Round 10: Hungary 2013 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

Well it has been a while since out last outing, but the series is back from another odd break in a calendar which looks more like the proverbial swiss cheese than an actual season, in preparation for the polarising Hungarian GP. But before we get onto that, it is time for the news.

While I, and most other people probably have been sitting around for the past three weeks waiting for some racing, the grid spent the first weekend effectively on holiday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and then most people went to the young driver test that involved most race drivers except Mercedes who were banned. Were any of the times from the test relevant probably not, but there were some interesting faces in the cars, several development drivers appeared including Suzie Wolf for Williams, and Robin Frjns for Sauber - the latter being an interesting prospect even though financial difficulties have relegated him from the GP2 series. On the second day, Daniel Ricciardo finished they day 1st and 3rd... having driven both the Torro Ross and the Red Bull, perhaps an early indication of Webbers replacement.

What else has been going on... well there are plans afoot for next season's calender, which is up for several changes if the rumours are to be believed. First up the track at Sochi in Russia has been inspected and approved for F1, our newest addition to the season. Next up Red Bull are up to something in Austria - remember the A1-Ring that went missing for a while as it fell into disrepair, but Red Bull bought it, and refurbished it and now they want it on the calendar and Bernie seems to think it's a good idea. On top of that there is the ongoing saga involving the New Jersey GP, which was delayed due to a combination of Hurricane Sandy and money issues, it has gone all quiet on that front, but with all those tracks - others are under threat. The internet believes that Korea is under threat of being culled, along with the Hungaroring, more worryingly Suzuka is out of contract.... it will be a very sad day if that goes missing. Also the Spa/Paul-Ricard deal also has gone a little quiet along with rumours of Thailand, Mexico and South Africa having their names thrown into the theoretical hat.

We can assume more light will be shed on these matters this weekend... which is also presently lacking a contract for next season... for the Hungarian GP

The Track

When the thought of the Hungarian GP turns up it is traditionally responded to with an underwhelming sigh, and an excuse to take a nap on a Sunday afternoon, even the conventionally mental GP2 races have been dull at times. Which is a massive shame because the track is good, and quite entertaining to potter round in the simulator, the layout flows well and the middle sector is brilliant - so with a track that is such a decent place to drive around on, why is the racing so tiresome... Well it is quite narrow in places, most places - in the same manner that the Nurburgring is, therefore there it is hard to get two cars wide most of the way round. The second problem is ironically one of it's strengths as a track - it flows well with little in the way of straights, so there is one usable line that everyone uses, which leaves the track offline dusty, and exceptionally low grip. 

The powers that be have been rather aware of this predicament over the years and did make some changes to the track to make the track more race-able without compromising the nature of the layout. This meant re-profiling T1, making the apex sharper and the breaking zone longer, and hey presto we have passing - backed up in recent years with the DRS on the front straight. A second change was made on the other side of the circuit at turn 12, through the same process of sharpening the corner and lengthening the straight. However this adjustment hasn't been quite so successful, not in F1 anyway - Maldonado tried passing here and just biffed Hulkenberg out the way instead, but Maldonado likes biffing people in most corners. 

In this season of cramming as much DRS into each layout as possible, two zones have been added - one on the main straight, and the second on the exit of T1 before T2... which seems a little mad on the surface given how little space there is between the first two corners. But to make matters all kinds of worse is that there is a single detection zone... seriously, why... who makes up these things and what are they taking when making these decisions. It would make more sense to use the space after turn 11 to make use of the re-profiled T12, the hill up to turn four would be a decent straight but the idea of reaching the crest with the DRS open is frightening. The wing only closes automatically when the brakes are applied, which doesn't happen in turn four - Ralph Firman had a rear wing failure in a Jordan there and had a massive accident. An accident that gave Timo Glock his debut standing in for the injured Irishman. So there is a precedent for lack of rear downforce approaching that corner.

What to Expect

The forecast for this race is heat, a lot of it - in fact it may be the hottest race of all time approaching 38 degrees on Sunday, warmer than races in the Bahrani desert. So in essence Mercedes may as well not bother turning up as this is going to cripple their tyre conservation and race pace, it also may not be too helpful for Red Bull. It does however make the people at Lotus rather happy, having taken two thirds of all podium places in Bahrain since 2012 - their cars rather enjoy the heat. Ferrari also have a car that likes it hot, not as much as the Lotus team, but have more baseline pace. Meaning that the race looks like it could be unusually fun for a race at the Hungaroring, because Mercedes may be quick in Qualifying but may evaporate completely the day after falling into a long train of faster cars. 

Despite bringing new constructions and developments in the tyre department - no-one has tested in temperatures that we are expecting. How long will even the most conservative compounds fair on an abrasive surface in almost 40 degree heat - no-one has any idea, but the best guess is that whatever the results are Mercedes will not like it one bit. It will however potentially enhance Lotus' advantage on long run pace, especially with the race being the hottest part of the weekend. There is some potential for some odd results at the end of the race because Force India and Sauber are good on tyres... and if there is a chance of failures in the heat... who knows indeed. Hungary might not be famous for out and out excitement in the dry, but the variables involved this weekend may very well change that. So until then this is farewell from Blog HQ.

Round 9: Germany 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Sometimes you have mad dynamic races, and sometimes you have dull processional races... but then there are the odd ones, and Germany has been odd this time around. The relative tyre performance bore no relationship to anything we've seen so far in the weekend due to a second sharp increase in tyres for raceday in as many race events. At Silverstone this caused things to explode, whereas this time round it granted Lotus super-powers and gave Mercedes a beating - while all this was going on we had possessed Marussias making a bid for freedom (I'm sure Alonso and his magician's beard may have had something to do with that) and we also had strange spins, questionable rules and possessed tyres - the second consecutive year at the Nurburgring that we've seen a loose wheel run down the pit lane. Last time it was tackled by a Williams Mechanic... this time it sent a bystander to hospital - and after the events of Canada and soon after that Le Mans, the dangerous nature of the sport was all too clear. We got luck this time and the guy involved has not been seriously injured and escaped with only a few broken bones from the impact.

Despite all the oddities that took place the result up at the sharpest end of the field was a rather familiar face and stretches the championship out a little further, because no matter how well the main rivals do in the race, a certain German bloke always ends up a little ahead. It all seems odd that despite having the last two races where the margin between the top two at the line is around a second (1.008 this afternoon 0.7s in Britain) and 0.4s separating 10 cars in Q2 - that we've had one bloke constantly edging further out front. But it has been an interesting season before we head off towards the half-way point next time in Hungary.

The Race

Before things kicked off today, we say several drivers practising their starts at the end of the pit-lane - because the change in surface temperatures altered the optimum traction values and clutch bite points. A process that Webber was going through more than others, likely on the back of the dodgy start last weekend which lead to being clipped by Grosjean in turn one.

When the lights went it out it was clear that this recalibration worked out rather well, as both Red Bulls swarmed past Hamilton off the line pushing the Mercedes down to 3rd, that almost became 4th as Raikkonen came close to making it down the inside of turn 3. Considering that all of yesterday's support races ended up in a lap one safety car, this was comparatively rather clean, it got a little close in the back of the field - some cars running three wide at the apex of turn one but there was no contact. Saving all the oddities for later on. A series of alternate strategies saw some early place shuffling, as Rosberg dropped a couple of places, and Perez made it down the inside of his team-mate in turn one, making sure to edge Jenson off wide on the exit... making friends once more inside the McLaren garage.

Then the first of the oddities began and Massa somehow managed to spin the car in the opposite direction to the turn in to the first corner, stopped the car and buggered off... turns out the anti-stall may have kicked in and stalled the car, which from an outside perspective seems counter productive. Anyway the Ferrari was towed away and Felipe's German GP lasted a grand total of three complete laps and the 600 odd metres down to the first corner. It might be worth noting that at the time he was ahead of Alonso - some magical superpowers later and the situation had been resolved, could be considered as a little suspicious. These powers didn't seem to affect Ricciardo who managed to stay ahead of the remaining Ferrari.

