Rate the race: 2011 Indian Grand Prix

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What did you think of the first ever Indian Grand Prix? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2011 Indian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (3%)
  • 9 (2%)
  • 8 (5%)
  • 7 (17%)
  • 6 (30%)
  • 5 (21%)
  • 4 (10%)
  • 3 (7%)
  • 2 (3%)
  • 1 (2%)

Total Voters: 532

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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319 comments on “Rate the race: 2011 Indian Grand Prix”

    1. Nothing happened apart from the Massa and Hamilton incident. That was the only bit I was watching properly.

      1. First time in a long while where I really had ample time to discuss matters in the live blog. Thank god we had that, and twitter.

        1. @BasCB Live blog was bust for me :( Still, I had time to rant more than usual on Twitter.

          1. Shame to hear that @andrewtanner, it did lag and had to be reloaded quite a lot for me as well.

          2. yep, Live had huge lag today.

      2. Actually Massa Hamilton incident is no more an incident. it is a scheduled event/ritual of a grand prix like a pit stop etc. so technically nothing happened.

        1. Lol too right

        2. Brilliant-I agree 100% !

      3. @TommyB You are wrong,we were entertained by Mr.Bean after the Massa Hamilton incident,that facial expression of his is priceless.

        1. This was definitely the highlight of the whole race!

          I think there should be an online feature on all the races where it’s just Rowan Atkinson commenting via facial expressions… we should suggest it

    2. It seems such a good track doesn’t deserve such boring race for inaugural race. Mostly do with there is so much seperation b/w cars it was hard any one to close to each other & so in the end everyone almost running their own race. Hopefully for f1 sake next year will be more competitive.

      1. @Raj
        They could’ve done a better street race around streets of Delhi. Track could’ve been done better, but it wasn’t. Try playing the F1 2011 game, and you’ll find out it is not the best circuit out there, but average is the word. Racing will be boring here. Period. Unless something happens! Can’t speak of how a wet race would be on this track. Once again, politicians scuppered away an opportunity which they could have done much better with.

        1. Probably the best people to judge is drivers & most of drivers seems to be happy with circuit & enjoy it driving, so i still feel it is good circuit. It is just that car’s are not competitive enough to stick together & race (There is significant gap b/w top three teams lap times). If car’s are not quick enough to catch cars which are ahead, then any kind circuit of in the world will not give exciting race. so hoping for stng better in next year

          1. The drivers for the most part are PR restrained puppets. Not a single one would dare speak out against a track and really it would be irresponsible of them to say it’s boring if it’s also safe. Even if it’s true.

          2. I think it’s a good drivers track because they like the time trial-esque nature of it’s speedy corners. It’s not good for entertainment because in the middle sector it is not easy to follow other cars closely and there is ZERO chance of a fight. This leaves at best 1 real overtaking chance down the back straight.

            What we need to have is a track that has a straight, a WIDE slow corner but not a hairpin and has several lines that is enough to bunch the cars up and allow them to race into it and then a WIDE flowing complex of corners that allows for side by side racing with multiple lines with cars switching places.

            The problem with the modern (Tilke) tracks is that they concentrate on having narrow twisty sections followed by a straight and then a wide-ish entry to a sharp corner for overtaking… Yawn.

      2. uhm, not too sure about the track. I really dont like it…

        It has some good parts, but it’s just like every other circuit from Tilke. Having 2 Tilkedromes in consecutive races isn’t that healthy IMO

        1. It looks like Tilke has learnt not to trust just one party trick, but as ever it just does not work that way.

          The track might have some promise (Korea is better than the likes of AbuDhabi as well), but it surely is no revelation.
          The most stunning feature so far is how big the grandstand looks, the man made undulation and the helicopter view of turn 11-12.

          Good job from the promoters to draw a very solid crowd though.

          1. I think Tilke fails because the recepy is always the same: long straights, a harpin.

            It just gets boring after 2 circuits with the same characteristics. Now we have around 10 of those or something.

          2. I like the circuit, but as with all Tilke tracks I don’t like the appearance. It comes across a bit bleak and homogeneous, not helped by the typical vast expanses of tarmac (the track itself, not the run-off) and that the scenery is pretty generic. I did like the colouring and pattern of the run-off on turn _ (the long double apex one that looks like Turkey turn 8 on paper). I think one of the failings was the positioning of the cameras though. Sometimes, even when the view of the track was generic, if the camera angle was good/fast/exciting then it didn’t matter. Generally I thought it was the widest shots that were least flattering. Some of the angles in the fast chicanes were nice as it showed the cars actually clipping the corners satisfyingly as they swept through.

        2. 3 actually: Korea > India > Abu Dhabi (I believe that’s a Tilke design)

          1. oh, heck, I forgot about Abu Dhabi, which is the worst creation on earth…!

          2. Yeah, pity that with the money they had they didn’t produce a good circuit.

      3. The race returned to the standard format we had in previous years, with everyone running their own race, at their own pace.
        99%, I think, because the tyres we very hard and didn’t degrade as much as other races this year. So no tyre management, no sudden fluries of speed, no overlaps & undercuts.

    3. That was a snoozefest.

    4. On the contrary
      30th October 2011, 14:48

      TV Feed is the issue. That F1 has made so much hype about DRS, they should atleast have captured DRS assisted position changes in spirit of “Improving the show”

      1. Totally agree. Alot of the time I’d see a position change on the ‘interval’ reading at the bottom of the screen and yet see no coverage of the event at all.

        There’s a reason the TV’s don’t usually follow Vettel, it’s because there’s usually little exciting about his race. They should never comprimise action for just following the leader.

    5. yep its was boring, I feel sorry for everyone in india who made this happen, the circuit looked great, just a pity the f1 circus couldnt come up with the goods, still ecclestone can move on to the next borefest, how many more times can he kid us.

      also whilst having a rant, wonder how much those pit lane vips/poseurs actually get out round the circuit, probably never.

      the best bit of the race was the shot of bean/blackadder/ atkinson, brilliant

      1. @sbl-on-tour

        the best bit of the race was the shot of bean/blackadder/ atkinson, brilliant

        That was terrific. I usually grumble about celebrity shots during the race but if they’re going to be that entertaining it’s OK!

        1. By far the most entertaining bit of the entire race.
          The collision between Ham and Massa isn’t even interesting anymore, they have to be cautious not to hurt themselves.
          The race itself was a bit processional, but that’s perhaps related to the lack of updates the teams are bringing to such a late stage.

        2. It probably was a good way to sum up and show most people’s reaction to see another Massa / Hamilton incident – looked brilliant.

          1. I’d love to see a side-by-side video of the accident happening alongside his reaction, synced up.

          2. That would be really amazing if we can find someone to do that one @keithcollantine

          3. I’m Sure @TommyB will do so on his wtf1 blog

      2. @sbl-on-tour

        Good to see you commenting on the main site!

        And the race wasn’t that bad. Things will get better when the other teams build better cars.

        Agreed about Atkinson, too. Easily one of my favourite moments of the season!

    6. William Wilgus
      31st October 2011, 1:06

      Yawn.

  1. Dull. Poorly given penalty, nothing dramatic.

    1. @craig-o

      penalties were tough to decide here, if you referring to the the Ham-Mas incident, i probably would have given a racing incident for that, but Hamilton did have the car well within half way to Massa at the straight before the corner. Massa should have seen him, or at least should have expected something. But if one analyzes the corner then its hard to pass there given the conditions of what Hamilton was trying to achieve. its hard decision, to me, first reaction was that Massa was at fault. after thinking about it a bit, i wasn’t sure…. :/

      1. But its hard to see because the mirrors are vibrating so much .. like the frontwing .. (just kidding).

        1. Singapore 2010 Webber-Hamilton. Very similar incident and was shrugged off as a ‘racing incident’. Although in that case Hamilton effectively took a penalty with a DNF.

          I must say that India’s Ham-Mas coming together, I was surprised that Massa took a penalty.

  2. Awesome Track, Boring Race.. 6/10

    Best Part was the Start, and Massa and Hamilton getting “Intimate”

    1. Yes, it surprised me how such a conceptually good track gave a dull race. Unlike Korea there are overtaking zones…its just that none of the drivers used them!

      Except for Hamilton who showed us just why racing doesn’t take place like it used to anymore. Where is the driver respect? The 2 move rule, the blocking and the seeming inability of the drivers to race alongside each other is making racing stale.

      This race also confirmed to me that Button is solidly in the top 3 drivers of the sport at the moment. The top 3 in the race, in order, performed brilliantly. Schumacher too had a storming race.

      1. @sw6569 Agree completely about Jenson. He’s second in the championship and he’s arguably the second best driver. Alonso throws it a bit, considering the Ferrari is so far off the pace.

      1. Completely agreed about Button. Clearly the 2nd best driver of the season. He was the only thing that kept the race interesting. The latest episode of the Massa/Hamilton ****up wasn’t even interesting this time.

        @Keith, maybe we should have an article analyzing the issue that India has brought up. It’s an interesting track, a fun track, one the drivers love, but compared to your average “boring” tilkedrome, it gave us an incredibly dull race. Maybe those Tilkedromes aren’t so bad after all?

  3. I gave it a 4… It’d have been even worse if it wasn’t for:

    a) Another Hamilton-Massa incident
    b) Rowan Atkinson’s reaction to it

    1. 10/10 just for Rowan!

          1. hahaha love it!

    2. That man really doesn’t need to act much to be Mr Bean does he?

      Hopefully next year they’ll give em unsuitable tyres coupled with a cleaner track which should make for some interesting racing maybe.

      Gave it a 5 just for Massa/Hamilton and Massa for some reason thinking hitting the same kerb that broke his suspension a 2nd time would have a different outcome.

      1. After your first line, I half expected you to say how he should be a standart fixture to lighten up each race being in danger of getting boring!

      2. A cleaner track probably would have helped improve the racing. Seeing how much dust the cars kicked up in pit lane, you can imagine how dirty it must have been off the racing line.

