Round Four: Bahrain Review

Greetings Internet,

At the end of another day of rehearsing and making a complete mess of the scenes I am supposed to remember in a voice which is about as consistent as McLaren's pit stops it;s a disappointment to find that the BBC were giving the race session a whopping five minutes more coverage than qualifying, what happened to the two hour extended highlights package then... As a result the following series of necessarily long and plentiful paragraphs will be a little on the disjointed side somewhat, combined with the fact this document is being composed in the late evening since it the first opportunity that fits. Suppose it's relevant to get the excuses in early as an explanation, because even having just caught up with the footage it has simply washed over my mind without making any form of lasting impression, much in the way that my lines have failed to be loaded into memory.

The race, well the portions I can remember, did indeed lead to a mostly interesting result some of it familiar and some of it less so, some very interesting moves in the transition period between the green light at the beginning and the that flag at the end. It won't be winning any awards for the most entertaining race, but those things are hard to assess after building a highlights reel means taking an axe to the original footage. And I've made one, albeit rather badly, as per normal here at blog HQ, so I know that a lot of material is going to be left on the cutting room floor as the final product looks more like swiss cheese than a compete program.

The race highlights

Rosberg out of turn 10. credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image

Once I had positioned myself into the darkened corner that is blog HQ, it was time to boot up the iPlayer once more, the source of the entire weekend's coverage, sums up how downhill things have descended since the days of extensive coverage for each and every race. Does make you want throw things at Sky TV once more but that would be both expensive and futile. The window opened up to some brief chattering on the where there was talk that the area had seen some rain....in the desert, but the race was planned to remain completely dry for the race and the foreseeable future. I would have checked the GP2 event but oh of course sky in their overpriced lunacy have that too. 

At the start Vettel launched away while the rows behind left the positions in order with Rosberg dropping back as Alonso moved forwards. Despite the amount of cars running and this being the final race of the weekend the track surface remained exceptionally dusty, it looked about as well used as my social life - dead and decaying. Through the sandy mists the cars were running three and four wide in some places, it is as this moment you expect to see the odd shard of carbon fibre cast into the air as front wings are clipped in the close quarters of the opening lap. It wasn't completely damage free however as Heikki in the high qualifying Catherham tried to go round the outside of Ricciardo in turn 10, how these cars ended up on the same part of the track is anyone's guess but they did. Consequently Kovalainen ended up with a flat rear tyre and fell down the field after pitting for a new one.

The German Bloke remained in the position he had become accustomed too over the past couple of years, ahead of Hamilton in second, Webber third marginally ahead of Grosjean, positions that were to remain fairly constant for the opening few laps. It was the leading Lotus of Romain that was the first of the leading cars to make a move, using the powers of DRS to pass the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton on the inside of turn one. A little further back Teh Massa was running in the points, hoping to actually achieve some this season as it has been a little barren on that front, it could be stated that his overall score is the official measurement of my level of human interaction. But saying that, things are more comfortable in the solitary confinement of this corner that is blog HQ. 

It was time for the early pit stops, as the tyre degradation was quite high this weekend, high enough for Oh Sch...umacher to have a sufficient rant about them post race, for now the German on his recovery mission was presently in 12th. Back in pit lane Fernando and Hamilton were receiving new wheels, Alonso left dodging One-Stop Perez Stopping at the same time, Lewis however was still there with more problems with the rear wheel. As Perez exited the lane two-wide with Oh Sch...macher, Hamilton was finally released following a nine second stop - the same amount of time that cost Button the chance of winning the Chinese GP last weekend. Life for Hamilton was about to get a lot more interesting, as he rejoined the track alongside Rosberg, Nico claimed the position but was slow out of the first corner sequence. Lewis had a much better run on the Mercedes and Rosberg duly defended, and then defended some more and then defended until there was no more road left to defend on. Did this phase Hamilton?, not to much because where he was going he didn't need roads, passing the German on the false sand coloured concrete. Rosberg did complain on the radio that Lewis passed him off the track but in fairness there wasn't much room for the McLaren elsewhere - so that is an epic move in the blog's book.

Returning now to the world at Lotus and it was the turn of Kimi Raikkonen to start making some ground demonstrating that the car had definite pace in the hands of both drivers as Grosjean was matching Vettel's times towards the front. Kimi had found himself on the back of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber, after trying to make the pass into turn nine, as that clearly wasn't possible the Finn settled for a pass on the inside of turn 11. This left only two cars between him and the lead, the first of which was his team-mate not too much further down the road. Looking a little further back, Di Resta on fresher tyres was catching cars that hadn't stopped in the form of One-Stop Perez and Pastor Maldonado in a battle of their own. A battle which probably covered several laps but the BBC highlights only showed Paul drive up to the back of the pair and shoot down the inside of turn four as the other two distracted by each other drifted wide.

The race entered the half-way stage as Kimi had caught the other Lotus, and Grosjean put up very little resistance to his team-mate as the two cars switched positions - and Vettel had a new Lotus hunting him down. It was also pit-stop time again and McLaren hadn't quite gotten the idea of how to put left rear wheels back on their race cars. Out on track Alonso had found himself behind Nico Rosberg in the same place Hamilton did 15 laps earlier. In a moment of deja vu, Nico defended the position and defended some more once more all the way to the end of the track, and Alsono found that there was no more track under his wheels. In contrast to Hamilton's moment Fernando wasn't able to pass the Mercedes and spent the rest of the lap shouting on the radio and gesticulating wildly at the German, and feeling generally rather displeased about the whole thing.  While in the background Maldonado was helping himself to some impromptu doughnuts on the exit of turn three suffering a rear puncture which caused enough damage to retire the car.

As the leaders completed their penultimate stops Raikkonen was much closer to the back of the Red Bull out front, working away on the gap lap after lap. Once he had reached the 1s zone required to activate the DRS system Vettel's lead came under threat, the Finn used the extra speed to charge at the German Bloke on the main straight. The closing speed was supreme and Kimi drafted up to the Sebastien's rear wing, Raikkonen looked to the inside but the door was very gently closed, there was space to try and force a pass but in interests of risk avoidance Kimi held back. Which was rather odd, the guy who drove at full speed through a cloud of smoke at the top of Radillon at Spa not going for a race winning mood - Lotus must have used a lot of ice cream to bribe him to be more conservative with the car. 

Their battle trailed off as the tyres began to degrade - opting to take their final stops on the same lap cemented the positions, Kimi's fresher tyres weren't enough to erode the time difference and close back on the rear of the Red Bull out front. A little firther back and Paul Di Resta was coming under attack from the McLaren of Jenson Button a battle that was cut short as the second McLaren encountered difficulties in the left rear wheel, this time on track. Jenson picked up a puncture, no idea where from but he lost lots of time pitting to replace it knocking him out of the points and elevating Teh Massa into the points for the first time all season. More reliability woes were striking at Williams as Bruno Senna pulled the car into the garage for retirement, making it a double DNF for the team that performed so well in China, moving Oh Sch...umacher into the points from the penultimate row of the grid. Life in Buttons world went from bad to worse when he suffered a cracked exhaust and the car started to sound like a diseased tractor and was running about as fast until it too had to be driven into retirement two laps from home.