With a large amount of drivers starting on the softer compound the first round of stops came early into the race with Di Resta coming in first on lap five, the Force India team then released the car back into the path of Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso. The only two cars in the pit lane and they almost hit each other - the unsafe release despite happening at the start of the race was to be investigated afterwards. At the time this seemed like lunacy, plenty of time to issue a penalty - but a fine was eventually imposed of 5,000 EUR which makes more sense as it was a team balls up not Di Restas. It that wasn't bad enough the Red Bull team released Webber without putting the rear wheel on properly, it promptly detached and sped down the pit-lane. Like the 2011 incident it went straight through the Mercedes garage before bouncing and hitting a cameraman in the shoulder knocking him severely to the floor. The cameraman was airlifted to hospital and has a broken collar bone and several broken ribs, as of this point there is no news on what penalty Red Bull are facing for the incident, but i'd imagine it will be a severe one.

Webber was pulled back to the garage and given a new tyre and released - albeit one lap and 67s behind Vettel out front. But the German bloke himself surrendered the lead as it was his turn for some new tyres, and rather helpfully Red Bull decided that the German Bloke deserved four tyres, I'm not sure if that counts as favouritism or not but it meant that Grosjean inherited the lead of the race still driving around on the softer tyres. What was most interesting is that Romain was still setting fast times on the supposedly less durable tyres while Alonso on the harder compound had to stop for a newer set - Lotus exploiting their conservation superpowers to double the expected life of the softer tyres. The other side of the Lotus garage was a more frustrated affair as Raikkonen had came out from his stop behind Hamilton and Rosberg who were in the middle of a little intra-team tiff. Rosberg was informed that Lewis was faster on newer tyres and instructed not to hold him up... which is not so secret code for 'get out of the way'. Naturally Nico disagreed and wanted to stay in front. In the process costing both Lewis and Raikkonen time in their respective races allowing Vettel and Grosjean to have their own race at the front.

Eventually Hamilton was released from behind his team-mate and disappeared off into the middle distance before he found himself behind Hulkenberg running long in the Sauber. Without Hamilton in the way Raikkonen made short work of Rosberg round the outside into the final corner - and in a matter of a few laps was on the back of Hamilton and Hulkenberg. It was the same problem for Raikkonen his DRS was cancelled out because Hamilton also had DRS on the car in front and was unable to make any progress. Once Hulkenberg pitted Lewis had to defend from the Finn and the Mercedes was eating it's tyres making that defence ever harder - Kimi was able to repeat the move he made on the other silver car round the outside and off into the distance.

More oddities now as Jules Bianchi's car imploded in a massive plume of smoke and then some fire for good measure, but the fire extinguisher worked and Jules fled the car with plenty of time. All seemed normal a generic abandoned car recovery job for the marshals... except the Marissia was not co-operating and had a sudden phobia of green tractors. So it ran away, all by itself reversing down the hill - we had a tractor on the edge of the track and a fleeing race car rolling back into oncoming traffic, inevitably the safety car had to be called even though the Marussia had parked itself in a much safer place of it's own volition, after reversing through an advertising board. The safety car brought about a very interesting situation with Mr Webber, through some odd loophole in the regulations he was allowed to pass the safety car and rejoin the back of the queue. Traditionally this rule is to get lapped cars to get out of the flow of traffic for the restarts - but Webber was already at the back of the train and thus was in no-one's way and effectively got his lap back for free. Very like the free-pass given to the first car one lap down in NASCAR races.

The restart was also good for Raikkonen who recouped the damage caused by being trapped with Hamilton behind Rosberg and brought him back up to Grosjean and Vettel at the front. The safety car however was bad for Hamilton because he'd stopped before it came out and as a result was trapped in the mid-field back behind Hulkenberg again. Now on the back of the field Webber was now able to pass people for position being on the same lap again, scything past the Caterhams, Chilton and Bottas - Williams dropping down the grid due to wheel-gun issues in the pits. But Webber's charge was halted when he encountered the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez, because the Sauber refused to surrender to the charging Australian. Several times Webber was able to get alongside only to find the door firmly shut eased wide on the exits of turns one and three on different laps.

It was getting close up at the front as Vettel was not able to lose Grosjean and Raikkonen as the two Lotus cars were ganging up on the German... which mysteriously in the background Alonso was sneaking gently closer to the top three. Hamilton was also getting close - this time with Di Resta as the two were almost three wide with Maldonado's Williams which was in the points for the first time all season. But Pastor had to pit again, and there was a faulty wheelgun waiting there for when he did, which inevitably cost the Venezuelan a lot of time and any hope of the first points for the team. But at least Williams ensured that all four wheels were attached to the car before sending it back out onto the track... This signalled the phase of the race where drivers needed to come in for their final stops of the day, except for Raikkonen who decided not to come in. This inspired the thought that the car was going to the end of the race, which would involve a really long final stint. Raikkonen may not be the most conversational driver on team radio, but communications were hampered by radio problems - as discussions intensified on intended tyre life.

Raikkonen's stampede out front depended on how quickly Vettel and Grosjean who had pitted, made it through other cars staying out and struggling on older worn tyres, the first of these was the Mercedes of Hamilton in fourth place. That battle bought Raikkonen some time but not enough to stop and rejoin in the lead, neither did the next car of Jenson Button as the McLaren pitted just as Vettel caught up. Realising that making to the end may not be plausible, and considering the amount of time Kimi was losing to the other podium contenders justified making a final stop, followed in by Alonso from second. Both drivers played a final trump card and placed Raikkonen and Alonso onto the softer compound for a final charge to the flag. With ten laps to go the top four had formed a breakaway pack, where Vettel had the very close attentions of both Lotus drivers, all three exchanging fastest laps at will - only to have their pace annihilated by Alonso closing from fourth.

Grosjean's side of the garage demonstrated that his radio was working as he was asked to move over for Raikkonen on the softer tyres to allow him to attack Vettel. Once Kimi was released the difference in pace was evident and started stripping tenths per sector from The German Bloke's lead. But the gap was just a little too big - Raikkonen managed to eke his way into the DRS zone at which point the chequered flag was thrown declaring Vettel the victor on home turf from Raikkonen, and Grosjean held off Alonso for the final step on the podium. Hamilton fell from pole to fifth, illustrating that the tyre wear issues at Mercedes are not quite resolved and won't be on account of being banned from the next test. Jenson Button scored some valuable points for McLaren by bringing the car home in 6th despite being considerably less than complimentary about the Caterham drivers late in the race. Blaming them for allowing Hamilton to catch and pass him in the final few laps. Somehow, flukey rules and all Webber went from being a lap and a minute down to taking points in 7th place for Red Bull. More points for McLaren with Perez in 8th, while Rosberg and Hulkenberg made it three Germans inside the points at the Nurburgring.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race containing all kinds of oddities and strangeness there has to be some points awarded for the performances today and are awarded as follows:

• 25pts - Mark Webber - From 1 lap and 67s down to scoring points by the end of the race deserves some mega points
• 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Some major pace today, and found some impressive tyre life on those softer compound tyres in the first stint
• 15pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Should have won the race today if he wasn't impeded behind Rosberg
• 12pts - Jenson Button - Finally a decent race for a McLaren
• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Spent most of the day in the points for Sauber but was caught out by the safety car
• 8pts - Bianchi's Marussia - A car that tows itself way and runs from recovery tractors definately deserves some points
• 6pts - Sebastien Vettel - Survived some intense Lotus based pressure today and still won on home turf
• 4pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Gets points for resisting the challenges of a charging Webber
• 2pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Gets points for the evasive action performed in the pits when avoiding Di Resta's unsafe release
• 1pt - Ted Kravitz - Somebody on the SKY team that actually knows what is going on in the pit lane

