Round 18 - Brazil - Race

Greetings Internet, 

Now the chequered flag has fallen on the penultimate race we are left with the same feeling that we've been left with many times this season, a feeling that we are missing out on something. A feeling of unfulfilled opportunities and diminished returns - the radio comments from several drivers including our current champion indicates that the configuration of the current regulations and technical specifications are not generally conducive to consistently strong racing. Up at the front where the performance differences are smaller and the strategies are less diverse this phenomena of static racing becomes far more prominent. If we were to look at the recent US GP and why that was so much better, the most obvious reason was the weather and how the changing conditions created the performance differentials between drivers due to their setups. Red Bull had a wet setup on the cars and were quick when the track remained damp, as soon as the surface dried their performance vanished. Normal service resumed. The other influence of the US GP was the number of interruptions through real and virtual safety cars - created more variations in strategy and placed cars out of position throughout the race. Mexico and now Brazil didn't have any of that, and therefore we had to rely on the midfield to generate some action - because in that part of the grid teams and drivers are on different tyre sets of more varied ages. Of course there will always be exceptions to this - Hungary this year falls firmly into that category. The 2017 regulations are touted as the ultimate solution to the inherent problem, but it seems unlikely that things will change soon.

The Race

The race was all set to get underway but Carlos Sainz was already in a bit of bother - the Toro Rosso refused to get under way during a practice start and had to be return to the pit lane. So we were already one car down - a premonition of a race of high attrition... well no, at least not for anyone other than Sainz himself. The remaining 19 cars took the start from the grid and did so in a rather orderly and generic fashion. All except Bottas who cleared the row of cars in front of him before hitting the bakes for the Senna 's' - almost picking off Raikkonen in the process. Further back Maldonado and Grosjean had to get out of each others way to avoid contact and Fernando Alonso had to apply some avoiding action to miss slamming into the back of the other McLaren. I bet a collision between the two would have been just another insult to their dismal performance, at least the drivers and Eric Boullier have been having a bit of a laugh at their own expense this weekend. Suppose things could be worse... they could be Carlos Sainz who completed five corners and broke down... again. Started from the pit lane and failed to complete a single lap. 

In the following laps it remained reasonably settled, waiting for the DRS window to open before making any moves which again is an indication of how difficult overtaking is in this modern era. The first car to move forward was Romain Grosjean, recovering from his early off when avoiding his team mate. Romain, opened up the DRS and powered past the Sauber of Felipe Nasr. At first it seemed as if the DRS was over-powered because of the ease of the pass, which is not unusual these days. But later overtakes and battles on the same straight seemed to prove otherwise... if only slightly. The next overtake also featured the slightly less popular Brazilian on the grid as Nasr dove up the inside of Jenson Button. In contrast to Grosjean's pass, Nasr had to rely on the braking zone to make the pass stick - and against a McLaren we all know is not massively quick in a straight line. 

The first of the stops was taken by Daniel Ricciardo, opting for an unconventional strategy due to the fact another Renault engine penalty forced him to start from the back. After the stop the Australian found himself duelling with the Manor Marussia cars for last place - Will Stevens put up a bit of a fight but was easily dealt with once the pair reached the DRS zone. Rossi was handled even easier on the following lap. It wasn't many laps later before we started to see more of the mid-field paying a visit to the pit lane, as it turned out the tyre degradation was higher than anticipated for some teams - while other teams saw an early pit-stop as an opportunity to score the undercut and gain a few positions. This made more sense when we saw the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg receiving a new set of tyres, because traditionally if there is any car that can stretch out the tyre wear - it is a Force India. The plan worked out reasonably well for the Hulk as he was able to jump Kvyat through the stops.

At the front there was the vague hope of a fight for the lead as Rosberg appeared to be dropping back towards Hamilton after their round of stops, losing time especially under braking. Prompting Hamilton to call his team and demand a change in strategy in an attempt to find some kind of advantage over Nico. This was because there was no reasonable way of overtaking the car on track - the performance similarity and the strategy similarity meant that neither car had enough of a pace advantage to create a pass. Lewis couldn't stay close enough to Nico to make use of the DRS and had the same car and engine therefore didn't have a straight line speed advantage. It is a strange state of affairs when a car needs to considerably faster in order to stand a chance of making a move stick... unless of course you are Max Verstappen who doesn't play by the rules, but that would come a little later on. For now it was McLaren who were losing ground as Jenson Button lost the place to Nasr once again, the positions reversed during the first set of stops.

The second stint of the race was a little inactive, there was even a shortage of inevitable DRS passes, Maldonado hadn't driven into anyone and a McLaren hadn't broken down. Vettel remained in sight of the two Mercedes - if you had a long range telescope to hand. Raikkonen and Bottas were living loney races a comfortable distance apart - which was probably the safest option as the pair have been running into each other recently. Behind Bottas was the mid-field which was a melting pot of different strategies and approaches - Maldonado was running long on the harder of the two available compounds, while Sergio Perez was finding that the new set of tyres on his car were not quite to his liking, losing pace and losing places in the process - even the high top speed of the Force India couldn't prevent DRS overtakes on the main straight. Mostly because he was losing time in the final real corner Juncao leaving him unable to pull away from any attackers. In contrast Hulkenberg in the sister car was having far more comfortable time.

One of the drivers to launch an attack against a struggling Perez was Mad Max Verstappen - the dutchman didn't have the speed advantage to use DRS and breeze past a Mercedes powered car. So Max had to improvise and be later and braver on the brakes - round the outside of the Senna s. Perez held the line but Max was alongside and wouldn't take no for an answer, in the way that most stubborn teenagers do, forcing the Force India out wide and claiming the position. Ever the opportunist, Grosjean took full advantage of Sergio having to back off to avoid contact and swept round the outside of the Curva do Sol and demoted Perez yet further. This deep into the race it seemed odd, that on a track like interlagos there were no further retirements - only the Toro Rosso on the open lap of the race had dropped out. But if in doubt we have Pastor Maldonado who when necessary will give his best in the cause of reducing the amount of finishers. This time he set his targets on Sauber of Marcus Ericsson. The Venezuelan thew the Lotus down the inside of turn one from quite a long way back, clambering all over the inside curbs and inevitably into the side of the Sauber. Ericsson was turned around and Pastor carried onward, unaffected by the contact. Marcus was able to stay in the race despite Maldonado's best efforts, but the car was damaged and dropped to the back. The incident was discussed by the stewards and Maldonado found himself back on the naughty list after a temporary absence and was handed a five second time penalty.

Back at the front, the distant but still present threat of Sebastian Vettel did have an impact on Mercedes' strategy and was one of the driving factors behind Hamilton not getting his demands answered. The other Ferrari was trying something a little different, Raikkonen was running a two stop strategy mostly because he was so far ahead of Bottas that it didn't matter what strategy he was on, the place was safe. Kimi could have gone with a four stop strategy with a cup of tea and still taken fourth by the end of the race. One clue that the plan wasn't quite the optimal way to go racing today, despite early calculations was that the Finn was a considerable distance behind Vettel - but that could be down to Vettel doing a good job or Raikkonen just being off the pace, both of which have been the case on occasion this season. At the opposite end of the grid, Ricciardo's meteoric climb through the field wasn't really going to plan, three pit stops later and he was only up to 17th... I guess that new Renault engine wasn't delivering any real progress. Then again the old iteration of the power unit was not getting much love from Mad Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was swearing at his engine when Grosjean powered past the Toro Rosso on the main straight with effortless ease. The combination of the DRS and the powerful Mercedes engine made it all to easy for Romain to take the place.