        I think the track was generally okay, taking into consideration that Tilke and Co managed to get some elevation changes into an area that appears to be pretty flat. My only criticism on the geometry of the track, would be the super wide approaches to hairpins, they seem kind of pointless, there is always going to be an optimum line into a corner, and a super wide bit of road isn’t going to encourage anyone to take an alternative line, and also up and downs in the back straight looked a bit silly. I did like the blind approach to the turn 3 hairpin though, that probably added a bit of a challenge.

    3. hahahaha! 10+ for that Mr Bean moment by RA.

    4. 4/10. same reasons as you Icthyes

  4. Found myself thinking forward to next year during the race. Fully expecting a Vettel clean sweep of the remaining races. I don’t mind him winning but I wish it wasn’t so easy for him.

  5. Felipe Massa is now my most hated driver, I’m glad he got a penalty and stupidly broke his suspension by making the same mistake as yesterday. That makes me score the race a 10. I hope the stewarding sets a precident in the future for drivers turning into other drivers deliberately when they are up the inside.

    As much as HAM’s move up the inside at Leowes hairpins at Monaco was rash, when you watch it slow mo you can see Massa adding more steering angle when he realises where he is. He did this again today he saw HAM up his inside and just turned into him, expecting to get a stewards decision in his favour. I really feel MAS has a vendetta against HAM. I’s love somebody who can lip read to tell me what MAS’s brother said when he saw it.

    In fairness this race should score a 6 or 7 but the stewards making a correct decision boosts that score hugely for me.

    1. I can see a war brewing over this comment..

      1. Perhaps so. I know I am a really passionate Hamilton fan. Its just nice to see some justice from my point of view. I know others will feel differently. But surely others want an end to this “turn-in on somebody and they’ll get a penalty” mentality?

      2. I’ll load the gun, Hamilton had a superior car, Shouldn’t of been behind him in the 1st place.

        1. Grid penalty + fast starting Ferraris = reason for Massa getting ahead at the start.

          You’ll need a bigger gun, I think. :P

      3. The Massa vs. Hamilton situation is the best thing to happen to Formula One this year outside of the Vettel story. A driver mess equals media press and Bernie likes that.

    2. Completely disagree. Hamilton tried to pull a move into a corner that cars cannot go through side-by-side and then when he saw he wasn’t far enough alongside, he still didn’t back off. 100% Hamilton’s fault. Massa would have assumed Lewis would back out of a dangerous and crazy move, but we’ve learnt that decision making and intelligent race-craft isn’t Mr. Hamilton’s forte this year.

      1. And why would Felipe risk taking himself out of the race just so Hamilton can get a penalty? Where’s the logic in that? There isn’t any.

        1. Why indeed? Yet he effectively did when he turned in, seeing that HAM was already breaking, and was still on what Massa made a collision course. Maybe HAM could have braked harder, but Massa looked at HAM, saw HAM was in the way of where he was going, and risked it. Also, as I said on twitter: not just HAM has a history, MAS also got in too – not mostly his fault, but some blame in some of them surely.

        2. Wow, excellent points really. I did question Hamilton’s logic about making the move there when they showed the replay. When will Hamilton learn some patience? He was clearly faster, and would have had an easy pass when they got to the next DRS zone. Instead he rushed it, and they collided once again. I’m not assigning blame, but the fact remains that if Hamilton had driven with the maturity that someone like Alonso or Button has, this incident could have been avoided in the first place.

          It’s no wonder if these two are so angry at one another. Time for everybody to grow up a little, including the many of us who get just as hot headed over it as they do.

      2. If it was HAM’s fault @damonsmedley why did MAS get the penalty. Remember the stewards have all the data as well as the video footage. Personally I can’t wait to see some more angles of the incident. In particular, an on-board from MAS.

        1. No idea. That’s why it’s so unfair. If it wasn’t Lewis’ fault, it was a racing incident, at best.

          1. I’ll respectfully disagree with you pal, for me he was far enough up the inside to take the corner.

          2. Side by side with the inside line – that will be Massa’s fault then. Too many armchair viewers on this website that have never raced before but think they know it all. “100% Hamilton’s fault” Smedley? Good one.

          3. So you quickly drop from ‘100% Hamilton’s fault’ to racing incident?

            This penalty has been a long time in coming. Massa defends in fairly aburd fashion in general, much worse still against Hamilton. Hamilton had the corner and Massa again ploughed into him when he could have pulled out of the maneouvre. It’s frankly ridiculous defending him. Hamilton was essentially past. Of course Massa then had to take a different line into the corner, that’s what being overtaken is about! Not just driving on regardless. He had time and the conditions to avid the incident but did the opposite. Far worse than Hamilton,’s infractions in my opinion, because at least LH is trying to get past, not take out an opponent by driving any line he pleases because he’s miffed at being overtaken and does anything to stop that happening. The stewards pampering of this driver for so long has filled his head with the idea that his inept racecraft is somehow legitimate.

        2. Remember the stewards have all the data as well as the video footage

          This suggests you’re in 100% agreement with every penalty dished out to Hamilton this year then?

          1. Most of them, yes. As much as I was upset at the time.

        3. Just like Monaco was clearly HAMs fault as he got the penalties right?

          This time I personally think it was a tough situation for Massa and ultimately he was to blame, but you can’t imply the stewards decision was wrong at Monaco and then use the fact that Massa got a penalty to prove he was in the wrong here

        4. If it was HAM’s fault @damonsmedley why did MAS get the pe

          Because the stewards in F1 are always competent :P

          I actually think it was Massa’s fault (pen. totally stupid though) but the majority of people on Twitter who replied to me said it was Ham’s.

      3. He was far enough alongside and massa braked later and would prob run wide at the exit of the corner, when will people relise you dont turn in on another driver unless you dont care about the rest of the race. Massa is dangerous but if you think its hams fault then we may aswell ban overtaking on corners and then go watch indy!

      4. You totally didn’t see what Massa did.
        Brundle anc Coulthard got it wrong.
        Hamilton got alongside, Massa saw him( now aware Hamilton is alongside), then Massa lifted from braking to inch ahead ten turn into Hamilton.
        Hamilton didn’t dive inside, Massa dived outside then turned in. Simililar to his action in Monaco when he dived to his left to block.
        Massa caused an avoidable accident.
        He did same thing in Singapore, Hamilton yielded the position but unfortunately him him from behind.

        1. Eddie Jordan had it right, he noticed that Massa clearly looks and sees Hamilton before turning in on him.

          1. While watching live that’s was the one thing I noticed, Massa turned his head twice I believe towards Lewis and still turned in. I think that’s the main reason he got the penalty.

      5. Odd you say it was 100% hamiltons fault when the roles were reversed in singapore last year it was 100% hamiltons fault aswell.

        1. And that crash was in a narrower corner making avoidance more difficult and involved a less blatant turn-in.

        2. Hamilton was the overtaking driver then, as well. More obligations to keep clear for overtaking car…

      6. Hamilton was almost fully alonsgide before braking. At that point it was going to end in several ways.

        1. Both brake an equal amount and are still level- Massa either turns in on Hamilton or chooses to yield.

        2. Hamilton outbrakes Massa. This allows him to either take the corner or it means that he has braked too late and actually runs wide into Massa (assuming Massa is taking a wider line and not turning into Hamilton already).

        3. Massa outbreaks Hamilton, putting him slightly ahead. Hamilton has essentially been committed to the corner since pulling alongside Massa- from there it will be very difficult to pull out. It is up to Massa to turn in on Hamilton or take a wider line. Massa chose to crash.

        All of these outcomes end with Massa hitting Hamilton or losing the position. Therefore, Hamilton pulling alongside before braking essentially means he has the corner claimed.

        1. Excellent analysis. Massa moved over to the right and basically left space for Hamilton to pass, while having enough time and track to brake safely himself and take the corner along a different line, behind Hamilton. It’s a concept known as ‘being overtaken.’

      7. there isnt a single corner in the world where two drivers cannot go around side by side, given there is enough room of course. it only takes two willing drivers. then anything can happen. in my view it is just a racing incident.no penalty at all
        I think most of us started following this sport when stewards werent playing such a huge role as the are doing these days…its just a shame

      8. Hamilton was far enough alongside, but he tried to get out of it when he saw that Massa was going to ram him again.

        And yet again Massa crashes out stupidly after he rams another car.

      9. SennaNmbr1 (@)
        30th October 2011, 11:40

        He did back off. Watch the onboard replay again and you’ll see Massa shoot ahead slightly as Hamilton brakes.

        1. Massa was already on the brakes, lifted to get ahead then turn in. A very reckless move as is his wont in his career.
          It is clear Hamilton had his wheels just behind Massa’s front wheels, so Massa has the blame for this one.
          Brundle and Coulthard are not so bright when it comes to such matters anymore. The fail to realise that the accident took a long time in happening, Hamilton didn’t make any sudden dive which is the key issue, Massa chose to turn in, Hamilton even tried to avoid the accident.

      10. @damonsmedely I am sorry, but I have to disgaree strongly with you here.

        I am not looking for an argument, and Hamiltons move might have been on the edge of what is possible. But isn’t that just what we want drivers to be doing?

        I am convinced that had it been Alonso or Webber, or maybe even Vettel in the car being passed, they would not have turned in, perfectly well knowing that could only end in hitting each other.

        1. you are absolutely correct. When a driver is alongside, you take a wider line to defend.
          Webber and Hamilton had a long tussle for position in Korea. They didn’t hit each other. Massa clearly doesn’t know when he has lost a position and it is unfortunate.

      11. @damonsmedley

        hmm i dunno,…. i wrote above a comment regarding the Mas-Ham incident. i still think it should have been classified a racing incident.. because it seems like both drivers had a brainless moment. Hamilton once again trying to pass at almost “impossible place”, …But really Massa should have expected something … but i dont think Massa even saw Hamilton on the straight… anyway Massa did teach all of us a good lesson with sausage kerbs. i loled the 2nd time, that was just right down embarrassing ..

