hrd-hr30

It looked that way at first glance, but IMO it was a whole lot of luck that went his way: 1) lucky his over-ambitious early move didn't end his race 2) lucky that whole incident only cost him 8 seconds 3) lucky he started on the Softs so he could get rid of them and run the rest of the race on the faster Hard tyre, which is where he made a gain over the rest of the field who did a stint on the Softs 4) lucky the Pirellis didn't fall off the cliff for anyone that weekend for some reason, which made their revised long stint strategy work. Looking at the lap charts on F1fanatic he was no faster than Kimi overall, and it was Kimi who set the fastest lap of the race, a quarter of a second faster than Romain. The main reason for his net gain over the field was that he didn't waste a whole session on the slower Soft tyres.

More races like that please! Tyres didn't fall apart on anyone and DRS wasn't too intrusive most of the time. It was almost like they took all the fake stuff away for one weekend, and we had a ripper of a race. Also another prime example of the cars being able to run closer than ever, even through some of the fastest corners in F1 resulting in lots of passes outside the DRS zone. See, they can make their own passes!

that really sucks, but if she gets out of it alive and without brain damage I reckon it will be a big win - 'that' picture of the empty car and the truck's loading deck was sickening. I know hindsight is 20:20, but there would never have been a truck anywhere near there if it was a racetrack pitlane, let alone with its loading deck at that height facing towards where the cars were coming from. I don't think its too much to suggest a makeshift pit at an airfield test day should be treated in the same manner as a real pitlane. I don't understand the reports about the possibility of it being caused by anti-stall - doesn't that disengage the clutch as well as take control of engine revs?

big call to say all those top cars are lacking in at least a couple of major areas! and that their car has it all covered...

this! some of the cars still manage to make Cyber Evo look very conservative even with their horrible new hammerhead/snowplough... they'll look pretty stupid if they don't win...

the fundamental difference in the above Maldonardo Weber pass is that by the time he runs Weber out of road, Weber only has a front tyre overlapping his rear. Hamilton ran Maldonardo off the road when they were fully alongside each other.

don't have to "actually be in front" to deserve to be left some room. Right up alongside will do. if you've just poked you wing in there, or its your front tyre up to their rear tyre then you've got no claim on the corner and should GTFO, but when you're fully alongside, you do have some entitlement to racing room. maybe I should have said "...refuse to accept another car may actually be passing you..."

he was on the track till he got run off the track, then over the kerb as he tried to rejoin where he beached it and couldn't turn. but you already know all that. and plenty of drivers managed to not run people off the road there once they'd established position alongside them on the outside. Again, its both drivers not willing to give an inch that caused the crash, not just Maldonardo. Yes, he failed to rejoin safely and was penalised for that, but there were extenuating circumstances.

where did I say that? i said they're both to blame. But if you actually look, he was beached on the kerb after lewis ran him off the road, turned the wheel but nothing much happened. He didn't just fire it into the side of Lewis' car on purpose. Can't say the same for Lewis running him off the road in the first place. That was certainly intentional. If Lewis didn't put him off the track, he wouldn't have been on the kerb and wouldn't have hit Lewis. Cause and effect...

all those things are true, but it doesn't mean you can run another car off the road just because you want the points and refuse to accept that another car may have actually passed you.

Plenty of other passes were made on the outside on that same corner. Plenty of other drivers managed to fight hard and fair there and not get tangled up with each other like retards. So why was Maldonardo never going to make it??? Simple. Because of the obstinant bloke he was trying to pass - we all knew Lewis was going to run him off the road if he tried to go round the outside - because he tried the same to Kimi the lap before. But Kimi has the experience to know Lewis is a tard and just drove past him up the inside instead. Lewis' tyres were that bad Kimi had time to almost stop mid corner and just cruise past him on the other side anyway! Maldonardo on the other hand is as obstinant as Lewis, and when he started getting squeezed he dug in his heels and pushed the issue around the outside. They're both as bad as each other, and put two dicks in tha situation at that stage of the race and the inevitable happened... All I'm saying is its a bit harsh penalising the bloke who got run off the road as if he's entirely to blame for that crash, when there's a clear rule that says you can't deliberately crowd someone off the road.

the rules actually say "deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track is not permitted" very harsh to penalise Maldonardo IMO. Penalise both or neither.

he was only off the track because Hamilton forced him off... if you squeeze someone that hard, you have to realise it comes with a risk of collision. The whole situation was caused by Hamilton, who had no chance of hanging on to that position anyway.

Hamo isn't just a magnet for it - he created the situation that caused it by pushing overtaking cars off the track when he clearly wasn't going to be able to hold onto the position anyway. How many other passes happened in that exact way all day long? Every other driver managed to get through cleanly, by choosing to allow a car width for the car that was beside them rather than risking a collision by forcing them off the track. Everybody except Hamilton, that is. he chose the 'risk collision' option and got away with bullying the Renault in exactly the same way the lap before, but Maldonardo was just as obstinant as Hamilton and the inevitable happened... I think its a harsh penalty for Maldonardo.

yes, registered in QLD. It's a Safari import with PTO winch, high roof etc. 2" lift, 4 brand new 33's (plus 2 with about 20,000km on them. Total 6 tyres), all new suspension in 2010 incl all bushes, foam cell shocks. Also replaced all hoses and belts, water pump, radiator etc that year in prep for Simpson desert trip. Just ticked over 200,000km. DTS Turbo kit was fitted a few years ago, with new injectors. Injector pump was reco'd a couple years before that. $12K

