Round 8: Great Britain 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well, if Pirelli were not making too many friends in the build-up to today's race - they are certainly off the Christmas card list for several drivers at the end of the race. This time round I can agree with most of the things that have been said throughout the events of the race and discussions afterwards, because things have transgressed beyond mere performance issues to clear safety issues - something that has come to the fore more so in reflection of the tragic accident at Le Mans. Right now fingers are being pointed at the curbing, but here's the thing, the curbs have been there for a long time and are not a new thing to account for. So they may have been the cause of the failures, but realistically tyres should be able to resist the conditions that have been around for many many seasons.

However underneath all the issues with tyres the British GP has been an impressive spectacle with a lot close racing and overtaking - not all of which were constricted to the DRS zones as we have seen in other events this year. Several cars were out of position at the start and others placed there through circumstances through the race, therefore producing mismatches of relative pace opened those doors for overtaking. But despite this race being one of the more notable events on the calender, and being a genuinely decent race, something seemed missing - perhaps a lack of complimentary muffins, or not being stalked by potentially villainous sheep, but I assume normal service will resume next weekend when I've re-integrated into the traditional pattern of sleep and activity. There is the small matter of this event to take care of first.

The Race

Small climatic changes had taken place before the start as it had warmed up a fair bit, which for this little island is always a rarity, especially considering I spent a lot of time in the rain in Wales - but the heat could easily be another ingredient in the recipe for tyre destruction.

The actual start was a picture of contrasting fortunes and performances at the bottom end of the scale was Red Bull's Mark Webber who vanished down the middle of the pack and was four wide at the apex of turn one. A situation that was exacerbated by the fact that one of the four cars was Romain Grosjean and as a result contact was made and Webber lost an endplate again - hoping it would make the car faster as it did in Canada... instead he ended up 15th. On the outside of the same quarrel was Massa barrelling down the side of the track making up 6 places from his lowly grid position in one of the better starts of the season. Other notable starts included Raikkonen up to 5th, and Di Resta who was relegated to the back of the grid, and Sutil stealing 4th place.

Opening laps were cautionary as the top three edged away while Sutil had Raikkonen and Massa to deal with behind. Also worth knowing that for a grand total of 7 laps no-one had wanted to hunt down Pirelli and steal their supply of special muffins - so it was time for a monumental display to re-ignite the anger. What could be so damming on British soil... ah here's an idea, how about detonating the tyre on national hero and race leader Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. And so it was done, the left rear disintegrated showering the track in fragments of rubber - Hamilton was able to pit the car eventually but had dropped into last position. Passing the baton of leadership onto that German Bloke again. In an attempt to convey some degree of impartiality between nationalities, it was the turn of Felipe Massa's Ferrari to suffer an exploding rear tyre as the car turned into Aintree corner. So he went to the back of the field instead.

In response to the sudden spate of tyre explosions the pits saw an increased level of activity with people getting rid of the starting tyres in favour of the harder compound - which gave Webber a chance to replace his damaged front wing. Turns out this latest aerodynamic redesign was not as effective as the one Van Der Garde initiated in Montreal, where Mark went and set fastest lap after that damage. Through these stops the Lotus cars found themselves on a similar piece of track behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso - which lead to a brilliant duel as Raikkonen initially lost a place to Grosjean but was able to make the ground back as the two Frenchmen closed in on each other re-igniting a three way battle. As the the Lotus' they ended up racing each other allowing Vergne to eke out a small gap - and as Raikkonen was running side by side with his team-mate on the Hangar straight there was another tyre explosion. This one belonged to Vergne, the left rear erupting into a cloud of debris with fragments bouncing of Raikkonen's helmet. Unsurprisingly the Finn didn't care and focused on completing the pass on Grosjean.

The field of shrapnel from the Torro-Rosso forced the deployment of the safety car to allow the marshals to sweep the track clear and remove the carcass of the detonated tyre. Vernge was able to save the car from spinning out and doing more damage, but was forced retire due to a damaged floor from the explosion. More cars pitted for checks after the third explosion of the race - Webber was informed that Vettel had cuts on his tyres and were close to bursting at his last stop, other calls went out to try and keep drivers off the curbs, in case that was causing the tyres to fail. But using the curbs is faster than not doing so, on that note the chance of people willingly losing time is a little minimal at best.

At the restart it was in the middle of the train where position changes were taking place, as Hamilton was attempting to make a comeback by finding some space on the inside of Gutierrez through the exit of Vale. His next target other than the people at Pirelli was the second Sauber of Hulkenberg a little further down the road who in turn had just had contact with Di Resta's front wing causing the Force India to lose an endplate. Hulkenberg then pitted with more tyre issues before it had a chance to explode therefore Hamilton moved and he too had to deal with the Scotsman in an all Britain duel.

Back at the front Rosberg was starting to catch up to Vettel in this new phase of the race while Sutil was busy holding off Alonso for the final podium place with Raikkonen a little further back. The second Lotus was wrestling with another Red Bull sponsored machine - this time from the main team piloted by a recovering Webber, temporarily losing the place to the Australian before immediately taking it back. Battles that were interrupted by the presence of a lot more debris at the end of Hangar straight, and the replay showed that it belonged to Gutierrez - as the car slipped out of shot a cloud of debris erupted from the front of the car and it can only be assumed to be another tyre explosion. Perhaps when some fan video comes to light we can see whether the wing failed first or another problem for Pirelli. This time the debris was cleared without the need of a safety car and the race continued.