The Penalties Championship

The pit lane was the source of our penalty problems today and here are the penalties following the German GP:

• Force India - 5,000 EUR for releasing Paul Di Resta into the path of Vergne at the first stops
• Red Bull - 30,000 EUR for not putting a wheel on properly and wiping out the cameraman

The Penalty Points Championship

While the official powers that be have doled out their penalties time for the blog to finish things off:

• Red Bull - for their pit lane indiscretion causing injury
• Safety Car Procedure - Was out way too long considering Bianchi's car cleared itself away

Looking forward to Hungary

Well the Hungarian GP is traditionally only ever famous for being dull and uneventful, often compared to Monaco in terms of how difficult it is to overtake. Due to lack of seasonal use the track is often dusty  as well as it being narrow, twisty and with very few opportunities for conventional overtaking. That bad press is a bit of a shame because the track itself is very good - the middle sector flows very nicely from one corner to the next - but that is the very characteristic that makes the racing a little lacklustre at times because there is one useful racing line. Preventing drivers from venturing offline to try something a little different.

But that all goes out of the window if it rains, damp Hungarian GPs have been brilliant competitions - 2006 instantly springs to mind where Jenson Button claimed victory from 14th on the grid weathering safety cars and very changeable conditions. I am more than willing to be proven wrong, and with new experimental tyres it is entirely plausible, but the Hungarian GP is traditionally one of the weakest races of the season with very little going on. So until next time this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.

Round 9: Germany 2013 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

Well, as expected today was going to be all about tyres, so much so that the actual event of qualifying seemed to be a mere hindrance to an ongoing argument - but to settle that down for a bit Pirrelli have brought the hybrid spec constructions. These new tyres are lined with kevlar instead of metal, which SKY pointed out is the same material bullet proof vests and things are made of - so perfect for any races Bernie wants to hold in gangland territories. Also it does render the prospect of any theoretical boycott of the race rather moot, because there are no signs of failure despite the European heatwave causing some high temperatures at the track. In fairness nobody realistically expected things to be as dramatic as they were in Silverstone because that was an anomaly in extreme conditions. Furthermore an investigation into the explosions has revealed that the practice of swapping tyres from the right side onto the left side of the car to extend tyre life increased their vulnerability. So as a result Pirelli have banned that practice as well as setting limitations on camber and minimum pressure.

All that stuff about tyres is not terribly interesting despite how much coverage the issue has received  in the past week - so time to refocus on the fact that there is a race weekend underneath it all. The most amusing development so far is that Alonso seems to have arrived disguised as a magician - or a circus ringmaster, the difference is negligible. I personally was not aware that the Ferrari team had employed a spontaneous fancy dress policy - but a little levity every now and again can't hurt. On the whole the balance of power seems very changeable this weekend, as temperatures changed due to cloud cover, different cars seemed to have more or less pace - but in the end it's the two teams that have benefited from the tyre debarcle that retain the final stranglehold on the top positions when the final flag waved.

Qualifying 

Rather uncharacteristically the scene opened to a nurburgring bathed in sun, with only patchy cloud hovering around the mountains famed for rain and spontaneous showers, no such threat this time round. A slight shame as a little rain would be entertaining, and of course, there would be much less complaining about tyres is it did. Down in the garages most of the teams were just sitting around watching some allegedly important rugby match... which in itself sounds a little like an oxymoron, almost as if other sports matter - but what to I know. I assumed Alonso had used the power of illusion and suggestion to hypnotise everyone into thinking the session hadn't started. For the first few minutes it seemed to have worked.

The first man to break free from Fernando's magical hypnosis was Paul Di Resta for Force India and current bonus points leader who, sky revealed, made a total of 38 places this season from grid position - might explain where all those bonus points came from. But the scotsman's time was not particularly quick as was easily beaten - and for the first time in a very long time Williams were leading something, in fact it was a 1-2. The struggling team spent almost three minutes holding onto the top two places until Ricciardo still eyeing up Webber's 2014 seat used the softer compound to go fastest, even faster than the Mercedes of Rosberg on the medium tyres.

Some of the main contenders decided that the medium tyre wasn't worth using in this session - considering how well it was working for Mercedes losing time to the Torro Rosso. Ferrari and Lotus went to the softs and automatically went to the front, firstly the resident magician took Q1 pole before Raikkonen, who being unphased by bits of exploding tyres bouncing off his head in Britain was not going be influenced by Fernando's questionable facial hair - and stole the lead away. Down at the bottom of the field we found McLaren waiting until the end to set their times - when they did it dropped Williams into the relegation zone - from leading the session to seeing both cars knocked out with the smaller teams.

Straight into Q2 and Di Resta and Vergne opened the session with a middling pair of times, times that did not stand up to the challenge of the two Mercedes cars finding over a second on Vergne's opening effort. Hamilton now lead from Rosberg two just under two tenths down. While Red Bull sat in the garage waiting for the track to clear as the rest of the grid came in for new tyres. That window inevitable arrived with the Mercedes cars locking out the front of the time sheets... until of course the Red Bulls got the clear track they were looking for - and Vettel went fastest. At this point the session seemed a little too methodical with everyone running to form, so much so that Mercedes shut up shop on the basis of the second half of Q2 following the same pattern... or was it more Alonso trickery...

On track the temperature had started to rise, playing into the hands of Lotus and Ferrari, increasing the competitiveness of their machines - immediately illustrated by Grosjean setting purple sectors but losing a little by the end of the lap. Alonso then went fastest, only to be pipped by the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa - might have been a good time for Mercedes to leave the garage and defend their position... apparently not. Rosberg began to fall down the order as Ricciardo and Hulkenberg found more pace getting ever closer to relegation. A decent lap from Button placed the German in 10th the final qualification place for Q3... almost safe with only one more car left to set a time. The problem being that the remaining car belonged to Raikkonen, and he was in 11th at the time - which promptly became 2nd... and 11th for Rosberg and the pole contender was relegated. An audible sinister laugh was heard from Alonso's cabin, along with the sound of a rabbit being placed back into a top hat.

The predicted four way battle for the lead was now down to three contenders with Rosberg out -  Ferrari went out on track first but only completed an installation lap each, only Raikkonen was really pushing the car at the very start of the session to set a decent opening benchmark. A benchmark that was not quite decent enough as Vettel knocked a third of a second off it to go fastest... but even that wasn't enough because the only remaining Mercedes went even faster to claim provisional pole position in the hands of Lewis Hamilton.

After a visit to the pits, it was time for round two - where interestingly Ferrari and Jenson had decided to compete for position on the slower, more durable tyre - sacrificing ultimate pace for an alternate race strategy. A plan which didn't last long for Button, who informed the team that he could not beat the Ferraris and gave up the qualifying effort and failed to set a time... haven't had one of those in a while. For a brief moment it seemed we would have a non-Mercedes on pole for once when Vettel reclaimed the top spot from Hamilton - that position came under-threat from Webber who set two really quick opening sectors but came across Alonso on the slower tyres in the final couple of corners and lost a couple of tenths to go third. But Hamilton was going even faster behind the lot of them and claimed another pole for Mercedes and his second in a row.

The bonus points championship points winners

Todays session may not have been particularly action packed, but the closeness of the times in Q2 was very impressive - 10 cars inside 0.4s of each other, and there is always room for bonus points.

