We are rapidly running out of sessions this year, only the ultimate grand finale remains, 71 laps around a possibly wet Sao Paulo race track with the grand dream of leaving Brazil in the possession of the Bonus Points Championship Title. There will be no trophy because I can't exactly afford one and then to post it out to the winning driver, maybe in years to come if this little corner of the internet gains more popularity it might extend to a physical prize for the champion. But for now there won't be, so lets refocus on the matter in hand and the final qualifying session of Formula One 2011.
Rain was threatened throughout the session but it turns out that it didn't happen it didn't even threaten, the weather machine lied, tricking more cars onto the circuit which is always a nice thing so lets threaten them with some more 'rain' again sometime. However tomorrow the threat is a little more likely, but rain or not the result of the session went the same way it has so many times this year, straight to the wiggling finger of that German Bloke in that blue car. A car that the German decided needed a stroke after the session... everything we know about the Germans is true one can assume.
So how did Mr Vettel end up on the top of the time sheets for the 15th time, and how did the rest of the competitors fair while the deceptive radar screens threatened to unleash the precipitation that never came.
Qualifying
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| credit to F1 Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
All the rumours faded away when the, qualifying session was about to commence, and the cars scampered along to the bottom of the pit lane as the radar screens started flickering with the prospect of some rain which has affected the last two Brazilian GP qualifying sessions. Resulting in a Hulkenburg pole last time, only to be fired for not being rich enough for Williams, nice to see teams trying to have the best drivers in the cars these days...
It was Lotus who were the first to the bottom of the pit lane, probably the only thing they are going to win this year, and consequently went on to top the timing and scoring - but it was only a temporary position. Due to the threat of mythical rain, the division one cars were out on track early so the lead was soon taken by that German Bloke and the rest of the division. Things were much closer towards the relegation zone where Williams, Sauber and Torro Rosso were all wrestling each other to stay in contention. It was Maldonado who first held the relegation slot, he passed it to Buemi, and then he passed it to the local hero Rubens Barrichello. Rubens then passed the relegation baton back to Buemi, the passing the parcel continued right up until the chequered flag. When the music stopped relegation fell back into the lap of the driver which it all started - Pastor Maldonado, who joined the new teams in sitting out the rest of the session.
Moving onto Q2, and once more there was a surge of drivers moving to the end of the pit-lane as the rain once more threatened to make things a little more interesting. As Lotus had been ejected it was the turn of Force India to head the train out onto the circuit, where Sutil proved to the faster of the pair taking the early lead from Di Resta. Then just as the cars completed their first hasty laps the weather radar decided that there would be no water falling within the entire qualifying session - thus proving it had lied.
The top of the time-sheets were soon taken over by the division one cars, Vettel claiming the top spot from Button and Webber. Yet the other end of the top ten was getting rather interesting, only two places in the final shootout remained as the top four teams locked out the rest, and it was the usual suspects challenging for them. Force India and Renault Squadron were the challengers, and Di Resta and Senna were the early holders of the remaining places, before Sutil displaced his team-mate from the qualification places. There was no more change on the names in the shootout but there were some interesting performance runs in the session Rosberg managed to pull the Mercedes into second and Rubens made the Williams find it's way up to 12th destroying the effort Maldonado managed. But the session saw Sauber, Torro Rosso, Rubens, Petrov and Di Resta.
So it came down to the final session of the final qualifying phase of the season - to decide the final pole position of 2011, and this time once the 'threat' of rain had been cleared up and resolved as lies and nothing more. As a result the queue at the bottom of the pit lane was much smaller only consisting of one car - that of Nico Rosberg, the star of Q2 in the Mercedes. Nico was followed shortly by the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and both cars took an extra lap to build the temperatures in the brakes and tyres just to make sure everything was ready for turn one. Out of the two Lewis was the fastest, by 0.2s on a time that was virtually matched by Alonso and then beaten by Webber and Button. Then came Vettel who unleashed some domination on the field to find a 1:12.2!
Ready for the second runs and the initial runners were joined by Sutil, Massa and Senna who were aiming for a single effort, which Schumacher neglected to bother, so one penalty point for you Michael. It was Vettel who managed to find some more time and further extend the pole margin lapping in 1:11.9, a seemingly impossible benchmark. Next up, Alonso improved but only into third ahead of Button, it was Jenson's turn to retaliate and he did, matching Vettel's time... shame it was his first one however, but enough to move onto the front row. Webber didn't let that stand for much longer, crossing the line seconds after Button and knocking the moustache laden points leader off the front row, to create a Red Bull one two.
Behind the blue cars, it was a McLaren lockout of the next row with Button heading this team-mate, Fernando had re-found his favourite position of the early season in 5th just ahead of an impressive showing for Rosberg. Row four is headed by the first of the local favourites in the form of Felipe Massa, this time enough places behind Hamilton to avoid more contact, and he shares the row with the Force India of Adrian Sutil fighting for one of the places in next years race team. Then then top ten is rounded off by lead Renault Squadron car of Bruno Senna comfortably beating Petrov this weekend while Schumacher ends up 10th by default as a result of not bothering to play in Q3.
The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners
In this final weekend with 8 points splitting the top 5, every point matters in deciding the outcome of the championship in this the final race of the season, and here are the penultimate points allocations of the year...
- Bruno Senna - for making the top ten and comfortably beating the more experienced Wing Commander Petrov by a significant margin
- Nico Rosberg - for out-performing the car and finding enough pace to go 2nd in Q2
- Adrian Sutil - for being the highest division 2 car, and being consistently within the top 10 all session
- Rubens Barrichello - for completely pushing the car faster than it should go, it's barely capable of leaving Q1 and Rubens nearly made Q3
- HRT - for showing massive improvement, from not even qualifying in Australia to beating Virgin by the end of the season.
The Still Official Dubious Dealings Championship
Only one penalty point is to be issued from the final qualifying session of the season, and that goes to the only driver that didn't bother taking part in Q3, and that point goes to Michael Schumacher - clearly making a charge towards Hamilton's lead in that championship. I could have issued a penalty point to the radar system for lying but, the threat kept the cars on the track and I'm all for that - in fact I'll add an extra bonus point to the radar for deceiving the teams.
Looking to Tomorrow
One race remains between us and the bleak emptiness of winter, but before we step into the abyss 71 laps of the Interlagos circuit lie ahead. 71 laps to decided who is going to be the first ever official bonus points champion and of course the other two divisions are to be claimed as well, the competition is going to be fierce and exciting. We are expecting here at blog HQ now that the cat has moved a thrilling end to the season.
So how do we expect things to turn out, well there is a rather significant expectation of rain - though I hope no-one pays attention to the radar after what it showed today. But since the race was moved to this end of the season the recent years have had rain during the weekend at some stage, in 2008 it handed Hamilton the title, in 2009 it drowned qualifying and conditions in 2010 resulted in a pole position for Nico Hulkenburg. So it is due this time around and it would make the finale a lot more exciting.
If the rain should fall Button is looking good for some bonus points based on his expertise in challenging conditions, also the potential for a crazy race opens the door for one of contenders further off the lead to be in with a stronger shot for the title. Potentially bringing in Alonso and Kobayashi back into the picture. With so much to play for and so many drivers fighting for the title, not that they really know it considering they are focussed on the FIA title that the German Bloke secured weeks ago.
The prospect for the 2011 Brazilian GP is looking very promising, now the review will be delayed due to rehearsal and the fact that the race is a late start to begin with, so have patience and the grand finale update will be produced and the final points totalled up on Monday.
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