That was well worth waiting for, the first competitive session of 2014 has been brilliant, the first time we got to see the relative competitive strengths of the teams in a session which defines the grid for tomorrow morning. But a lot of the things we learned from pre-season testing have been completely discarded - who on earth came up with the idea that the Red Bulls would miles off the pace and that Mercedes would be completely immune to reliability problems. Because none of those developments seemed to materialise - Hamilton broke down on the firs lap of FP1 and both Red Bulls have been were inside the top 10 throughout practice. The only team that is really suffering at the moment is Lotus, who are a long way behind the development race on day one - both Maldonado and Grosjean have been more sideways than anything else (even though that does look cool) Romain even found the wall in FP2 as the car continues to misbehave.
So how does F1 2014 live up to the hype of challenging cars and a completely revised soundtrack - I know some people are against it (mostly the engine note) but on the events of a simple qualifying session it is a brilliant step forward. Watching cars powerslide on the exit of almost every corner and getting well out of shape in corners that used to be non-events is magnificent. The huge torque of the turbo engines really kicks the rear of the car out at every potential opportunity, it is truly a spectacular sight fuelled by the knowledge of how difficult it is making the cars to drive. It does make me wonder if corners like Eau Rouge, Blanchimont and 130R will suddenly become the challenge they once were when we make it that far. So with the challenge being as difficult as it is wouldn't it be a shame if Qualifying was held on a very slippery circuit - with some rain perhaps....
Q1
Due to some rule tweaks in the timing, Q1 is now two minutes shorter to allow Q3 to be two minutes longer, for the sake of two minutes I don't see why this phase had to be trimmed but the FIA are full of mad rules at the moment. The track was completely dty, but there was a threat of rain on the horizon - well slightly closer than the horizon but you get the point. Everyone queued to get out before that rain arrived, a queue lead by Mercedes parking two wide in the pit-lane (interestingly drivers have been given penalties for that in the past... but not today). Grosjean executed the first pass of the session round the outside of Rosberg in turn three - before running off the track a lap later... In fact Romain spent the majority of the session driving through the gravel and trying to stay out of the wall. Leaving that job to Vettel who gentley slapped the wall with the rear of the Red Bull on the exit of the back chicane - no damage done however.
Mercedes had enough of an advantage that they didn't bother using the softer compound tyres at all in Q1, and set the initial pace. However they were usurped by those using the faster option, Williams demonstrated that pre-season pace was definitely not a fluke and exchanged the lead position. Looking elsewhere in the field and a wild car appeared in the gravel - no prizes for guessing it was a Lotus, both of them were rooted to the back of the pack with Marissia, Gutierrez and Marcus Ericsson... Kamui however was inside the cut-off for Q2
Daniel Ricciardo put the Red Bull out front - (so much for being well off the pace) - as the rain started to fall effectively freezing the timesheets. All the rain did was give the Lotus team more reasons to run off the circuit - Maldonado saw how much fun Grosjean was having and came out just to join in. This is a parkland circuit after all and it is built for exploring - in the end Pastor failed to complete a single lap due to the multiple excursions but will be allowed to start tomorrow... Right now either Lotus is an uncontrollable unguided missile - the opening lap will be very interesting.
Q2
It was officially wet now - well intermediate level of dampness - with a prospect of the track drying out as the session went on. If the cars were sliding about in the dry, they were on the very edge of control in the wet. Bottas was several shades of sideways in the final corner, even showing signs of wheelspin down the main straight. The Williams driver eventually looped the car round in turn one after taking too much curb on entry, but was able to spin it round and keep going, only take the fasted time away from Massa. The damp conditions made the Mercedes' seem more vulnerable and unable to pull away from the field - Hamilton was only able to find 0.007s over Ricciardo in the Red Bull. However while the Australian was unleashing an immense performance the German Bloke was conspicuous by his absence down in 12th place, alongside Raikkonen's Ferrari in the relegation zone.
As track conditions slowly improved it was time for some new tyres, and because the track was damp the idea of carrying the tyres from Q2 into the race was rendered completely null and void - I guess we get to argue about that in Malaysia. In this final phase Bottas re-took the lead in the Williams but more impressive was the Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat putting the Toro Rosso into 3rd place... for now. Rosberg, Ricciardo and Alonso quickly reconfigured the top three places in their favour.
