dennis' explanation of the cause. Watch the incident closely and it looks like the suspension link starts to fail, causing the rim to fail and the tyre to rapidly deflate. Glad he's OK though as that was nasty.

Good to see he is OK. That's the main thing and i wouldn't wish it on any driver. Are there rules that say he can't race then?

I think it'll be subject to a medical examination by the F1 doctors as to whether they reckon he's fit to race. I think its de rigeur if you've been subject to a heavy impact (like Kubica after his accident in Canada). I would expect that exam to happen tomorrow morning.

i also heard a rumour that he's got a snotty nose - anyone care to confirm or deny this?

Nah, overrated. Anyone can win tons of championships in the best car which is what he had almost every year. Eddie fucking Irvine - a really average driver, almost won the championship the year Schumacher broke his leg because the car was so dominant.

Hamilton's better for sure.

i'm looking forward to some proper overtaking from lewis, see how good he really is from a poor grid position.

It's a bit slippy out there.

hamilton's back in after being lifted by a crane!!!

Surely Hamilton can't continue and will be black flagged??

Oh well, restart it is :)

one of the weirdest gp starts i've ever witnessed. wonder how many cars will make the restart?

They are allowed to recover the cars, so as many as are in tact. The grid order will be the last confirmed race position at the time of the red flag. Spiker on pole then :)

At least I think that is what happens.....

what happened, just switched on.

It rained = carnage.

hamilton slid off in the rain, kept engine running, crane lifted him back on, he went on his way, race was red flagged, he re-started last and a lap down, re-start is under safety car so he unlapped himself and is now just last.

Off we go again...

cheers for the update.

If you have run out of fuel Raikkonen, you are a plank! Grrrrrr  :twisted:

Edit: Electrical problems apparantly.

And its raining again...

Good grand prix that, rain=exciting :)

Unlucky Lewis, so nearly a point. That decision to go to slicks a lap or two too early stuffed you.

Unless they disqualify Heidfeld for taking off Ralph. I don't think they will mind..

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:
Where was Hamilton today?
Its one thing over-taking cars like Super Aguri and Renault but he has not passed a Ferrari etc as yet in his career, he doesn't have the ability to over-take currently. It may come

Hamilton better than Schumi - not in a million years

he's taken ferrari's before, off the line a couple of times, he may not be as good as schummi yet, but he's only had 10 races!!!!

Forced to start in 10th? Who's leading the championship? I guess you don't need to overtake when you're leading races from start to finish but if he needed too he would.

Schumacher didn't turn Ferrari into a winning team, a billion pounds of investment and a budget far higher than any other team did. Any average driver could have won loads of championships in cars as dominant as Schumachers. Even Barrichello managed to finish second in the championship twice and he's shit. Hamilton would probably have won every season. It is pretty amazing to already be beating Alonso, who is also far better than Schumacher, Schumacher did not challenge for the title until his fourth season.

Yet, he won 2 World Championships before he even joined Ferrari....

 :shock: Alonso is the most overrated world champion since Villeneuve.

Good gravy, is Ben having a laugh?

Hamilton is good, that's for sure but Alonso isn't even in the same ball park as Schumacher (no matter how much of a cunt he was).

Yeah, in another very good car, first year he won he should have been disqualified from the championship.

The best way of remembering whether Schumacher was good or not was to think of when it rained, he used to piss all over the field then.

Look he was a cunt of a driver, probably why he did quite well, but he was head and shoulders above the other drivers.  Would have been interesting to see him vs Senna for a few years of proper racing.

Schumacher always had Ross Brawn and others who made sure they were way more prepared for rain than any of the other teams.

Alonso won two world championships before he was even 26, more than Schumacher had done at the same age. He also had a greater points margin over his teammate than Schumacher in the last two years, Massa was 3rd last year, Fisichella was 4th. He is obv good.

Schumacher is the most overrated world champion of all time. Villeneuve is not really overrated since he's not rated very high anyway.

If Senna and Schumacher had ever raced in similar cars, Senna would have crushed him, not even close.

Your car can be made by Nasa, but in the wet the control has to come from you.  His team will have made a difference but not the amount he was above the rest of the field, and don't forget he had decent competition for a while.

I think Ben has jumped on the 'Hamilton is god' bandwagon.
If Schumi had been any other nationality, especially English your tune would be a different one Ben as would the press

Hamilton will never scale the same heights even though he has started in the best car

I think Ben is right

How do you work that one out then mystic meg?

