Just a week after the Korean Grand Prix, we have the Japanese Grand Prix to discuss on #F1Chat, so here’s what’s coming up tomorrow…
First of all, what did you think of the race? Lap one was eventful, with Romain Grosjean making the biggest impression off the start, moving from fourth to first into turn one. It’s a stark contrast to 12 months ago, what did you make of Grosjean’s race? He felt that he could have won the race, after making progress in the first two stints on medium tyres, but said the hard compound in the final stint hurt his chances – thoughts?
Talking of strategies, Red Bull split their strategies for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. Webber was initially ahead of Vettel, but he three-stopped, which meant Vettel was able to pass his teammate in the middle stint to eventually take the race win. Webber expressed his surprise at the switch to a three-stop strategy and the move sparked suggestions that the team had deliberately hampered him to allow Vettel to take the eventual race win. Christian Horner said the strategy was the team’s only option after they pitted him on lap 11 after he put pressure on Grosjean in the opening stint to the point his tyres were finished by the lap he pitted. What are your thoughts on this?
Mercedes didn’t have the best day at Suzuka. Lewis Hamilton’s race ended early after making contact with Vettel at the start, which ended in a puncture and subsequent floor damage as he made his way back to the pits. Firstly, any thoughts on this? And what about his teammate Nico Rosberg? Mercedes released him into the path of Sergio Perez at the first round of stops and he received a drive-through penalty after narrowly avoiding hitting the McLaren and some of the Lotus mechanics – thoughts?
Daniel Ricciardo also received a drive-through penalty for running off the track after passing Adrian Sutil around the outside of 130R. What were your thoughts on the penalty? He’d already made the move stick and argued he lost time, rather than gained time by running wide – was it a fair penalty?
Fernando Alonso said after the race that he had no problems with teammate Felipe Massa ignoring the “multi-function strategy A, now please” team order. Massa suggested after the race he was not happy being told to move over for his teammate, but Alonso said he wasn’t upset that he didn’t as they finished in “more or less the same positions anyway”. Thoughts on this?
Finally, there have been rumours this week about the possibility that Nico Hulkenberg could be replacing Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus next season – what are your thoughts on this and what did you think of his race?
Join us tomorrow at the usual time of 4pm Eastern US, 9pm UK. Follow @F1Chat and use the #F1Chat hashtag to answer the questions. As always, we look forward to chatting soon.
