It took a while, and we waited for so long - but now at the fifth race we might finally get to see the battle we want to see between those two drivers in the Mercedes team. One can only hope that this opening phase of the European season sets the scene for the remainder of this part of 2015. The Spanish GP has also seen the impact of the development race on the lesser funded teams - both Force India and Sauber have lost a lot of ground to those cars around them while McLaren travel in the opposite direction. It could be argued that the relative performance losses by two of the poorer teams on the grid has rather flattered the gains that McLaren have made in the three weeks since the Bahrain GP. They probably spent most of the time converting to the dark side of the force through their new livery rather than fixing the issues which are preventing the union between Honda and McLaren delving better results.
Elsewhere Lotus also seem to have lost pace in comparison to the Renault powered teams they were beating and at least competing with in the early part of the season. Even the addition of Mad Max sponsor ship has not allowed Grosjean and Maldonado: Road Warrior from retaining the early season performance levels. Overall it seems that chassis upgrades are stating to overcome the base power advantages from the power unit. Cars with strong engines and weaker aero packages are now beginning to struggle to live on the engine performance alone.
Q1
The first part of qualifying got underway with a notable lack of activity, the same could be said of all the sessions to be honest but at least in Q1 there were more cars to choose from. Eventually it was Manor's Roberto Merhi soaking up the TV coverage which would have been good for their sponsors all that international exposure... if they had any. But don't worry Manor, McLaren don't really have a title sponsor either and they've been around for a lot longer. As more cars took to the track Mehri lost his temporary grasp on the top spot. Interestingly however several teams were struggling to get laptime out of the harder compound tyres. The most interesting development was that interestingly Manor were able to set faster times than Mercedes in at the very start of the session - of course is was just down to a couple of rather slow installation laps on the part of the mercedes team not some magical resurgence from the Yorkshire based outfit
Normal service was soon resumed when Nico Rosberg took over the top spot, taking it from the other Nico - the one in the Force India. At this point the majority of the drivers were only using unfavoured hard compound - because it would be more beneficial to use less of the more useful medium tyre, saving them for the race. But someone using the faster option tyre could help themselves avoid the threat of relegation - a threat that is more of a problem to some teams than it is to others. The McLaren Empire is certainly one of those teams, and so both Darth Button and Sith Lord stuck on a set of the quicker tyres and immediately jumped into the top ten - 5th and 6th places. Emperor Dennis appeared more pleased than he did in Bahrain. This planted the two Lotus cars in the relegation zone - the Mad Max livery wasn't helping Grosjean or Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior survive the thunderdome of demotion from Q1.
A flurry of laps at the end of the session, saw those on the medium tyre made significant strides forwards, the remaining three relegation places changed hands rapidly. For a time both Lotus cars were in there, then it belonged to Toro Rosso and Red Bull - when the dust settled it was the Force India cars who found themselves in the bottom five along with Manor. The final place belonged to Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber - proving that teams with limited resources to keep up the development pace struggle to replicate their early season form.
Q2
The second part of qualifying started with the same level of enthusiasm that Q1 did - and by that I mean nothing happened to begin with. But the silence was eventually broken by the appearance of Felipe 'Fred' Nasr in the Sauber. Fred had the track to himself for a little while before the rest of the remaining drivers thought it might be a good idea to join in. At the front of the field Hamilton took his Mercedes to the top of the timesheet - with a comfortable margin between himself and the rest of the field. That was of course before Rosberg came along and spoiled his party - perhaps there was a hint that the qualifying pace that often defeated Hamilton had returned. Stealing P1 by over half a second was a sign that it might be the case. At the conclusion of the first runs, Mercedes, Ferrari and Bottas decided that they had done enough to make it through without needing to use another set of tyres.