While we were watching Mercedes stay in formation after the call of 'Hammer time' failed to bring Hamilton any closer to Rosberg - in fact he lost time and fell behind traffic - we got interesting news from the stewards office. Now that they had finished handling the Maldonado case, they turned to Williams and the revelation that Massa started the race with a really hot tyre. The tyre was recorded on the grid as being 26 degrees over the maximum temperature limit, while the pressure barely cleared the minimum limit. This suggested that the tyre had been overheated by the tyre warmers to create a falsely high tyre pressure. Which was rather bizarre, and if intentional - devious and underhanded by the team. We now know that Felipe was disqualified from the race, but at the time the Brazilian continued to have a reasonably anonymous race in the second half of the points positions. In fairness if you weren't driving a Lotus, Sauber or happened to be Mad Max - you were also having an anonymous race. Because the main contenders were just doing their jobs and holding station. Maldonado was making an appearance on the TV once more as he approached his second Sauber of the day. This time he made the pass into turn one without taking Felipe Nasr out, but then again if he had taken out one of the local drivers, he wouldn't be winning any fans around the circuit, and leaving Brazil might have been rather difficult.

To make matters more interesting after Pastor and Nasr pitted the Lotus driver found himself in place to overtake the Sauber for the second time - and for the second time in a row, Pastor made the pass without hitting anyone. Well done Pastor. There was some more overtaking further forward as Perez was in a fight with Ricciardo, who had made a little more progress, mostly through others pitting. The Force India was still struggling on the current set of tyres and struggled to fend off the Red Bull - like we saw with Mad Max, the Renault powered cars had to wait a little longer in the DRS to get alongside enough to make a pass. Only taking the place through the braking zone of the Senna 's'.

So while one car was moving forward another was starting to slip backwards and that car belonged to Nasr, for the upteenth time this season Felipe was experiencing issues with his brakes. Post race we heard Jenson Button pointing out that he could smell Nasr's brakes burning when he was pursuing the Sauber late in the race. I don't know what Nasr does to his brakes but more often than not he does seem to ruin them. This made him vulnerable to Verstappen and was why he didn't put up much of a fight when Maldonado came calling - although that might be more self preservation than anything else.

At the front of the field, that hope of a battle was starting to build up once more - but we've seen enough of these races now to know that in most circumstances it isn't going to lead anywhere. This time Rosberg and Hamilton were carving their way through lapped traffic - and because the Mercedes were as usual all dominant most of the field was soon converted into lapped traffic. Yet both of them remained almost the same distance apart throughout the lappery - the only driver who had an issue was Kimi Raikkonen who found himself complaining over the radio about the Manor drivers not getting out of the way quick enough. Not that it really mattered to Kimi, there was no-one anywhere near him on the track so any time lost would have absolutely no impact on his overall race. It would be at this point that we could do with some rain, and the clouds were gathering on the outside of the circuit... the problem being they were on the outside... and all the forecasts predicted it would remain dry. Spoilsports. Not that any rain would help the battle out front, because Hamilton damaged his tyres as he locked up into Bico de Pato. Lewis was two busy waving at Grosjean as he lapped the Lotus and missed the braking point for the hairpin. He also radioed the team that he thought that the floor of the car was damaged from curb usage. Therefore the fight for the win was even more over than it was before.

So once more we have to look elsewhere for more entertainment, more positional changes and we come to the plight of Felipe Nasr who was very much under pressure from Mad Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was obviously faster than the struggling Sauber, but the Toro Rosso was too slow in a straight line to make full use of the DRS. So Mad Max being mad, thought he'd have a go into Bico do pato, with a very late lunge, and almost became the second driver to collide with a Sauber today. Verstappen backed out at the last moment and narrowly kept his front wing. It wasn't long before even the superior top speed of the Sauber could keep the Toro Rosso at bay and Mad Max completed the pass in turn one as Nasr couldn't brake as late as he wanted. Verstappen then swiftly took off in pursuit of his next victim - Pastor Maldonado. Which on the surface is a recipe for destruction, a mad dutchman and... Pastor. However the Lotus driver was also struggling, this time it was tyres which were the problem. Just like the battle with the Sauber, Verstappen had a much quicker car round most of the lap, barring the straights. However a lack of tyre grip meant that Pastor was slow out of Juncao and therefore Mad Max was quickly into the slipstream and used DRS to complete the pass in turn one. 

At the front of the field it was an easy victory in the end for Rosberg albeit too little too late in terms of the championship but still proving that when it comes down to it he can still defeat Hamilton. Lewis made it an inevitable Mercedes 1-2 with Ferrari 3rd and 4th. These were the only cars on the lead lap, everyone else was at least a lap down. Bottas was the first of the lapped runners in 5th ahead of Hulkenberg once more proving to be an Interlagos specialist. Like so many drivers today Kvyat drove an almost completely anonymous race but finished as the lead Renault powered car in 7th place ahead of Grosjean... Massa actually finished 8th but as noted earlier, he was disqualified for having hot tyres and therefore doesn't exist in the results. This promotes Verstappen to 9th and Maldonado into the final points position - his first ever point in Brazil... even if he didn't quite have a clean race along the way.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Once more we were faced with a slightly unimpressive race and therefore selecting bonus points winners will be more challenging than usual, but here goes anyway.

• 25pts - Mad Max Verstappen - For being interesting, and overtaking people with an inferior engine 
• 18pts - Nico Rosberg - Once more comfortably handling the race and keeping Hamilton at bay
• 15pts - Nico Hulkenberg - An anonymous race but scored well for Force India and locked them into their highest placed finish in the constuctors 
• 12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Made the most places off the line clearing the row in front and almost instantly erasing his grid penalty
• 10pts - Sebastian Vettel - Kept the Mercedes in sight for a while and easily dominated his team mate 
• 8pts - Daniil Kvyat - The highest placed Renault runner, and using the older engine, but Ricciardo had to start last so it was no real comparison
• 6pts - Felipe Nasr - Also for being interesting in his battles with Jenson Button before his brakes started to fail.
• 4pts - Romain Grosjean - For being the only driver to pay tribute to the horrors in France over the radio post race. Granted Romain is French but still this is a global issue.
• 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - Yes hitting people is wrong, but at least it was interesting 
• 1pt - McLaren - Have to take a point for seeing the funny side of their ongoing dilemma

• -1pt - Kimi Raikkonen - Nowhere near Vettel today, a generally disappointing performance
• -1pt - Bernie Ecclestone - For having absolutely no idea behind the black armbands on the grid, despite the FIA presenting a press release statement containing the information and the obvious issues of the atrocities in Paris

Looking to Abu Dhabi 

The grand finale of the 2015 season is upon us, even if all the championships have been won and the vast majority of the championship positions are settled there is still something to look forward to. That probably won't be a battle for the win, because those things are very few and far between. I've read about such things on the internet but haven't seen too many out in the wild before. Traditionally the Yas Marina circuit doesn't really generate too many enthralling races, but 2012 was certainly an exception to that rule. 

