U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis

[Don Vito Corleone]

Is anyone watching this? I can't believe how long it took to get help to Ralf. He must have sat there, motionless, for 3 minutes by the time they got him medical support. I pray he's OK . . .

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

What channel?

 

[z0mb13]

holy sh!t..

got links??

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Speed Channel.

 

[SmoochyTX]

Was watching NASCAR pre-race and flipped over to Speed right after the wreck happened.

When I flipped over, he was just starting to move.

 

[zimu]

anyone got a cap?

 

[z0mb13]

whats the standing for F1 by the way??

is michael number 1?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

They finally drove him off in an ambulance. Apparently he was able to lift his arm when his team asked him to by radio (while he was sitting, waiting an interminable length of time for medical help), so hopefully he will make it. He hit the concrete wall rear-end-first at about 170 MPH, and appeared to be unable to get out of the car (and indeed unconscious).

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
whats the standing for F1 by the way??

is michael number 1?

Yeah, Michael is far ahead of everyone else in championship points, and he is winning today's race (he snuck past Barichello, who was leading, a couple of laps before Ralf's crash). They have had the safety car out for at least half of the 28 laps raced so far.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Huh - Michael may get a penalty for passing under yellow, and Sato and Button are 2-3 in their BAR-Hondas. I just hope they can both complete the race without an engine failure - Sato has had 5 engines fail in the last 8 races, including each of the last 3 weeks. Too bad - I like those guys. Today the Hondas appear to be faster and better-handling than the Ferraris.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Sounds like Ralf will be OK.

D'oh! Jenson Button just retired with gearbox problems.

 

[NetWareHead]

Hes definitely injured after hitting the wall at that speed...I heard he was at least talking to the emergency crews as they got him into the ambulance. Michelin is definitely gonna get some neg publicity over this...so far 2 cars have crashed from tire blowouts, both wearing michelins. I wonder if the tires had anythig to do with this or it was just from debris on the track?

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Don_Vito
Sounds like Ralf will be OK.
D'oh! Jenson Button just retired with gearbox problems.

A BAR-Honda car fails, I am shocked at this revelation. It's not like it ever happened this year, last year, or the year before that... I could go on.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Hes definitely injured after hitting the wall at that speed...I heard he was at least talking to the emergency crews as they got him into the ambulance. Michelin is definitely gonna get some neg publicity over this...so far 2 cars have crashed from tire blowouts, both wearing michelins. I wonder if the tires had anythig to do with this or it was just from debris on the track?

Tough to tell at this point. Fernando Alonso's rear right tire failure did not appear to be caused by debris, or at least no debris was apparent anywhere near the incident. There might well have been some tiny shard of CF or something, though. Apparently Bridgestone has been encountering blistering problems this weekend as well - I think the very high speeds and disparate track surfaces at Indy create a lot of headaches for the tire makers.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

A BAR-Honda car fails, I am shocked at this revelation. It's not like it ever happened this year, last year, or the year before that... I could go on.

In all fairness, they are having a hell of a good year, a whole lot better than the vaunted Williams or McLaren teams. They're in 3rd place for constructor's points, only 9 behind Renault. They already have twice as many points as they earned for all of last year.