The laps had elapsed, I'm sure there was supposed to be more but from some of them must have been left on the cutting room floor. So a little ahead of the normal schedule the chequered flag was waved to greet Sebastien Vettel to his first win of the year and continues the run of unique winners this season. The podium was completed by the two Lotus cars headed by Kimi Raikkonen ahead of Grosjean, Webber came home 4th again, the only position he has achieved this season. Rosberg had taken Paul Di Resta to claim fifth position as Alonso ran out of time to pass the Force India, crossing the line just behind the Scotsman in 7th place. After the two difficult pitstops Hamilton ended up down in eighth position ahead of his best friend Teh Massa who earns his first points. And the final official point of the race went to Oh Sch...umacher whose charge only brought him to the fringe of the points. Indicating that with the cars running more equally Webber-esque recovery drives are a lot less likely to complete.

The bonus points winners

I had considered only offering half points for this event as most of the laps probably didn't end up in the recording and stayed in the editing office, thankfully everything is on the BBC next time round. But it would rather make a mess of the overall standings and I don't really want .5 points floating around so here are the full winners from the Bahrain GP.

25pts - Kimi Raikkonen - for well almost winning mostly, from 11th on the grid, fully exploiting the amount of fresh tyres available

18pts - Romain Grosjean - a podium in the fourth race in the car is an impressive feat, even if this is his second visit to F1

15pts - Paul Di Resta - a strong race holding off the Ferrari at the end and passing two cars at once

12pts - Sebastien Vettel - does get some points for winning and returning to the top of the results

10pts - Lewis Hamilton  - passing Rosberg on the grass, a very ballsy pass off the track

8pts - Michael Oh Sch...umacher - A decent recovery drive from 22nd into the end of the points

6pts - Teh Massa - Look Felipe has points, two of them at that well done there

4pts - Mark Webber - has to have four points for finishing fourth for the fourth time in a row

2pts - Vitaly Petrov - for finishing ahead of Heikki even if it was on the back of a puncture

1pt - Bahrain - for managing to run the race without any major track protests.

The penalty points championship

Despite both of Rosbergs incidents being investigated by the stewards no official action was taken and all grid penalties pre-race were due to mechanical issues and gearbox changes, meaning Heikki remains the only one with an official penalty except the fine for Mercedes for the wheel for Schumacher. So on that note we move swiftly onto the penalty points instead.

• Nico Rosberg -Has to have a penalty point for forcing two drivers off the track onto the sand coloured concrete.
• McLaren - How can one of the best teams on the grid manage to ruin so many pitstops 

Looking on to Spain

We now head on to the start of the European season where the development race really starts to kick off, as the teams are closer to their factories and the influx of upgrades and parts. It all begins at the primary testing facility in Barcelona the traditional start of this phase of the season and more importantly is is one of the race on the BBC, out of the five races it will only be the second which is rather depressing like a lot of things. But the darkness of the corner Blog HQ hides itself away in, the coming race the competition of the early season could start to unravel as the field will began to separate. The development race could see the formation of distinct division one as we saw last year, but it could also see the likes of Caterham close in on the rest of the field.

One of the important things of returning to Europe is the time zones, race in the early afternoon to be enjoyed with choclate, race snacks and tea, no horrifically early mornings and sleep deprived sessions. But on the other side of this shiny coin are the events stolen by Sky television where the hacked to pieces TV highlights will cast into the long forgotten reaches of the evening which makes these posts more challenging to write as it is now closing rapidly on midnight and I have yet to do anything that isn't either rehearsing or writing this document. However neither of them is a chore or a strain, just all consuming of time but that is the way as the time till curtain up approaches and the next time this blog goes live the show will be over and the posts may make more sense so until then this is farewell for now. 

Round Four: Bahrain Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

As the season glides into the realm of hospitable time zones the problem of SKY taking over everything this season has becoming more irritating than normal because the minimalist version of Qualifying on the BBC happens to be in the early evening. Borderline tolerable for simple regular viewing (if you didn't have siblings who'd rather boil you acid then relinquish their usage of television) but when you have to spend several hours afterwards writing these things the remainder of the day does rather fade away into nothingness as the last characters will fall into place a long way from now, and the same procedure will take place tomorrow albeit rather exacerbated as there is more to document. Depending on whether I can catch a stream of the event over the internet the report may have to wait till Monday due to other more important commitments in the afternoon.

But time to turn things back towards the session which has just finished on the internet a few moments ago where some changes in the formbook have swept into position once more so it was definitely a good idea to leave it outside in the Malaysian rain all those weeks ago. Those silver cars that lined the front row only a week ago are no longer out front replaced by someone rather familiar lining up with only clean air sitting between them and the tight first corner. All the way down the field there were changes, cars we expected to be at the bottom of the mid-field trying to scrape themselves away from an early relegation, which in itself thrown up an interesting change too, so here it the way I think qualifying turned out from the sleepy highlights.

Petrov ahead of Heikki for once: from F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying

I initially attempted to catch qualifying live on the internet but there whoever was running the stream decided they only wanted to play the pre-event build up, who in their right mind makes that decision seriously... but several hours later. After playing the BTCC tape from last weekend I couldn't catch due to rehearal, ah the sacrifices we make for the arts, hence the report tomorrow could be delayed, but the race recordings were interesting where Plato decided to hit people once more turning into quite the moron really - but it does make for hilarious racing people being a prat every now and again. 

Onto Q1 and the highlights program didn't show much occurring for the first few moments so it was evident that the drivers were not overly intent on going out on track so early, probably limiting the running to avoid over using the tyres. With the track temperatures being higher than we've seen this season on a long sand-blasted abrasive the tyre wear is predicted to be high, leading to more stops in the race with 3 being the optimum strategy. But Di Resta was first to see the circuit in this session, after the team neglected to run in FP2, opting to go back to the hotel before night set in, perhaps thinking that the protesters are actually vampires. He was followed in succession and then defeated by his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

At the halfway point Kobayashi lead the pack as Alonso left the garage immediately on the soft-tyres, an indication of how insecure Ferrari are about their pace knowing they couldn't make it on the harder compound. Inevitably the softer tyre took Fernando to the front of the grid, while Rosberg was exploring the vast vibrantly painted tarmac with a pointless ribbon of gravel which neither him nor I expected to be there. Hamilton has issues running over the curbs on the exit of turn 8, as Lotus went first and second. Down in the drop zone, Senna and Vernge were joining the bottom teams.

Times were changing rapidly as more drivers went on to the faster softer tyre, and the faster drivers started to drift down the timesheets especially Michael Oh Sch...umacher who was having difficulties with his DRS device. Because that is the source of all their power as it works the magic wing device they have he found himself on the fringes of relegation in 16th place as the session ended with Perez on top. Michael thought he may have been safe but an absolutely monumental lap by Kovalainen in the Caterham booted the multiple world champion out of qualifying. 

Off in to Q2 we go and it was Felipe Massa first out of the box onto the track only to be beaten shortly by One-Stop Perez and then in turn by Raikkonen and finally Lewis took a larger lead by half a second, which in the current age separated have the qualifiers in Q1. The five tenth was significantly reduced by Nico Rosberg to a mere hundredth of a second the rest of the former first division filed in behind the two silvery cars in front.At this point the BBC online text commentary resorted to the internet phenomena of 'LOLSpeak' as they asked if Massa could escape Q2 for 'teh' time - it wouldn't be surprise if he was relegated.