• 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Another very impressive qualifying performance beating Ferrari and leading mid-field class
• 8pts - Nico Hulkenberg - For his strong Q2 performance, when things were so close to place 6th in that part of the session
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - Because that was a rather quick performace despite being off pace in the final practice sessions
• 5pts - Kimi Raikkonen - The only car to stick with the top two teams in Q3
• 4pts - Williams - For leading something for a bit, even if it was a tiny fraction of Q1
• 3pts - Romain Grosjean - Another strong display from the Frenchman
• 2pts - Fernando Alonso - For the very suspicious disguise carved into his face this weekend
• 1pt - Charles Pic - For winning the bottom division

The Penalty Points championship points winners

It has been a while since I've needed to penalise people for not taking part in the last phase of qualifying but there are two of those points to go out this time around

• Jenson Button - for not playing in Q3
• Nico Hulkenberg - for not playing in Q3

Looking to Tomorrow

Now we may not have any threat of rain, or a massively jumbled grid  - but what we do have is a series of cars with vastly differing race and qualifying speeds, meaning that although the grid may have formed for the most part in a respective order, that order may not be the one on raceday. For example Mercedes might fall back towards Red Bull and Ferrari may move forwards on their alternate strategy of starting on the mediums, and of course there is the small matter of Rosberg and potentially the Force Indias being out of place. We know how much Di Resta likes coming through the field after a challenging Saturday, the allure of bonus points is a powerful force. 

Looking at the GP2 and GP3 support races there seems to be a high change of an opening lap safety car, as both their races featured one - in GP2 that was due to a car being flipped on the main straight and rolling into another stalled car. While in GP3 it was deployed to cover a series of accidents - one of which almost lead to another upside down race car in the final chicane. Therefore the prospect of a simple lights to flag drive for Hamilton and a simple, calm, and uneventful race is definitely not an inevitability. It may not be an immediate season highlight with the threat of rain completely removed,, but this years German GP could be a very interesting affair indeed. So until tomorrow this is farewell from blog HQ.

Round 9: Germany 2013 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

Normal service should resume this week, after Wales did rather compromise my approach to the weekend - that said, it was completely worth it... sorry internet. Anyway despite there only being a very short gap between leaving our little island and heading back out onto the continent there has been enough discussions and arguments to fill and entire season. Obviously all the controversy has slipped away from Mercedes and that 'secret' test session - and onto even less well concealed problem of exploding tyres... can't really hide that little issue can we. But since that weekend with rubber shrapnel scattered pretty much everywhere - there have been a lot of sporadic decisions that from the corner of my sofa, or Blog HQ as it is occasionally defined, may considered a little bit of a kneejerk reaction. The most severe of which is that drivers within the driver's association are threatening to boycott the weekend if the failures re-occur... which is a bit of a silly statement because we know what happened at Silverstone is a perfect storm of events. We had a sharp increase in temperature Saturday to Sunday on a really high load circuit and a tyre vulnerable to the inner edges of the curbs - yes the tyres are to blame but will the events repeat themselves in Germany... I think not. However a solution is needed, especially before the end of the European season because we have Monza - where curb hopping is essential and then Spa with more extreme speeds and corner loads.

So what has been the solution - well it is a series of interim ideas, the first of which is to use a hybrid tyre. This tyre has the compound of the present ones, with all the questionable wear rates and complaints they generate - but replacing the inner construction with the 2012 version. Meaning instead of a metal belt, the tyres will be running with a kevlar one, whether that helps remains to be seen but the idea is that the tyres should be more resilient and less likely to fail or explode. After that there is the updated compound that Lotus and Ferrari were displeased about has been brought back into the equation - the one that was thought about after everyone didn't like the way the Spanish GP worked out. But in the mean-time we do have the next instalment of F1 2013's continual tyre based argument in the Eiffel Mountains in preparation for the German GP.

The Track

As soon as the Nurburgring is mentioned the mind automatically draws up the images of hurtling through the forests on the old and exceptionally challenging Nordschleife - made even more popular by its inclusion in modern racing games. But it has been a long time since the series wound its way through the 'green hell' as it was so eloquently nicknamed, replaced on the calendar by a much smaller and definitely easier modern version. Yes the new layout is more compact but that doesn't make it a poor layout by any means - because new is only a relative term in the compact lap has been around since the 80's when tracks still flowed well and corners existed for the purpose of being challenging and at the same time fun. Something that the new fangled Tilke tracks have not been able to emulate, although they did try hard with Austin.

Over it's lifetime there have been few changes to the lap - the only real modifications have been added to the first section of the lap. Originally this was a simple yet effective chicane which once saw Ralf Schumacher drive his Jordan over his brother's Ferrari - and Pedro Diniz being flipped in the Sauber two years later... ah the nostalgia. Then in 2004 it all changed and we good a weird hairpin and some other debatable corners - brought in to improve overtaking, which unlike other such changes around the world has worked wonders. Also because the track doubles back on itself there is room for cars to run two-wide for several corners. So the adjustment has made the racing better but is less of a driving corner.

Like Montreal the lap contains mostly chicanes, and like the Canadian circuit these are chicanes done very well indeed, the majority of which are fast and enticing, designed to be attacked whereas some corners reward patience and caution. The first of these sequences is the Ford-Kurve, because almost all the corners are sponsored here, a lot less confusing as Magny-Cours where all corners are named after other circuits. Interestingly the Nurburgring chicane there is a brilliant reflection of the nature of it's namesake, because the second phase of the corner is tighter than the first as most of the German chicanes are. Even the hairpin at the bottom of the track - Dunlop Kurve - has a gentle positive camber to it to hug the cars into the racing line.

Two DRS zones will be in action again this weekend - only two tracks all season are reported to only have the one (Monaco and Suzuka) - now most of the time there are complaints as to where these are cited. But in the case of the Nurburgring the options are limited, most of the track is a curve so the only two straights have been used for the special button, and both of these are conventionally decent overtaking places as is. The first is on the main straight, leading into the turn one hairpin, the most commonly used overtaking zone on the track, while the second zone is on the back straight leading into the NGK chicane... the other most popular overtaking area. All in all I can foresee another race where all of the passes are DRS assisted but I am certainly prepared to be proven wrong.

What to expect

Well, if we ever hear or see anything that isn't related to the ongoing tyre debarcle then a race weekend might actually break out - one thing we are not expecting is a continuation of the spree of explosions and disintegrating rubber. The teams and drivers may fear the potential for such a development but an actual realisation of that inherent paranoia is a different matter. Firstly because of the differences in the conditions and the track - but additionally because in the Eiffel Mountains rain is never too far away - a mad storm in the 2007 race saw virtually everyone spin off into the gravel - including Hamilton, and Liuzzi span almost wiping out the safety car and hit a recovery forklift. All of which was a shame as one off Spyker driver Marcus Winklhock had a 30s lead before the rain hit. Then 2008 saw a fantastic duel between Massa and Hamilton in continually changing conditions - at times it rained and others it dried up with some brilliant racing.

Will things be as fun in 2013, perhaps, the field has started to split a little - Red Bull and Mercedes had eked out a tiny advantage from Lotus and Ferrari... that secret test seemed to do them good being constantly on pole since. While the teams who initially got a grip of the tyres in the first part of the season are now being disadvantaged by the way the arguments and responses that have been made - note that off the top of my head Lotus have had no tyre failures and neither has Alonso in his Ferrari. As a result they've fallen back behind Red Bull and Mercedes.

Speaking of falling back - McLaren are on a dismal run of form, failing to score in the last two races and being comprehensibly beaten by Force India. The last time the team started a season with a dodgy car in 2009, they made a sizeable comeback and dramatically improved the performance to race winning levels... this is not happening this time. Is it a co-incidence that this is a the first season in a while without Hamilton, well who am I to speculate, but maybe it isn't either way there is a lot of room for improvement. It is a similar situation at Williams, horrifically under-performing - the only person they can compete with at the moment is Gutierrez in the slowest side of the Sauber garage (missing Kobayashi now are we....). Williams have still failed to score a point this season - part of that is that attrition is lower this season, but to have their worst season in history cannot be down to a single factor.

Overall the German GP at the Nurburgring is an enticing prospect mostly due to the potential for some intriguing weather, but with the inclusion of some hybrid and largely unknown tyres which may not retain or gain heat in the same manner as the originals. Whether the wet and intermediates have been treated to the same updates as the slicks is a matter which hasn't been covered, but I'd imagine for the sake of continuity they have been. Blog HQ is looking forward to this weekend especially considering it will be the first race since Wales that I intend to be compus mentus enough to have a decent grasp of what is going on in this phase of tyre confusion and unpredictability. So until next time this is farewell from this corner of the internet.

Round 8: Great Britain 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well, if Pirelli were not making too many friends in the build-up to today's race - they are certainly off the Christmas card list for several drivers at the end of the race. This time round I can agree with most of the things that have been said throughout the events of the race and discussions afterwards, because things have transgressed beyond mere performance issues to clear safety issues - something that has come to the fore more so in reflection of the tragic accident at Le Mans. Right now fingers are being pointed at the curbing, but here's the thing, the curbs have been there for a long time and are not a new thing to account for. So they may have been the cause of the failures, but realistically tyres should be able to resist the conditions that have been around for many many seasons.

However underneath all the issues with tyres the British GP has been an impressive spectacle with a lot close racing and overtaking - not all of which were constricted to the DRS zones as we have seen in other events this year. Several cars were out of position at the start and others placed there through circumstances through the race, therefore producing mismatches of relative pace opened those doors for overtaking. But despite this race being one of the more notable events on the calender, and being a genuinely decent race, something seemed missing - perhaps a lack of complimentary muffins, or not being stalked by potentially villainous sheep, but I assume normal service will resume next weekend when I've re-integrated into the traditional pattern of sleep and activity. There is the small matter of this event to take care of first.

The Race

Small climatic changes had taken place before the start as it had warmed up a fair bit, which for this little island is always a rarity, especially considering I spent a lot of time in the rain in Wales - but the heat could easily be another ingredient in the recipe for tyre destruction.

The actual start was a picture of contrasting fortunes and performances at the bottom end of the scale was Red Bull's Mark Webber who vanished down the middle of the pack and was four wide at the apex of turn one. A situation that was exacerbated by the fact that one of the four cars was Romain Grosjean and as a result contact was made and Webber lost an endplate again - hoping it would make the car faster as it did in Canada... instead he ended up 15th. On the outside of the same quarrel was Massa barrelling down the side of the track making up 6 places from his lowly grid position in one of the better starts of the season. Other notable starts included Raikkonen up to 5th, and Di Resta who was relegated to the back of the grid, and Sutil stealing 4th place.

Opening laps were cautionary as the top three edged away while Sutil had Raikkonen and Massa to deal with behind. Also worth knowing that for a grand total of 7 laps no-one had wanted to hunt down Pirelli and steal their supply of special muffins - so it was time for a monumental display to re-ignite the anger. What could be so damming on British soil... ah here's an idea, how about detonating the tyre on national hero and race leader Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. And so it was done, the left rear disintegrated showering the track in fragments of rubber - Hamilton was able to pit the car eventually but had dropped into last position. Passing the baton of leadership onto that German Bloke again. In an attempt to convey some degree of impartiality between nationalities, it was the turn of Felipe Massa's Ferrari to suffer an exploding rear tyre as the car turned into Aintree corner. So he went to the back of the field instead.

In response to the sudden spate of tyre explosions the pits saw an increased level of activity with people getting rid of the starting tyres in favour of the harder compound - which gave Webber a chance to replace his damaged front wing. Turns out this latest aerodynamic redesign was not as effective as the one Van Der Garde initiated in Montreal, where Mark went and set fastest lap after that damage. Through these stops the Lotus cars found themselves on a similar piece of track behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso - which lead to a brilliant duel as Raikkonen initially lost a place to Grosjean but was able to make the ground back as the two Frenchmen closed in on each other re-igniting a three way battle. As the the Lotus' they ended up racing each other allowing Vergne to eke out a small gap - and as Raikkonen was running side by side with his team-mate on the Hangar straight there was another tyre explosion. This one belonged to Vergne, the left rear erupting into a cloud of debris with fragments bouncing of Raikkonen's helmet. Unsurprisingly the Finn didn't care and focused on completing the pass on Grosjean.

The field of shrapnel from the Torro-Rosso forced the deployment of the safety car to allow the marshals to sweep the track clear and remove the carcass of the detonated tyre. Vernge was able to save the car from spinning out and doing more damage, but was forced retire due to a damaged floor from the explosion. More cars pitted for checks after the third explosion of the race - Webber was informed that Vettel had cuts on his tyres and were close to bursting at his last stop, other calls went out to try and keep drivers off the curbs, in case that was causing the tyres to fail. But using the curbs is faster than not doing so, on that note the chance of people willingly losing time is a little minimal at best.

At the restart it was in the middle of the train where position changes were taking place, as Hamilton was attempting to make a comeback by finding some space on the inside of Gutierrez through the exit of Vale. His next target other than the people at Pirelli was the second Sauber of Hulkenberg a little further down the road who in turn had just had contact with Di Resta's front wing causing the Force India to lose an endplate. Hulkenberg then pitted with more tyre issues before it had a chance to explode therefore Hamilton moved and he too had to deal with the Scotsman in an all Britain duel.

Back at the front Rosberg was starting to catch up to Vettel in this new phase of the race while Sutil was busy holding off Alonso for the final podium place with Raikkonen a little further back. The second Lotus was wrestling with another Red Bull sponsored machine - this time from the main team piloted by a recovering Webber, temporarily losing the place to the Australian before immediately taking it back. Battles that were interrupted by the presence of a lot more debris at the end of Hangar straight, and the replay showed that it belonged to Gutierrez - as the car slipped out of shot a cloud of debris erupted from the front of the car and it can only be assumed to be another tyre explosion. Perhaps when some fan video comes to light we can see whether the wing failed first or another problem for Pirelli. This time the debris was cleared without the need of a safety car and the race continued.

While some cars were pitting for their third set of tyres there was another major development as that German bloke's car keeled over and died on the front straight - as the gearbox ground itself into oblivion. At least it wasn't the tyres for once. Because the car had seized up in an inaccessible place the safety car had to come out again - the British GP isn't known for it's safety cars in the dry but here was our second. Also it set up an interesting final phase of the race, where those who stayed out beforehand had track position but much older tyres and thus less grip - placing the power with Webber and Alonso on the freshest rubber.

On restart number two there was a lot of spacing between the top cars with more bunching further behind - Alonso was the first to make progress past the McLarens, first darting out from behind Button on the run down to Copse and latching onto the back of Perez. That pass was made a little more interesting as Sergio's tyre also exploded as the Ferrari closed up once more sending bits of car and rubber bouncing down the road and off Alonso's car. Fernando was also able to follow Webber through as the Australian made it past fellow countryman and potential replacement - Daniel Ricciardo.  As the laps ran out the cars on older tyres continued to struggle falling victim to Webber, Alonso and Hamilton in turn the best of these battles was Webber taking second from Raikkonen as both cars went two wide through Copse without touching or forcing each other off the track. Brilliant overtaking.

Webber pushed hard in the remaining laps, cancelling out the lead Rosberg had and was unable to catch the German in time finishing seven tenths down at the line. Alonso scored important points in third especially considering Vettel didn't make it to the end to close up the championship a little more. Hamilton despite being last by lap nine was able to make a recovery drive to 4th position, ahead of Raikkonen in 5th on the older tyres. Massa also recovering from a tyre explosion that threw him off the track brought the car home in 6th. Sutil fell from a podium spot on the restart down to 7th, a similar fate to Ricciardo who dropped to 8th by the end of the race. From the final row of the grid Di Resta scored a couple of points in 9th and the final point goes to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race where all the attention was directed at the tyres and their tendency to explode, which wasn't part of the original product description, it was about recovery drives and making up for lost ground, and of course the bonus points.

• 25pts - Mark Webber - A slow start, contact and damage on the first lap yet still only 0.7s away from claiming what would have been a popular win
• 18pts  - Lewis Hamilton - Dropped to last place with an exploding tyre and still managed 4th
• 15pts  Felipe Massa - A brilliant start and a recovery drive from another exploding tyre
• 12pts - Paul Di-Resta - From the back of the field and into the points, decent job
• 10pts - Adrian Sutil - Ran the car in a podium place for so long before losing out at the end
• 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - For hanging onto the car at the fastest point when the tyre exploded
• 6pts - Fernando Alonso - For missing all of the debris from Perez's exploding tyre
• 4pts - Top Gun Rosberg - Well done for not retiring and surviving Webber in the final laps
• 2pts - Raikkonen/Grosjean - For still duelling through the cloud of peices from Vergne's car
• 1pt - Nico Hulkenberg - Gets a point for Sauber, well done there

The Penalty Points Championship

There is really one one penalty that can be dished out from that race and that obviously goes to Pirelli - yes the curbs may have caused the failures, but those have been there for years and are not a new and sudden problem. Therefore it is not illogical and unreasonable that a tyre company should be able to develop a product that can cope with one of the intrinsic parts of motor-racing and the circuits the drivers compete on. But who am I to judge - instead I'll just throw penalty points around and today one goes to Pirelli

Looking Forward To Germany

In the height of the traditional European season we travel onto the continent for the next race at the Nurburgring, it may be a fraction of the grandeur of the mind-blowingly epic Nordschelife but the modern version is more fitting for the current breed of car. I would not want to consider the consequences of the sort of tyre failures we've seen today out on the ring through the Eiffel Mountains for the outcome would be more severe. This part of Germany often brings with it it's own micro-climate full of intermittent rain, clouds and wind, all of which can turn an uneventful procession into a maelstrom of mayhem and hilarity - without explosions hopefully. There has been a lot of immediate complaints about what needs to be done in time for the next race, and I can't foresee any of the events of today repeating themselves. The curbs are completely different, the temperature will be much cooler and potentially as wet as a damp Thursday in Wales, in reality this business with explosions needs sorting before Spa where the greatest cornering speeds are faced in the upcoming races. So until next race Au Revoir internet.

Round 8: Great Britain 2013 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

You know what it is - you leave civilisation into the wilderness for a while and all hell breaks loose, first Mercedes are sort of almost penalised for their testing faux-pas and banned from the young driver test. Which for a team with less of a development driver program is virtually painless, meaning Ross Brawn wins again - like a devious super-villain. If that wasn't enough I come back from Wales to find that Mark Webber is vanishing from Red Bull to drive Porsche's new LMP1 effort. The blog did try and complete correspondence from the Welsh Eco-village, but the internet in the male cabin was not really functional. Besides there were other things to do in the middle of a forest maintained by a hippy commune - like playing cards with the French. People who could make a technical manual on compost sewage disposal (item 22 on the Eco-tour off the top of my head) sound oddly lyrical; there was also the new sport of 'Extreme Table Giant Jenga' which through brutally manipulating the laws of physics thoroughly counts as extreme. Other than those highlights the expedition revealed that the population of Wales is made up predominantly of sheep - but CAT is surrounded by Murderous-Vampiric-Super-Zombie-Sheep, which may or may not be able to fly. The things you discuss under the Welsh night sky... and clouds and rain...

But I have returned to this world, which in some senses is a shame - because the real world is all too often disappointing, and Wales and the team was certainly not so. Anyway this part of the internet is not a continental sheep based travel guide - this is the coverage of the British GP which still is taking place  underneath all the announcements and judgements, and the aftermath of the events of Le Mans this time last week. There are some rather mixed faces up and down the grid, as the same four cars are dominating the top four places, the consensus is that the tyres are responsible. However at the moment I'm sure the lack of bacon at CAT was also down to the tyres, and the global energy crisis - also Pirelli's fault. How did this translate into qualifying, well on a fast track (before the new area section - which by the way was also caused by the tyres), it mostly fell as expected... with the odd surprise.

Qualifying

The majority of the practice sessions were wet - if the race was in the the vicinity of Eco-world than the whole thing would be underwater (also Pirelli's fault) which involved Massa visiting the barrier for the third consecutive event. This was as much as I was able to gleam from a brief news report in a Little Chef breakfast stop at the early hours of the morning somewhere in the vicinity of the Wales/England border. So I came into the recorded version of qualifying completely in the dark, and turned out that didn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things.

Q1 for once started with a car actually leaving the garage at the beginning of the session - belonging in this case to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg it wasn't going to trouble the higher end of the timings. Lotus followed the second of the Saubers out sparking from both cars more so than we'd become accustomed to, despite this they went to the top. At the time Hamilton was waving to the crowd from the pit-lane, which I'm not sure is the fastest way around the track but like it mattered in the end as the Mercedes driver went on track and then went fastest. Another weekend and another 1-2 for the silver cars, but what about the other two silvery ones, well it was another challenging day at the office languishing in the middle of the pack.

A whole new level of disappointment was welling at Ferrari where Massa was in the Q1 relegation zone and Fernando not too many places further forward - a late improvement for Felipe put the red team 14th and 15th... Meaning both of the remaining relegation places were up for grabs, one of which belonged firmly to Esteban Gutierrez. The second however was under more contention internally within Williams highlighting their lack of form and pace - somehow I foresee Pirrelli being blamed for that too. In the end Maldonado usurped Bottas on his final lap.

Off to Q2 we went and at this point in the recording I'd created a pint of tea, a construct that actually exists beyond these walls on the edge of Snowdonia near a giant power generating mountain - the things you are introduced to outside of blogHQ. Red Bull opened the session with the exiting Webber, probably should reconsider heading to sportscar racing - having flipped the last machine he raced in at that level. Despite the Australian's best efforts those folk from Mercedes were at it again dominating the pace at the front of the field... until Vettel came out and went fastest.

As always it is the other end of the top ten that is more closely contested in this part of the weekend, where the battle to avoid relegation and make it into Q3. Once more Force India were the class of the mid-field - Sutil put the car in third, for a little while anyway before falling a few places, then Ricciardo spying that newly opened seat at Red Bull went 4th. Not sure that is a decent plan - after Alguersuari started doing rather well he was removed from the line-up from the next season. Then again STR were in a phase of culling drivers for laughs at the time, things have more gravitas at the moment. All this came at the expense of Ferrari and McLaren who were having more difficulties - Massa, Button and Perez all in relegation and Alonso on the very cusp of following them. Yet the Spaniard refused to lose out and made it through.

One session to go and a big mug of tea was followed up by a donated muffin, living the life of extreme exuberance at blog HQ - happier than a good spin on the treadmill of happiness, although that was diluted by the fact it played 'bibbity bobbity' which by a long way not a blogHQ anthem. This time Ricciardo went out first and set a very beatable lap, and for a brief moment there was a car that wasn't silver or driven by that German bloke at the front as Webber lead from Di Resta.... then normal service resumed with Hamilton out front. The majority of the top ten filed in an orderly fashion, but I was eating a muffin at the time... mmm cake based substances. Anyway it was time for the mid session break while tyres were changed and probably charged with a growing list of offences, including those missing propeller blades from the wind turbine exhibit and the unsustainable nature of baked beans.

