At the start of the Chinese GP my hopes were very high. As the lights went out Hamilton was able to maintain his lead but Sebastian from P3 stormed to second. Alonso took another stunning start and made his way right up to third. Rosberg starting from P4 had a lousy start due to a telemetry issue in the car. All telemetry was lacking so it was impossible for the team to get Rosberg´s clutch set up correctly so the German lost many positions at the start. Both Williams drivers had a collision in the first corner: Massa had contact with Alonso in his Ferrari and Bottas collided with Rosberg. Luckily there was no damage in any of the cars involved but the collision cost Bottas many positions on the opening lap. However, I was so glad to see that Sebastian took a superb start and I was sure the German was finally going to keep his team-mate behind him!
My joy was so premature! Later on in the race things certainly didn´t go to my plan! But before my day turned upside down, that happened to Felipe Massa at the wheel of his FW36 at his first pits top on lap 11. There was a costly mistake at the Brasilian´s pit stop in terms of tyres and it took over a minute which meant that Massa´s race was ruined as he joined track behind everyone else.
Right from the very first laps Kimi seemed to be struggling with his car. There was a massive difference in the lap times between the Ferrari team-mates. I couldn´t help thinking that there must have been something utterly wrong with Kimi´s car once again as I wasn´t used to see such poor performance from the Iceman! It seemed that Kimi had simply no chance to match Alonso´s lap times :(
The lack of telemetry didn´t stop Rosberg from making his way up position by position. After the first pit stops the German Mercedes driver was already right at Vettel´s tail and Sebastian had no chance to hold Nico back. The Mercedes is frighteningly fast on the straights, which Red Bull certainly isn´t. Sebastian seemed to be struggling with the white-marked medium tyres as his team-mate Ricciardo was suddenly also able to close the gap to him. On lap 25 the team told Sebastian on the team radio to let Ricciardo through. Sebastian replied in memorable words: "Tough luck" and didn´t intend to let his team-mate overtake him. A bit later Sebastian was told that he was on a different strategy compared to his team-mate and after that Ricciardo passed Sebastian. I just couldn´t help wondering, where Sebastian´s pace had suddenly vanished! The start had been so promising but suddenly Ricciardo was a second faster than Sebastian! That seemed so unbelievable.
Right after the second pit stops Rosberg had caught up Alonso and the overtaking move looked so easy! The Mercedes GP are so overwhelmingly dominant at the moment that it´s even ridiculously easy to overtake others with that car! Alonso had no chance to hold Nico back. But Hamilton´s driving was absolutely crushing today: the Briton cruised to victory with almost a 20-second gap over his team-mate Rosberg. So once again a dominant 1-2 for Mercedes GP, which seem to be utterly unstoppable at the moment. Alonso´s podium place was warmly welcomed at Ferrari and it gave the Italian-based team hope that there´s still a distant chance to catch their rivals during this season. Ricciardo finished 4th ahead of his team-mate Sebastian. Hulkenberg in his Force India drove an impressive race and finished 6th only a few tenths of a second ahead of Bottas at the wheel of his FW36. Kimi finished 8th after a troubled race, Perez in his Force India in P9 and Kvyat in Toro Rosso scored the last point.
To be honest, I was sooo disappointed after the race. I had to go to gym to calm down before writing my blog, hahahaha! The result would have been easier to except if there had been some technical issue in both Sebastian´s and Kimi´s car. But Sebastian admitted after the race that he simply couldn´t get as much out of the prime tyres as his team-mate did. So Sebastian is facing whole new difficulties in his career. His former team-mate Webber never managed to beat him like this. The question is: how is Sebastian going to handle this? He has such a killer-instict for winning so I´m confident that he´ll turn this around at some point of the season. I just hope Sebastian´s current performance coach Antti Kontsas has similar skills to Tommi Pärmäkoski, who successfully helped Sebastian through all the difficulties back in 2010 when there were sparks flying between the team-mates.
In terms of Kimi´s performance the situation was quite much the same. There wasn´t a technical problem in Kimi´s car today but it just seems that it´s extremely challenging for Ferrari to improve the car the way Kimi wants. Kimi´s driving style doesn´t suit to the current car and Kimi has problems with the tyres when it´s cold or wet. It must be so frustrating for Kimi as the reporters have already started asking the old questions about the Finn´s motivation. At Barcelona I really really hope to see an F14T, which suits Kimi in a much better way!
Rosberg and Hamilton have a double-lead in the championship standings, only 4 points separating the team-mates in favor of the German. Alonso is 3rd 34 points off Hamilton. Even Hulkenberg with 36 points is ahead of Vettel, who has only 33 points so far. And now we´ll have to wait long three weeks until the F1 circus moves to Europe and Barcelona!
Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel
sunnuntai 20. huhtikuuta 2014
lauantai 19. huhtikuuta 2014
Chinese GP / Qualifying: 34th career pole made Hamilton the new British record holder!
The entire qualifying session was affected by rain. When Q1 got underway the temperature was only 14 degrees Celsius and the track was wet. Maldonado was unable to take part in the qualifying due to an engine problem that had occurred in the final practice session. Some drivers started to Q1 with full wets whilst the others had chosen the intermediate tyres. Hamilton who topped the time sheets in the first session had set his lap time with full wets whilst Hulkenberg in his Force India (P2) had chosen the intermediate rubber. Gutierrez at the wheel of his C33 was the first man to be knocked out of Q2 which wasn´t a surprise. It was worrying to see that once again Kimi was struggling at the wheel of his Ferrari and the Iceman seemed to be lacking pace compared to his team-mate. Kimi was only the 14th fastest in Q1.
In Q2 the intermediate rubber was the right tyre choice. As always in rain-hit qualifying, there were some major surprises this time as well. McLaren who seemed so competitive at the season-opener in Australia had suddenly lost their performance! Both McLaren drivers were unable to make it through to the final session (Button qualified 12th and Magnussen 15th). At personal level it was much more disappointing to see that Kimi also got knocked out of Q3! Kimi was over a second slower than his team-mate Alonso! A really frustrating qualifying session for the Iceman: he struggled with the balance of the car and had problems with downshifting as well. So P11 was all the Finn could achieve today :( Another surprise was to see Grosjean in Lotus making his way in to the final session! Lotus was definitely one of the teams that benefitted most from the wet conditions.
Q3 held some further surprises though pole-setter was once again no surprise! Hamilton snatched the third pole of the season. It was the 34th career pole for the Briton which made Hamilton the new British record holder and 4th on the all-time list. Hamilton was almost 6 tenths of a second faster than his rivals so no doubt about the fastest man on track today! Rosberg on the other hand was unable to make it on the front row but qualified only 4th. Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 completed the front row and his team-mate Sebastian in P3 was beaten by his team-mate with half-a-second gap! To be honest, it really hurt to see Sebastian getting beaten by his Aussie team-mate. Ricciardo has outqualified Sebastian already three times this season! So not an easy start to the season for Sebastian. I´m sure we´ll see some action-packed wheel-to-wheel racing tomorrow by the Red Bull team-mates!