As time was running out in the session, although I'm sure a few minutes went missing from the recording so things may have happened but I didn't see them. The pressure was now on Ferrari once more as both cars were close to being booted out of the session. As both Di Resta and Ricciardo drove very strong laps to get into the top ten, impressive considering both Torro Ross and Force India have been the slowest of the mid-field teams. One of the Ferraris would escape the drop zone and it wouldn't be teh Massa as Fernando was building up to his fastest lap of the session which would move him up to fourth knocking Raikkonen into relegation. The session had one none-runner as Maldonado encountered technical difficulties.

There were only ten drivers remaining without one Ferrari, one Mercedes and one Lotus  - replaced by a Sauber, a Force India and a Torro Rosso. It was the two McLaren and Red Bull cars that decided to go for two runs and entered the track first with Red Bull running on scrubbed tyres on the first run vs McLaren on a new set. Inevitably it was the two McLarens who went fastest on the fresher rubber ahead of the blue machines. The other drivers sat in the garage waiting for the end of the session for a single fast run.

Rosberg led the final runs but only managed a fourth position, as the Red Bull drivers on new tyres this time round went first and second with the German bloke on pole once more. Ricciardo came close to beating Rosberg into 5th place just over a tenth behind, and less than tenth ahead of the Lotus of Romain Grosean. One-Stop Perez was the last of the drivers who were to set a lap, as both Paul Di Resta and Fernando Alonso failed to set a time - well looks like people are going to get penalty points then. This left the two McLaren drivers on track trying make it four consecutive Mercedes powered pole positions, Button aborted his lap before completing it. The only remaining challenger to the Bahrain pole position was the final McLaren of Hamilton, who came close, but only managed to be within 0.098s of the Red Bull so Sebastien was back where he spent most of 2011 - on pole, I doubt however that the race will be an easy drive to the flag as it has been in the past somehow, it'll be a very different situation indeed.

The bonus points winners

Today's session, despite being in truncated highlight form did contain some impressive performances and that is what the bonus point system is designed to reward.

10pts - Heikki Kovalainen - for getting out of Q1 with a time that was only a second from the overall pole in a Caterham

8pts - Daniel Riccardo - in the slowest of the mid-field teams dragging the car up into the top ten while the other car was also beaten by Heikki.

6pts - Paul Di Resta - similar story to Daniel including that Force India didn't run FP2 so were behind on setup so strong job

5pts - Sebastien Vettel - welcome back to the pole Vettel and here are some points for the achievement

4pts - Charles Pic - for being the winner of the back division as they pretty much are in their own mini-race with HRT over who gets to be last 

3pts - Teh Massa - you beat Fernando in one session this season in Q1, here are some points for you to

2pts - Pedro De La Rosa - beating something that isn't another HRT on pace, two points for you for that

1pt. - Fernando Alonso - Has to get a point for the drift through turn 10 shown on in final practice awesome.

The penalty points winners

Despite Jean Eric-Vergne ignoring a red light in the pit lane directing him into the weighbridge at the end of Q1, he escapes a penalty having only being reprimanded for the incident. So we move straight onto the penalty points table and the winners are as follows.

• Fernando Alonso - For not running in the final session of qualifying 
• Paul Di Resta - For also not running in the final session of qualifying
• Jason Plato - I know it wasn't qualifying or even this week, but I caught up on the tape and Jason is presently driving like a pillock and gains this penalty point.

Looking to Tomorrow 

Bahrain doesn't have a tradition of providing entertaining racing, the former layout was a complete failure as a racing circuit. But with the current regulations, and the new fangled DRS device could make things very different this time around, combined with the fact that the cars are much closer on pace than they have been since 2008, the last time regulations have remained virtually stable for a few seasons. If we put those two variables together the tide of tedium could be reversed - I would draw parallels to the GP2 race but it SKY have taken control of that sadly enough so once more into the unknown on that front. 

I'd imagine the winner will come from the top two rows possibly add Nico Rosberg into the equation at a push as this group should pull away from Ricciardo and the cars behind - I don't expect to see the train of cars we saw last week in China. But on the other side to that there may be consistent racing action across the entire race rather than the final 10 laps instead. There is also the prospect of Oh Sch....umacher coming from the back of the grid - we know the car is quicker than the cars around him so points are still on the cards there. This could also be first points scoring race for Teh Massa who is the only driver except the bottom six on no points but from 14th in a difficult car it seems a little unlikely.

Due to the events of tomorrow the report may be delayed because my rehearsal time does take priority above and beyond all else. If I can catch a stream before I leave the house then everything will be ok but more likely I'll have to wait until the BBC upload the highlights onto iPlayer probably at 7pm so the write up can only begin around 9pm so it might be postponed till Monday if the file takes too long to upload onto the iPlayer service. So until then this is farewell from the blog. 

Round Four: Bahrain 2012 Preview

Greetings Internet,

The pace of the early season continues on relentlessly only two days since I updated the points system from China and the blog is back for another race weekend and another one steeped in contrasts. Having moved away from the far eastern reaches of Shanghai the season moves a little closer setting down in the middle east in preparation for the rather controversial return to Sakhir the location of the Bahrain Grand Prix. A race that was cancelled from the start of the 2011 season, which did really buy me enough to time to set up the pages for the first outing of this venture last season. But the race was removed from the calendar on due a large amount instability in the region being one of the nations undergoing a lot of civil unrest which has been sweeping across several countries in the middle east. Unrest which has remained in some of the countries, Bahrain itself hasn't calmed completely hence the unease between the teams in returning to the island. Especially considering people have been burning race advertisements and some clashes between protesters and police have taken place in the past few weeks.

But all that aside the teams have arrived in the island nation, and everything seems calm, not that I've seen any news about the opening day yet. So here's hoping for a safe and uninterrupted race weekend, without any intervention from protesters, keeping a run of no protesting since that guy took a walkabout down the hangar straight. The location of the race however does mean there won't be any climatic involvement this time round, something that has impacted on the rest of the events already this year - I can't imagine there being any tropical monsoons in the middle of the desert. After two generic tracks, the sands of Bahrain present something a little different so, here's looking at the lap for the Bahrain GP.
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The Track

Circuit graphic from the FIA

This is another of those Tilke tracks that have been spamming the calendar over the course of the season, but this one is a slight deviation from the last two we visited. Both China and Malaysia followed roughly the same design pattern as each other, formed out of a series of fairly high speed corners and those awful excessive decreasing radius corners. Who really needs 300 degrees of cornering... seriously. 

Here at Bahrain Tilke seems to have run out of corners in his box of track pieces and has thrown a whole bunch of straights together with hairpins, using the remaining corners sparingly - which is shame considering the corners are the only redeeming feature of the track. The other sections are a little bit dull, to be honest given a blank canvas in the middle of the desert you'd have thought there was more room for some imagination. Unfortunately the desert is a rather flat place, and undulation often makes driving a track more entertaining, just look at Mt Panorama or Spa with a lot of elevation changes. Yet this track is designed to work with the modern era of formula one - using the large amounts of haripins to encourage overtaking in a time when it was a rare and momentous event when one car went past another one.