Hopefully with nothing left to lose for so much of the grid, we can finally let them all loose and have all kinds of mayhem. Finish the season with a mad finale, please. 

Round 18: Brazil 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

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. 

Eventually they all relented and started setting times, well almost all of them - Fernando Alonso found his McLaren didn't manage to complete a single lap before breaking down once again. While the marshals pushed the car away Fernando found himself a collapsable chair and sat on the side of the hill, winking at the camera and soaked up the sun. The other McLaren wasn't going that much faster, just ahead of the two Manor cars. At the other end of the spectrum it was a traditional Mercedes 1-2, unusually starting their Q1 session on the softer tyres, rather than saving them for later on. Hamilton marginally ahead of Rosberg. 

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. 

The Mercedes 1-2 was more short lived than usual as Sebastian Vettel exploited Nico's slow lap to get steal second place. But with more than ten minutes gone in the session, only 11 drivers had actually set times, Lotus waiting to the final moments to make an appearance. To indicate how uneventful things were, both McLaren drivers found themselves wandering about on the podium - well no-one else was using it and they certainly won't get a change under normal circumstances. Suppose it shows how the times have changed at McLaren when they have to find small moments of happiness in a rather difficult season.

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.

Round 18: Brazil 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

It has been a while since I last polluted the internet with my disjointed ramblings about folk driving cars and having arguments about it in the process. There were some issues around having to go to London for a little while and theatrical performances that rather got in the way of life and things. But much to the collective disappointment of the collective internet population I have returned, and I think I can vaguely hear the faintest sounds of people throwing their computers out of the nearest window in disgust. Frankly I don't blame them. Anyway it has been an interesting and contrasting pair of races during my absence from this corner of the internet - the US GP was magnificent, actual overtakes for the lead, and not just between cars which happen to be owned by an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. We had Kvyat having a mad race, passing people, throwing the car off the track and then into the barrier before the end. There was a championship which was almost prolonged but ended up being gifted to Hamilton before the end of the race. Then there was the worldwide sensation that was 'capgate' where people up and down the county opened their imaginary psychology textbooks and started preaching their findings to the world online. Personally I just figured Rosberg threw the hat back because he was angry at Pirelli for not bringing the stetsons to Texas.

Then there was Mexico - a returning venue brutally murdered by Tilke's design team. But alas we knew changes had to be made in the interests in safety, as immense as the old Peraltada corner was - it was too risky to use it with modern speeds. The changes to the middle sector though... that was just mean, the old esses were lovely, at least the ones that Champ Car raced on... because the last actual Mexican GP was many years before I tuned into things. So a returning traditional circuit, mixing the high speed original layout with a colossal amphitheatre stadium section was going to make for a great race... surely. Well no, it was rather dull - so dull in fact that Vettel crashed his Ferrari just to go home earlier. The Finns clashed again in a retribution attack from Bottas spinning Raikkonen out of the race, it seems that Kimi has rather forgotten all of a sudden how racing actually works... and those were the only highlights. A dominant 1-2 for Mercedes with Rosberg in front, nobody else was even close summed up the contrast between the two North American races. Even Nigel Mansell on the podium was so bored he forgot he was even in Mexico... maybe next year will be better. The Russian GP certainly was on the second time of asking.

In the news everyone is keeping their focus on Red Bull and their ongoing engine dilemma. The FIA has laid down an ultimatum on engine pricing to encourage more teams/manufacturers to join in. They want the price of a season's supply of power units to cost £12,000,000... which is quite a bit. But Mercedes and Ferrari have out and out rejected that as far too low, stating that they would make a loss selling that cheap... If the low prices were rejected by the manufacturers then Jean Todt and the other overlords would source a cheaper alternative engine which meets a different specification. I assume this 'budget' engine will be less powerful than the factory efforts but who knows. So where does all of this put Red Bull and their plight. New rumours suggest they will go running back to Renault for a rebranded version of the engine. But as Renault potentially take over Lotus, Red Bull would become a customer team and have to pay more for the engines. So their future may be a little unstable for now as no official final confirmation has been released.

The Venue

After rambling on about various other things it is time to return attentions to the matter of this race weekend, the penultimate round of the championship... not that any of the championships actually matter anymore. A part of me hoped that once the overall titles were settled in Texas, Mexico would be a free-for-all, instead of an uneventful evening. All that means is that Sao Paulo will have to pick up that particular baton and deliver something to make up for the Mexican GP which fell far short of the full enchilada. 

The Interlagos circuit has provided some brilliant races in the past, but the vast majority of those had one vital ingredient - rain. Showers are forecast for around qualifying... the last time that happened the session took several hours to complete due to rain red flags, accidents and general waiting about. Best put Doctor Who on record, just in case. The race however looks as if it might be dry, boo and hiss come to mind there but that's life for you. As to the configuration itself - it does bear the hallmarks of a traditional and historic venue. Bumpy grass run-off areas, varied corner speeds and types - a world away from the sparkly car park used for the finale race. So many of the corners have character and stories to tell over the years, each one different to it's predecessor.

The first sector is defined by the Senna 's' a blind entry to a downhill chicane where picking a braking point can be quite challenging - especially to those of us who have never actually driven one of the cars and just played about in computer games. It presents a good opportunity for overtaking, for crashing - and as a young Nick Heidfeld once found out, for taking doors off medical cars. Turn three, the simple acceleration zone in the dry, collects rivers of water in the wet which caught so many drivers out in 2003 leading to a very expensive collection of broken cars being stored on the exit of the corner. The first sector is concluded by the run up to Descida do Lago - one of Interlagos' many flamboyantly named corners. The corner where Vettel almost threw away the 2012 championship by colliding with Bruno Senna in the damp conditions. 

After Descida do Lago the track heads into the technical middle section which several corners are crammed into a relatively small space. However the sector starts off with Ferradura a quick corner at the top of the ascent where the powers that been have decided to apply some tarmac to the run off area. I suppose Kvyat might be happy so see some of that after the gravel in Suzuka flipped his car. The exit of Ferradura immediately flows into the first of three hairpins - Laranja which in turn defines the entry to the challenging Pinheirinho corner. The final hairpin in the complex is the Bico de Pato, translating as the 'Ducks Beak' the amusingly named corner has been the scene of the odd optimistic overtaking effort. This complex finishes like it started, with a quick exit through the downhill Mergulho corner, where rivers have thrown many folk into the barrier. Most recently Grosjean in the last wet race at the circuit. 

The final sector is defined by Juncao corner, the exit of which establishes the speeds for the huge climb up the hill back to the start/finish line passing through two high speed flat out kinks to round out the lap. The barriers have been moved back in key places to improve safety as ongoing developments plan to relocate the grandstands on the outside to allow more run-off area. This in response to several significant accidents over the years, most recently Mark Webber ripped a LMP1 Porsche in half after colliding with the wall in a WEC race. 