While some cars were pitting for their third set of tyres there was another major development as that German bloke's car keeled over and died on the front straight - as the gearbox ground itself into oblivion. At least it wasn't the tyres for once. Because the car had seized up in an inaccessible place the safety car had to come out again - the British GP isn't known for it's safety cars in the dry but here was our second. Also it set up an interesting final phase of the race, where those who stayed out beforehand had track position but much older tyres and thus less grip - placing the power with Webber and Alonso on the freshest rubber.

On restart number two there was a lot of spacing between the top cars with more bunching further behind - Alonso was the first to make progress past the McLarens, first darting out from behind Button on the run down to Copse and latching onto the back of Perez. That pass was made a little more interesting as Sergio's tyre also exploded as the Ferrari closed up once more sending bits of car and rubber bouncing down the road and off Alonso's car. Fernando was also able to follow Webber through as the Australian made it past fellow countryman and potential replacement - Daniel Ricciardo.  As the laps ran out the cars on older tyres continued to struggle falling victim to Webber, Alonso and Hamilton in turn the best of these battles was Webber taking second from Raikkonen as both cars went two wide through Copse without touching or forcing each other off the track. Brilliant overtaking.

Webber pushed hard in the remaining laps, cancelling out the lead Rosberg had and was unable to catch the German in time finishing seven tenths down at the line. Alonso scored important points in third especially considering Vettel didn't make it to the end to close up the championship a little more. Hamilton despite being last by lap nine was able to make a recovery drive to 4th position, ahead of Raikkonen in 5th on the older tyres. Massa also recovering from a tyre explosion that threw him off the track brought the car home in 6th. Sutil fell from a podium spot on the restart down to 7th, a similar fate to Ricciardo who dropped to 8th by the end of the race. From the final row of the grid Di Resta scored a couple of points in 9th and the final point goes to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race where all the attention was directed at the tyres and their tendency to explode, which wasn't part of the original product description, it was about recovery drives and making up for lost ground, and of course the bonus points.

• 25pts - Mark Webber - A slow start, contact and damage on the first lap yet still only 0.7s away from claiming what would have been a popular win
• 18pts  - Lewis Hamilton - Dropped to last place with an exploding tyre and still managed 4th
• 15pts  Felipe Massa - A brilliant start and a recovery drive from another exploding tyre
• 12pts - Paul Di-Resta - From the back of the field and into the points, decent job
• 10pts - Adrian Sutil - Ran the car in a podium place for so long before losing out at the end
• 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - For hanging onto the car at the fastest point when the tyre exploded
• 6pts - Fernando Alonso - For missing all of the debris from Perez's exploding tyre
• 4pts - Top Gun Rosberg - Well done for not retiring and surviving Webber in the final laps
• 2pts - Raikkonen/Grosjean - For still duelling through the cloud of peices from Vergne's car
• 1pt - Nico Hulkenberg - Gets a point for Sauber, well done there

The Penalty Points Championship

There is really one one penalty that can be dished out from that race and that obviously goes to Pirelli - yes the curbs may have caused the failures, but those have been there for years and are not a new and sudden problem. Therefore it is not illogical and unreasonable that a tyre company should be able to develop a product that can cope with one of the intrinsic parts of motor-racing and the circuits the drivers compete on. But who am I to judge - instead I'll just throw penalty points around and today one goes to Pirelli

Looking Forward To Germany

In the height of the traditional European season we travel onto the continent for the next race at the Nurburgring, it may be a fraction of the grandeur of the mind-blowingly epic Nordschelife but the modern version is more fitting for the current breed of car. I would not want to consider the consequences of the sort of tyre failures we've seen today out on the ring through the Eiffel Mountains for the outcome would be more severe. This part of Germany often brings with it it's own micro-climate full of intermittent rain, clouds and wind, all of which can turn an uneventful procession into a maelstrom of mayhem and hilarity - without explosions hopefully. There has been a lot of immediate complaints about what needs to be done in time for the next race, and I can't foresee any of the events of today repeating themselves. The curbs are completely different, the temperature will be much cooler and potentially as wet as a damp Thursday in Wales, in reality this business with explosions needs sorting before Spa where the greatest cornering speeds are faced in the upcoming races. So until next race Au Revoir internet.

Round 8: Great Britain 2013 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

You know what it is - you leave civilisation into the wilderness for a while and all hell breaks loose, first Mercedes are sort of almost penalised for their testing faux-pas and banned from the young driver test. Which for a team with less of a development driver program is virtually painless, meaning Ross Brawn wins again - like a devious super-villain. If that wasn't enough I come back from Wales to find that Mark Webber is vanishing from Red Bull to drive Porsche's new LMP1 effort. The blog did try and complete correspondence from the Welsh Eco-village, but the internet in the male cabin was not really functional. Besides there were other things to do in the middle of a forest maintained by a hippy commune - like playing cards with the French. People who could make a technical manual on compost sewage disposal (item 22 on the Eco-tour off the top of my head) sound oddly lyrical; there was also the new sport of 'Extreme Table Giant Jenga' which through brutally manipulating the laws of physics thoroughly counts as extreme. Other than those highlights the expedition revealed that the population of Wales is made up predominantly of sheep - but CAT is surrounded by Murderous-Vampiric-Super-Zombie-Sheep, which may or may not be able to fly. The things you discuss under the Welsh night sky... and clouds and rain...

