stefan_ wrote:Another great drive by Raikkonen, especially saving the car during the Perez incident and putting the Lotus on 2nd place with a damaged FW and nosecone. Don't know what's happening with Grosjean though, 9th is a poor result from him.
Alonso also did a great race, the pace is in the car and they obviously have a good shot at the WDC.
Very good result from Ricciardo too, nice to see him score good points. Bottas beat Maldonado - another good thing.
I feel sorry for Sutil, if it wasn't for that Schuey-like maneuver of Gutierrez it would have been a better result from FI.
All in all it was a good and enjoyable race, not the catastrophy that some predicted it will happen because of the tires.
Post race penalties because of that DRS on yellow flag thing would be stupid.
About Raikkonen disagree:
Lost positions at the start, Perez collision his fault, nothing to be proud of, tyre advantage over Mercedes, being on front of them rather formality. If there are no cars around him he's fine.
About Grosjean agree, very poor but predictable (although I haven't read team's comments about this particular race)
Generally speaking they disadvantaged one driver in an unprecedented manner at this level and results are predictable. Behind with updates in the first and second race of the season and of of course tests, too. I can't recall any team doing that, ever. Now it's all about playing catch-up in every race with
very tricky tyres and new variables in every race. And of course policy that only one driver exists still intact. Spending Friday comparing exhausts, when the other driver is working on this particular race, tyres, set-up, how can anything go wrong? Of course "his engineers" all night will be heroically trying to "solve issues" they perfectly know they themselves created. If Lotus don't care about constructor's championship it's their problem.
About tyres disaster bullshit predictions, also predictable. No 5 pitstops, no drama, business as usual. Race was fun and so hopefully will be the whole season, No RB dominance yet.

. It's way too early to say but Alonso should be a favourite. Also: I told you Rosberg wouldn't know what hit him, with Webber it was all too predictable.
Let's see how tyres situation evolves and who makes passive wing stalling work. On Allen's podcast Allison and Gillian said that last year's differences when it comes to tyres whining and their impact on races between first and second half of the season had little to do with teams figuring how to handle them (as I always thought). It was all about conservative compound choices in the second half. It means that current anti-tyre propaganda, followed by Pirelli lobbying has the same aim. Not to change tyres but to force tyres combination that would suit Merc/RB better. After China we kind of know why, although their problems were rather small compared to the noise they make.