[Official] Malaysian Grand Prix 2016: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

This weekend sees a rare outing for the hard tyres, with most drivers having chosen seven sets of softs, three or four of mediums and two or three of hards.

Constructors’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2016/team.html

Drivers’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/en/results.h...6/drivers.html

Malaysian Grand Prix tyre selections: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/h...-malaysia.html

Circuit length: 5.543km
Number of laps: 56
Race distance: 310.408km
Dry weather tyre compounds: Soft, Medium and Hard
DRS Detection Zone 1: between Turns 12 and 13
DRS Activation Zone 1: between Turns 14 and 15
DRS Activation Zone 2: on start-finish straight

Lap Record: 1:34.223 (2004 - Juan-Pablo Montoya - Williams-BMW)
First Grand Prix: 1999

[S griffin]

A lot of the drivers are hating the changes to the circuit. I prefer to reserve judgement till after the race

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent intro as ever. I may have to miss watching this one live. Otherwise, it's Lulu and Nicola on the front row, followed by Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in their RBs and then the two Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen.

It'll be interesting to see if Hamilton can gain the upper hand.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Excellent intro as ever. I may have to miss watching this one live. Otherwise, it's Lulu and Nicola on the front row, followed by Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in their RBs and then the two Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen.

Pretty much a Noah's Ark grid all the way down (with a few exceptions).

[Armco Bender]

Hamilton is over half a second faster than the next car,once the flag drops it will another snorefest as he drives off into the sunset.

[Armco Bender]

.....until his engine blows up...

[GHOGH]

Probably one of the most expensive F1 engine failures ever.

[Armco Bender]

Not just a coincidence either apparently........."I've just got to move on. I just can't believe that there's eight Mercedes cars and only my engines are the ones that have gone."

Conspiracy theorists of the world unite...

[Aysedasi]

That's the way that luck goes.....

[Riley Blue]

'Luck' doesn't cause engine failures, there is always a reason.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Riley54

'Luck' doesn't cause engine failures, there is always a reason.

The reason is that his luck ran out.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I wish I had watched this live, just to see someone else win for a change. Highlights will have to do.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Riley54

'Luck' doesn't cause engine failures, there is always a reason.

True enough, but the luck arises in that it was his engine and not someone else's......

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

True enough, but the luck arises in that it was his engine and not someone else's......

Bad luck in Hamilton's case.

[djinvicta]

I just wish he would be a bit more professional afterwards to the camera and not beef off about "someone" doesn't want him to be WC again. Good God...not want Merc want to hear or have broadcast. I know the adrenalin is running, but hey...
I thought Toto and Niki were good in commenting afterwards, apologising for their fault not providing the engine etc...
But, come on Lewis...say the "right" things to the World cameras and kick up your thoughts in the debrief office only..

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

I just wish he would be a bit more professional afterwards to the camera and not beef off about "someone" doesn't want him to be WC again. Good God...not want Merc want to hear or have broadcast. I know the adrenalin is running, but hey...
I thought Toto and Niki were good in commenting afterwards, apologising for their fault not providing the engine etc...
But, come on Lewis...say the "right" things to the World cameras and kick up your thoughts in the debrief office only..

Man fighting for World championship cheesed off when engine blows again shocker.

[wolfhound]

The stewards were busy in Malaysia, I wonder was the heat getting to them?

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

The stewards were busy in Malaysia, I wonder was the heat getting to them?

Well they certainly made a pig's ear of the Rosberg penalty. The more times I look at it, the more unreasonable the penalty seems. It was a bold, ballsy move which is generally uncharacteristic of Nicola, but it wasn't the clumsy affair we occasionally see when he tries to "be like Hamilton". As the C4 pundits pointed out, if the two cars hadn't touched, there would have been nothing at all to say. As it was, it was just a little love-kiss, and not a full-blown collision.

If Rosberg's pass was worth 10 seconds, what is Vettel going to get? Not that I think that is deserving of a penalty either. Clearly Vettel's fault, yes, but it was the first corner. Brown stuff happens.

[alfettafan]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Well they certainly made a pig's ear of the Rosberg penalty. The more times I look at it, the more unreasonable the penalty seems. It was a bold, ballsy move which is generally uncharacteristic of Nicola, but it wasn't the clumsy affair we occasionally see when he tries to "be like Hamilton". As the C4 pundits pointed out, if the two cars hadn't touched, there would have been nothing at all to say. As it was, it was just a little love-kiss, and not a full-blown collision.

If Rosberg's pass was worth 10 seconds, what is Vettel going to get? Not that I think that is deserving of a penalty either. Clearly Vettel's fault, yes, but it was the first corner. Brown stuff happens.

Neither incident worthy of a penalty in my opinion. We have seen much worse go unpunished in previous races. Consistently inconsistent is about all you could say about the stewarding of F1 these days. Whatever happened about Verstappen overtaking Kimi under the virtual safety car as seen from Perez's onboard...?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Well they certainly made a pig's ear of the Rosberg penalty. The more times I look at it, the more unreasonable the penalty seems. It was a bold, ballsy move which is generally uncharacteristic of Nicola, but it wasn't the clumsy affair we occasionally see when he tries to "be like Hamilton". As the C4 pundits pointed out, if the two cars hadn't touched, there would have been nothing at all to say. As it was, it was just a little love-kiss, and not a full-blown collision.

If Rosberg's pass was worth 10 seconds, what is Vettel going to get? Not that I think that is deserving of a penalty either. Clearly Vettel's fault, yes, but it was the first corner. Brown stuff happens.

I've got to say, I thought neither deserved a penalty and both were racing incidents. Nothing wrong with a bit of hard racing, that's the main reason we love the sport.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

I just wish he would be a bit more professional afterwards to the camera and not beef off about "someone" doesn't want him to be WC again. Good God...not want Merc want to hear or have broadcast. I know the adrenalin is running, but hey...
I thought Toto and Niki were good in commenting afterwards, apologising for their fault not providing the engine etc...
But, come on Lewis...say the "right" things to the World cameras and kick up your thoughts in the debrief office only..

Sometimes, I wish he would just take it on the chin.

[steve_r]

Sometimes I just wish that all the drivers would be a little more bland and only talk in PR speak. For sure.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by alfettafan

Neither incident worthy of a penalty in my opinion. We have seen much worse go unpunished in previous races. Consistently inconsistent is about all you could say about the stewarding of F1 these days. Whatever happened about Verstappen overtaking Kimi under the virtual safety car as seen from Perez's onboard...?

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Well they certainly made a pig's ear of the Rosberg penalty. The more times I look at it, the more unreasonable the penalty seems. It was a bold, ballsy move which is generally uncharacteristic of Nicola, but it wasn't the clumsy affair we occasionally see when he tries to "be like Hamilton". As the C4 pundits pointed out, if the two cars hadn't touched, there would have been nothing at all to say. As it was, it was just a little love-kiss, and not a full-blown collision.

Personally I disagree. I called it as a likely penalty the first time I saw it. The fact is they did touch, and they touched because Nico went a long way in a straight line (due to the speed he was carrying) before starting to turn. It's not the first time that Nico has dived in well across the kerbs and nerfed an opponent out of the way. Yes, Kimi left the door partially open but the pass wasn't going to happen without contact. I have my suspicions that had it been young Max, some of the opinions here wouldn't have been so favourable.....

[bauble]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Sometimes, I wish he would just take it on the chin.

Turns out to be God's fault after all. Well according to the 'deeply religious Hamilton'

I wonder which religion he is 'deeply' into?