But I have returned to this world, which in some senses is a shame - because the real world is all too often disappointing, and Wales and the team was certainly not so. Anyway this part of the internet is not a continental sheep based travel guide - this is the coverage of the British GP which still is taking place  underneath all the announcements and judgements, and the aftermath of the events of Le Mans this time last week. There are some rather mixed faces up and down the grid, as the same four cars are dominating the top four places, the consensus is that the tyres are responsible. However at the moment I'm sure the lack of bacon at CAT was also down to the tyres, and the global energy crisis - also Pirelli's fault. How did this translate into qualifying, well on a fast track (before the new area section - which by the way was also caused by the tyres), it mostly fell as expected... with the odd surprise.

Qualifying

The majority of the practice sessions were wet - if the race was in the the vicinity of Eco-world than the whole thing would be underwater (also Pirelli's fault) which involved Massa visiting the barrier for the third consecutive event. This was as much as I was able to gleam from a brief news report in a Little Chef breakfast stop at the early hours of the morning somewhere in the vicinity of the Wales/England border. So I came into the recorded version of qualifying completely in the dark, and turned out that didn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things.

Q1 for once started with a car actually leaving the garage at the beginning of the session - belonging in this case to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg it wasn't going to trouble the higher end of the timings. Lotus followed the second of the Saubers out sparking from both cars more so than we'd become accustomed to, despite this they went to the top. At the time Hamilton was waving to the crowd from the pit-lane, which I'm not sure is the fastest way around the track but like it mattered in the end as the Mercedes driver went on track and then went fastest. Another weekend and another 1-2 for the silver cars, but what about the other two silvery ones, well it was another challenging day at the office languishing in the middle of the pack.

A whole new level of disappointment was welling at Ferrari where Massa was in the Q1 relegation zone and Fernando not too many places further forward - a late improvement for Felipe put the red team 14th and 15th... Meaning both of the remaining relegation places were up for grabs, one of which belonged firmly to Esteban Gutierrez. The second however was under more contention internally within Williams highlighting their lack of form and pace - somehow I foresee Pirrelli being blamed for that too. In the end Maldonado usurped Bottas on his final lap.

Off to Q2 we went and at this point in the recording I'd created a pint of tea, a construct that actually exists beyond these walls on the edge of Snowdonia near a giant power generating mountain - the things you are introduced to outside of blogHQ. Red Bull opened the session with the exiting Webber, probably should reconsider heading to sportscar racing - having flipped the last machine he raced in at that level. Despite the Australian's best efforts those folk from Mercedes were at it again dominating the pace at the front of the field... until Vettel came out and went fastest.

As always it is the other end of the top ten that is more closely contested in this part of the weekend, where the battle to avoid relegation and make it into Q3. Once more Force India were the class of the mid-field - Sutil put the car in third, for a little while anyway before falling a few places, then Ricciardo spying that newly opened seat at Red Bull went 4th. Not sure that is a decent plan - after Alguersuari started doing rather well he was removed from the line-up from the next season. Then again STR were in a phase of culling drivers for laughs at the time, things have more gravitas at the moment. All this came at the expense of Ferrari and McLaren who were having more difficulties - Massa, Button and Perez all in relegation and Alonso on the very cusp of following them. Yet the Spaniard refused to lose out and made it through.

One session to go and a big mug of tea was followed up by a donated muffin, living the life of extreme exuberance at blog HQ - happier than a good spin on the treadmill of happiness, although that was diluted by the fact it played 'bibbity bobbity' which by a long way not a blogHQ anthem. This time Ricciardo went out first and set a very beatable lap, and for a brief moment there was a car that wasn't silver or driven by that German bloke at the front as Webber lead from Di Resta.... then normal service resumed with Hamilton out front. The majority of the top ten filed in an orderly fashion, but I was eating a muffin at the time... mmm cake based substances. Anyway it was time for the mid session break while tyres were changed and probably charged with a growing list of offences, including those missing propeller blades from the wind turbine exhibit and the unsustainable nature of baked beans.

Round two in reality was just a extension of the battle between Red Bull and Mercedes with the former throwing the first punch - it was slightly stronger than their first effort but the infallible German marque merely shrugged it off. First Nico set a strong time to go fastest then Hamilton destroyed it to a margin of over four tenths of a second. Vettel and Webber locked out the second row for Red Bull. Everyone was at least half a second back with that queue lead by Paul Di Resta on form again... though his car was found to be underweight and moved to the back. This moves Ricciardo up to the lead of the mid-field and the Red Bull shop window - Sutil qualified the car 7th ahead of the two Lotus drivers. Right at the bottom of the standings we find Alonso summing up how bad Ferrari's weekend was going and that Fernando joined the forefront of the Pirelli persecution parade - but there are bigger, greater forces afoot other than the world's favourite tyre company.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

I'm back and so are the points, there is the temptation to award all the points to Wales and the events within, considering it did run across the start of the race weekend - but if I did so than no-one else would score anything. So here goes the rest points from the first part of the British GP qualifying session.

