As the opening day of the Olympic games here has kicked off seeing the first gold medal oddly enough not going to anyone here at blogHQ, despite my timing with the toastie machine being almost record breaking. However it was China taking the first medal instead in the shooting, which is a apparently a greater achievement then syncing the timing of the kettle and the toastie machine but never mind. The blog has taken in several sports this morning, such is the power of the Olympics when you sit and watch a whole bunch of things without having any idea what the rules are but still managing to figure out what is going on. Well loosely, the blog is currently watching Brazil play Croatia at handball where the concept seems simple enough but the little details are a little lost on me.
One interesting development is that the blog's tickets for the games have arrived booking the entire population here at HQ to head off to the events in Newcastle. It does mean the race coverage here will be delayed to Monday as the games go on for a fair while due to two matches being presented in the evening, meaning the return journey will be too late really to consider documenting the race.
But the vast plethora of other events that are going on over the coming days, are destined for other people to rant on and comment on the internet, as in the great scheme of things they are a long way outside my range of understanding. So it might be better if I was to turn the attentions of this blog to the events of this afternoon's qualifying session as in actuality that is why this part of the internet was brought into existence in the first place for. There were some rain showers in Friday practice but the session remained completely dry with higher track temperatures suiting different cars and compromising others in the process. At the sharp end of the field things were almost business as normal, regular contenders performing well - for the most part anyway, so lets see how things turned out...
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| credit to F1Fanatic for the imagery |
After spending the morning watch China play Serbia in womans volleyball which was rather entertaining, not sure if that was the sporting content or the Lycra hot pants but either way it was time to turn over to the Hungarian GP qualifying session. To be greeted by a bright sky meaning we were in for the first dry qualifying in a while rain has played a part in the last two Saturdays and was staying away this time around. Something that would play more towards Lotus who prefer the higher temperatures.
The consistent temperatures meant there wasn't the long queue of cars waiting at then end of pitlane, because the best times would be set at the very end of the opening segment, due to the track being cleared by the early runners. In the old system of running an hour long open session, the larger teams would let the slower teams, the likes of Minardi, Prost and Tyrrell at the time, to clear the track of dust and debris before going out. Today it was the Lotus of Grosjean who took to the track first on the medium compound tyres, a compound that had worked well for the team in Hockenheim last week in Q1. Naturally the Frenchman set the opening time while the Force India's took to the track, but starting on a very beatable time.
It was the other of the Lotus cars that took the top spot in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen, beating Hulkenberg and Perez, while the main contenders remained in the garage, biding their time. The Ferraris appeared and slotted subtly into the middle of the top ten, despite Massa complaining about blocking from Schumacher on the short run to turn five. Kimi extended his lead by a couple of tenths, but Hamilton came out and decided that he wanted pole position by a significant margin, posting a unbeatable time. With six minutes remaining on the timer the positions seemed rather settled, the relegation area contained the default teams plus Jean Eric Vergne.
Then things shifted, Vergne put on the softer tyres and immediately went 4th, meaning a large quantity of the field were then under threat and no-one was safe. This pivotal time sparked the rest of the grid into action, well everyone barring Hamilton and the two Lotus cars who risked staying in to save tyres. A series of different cars found themselves in the relegation zone, cycling on through the Saubers, Di Resta, and Senna, but it fell to Ricciardo who was still in the pit-lane for some reason. However the Torro Rosso team helped out their sister team, as Vettel was right on the edge of relegation, 0.6s only away from being knocked out by the Caterham of Kovalainen.
Heading into Q2, and it was the two Mercedes cars who took to the track first, followed by Massa in the Ferrari and it was the Brazilian who took the top spot from the first three runners. It was only a temporary lead because Hulkenberg stole the top spot from Felipe before the main contenders started the second session. One of the main contenders, Jenson Button, was having more difficulties with setup citing troubles with understeer and car balance, but still managed to take the fastest time. Only for a short time however because the Lotus team were rediscovering the old squadron from the Renault days locking out the front row of the session. It was the turn of another McLaren to go fastest, in the hands of Lewis Hamilton, unleashing yet more domination knocking six tenths of a second ahead of the first of the Lotus cars. However Lewis came on the radio after the effort claiming there was more time to find, after supposedly being blocked by what he thought was a Sauber. There was no footage of any of it so it can't be confirmed, so that may well have been merely a psychological message to the rest of the field, at this point it did seem like a foregone conclusion for the pole in the final session of the day.
