Round 17: India Review

Greetings Internet,

In a country of so many contrasts and vibrancy there was a hope that this intensity and energy would be transferred from the enthusiasm of India onto the race track. Well that was a hope that ultimately proved to be in vain, because the race picked up exactly where Korea left off a fortnight ago, these Tilke designed efforts may drive well (in rare instances) but the design table does tend to lead to some processional racing. It doesn't inspire that much more hope to consider that the next race on the calendar is another production from the same office out in the middle east. Even before we have packed things up in India teams and drivers have been informed of how difficult it is to pass there, oh joy, even Alonso spent a lot of laps pinned behind Petrov in 2010. But ranting about Abu Dhabi is a matter for next weekend, because earlier on today was the Indian event, it might be a little generous to consider it a race, really.

The overall outcome was virtually decided several races ago when the balance of power seemed to irreversibly shift after the teams left Europe and headed out across Asia. With this run of performances the mathematics of the championship seems to conceal the actual one-sided reality of it when the remaining circuits will play against the challengers - of which that number has fallen since the drop of the flag. With only 75 points to race for now in the last three races (of course there are 105 blog bonus points on offer too) there is an air of finality about the championship but perhaps the new track in the US might throw a spanner into that or some rain in the finale in Brazil. It is a shame that the hopes are being pinned on some theoretical chaos and uncertainty but if how things today were anything to go by, you won't get too much for predicting the winner in three weeks time.

Credit to F1Fanatic for the image.

The Race 

Twelve months on from the inaugural Indian GP and the track looked much better than it did for the first race, there was a lot less dust on the track surface meaning there was more usable road for potential overtaking.. perhaps. If only the thin veil of cynicism was a symptom of waking up a little earlier than planned on a Sunday morning but it wasn't too much of a surprise to see the race unfold in the manner it did before the lights went out on lap one. Even my culturally relevant curry flavoured toastie wasn't enough to resurrect the prospect of an action packed thrilling event.

One by one the cars filed into position on the grid, in the position they had qualified in for once, without the array of technical infringements that have manipulated the order for the majority of the season. On the basis of qualifying no-one was really starting out of position either meaning the race for the most part would be decided in the first half of the opening lap - something that was built into these Tilke events, to make the most of the first lap and introduce the greatest opportunity for things to kick off early on in the proceedings. It worked last season with a little bit of opening lap contact.

When the lights did go out this time the front pairing seemed leave the grid in synchronicity with each other Webber marginally the quicker making a subtle effort to take the lead from that German Bloke into the first corner. Button made it past Hamilton but for the most part everyone was well behaved and organised, a couple of cars at the very bottom of the grid locked up under braking but all was well. Except of course for in the world of Schumacher who came to blows ever so slightly with Vergne at the start, the merest of contact from the Toro Rosso front wing pierced Michael's tyre and damaged the Frenchman's front wing.

Onto the back straight the two McLarens were running two wide from the exit of the corner, punching a rather large hole in the air in the process, a hole that Alonso took full advantage of. So now we were running three wide - which is always something cool to see, Hamilton in the centre had to see both cars come past towards the end of the straight. The straight was long enough for Hamilton to drop out of the line, pick up the tow from the Ferrari and send it back down the inside of turn four, locking up in the process and sliding back out towards Button on the outside of the corner opening up the space on the inside. That space was eagerly claimed by Fernando's Ferrari which slotted in ahead of Hamilton but behind Button - thus ending the competition up front for a while. At the very back of the field Schumacher parted company with the carcass of his rear tyre through turn five before pitting for a replacement.

Vettel instantly opened up a significant gap out front back to Webber in second, the dominance started early for the Red Bull team driving away as the other contenders were busy contending with each other as Alonso was working passing the second McLaren. A queue was starting to form slightly behind Button who was struggling to get enough pace out of the softer compound tyres, a queue leading back to Raikkonen in 7th caught up behind the second Ferrari of Massa. Behind Raikkonen gap was building to the mid-field runners of Perez and Hulkenberg, the first time in a while a division split has been clearly visible between the top teams and the centre of the grid. But as per normal it was the centre of the grid that was being more entertaining than the top teams. Even though that wasn't by too much overall, but a second train was also collecting behind Rosberg's Mercedes, and due to the high straight line speed of Nico's car it proved very difficult to pass on the only real passing zone in turn 4.

There was some changes in position once the DRS was enabled, both of which went against Jenson Button losing out firstly to Alonso and one lap later he was passed by his team-mate. Which effectively settled the running order among the top cars for the next 45 laps - a summation really of the race. Button next had Massa closing in, but couldn't have any effect on the McLaren despite the longer final gearing Ferrari was using. Raikkonen couldn't make a move on either, hampered by a lack of top speed in the Lotus meaning he'd be staring at the back of the Ferrari for a lot longer. At the opposite end of the race, Karthikeyan received a series of radio calls about his brakes, citing that they were overheating, not an ideal call on a track where 1200m of straight ends in a hairpin. HRT have had previous issues with brakes, De La Rosa's failed in Canada, and Narain's went in qualifying in Korea. It didn't bode well frankly.

With the top runners now being increasingly boring it was the turn of somebody else in the middle of the group to make a move. That responsibility fell to Hulkenberg after catching up with the Sauber of One-Stop Perez, and it was only ever going to happen in one place - the DRS straight (although there are two DRS zones on the latter actually mattered) Nico was able to take the position away from Sergio, only to find an acre of space in front as he had now reached the top of the division with no hope of further progression. More DRS based action now as Senna made it past his team-mate in an inter-team battle outside the points positions setting his sights on Grosjean ahead. It does make you wonder slightly how this race would have played out if there was no DRS in action - according to the commentary team only four non DRS passes were made last season.... things were probably not quite so action packed at this stage.

Despite everything seeming more orderly than an OCD kitchen something really odd happened, something that made me set aside my toastie and question the images on the television. One-Stop Perez pitted first, it was completely unprecedented, however not too much later after rejoining Sergio tried to pass Ricciardo round the outside of turn one. Trying something other than turn four for overtaking didn't work as the Sauber brushed another Toro Rosso front wing and cut a tyre in the process. The band of rubber fell off in turn five, and the car was forced to retire with damage caused by the flailing tyre on the in lap. The rest of the cars started to cycle through the pits to change tyres, as for Hamilton he also managed to swap the steering wheel in a five wheeled stop in 3.3s - it's the little things you notice when nothing else is going on. I also noticed there was a cat sitting outside the blog HQ window for the duration of the race, but didn't want to come in.

This middle phase of the race saw very little happen, even less than in Korea, which is not a stat India will really be wanting to take in. Raikkonen nearly made a place in the stops but Massa just drove past in a straight line to re-take it, so Kimi was back once more - in a faster car trapped behind the Ferrari. The mix of cars on different strategies hurt Button's challenge as he got caught up behind Grosjean who was running longer into the race. A little further back the Williams team were having a similar problem with Kobayashi in the Sauber, Maldonado threw it down the inside into the only overtaking corner only for Kamui to cut back to the inside on the exit. The two cars seemed to gravitate towards each other on the run to turn five, leading to the third of the increasingly lighter wing/tyre touches of the morning and even this contact resulted in a puncture. Maldonado kept it out of the barrier but that was the end of the faint hope for points on that side of the garage.

Entering the final third of the race, and Vettel still existed out front, he was just being boring so hasn't been mentioned in a while, but in Webber's world it wasn't so smooth, as a radio call confirmed his KERs system had died. Without the additional power Alonso closed the gap to the Red Bull rapidly, but the Australian had enough pace just to keep him out of the DRS range where the Ferrari has been very effective. Hamilton was on is own in fourth, same for Button in 5th, the delay behind Grosjean dropped him off the back of the other McLaren. Massa still had Raikkonen behind him, which has to be close to a new record for being stuck behind the same competitor - up there with Coulthard and Enrique Bernoldi at Monaco in 2002. Both Ferraris had received calls to be careful on their fuel loads as it was getting a little tight - more so in the case of Massa, which still didn't allow Kimi a chance of escaping the sight of the red and white rear wing.

After receiving calls earlier in the race, nothing more was heard from the HRT pitwall regarding brake issues, so the car decided to send one back. Ejecting a large plume of brake dust from the left front wheel under braking for the turn four hairpin, this was the front brakes failing sending Pedro De La Rosa spinning into the gravel bumping into the wall gently. Despite Narain being warned earlier it was the sister car that ended up retiring with Brudle described as the second scariest thing to go wrong on a race car. Further ahead, the KERS problem was not going to resolve itself as his race engineer claimed it would, indicating that the problem may have been more than an overheating issue. Alonso had got inside the one second threshold for the DRS - and without the KERs to build a safety buffer off turn three Webber was powerless to defend from the Ferrari. Additionally Hamilton was gaining on the weakened Red Bull as laps were running out.

The TV turned the cameras on Vettel - probably just to check he was still there, which oddly enough he was, but all was not quite right as the Red Bull was trailing a shower of sparks from the front of the under-tray under high load. It didn't last too long as whatever was touching the ground soon wore away and no longer caused a problem, other than some quizzical looks from the pit wall. At the opposite end of the points positions Senna had caught up with Rosberg in the Mercedes, and despite a straight line speed advantage the Williams was able to use the DRS to take the place to the outside of turn four. With only two laps to go Schumacher pulled his Mercedes into retirement, which on the surface seems oddly like another false retirement to be able to change parts for the next race. A problem that like in qualifying receives an automatic penalty point.