• 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Another very strong performance in the STR although the mid-field lead was an inherited position
• 8pts - Paul Di Resta - Being 1.5kg underweight can't take away from defeating the likes the entire Lotus,Ferrari and McLaren teams
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - Because that was just ruddy fast.
• 5pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - For having only one lap and managing to avoid being last on the grid
• 4pts - Romain Grosjean - Beating his team-mate in the other car while running an alternate setup
• 3pts - Adrian Sutil - Making it two Force Indias ahead of three of the major teams
• 2pts - Lotus - Because sparks look cool
• 1pt - Wales - you done good

Looking Ahead To Tomorrow

This time around we haven't had the chance to build up to this race due to having too much fun in the valleys and the sheep laden hills of Wales. Far to easily distracted by Extreme Picnic Table Giant Jenga, and a building that resembles a miniaturised crystal dome. But here in the real world, it is race time - one of the things that helps disperse the darkness of being back in reality. Easing the re-integration is the British GP the most traditional of the traditional tracks with some of the most immense corners in existence and also some of the most dubious circuit modifications. But the problem with this sort of lap is that is makes the racing occasionally less entertaining as there is generally one line, and one line only to follow. That theory has been proven wrong before and I can all but hope this can be one of those events because there are some factors at play this time round.

Firstly Di Resta now starts at the back in a very fast car, as well as Ferrari, Lotus and McLaren all being further back then they wanted to be - all on those tyres people seem to be laying more hate into this weekend. Especially from the Ferrari camp - well Alonso, and there is the dual DRS on the Wellington and Hangar straights. All in all, I can see a great race unfolding on the first full day back at the helm of Blog HQ - so until tomorrow Au Revoir

Round 7: Canada 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well Canada you tried, and it was an amicable effort - we had some fun battles although most of them were merely blown out of the water through the at times farcical power of a dual DRS system with single activation. I may have missed something but outside the opening couple of laps I didn't spot a overtake completed that was not at the end of either of the two DRS areas, into the final chicane or into turn 1. Today we also learned that all those people who spend millions on research and development in the aero departments doesn't mean all too much - as there was disproportionate amount carbon fibre lost versus actual time loss. Even a wonky rear wing missing all manner of lower edge aero pieces was able to go quite quickly until things got in the way later. It may not have had the demolition derby style of racing involved in our race at Monaco, but finally we had an event when cars could go as fast as they wanted throughout the race, not pandering around on disintegrating tyres. The outcome of such a development was a frightening display of dominance - only five cars completed the race on the same lap, world champions Button and Raikkonen were even lapped. Heck even here, five hours ahead of Canada in time difference, I think I might have been lapped.

Coming into the race there was a lot anticipation building throughout the day - with cars out of position on a track with close walls and little space for error - and in the end today's race was far from a disappointment and was one of the better rounds of the season. There was just a large hint of inevitability every time one car came close to the back of another one as long as DRS was involved - a telling few laps when DRS was taken offline under yellows saw cars trapped in position seemed to be a prime indicator on the dependence on the rear wing flap. So lets review what happened in this evening's race.

The Race

After yesterdays qualifying session there were two grid penalties added for Raikkonen and Ricciardo who received 2-place grid drops for lining up in the wrong part of the pit lane after the restart. Oddly due to the way the penalties were ordered both drivers were only docked a single position on the actual grid... sometimes it is weird the way things work out.

Off the line Sebastien made a seamless start and vanished - he was never seen again - Hamilton was safe in second while Bottas had a car pass him either side as Rosberg and Webber dealt with the Williams before turn one. Almost miraculously not a single piece of carbon fibre was shed in the concertina of turns one and two - in fact there was a lack of any contact whatsoever. It was clear that the speed Valtteri had in the damp was completely gone in the warm and dry conditions, the Finn resisted Alonso for a few corners but the Ferrari is a vastly superior car in the dry and out paced the Williams on traction. As a result there was a five car breakaway group at the front of the field, although Vettel at the very front had broken further away into a different universe.

Bottas now had a bit of queue forming behind him lead by Jean Eric Vergne - however by this point the DRS window had been activated and once Vergne was in position he was able to swoop round the outside of turn one using the extra momentum. This left Sutil next in line to take overtake the struggling Williams - the Force India driver wanted to try something a little different to the straight forward DRS passing, and made a was alongside at the turn in point to turn three. Sutil took a little too much curb to avoid binning the Williams, and span the car in avoidance, but after an excellently executed 360 spin pointed the car in the right direction and continued with Ricciardo and Raikkonen taking to the grass to miss the spinning German. Adrian rejoined in 13th ahead of Maldonado - as it turned out this was not the safest place to be - Sutil's record with Williams cars got markedly worse as the Venezuelan drove into the back of the Force India at the hairpin. Sutil spent the remainder of the back straight losing pieces of the wing and it looked a little wonky... the third time this season that car has been rammed.

You'd think being so far out in front you'd have a much smaller chance of hitting anything - well Vettel decided to push the limits a little too close to the edge and bounced the car off the wall on the exit of turn four. Fortunately for the German Bloke Red Bull suspensions are made of sterner stuff and the car remained undamaged. Out of all the cars out of position it seemed that only Massa was working his way forwards, rounding up Perez in the DRS zone at the end of the front straight, before catching up to Raikkonen who was having difficulties with passing Ricciardo. That STR machine was quite quick in a straight line even without the aid of DRS, but with the additional pressure of the Ferrari joining the train Raikkonen suddenly found a space around Ricciardo leaving the Australian to deal with Massa.

For a lot of people pit-stop window has opened - except Di Resta wasn't really listening to that and was staying out, neither was Grosjean but wasn't able to carry the same sort of speed on the tyres as the Force India. Oddly just after Rosberg's stop Mercedes gave him a call, to inform that the tyres were in the 'danger zone' - add some shades and the top gun persona would be complete. This allowed Webber and Alonso to catch up to Nico for another little infield duel. Another of these duels was forming further back as Massa following a stop was back to passing people - easily dealing with Esteban Gutierrez... but then there was Sutil. At this point in the race (barring anyone trying to pass a Torro Rosso) all passes in the DRS zone were indefensible - Sutil wasn't up for playing that game and fought the Ferrari hard, often leaving the bare minimum of space. Felipe tried several times round the outside of turn one but as the Force India covered the inside line, but Adrian closed off the lane before turn two and held position.