Alonso qualified 5th in front of the Williams duo (Massa in P6 and Bottas in P7). It was a delight to see that despite of the rainy conditions Williams were able to maintain their performance and fight for good grid slots. Although I´d have preferred to see Bottas ahead of his Brasilian team-mate. So there will be some intense battling between the Williams team-mates as well! Hulkenberg in Force India (P8), Vergne in Toro Rosso (P9) and Grosjean in Lotus (P10) completed the top ten.
The weather forecast says it should be a dry race tomorrow. Let´s see if the Red Bulls will be able to match Mercedes´s pace in the dry. Hopefully it will be a problem-free race for both my favourites! Kimi has definitely had his fair share of the technical issues so I hope his car will behave brilliantly tomorrow! Sebastian has also been struggling with the new car more than his team-mate. But Mercedes still have the edge over their rivals so I´d me amazed if somebody other than Hamilton or Rosberg won the race tomorrow. I´m also confident that without technical issues Kimi can score some decent points. I really hope I´ll soon see this series of setbacks coming to an end. Ferrari now have a new team principal Marco Mattiacci as Stefano Domenicali chose to step down earlier this week. But there´re no instant miracles despite the new leadership. Just hope that Kimi´ll be given a drivable car soon!
I just saw a touching interview of Sebastian Vettel on Finnish TV. He shared deep thoughts about life and what makes him happy. The German Red Bull ace reminded that we only have limited time here so you should enjoy the present moment and do what makes you happy. So let´s watch Formula 1 and write about it -that is what makes me so happy in life!
In Q2 the intermediate rubber was the right tyre choice. As always in rain-hit qualifying, there were some major surprises this time as well. McLaren who seemed so competitive at the season-opener in Australia had suddenly lost their performance! Both McLaren drivers were unable to make it through to the final session (Button qualified 12th and Magnussen 15th). At personal level it was much more disappointing to see that Kimi also got knocked out of Q3! Kimi was over a second slower than his team-mate Alonso! A really frustrating qualifying session for the Iceman: he struggled with the balance of the car and had problems with downshifting as well. So P11 was all the Finn could achieve today :( Another surprise was to see Grosjean in Lotus making his way in to the final session! Lotus was definitely one of the teams that benefitted most from the wet conditions.
Q3 held some further surprises though pole-setter was once again no surprise! Hamilton snatched the third pole of the season. It was the 34th career pole for the Briton which made Hamilton the new British record holder and 4th on the all-time list. Hamilton was almost 6 tenths of a second faster than his rivals so no doubt about the fastest man on track today! Rosberg on the other hand was unable to make it on the front row but qualified only 4th. Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 completed the front row and his team-mate Sebastian in P3 was beaten by his team-mate with half-a-second gap! To be honest, it really hurt to see Sebastian getting beaten by his Aussie team-mate. Ricciardo has outqualified Sebastian already three times this season! So not an easy start to the season for Sebastian. I´m sure we´ll see some action-packed wheel-to-wheel racing tomorrow by the Red Bull team-mates!
Alonso qualified 5th in front of the Williams duo (Massa in P6 and Bottas in P7). It was a delight to see that despite of the rainy conditions Williams were able to maintain their performance and fight for good grid slots. Although I´d have preferred to see Bottas ahead of his Brasilian team-mate. So there will be some intense battling between the Williams team-mates as well! Hulkenberg in Force India (P8), Vergne in Toro Rosso (P9) and Grosjean in Lotus (P10) completed the top ten.
The weather forecast says it should be a dry race tomorrow. Let´s see if the Red Bulls will be able to match Mercedes´s pace in the dry. Hopefully it will be a problem-free race for both my favourites! Kimi has definitely had his fair share of the technical issues so I hope his car will behave brilliantly tomorrow! Sebastian has also been struggling with the new car more than his team-mate. But Mercedes still have the edge over their rivals so I´d me amazed if somebody other than Hamilton or Rosberg won the race tomorrow. I´m also confident that without technical issues Kimi can score some decent points. I really hope I´ll soon see this series of setbacks coming to an end. Ferrari now have a new team principal Marco Mattiacci as Stefano Domenicali chose to step down earlier this week. But there´re no instant miracles despite the new leadership. Just hope that Kimi´ll be given a drivable car soon!
I just saw a touching interview of Sebastian Vettel on Finnish TV. He shared deep thoughts about life and what makes him happy. The German Red Bull ace reminded that we only have limited time here so you should enjoy the present moment and do what makes you happy. So let´s watch Formula 1 and write about it -that is what makes me so happy in life!
maanantai 7. huhtikuuta 2014
Bahrain GP: Awesome battle between the Mercedes team-mates!
This was an exceptional GP weekend in many ways. Many unexpected things happened. One of them was the fact that I didn´t see the qualifying live on TV, which was quite a shock to me! I had driven to a hotel on Saturday to spend time with my twin sister. I was 100 percent sure that the qualifying was going to be shown in a pub nearby. But when we went there it turned out that they showed a national hockey league match instead of Formula 1! I was absolutely devostated, couldn´t believe my eyes! So I ended up following the qualifying on my tablet on the official Formula 1 app, which made me even more nervous than usual, hahaha! What didn´t help my anxiety anyhow was the fact that Sebastian got knocked out of Q3! Kimi instead got an impressive P6, which was clearly higher than I expected to see.
On Sunday I was home in time to watch the race on TV. So it was another front row lock-out for Mercedes GP but this time Rosberg had managed to conquer pole. Ricciardo had been 3rd quickest in the qualifying but the Australian suffered from the grid penalty due to the unsafe release at Malaysia so he had been dropped down to P13. Bottas in his FW36 started from P3, Perez in his Force India (!) from P4, Kimi in his Ferrari from P5 and Button at the wheel of his McLaren from P6. Unfortunately both Finns took lousy starts and Bottas dropped down to P6 and Kimi even more further down to P9. Bottas´s team-mate Massa instead took a stunning start and made his way from P7 to P3!
Hamilton managed to steal the lead from Rosberg right at the start and soon after that the Mercedes duo vanished into the horizon. They were overwhelmingly dominant, totally in a class of their own! No one could challenge these two drivers, not in a slightest way! During the race it turned out that against the odds there wasn´t such a huge difference between the two tyre compounds. The softer tyre had been supposed to be even 2 seconds faster but in the race that wasn´t the case, however. So tyre tactics didn´t play as impressive role as expected.
On lap 41 we saw a frightening-looking incident where Maldonado at the wheel of his E22 was exiting the pits and crashed into Gutierrez´s Sauber, which caused the Mexican to flip in the air! Luckily Gutierrez didn´t get hurt. The accident could have had more serious consequences. Due to the collision Maldonado was handed a 10-second stop and go penalty and in addition to that a 5-place grid penalty for the upcoming Chinese GP. Safety car was deployed due to this incident and the Mercedes duo lost their impressive lead.
What happened after the restart was absolutely stunning to watch! Both Mercedes drivers had been told on the team radio to bring their cars home safely. But luckily we didn´t see any team orders but these two guys were allowed to race each other in a fair way! Rosberg didn´t want to settle for the second place and he did everything to overtake his team-mate. The German succeeded a couple of times but Hamilton always snatched his position back.
On lap 50 we saw something exceptional happening, something that we certainly haven´t seen for a while. I mean Ricciardo managed to overtake Sebastian Vettel and made his way up to P5! Although I´m a huge fan of Sebastian Ricciardo gets full respect from me. He has done a fantastic job and he really deserves his success. I don´t know what happened with Sebastian, on the team radio he told that he was extremely slow on the straights. I hope this pressure coming from Ricciardo will make Sebastian fight even harder in the next races. He must be gutted to get beaten by his team-mate!
Hamilton and Rosberg made it a sweeping 1-2 for Mercedes GP. Perez at the wheel of Force India made staggering job as well by completing the podium! Force India showed stunning performance yesterday. Ricciardo finished in P4, Hulkenberg in P5, Vettel in P6, Massa in P7, Bottas in P8, Alonso in P9 and Kimi in P10. Ferrari´s performance was such a crushing disappointment! They seem to be going nowhere compared to their rivals. The Italian team seems to be in a deep crisis and something needs to be done extremely quickly!
How will any team be able to catch up Mercedes GP in the championship fight? If it gets done by any team, I consider it a massive miracle! But the fact is that things can change in Formula 1 rather quickly. And the other teams will do their very best already at the two test days in Bahrain this week to improve their performance. What will happen at Shanghai in a fortnight is a mystery. But I do hope to see Sebastian beating his Aussie team-mate and Kimi fighting at the very top! I love watching F1 races, it makes me feel so much alive! :)
On Sunday I was home in time to watch the race on TV. So it was another front row lock-out for Mercedes GP but this time Rosberg had managed to conquer pole. Ricciardo had been 3rd quickest in the qualifying but the Australian suffered from the grid penalty due to the unsafe release at Malaysia so he had been dropped down to P13. Bottas in his FW36 started from P3, Perez in his Force India (!) from P4, Kimi in his Ferrari from P5 and Button at the wheel of his McLaren from P6. Unfortunately both Finns took lousy starts and Bottas dropped down to P6 and Kimi even more further down to P9. Bottas´s team-mate Massa instead took a stunning start and made his way from P7 to P3!
Hamilton managed to steal the lead from Rosberg right at the start and soon after that the Mercedes duo vanished into the horizon. They were overwhelmingly dominant, totally in a class of their own! No one could challenge these two drivers, not in a slightest way! During the race it turned out that against the odds there wasn´t such a huge difference between the two tyre compounds. The softer tyre had been supposed to be even 2 seconds faster but in the race that wasn´t the case, however. So tyre tactics didn´t play as impressive role as expected.
On lap 41 we saw a frightening-looking incident where Maldonado at the wheel of his E22 was exiting the pits and crashed into Gutierrez´s Sauber, which caused the Mexican to flip in the air! Luckily Gutierrez didn´t get hurt. The accident could have had more serious consequences. Due to the collision Maldonado was handed a 10-second stop and go penalty and in addition to that a 5-place grid penalty for the upcoming Chinese GP. Safety car was deployed due to this incident and the Mercedes duo lost their impressive lead.
What happened after the restart was absolutely stunning to watch! Both Mercedes drivers had been told on the team radio to bring their cars home safely. But luckily we didn´t see any team orders but these two guys were allowed to race each other in a fair way! Rosberg didn´t want to settle for the second place and he did everything to overtake his team-mate. The German succeeded a couple of times but Hamilton always snatched his position back.
On lap 50 we saw something exceptional happening, something that we certainly haven´t seen for a while. I mean Ricciardo managed to overtake Sebastian Vettel and made his way up to P5! Although I´m a huge fan of Sebastian Ricciardo gets full respect from me. He has done a fantastic job and he really deserves his success. I don´t know what happened with Sebastian, on the team radio he told that he was extremely slow on the straights. I hope this pressure coming from Ricciardo will make Sebastian fight even harder in the next races. He must be gutted to get beaten by his team-mate!
Hamilton and Rosberg made it a sweeping 1-2 for Mercedes GP. Perez at the wheel of Force India made staggering job as well by completing the podium! Force India showed stunning performance yesterday. Ricciardo finished in P4, Hulkenberg in P5, Vettel in P6, Massa in P7, Bottas in P8, Alonso in P9 and Kimi in P10. Ferrari´s performance was such a crushing disappointment! They seem to be going nowhere compared to their rivals. The Italian team seems to be in a deep crisis and something needs to be done extremely quickly!
How will any team be able to catch up Mercedes GP in the championship fight? If it gets done by any team, I consider it a massive miracle! But the fact is that things can change in Formula 1 rather quickly. And the other teams will do their very best already at the two test days in Bahrain this week to improve their performance. What will happen at Shanghai in a fortnight is a mystery. But I do hope to see Sebastian beating his Aussie team-mate and Kimi fighting at the very top! I love watching F1 races, it makes me feel so much alive! :)
sunnuntai 30. maaliskuuta 2014
Malaysian GP: the venue with team orders!
There were dark clouds hanging in the sky when the race was about to start but luckily the conditions also stayed dry. Sauber´s Perez was the first driver to hit technical problems: he failed to start to the warm-up lap due to a gearbox issue and was forced to start to the race from the pit lane. Right from the start the Mercedes drivers showed their rivals who owned the race. Hamilton maintained his lead easily and Rosberg stormed past Vettel up to P2. Ricciardo managed to overtake Alonso and made his way up to P4. Marussia´s Bianchi and Lotus´s Maldonado collided on the opening lap and due to the collision Bianchi got two penalty points.
Kimi at the wheel of his F14T had the worst beginning for his race: on the second lap Magnussen´s front wing hit Kimi´s rear tyre which caused the Iceman a puncture. This incident ruined Kimi´s race as the Finn had to pit which cost him dearly. The stewards took this under investigation and the Danish rookie was given a 5-second stop and go penalty, which actually didn´t comfort much because there was nothing that could save Kimi´s race!