The Form Guide

Conditions may have impact on qualifying and create a very interesting grid for Sunday - if the rain does arrive on Saturday then Red Bull might be in for an outside look at the front row. Combined with the middle sector should also suit their car... but the long uphill climb will show off Renault's obvious power deficit. Ferrari and Mercedes might be closer on one lap pace in the dry and anyone gambling on a wet setup might do well in qualifying. But cooler conditions are predicted for the race, and that might hurt Ferrari and make life easier for Mercedes. Of the pairing in the silver arrows, a disruptive weekend of mixed conditions has played more into Rosberg's hands, as evidenced by the spate of recent poles at weekends where practices have been rained off. 

Wet weather is also bad for Williams who have proven lack of performance when the rain sets in, pushing them further into the mid-field with ground to make up on the Sunday. Seeing Bottas and Massa carve through the field might add a little something to the race. The middle of the pack should get very crowded especially considering the track is so short, Force India, Toro Rosso and Lotus all mashed up together and melting pot of competitive rivalry... or just a long procession following each other round with two second gaps between each car, if Mexico was anything to go by. 

Where the struggling McLarens fit into this remains a bit of an unknown, the middle sector won't expose their lack of engine power and the short lap won't expose the weaknesses in their hybrid unit. But two high speed sectors including a long uphill climb might pose greater difficulties for both drivers, and make their battle with Sauber that bit more difficult. Of course Manor will be at the back of the grid, still waiting for that new, shiny Mercedes engine next season. But if the forecasts are defied and the rain makes it to Sunday's race, some madness might put them in the running for a point. But that would take a lot of madness, which I do approve of. 

Rain or no rain the Brazilian GP generally provides a reasonable amount of entertainment, and after Mexico we could do with some. 

Round 16 - USA 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

The weather in Texas has not been particularly cooperative, rain and lightning has raged in Austin over the past couple of days - FP2 and the first attempt at qualifying were washed out. Which is why, on a Sunday I'm compiling a post about qualifying, after it was postponed due to the inclement weather. Personally I would have sent them out anyway yesterday, and whoever managed to complete a lap without bouncing off the barriers would automatically claim pole. Yet some of the shots of the circuit did look as if the track had been completely inundated with water so, I suppose in the end it was the right call to abandon qualifying - the only difficulty with the decision was that it took so long to accept that the rain wasn't going away and it was only going to get worse.

Which brings us today, where we had a second go at qualifying, and managed to complete two thirds of the session before the rain came back and washed out Q3. I suppose it is easy to look at things from the sofa, and say that the session was curtailed a little too early, and if they really tried - Q3 could have happened. But it always looks more drivable on TV than it probably was in reality - comments online from people at the circuit were saying that the rain was severe, with waterfalls forming in the grandstands. So on reflection, it might have been the right decision to give it up. After all because the qualifying session was relocated to Sunday - if cars ended up in the wall - we might lose cars from the race as they wouldn't be fixed in time for the race.

Q1

The radar was less than optimistic with plenty of rain in the area and heading towards the circuit so the drivers flooded out onto the track hoping to get a lap in before the heavens opened. The circuit was still very wet from showers throughout the day, but a slight break in the rain triggered a flurry of on track activity. For a while it was questionable whether or not this was a qualifying session or a drifting challenge because there were cars getting sideways everywhere. Those painted lines and curbs were taking no prisoners, and a river forming across the track at turn ten was catching everyone out. I recommend more wet qualifying sessions because seeing cars powersliding through the puddles is amazing. The drivers themselves probably didn't see the fun in it all - especially not Carlos Sainz who took a little too much curb at the start of the slalom section and fired the Toro Rosso into the barrier. Hitting thr wall at the one of the few places that run-off is quite limited. Less than 8 minutes into the session and the red flags were out to recover the car and straighten the wall.  No sign of the duct tape the Russians used to repair the same barrier type, but perhaps the tape wasn't quite waterproof enough,

At this stage in the session the usual suspects were at the front Mercedes locking out the top two places ahead of Red Bull and Ferrari... Williams still hoping it would dry out before they could mount a challenge. But the early red flag period lead to some strange timing anomalies towards the end of the field. Several drivers recorded 14 minute lap times, as their laps weren't completed before the red flag and thus they only crossed the timing line once they left the pits to restart the session. The weather was remaining stagnant, but was certainly not drying out when activity got underway.

But with no cars on track, there was not enough activity to stop the river at turn 10 from getting worse. This lead to a plethora of spins from new and experienced drivers alike. Hamilton completing a full 360 degree spin while both Ferrari drivers completed half spins at the same corner. Vettel even bounced off the wall as he was caught out by the standing water. Elsewhere Ericsson completed drift of the session in the final sector powersliding through the long triple apexed corner at the end of the lap. Only Maldonado could boast a longer slide - but he managed that in FP3. 

With more rain forecast for the rest of qualifying, there was a realisation that the positions in Q1 could form the grid, so the intensity ramped up. Ricciardo took provisional pole, dancing the Red Bull on the very edge of control - and as the session drew to a close Rosberg stayed out on track even though he'd safely made it into Q2. A plan that worked out as he pipped Hamilton with his final lap to line up second. Further back there were concerned faces at Ferrari, as Vettel was slipping towards relegation with each completed lap. His car was still in the garage after his brief visit to the wall in the infamous turn 10, but he sneaked through in the final promotion place as Ericsson failed to relegate the German.

Q2

The rainfall that we'd been predicted held off for a little longer, therefore Q2 was still going to start at least. But the weather radar was starting to light up with incoming bands of heavy rain. So once more everyone queued up at the end of the pit lane hoping to set a good time before the weather took over, in places a faint sight of a drying line was starting to form... but it wouldn't last. The geniuses at race control decided to post a message to the teams that no intermediate tyres were to be used...so in a session on the brink of being cancelled for too much rainfall, it seems like a rather odd statement for the stewards to make. No-one was going to try intermediates, if they did the next thing they'd be trying is hospital food after visiting the barrier without any hope of slowing down.

Initially it was Red Bull taking advantage of their high downforce configuration to set the early pace - Ricciardo leading Kvyat, both drivers pushing the limits of adhesion in the difficult conditions. It may have seemed as it they were on the edge of the ultimate pace as more cars started sliding in corners they weren't having struggles in Q1. But again Mercedes found more pace, both Hamilton and Rosberg stripped the front row of the Red Bull occupation inserting themselves as the new team in charge. However the balance of power within the Mercedes team was slightly different - Rosberg leading champion elect Hamilton.