Some of those staying out were beginning to lose pace - Button and Raikkonen were over two seconds slower than the race pace. Kimi pitted but a rear jack failure cost the team several seconds and positions dropping Raikkonen out of the points - as for Jenson, he was easily caught and passed by the Sutil, Massa battle, and decided enough was enough and pitted the car too. Aside from Sutil and Feilipe almost banging wheels down the front straight as Adrian continued to defend strongly not too much was going on in a stable middle phase of the race. Teams were assessing tyre wear in determining whether one of two stops would be the idea solution.

But a battle was forming as Top Gun Rosberg had two bogeys on his tail and was Webber's danger zone - Mark was able to deploy the DRS wing aileron and breeze past Nico while Alonso charged the KERs afterburner on the front straight. An instance where a dual DRS zone cost a driver two places and was completely defenceless to both. Just as a reminder Vettel was still out front and had started lapping people, everyone - so much lappery, he lost a little time when coming past the a Raikkonen/Bottas battle, but the lead was so great it didn't even matter. There were also unsubstantiated reports that Vettel had lapped the entire Audi team at the Le Mans test thousands of miles away.

After the German Bloke lapped them - Raikkonen and Bottas engaged in a little Finnish face off, Kimi being the second car to try the inside of the Williams in turn three, this time both cars went through the chicane two wide and no-one ended up in the wall. Further back Webber illustrated that lapping people was not going as well on that side of the garage as Van Der Garde cut across the Red Bull in the hairpin damaging Webber's front wing. Now here's the interesting part after the damage, Mark then went faster, in fact went fastest - and in other news Van Der Garde is now in charge of officially redesigning front wings. Yet the FIA rewarded the Dutchman's promotion with a 10s stop and go penalty, but he was not to be disheartened by this and worked on his next aerodynamic design. Giedo enlisted the help of Nico Hulkenberg to dislodge one of the supporting pillars of the Caterham wing in the final chicane. This new design didn't work as the wing fell off and jammed itself under the floor of the car forcing a retirement, Hulkenberg also suffered suspension failure from the contact and had to retire as well.

Alonso was stating to mount a bit of a charge, and had caught up to Van Der Garde's first project - Webber's reshaped Red Bull - and because of the improved front wing - it took both of the DRS zones to defeat the Australian. The next car on Fernando's list was Hamilton for the final podium position, a few seconds down the road. In other news, Paul Di Resta made a call to the team to make his first pit-stop on lap 57... people have spent the entire year complaining about poor durability and a lone Scotsman managed 57 laps on the same set, where teams had estimated 35-40 laps on compound. As a result Paul had managed to sneak up from a poor, and angered qualifying into the top ten, safely by a few places as well. Life was not so enjoyable for the other Force India, after being hit by Maldonado, battling hard with Massa there was another problem for Sutil. He was being lapped (which today was not uncommon) because the Hamilton, Alonso battle was wanting through. Thus lead to a problem, his car was not slow enough for the pair to coast past easily but was holding them up and was not quite so willing to yield. After receiving several blue flags Sutil relented, but was handed a drive through penalty for the trouble.

Because of the issue lapping Sutil, Hamilton now had Fernando in very close company, making a pass under DRS on the front straight mere millimetres from making wheel to wheel contact - and the Ferrari driver executed some rather impeccable timing when dealing with the Mercedes. Hamilton tried to retake the place on the following lap on the the back straight and but Alonso defended, easing Lewis wide in the braking zone - learning from Van Der Garde, Alonso relieved Hamilton of some shards of carbon from the front wing. Before the battle could continue Gutierriez put his Sauber in the turn one wall bringing out yellow flags. Under the yellows DRS is disabled, which due to the system having one detection zone amputated two overaking zones for the sake of a localised accident. In this start, cars lost all the ability to overtake one another, Raikkonen for example was able to resist Massa's attacks in the bottom end of the points with comparative ease. Yet when the flags came in, Felipe virtually drove around the Lotus - although Raikkonen's tyres were rather older at this point.

Modern timing is not entirely sure what time Vettel crossed the line, the car was so far ahead a new type of maths needed to be invented to figure out where the car was, but the German Bloke racked up another dominant victory and further extends the lead in the championship. Alonso finished second ahead with Hamilton completing the podium, while Webber and his Van Der Garde inspired wing design made scored more points for the Red Bull team. Top Gun Rosberg survived the danger zone to be the last car on the lead lap in 5th place - which in itself sums up the lead Vettel had, and even Nico was only 12 seconds away from being lapped himself... Vergne was the first of the cars one lap down in 6th, after potentially one of the most anonymous drives of the season, if it wasn't for the timing system tracking them Vergne could have gone missing and no-one would have noticed. Di Resta one-stopped his way to 7th ahead of a recovering Massa. Raikkonen and Sutil completed problematic days and finish at the bottom end of the points. As for Bottas - well in reality the Williams is a poor car and was demolished on dry pace finishing the race 14th, ahead of Ricciardo and I have no idea how the latter ended up back there either...

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Oddly after what was a rather good race without the intervention of carnage like Monaco, it was hard to assign bonus points, but the same people are being noticeable and are awarded accordingly.

• 25pts - Paul Di Resta - In a week where tyre complaints have reached a peak to defy the odds and score points from 17th on the grid and survive a 57 lap stint
• 18pts - Jean Eric Vergne - An undercover performance reminiscent of Aguersuari in the same machine at this track in 2011 yet won the mid-field battle, and the first car one lap down.
• 15pts - Sebastien Vettel - An extreme display of dominance, lapping everyone and everything in sight, only five cars on the lead lap at the end of the race.
• 12pts - Fernando Alonso - Refuses to be beaten and made the podium from 6th on the grid
• 10pts - Felipe Massa - Made several passes earlier and embarked on an good battle with Sutil
• 8pts - Adrian Sutil - For a sweet impromptu 360 and for his part in the duel with Massa
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - Kept the Mercedes on the podium without despite braking issues and an early partial DRS failure
• 4pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - Awarded for his new role as freelance aerodynamic engineer which actually started in Monaco with arranging Maldonado's wing
• 2pts - Top Gun Rosberg - For not being lapped 
• 1pt - Valtteri Bottas  - May not have an actual point, so here's a bonus point

The Penalties Championship

There were a few penalties handed out today, and a couple from yesterday that were issued after the post had been released onto the internet:

• Daniel Ricciardo - 2 place grid drop - for being out of line in the pit lane in Q2
• Kimi Raikkonen - 2 place grid drop - for being out of line in the pit lane in Q2
• Pastor Maldonado - drive through penalty - for being the latest driver to ram Sutil
• Adrian Sutil - drive through penalty - for deciding blue flags are optional
• Giedo Van Der Garde - 10s stop/go penalty - for redesigning Webber's front wing
• Giedo Van Der Garde - 5 place grid penalty - for redesigning his own front wing and Hulkenberg's suspension in the process
• Caterham - 2,000 EUR fine for personell crossing the pit lane in front of Ricciardo

Penalty Points Championship

To complete the trifecta of championships here is the final table to be added to from Montreal:

• DRS - Was not entirely well implemented this time round, two zones and a single activation point was always a little silly.
• ITV Sport - How many ad breaks do you realistically need... seriously 

Looking forwards to Britain

That time of the season has rolled around once more where the championship arrives back home soil for the British GP at Silverstone - a circuit that hosted the first ever F1 race back in 1950 remains on the calendar, and before the last 'upgrade' had a largely similar configuration. The British GP may not be famous for hosting some of the greatest races in the world on a regular basis, although it has thrown up some remarkable surprises in the late 90s and the monsoon race of 2008 was a spectacular event. But it remains a truly iconic event, for it's tradition, it's speed and challenging nature featuring corners that have become renowned the world over. To the point where, when designing the new Austin circuit the Maggots/Becketts sequence was selected as one of the most important corners in Motorsport to replicate on their layout. Every corner from the exit of luffields up to the entry to vale on the other side of the lap is spectacular, admittedly the new addition to the track has been added purely for the practicality of the new pit lane. The new corners that have come with it are a little unnecessary, especially the double hairpins... but you can't have everything, most 'upgrades' tend to devalue new circuits. A mauled bus stop chicane at Spa and the redesigned Hokkenheim are prime examples of that process, yet the changes can take nothing away from the fact that the British GP is more than just another race -  it is an event. But in the mean-time blog HQ has to prepare for the gruelling challenge of viewing the entire 24hrs of Le Mans throughout the night, past dawn and into the morning. So if I survive my 5th Le Mans all nighter ther blog will be back for the British GP 

Round 7: Canada 2013- Qualfying

Greetings Internet,

If in doubt add some rain, and at the first part of the Canadian GP weekend has employed the philosophy to very entertaining effect, and causing some rather interesting grid positions as everyone tried to compensate for the changing conditions. We were not plagued by the extreme downpours that washed out the race back in 2011 - although that was an exceptional event - today it was just enough to make things difficult and really inconsistent all the ingredients for a great session. In the end there was a familiar pair of faces on the front row, but that's where the familiarities came to a spectacular end, but more on that later on in the proceedings.

Frankly it is nice to go off the slick tyres because that's what all the complaints have been about all season - nobody has interestingly whined and shouted about the status of the intermediate or the wet tyres and there have been several rain affected practice and qualifying sessions already this year. In these conditions the irony is that all those teams that have been struggling with wear and lobbying Pirelli are doing much better in the damp cold conditions - another indication that perhaps it is their car that is the issue. Perhaps until the debarcle has finally been sorted out through tribunals and compound developments we should water all the tracks and keep teams and drivers off the questionable tyres.

Qualifying 

When the coverage finally opened up at a race later in the day the track had a clear and well defined dry line - carved during FP3 slightly earlier on , but as the pre-session show and build-up continued the rain sneaked back when no-one was looking. But it was only enough to dampen the dry line and so all the teams went out at the start of the session looking to beat the rain and run slicks... and only completed an outlap before realising it was a bad idea. Several cars went off at the chicanes and Chilton - wanting to be different span at the hairpin, at least this time his actions didn't force anyone to build a fort.

