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Carlos from Spain said:
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Ziggy said:I think the gap between the 2 Mclaren pilots increase after their last pitstops because L.Hamilton wanted to spare his material (the next race in Malaysia is a very tough one), realising he has no change to overtake Alonso, furthermore the team probably ordered them to freeze the position.
That is very true, Hamilton after being passed by Alonso did not try to push to overtake because he had the same problem Alonso had, neither was allowed to overtake each other during the race, and would of been to risky, and now McLaren is leader of the constructors title this way. Remember Senna and Prost when both in McLaren at the same time?, they took each other out of a race because of that, but that was a team match that sent of sparks 
In Alrbert Park overtaking needs risky maneuvers and forcing the mechanics unless you have significantly superior car which was not the case, so Hamilton had to conserve the engine, but so did Alonso, there was no way Alonso could catch Kimi.
The 2 second gap between Alonso and Hamilton was maintained by Alonso on purpose, its the distance that allows the car to breathe fresh air and also not loose aerodinamic support form the tubulance of the car in front. De La Rosa, teammate of Alonso and Hamiliton already predicted that at the first laps, he was not going to attemp to pass nor allowed, and would maintain a 2 sec gap and try on the pit stops only. Every time the 1.5-2 sec gap grew due to traffic or other, Alonos would pull it back in with ease and maintain it at 2 sec+/- lap after lap.
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Ziggy said:Besides, if Alonso was really faster than Hamilton, wouldn't he have taken the chance to pass him during the first pitstops ? 
In the first pit stop Alosno had not enough time and was the one who came in first so that would not work out, but on the first stop Alonso seeing the situation and that he could follow Hamilton with ease, he made a larger fuel load on the first stop so as to come in later than him on the second stop and then try and attack. Hamilton did came in earlier on the second stop and Alonso had clear road an couple of laps in which with race pace suddently shot taking several tenths at every sector, one by one. As soon as Hamilton went into boxes, Alonso flue and made much quicker laps. Hamilton made a longer stop but nevertheless Alonso had scrapped the time needed to come out in front after his stop and Hamilton was not able to match mAlonso's lap times and neutralise him when Alonso was in the pits. As a matter of fact, the third set of tires were the softer compound tires and the first lap of those tires are the best of all the sets (after the second they start to degrade) and still Hamilton when he came out he did not match Alonso's rythim before coming in.
Anyway, that was great teamwork from the two, they both respected each other and were cool. Hamilton's pass over Alonso at the beginning was a clean one, Alonso had to cut his path due to the BMW cutting into the apex and Hamilton had the door completely open on the outside. After that the race was pretty much decided, and was not the most exiting, Too bad the safety car didn't come out wth the accident at the ned of the race cause that would of made thisng more exiting sseing Kimi, Alonso and Hamilton bunched together in the last laps 
Totally agree about the "clean air" explanation, this is why I think Kimi is the one who stressed his mechanic the less, by comparison with Massa at least, because he always had clean air (and besides he spared the car after his last pitstop).
Re. the Mclaren boys first pitstop : actually it can be the other way around, that is trying to anticipate earlier one's pitstop to perform afterwards a series of fast laps and by doing so, overtaking one's opponent while he is doing his own stop.
But overall your logic (i.e. to delay the pitstop) makes more sense though.
Anyway, Alonso did not miss the chance to overtake Hamilton as soon as the occasion showed up, which suits to the one who is now the reference among the contenders.
I am not sure F. Alonso chose to fill his reservoir with a greater amount of fuel compared with Hamilton / his initial plans, maybe it was decided prior to the race Alonso comes first for the first stop and second for the last one, as at this stage of the season there is no number 1 and so equal treatment for the 2 pilots applies
I also think that apart from the start, the race was not especially exciting, but isn't it unfortunately the case for most of the GPs in the modern F1 era ?
As you I " hoped " for the intervention of the pace car after the incident involving Coulthard and Wurz, after all Melbourne, as well as Monaco and Montreal, is rather pace-car friendly
In a track such as Albert Park Alonso and with his own teammate in front he was left to keep a 1.5-2second gap with Hamilton so as to have clean air and conserve the car but he would never be allowed by team director to fight to overpass, and was not wise for him either, too dangerous for the championship also.
It's just so darn hard not to flame people who actually worship Feminando.
