scarface_au

There was a big hole in the top. I'm pretty sure it was silver.

This came today in an email entitiled, "RESPECT RUNS DEEP AT RED BULL RACING": "We’ve already debriefed the race weekend at the factory and have cleared the air. It’s now understood that, should we face this unlikely dilemma again, preference will go to the championship points leader. I, for one, will be waiting to see if it actually turns out that way.

Yeah, I was turning on to bedford rd at the corner of Eastland.

GTT4DR on maroondah highway. Silver gts-t at Knox with Nismo-badged front bar that was, er, used.

Mark is only 17 points off the lead. One win for him, a bad result for Lewis and Mark is leading again. It's hardly a comfortable lead. Don't get too excited.

Actually if you look at the times most laps Mark was indeed driving away. The gap increased steadily in the closing laps to be 7.2 with three to go, at which point Mark clearly decided he'd done enough and backed off.

The BBC made an interesting point last night that this year's silly season could be the most boring in history. Ferrari, McLaren, RBR and Mercedes are already locked in, and Kubica at Renault. So most of the top seats and top drivers are taken. RBR are pretty much stuck with Webber unless they want to gamble on Buemi or Alguersuari, which would be a mistake as they're years away from winning races.

Blue R34 on Canterbury Rd city-bound at around 4:30 this arvo. I was the guy with the big headphones at the pedestrian crossing, but you probably didn't see me.

Exactly. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had only brought one. It's not just the time, making a piece that big out of carbon fibre is not cheap. The other thing is that it's an unproven component. Since they can't test much these days, at least not IRL, they would want to run it on the track for a while before mass-producing spares. Not to mention that they may have other upgrades that will come on-line in coming rounds. No point making a dozen new wings if you're only going to run it for 3-4 races. I thought this was good for a lol. I'm not that worried - it's not just the drivers in a team that compete against each other. The crews can be every bit as partisan as the fans, cheering for 'their' driver. Some of the mechanics would have been just as pissed as Marky-mark was at the wing situation, as seems evident from this story. Had there been fist-fights I'd be more concerned. Go back 20 years to the Prost-Senna days at McLaren. They just about were at the point of punch-ons on a regular basis. It got to the point where one year after they tangled at Suzuka, Senna DELIBERATELY rammed Prost off the road at Suzuka's turn 1 - a very fast corner. And yet McLaren were able to keep it together and have one of the most dominant reigns in F1 history. I don't think the tension between Webber and Vettel is even a tenth of that level. It's quite common for drivers to loathe each other - it just normally gets kept under cover. And I doubt that Webber will get booted unless he really mouths off, which I think he's too self-controlled to do. I get the feeling RBR want Webber more than he wants RBR, since they've signed him for next year quite early. Were RBR interested in playing hardball they'd have made him wait longer. I'm pretty sure it's Mark who wanted the 1-year contract, since RBR would have liked to keep him longer. He may be a "number two driver" as far as RBR are concerned, but he's still a solid points-scorer and race-winner. Vettel is not Schumacher, he can't win a constructor's championship for the team all by himself. "Number two's" are hard to come by, assuming you want more than a pay driver/seat warmer. Not to mention that he may yet convince RBR that he's more than a "number two". Mansell did it with Williams, and he had a similar no-BS attitude to Mark. Feels good, doesn't it? I was always a hardcore Webber fan but prior to last year I was losing faith he'd even win a race. I'd long ago lost hope he'd win the championship. Yet here we are. He's within a sniff of the lead with half a season to go. It won't take much for Mark to be number one again. He's got the car for it, he just needs to keep the shiny side up.

The simple fact is RBR are clearly favouring Vettel. Reading between the lines from various things Mark has said (which isn't that hard with Mark), he believes it, and he would know. Horner's denials of favouritism have been weak to say the least. But RBR have picked their driver to back prematurely. Webber has shown in the last 12 months that he is quite capable of winning races, and IIRC he's been above Vettel in the championship more than he has been below. Given decent equipment Mark can definitely get the job done. It's to his credit that he's been able to pull out such good performances despite the fact that the team is mostly there for Vettel's benefit. If RBR are smart they'll start patching things up with Mark quick smart. If they piss him off too much he may decide to take his bat and ball and go home rather than continue putting up with the crap, although I think this is unlikely as he's shown he's mature enough to get the job done even with an unsupportive team. However if he continues to see Vettel and the rest of the team as his enemy we are likely to see a repeat of the sphincter of the universe. I was worried that would happen last night but credit to Mark, he held his nerve and Vettel lost his. RBR have to realise that Mark is not a "number two" driver, he's a championship contender in his own right, and they should back him accordingly. I am wondering though if this situation could be helping Mark in a way. Some people, when they feel everyone is against them, fire up and do their best work, just to "show them". I'm not saying a bit more support wouldn't be a good thing, but I think Mark enjoys being the underdog (typical Aussie).

What time?

"not bad for a number two driver." quote of the year.

Webber wins again! What a champion drive!

I don't care who does it, I just want to see vetool do a triple somersault with pike.

Def gay earrings. He's got nothing for webber tonight, MW just needs to bring it home.

Not so. Restrictions for p-platers don't apply on your L's. Crazy but true.

Ran out of balls and talent

Sounds good. Count me in

Many, many pesos

Ha, ferraris hitting each other FTW

Haha, lol

YEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!! Webber takes the lead as vetool trips over himself! Wahooo!!!

I'm going to tip that the first three places will be as qualified. Much as I want to see webber get up I don't think he'll be able to get around vetool

I think I forgot the one where neither of them got pole

No, 5-4 includes yesterday. It was 4-all