Round 2 - this time all on intermediates and cars were still going everywhere - the grass in the 3-4 chicane had received more visitors than the turf could handle, and several tyre tracks were carved in the mud. Raikkonen, Bianchi and Bottas to name a few ran wide there, sensibly Perez decided to choose a different chicane to miss - staying clear of the Lotus driver. In terms of actual lap times the conventional names were up front with Mercedes and Red Bull doing well, while Lotus and Force India were struggling  - being good on tyres was hurting them on pace. Both Paul Di Resta and Grosjean were in the relegation zone, but there was enough time to escape - Button and Sutil had managed the same feat. Except there was a small matter of some more rain, just to top things off preventing any improvement and meant Romain, and Paul joined the bottom teams in leaving qualifying.

Into Q2 now and the rain had stopped again, but had lasted long enough to erase the drying line and make the track damp once more, the Lotus engineers came over the radio to Raikkonen - after he'd been off again - to say the conditions were borderline for wet tyres. Turn three seemed to be the favourite place for cars to go off, Massa finding reverse to drive back from the escape road. At the top of proceedings it was Mercedes and Red Bull again, represented by Hamilton and Webber - joined interestingly by Jean-Eric Vergne. Vettel was in the middle of the top ten, probably still distracted by a pre-session track guide involving international sausages.... An order that seemed destined to be sealed as more rain arrived and everyone was now cutting the final chicane bouncing over the curbs and some taking to the air... what we needed was a break to allow the cloud to pass and re-ignite the session. While we waited for that - out of nowhere Valtteri Bottas drove his car up into 3rd place...

As in Monaco - we could relay on Felipe Massa to pause proceedings with a visit to the barrier - touching one of those white lines before turn three and slid into the tyres causing a red flag to clear away the broken Ferrari. The crash threw up an intriguing scenario, less than two minutes on the clock there was only time for one lap on track that was in better nick than it was before Massa binned it. Cars were lined up three wide at the pit exit headed by both Saubers and Raikkonen - the Finn was able to beat Hulkenberg, and settled in behind Gutierrez. A long queue of cars on a damp track for a single fast lap was surprisingly well behaved, a little too well behaved as Button didn't make it round in time to escape relegation. Yet both Torro Rossos and Sutil made it into Q3 at the expense of Perez and Maldonado.

Red Bull sat at the front of the queue ready for the start of Q3, but Webber didn't leave quite quick enough for Raikkonen's liking and was passed before entering the track - conditions had got slightly damper in the interval and lap times were back in the 1:28s. Vettel and Hamilton were duelling for pole while Rosberg ran off across the chicane at turn three compromising his lap - but surprise take two as Bottas put the Williams third on the grid, ahead of Webber. Unfortunately the final part of an enthralling session, was dampened - literally - as the rain made a subtle return, just enough to slow laps times preventing anyone for making progress up the field. Hamilton tried to make a late charge to take pole away from Vettel, but ran off at the final chicane, if it wasn't for a supreme drive from Bottas - the same two teams would occupy the front two rows (if only in a different order) as they did in Monaco. Alonso starts down in 6th, ahead of Vergne, Sutil, Raikkonen, and Ricciardo.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

When it rains and conditions become changeable, there is always the opportunity for cars and drivers to appear where we least expect them and that's where the bonus points come into play:

• 10pts - Valtteri Bottas - Because that was very impressive, Williams were having a crap year and that sets them up for a much better weekend.
• 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne/Ricciardo - Both STR's in the top 10 on a track where the team has never qualified this far up at all
• 6pts - Adrian Sutil - Qualifying was average, but an epic jump over the curbs in practice and a powersliding save keeping it out of the wall and the car in front in Q1.
• 5pts - Charles Pic - Lead the bottom division and beat Romain Grosjean in a Lotus as well.
• 4pts - Sebastien Vettel - Because getting pole probably deserves points
• 3pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For passing people in the pit exit 
• 2pts - Jules Bianchi - Deserves some sympathy points after seeing the plank of the car bounce off the orange curb in the final chicane because that looked painful
• 1pt - Max Chilton - For not being last... here's a pat on the back

Looking forward to tomorrow

An evening race at a track as invigorating as Canada is such as exciting prospect, which has been made all the more entertaining by having a re-arranged grid from the rain in today's qualifying session and some penalties carried forward from Monaco. Grosjean for example has a 10 place grid drop despite qualifying 19th - so on that basis the Frenchman should be starting from the bottom hairpin - and a driver with a record of hitting people starting from the back on a narrow track surrounded by walls... sounds fun to me. We also have Massa, Button and the aggressive Perez all starting outside of the top ten all of whom will be looking to charge forward and make the most of whatever conditions are going to arrive tomorrow. Because all those drivers are further back, we have the likes of Bottas, Vergne and Ricciardo in the middle of the top ten - which on race pace if the track stays dry all race may fade further back and the two groups may meet in the middle and unleash mayhem. All the ingredients are in place for an exceptional race, and during this constant state of unease about tyres and the legalities surrounding that Mercedes test. Tomorrow we get to ignore that, and have fun, a lot of it... until tomorrow farewell from me here at Blog HQ.

Round 7: Canada 2013 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

It's that time again where blog HQ re-activates in time for another weekend of complaining teams, eternal tyre controversy and some rather misplaced DRS zones - all sense and logic seems to be crumbling around us. But before we get onto the inevitable pre-race topics that have been plaguing the sport and the internet over everything that was revealed during the Monaco weekend - which in iself has come in for a massive amount hate during the interval; there is one order of business. In 2011, we had a similar sligtly mental race on the streets - and at that time I challenged Canada to beat that event, the result was potentially the greatest Canadian GP of all time. So therefore I officially challenge Montreal to put on a better spectacle than our latest race, and hopefully this time the internet will not be so angry about the event - even David Coulthard put the boot in against the Monaco GP. DC cited once more the excessive tyre saving and the only drivers willing to do anything were those with nothing to lose - if the internet had it's way Perez would have been beaten up and fired for his 'overtaking'. Here he just got a penalty point, but several bonus points for being entertaining. These very turbulent times, even the Monaco GP hadn't put it right, people are angry, some more than others, and I can't see any solution that will keep people happy.

