[sameerrao]

Excellent performamce by Ferrari, Kimi and particularly Webber.

Ferrari was on song today dominating the proceedings like they did 2 years back. Looks like Massa and Schumi were pretty evenly matched today. Massa is doing a far better job than Fisi is at Renault.

Renault were running into tire issues this weekend despite taking the tires from a test on a hot day at Jerez. The lack of mass dampers seem to be one of the key factors behind their poor performance today.

The other Michelin runners weren't suffering as much. From a fastest lap standpoint, Ralf was about 0.5 seconds quicker than Alonso on similar tires. But the Renaults were averaging 1'19" while the Ferraris were in the 1'16"-1'17" range all day long

The mass damper was intended to keep the car flat over bumps and in turn in. The removal of this made the front end move a lot more. Perhaps Renault had to make adjustments to the wing or suspension settings to compensate for this. This perhaps led to the graining at the back. I don't know :bah:

The timing of the ban of the mass dampers is curious to me. Charlie Whiting has banned it now when the teams are not allowed to test it. Shades of 2003?

The pressure is on Fernando and Renault and he needs to win at least one race instead of cruising to second places to win the championship.