Further back in the relegation zone, the positions were changing lap after lap, because the conditions were so changeable, puddles would shift in the wind and the rain remained unrelenting. For a brief time Alonso put McLaren into Q3, only to be dropped back by Verstappen - Bottas tried to get into the top ten but seemed to be struggling for pace, once more Williams having difficulties in the wet. But those positions seemed cemented as the rain intensified with a few minutes remaining, no-one was able to improve on their current times and returned to the garage

Q3

The final part of qualifying only really featured Mercedes, which is all too often the case this season, however it was a slightly larger and heaver Mercedes that was getting the laps in. The safety car went out for a track inspection, accompanied by jet driers to get rid of some of the surface water. But the rain proved to severe to complete the session, and thus Q3 never happened and the grid was declared on the results from Q2. Leaving Rosberg on pole, Hamilton second and Ricciardo third.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Even though we only had two thirds of the scheduled qualifying session before the rain ruined the rest of it there were so many strong performances worthy of bonus points. The number of slides, saves and spins was quite high and almost everyone deserves some kind of recognition for the brilliant driving in the difficult conditions. Maldonado didn't even hit anyone or anything in the rain. But not everyone can score points, and due to the shorter session 66% points will be awarded today

• 6.66pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Delivered an epic save en-route to setting the fastest time in Q1 and finished third on the final grid.
• 5.33pts - Nico Rosberg - Out-qualifying a driver who grew up and raced in the wet british weather on a very wet track deserves some points
• 4pts - Sergio Perez- Firth place in the Force India, continuing a run of good form 
• 3.33pts - Nico Hulkenberg - An all Force India third row as Ferrari and Williams fall back for various reasons.
• 2.66pts - Fernando Alonso - Almost got the McLaren into the top ten demonstrating that the chassis might not be all that bad after all
• 2pt - Marcus Ericsson - Gets the top slide award for his extended drift in Q1 across the run-off in the final sector
• 1.33pts - Alex Rossi - Out-qualifies Stevens in difficult conditions, and pulled off a brilliant save through the tricky turn 11.
• 0.66pts - Rain - Would have been more points for the weather, but I can't lie that those two sessions were more entertaining than three dull, dry qualifying phases.

Looking ahead to tomorrow just over an hour from now

We are completely at the mercy of the weather, as more remnants from the powerful Hurricane Patricia lash down in Austin. The current theory is that the race, if it takes place, will start under-safety car until enough water is cleared to start the race. But all this continued running on the wet tyres should set a precident to get the race underway reasonably quickly, as it has been proven that the wet tyres can handle the conditions. However in a race scenario the problem is visibility, with all 20 cars sharing the same section of road, the level of spray and water causes a significant visibility problem. In the early parts of Q1 it was difficult at times to see some of the cars through the wall of spray in the air. I think that this will be the main limiting factor to getting any racing underway, I hope that it does go ahead, and go ahead under full green racing conditions. But at this stage it is difficult to say what the decision will be. 

The weather radar says that rain will remain in the area until after the scheduled start time, so this could be a long evening of delays, red flags and laps under the safety car...

Round 16: USA 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

Not too many rounds remain in the ongoing saga that is the 2015 world championship, a championship that is all but decided following the events of the Russian GP a fortnight ago. I suppose you are all wondering what happened to the post-race update from that event... well it sort of didn't happen, a combination of increased rehearsals and meetings that week meant that I had no evenings at home with the computer to type out the final verdict on what was a much improved Russian GP. It had intrigue, championship implications - high quality duct-tape barrier repairs and last lap drama. Things you wouldn't expect from a race which was rated the most dull race of 2014, it was also the first live outside broadcast in a long time... blog HQ moved up in the world... ok well 800 metres up the street. But to my defence that is up a very steep hill so plenty of motivation and effort was required to make it that far. Fear not, there will still be points following the Russian GP, and those will be revealed at the end of this post, as they were for the Italian GP - which couldn't be updated because I was in Vienna at the time. Not for an outside broadcast that is, because that would require levels of fanciness that a peasant like me could only dream about. 

Back to the here and now, and in the paddock news, the world seems to have it's eyes firmly planted on Red Bull... especially in the case of many a pit-lane journalist who probably have had more than a few cans of the stuff to stay awake. Renault, their not so best friends have developed a new version of the what is a slightly lacklustre engine. But in order to use the new power unit, the team have to perform an engine change - to swap the old spec machine out and put the new one in. Ideally this wouldn't be a problem... except that Red Bull exceeded their allocation of Renault engines some time ago - one of the many reasons why the Austrian overlord is less than pleased about their French manufacturers performance. Therefore in order to take the new engine for this weekend, Red Bull would be faced with significant grid penalties for the engine change... Ricciardo has already suggested that there would be no point in taking the new engine as the performance gains (if any) wouldn't offset the penalty. This produces a sort of catch 22 situation for Renault, because they want to show that they can improve, but the act of installing the update will prevent any performance showing through on the day points are handed out. There is another reason why Red Bull might want to hold onto their qualifying places, but we'll get to that later. 

In other news, a number of complaints have been raised over the release of the preliminary 2016 season calendar. Mostly due to the placement of the new European GP - set in Azerbaijan... a country not really in Europe... but that's not so much the argument. The issue is that the Baku Street Race clashes with the Le Mans 24hrs - normally that isn't an issue. In fact the Le Mans race has clashed with the Canadian GP for years - but this time the issue has been made more prominent by the achievement of Nico Hulkenberg this season. Nico was able to compete in the Le Mans race... and then won - with a lot of help from the team-mates Earl Bamber and a stellar performance by Nick Tandy. Setting a race on the same date prevents Nico from defending his win, or any other F1 drivers making the transition to the WEC for that event. Some see it as Bernie being a little greedy and keeping all the drivers to himself, and preventing F1 from casting some of its not inconsiderable influence on a 'lesser series'. These conspiracy theories cite the bizarre placement of the European GP - traditionally the European round, previously held at the Nurburgring... or Valencia (shudder) has been placed near the Canadian GP. But not on back-to-back weekends because logistically Canada is a long way to go, when travelling back to Europe. This issue is then exacerbated by placing a flight to the furthest reaches of our continent only a few days after leaving North America. The placement makes no sense. But in the mad, crazed world of F1, nothing really makes sense these days.

The Venue

The calendar moves from Russia to the United States of America - I assume someone back on the FIA planning committee was having a bit of a laugh putting Russia and America next to each other on the schedule. Afterall, we know how friendly those two nations have been in the past - but enough of the past and back to the future... (yes that joke would have made sense if I wrote this post on time...). The USGP will be held once more in Texas - at the Circuit of the Americas. Over the years I have spent many a Thursday (or Friday depending on how lazy the writing process has been) berating another Tilke created abomination in the middle of nowhere with all the character of a soggy cardboard box. This one however, well it's a little bit different - not perfect by any means - but echelons above the likes of Abu-Dhabi, Shanghai and Sochi. But before you all get the idea that I am warming up to the realm of Tilke designed circuits, the chap will likely come in for a good online kicking when it comes to discussion the 'modifications' he has done to the Mexican GP circuit when that makes a return to the calendar next week.

Back to Austin now and the circuit is almost a mix of cheating, and that stereotypical worldview of Texas. Borrowing ideas from other circuits and then super-sizing them as only the Americans can. Turn one is a prime example of this process, Austria has a climb up to a hairpin, and it also has a climb up to it's first corner. However in Texas, they have replaced the idea of a bit of a climb with a colossal mountain of an ascent - if it wasn't for the Texan sun, there would be snowcaps at the top of the first corner, and the frozen shells of cars that didn't quite make the summit lying by the side of the track. Somewhere past the clouds at the summit of Mt' COTA does lie turn one, a huge expanse of tarmac sculpted to encourage a variety of racing lines - the whole field could probably line up side by side at the apex. But what it does do is offer a range of overtaking options, or collision opportunities if you happen to be Pastor Maldonado.