One thing we have to be grateful for and that is the endurance loop has been cut from the lap this time around because it was a complete and utter failure - something that was very unsuited to F1 racing and completely ruined the flow of the race. Making the last visit here was the dullest race with these current interpretation of the regulations, things have been getting considerably better since, and since the track didn't get a run in 2011, this will be the first inclusion of DRS in Bahrain to make things interesting. On paper and going off the track map the layout should present so many opportunities for overtaking and actual racing, so if we end up with the train of cars as we saw in China the catalyst may not have to wait until the final 13 laps of the race.

Now it is time to unleash the multimedia aspect of the posting with the traditional track video, from a virtual representation of the Bahrain track in the middle of the desert - this time taking a slightly longer time than normal as I am taking a different approach. Leaving the current blogmobile at home and aim for a replacement transportation service, finding something that is a long way short of the 107% even slower than the HRT team. Recording the slowest track lap (except the Nordschleife) in the fairly short history of the blog so far.

  What to expect


Looking at the track and what we've seen this year, we could be seeing something a little similar to China - where the quantity of straights will play to the special DRS gizmo lurking in the rear wing of the Mercedes which will hand them the advantage outside of the race. However McLaren and Red Bull will be ever present as normal, and during the race will could easily run faster than the Mercedes without the intervention of troubled pit-stops. Lotus can be considered to be ahead of Ferrari and closer to the other top teams.

In the mid-field it does appear that Sauber have claimed that position as the leader of the middle teams, and with their superior top speed to pretty much everything else on the grid they could once more defeat some of the quicker teams. While Williams have set themselves in second position in this class, in fact outside the top five teams the rest of the grid is beginning to separate like really old unmixed paint. The different layers are beginning to surface, yet at the same time everyone is running closer than ever.

Although the divisions tend to fall into place in qualifying on pace, the events of a race will easily shuffle the positions around so almost anyone can score points by the time the flag comes out a the end of the weekend. In fact the only driver (except the bottom three teams) not to have scored a point this season is the increasingly under pressure Felipe Massa, especially as his team-mate has managed a win in the car and a recovery drive in Australia to score high points. That sums up how competitive the season is if only three races in and only one car beyond the bottom three is left on zero points - demonstrating that in reality you can expect anything. Of course there will be the constants of the rear three teams who will barring anomalous events, line up in the same order they always do.

Blog Predictions 


Here is the point where I demonstrate the lack of knowledge about this thing and get the outcome completely wrong

1. Hamilton
2. Schumacher
3. Button
4. Webber
5. Rosberg
6. Raikkonen
7. Vettel
8. Senna
9. Alonso
10. Perez

Qualifying Battle

• Red Bull: Webber
• McLaren: Hamilton
• Ferrari: Alonso
• Mercedes: Schumacher
• Lotus: Raikkonen
• Sauber: Kobayashi
• Williams: Maldonado
• Force India: Hulkenburg
• Torro Rosso: Ricciardo
• Caterham: Kovalainen
• Marussia: Glock
• HRT: De La Rosa

So there you have it, building up for the more apprehensive race of the season, where we can only hope the gravity of the on track action will become a focal point of entertainment and not a target for protests once the world's media have turned up. This needs to be a weekend that transcends the darkness that has engulfed the nation and forced the cancellation of the last scheduled race in 2011. Beyond the political challenges the country is facing at the moment this will be a chance to take the modern version of formula once to a track it should work well on, with the straights and hairpins to encourage cars to attack each other. 

As the DRS zones were not declared last year I can confirm that for the race the DRS activation zone will be located on the front straight with the detection point at end of the final straight. Which does seem a little wasted really considering there are at least four good straights where the service could be applied, but I suppose that plonking the DRS sections everywhere would make things a little too easy and dilute the experience of the race. So we shall have to see, I suppose the straight is plenty long enough for the device to be effective and might make for a very good weekend. Until next time this is farewell from the blog.

Round Three: China Review

Greetings Internet,

Here we are, towards the end of a rather long day indeed, as the race build up was almost 12hrs ago now, many laps later - some frantic, some less so - and an distinctly variable rehearsal period; where it turns out the iconograph device needs a little reinforcing on the its chassis. Another race has now been completed, and it turned out to be a race of two very distinct personalities, starting off being very repressed and cautious before bubbling to a point and cascading into torrents of activity.

There were reflections to our last visit to the Shanghai, as we saw only a single retirement for a wheel related drama and a winner that seems out of place with the general run of form of the season. The event could have been a little more consistent and it was fraught with unconventional and seemingly odd performances, finally turning out with the German bloke out front, but not the one we were once used to in previous years.

The early train: image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

 The Race


A second early start was in prospect and this time the inhospitable hours were voluntary whereas the previous one caught my sleep pattern completely off guard - although sleep was also rather misplaced as the process was also broken at the most awkward of times. However no lack sleep cannot be cured by a step outside into the bracing frosty cold morning air, and loud symphonic metal sounds so grand in the clarity of that time of the morning and the pre-race bagels more than covered the missed breakfast that was bypassed in order to scuttle out into the wild world of northern England.

The image of the track was just as murky as it had been all through qualifying and all through all the other times the series has paid a visit to Shanghai - the owner of it's own personal permanent cloud which posed no threat of rain. Circuit temperatures will still rather low which would play to the strengths of the Mercedes by reducing thermal degradation of the tyres on their car, preferring to operate in lower temperatures. Sadly there was no cross channel clash during the grid-walk as Eddie and DC managed not to collide with Brundle doing his traditional job now for those evil folk over at SKY.

Supplied with a top up bagel, the cars were now forming on the grid, with the two silver cars lining the front peering down the track towards the misty cloud which the daemons that are turns 1-4 were lurking, awaiting the field. Well most of the field as Jean-Eric Vergne was starting for the pitlane after making out of parc ferme changes to the car to make up for the lack of qualifying pace the car had - but the rest of the cars were in place. Unlike my cream cheese which was making a bid for freedom, before being suitably caught and apprehended.

Off the start Rosberg launched off into the distance with what seemed to be the ideal start, ignoring the disadvantage of starting on the dirty unused side of the grid, and leaving the field trailing in his was behind - and that was pretty much the last we would see of him all race. Contrasting fortunes for Kobayashi and Vettel however who lost ground at the start, while the Ferraris were converted into target practice as Grosjean bumped Alonso and Senna chipped his front wing on Massa's car.

For the opening few laps an oddly small amount of nothing took place, everyone was almost too well behaved - Nico was turning into an ever smaller silver speck on the horizon and Oh Sch..umacher seemed to be holding back the growing queue of cars behind. Because Jenson happens to be British he duly formed an orderly queue behind the German and was joined by everyone else down to Vettel in 14th all circulating in formation under the control of the Mercedes pair. Running up to the first of the pit stops, initiated by Webber opting to get out of the Sch...umacher queue in search of some clear space. However when the second German moved in to replace his tyres there was a little problem. Normally cars prefer to work with four of the round things but Michael only left the garage with three attached properly and one minus a nut. A flaw in the rear wheel process tripped the automated light system so therefore the car was released before the stop was completed and Oh Sch...umacher had to pull the car over.

