Round 9 - Great Britain 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

You might have noticed that there was no preview post on Thursday or on Friday as some of them have been this season - but my evenings were taken up by other commitments. But I have returned - sorry about that - to continue proceedings, picking up the coverage following today's qualifying session. A qualifying session that followed on from a series of even more discussions within the chaotic mess that is the Strategy group. After the calls for refuelling and customer car teams - the next mad idea is to add a second F1 race to each weekend's schedule. Now on the surface that seems like a marvellous idea - simply because it just means there is more racing going on, and more is usually better. This new race would be a qualifying sprint race, as used in some rounds of the Australian V8 supercar championship. The finishing order of the qualifying race then sets the grid for the main race on a Sunday afternoon. Some other suggestions were to put the development and third drivers in this second race and make it a separate event - the highest placed drivers gaining an entry onto the grid for the GP proper. As I said earlier, more racing is always a good thing, but should we really consider diluting what is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport with sub-races. Both options risk increasing costs which need to be curtailed, and the preparation of a third (or even fourth) race car for the a test-driver race will not be cheap. Manor, Sauber and probably Force India struggle to keep two cars running - so in the end only the big teams would have the resources to compete.

Back to qualifying then, and the yearly visit to this little island looked to be on target for producing a slightly mixed up grid. Upredicatable winds were catching people out in practice and rearranging the running order. Williams seemed be struggling more than anticipated, and Toro Rosso were much closer to the front. The high speed nature of Silverstone however was making life quite comfortable for the Mercedes team - building a comfortable gap to Ferrari. It was also making things difficult for McLaren, Alonso came close to missing qualifying due to a coolant leak... one day things might get better.

Q1

As the opening part of qualifying got underway it was mentioned that the stewards were taking a zero-tolerance policy on drivers running wide and off the track at Copse, although Antony Davidson seemed to be a bit confused and called it turn nine. Like Monaco, these corners have names. Any lap completed with an excursion at Copse would result in a deleted lap time - as we saw in the 2014 iteration of the Austrian GP. The first driver to fall foul of this new regulation was Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India - but it wasn't too long before he set a new lap time and made up for the one that was deleted. Mad Max Verstappen was having an even more wayward time of things as he span the Toro Rosso in Farm corner. He also ran wide at Copse and earned himself a deleted lap time. 

Obeying the track limits was even more difficult due to a cross wind blowing across Copse and the Maggots/Becketts section of the lap - even Sebastian Vettel had one of his times deleted due to some misuse of the track limits. In terms of lap time - it was a comfortable Mercedes 1-2 with Bottas in third, reversing the Williams fortunes from the practice sessions. These three cars were comfortably through into Q2 without needing to switch onto the softer of the two available compounds. Although it is estimated that the race on Sunday will be a one-stop event, so retaining lots of tyre sets becomes less of a priority. With only a few minutes remaining on the clock, the relegation zone had some interesting residents. Romain Grosjean and Mad Max Verstappen were holding station on the back row, neither setting a valid time - Grosjean hadn't left the pits and Max lost his initial lap time. Maldonado was also in danger after he had a time deleted - but his last valid lap kept him out relegation.

For the final efforts it was time for the medium tyre for those looking to stay in qualifying. This wasn't good news for McLaren who were clear of relegation due to running the option tyre earlier. Once the opposition started using the faster tyre they tumbled down into relegation. As Grosjean appeared and escaped relegation, Alonso was dropped in - Verstappen then demoted Button. A legal lap time for Maldonado demoted Fred Nasr out of Q1. In the remaining laps none of the relegated drivers could escape their fate and dropped out of qualifying.

Q2

You'd think people would have learned from the previous session about the perils of misusing the run-off area on the exit of Copse corner, but throughout Q2 drivers were still having lap times deleted. One team who were consistently keeping within the lines was Williams, and as Q2 got underway Bottas set the early pace ahead of Massa in the other team car, while Mercedes were building up to their qualifying laps. Both Rosberg and Hamilton were taking gentle outlaps as these were to be the tyres they were intending to start the race on. So when Lewis locked up his inside front in Farm, the race set started to look a little more second hand than intended. So while Lewis abandoned his lap, Nico took over the role of taking the fight to Williams and claimed the top spot. Eventually Hamilton put a lap together, only to fall three tenths short of the time set by his German teammate.