        @matt90
        i agree with matt90: Hamilton was almost fully alonsgide

        1. These fast corners is where happens racing incidents, HAM is crazy to do a move there and MAS could have easy things for Lewis but NEVER in actual circunstances caused by the previous incidents of them bouth. I think them bouth forms an exciting duo of rivals. The two have made the most comic and embarrassing things this year.
          But MAS two broke suspensions is a comedy…. i remember him in Barcelona defending Vettel in 2009 when in the last laps the fuel was ending… was one of the last great races of him…. after the accident he never back to the old winning form.
          It’s a shame.

      12. Cars cannot go through side by side? Based on what history?

        Hamilton showed cars can go through side by side, the guy on the outside just needs to give room.

      13. Two cars can go side by side through there. the track is wide enough for 2 F1 cars, therefore 2 F1 cars can go through these side by side. They just have to look out for each other, which they didn’t do.

    3. this is probably the first time Massa’s the one to blame rather than Hamilton tho.

      To be honest, they should do it more often. Specially in Valencia, for example. If the FIA wants to improve the show, they should give them extra points everytime they touch!

    4. I politely disagree. MAS was clearly in front of HAM, in fact HAM hit Massa’s rear left tyre. MAS was just following the trajectory.

      Also Alesi said that there is a reason if no overtake was made during the whole race in that turn…

      1. The reason being nobody else got as good a run out of the previous corner and actually got fully alongside before braking.

      2. I think you will find HAM was ahead in terms of track position. if you draw a picture of their car positions and then draw a straight line to the apex of the next corner you will see HAM is closer to the apex, therefore he is further ahead in terms of track position.

        1. straight line, closer to the apex?..that’s why driver always turn in from the inside of corners, because it’s closer to the apex

          1. We’re talking distances here, not racing line. We are determining who is ahead. Use your brain before making sarcastic comments!

          2. Massa was ahead because his front wheels were in front of hamilton’s front wheels, it’s as simple as that..braking zone is in a straight line, and then comes the corner, for which you have to be on the outside in order to take it properly..the incident was completely avoidable, as there were other perfectly suitable corners for lunging up the inside down the road.

            Even if Massa had been staying on the outside, potentially spinning off on the dirty run-off, there is no guarantee Hamilton would have made that corner cleanly.

          3. These arguments defending Massa are ridiculous. It’s motor racing, to get past most of the time you’re going to have to force the other driver to take a different line or slow down. It’s a concept neither Massa or his supporters appear to understand. The issue is – or should be – whether the driver being passed is forced into an unsafe maneouver or off-track, and has been left sufficient time and track to avoid a collision. Massa did have time and track. Hence the penalty. Compare with Hamilton – when someone goes past him, he allows space and let’s them by. The same happened in Monaco – Ham lets Schumacher go past at the hairpin, Massa doesn’t let Ham. I’d have made the later a racing incident only because Massa came out worse. Otherwise, imo, it was the same event as today. Massa turning in to wreck a legitimate pass.

          4. Massa had the racing line, that’s it. Hamilton was not ahead of Massa, that is ridiculous and measure all you want but Massa was not in Hamiltons mirrors. Hamilton caused the accident and Massa got run into him while on the racing line. There is a reason Button is now the number one driver at McLaren, he has the skill to not run into others.

        2. i think it’s more clear the racing line than the distance to the apex of the corner, and Massa was on the racing line.

          1. Neither of them were on the racing line. The racing line before a left hand turn would be at the far right of the track, HAM was on the left and MAS was in the middle.

          2. So as the racing line is always from the outside of the track to the inside, whenever somebody makes a move up the inside (on any corner at any track) and is clearly alongside/past the defending driver, the defending driver (now essentially overtaken) is allowed to crash into the other driver as long as they take the racing line?

          3. Actually @matt90, that’s indeed how it usually works.

          4. @Patrickl In destruction derbys maybe. Not in F1. Watch Jenson Button’s battles as he is probably the best at leaving enough space and knowing when to except that he has been overtaken. Hamilton is also very good at this, which is why they have had good close racing together without crashing and why Hamilton hasn’t had an acident while being overtaken. Massa on the other hand is awful at this and it shows in the amount of accidents and other incidents (i.e. forcing button off track in Aus) when he is defending a position.

          5. @The Last Pope

            Actually, Button is good at ramming an opponent off without getting a penalty (Australia 2010, Canada 2011 twice etc). Probably the best at this right after Webber.

            But yes I guess both he and Hamilton are known for accepting when they are passed. It’s unlikely to see them defend as hard as Kubica or Schumacher.

            Anyway, my reply was incomplete. It’s the one who has the inside line who can apparently just ram into his opponent going into the corner with impunity.

            In this case though, I agree with Jordan that it was simply too obvious that Massa knew Hamilton was right beside him and still he elected to crash. Had he simply not peeked and just caused the crash, then Hamilton would have been penalised.

          6. @patrickl Neither of the incidents Button was involved in in Canada was anything like this. He was clearly blameless in both, as the stewards rightly concluded.

          7. @Keith Collantine

            Button rammed both drivers off the track, clearly was to blame and still he drove on without penalty.

            It’s not the same as this incident, but it clearly shows he’s a master at getting away with this type of accident.

            The BUT-HAM incident proves my point 100%. The stewards blamed Button for the accident but they stated that he hadn’t seen Hamilton. That’s why he wasn’t penalised.

            Had Massa not peeked 3 times at Hamilton right next to him he would have been in the clear.

            In that case I’d be pretty amazed if they hadn’t handed Hamilton the penalty.

          8. @patrickl

            The stewards blamed Button for the accident

            That is simply not true.

            They said Hamilton had a “legitimate overtaking opportunity” but that “it is reasonable to believe that Button was not aware of Hamilton’s position to his left”.

            No way can you construe that as them blaming Button. They specifically called it a “racing incident”.

            Contrast that with what happened today – there is no way Massa could not have known Hamilton was there. And even if he hadn’t moved his head, he moved his car off the racing line, which also proved he knew where Hamilton was.

          9. @Keith Collantine

            They excused Butto’ns actions yes. Which is not needed if he didn’t do anything wrong.

            Since when is that an exuces for anything. he rammed into Hamilton because he was cooling his tyres. he should have looked before he did so. or stuck to the actual racing line.

            Although I guess the fact that hamilton was his team mate and apparently had no desire to get his mate paneliased would have helped a lot too.

            Anyway, the fact that Button gets away with that accident on Alonso while Hamilton get’s penalised for the accident with Maldonado in Monaco. Proves that Button somehow gets away with this type of accidents.

            The fact that the stewards call the one a racing incident and the other not is exactly my point!

          10. @patrickl

            They excused Button’s actions yes. Which is not needed if he didn’t do anything wrong.

            They didn’t say he did anything wrong, they didn’t blame him, as the stewards’ verdict makes abundantly clear. An explanation is not an excuse.

          11. @Keith Collantine

            So I say that Button gets away with these incidents without penalty and then you say that’s not true because the stewwards don’t fault him for them?

            Wasn’t that exactly my point?

          12. @patrickl You say he “gets away with these incidents” because you have decided he was to blame.

            If the stewards had said he was to blame but not given him a punishment, then I would agree he had ‘got away with it’. But they didn’t blame Button for it.

            He didn’t “get away with” anything, because he’d done nothing wrong.

          13. @Keith Collantine

            He crashed other cars off in simply avoidable incidents. Incidents where other driver get a penalty without fail.

        3. This is possibly cotd from djdaveyp, “straight line to the apex” How many cars corner in a straight line? I pose to you; if Lewis was beginning to back out of his half-maneuver, do you think he thought it was such a good idea after all, given the radius of that particular corner and knowledge of who he was racing?

      3. Well if that great world champion Alesi reckons you can’t overtake into that corner it must be true….

        Come on now, that’s not helping your argument.

        1. JA may not be a world champion, but he wasn’t certainly a timid driver, probably he’s more similar to Lewis that Felipe.

      4. @matt88

        Also Alesi said that there is a reason if no overtake was made during the whole race in that turn…

        Well let’s just disallow overtaking completely except for the one-two hairpins at the end of DRS zones then. yawn

    5. I’s love somebody who can lip read to tell me what MAS’s brother said when he saw it.

      I’m not sure, but I think he said “idiota”, which is, of course, portuguese for “idiot”. I’ll check on youtube later :P

      1. That’s a bit hard on his brother …

    6. I’m a Massa fan but thought it was Felipe’s fault but a completely unfair and inconsistent penalty. I’m also sick of the vitriol against both drivers. I don’t think any less of Ham despite him keep crashing into Massa and I’d hope Ham fans would hate Massa for today. These things happen and the fans don’t need to take on a new rivalry, they can fight their own battles.

      1. Let me explain why I feel the way I do about MAS, I think it is an unfortunate sequence of events, but I can’t help feeling the way I feel. I think it is more what MAS says about the incidents that riles me up. The incidents themselves are a result of close racing, but MAS exaggerates everything. The comment MAS made about HAM being dangerous and the FIA really need to look into it is ridiculous, they are simply just incidents. Anyway, thats why I don’t like MAS.

      2. @Steph, I just hope this will be the last of these two guys repeatedly tangling on track. Attacking the podium instead of each other now.

        Hamilton learnt to be more carefull, took him long enough, Massa now should realise its not just Hamilton crashing into him and learns as well.

        1. The media always blows things up and drivers always get riled up after stepping out the car because of the adrenaline- look at ham’s Monaco rant or Alonso waving his arms at Petrov last year. It’s just a human reaction. I don’t see Massa excessively moaning I just see he has an excessive amounts of DNFs partly because of one driver and he has a right to whinge about that. Some have been his fault, some Ham but my respect or opinions for them haven’t changed.

          1. I am curious how hard the reporters will push both of them for a nice headline quote now ;-)

          2. So pushing Hamilton from behind and then running off is ok? Let’s face it, Massa doesn’t seem to think he can do any wrong, whinges about the FIA needing to give other drivers penalties and you try and overtake him at your peril as he’s ego doesn’t allow for it.

            That’s why i have a dislike for Massa.