As the session winded down the timesheets started to tighten up immensely, the tiniest of fractions separating the entire top ten - except Hamilton. At one point there was a grand total of 0.000s between 10th and relegation - because Rosberg and One-Stop Perez setting an identical time. Just as we saw in the first session the positions were changing rapidly each lap saw different drivers sitting in relegation, Webber's engineer came on the radio while the Red Bull was in 5th saying he wasn't safe and had to go back out. On the final laps, it was the chicane where the final positions were set, kicked off when Maldonado used the grass on the exit casting clouds of dirt into the air. Michael drove through the cloud coating the tyres with dust and lost grip into the subsequent turn eight, compromising his final run locking him in relegation. The dusty track slowed the section for the final runs which hurt Webber as he was trapped in 11th place and out of the session.
In the final phase of qualifying it was the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg who lead the field out, as the German had once more pulled the car into the top ten along with both of the Williams cars for the first time this season. From the earlier runners it was Kimi Raikkonen who went fastest, before Hamilton took to the track and once again claimed the top spot by a substantial margin. The first runs of the session were only contended by four drivers while the others were waiting for the second part of the session for their only runs to save tyres for the race. It was initially feared that Hulkenberg was only going to set some sector times without completing a full lap, heading for penalty points but he joined the list of drivers taking to the track.
Vettel looked like a challenger for the pole position on his final run setting quicker sector times in the first two sectors, but lost time in the final sector finishing second. On his warm-down lap he cut the chicane ahead of Hamilton on his out-lap while Maldonado was making his final effort only managing 8th ahead of his team-mate. The positions were fairly static towards the front, only be reinforced by Hamilton extending his lead yet further, only Grosjean came close to making an effort at pole, only hundredths down at the first timing point, but the gap only widened as the lap progressed. Romain completed the lap to take second, forcing Vettel down to third. Button was fourth ahead of the second Lotus of Raikkonen rounding out the top five, it was an all Ferrari affair behind Alonso heading Massa. And at the back of the top ten, the Willams cars lined up in order and Hulkenberg did complete a lap but only managed tenth.
The bonus points championship points winners
It wasn't an overly dramatic qualifying session but is was very close as per normal in the middle session and from the competition some points are to be awarded as follows:
- 10pts - Bruno Senna: First time in the top ten all season
- 8pts - Romain Grosjean: Almost taking pole in the final moments of the session
- 6pts - Nico Hulkenberg: Making it into the top ten once more,
- 5pts - Jean Eric Vergne: Not being relegated in the opening session for once
- 4pts -Lewis Hamilton: Has been rather dominant all weekend so should have some points
- 3pts - Yi Siling - First gold medal of the Olympic deserves some bonus points
- 2pts - Charles Pic - Out qualifying Timo Glock in the Marussias at the bottom of the grid
- 1pts - Felipe Massa - For being rather close to Fernando as the time for contract negotiations approaches
Because everyone was well behaved today I have no entries for any of the other two tables at this point in the weekend.
Looking to tomorrow
The prospect of a Hungarian GP never instils one with the huge quantities of anticipation that a race such as Canada or Monaco would generate, in fact it generally results in a long event-less afternoon. Where the starting order could likely be the finishing order at the end of 70 laps of the track, which will be hopefully be swept of all the discarded rubber from the morning support races. One thing we can count on to bring a faint hope of unpredictability is the tyres falling away towards the end of a stint creating enough of a time difference to encourage a pass. The standpoint on tyres has been conflicting up and down the pit-lane, some people reckoning that they will degrade quite a lot, while others theorising there may be some one-stop strategies. Yes Sergio the blog is pointing at you on that point. The thing is the way a tyre reacts over the race distance seems to be race specific, playing mainly towards Sauber and Lotus - making Grosjean a threat.
Of course, there is a small matter of another variable hovering ominously in the skies around the track, forecasts suggest there may be some rain showers in the area. Now the Hungarian GP has been in place since 1986 and only two of those have been rain affected, both of those were won by a certain bonus points champion Jenson Button. So should the skies open up on raceday, then Button could be on for a hat-trick of wins at the Hungaroring, and on top of that rain has usually been the only thing that can convert this race into an enthralling spectacle. So until Monday this time I shall bid you all farewell, as the post will be delayed as the blog heads to the Olympics virtually as the chequered flag falls on tomorrow's race.
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