This has been an acceptional GP weekend for me as I didn´t have a chance to write a blog post on yesterday´s qualifying session. Yesterday I went to a spa here in Finland to take part in an event with lots of different water activities. I went to an aquazumba class and I also attended a hydroboxing class which was very tough but a lot of fun! After the hydroboxing class I drove to my parents´ house to watch the qualifying. I missed Q1 but saw the rest of the action! After the quali I drove back to the spa and enjoyed the warm pools and cool Strawberry Dream -named drinks with my sister and we stayed the night at the hotel.
I got back home before the race started! Nico Rosberg was the surprising pole-sitter and Sebastian in his Red Bull completed the front row. The second row consisted of the Ferrari duo Alonso and Massa. The Force India drivers started from the third row so they had had an excellent qualifying result. Against all odds Kimi´s qualifying hadn´t turned out to be a success and the Iceman was left in P9 but started from P8 due to Hamilton´s penalty (gear-box change).
When the lights went out Rosberg took a very aggressive start and kept his lead. Alonso managed to get past Vettel in turn 1 but soon after that Sebastian took his position back from the Ferrari driver. Sebastian was right behind Rosberg trying to find an opprtunity to overtake the German. On lap 3 the Red Bull ace was able to make his move when DRS was enabled. Right after that the Bahrain GP turned out to be Sebastian´s race completely!
Technical problems hit Alonso right when the race had started. Alonso had an issue with his DRS as the rear wing was stuck open and the Spaniard had to pit on lap 8 so that the rear wing was shutted manually. He had to return to the pits only a lap later when the rear wing opened again so that meant Alonso lost his chances to fight for the victory! As Alonso was out of the victory hunt I knew there was no one to challenge Sebastian under the desert sun!
The Bahrain GP didn´t lack entertaining battle for positions. Sebastian in the lead was out of his rivals´ reach but battle for other positions was extremely thrilling. Around the half point of the race the McLaren duo had an intense wheel-to-wheel battle against each other when fighting for the 5th place. Perez made aggressive manoeuvres trying to overtake his team-mate Button and there were even some pieces going off from the Mexican´s front wing but luckily there was no serious damage done. Only a moment later their wheels touched when Perez squeezed in side by side with his team-mate... But Button fought back and the Briton kept his young team-mate behind him. That´s what I call racing!
Once again the race was about strategy. Sebastian´s race pace was so absolutely dominant that the German won the race with his 3-stop strategy. Kimi on the other hand was able to look after his tyres as well as expected and the Iceman took astonishing second place with his two-stop strategy! Absolutely phenomenal work considering that the Finn started to the race from P8! Kimi´s team-mate Grosjean (starting from P11) was finally able to pull out a successful race and in spite of making three pit stops he was able to make it on the podium! So it was an identical podium as last year at Sakhir! It was an absolutely heart-warming moment to see the two of my heroes on the podium joking and smiling :) Di Resta in his Force India (with a two-stop strategy as well) almost made it on the podium as the Briton finished the race in P4. A podium place was within his grasp but Grosjean with a fresh set of option tyres was significantly faster on the closing laps and Di Resta had no chance to defend his position. Hamilton finished 5th and Perez 6th. Webber drove to the chequered flag in P7 after losing two positions on the closing laps. Alonso made it in P8 after a difficult race. Rosberg´s race was a total catastrophy. He lost positions one by one and finally finished the race in highly disappointing 9th place!
Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel
sunnuntai 21. huhtikuuta 2013
sunnuntai 14. huhtikuuta 2013
Chinese GP: Alonso claimed victory in an eventful race!
The start was crucial as always. Hamilton on pole got a perfect start whilst Kimi beside him had a poor one. Both Ferrari drivers Alonso and Massa got past the Iceman so losing two positions at the very start meant Kimi was about to face a very tough race. Webber at the wheel of his RB9 started to the race from the pits as the team had changed the gear box and some other components to his car.
The first crash happened on lap 6 when Sauber´s Gutierrez hit Sutil´s Force India. Gutierrez´s race was over and also Sutil had to retire due to the massive rear wing damage. This crash also lead to consequences: Gutierrez has been handed a 5-place grid penalty for causing the collision.