        2. @BasCB

          i don’t think Massa will be learning anytime soon, i mean just ask the sausage kerb…

      3. Massa completely deserved that penalty. He purposefully keeps running into Hamilton. He has learned that he can get away with it. In fact the rules approve of it, so why not? Luckily (and finally) the stewards had enough of that kind of behavior though.

        1. Hear hear well done johnny herbert!!!

  6. 4/10 but gave it a 6/10 just for Rowan Atkinson’s Reaction!

  7. 5/10. Meh.

  8. 4. It was as underwhelming as Hamilton’s pace. The track’s lovely and the atmosphere and build up were great but the action on track …well, it didn’t exist.

    1. I find myself still looking for the action i hoped we would see, but it seems lost somehow. But at least AbuDhabi won’t be as much of a shock to us now, right :-(

  9. 5/10 action as stop-start as the track itself. Pirelli should have brought super-softs instead to spice it up.

    1. Agree. If the tyre choice had been less conservative it could have been much better.

      1. Ignoring the obvious logistical complications and immense cost to Pirelli, it would be nice if they could bring 3 tyre compounds — just in case!

        1. That would actually be quite awesome, shame they don’t do that! I am willing to bet that we will see different compounds allocated for the race next year.

          Then we will get a truer picture of the circuit, and hopefully it will be just as exciting for us as it is for the drivers, instead of the snoozefest it was this weekend.

  10. SennaNmbr1 (@)
    30th October 2011, 11:11

    Terribly dull race. Hamilton and Massa needs to be sorted out off the track. Penalty was right in my opinion. Massa looked in his right-hand mirror and then moved left. It seems that Massa will just turn in when it’s Hamilton. Pretty soon they’ll have a really big one.

  11. It was very boring… 5/10 just because the first 10 or so laps were exciting.

  12. 5/10.

    Not a boring race, but it wasn’t a 2011 classic by any means. I’m disappointed Pirelli have caved to the bad publicity they were apparently getting and gone conservative with the tyres. The races at the start of the year were fantastic, but ever since the tyres have been getting harder, the quality has gone downhill. Or is that because everyone’s used to the 2011 rules and calmed down?

    But overall, it was a great inaugural event for India! Very well done.

    1. @damonsmedley, I don’t think Pirelli heeded to any critisizm leading to choose these tyres. Just the fact no one knew what to expect had them bring a conservative tyre set.

      Had the track been finished earlier so we could have had some racing on it before the event, Pirelli might have felt secure enough to bring the softer tyres as well.
      I think a big part of why the past couple of races have been less suprising to us has to do with teams getting to grips with the tyres and learning better how to best use DRS.
      Remember that Mercedes and McLaren, and Ferrari to a lesser extent, got the balance on their DRS a tad wrong early season. Focussing too much on what it could do in the race, but having less use of it in qualifying. Now they have catched up with Red Bull, this means another variable less into play come race day.

  13. I vote that for the Abu Dhabi and Brazilian Grands Prix, we take the top step off the podium and just celebrate whoever comes second, third and fourth.

    1. I’m definitely for this! Or maybe Vettel should take a compulsory holiday instead… :P

    2. Good Idea @prisoner-monkeys, it could even make Vettel another record. Finishing the season with the most points and laps led and getting the WDC not even competing in all races!

      1. Sadly I think Jochen Rindt probably claimed this record (not sure about laps lead), though under tragic circumstances.

        1. Sadly he was the first (and luckily so far the only one) to do that. But Vettel would do that while also having led most laps and get most points ever in a season.

          1. Ah, didn’t realise you meant most laps and points ever. I thought you meant in a single season.

    3. Haha yes, you could almost make it 3rd, 4th and 5th as Button’s second most of the time now.

  14. dull race except some incidents and retires.

  15. 6/10

    Race at the front was non-existent. The Massa/Hamilton incident and subsequent penalty provided the biggest drama of the race.

    There were battles throughout the field, however – proving that there can be overtaking around this circuit. The one issue was that the the majority of passes were as a result of DRS. When DRS zones become your only opportunity to overtake – that’s a problem. I wonder how many battles and overtaking manoeuvres we would’ve had without DRS.

    1. I am afraid we could have had quite a few more. Still wonder, why they did not give the track a shot at doing it without DRS zones for the first race here.

      1. @BasCB

        I am afraid we could have had quite a few more.

        Why do you think that, may I ask?

        1. @magnificient-geoffrey, I think without the DRS we would have seen different gear ratios, and therefore possibly a different balance of where cars were fast, or not, helping to let drivers have a go at overtaking.

          But its hard to be sure without trying.

          1. @BasCB I see what you mean, but I feel that’s a very speculative view at best.

            I think DRS did its job here. It allowed drivers the opportunity to pass without making things too easy. It’s just a shame there was such a field spread at the front – having more battles for the top positions would’ve made a massive difference to the overall excitement of the race.

          2. @magnificent-geoffrey, you are probably right about the speculative nature of my view there.

            I just find it wrong not to give the track a chance to show what it has to offer without DRS before putting DRS zones in there.
            I did not mind the DRS overtakes here (them being the only ones makes it hard not to be happy for a bit of supported racing at least), but I think its sad they did it this way.

            Or we should just say Tilke made another dud track where its not possible to overtake, as DRS was not even invented yet when he put pen to paper.

          3. @BasCB

            I just find it wrong not to give the track a chance to show what it has to offer without DRS before putting DRS zones in there.

            To be honest, I don’t contest that. I don’t think there would be anything wrong with saying “it’s a brand new track, let’s try no DRS zones just to see what happens”. I wouldn’t have any issue with that personally.

            As it turned out, however, most of the overtakes we saw were DRS assisted. That suggests to me that had we not had DRS, we would’ve had an entirely processional race, and not just at the front. So in hindsight, it was pretty good for us that they did choose to go with two DRS zones after all.

  16. Really hope Newey produces a dud next year so we don’t just have race after ace of Vettel scampering off into the distance and then just maintaining the gap in a superior car in clean air.

    Sadly he probably won’t and we’ll have another period like with Schumacher when many less devoted fans just tuned out as the result was so predictable.

    1. Or maybe Red Bull can at least also give Webber a car where he can challenge again. At least the team mates fighting it out gave us gave us some fun to watch in 2010.

  17. I watched the lap times screen more than the race because there wasn’t much happening. 5/10

  18. Good event as a whole, but a pretty dull race. Even the drivers looked bored on the podium!

    1. They weren’t bored, they were subdued because they were remembering the deaths of Dan and Marco in the previous weeks. From the few words we heard in the room pre-podium I think they all agreed not to celebrate as exhuberantly as they normally do, given what’s happened recently.

      Part of me thought that Button would take his Wheldon armband off and place it around the neck of his champagne bottle, which would then be gifted to the family, but that’s probably my mind wandering after what was quite an uneventful race.

      1. @pjtierney – ta, missed the pre-podium bit.

  19. I wish that Pirelli had made a different call about the tyres, Super-Soft and Soft seemed the best option after the GP

    1. Anybody can make the best decision in hindsight :)

      I think they made a fair decision considering they had (pretty much) no data for the track and couldn’t risk drivers burning up all their allocation on an overly abrasive track.

  20. 5. Great track, but the race just didn’t seem to ever really develop. A shame Button didn’t have the pace at the beginning to challenge, but I don’t think there was any driver or car out there that could have done so, sadly.

    Driver of the race: Schumacher. Another impressive start and had the pace to jump his teammate in the pits.

    Team of the race: Lotus. Again, with Kov, showing that they have developed a good race pace. Looks promising for 2012.

    To be clear, though, it is a 5 by 2011 standards. In other years, I might have given it a 7.

  21. 5 – forgettable is the best word to describe this GP. Roll on Interlagos

    The stewards are really starting to get me down now, neither driver should have been penalised. Hamilton was up the inside and Massa was incredibly slow coming out the previous corner but where was he supposed to go once they reached the corner? Is it really necessary to punish every single incident?

    The race also confirmed two things to me:
    1) Felipe Massa does not deserve a seat in Formula One any more, the sooner Ferrari get rid the better
    2) If Mercedes develop a car capable of winning races next year it will be Schumacher who delivers the results; he has been fantastic in races over the second half of the year.

  22. Second most boring race after Valencia, the tyre choice of soft and hard by Pirelli was too cautious. Rowan Atkinson with Lewis Hamilton and Massa was the highlight of the race. Gave it a 5/10

  23. 4/10

    Massa penalty was very odd, either a racing incident or a penalty to Hamilton surely, interesting choice to give it the other way.

    Vettel totally dominant just playing/pacing to Button .

    Very good drives from Button and Alonso.

    Webber very poor running wide several times and very inconsistent pace.

    Hamilton needs to find the gear shift to engage his brain, its seems he gearbox is broken.

    Better pace from the Mercs.

    Very disappointing from Di Resta, if he keeps preforming like that its a good job the decision on the driver for next year has been brought forward.

    Great track dull race.

    1. Rated the same, agree on everything you said.

      Massa/Hamilton incident, it seemed PR more than common sense – and I like Hamilton and never cared for Massa at all.

      Can’t see why FI should drop Sutil either.

      1. Interesting that Eddie Jordan reckon that Massa looked a few times and knew Hamilton was there before turning in on him and that is probably why Massa got the penalty, still seems very odd too me.

        They both need there heads banging together, if there is any truth in Eddie Jordans comment, again Hamilton put himself somewhere he didn’t need too and almost inviting the incident.

        1. Trenthamfolk (@)
          30th October 2011, 13:48

          Why interesting? I was there, large as life on the telly!

          Massa has become so used to ‘destroying’ Hamilton’s races with impunity (he drives for Ferrari after all), he has the audacity to repeatedly look in his mirror and do the most idiotic think in the book: try a ‘Schumacher Special’. Rather crash than concede eh Massa? The un-professionalism exhibited by him of late is coming home to roost. Neither did he learn from his qualifying blunder. Oh dear.

          I thought Alonso did a great job today with an inferior car, and Button was pure class, once again.

      2. Sutil performed well under pressure and the thing is he usually does. I mean he’s been told this is the deciding race and then they’ll decide (even though it sounds as though they’ve already decided). What does he do? Qualifies ahead of di Resta and finishes in the points. I’m proud to have stuck by him whatever happens…

  24. Jeez, i made the first comment and the server crashed. Pretty dull race except for the now predictable HAM MAS clash.

  25. Good track, good race.. spoiled by a Vettel Grand Slam.. 7/10

    Whiners gonna whine – “No overtaking”, “no crowds”, “too much run-off”..or something else..

    This track is perfect.. the race is to stay.. and it is gonna be good next year onwards, the drivers agree, the teams agree..

    1. Good crowds, good track that punishes cutting the corners, there was overtaking, just a shame Vettel was so dominant.

      1. Pretty much that. And possibly the dust and dirt from being completely new took away a bit of others having a go at each other, not at Vettel way up ahead though.

  26. 6/10. Most of my enjoyment today was from it being a new Grand Prix and it being all Indian and different. Like others have said I think next year with the race being one year old and fully established we’ll see less conservatism and more excitement!

  27. Pedro De La Baldwin
    30th October 2011, 11:19

    Boring race but I don’t think it was all down to the track. I’d give the race 3/10 but I think the track has the potential to deliver a 7 or 8 /10.

    With Vettel driving off into the distance and that horrible phrase “LOOK A THE LEAD VETTEL HAS” on lap 2, it’s never going to be that exciting.

    With a bit of luck, Newey will get the design horribly wrong next year and we’ll have a good battle between a few teams instead of going back into the dark ages with one driver in a different class.

  28. Good venue, great track, but a Webber of a race, had it’s moments, but mostly struggled to entertain.

  29. Gave it a ‘5’. Nothing special. My Drivers of the Day: M.Shumacher and Perez. Not looking forward to the next gp in Abu Dhabi ..arguably the worst track on the calendar. Vettel win probably dominate the next race in Abu Dhabi. Brazil is anybody’s race.

  30. I think that Massa needs to learn that sometimes it is better to concede a place than take a line and risk breaking the car. Webber and Alonso have been great examples of this this year. The most obvious being Webber at eau rouge, Alonso could have run him off, but it would have damaged his car and could have hurt both of them. Take Hamilton Massa in Monaco at Lowes, if Massa had conceded as Schumacher did he probably would have avoided contact and perhaps later stayed in the race. With regard to the kerbs, the fat kerbs are dangerous, if a driver makes a genuine mistake he could be launched and hurt… however Massa needs to stop making these mistakes. I thought his penalty was harsh today but no harsher than the vast majority of penalties dished out to Lewis.

    1. In the same corner it was actually Hamilton who conceded to Schumacher in Monaco. As did Rosberg.

      Massa always does expect people to yield for him in corners where there is no overtaking possible unless the driver being overtaken completely yields. For instance Tabac.

    2. Trenthamfolk (@)
      30th October 2011, 14:27

      @sw280 Very well put… I’m pretty sure he’s seeing the red mist lately, just as Lewis appears to have mellowed and adjusted his mind-set, Massa steps up to the plate! At least it makes for interesting races!

  31. Looking at the results, I think people were expecting a whole lot more than what was offered. There was some good stuff out there – like di Resta, Perez and Petrov working their way through the field early on with a reverse strategy.

    I think that if the Indians can clean the circuit up for 2012, and if they rent the circuit out to other categories (and maybe bring GP2 along next year) to get some more rubber down, I think it will be much better.

    1. With a wide track I agree, I definately expected more on track action. Hopefully next year will be cleaner / better as I need an excuse to go back to India!

    2. I agree PM, plenty on offer this race. It a little quite at the start but then settled into a nice race with enough to keep me occupied.

      It was also nice cause it wasn’t as hectic as other races. Some races this year have been amazing sensory overload.

      I have not seen the Massa Hamilton incident again but for me it looked like lewis wasn’t up far enough. I think lewis might actually realise that he didn’t need to do that there and that he could have waited and made it stick and taken a result.

      Can’t believe Webber soooo bad.

      Happy for Schumi and Button.

      Impressed with Alonso he just keeps positive and working hard even though the car is lacking (lewis take note).

      Vettel again just playing maintaining the gap.

      I gave it an 8.

    3. I think there are bigger problems with the track than simply dust. Turn 4 was a constant source of annoyance with it’s 20 lines in but only 1 line out making it impossible to gain an advantage from taking a wide line.

      1. That’s not how it’s supposed to work at all, Ragerod. The fastest line through the corner is the wide line – staying out to the extreme left and clipping the apex as a driver normally would. The “twenty lines” through the inside of the corner are designed to facilitate overtaking by giving an attacking driver plenty of room to make his move. We’ve seen drivers hold position for laps on end (Schumacher fending off Hamilton for 30 laps at Monza springs to mind) because there are only two lines into the corner: the racing line, and the defensive line. But here, a defending driver cannot defend every racing line into the corner. The attacking driver has more space to position himself. Even if there is only one line out of the corner, physically placing yourself between the apex and a defending driver means that you dictate the speed at which both cars exit. The problem is that the sheer amount of dust made the inside lines going into the corner unattractive.

  32. BORING!!!!!!! Back to the bad old days of F1. I could hear millions of TV’s being switched off across India.

  33. Extra points should be awarded for Massa breaking his suspension it exactly the same way as yesterday. What did he say about Hamilton not learing from his misstakes and needing to engage his mind?

    Positively delighted to see Massa take himself out again today. Hello Felipe, is anyone home?

    1. Lol. Massa should not be a F1 driver – if he can’t position his car in the right place (eg. away from the orange bumps). Even most amateur drivers can avoid a huge great big orange bump. He is either a very bad driver or need his eyes tested, or a combination of the two.
      To Massa, “please go to Team HRT next year”. Amen.

  34. The race was OK. I wasn’t bored, because there were battles to watch, but I wasn’t excited either, because there wasn’t much action. The battle with the Toro Rossos were fun, the Hamilton-Massa battle is becoming really irritating, the Webber-Alonso battle was interesting, and Schumacher’s race was fun to watch. Hamilton’s race was disappointing after the incident with Massa, but Button had a strong race, so it’s a compensation..

    Overall mark : 7/10 for me.

  35. 4/10. Dull.

    Nice to see the stewards not jumping down Lewis’ throat as soon as he touches someone. Massa severely needs to learn some racecraft.

    1. There wasn’t much Massa could do, @taurus – he actually held the racing line. Even if Hamilton had made it cleanly through the corner, he could have had to brake just to make the next two, which would have made him slower for turn eight and turn nine, and Massa probably would have been able to get him in the giant turn ten. It was a racing incident, and I think Massa was unfairly penalised; after all, Hamilton had only drawn partially alongside him. Perhaps it was a show of good faith for Hamilton to demonstrate that the stewards do not target him unfairly.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys I agree Massa shouldnt have been penalised. The fact a penalty was issued is down to the over-the-top stewarding of the last few years, where by any contact whatsoever is punished. If Massa hadn’t simply chopped across we may have seen a good battle for position. He knew Hamilton was there.

  36. I don’t share everyone’s negativity about this race. It was still enjoyable for me, it had it’s share of tension and incidents. 4 different teams in the top 5. It reminded me of some of the races in the last decade. Surely most of the people here still enjoyed F1 then, it’s just a matter of taking a different perspective – I liked being able to take the time to really follow the timing screens and the live comments on this site. To me races like this are like relaxing with a whisky, where a lot of the races this year have been rounds of tequila shots. Both can signal a good evening but the outcomes are very different!

    Not a classic, but I’d still choose watching a race like this than doing almost anything else.

    1. Thats a nice take on it @f1addict, well i guess you’re addicted, eh!

      I think you are right in saying that its pretty much level of what we were used to pre-2011. But is that a reason to be satisfied with it. Not in my opinion.

      And this is coming from someone who actually liked seeing the intimates of pacing the car through Valencia this year, gave that a solid score.

      I think this track could have offered more, and the great turnout shows the Indians are the right people to enjoy it. So it really was a bit of an opportunity lost.

  37. I gave it 6/10. I felt it was pretty boring, but that’s after we have seen some pretty good races this year. I think this track and this event can provide a lot more, esp. if it is less dusty; and maybe different tyres.

    But as it was, the race became a poster board for how F1 in 2011 goes, as BBC said – it had all the common elements, apart from a HAM penalty, I suppose.

    There were some good fights in the midfield, but too much DRS – I keep having the feeling that w/o DRS there would have been other, better, overtaking opportunities, although HAM trying to overtake the Ferrari’s via the pits is an ominous sign of how it could all go.

    I hear BBC saying Button the only man to regularly race Vettel this year – unfortunately, it rarely is a real race, just Button being 4-5s behind, matching on pace as he’s managed by Vettel being asked by his team to not go for that fastest lap, sadly. And that’s the best someone is able to do. Great job once again by Vettel, clear why he is the WDC of this year. But please can we see him have a less simple time of it, maybe even a real fight for it? Guess not.

  38. when is CH going to admit there is a different between webber and vettels cars, about time i think

    1. I think Webber just needs to pull his finger out, its a shame RBR gave him another contract as that seat has been wasted this season

      1. Webber has been competitive with Vettel in 2009 and 2010. Now all of a sudden he istn’t.

        Webber’s KERS never seems to work and neither does the strategy that they give him.

        I wouldn’t be surprised they decided to focus even more effort on Vettel after the Vettel vs Webber incidents in 2010. From that it was clear they simply want Vettel to win and they don’t want Webber to get in the way of that.

        They don’t need Webber to fight Vettel to bring in the constructors championship. Giving Webber P3 to P6 is enough for that.

        1. Webber can be competitive with Vettel, if Vettel makes silly errors and has a less unreliable car. And still lose to him. And Alonso’s Ferrari.

      2. A little harsh me thinks. I wouldn’t be surprised if RedBull are designing a car that suits Vettel’s driving style as he is the future of the team and Webber simply has to deal with it.

        1. So what’s harsh? Me saying that RB put all their focus on Vettel or the poster above me stating that Webber is a waste and needs to pull his fingoer out?

        2. @Ragerod, this seems like a reasonable explanation. Assume something similar is happening at McLaren (not regarding the “future of the team”, but the direction of the car to suit a specific driving style).

    2. @tv154 Even if that was the case, why on Earth would he admit it?

      Webber couldn’t seem to get the primes going today, at all.

  39. A 7 from me.

    To be honest, the racing itself perhaps was not worthy of a 7, maybe more a 6. But the track is good and I would class this as a great inaugural race. Given the instability of the world economy at the moment it’s encouraging to see a race that might have a more long-term home than what we saw in Turkey. Of course, India is on the up in the world so perhaps better placed than most but let’s not take away from India’s success.

  40. The circuit similar to Bahrain, good overtaking opportunities, but too much dust making the extra width of the track unusable.

  41. Michael’s race pace is better than Britney. He is surely ahead of Nico in points without Petrov hitting him.

  42. If I could vote with iPhone, would’ve given à 4. And that’s because of bonuspoints for massa/Hamilton, massa/kerbs and Schumi beating Rosberg.

  43. I think people are judging this race a bit harshly because Vettel didn’t look threatened at all during the race – the reality is he hasn’t been really threatened (he always seems to have some time in the bag) for awhile now. I would say that this race was better than South Korea for example, where it was a similar story with Vettel, the only reason it looked a little different was because he slowed up to allow Button to catch up a little in the end.

    The director is also at fault, the interesting battles between the Toro Rosso’s, Force India’s and Renaults weren’t followed nearly enough, especially the alternative strategies of Di Resta, Petrov and Perez. The intra-team battle at Mercedes was pretty good too, Schumacher’s

    It’s a shame that this poll isn’t “Rate the race weekend: 2011 Indian Grand Prix”, because the pre-qualy/race features were some of the best yet, everyone’s excited about a new circuit and that excitement passes over the airwaves. The scenes in the pit lane after the race were reminiscent of Japan (however I don’t think anyone can realistically expect to have grandstands full so long after the race like in Suzuka).

    Anyway, based on the average rating South Korea got I gave this race a 7, and I fully expect the race to be better next year – hopefully when formula 1 will be a bit more competitive at the front end.

  44. It was a boring race, but then I found most races boring this year even when others cheered for the tyre difference induced “overtaking”.

    By now the teams have pretty much worked out the optimum strategy for these boring tyres and the ultimately worst result comes out.

    Drivers need to just bring the car home pretty much from the start in order not to damage the tyres. No more displays of racecraft. Just drive gingerly and bring it home.

  45. Massa time is running out for you . lots of mistakes told to stay away from yellow curbs just iginored it damage the saspesion once again.

  46. A pretty boring race. Don’t think is due to the track lay-out, rather the rules (tires and DRS). It’s all about the strategy and preserving tires rather than drivers pushing from the start untill the last corner.

    Although I’m a Lewis fan, I think the Massa penalty was unnecassary (not saying it wasn’t Massa’s fault!). Obviously the stewards are trying to send the drivers a message: ‘stop this crap’. It looks like Lewis’s got the message (giving Massa room at the start), now Massa has to do THE same

  47. Not a dull race…
    Great Drives by:
    Schumacher
    Jamie Alg
    & Heikki..
    And as an Indian…my dream is fulfilled now…I’m proud..

    1. @Rahim.RG

      good comment, i gave the race an 7. But i think ppl here are just used to seeing more action in top 6, and some ppl are sick of seeing Vettel win… I bet you if Button won, it would be a different story ….

      1. Mable Mable arms off the table
        30th October 2011, 16:27

        I have to disagree, yes people are tired of seeing Vettel just go for a Sunday drive. However, if Button, Alonso, or Hamilton just held a huge gap the entire race and then won with no meaningful position battles most likely people would still find the race boring.

  48. oh dear, after all the hype and driver compliments, we got… another procession race. Uneventful and tiring.. apart from the (now) usual dose of Hammy and Massa bumping wheels. Good drives from Schumy and Algy and Button.
    My thoughts on the Massa penalty? Uncalled for.
    It was at least a racing incident, at worst another case of Lewis pushing into a nonexistent gap. The rule states that the car in the lead has precedence at the corner. From Massas rear camera it was obvious that we could see both wheels of Lewis’s car. Casus restus, Massa has the lead, irrelevant that he saw the McLaren and turned in. Hamilton should have conceeded. The commentators agreed, but the stewards got it wrong.

    1. Lewis pushing for a non existant gap? Blind? he was alongside until they braked, and hamilton braked a bit more thinking with a ferrari there the track will be half as wide on the exit, but massa just thought ill just take the racing line no matter what and get away with it. Any and I mean any other driver would have not crashed into hamilton there. If you cant see this then stop watching f1 and go watch banger racing!!

      1. Rejkjavicsdottir
        30th October 2011, 12:29

        +1

    2. I suppose you all think that Lewis Hamilton should have precedence just because he is British, drives for Mclaren and has had a rough time of it this year. Well as a fellow Brit, and Mclaren follower, I think if the positions were reversed you would all also be quoting the lead car rule and Lewis was obviously in front stance. Watch the race for the racing. All the drivers have rules to follow, without them there would be chaos and death. I think when Auntie Beeb does a review we will all see just how reckless Lewis has become this year, disappointingly.

      1. Stop trying to discredit an arguement! does not matter who the two drivers were eg alonso button it still would have been alonsos fault! massa was making no attemt to get round the corner cleanly! otherwise he would have been more catious and left a cars width at the apex and raced to the next corner. Lets ban overtaking on corners and then you will get what you want with no drivers going for the overtake in corners. I have raced semi pro and if someone is on the inside of you approcing a corner its your own fault for not defending the inside and you certainly dont just cut to the apex knowing theres a car there!

        1. finally, a common sense response. This is why Massa got a penalty.

    3. Massa deserved a penalty.
      This was not a last second dive by Hamilton, the were already alongside each other, and Massa just doesn’t know when he should yield. That is the difference.
      When cars go past Hamilton, he knows when to yield the position and avoids accidents. But it isn’t the same for massa. And he deserves the penalty completely for causing an avoidable accident.

      1. This is exactly it.

        In every overtaking move thats ever happend, there comes a point when the driver infront decides either the position is completly lost and yeilds. Gives some room and try to go side-by-side, or completly ignore that the car along side you and turn in as if hes not.

        Massa _always_ choses the latter.

    4. Webber Canada, Button Canada, Maldonado Monaco, Massa Monaco, Massa Singapore, Kobayashi Hungary… Do ya get the feeling there is a conspiracy in F1 to take out Lewis Hamilton and make it look as if its his fault? All these drivers cannot be guilty of closing the door when Hamilton decides to make a challenge. In the lower rankings, repetitive collisions may happen, but for the top ten drivers in F1 this is unacceptable.

  49. Couldn’t believe India was a total Sell out…

  50. 6/10. It wasn’t that boring, but again, there was very little real excitement. Just cars going round and round.

    Highlights:
    – Hamilton vs Massa. Who didn’t see that coming?
    – Rowan Atkinson, awesome.
    – DRS, at times, worked like I’d want it: gets the driver alongside just before the braking zone.
    – Vettel setting fastest lap in the end.

    1. – Rowan Atkinson, awesome

      Yeah, says a lot for the race that the best part was watching Rowan after the HAM/MAS crash.

  51. Bored. I decided to play minecraft for most of the time

  52. 4/10 for me, vying with Valencia for the worst race of the year so far.

  53. 6/10

    While it was a successful weekend for F1 and India the race itself was rather processional. The Massa/Hamilton incident was the only real highlight in my opinion as the drivers tended to settle into their eventual finishing positions with the exception of a few mechanical mishaps and varying pit strategies.

  54. 6/10
    I was dissapointed to see such little action, especially since it was India’s first race and they deserved more after all the effort they put in to get the track ready in time. Highlights for me were the Massa/Hamilton incident, Petrov catching Perez and Sutil, and at one point Button was catching Vettel (though it came to nothing once Vettel got into a rhythm).

  55. I think people really need to sit down and think about the situation in F1 when race after race people have to point to and plead that Petrov, Alguersuari and Buemi DRS-ing around 10th place makes for a satisfying race.

    1. Most people aren’t giving this race a particularly good rating, and I agree with them.

      Last week, it was Hamilton and Webber fighting in the podium positions that impressed a lot of people, so there goes your argument.

      1. My argument is that everyone is conceding the actual purpose of the race, the reason everyone shows up at the track (you know, to win!) is foregone so rather than get angry at that as we should, many people are settling for second best. This is the premier motor sport category in the world. No one involved in it from the drivers to the teams to the fans should have to settle for second-best anything.

        1. In addition to that regarding your point of Webber vs. Hamilton. What would have happened had the places swapped? How would that have then proceeded to define the shape of the rest of the race? Would Webber have then gone on to attack Vettel, did Hamilton? How would those events have affected the championship? It’s plainly obvious that nothing much would have occured to any of those factors. Sure the actual dicing at the time is entertaining for its immediate visceral thrill but it could mean so much more than that and at the moment it doesn’t.

          1. Sure, it’d be nice to see tons of lead changes, but at the end of the day, there’ll be races that are lead from lights to flag. This is how F1 has always been, and not every season will spoil us with a title battle like 2010’s. Deal with it, or take @trenthamfolk ‘s suggestion.

    2. Trenthamfolk (@)
      30th October 2011, 16:54

      @lachie Have you taken up my suggestion of Crown Green Bowls? Loads of one-on-one action there… You’d never have to put up with anyone coming third!

      You’ll generally find that in a race of 22 cars or so, there is a 10th place around half way through the field, which is important to those drivers. I do have to wonder what your point is?

      1. Here’s a question for you @Trenthamfolk, say your beloved Crown Green Bowls fans are told what the results of all matches past a tournaments quarter finals will be. Should they then be content to watch a match between the players who came 12 and 13th with relatively mediocre play just because its the only match where they don’t know the result already? Should they be content to watch two players who came to the tournament knowing they would never win?

