Sato

[Sato 0]

Well he saved the best for home Well done Sato

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

When the third Honda engine blew, and then when Ralf Schumacher's engine blew, I was shaking in my seat hoping Sato's engine would make it to the finish (not even mentioning Raikkonen)!! I must say I haven't seen a driver more happy since Hakkinen took Indy last year or won his championships in 98-99!!

Thankfully he didnt lose control when he got up and almost stood in his seat on the victory lap!!

[nichosnz 0]

Looking at the drivers not to score yet after BAR managed to in UK, I thought Sato was the only one in with a chance. After USA I was considering myself wrong, thankfully I wasn't.

Also, with McNish's accident, Sato is the only rookie to start every GP in 2002. Massa missed USA, Webber was withdrawn from Spain, and Davidson was a stand-in.

[nichosnz 0]

Check out the stands in the background, this is hours after the race has finished!!

[sw4me 0]

Yeah, I really feel happy for Sato, and by God! that was some pic. in the USGP people were making a beeline immediately after the race finished.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

I remember that as well. When I was at the 2000 USGP people left right as the cars drove into parc ferme, I meanwhile hung around to see the places and they let us get on the track as well which was nice, though hot!

[nichosnz 0]

In Australia 99 also, a few thousand people stormed the track (after the course car), but the other 100+ thousand people just tried to leave stright away.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

We weren't as close to the paddock/pits at Canada 2001 so we decided to leave right after watching the press conference on the big screen, it was a horrible decision, trying to get 80,000+ people off an island at the same time on a metro is not very easy, though when we got out into the city it was amazingly not-crowded.

[nichosnz 0]

Crowded there is a relative word, I probably would have found it crowded, after being used to Wellington.

[daz 0]

Me to!! I'm absolutely sure that 80000+ people would be crowded to me as well!!

Anyway congrats to Sato. I wouldn't say he was fantasic but he did drive a nice steady race, kept it together and got some well deserved points out of it.

As another part of this story: What do you guys think about the new Honda spec engine that suddenly appeared for their home race. It's obviously got a lot more grunt, even if it is unreliable at the moment. My feeling though is that it should have being bought out earlier in the season where the 2 Honda teams could have taken as much benefit from it as possible. Instead it was just saved for the last race to make Honda look good at home... <_<

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

Very true, but reliability was a problem, and a big one at that. Sato was the one that needed to get to finish and luckily he had the engine that held together

As for 80,000+ people in the same place at the same time, I find it very crowded considering the space Im used to in Finland. The country is a fair amount larger than England, but has only a tenth of the population which puts in into perspective (15.1 people per square kilometre, 5 million people total, Helsinki most populated at somewhere in the 500,000 range and that is a broad general area around Helsinki)

[DJC-Grafix 0]

yes, he drove a supurb race and stayed calm,

Honda have made quite a bit of progress this season.....

[nichosnz 0]

They have made more progress then the points show, due a lot to Ferrari's supurb reliability, Williams improved reliability, and Renault's improvement at the end of 2001. But they still need to work on thier reliability 3 years of unreliable engines should be improved on.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

As should Mercedes/Ilmor, having Raikkonen's car give up the ghost 9 times in a season is not good at all.. Neither was Hakkinen's reliability last year.

[Rohan 0]

Sato had an excellent race......but this year has been a little bit unfair!!!as one of the best drivers Raikonnen and Monotya could not bag wins..... also the talk of Hakkinen returning was all good untill he chose against it and i was soo much looking forward to DC gettin kiked out to a Toyota or something!!!

overall a good year but hopefully the rest can catch the best!!!

P.S williams have gona crazy theyre makin an entirely new car for 04 so if any of you get a pic of the new machine let me know!!!

[nichosnz 0]

Raikkonen got close but, Montoya wasn't really there in the races as much as was to be expected. He is a qualifier, he better be careful not to become another Trulli.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

Raikkonen got closer than Monty, Montoya meanwhile did have it quite in the bag at Canada until BMW let him down.

Now that you mention it, DC getting 'kicked' to a Toyota wouldn't have been half bad, he could really help them out, much more than Panis ever will. I still wonder why Andersson opted for Panis instead of retaining Mika Salo, it makes no sense.

Rohan there will not be a single pic of the FW25 Williams for months, so I wouldn't try looking for one. The car is going to be kept tight under wraps until it is launched, and that can be anytime between early December to late February, though Im guessing since they are ahead it will be in December sometime.

[nichosnz 0]

I am not convinced Montoya would have won in Canada, in the circumstances he would have had 3 laps to try (at the most) and he was chasing an injured car not a crippled one.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

I have to disagree, he was making quite good progress on Schumi and I think he would have caught up, but then getting past is another thing. Montoya was fast on the main straight that weekend and I do believe he would have got through at the chicane.

[nichosnz 0]

MS was nursing though, and when he nurses he always does so a little more than he needs to, so I feel he would have upped it a little if it weren't for 'BMW bang'.