The top drivers who started the race on the soft tyres had a very short first stint, only 7-8 laps. Other collisions were about to follow. On lap 15 Webber collided to Vergne´s Toro Rosso when trying to overtake the Frenchman. Webber assumed Vergne to give room for him but he didn´t so they crashed and both drivers broke their front wings. The stewards held Webber responsible for the collision and the Australian will face a 3-place grid penalty at Bahrain next week. I agree with the stewards. You can´t assume your rivals to give you a position for free! Not even if the other driver drives for the "sister team". An experienced driver like Webber should know better! So the penalty is fully deserved. Webber´s GP weekend has been a total disaster. After pitting to get a new front wing the Australian had to retire only a few laps later when his right rear tyre got loose.
On lap 16 Kimi was battling with McLaren´s Sergio Perez. I was about to have a heart attack when Kimi tried to get past Perez but ended up hitting Perez´s rear! Kimi got a clear front wing damage but luckily the damage wasn´t fatal and the Iceman was able to maintain good pace. Kimi´s revenge was sweet: after shouting on the team radio what the h*ll Perez was doing he managed to overtake the Mexican soon after the incident! The collision was investigated by the stewards but it lead to no further action. But there´s no doubt that the damage had some kind of an effect on Kimi´s E21. Just wondering how fast the Finn would have been without the crash...
With 16 laps to go Alonso was leading the race having made 3 pit stops. Vettel with only 2 pit stops was almost 20 seconds behind the Spaniard. Kimi in his Lotus was 3rd but Hamilton in his Mercedes was just a second off the Finn. The closing laps were thrilling: would Hamilton be able to overtake Kimi? I was keeping my fingers crossed down to my elboes that Kimi would be able to block all overtaking moves... But there was another threat coming from behind! Vettel at the wheel of his RB9 had a different strategy from his rivals. The German had started the race on the prime tyres and he made his 3rd and last pit stop only 5 laps before the chequered flag. With a set of fresh option tyres he was frighteningly fast! After the pit stop Vettel was over 10 seconds behind Hamilton but in no time he could "smell Hamilton´s blood" and he was right behind the Briton! Had there been one more lap to go, Vettel would possibly have gone past Hamilton! Only 2 tenths of a second separated the duo at the chequered flag!
The first crash happened on lap 6 when Sauber´s Gutierrez hit Sutil´s Force India. Gutierrez´s race was over and also Sutil had to retire due to the massive rear wing damage. This crash also lead to consequences: Gutierrez has been handed a 5-place grid penalty for causing the collision.
The top drivers who started the race on the soft tyres had a very short first stint, only 7-8 laps. Other collisions were about to follow. On lap 15 Webber collided to Vergne´s Toro Rosso when trying to overtake the Frenchman. Webber assumed Vergne to give room for him but he didn´t so they crashed and both drivers broke their front wings. The stewards held Webber responsible for the collision and the Australian will face a 3-place grid penalty at Bahrain next week. I agree with the stewards. You can´t assume your rivals to give you a position for free! Not even if the other driver drives for the "sister team". An experienced driver like Webber should know better! So the penalty is fully deserved. Webber´s GP weekend has been a total disaster. After pitting to get a new front wing the Australian had to retire only a few laps later when his right rear tyre got loose.
On lap 16 Kimi was battling with McLaren´s Sergio Perez. I was about to have a heart attack when Kimi tried to get past Perez but ended up hitting Perez´s rear! Kimi got a clear front wing damage but luckily the damage wasn´t fatal and the Iceman was able to maintain good pace. Kimi´s revenge was sweet: after shouting on the team radio what the h*ll Perez was doing he managed to overtake the Mexican soon after the incident! The collision was investigated by the stewards but it lead to no further action. But there´s no doubt that the damage had some kind of an effect on Kimi´s E21. Just wondering how fast the Finn would have been without the crash...