        Of course not, they should be angry that they were told the results. They should expect these players are aiming for the top. They should have a decent expectation that a surprise may occur. They shouldn’t have to resort to watching also-rans just to get to see a match.

        To quote the film ‘The American President’. “They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand”. Settling for getting excited over 10th place because you concede there’s no race higher up is just drinking the sand.

        1. Trenthamfolk (@)
          30th October 2011, 17:43

          @lachie Is that really what you think? or is the actual reason for your dissatisfaction that fact that you’re man isn’t winning? Be honest now…

          Williams used to be the team to beat, where are they now? Barichello used to be a championship contender… today? Red Bull were considered naive upstarts a few seasons ago. Look at them now!!! Button spent years in or about 10th place, and look at him today, not to mention 2009. Ferrari? So-so, no longer the greats they used to be, but their time will once again come. F1 constantly changes. It’s strange that you are constantly on here being miserable about it. Given that I don’t believe in prophecy, I still fail to see your point. If you have one?

          1. My point is pretty simple. I am angry that F1 has returned to the state it was in in 2002 and 2004 and no one else seems to be angry about it. I love this sport, you clearly don’t believe me and frankly I don’t care if you do. I stopped watching back then because honestly there was little point in watching a sport without the sport. It frustrates me that I may stop watching now. I can only take so many races where the exact same series of events take place and we try and fool ourselves that we’re truly seeing a stochastic series of events, which deep down is why we all watch sport.

            Please be honest with yourself and truly tell me that the events of the 2011 Indian Grand Prix weren’t almost mirrored by at least 9 other races this year and really a few more. I don’t believe in prophecy either but I do believe in probability and the odds get greater and greater every race that we’ll see a fizzer. I shouldn’t have to be happy with that, I’m not and I express myself. But unfortunately there appear to be a troop of F1 Karma Police who don’t think someone should be allowed to display frustration over the sport. That we should love it unconditionally.

            If you can honestly say that F1 can never disappoint you, that you will enjoy every race without reservation. Then I envy you, but I cant agree with you.

          2. @lachie, why should we be angry? They might not be the most exciting races of all time, but as far as we can tell, the best driver and the best team is winning, and doing so by complying with the rules. All sport after all is a competition to see who the best is. And what does “stochastic series of events” have to do with sport? Nothing, sport isn’t about the probably of generating a certain result, it’s about competing to be the best. If you want randomness, maybe you need to be watching something over than sport, cause it doesn’t matter what sport you watch, the result will be the same, the best competitor wins, and continues to win until another competitor becomes better.

        2. Trenthamfolk (@)
          30th October 2011, 17:57

          To quote the film ‘The American President’: How do you have patience for people who claim they love F1, but clearly can’t stand F1? I’m sure that’s what they said…

  56. Nigelstash (@)
    30th October 2011, 13:49

    Great track. I think there will be some really great races there in future, especially if we see more adventurous [softer] tyres. This is rate the ‘race’ though, and the race was pretty dull. Gave it 5, and one of those was because Vettel didn’t do the annoying finger. But well done India

  57. After reading 183 comments here, it’s fairly clear that we all agree that without the Hamilton / Massa collision (and possibly Mr Bean), this would have been the most boring race of 2011.

    However, let’s get back to “driver of the day” and start the ball rolling with Vettel — not for pole, best lap, winning, most laps led, proving that Newey plus himself are unbeatable, or anything other than his interview afterwards. His comments about India and the Indian people showed him to be not just a world champion but a very understanding and caring gentleman at the age of twenty-four. My hat goes off to him.

    1. I thought it was rather embarrassing how Button upstaged him on the commemorative aspect of this race though. Although Alonso’s bit was the most embarrassing yet. He didn’t even seem to remember the names.

      1. @Patrickl Button and Wheldon raced each other many times in their youth. Why shouldn’t Button be allowed to pay tribute to him as well?

        I’ve replied to two comments from you on Button in the last few minutes, one erroneously claiming the stewards blamed him for something when they didn’t, and now using his response to two deaths to have a go at him.

      2. I’m having a go at Button??!?! If anything, I’m having a go at Vettel.

        1. @patrickl Oh sorry, I misunderstood what you’d written here. I take it back.

          I’m right about the Canada thing though! :-)

          And I must say I’m not comfortable with comparing drivers’ expressions of sadness and saying “that one did better”.

          1. Just saying on (or actually two) speech sounded rather hollow while Button gave a clear and touching message.

            But as you said, it’s probably due to the fact that Button actually knew Dan Wheldon.

  58. boring race and another boring circuit of herman tilke

  59. 6

    Pretty boring race apart from a few incidents and the promise of a fight for the lead when Button suddenly closed the gap by a few seconds on the hard tyres.

    Then Vettel remembered he’d already given the Japanese GP to Button and that he won’t give away another until Brazil. That way he can keep on scoring turkeys (triple consecutive race wins).

  60. sid_prasher (@)
    30th October 2011, 14:30

    Not an auspicious start to the Indian GP – it ll probably be ranked the lowest. I don’t think the track is bad – all the drivers had nice thing to say about it.

    Blame the tyres partly for the dull racing – should have been super softs and softs here.

  61. Clean up the track of the insurmountable amount of dusk for God’s Sake. If the Track is little more cleaner and Non-Slippery apart from the racing line, the drivers would think of alternative approaches and take risk. They will be more innovative not having to risk their races. Even the Pits and Pit Lanes seems to be dusty. Hope this is taken care of next yea to yield a better race.

  62. The most exciting part was Vettel going for FL at the end!

  63. I gave it a five. Probably the most boring race of the year (yes, worse than Valencia!).

  64. I thought it was a pretty dull race overall so I only gave it a 6.

    It’s a shame the race wasn’t very good as I especially hope it is an entertaining race when F1 is going to somewhere for the first time to help establish the sport, otherwise people who have given it a chance the first year may think is that it and not come back again.

    The drivers all seemed to like the circuit, but the dust seemed to be a problem, it was mentioned that some corners allowed multiple lines but because it was so dirty offline I don’t think we got to see this as much as possible. Hopefully the track will be in better condition next year.

    I also hope the track is used all year round and doesn’t suffer the same fate as some of these other new circuits where the only action they see all year is over the Grand Prix weekend.

  65. 6/10.
    A bit Suzuka-esque in the terms of, great track, not so great races.
    For next year I hope they get the dirt cleaned up, I think that would make it all work better. But not a very exciting race this time around sadly.

    1. Indeed. Suzuka is great driving, but its been quite a while since we last saw a great race there.

  66. I expected a lot, and it was a big flop !
    Long boring straights, too wide of a track (safe for sure), no real possibilities for battle, I interrupted several times the watching, which is something I usually never do…

    A big bravo to the Indian crowd, and of the organizers to have put up a very nice track, too bad the show was not at the party…

  67. Six from me.

    Seems a Pirelli are getting more conservative as the season goes on and combined with the teams getting better at making them work, these last few races have been nowhere near as exciting as earlier in the year.

    What we need now is a big ol’ racelong rainstorm. Maybe we’ll get it next time out in Abu D…. oh, wait, never mind…

  68. Think this race showed for sure that its been the tyres & not DRS & KERS which have provided all the excitement this year.

    So hopefully we can drop DRS now & get back to real racing.

  69. Something I would point out about the circuit layout is that this track was designed with some input from drivers.

    It was mentioned during practice that the wide entry’s into some of the corners was influenced by the drivers & not something which Tilke came up with. The section through turns 5-9 was also designed with some help from Karun Chandhok, was originally meant to be a simple left hander with a straght to the Istanbul turn 8 type corner.

    Drivers all genuinely seemed to like the circuit & many of the Ex-Drivers who now work for broadcasters also seemed to be impressed with it.

    In terms of DRS, I noticed a couple worst case scenarios happening with the 2 zones on the bbc in-car feed. That been a car passed a car due to DRS in the 1st DRS zone only to be re-passed in the 2nd. Happened once between Sergio Perez & Paul Di resta on lap 15 for example & I saw it happen at least 2-3 times more.

    If we still have DRS here for 2012 (Which for the record I hope we do not), It should be limited to 1 zone with an activation point which doesn’t penalise a legitimate pass into the corner before the straght.

  70. Mable Mable arms off the table
    30th October 2011, 16:20

    BOOOOOORING! The RBR was gapping at 15 seconds which made the race processional, additionally there were big gaps from 2nd to third and I’d like to see some camber and elevation changes IN the corners. Only exciting thing was Massa/Hamilton and even that was a non-event.

    1. Mable Mable arms off the table
      30th October 2011, 16:23

      Also this will probably be the rest of the season being that RBR is so much faster than everyone else and the other teams are more concerned with next season unless someone e.g. Hamilton or Alonso wins pole it’s just going to be Vettel for the rest of the year.

  71. Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. Why did i bother to wake up at 2am.

    This is racing? Seen better standing on a bridge over the 101 freeway.

    Seriously wonder if I’ll bother to watch the rest of the races.

    If this is the show, F1’s in real trouble.

    1. Mable Mable arms off the Table
      30th October 2011, 16:30

      tough call because vettel and RBR won the season I doubt anyone will actually invest in developing their cars for this year so unless it rains or someone else wins pole its going to be boring.

  72. Is anyone else feeling that this season is turning into a bit of a stinker? The second half of the season has just been a total yawn-fest.

    5/10 – get rid of DRS, take away about 50% of the downforce and bring back some of the challenge because this isn’t winning F1 new fans.

  73. P.S. Keith, can I give DotW to Rowan Atkinson? For being the most entertaining person there.

    1. Maybe FotW… :) (Figure of the weekend)

  74. 5/10

    It wasn’t the most exciting race but not the least either. Just a mediocre race.

    I won’t go into the Massa/Hamilton thing – I’m getting tired of discussing that.

  75. IT was OK. It could have been much better if the track was cleaner. I give it a 10 because Hamilton finally got justice.

  76. Vettel gets pole – check
    Vettel leads race – check
    First corner tangle – check
    LH and FM tangle – check
    LH gets drive through – NO !!!
    I almost gave it a 10 for that alone. One of the stewards finally recognising that a driver shouldn’t just turn into a corner on the normal line if there is another car alongside.
    But then I replayed the race in my mind and gave it the 4 it deserved.

  77. I’m afraid I knew this was going to be a bore from First Practice – the track is simply not exciting. It follows the same design language as Abu Dhabi, Korea, Bahrain etc. Wide enough to land an Airbus, massive runoff areas that don’t penalize a loss of control (save Massa :)) … This allows Vettel to get a 3 second gap and he’s gone. It’s so wide and ‘safe’ that he can go flat out through many corners, hit apexes with 50′ of track width and just pump in qualifying laps the rest of the day. Easy for the Red Bull. I gave it a 3 simply because HAM finally had a call go his way.

  78. From all the comments, tweets, reports and general feeling, it seems to me that the best part of the Indian GP were the 4 days prior to the race and the multitude of events supporting the race, loosely termed a race, more of a driver parade for 60 laps.
    In the spirit of F1 thats good, from a TV spectator viewpoint it was quite enviable, I would have been better to be at the venue than sat watching the race at home.

  79. 6/10 because of nice track layout and Indians warming welcomes, smiles, good food and beautiful girls.

    I guess rating could be much higher IF they had washed all that dust off the track, so drivers could actually use wide corner entries thus overtake more! Driving only on 1 racing line is booooring unless it’s saturday and qualification runs!

  80. I watched the first 30 laps, then fell asleep. I then woke up and read the results online. Very exciting!

  81. Hmm. Difficult to rate this one. Being the first race here, I’m reserving judgement about the track. It looked good, so I don’t think I can blame that for the dull race.

    Perhaps there was more overtaking going on at the back that we didn’t get to see, but apart from that the top teams now seem to rely on pitstop strategies to overtake, which is becoming increasingly dull now that there’s no refuelling and no chance of cars being set on fire (joking).

    Hamilton is one of the few drivers with the ability to be entertaining (now that Kobi’s lost his spark) – I’d have loved to have seen him slice through the pack, and I’m sure he’d have tried – but Massa’s stupid vendetta ruined that for everyone. Massa’s turning out to be a liability for the viewing public this year by a) refusing to fight within his own team and b) turning his frustration outwards and trying to ruin the races of more entertaining drivers.

    Last season everyone was still fighting. This season it’s as if they’ve lost the will to live because of the Vettel yawnfest, or because they’ve been beaten down by the media or by team dynamics. Apart from Vettel, they all look like they need a good dose of anti-depressants.

    There needs to be more joie de vivre in the sport. So unless there’s more drivers with spirit, like Hamilton and Kobayashi, or unless there’s more equality between cars so the drivers know they at least have a chance, I think I’ll lose the will to watch. It’s become predictable.

    Through no fault of India, who put on a good show, it was a dull race. F1 needs to find a way to cheer all their drivers up and to let them entertain us. Perhaps the emphasis on WDC is wrong, because so often it’s down to the car, not the driver. Maybe it should just be about the WCC?

    I’m giving 5/10 for the race, but if there was a vote for the race organisers I’d give them 9/10. BBC coverage was good apart from DC and Brundle spending too much time trying to predict penalties, because they really seem to relish it when drivers are punished. And .. where did DC go after the race? I do prefer it when there’s only Jake+1, but I missed the explanation.

  82. I gave 7. I think people have been a bit spoilt this year though, not enough overtakes on week, too many the next, not the right kind, reckless on another week ? Imagine the race without DRS ! Some peopele don’t realise their wants are mutually exclusive! Massa pen was plus for overtaking !! People forget f1 cars don’t run on a racing line rail ! Webber won’t win on the current tyres, heats them too much, maybe he should spend some time buttering bernie like his team mate to move back to “racing tyres” rather than “drive miss daisy tyres” that we have now !!

  83. Next to Valencia the worst race of the season,it’s a good track for qualifying not for race,the drivers said that it’s the best track by Tilke,I doubt.Now I am in wonder what will he make for us in Austin,NY & in Russia they all will be the same.

  84. I don’t have time to read through all the comments to see if someone else has mentioned it already, but how dirty the track was had an effect – drivers weren’t willing to try different lines through the wide corner entries due to only a narrow line not being dirty. Should be better next year once the circuit is run in a bit.

    Massa was providing comic relief over the weekend breaking the suspension on both sides, I’d be happy to see those things (whatever they are called) on the inside of every corner at every track. And the now mandatory get together with Hamilton lol.

  85. i would blame this on pirelli, they chose to go the safer route, it looked like another brigdestone era racing with little or no degradation. the ideal choice would have been Super soft & medium. The soft tires were lasting the half race distance & hard tires could have lasted 200 laps. Had we got supersofts instead of softs we would have had closer battle at front and some different strategy by midfield teams making it interesting.

  86. 6. Other than a few accidents throwing up some chaos, it was a rather processional gig.

  87. The very first time Keith agrees that Hamilton is not at fault for an inccident involving Hamilton and another F1 driver. i am so shocked reading his comments on Massa/Ham inccident in India.

    1. i think all journos including smiling james allan and @keithcollantine have realised that the witchhunt of Lewis Hamilton is no fun any more especially as FIA are not joining in too…what’s shocking about the crap Hamilton gets is that he risks his life for our entertainment and webhits !! Its poor journalism not to pick up on the poor performances of Webber no win and Massa no podium. Massa recked his car twice for god’s sake…I know there would be no website without hits , but I think things have gone too far…

      1. @dcjohnson So, when I wasn’t picking Hamilton as the driver of the year last year or defending him over the penalty in Spa in 2008, when was I perpetuating this “witchhunt”?

        Don’t make cheap, baseless accusations with nothing to back them up.

        1. @keithcollantine not really cheap, maybe you figured taking a positive slant was more beneficial back then, don’t want to get into an arguement with you because I like the site, I just think that all journos, particular you in recents times have benefited in the hamilton bashing, the hamilton stories are your most popular. In partcipating in the witch hunt, journos and websites are not providing balanced view of the sport. Hamilton’s a young man, who risks his life for something he loves and although rewarded and can handle some stick, also deserves some respect…journos have acted like school yard bullies and have not provided a balanced critque of the sport and other top drivers like massa and webber…but hey at least you impress @Coop

          1. maybe you figured taking a positive slant was more beneficial back then

            If you’re going to accuse me of only ever writing to pander to popular views then we are going to have an argument because I never do that. I write what I think.

            journos have acted like school yard bullies and have not provided a balanced critque of the sport

            I don’t care what other people say. If you disagree with what I’ve written, point out what and where and we’ll have a discussion on the facts.

            Until you do that I will continue to have no respect for your cheap, baseless accusations.

  88. Dull. The first race I’ve had without complaining about commercial breaks.

  89. The race was bore. The good part is things will be much better next year. Of the various upgrades I already know of some are:
    They stop construction around the track from FP days.
    They will fully landscape the place, those who go next year and have gone dis will see the difference.
    They plan to transplant trees at the borders of the circuit to act as a dust barrier.
    Commentators booth will have a view and Windoes from next year.
    Plumbing contractir pulled up works to redo the same in some team areas to begin next monsoon.
    Circuit will be used by Mercedes as experience centre, also dey plan a motorsport academy dere.
    They will have a meeting in Jan to see wat can be done about the dust.

  90. 6/10

    A good track, plenty of overtaking opportunities, even a surprise on the tyres. But not much in terms of excitement… Hopefully next year India will put a few brooms round the track and I’ll see no reason to not give it a 9 or 10…

  91. Another typical BORING TilkeTrack!

  92. The track looks like it might have potential for good racing, but this particular race was boring…

    1. Every circuit Tilke has designed has looked fantastic on paper yet they’re all mediocre to downright awful when it comes to racing on them.

      I’m sure it’s a lot of fun for the guys inside the car but for those watching “races” on these circuits it’s as dull as dishwater.

  93. The Race was only average…and only Martin Brundle said as much.as for the Massa/Hamilton, as a ex Motor Racing steward(not sadly in F1) and without the benefit of their extra info, I thought it more down to Hamilton and would have called no extra penalties…Massa was obviously going to have to turn left at some point and lewis was the one doing the overtaking…and he had been penalised stopping for a new front wing…

  94. mike mcdermott
    31st October 2011, 10:53

    the biggest thing this race throws up is that a country with so many poor can spend an obscene amount of money for the entertainment of the few…….I love F1 but I,m starting to find this whole charade a worry

  95. Not exactly a classic as the beeb were saying it was. I gave it a 6 purely because it wasn’t awful but it wasn’t exactly exciting either.

    Shame the tyres were so conservative. I don’t understand why we aren’t getting races like earlier in the season with lots more degredation. It’s probably because the teams are so clever and have worked out how to manage the tyres better.

  96. Rated it a 5 as its was an average race with some action. Hamilton v Massa, Button v Webber in the early laps, battle between Schumacher and Rosberg. Oh and the Rowan Atkinson reaction.
    Cant help but think slow 1st,2nd gear corners onto long straights don’t work to aid overtaking. Guy in front always on throttle first and will always be going faster up to the breaking zone.

  97. 5/10 from me. Spent most of the time having twitter conversations as there was pretty much nothing happening on the track.

    Brazil can’t come soon enough. Lets go racing on a race track, not the result of a willy waving contest.

  98. There was 25 passes yesterday which is only 3 less than Silverstone.

    Funny how everyone always talks about how brilliant Silverstone is when it usually features very little overtaking.

    1. You can’t just use a stat like that.

      It depends who was passing who and when. If its people at the back end of the grid, or front runners out of position, or people with pit stops over-lapping, or front runners passing one another.

      Silverstone, there was battles at the front end, which is why people remember it for being more exciting

  99. Smog cloud Gran Prix…

  100. a good race not to blame too much.

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