With the world reeling from another devastating bout of terrorism in Paris - celebrating a day of sport seems really out of place. But as tragic as those events were and will always be, we have to remain resilient and power on in the face of these aggressors. So turning to the world of sport and to the Brazilian GP qualifying, where a traditional circuit was all set to deliver a very traditional result, traditional from the perspective of this season anyhow. The front runners remained firmly at the front and the tail enders remained at the back. It was the bit in the middle that we often have to rely on to be more dynamic and more interesting. I can't really say that this mid-grid armada was particularly entertaining this afternoon - it was far too routine, and too regimental. We had Renault underperforming in comparison to past results, we had McLaren running towards the back, and breaking down.
In other news in and around the paddock, there have been a couple of penalties which would shape the grid before qualifying took place. Valtteri Bottas was handed a three place penalty for overtaking under a red flag during practice, caused by a McLaren breaking down... again. The second penalty belonged to Daniel Ricciardo because Red Bull opted to replace his engine with Renault's newest incarnation of the power unit. Amusingly for Red Bull they left the older specification engine in Kvyat's car - and in comparison across the data indicates that the new engine is actually slower in a straight line in terms of ultimate top speed... no wonder Red Bull and Renault have continual incidents of falling out. But in practice, over a complete lap the upgrade does seem to offer some performance advantage... by a couple of tenths.
Q1
There were reports in the run up to the race weekend that there may be rain for qualifying, but bright skies and high temperatures made that forecast increasingly unlikely. So it was very much business as usual, which was a bit of a shame. For the first part of the session it was quite quiet, only a handful of cars ventured onto the track the first of those took four minutes to vacate the garage. That first volunteer was Nico, Hulkenberg that is - followed by Felipe Massa. The reluctance to take to track has something to do with the track evolution, meaning the lap times and the overall track condition would be better towards the end of the session. So doing laps early in the session would be a waste of tyres, which are always a limited resource these days. But the track condition wasn't going to get any better if no-one was driving on it - that's how it used to be in the old qualifying format. The big teams would sit in the garage and wait until the smaller, slower teams cleaned the track and put the rubber down.
With the session drawing to a close lap times and positions started to change rapidly, within a space of 30s for example Grosjean moved up to third and then dropped back to 9th. This made the battle for relegation more dynamic, Massa was on the cusp of being knocked out and found himself having to dive off the track when Nasr decided to amble down the middle of the track on his out-lap. The two Felipes will be visiting the stewards office later on. In the end Massa held on to his promotion place and Nasr joined him in Q2.
Q2
Before the second part of qualifying got underway - we saw an official medical car head out to pick up Alonso from his sunbathing spot up on the hill and bring him back to the pits. Once the track was open once more, the circuit remained relatively unpopulated - Mercedes and Williams having the place to themselves. Again Hamilton had the upper hand with several tenths of an advantage over Rosberg. A minor discussion over the radio, indicated that Rosberg had no intention of staying on track on the current set of tyres in case he'd have to start the race on them and lose any hint of an advantage to Hamilton. The team suggested he could improve his lap time on the current set, and Nico decided he was pitting.
Back on track and more cars had finally decided to take part in qualifying, and traffic became more of an issue. This time the cars on an out-lap were more observant of cars behind them and stayed out of the way. Just like Q1, lap times closer to the relegation zone were changing quite rapidly as Massa moved himself into the top ten. Lotus were also planning on getting one of their cars through in the final part of qualifying after Maldonado didn't escape Q1. But that plan didn't quite work out when Romain span the car through Ferradura and ruined his tyres and thus his final run. Preventing the second Lotus from making promotion.
Q3
The final part of qualifying, was poised as a significant battle between the two Mercedes, comfortably clear of the opposition. Between the pairing Rosberg set the first lap - the fastest lap of the weekend and certainly lay down the challenge to his team-mate. On the first time of asking - Hamilton couldn't quite find the same lap time and fell a few hundredths short of the German. Bottas and Hulkenberg lined up on the second row. The Ferraris rearranged that order slightly with Vettel taking third and Raikkonen 5th before everyone started setting up for the final efforts.
There were only two minutes left on the timer when the final efforts got underway and this time Max Verstappen joined the fray. Nico Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes pairing to set a new time, moving the goal post further away from Lewis' grasp. Of course Hamilton tried to recover the difference and he too did improve his qualifying effort but it was not enough to claim pole position. The other positions remained reasonably stable only Kvyat was able to make any real gains - jumping from 9th to 7th.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Despite the session not being that entertaining, those points still need to be awarded and these are as follows.
- 10pts - Nico Rosberg - A very strong session, recovering some of that qualifying form in a weekend without disrupted practice
- 8pts - Nico Hulkenberg - After being notable outshone by Perez, Hulkenberg scores a top six qualifying result
- 6pts - Daniil Kvyat - Despite being lumped with the older, not upgraded Renault engine and still beats Ricciardo with the newer engine.
- 5pts - Sebastian Vettel - Once more the closest competitor to the Mercedes pair and well clear of Raikkonen
- 4pts - Romain Grosjean - Before the spin in Q2, Romain was considerably outshining Maldonado in the other car.
- 3pts - Felipe Massa - Scores some points for his avoidance action when dodging a completely oblivious Sauber driver before Juncao
- 2pts - Fernando Alonso - Has to score some points for just being amusing while sitting around on the camping chair
- 1pt - Jenson Button - Scores the final point for joining in on the podium silliness which was amusing
Looking to Tomorrow
There probably won't be any rain, which is a shame - so we are probably heading for a dominant Mercedes performance, but we can live in hope that the two cars in the all conquering team will offer some form of internal competition something that we saw a brief hint of at during the American GP. We want a race far more in line with the epic Bahrain race of 2014 - that is something we have been wanting ever since and has far too often been denied. Alas the Interlagos circuit doesn't necessarily supply the sort of layout that encourages that sort of racing. But it is a track which can trigger mistakes and inject something that prevents the slightly stagnant event we experienced in Mexico.
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