Only five more places were up for grabs in the final part of qualifying - and ten
cars competing for it. Just like we saw in the Q1, the change in lap time only start to take effect in the dying moments of the session. Except this time a larger gulf in time had developed between the edge of the top ten and those cars caught in the relegation zone. The McLaren Empire were unable to make it past the rebel blockade and creep into the final part of qualifying - Sith Lord Alonso seemed to be closest to making up the grid until Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior demoted both members of the McLaren Empire further down the grid. In the end it was Grosjean who came closest to eliminating one of the cars currently in the promotion places. This meant all four of the Renault powered cars made it into Q3, looks like the fuel upgrade in conjunction with the chassis updates have been working for Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
Q3
There was a slightly more energetic response to the final minutes of qualifying as Valtteri Bottas took to the track first for Williams, followed by both of the Mercedes cars. Hamilton crossed the line first and set what seemed like a very reasonable lap time, using a fresh set of medium tyres. But Nico Rosberg replicated his run of form from the previous session and trimmed a couple of tenths off his team-mate's time to claim a provisional pole position. Vettel and Bottas were the only other drivers to complete the opening runs on newer tyres - the latter getting several shades of sideways on the exit of Campsa corner. Raikkonen and Mad Max Verstappen were the only other drivers to set an initial time.
Then something strange happened - the track appeared to get slower, in commentary it was suggested that the change in temperature had something to do with the loss of lap time. Neither Vettel or Bottas were able to improve on their initial runs, so attention was directed to the Mercedes pairing once more it was Hamilton with the lead track position, but the change in track conditions meant he couldn't improve on his first time - leaving Rosberg on pole. Realistically it was done there and then, no other car could have the pace to defeat the Mercedes cars. But there was a surprise in store - not at the very front, but a little further back. Even though the track seemed slower - both Toro Rosso's locked out the third row. Carlos Sainz Jnr went fifth and Mad Max sixth. Both cars beating the factory Red Bull team... Perhaps Christian Horner might want the junior team equalised...
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
In a session which saw driver performances delimited by the capabilities of the car they are driving - especially in the case of the teams beyond the top ten - it could be argued that handing out driver points becomes that bit more difficult. But here goes.
- 10pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - A brilliant 5th place to become the lead Spaniard on home turf... and to thing people came to the circuit to see Sith Lord Alonso
- 8pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Backing his team-mate up in 6th place, completing a complete domination of the main team
- 6pts - Sith Lord Alonso - McLaren are more competitive this race, and Alonso is heading the charge, just ahead of Darth Button
- 5pts - Nico Rosberg - Finally the Hamilton domination has been silenced, at least for one day, tomorrow is a whole new kettle of piranhas.
- 4pts - Valtteri Bottas - Scores some points for his sideways moment over the crest at Campsa
- 3pts - Roberto Merhi - He may not have any sponsors to show off when he took to the track alone in Q1, but gets some points for actually doing something
- 2pts - Daniil Kvyat - The scary Russian may have been a little off the pace of Ricciardo, but outqualified the Australian today
- 1pt - Stoffel Vandoorne - Another win for Sith Apprentice in GP2 - the McLaren Empire is at least taking hold in the lower classes.
Looking To Tomorrow
The fact that the vast majority of races on the Barcelona circuit have been won by the pole-sitter stands as an indication of how the Spanish GP might play out. Plus as qualifying demonstrated, that the chassis performance is by far and away the dominant performance factor in governing positions in the middle of the pack. Which is where most of the entertainment has been for the majority of the season this far. But outside the front row, there are a few cars out of position - Raikkonen down in 7th, Massa in 9th who could make things interesting.
However I imagine the focus will be set on the front row, for the first time in 2015, Rosberg is ahead of Hamilton, and we know that Hamilton is more than up for a fight with his German team-mate. So a combination of Lewis' aggression and Rosberg's desperation might make for a very interesting afternoon. I'd like to see a race long fight but in reality I imagine that it will be more of a strategic battle, based on tyre wear and pit stops - tyre wear which might turn Vettel into a potential threat to a day of Mercedes domination. There are few instances in the past year or so when the front of the race might be more interesting than the rest of the grid. And this could well be one of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment