Rate the race: Europe

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

Rate the 2010 European Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (2%)
  • 9 (3%)
  • 8 (13%)
  • 7 (22%)
  • 6 (18%)
  • 5 (12%)
  • 4 (8%)
  • 3 (7%)
  • 2 (5%)
  • 1 (11%)

Total Voters: 2,293

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought were the best and worst races during a season. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

See the results for past seasons here:

2010 European Grand Prix

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    Author information

    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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    115 comments on “Rate the race: Europe”

    1. not a great race (ferrari fan) but Kob at the end was great

      1. FIA sucks!

        What a shame of race!

        1. Thanks God Webber and Kob its OK by the way

          1. Agree… fia is whatever…

            What was that with Hamilton… another flower from him….

        2. Totally true. Too bad for Charlie he can’t fix the Germany-England football score.

          1. I couldn’t agree more. Out with Whiting who is manipulating the races! Why is nobody doing anything??? What else has to happen?!?

            1. I voted this a perfect race simply because Mark Webber is alive.

    2. Mark Hitchcock
      27th June 2010, 14:48

      5. Not much action really but Kobayashi livened things up towards the end.
      And obviously, as horrible and scary as it was, Webber’s crash was memorable.

      1. damonsmedley
        27th June 2010, 15:15

        Yes I totally agree. This track needs to go as soon as possible. Every time someone attempted a pass, there was contact. Luckily there weren’t many crashes like Mark’s. But it was even happening it the support races. There can not be any better proof that this track is terrible. Well done Kobayashi though!

    3. Good race by Valencia’s standards! Overall pretty dull though, don’t think track design helps, too often we saw a driver lock up significantly in the final turn while being shadowed by another and retain their position.

    4. Before Webber’s crash, which was heartstopping and spectacular (I was extremely worried for his safety for a second until he threw the wheel out angrily), it was pretty decent. After the safety car it was just a procession and a bunch of disappointing penalties. It’s not often that a safety car makes the race less exciting but without it we would’ve seen Vettel and Hamilton battling at the end (made impossible by his drive through), we wouldn’t have to wait to see what the stewards have to make of the final result. That being said it was probably the best race we’ve seen at Valencia. It’s also a shame we have that 2 tyre rule because I really believe Kobayashi could’ve been on the podium if he was allowed to carry on. I was well happy when he overtaked Alonso and Buemi (on the final corner) though! And with the penalties still to come he might even be on the podium!

      6/10

      1. You gotta be careful though. Even Brundle said without the safety car we would have seen a great battle but it was pretty clear Vettel was crusing out on his own and made to extend the gap when Hamilton pushed after his drive thru. Had there been no Safety Car Vettel would have just kept pushing the whole way.

        And if there were no 2 tyre rule then everyone would have done what Kobayashi did and not pitted at all and he wouldnt have made up the positions by not pitting.

        I was thinking the same things but you gotta take everyones race into perspective

    5. miguelF1O (@)
      27th June 2010, 14:49

      this was another strange race why cant f1 be just 4 or 5 drivers battling on the track at valencia we had cheating whining drivers fantastic crashes rocket kobayashi i think that will be a lot of DSQ hopefully too mutch luck too mutch artificial racing it seems impossible to have fair competition

      1. yep, I love alonso Whinning “tell Charlie Hamilton overtook the safety”. It was like being back to skool when I was 10 :)

        1. are you saying Alonso should have just shut up and driven? He was easily third, then he was easily tenth, through no real fault of his own – and in his view, the perpetrator escaped unpunished. If he wasn’t furious, he’s not a true racing driver.

    6. Kobayashi’s last leap moves made it an 8 for me.

      I notice that Alonso is 32.8 behind Vettel while Button is 7.6, so if Button does not get more then 25 seconds penalty, Alonso is still behind him, but Kobayashi would be just ahead.

      1. Btw, how much does a drive through penalty cost? I hope if those drivers that are under investigation does get a penalty it would not cost them more than a drive through penalty. My rationale behind it is that there are plenty of time to give those driver a drive through penalty so there is really no reason to give them more than that. They should give the penalty relative to the penalty they are given to Hamilton.

        Well, I’m still waiting on the post race analysis on whether if they are actually speeding under SC give them any advantage or not.

        And great drive by Koby… Burger power? :)

        1. I think a drive-through awarded after the race nets 25 seconds added to their finishing time. That’d put Kobayashi up to 3rd, Button down to 4th, still 0.2 seconds ahead of Alonso.

    7. For Valencia this is all we could have hoped for.
      Ok maybe some more if Hamilton didn’t have his penalty.

    8. Thank you, Kobayashi, for showing how fantastic this track is!
      We saw overtaking maneuvers on half of the corners.

    9. much better than the previous two events.

      1. Are you mental?

        1. I’m guessing he meant the previous two at valencia?

          1. yes, i was refering to the previous two valencia races.

    10. What a farce. The SC just ruined a race when the top 3 where fighting for the win. Terrible decision form the stewards that favoured as always Mr. Hamilton

      1. They favored him by penalizing him? Interesting way to favor someone.

        1. They favored him by waiting more than 10 laps to penalize him. So yes they favored him.

      2. what are on about?

        1. what are u on about antizyklon

          1. He is referring to the way the penalty didn’t cost Hamilton anything. But this was because of a combination of two things- the time it took for the decision to be made, and Hamilton’s raw pace that he had anyway.

            1. Did stewards know he would exit the pits in front of Kobayashi when they penalized him? Hindsight is great but they needed to examine the situation first. We don’t know how much examinations they had and how many teams complained about. From the feature in F1 Racing about the stewards they have a lot of work examining situations, especially in first part of the race.

            2. Or the Kobayashi train, than enabled the top 2 drivers to pull away at more than a second a lap.

    11. Kamui driver of the race putting the move on both Buemi and Alonso. Webber’s crash fanstic. Have to see what happens with stewards decisions on the other cars. 8/10

      1. miguelF1O (@)
        27th June 2010, 14:59

        agree but there are 10 cars that probably are going to be penalised it will change this race a lot a complete farce fighting for th win should be on track and please ban all fuel mix options cause hamilton gave us hope for an exciting decider for the win but in the end vet was saving is car and eventually ham had to save fuel as well not to mention that if he had respected the rules he should have ended in a similar position to alonso

    12. it was a farce… Vettel automatically won the race after SC and Hamilton stole P2
      really really terrible

      1. Stole P2? Wasn’t he running P2 before the safety car?…and yes he was punished, denied a chance of going for P1!

        1. well.. to be correct he did’nt stole anything, but where the stewards who gifted him with P2 awaiting 15 laps before taking a decision… really disgusting this time…

          1. sure, and it is not his fault, also not his fault that Kobi was holding everyone else behind for him to built a nice gap…

    13. miguelF1O (@)
      27th June 2010, 14:55

      After the messy race champ may be a bit scrambled counting the DSQ the classification might be
      1ºVettel
      2ºKobayashi
      3ºAlonso
      4ºAlonso
      5ºMassa
      6ºAlguersuari
      7ºSchumacher
      8ºDi Grassi
      9ºGlock
      10ºChandkok

      1. Hamilton isn’t getting penalised post race though…

        1. miguelF1O (@)
          28th June 2010, 1:57

          ok if hamilton penalty was fair im starting to ignore the safety car every race

      2. Two Alonsos and no Hamilton? The latter already served his penalty.

      3. They made a hash of things today, but the stewards aren’t going to give Alonso 3rd and 4th place :P

        You might mean Hamilton in 2nd, and Kobayahsi 3rd, ahead of Button and one guy called Alonso.

    14. miguelF1O (@)
      27th June 2010, 14:56

      i gave 5 but now i think after all this cheating and bad conduct the race should not count for the champ

    15. Ferrari is screwed by the FIA. At the end it was better for them to overtake the safety car.

    16. I think we might be on to something here! I mean they gave the track a lick of paint and we got the most exiting Valencia grand prix in years :D.

      Kamui for man of the race obviously. I was so happy when I saw he had overtaken buemi.

    17. For Valencia a memorable race. A big crash, SC confusion, amazingly fast lap from Schumi in the last laps. Kobayashi had a drive that might have just saved him and the team for next year. First he dropped back only because of the 2 compound rule. But those overtakes by him almost make it worthwhile to have this rule.

      Bushi (Burger – Sushi) champ. Let Burger king introduce that in the menue and sponsor Sauber full scale from next race on.

      1. Bushi in Japanese means warrior, which describes Kobayashi’s mentality towards having a go at Alonso and Buemi, something Button could not or did not do against him…

        1. I didn’t know that, but it makes it even better. Showed exactly what we hoped to see from him last year.

          Gutsy driving, not afraid to have a go at it and makes less mistakes than Sato. And a good job of conserving those tyres to last up to that point, 54 laps is massive for this track.

        2. Senshi in Japanese means warrior. Bushi sounds like something to do with the word Bushido.

          As for Kobayashi, he did amazingly well. He really made the strategy work. Alonso is my favourite driver, but I was willing on Kobayashi all the way.

          1. Both words have similar meaning, but did Kobayashi make Button look stupid for following him for three quarters of the race when Button was going “Oh we can’t overtake in Valencia, not enough room at this track” when there was clearly enough room for Kobayashi to make moves on Alonso and Buemi…

            1. Kobayashi’s overtakes were on FAR superior tires and Button’s lack of attempts at an overtake was probably partly due to him knowing Kobayashi…

      2. Some of us like the best car/driver to win. Not cheaters rewarded or stupid 5 second penalties for safety infringements. It is truly sad that Races must be “enlivend” by bringing the wrong tires to races and such.

    18. Eventful race which was poorly handled by the FIA and will result in lots of protests after the race and some changes of the results. The only positive I could find was Webber emerging unscathed from a frightening accident.

      1. I agree with you 100%

    19. I can’t feel more frustrated and angry about a race.-

      I hate the stewards, they ruined what could have been another great race.-

      It feels like referees on a football game, they try to be the stars of the show.-

      I vote for Charlie Whiting and his troupe to retire ASAP!!

    20. What a joke. Shame on the Race Control.

    21. First lap was interesting, last lap was quite exciting due to Kobayashi, that’s why I gave it whole one point. It was boring like hell. Both Spanish tracks are awful, I wonder what we have done wrong to have to watch Barcelona and Valencia every year :/

    22. This is a joke!!

      How could the race Control take so long to decide on the Hamilton penalty!!! Effectively meant that overtaking the safety car (breaking the rules) was the right thing to do, thanks to Kobayashi holding everyone up!!

      And that is not the only fault of the stewards here.

      Even if Button is issued a 25-second penalty, he still comes out ahead of Alonso.

      I think the penalties system must be changed from “times added” to “positions lost”. This way, Button onwards, everyone can get an appropriate 7-8 place penalty, putting them in their rightful positions.

      Such a system would have even worked in the Alonso-Schumi incident at Monaco. Schumi would have got just a 1-place penalty!!

      1. Interesting comment from Button about the issue with the lap time. Seems to have really been hardly possible to make that.

    23. Good race for Valencia. Actually incidents to talk about and for my I’m chuffed Vettel won with Hamilton second and STR points.

      What I don’t get is how these new circuits are meant to be super safety concious yet the straights wiggle and it just encourages weaving. We saw what happened in GP2 and then with Webber’s crash.

      No words can describe what a legend Kobayashi is for overtaking Alonso at the end. Alonso is an extremely talented driver but why did he have to moan about Hamilton instead of concentrating on his own race.

      1. What race were you watching mate? You seem to talk about every other thing except the great cock-up of Race Control which left the Ferraris at a 40 sec disadvantage.

    24. I think since Alonso wont get the podium finish if ppl are dropped places, I think it will be a grid penalty for next race to help ferrari then.

      Overall pretty dull race apart from Kob’s passing and the accident.

    25. terrible race, but I gave it a 10 for Kobayashi’s overtake on Alonso ^^

      now downloading my next desktop image

    26. The FIA really needs to iron out these safety car issues and so do the drivers because its crap and im tired of it

      Maybe they need to run some safety car drills, like a fire drill at an elementary school or a drill during football practice.

      I propose they do this between now and silverstone

    27. Whiting needs to resign.

    28. It is pretty clear what Hamilton did. Watch the replay. Hamilton deliberately slowed down to make sure Alonso wouldn’t be able to overtake the safety car.
      What a shame.

      1. I don’t for a second believe he did that on purpose. More a hesitation (somewhat like australia 2009 where he wasn’t sure and asked the team) before deciding to go for it and stay in front of the SC. I would be interested to see if the team gave any instructions here.

    29. Race ? Which race ? Who Raced ? Where was the race ?

      Valencia ? That was probably a Promotional Show or a Testing Program..

      After Canada this was a terrible show. But any expected this out of Valencia. Maybe Singapore would be almost the same show.

    30. I gave it a 6 because of Kobayashi’s last few laps. It was really good for Valencia but it would have been really processional if it weren’t for the safety car. I applaud Sauber for thinking out of the box and trying a different strategy. They deserved their result today.

    31. What on earth are Ferrari moaning about? Even without Hamilton’s infringement they were still behind Kobi, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi and Barrichello – Hamilton had zero to do with that. And if those guys sped a little and get a penalty then Ferrari get places back, so stop whining. Alonso is by far my favourite driver when driving or talking about F1… right up till the point that Hamilton becomes involved, then he just loses his mind.

      1. and I have £100 on Alonso at 9-1 for the title… I almost hope I lose now…

    32. Hamilton today showed how breaking rules is better than being honest.
      Great FIA!

    33. Looks like a lot of people seemed to have missed the fact that Hamilton did overtake the Safety Car and was in fact awarded a drive through very late in the race. Whilst the Ferraris which were only seconds apart from Hamilton decided to play by the riles and suffered a massive disadvantage.

      1. So, say Hamilton had not done that, he would have ended ahead of Alonso on 6th, Button would have been 2nd, Kobayashi could still have gotten his 7th, and Vettel wins a minute ahead of everyone. Still no podium for Alonso.

        Or should Hamilton have speeded so that him and the Ferrari’s end ahead of SC, then gets a penalty for that speed and drops behind them? Sure.

        1. What’s your point? Hamilton did speed up to overtake the SC…and he got a penalty very very late in the race. That penalty after two laps would have meant that he would have been at the end of the field. Race Control screwed up big time – irrespective of where the Ferraris ended up. Black on white. No doubt about that!

    34. Mountain man
      27th June 2010, 15:37

      Great to see web come out unscathed . lewis did a great job… Oh poor Alonso and his Sour Grapes (even down to throwing an empty glass bottle of San Miguel on to the track to try & puncture lewis’s tyres!) did’nt stop Griping even after the race.Too Much Power in the stewards hands!!! Can we Just Race……..

    35. Hamilton and McLaren cheaters and Hamilton should have black flag

    36. Circuit zolder
      27th June 2010, 15:45

      This was a farce not a race.

    37. I couldn’t understand why Mercedes pitted MS under the SC. He was in front of Kobyashi and also on the harder tyre. He could have done the same thing the Sauber driver did.

    38. It had alot, people shouldn’t let their favouritism cloud the judgment of the race. The Webber incident, the first few laps were good. The safety car chaos. The spat between Senna and Glock just as everyone else was catching them. Kobayashi doing one over Alonso, and Buemi in the last corner!

      I gave it an 8.

    39. I gave it a 4 as it was so boring. Sutil made one pass in the race and Koby did a good job at the end. Sorry i didn’t watch overtaking outside the top 10.

    40. For Valencia this was an awesome race!

    41. Decent start, spectacular crash, then a procession.

      But the suspense involving Kobayahi and his overtaking moves at the end made the race OK

    42. A very eventful race by Valencia standards, but still weak compared to other venues. Kobayashi’s brilliant drive was a sight to see, especially the move on Buemion the very last corner.
      Oberall 6/10.

    43. nice race (too much action for Valencia!) spoiled by bad decisions. 7/10

    44. I wasn’t holding out for much, but ended up being pleasently surprised. A semi-gem of a race. 7/10.

    45. Alonso has sour grapes for Hammie. Get a friggin grip and retire before you blow a blood vessel Alonso.

    46. 6 for me. Not a bad race, with great entertainment including Webbers crash (glad he’s ok) and Alonso’s crying.