At this point we pretty much had an interval where, the drivers went away had a flurry of pitstops ended up different positions depending on how the traffic fell for the cars as they rejoined the circuit. Both One-Stop Perez and Massa were running longer on their opening stints and were out of position as the different strategies were coming to fruition, strategies which were becoming the far greatest influence on the outcome of the event as the concept of racing seemed to have shutdown. The DRS system was being mainly rather ineffective compared to the amount of passing we saw using the system this time last year. Cars opting to queue once more behind each other sharing the positions - which at one point saw One-Stop Perez cycled to the lead while Rosberg pitted but that position quickly returned to normal with the Mercedes in it's own little world out in the lead. To illustrate how civil this part of the race was when Hamilton found himself behind Massa - he didn't hit him, not even a little punt.

As we saw last season the only driver to challenge a dominant German is the reigning bonus points champion Jenson Button who began hacking away at the lead Rosberg had attained. The 22 second gap was being shredded at more than a second per lap, and Jenson's race engineer was convinced that the victory was in reach. While the Red Bulls were trapped behind both Williams towards the bottom end of the top ten, when Webber had a rather odd incident, on the exit of turn 13, as the car drifted a little wide he clipped a curb rejoining and pulled a Webber wheelie. Luckily the car didn't get too much height for the air to catch the front of the car and blow it over, something Mark has experienced with the Mercedes CLK GTR Le mans car which had a habit of taking off and landing upside down in 1998.

Right at the front Rosberg was taking note of Buttons strong pace and the threat to the race victory took to the pits to switch to a new set of tyres to counter the attacking McLaren - Jenson had to respond to the Mercedes to prevent Nico benefiting from the newer rubber. But once again the pit lane put an end to another challenge as the rear tyre took an age to put on, tripling the length of the stop dropping the McLaren further down the field and too far from the back of the Mercedes. Rosberg was now safe and free from any challenge and would never be encountered again.

A sense of deja vu was occurring as a large queue was starting to build, Massa running long again on his second set of tyres had shuffled up to second and everyone else was in a line behind him, pursued closest by the Lotus of Raikkonen, Vettel and Grosjean. The line of cars covered the entire of the points positions and beyond, all running line astern which negated the function of the DRS as almost all cars in the train had it's usage. And I have a minor theory here, one stemming from virtually no knowledge of aerodynamics, that in long queues of cars they start to act as one entity and run at a similar pace defeating the idea of slipstreaming and the DRS - as we see on NASCAR superspeedway races such as Daytona and Talledega. But however the formation process occurred here we had a competitive line of drivers looking to move to the front, in the NASCAR analogy that tends to result in a large scale 15+ car pileup.

In F1 there is a little more finesse, but not too much, and a train like this needed a catalyst to launch the race into a frenzy, and our catalyst was provided jointly by Hamilton and Alonso who attacked Senna and Maldonado the respective Williams in front of both cars into turn 6. Lewis managed to make the pass stick, while Maldonado defended from Fernando at the apex, Alonso cut back under the Williams on the exit but that lead to the outside into turn seven. This section of track was coated in a massive quantity of cast of rubber marbles, as the Ferrari greeted the marbles it was guided out wide and off the track, before sharply rejoining almost wiping One-Stop Perez out in the process; only escaping a major shunt by inches. An identical sequence of events then took place between Mark Webber and Romain Grosjean where the Lotus tried to hold the position on the outside of turn seven and became the second driver to lose positions by running off the circuit.

Grosjean rejoined right in front of Maldonado who must have been a little surprised to see the Lotus still running considering it has never made it past lap 4 in the first two races. Pastor aimed for the inside of Romain in turn 11 banging wheels all the way through the subsequent turn 12, in an effort to score his second elimination of the Frenchman shedding some of his wing endplate in the process. One-Stop Perez wanted to join the battle making it three wide on the back straight but backed out to avoid contact as Maldonado claimed the position, well temporarily as Romain re-took the place by the final corner. Further forward another titanic battle saw Hamilton temporarily wrestled 5th place from Mark Webber after running two wide through turn three, and at the head of the queue Massa pitted handing train leading duties over to Kimi Raikkonen.

Kimi's lead of the group faded as his tyres hit the analogous cliff and his pace plummeted as did his position - dropping from second to being out of the points in the space of a single lap, moving Vettel up into second and to the head of a reducing train. Now some space was beginning to emerge Button began his charge starting with the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel - after laps of looking for a way through Jenson found some space on the inside of turn 14 to claim second and try and reignite the battle with Rosberg. Towards the other end of the points there was some more racing as Maldonado, Alonso and Kobayashi tried to enter turn one three wide with the Ferrari in the middle and the Sauber to the outside. Through a combination of diplomacy and self-preservation they managed not to hit each other.

Vettel had gained company once more in the form of another McLaren filling the mirrors down the back straight into the DRS zone. The lower top speed of the Red Bull meant Hamilton was able to get down the inside into the hairpin to take the position and hold it onto the front straight. However Lewis did employ dodgy weaving on the front straight to keep Vettel and Webber behind as Sebastiens tyre condition had cost him position in China for the second season in succession. More flashbacks were resonating through Vettels visor as the second Red Bull of Webber was right on the back of his car in the final laps, however this time round the Australian couldn't be fended off. Sebastien defended in the DRS zone but Webber being the way he is find unconventional methods of passing people and it turns out the outside of the turn 14 hairpin is good enough to claim fourth again. Which meant both him and Hamilton were scoring in the same position that they have done in every other race this season - ah well at least it is consistent, consistent enough to earn Hamilton the championship lead.

Somewhere out front, a long way clear of the action behind there was the lone Mercedes - as Nico Rosberg unimpeded crossed the line for his first race victory ever, and the first for the silver cars since 1955. The McLarens filled the rest of the podium followed by the two Red Bull cars, Grosjean actually finished and claimed 6th in the process. Followed by the Williams cars both scoring points on the eve of Frank Williams 70th birthday, Alonso took 9th and Kamui Kobayashi rounding off the points in 10th position.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners


Here are the winners from the 2012 Chinese GP

25pts - Nico Rosberg  - For completely disproving the race pace thought about the car, for dominating the race and claiming his first ever win - fairly complete weekend
18pts - Jenson Button - For being able to challenge Nico before a pit error, and then the recovery afterwards to reclaim second
15pts - Mark Webber - Firstly for the wheelie on the exit of turn 13, but also for the outside pass on his team-mate in turn 14
12pts - Romain Grosjean - For actually finishing but adding points to that finish too
10pts - Williams  - For a double points finish in the middle of the points ahead of both Ferraris
8pts - Kamui Kobayashi - For claiming fastest lap, running three wide with Alonso and avoiding a wild defensive move by Perez
6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For leading the queue on pace before the tyres on the car failed
4pts - Bagels - Need I say more
2pts - Pedro De La Rosa - For only being one lap down in the rather woeful HRT car
1pt - Lewis Hamilton  - Well done, you didn't hit Massa this time

The Penalty Points Series


With every one again being civil on track there were no official penalties so here are the penalty points for the the weekend.