After turn one America super-sizes it once again - this time stealing inspiration from Silverstone's Maggots/Becketts complex - creating a gigantic slalom of corners which winds itself all the way to the far end of the circuit. Forming a high speed, high energy sequence of corners - it's as if the old Silverstone first sector and Suzuka's esses had a child and fed it on steroids. It's massive and artificial but for some reason, we all still think it's brilliant.  Which is exactly the sentiment echoed for this slalom, it is overkill and surrounded by excessively patriotic paintwork across the hectares of tarmac run-off. But it still remains a brilliant section of race track, even though it doesn't feel natural in the same way that Spa or Suzuka feel. More of a guilty pleasure than a state of pure enjoyment that you would get through a traditional circuit that meanders through the contours of the land. Once you've calmed down slightly following the slalom section, the circuit reaches another vast expanse of tarmac masquerading as a hairpin exiting onto the defacto long DRS straight. At the end of the straight... this is when we start to see a few problems, mostly due to another example of the epidemic that is infecting many new circuit designs - cramming as many corners into as little space as possible. If there is one thing that Sochi can be be praised for is not falling into this trap.

First off the trend of 'borrowing' track sections and then enhancing them seems to have shifted into reverse in the final phase of the lap. Their first effort is the stadium section from the Hockenheimring - which didn't translate well into American, as the method of adding more corners didn't work out this time. The reason why the Hockenheim's stadium section works is mostly down to the camber of the corners, as demonstrated by the Sachs Kurve. COTA didn't copy that part of the design and instead crammed a couple of sharp corners into a confined space and that just doesn't have the same impact. So on to plan B, and plan B involves borrowing some inspiration from Turkey's famous, but terribly named, Turn 8. That quadruple-apexed high speed corner we don't visit anymore, for those who don't quite get the reference. This time, bizarrely the Texan's took apexes out of the design and left us with two... three if you squint a bit, but not four. While it falls short of the corner it is trying to emulate, it is still a nice effort and presents an interesting challenge. In the spirit of competition, it probably is worth noting that Sochi delivered a bigger, longer corner than anything Texas has put together... but it wouldn't be like me to stir up rivalries. A lap of the circuit is competed by a deceptive off camber penultimate turn - where track limits will no doubt be abused, and a slightly generic final hairpin... which can be used for any more mad, optimistic last lap lunges... yes Kimi, we're all looking at you right now on that one...

The Delayed Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

For the second time this season the points for the preceding race are to be announced upon the eve of the next. I have come to the conclusion that the once generally ignored Bonus Points Championship probably has lost what little meaning it actually had. Lets face it, none of the title winners have even so much as acknowledged the face they have won something - even if it is something pointless and irrelevant. But sometimes, even in the face of total hopelessness recent events have shown me that you have to plow on ahead. So in light of that slightly stubborn approach to life as we know it - here are the points winners for that race a fortnight ago in Russia. 

• 25pts - Sergio Perez - Yes he lucked into reclaiming the podium but was there in 3rd place on merit before it all kicked off and gets full points
• 18pts - Carlos Sainz - Slammed the car into a wall in FP3, spent the night in hospital and still turned up and competed in the race... until crashing again. But brake failure was at fault after a strong race up until that point
• 15pts - Daniil Kvyat - A strong finish for the local driver on a track where Renault were holding back the Red Bull team
• 12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Fought off the challenge of Raikkonen the first time round and was wiped out on the second attempt 
• 10pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Deserves some points for the first fight he had with Bottas... not the second. And for his brief duel with Vettel. Kimi was in quite the feisty mood.
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - Easily deserves consolation points for that, a simple mechanical failure ruined a fun race, a potential win and his championship challenge all in the space of a couple of laps
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - With Rosberg out of the way, he made that look easy, despite carrying a potentially significant issue with the rear wing, or so we're told.
• 4pts - Russian Marshals - After drawing some criticism during the Sainz crash, they upped their game on Sunday - using the most legendary of all repair mechanisms... duct tape... to fix the wall Grosjean smashed up. And then sprinting onto the track to retrieve Sainz's wing endplate in front of Vettel's Ferrari. 
• 2pts - Romain Grosjean - One of the few people to smash into one of the fancy plastic barriers and not force a lengthy red flag delay for repairs.
• 1pt - Pirelli - Those Russian hats on the podium deserve a bonus point for creativity 

• -1pt - Kimi Raikkonen - What on earth was that... I admire the effort and determination but the execution of the pass was a bit crap to be fair.
• -1pt - Carlos Sainz - If the car is damaged, you can't really expect to keep driving it normally and not expect to end up in the fence - after the first spin for brake issues you might have got the hint.
• -1pt - Mercedes - Unintentionally you robbed us of a potentially exciting race long battle for the win... and muted the overall title fight with one little mechanical issue with the throttle pedal... curses.

The Form Guide 

Back to the business of Austin and the US GP, and this race looks like will be a Mercedes walkover - with Williams running around looking for that final podium place (potentially) This is because Ferrari have opted to take a brand new engine this weekend, and thus will be given the default 10 place grid penalties - placing them on the back foot before the weekend has really got underway. Furthermore the grandiose scale of many of the Circuit of the America's features means that a good engine will always come in handy there - which causes a problem for Red Bull. Whether or not they decide to go for the newer, updated Renault power unit remains to be seen - but like Ferrari, that change would incur a penalty.

However... and it is a big however... the weather looks interesting for the weekend and could leave our form book rather soggy. Heavy rains and thunderstorms are in the area and Texas itself has flood warnings issued across the state - some of that rainfall is bound to affect Austin. So it may be the case that periscopes and life-rafts may be part of the pre-qualifying setup options to handle the incoming storms. A wet qualifying/race scenario is bad for Williams - the damp conditions briefly experienced in good old rainy England confirmed that they still haven't conquered the issues of running in the rain. So with Williams washed out, Ferrari penalised and Red Bull slow - who is left to fight Mercedes.

Rain gives hope to the mid-field teams, Lotus and Force India and possibly even McLaren could capitalise on a bit of damp chaos and steal some points. It may also reduce some of the power deficit experienced by Red Bull and Toro Rosso because a wet track limits the range of usable power to begin with. But, I fear that in the sensitive climate we operate in now, a wet race would lead to lots of driving behind the safety car until every last puddle has cleared before starting again. As for qualifying, there are some folk saying that the rain on Saturday could be so bad it could wash it out completely - or take hours to complete due to several red-flag interruptions. 

Whatever happens this weekend, it seems that the potentially championship deciding race may have a few surprises in store. Hopefully. 

Round 15 - Russia 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Today has been a strange day in Russia, a destructive one in many respects as well. All of the support race action has been severely curtailed, the GP2 race was cut down to 15 laps after a lengthy barrier repair operation following a series of collisions on the opening lap. The GP3 race was cancelled completely following more significant barrier repairs resulting from a significant accident in the middle of the final practice session. This accident befell Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz at the end of the back 'straight' - Carlos lost the car under braking and slammed into the inside wall before cannoning at an immense speed into the barrier on the outside of the first chicane. The car submarined underneath the techpro barriers doing a significant amount of damage to the armco barriers behind them. It seemed to take a considerable amount of time before any safety officials attended the scene and extract Sainz from the car. Eventually the Toro Rosso driver was recovered and taken to a nearby hospital, scans and assessment have determined that somehow, Carlos sustained no injuries whatsoever, and could even start the race tomorrow. That is a marvelous example of how car safety has improved, because it looked a little scary for a while. 

