Although Hammy has had a little bad luck so far this season perhaps your not given Jensen enough credit for his efforts so far.

I don't think his strategy was compromised by weather predictions. If anything someone expecting rain would go out on the harder tyres and try to make them last until the rain came. Lewis clearly had more pace this weekend, Jenson's probably fairly happy with his finishing position relative to LH and the Ferraris - and where they sit in the wdc. The rest is just ' would have..., could have...'

It's not like Button is getting all the luck. Sepang turn 1 turned out quite well for Lewis, didn't it? Two drivers ahead of Lewis cleared his braking zone by diving to the left, right infront of Button, that gave Lewis the advantage through turn 1. Nobody is moaning about that, but then don't come up yourself with 'what if' scenario's for Lewis.

'What if' Button would be ahead of Lewis after the start....

Probably the right strategy from McLaren to pit Button early and put him in clean air, but his tyres were shot at the end. He did a great job of defending against the Ferraris.

Hamilton simply had another stonking race, and he's only in the third best car in the field.

Jenson deserves every good result he gets, Lewis not getting what he deserves is something different but don't say Jenson didn't serserve what he got.
Its funny really, people KEEP calling Jenson lucky and KEEP saying he gets things he doesn't deserve, sorry but no one is THAT lucky. He does just a good a job as anyone who gets good results just because Lewis does a crazy overtake here and there whilst Jensons overtakes are less noticed and does things tactically through pit stops doesn't make Jenson less deserving.

Macca split the strategies. One on hard one on softs. One for the dry one hopeing for rain. In the dry JB could have done a bit better with getting past others at the start but otherwise he did as much as could reasonably be expected. LH was praying for rain but was brilliant in the first few laps when others were being tentative. Its a bit worrying for JB that he could not beat LH in the dry given that LH compromised his strategy by hoping for rain and pitting out of sync. This was a big win for LH and JB and the team will know that hence the "drive of a champion" reassurrance at the end of the race. An F1 driver knows when he has done well and when he has done OK and when he did badly. That was like a bit of consolation hug from the team at th end. (in my own mind of course )

It seemed weird though. He finaly overtook Alonso back, perhaps he could have overtaken Massa aswell. From then on, he just had to follow the same path Lewis took. But then he pitted. Bit odd, but it turned out 'just' ok.

Yes Button has had good luck before but Rubens stalling in front of him and blocking him must count as bad luck.

I can't get my head around how far behind Button is after winning a race and is getting beat by Rosberg
And I can't believe Lewis only finished 6th, maybe they should have pitted him earlier, I think they was waiting for the rain that never came.

In your last post you said JB compromised his strategy hoping for rain. Now it's LH?
How was Lewis out of sync? With who?

I certainly was waiting for the rain!

I'm quite sure both Lewis and Jenson could have finished higher up if it started raining at some point.

That was clearly the plan IMO. There was no other way to win this race. Hence the gamble of staying out past the normal pit stop window by LH.

Jenson's problem is that he pitted too fast for tyres with the resold of his tyres going of at the end. That means ether he destroyed them quickly or Mclaren brought him early so he can make fast laps and get infrond of the others when they pit. It actually worked and he found himself in frond of the Ferraris but at the late laps he had to pay the prise of changing rubber so early in the race. Also the soft tyre was faster later on when the track had rubbered-in and that was another reason the Ferrari's where all over him.

Anyway Lewis wins this round. Jenson made a smart strategy but Lewis covered it by attacking on the track early on and passing cars. Once again smart racing by Jenson, strong attacking drive by Hamilton. This time the aggressive way won. Prost ans Senna style drives continue by this two guys.

What is Jenson behind Rosberg in? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Did I? I meant LH.
LH pit after the optimal lap 20ish that most others did. He was one of the last to pit (along with FA who also seemed to be hoping for a miracle) it would have been better to pit about the same time as say Sutil. The earlier you pit the more places you can make up. That's one thing that helped JB a lot and in dry conditions he should not have been beaten by LH when LH was on a "hope for rain" strategy.

Hence my confusion when you wrote that 'JB compromised his tyre strategy by hoping for rain.'

It wasn't much of a gamble though - Jenson was catching him and they chose to pit (just) in time to keep him ahead. It seemed like a pretty good 'no-lose' strategy to me. Pitting a few laps earlier wouldn't have put him ahead of Sutil.

Just checked Autosport front page. Rosberg is level on points but behind.

BBC had Rosberg in front of Button.

I think Button will have to always try something different with strategy or whatever because all things being equal, Lewis will be faster in the race, so I guess Button feels he needs some other kind of advantage.

I think the logic was that he'd always have to pit before the others as he started on the options, therefore they pitted him before the other guys on options and put him in clean air. Had they pitted him later he might have found himself caught behind slower cars.

I suppose not and pitting him too much earlier would have given him too long on the softs.

That's really not always true. Else every driver would want to pit in lap 1. See where I'm going?

I think we have to clear things up regarding tires once and for all.
The tires weren't shot. If they were shot he wouldn't have been able to set his best lap of the race on lap 49 of 56. With shot tyres you are barely keeping the car on track.

Lewis was straight up quicker this weekend and had the much better first turn, so yeah i agree. But he won't always have to and i don't think it was the case in OZ.

Out of the first 3 GPs so far this yeah, Lewis has had the much better Turn 1 which has helped him alot, that won't always be the case.

Yeah. And the Red Bulls were ridiculously quick.

Is it illegal on here to say such things?

No it isn't. So saying tyres being shot isn't illegal either, I think.

Good race from both, really.

Hamilton did better than either Button or the two Ferraris as far as progressing through the field in the first stint, and that's basically what enabled him to beat all 3 of them. (Alonso had problems, seemingly, so his performance isn't as relevant) A real shame he couldn't pass Sutil, because his pace in clear air was dynamite again.

Button did pretty well, all in all. You can't complain really, they both made a lot of places from their starting position.

It's not just about turn 1. Lewis still passes cars after the first lap and move up through the field. I actually do think Lewis had the better drive in Melbourne but it didn't pay off. It's almost didn't pay off here either.

How close was Lewis to Sutil before he pitted?

Actually it was good luck ne place up and then again what about Massa who was behind him on the same side of the track and beat Button after turn 1? Button is poor at starts, all 3 races he has lost places and relied on the pit stops.

It is because if Lewis would not be infront of the Ferrari's after turn 1, he would not have moved up through the field that easily, if at all.

So turn 1 was crucial.

I love this! Jenson vs Lewis seems like its going to be a great battle all season. I mean a small fraction either way in this race could have been a total reversal of the drivers. Take a look at the start jenson went left which for the first few second of the straight looked as empty as my bed on a saturday night . Lewis on the other hand went to the right which seemed crowded. Like the parting of the red sea they left a corridor for lewis to just stroll on through. Beautiful racecraft from lewis at the start. Jenson then decided to pit earlier which ALMOST payed off in regard to the intra-team battle. Jensons pitstop was somewhere around 4.7 (not 100% sure about that figure). But lewis's team unleashed a storm of a pit stop 3.5 seconds to go fastest pitstop so far this season. So when he pulled out of the pit he was just a fraction ahead of jenson and defended it beautifully. Jenson on the other hand had a pretty solid race with alot of quick times alot of defending.

This has to be one of the best driver setups of the season (so far atleast) Lewis exciting and aggressive. But Jensons always there waiting to pounce trying to plan how to capitilize. Both drivers playing to their strengths. I hope it continues and dosnt devolve into a situation like at ferarri with one driver just following the other.

Hope they both keep it up because the're a great source of excitement.

Yeah if rain actually came after the Red Bulls pitted Lewis could have gone for the win but the weather didn't made him the favor. Too bad because it would have been the first time a guy wins from that back of the field.

I hope not

Button: "I couldn't overtake, and lost lots of time, so I took the gamble to pit early and drop back into a clear track. I made up a lot of ground, but I was on the Primes for so long that it became difficult to hold back cars that were two seconds a lap quicker than me."

Again, it seems like Jenson made the right strategy call - but it was a close cut thing by the end.

In the end, I think it wasn't such an ideal strategy. When he pitted, he was ahead of Alonso. Who would have overtaken him back in the last laps if it wasn't for his car problems, me thinks.

Button's pitstop was just so early. But at that point there wasn't much choice if he wanted to make something from his race.

Before the race Martin asked Jenson how does the car feel, Jenson reply was "not great". I think he did well today if you look at how those first couple of laps went.

Lewis' fastest lap was 1:37.745
Jenson's was 1:38.501

That's .756 faster!

I said racepace. Not fastest lap.

Well I remember Lewis getting crucified for saying it ;)

From the Mclaren website:

Pit:"Well done Lewis, P6."

Pit:"Well done Jenson , that's P8. That was the drive of a worldchampion."

Very biased. Divisive. Unnecessary. Rubbish. Unprofessional.

I wonder what will happen if Lewis ends up many points ahead of Button at the end of the year. Will they say the same kind of things.

I think we can safely say that there is the most blatant favouritism going on in McLaren.

I think as well as it being unfair and wrong and shit, it is stupid and sad.

Pit:"Lewis you're being given a black and white flag for weaving in front of Petrov."
HAM:"I wasn't weaving for him ,I was weaving to break the tow."

True, and 'ridiculously', hence my post.

But was that from the same pit person or was it there own engineers?

One might be more truthful then then other because lets be honest, Jensons Engineer is telling him porkies.

He really answered that?!

Yes he did.

I think it will be:

Jensons Engineer (enthusiastic bloke) : "Well done Jenson, that's P8. That was the drive of a world champion."
Andy ATM (dour bloke) : "Well done Lewis, P6."

Lewis had some fun today, (good to see)
I'm very, very happy with that result. I think to come from 20th on the grid to sixth, I don't know how many points that is, but it's definitely a good result.""

Jenson a little bit frustrated:
"I never realised fighting for eighth was going to be so difficult, but it's good to get some points.

What a ridiculous reply/explanation from Hamilton.

You are showing yourself up as someone who has no idea about F1

My stand is that that was the reply from someone as competitive as Hamilton is, but it really was a laughable thing to say IMO.
"Oh, so you were just trying to deny him getting a tow? Oh, well then you're perfectly alright, it wasn't weaving at all!"

What's your stand, Raincoat?