• Sebastien Vettel - for the rant that I haven't updated the table for that was included in a post a while back but to remind me to add the point
• Lewis Hamilton - the authorities may have missed it but the weaving after passing Vettel earns him a penalty point
• Ryan Hunter-Reay - yes it isn't F1 but Mr Hunter-Reay binned Takuma Sato on the final lap out of a podium position at Long Beach - I'm not pleased with you
• Sergio-Perez - for the extreme defensive move on Kobayashi - thats the sort of thing that sends cars into the greenery via the air.

Looking to Bahrain

In the preview the blog considered the Bahrain GP to be going ahead, and the FIA confirmed it over the weekend. We've had three races where water has been involved at some point, damp practices in Australia and China, then the monsoon in Sepang - a trend which is very unlikely to continue as the sport ventures out into the desert where there is not any rain planned. Out in the sandy wastes lies another of these Tilke designed tracks - at least this time the layout doesn't have any horrific irritating corners like the last two have.  Instead there are a lot of boring corners and an often uninspiring lap.

Luckily the additional corners that were added for the last time the cars went to the island in 2010 have been amputated from the track, because the added sector was an embarrassment to the rest of the lap - it replaced some quick corners with a painful sequence. Reverting back to the layout that was initially run on the track's début.

Should the season actually be going to Bahrain isn't really my decision - it does seem a little dodgy but other countries we visit also have a dodgy social demographic, with inequality and deprivation such as China and India. But the series still pays a visit to those places so in the interest of impartiality it seems only fair to go to Bahrain, although I may need a more secure blogmobile next time out. So until then this is farewell from the blog. 

Round Three: China Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

After sleep seemed rather elusive here at the sleeping quarters of blog HQ I awoke at a rather unnatural hour at 5:55am to be precise. But the upside of being deprived of regenerative powers of the sub-conscious realm was that I did happen to be up for the live broadcast of this morning's qualifying session, a small gaze outside the window indicated that it was also snowing in late April which is odd. Yet it was a rather feeble sort of snow, almost just the idea of frozen precipitation as I sat in this darkened corner, powered up this machine and opened the BBC feed from the internet. Something that just wouldn't work out with all this sky nonsense as I'd have to potter over to another house a considerable distance from here in the middle of the night - instead I had tea, a toaster and get to stay indoors. That said for the main game tomorrow morning the blog is headed for it's third outside broadcast in succession which is always a good thing - and gives this underpowered and overworked machine a break for a change.

Despite the early start I still was roughly conscious enough to absorb the events that were unfolding across in China and it certainly was an interesting session, and probably the closest session in terms of time for a very long time. Throwing up a very interesting final grid for the race in the early hours, with a completely new name starting at the very front of the grid tomorrow alongside the a fellow silver painted machine. The degree of closeness that engulfed some of the session saw some names shuffled out of position and made for an enthralling grid in prospect. Including a second row which can be renamed with accuracy as the zone of awesome!

So lets look back all those hours ago, before a painting session at the stage which pretty much demonstrated I really should not be allowed anywhere near paint because it never ends well, decorating devices which may end up being superfluous anyway. That aside, back to the plot as it were.

Out front - image from F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying 


The screen opened up to a very murky and misty Shanghai, although it is not entirely sure if the smog was coating my sleep deprived mind at the very early hours, shades of the Canadian Pre-race post were streaming back. However in that case the post and the coverage was processed in the really small hours of the morning during the Le Mans race after missing qualifying due to back-stage commitments elsewhere. Yet as fatigue wore off the dull Chinese sky didn't brighten in accordance and remained that way for the entire of the session.

After a few minutes in to the first session the first cars to find their way onto the circuit were Heikki Kovalainen and Paul Di Resta followed by the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. The Brazilian took the top of the time sheet only to be quickly defeated by the second Force India piloted by Hulkenburg, then by Senna and Grosjean as the times spiralled. McLaren surfaced once more as the superior force on the grid claiming the top two spots, before being split by Kobayashi and Vettel. As the session developed it became apparent that it was essential for most cars to move onto the softer tyres to avoid being the driver dumped out with the six drivers from the three newer teams.

Once more it was Felipe who was the first to make the switch to the option tyres, feeling the pressure from the cars in the vicinity again while lingering in a dangerous 16th place. This set off a cascade of runners switching to the faster set of wheels and the times started to fluctuate, positions changing all over the place. In the frenzy Maldonado under the pseudonym Marcel Tija blocked Kovalainen pretenting to be Rodolfo Avila as the number resolution was still linked to the Porsche  race drivers who were on the track before hand. Down in relegation Jean-Eric Vergne failed to make any improvements to escape the zone and was destined to be sitting the morning out. The times finally settled with One-Stop Perez on top ahead of his friend from Malaysia Fernando Alonso.

Onto Q2, and as the lights turned green to start the session a grand total of nothing happened, no-one seemed to want to do any running, and it wasn't until two minutes had passed before the first car left the pit lane. It fell to Kamui Kobayashi to break the silence with the sound of the Ferrari engine in the Sauber, but it was Mercedes who locked out the top of the timing with Rosberg heading Schumacher, using the magic DRS gizmo they have in the rear wing endplate to good effect. Hamilton was their closest competitor a tenth behind along with Raikkonen and Kobayashi on the same time, the entire top ten was separated by 0.9s making the fight to avoid relegation immensely close.

As the timer went out to bring the session to a close, the positions were far from decided. Webber went from being 10th - mere hundredths away from relegation to taking Q2 pole by quarter of a tenth, this knocked Massa out of the session and put Button on the edge. Jenson responded and moved the McLaren clear, moving Vettel into tenth place - and the gap separating pole from relegation was only three tenths and five tenths covered the top 15. A late lap from Grosjean put him into the top ten ejecting Vettel out, who on his final lap was 0.049s too slow to make it through only 0.331 off Webber's top time. Behind Sebastien and Felipe it was an all two-by-two formation in car speed order, with Williams, Force India and Torro Rosso having a row each.

We were left with only ten remaining drivers and ten minutes to decide who was going to sit on pole for the Chinese GP. It was Kimi Raikkonen who opened the scoring in Q3, setting a average but sensible time followed on track by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. However Nico decided he wasn't going to have an average lap, he didn't even settle for mildly competitive lap, instead opting to completely annihilate the field with an unassailable laptime. Follwing which he got out of the car and chilled for the rest of the session, the lap did generate one of the most hilarious peices of team radio this season - when Michael radioed in to ask what his team-mate had achieved. Upon receiving the information Schumacher responded with "oh Sh..... ok" remembering it might end up on international television.  

The battle was only now for second - a massive five tenths away from Nico's time, which was secured by Hamilton fractions ahead of the second Mercedes of Oh Sch....umacher. As the circuit temperature dropped so did the laptimes, so none of the cars that went for an early run improved to any degree as the rest of the top ten completed their runs in the closing stages. Both Webber and One-Stop Perez filed in behind Raikkonen - as the pair were then beaten by Jenson Button while Alonso demonstrated that the Ferrari is by no means cured by lapping slower than all of them. Then there was the ultimate surprise of the session other than Nico's lap, when Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi put the car into 4th place which is a net 3rd after Hamilton's grid penalty. Our tenth driver, Romain Grosjean didn't bother with a time and therefore earns a penalty point for his lack of effort.

