Alonso Wins Something - At Last!

[Shap]

Congrats JEV for the LMP2 win..

 

[farjam]

guys, that second ford was a zombie? i mean one of fords crashed heavily in eau rouge at the first part of the race(it was a 29G crash!) but i saw two ford again at the finish


and that mathias, winner of GTeAM was lauda son? that boy showed some scary overtakes

 

[Richard Dastardly]

That ending was a really sad example of a manufactured result, car #7 was faster all day and in the final stint Conway closed the gap to Alonso twice, before backing away.

In GT the BOP wars have started.

Yeah, I was going to say everyone in the #7 seemed quicker - no-one let Kobayashi past, he just drove straight round ( was that Alonso in the #8 then? ) Conway was about to get the lead and mysteriously ends up -3s? right.

Ferrari I think lost any right to complain about BoP well maybe not much - they weren't anywhere near "team sandbag" but they ended up at the Porsche pace. I'd say AM's troubles were teething but BMW have had several races in that M8 now & weren't any better, and you can't rock up to a major and in this season rather rare event expecting to be that off pace. It could just be BMW's fault for picking such a stupidly fat car but wasn't BoP meant to mean you could race anything together?

 

[farjam]

Ferrari I think lost any right to complain about BoP well maybe not much - they weren't anywhere near "team sandbag" but they ended up at the Porsche pace. I'd say AM's troubles were teething but BMW have had several races in that M8 now & weren't any better, and you can't rock up to a major and in this season rather rare event expecting to be that off pace. It could just be BMW's fault for picking such a stupidly fat car but wasn't BoP meant to mean you could race anything together?

the M8s in imsa seems working better than WEC ones , i mean at least they could challenge other cars .. but they will F**** it up again
_________________
off topic
watch the latest supercars race, that was a goood race , was fun to watch , McLaughlin from 19th to 1st

 

[RobertGracie]

It was a good race to watch and at least he has victory again and the next target for him is Lima Mike 2-4, sorry its just the way I say Le Mans 24 hours, Toyota have that so called "Japanese" curse on them that prevents them from winning, I hope he manages to break that curse and win at Le Mans!

Off Topic

The last time that happened for a Japanese company was Mazda with its banshee howling Mazda 787B, from what I recall about that car, the only fault it had on it was one of the lights going out and then shortly after the race the ACO banned Wankel engines

 

[shimon.ifraimov]

It is a little pathetic to see so many comments against Alonso.
Not only has Alonso won, I remind you that he has shared a car with two other drivers, but hey ... it seems like a good opportunity to attack the Spaniard.
You know that team orders exist, and Formula 1 is a good example of that.

Alonso was driving perfectly, very solid and impressive 2 stints from him for his first ever WEC race imo.
after his first stint all his work went to crap because of Nakajima.
i cant even imagine how hard it is for him to do both WEC and F1 at the same time, and all the other one off races that he does like daytona and indy.

 

[Davebrave]

Yeah, I was going to say everyone in the #7 seemed quicker - no-one let Kobayashi past, he just drove straight round ( was that Alonso in the #8 then? ) Conway was about to get the lead and mysteriously ends up -3s? right

They were quicker because #7 had to re-gain positions after starting from the pitlane while #8 was already leading from the start, strategies for both were just different. Hopefully, they will start p1 and p2 on upcoming races and we will see true racing in the same conditions. Besides, from the team Toyota pespective, their main goal was to make sure a Toyota wins and even better, a 1-2 for them. The #8 car had to fight the Rebellion's most of the race to keep the lead, so I think they very well deserverd to win. #7 did also an amazing job but SC's helped them somehow to close the gap, but in my opinion, there's no need to fight up to the very last moment when the main team's goals were achieved.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

They were quicker because #7 had to re-gain positions after starting from the pitlane while #8 was already leading from the start, strategies for both were just different. Hopefully, they will start p1 and p2 on upcoming races and we will see true racing in the same conditions. Besides, from the team Toyota pespective, their main goal was to make sure a Toyota wins and even better, a 1-2 for them. The #8 car had to fight the Rebellion's most of the race to keep the lead, so I think they very well deserverd to win. #7 did also an amazing job but SC's helped them somehow to close the gap, but in my opinion, there's no need to fight up to the very last moment when the main team's goals were achieved.