If you could pm me next weeks lottery numbers whilst you're on this looking into the future trip, I'd be most grateful.

 :soapy tit wank:
I should think it unlikely he will win the world championship 7 times

That's more like it, a bit of rain!

And as much as I hated him, it was the kind of race Schumacher would've dominated.

Also Schumacher had a major impact in the resergence of Ferrari when he joined in '96.

Don't really care if Shumacher was the greatest F1 driver, things just got a lot more interesting since he retired.

Also how good was seeing a Winkelhock in F1?! Joachim "Smokin' Joe" was a boyhood hero of mine for no reason whatsoever and I remember watching him win a DTM Race at Norisring back in the day.

Loved it that Markus was leading!

This season they have, but Schumacher hadn't won a title since 2004 so it wasn't as if he was pissing all over the opposition in the last couple of years.

But things did get more interesting...

For the time being...

If he was in the best car or close to it for seven seasons I think it's very possible, most drivers aren't that lucky though. It's his first season, he's only 22, his teammate is the world champion and he's already challenging for the title. This is the most impressive debut season any driver has ever had in formula one. It wouldn't matter what nationality he was, this is always going to be a big story.

hamilton will have to compete with alonso (who beat schumacher twice) to win a world title so of course he isn't going to win it 7 times!

i do think schumacher is one of the all-time greats, but it's clear to all that he was pretty much unchallenged for most of his career... hill, villeneuve, coulthard, and hakkinen really do not compare to prost and mansell, who senna had to beat. those were proper rivalries.

Fucking hell dacheur, you've caught quite a lot today  :fishing:

The beauty of Formula One is the technological challenge presented to the designers and engineers courtesy of the FIA rule book. With all the electronic driver aids on the cars these days, driver skill has become largely irrelevant. Design a good car that is easy to set up, has good mechanical grip and aerodynamics and your onto a winner.

For the previous two seasons, clearly the Renault package was superior to anything else on most circuits, hence the reason why Alonso was able to win back-to-back titles. Prior to that, Ferrari had the edge, hence Schumacher's domination - IIRC didn't Ferrari win 16 out of the 17 races in 2003?

Its difficult to draw comparisons between drivers of different eras. Statically Schumacher is the best ever and has set records that will probably never be broken. But was he really better than Fangio, Ascari, Moss, Stewart, Clark, Prost & Senna? The record books say yes, but the debate rages on, and will do forever.

Could Hamilton emulate Schumacher? Who knows. Right now, you can't draw comparisons, and its frankly unfair to do so. The kid certainly has talent, he proved that last year by romping away with the GP2 series. He has certainly started well in F1, but he has a seat in one of the 4 best cars on the grid - would he really be better than Jenson Button in that dog of a Honda this year?

Its how he reacts to this weekend's event in the next race that will start to shape how good he really is. So long as he keeps his feet on the ground and keeps away from Page 3 girls, he should be set for a long and successful career.

My money is still on Raikkonen for the title though.

Indeed, it was great to see a Spker out in front bt 33 seconds

be the only chance ever i think, i remember in the ealry 90's a minardi led a race and was on to win then the engine blew? i think they finished on the podium a bit back in the day as well?

Just to wade into this one a bit late - Fisichella is possibly the worst driver on the grid in the last 5 years - he's shockingly bad...

So to compare the amount that Alonso beat him by is not a good comparison.

My order for the last few years that I've seen:
Senna
Prost
Schumacher
Hill
Alonso
Mansell
Hakkinen
Villeneuve (nearly beaten by Hill in an Arrows, but saved by an electrical failure in the Arrows, which says it all imo)

Was that villeneuve. I could of sworn that it was schumacher.

Definately Villeneuve
Bad quality Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PVpfaQ1s2k

Oh right, fair enough. Memorys fading already !

Remembering wet GP crashes does anyone remember the mother of all crashes in 1998 in Belgium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo_Ibwy9IJE (Long Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCOSsRqzOvI (Short Video)
 :shock:

THATS why people watch f1 :D

yeh I remember that one

Hill above Mansell?!?! I hope you're not basing Mansell on his 'comeback' with McLaren in 95  :mrgreen:

Yes, I was there  8)

Edit: I've been to two GP's, and both have been memorable for different reasons. Spa '98 because of that crash, Schumi v DC on track and punch up in the pits and Damon Hill winning for Jordan. Followed by the US GP in Indy '05 when all the Michelin shod cars fucked off into the pitlane before the start  :twisted:

He probably meant Graham  :wink: