As the lights illuminated above the Yas Marina circuit, the grid has been set for tomorrow and the seemingly impeccable and insurmountable form of the recent races has been tweaked a little this afternoon. Although once more it is verging into the evening as I boot up the machine for making this post to the internet, and will be closer to evening when it is eventually released. In a sense these little - well not so little really, outbursts are a temporal window into the life here at blog HQ, as it takes that long to compile them. On that note it might explain why the viewing figures have been falling apart recently, in some cases struggling to pass over single figures, which probably only covers web crawlers and search engines - no actual people. But I don't mind twittering on to myself, I do most of the time anyhow either in or out of my little corner of the room.
More ranting aside, this blog is here for the racing and in terms of the saturday post, the all important qualifying session, and unlike other events of the season like India - for those who managed to stay awake through it. I did through the help of a toastie infused with special sauce, nothing keeps you awake at that time of the morning like a painful breakfast. In Abu-Dhabi overtaking is rather less possible, a by product of the excessive amount of corners especially on the latter half of the lap near the marina. Exacerbated by the fact that one of the straights is actually curved and the other one narrows on the racing line towards the braking zone. All these factors meant that qualifying pace is slightly more important, reflecting places like Singapore and Monaco - Vettel even made a comparison to Valencia, which explains everything. Yas Marina effectively is Valencia but disguised under layers of shiny lights and quirky buildings. But I'm onto you Abu Dhabi, your lights can't fool me, although it does look rather cool, even if it can generate some dull racing. On the upside it only has to beat India, and that might not take too much.
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| image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
The session began under the natural Arabian sun as the evening was rapidly approaching bringing with it the darkness and cooler temperatures. An issue that has seemed to fade away from the spotlight, as the last time we were in the middle east, the temperatures made Lotus rather quick almost giving Kimi his first win since his return at the beginning of the year. Even the evening/night temperatures would be classified as a heat wave in the dull and soggy land blog HQ hides in, but at this end of the season the teams have reached a start of equilibrium performing similarly across the thermal ranges.
At the start of Q1 there was a small queue waiting on the end of the pit lane for the light to open the start of the first session. Kamui Kobayashi lined up first to make the descent through the underground pit lane exit, initially followed by Maldonado's Williams, but Grosjean - third in line - passed the Venezuelan just before the ramp into the tunnel. Of the group Maldonado set the fastest time, but the track was getting much busier with only the Red Bulls and Hamilton remaining in the garage. This meant there was a resurgent Alonso on track somewhere, and he duly announced his presence with a faster time - only by 0.021s however, a time which Pastor beat to reclaim the lead.
As the session drew on drivers were beginning to explore the limits of the track, Hamilton locking up at the end of the second straight scooting across the overly blue tarmac and missing out the following chicane. On reflection that is a much better line for that corner, rather than the naff sequence currently in place, it might hinder overtaking a little, but it would improve the track - if only we could fix the rest of it. Coming out late was Vettel and it was his turn to try and modify the track, brushing the wall after passing under the hotel, but as it was the German Bloke - no damage was done and completed the lap in a respectable time. Battling for relegation were the same faces including Vergne, who has a habit of being relegated in Q1, just being the car that set the first lap of the session - Kobayashi. Struggling down at this end wasn't helpful to maintain his Sauber contract.
Q1 ended with Hamilton setting the fastest time, while Alonso spent the session powersliding his Ferrari to third behind Webber, and championship leader lagging further down the times in 9th. The most interesting story of Q1 was that Charles Pic in the Marussia not only beat his team-mate but one of the Caterham drivers lining up second in the division behind the dominant force of Heikki Kovalainen. All of which have no confirmed contracts for the coming season.
Moving on now to the second part of qualifying and after a small period of inactivity, the majority of the cars took to the track headed by One-Stop Perez in the Sauber and Button's McLaren; only Hulkenberg remained in the pit lane. But it was the Lotus cars who set the early pace, with Raikkonen taking the lead, only to see Grosjean go faster by the tiniest of margins. However that was short lived as Hamilton continued the form of the first part of the session to take his McLaren to the top of the timings. In the middle of the top ten, the times were getting rather close indeed, a tenth covered several drivers most of which were on a 1:41.5 including Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and the entire Lotus team.
With things being so close the amount of position changes as the minutes started to run out was surprisingly small, those who were in the relegation zone were staying there meaning those on the other side were safe. Hulkenberg in 11th was 0.118s outside of making it through into the next phase, in comparison to other weekends that was a large space as it is normally measured in hundredths and thousandths. The thought of which makes me rather hungry - there might be a little interval in proceedings as I go to lunch. The major margins were opening up at the front of the field where Hamilton seemed to have a comfortable margin from any potential challenger, a power that Vettel has been used to for a few races. Interestingly it emerged once more that Webber was the closest contender against the McLaren, additionally on the other side of the McLaren garage Button wasn't having such a good time, almost dropping out of Q2 as Rosberg made it through in the Mercedes.
We only had 10 drivers remaining and 10 minutes set into the timer it was time for the final phase of qualifying, and unlike other Q3 sessions quite a few drivers went out on the opening lap instead of waiting in the garage until the very end. In the beginning Lotus locked out the opening row of the grid, recalling the formation flying approach of their former era as Renault Squadron, with Kimi acting as Squadron Leader. However Fernando shot them down to take the provisional lead of the session, even that was temporary as Hamilton stretched his advantage even further setting an unassailable target. Alonso was subsequently beaten by both of the Red Bulls at the conclusion of the first runs.
As the cars filtered out of the pits Maldonado and Massa joined the runners on track, but the overall pole position was realistically out of reach for anyone who wasn't Hamilton. Felipe completed his lap but spent too much time missing apexes and sliding to make any significant ground, Maldonado however managed to get his car up into 3rd between the Red Bulls - beating Webber and Alonso. Things didn't improve for Fernando as he was then beaten by Squadron Leader Raikkonen in the Lotus. Webber partially re-addressed the balance of power to put both Red Bulls onto the front row by demoting Maldonado and going second. Well at the sharp end Hamilton didn't need to complete his final lap as his current time was good enough for pole as it was, and Vettel after finishing his run pulled the car over underneath the hotel walkway after being instructed to stop the car. Assuming more troubles with the alternator which has cost him many points already this year.. Speaking of points.
The Bonus points championship points winners
Here are the points scorers from qualifying in Abu Dhabi this afternoon
- 10pts - Charles Pic - not only fot beating Glock but also for beating the Caterham of Petrov and almost leading the entire division
- 8pts - Pastor Maldonado - another sporadic burst of speed on a track that in places resembles a street track
- 6pts - Nico Rosberg - for forcibly dragging a fading Mercedes into the top ten of qualifying and 8th on the grid
- 5pts - Lewis Hamilton - has to have some points for ending the reign of Vettel based domination
- 4pts - Sebastien Vettel - for brushing the wall on the exit of the hotel - it looked cool
- 3pts - Romain Grosjean - for overtaking before the descent into the underground tunnel
- 2pts - Felipe Massa - for the best of the slides from the qualifying hour
- 1pt - Kimi Raikkonen - for being able out-qualify half of the first division teams
Looking to tomorrow
As we didn't have any penalties handed out from this afternoons session, a couple of investigations were carried out but nothing has surfaced at this later stage, everyone was well behaved so there are no penalty points to hand out either. So we move on to the prospect of the race tomorrow, which is the second outside broadcast of the season - to a realm far above the questionable culinary quality of pre-race toasties that are on the menu here. And on the back of two rather uneventful races in Korea and India we could do with the action in Abu Dhabi to be of a better class too, there is the matter that for the first time in a while Vettel won't be leading off the front row and vanishing off into the distance. But other than him and Alonso there are not too many cars too far out of position on the grid, which does lead towards a static event.
However the environment this time round is slightly different in comparison to the previous two races, the walls are closer and the margins of error are slightly smaller, and those factors increase the potential for a safety car intervention. Although there haven't been too many of those in previous iterations of the event, most recently when Liuzzi ended up on top of Schumacher on the opening lap, but aside from that things have been calmer. Further evidence is rather damming, in 2010 Alonso spend a massive amount of time behind Petrov in a Renault despite having the faster car, and leading Vettel to the title. The Russian may not be in play tomorrow, neither is the championship up for grabs, but it is the same two contenders at the sharper end of the season - so the 2012 Abu Dhabi may not be enthralling but it can be very pivotal in deciding who takes the title in Brazil - or potentially in the states. So until then this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.
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