United States Grand Prix

[Massa 0]

I never believed there'd be one, and here we are, ready for the second of what may now be many. They did a great job getting a world-class track built in Elroy, Texas, and I hope it's another great weekend.

Getting to the very end of this season. I wish they'd race at 7 AM local time; F1 in the afternoon is just wrong for me.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Will probably be able to watch quali but will have to record the race as I'm going to a concert on Sunday evening

[Emmcee 0]

I hate this gp and Brazil, ill miss it, it's on at 5am here in Australia I think, iam up at 4am and out the door by 4:30 everyday for work. Can't tape it or nothing like that, I hear the results in the car on the way to work or the guys go "Hey Chriso, Vettel won again hey". So yeah, my championship effectivly ended last week.

But ill throw a wild one out there

Hamilton pole

Webber win, lol I wish

Either seb or lewis will win.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Oh wait, is the USGP this weekend? Wow, I was thinking it was next weekend lol.

I love the track, and it looks to have a nice sample of the US atmosphere seen at Indy and Daytona etc. Am happy for them when the stands looked full last year. No Chinese Military in civilian clothing or free childrens passes to make it look "happening" for them! hahaha.

[Emmcee 0]

The track is fantastic, just not a fan of the time it's on tv where iam from.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Learn some selt control. Have been doing it for years, back in the days of when Tyson fought. Tape it and then go on media blackout until you can watch it.

[Jem of the Shire 0]

Oh it's good to live in europe where (thanks to our Bernie) all the other tracks these days have to start their races at a time that suits us!

Although some of Perez's antics in the first half of the season were questionable, there's no doubt he's improved a lot and I hope he stays in f1. His name is just another to add to the long list of team-mates beaten by Button

[Jem of the Shire 0]

Lewis Hamilton gives his thoughts on this weekend's GP: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24955406

[mikathegreat2 2]

The one time I actually watch a practice session & it's delayed because of heavy fog. Typical!

[KoolMonkey 0]

Oh it's good to live in europe where (thanks to our Bernie) all the other tracks these days have to start their races at a time that suits us!

Although some of Perez's antics in the first half of the season were questionable, there's no doubt he's improved a lot and I hope he stays in f1. His name is just another to add to the long list of team-mates beaten by Button

You know what, we actually get a ton of races that are on at 9:30 to 10:30 at night. Unless I have a snooze on the couch after eating dinner, I prefer that time than say 2pm in the afternoon.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Three practice drivers this weekend. Daniil Kvyat for Toro Rosso, Alexander Rossi for Caterham & Rodolfo Gonzalez for Marussia. Eyes will be more so on Kvyat because he's the only one of the trio who has a seat confirmed for next season.

[Jem of the Shire 0]

Well Rodolfo may fancy his chances too, as Chilton has been SLOW this year compared to his team mate.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Hopefully he's quicker & less dangerous than his Venezuelan counterpart. And no I'm not talking about Johnny Cecotto

[Emmcee 0]

Well Rodolfo may fancy his chances too, as Chilton has been SLOW this year compared to his team mate.

That's not what max thinks. He thinks he is fast enough to have earnt a seat next year,OUTSIDE of Marussia. Lease we know he has a career in comedy if he gets sacked. Your kidding arnt ya mate?

[F1 FANatic 1]

Ok here goes. This my firt time at a gp so let ke throw some things against the wall and see what sticks.

I know this is kind of late. Posting it about 30 minutes before I head out for fp3 and quali.

My seat is right at turn 4. The middle of the esses. Actually really great seats there, the track is a natural bowl at this part and the cars are noticeably louder here than anywhere else. As to loudness, the Williams cars are the loudest by far.

Turn 4 is also nice because you can see how the cars do braking into a medium speed section and their handling in medium speed corners. The most stable is RB of course but there is even a visable difference between seb and webber. Most cars, first underseer when braking into 4 and then oversteer through 5 into 6 when they hit the gas again. Much more so on the primes but still visibly on the options. Vettel is the only guy to consistantly not unersteer in the braking zone. Yet he too gets acceleration oversteer through 5. Which makes me think less and less of this idea of kers tc. When watching other parts of the track, turn 1 and 11 mostly, the same is true. Vettel is much steadier in the braking zones than the others.

Also the Hamilton and Rosberg looked very shaky in both sessions. Over and understeer for both almost everywhere. Kind of the same problem they had last year all year.

Button on the other hand and to an extent perez looked much neater.

At sauber the hulk was doing very very long runs on the primes. I lost cound after 18 laps. Gutierrez on the other hand was almost exclusivly on the options in fp2.

Alonso and massa were both kinda unremarkable all day. Though the Ferrari and RB were the tones that looked the most planted through the esses and under braking into turn .

Here are some pics. They are just taken with my phone so nothing stellar. Also please excuse any spelling mistakes I am writing this onmy phone.

[Massa 0]

Awesome! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

There were 58,000 people or so at the track on Friday. That is incredible.

[F1 FANatic 1]

It was absolutely packed but still down from the 65k last year friday apparently. Here is a fun picture. One of the Redbull guys taking pictures of the other teams. He is one of 4 rebull guys I have seen doing that. Have yet to see anybody from any other team. Shoews just how dedicated they are. And it wasn't just the big boys. He wad getting shots of every car's defusser that camr by. Even the murrusias and caterhams. I don't understand why some of them are coming out sideways.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Very interesting qualifying session. What a drive from Bottas. Although he isn't quite up the front it's still a great effort from him to even get in Q3. BTW Maldonado is coming out with a very bold statement saying that he thinks the Williams crew have been monkeying around with the car. hahaha do us a favour Maldonado & just f**k off & accept the fact that you're a crap driver who doesn't deserve to be in F1!!

[Emmcee 0]

What a bloody tool, this guy is a joke, yeah just be gone you muppet.

[Massa 0]

Gutiérrez was given a ten-place penalty for impeding Maldonado, so no doubt Esteban is being employed by Williams.

Anyway, the race is today, so that's pleasant. I'm hoping it's an interesting one.

[Massa 0]

The race picked up at the end, though lacked strategy. Bottas was a highlight, and Alonso was just too clever with Hülkenberg there at the end, wasn't he? Very nicely done by Alonso to negate the DRS advantage and hold on. Pérez outclassed Button yet again; Jean-Pierre predicted that he'd be doing a lot of at at the end of the year, and sure enough, Pérez has. I hope there's a place for him in 2014. Another impressive race by Grosjean, who delivered some great laps amidst pressure from Webber late in the race. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the other highlights, but that's okay, as most here probably saw them, too!

It's a great circuit, I think. I loved watch Gutiérrez and Vergne in the first sector from Gutiérrez' on-board. You could see that Gutiérrez hit the apex much earlier than Vergne, causing him to have to lift/brake a lot more through the esses in the first sector. I guess that's also called missing the apex. Vergne, on the other hand, drove beautifully in sector one. Too bad they came together at the end, but the two battles they had in the race were really memorable because of how pretty Vergne's line was compared to that of Gutiérrez.

I'm sure many fans were disappointed by that incident, too. Tons and tons and tons of Vodafone McLaren hats for Pérez out there in the shots I saw. I suspect Gutiérrez had his supporters, as well.

Maldonado really fell apart this weekend. It's hard to defend his improvement as a driver after that one. However, Sutil was the one who took himself out across Maldonado's car, in my opinion, rather than the other way. But Maldonado proved dicey throughout the day.

Mercedes...hmm...I really hope next year works out for them. It's such a letdown.

And Vettel? Well, the total opposite. Boy, is he ever good. Eight consecutive wins in an era with rules deliberately designed so that 1) no one can dominate and that 2) Red Bull in particular can dominate. Wow. Everything is so in sync for that team and that driver. It's remarkable, and it's a shame that auto racing, in general, is the type of competition where fans get angry, rather than appreciative, over dominance. That's such a generalization, though; I feel bad even making it. But the sentiment is out there a lot, in all racing. I hope that, at the very least, the people who have grown bored with Vettel winning realize just how awesome it is to get to see someone like Vettel pursue the unbreakable records.

[F1 FANatic 1]

I was sitting in the esses and all I can say about vettel this weekend is that when he was driving slowly through that sectio he wws driving faster than when anybody else was driving at full speed.

Vettel was the only one there that never understeered under braking into the esses or oversteered on acceleration out of them. He hit the same line every time spot on. Every time he drove by he looked like he was in a different catagory all together. He made the other drivers look like a support race going through there.

[Emmcee 0]

Wow,

That's impressive, as much as I dislike him and purely because he smashes webber, he really is something else behind the wheel. His preparation and execution is flawless almost 100% of the time. That is impressive to say the least. Hope he isn't like the other sebastien, Loeb that is, another 5 titles on the trot isn't impossible.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Very impressed with the Austin circuit again. It's so refreshing to see packed stands on race day, let alone the monster crowds there for Q.

It would be nice if they added the V8 Supercars to this weekend, but it would entail the entire bogan population of Australia getting up at 4:30am and I can't see that happening.

What about Nascar doing a stint there!? Not take away from F1, but to add to it. Or..... and Indycar support race. That would be cool.

Great facilities, great tv coverage, and fantastic crowds. I have to say Tilke finally got a circuit right.

Well done Austin, and well done to the USA. I can see this GP being around for decades to come.

Now to the race...

Webber oh Webber, what was going on with you I wonder. If that was Vettel he would have passed GRO, I have no doubts about that. Was he sulking over something, but dropping back 2seconds every couple of laps?

And Hamilton, wow is he a grumpy guy or what.

Great drive by Bottas. I think Williams will be a team I'll be supporting next year a little bit. No words need to be said about Maldonado's performance, it spoke for itself.

Kovi, not sure what happened there. I expected more from him, but then again he did lost 33-35 seconds getting his nose replaced, and I'm not sure it even needed to be.

Rosberg... what's going on there. He wins a race or two this year, and he's fighting hard for 11h places. Strange.

The Hulk did well. I think he might be best to stay a Sauber. Is a better launchpad into a Ferrari isn't it, since they are an unofficial feeder team in a sense. Not sure going back to Force India will help him as it will sever that Ferrari link and not necessarily be a step up.

The marshals were very slow in clearing Sutils car. We again lost 5 laps for something that should have only taken 1-2.

Oh... loved the lingering shots on the WAGS! More please Alonso's bird was close to a 10 for me.

Why no Stetson's on the podium!?? I thought that went down well last year and was a hit. I didn't see past the podium national anthems, and Andretti doing the podium interviews.

Was not a fan of the Stetson wearing grid girls. The Dallas Cheerleaders on the other hand!!!

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Wow,

That's impressive, as much as I dislike him and purely because he smashes webber, he really is something else behind the wheel. His preparation and execution is flawless almost 100% of the time. That is impressive to say the least. Hope he isn't like the other sebastien, Loeb that is, another 5 titles on the trot isn't impossible.

Hope he does