Vettel was so far out front it ended up being an easy victory in the end leading every single lap completed in India over both the races contended, which is a little overkill frankly but an impressive achievement nonetheless. Alonso finished second, and was the only car in the top seven to improve on his grid position inside the top 7 drivers, if it wasn't for Fernando's improvement there would have been no change at all. Webber hung onto third despite Hamilton hunting him down to the end of the race so the McLaren drivers finished in the order they started. The same was true for Massa and Raikkonen in 6th and 7th, mimicking their grid order at the end of the race, concluding 60 laps of Kimi staring at the rear diffuser of Felipe's car. Outside the top division it was Hulkenberg leading that charge scoring some points for the home team, ahead of Romain Grosjean placing two Lotuses in the points. While taking home the final point was Bruno Senna for Williams

After the flag had fallen Massa pulled his car over as it was out of fuel, Hulkenberg pulled his over for some unknown reason, and Vettel despite winning parked his car in the wrong part of the pit lane and was pushed by Webber's car down to underneath the podium. Earning a hole in the nosecone in the process.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

After what could be considered the least eventful race of the season, even beating Korea - two of those races in a row isn't ideal - and Abu Dhabi is not exactly favourite of ending the streak, picking the points has been difficult, very much so. Considering only one driver made progress inside the first division and not much more was going on the middle of the grid either.

• 25pts - Bruno Senna - For passing people because there wasn't much of it going on 
• 18pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Also for passing people to be the top mid-field runner
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso  - For being the only driver in the top seven to pass anyone even if it was with a car advantage
• 12pts - Jenson Button/Hamilton - For going three wide twice on the opening lap with the Ferrari of Alonso
• 10pts - McLaren - Changing four wheels and a steering wheel in under three and a half seconds has to be worth some points
• 8pts - Sebastien Vettel - Because lots of sparks are cool, more entertaining than his racing
• 6pts - Felipe Massa - Keeping the Lotus behind for 60 laps is rather impressive
• 4pts - Angry Cat - For deciding that sitting outside and staring at a wall was more exciting
• 2pts - Ted Kravitz - For babbling along to himself and spying on the spanish TV presenter - get in there Ted
• 1pt - Romain Grosjean - Points without any penalties or contact, well done have a point there

Penalty points championship 

As with yesterday there were no official penalties, an investigation into Kobayashi and Maldonado's contact was rightfully deemed a racing incident, and second investigation into Schumacher ignoring blue flags was also waived off. Meaning we move swiftly on to the penalty points which again involves the other german bloke. Seemingly pulling in at the end of the race for a strategic retirement does warrant the issuing of a penalty point. Additionally because I gave Korea a penalty point for being dull, than on that precedent India will get one for the same rationale. Other than that there was nothing going on contentious enough to warrant penalties  

Looking ahead to Abu Dhabi

Out third Tilke-drome in a row comes next and doesn't bring with it a raft of enthusiasm given how the last two have played out but the Yas Arena circuit is a little different - not all in the right direction. Abu Dhabi is an excessive demonstration of over indulgence and opulence, a facility where the track comes a distant second to the amount of time, effort and investment placed in the surroundings and trackside buildings. It seems that the developers wanted a design that would appeal more to the guests, dignitaries and sponsors that are flown in to watch the event. Almost to the point where the requirements of the circuit were forgotten about.

That said the layout isn't that bad in some places, the first couple of corners are decent and in some respects the futuristic scenery and architecture acts to hide the fact that a lot of the track is repetitive and unnecessary. Like so many other of the Tilke tracks the planned overtaking zones are so blatantly obvious and limited that it becomes much easier to plan a defence from an attacking car, for example using KERs in the DRS areas. On race day however there is one factor that could throw in some unpredictability into the mix and that is walls, the presence of the corporate buildings and hotel structure means there is little run off at times. Combine that with the sand coming in off the desert and grip might be limited leading to a Safety car, however there is some support race action from the V8 supercars from Australia and those cars will be all over the place. I can foresee those cars being more entertaining than the F1 race but we shall see. So until then farewell from the blog, as I have a video to make on the Yas Marina circuit.

Round 17: India Pre-Race

Greetings Internet,

Although the session was broadcast almost 12hrs ago - well by the time this is completed that figure will have been significantly surpassed, it is time to start the post. While this post is beginning other things thrashing round in the rumour mill in some facets have been drawing to a close. Starting off there is the matter of the transfer between Force India to Sauber for Nico Hulkenberg, but Sky have suggested today that this deal is in no way completed which possibly throws a branch of hope back to Kamui who's seat is up for contest. A second thought of the day was quashed almost as soon as it was raised - although it was claimed had been circulating for a while, but Blog HQ is perpetually out of the loop anyway. The idea was that the Lotus team were going to change hands to being controlled by Proton - the Malaysian manufacturer. The matter of the ownership of Lotus has been a contentious issue for a while - leading to Caterham not being called Lotus for this season, and Renault-Squadron taking over as being the Lotus team.

Dialling things back for the session this morning - yes it was this morning when it was still light outside and there was still snow on the ground from yesterday. Indeed blog HQ encountered the first snow-fall of the oncoming bleak winter - another signal that the off season is waiting darkly in the wings, never a pleasant phase of the year, not that many part of the year are pleasant to start off with, but that is life. Quite the contrary underneath the Indian sun where we were treated to another illustration of the reformatted order at this end of the season. For the third consecutive race weekend in a row the line up on the front row features the same pair of drivers - the nature of the track and the car differences acted to sort the front rows into comparative team order. This demonstrates that the driver has as smaller impact on lap time than the car they have been provided with. So this is how things played out before breakfast, whatever that is.

Image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying

Before the first cars took to the track we were treated to the vast aerial shots of the track, looking at the scale of some of the features - the monolithic back straight, and arcing circle turn section dominating the proceedings. We saw that there had been some changes to the track - replacing some of the grass on the outside of the track with more tarmac. Not a decision that sits too well with blog HQ, yes having tarmac as a run-off zone keeps cars in the race after spinning off - but there needs to be a buffer at the edge of the track. This means that running wide on exits will not be an advantage, as it is now, it should force drivers to take more care.

The first drivers to take to the circuit were from the local team - getting the publicity shots in early as their weekend pace by this point suggested that making it through into the top ten might be a little difficult. Naturally they set the top two times - which would have made a decent screen-saver back at their HQ, because it wasn't going to last too long. To spoil the promotional images for the Force India team was the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen, and One-Stop Perez before the main runners took to the circuit. In this early stage of proceedings the likes of McLaren and Red Bull were sitting in the garage biding their time, because due to the lack of running on the track during the year, the surface starts off dusty and slippery. So the lead runners waited for the others to clean things up. A demonstration of track conditions was performed by Felipe Massa, using a little too much of the dusty run-off after the penultimate corner. The Ferrari performed a half spin staying well away from the barriers but ruined all four tyres in the process.

Vettel turned up on his first lap and took the lead of the session, highlighting the amount domination that the German bloke has at the moment, but in this first session the concern is over the battle for relegation at the far end of the field. The traditional members of the relegation party were all in attendance in the bottom seven spaces, and the remaining position was fluctuating rapidly as each new time passed it to the next driver in line. One more it fell to a duel between the two Toro Rosso drivers, who despite performing well in recent races, still struggled in qualifying, compounded by the fact that their immediate rivals - Williams were doing well. In this internal competition, the regular result won out once more as Ricciardo put a time in at the death of the session to knock his team-mate Vergne out. Also on his final lap, Heikki was having a less successful time spinning into the gravel on the exit of the circle turn at the back of the track.

Oddly the green light for the second phase of the session was activated before a truck had got round to the point where Heikki's car was trapped in the gravel, so there was some yellow flags left out on the out laps. A flurry of mid-field runners were the first to take to the track - including the Force India drivers, but this time there were no promotional images of the cars at the top of the timesheets, because it was Sauber who set the opening time with Kobayashi. Hulkenberg quickly re-addressed the balance to go quickest. With all remaining drivers leaving the pit lane, it wasn't long before the Red Bull team locked out the front row once more with Alonso and Button on the other edge of the top five. There were slight difficulties for both Hamilton and Grosjean in the first of the chicanes - getting loose on turn in and cutting across the apex.

In this session the battle to be promoted through into the final phase was significantly more intense, a couple of tenths could cost several positions - considering several contenders were all within a tenth crossing the boundary for relegation. Initially there were some surprising characters sitting outside the top ten - including Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean. To illustrate how close things were, there was only 0.001s between Button and Hamilton to decide who finished closest to the Red Bull team out front. Late laps from Maldonado, Perez and Rosberg proved pivotal, dropping Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Senna out of the session. While at the front the domination continued.

