The season has officially resumed from the excessive mid-season break, into the second half of the season. Then the BBC revealed that in this second phase we will have 9 races in the space of 13 weeks, which is a rather intense schedule, one that does scare the blog a little with the rate I shall be churning out reports and accompanying videos. But here in the solitary corner of blog HQ, will not be discouraged by this it only meant that I might be writing slightly shorter posts - which is probably good for the people who try and read these things. Anyway enough of that I have just finished watching the GP2 race where there was a red flag period after Nigel Melker had a rather large accident that damaged the barrier on the exit of Eau Rouge. Then as things were about to get back to normal, a second stoppage took place as there was a lack of a medical helicopter, likely after taking Melker to hospital. That was a first, a race suspended by not having a helicopter on site.
But the mania that is the support package is not why these posts are crafted, if it were they would be longer than the large print edition of lord of the rings. Today was the first qualifying session since the restart, and it was also the first time the drivers have seen dry tarmac all weekend, in both of the Friday practice sessions the traditional Spa weather unleashed monsoon conditions and therefore there was very little running in both sessions. Ultimately this placed all the teams in an interesting position where only the hour this morning remained to collect any relevant data for the weekend, as the race itself is predicted to be dry. Not that predictions can be trusted. As a result qualifying was rather interesting and has thrown up a very interesting grid especially right at the front - which could translate into another brilliant Belgian GP.
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
After managing to time the qualifying morning toastie right for once I was in position for the start of the session, waiting for the first cars to take to the track, while two grid penalties were announced for gearbox changes handed to Webber and Rosberg. As the session was officially underway, it was Charles Pic in the Marussia who joined the epic Spa Francorchamps circuit to announce the return of the series from the excessive summer break. But the first competitive lap was completed by One-Stop Perez, several seconds faster then the Frenchman to go fastest. As more cars took to the track it became apparent the rain had taken a lot of grip from the surface, drivers were sliding around everywhere. Senna started if off running wide in turn one, then Massa got all sorts of wide in Fagnes, followed up by Karthekeyan getting on the kerbing out of the same chicane pitching the car towards the wall. Luckily the Indian caught the slide and only lost time.
It was time for the top drivers to set their times and it was Alonso continuing where he left off in the morning practice session, but despite complaining of more understeer in the McLaren Jenson took himself to the top of the timings. The battle in the relegation zone was getting a little interesting as Mercedes were a long way off the pace as Schumacher escaped only for Rosberg to fall into the terminal 18th place. Nico claimed there was some blocking on the track from another car on his effort, which car could that have been, ah it was everyone's best friend Pastor Maldonado. Things proceeded to get worse for Nico as he mistimed his final recovery run and crossed the line after the timer ran out trapping him in relegation with the added insult of the gearbox penalty. However things were going well for Maldonado, who on the softer compound concluded the first session in first place.
Without the three newer teams, and Rosberg the session rolled on to Q2, and the scoring was opened with a Sauber 1-2, illustrating the car does have legitimate pace this weekend in the cooler conditions while Di Resta completed the top three. The domination of the mid-grid teams was short lived once more as the main teams were starting to filter out of the pits, including Jenson who was having his rear wing adjusted prior to his lap. By the time he had escaped the garage is was the Red Bull of Webber who was leading the times but things were changing rapidly. As the lead changed hands to Alonso who then passed it to Hamilton only for it to be taken by Raikkonen in the Lotus, each trimming tenths and hundredths of the previous Q2 pole. That was until Jenson took to the track - unleashing an unbeatable lap a second faster than Webber who once held the top position.
Having a little more fun further back was Bruno Senna, who decided that Pouhon was too easy when taken normally, so thought he would try and complete it sideways after the DRS stayed open on entry. The end result was a powerslide through the first apex, but the Brazillian saved the slide and kept the car facing in the right direction and out of the wall. With only a few moments left on the clock Raikkonen and Button were the only two cars to decide they were safe enough to stay in the garage for the remainder of the section. Elsewhere in the field the times were really close hundredths separating progression and relegation, right on the edge of qualification was that German bloke sitting in 10th. Seeming marginally safe until Maldonado coerced the Williams into the top ten, knocking Sebastien Vettel out, and on his final lap the Red Bull champion was unable to respond. He was in interesting company in relegation as both Massa and Schumacher were also knocked out of Q2.
