Hi Ron,
The ever increasing list of achievement statistics for Vettel this year is incredibly impressive.
There was one they mentioned that he had led for something like 80% of all laps
this year.
Mark Webber gave us a fabulous drive as well, starting on the dirty side of the grid
at P2 which he then had to claw back when he was overtaken by Nico Rosberg
and later when Alonso overtook him.
That turn 8 is something else. On Channel ONE on the Saturday night when they
televised the qualifying sessions, they showed a series of shots from the in-car
cameras for various cars as they rounded turn 8. Like many things in life, it
was telling you got what you paid for. The drivers with cars from the lower ranking
teams operating on smaller budgets would go around turn 8 fighting at the steering wheel
whereas cars like the RB7 could go around there nearly flat in 6th gear with
a change up to 7th on the exit with a much more stable steering wheel from the
pure grip, pulling something like 4.5 to 4.8 G's.
It was a great race and obviously the cameras can't show everything at once
but there were times where I was wishing the director would cut to more pertinent
battles that were going on. For example, when Alonso overtook Webber, I was
looking at the live timing screen from f1.com and you could see that Webber
was still within the 1 second DRS activation range right behind Alonso and you
could anticipate that the situation might reverse again in the DRS zone.
But, alas, the director would cut to something going on in, say, 9th position
and you would be left wondering what is going on with Alonso and Webber in
2nd and 3rd place until they showed the replay.
Once Webber overtook Alonso again, it would have been more interesting to see
the perspective from the cameras on the side of the track showing us how close
the two were, but instead the director cut to the front camera view from Mark's car.
You held your breath wondering whether a Ferrari would go flashing by any second.
Alonso did amazingly well for Ferrari given the troubled start to the season
for them. With Catalunya coming up next, the Spanish crowds will undoubtedly
urge him on like they always do. Speaking of directors, I remember
last year at Catalunya when Mark Webber was on his final lap on his way to
victory but the director instead chose to show us lots and lots of Alonso
on his way around in second place, undoubtedly to please Spanish audiences.
Video of Mark in the Red Bull simulator last year taking us around Catalunya -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3PsUJqaK5M