At the centre of all the anger and current controversy is tyres, and what Mercedes have been up to. The rules as they stand say that testing is not allowed during the season, for cost cutting reasons - but there is a clause where Pirelli can conduct a 1000km test session for tyre development and research. That clause is only legal if the teams involved in a Pirelli test use a car which is over two years old and using a non-race driver. Something Ferrari did early in the year after Bahrain which has been deemed legal - but Mercedes used the current car and drivers which is why they've been called to an official FIA tribunal. What the outcome of that could be, it is anyone's guess it could be a fine as per the spygate enquiry with McLaren, or exclusion from the constructors title, the thing is in this case is that is is a team problem - not a single person is responsible for the case. So unlike the crashgate issue at Renault where Briatore was banned - the team as an entity are at fault... allegedly.

But time to leave the murky world of off-track politics and problems there is actually a race this weekend, and a rather good one..

The Track

In this era of large modern and often artificial circuits taking over the calendar it is nice to come to somewhere which is raw, un-molested and brilliant - Montreal is such a good lap and has been the host to some spectacular races. It has all the important characteristics and none of the disadvantages, well that was before the FIA turned up and decided that DRS zones should be in another stupid place, but that might not matter if the potential rains arrive over the weekend. And we all know how much fun things can get at a rain affected Canadian GP. There is one small problem, a small grey haired problem called Bernie sticking his nose in again - complaining about facilities and space... on an island. Good old Bernie want't the circuit to undertake £10 million updates, or potentially threaten exclusion from the calendar - which would earn him some penalty points.

The layout is mostly made out of chicanes which often polarises audiences and supporters - but at Montreal they work really well - especially the turn 3-4 sequence, something that other circuits can learn at lot from. For example the monstrosity that has insulted the grandeur of Spa where the bus-stop used to be would immensely improved by being replaced by this series of corners. I think that what makes this circuit more enticing is the presence of those traditional North American concrete walls. Making the circuit so much more challenging with very limited room for error while still allowing overtaking and duelling between the barriers.

At the end of three consecutive chicanes there is one of the only three corners on the track which isn't a chicane - the hairpin (one extreme to another) the scene of many former overtaking maneouvres - including the one where Kubica overtook his own wheels in that infamous accident. But with the positioning of DRS, this corner may be considerably underused - because passing anyone here makes the attacker vulnerable to being re-passed on the straight under the irrepressible power of DRS. Made all the more worse by having two consecutive DRS zones with a single activation point, I don't know which committee decided that - but they should probably all be thrown out into the river.

Concluding the lap is the most famous part of the track - it isn't the challenging final chicane, or the long concrete lined straight by the river - but a tiny stretch of tyre wall at the very top of the front straight. This being the 'wall of champions' the wall that has taken several victims many of them being race winners and world champions - every year at some point someone ends up in that very barrier. It used to be due to the powerful and challenging nature of the cars, but now the accidents are down more often than not to the oversized apex curves in the middle of the chicane. Because if they weren't there, traditional driver mentality will want them to cut the track to gain any advantage - even if that does mean planting the car firmly in the wall in the process.

What to expect

Well I think that the only thing that will come out of this weekend despite the result whatever that may be is the ever deepening and developing crisis between Mercedes, Pirelli and the rest of the world because that'll dominate the coverage. But aside from that there is a competition which may fall the way of many of the other races this season - the folk at Mercedes probably will be very quick on Saturday in qualifying... if the rain stays away. This is a mechanical grip based circuit dominated by braking and traction zones - something that Mercedes have been good at (even before the questionable test debarcle). But where it will benefit them it may play against Red Bull who are all for aero-based venues, and might bring McLaren closer to the front - but not right at the front. Who this might also help is Ferrari who have an all round decent car, although Monaco was a bad weekend for the team on a similar track configuration. Where this puts lotus and an increasingly displeased Raikkonen (who has removed Perez from his Christmas card list) is a bit of an unknown.

The mid-field has become a little disjointed over the past few races, Force India are leaving the pack behind and have overtaken McLaren in the process - while Torro Rosso and Sauber are left to control that part of the grid. As for Williams well they've carved out a little zone of their own - which is occasionally visited by Gutierrez in the less rapid side of the Sauber garage, as Hulkenberg is dealing with the STR cars. Williams problems were further exemplified by bring defeated on pace in qualifying by Van Der Garde's Caterham - which didn't last long as the Dutchman spent most of his time in Monaco attacking Maldonado. But Canada is different and may allow Williams to regain their position ahead of the battle at the bottom of the field, which due to a penalty will contain Grosjean's Lotus.

After Monaco, Montreal makes up a duo of facinating races, on tracks that will punish mistakes without acres of tarmac run-off. It is another of the venues that gets a special tick in the list of pre-season anticipation. It has seen so much action and some spectacular races, all we can hope is that the current method of preserving tyres and that domineering scandal doesn't compromise what could be another astonishing event. So until the weekend, this is farewell from Blog HQ.