The final ten drivers were an interesting selection, where McLaren, Lotus and Sauber were the only teams with both drivers in Q3, no two Ferraris, Mercedes' or Red Bulls in an odd turn of events. This session was kicked off by the Force India of Paul Di Resta leaving the pits ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, and the Lotus driver took objection to being behind the Scot and made the pass along the Kemmel straight. Kimi completed the lap in a respectable time but it was no match for the McLaren of Jenson repeating his brilliant time from the previous session. In this initial run only Button and Raikkonen placed a time on the board, what exactly happened to Di Resta's lap is anyones guess but it didn't appear on the timings so I would guess only an installation lap was completed.
In the final run all of the top ten took to the circuit in a final challenge for the pole position, and it was in this last run of the day the times began to get a little interesting, firstly from Williams driver Pastor Maldonado who moved into second. On the surface of it that didn't seem too unusual as many drivers were yet to complete their laps. However a flotilla of subsequent laps entered the scoring slower than Maldonado's time, the likes of Alonso, Hamilton and Webber all sliding down the top ten, even Raikkonen in the quick Lotus failed to improved. But we have seen Maldonado up front before, on the front row in Spain and promoted to pole, and the Williams is a quick car, so that wasn't too much of a surprise. Then came the second point of interest from a Sauber - Kamui Kobayashi was able to beat the Venezuelan to put his car onto the front row, his and his nation's best ever qualifying position. Button however, just moved the bar a little higher on his final lap to secure his first pole for McLaren.
Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
From the first qualifying session since the break it is time to reveal the points winners from the this phase of the Belgian weekend
- 10pts - Kamui Kobayashi - a fantastic second position only 0.3s off the impeccable McLaren
- 8pts - Jenson Button - completely dominant all throughout qualifying
- 6pts - Pastor Maldonado - making the podium on time - but more on that later
- 5pts - Bruno Senna - for that epic slide through the Pouhon corner
- 4pts - One-Stop Perez - another strong drive for Sauber
- 3pts - Narain Karthekeyan - for avoiding the slide into the barrier in Q1
- 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen - for another strong performance in the Lotus
- 1pt - Paul Di Resta - for making it into the top 10
Penalties championship
Only one driver has received a penalty on the return of the season, and there are no major surprises that it has been handed to Mr Maldonado for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in the first part of the qualifying session.
Looking to tomorrow
The world has been waiting for the season to return for a long empty five weeks, but now F1 is back and it is back at the greatest track on the calendar, we may have a season permeated with new modernised circuits in Abu Dhabi and India but the old ones are the best. And they don't come much better than Spa, judging the support package races things are going to be mad, so far in all of the televised events, the races have been stopped by red flag scale accidents. Cutting the GP3 race down to a total of four laps before a car ended underneath the tyre wall in Pouhon, this degree of risk is neutered from the modern tracks, forcing drivers to think about the consequences of their actions here at Spa.
To add to the expectation of the race we have an interesting grid, with cars arguably out of position in terms of Massa, Rosberg, Vettel, Schumacher and Webber after his penalty a long way further back than they have planned. Putting Kobayashi, Raikkonen and Perez right up at the front after Maldonado has been relegated for blocking. Something that will be a sigh of relief to the top two at the time, but what is does do is make the outcome of the race a complete unknown. Already we have seen the lack of racing action over the break cause severe incidents in GP2/3 so transfer that into larger more powerful cars and more at stake then the possibility for all manner of lunacy to take place increases. A further factor on top of the already eagerly poised situation is the unpredictability of the weather, predictions are for cloud, but in the micro-climate of Spa cloud can turn into rain very quickly, and a lot of rain at that. So this could be a very exciting race, and until then this is farewell from the blog.
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