      Good job from Kobayashi for a change. He kept his head together instead of his usual banzai attitude.

    47. 7/10 for me.

      Some of the reactions here are highly amusing. Where was the indignation after the fixing of Malaysia 1999?

    48. Aw,come on commentators,tell the truth for a change!Webber was just not in the mood for 9th place!!As for ferrari,listen girls, Hamilton came out at exactly the place meant FOR HIM.

    49. When is alonso and ferrari going to stop crying like babies and get on with racing?Probably never!

    50. Can we please get new fresh commentators who does not side with any team let alone ferrari like they just did?PRETTY PLEASE?

    51. You fly like the wind Hamilton and Button,gentlemen of Formula One.You race without the use of tongues!Bravo!!

    52. Charles Carroll
      27th June 2010, 19:04

      Great job for Kamui and Sauber!

      Best parts for me:
      Kamui’s pass of Alonso and Buemi
      Webber and Heikki getting into trouble

    53. I gave it an 8 because it WAS a thrilling race. However, the lack of passing (save for for the first few and last few laps) is what keeps it from being rated higher in my book. For a little bit before Webber’s accident, it was already turning into a processional. Thankfully the safety car threw a wrench in a lot of people’s strategies, which mixed things up and proved to gives a more interesting race to watch.

    54. Two. Worst circuit on the schedule.

    55. The voting profile is looking a bit odd at the moment. Did the people who gave it one out of ten think it was a very boring race or did they think it was an otherwise good race spoiled by the stewards?

      1. I gave it a two because it was mostly processional. Good start and good last lap. Sutil’s pass on Buemi was the only other positive moment. Other than that not much going on except Webber’s backflip(I’ll give that one a 9.5, good technique).

        I would have prefered Webber to stay in the race and try to push forward. No one else looked interested. All in all a boring race only notable for all the wrong reasons.

    56. shame hamilton couldn’t fight with Vettel but a good race none the less.

    57. I’m getting tired of Hamilton doing all kinds of shady things, and getting away with it. It’s like the seven race of the year he does something that rises controversy and he is leading the championship, and the worst thing is people (“f1 fans”) so biased with nationality defending him all the time.

    58. William Wilgus
      27th June 2010, 21:57

      Safety Car Roulette again. Terrible—that’s not racing!

    59. What a farce, Hamilton is allowed to overtake the safety car and effectively comes out unpunished (whatever happened to the ten second stop go penalty? Surely breaching the safety car procedures should have a penalty greater than a drive through), Schumacher obeys the rules (not leaving the pits when there is a red light that should not have been red in the first place) and his race is destroyed as a result, Alonso obeys the rules and doesn’t overtake the safety car like Hamilton and his race is destroyed also. What a dismal end to what was shaping up to be a great race. The stewards and race control got it very wrong on this race. And thank god MW is alive.

    60. This might sound very off putting to some, but I would of liked to see Mark Webber break at least a finger so that he could not compete in the next round and let one of the very highly rated RedBull Reserve drivers (Daniel Ricciardo in particular) compete in the one of the most competitive cars on the field against the likes of Sebastien Vettel and Lewis Hamilton at a track which highly suits the RB6’s in theory.

      Kobayashi was an incredible highlight to the race, I was watching the live timing during some of the boring periods and Kobayashi was lapping faster then Hamilton at times. An Incredible effort by the Japanese driver demonstrating the same style of driving we saw and enjoyed last year, and to the Sauber team for the pit strategy that allowed him to be competitive in what is an unrealistically competitive car.

      Although what was demonstrated by the Sauber team is that they were able to run extremely long on their tyres, similar to the data that they collected from testing earlier in the year. Hopefully at Silverstone they will be able to use this car trait to their advantage to provide more exciting racing for us!

      I am personally always cheering for the underdogs, like Alguersuari beating Schumacher, and Kubica always popping up for a fight from time to time. That’s what makes it exciting.