Round two in reality was just a extension of the battle between Red Bull and Mercedes with the former throwing the first punch - it was slightly stronger than their first effort but the infallible German marque merely shrugged it off. First Nico set a strong time to go fastest then Hamilton destroyed it to a margin of over four tenths of a second. Vettel and Webber locked out the second row for Red Bull. Everyone was at least half a second back with that queue lead by Paul Di Resta on form again... though his car was found to be underweight and moved to the back. This moves Ricciardo up to the lead of the mid-field and the Red Bull shop window - Sutil qualified the car 7th ahead of the two Lotus drivers. Right at the bottom of the standings we find Alonso summing up how bad Ferrari's weekend was going and that Fernando joined the forefront of the Pirelli persecution parade - but there are bigger, greater forces afoot other than the world's favourite tyre company.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

I'm back and so are the points, there is the temptation to award all the points to Wales and the events within, considering it did run across the start of the race weekend - but if I did so than no-one else would score anything. So here goes the rest points from the first part of the British GP qualifying session.

• 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Another very strong performance in the STR although the mid-field lead was an inherited position
• 8pts - Paul Di Resta - Being 1.5kg underweight can't take away from defeating the likes the entire Lotus,Ferrari and McLaren teams
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - Because that was just ruddy fast.
• 5pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - For having only one lap and managing to avoid being last on the grid
• 4pts - Romain Grosjean - Beating his team-mate in the other car while running an alternate setup
• 3pts - Adrian Sutil - Making it two Force Indias ahead of three of the major teams
• 2pts - Lotus - Because sparks look cool
• 1pt - Wales - you done good

Looking Ahead To Tomorrow

This time around we haven't had the chance to build up to this race due to having too much fun in the valleys and the sheep laden hills of Wales. Far to easily distracted by Extreme Picnic Table Giant Jenga, and a building that resembles a miniaturised crystal dome. But here in the real world, it is race time - one of the things that helps disperse the darkness of being back in reality. Easing the re-integration is the British GP the most traditional of the traditional tracks with some of the most immense corners in existence and also some of the most dubious circuit modifications. But the problem with this sort of lap is that is makes the racing occasionally less entertaining as there is generally one line, and one line only to follow. That theory has been proven wrong before and I can all but hope this can be one of those events because there are some factors at play this time round.

Firstly Di Resta now starts at the back in a very fast car, as well as Ferrari, Lotus and McLaren all being further back then they wanted to be - all on those tyres people seem to be laying more hate into this weekend. Especially from the Ferrari camp - well Alonso, and there is the dual DRS on the Wellington and Hangar straights. All in all, I can see a great race unfolding on the first full day back at the helm of Blog HQ - so until tomorrow Au Revoir

Round 7: Canada 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well Canada you tried, and it was an amicable effort - we had some fun battles although most of them were merely blown out of the water through the at times farcical power of a dual DRS system with single activation. I may have missed something but outside the opening couple of laps I didn't spot a overtake completed that was not at the end of either of the two DRS areas, into the final chicane or into turn 1. Today we also learned that all those people who spend millions on research and development in the aero departments doesn't mean all too much - as there was disproportionate amount carbon fibre lost versus actual time loss. Even a wonky rear wing missing all manner of lower edge aero pieces was able to go quite quickly until things got in the way later. It may not have had the demolition derby style of racing involved in our race at Monaco, but finally we had an event when cars could go as fast as they wanted throughout the race, not pandering around on disintegrating tyres. The outcome of such a development was a frightening display of dominance - only five cars completed the race on the same lap, world champions Button and Raikkonen were even lapped. Heck even here, five hours ahead of Canada in time difference, I think I might have been lapped.

Coming into the race there was a lot anticipation building throughout the day - with cars out of position on a track with close walls and little space for error - and in the end today's race was far from a disappointment and was one of the better rounds of the season. There was just a large hint of inevitability every time one car came close to the back of another one as long as DRS was involved - a telling few laps when DRS was taken offline under yellows saw cars trapped in position seemed to be a prime indicator on the dependence on the rear wing flap. So lets review what happened in this evening's race.

The Race

After yesterdays qualifying session there were two grid penalties added for Raikkonen and Ricciardo who received 2-place grid drops for lining up in the wrong part of the pit lane after the restart. Oddly due to the way the penalties were ordered both drivers were only docked a single position on the actual grid... sometimes it is weird the way things work out.

Off the line Sebastien made a seamless start and vanished - he was never seen again - Hamilton was safe in second while Bottas had a car pass him either side as Rosberg and Webber dealt with the Williams before turn one. Almost miraculously not a single piece of carbon fibre was shed in the concertina of turns one and two - in fact there was a lack of any contact whatsoever. It was clear that the speed Valtteri had in the damp was completely gone in the warm and dry conditions, the Finn resisted Alonso for a few corners but the Ferrari is a vastly superior car in the dry and out paced the Williams on traction. As a result there was a five car breakaway group at the front of the field, although Vettel at the very front had broken further away into a different universe.

Bottas now had a bit of queue forming behind him lead by Jean Eric Vergne - however by this point the DRS window had been activated and once Vergne was in position he was able to swoop round the outside of turn one using the extra momentum. This left Sutil next in line to take overtake the struggling Williams - the Force India driver wanted to try something a little different to the straight forward DRS passing, and made a was alongside at the turn in point to turn three. Sutil took a little too much curb to avoid binning the Williams, and span the car in avoidance, but after an excellently executed 360 spin pointed the car in the right direction and continued with Ricciardo and Raikkonen taking to the grass to miss the spinning German. Adrian rejoined in 13th ahead of Maldonado - as it turned out this was not the safest place to be - Sutil's record with Williams cars got markedly worse as the Venezuelan drove into the back of the Force India at the hairpin. Sutil spent the remainder of the back straight losing pieces of the wing and it looked a little wonky... the third time this season that car has been rammed.

You'd think being so far out in front you'd have a much smaller chance of hitting anything - well Vettel decided to push the limits a little too close to the edge and bounced the car off the wall on the exit of turn four. Fortunately for the German Bloke Red Bull suspensions are made of sterner stuff and the car remained undamaged. Out of all the cars out of position it seemed that only Massa was working his way forwards, rounding up Perez in the DRS zone at the end of the front straight, before catching up to Raikkonen who was having difficulties with passing Ricciardo. That STR machine was quite quick in a straight line even without the aid of DRS, but with the additional pressure of the Ferrari joining the train Raikkonen suddenly found a space around Ricciardo leaving the Australian to deal with Massa.

For a lot of people pit-stop window has opened - except Di Resta wasn't really listening to that and was staying out, neither was Grosjean but wasn't able to carry the same sort of speed on the tyres as the Force India. Oddly just after Rosberg's stop Mercedes gave him a call, to inform that the tyres were in the 'danger zone' - add some shades and the top gun persona would be complete. This allowed Webber and Alonso to catch up to Nico for another little infield duel. Another of these duels was forming further back as Massa following a stop was back to passing people - easily dealing with Esteban Gutierrez... but then there was Sutil. At this point in the race (barring anyone trying to pass a Torro Rosso) all passes in the DRS zone were indefensible - Sutil wasn't up for playing that game and fought the Ferrari hard, often leaving the bare minimum of space. Felipe tried several times round the outside of turn one but as the Force India covered the inside line, but Adrian closed off the lane before turn two and held position.

Some of those staying out were beginning to lose pace - Button and Raikkonen were over two seconds slower than the race pace. Kimi pitted but a rear jack failure cost the team several seconds and positions dropping Raikkonen out of the points - as for Jenson, he was easily caught and passed by the Sutil, Massa battle, and decided enough was enough and pitted the car too. Aside from Sutil and Feilipe almost banging wheels down the front straight as Adrian continued to defend strongly not too much was going on in a stable middle phase of the race. Teams were assessing tyre wear in determining whether one of two stops would be the idea solution.

