Once more whilst in the grand public view of international television our little nation has illustrated how wonderfully dry our summer climate is, a nice tourism advert for the tiny island. If the outlook was based on the scenes we saw in the final practice session this morning then we would be expecting a simple straight forward dry session. As I looked out the window at that time of the day and it seemed bright enough, not that it matters being several hundred miles north of the circuit anyway. A dry qualifying session would be most interesting because if the rain we expect tomorrow arrives then the grid wouldn't be compatible with the conditions meaning there is a greater chance of madness and insanity to ensue.
Yet that's not quite the way things were going to plan in that respect, because just as the final few moments of FP3 there were a few little drops of rainfall landing on the final corner of the track. Enough moisture remained outside the track in the astroturf and in the dips in the curbing to prevent drivers trying to run out as wide as they liked. The dampness was caught out championship leader Alonso who span on the exit of Club corner. But should the clouds completely open up the sessions on Friday demonstrated where the puddles were going to lie and where the problems would be in high rainfall the first practice sessions suffered with. It certainly appeared that the end of the Maggots/Becketts section coming into Chapel becomes rather treacherous as it caused Senna to hit the wall in FP2. Additionally water was accumulating in the final sector coming into the Vale where many cars were powersliding in the rain.
When it was time to catch up with the qualifying session the opening images showed a dry track and a dry pit lane, no-one was sporting umbrella's or rain macs - but almost within seconds the light concrete in the pits began to change colour. Clouds were approaching the circuit and were in the process of unloading rainfall onto the track below, so before there is a threat of drowning time to get on with the post.
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| Holy rainfall Raikkonen: image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
One of the most entertaining moments of the pre-session build-up was where the Marussia team were in the garage fitting a dry setup to the car just as the rain was beginning to fall, it may have only been a small shower but it was water nonetheless. But there wasn't any time to dial it back, as one of the mechanics was carrying round the under-floor plank across the garage, meaning they had to join the massive queue lining up at the end of pit lane headed by Sauber and Williams. Somewhere in the monolithic line of cars were Lotus, who were sporting something of a different decoration this weekend - with sponsorship from Batman, which is rather cool, almost as cool as the Red Bull Star Wars livery from the Monaco GP some years back now.
With the threat of further rain on the cars before the end of the opening session the need to set a time early in the session was of greater importance, and leaving the pit lane all at the same meant there was going to be a problem with traffic. Throw the mildly damp conditions into the mix, and visibility was going to be a bigger problem in the plumes of spray thrown up by the intermediate tyres. But something interesting was happening coming into the Vale, Holy sidepods Lotus, cars were running three wide - both the Batman sponsored cars were crusading round the outside of One-Stop Perez. Grosjean was trying to pass Sergio who was backing off to find space and Raikkonen tried to pass both of them over the grass and curbing. Another car having troubles in the damp was the Force India of Paul Di Resta going off in Becketts rejoining perilously close to a Williams.
Despite the people running off and almost into each other there were times being posted and those times were tumbling all over the place - different cars appeared at the top of the standings. Visitors to the top of the timesheets were from outside the standard set of competitive drivers, such is the fun that some changeable conditions can generate. Initially Sauber were continuing on their form from the wet Friday sessions with Kamui setting the fastest time, only to be beaten by both the Torro Rosso cars before passing it back to Sauber. Who could change this odd sequence of events, Holy laptimes Lotus, Grosjean found some space and some time to go fastest. But as the time was running out the main protagonists started to shine as Vettel put the Red Bull fastest, however things were not going so well for Jenson, whose intermediate tyres were beginning to suffer. He had fallen down the scoring and into relegation, forcing a stop for some wheels, yet that didn't have the same effect he wanted, as there was a growing quantity of rain falling between Stowe and Vale. To make matters worse on the exit of Club Timo Glock span the car almost making the pit-wall bringing out the yellow flags, hampering his time and preventing Jenson escaping relegation making him the driver to fall out with the six newer team drivers.
There was only five minutes between the end of Q1, and Q2 but the transformation in track conditions was massive, the green light on the pitlane opened the session into a very wet Silverstone and the rain was still steadily falling. Vergne was at the head of the train looking to get a lap in before the conditions became undrivable, a scenario which certainly was on the cards, as the clouds did resemble the storms the north has had in recent days. Not quite the Thursday monsoons but it was still rather wet. The Torro Rosso driver despite being on the full wet tyre was struggling to find grip, powersliding through Farm corner, and backing the car into Vale at the wettest part of the track. Other drivers were having bigger problems as Schumacher went off on the exit of Maggots sliding into the road used for the national circuit. Some more trouble at Vale, Holy Gravel-traps Lotus as Raikkonen skated across the surface of the water and over the grass and gravel before rejoining.
The rain intensified further and larger puddles were forming making the exit of Chapel more dangerous than normal - which didn't bode too well for the Ferrari drivers as both of them left the circuit. First it was Fernando, with snap aquaplaning oversteer pitching the car towards the inside wall, but an epic save kept the Ferrari out of the barriers.. Felipe's car span the other way after hitting the same puddle, sliding sideways down the grass on the outside of the hanger straight. At the other end of the straight, more issues for Michael sliding off at Stowe - a sign that the conditions were now a little too damp, as Vale was becoming impassible. Consequently the session was red flagged, much to the disappointment of One-Stop Perez who had managed the conditions brilliantly to go fastest with 6:19s left on the timer as the session was stopped.
It was time to play the waiting game, and having seen several of these storms in the passing days up here in the north, it was going to be a long waiting game - there was a temptation to turn over to Sky to see how they managed to fill the gap. But in a spite of wisdom I thought it would be wiser to stick with the BBC as they are better at this sort of thing, especially considering the 4hr race in Canada last season, and of course Sky doesn't have the complete lunacy that is Eddie, who is good entertainment even though at times he does walk the fine line between hilarity and penalty points. The rain fell consistently for close to an hour before stopping before kicking off once more, but as the session closed on on the two hour mark sweepers and marshals took the track to allow racing to get underway.