So there we ended up with a Mercedes lock out of the front row, with Kamui and Raikkonen forming the row of awesome behind them. Jenson and Webber complete row three, and Hamilton is dropped from second down to seventh alongside One-Stop Perez, as Alonso and Grosjean complete the top 10, just ahead of Vettel and Massa. Then it's team order all the way to the back as all 24 cars will make the grid, including HRT, ah Vettel will be pleased.

The Bonus Points Winners


From such a frantic session offering the points was not an easy task but here are the top 8 from qualifying for the Chinese GP.

10pts - Nico Rosberg - Immense lap, finding half a second on the entire field when the same gap separated 15 cars in the second session.
8pts - Kamui Kobayashi - A fourth fastest time a tenth off the top non-Rosberg lap echoing the perforamance of Sergio in Sepang
6pts - Michael Sch...umacher - Best radio communication since the magic paddle last year and the old bloke's on the front row.
5pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Extracting the pace out of the Lotus car being competitive with the fastest cars
4pts - One-Stop Perez - For placing above Alonso on Q1, retribution for Sepang
3pts - Pedro De La Rosa - For getting a car which failed to qualify two races ago and barely made Malaysia within a second of the car in front
2pts - Mercedes - For their first, but inevitable pole, since 1955 - that DRS thingy really works well
1pt - Duct Tape - For holding up the BBC commentary box, the ultimate force of the universe strikes again

The penalty points series


As a result of no action being taken against Maldonado despite being named as Marcel Tija on the information panel, there were no official driving penalties imposed, Hamilton's was a technical issue and not for once a result of him hitting anyone. But the season is young and plenty of time and chances to get on the board there. Anyway I digress, so that means we move swiftly on to the penalty points series and there is only the one point to offer this time and that does go to Lotus driver Romain Grosjean for not bothering to take part in Q3, the car is quick enough for net 4th so why stay inside. Shame on you.

Looking to Tomorrow


It isn't that often you look at a grid line up and you get all excited inside, either that or I've had a little too much sugar, combined with the lack of sleep.... yes lets go with that instead. But the starting positions do present the opportunity for a very exciting race, China last year signified the arrival of the new style of F1, and now a year later it could get really entertaining. Just to make things even more thrilling there is a small chance the race could be affected by some of that lovely rain that always converts the dullest of events into a spectacle, a la Hungary.

As for how are things to play out, well we may have a Mercedes lock out of the front row but it is a little unlikely that they will stay there, as they don't have advantage of the front wing stalling device throughout the lap. Meaning the cars behind will be looking to step forward, now because it's Kamui and Kimi behind, two very fierce drivers in quick cars anyone could emerge out front. Just behind them are the faster McLaren's and Red Bulls who can't be counted out either. It is possible that any of the top nine cars plus Vettel could win this, definitely well worth getting up for and prepping for the outside broadcast. I hear tell of Bagels, now bagels and a very promising motor-race, yes please. So until tomorrow this is farewell from Blog HQ.

Round Three - China 2012 Preview

Greetings Internet,

Another race is building in prospect at the end of what has been quite an eventful early season break - give them three weeks off from racing and they start shouting at each other. First off we had Vettel determining Narain Karthikeyan was an idiot for the collision in the Malaysian rain, then the Mercedes DRS system has elicited more complaints from the teams with specific concern coming from McLaren. Which is a little odd, considering they already have the fastest car, and the Mercedes system only really works during qualifying when the DRS can be used at any point during a lap and then during the race they fall back where they will not be involved in McLaren's race.

On top of that, there is a whole mess of political things going on in the world of Formula One, surrounding the possibility of cancelling the Bahrain GP for the second consecutive year, based on several security issues regarding instability in the region which has simmered down since last year. But the teams seem convinced that the race won't go ahead as it is deemed not entirely safe to stage an event of such a scale in a potentially unstable country. As there is no official decision the blog will assume the race is on unless told otherwise and will make preparations - which only really means checking I have a virtual version of the track loaded into the simulator.

All those things aside there is a race coming up in the next couple of days might be best to turn attention to that from now on, and the Chinese GP should be an interesting event, last year it was the pivotal in the development of the season. When the tyres effectively claimed their first race victory, and the race contained more strategy then a game of connect four, ending in a confusing Sunday report. Of course this is one of the more entertaining settings as China offers a very vibrant culture and some of the best food to go with it, albeit often all to sadly a significant way beyond the budget of Blog HQ.

The Track

The Shanghai circuit is the second of the Tilke tracks on the calendar so far, and there are quite a few parallels that can be drawn from Sepang in comparison between the two layouts. The structure all the way from turn one to turn 12, follows the same pattern as the Malaysian GP circuit right down to the level of irritation of the first couple of corners. But this layout takes the concept of the decreasing radius corner to the ultimate extreme, the track almost spirals round back on itself - why would you even create such a thing. That corner layout would only work on a drifting track or a an arcade style computer game, and certainly doesn't work in an F1 car - might give it a go in smaller powered touring car spec series as it may be more compatible there.

Outside the torment of the first sequence of corners the rest of the track is rather decent, offering both a mix of challenging driver corners with overtaking points at both ends of the layout. The hairpin at turn 6 can be considered the first major overtaking zone of the lap, where any mistakes coming out of the opening complex can be capitalised on. There is a chance of making a pass into turn one, but the small breaking zone requires a level of co-operation from the driver on the receiving end of the overtaking manoeuvre. But the most effective element of the track for overtaking lies at the end of the long back straight where the DRS activation zone it placed. This is the slowest point of the circuit, positioned at the end of the fastest part of the track, which opens out plenty of opportunity for position changes and as the AI during the track video proved it also presents a decent location for some mayhem and contact. 

There are some other flaws present in this design - other than the turn one/four sequence - and that is the overall flow of the circuit, it was designed using a Chinese character as a starting point. Normally you would assume that a track would be designed for the driving challenge it presented and the potential for competitive racing rather than the character 'Shang'. Here lies the problem, a similar one that presents itself in Malaysia where the track is designed for it's aesthetics and the visual spectacle is presents instead of it's practical usage. Could be seen as a reflection on humanity as a whole where how something looks is placed well above anything else but that is one long angry rant that could go on for a long amount of time and things would be thrown all around blog HQ in a rather disgruntled fashion. So I'll move on and reveal the track video for this weekend.

Further developments have been occurring in the filming department, as I now have a full current mod for the new cars with the forehead protrusions on the nose section and all the updated liveries, the new vehicles also are posting representative lap times on the current trackpack. So even though I did break the sim in the middle of the week after a FIA GT3 mod interacted badly with one of the existing carsets and things went rather wrong. However a quick re-install and everything was running once more and this is the most recent video from blog HQ.

What to Expect

As the season progresses we can slowly build up a more complete picture of how things are going to play out over the course of the weekend because the formbook that was rightly discarded out the window only to be washed away in the monsoons of Sepang is being gradually re-written. It is becoming apparent that McLaren is the top performing team of the season so far with Red Bull running in second place, however this weekend Hamilton has been handed a five place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Which is rather odd as the change has been completed before the first session of the weekend gets underway in the morning while the folk in this timezone would normally be sleeping. 