In other news, the Red Bull situation has developed even further as it appears that Ferrari had now declined to offer Red Bull engines -  so their situation appears to be getting more confusing and more uncertain. The current estimate is that some form of decision will be made towards the end of the month - as to what their options are for next year. None of that mattered on track this afternoon because they were no where near Ferrari or Mercedes, perhaps once more indicating how much of a deficit the Renault engine is creating for the team.

Q1

The first part of the session got underway after an extended delay to cover the repair time to the barrier. It was only 15 minutes before the green light that we were made aware that the session would start on time. With such limited running time in all three practice sessions - venturing into qualifying was certainly a voyage into the unknown. Rainfall, diesel spills and lack of track action had left the circuit in a very low grip state. So cars were getting sideways all over the place, and not to be outdone - Pastor Maldonado slid across the tarmac run-off area in turn.... well I don't know which corner it was as they mostly look the same in the first two sectors. 

Several drivers took to the super-softs straight out of the pits without using the standard tyre compound. With Sainz already out of qualifying due to being in hospital, there were few were only two places in the relegation zone up for grabs. This was good news for McLaren... well at least for Button - because Alonso was facing yet another colossal grid penalty so even with the reduced chance of being relegated - he'd start at the back anyway. At the front ven the front runners were struggling - Rosberg set the initial top time despite sliding through the final corners. Hamilton on the other hand was one second slower, which resulted in an amusing response from Lewis over the team-radio. He was informed of his position, lap time, gap to P1 and various other settings - but Hamilton dialed the conversation back to the key piece of information... that one second deficit. 

As the session progressed it became clear that the faster times would only be set at the very end of Q1 as the track continued to evolve. So with times changing constantly, some interesting names flirted with the relegation zone alongside the two Manor cars. For a while Bottas and Perez were up for relegation - but quickly moved up the field. This dropped Alonso into the bottom four while the other McLaren was safely through into the next round. Fernando's final effort wasn't enough to make it two McLarens in Q2 - but as noted earlier it didn't really matter to Alonso. The other victim of Q1 was Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber along with Stevens and Mehri - as Rossi was back on GP2 duties this weekend

Q2

The second part of qualifying started with Mercedes moving onto the softer compound that they hadn't used in Q1, and while we waited for the first flying laps to be completed the TV camera operators found some scary sights. These were very large pictures of Daniil Kvyat pasted across the side of one of the grandstands - as if the death stare wasn't scary enough a huge picture of that face will create nightmares for years to come. On track however it was a tale of two Nicos - Hulkenberg set the first lap time, but Rosberg smashed that time and claimed that all important top spot. After the defeat in the first part of qualifying, Hamilton found some of the pace he was missing in Q1 to take the Q2 pole. To which Rosberg responded and took the lead away from Lewis - on this basis there was the faint hint that we might see an epic battle for pole when it came to the final part of qualifying. At this point Williams and Ferrari hadn't set a representative time. 

When Ferrari did take to the track, there initial times were a long way off the pace of the leading Mercedes - which put pay to any hints of a Singapore 2.0 race weekend. Bottas was proving to be the lead challenger to the Mercedes team instead of the Ferrari's which is not to be unexpected given the nature of the track and the performances last season. However that wasn't universal within the Williams team - because Felipe Massa was not on the same pace as his Finnish team-mate. For some reason Massa was languishing towards the bottom of the relegation zone - below Button's McLaren and Nasr's Sauber. 

In the final phase of the session, those drivers in relegation were aiming to elevate themselves into Q3 - and it was the Red Bull drivers who were on the cusp of promotion as both Force Indias moved into the top ten. Mercedes power proving to be very useful once more with Grosjean dragging his Lotus into the promotion places again. The only Mercedes powered car in the relegation zone belonged to Pastor Maldonado - and didn't look like it was going to make any progress up the field. That left Ricciardo, Kvyat and Mad Max fighting over the final promotion places - Ricciardo made the first move and moved into the top ten - demoting Kvyat in the process. The Russian attempted to repay the compliment but couldn't find enough pace - once he was confirmed as being relegated we saw images of people leaving the stands. Perhaps the others were waiting for Markelov's contribution to the GP2 event - for both corners he lasted...

Q3 

Onto the final part of qualifying and the nature of the circuit was playing a part in how the drivers attempted the crucial finale. The smooth, low grip tarmac meant that a single warm up lap wasn't quite enough to build heat into the tyres. Only Bottas put his foot down after a single effort - indicating that Williams have a different set up on their cars in contrast to the rest of the field - perhaps that configuration is what proved to be Massa's downfall early on. After a second warm-up lap Ferrari and Mercedes were ready to strike - and again it was Rosberg who had the upper hand over Hamilton as they knocked 8 tenths off Bottas' early lead. The Ferraris on the other hand couldn't knock Valtteri off the provisional third place spot and the second row - Raikkonen losing time running wide at the first of the final sector chicanes. All of the Mercedes/Ferrari powered cars claimed the top seven positions, with Grosjean not taking part in the early runs...

And so on to the final runs and the final challenge for pole position - and given how qualifying had run thus far - there was the prospect of a titanic battle for pole... But that all rather fell apart on Hamilton's fast lap - because Lewis copied Raikkonen's early mistake and ran off the circuit at the stadium section. The bizarre part of it was that he just returned to the pits - no regrouping and trying again he just gave up. Perhaps the tyres were damaged, and due to the number of warm up laps required there wasn't enough time to build up to another quick time. Either way the battle was over and thus so was qualifying... what happened to that battle... so much of an anti-climax

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Here are the points winners from the Russian GP qualifying

10pts - Carlos Sainz - Slams into the wall, gets buried in a barrier - spends the night in hospital and wants to race the next day
8pts - Valtteri Bottas - Again the closest contender to Mercedes defeating the two Ferraris in the process
6pts - Romain Grosjean  - While Maldonado continues to struggle Romain keeps dragging the Lotus into the top 10
5pts - Nico Rosberg - Taking the fight to Hamilton once more and maybe, just maybe there might be a fight on track tomorrow
4pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Another top ten for the Force India driver as best of the non Mercedes/Williams/Ferrari trio
3pts - Sergio Perez - Doubling up on the Force India population in Q3
2pts - Alex Rossi - Well having to step aside to take on his GP2 duties this a win in the feature race is worlds apart from the Manor drive
1pt - Sochi - They planted some grass, well done them...

Looking to Tomorrow

Well last years Russian GP was highly regarded as the most boring race of 2014, but with the chaotic nature of this weekend, who knows - we may be in for something a little different tomorrow

Round 15: Russia 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

The next round of the calendar brings us to Russia for the second race around the Sochi winter Olympic park - a race which didn't necessarily receive too many plaudits last year. The debut Russian GP was ranked as the most boring race of the 2014 season, so this year's efforts would certainly prefer to show an improvement. The layout was blamed for the most part for the uninspiring events of last season, but the race circumstances didn't help - Rosberg taking himself out of contention on the opening lap... again and thus robbing us of yet another Mercedes battle at the head of the field. So perhaps this season, with a slightly closer battle between the top teams this visit to Russia may be a lot more interesting.