The #8 was ~3s faster than the Rebellions for most of the race and apparently not even really trying - the only competition they had was the #7 which demonstrated what that car can really do. I can understand all arguments here, I think we were honestly and fairly obviously denied quite a finish to LMP1 though. Conway was right there, and then *bam* way back. Then up again, and then *bam* -5s again. You can read that as knocking Alonso if you want, I'm not - as far as I'm concerned endurance racing is a race between cars, not drivers & I don't particularily care who's driving them.

Although... I predicted that SMP car was going to be in the wall at Radillon about 6 laps before it actually was :S *that* guy I care about, I was worried he was going to take someone else off in a big way...

 

[NASCRAP]

They already said its a short term cashflow problem and will race at Le Mans.

Why would they say otherwise, regardless of the truth? No one wants bad publicity.

 

[Knoxstar]

Would have appreciated the chance to watch the race w/o spoilers in the headlines since I paid for the subscription. Happy for him though.

 

[howitzer155mm]

Just goes to show how many drivers' careers have probably been snuffed by the FIA's Pinnacle of Regulations.

It's not about being the best driver, it's about picking the right team at the right time. Miraculously being picked by McLaren at their height and moving to Mercedes just before they completely smoke the competition with new regulation-workarounds.

 

[samprince053]

Why would they say otherwise, regardless of the truth? No one wants bad publicity.

because it was very clear that it was short term? if it was long term why would they even bother showing up to spa in the first place? If you read the article on motorsport.com it explains that some backers hadnt paid, and they werent allowed to let the car race, but it will be resolved for le mans.

 

[Will Mazeo]

I guess in a car that couldn't lose, they won.

This...
Stupid decision by WEC to limit the privateer teams stint to 5 minutes smaller than hybrids, cant call it "equivalence of technology" this way

I'm actually wondering the amount of sandbagging that happened at Spa and will continue in Le Mans test days... that Manor no show... suspicious but then if I was in LMP1 class I'd do ironbagging to force WEC to change this crap lol

 

[NASCRAP]

because it was very clear that it was short term? if it was long term why would they even bother showing up to spa in the first place? If you read the article on motorsport.com it explains that some backers hadnt paid, and they werent allowed to let the car race, but it will be resolved for le mans.

I'm not saying that they will be out the whole season for sure -- only that it's a possibility given the mendacity of PR people.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Incidentally DanskyJr mentioned the new Astons were cornering as fast as all the other Pro entries but losing 2-3s in the fast sectors. Wonder how BMW were performing.

Maybe AM are sandbagging, who knows

 

[Apex]

It feels weird to say this is alonso's first race win in 4 years, 358 days. A driver like that should not own that record

 

[gamer19]

Aw c'mon guys... Alonso saw it from first hand last week in Baku.
Toyota just refuse to be LMP Red Bull.
Can't really blame them, big race, closing stages, what do you really expect ?
They don't hide it, they said that they agreed that there will be no racing agains their two cars after last pit stop.

Congrats JEV for the LMP2 win..

+ 1.
Seems like everything he lay his hands on - wins.
I was sad when he leave F1, he was matching Ricciardo more or less back in the days.
Red Bull choose Dan and the rest is history...
So guess this could be a good time for come back soon.

It feels weird to say this is alonso's first race win in 4 years, 358 days. A driver like that should not own that record

There's actually a long history of drivers choosing (after winning title or not) a wrong team in F1. And sticking with it.

 

[Jamiedh303]

I'm pleased for him, whatever the circumstances, afterall he didn't create the situation. All he did was be professional and do his job, well done Fernando!

For me this class is setting all technological advances. I agree it's a shame that Audi and Porsche factory teams are not there helping to push the envelope. But these things are cyclical, they'll be back, along with others.

If Alonso does succeed at Le Mans it will show how professional he really is.

 

[formidable]

Finally my idol driver has won at Spa-Francorchamps...

He won in 1999.

 

[Peter Stokman]

Why would they say otherwise, regardless of the truth? No one wants bad publicity.

We having a footballclub here in NL they are waiting already 3 years for Chinese multiMulti etcetera millionair his money its still on the way the chinese tells them he also has temporaraly cashflow