We have spent all winter waiting for some competitive track action, where everyone has the same goal, the same objectives and roughly the same configuration - in testing they all have individual programs to run to. But today, in the small hours of the morning while we were all asleep as I was qualifying got underway, more on how that played out later on - today's post may be a little shorter than it traditionally is. This is the first time we've seen all the new cars in the same place at the same time in nice and shiny HD, and for the most part, the updated liveries look brilliant - if only McLaren and Force India bothered refining there designs over the winter. Even the seemingly questionable colour Caterham have painted their car in looks really good - even after it kept getting reshaped during the session. Staying at the back of the grid, the Marussia also looks great in its simplicity - with a design not interrupted with aerodynamic fins, and devices. One of the slight let-downs in the livery market, is that the Sauber doesn't look as evil and dark as it did in the initial press photos, there is a hint of deviance but not as edgy as it could have been.
The most confusing thing of a new season is having to learn all the new helmet designs and remind myself who is in which car - not entirely helpful at Mercedes where both Nico and Lewis are wearing virtually identical hats. If that wasn't enough One-Stop Perez at McLaren has come up with something exceedingly similar to the driver he is replacing. It is going to take several races to assimilate everything, so lets start with almost qualifying.
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| credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
Some considerable time later Q1 was officially started while a long queue was forming in the pit lane headed by the Mercedes clones where Hamilton may or may not be first in line - who can tell. Fortunately the timing system could and it was Hamilton leading Nico, to investigate the challenging conditions. Rosberg didn't have a problem with it and went fastest, but Hamilton was caught out by the water and span into the barrier ever so gently and reversed away from scene of the crime with a missing wing endplate. Wings fast become an endangered species as everyone spent some time a little close to the walls - and it was one of the newest drivers first to hit the wall properly, Gierdo Van Der Garde took the front wing off on his first lap in turn 6.
There was spray and cars everywhere, complete disorganised confusion - brilliant - drivers racing each other down the front straight Bottas had Raikkonen for company - and oddly Kimi didn't have his traditional rain ice-cream. Lotus need to sort that out pronto. Somewhere in the madness times were being set and Nico and unusually Vergne were towards the top of the timings - Torro Rosso seem to go very well in the wet. The population of front wings was lowered once more as Massa placed his Ferrari into the barrier - it was a substantial hit out of turn 12 decimating the wing but miraculously causing no other damage when spinning down the track before being able to replace the nose and carry on.
It was time to change onto intermediate tyres, and it was the british drivers who went first because rain is pretty much a state of fact here - as Jenson, and Di Resta experimented. Button went fastest and Di Resta went across the grass at the chicane, not be out-done Maldonado went for a bigger slide and remained in relegation. Without HRT, two mid-field cars will be demoted with Marussia and Caterham and both those places belonged to Williams, well they did until Bottas relegated Gutierrez's Sauber. If front wings though they were safe they was to be a last minute cull on carbon fibre, Perez and Van Der Garde came close, missing the inside wall in the fast chicane, but Pic in the other Caterham completed a clean sweep of smashing up nosecones. Those green walls were well camouflaged today as lots people ran into them, and the final laps of the session were compromised by some more damage - Esteban Gutierrez in an effort to make it out of Q1 replicated Massa's accident with the one slight exception was that the car was rather more ruined than the Ferrari was.
This is where Q2 would traditionally have been... but there was some more rain, and then there was the mere threat of rain which apparently is enough to keep adding delays to the proceedings. There was only a few rivers in place on track, and the odd puddle but no-one was allowed out - a little bit overly health and safety once more. So after missing a complete rain-free window to get through at least Q2 the rain and clouds intensified, making the combination of fading light, spray and the slippery conditions unsuitable to continue. So there was no more qualifying until midnight tonight - safe to say there will not be a second post for qualifying, audiences are thin on the ground as is so there is no real worth to a post at two in the morning. Especially as that is only four hours from the start of the race anyway...
The bonus points championship points winners
Because we haven't had a complete session today, the blog will only offer half points, as is the case in incomplete races. I don't know if the other half points will be added at the end of the race tomorrow, haven't decided on that yet. But here are the half-winners from today.
- 5pts - Jean Eric Vergne - Holding the car in the top three in the wettest part of the session and still competitive on the intermediates
- 3pts - Nico Rosberg - Was penned as being beaten by Hamilton in the press, but destroyed that claim in conditions you'd expect Lewis to do well - and for not crashing the Mercedes considering Hamilton is on his third accident already.
- 2pts - Valtteri Bottas - The only rookie to escape Q1 beating his team-mate in the process, well done there
- 1.5pts - Felipe Massa - How that car still works remains a mystery it was a major hit and it drove away easily.
- 1pt - Max Chilton - For not being as crap as we all expected beating both Caterhams today
- 0.5pt - Alan Van Der Merwe - For completing so many laps in the Medical Car which sounded fantastic driving round.
On top of that there has to be honourable mentions for Maldonado's save on turn in to turn 11, Van Der Garde for leading the entire relegation zone in the heaviest of the rains, and finally for the rain that made things interesting.
The Penalty Points championship
Even though there was very little of anything going on, the management of the conditions was once more a little over-cautions and that might explain why we have to wait until midnight to actually solve this session. So the first penalty point of the season goes to health and safety - you'd expect the theoretically best drivers in the entire world being able to understand where they can push harder and when to look out for puddles and rivers.
The Penalties Series
We haven't done too much this season and have only completed 20 minutes in a competitive session all weekend there have several fines already:
- Bottas - 2,800 EUR
- Gutierrez - 800 EUR
- Massa - 1,400 EUR
- Hulkenberg - 1,000 EUR
So there we have it, the end of the first Saturday of the season and it is completely inconclusive - Hulkenberg leads but Red Bull and that German bloke have been dominant in the dry practice sessions. McLaren are a lot further off the pace than they intended - trapped in the mid-field, while Mercedes and Lotus make significant strides. Williams have been another loser in the off-season falling to the back of the grid - except the bit where Marussia and Caterham live in a reversed order this year. We still don't have a pole-sitter and there this still a threat of rain for the continuation of the session and the race after that, drawing out the anticipation even further so until tomorrow this is a confused farewell from me here are Blog HQ.
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