With 16 laps to go Alonso was leading the race having made 3 pit stops. Vettel with only 2 pit stops was almost 20 seconds behind the Spaniard. Kimi in his Lotus was 3rd but Hamilton in his Mercedes was just a second off the Finn. The closing laps were thrilling: would Hamilton be able to overtake Kimi? I was keeping my fingers crossed down to my elboes that Kimi would be able to block all overtaking moves... But there was another threat coming from behind! Vettel at the wheel of his RB9 had a different strategy from his rivals. The German had started the race on the prime tyres and he made his 3rd and last pit stop only 5 laps before the chequered flag. With a set of fresh option tyres he was frighteningly fast! After the pit stop Vettel was over 10 seconds behind Hamilton but in no time he could "smell Hamilton´s blood" and he was right behind the Briton! Had there been one more lap to go, Vettel would possibly have gone past Hamilton! Only 2 tenths of a second separated the duo at the chequered flag!
lauantai 13. huhtikuuta 2013
Chinese GP / Qualifying: Hamilton and Räikkönen conquered the front row!
The conditions at the Shanghai International Circuit were perfect today. Dry track and hot weather: +28 degrees Celsius and no sign of rain! In spite of the perfect conditions all the teams stayed in their garages waiting very long before going out because once again it was all about saving tyres! Q1 held a nasty surprise as the Finnish Williams driver Valtteri Bottas was knocked out already in the first session! He made only one flying lap which wasn´t clean and the Finn qualified 17th. It was a huge disappointment as his Venezuelan team-mate Maldonado managed to grab P13 in Q1. Sauber´s Gutierrez didn´t make his way through to Q2, either.
Other surprises followed when Q2 got underway. Something unbelievable happened to the Australian Red Bull driver after his first attempt: he run out of gas and he had to leave his RB9 on the grass! Webber´s qualifying was over and he was in P14. How can things like this happen in a top team like Red Bull? This incident certainly won´t help decreasing people´s talks about all kinds of "conspiracy theories" going on at Red Bull. But if I´m asked I would say that the huge fuss around the team order incident at Malaysia most certainly has affected the team in some way. The relationship between the drivers clearly isn´t working and when there´s a lot of negativity in the air people are also more vulnerable to make mistakes... There might be some further punishments for Webber if there isn´t enough fuel in Webber´s car for a fuel sample... As if P14 wasn´t punishment hard enough for the mistake made by the team! The most positive surprise in Q2 was the fact that Toro Rosso´s Ricciardo made it in top ten being 9th fastest! Very impressive work from the young Australian :)
Q3 was interesting indeed as we saw different tactics from different teams. The final session was all about waiting for "the right moment" to go out. Vettel in his RB9 was the only driver to go out at the beginning of the final session. He was on the soft tyres but aborted his flying lap and came in. When there were about 3 minutes left in the clock everyone except Hulkenberg in his Sauber headed out. Tyre-wise this was very interesting: Vettel and Button had the hard tyres on whilst all the others were on softs! Hamilton was the fastest man today and grabbed his very first pole for Mercedes. There seems to be something magical about Shanghai and Mercedes as this was Mercedes´s second consecutive pole under the Chinese sun! The Iceman was utterly on fire today and Kimi made it on the front row! Absolutely breath-taking performance from the Finn who got the maximum out of his E21 today. Alonso in his Ferrari was 3rd and Nico in Mercedes completed the second row followed by Massa 5th and Grosjean 6th. Ricciardo will start from the impressive P7 tomorrow. Button and Vettel on the prime tyres didn´t set a time in the final session (Seb went wide in his last attempt) so it´ll be P8 and P9 for them.
Other surprises followed when Q2 got underway. Something unbelievable happened to the Australian Red Bull driver after his first attempt: he run out of gas and he had to leave his RB9 on the grass! Webber´s qualifying was over and he was in P14. How can things like this happen in a top team like Red Bull? This incident certainly won´t help decreasing people´s talks about all kinds of "conspiracy theories" going on at Red Bull. But if I´m asked I would say that the huge fuss around the team order incident at Malaysia most certainly has affected the team in some way. The relationship between the drivers clearly isn´t working and when there´s a lot of negativity in the air people are also more vulnerable to make mistakes... There might be some further punishments for Webber if there isn´t enough fuel in Webber´s car for a fuel sample... As if P14 wasn´t punishment hard enough for the mistake made by the team! The most positive surprise in Q2 was the fact that Toro Rosso´s Ricciardo made it in top ten being 9th fastest! Very impressive work from the young Australian :)
Q3 was interesting indeed as we saw different tactics from different teams. The final session was all about waiting for "the right moment" to go out. Vettel in his RB9 was the only driver to go out at the beginning of the final session. He was on the soft tyres but aborted his flying lap and came in. When there were about 3 minutes left in the clock everyone except Hulkenberg in his Sauber headed out. Tyre-wise this was very interesting: Vettel and Button had the hard tyres on whilst all the others were on softs! Hamilton was the fastest man today and grabbed his very first pole for Mercedes. There seems to be something magical about Shanghai and Mercedes as this was Mercedes´s second consecutive pole under the Chinese sun! The Iceman was utterly on fire today and Kimi made it on the front row! Absolutely breath-taking performance from the Finn who got the maximum out of his E21 today. Alonso in his Ferrari was 3rd and Nico in Mercedes completed the second row followed by Massa 5th and Grosjean 6th. Ricciardo will start from the impressive P7 tomorrow. Button and Vettel on the prime tyres didn´t set a time in the final session (Seb went wide in his last attempt) so it´ll be P8 and P9 for them.
sunnuntai 24. maaliskuuta 2013
Malaysian GP: Team orders and huge drama!
This has been an extremely emotional day! I had to go for a long walk before starting to write my blog post as I´m totally overwhelmed with all kinds of thoughts after the eventful race... But first let´s look back to the start.
Kimi in his Lotus had been given a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Rosberg in the qualifying so the Iceman was dropped down to P10. The drivers started to the race with the intermediates as the track was partly damp and partly dry -just like in the qualifying yesterday. The first drama occurred at the start: Alonso tapped to the back of Vettel´s Hungry Heidi and broke his front wing. He didn´t come in to get a new nose as the team was hoping that the wing would last till it was time to put the slicks on. Well, the damaged front wing didn´t last that long! Already on the second lap the wing collapsed and Alonso went off causing a retirement for the Spaniard. Vettel was leading the race followed closely by his team-mate Webber.
Not all teams had problem-free pit stops. Force India had serious technical issues in the pit box with both of their cars! Both Di Resta and Sutil suffered from delayed pit stops and finally they both had to retire due to the technical issues. Hamilton in his Mercedes provided us a hilarious moment in his first pit stop as he headed straight into McLaren´s pit box! Button in his McLaren was also driving a strong race until he came to the pits and was sent on his way with a loose front wheel. So lots of action in the pits today!
Racing on the track wasn´t lacking action either! Kimi had a difficult race at the wheel of his E21. The Iceman had a poor start and he had to fight hard to make his way higher up in the field. He had an intense battle with Sauber´s Hulkenberg and they even touched while battling for position but finally Kimi got past. But Lotus was quite difficult to drive and in spite of making one pit stop less than others Kimi couldn´t make it higher than P7 today. Good points anyway!
The fight for victory seemed to be between the Red Bull drivers. Webber took the lead after the first pit stops but after the fourth and last pit stop Vettel joined right behind his team-mate. I was holding my breath not knowing if I dare to watch or not. The team-mates drove wheel-to-wheel several laps when there were about 10 laps to go. After the intense and thrilling battle Vettel made his move: he forced Mark to go wider than he would have wanted to get a better line to the next corner. And Sebastian took the lead! But against the team orders. The team had told both their drivers to hold position, which meant that Seb wasn´t allowed to overtake his team-mate. Mark had been told to turn down the engine and look after his tyres. So Sebastian chose to disobey the team orders! And what a drama this turned out...!
The Mercedes duo was in a very similar situation. Hamilton and Rosberg were fighting for a podium finish. They too had intense battle going on and they made overtaking moves on each other. Until they were given a team order as well: hold position and no overtaking! Rosberg behind his team-mate seemed to be faster and he was moaning on the team radio about the situation. Nico was asking a permission to get past Hamilton but Brawn said "negative". No wonder Nico was very frustrated! He would have deserved the 3rd place!
So Vettel and Webber made it a double victory for Red Bull. Hamilton finished 3rd and his team-mate Rosberg 4th. Massa came 5th followed by the Lotus duo. But after the race the atmosphere on the podium was ice cold! Webber was obviously furious because of his team-mate´s overtaking manoeuvre. Hamilton felt sorry because he said Nico should have been on the podium instead of him. What a drama!
I feel an urgent need to write a few lines about the team orders seen today. I feel that Vettel did nothing wrong. The race doesn´t end when there´re 10 laps to go. The race isn´t over until the chequered flag wags! This was the second race of the season so it wasn´t question of some decisive moments in the championship battle! The F1 drivers are there to race and to win! It´s in their blood to try to overtake their rivals and gain success! These team orders are definitely a bad thing for the sport. It´s not allowed in any other sport to make a deal before a match which team is going to win. The same applies to F1 in my opinion. You should be standing on the podium because you´ve done a better job than your rivals and because you´ve been faster. It shouldn´t be decided by any team who will stand on the podium and who won´t! That´s not sports any more! And I don´t see any reason why Vettel should apologise for winning the race! Like the Finnish F1 expert Mika Salo said on TV, if the situation had been between Vettel and Alonso or Hamilton for example, it would have been completely acceptable for Vettel to overtake his rival. I can´t understand why it´s so different when it´s his team-mate in question! F1 is about racing your rivals, including your team-mate! And to be extraordinary and successful you just have to push the boundaries sometimes.
I understand Mark´s disappointment and frustration. He relied on his team-mate obeying the team orders. But the point is that those team orders shouldn´t be given at least not at this stage of the season. Team Principal Horner has often stated that there´s no number one driver in the team but the drivers are treated equally. That means they should be allowed to race until the chequered flag. Sebastian really wanted to win today and he completely deserves the victory. I understand that in general you should act like the team tells you. I mean you should respect your boss. But there´s always an exception proving the rule... And I have to admit that I feel attracted to this rebel attitude that Sebastian has shown today. What makes you a winner is the ability to take risks. Even though they sometimes evoke very contradictory feelings.
Kimi in his Lotus had been given a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Rosberg in the qualifying so the Iceman was dropped down to P10. The drivers started to the race with the intermediates as the track was partly damp and partly dry -just like in the qualifying yesterday. The first drama occurred at the start: Alonso tapped to the back of Vettel´s Hungry Heidi and broke his front wing. He didn´t come in to get a new nose as the team was hoping that the wing would last till it was time to put the slicks on. Well, the damaged front wing didn´t last that long! Already on the second lap the wing collapsed and Alonso went off causing a retirement for the Spaniard. Vettel was leading the race followed closely by his team-mate Webber.
Not all teams had problem-free pit stops. Force India had serious technical issues in the pit box with both of their cars! Both Di Resta and Sutil suffered from delayed pit stops and finally they both had to retire due to the technical issues. Hamilton in his Mercedes provided us a hilarious moment in his first pit stop as he headed straight into McLaren´s pit box! Button in his McLaren was also driving a strong race until he came to the pits and was sent on his way with a loose front wheel. So lots of action in the pits today!
Racing on the track wasn´t lacking action either! Kimi had a difficult race at the wheel of his E21. The Iceman had a poor start and he had to fight hard to make his way higher up in the field. He had an intense battle with Sauber´s Hulkenberg and they even touched while battling for position but finally Kimi got past. But Lotus was quite difficult to drive and in spite of making one pit stop less than others Kimi couldn´t make it higher than P7 today. Good points anyway!
The fight for victory seemed to be between the Red Bull drivers. Webber took the lead after the first pit stops but after the fourth and last pit stop Vettel joined right behind his team-mate. I was holding my breath not knowing if I dare to watch or not. The team-mates drove wheel-to-wheel several laps when there were about 10 laps to go. After the intense and thrilling battle Vettel made his move: he forced Mark to go wider than he would have wanted to get a better line to the next corner. And Sebastian took the lead! But against the team orders. The team had told both their drivers to hold position, which meant that Seb wasn´t allowed to overtake his team-mate. Mark had been told to turn down the engine and look after his tyres. So Sebastian chose to disobey the team orders! And what a drama this turned out...!
The Mercedes duo was in a very similar situation. Hamilton and Rosberg were fighting for a podium finish. They too had intense battle going on and they made overtaking moves on each other. Until they were given a team order as well: hold position and no overtaking! Rosberg behind his team-mate seemed to be faster and he was moaning on the team radio about the situation. Nico was asking a permission to get past Hamilton but Brawn said "negative". No wonder Nico was very frustrated! He would have deserved the 3rd place!
So Vettel and Webber made it a double victory for Red Bull. Hamilton finished 3rd and his team-mate Rosberg 4th. Massa came 5th followed by the Lotus duo. But after the race the atmosphere on the podium was ice cold! Webber was obviously furious because of his team-mate´s overtaking manoeuvre. Hamilton felt sorry because he said Nico should have been on the podium instead of him. What a drama!
I feel an urgent need to write a few lines about the team orders seen today. I feel that Vettel did nothing wrong. The race doesn´t end when there´re 10 laps to go. The race isn´t over until the chequered flag wags! This was the second race of the season so it wasn´t question of some decisive moments in the championship battle! The F1 drivers are there to race and to win! It´s in their blood to try to overtake their rivals and gain success! These team orders are definitely a bad thing for the sport. It´s not allowed in any other sport to make a deal before a match which team is going to win. The same applies to F1 in my opinion. You should be standing on the podium because you´ve done a better job than your rivals and because you´ve been faster. It shouldn´t be decided by any team who will stand on the podium and who won´t! That´s not sports any more! And I don´t see any reason why Vettel should apologise for winning the race! Like the Finnish F1 expert Mika Salo said on TV, if the situation had been between Vettel and Alonso or Hamilton for example, it would have been completely acceptable for Vettel to overtake his rival. I can´t understand why it´s so different when it´s his team-mate in question! F1 is about racing your rivals, including your team-mate! And to be extraordinary and successful you just have to push the boundaries sometimes.
I understand Mark´s disappointment and frustration. He relied on his team-mate obeying the team orders. But the point is that those team orders shouldn´t be given at least not at this stage of the season. Team Principal Horner has often stated that there´s no number one driver in the team but the drivers are treated equally. That means they should be allowed to race until the chequered flag. Sebastian really wanted to win today and he completely deserves the victory. I understand that in general you should act like the team tells you. I mean you should respect your boss. But there´s always an exception proving the rule... And I have to admit that I feel attracted to this rebel attitude that Sebastian has shown today. What makes you a winner is the ability to take risks. Even though they sometimes evoke very contradictory feelings.
lauantai 23. maaliskuuta 2013
Malaysian GP / Qualifying: Sebastian on pole again!
I had high hopes for today´s qualifying. Kimi at the wheel of his E21 was the fastest man on track in yesterday´s FP2 so Kimi seemed to be flying at Sepang. Kimi has had a very strong start to this season and I was sure that the Iceman was going to be right there on the very front to fight for pole today! My another favourite Sebastian was only some thousandths of a second behind Kimi yesterday so I was prepared to see a staggering fight for pole in the sunny and humid conditions at Sepang.
When the qualifying started the conditions were dry. Q1 was full of surprises. First of all, Adrian Sutil in his Force India was topping the standings after the first session! Who could have expected that to happen? Another disappointing surprise was the fact that Bottas in his Williams wasn´t able to make it through in to Q2 whilst his Venezuelan team-mate Maldonado was 14th fastest. It´s never a good thing to get beaten by your team-mate no matter how difficult the car is to drive. Just hoping to see better drive from Valtteri in tomorrow´s race! I was also worried about Sebastian´s pace. The German was quite on the edge in Q2 because he was only 15th fastest in the first session.
The light rain started in the middle of Q2. Conditions were tricky as one part of the track was damp and the other part still dry. And conditions like this always tend to cause surprises. This time, too. Sebastian seemed to be struggling with his pace also in the second session and he was only 9th fastest when the rain hit the track. That certainly helped Sebastian as none of the drivers were able to improve their times in damp conditions. One of the top drivers suffering from the conditions was Kimi´s team-mate Grosjean who was unable to make his way through to the final session. The Frenchman has been facing difficulties the whole weekend and hasn´t been able to find the right set-up to his E21.