A long time later and a couple of visitors later, almost as if people sense red flag periods and swing into frequent blog HQ, heading off before the green light activated once more. Although down at Williams they wanted to line up considerably early, drawing Sauber along with them, but they were not alone. Holy queuing Lotus as Grosjean and Raikkonen joined in. But once the session finally got completely underway the track was drier than at the start of the session so the times started to fall continuously, with every passing lap a new driver topped the times. Which wasn't too good for Sergio who fell rapidly down the standings, compounded by the Sauber team risking an attempt on the intermediate tyres, rubber Kamui on the sister car quickly replaced. As the track dried further the faster cars came through, as Red Bull, Ferrari, and Hamilton were high up the timesheets, although Fernando left it a little late to make the top ten. Knocking Paul Di Resta out in the process, but that wasn't as simple as that... Holy controversy Lotus, as Grosjean despite making it through binned the car in Vale getting trapped in the gravel. This brought out the yellows under which Fernando set the lap, but as his final sector showed he slowed down making the lap legitimate.
So we're left with the remaining ten, two Red Bulls, two Ferraris, Holy double Lotus, although Romain can't continue due to the spin. Hamilton, Oh Sch...umacher, Hulkenberg and Maldonado, and it was the Venezuelan who once more lined up in the pit lane first. The track now was dry enough to set times on the intermediate tyres, worlds apart from the monsoon in Q2, but there was a massive cloud on the horizon timing itselft for the GP2 race which followed. However both Hamilton and Michael were running round on the wet tyres, oddly enough despite Massa taking the early lead the wet tyred Mercedes went faster only to be defeated by the flying Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. In a traditional Q3 session we would have two distinct runs where drivers come in an change tyres before going back out once more, but due to the conditions it was better to stay out at all times as the track was continuously improving.
Yet no-one seemed to remind Hamilton that the track was getting any better as he couldn't improve on sixth place for most of the session, Holy wheelspin Lotus as Raikkonen drifted most of the way round the final corner on the way to fourth. It was change again at the front as Mark Webber went fastest ahead of the Ferraris, spending a long time at the top. But is was time for the final laps, which as the tarmac grew drier were destined to be the fastest ones, so Alonso took full advantage of that to put the red machine back onto pole position. Webber fought back but lost out by hundredths landing in second place - joined at the death on the podium by Schumacher, forming a collection of the bonus points winners from Valencia. Holy defeat Lotus as both Vettel and Massa passed Raikkonen at the end of the session. Maldonado lines up 7th just ahead of his favourite person in the whole world Lewis Hamilton, while Hulkenberg finished the competing drivers in 9th. Holy last place Lotus as Romain starts tenth as a result of not running in the final session by spinning out of Q3.
The bonus points championship points winners.
From the wet and changeable conditions exhibiting the wide range of climatic diversity Britain has to offer, even Sauber director Manisha was forced into her rather interesting pair of Wellington boots. But here are the points for this weekend.
10pts - Fernando Alonso - not only for getting pole because that happens, but for the epic save on the exit chapel keeping the car out of the wall
8pts - Jean Eric Vergne - that powerslide through farm was marvellous
6pts - Mark Webber - one of the few cars that hasn't been off in the session and almost taking pole
5pts - Micheal Oh...Schumacher - top three for the old guy, setting up another team Michael and Mark race
4pts - Holy Bonus Points Lotus - because batman
3pts - Vitaly Petrov - for out qualifying Heikki in the Caterham team good job
2pts -Kimi Raikkonen - Holy pitlane Lotus, for passing a Sauber in the pit lane on the restart, brilliant
1pt - Heikki Kovalainen - for his angry birds helmet, brilliant
This is the only table I need to deal with today as there are no official penalties handed out for driving issues, even though the grid had been rearranged based on the penalties hanging over from Valencia for Kamui and Vergne. Those have been added to with technical issues resulting in more grid drops for gearbox changes for Pic and Hulkenberg.
As for the penalty points, there was a consideration of throwing one at the officials for red flagging the session but if they hadn't people would have just given up competing and it would be duller. Additionally it was becoming inevitable that someone would end up in the wall, Alonso did come close to losing wheels when the rain started falling. So I will not be awarding penalty points at this stage in the weekend, but there is plenty of time tomorrow for madness to ensue.
Looking to Tomorrow
Well the outcome of the race will likely depend on the conditions the drivers are going to face as that certainly will impact the performance of different cars. For example if the temperatures were to stay warm and the track dry - Holy overtaking Lotus as the team perform well in warmer conditions. But should the balance swing the other way and we end up with a cold wet afternoon then Sauber will be making their way forwards. The climate will decide who Fernando and Webber will have to compete with throughout the race, but it will also decide how entertaining the race is. A wet race can go either way, it can lead to complete madness as we saw in Canada last season, or it can be dull and processional as the rain nullifies the downforce and grip of the cars and cancels the DRS system.
But if it was to remain dry, the high speed nature of the track can also lead to a single file race because of the nature of the corners and the aero wake at high speeds prevents cars running too close. Yet we could see some great drives from drivers who are starting a long way out of position, mainly with Button and Perez down the back of the grid. Which in either condition could definitely add to the show. What would be interesting would be if the weather was to be constantly changing meaning no one would be completely sure of the grip levels from lap to lap. So we may have a grid of very skilled drivers and a mostly grand race track but it will be the weather who will be the greatest influence of the laps we are set for tomorrow. I shall bid you all farewell until then from me here at blog HQ.
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