At the opposite end of the standings, there were some interesting names in the relegation zone, including both Ferrari's - Raikkonen was down there as he became another driver to have a lap time deleted. Pastor Maldonado also lost his lap time due to another violation at Copse - his second excursion of qualifying. But based on his current pace, it was unlikely that he'd be in Q3 to go for a hat-trick of illegal lap times. Mad Max Verstappen was also continuing to struggle, his team radio was full of complaints about the car, and a chronic lack of traction. So as Williams had moved forward after practice, Toro Rosso had fallen in the opposite direction. Sainz was clinging onto the final top ten place, but Verstappen's struggles kept him inside the relegation zone. This meant that Red Bull were actually able to compete ahead of their junior team. 

Raikkonen was able to recover from his deleted lap time to escape relegation, but only just as he moved into 8th place. While the rest of the occupants of the relegation zone seemed to be fairly rooted after Vettel left and joined the rest of the drivers inside the top ten. Both of the Lotus' drivers, and the wayward Toro Rosso were not going to be making into the top ten. They were joined in relegation by Ericsson and Sergio Perez.

Q3

With Hamilton struggling to defeat his team-mate in the previous session - the battle for pole position took on an interesting dimension, one that failed to materialise properly in Austria as both drivers span off. All of the remaining competitors took to the track for the opening set of runs - and for a brief period of time Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull set the pace. For that split second Christian Horner wasn't cross at Renault and neither was the Red Bull overlord - Dietrich. However it was over rather quickly as the lead passed from Ricciardo to Raikkonen and then to Bottas as the Finns locked out the front row. The final ingredient was the appearance of the Mercedes team - who followed crossed the line to make the front row all theirs. Rosberg was one tenth slower than Hamilton who claimed a provisional home pole position. 

Therefore things were set up nicely for a final lap shoot out, but once again we were left disappointed - which stating to become a patten this season. Neither Rosberg or Hamilton improved - leaving a rather stagnant and non-existent fight for pole. It seemed as if nobody was making any form of improvement, that is except for Felipe Massa who wrestled third place from his team-mate moving Williams slightly further away from Ferrari. Ricciardo was on target to overtake Kvyat but he had his lap time deleted.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Qualifying may not have been the most enthralling of sessions but somewhere in the middle of all that there are some bonus points to be handed out.

• 10pts - Felipe Massa - The only driver to make any form of meaningful progress in the final session taking third place
• 8pts - Will Stevens - The Manor driver fought back against a resurgence of form from Roberto Mehri 
• 6pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - Scores points for the most dramatic slide through the final corner on his last qualifying lap in Q3
• 5pts - Kimi Raikkonen - After being under criticism the past few races, Kimi comes back and out-qualifies Vettel
• 4pts - Daniil Kvyat - Once again the man with the death stare is the lead Red Bull driver and today the lead Renault powered driver
• 3pts - Lewis Hamilton - A home pole position certainly deserves some points 
• 2pts - Nico Rosberg - Almost caused the a second British Qualifying upset but fell a tenth short
• 1pt - Nico Hulkenberg - The Force India driver continues the run of form getting the B-spec car into the top ten

• -1pt - Anthony Davidson - It's called Copse corner not just turn nine
• -1pt - Silverstone Track Limits - Just put some grass out there, is that too much to ask for. Make the curbs smaller and put in some grass, therefore folk couldn't gain time by running wide. Yes it runs the risk of more Raikkonen-esque collisions - but drivers will learn, they are paid millions of pounds, they can deal with a little grass.

Looking to Tomorrow

While the media proclaim the British GP to be a wondrous event, with incredible racing that will live long in everyone's memories - the reality is ever so slightly less enticing. While Silverstone is one of the classic mainstays of the championship - even despite the strange modification that the layout suffered in 2010 - it doesn't always produce the most enthralling of races. Certainly not the worst either, generally better than the likes of Spain or Hungary. Traditionally we would need a slightly mixed up grid to make things especially interesting - that's what kept things interesting in Canada. But we don't have the luxury of a fun grid, because despite the track limits issues, everyone roughly lined up where they expect to be. So it can be expected that barring any significant reliability issues the final result should look quite similar to the grid order. But we can hope for something different, something exciting to break away from that convention,