F1 Fanatic

I was surprised to see that Nasr has been given a grid penalty for race 2 following the collision with Cecotto. It looked to me as if Cecotto had gone for a hit-or-miss lunge (in every sense of the term!) and it hadn’t paid off… but the authorities, with the benefit of extra video footage presumably, have decided otherwise.
I guess it has to go down as a racing incident… it’s a bit like the Hamilton vs Schumacher/Maldonado overtakes at Monaco last year. There are some drivers who you can rely on to give you the room when you try those moves, and others who will shut the door. And Cecotto and Nasr, for all their speed and competitive spirit, probably aren’t the “wise old heads” of the field!

Couldn’t find any video of the Nasr/Cecotto hi-jinx, but here’s Melker’s tyre de-laminiation:

I thought it looked a bit more like a Cecotto penalty too, but there you go. Exciting race, and some fantastic overtaking. Looking forward to tomorrow’s now! :)

Sad to say that Valsecchi’s GP2 glory days have came a little too late. Nobody wants to be a veteran in GP2.

@d3v0 – It’s a conspiracy. Hugo Chavez paid off the race officials to favour Venezuelan drivers. This is because he wants a Venezuelan Grand Prix, but needs as many successful Venezuelan drivers as possible to make it happen. He’s also forcing Bernie and the FIA to race in Bahrain so that a race in Venezuela won’t seem so bad in comparison. In fact, he’s also paying off both the government and the protesters to make Bahrain dangerous in the first place. He also made Bahrain. Before 2004, Bahrain did not exist. Hugo Chavez built it, and everything on it. It’s a far-reaching trillion-dollar decade-long intercontinental conspiracy to get a race in Venezuela, that is so ridiculous that there is no way I could have made it up just now.

Very solid drive from Valsecchi, didn’t wear out his tyres early on while battling around the P5/6 area and then was able to push at the end. The penalty on Leimer was harsh in my view; I don’t think Valsecchi would have been able to catch him had he stayed in the lead. Impressive recovery drive from Nasr, too.

There are quite a few guys who’ve been in GP2 a good few seasons now, for whom this year is really a last-chance saloon if they’re going to make it to F1. Valsecchi and Razia are two of them, and they are doing a good job. Leimer is there or thereabouts; with a bit more luck/judgement he could be right in the championship battle. Van der Garde has been solid but unspectacular; Coletti has been rather hit-or-miss; and Ericsson seems to have slipped into midfield obscurity. Chilton has put in some much-improved showings and convinced me at least that he deserves his place on the grid, but seems to lack that cutting edge. Circumspection is a rare quality in young drivers but Chilton always seems to be lining up moves he never actually makes. He could have beaten Calado today.

You’re a dolt, Johnny.