With only ten minutes on the clock and ten contenders competing in the final phase of qualifying the result seemed like a forgone conclusion - along with the remaining races of the season, nevermind this weekend. Four drivers opened the session with the remainder hiding in pit lane for now, of the four Vettel was the only one not complete a time, running off at turn five and abandoning the lap. The Red Bull domination was passed onto Webber who went fastest ahead of Alonso and Hamilton. Rosberg did take to the track but only completed a installation lap before pitting - not to return and therefore earning an instant penalty point for laziness.

That left nine drivers out on track to decide the pole position, and the battle was only ever going to have one victor, a certain German bloke in a blue car took the lead with his second effort. Webber was unable to take the fight back to his team-mate after locking a wheel and running wide through turn three, while Button claimed the final place on the podium - well temporarily anyway before Hamilton took that place. Maintaining the team by team structure both Ferraris lined up 5th and 6th, Massa taking his contracted position behind Alonso. Raikkonen finished 7th, the default position for Lotus behind the main teams, the final two runners of the session were Perez in 8th and Maldonado in 9th. Where Rosberg without running will line up 10th.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

The session may have been an undiluted demonstration of where individual cars are running in relation to each other, meaning that individual performances were smothered by the internal car pace they are handed. But despite that points do need to be handed out and they are as follows.

• 10pts - One-Stop Perez - For out performing the car, and making it into the top ten when the other Sauber almost went out in Q1 
• 8pts - Pastor Maldonado - Another interesting entry into the top ten on a strong day for Williams
• 6pts - Vitaly Petrov - Out qualifying his faster team-mate, a rare achievement deserves points
• 5pts - Narain Karthikeyan - For not being last on the grid for his home race in India
• 4pts - Sebastien Vettel - Because it has been a whole lot of dominance so far
• 3pts - Nico Rosberg - For being quick compared to the car pace in Q2
• 2pts - Buddh Circuit - For being a Tilke track that doesn't inspire despair and boredom
• 1pt - Felipe Massa - He may not be allowed to beat Alonso but can have a point for the effort.

The Penalty Points Series

As there were no official penalties this weekend coming out of qualifying - we haven't even got any technical penalties to cause any changes to the order from the session. Something which an anomaly compared to all season has only occurred at two other races, we shall move onto the penalty points series which only receives two additional entries today. 

• Nico Rosberg - For not bothering with the final part of qualifying and earns one penalty point
• Tarmac run-off - Stop making life too easy at the edge of the track, just stop it

Looking not too far into the future

It is a little odd when there is less time between now and the start of the race, and this post will only exist during the night when no-one will actually be near the internet to witness it. Does sort of render the whole thing rather pointless - but most things in life usually are, especially in this corner of the internet, talking to myself in an endless text box but oh well.. The Indian GP in a few hours could be a very interesting event, especially on the opening lap, with the long straights early in the lap combined with the extra wide braking zones. All adding up for a recipe for potential damage and mayhem, we lost some carbon fibre in turn three on the opening event for the track. 

The dual DRS zones could allow the racing to continue on for the remainder of the race, as questions are remaining when considering the tyre degradation and amount of pit-stops needed during the race is a great unknown. The second of the zones has even been lengthened for this second running of the race, in an effort to improve the entertainment and spectacle of the race. Because the second half of the lap isn't really geared for overtaking, more for driving enjoyment, Hamilton tried to make a pass in this section and only ended up improving his relationship with Massa by hitting him in turn 5. As the track has had a year to settle, and the lines are less dusty things may be more exciting this time and to warrant being awake that early, one can only hope. 

Round 17: India Preview 2012

Greetings Internet,

As the threat of the off-season looms news and developments are bubbling to the surface rapidly with each passing weekend. Even as the end of the last race out in South Korea more of the cogs began to slide into place in the increasingly dynamic world over the driver market. However one of the highest profile stories doesn't even centre around the coming season, instead looking further ahead to the 2014 season, when the new engine regulations come into effect. Because Ferrari have been reportedly linked to that German bloke for that season, interestingly no-one seemed to tell Luca Di Montezemelo this who is rather denying any of it. On the other side of the fence the Red Bull team are also denying the idea that Vettel will be heading to join Alonso in the Ferrari garage. Of course the idea of this slightly laughable as it is a direct contradiction with the way things work in the Italian team, as there is a rigid driver hierarchy with a strictly defined number one. Having two number ones in the squad would - despite being fun for the audience - cause a massive headache for Dominicali.

Elsewhere Nico Hulkenberg has been confirmed as making the jump across to Sauber from Force India, which causes a problem for Kobayashi, as it is rumoured that Gutierrez from the GP2 series will fill the second seat. In turn a door then opens at Force India, which could possibly go to a former driver in the form of Adrian Sutil. The rest of the grid is a complete enigma as a very large list of drivers has been added to the potential hat, through the young driver testing selections so very few seats are completely safe further down the pack. The likes of Van Der Garde and Chilton have initially been linked with Catherham and Marussia respectively - as well as other names, Lotus have lined up three drivers despite their line up seeming secure.

Away from the driver pairings, there is also news going into 2013 season for the calendar, as the most recent street track to be added to the season in New Jersey has been postponed due to preparation difficulties. I would assume that the track is matches up with the requirements for American open wheel racing, but not F1. Therefore things may need to be modified to accept the lower, faster cars - therefore we shall have to wait until 2014 at the earliest for the second race in the US, we shall have to see if that means Valencia gets to come back or not. But on the subject of tracks it is time for the Indian GP back for it's second running.

The Track 

credit to the FIA for the map

Arriving at one of the most culturally diverse and vibrant venues on the calendar, a world of intense colour and great curries, because everyone from time to time needs a great curry. Anyway the Buddh circuit is another of the modern tracks that have popped up in all sorts interesting and exotic locations. This one is build on an identical set of principles as the race last time in South Korea, fusing two distinct elements into a single complete circuit, mashing an overtaking zone into a challenging sector. The Indian GP takes both of those principles to a new level - the straight here is longer, than Korea - bordering a little on excessive, but combats this with some elevation changes connecting two high points at each end. Undulation has been used to good effect in several places on the track, particularly through the exit of turn one. The climb towards three makes both the braking zone and the turn in point completely blind on approach.

In other places descents have been used make the entrances to corners more challenging, mainly at the start of the second half of the circuit, coming down from the peak of the previous corner to pick out a difficult braking point. Balancing the right amount of speed to maximise the first apex but not compromise the secondary corners. In the virtual version of the lap I've used for this weekend the actual elevation changes have not been mapped to their full extent, but there are still many places where some additional elevation would have been very helpful. Some the synchronised chicanes are a little flat, but all circuits have niggly little flaws - even the mighty Spa has that depressingly rehashed final chicane.

Furthermore the track demonstrates some rather unique features, elements specifically designed to counter the problems in recent years with overtaking in the sport. The primary solution implemented is the widening of the braking zones and apex areas at the key corners of the lap. This aims to give the drivers more possible lines through the corner, limiting the effectivness of selecting the defensive line on approach. Simply running the car down the inside of the track won't help too much, as extra space opens up, adding space to the inside, and conversely improving the under-cut effect of taking an outside-in through to the exit of the corner. The second feature of the track is the compound corners in the second half, not quite the flowing nature of a traditional track, but achieving something similar technically. Corners that feed into chicanes, and a really long banked almost circular turn where the line is slightly pinched on the exit.

Overall the second half of the lap, is much better designed and refined than the similar concept in Korea, the corners flow much better and for a new track are actually quite enjoyable. An insight I was not able to provide this time last season as I had never driven at the point of the début race then, but actually navigating it in the blogmobile has been good. Which means this is time for the video back once more in glorious full 1080p HD - sometimes the power I wield could be considered to be overkill but it is way too much fun. So to curtail another psychotic episode here is the track video for the Indian GP.

What to expect

On the crest of some significant momentum over the past few races it is hard to look past Red Bull for the top step of the podium and qualifying timesheets in particular this weekend. Ferrari need to hit back as the resurgence of that German bloke because if not the title once more is heading back in that direction. Then there is McLaren, who will likely have the pace to challenge the speed of the blue cars out at the front of the pack, more so in the race than in qualifying perhaps, but in the overall game of winning the main championship their hopes have faded away. Especially since Hamilton had two races effected by mechanical difficulties, only scoring one point in the past two races, and Button was taken out in Korea.

Behind them a slight divide is growing, back to Lotus and Mercedes carving out a division all of their own, Raikkonen has settled into a regular position behind the top teams only gaining positions when one of them dropped out. This does rather thin out his chances of taking the championship on his return, despite sitting in third on the table behind Alonso and Vettel. The Silver Arrows however are slipping further back, being swamped by the mid-field teams, struggling to break into the top ten in recent events.

This leads us onto the rest of the middle of the grid, where Sauber, Williams and Force India all seem to be on very comparable pace, intensifying the competition for points on Sunday. Korea also saw the final team in this group getting very involved in this as well, Toro Rosso as in previous years have made some significant relative progress towards the end of the season. Something that might be a consequence of the other teams around them directing their attention to the coming season and allowing the margins to close up. Can't complain their it does improve the racing in the middle of the pack, and back in Korea, that was where the only battles of the race were taking place as it was arguably dull everywhere else.

