and the slide continues...[merged]

[VkmSpouge]

Alonso's performance at Magny-Cours was strongly affected by the gearbox problems in qualifying, so it's hard to say, how well he could have fought against Hamilton without problems.

Had those gearbox problems in qualifying not screwed his race up, I think Alonso would have at least been able to match Hamilton today as his fastest lap was 0.1s faster than Hamilton's. Alonso clearly had the pace today but was so often behind a BMW he couldn't use it.

[RaikkonenRules]

Alonso's performance at Magny-Cours was strongly affected by the gearbox problems in qualifying, so it's hard to say, how well he could have fought against Hamilton without problems. So therefore I can't say that FA was a failure in this race. He did his best, but McLaren wasn't a superior car in this race. Hamilton managed to beat Kubica only by 10 secs in the end, which shows that McLaren was only slightly better than BMW - therefore no surprise that Alonso struggled against Heidfeld so much.

Don't forget Lewis made 3 stops and was catching the Ferraris for a bit of the race.

[F1boat]

cause he was lighter.

[ioan]

Are you kidding me?! ANOTHER Alonso bashing thread. This **** is getting ridiculous...

You'll have to live with it. And it isn't ridiculous, he didn't live up to the expectations.

[ojciec dyrektor]

Hamilton managed to beat Kubica only by 10 secs in the end, which shows that McLaren was only slightly better than BMW - therefore no surprise that Alonso struggled against Heidfeld so much.

But Hamilton had idiotic 3 stop strategy.

[F1MAN2007]

People bitch when drivers don't try and overtake and they bitch when they do, I guess there is no pleasing some people

I totally agree with you man.

[F1MAN2007]

Whatever you say here, Alonso was the man today.

I don't see any driver out there who can be agressive and attacking like Alonso did and stay controling his car and stay on the road. He did a brilliant pass it was risky but fantastic.

Remember also that after the 2nd pits he was on hard tyres which was not helping his case to overtake the renault.

You say that he made mistakes, how many mistakes did Lewis? At least he made some mistakes because he was over the limit in attacking. So can you justify the mistakes done by the rokkie while he was not attacking any car? He lose one place at the start, was that a favour to Kimmi for a podium?! But no one did see that here.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Well, I think Alonso was both good and bad today. He did some brilliant passes, but also threw it away at a couple of times (like when he went wide trying to pass Heidfeld early on in the race). Not perfect, but nothing to bitch over really. What was more amazing was the simple fact that he only got from 10th to 7th - he passed both Heidfeld and Fisi only to have it undone when the pitstops were over.

[wedge]

After what happened at Suzuka 2005, I take my hat off to Fisi.

He deserves credit for defending and holding up a WDC and former team-mate.

Alonso had the inferior car and held up Schumi a few times. A pity Alonso got all the credit

[Ian McC]

But Hamilton had idiotic 3 stop strategy.

I am guessing that was decided on some time during the race.