Towards the end of the session the rain started to comeback, forcing Perez into an Lotus-esque voyage into the gravel, at the same time Raikkonen in the Ferrari chose to exit the track in the opposite direction - unfortunately for Kimi there is a concrete wall which rearranged the nose of his car. While the yellows were out few drivers improved - the most impressive being Magnussen making it into Q3 with Kvyat making it a good day for the rookies. Vettel however was compromised by the yellows and got very sideways trying to make the time back - but the German bloke went out in Q2 for the first time since 2012...
Q3
During the the gap between the sessions the rain intensified - not quite to the same degree as it had last year - but it as right on the borderline between using wet and intermediate tyres, a brilliant recipe for more powerslides. As the cars danced over the painted lines there were some very close calls, Massa in particular came close to severely mashing the Williams against the wall before turning into the fast chicane making a spectacular save in the process. Hulkenberg also got very sideways when trying to put the power down in the final sector. Everyone took to the track on the wet tyre, with the exception of Fernando Alonso - but it was the Mercedes team once more who claimed an early 1-2 stalked once more by Ricciardo in that Red Bull. Alonso on the intermediates could only manage 9th place in his Ferrari only beating Massa's Williams (this time without the 'Fernando is faster than you' comment from the Ferrari team) .
Time for round two, a change of tyres later and the battle resumed for pole - because Mercedes were not quite having it having it all their own way en-route to an anticipated white-wash of the front row. Rosberg ran wide on his preparatory out-lap - losing two seconds which would later prove to be vital. But out of nowhere Magnussen went third fastest, we all thought that dumping Perez was a little mad but this Kevin chap seems rather good, almost mimicking what Hamilton achieved on his début. Speaking of Lewis - his provisional pole was beaten by Rosberg and then by Ricciardo - at which point the audience erupted (far more niceties than they showed Vettel when he departed in Q2). But having not lost those two seconds that Nico did, Lewis was able to complete another lap, a lap he used to great effect to retake pole position for the first race of the season.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
After all the rambling on, the most important part of the whole day is the bonus points championship - as the challenge begins to topple Romain Grosjean's championship reign, and at the moment the Lotus team are making the championship defence really difficult.
- 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo: That was marvellous, dominating the quadruple drivers champion in the other car - even if Sebastian did have technical difficulties.
- 8pts - Kevin Magnussen: 4th place on his first qualifying session while Button didn't make the top ten equalling the best starting position for a rookie in his first race
- 6pts - Daniil Kvyat: Toro Rosso seemed doomed in pre-season testing but another young rookie performing very well
- 5pts - Kamui Kobayashi: The only car from the two new teams to benefit from Lotus misfortunes and place get the car into Q2, and was able to defeat Perez once he got there
- 4pts - Felipe Massa: A brilliant save to keep the Williams out of the wall
- 3pts - Max Chilton: Supposedly the slowest driver on the grid, and in challenging conditions the Brit came close to leaving Q3 beating Bianchi in the process
- 2pts - Lewis Hamilton: Have couple of points for taking pole position in this new era
- 1pt - Williams: Williams deserve a point for their immense recovery, going from being just in front of Caterham to challenging for the poles and potentially victories in races to come
What will the race bring
Anyone's guess frankly, we have a very interesting grid with three world champions sitting outside the top ten which makes the prospect for tomorrow's race very enticing. With these cars out of position it means we have some rookies towards the sharp end of the grid with Magnussen in 4th and Kvyat in 8th with the rapid Williams behind them all.
Even with Red Bull contributing to the front of the grid it would be difficult to look beyond Mercedes for the victory but the completely unknown factor of reliability will likely play a major part in defining the outcome of this event. On top of that there is the issue of fuel consumption, who will be the most efficient and who will have to compromise their race performance just to get over line. The feeling in the air is that the Ferrari powered teams will have the biggest fight on their hands in that respect but all these estimates and guesses mean nothing at this point. We'll only know where everyone stands at the end of lap 58 tomorrow, if there any cars left at that point. Wouldn't it be a shame if there was a concern over high winds and rain as well - this is going to be a brilliant introduction to 2014. Bring it on
No comments:
Post a Comment