Right at the back of the grid, everything seems to have returned to normal, after Marussia had a little spurt a couple of races ago to the point where they even took the lead in the bottom division battle at Singapore. However Caterham have gained the upper hand, but retaking the championship position would require one hell of a crazy race, and a crazy race would be much appreciated frankly. I've recently seen the first of the V8 supercar races from Surfers Paradise - and that was a complete demonstration of madness in racing form. Two red flag aborted starts due to mayhem, including one car barrel rolling into the fence. Incidently the race did also showcase the really high quality of the Australian broadcasting, something that SKY could learn from, heck even the BBC could take a few notes. Just in case anyone missed it here is the race posted on youtube - featuring a lot of ex-F1 drivers including Squadron-Leader Heidfeld doing a rather good job (best viewed in youtube directly): 

The blog predictions

Back to the main proceedings and it is time to release the dodgy and permanently unsuccessful series of predictions because I can.

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Webber
4. Alonso
5. Button
6. Massa
7. Raikkonen
8. Di Resta
9. Kobayashi
10. Grosjean

Qualifying 

• Red Bull: Vettel
• McLaren: Hamilton
• Ferrari: Alonso
• Lotus: Raikkonen
• Sauber: Perez
• Williams: Maldonado
• Force India: Hulkenberg
• Toro Rosso: Ricciardo
• Caterham: Kovalainen
• Marussia: Glock
• HRT: De La Rosa

Anyone who has managed to stay with this rather long post, can have some moral bonus points - and perhaps this is time to draw it to a close - the Indian GP may not be too inspiring as a race, I personally can't remember last season's race. Although that might have something to do with the fact that the iPlayer took ages to upload the event as I was at rehearsal being evil, at the time of the actual race. Consequently I was left with the highlights edition - which frankly was not too grand as they usually aren't. Hopefully this weekend will be a lot more entertaining as the track has bedded in now and most of the drivers have has one race under their belt to get used to managing the wider overtaking zones and interesting corners. So on that note this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.

Round 16: South Korea Review

Greetings Internet,

Well I spent the last few moments of yesterday's elongated post predicting that the 2012 Korean Grand Prix would be a little short of entertainment, in the hope that the race would defy those expectations. Rising to the challenge posted, much in the same way Valencia managed with a similarly uninspiring layout and minimal prospects. The BBC team made a point of showing the conflicts that had erupted in the previous two races at the Yeongnam circuit, and the majority of those were a result of the wet conditions in 2010 and some sporadic efforts of overtaking in the second race. All in effort of bolstering the image of the 55 laps that were to take place following all of the pre-race build up.

But in reality all those dreams and aspirations turned into approximately three corners of racing, with the occasional little battle further down the field but the competition for the first five places was decided by the exit of turn 6. With the exception of one car slipping out of the running through mechanical difficulties. Meaning the attentions were shifted a little further down the field where on the odd occasion, something was going on from time to time at the bottom end of the points positions. It wasn't an entirely event-less race, and there certainly have been less exciting encounters. In comparison to previous seasons in the original reign of Schumacher, today's race would have been considered the outright highlight of the year. Demonstrating the transition the sport has made since those processional years, I think the Hungarian GP of 2003 (probably) would go down as the most uneventful race of all time. So compared to that today was a thrilling experience, not that 9 year old comparisons matter all too much in the every changing world of F1.

credit to F1Fanatic for the image

The Race

Before the race was started the world was treated to a display of both hilarious and disturbing dancing by the entire of the BBC presenting team, who were being more enthusiastic then they probably should have been. What is more frightening is when the other people here at blog HQ decided to join in - I sensibly enough declined to follow the masses in mimicking the mad Korean who may as well own the internet at the moment. But as long as some of the people who do float around the realm of cyberspace find themselves here over the course of the weekend, I'm sure I can cope with that fact.

As the cars lined up the sky looked as murky as it did for qualifying, draining all the colour out of the scenery, not that there really is any scenery to look at on the other side of the concrete barriers. It would explain why the barriers are there, because the run-off behind them is a bunch of abandoned agricultural land - and cars spearing off into those areas wouldn't go down too well. On the formation lap Jenson Button took a little longer to leave the grid, prompting a little wave of the nearest yellow flag. But nothing was going wrong with the car, and Jenson was able to regain his position in the train of cars ahead of One-Stop Perez's Sauber.

Off the line it was Vettel who got the best launch, enough to draw alongside his team-mate taking the position through the middle of the first corner. It was all being rather organised, through turn one, well for the first half of the field behaved anyway, further back One-Stop Perez threw the car down the inside, locking everything up to avoid spearing into the cars ahead. The Sauber brushed the back of Hulkenberg's Force India and forced Button and Rosberg out wide on the exit. Back at the front a series of drag races were evolving on the straight, the two Red Bulls ran two wide, but behind them Alonso and Hamilton were also side by side. Then Kimi looked at the two cars in front of them and decided to make it three wide on the run down to turn three. The top 6 cars were virtually occupying the same space in the braking zone yet they all made it through on the track and without contact. A similar situation could not be said a little further back - as the two wide combat between Rosberg and Button was about to gain another contender. However Kamui tried to join in the battle through a gap which didn't really exist pinballing between the two. Rosberg suffered a damaged radiator and Button ruined front suspension, while Kobayashi drove away with a rear puncture.

The battles at the front hadn't sorted themselves out before charging into turn four, where the main fight was between Raikkonen and Hamilton - Lewis defended to the inside forcing Kimi wide. The Lotus was looking on to take the place but the McLaren driver pushed him off the outside of the track allowing Massa to pick up the place at the second phase of the complex. That concluded the competition for the positions at the front end of the field for a considerable period of time - and were there not to be mechanical interventions later on then things wouldn't have changed at all. It was at this point we saw the victims of Kamui's accident pull off the road and into retirement, Button on the exit of turn four, and Rosberg in a gap in the fence down the long DRS straight. Nico's car brought out the yellows for a considerable amount of time as marshals recovered the car, and also cancelling the DRS activation.

As things stabilised at the front of the field it was the turn of the mid-field runners to have some fun - where the Toro Rosso team were executing a series of coordinated strikes on the cars in front, running in attack formation. Their first target was the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, swarming all over the back of the Venezuelan before Jean Eric Vergne opened the door in the complex of corners at the back of the track. Ricciardo tried to follow through but almost lost the nose of the car through the sweepers in sector two, but that only delayed the inevitable and the second of the Toro Rossos was through. The pair both cruised up onto the back of the second Williams of Bruno Senna, Vergne made the pass at the end of the long straight, while Ricciardo deployed DRS on the following lap - allowing the STR Squadron to motor on towards their next victim.

Another little battle brewing, was between Schumacher and the Force India of Paul Di Resta over the final point in tenth position - Di Resta using the DRS down the back straight to get alongside the Mercedes but Michael always managed to do enough to maintain the position. Aside from that little duel not too much was going on a fact that several of the drivers noticed so they decided to take this opportunity to visit the pit lane, starting with Hamilton on lap 14, followed shortly by the remainder of the top six drivers. Such was the lack of action on the track Grosjean and Hulkenberg decided to wage their battle in the pit lane instead, after had discovered his DRS was seemingly useless against the speed of the Force India in a straight line. However despite a wave of the hand from the Frenchman, Hulkenbergs pit crew kept him ahead of the Lotus driver.

As the leaders filtered back onto the track following their stops they had to negotiate the Sauber of One-Stop Perez who as per normal was staying out longer than most of the grid. Sergio was passed by Alonso into turn four, and then by Hamilton on the exit as the older tyres compromised his traction on the exit. On the other side of the garage things were even worse for Kamui - who was handed a drive through penalty before pulling the car into retirement  likely due to damage taken in the crash. He was joined by Pedro De La Rosa seemingly a victim of a mechanical problem in the HRT. Perez's longer game was starting to exhibit flaws in pace, as he was rapidly caught and passed by Massa and then by Raikkonen both using DRS to demote the Sauber.

Another period of inactivity followed with everyone trundling round in position, until Hamilton started to haemorrhage lap time falling back towards Massa, this time last season this would be considered a recipe for contact. In a period when the two drivers were less than friends, this time around things were more civil - bordering on orderly as the Ferrari was able simply to drive down the inside on the DRS. As soon as the red car vanished into the distance a black and gold one was growing larger in the McLaren's mirrors as the Lotus of Raikkonen closed down the gap.  Their battle went on for a little longer - a consequence of the lower straight line speed of the Lotus in comparison to most of the other cars they had been fighting with over the course of the race. However after a couple of laps of looking for a way round the outside Kimi was able to get by on the outside of turn three. But Hamilton used some KERs power to retake the place in turn four, Raikkonen held on the outside but Lewis forced him off there for the second time of the race.

Instead of drawing out the battle Kimi took to the pits - which meant there was another interval where nothing was going on - and nothing would go on at the front with the minor exception of gap fluctuations. Only the DRS zone was seeing some rudimentary action as Ricciardo steamed past the Mercedes of Schumacher; a feat Grosjean attempted on Hulkenberg but once more the speed of the Lotus let him down and the Force India held onto the position. Finally Romain was able to use the zone to make the pass after a couple unsuccessful efforts on previous laps, and what did he do with the clear air in front of him. Drive across the apex of the final turn throwing dirt across the track narrowly missing the large apex curb, the last car that ended up there finished in the wall, oddly enough in the same seat that Grosjean is in now, back when the team was Renault and Petrov knocked some wheels off.