The battle to be the third fastest team of the weekend become a very interesting one, as Mercedes, Lotus and Ferrari are all running on a similar pace, only a couple of tenths would shuffle a driver to the bottom of the list and into the clutches of the mid-field. In Malaysia for example, Massa was three tenths behind Alonso and got relegated at end of Q2. For qualifying session Mercedes are likely so place higher up then their pace actually represents on the basis of their special wing device which improves qualifying pace. Then of course there is the Lotus team who will be looking to get at least one car into the top five and should place ahead of Ferrari but behind the qauli pace of the Mercedes.

As for the mid-field there is a split beginning to form on the higher speed tracks within this section of the grid, both Williams and Sauber seem to be the lead two teams, certainly as One-Stop Perez demonstrated so effectively in Sepang. While Force India and Torro Rosso are a couple of tenths further back and given how competitive this part of the grid it's easy to get shuffled a long way down the grid and into the first relegation place in the first segment of qualifying. 

Down at the very bottom of the grid, we can pretty much assume that the same order will reveal itself as Catherham are definitively ahead on pace, with Heikki leading Petrov simply because he has more experience in the team and with the car.  Next up we will have the Marussia team where Glock will be the lead car ahead of Charles Pic under normal circumstances, and at the back HRT will be fighting to qualify once more. Having only made the start in Sepang by a matter of tenths so I wouldn't imagine their appearance under the starting lights on Sunday morning is a secure position.

Blog Weekend Predictions

Top ten finishers.

1 - Button

2 - Vettel

3 - Hamilton

4 - Webber

5 - Alonso

6 - Raikkonen

7 - Grosjean

8 - Kobayashi

9 - Massa

10 - Perez

Qualifying Battle

Red Bull - Vettel

McLaren - Hamilton (before penalty)

Ferrari - Alonso

Mercedes - Rosberg

Lotus - Raikkonen

Sauber - Perez

Williams - Maldonado

Force India - Hulkenberg

Torro Rosso - Ricciardo

Caterham - Kovalainen

Marussia - Glock

HRT - De La Rosa

So there we go, everything is now set up for what can be expected to be another entertaining weekend where one can assume the strategy component will outweigh the on-track action as it did last year, where the only retirement was a wheel failure on a Torro Rosso. Previous years have seen the race affected by some inclement weather conditions. Conditions that have cost Hamilton a title in the pit entry gravel opening the door for Raikkonen, and have seen a high score for Force India fall apart when aquaplaning into a fence towards the end in 2009. This time who knows what the weather is going to unleash but under normal circumstances it could be a little processional on the track, except in the DRS straight.

It is also the first weekend where the race and all the trimmings will be aired on the good old BBC, so there will be no tracking off to the east to borrow a TV with the frankly inferior SKY coverage, although I shall be heading for another outside broadcast this weekend in the early hours of the morning. It will also be interesting to see how Ben Edwards manages the live commentary, I am expecting good things as he was very competent when covering the BTCC over on ITV4, and a slight loss to the TOCA package but a nice replacement for the stolen Brundle. It will also be interesting to see how the grid walks work out as Eddie Jordan will be competing for the same interviews as former BBC commentator Brundle. 

Overall is should be another entertaining weekend here at blog HQ and this is farewell from me, as I shall now go and drive the virtual blog nascar at virtual Daytona because running three wide at 200mph is always fun.

2012 Updates:Touring Car madness, Penalty Points and Magic Wings

Greetings Internet,

I know things have been a little quiet here at Blog HQ but been a little busy of late with other things, going on mainly arguing with CAD and then giving up before catching up with a lot of different racing series. As I sit here in while a most unusual weather system has taken control outside, after an interesting bout of high temperatures it is now snowing sideways and has been for several hours now. Weather which is making a right mess of the satellite signal, well there is no signal at all. There also has been an amusing concentration of emergency vehicles pottering about in the Arctic blizzard waging out there. Life is anything but dull outside Blog HQ, perhaps not hospitable but not dull either.

Rubens in his Indycar over the weekend (F1Fanatic.co.uk)

Following on from a weekend which was a feast of motor-racing from the Australian V8s at Symmond's Plain to the Indycar Series from Birmingham Alabama - featuring what is hoped to be a future blogmobile, even though they don't look too much faster than the original. It may look more eccentric, which is in the spirit of the way of life here at Blog HQ, so for now there is the trusty PS05. There was a completely mad BTCC race event at Brands Hatch on the Sunday, where each race seemed to be in competition with the previous one to create the longest race stoppage. Starting with BTCC race two, where one of the BMW drivers - Nick Foster - managed to roll the car out of Druids bend. Not to be beaten the Clio Cup opted for quantity and initiated an eight car pile-up on the back straight, resulting in a queue forming outside the medical centre for precautionary checks.

The next contender was the following Ginetta GT Supercup when contact between the two leading cars on the front straight cause mayhem. As two cars further back made contact with each other while trying avoid the accident, firing one substantially into the outside wall - the single biggest impact of the day.

But the award for the longest stoppage and the only red flag of the event handed the victory back to the main series in BTCC race three. Ford driver Matt Jackson ran wide in Paddock Hill bend and ruptured an oil line or something rather important - coating the track in a Mario Kart oil slick in the breaking zone to Druids. A slick rapidly converted the gravel trap into an expensive car park, as car after car slid off the track. Seven remained trapped and the race had to be suspended to remove them all. You just don't get that flavour of lunacy in F1, if there was - my posts would go on for centuries and the bonus points would take forever to sort out.

But this is only a short update following on from the rain soaked Malaysian GP, and one incident in particular  which has brought a degree of conflict. Where Vettel made contact with the front wheel of Narain Karthekeyan, causing a rear puncture for the German Bloke. On the surface appearing like a racing incident, apportioning 50/50 blame to both parties - Narain slid off the corner, while Vettel left the HRT no room. However that's not how things were perceived in the driving seat of the Red Bull machine. Sebastien was most displeased indeed, referring to the Indian as an idiot, which frankly is a little harsh and over the top. Narain is driving a car which is majorly off the pace and I'd imagine has all the downforce of a bookcase. Combine that with the fact that the incident wasn't Narain's fault - and certainly can't be considered idiotic. In fact Vettel's initial response of chasing the HRT on three wheels effectively just to wave and gesticulate widely at Narain.

So it is on this basis, although outside normal convention of only assigning points during the course of a weekend, I am going to assign one penalty point to the German Bloke for his antics even though a truce has been effectively called between the two drivers since the outburst following the race.

Image from BBC F1

The second order of business on today's schedule regards the innovative device that Mercedes have installed in the rear wing of their car. A device which allows them to stall the air around the front wing whenever the DRS is opened, this gives them the advantage they have in qualifying and why they fall back during the race. The system was cleared by the FIA during the Australia/Malaysia GP weekends, therefore being declared legal within the current regulations which has been tough on driver controlled movable aerodynamic devices. But the teams are not entirely satisfied with that decision and have been applying more pressure on the FIA - seemingly very determined to get it banned into oblivion. Seems a little overkill really considering the Mercedes device only works in qualifying and the team have been slipping quite far back during the races anyway. Probably a first where the grid are campaigning to get a system that only puts the team a little out of position on a Saturday afternoon.

This pretty much sums up the contribution for today so until next time for probably a more traditional post.