This post is rather a little behind schedule as there was a slight interjection into my schedule on possibly the most unnecessarily long bus journey ever so long in fact the was a need for a Le Mans style driver change at the half way point. However it was far from slick, Audi would would have knocked several minutes off that. As a result I'll probably have to cut things down a little just to make sure this doesn't run easily into tomorrow and considering that the race is on in the morning as it is, it'll even further threaten the dwindling audience members considering everyone will be asleep. This thing as it is, already verges on pointlessness so for this race I'll try something a little different and run through the grid and the individual stories of the day, that started well over 12 hours ago.
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| Image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
This morning session was threatened to be another replica of the washout suffered in Australia especially with a history of monsoons and tropical storms - which have caused mayhem in many a race over recent years. So when the skies appeared dry overhead and track temperatures remaining high, there were mixed feelings of both disappointment and relief because the powers that be have an overwhelming tendency to cancel and red flag everything at the first sign of moisture, crying off under the wide ranging excuse of 'health and safety' even on a track with run-off areas wider than the Atlantic ocean. There was some rain for the final phase of the event, coming in during the end of Q2 and up to the middle of Q3 - so this is how we will line up tomorrow morning.
Q1
- 22nd - Gierdo Van Der Garde - Caterham are at the very back of the grid after years dominating the division, but because Gierdo is not Kovalainen there is a performance difference and was three tenths off the nearest car.
- 21st - Max Chilton - Oh, dear, not going so well this time is it, the Marussia should be a little further forward, but at least he isn't last... somehow.
- 20th - Charles Pic - Getting a little more out of the Caterham, and placing it where roughly it should be on pace, considerably ahead of where Van Der Garde has placed his.
- 19th - Jules Bianchi - Completely hammered the entire third division, and anihilated Chilton's time, I'm not entirely sure the Marussia should be going this fast but Jules is re-writing the rules at the bottom end of the grid.
- 18th - Valtteri Bottas - More problems for Williams, the car is fundamentally slower than it's main rivals and drifting back towards Bianchi, the sole contender to escape the bottom division.
- 17th - Jean-Eric Vergne - Vergne has spent a lot of time being relegated from Q1 and this one adds to the list, Torro Rosso and Willams are are both on the backfoot in terms of pace and losing ground to the rest of the mid-field.
Q2
- 16th - Pastor Maldonado - The bad times at Williams continue, Pastor was unable to set a time in Q2 because his run schedule happened to coincide with the shower at the end of the session and it was not feasible to complete a competitive time and would have ended up last in the group anyway.
- 15th - Paul Di Resta - Similar problems for the Force India driver, who was on a much better lap aiming for Q3, but caught the rain on entry to turn 7 and slid wide off the circuit. A second attempt immediately after saw him spin the car in the same corner and confirming the 15th place start position
- 14th - Esteban Gutierrez - A fairly anonymous session flying under the radar, being generally unspectacular throughout having got all the spinning and upsetting Ferrari out of the system in practice.
- 13th - Daniel Ricciardo - A reasonable qualifying for the Torro Rosso who seem a little further off the mid-field than they were in Melbourne, but because times with Sauber are close the race could be rather close in the middle. Williams might even get to play, perhaps.
- 12th -Nico Hulkenberg - The second Sauber to be virtually unnoticed by the TV crews, but then again in the last race they failed to notice anyone outside the top 8... so that's where Nico needs to be to be more visible.
- 11th - Romain Grosjean - Slightly caught out by the rains too, lost the opportunity to make and gains in the latter part of the session, only just missing out on making it into Q3 by the smallest of margins
Q3
- 10th - Kimi Raikkonen - Actually qualified 7th, but somewhere along the line got in the way of Nico Rosberg, and as a result had been demoted down to 10th a three place grid drop penalty making the prospect for the race a little more interesting. But makes is more challenging for Raikkonen not that he particularly cares.
- 9th - One-Stop Perez - His first qualifying in the top 10, this season for McLaren and promoted due to Kimi's penalty, however this might be the highest this silver car will place over the weekend.
- 8th - Adrian Sutil - Continuing to make an impressive comeback and beating Di Resta into the top 10, and due to the wet Q3 has free reign on tyres for the start of the race.
- 7th - Jenson Button - Things are McLaren are not fixed but slowly getting a little better and potentially wet conditions may ease things on Button's side of the garage over the course of the race tomorrow morning.
- 6th - Nico Rosberg - Had a strong opening couple of phases of qualifying but after the apparent issue with Kimi ended up further back than his team-mate on the grid - but in the rain has been the fastest member of the team.
- 5th - Mark Webber - Made the wrong strategy call in Q3, not changing the intermediate tyres after they would have been damaged through the dry opening sector costing time and a chance to improve in the final moments of the session.
- 4th - Lewis Hamilton - The move to Mercedes seems to be more beneficial than it first seemed as the pace continues this weekend, ahead of Lotus in the pecking order for tomorrow's race, both wet or dry.
- 3rd - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari remain quick, and consistently so and under race conditions Fernando could be considered to be one of the most threatening prospects for a race win
- 2nd - Felipe Massa - Beating the clear team favourite once again to start a run of 100% out-qualifying record in 2013, in the race however - a convenient strategy call might reverse those positions.
- 1st - That German Bloke - Well in many respects, we all saw that one coming, surprise surprise all round, but the race is a whole different game...
The Bonus Points Championship points winners
Here are the winners from the session all those hours ago in the middle of the morning:
- 10pts - Jules Bianchi - Completely blew the rest of the division away and was not too far away from making it out of Q1 on raw pace which is really impressive.
- 8pts - Felipe Massa - Is well on form at present and might threaten reversing the team order, nah just kidding anything barring an official decree from this new pope chap will alter that
- 6pts - Adrian Sutil - Still doing rather well for Force India, much to Di Resta's dismay
- 5pts - Nico Rosberg - Performed really well up until the final phase, beating Hamilton up until that point in the session.
- 4pts - One-Stop Perez - Getting the challenged McLaren out of Q2 even if it was only in 10th
- 3pts - Esteban Gutierrez - The only one of the rookies to escape Q1 this time round
- 2pts - Paul Di Resta - For an epic drifting save through turn four when there was some rain through the second practice session
- 1pt - Fabio Leimer - For winning the first GP2 race of the season so here's a point.
The Penalty Points Series
Only one point is to be issued, and that it is not within the field and it goes to the GP2 division and Johnny Checotto - who went for some Maldonado-esque vigilante justice on Sam Bird pushing him completely off the track because he felt aggrieved by the Brit earlier on. Illustrating that a lot of the madness that makes it into F1 does start in the lower formulae.
The Penalties Series
Two additions to this tally from the first part of the weekend, first is the grid drop handed to Raikkonen for blocking Rosberg, while the second is another speeding issue, this time for Bianchi handed 2,800 EUR in fines on Friday
Because it is really late now, and this post has already taken two hours to write as is, I shall bid whoever reads these things farewell until tomorrow afternoon, which should be closer to a representative schedule
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