In other news the Red Bull saga continues to rumble on in the background - Ferrari have tentatively offered the engineless teams a deal in which they would be given 2015 specification engines. No real progress has been made because Red Bull were adamant that they would only settle for a full, up-to-date works power unit complete with fuel mixture and operating software... which is not what Ferrari we planning to hand over. Thus we have entered a sort of stalemate situation, which currently leaves both Red Bull and Torro Rosso without an engine supplier for 2016 after the divorce with Renault. If the teams do not secure an engine, or accept a lesser offer - then they will not be on the grid next year. With ongoing issues at Lotus, and Sauber with Force India going to the EU courts complaining about financial distribution within the sport... the grid for 2016 looks rather uncertain. Having escaped the very turbulent relationship Red Bull, Renault have signed a letter of intent to buy the troubled Lotus team - but no real confirmation of how the deal is progressing has been posted.

One team we do know will be on the grid is the new American Haas team making a new foray away from NASCAR into F1. After the Japanese GP Haas made their first driver announcement, which turned into the revealing of what was the worst kept secret in the paddock. Haas unveiled that Romain Grosjean will be jumping ship from Lotus/Renault to the incoming squadron. It seems like a strange move, considering Lotus have a decent car - and with the help of Renault might have a better season next year. While Haas are an unknown quantity who may end up at the back of the grid while they figure things out. There is no news on who might partner Grosjean or who will replace him at Renault/Lotus in 2016 alongside Maldonado. But only time will tell what the future holds for whoever is on the grid next year. If Red Bull do go down, then suddenly they will be four more drivers without a job to take into consideration.

The Venue

People were less than complimentary about Sochi when everyone arrived at the circuit for the first ever race in 2014. Most of the complaints were with the configuration of the track layout rather than the overall concept of the venue - situating a race track in the confines of an Olympic park is a brilliant idea, the Australians have been doing it for a while now in Sydney. The stadiums for the Sochi Winter Games look very nice encircling the circuit and building a dynamic background mural depicting the venue. All of those complaints, well the vast majority of them were aimed specifically at the layout and the areas between the barriers because in a region surrounded by interesting building designs, none of that inspiration soaked through onto the racing surface. The closest comparison would be the former hosts of the European GP - that Valencia street circuit... which deservedly nobody liked either. The problem I have is that even the often villified Spanish port track had a nicely constructed final sector which was a decent redeming feature. Sochi doesn't have that - on paper the wide sweeping arc of turn three was supposed to be this big challenging focal point... turned out to be just a really long corner...

As for the rest of the lap, it starts off with a flat out right handed kink shortly after the start line - leading onto the long DRS straight. A straight where DRS might not have been needed has been given it to make overtaking into turn two even easier than it needs to be. Turn two itself would have been an interesting challenge given the long straight before hand, but this is where the biggest gripe with the circuit design first rears its head. I'm surprised Russia has any tarmac left after the construction of this track, or maybe grass doesn't exist in the vicinity of Sochi - because turn two is simply painted onto the floor on a vast ocean of tarmac. As a result drivers would exploit the track limits to a hideous degree - the opening lap of the GP2 support race was a complete farce with half the field just running off the track because there was no deterrent to not doing so. Apparently tougher measures have been added this time - but in the stewards room, not the track itself. How hard is it to place a simple grass verge to make it less tempting to go off the track. Sochi is by far and away the biggest offender for track limits issues - even Abu Dhabi has grass in places...

Anyway turn two - in whichever format the drivers can be bothered to drive it in - feeds into the very long circle turn. The huge radius of the corner means it is virtually flatout all the way round, but does set up some interesting moves into turn four. Because depending on which line your car can complete the circle turn on determines how well you'll negotiate the following corner. The middle sector of the lap was clearly created through several copy and paste operations in some design software package. I realise that the track had to meander round the Olympic park and show off as many of the stadiums as possible - but this has to be the least interesting set of corners to use. Again with a huge tarmac run-off area problem - you'd have to keep your passport on you and board a flight just to get to the barrier in some corners. Some circuits like Singapore and Abu-Dhabi have too many corners - where as Sochi in this phase has too few. It is just sequence of straights leading into short 90 degree bends - no complex sequences no varied radius corners. With the amount of money that was spent on the Sochi games, surely there must have been some forethought into making the track a little less lazy.

At the end of a series of uneventful corners we come to the back straight - which is virtually a carbon copy of one of the Valencian 'straights' - a couple of gradual curves are added to make things a little interesting. But just like the big circle turn, the interest only really materialises at the end of the sequence because the curve in the track has an influence on selecting braking points for turn 11. The end of the 'straight' edges the cars over to the right hand side of the track, but turn 11 is best approached from the left. Turn 11 itself is the start of a strange and clumsy double chicane - which exists for a purpose I can't quite figure out at this stage. But it does offer overtaking opportunities in a rough sort of way. Suddenly lots of corners are crammed in together. Once the double chicane is over a pair of simple 90 degree corners - (someone had better email Baku, because between Singapore and Russia the world's supply of 90 degree corners has pretty much been depleted) - bring the cars back to the start/finish straight.

The Form Guide

This post was going to be published yesterday, but some folks at EA released a beta version of Star Wars Battlefront... so instead my time involved dying repeatedly, failing to shoot and anything and impersonating Maldonado driving a snowspeeder as I rammed a Tie Fighter... Therefore practice has happened and the data on who is outperforming who it is in... if FP1 is to go by Hulkenberg will be on pole. A diesel spillage curtailed FP1 and rain washed out FP2, so no-one really did too much running and thus we are still in the dark about who will qualify where.

It would be a safe bet to suggest that Mercedes would be out front, but not by as much as we saw in Japan - last season Bottas almost made it onto pole position and Williams in general were very close. This year Ferrari have joined that fight, so Mercedes might not be 100% guaranteed to take the front row this time - another Singapore might be on the cards, as the track is close to a diluted version of the Asian street track. Even though practice has been minimal to none existent again this race like it was in Japan - Force India do look quite competitive and may be looking at a double points finish on Sunday.

Everyone else makes up the mid-field. This will probably not be such a good track for Red Bull and Toro Rosso as it is quite a power circuit with very few long corners - in fact there really is only one long continuous radius high speed cornering event on the entire lap in turn three. Everything else is short sharp corners linked by short straights. This is also bad news for McLaren who also have power issues - Alonso also has yet another grid penalty for a complete power unit change... earning him a 25 place grid deduction, perhaps his engine gave up after he spent the Japanese GP insulting it. Potentially this might open the door for Sauber and Lotus to score some points instead. Alas Manor will have to wait for 2016 and that promise of a new Mercedes engine before they can dream of points...

The last Russian GP wasn't great, it was given a poor rating and wasn't hugely inspiring. But we said that time and time again about Valencia and that unfavoured 'street' track - and in 2012 it delivered a brilliant race. So there is hope that Sochi can shake off the image it created last season and put on a show this time round.... please....