But a battle was forming as Top Gun Rosberg had two bogeys on his tail and was Webber's danger zone - Mark was able to deploy the DRS wing aileron and breeze past Nico while Alonso charged the KERs afterburner on the front straight. An instance where a dual DRS zone cost a driver two places and was completely defenceless to both. Just as a reminder Vettel was still out front and had started lapping people, everyone - so much lappery, he lost a little time when coming past the a Raikkonen/Bottas battle, but the lead was so great it didn't even matter. There were also unsubstantiated reports that Vettel had lapped the entire Audi team at the Le Mans test thousands of miles away.

After the German Bloke lapped them - Raikkonen and Bottas engaged in a little Finnish face off, Kimi being the second car to try the inside of the Williams in turn three, this time both cars went through the chicane two wide and no-one ended up in the wall. Further back Webber illustrated that lapping people was not going as well on that side of the garage as Van Der Garde cut across the Red Bull in the hairpin damaging Webber's front wing. Now here's the interesting part after the damage, Mark then went faster, in fact went fastest - and in other news Van Der Garde is now in charge of officially redesigning front wings. Yet the FIA rewarded the Dutchman's promotion with a 10s stop and go penalty, but he was not to be disheartened by this and worked on his next aerodynamic design. Giedo enlisted the help of Nico Hulkenberg to dislodge one of the supporting pillars of the Caterham wing in the final chicane. This new design didn't work as the wing fell off and jammed itself under the floor of the car forcing a retirement, Hulkenberg also suffered suspension failure from the contact and had to retire as well.

Alonso was stating to mount a bit of a charge, and had caught up to Van Der Garde's first project - Webber's reshaped Red Bull - and because of the improved front wing - it took both of the DRS zones to defeat the Australian. The next car on Fernando's list was Hamilton for the final podium position, a few seconds down the road. In other news, Paul Di Resta made a call to the team to make his first pit-stop on lap 57... people have spent the entire year complaining about poor durability and a lone Scotsman managed 57 laps on the same set, where teams had estimated 35-40 laps on compound. As a result Paul had managed to sneak up from a poor, and angered qualifying into the top ten, safely by a few places as well. Life was not so enjoyable for the other Force India, after being hit by Maldonado, battling hard with Massa there was another problem for Sutil. He was being lapped (which today was not uncommon) because the Hamilton, Alonso battle was wanting through. Thus lead to a problem, his car was not slow enough for the pair to coast past easily but was holding them up and was not quite so willing to yield. After receiving several blue flags Sutil relented, but was handed a drive through penalty for the trouble.

Because of the issue lapping Sutil, Hamilton now had Fernando in very close company, making a pass under DRS on the front straight mere millimetres from making wheel to wheel contact - and the Ferrari driver executed some rather impeccable timing when dealing with the Mercedes. Hamilton tried to retake the place on the following lap on the the back straight and but Alonso defended, easing Lewis wide in the braking zone - learning from Van Der Garde, Alonso relieved Hamilton of some shards of carbon from the front wing. Before the battle could continue Gutierriez put his Sauber in the turn one wall bringing out yellow flags. Under the yellows DRS is disabled, which due to the system having one detection zone amputated two overaking zones for the sake of a localised accident. In this start, cars lost all the ability to overtake one another, Raikkonen for example was able to resist Massa's attacks in the bottom end of the points with comparative ease. Yet when the flags came in, Felipe virtually drove around the Lotus - although Raikkonen's tyres were rather older at this point.

Modern timing is not entirely sure what time Vettel crossed the line, the car was so far ahead a new type of maths needed to be invented to figure out where the car was, but the German Bloke racked up another dominant victory and further extends the lead in the championship. Alonso finished second ahead with Hamilton completing the podium, while Webber and his Van Der Garde inspired wing design made scored more points for the Red Bull team. Top Gun Rosberg survived the danger zone to be the last car on the lead lap in 5th place - which in itself sums up the lead Vettel had, and even Nico was only 12 seconds away from being lapped himself... Vergne was the first of the cars one lap down in 6th, after potentially one of the most anonymous drives of the season, if it wasn't for the timing system tracking them Vergne could have gone missing and no-one would have noticed. Di Resta one-stopped his way to 7th ahead of a recovering Massa. Raikkonen and Sutil completed problematic days and finish at the bottom end of the points. As for Bottas - well in reality the Williams is a poor car and was demolished on dry pace finishing the race 14th, ahead of Ricciardo and I have no idea how the latter ended up back there either...

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Oddly after what was a rather good race without the intervention of carnage like Monaco, it was hard to assign bonus points, but the same people are being noticeable and are awarded accordingly.

• 25pts - Paul Di Resta - In a week where tyre complaints have reached a peak to defy the odds and score points from 17th on the grid and survive a 57 lap stint
• 18pts - Jean Eric Vergne - An undercover performance reminiscent of Aguersuari in the same machine at this track in 2011 yet won the mid-field battle, and the first car one lap down.
• 15pts - Sebastien Vettel - An extreme display of dominance, lapping everyone and everything in sight, only five cars on the lead lap at the end of the race.
• 12pts - Fernando Alonso - Refuses to be beaten and made the podium from 6th on the grid
• 10pts - Felipe Massa - Made several passes earlier and embarked on an good battle with Sutil
• 8pts - Adrian Sutil - For a sweet impromptu 360 and for his part in the duel with Massa
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - Kept the Mercedes on the podium without despite braking issues and an early partial DRS failure
• 4pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - Awarded for his new role as freelance aerodynamic engineer which actually started in Monaco with arranging Maldonado's wing
• 2pts - Top Gun Rosberg - For not being lapped 
• 1pt - Valtteri Bottas  - May not have an actual point, so here's a bonus point

The Penalties Championship

There were a few penalties handed out today, and a couple from yesterday that were issued after the post had been released onto the internet:

• Daniel Ricciardo - 2 place grid drop - for being out of line in the pit lane in Q2
• Kimi Raikkonen - 2 place grid drop - for being out of line in the pit lane in Q2
• Pastor Maldonado - drive through penalty - for being the latest driver to ram Sutil
• Adrian Sutil - drive through penalty - for deciding blue flags are optional
• Giedo Van Der Garde - 10s stop/go penalty - for redesigning Webber's front wing
• Giedo Van Der Garde - 5 place grid penalty - for redesigning his own front wing and Hulkenberg's suspension in the process
• Caterham - 2,000 EUR fine for personell crossing the pit lane in front of Ricciardo

Penalty Points Championship

To complete the trifecta of championships here is the final table to be added to from Montreal:

• DRS - Was not entirely well implemented this time round, two zones and a single activation point was always a little silly.
• ITV Sport - How many ad breaks do you realistically need... seriously 

Looking forwards to Britain

That time of the season has rolled around once more where the championship arrives back home soil for the British GP at Silverstone - a circuit that hosted the first ever F1 race back in 1950 remains on the calendar, and before the last 'upgrade' had a largely similar configuration. The British GP may not be famous for hosting some of the greatest races in the world on a regular basis, although it has thrown up some remarkable surprises in the late 90s and the monsoon race of 2008 was a spectacular event. But it remains a truly iconic event, for it's tradition, it's speed and challenging nature featuring corners that have become renowned the world over. To the point where, when designing the new Austin circuit the Maggots/Becketts sequence was selected as one of the most important corners in Motorsport to replicate on their layout. Every corner from the exit of luffields up to the entry to vale on the other side of the lap is spectacular, admittedly the new addition to the track has been added purely for the practicality of the new pit lane. The new corners that have come with it are a little unnecessary, especially the double hairpins... but you can't have everything, most 'upgrades' tend to devalue new circuits. A mauled bus stop chicane at Spa and the redesigned Hokkenheim are prime examples of that process, yet the changes can take nothing away from the fact that the British GP is more than just another race -  it is an event. But in the mean-time blog HQ has to prepare for the gruelling challenge of viewing the entire 24hrs of Le Mans throughout the night, past dawn and into the morning. So if I survive my 5th Le Mans all nighter ther blog will be back for the British GP