The fight for pole turned extremely interesting as the track was partly damp and partly dry and the drivers went out on intermediates. Lap times got better and faster lap by lap. At the end of Q3 it was Sebastian at the wheel of his Hungry Heidi who managed to set the fastest lap time! And this time it wasn´t question of fractions of a second but Seb was 9 tenths faster than Massa who snatched P2 today! Alonso in P3 got beaten by his Brasilian team-mate again! Hamilton in Mercedes qualified 4th, Webber 5th and Rosberg 6th. Kimi´s performance was a slight disappointment as the Iceman wasn´t able to qualify higher than P7. I can´t help wondering what has happened to Kimi´s E21 after yesterday. I mean Kimi had the perfect pace yesterday but already in the FP3 this morning the pace had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared somewhere... But Kimi has had such a strong start to this season so I´m confident that the team will find the pace by tomorrow´s race! Kimi has every opportunity to make a handful of wonders tomorrow ;) I have a strong feeling that the Iceman is now better and more competitive than ever before! It´s not only about the perfect car as his team-mate hasn´t been able to make the E21 fly. There´s something about Kimi...! I´ll be surprised if the "Man of few words" doesn´t stand on the podium at the end of the day!
What could be expected from tomorrow´s race...? There´re definitely two key factors that play a crucial role: tyres and weather! Will Lotus be able to make one pit-stop less than their rivals like they did in Australia? The conditions are different to Australia as the temperatures are much higher in Malaysia. And will there be three, four or even more pit-stops? I can´t wait to see. I have to say that I´m a bit worried about Red Bull´s tyre degradation. I´m expecting it to be higher than Ferrari´s. I wouldn´t be surprised to see Ferrari being able to match Lotus´ pit-stop strategy. Sebastian on the other hand has been complaining loudly about the tyres so they still have work to do in terms of the tyres! And then there´s weather: will it be hot and sunny or will there be rain in the race? In Malaysia you never know for sure.
When the qualifying started the conditions were dry. Q1 was full of surprises. First of all, Adrian Sutil in his Force India was topping the standings after the first session! Who could have expected that to happen? Another disappointing surprise was the fact that Bottas in his Williams wasn´t able to make it through in to Q2 whilst his Venezuelan team-mate Maldonado was 14th fastest. It´s never a good thing to get beaten by your team-mate no matter how difficult the car is to drive. Just hoping to see better drive from Valtteri in tomorrow´s race! I was also worried about Sebastian´s pace. The German was quite on the edge in Q2 because he was only 15th fastest in the first session.
The light rain started in the middle of Q2. Conditions were tricky as one part of the track was damp and the other part still dry. And conditions like this always tend to cause surprises. This time, too. Sebastian seemed to be struggling with his pace also in the second session and he was only 9th fastest when the rain hit the track. That certainly helped Sebastian as none of the drivers were able to improve their times in damp conditions. One of the top drivers suffering from the conditions was Kimi´s team-mate Grosjean who was unable to make his way through to the final session. The Frenchman has been facing difficulties the whole weekend and hasn´t been able to find the right set-up to his E21.
The fight for pole turned extremely interesting as the track was partly damp and partly dry and the drivers went out on intermediates. Lap times got better and faster lap by lap. At the end of Q3 it was Sebastian at the wheel of his Hungry Heidi who managed to set the fastest lap time! And this time it wasn´t question of fractions of a second but Seb was 9 tenths faster than Massa who snatched P2 today! Alonso in P3 got beaten by his Brasilian team-mate again! Hamilton in Mercedes qualified 4th, Webber 5th and Rosberg 6th. Kimi´s performance was a slight disappointment as the Iceman wasn´t able to qualify higher than P7. I can´t help wondering what has happened to Kimi´s E21 after yesterday. I mean Kimi had the perfect pace yesterday but already in the FP3 this morning the pace had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared somewhere... But Kimi has had such a strong start to this season so I´m confident that the team will find the pace by tomorrow´s race! Kimi has every opportunity to make a handful of wonders tomorrow ;) I have a strong feeling that the Iceman is now better and more competitive than ever before! It´s not only about the perfect car as his team-mate hasn´t been able to make the E21 fly. There´s something about Kimi...! I´ll be surprised if the "Man of few words" doesn´t stand on the podium at the end of the day!
