I still dont like him but...

this is one hell of a lap. the way he keeps the throttle in through the oversteer in the first lesmo is magical...

The way he kept the car on the track for 53 laps despite oversteer was pretty good too.

He is a pretty amazing driver, although he's made more mistakes this year I think. He admitted as much, and I think it's down to his belief that he should win the title in his first season as a Ferrari driver. If Raikonnen could do it, then surely Fernando can (I think that's the general gist).

His drive today was pretty damn epic, but Button's was pretty good too. 2nd place (and nearly the win) using a bass-ackwards set-up is pretty damn cool...

Alonso takes a handy lead into the last two races. He's smart enough to play the consolidation game and the Red Bulls will almost certainly trip over each other at least once more.

Hamilton is Alonso's biggest danger now. Webber will throw it away in at least one of the remaining races and Vettel will blow an engine or have something similarly unlucky happen, whilst Hamilton has learned that less points are better than no points.

Oh darn, NOT! for Red Bull!

Hamilton is still in the hunt. I wish Button had a better race to close the constructors gap but on to Brazil. Now if Alonso can get his spell of bad luck too.

Les_Vipers_rule wrote:Oh darn, NOT! for Red Bull!

Hamilton is still in the hunt. I wish Button had a better race to close the constructors gap but on to Brazil. Now if Alonso can get his spell of bad luck too.

you mean other than the run of bad luck he had mid season???

Pennzoil GT-R wrote:

Les_Vipers_rule wrote:Oh darn, NOT! for Red Bull!

Hamilton is still in the hunt. I wish Button had a better race to close the constructors gap but on to Brazil. Now if Alonso can get his spell of bad luck too.

you mean other than the run of bad luck he had mid season???

A couple of DNF's coming up will be fine. Hamilton struggled with some and then in Suzuka a faulty gearbox so meh if it helps Hamilton in winning a second drivers championship, I'm down with that.

I think it's Fernando's to lose at this point. He seems to have found a working relationship with the team, and they're now all on the same page. It may not yet be the Schumacher/Brawn/Byrne/Todt force of nature, but I think that the elements are now there for something similar.

McLaren may still have a shout at the WCC thanks to Red Bull incompetence, but the WDC is a lost cause, I think.

What can one say about Red Bull though? These guys, through driver and team error, seem like they have a chance at throwing away the WDC and WCC, despite having possibly the most dominant car since the Ferrari F2004. The team need to look very hard in the mirror at what they have actually achieved with the magnificent tool Adrian Newey has given them.

its difficult to pinpoint where it went wrong. i mean vettel had a lot of reliability issues early on, but other than that is there a single cause?

If Vettel had won the first four races like he probably should have Webber would have been the clear number 2 and made to hand him another couple of races to decide the championship halfway through.
Instead there were reliability issues, Vettel ramming Webber, Vettel's petulance, Vettel favouritism, an unbelievable number of wet races, Webber's shit starts and formidable opponents from teams capable of clever pit strategy (I'm yet to see masterful strategy from RBR).
Alonso's performance has been out of this world. When was the last time a driver in the year's third-best team took the title?