Another small battle was forming at the bottom of the points as Schumacher had the attentions of Di Resta and Perez. Also the Ferraris had closed in on each other, Massa proving to be the fastest of the two, something that seemed almost offensive to the people inside the team as Felipe had to be ordered to drop back from his team-mate. Almost as if it was considered an insult for the Brazilian to be anywhere near the other car, forced off by the vengeful hand of team orders. Hamilton meanwhile had the attentions of Grosjean and Hulkenberg - and it turns out even a wounded McLaren can be very wide indeed. Romain looked to the outside of turn three but Lewis pushed him off to the outside allowing Nico to close in. As Hamilton had to deal with the Lotus in turn four Hulkenberg went round the outside of the pair of them, despite Lewis pushing him off on the exit, Nico was able to hold the line into five and claim the position. It was a good time for Hamilton to pit and be far enough away from anyone else so he didn't push any more drivers towards the scenery.

With laps running out a series of radio calls went out to Vettel in the lead, threatening that the front tyre could fail at any point without warning and that he would only be a passenger after it failed. All conveyed in the most anxious tone of voice every other corner, trying to encourage Vettel to calm down with reminders that at any moment the car could fire itself into a concrete wall - comforting. Considering from the TV footage the tyres didn't look any worse than anyone else's - and they weren't receiving prophecies of doom so close to the finish. Even more inactivity followed, so much even the track was trying to leave - astroturf in the final sector parting company from the circuit.

It turned out the pit stop didn't do anything to rescue his dismal race as he found himself under-pressure from the Toro Rosso team - still running in formation and attacking a unit with Ricciardo leading Vergne. Using the straight line speed of the car both were able to pass the McLaren to duel among themselves for the remainder of the race. But some of the Italian nature of the team must have sank through as Ricciardo allowed his team-mate through under what can be assumed to be team orders. As Hamilton had to sit in behind watching them blue cars disappear further ahead. This did mean however he had no-one else to push around, so he turned his attention to assaulting the track instead, peeling more of the astroturf with his right turning vane. Dragging a strip of the green material around, further hampering performance allowing One-Stop Perez to catch the McLaren looking for the final point.

Oddly Vettel's car hadn't imploded with a catastrophic tyre failure, and in fact nothing happened at all to the German bloke as he crossed the line to extend the run of domination the team have shown and taking the championship lead in the process. Not that their championship matters too much around here. The second Red Bull crossed the line - also with all four tyres inflated - ahead of Alonso rounding out the podium. Massa was allowed to finish 4th, remaining a regulation distance from his team-mate as not to endure the wrath of the Italian Mafia. More points for Raikkonen in 5th, but seeing his run for the title slowly ebb even further out of reach, Hulkenberg finished the leader of the mid-field teams between the two Lotus drivers. Grosjean was seventh, managing to finish the race without hitting anyone in the process - even in a brief battle with the other villain of the season Maldonado. A collision between those two would have released enough energy to probably end the world, so we were gladly spared that. Remaining in the formation they'd been all race the STR cars finished 8th and 9th with Vergne in front, ahead of Hamilton still with carpet fending off Perez for the last point.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

Right, where are points going to be assigned here then, because for a small amount of the battling that took place a whole lot of nothing filled the points and finding enough people to hand points to has been challenging but here goes.

• 25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Another strong race leading the mid-field with a great double pass on the outside of turn four 
• 18pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - The leader of the STR rebellion force encountering the traffic first in making moves through the field
• 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Making 6 places off the start line and then working with Vergne to move into the points
• 12pts - Felipe Massa - For being faster than Fernando and being defeated by his own team orders
• 10pts -  Vitaly Petrov - For being the leader of the bottom division of cars despite losing the place initially to Heikki
• 8pts -  Sebastien Vettel - Fine have some points for winning
• 6pts - Romain Grosjean - For not hitting anyone off the start and racing well throughout
• 4pts - BBC Team - Humourous points for dancing with that Psy chap pre-race
• 2pts - Kamui Kobayashi - His pinball score from the first lap lunacy
• 1pt - Mother - For joining in the BBC dance session, despite how creepy it was

The Penalties championship

Yesterday it was assumed that we escaped without penalties, only those for technical issues caused changes to the grid before the race this morning, but today has been a little different and we have two penalties to add to the table.

• Kamui Kobayashi - Drive through penalty - For taking out Rosberg and Button in turn three
• Mercedes - 10,000 EUR fine - For an unsafe release in qualifying yesterday in front of Hamilton

The Penalty Points championship

The second of the penalty based championships also has some additions from the second phase of the event and these are as follows:

• Lewis Hamilton - For pushing everyone off the edge of the circuit
• Ferrari - I know team orders are legalised but a penalty point is still coming their way for the commands towards Felipe Massa.
• Korea  - For being dull

Looking ahead to India

From one new venue to another as we leave the land of dodgy dancing and ship-building and head back west a little to a vibrant world of colour, culture and curries. A track that was added to the calendar last season and in some respects shares a lot of design concepts with the layout of Yeongnam, as it has the same dual nature in terms of the disparity between two phases of the lap. In India we too have a section introduced for the sole purpose of introducing overtaking, aided with a new concept of wider breaking zones. Where the width of the track is extended closer to the apex, not that it seemed to help too much in the races. Round the other half of the track the corners are more flowing and faster, but once more suffers the problem of being designed in a computer in an office and doesn't mesh together in the same way that Spa or Suzuka would.

The problem that this and the tracks that follow it have is that they would appear to play to the strengths of the Red Bull team almost handing the title over to Vettel before the crates leave Korean soil. Ferrari held the lead with Fernando for a long time, but the speed of the Red Bull team has enough momentum to make even the six point lead Vettel now has an unassailable gap. Raikkonen in third is looking to maintain that position in the championship but anything further forward is too far out of reach despite being mathematically possible. The same can be said for the McLarens, and Webber -  the remaining three drivers who are numerically within a shot of winning, but with no realistic chance. However that title only plays a small supporting role to the main event which is the bonus points championship which is completely wide open - before this weekend all of the 60 contenders were mathematically able to take the tile. So as the races run out and only four weeks of the season left, we'll see who can become the second ever bonus points champion.

Round 16: South Korea Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

Another visit to the Yeongam circuit has actually seen some development, but that statement isn't as hopeful as it may seem on the surface. Because although the hopes of seeing the vast centre of tourism grown from the empty farmlands of South Korea have completely faded into obscurity, the track has changed this time round. Which is rather odd considering the place looked as if it hadn't been used at all since the last lap of the 2011 race, each corner had acres of dust from the months of neglect coating the surface. Also faint ideals of the layout being modified to make it a little more enjoyable have been dashed, the monstrosity that is the turn 4-6 sequence still remains. In fact all that has happened is that the wall on the inside of the marina turn has been moved a little further inside, leaving a thing strip of grass, and more bland tarmac. It does sort of elude to the plans the Koreans have for the future of the track, seemingly binning the ideas of the hotels and other buildings and moving instead towards correcting the lap towards a more generic setup.

As to the session this morning, a pattern is starting to emerge, a pattern that harks back to the previous years of domination from a certain German bloke in a Blue car. Much to the despair of the contenders in the Red and Silver teams who are seeing their challenge on taking the title in the remaining five races of the 2012 season slip gently from their grasp. Fernando has seen a very comfortable lead descent into the narrowest of margins recently and further struggles in the McLaren garage have seen them slip even further back despite the evidence showing that fundamentally the car is the fastest machine. Their strongest challenger Hamilton has seemed a little zoned out looking perhaps to his new seat across at Mercedes as the title becomes much less likely. So lets see how that played out Yeongam style... it had to be done really...

image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying

Resting in the shadow of the clouds of a major ship building industry on the other side of the hill - perhaps not an ideal location for a centre of proposed tourism in the first place, no wonder development never really kicked off. The result is that the track is veiled in a dull murkiness, a landscape of drained colour and in some respects also of imagination but from the times in practice the competition on the track could improve that outlook somewhat.

First one to take to the circuit was the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen, and as the green cycled round we looked towards the pit lane to see who else was going for a run, oddly there were no volunteers and Heikki was able to complete his lap on a completely empty track. After a few minutes alone the Caterham was joined by a flurry of cars as everyone else decided it was their turn to have a go at beating the only time resting on the scoreboard. This lead to issues with traffic round the more difficult single file section of the lap, Raikkonen had issues negotiating the Mercedes of Rosberg on his flying lap, and then roles were reversed when the German was on a flying lap having to avoid the Lotus in an identical place.

The difficulties paid off for Kimi as he went fastest, fending off competition from the rest of the field showing pace that the Lotus team hadn't showed earlier in the weekend in practice. Behind the Finn, the times were close with Massa running in second again surpassing the pace of his team-mate, however that only was only before the Red Bull team rolled out of the garage, and on cue Sebastien Vettel crushed Raikkonen's time by a massive seven tenths. At the direct opposite end of the field things were going backwards - literally. Narain Karthikeyan arrived at turn three rear wing first at a significant speed after suffering a rear break failure. It is incidents like that where having ludicrous amounts of run-off do help as the HRT didn't hit anything, just missing the back of Di Resta's Force India in the process.

