South Korea Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

It certainly appears the construction workers of Korea have vanished, barring the repositioning of the concrete barriers in the final corner absolutely nothing has changed. The grand plans of skyscrapers, apartments, hotels and a grand marina have failed to materialise. No sign of construction work whatsoever leaving the track as a thin section of tarmac surrounded on all sides by swampland out in the middle of nowhere. The entire resort district looks even more like the slot-car layout you'd build on the carpet, the line of black with an empty void in the infield and nothing on round the outside of the racetrack. Almost representing something from an old style video game where only the things at driver eye-level were rendered.

The race weekend also started exactly as it was left off last year with a significant degree of precipitation for first practice, seeing several cars spinning off and running wide - including Schumacher grazing the wall in the pit lane entry. Only be outdone by Rosberg in FP2 who attacked Jaime El Incognito who was exiting the pits as Nico attempted turn one. But amongst the rain, the mistakes and the contact change was afoot this weekend and that change came forth in qualifying where we actually have a grid without the German bloke or any of the blue machines on the front row at all. The baton being taken by someone else this weekend, but will that carry on to the race itself, who knows. But this is how today's session played out

Qualifying 

credit to F1Fanatic for the image

With the TV schedule showing the session kicking off at 5am, I looked at the clock as I headed to bed from a rather mad rehearsal where my evil took on several new levels of weirdness and menace, only to decide that 5am was not going to happen. So step forward the good old VCR machine, I know there are folks out there with all sorts of shiny new devices and gizmos, well none of those things live here. That said the VCR in my room no longer lives any more - it does seem to have died, under the crushing disease of obsolescence I assume. However all was not lost, I just watched the session on the same machine it was recorded on, an oddity as the rest of the folk here tend to complain about motorsport on the main TV. 

All that sort of thing sorted out, and the play button pressed we - or I - considering no-one else was around was greeted by a rather dull and cloudy Korea. with about as much atmosphere as the moon. The paddock was filled to bursting point with... what appeared to be air and not too much else - you have thought South Korea had suffered a Zombie Outbreak  and the population had all joined the ranks of the undead. Hardly surprising considering there is no civilisation for miles, set in the middle of nowhere in a rice field by the looks of it.

Q1 was officially underway, and who was to come out first, someone from the bottom three teams perhaps, as it happens it wasn't this time - nor was it a Torro Rosso who liked lining the pit lane exit in Monza. This time it was Bruno Senna for Renault Squadron who had visited the barrier in morning practice, venturing out to finish establishing a race setup to recover from time lost in the FP3. He was then joined by the Wing Commander to make it a Renault Squadron 1-2. 

Then things got a little weird, Red Bull  - the constructor champions elect - came out on the soft tyres in this the first session, the very tyres you'd like to save for the race in normal circumstances. On top of that they managed to go slower then the McLarens out front who were on the harder of the compounds available. Apparently it was a decision related to the harder tyre actually predicted to be better in race conditions due to degradation rates, whether that will actually be the case who knows.   

However the more important battle in Q1 was hovering around the relegation zone with the bottom three teams confirmed in the drop zone - Ricciardo out with mechanical issues to boot there was only the final spot open for relegation. So who was fighting over it, well it was a battle between Williams and Sauber, One-stop Perez went first and put himself out of harm's way, team-mate Kamui followed suit but not completely safe. Leaving the two Williams to fight it out, Rubens picked up tyre degradation on his final run forcing him to abandon it, opening the door for Maldonado who pounced on the chance to make it into Q2 at the expense of his team-mate.

More footage from behind the pit garages showed the deserted paddock once more, not even Eddie Jordan seemed to be bothered to make the race, so Jake, the only remaining inter-session presenter borrowed Karun Chandok from Lotus to make it look like there was someone on the television who knows what's going on in depth.

