What a Race

[Claire 0]

What a fantastic race.

Bad luck for Monty, he should have taken it a bit easier instead of bolting off into the distance, maybe his engine would have lasted.  Mind you being sat in the pits for ages couldnt have done the engine temperature much good.

Great for Ralf.  I cant help but feel that the win was gifted, but great non the less.  Willams are getting stronger and stronger, and I cant be happier

Stop me if I sound too cynical, but if it wasnt MS out, would the race have been stopped?  

By the time the safety car would have lead the pack back round to the site of the accident, there probably would have been enough space to get through without picking up any carbon fibre, they were already lead through it once anyway.  I dont think there was really any need for the race to be stopped.

DC can kiss his title hopes goodbye, there are not enough races left for him to make a realistic challenge, unless by some fluke MS doesnt score in any off them and he does.

One question, should MS have put his hand up to say he had a problem.  At least then the marshall could have got the yellow flags out.  What are the rules in a situation like that?

All in all, a fantastic race.  It was really nice to see a different face on the podium for a change.

[GeoffandSandy 0]

Yea Claire, I agree with just about everything you say.

Ralf said in his post race interview that he ( & presumably Monty) knew that their engines were marginal so he took it easy instead of bolting out of sight. Result Ralf first, Monty DNF.

The long pit stop would not have helped but Ruby also had a fuel hose malfunction & came second.

Stopping the race did seem a but questionable & maybe it was a bit of Schumi/German GP but if someone had a very high speed blowout the knockers would have been in full voice.

As for RS winning, I have been posting for quite a while

"Go Ralfie 2002"

[jagman 0]

I think the race was stopped because it was MS out.  There is no other explanation as the damaged cars had been cleared and like you said clair the debris could have been cleared by the next lap.

Also, by the time the red flag came out, the drivers had finished the first lap and i thought that meant Schuey couldnt re-start?

[rotaryboy 0]

come on guys.  it was necessary to stop the race to ensure the track was cleaned up. would you prfer to have a driver hit a "piece of carbon fibre" at  300km then smash, and die. after an accident like that i think the race should have been stopped. it was so close to the start. but i will have to check the exact rules about that situation. but i see your pessimism about ms.

as for rs well his i know it all attitude, p**ses me off while monty is out there racing setting fastest laps , sure rs did set one, but i get bored seeing the drivers just driving quietly around the track. does this run in the schumacher family. i think montoya is cursed!!

but i think the man of the day is rubens for me he is the hero of the day while the actual race became quiet he had some good moments with dc.

[GeoffandSandy 0]

Jaggy, I just read TF1Wez article:

"FIA Explain Re-Start Decision

Posted on July 31, 2001 by Wez Metcalf" in the news section, seems to explain why they stopped the race.

As for RS taking it easy in order to preserve his engine, good idea to get 10 points in the WDC rather that being a one lap screamer.

I don't think JPM will ever amount to much as he has the PR skills of George W Bush & the patience of the Roadrunner. Spent too long in America probably.

Wham, Bam, thank you mam.

Go Ralfie 2002

[F1Babe 0]

I agree fantastic race!

I'm so happy for Benetton and especially Jenson Button. He really needed that boost.

Ralf had an excellent race, but as usual Montoya was down on luck.

Burti was very lucky to escape that crash

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

Ralf was talking rubbish - Monty retired after the botched-up pitstop - DC retired after a normal length one, so think what 30 seconds stationary would have done?? Ralf got out-driven by his team mate, and was trying to belittle his efforts...

[GeoffandSandy 0]

Oh, the guy who got 10 points is belittling the efforts of the guy who got zero points?

Re. the pit stops: Ruby had a "botched " stop & didn't retire. Sooooo?

[Ana 0]

Yep probably on of the best races of the season! i don't see anyone mentionning RB boy he was the man of the race!A well deserved second place!

JPM just drives he doesn't actually think what he's doing that may look like a fresh image to F1 but his recklesness costs him every race!

I was sorry for the Jag boys they could have finished in points maybe a podium!;((

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

RECKLESSNESS!?!?

The BMW revs much higher than the Ferrari, and is much less reliable than it's Italian counterpart

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

Were you watching the same race as me!?

[GeoffandSandy 0]

Did Ralf & Monty have different BMW engines?

Or did one drive a sensible, winning race & the other drive recklessly & use every one of those extra rpm to achieve yet anothe DNF?

Remember, Fangio said that his philosophy was to win at the slowest possible speed.

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

Juan simply drove better than Ralf

Ralf tries to put Juan down by saying that he hadn't been careful.

No - Ralf was just trying to be horrible - Gerhard Berger came out and said that the two engines hadn't been running at different revs

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

"He said: "Nothing Juan Pablo was doing in any way used his engine harder than Ralf. He was using no more revs. When it goes against you, it goes against you, but he had everyone covered, including his team-mate."

Head hinted that Montoya's botched pitstop - during which he spent nearly 30 seconds stationary - is a more likely explanation for the engine failure."

[Claire 0]

Sam, the lap chart clearly shows that Monty was using more revs than RS, so I dont know what Head was looking at.

[GeoffandSandy 0]

Claire.

Where did you find that beautiful graph!!

I'm impressed.

Seeing that makes me think that PH may have been indulging in politic-speak.

Notice that JPM's engine failure was immediately after registering his peak revs.

We had the same trouble with the early racing Minis; too many revs, even for a few seconds & the centre-main-bearing web would collapse making the engine a two bearing crankshaft model for about a millisecond.

Sensible (winning) drivers learn to drive within the limitations of their machinery.

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

If you're going to use illustrations, then at least try and understand them first - that graph merely shows you the gaps in seconds between the drivers - Montoya registered that "peak" before he took his pit stop.

It just shows that Ralf was consistently slower than Montoya...

And I do think that perhaps Patrick Head knows a little more about the goings on in the Williams team than we really do

[Claire 0]

Sam, go to Forix (where I got the graph)  The key states that the lines indicate the revs of the cars.

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

I did, and no, it doesn't.

So what you're saying is that the cars start the race in negative revs, and the cars get faster and faster until they start slowing down again?

[TotalF1 SamB 0]

I did, and no, it doesn't.

So what you're saying is that the cars start the race in negative revs, and the cars get faster and faster until they start slowing down again?