By the lap 20 already four drivers had retired: Perez in his Sauber, Maldonado in his E22, Bianchi in his Marussia and Toro Rosso´s Vergne. By this time it was obvious that there was nobody who could seriously challenge the Mercedes duo. Sebastian managed to get close to Rosberg but right when Sebastian might have thought that he was able to catch Nico, the German Mercedes driver improved his pace and vanished away from Sebastian´s reach. To be honest Mercedes´s overwhelming dominance made the race a bit boring!
Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 was driving a strong race until lap 41 when the Australian pitted. His front left tyre didn´t locate properly and Ricciardo stopped on the pit lane. Red Bull´s pit crew managed to refit the wheel properly but this proved to be only a start of unfortunate events in Ricciardo´s race! Only a couple of laps after the pit stop drama another missfortune hit the Aussie: his front wing failed and he had to pit again. The team was unsure if the wing had been damaged during the pit stop or if hitting a kerb had caused it to fail. Red Bull was handed a 10 second stop and go penalty due to the unsafe release from the pits. Poor Ricciardo! First the disqualification in Australia and now this! In addition to everything else, Ricciardo will also face a 10-place grid penalty for Bahrain next week. To me it seems quite harsh that there´s a double penalty for a single offence but that´s how the rules are. It also seems very unfair that the driver gets such a harsh penalty for an offence made by the team!
In the closing stages of the race we saw a team order row: this time between the Williams team-mates Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Massa was driving in P7 right on tail of McLaren´s Button. Bottas had chased down his team-mate and we heard a message on Massa´s team radio telling the Brasilian to let Valtteri pass him because the Finn had more pace. The team obviously thought that Bottas might have had a chance to overtake Button and score valuable points for the Williams team. Massa, however, chose to disobey the team orders and didn´t let his team-mate overtake him. In terms of the sportsmanship I think Massa made the right decision. There was no guarantee that Bottas could have got past Button if Massa had let the Finn past. And it´s only the second race of the season! Way too early for any team orders! If Valtteri was much quicker than Massa, he should have tried to overtake in the DRS zone. Obviously it was difficult as Massa was also allowed to open his DRS as he was less than second off Button. Claire Williams stated after the race that Bottas would have been told to give his position back to Massa if the Finn had proved unable to overtake Button. What an incident! Malaysian GP seems to be the venue with team orders: last year it was the famous Multi21 in Red Bull team and now this incident between the Williams drivers!
So it was an utterly dominant 1-2 for the Mercedes drivers at Sepang today. I was extremely happy to see Sebastian on the podium! Luckily his Suzie behaved well and no technical issues came up during the race. Alonso finished 4th, Hulkenberg in his Force India 5th, Button 6th, Massa 7th, Bottas 8th, Magnussen 9th and Toro Rosso´s Kvyat 10th. Due to the puncture early in the race Kimi was unable to score points under the Malaysian sun but finished in P12. Rosberg now leads the championship standings with a 18-point gap over his team-mate Rosberg. Kimi has so only 6 points so far... Hamilton´s GP weekend couldn´t have been any more perfect: the Briton made it a grand slam by conquering pole, taking the win, setting the fastest lap time in the race and leading every lap from start to finish!
The Bahrain GP is already next week -oh, how I love these back-to-back races! On Saturday I´ll be at a hotel suite spending time with my sister so I´ll have to find a place to watch the qualifying -luckily there´s a pub nearby ;) I might write my next blog post in a jacuzzi at the hotel, getting some of the glory of F1 to myself for a fleeting moment, hahaha! ;)
Kimi at the wheel of his F14T had the worst beginning for his race: on the second lap Magnussen´s front wing hit Kimi´s rear tyre which caused the Iceman a puncture. This incident ruined Kimi´s race as the Finn had to pit which cost him dearly. The stewards took this under investigation and the Danish rookie was given a 5-second stop and go penalty, which actually didn´t comfort much because there was nothing that could save Kimi´s race!
By the lap 20 already four drivers had retired: Perez in his Sauber, Maldonado in his E22, Bianchi in his Marussia and Toro Rosso´s Vergne. By this time it was obvious that there was nobody who could seriously challenge the Mercedes duo. Sebastian managed to get close to Rosberg but right when Sebastian might have thought that he was able to catch Nico, the German Mercedes driver improved his pace and vanished away from Sebastian´s reach. To be honest Mercedes´s overwhelming dominance made the race a bit boring!
Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 was driving a strong race until lap 41 when the Australian pitted. His front left tyre didn´t locate properly and Ricciardo stopped on the pit lane. Red Bull´s pit crew managed to refit the wheel properly but this proved to be only a start of unfortunate events in Ricciardo´s race! Only a couple of laps after the pit stop drama another missfortune hit the Aussie: his front wing failed and he had to pit again. The team was unsure if the wing had been damaged during the pit stop or if hitting a kerb had caused it to fail. Red Bull was handed a 10 second stop and go penalty due to the unsafe release from the pits. Poor Ricciardo! First the disqualification in Australia and now this! In addition to everything else, Ricciardo will also face a 10-place grid penalty for Bahrain next week. To me it seems quite harsh that there´s a double penalty for a single offence but that´s how the rules are. It also seems very unfair that the driver gets such a harsh penalty for an offence made by the team!
In the closing stages of the race we saw a team order row: this time between the Williams team-mates Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Massa was driving in P7 right on tail of McLaren´s Button. Bottas had chased down his team-mate and we heard a message on Massa´s team radio telling the Brasilian to let Valtteri pass him because the Finn had more pace. The team obviously thought that Bottas might have had a chance to overtake Button and score valuable points for the Williams team. Massa, however, chose to disobey the team orders and didn´t let his team-mate overtake him. In terms of the sportsmanship I think Massa made the right decision. There was no guarantee that Bottas could have got past Button if Massa had let the Finn past. And it´s only the second race of the season! Way too early for any team orders! If Valtteri was much quicker than Massa, he should have tried to overtake in the DRS zone. Obviously it was difficult as Massa was also allowed to open his DRS as he was less than second off Button. Claire Williams stated after the race that Bottas would have been told to give his position back to Massa if the Finn had proved unable to overtake Button. What an incident! Malaysian GP seems to be the venue with team orders: last year it was the famous Multi21 in Red Bull team and now this incident between the Williams drivers!
So it was an utterly dominant 1-2 for the Mercedes drivers at Sepang today. I was extremely happy to see Sebastian on the podium! Luckily his Suzie behaved well and no technical issues came up during the race. Alonso finished 4th, Hulkenberg in his Force India 5th, Button 6th, Massa 7th, Bottas 8th, Magnussen 9th and Toro Rosso´s Kvyat 10th. Due to the puncture early in the race Kimi was unable to score points under the Malaysian sun but finished in P12. Rosberg now leads the championship standings with a 18-point gap over his team-mate Rosberg. Kimi has so only 6 points so far... Hamilton´s GP weekend couldn´t have been any more perfect: the Briton made it a grand slam by conquering pole, taking the win, setting the fastest lap time in the race and leading every lap from start to finish!
The Bahrain GP is already next week -oh, how I love these back-to-back races! On Saturday I´ll be at a hotel suite spending time with my sister so I´ll have to find a place to watch the qualifying -luckily there´s a pub nearby ;) I might write my next blog post in a jacuzzi at the hotel, getting some of the glory of F1 to myself for a fleeting moment, hahaha! ;)
lauantai 29. maaliskuuta 2014
Malaysian GP / Qualifying: 2nd pole in a row for Hamilton in a rain-hit qualifying!
Rain started about half an hour before the qualifying got underway. And in Malaysia you can never talk about drizzle -when it rains it usually pours with rain and the conditions get extremely wet. Due to the heavy rain the Q1 was delayed by almost an hour until the rain decreased and the conditions improved so that racing finally got underway. There was a moment in the first session when my heart nearly stopped when I heard a message on Vettel´s team radio telling the German to pit immediately due to "an issue with the car". Luckily Red Bull managed to solve the issue by resetting electronics of his car and Sebastian came back out. Mercedes´s Rosberg and Hamilton topped the time sheets but Sebastian was only half a second off Mercedes duo´s pace. Caterham´s Ericsson crashed into the barriers which caused a red flag when there were only 36 seconds left in the clock. Maldonado in his Lotus was the first man to be knocked out of Q2 whilst his French team-mate Grosjean was able to make it into the second session.
The Ferrari duo Alonso and Räikkönen and Bottas in his FW36 started to the Q2 with the intermediate tyres whilst all their rivals had put the full wets on. Another red flag occurred in Q2: Alonso at the wheel of his F14T had no visual of Toro Rosso´s Kvyat who came from behind and decided to overtake the Ferrari driver and the incident ended up in a crash between the two drivers. Thanks to the red flag the Ferrari mechanics were able to fix Alonso´s car although there were still some issues with the steering. Bottas changed to full wets at the end of the session but it didn´t prevent the Finn from being knocked out of the top ten. The FW36 simply loses performance when the conditions get wet! No matter which tyre choice the team made, both drivers suffered from lack of grip and they had no chance to make it into the Q3. In Q2 there was an incident where Bottas was on his out lap and Red Bull´s Ricciardo came from behind and tried to get past the Finn because the Australian was trying to set a lap time. This was a very unlucky event as Bottas didn´t know if Ricciardo was setting a lap time or not and Bottas´s radio didn´t work so the team was unable to tell him that Ricciardo was coming! And despite of this incident Ricciardo was able to get into Q3 whilst Bottas wasn´t. However, Bottas was handed a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Ricciardo and will start from P18 tomorrow...
When Q3 got underway the conditions were still so wet that the full wets was the right tyre choice. I had expected either one of the Mercedes drivers to take pole with a 1-second gap over the closest rival so in that regard the final session was a surprise. Hamilton did conquer pole for the second time in a row this season but Sebastian managed to make it up to P2 and the German was only 55 thousandths of a second off Hamilton! Red Bull really seems to have a stunningly fast car! Wow, what a drive from Sebastian today! Rosberg was 3rd fastest and Alonso completed the second row in spite of the steering issues. Ricciardo qualified 5th and Kimi 6th. Hulkenberg became 7th, Magnussen 8th, Vergne 9th and Button 10th. McLaren faced some serious technical difficulties already in the final practice session in the morning so they were struggling in the qualifying as well.
The weather forecast says that there should be only 20 % chance of rain in the race tomorrow! I really hope it will be a dry race! Kimi has been quicker than his team-mate in dry conditions all weekend so I´d love to see what the Iceman is capable of on the dry track. It seems that the team has finally been able to find the right set-up for Kimi´s car and the braking problems which we saw at Melbourne are only a distant memory. I believe in Ferrari´s reliability so I´m confident Kimi will score some valuable points tomorrow. I know Sebastian is extremely hungry for victory but I´m so so afraid that some kind of reliability issues will come up, sooner or later... Or issues with the fuel flow sensors or some other technical stuff. I know Bottas will show some glamorous overtaking tomorrow. And Williams have a clear advantage in terms of straight line speed: the RB10 is 20 km/h slower on the straights than the FW36! I´m sure we´ll see a highly entertaining race tomorrow!
P.S. Yesterday a journalist from a local newspaper came to interview me about my Formula 1 blog. The passion for Formula 1 goes so deep that it´s likely beyond any existing words but I´m eagerly looking forward to next Tuesday when I´ll get to read what the journalist has actually written about me and my blog ;)
The Ferrari duo Alonso and Räikkönen and Bottas in his FW36 started to the Q2 with the intermediate tyres whilst all their rivals had put the full wets on. Another red flag occurred in Q2: Alonso at the wheel of his F14T had no visual of Toro Rosso´s Kvyat who came from behind and decided to overtake the Ferrari driver and the incident ended up in a crash between the two drivers. Thanks to the red flag the Ferrari mechanics were able to fix Alonso´s car although there were still some issues with the steering. Bottas changed to full wets at the end of the session but it didn´t prevent the Finn from being knocked out of the top ten. The FW36 simply loses performance when the conditions get wet! No matter which tyre choice the team made, both drivers suffered from lack of grip and they had no chance to make it into the Q3. In Q2 there was an incident where Bottas was on his out lap and Red Bull´s Ricciardo came from behind and tried to get past the Finn because the Australian was trying to set a lap time. This was a very unlucky event as Bottas didn´t know if Ricciardo was setting a lap time or not and Bottas´s radio didn´t work so the team was unable to tell him that Ricciardo was coming! And despite of this incident Ricciardo was able to get into Q3 whilst Bottas wasn´t. However, Bottas was handed a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Ricciardo and will start from P18 tomorrow...
When Q3 got underway the conditions were still so wet that the full wets was the right tyre choice. I had expected either one of the Mercedes drivers to take pole with a 1-second gap over the closest rival so in that regard the final session was a surprise. Hamilton did conquer pole for the second time in a row this season but Sebastian managed to make it up to P2 and the German was only 55 thousandths of a second off Hamilton! Red Bull really seems to have a stunningly fast car! Wow, what a drive from Sebastian today! Rosberg was 3rd fastest and Alonso completed the second row in spite of the steering issues. Ricciardo qualified 5th and Kimi 6th. Hulkenberg became 7th, Magnussen 8th, Vergne 9th and Button 10th. McLaren faced some serious technical difficulties already in the final practice session in the morning so they were struggling in the qualifying as well.
