Another race weekend and another session as the same result seems to pull through - four consecutive poles for those silver cars and barring an apocalypse tomorrow we'll have similar result this time tomorrow. If it hadn't been for the rainfall, the other teams wouldn't be anywhere near as close as they were today... if you consider 0.6s close... But as we saw last race, one team running in a dominant position can be quite a lot of fun - and I think a video of that race should be emailed to the Citroen WTCC team who in an equal position of dominance refuse to let their drivers race each other... shame on you.
Qualifying today has been relatively interesting, the challenging conditions meaning the cars tended to move around a lot under traction and the drop in downforce in 2014 saw several drivers running off the track. The most hilarious moments befalling current villain - Pastor Maldonado - in the practice sessions. In FP2 Pastor managed to crash the car coming into the pit lane, and even more hilariously in FP3 he had a spin when twiddling with some knobs in turn 7... and the less mentioned about this the better. However we were denied a third opportunity of Maldonado madness as his car was ruled out of qualifying due to an oil leak in the engine which now takes hours to solve due to the complexity of the power units.
Q1
As in any wet qualifying session the drivers lined up in the pit lane - one of the few occasions where Caterham and Marussia appear ahead of other cars - if the universe imploded after the first three minutes of qualifying we'd have Kobayashi on the front row. At the time Vergne had stolen the lead from the green machines - those drivers towards the back were having a go on the intermediates while the main contenders ventured out on the full wets. Ricciardo came on the radio saying conditions were extreme, which to be honest was gross exaggeration - but really referred to the tyre compound Red Bull fitted to the car. Wet conditions help Red Bull as it reduces the deficit to Mercedes and pronounces their aerodynamic influence - such that Vettel was able to go 0.445s ahead of Rosberg. Unfortunately for them there was another, faster Mercedes which could crush everyone else at will - and Hamilton duly did so to end Q1 in the lead.
Down in the relegation zone, it was the usual suspects not making it through into Q2, despite Caterham trying to capitalise on the conditions with the intermediate tyres - Kobayashi and Bianchi remain the two leaders of that particular struggle. Joining them was the gymnast from Bahrain Esteban Gutierrez, which places him dangerously close to Maldonado at the start of the race. Grosjean in the other Lotus was much further up the field then usual.
Q2
The rain had subsided, slightly such that it was intermediates all round and it was Adrian Sutil who was feeling pleased with himself at setting the fastest time to start things off - although Hamilton knocked four seconds off that very quickly... The conventional Mercedes 1-2 was in effect as Rosberg mover easily into second place. So we had to look at the opposite end of the top ten to find anything going on where we had Raikkonen and both McLarens struggling to make it through into Q3. Normally we'd see all of the Mercedes powered machines lining up towards the front but the wet weather means that the power advantage the likes of Williams and McLaren had is dampened down. We saw Massa slowing to find some space behind Vergne in the Toro Rosso - backing into Raikkonen in the process - to which the Ferrari driver refused to stay in line and started passing people. Probably deserves an ice cream for that
With session coming to an end those coming in for a fresh set of intermediates rocketed up the field, Vergne moved into the top ten and Hulkenberg split the Mercedes to go second for Force India - while Perez dropped out of Q2. Yet McLaren and Raikkonen couldn't make any improvements and therefore were relegated. As it turned out Raikkonen had gear shifting problems and couldn't get the most out of the car. But once again Grosjean made it through - which in itself if miraculous given the reliability of that machine.
Q1
In the technical world of F1 the precipitation had intensified - because raining harder isn't simple enough for the boffins on the pitwall. But in reality it had merely drizzled fractionally more... anyway questionable weather reports aside Vettel temporarily claimed the lead and provisional pole position. The German bloke could have taken the first non-Mercedes pole position in 2014, if the Mercedes team had left the country that is. As Hamilton immediately dethroned Vettel to the tune of six tenths of a second. Rosberg followed Hamilton home in second place.
Time for the second runs, and Vettel was able to pass Rosberg for second place - and then Ricciardo defeated his multiple champion team-mate for second place. Hamilton however just trundled round to extend the lead even further - over a second ahead of Rosberg... payback for Bahrain. How was Nico doing, well by the end of sector two he was fastest, heading for pole position - but locked up into the hairpin. Rosberg had one final shot and due to a miscommunication somewhere didn't realise he was going even faster and span in the final corner trying to recover a deficit that didn't exist. So we ended up with another Hamilton pole position.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Following another rain affected qualifying session, there are some points to be awarded and here are the winners from today:
- 10pts - Romain Grosjean - A Lotus inside the top ten on this season's form, well done indeed
- 8pts - Daniel Ricciardo - On equal terms, on equal tyres and the same conditions beating Vettel by a significant margin
- 6pts - Massa/Bottas - Both cars in the top ten when they're normally weaker in the wet conditions
- 5pts - Fernando Alonso - Secured a record number of 5th place starts defining his place as best of those cars outside the top two teams.
- 4pts - Adrian Sutil - Beating a McLaren and Bahrain podium finisher Perez in the Sauber
- 3pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Gets some points for powerslides in the final sector
- 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Have a couple of points for not choosing to wait for space with Massa
- 1pt - Pastor Maldonado - For crashing into the pit lane, and being distracted by twiddling his knobs... because it was hilarious
Looking to Tomorrow
The forecast is for the race to be dry, therefore we expect Hamilton to drive off into the distance never to be seen again - and Rosberg should be able to make it past the Red Bulls and lead an equally lonely race in second. The time lost with Ricciardo and Vettel will prevent another titanic battle between the two teammates once again. The change in conditions will redress the balance of power, where McLaren, Perez, Raikkonen should making their way forward - whereas Vergne, Grosjean and potentially the Red Bulls will begin to struggle and drop back down the field. This might mean that the two groups meet in the middle in some gigantic battle with overtaking and mayhem... and as long as Maldonado stays several hundred miles away no-one will be upside down.
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