As the session came to a close, something rather interesting materialised with drivers moving onto the softer tyres to make it through, the gains from the different compound caused difficulties for those who thought they were safe. Hamilton for example cascaded down through the order along with Alonso and Schumacher running a little close to relegation - all but Hamilton were on track to rescue their positions as the McLaren driver assumed he was safe at the time. Alonso escaped relegation pushing Hamilton into the final qualification place, and the only driver able to threaten that was Bruno Senna but the Williams didn't have the speed, a lap potentially compromised by a slow Ferrari on his outlap, but the McLaren was saved.

Moving swiftly on to the second session, and this time it was the Sauber of One-stop Perez setting the early time, as the main contenders made it on to the track. Sergio set the initial time from his team-mate and Di Resta in the Force India, before Webber in his Red Bull set a much faster time then those on track on the time. The dominance percolated through to the other side of the garage, as Vettel arrived and took the lead from his team-mate early on in the session. From that time Sebastien decided that he'd done enough to make it through without having to go back out using another set of tyres - and he was right. Even though the times were getting closer there was enough security in the Red Bull team going forward into Q3

Everyone else however was in danger of being relegated and the immense fluctuation in times saw drivers swapping places with each coming lap right up to the mid session break which came about once more this weekend. However the single lap plans for the end of the session took a slight hit in the same manner as it did in Japan through a late yellow flag incident as Daniel Ricciardo encountered technical difficulties towards the end of the lap. As a result the final runs of several drivers were compromised trapping some out in relegation. Both Saubers and Toro Rossos didn't make it, along with Di Resta in the Force India - but joining that list was the unusual name of Jenson Button. The reigning bonus points champion falling out at the end of Q2.

With only ten drivers remaining it was time for the start of Q3, and the two Mercedes driver lined up at the end of the pit lane - the pair probably had been there a little too long because Schumacher seemed to fall asleep. As Rosberg drove away from the line the other German just sat there, as the rest of the queue drove round the stationary Mercedes, eventually the wake up call did go out to Michael and he pottered off after the rest of the qualifiers. What made the scenario even more senseless was that both of the silver arrows only completed an out lap without setting a time, which made the concept of waiting around completely pointless.  Elsewhere Hamilton was being a little impatient, first looking to pass Webber in the pit-lane when avoiding the Mercedes, but then making the pass on track after showing the nose first in turn one. A move that also proved rather pointless as just in front Webber was Grosjean so there was no free space.

From the congestion the Ferraris broke free, with Alonso leading Massa on the initial timings - Hamilton backed off to leave some space between him and the Frenchman to complete the third fastest time at the early stage. The Ferrari lock out of the front-row was interrupted by Webber's Red Bull sneaking in between the two red machines. Of course there was the small matter of a certain German bloke who went to the front of the proceedings almost four tenths clear of his title rival Alonso.

As the second runs of Q3 were about to get underway, Hamilton was up to more impatience in the pit lane when Michael was crawling out of his garage at the same time the McLaren was heading down the lane. Instead of waiting in a traditional British spirit of queuing, Lewis swerved round the German - luckily the Mercedes mechanic was clear before Hamilton made his move. On the track Webber was the first to set a final time and in an impressive lap the Australian went fastest, with a time that weathered the pressure from behind. Vettel was unable to improve, while Hamilton dragged the McLaren into third behind the dominance of Red Bull. Fernando was forced down into 4th place just ahead of Raikkon in 5th and Massa in 6th. Grosjean and Hulkenberg lined up next, and the two Mercedes cars did set a time in the end but only managed to finish  9th and 10th with Nico behind his elder team-mate.

The bonus points championship points winners

In a session that was for the most part unremarkable, but likely remains the highlight of the weekend in Korea deciding where to assign the bonus points was not a straight forward process. But here are the winners from Qualifying.

•  10pts  - Nico Hulkenberg  - for being the only mid-field runner to be able to break into the top ten in Korea for Force India
•  8pts -  Mark Webber - an impressive pole, escaping from the shadow of the dominance the German bloke in the other car has been dishing out
• 6pts - Vitaly Petrov - for being the top driver in the bottom division group of cars instead of the usual victor Kovalainen
• 5pts - Charles Pic - for out-qualifying Glock at Marussia despite now receiving a penalty for an engine change post session
• 4pts - Nico Rosberg - Has to be awarded some points for being the only loony joining in with the dance a certain mad Korean has plagued the internet with. 
• 3pts - Narain Karthikeyan - for missing Di Resta when spinning down the back straight after the brake failure
• 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - not for qualifying but for a truly epic slide during Friday practice 
• 1pt -  Mother's Car - After reflecting on the specs of the vehicle it turned out that Wikipedia claims it has the same weight as a current F1 car - at 640kg so deserves a point.

The penalty points championship

As there have been no actual penalties dished out for driving infractions - Pic took an engine penalty but nothing else, we move swiftly on to the penalty points series where there are some additions today.

• Michael Schumacher - for sitting around at the end of the pit lane for no apparent reason at the beginning of Q3
• Lewis Hamilton - for being all manner of impatient, just calm down seriously - diving past people in the pit-lane is not recommended.
• Mercedes - Sending both cars out at the front of the lane just to cycle round on an outlap

Looking to tomorrow

Well it's not that too far ahead from now as this has once more taken in inordinately long amount of time, and the race is scheduled to kick off on in the small hours of the morning - I'll let the sky box wake up and handle it. Because of all the early races the Korean GP is not the sort of event that would inspire anyone to force themselves out of bed that early on. There are parallels that can be drawn to Japan last weekend, as there are two blue cars on the front row looking to drive off in to the distance leaving the rest to sort it out among themselves. The fact that the cars are closer on the timesheets could help reduce the domination factor this time, combined with the fact that Mr Tilke has drawn an entire sector devoted to overtaking. 

One thing that could influence the nature of the race is the prevalence of safety car interventions, something that has been a factor of both previous Korean race, although the debut event was more of an exercise in drowning. With four hours of rain and silliness, involving multiple safety car interventions, and last time Petrov and Schumacher had a coming together in turn three - the closeness of the walls and limited infrastructure trackside does increase the likelihood of needing a safety car incident. Strategies for the race do seem to veer towards one or two visits to the pit-lane - discounting any advantage low users like Sauber or Lotus may have across the race distance. I am rather hoping that by keeping expectations fairly low that the race will spring a surprise in the same vane that Valencia produced earlier. So until later on tomorrow evening this is farewell from my here at Blog HQ.

Round 16: South Korea Preview 2012

Greetings Internet,

The pace of the final phase of the season is relentless, with races paired up in back-to-back events - last week we had the traditional high speeds of Japan's brilliant Suzuka circuit, and this week we don't. Instead replacing the idyllic corners with a plateau of unused land somebody decided to stick a race track to. In the short space of time between races not too much has had time to elapse, no more drive change confirmations, as the world is still waiting on the final decision on Massa, many assume that he will remain there in a Ferrari, while others remain slightly skeptical. Here at blog HQ however, we've noticed a significant improvement in Felipe's driving and has been scoring well in the bonus points stakes in the past two races. Duelling two wide across the Andersson Bridge in Singapore is a reflection of that, maybe this can be traced to a degree of confidence in his future job security. Or on the other hand, a desperate attempt to rescue it.

Elsewhere Ricciardo is staking his claim to a continued drive in the sport down in Toro Rosso, the Australian has been more competitive than Vergne, despite both drivers being graduates of the British F3 Series. However Toro Rosso does have a habit of binning drivers on a regular basis, the entire 2011 squad was flushed out of the system despite both putting in some strong drives, Jaime Alguersuari even did quite well in the bonus points standings. However this time things are a little different, Red Bull doesn't have the same quantity of development drivers to swap in - previously their program was over-populated leading to instablity. There are still drivers in the system, the likes of Carlos Sainz Jnr for example in British F3, but for now the team does need consistency to move forwars, instead of being a development factory for the main Red Bull team.

But before those questions can be answered, the series rolls into Yeongnam - for the third running of the South Korean GP.

Circuit graphic credit to the FIA

The Track

The Korean circuit is one of stark contrasts, and unfulfilled promises - back in 2010 when the track and location were announced we were shown all manner of 3D graphics of the plans for development and the final targets. Those videos looked interesting, an implementation of a unique topology, instead of taking the road network of a city and attemting to thread a track through it, Korea planned to do the opposite. First build the track with the pit facilities and other infrastructure requirements, and then surround it with hotels, villas and leisure activities. Inevitably this lead to compromises in the layout where certain structures were going to be constructed, but steered away from the endless strings of 90 degree corners that often plague street circuits.

Has any of that happened, well no, not by a long margin - none of the planned structures have even started production - from reports on the internet it seems no-one has even been to the track since it was used last year. Citing problems like weed propagation in the paddock area, illustrating that the track is highly underused and not particularly well maintained. In 2010, there were concerns about the track not being ready in time, and we arrived to find some of it looking a little like a building site, but to find the same thing two years later is a little disappointing.

Despite the track having as desolate of a social life as I have here at Blog HQ, it is the layout which is the most important thing, the teams tend not to turn up planning to race in the spectator areas. However there isn't too much to write home about here - granted it is a lot better than what Valencia had put together - but it seems a little forced and artificial. The opening sector has no driving challenge or excitement value about it whatsoever, only existing to provide a place for cars to overtake - erasing any requirement for innovation of intution. Making it obvious where the next pass is going to occur, exacerbated by some questionable design ideas - the pit exit road is a key flaw. Turns 4-6 for example come across as completely unecessary, I can see they tried to emulate the final sequence at the now booted Istanbul circuit but it really hasn't worked. Of course the original idea is not exactly a work of art to start off with.

After that however things do start to improve (well it couldn't get too much worse) as the initial corners of the second half of the track are quite nice, gentle inclines mixed with high speed corners. Aided by the fact they are not all simple full speed kinks, a little bit of thought is needed to stay on the road, because this phase was designed to be outside the resort complexes. As the track returned to the realm if imaginary development relics of the unfinished project start to become visible - for example the positioning of conrete walls at the side of the track. Something which still seems alien on a permanent circuit, it would be like deciding to coat the entire Arena section at Silverstone with immovable barriers....hmm on second thought. Anyway the layout and configuration of these coners just seems to be a little out of sync, you expect Spa and Suzuka to flow seamlessly, while Montreal and Albert Park are more of a stop-start format. Korea sits awkwardly in the middle of the two, the same can be said of Abu Dhabi as well, maybe it will take some getting used to - as in comparision to other circuits it is one I have completed few laps on to find a decent line through.

At the end of the lap, there is another rather odd feature, where a curved concrete corridor was planned to curve around the circumferance of a marina section. As with the rest of the plans, there is no marina section and I doubt there ever will be, as a result the corner exists completely on it's own, collecting dust between the barriers making it an interesting challenge. Are the flashes of greatness enough to presever the event's position in the calendar, probably not - a list of countries are wanting to join the championship and there is limited time during the year to vist them all. Therefore some venues will be under pressure to improve or risk being replaced, Istanbul and Valencia have been the recent losses, so will Korea follow them through the exit. I guess it all depends on Bernie, he'll have the competing offers from Russia, South Africa and a crazy proposal I sense coming from Greece.

Before Korea is banished never to return it might be a good idea to release this weeks video, brought to you this time in full 1080p HD - things have changed a little at blog HQ in the hardware department. But all the extra power still didn't prevent me from trying to upload the content at 2am this morning, only makes the recording process a lot smoother and in much shinier detail, so here is the introduction to the Korean GP.

What to expect

Well the track is a significant world away from the format of last week's race in Suzuka, but there are still some elements which are transferrable, especially away from the dull opening sector. As a result it can be assumed that Red Bull will be very strong as the updates they applied in Japan were successful in producing a major performance update. The margins will be closer to the rest of the field, allowing McLaren and Ferrari a chance to challenge for the win over the course of the weekend, something that should please Alonso after the monumental cut his lead took last time out. In terms of the championship, well the less important one governed by FIA points, it will likely be Raikkonen who will lose out in the Lotus unless of course the team have a few secrets hidden away.

As the season progresses the boundaries between the divisions become increasingly blurred with mid-field teams scoring podium finishes and significant points hauls. But in this group there has been a emerging shift in the heirachy, Sauber have risen to the front of the group, getting both cars into the top ten in qualifying more regularly. In their ascendency they hace pulled foward Force India who also took strong results in Spa and Singapore with 4th places in both events, this leaves Williams who are falling back a little - not quite Toro Rosso far back but a long way from where they were earlier in the season. Maldonado has managed to draw some impressive qualifying results from the car, but on balance development has stalled out in comparison to the immediate competition. This should come as an incentive to the STR team, who like in 2011, have produced a better car at the end of the year, Korea was a strong race for them last season so the compression in the mid-field is set to increase. Applying pressure on the likes of Mercedes at the tail end of the front divsion.

Down here at the back of the grid some degree of normality has been restored, in Singapore the Catherham team were caught in qualifying and then overtaken during the race - losing their place in the championship. But back on a more traditional track in Japan the order returned to its former form, where Marussia were in second behind the green machines battling with HRT in their own little world. This weekend however presents a half way medium between Singapore and Suzuka as such, and therefore the margins between the cars back here could be just as intriguing.

The Blog prediction effort

Well I started this additional feature for the first race of the season and can conlude that it has been a complete and utter failure, it bears no relevance and has no contextual value, all it does serve to do is demonstrate that after writing down all these words every weekend I still have no idea what is going to happen. In a way that is a testament to the amount of fluctation in form and performances that has evolved this season, so I shall press on and have a go at sorting out the Korean GP

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

Qualfying

• Red Bull - Vettel
• McLaren - Hamilton
• Ferrari - Alonso
• Lotus - Grosjean
• Mercedes - Rosberg
• Sauber - Kobayashi
• Force India - Hulkenberg
• Williams - Maldonado
• Caterham - Kovalainen
• Marussia - Glock
• HRT - De La Rosa

So there you go, the premise to the Korean GP, looking at the relative speed of the cars and the nature of the track, the times and competition could turn out to be rather close and transferably interesting. Across the weekend the track will evolve more than some of the other venues as a result of it barely being used for anything other than the F1 event, meaning it collects dust and debris throughout the year. Exacerbated slightly by the fact that some of the lap is walled in and surrounded by undeveloped land.

Despite presenting some of the most unimaginative layout design in the history of the universe the track does have some redeeming and interesting features posing unique challenges to the drivers, and in contrast to some modern facilities little room for error in places. One slight downer is that the race weekend is predicted to be dry in its entirity, and it is a venue that could benefit from a little moisture, perhaps not to the extreme extent that the 2010 race was plagued by, but enough to make it a bit more exiting. Overall there is a vague promise that the event can be exiting and dynamic, so until next time this is farewell from the blog.

Round 15 - Japan Review

Greetings Internet,

Well our adventure out in the far east has now been brought to it's conclusion and all the boxes and crates are being hauled away for the short hop to South Korea. There were some fears here at the blog head-quarters that the race could turn into a simple processional event because overtaking is difficult on a track like Suzuka. That difficulty did come across in the race especially considering when cars on alternate strategies and ageing tyres getting involved in those contending for the podium. It was a race which had intrigue at both ends of the race starting off with a major championship changing event through the first corner.

Elsewhere the Japanese GP reflected some of the trends that we have seen unravel across the season and some localised traditions reappearing on track. At the end we had a not entirely unpredictable result at the front of the grid, but for the rest of the major points scoring positions the results were very popular. Not only at the track in front of the enthusiastic crowd, but through the world of formula one, and more importantly here in the small world of Blog HQ. If I wasn't attempting to maintain a neutral blog perspective there would have been all kinds of jumping and gesticulations at the television. Much in the same way that the majority of the field have been trying to restrain themselves from unleashing towards a certain accident prone Frenchman.

The Race

Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image

As it did yesterday the Suzuka circuit looked as fantastic as ever in the afternoon sun, as here at the headquarters the power of time delayed tv coverage, which is better than dealing with the 7am original race start. Of course there is the added advantage of having additional cake when the race is shown at a more hospitable time of the day. So with pre-race toasties prepared we were in position for the 53 laps of the spectacular Japanese GP, where the only small moment of concern fluttered around the Red Bull of Mark Webber as a small piece of something was seen coming off his car as it toured round to the grid. An investigation from the team indicated that the piece was picked up off the circuit and was not representative of any damage to the car. 

At the start Vettel and Kobayashi made the best of the starts escaping from the field ahead of Webber and Grosjean. A little further back Button was charging up the field, running three wide with Alonso and Raikkonen approaching the first corner, perhaps someone should have reminded Fernando that is was Kimi's Lotus on the outside. The Ferrari edged away from the McLaren but into the Lotus forcing Kimi onto the grass, Fernando later said that he expected Kimi to get out of the throttle at this point. Assuming Raikkonen was going unessecarily give position that easily became a problem for Alonso as the Lotus didn't yield to the Spaniard. There was wing to wheel contact and Fernando suffered an instant rear puncture sending he spinning into the gravel, almost spinning back into the oncoming back of traffic - but out of the race.

While all this was unfolding in turn one, at the top of the screen in the second corner there was more carnage with more spacial awareness failings this time for Romain Grosjean... again, probably now overtaking Maldonado's quantity of accidents. The Lotus was focusing on the Sauber on his outside of the corner and seemed to forget there were other cars involved in the race, in the same part of the track, and drove into the side of Mark Webber spinning him off to the inside. As the group backed up to avoid the collision Senna ran into the back corner of Rosberg's Mercedes knocking the German out of the race. From the melee the safety car was deployed and Senna, Grosjean and Webber pitted for repairs and tyres - the former two receiving penalties for their actions. A 10s stop and go was handed to Grosjean which is something that hasn't been issued in a while to a driver, but Romain has built a habit of binning people on the opening lap.