The weather forecast says that there should be only 20 % chance of rain in the race tomorrow! I really hope it will be a dry race! Kimi has been quicker than his team-mate in dry conditions all weekend so I´d love to see what the Iceman is capable of on the dry track. It seems that the team has finally been able to find the right set-up for Kimi´s car and the braking problems which we saw at Melbourne are only a distant memory. I believe in Ferrari´s reliability so I´m confident Kimi will score some valuable points tomorrow. I know Sebastian is extremely hungry for victory but I´m so so afraid that some kind of reliability issues will come up, sooner or later... Or issues with the fuel flow sensors or some other technical stuff. I know Bottas will show some glamorous overtaking tomorrow. And Williams have a clear advantage in terms of straight line speed: the RB10 is 20 km/h slower on the straights than the FW36! I´m sure we´ll see a highly entertaining race tomorrow!
P.S. Yesterday a journalist from a local newspaper came to interview me about my Formula 1 blog. The passion for Formula 1 goes so deep that it´s likely beyond any existing words but I´m eagerly looking forward to next Tuesday when I´ll get to read what the journalist has actually written about me and my blog ;)
sunnuntai 16. maaliskuuta 2014
Australian GP: A sweeping victory for Mercedes GP as expected!
It was a great feeling to wake up this morning knowing that it finally was the first race day of the season! I didn´t even need an alarm to wake up - I guess a passionate F1 fan like myself automatically wakes up at the right time on a race day, haha!
Sebastian in P12 and Sauber´s Gutierrez in P21 were the only drivers on the grid with the prime tyres. It was absolutely thrilling to wait for the lights go out and the excitement multiplied when there was a second warm-up lap due to Marussia`s Bianchi stopping on his grid slot. Finally the season-opener got underway! Both Finns had an excellent start and Kimi made his way up to P8 and Bottas to P10. Rosberg in his Mercedes stormed to to the lead from P3 and Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 managed to maintain his second place. A crash wasn´t avoided in the first corner, which wasn´t a surprise. Caterham´s Kobayashi crashed into the rear of Massa´s Williams and the race was over for both of them, which was highly frustrating especially for Massa. Even Kimi in his Ferrari got hit by Kobayashi in the collision but luckily there was no damage in Kimi´s F14T.
Yesterday I wrote that I couldn´t get rid of the fear that there would be technical problems for Red Bull in the race. Unfortunately my nightmare came true as Vettel was having problems already on the second warm-up lap. Sebastian was asking on the team radio if it was normal that he didn´t have any power in the car. The German had lost a couple of cylinders which lead into reduced power and Sebastian had to retire already on lap 5! I was disappointed, there´s no denying that. Although I had tried to prepare myself for this scenario on the basis of the winter tests... But to be honest, you can´t actually prepare yourself for seeing your favourite to retire the race! Sebastian wasn´t the only top driver to face problems. Also Hamilton in his Mercedes lost a cylinder and had to retire the race on the opening laps.
Right from the opening laps the pace of Bottas´s Williams was staggering. On lap 7 Bottas managed to overtake his compatriot in the Prancing Horse. Only a few laps later Bottas hit the wall with his right rear tyre, which caused the Finn a puncture! Luckily Bottas made it to the pits and was able to continue the race. There, however, was some debris on the track due to the puncture and safety car was deployed. All top drivers pitted for a new set of tyres. Bottas dropped down to P16 but right after the re-start the Finn began storming forward position by position.
On lap 32 Button pitted for the second time. During his pit stop we saw a weird-looking incident when a piece of the nose of the car got off when it was lifted up. That didn´t turn out to effect Button´s race which was going to plan. Kimi seemed to be struggling with braking and there were several incidents where the Iceman locked his front wheel in braking. Performance of both Ferraris seemed somehow lame, as if neither Alonso nor Kimi was getting the maximum out of the car. During the race I read on Twitter that there were some electrical issues on both of cars, which explains a lot.
There was absolutely no one who could challenge Nico Rosberg for the victory today. Mercedes seemed to be in a class of its own, pretty much the way it was expected to be. Towards the end of the race Magnussen in his McLaren managed to get on the tail of Ricciardo´s Red Bull. In this chasing situation we saw an aspect of the need to save fuel. Magnussen was told on the team radio to save fuel for a couple of laps and then try to attack Ricciardo on the two final laps. The two Finns were responsible for many entertaining overtaking moves today. At the end of the race Bottas had already passed Kimi for the second time and he had stormed his way past both Vergne in his Toro Rosso and Force India´s Hulkenberg. Can´t help thinking about what Bottas would have been capable of without his mistake...
So Rosberg cruised to the chequered flag as the winner with Ricciardo 2nd and Magnussen 3rd. What a superb job from the Danish rookie! Button completed McLaren´s excellent day by finishing 4th. Alonso became 5th, Bottas finally 6th, Hulkenberg 7th, Kimi 8th, Vergne 9th and Kvyat 10th. Ricciardo´s superb performance gives me hope that Renault engine is good enough to fight for a podium finish -at least when it works! Mercedes-powered cars are strong, there´s no doubt about that. Ferrari still has a lot of homework to do. Can´t wait to see what Kimi will be capable of when there´re no issues in his car, which reduce the power. Though the F14T clearly isn´t the way Kimi would like it to be so I´m sure there´s more to come from the Iceman in the near future!
About the new regulations then. At this point I´m not a fan of this new fuel restriction. When you´re racing you should be able to take the maximum out of the car and not to slow down for a few laps to save fuel! The new engines with the new ERS system on the other hand increase the entertaining overtaking as the driver gets extra 160 horse power out of the car for 30 seconds per lap instead of last year´s 80 for some 6 seconds. These new systems, however, make the engines very complex and prone to technical problems. But I love this ERS system as it decreases the meaning of DRS, which makes overtaking so artificial.
I´ve absolutely enjoyed every second of the very first GP weekend and I´ll have hard time waiting for the Malaysian GP to roll on. It´s soooo fantastic to have F1 back! :D
P.S. Only five hours after the race had ended there was a dramatic turn in terms of the race results: Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from the results due to illegal fuel flow! The new regulation says the fuel flow mustn´t exceed 100 kg per hour. Red Bull have had problems with the fuel sensor already earlier this weekend. What a loss for Ricciardo, who was so overwhelmingly happy standing on the podium in front of his home crowd! And just another setback for Red Bull who has been struggling the whole winter. Hopefully this problem will just be a distant memory when the team heads to Malaysia in two weeks!
Sebastian in P12 and Sauber´s Gutierrez in P21 were the only drivers on the grid with the prime tyres. It was absolutely thrilling to wait for the lights go out and the excitement multiplied when there was a second warm-up lap due to Marussia`s Bianchi stopping on his grid slot. Finally the season-opener got underway! Both Finns had an excellent start and Kimi made his way up to P8 and Bottas to P10. Rosberg in his Mercedes stormed to to the lead from P3 and Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 managed to maintain his second place. A crash wasn´t avoided in the first corner, which wasn´t a surprise. Caterham´s Kobayashi crashed into the rear of Massa´s Williams and the race was over for both of them, which was highly frustrating especially for Massa. Even Kimi in his Ferrari got hit by Kobayashi in the collision but luckily there was no damage in Kimi´s F14T.