      In the debate from who was wrong, Kovalainen and Webber, the Australian broadcasters/reporters were very one sided saying that Kovalainen was in the wrong 100% but to me that sounds way to harsh. All weekend the footage and interviews with Mark showed this very depressed body language, and I honestly do not think he was in the right mind set. Heiki, slower car yes, but he was racing for position, he was defending for as long as possible, you did not see Kobayashi let Button through because Button was in a Mclaren, challenging for the drivers championship and faster. My hat goes off too Heiki for defending because that provides exciting races. eg. Alonso trying to get past Di Grassi i think it was at the Monaco GP? That was exciting even if you were an Alonso fan and didn’t believe he deserved to be down there. Mark made a mistake, its as simple as that. He stuffed up the start, decided to pit and come out racing the “B” cars and he made a mistake drafting Heiki. If he wanted to avoid an incident he would of braked earlier not go through with the move, but he didn’t because as I mentioned before, I don’t think he was in the right mind set.

      Overall I gave this race an 8 because it had its memorable moments.

    61. Race control total utter joke.

      All drivers except Kobayashi should apply should taxi licenses. They have no business in racing.

    62. the race was kind of exciting and all with incidents but i think that was the sloppiest race i’ve ever watched. the very avoidable webber/kovalainen crash, senna continuing after damaging his front wing, glock pushing way too hard with a puncture, etc. but the most alarming thing for me is that button in a mclaren simply can’t overtake a sauber on 50 odd lap old tyres! just wow…

      and buemi/vettel locking up badly in the last corner still can’t be overtaken! more than once!

      The hamilton punishment was disgraceful. a drive through penalty within a lap or two surely could have been handed down, but really, no penalty at all.

      And what’s with 5 second penalties? of course alonso’s going to feel hard done by. why on earth could these incidents not be evaluated during or just after the safety car period?

      I’d go so far as to say that was the most disgraceful race i’ve ever watched! (but that’s only cause i missed indy 05). Hopefully they all get their acts together in britain. at least we have something (well, several things) to talk about after this race which is more than what we got out of the last two valencia races combined…

    63. To me, this race was all one big joke. From Kovalainen’s ridiculous stance abount defending against a Red Bull, to the Stewards taking their time about deciding on Hamilton’s penalty, to the post-race 5 second penalties handed out to the drivers, and finally, the fact that when everyone was actually racing, the on-track action was dull as dishwater…

      I’d just like to forget this round ever happened, and look forward to Silverstone. The only highlight for me was seeing Kobayashi running around in 3rd for a good part of the race.

    64. Also, I’d like to amend my previous comment, because I’m not angry at Heikki – it’s not his fault, Webber was also a little too aggressive, although he couldn’t have known Heikki would brake so early. All it is, is proof of several things – that plenty of run-off isn’t a bad idea, that f1 cars are incredibly safe beasts, and that significantly different closing speeds / braking power is dangerous.

    65. Hmm, 12% of F1 Fanatic must be Ferrari an Webber fans to rate this race as a 1. Come On the race wasn`t that bad, at least He walked away from it. As for Massa it reminds me of Herbert after He`s big one at Donnington?, never quite the same.

      1. That always happens. 1? I mean, to be honest from my perspective, F1 cars, just running, gets a 2.

    66. I voted 4, In reality, I enjoyed it more than that, but it was the adrenaline from marls crash, and the great end with some incredible passes my kamui which did it.

      But the track is dire. And I don’t think I want to rate it higher based on marks crash.

      I was so happy when he threw out the steering wheel.

    67. If your not getting all over excited as an over excitable ferrari fan then it was a decent race as i predicted on this site last week. You dont or shouldnt rate the race as a fanboy, but whether or not it was a good race. England v Germany was a great spectacle despite the result – for us.

      Some decent overtaking, a scary crash, some intrigue and kobayashi having one of his good days. Vettel does what he does best, leading from the front but i think Lewis wouldve caught him but for the drive thru penalty. Shame for that reason but Valencia much improved and now a fantastic place to go for a weeks holiday next June

    68. I gave it a 5. Undoubtedly the best race we’ve seen at Valencia, but that is not exactly a ringing endorsement. At least there was a bit of action and it was not an entirely processional-follow-the-leader scenario. But again, not happy to see the race results change after the race.

    69. Can’t think of giving it more tan 5. The safety car rules is not good for racing.

    70. It was better than I expected but then I didn’t have very high hopes. Due to the finish by Kobayashi I decided to add an extra mark.

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