Hey Danny, since you're fond of the occassional update to this thread, I thought I'd help you out and post your latest times from Lakeside this weekend... LAKESIDE OPEN SPRINT - ROUND 3 LAKESIDE PARK Sprint Cars PRACTICE SESSIONS P1 P2 Practice Issue 1 Page # 1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pos Car Competitor/Team Driver Vehicle Cap CL Fastest...Lap Gap 1 60 Robert Gooley Robert Gooley Mitsubishi Evo 6 AWD P1 0:55.9610* 2 32 Nev Scott Nev Scott Subaru WRX AWD P1 0:56.8033 0:00.8423 3 40 Dean Lettfuss Dean Lettfuss Mazda MX5 R6 P1 0:57.4433 0:01.4823 4 135 Mark Papendell Mark Papendell Holden P1 0:57.8002 0:01.8392 5 10 Paul Ansell Paul Ansell Mitsubishi Evo 6.5 AWD P1 0:59.7180 0:03.7570 6 22 Stuart Borrows Stuart Borrows Nissan Skyline U3 P2 0:59.7668 0:03.8058 7 98 James Willard James Willard Mitsubishi P1 0:59.7963 0:03.8353 8 36 Richard Greenup Richard Greenup Datsun 280ZXT R8 P1 0:59.8597 0:03.8987 9 43 Martin Williams Martin Williams Nisan 300ZX U3 P1 1:00.6794 0:04.7184 10 12 Jayson Mayo Jayson Mayo Nissan 180SX R6 P1 1:01.0977 0:05.1367 11 55 Bruce Chamberlain Bruce Chamberlain Westfield XTR2 U1 P2 1:01.6060 0:05.6450 12 85 Danny Mischok Danny Mischok Ford Excort U1 P1 1:01.8624 0:05.9014 Not quite living up to the talk there champ... even on the resurfaced, widened track that's proven to be faster than the old surface... None of those patches left to balme... Perfect clear, cool Winter's day... Lots of other people going fast and setting PB's so nothing wrong with the track conditions... I don't think even the credit card can help you, because you've already given that a hell of a workout. Hopefully you're not still under any of those false impressions! lol

lol, didn't bother getting up to watch this week's lottery - qualifying or race. First time in many many years - longer than I can remember. Didn't even bother with the replay last night. I hate DRS and I hate the tyres. And since that's what F1 is all about these days, maybe I don't actually like F1 anymore... Watching it only seems to disappoint and frustrate me. RE aerodynamics - the cars for the last 2 years have been able to follow as closely as ever in history. The changes to the wings has seen to that. The problem now is that if you stay in the dirty air, you kill the Pirellis too quickly. Several drivers have demonstrated that already this year, and several have come out and said it too. Instead of not being able to run up close to another car because they physically can't, they are now consciously deciding to hang back a bit to conserve their tyres. Tyres are the problem, not aero. Every time they introduce measures to artificially 'help' the racing, it actually hinders the real racing.

yeah, but those things all come back to ball weight. yes, you can 'safely' tow a 2000kg car or caravan at 80km/h according to Ford. Yes, it applies to FG's. I can't belive people would consider buying something for towing that has an 80km/h speed restriction. tow car weight has nothing to do with preventing sway. its about what happens next - you don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that 2000kg swaying around behind you will have more effect on an 1800kg tow car than a 2800kg tow vehicle... either way, letting an auto decide for itself what to do when towing heavy loads downhill is not a good idea!

I think you should reconsider that "not worried" attitude to be quite frank - speed and insufficient towball weight are the prime causes of sway. Ford stipulating speed restrictions as low as 80km/h over 1600kg IIRC, should be a serious concern for people intending to use them on the highway. I'd suggest they are doing it because the towball download limit is not really being sufficient for the loads they're rating the cars to. At lower speeds they can get away with it perfectly safely. But not at highway speed limits of up to 110km/h. Eg, I once had to tow my broken down Aristo home on a hire trailer behind the Patrol. The only way to load the car onto the trailer was backwards - because of the trailer's design and the length and overhangs of the Aristo. I knew it was dodgy, but there was no other way. I started off very timidly to see how it would handle, but it was absolutely fine at speeds up to 80/85. Hit 90 and you could instantly feel it start to sway. Get back down to 80 and not a drama in the world... do you really know what to do if you experience sway? you might only get one shot at it - and if it happens because the speed got away from you while going downhill, it might not be recoverable from the start. Particularly when it out-weighs you.

where are you planning on towing Richard? Remember Ford stipulates lower speed limits when towing over 1600kg. 80km/h is not great for any highway trip, let alone interstate ones. I'm about to sell my old Patrol, but it is a complete truck. Would be nicer with sensible All Terrains rather than the 33" muddies, and with a muffler put back in. But it has a proper old school 4.2 diesel with DTS turbo kit. Particulates are encouraged to escape right on outta there with the 3" straight through exhaust

not bad for a bloke who's past it... one handed while adjusting brake bias through the fastest change of direction at Monaco that caught some of the young guns out repeatedly over the weekend... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xr4sv0_schumi-monaco-2012_auto

well done Mark 'Jarno Trulli' Webber. choo choo! good thing its a track that's impossible to pass on - he'd have been more like 8th anywhere else.

There's not really 8 corners in there either

meh, I think the old full track was better. The blind entry to reasonably fast turn 8 was a real highlight of the track. Now its replaced with a mickey mouse section of slow esses and even slower hairpins... will be a real PITA trying to find a track day using the best layout.

Weber ploughed right up Kovalainen's arse in Valencia 2010 under similar circumstances with DRS open and a high closing speed, and a car in front braking early due to worn tyres. But no dummy jinks from the car in front, and Weber didn't even pull out to try and pass one way or the other. Just ran clean up his arse without even braking. Did he get a 5 grid spot penalty??? no... nothing at all...