Yesterday I wrote that I couldn´t get rid of the fear that there would be technical problems for Red Bull in the race. Unfortunately my nightmare came true as Vettel was having problems already on the second warm-up lap. Sebastian was asking on the team radio if it was normal that he didn´t have any power in the car. The German had lost a couple of cylinders which lead into reduced power and Sebastian had to retire already on lap 5! I was disappointed, there´s no denying that. Although I had tried to prepare myself for this scenario on the basis of the winter tests... But to be honest, you can´t actually prepare yourself for seeing your favourite to retire the race! Sebastian wasn´t the only top driver to face problems. Also Hamilton in his Mercedes lost a cylinder and had to retire the race on the opening laps.
Right from the opening laps the pace of Bottas´s Williams was staggering. On lap 7 Bottas managed to overtake his compatriot in the Prancing Horse. Only a few laps later Bottas hit the wall with his right rear tyre, which caused the Finn a puncture! Luckily Bottas made it to the pits and was able to continue the race. There, however, was some debris on the track due to the puncture and safety car was deployed. All top drivers pitted for a new set of tyres. Bottas dropped down to P16 but right after the re-start the Finn began storming forward position by position.
On lap 32 Button pitted for the second time. During his pit stop we saw a weird-looking incident when a piece of the nose of the car got off when it was lifted up. That didn´t turn out to effect Button´s race which was going to plan. Kimi seemed to be struggling with braking and there were several incidents where the Iceman locked his front wheel in braking. Performance of both Ferraris seemed somehow lame, as if neither Alonso nor Kimi was getting the maximum out of the car. During the race I read on Twitter that there were some electrical issues on both of cars, which explains a lot.
There was absolutely no one who could challenge Nico Rosberg for the victory today. Mercedes seemed to be in a class of its own, pretty much the way it was expected to be. Towards the end of the race Magnussen in his McLaren managed to get on the tail of Ricciardo´s Red Bull. In this chasing situation we saw an aspect of the need to save fuel. Magnussen was told on the team radio to save fuel for a couple of laps and then try to attack Ricciardo on the two final laps. The two Finns were responsible for many entertaining overtaking moves today. At the end of the race Bottas had already passed Kimi for the second time and he had stormed his way past both Vergne in his Toro Rosso and Force India´s Hulkenberg. Can´t help thinking about what Bottas would have been capable of without his mistake...
So Rosberg cruised to the chequered flag as the winner with Ricciardo 2nd and Magnussen 3rd. What a superb job from the Danish rookie! Button completed McLaren´s excellent day by finishing 4th. Alonso became 5th, Bottas finally 6th, Hulkenberg 7th, Kimi 8th, Vergne 9th and Kvyat 10th. Ricciardo´s superb performance gives me hope that Renault engine is good enough to fight for a podium finish -at least when it works! Mercedes-powered cars are strong, there´s no doubt about that. Ferrari still has a lot of homework to do. Can´t wait to see what Kimi will be capable of when there´re no issues in his car, which reduce the power. Though the F14T clearly isn´t the way Kimi would like it to be so I´m sure there´s more to come from the Iceman in the near future!
About the new regulations then. At this point I´m not a fan of this new fuel restriction. When you´re racing you should be able to take the maximum out of the car and not to slow down for a few laps to save fuel! The new engines with the new ERS system on the other hand increase the entertaining overtaking as the driver gets extra 160 horse power out of the car for 30 seconds per lap instead of last year´s 80 for some 6 seconds. These new systems, however, make the engines very complex and prone to technical problems. But I love this ERS system as it decreases the meaning of DRS, which makes overtaking so artificial.
I´ve absolutely enjoyed every second of the very first GP weekend and I´ll have hard time waiting for the Malaysian GP to roll on. It´s soooo fantastic to have F1 back! :D
P.S. Only five hours after the race had ended there was a dramatic turn in terms of the race results: Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from the results due to illegal fuel flow! The new regulation says the fuel flow mustn´t exceed 100 kg per hour. Red Bull have had problems with the fuel sensor already earlier this weekend. What a loss for Ricciardo, who was so overwhelmingly happy standing on the podium in front of his home crowd! And just another setback for Red Bull who has been struggling the whole winter. Hopefully this problem will just be a distant memory when the team heads to Malaysia in two weeks!
lauantai 15. maaliskuuta 2014
Australian GP / Qualifying: Finally the season 2014 got underway!
Finally the Formula 1 season 2014 is here! I had taken a day off from work on Friday to be able to wake up at 3 am to watch the very first free practice session of the season. I had absolutely no difficulties to get myself out of bed as I knew I was finally going to see both Kimi and Vettel at the wheel of their brand new challengers. And the free practice sessions turned out to be a pleasant surprise in terms of Red Bull´s reliability -no technical failures or engine problems but a lot of mileage instead!
Qualifying was both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. On the basis of the winter tests Mercedes GP was the overwhelming favourite to fight for pole on the street circuit of Melbourne and they didn´t let their fans down. I had mentally prepared myself to see huge setbacks in terms of Red Bull´s performance and reliability but instead I got luckily surprised by what they showed today. Here´s what happened today...
When Q1 got underway the conditions were extremely windy and the sky was covered with dark clouds. Rain had been predicted to fall down when qualifying was about to start. The track was dry when Q1 started but the high chance of rain made everyone come out right away. This season Q1 lasts only for 18 minutes instead of 20 whilst the final session Q3 has been extended from 10 to 12 minutes. The rain started when there where 7 minutes left in the clock so no one was able to improve his lap time at the end of the session. No Mercedes dominance at the very start: Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 topped the time sheets with McLaren´s Magnussen 2nd and Massa in his Williams 3rd. Vettel was 8th fastest and Kimi in P9. Kobayashi at the wheel of Caterham made a very good impression by taking P16 and making his way to Q2. Lotus´s day was a complete disaster: both Grosjean and Maldonado were unable to beat even the Marussia and Caterham drivers (Maldonado didn´t even manage to set a time)!
The track was damp when Q2 got underway and everyone started to the session with the intermediate tyres. As the rain had stopped for a while the track kept improving significantly lap by lap. Q2 held some major surprises. Three world champions were unable to make their way to the top ten! Button in his McLaren was left in P11 and was out of the final session. Kimi spun at his last attempt and ended up to the wall, which caused damage to the nose of his F14T. Even without the crash the Iceman would have been unable to make it through to Q3 due to traffic. Also Vettel at the wheel of his Suzie was knocked out of Q3 as the German didn´t make it higher than P12! Such a disappointment as his new team-mate Ricciardo was second fastest in the second session and showed everybody that there´s definitely potential in RB10! No technical worries for Sebastian but the pace just wasn´t there... In Q2 we saw a glimpse of Mercedes´s pace as Rosberg topped the time sheets.