On the restart Vettel was able to build a gap from Kobayashi in second, the Sauber receiving a lot of attention in the chicane before the drop of the green flag. The second of the Saubers was attempting to make a move round the outside of Kimi Raikkonen through the first two corners, but the Finn wasn't having any of it as per normal easing One-Stop Perez out and off into the run-off space allowing Hamilton's McLaren through. Through the opening lap spins and contact Button was now running 3rd and Massa in fourth, but also worth noting was Kovalainen in 11th just outside the points and Schumacher recovering from a 10 place drop before the race. There was a little period of calm after some of the over-exuberance early on, where all the investigations and penalties were doled out to the villains of the first two corners, as the DRS system was deactivated following the restart.

Things slid back into action down at the hairpin where we saw a Sauber diving down the inside of a McLaren, this time it wasn't Kobayashi in his favourite overtaking spot, but One-Stop Perez catching Hamliton off guard with a brilliant pass. In the early stages Hamliton's pace was not up with the cars around him and came under pressure from the next car in line - Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India. There were also problems in the Mercedes garage where their remaining car had lost all telemetry, something that has become more of an issue, the third car in as many races with data transmission issues. Life was much easier at the front where Vettel was having a very easy drive with a decent gap to Kamui, and Button was slowly drifting back towards the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. 

While not too much was going on it was a good time to start the pit stops no-one was coming in too early do confirm they were running a three-stop race, but not too late to rule out the possibility in case plan B was needed. However there were some drivers staying out a little longer, cementing the predominant strategy, which caused problems for those in the top half of the field, mainly caused by the Torro Rosso team. Two pairs of drivers found themselves trapped behind one of each of the STR cars - Kimi and Hulkenberg found themselves trapped behind Vergne; while Kamui and Button were stuck behind Ricciardo. As these drivers were being hampered others benefited, none more so than Felipe Massa who jumped ahead of Kobayashi into 2nd. Eventually the Sauber driver was able to defeat the Australian, naturally using his favourite corner to get the job done and pull out a gap while Button attempted the same feat. 

Hamilton also gained from the first round of stops, emerging back ahead of the Sauber that passed him earlier in the race, but Perez was carrying more pace than the McLaren. Sergio came across the Lewis once more into the renamed Kobayashi corner, Hamilton defended catching Perez out a little forcing him to dive to outside to avoid contact. The Sauber slid on the marbles on the outside and ended up facing the barrier sitting in the gravel in retirement. Raikkonen on the other hand was doing a better job of getting past people, first using DRS to dispatch Vergne into the first corner, before catching Heikki's Caterham (which at this point was in the points) on the run towards Spoon. Due to the massive difference in car pace the pass was easy in the end down the inside of the first part of the corner. Further up the grid there were some concerned faces on the McLaren pitwall as Jenson reported a gearbox issue, and after Hamliton's erupted in Singapore, but the problem was traced to some damaged sensors on the rear of the car and not race threatening. 

The small flurry of activity had once more settled down once more once the majority of the cars had cycled through their the pit-stops. Vettel had gone and remained gone a long way in the distance from Massa in second, Kamui completed the podium at this point with button in 4th, Raikkonen and Hamliton were contending for 5th. All the way down the field order was being restored and penalties from the opening lap being sorted out - Kovalainen was being shuffled back from the lofty heights of being in the points back towards the rest of the newer teams as the likes of Senna and Grosjean recovered from lowly running positions. Some fluctuation in the relative distances between the main runners up front suggested change was possible as Massa chipped time from Vettel and the same with Button catching Vettel but the differences were minimal. 

So we shall wheel ahead to the second round of pit-stops and Hamilton's call to pit came a little earlier than he had planned - just as he started setting strong sector times the team brought him in as they saw a chance to pass Kimi. As long as the stop was close to the 2.5s mark - making it a rather close call, and things got just as close as Lewis left the lane and rejoined the track. Both cars arrived into the first corner two wide with Hamilton on the outside, Kimi fought for the place but had to turn out of the the corner to avoid contact in turn two losing the position to the McLaren. Jenson was in the same situation with his battle with Kobayashi, a good stop could take the position, but it wasn't to be as a little issue on a front wheel delayed the stop and the Sauber held onto third place. Back outside the points something interesting was emerging, Senna on a set of soft tyres was setting an array of fastest laps. This raised the question of who else was going to have a go on the alternate compound to gain speed towards the end of the lap, but only Schumacher on the fringe of making it into the points decided to have a go. 

Senna found himself behind the Force India of Paul Di Resta with considerably more pace, and for a while this was the only battle in the entirety of the field, as everyone else had spaced themselves out after the final stops. Bruno struggled to find away past the Scotsman who had enough pace on the main straight to counter the DRS attacks on the main straight. Therefore the Williams driver needed to be a little more inventive, and the move came in the most unlikely of places, after getting a strong run on the exit of Spoon corner Senna went to the outside towards 130R. Luckily Bruno was able to complete the pass before the turn in point to the corner, because running two wide on worn tyres through that bend would likely result in a lot of damage and a visit to the tyre barrier. 

As the laps ticked down towards the end of the race two battles were starting to develop, as the fight for the victory was effectively over yesterday and Massa was secured in second. But things were not certain for the final podium finish, as Button was closing methodically on Kamui hoping to steal the place from the local hero at the end of the race. Something that wouldn't go down too well with the crowd. At the opposite end of the points Schumacher was trying to take tenth place away from the Torro Rosso of Ricciardo and the final championship point. It was a tense few laps for both battles especially the duel for third place, as Button eeked closer to the Sauber, it was scary here at blog HQ and conflicted. On the one hand it would have been nice to see last season's bonus points champion do well, but it would have been so much better to see Kamui to hang on to the podium at his first race when fighting for his drive. 

Out front Vettel was so far ahead he had already finished by this point, and Massa was able to drive the remaining Ferrari home for an important podium and his first since Korea 2010 continuing a good run of form to save his drive. The battle for the podium went to the line, but Kamui absorbed all the pressure Button could deliver to keep the position and score a fantastic podium position on his home track - if that doesn't resurrect his drive not much else will. Behind Button was Hamilton, benefiting from other strategies and co-operation from Raikkonen to claim 5th ahead of the Finnish driver. More points for Force India delivered by Nico Hulkenberg in 7th, while Maldonado finished 8th as Grosjean starts to claim his title as the Villain of the series. The top ten was rounded out by Webber in 9th recovering from the initial lap spin after being hit by the Lotus, and Ricciardo held off Schumacher to take the final point in tenth place. 

The bonus points championship points winners

The Japanese GP has proven to be a great success, with immensely popular results towards the front of the grid, with some strong recovery drives and important career saving performances across the field. But if there is anything more important than keeping your seat are the all important bonus points. 

• 25pts - Kamui Kobayashi - A fantastic first podium finish in front of the local crowd
• 18pts - Felipe Massa - Another very important result when his team-mate made a mess of the opening corner
• 15pts - Mark Webber - A strong recovery drive after being binned in turn two and not being allowed to catch the train of cars before the restart
• 12pts - Jenson Button - A very strong start from 8th to 3rd, avoiding the melee and pressuring the Sauber to the end of the race
• 10pts - Sebastien Vettel - Suppose there should be some points for being so dominant
• 8pts - Bruno Senna - Has to have some points for going round the outside of Grosjean in 130R
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton  - A decent drive considering the flaws in the pace of the car, and racing with Kimi through turn one
• 4pts - One-Stop Perez - A great first move on Hamilton on lap 6, would have been more if the second one worked out too
• 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - Scoring points without hitting people in a solid and well behaved race
• 1pt - Daniel Ricciardo - For holding off the charge of Schumacher's Mercedes for the last point

The penalties series

After the Belgian GP where things were quite a lot heated in the first corner and penalties were issued across the weekend things were calmer and more well behaved, however that run ended this weekend and some penalties have been issued as follows. 

• Romain Grosjean - 10s Stop and Go Penalty - For hitting Webber in the second corner
• Bruno Senna - Drive through penalty - For hitting Rosberg in the melee
• Vitaly Petrov - Drive through penalty - For ignoring blue flags at some point during the race

The penalty points series 

Where the stewards didn't take action against the drivers or other entities there is always this championship to take care of things. Today there is only one addition to things and it really only adds further insult to rather disastrous afternoon for Romain Grosjean. Being handed a penalty point for pulling the car into retirement without there actually being a problem with it.

Looking forward to Korea

Sadly we do have to drive away from Japan and the traditional undulating sweepers and legendary curves of Sukuka, but the calendar moves on at a relentless pace. In less than a week the first practice session will be underway in South Korea, at an event which is at risk of losing it's place on the calendar for future seasons. Initial plans claimed a whole city of resorts and attractions would spring up around the track, but in the two years the series has visited no progress has been made. Some of the track still looked like a building site in the second running of the event.

As a track it is another Tilke effort and is a lap of two distinct phases, one designed to challenge the cars and be enjoyable to drive, and the other half only existing to allow passing and encourage some overtaking. The result is a that neither phase works particularly well and some elements are just appalling and badly suited to high power open wheel racing. But some interesting weather in it's début race rectified the flaws in the layout. Some of the track that has been engineered to reflect a street environment that was never actually built can prove difficult to remove stricken cars as shown by Schumacher's crash last season opening the door for more safety car interventions. So while on the surface Korea can seem like an uneventful race, but there are chances for more unpredictability and entertainment, so until then this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.