The first half of grand finale has now been completed under what was an increasingly brightening sky, there was the faint hint that qualifying was going to be reflection of the rain interrupted madness of 2010. A session which saw Hulkenberg take pole - to which Williams rewarded the achievement by firing him... friendly. It is such matters that are at the forefront of discussions before we get into the content of the session earlier on today. Two more driver movements have been decided before the start of the weekend, both of which have some fairly disturbing implications for the line-up going into 2013. First up we have a change at the back of the grid, where Charles Pic has been collected by Caterham on what is dubbed a multi-year deal. This works out well for Pic because Marussia have a habit of binning Timo's team-mates after the first year, once they've extracted the maximum sponsor money out of them. However this only leaves one more seat at Caterham, and the team have one decision to make - pick the best driver, or one who pays to be here - a decision which looks bad for Kovalainen because having money is much more important than actual ability.
Then there is the other driver change slightly further forward - where once more being able to drive the car appears not to be a requisite for being on the grid. Because Sauber have binned Kobayashi, to be replaced with GP2 driver Esteban Gutierrez who looks barely old enough to own a car never mind race one on an F1 grid. His backing comes from the same source as One-Stop Perez which is enough money to overthrow Kamui's position, and there is a lack of possible other seats for the Japanese racer to go to in the coming season. I have so say I am disappointed on both counts, the same thing got Hulkenberg fired seasons ago - it is a reflection on the dammed state of the global economy it's managed to ruin pretty much everything crippling all life as we know it into an endless stream of emptiness. That is tolerable, but messing with the sport, not cool people, not cool.
All that aside there was a very important session sitting underneath the layers of political selections, and the imminent threat of interesting conditions. Where everyone was focussed on the two drivers duelling for the championship.
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| credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
Half an hour before the session was due to begin, the skies deposited a thin layer of rain on the track, and raised several theories about how much more was going to fall before and during the proceedings. It was a shower that seemed to raise hopes a little in the Ferrari garage as their dry running pace was a significantly down on his major rival. But the shower was only brief and the majority of the track had dried out before the first cars were due to venture out.
It was a disorganised queue of the newer cars at the bottom end of the pit lane headed by Heikki, probably wanting to get away from his team before they fire him for not being rich enough. All six of the lower cars tried to leave the garage all at the same time - to the point where Pic almost thought about passing an HRT down the exit road. The battle continued onto the track, where Glock passed Kovalainen on the inside of Juncao corner, but ran wide almost bumping the Caterham off track in the process. Heikki cut back to the inside of the Marussia onto the main straight. Everyone else decided not bother going out onto the track waiting for the rest of the field to clear a drier line, but there was a lot oversteering moments on the single wet corner of the lap.
After a while the main runners took to the track looking to defeat an the early pace by Maldonado and Kobayashi, it was clear that McLaren had the pace over the most of the competition not too far ahead of Red Bull. As the track dried up the times started to tumble rapidly shaving seconds off the top time, but then there was a little bit of incident, which wasn't too far away from being a massive incident. As Grosjean tried to find space which didn't exist on the inside of Pedro De La Rosa's HRT. Contact was made and Romain lost his front wing in the process, fortunately the wing didn't go under the front wheels and fire the Lotus into the wall. Grosjean lost time replacing the wing, and therefore didn't have enough time to get back up to speed. The lap he set at the end of the session was beaten by Ricciardo knocking him into the relegation zone with the new teams while Hamliton ended the session on top.
Into the second session and the track was now dry enough across the entire lap for the slick tyres and lap times were much closer to the dry times posted in the final practice session. In an initial change of fortune the Ferrari drivers were at the top of the times at the start of the session, but there was no time on the board from the Red Bulls or the McLaren drivers so that would explain why Ferrari were able to take an initial lead. Hulkenberg was able to split the two Ferraris, and this time he would be able to qualify the car without being fired - even though he is moving across to Sauber. All of the remaining drivers had set a time apart from the top two teams - but they had just left the garage to start an outlap.
Almost as soon as Hamilton took to the track he decimated Alonso's leading time, finding close to a full second over the Ferrari, Vettel was then able to go a couple of tenths faster after drafting Massa on the main straight. Not sure that will go down well in the Ferrari camp, considering the team would give Massa penalty even if his breathing inconvenienced Alonso. In the remaining minutes of the session the Ferraris started to fall towards the end of the top ten as Raikkonen, Maldonado and Rosberg were able to break into the top ten. Massa too found himself out of the final part of qualifying, but a last lap rescued his position to the expense of Paul Di Resta in the second Force India.
Ten minutes and ten drivers remained for the final part of qualifying including both of the championship contenders at opposite ends of the roster - at this stage things were looking rather good for Vettel to walk away on Sunday with another championship. But there was one session to go, although the rainfall for the day had stopped leaving a dry playing field to define the grid for tomorrow. A session that was started by the only remaining Mercedes in the competition - Nico Rosberg, setting a comparatively slow time - a time that was pulverised by Hamilton to the tune of nine seconds, illustrating how limited Nico's opening effort was. Alonso was only able to come within 6 tenths of the McLaren to line up second on his first run. This 6 tenth gap was first exploited by Button, followed soon by Massa and Webber. As for Vettel his first effort saw him run wide and only manage 6th behind the Ferrari, as everyone regrouped for the second run.
In the gap when the track was empty, Hulkenberg used the space to move up into fourth before the others came back out again. It was Webber who was the first to readjust the order setting the new fastest time in the Red Bull, in a time that weathered the storm both Alonso and his team-mate Vettel. A strong time from Maldonado saw Fernando lose another place - but at the top it was Hamilton once more edging ahead of the Australian only leaving button to complete his lap. Jenson was going rather quickly but when the McLaren crossed the line he was half a tenth slower then the other silver machine resulting in a McLaren 1-2, and a pole for Lewis in his final race for the team. Red Bull claim the second row with Webber the quicker of the pair. Massa out-qualified Alonso to score 5th, which probably annoyed every fibre of the Ferrari pit wall. Maldonado and Hulkenberg were next on grid before we finally get to the second Ferrari entry. At the bottom of the top ten we have Raikkonen and Rosberg.
The Bonus Points championship points winners
With the main championship approaching its conclusion it is time to unveil the penultimate entry in the bonus points championship where there are far more drivers in contention - including both of the central rivals out in the real world, whatever the real world is anymore. Here are the winners from Qualifying.
- 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Two years after being fired by Williams for taking pole and not being rich enough coming back to be on the same row as his highly financially backed replacement
- 8pts - Mark Webber -
- 6pts - Vitaly Petrov - For out qualifying Heikki, although the team have thoroughly demoralised the Finn in their team decisions
- 5pts - Felipe Massa - For out qualifying Alonso, which is a rebellious move, fight the system Felipe and win bonus points for doing so
- 4pts - Lewis Hamliton - So much speed this weekend, makes you wonder why leave it but going quickly at the moment
- 3pts - Jenson Button - Almost taking pole from his team-mate in another stong session
- 2pts - Timo Glock/Kovalainen - Have to have bonus points for their sideways duel in the wet final sector of the lap,
- 1pt - Pastor Maldonado - Has to have point for a ballsy pass on De La Rosa round the outside near the wall in the final corner.
The Penalties championship
Despite the very close call between the Lotus and HRT in Q1 no penalties were handed out to them, we only have one penalty to add to the charts following qualifying. That penalty goes to Pastor Maldonado who ignored the light telling him to visit the weighbridge. As a result he earned himself a 10 place grid penalty, on the surface this seems harsh, but is a consequence of receiving three warnings in a season for various other offences this year, so cumulatively this is the result.
The Penalty points championship
This table however does get some additional entrants following the opening phase of this weekend, and are as follows.
- Romain Grosjean - trying to fit the car in that space was madness, and the result of the contact could have been very destructive indeed and dangerous.
- Sauber - for binning Kamui for a financially backed youth
- Catherham - for seemingly neglecting Heikki - the best driver their struggling team has on the verge of being thrown out of the series altogether.
Looking to tomorrow
Every post session interview referenced one thing - rain - the forecast has been fluctuating across the day, from presenting a dry session to an 80% chance of heavy rains, so the outcome of the race will likely be defined by the weather. In the dry we can assume that the McLarens - barring mechanical failures - to vanish off into the distance tailed by the Red Bulls. Alonso will fight past the Force India of Hulkenberg, and be gifted the next place by Massa who will be on orders not to occupy the same straight as the Spaniard. Once released will charge after the cars in front for a final battle to the line, but the championship will once more be handed across to that German bloke.
Should the rain fall however absolutely anything can happen, we've had wet Brazillan GP's where one third of the podium finished the race in hospital and the victory took a week to figure out - eventually becoming the last win for Jordan. Titles have been won and lost in the rain in Interlagos all within 200m of the finish line. A wet race is a mire of unpredictability and potential for safety cars is massively increased, in the aforementioned race the safety car was called on several occasions to cover several accidents and incidents - so the grand finale of F1 2012 could be a very exciting adventurous event, well worth looking forward to. Something to see the season out on a high, so the blog hopes for rain because I would like a mad, mad race to end the year. So until tomorrow this is farewell from the blog.
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