Good work JB!

[fatbloke]

Go Jenson! SIXTH!

And before you lot start - remind me, how many times did (so called star-driver) Zanardi outqualify his highly rated team mate last year ? hahaha!!!

Looking forward to 2001 when he has experience of all the tracks (which he obviously has of Silverstone...)

[Jay]

Just like everyone else in the top 10. We will see how good he really is in the rain when the race comes around. Based on what I have seen (read) of him this week, it won't be pretty.

But, if I were him I would enjoy it, as I bet he loses a few positions at Copse.

Tomorrow should be interesting, there are a number of drivers that chould definetely be higher and will be interesting to watch them come through.

[fatbloke]

Aha - another non-believer!

Listen sucker, if those other guys (including Ralfie) are so good, how come they're behind him on the grid again ?! Silly people - watch with your eyes not your heart - you might see the truth, not what you want to see!

[Jay]

A Minardi could have been higher up on the grid than JB if it crossed the line at the right time.

[Minardi fan]

Jay sums up the qualifying session perfectly in one sentence.

Yes it may have been a good lap but he just got it at a good time.

[Peter Mallett]

Let's be rational shall we?

Minardi had exactly the same chance as everybody else to claim that pole position. It didn't because its cars aren't good enough. Button struck lucky especially after crashing in the morning (he admitted liability) and therefore got very little time in the car or on the circuit.

To say that he didn't deserve his position would be unreasonable. To err on the side of caution for the race is practical, because he hasn't started from that position before.

So, I wish him all the best and yes, IMHO he is far better than AZ ever was, but then I said all that last year when AZ was employed by Team Willy.

[Minardi fan]

The Minardi CAR is one of the best. It's the ENGINE which is NO-WHERE NEAR good enough.

[Minardi fan]

Oh well done Jenson blah blah blah Ooh 5th place blah blah blah....

WELL I DON'T CARE.

The sooner Murray, Martin, Jim and co, get over Button the better, because to be honest it makes for VERY BORING listening.

Wow. He finished 5th. Am I supposed to be impressed?

[MichaelC]

Ladies and Gents -

I'm not about to inflict on you my opinion:

We the British are renound for being frankly rubbish at every sport. We suck big time at Cricket (which we invented). We are every bit as bad at football (which we also invented - call it soccer if you wish, I won't) We flatter to decieve at rugby, then get beaten by someone we'd never expect to lose to. We're never going to be any good at any winter sport, unless firelighting gets accepted into the 2002 Olympics...

Therefore when we find something we might be vaguely good at, we tend to get behind it and hype it as much as possible.
Now I agree that ITV is yelling about JB far too much, they should leave him to just get on with it, and hopefully soon they will.

However:
He ran OK in Australia and took advantgage of opportunities presented to him and others misfortune to run well up the order until his engine decided it had had enough.
In Brazil he outqualified Ralf, and after a somewhat unimpressive start, dragged himself up to a points position.
Imola we won't talk about. But everyone has bad times as well as good.
Now at Silverstone - a circuit he knows - he has put previous knowledge to good use. He and the team judged the weather as well as you might have hoped for qualifing, and in the race he stayed out of trouble, and has scored another two points.

Now it's fair to say that he won't win the WDC this year, but then neither will DC, or Irvine, or Johnny Herbert, (the latter two have yet to get off the mark even), so while we have someone who is doing well, I firmly believe that we should get behind them as much as possible. I just think that we're going a little over the top at the moment.

[Unknown Soldier]

Murray must have had a organsim they way he went on about Button.

It was just a fifth place, but having said that, I was impressed with the boy. He put in a good run

[fatbloke]

Bloody hell - did ITV actually show the same race that us who were trackside witnessed ?! Anyone who was there will have seen a young lad who was matching - and at time beating - his team mate (who, at the end of the day, is the only one who a driver /should/ be compared against) He cocked up his pit stop, and then suffered a cracked exhaust (we didn't know what it was trackside, but it sure sounded rough!) else he would almost certainly have finished ahead of Schumi Jnr.

And I don't buy the 'home circuit' business either - remind me, how many races has he had in his career ? 20 ? 30 ? What series did he race in ? FFord & F3, right ? So, how many of those races were run on the Silverstone International circuit ? erm, did I hear someone say none ?! And how many times has Ralfie run on that circuit ? hmmm...

As I said at the start of the season, this is a learning year for both Williams and Button -- wait til next season before we can acurately assess the pair of them. It would seem, at this time, that they are both the most impressive debuts of recent years - time will tell, but i'd be willing to bet that Button will be one of the next 'new race winners'...

Go JB!

[Sparky]

How was your day, Fatbloke?

Did you get in OK?
How bad was the car park?
How bad was the fog?
Were there any other delays?
Did you meet any other tenths clan?
How was the food (you're still alive )
How long did it take to get away from the circuit?
Are you glad you went? (Stupid question!)
Did you see anybody (out of a car?)

Tell all!

[Minardi fan]

Well I survived a Silverstone hotdog....

[EERO]

I think his performance was grand.
Fifth place in his fourth Grand Prix in a car that was supposed to be worthless this season-its impressive.
He has proven to be nearly as fast as Ralfie already. Its an auspicious debut season, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

Luckily, here in the States we have avoided Butoon-mania-make your judgementsbased upon his fine performance and not the tedious hype.

[Crash Test]

"The sooner Murray, Martin, Jim and co, get over Button the better, because to be honest it makes for VERY BORING listening."
-What the hell else are they going to talk about? What the clouds look like?
I dont know, they've got to talk about something.

He did very well, but obviously he had a good car under him, and i doubt he would have been sticking it to the McLarens had Rubens and HHF been in front of them...

[Peter Mallett]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fatbloke:

And I don't buy the 'home circuit' business either - remind me, how many races has he had in his career ? 20 ? 30 ? What series did he race in ? FFord & F3, right ? So, how many of those races were run on the Silverstone International circuit ? erm, did I hear someone say none ?! And how many times has Ralfie run on that circuit ? hmmm...
Go JB!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whilst not doubting you for a minute Round Person, I feel I should correct you. Ralfie has probably never raced on the International circuit whilst Jensen most certainly has. HOWEVER I doubt that Jensen has raced more than once on the Grand Prix circuit whilst Ralfie has raced on it at least three times.

The International Circuit is the 2 miles long Touring Car circuit.

I liked what I saw yesterday but would temper it with the fact that he was at home and therefore had that cushion of familiarity which he won't get anywhere else. That said, he used the weekend to perfection.

[TimD]

Erm, teensy point of order here...

The British F3 circus goes to Spa-Francorchamps once a year, doesn't it?

Without checking through my stack of Autosports, can I assume Jenson's got familiarity with at least one more track this season?

And hopefully by then we'll have a true idea of what the Williams can do, and any gremlins will have been ironed out, and if there's one thing everyone on this forum is agreed upon it's that Spa is a total challenge for the drivers.

THAT is a race I am looking forward to.

[Peter Mallett]

[This message has been edited by Peter Mallett (edited 24 April 2000).]

[Peter Mallett]

He may well have been at Spa last year, but he's probably only been the once. Nevertheless it will be a good bench mark for the team.

[MichaelC]

I'msure by now he must have done some testing at Barcelona - whether that constitutes knowing it is open to debate (which is why we're all here though).

I think he's done exceptionally well so far. I do however wait with interest to see what happens in a wet race...

[Peter Mallett]

Sorry to drag up this old thread but MichaelC's post made me smile.

Its been six years Michael.

(PS this piece of echaeology was prompted by a search for something totally unrelated).