By the start of the final session it had been raining so heavily that everyone except Alonso started to the session with the full wet tyres. When the session was coming down to an end the track was drying and it was time to make the decision which tyres to choose for the last run: intermediates or full wets. Top teams made different choices. The Mercedes duo Hamilton and Rosberg made their last attempt on full wets whilst Ricciardo set his fastest lap time on intermediates. The battle for pole was thrilling up until the very last second: Ricciardo in his Red Bull had taken the initial pole but Hamilton was able to go 3 tenths faster and grabbed the pole for Mercedes GP! The pole setter was no surprise at all but who would have predicted that Ricciardo would take a front row grid slot? Amazing work from the Australian who was driving in front of his home crowd! Rosberg made Mercedes´s day almost perfect by qualifying 3rd. The Danish rookie Magnussen made a staggering impression by qualifying 4th in his very first qualifying in F1! Alonso finished 5th, Vergne 6th, Hulkenberg 7th, the Russian rookie Kvyat 8th at the wheel of Toro Rosso, Massa 9th and Bottas 10th. Bottas will start to the race from P15 as his gearbox was changed during the FP3. Williams´s pace had been outstanding in the practice sessions so their performance in the qualifying was kind of a disappointment. I´ve read comments saying that they made the wrong tyre choice by putting the intermediates on but I don´t think it was only down to the tyres as Ricciardo made it to the front row with similar tyres! Dry conditions would presumably suited Williams better.
What to expect from the season-opener? Maybe there won´t be too much techinical issues for the teams as many feared before this GP weekend. At least not for the top teams. I would be genuinely surprised if the race winner turned out to be somebody else than Hamilton or Rosberg. Though Ricciardo performed unbelievably well during the qualifying I can´t totally get rid of the fear that Red Bull won´t make it to the chequered flag due to reliability issues. What will Kimi be capable of from P11 and Sebastian from P12? I hope they end up doing something magical! Though teams must get through the race with only 100 kg of fuel I don´t think anyone will retire due to running out of fuel... But you can never be absolutely sure, there have been so huge regulations changes for this season. And one thing I´m interested to see is how much slower the Renault-powered cars are on the straights if compared to the cars with Mercedes engine... Just better to wait and see. Luckily it isn´t too long till tomorrow morning! :)
Qualifying was both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. On the basis of the winter tests Mercedes GP was the overwhelming favourite to fight for pole on the street circuit of Melbourne and they didn´t let their fans down. I had mentally prepared myself to see huge setbacks in terms of Red Bull´s performance and reliability but instead I got luckily surprised by what they showed today. Here´s what happened today...
When Q1 got underway the conditions were extremely windy and the sky was covered with dark clouds. Rain had been predicted to fall down when qualifying was about to start. The track was dry when Q1 started but the high chance of rain made everyone come out right away. This season Q1 lasts only for 18 minutes instead of 20 whilst the final session Q3 has been extended from 10 to 12 minutes. The rain started when there where 7 minutes left in the clock so no one was able to improve his lap time at the end of the session. No Mercedes dominance at the very start: Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 topped the time sheets with McLaren´s Magnussen 2nd and Massa in his Williams 3rd. Vettel was 8th fastest and Kimi in P9. Kobayashi at the wheel of Caterham made a very good impression by taking P16 and making his way to Q2. Lotus´s day was a complete disaster: both Grosjean and Maldonado were unable to beat even the Marussia and Caterham drivers (Maldonado didn´t even manage to set a time)!
The track was damp when Q2 got underway and everyone started to the session with the intermediate tyres. As the rain had stopped for a while the track kept improving significantly lap by lap. Q2 held some major surprises. Three world champions were unable to make their way to the top ten! Button in his McLaren was left in P11 and was out of the final session. Kimi spun at his last attempt and ended up to the wall, which caused damage to the nose of his F14T. Even without the crash the Iceman would have been unable to make it through to Q3 due to traffic. Also Vettel at the wheel of his Suzie was knocked out of Q3 as the German didn´t make it higher than P12! Such a disappointment as his new team-mate Ricciardo was second fastest in the second session and showed everybody that there´s definitely potential in RB10! No technical worries for Sebastian but the pace just wasn´t there... In Q2 we saw a glimpse of Mercedes´s pace as Rosberg topped the time sheets.
By the start of the final session it had been raining so heavily that everyone except Alonso started to the session with the full wet tyres. When the session was coming down to an end the track was drying and it was time to make the decision which tyres to choose for the last run: intermediates or full wets. Top teams made different choices. The Mercedes duo Hamilton and Rosberg made their last attempt on full wets whilst Ricciardo set his fastest lap time on intermediates. The battle for pole was thrilling up until the very last second: Ricciardo in his Red Bull had taken the initial pole but Hamilton was able to go 3 tenths faster and grabbed the pole for Mercedes GP! The pole setter was no surprise at all but who would have predicted that Ricciardo would take a front row grid slot? Amazing work from the Australian who was driving in front of his home crowd! Rosberg made Mercedes´s day almost perfect by qualifying 3rd. The Danish rookie Magnussen made a staggering impression by qualifying 4th in his very first qualifying in F1! Alonso finished 5th, Vergne 6th, Hulkenberg 7th, the Russian rookie Kvyat 8th at the wheel of Toro Rosso, Massa 9th and Bottas 10th. Bottas will start to the race from P15 as his gearbox was changed during the FP3. Williams´s pace had been outstanding in the practice sessions so their performance in the qualifying was kind of a disappointment. I´ve read comments saying that they made the wrong tyre choice by putting the intermediates on but I don´t think it was only down to the tyres as Ricciardo made it to the front row with similar tyres! Dry conditions would presumably suited Williams better.
What to expect from the season-opener? Maybe there won´t be too much techinical issues for the teams as many feared before this GP weekend. At least not for the top teams. I would be genuinely surprised if the race winner turned out to be somebody else than Hamilton or Rosberg. Though Ricciardo performed unbelievably well during the qualifying I can´t totally get rid of the fear that Red Bull won´t make it to the chequered flag due to reliability issues. What will Kimi be capable of from P11 and Sebastian from P12? I hope they end up doing something magical! Though teams must get through the race with only 100 kg of fuel I don´t think anyone will retire due to running out of fuel... But you can never be absolutely sure, there have been so huge regulations changes for this season. And one thing I´m interested to see is how much slower the Renault-powered cars are on the straights if compared to the cars with Mercedes engine... Just better to wait and see. Luckily it isn´t too long till tomorrow morning! :)
Tilaa:
Blogitekstit (Atom)