As the camera panned away from the wasteland the next session was about to start, seven cars lighter now, and it was Hamilton to set the early pace, also going straight for the softer tyres. It was a time that wasn't going to be beaten and eased him into Q3. The other division one runners followed suit, running the super-softs and confirming a place in the final shoot-out. Vettel made his run a little interesting by opening the DRS a little early in the final arc turn  having to correct a slide as the car wanted to introduce itself to the barrier. 

With division one finished their opening runs - the only ones for the drivers who were safe, Michael Schumacher was left to his own devices on the circuit. Likely as a result of having reported he had a vibration, best to leave Michael and his vibration alone for a while, considering this was the same car that also has a magic paddle we were told in Istanbul. None of those things could help the German out as he slipped down the timing board. 

As Schumacher was encountering difficulties there could be three places up for grabs in Q3, and five cars in with a realistic chance of fighting for them, belonging to Force India, Renault Squadron, and of course Michael wasn't out yet. It was Wing Commander Petrov who struck first taking the car to the front of division 2 into 8th place, and as the vibrating Mercedes stayed in the pits, both Force India's were able to scrape into the top 10 as the flag fell on another close fought session.

Then there was only ten remaining as both Saubers and Torro Rosso's were eliminated along with Maldonado, Senna and Schumacher. It was Rosberg who fled the pit lane first with the McLaren piloted by Hamilton close behind, and it was the Brit once more who claimed the top spot on the timesheets. The other six cars that were going perform a lap entered the circuit with Vettel at the back of the queue, but none of them could knock lewis off the top spot, although Vettel came within 0.03s of taking provisional pole. 

Only one run left to compete for the top of the grid, but this run was to be completed without Nico Rosberg who determined he wouldn't be able to improve and make an impression on the division one teams. It's was Webber who headed the queue this time from Hamilton, while Button and the Ferraris made up the second batch ahead of Vettel and Di Resta only on an installation lap. Mark abandoned the run having lost time, but Lewis managed to extend the pole position margin, placing it out of race for the chasing pack. Vettel and Button came closest at 0.2 and 0.3s apart respectfully but pole was taken by someone other than Sebastien or Webber - in the form of a resurgent Hamilton.

However despite taking pole, Lewis looked as if someone had taken away his happy pills - appearing rather miserable indeed. Clearly that's what taking pole position away from Red Bull does to you, now I'm used to being a miserable bugger but seriously someone give Hamilton some cake, Bruno Senna should have some left over from his birthday celebrations. Because cake is normally a good idea.

Looking to Tomorrow

With the weather forecast only predicting clouds we could see our first dry Korean GP, on the Yeongam track where the battle out front is closer than it has been for a considerable time, with Vettel having nothing to lose any-more considering it is all wrapped up on that front, and Hamilton on some form of return warpath. Whatever head space he's in right now could lead to some erratic driving in the race, something Hamilton is prone to in normal conditions usually involving Felipe Massa in the same way Schumacher is drawn to Saubers. 

Outside the lead battle Ferrari will want to take something away from this weekend, and to avoid being bottom of division one which is where they lie after qualifying. Then there is the competition for the final points where the entire midfield is in contention for, depending on how the race plays out.

So how will it play out, well no-one can really be sure, as already mentioned the first dry Korean race mixed with the DRS, KERs and the degrading tyres opens up so much opportunity for some madness and chaos. Add to that the rather lacking amount of trackside infrastructure there is a chance of a safety car deployment as crashed vehicles may be difficult to remove, especially on the 'resort' phase of the lap. The images from today did show a lack of track-side cranes and a total of a single low loader. But behind the scenes there could be more trucks waiting in the wings. 

It is another early 6am start for those with the strength of will to wake up for it - so pack the energy drinks and snacks to keep going while sunrise slowly gathers it's power. I however will be asleep at this point, I know it's laziness but I do have a rehearsal to go and need to be on top form for that, so through the power of recording technology, and advanced technology at that. Taking the outside broadcast to a new level of innovation over and above my old fashioned VCR at a more sensible time of waking with tea and whatnot. So prepare yourselves for a plunge into the unknown as South Korea builds itself for a rather odd race on a rather odd racetrack.