Today the concept of an alarm was replaced by the good old fashioned VCR, the little grey box which will be very overused over the weekend as every major championship on the planet desides its a good day to go racing. Besides the obvious F1 event there is also the BTCC, F2, V8 supercars, and the Indycar series all to find space for. It's going to be very busy indeed, as well as being awesome.
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| SRC: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk |
Developments since Malaysia
Considering it has only been a week since the cars last ran a qualifying session there was not going to be that much difference considering the relative pace of the field. Red Bull are still easily the fastest car but still having difficulties with the KERS system, especially on Webber's car where it still fails to work. Which is still to the bemusement of Webber who doesn't really understand how it works he just knows it's broke. McLaren have been dropped a little this weekend be that down to track temperature possibly but either way there is some ground to make up.
Renault and Ferrari are in pretty much the same battle as the were last week, but issues in qualifying for Renault means their position does not match their speed, and they will likely be moving forwards on Sunday. Mercedes have improved - at least in the control of Rosberg who has been the faster of the paring since the team was created. Michael in the other silver and turquoise machine was still still having difficulties with the DRS which stayed broken from Malaysia.
The midfield became a little rearranged this weekend, with Sauber slipping back both Kobayashi and one-stop Perez were down their normal pace, promoting Torro Rosso and Force India to the front of that group. But still ahead of Williams who are still lingering to the back of the mid-group which this week contains a few faster interlopers to make raceday interesting.
Nothing changed with the back three teams, all lining up in the traditional two-by-two team order with Lotus still comfortable ahead of the other two. This time however HRT weren't in their own little world at the bottom of the time sheets where life is taken at a slower pace. The Virgin team were not too far in front of the Spanish outfit - only half a second being the margin there is a chance that HRT could finish ahead of another car... on pace. Then bonus points will be awarded if it is accomplished.
Qualifying
For the third time this year the lights at the end of the pit lane went out and the session got underway. The first competitor to set wheels in the track for Q3 was one-stop Perez who enjoyed the free track time until the rest of the field came out to play initially joined by the Torro Rossos. This session really, as will all Q3 sessions, only has one relegation place up for grabs as the bottom three rows are already settled before the grid sets up. There were some surprising early nominees for relegation - the cursed 18th position held by the likes of Michael Schumacher and Kobayashi early on.
As time passed the former holders of the position of doom improved their times and were safe dropping Maldonado in to the place that so far has only been occupied by Williams drivers one each so far. But with his last effort he jumped to 15th which placed Red Bull's Mark Webber into the bin. Webber was on the harder tyre through complacency and assumed the car had enough pace... this was not the case and out he went. Booted by rookie Pastor Maldonado
Q2 was more got under way without the bottom seven which included one of the fastest cars on the grid. This session was focussed on filtering the field down from 17 to 10 places. Early runs by Vettel, Button, and Hamilton-grumpy face placed them at the top of the sheets and were safe. Ferrari were at this point not too far behind within a second of the of the silver challengers. A strong lap from Petrov temporarily moved him up to fourth. Another notable early time came from Force India's Paul Di Resta who'd managed to slide his car up into second.
In the other side of the Renault garage Heidfeld who'd knocked off a fair few wings in practice had not gone out to set a lap and was conserving tyres preparing to Q1. When he finally went out to make his singular run things went a little wrong in the camp, team-mate Vitaly after completing a very quick time soon discovered that his car was making rather unusual noises before completely seizing up on the entrance to turn 5 (or three on the video). The stationary vehicle brought out the red flag so that no further one would be disrupted by having yellows on track. This process means on the cars currently on a lap would be compromised, which included Heidfeld on his only prescribed run - a tactic often used at BMW.
After Petrov's car was winched away the field lined up at the bottom of pit lane with one-stop Perez taking pit lane pole, with Massa in second. As the drivers were keen to get any form of clear running with only two minutes on the timer it wasn't possible to hang back for space or you wouldn't cross the line in time. The cars stormed out othe queue once the light turned green again. On the run down to turn 6 (or 4) Massa decided he wanted to be first and dove round the outside of one-stop Perez coming very close to making contact with the Sauber to the inside.
Other battles down the field for track placing proved futile as there was no space to be gained, this predicament pretty much doomed Heidfeld to relegation as he couldn't get enough room for a quick time. The only real improvements being in the hand of the Torro Rosso drivers who both made it into the top ten along with Di Resta on his Birthday.
And then the attention turned to Q3 where the top nine drivers fought for pole, because Petrov couldn't compete as his car stopped out on track. Vettel and Button were the first contenders, Button setting the initial pace in the McLaren with a very strong effort. Sebastien was not perturbed by this and set a unbeatable time to claim pole in his first outing. Both STR entries filed out and held 3rd and 4th before the rest took to the circuit. Ferrari and Hamilton-grumpy face only opted for a single run mid session knowing that Vettel was not going to be caught.
The top two abandoned their second runs knowing there was no hope for position change and to save tyres for the race. Hamilton grumpy face made third a tenth behind Button but a week behind Vettel. In lieu of both Renaults encountering difficulties and Webber so far back he'll be starting the race via video conferencing from his house. It was Rosberg who jumped to fill the extra space on the second row beating back a still rather despondent Ferrari team. Di Resta managed to split the two STR team cars and take 8th and continuing a run of beating esteemed teammate Adrian Sutil.
The Offical Bonus Point Championship points winners.
1. Paul Di Resta - For an impressive showing especially with a quick time in Q2
2. Nico Rosberg - Very strong final section of the session, being faster than the car has shown so far
3. Pastor Maldonado - For being able to bin Mark Webber into the drop zone - punishing Red Bulls complacency
4. Felippe Massa - for turing Q2 into a race session with his pass on one-stop Perez.
5. Sebastien Vettel - For being fastest, though it's becoming a little predicable seb so you're 5th this time though ever nominee gets one point you get yours last for being boring.
Looking to tomorrow.
The race could prove very interesting tomorrow especially with some much faster cars out of position with Webber, Heidfeld and Petrov further back than their pace shows they're capable of. So they will be charging through the field and the Renaults will be making a fair bit of that ground off the start. And Petrov will hope to be obeying the forces of gravity this time and not fly though the air
Out front it is very easy to perceive that Vettel will be away and gone barring any technical glitches like in Malaysia McLaren will be fighting themselves, which may result in Hamliton grumpy face being well... grumpy and Rosberg will drop back and annoy Ferrari for an afternoon - and annoying Ferrari is generally worth bonus points.
The midfield will be a strategic minefield with cars on all sorts of strategies, it will be likely that Sauber will be on fewer stops maybe just one for one-stop Perez and could be an outside shot at some points. That would be FIA assigned points though and no-one wants those bonus points are far more important to them. Michael Schumacher will more than likely be in the middle of all this and from how he behaved in Singapore and Montreal last year things could get unstable.
So either set the alarm or the VCR for what may turn out to be straight forward at the front but very changeable race everywhere else.
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