What could be expected from tomorrow´s race...? There´re definitely two key factors that play a crucial role: tyres and weather! Will Lotus be able to make one pit-stop less than their rivals like they did in Australia? The conditions are different to Australia as the temperatures are much higher in Malaysia. And will there be three, four or even more pit-stops? I can´t wait to see. I have to say that I´m a bit worried about Red Bull´s tyre degradation. I´m expecting it to be higher than Ferrari´s. I wouldn´t be surprised to see Ferrari being able to match Lotus´ pit-stop strategy. Sebastian on the other hand has been complaining loudly about the tyres so they still have work to do in terms of the tyres! And then there´s weather: will it be hot and sunny or will there be rain in the race? In Malaysia you never know for sure.
sunnuntai 17. maaliskuuta 2013
Australian GP: Kimi won the season-opener with a perfect strategy!
The first wake-up was at 2 am so literally in the middle of the night to watch the Q2 and Q3 which had been postponed for today due to the weather conditions yesterday. Red Bull were as strong as I expected: Vettel took pole position and his team-mate Webber completed the first row by being second fastest! Hamilton in his Mercedes managed to pull out a fantastic lap qualifying 3rd. The Briton was followed by the Ferrari duo Massa in P4 and Alonso in P5. Hamilton´s team-mate Rosberg made it to P6. Lotus´ performance was a slight disappointment to me as Kimi was only 7th fastest today and his team-mate Grosjean 8th. But I knew Kimi would be up there to fight for a podium finish!
Then I went back to bed and woke up 4 hours later to watch the season-opening Australian GP. You could really feel the excitement when the lights went out. The start is always a heart stopping moment! Vettel was able to maintain his lead whilst his team-mate Webber had a lousy start and lost many positions. Both Ferraris had excellent starts. After the first corners Massa was second and Alonso third. Kimi in his Lotus had a dream start as well and during the first three laps the Iceman was able to gain three positions and make his way up to 4th place!
All the top drivers started the race with supersofts so the first stint was less than 10 laps for most drivers. The key to the victory was the pit-stop strategy. All the other top drivers had a three-stop strategy except Kimi at the wheel of his E21 who stopped only twice! Sutil in his Force India also had a different strategy as the German started the race with the medium compound and used the supersofts at the end of the race. Until the last stint it seemed to be a well-working strategy but on the closing laps the supersofts got blistered and Sutil lost many positions.
Alonso was able to get past Vettel in the second pit-stops. The Spaniard pitted a couple of laps later and got ahead of the German Red Bull ace. But one thing was very clear: Kimi was unstoppable today! He was able to manage his tyres in a perfect way and did only two stops today, which was the key to the victory. Tyre management is a huge advantage for Lotus. Alonso gave everything he could trying to catch the flying Finn at the end but Kimi was out of reach. The Iceman even made the fastest lap at the end of the race! Kimi took a sweeping victory today, Alonso finished 2nd and Vettel 3rd. Massa was 4th, Hamilton 5th and Webber 6th. Force India had a strong weekend: Sutil drove to the chequered flag in P7 and his team-mate Di Resta in P8. Button in his McLaren was able to score only two points by finishing 9th so McLaren is definitely struggling with their car!
Bottas´ race debut can be considered quite decent. The Finn finished 14th today with a car that is very difficult to drive. But Bottas made no mistakes and brought the car to the chequered flag unlike his team-mate Maldonado who made a mistake and went wide which lead to his retirement from the race. Rosberg also had an electrical failure in his car and he was out of the race as well.
Then I went back to bed and woke up 4 hours later to watch the season-opening Australian GP. You could really feel the excitement when the lights went out. The start is always a heart stopping moment! Vettel was able to maintain his lead whilst his team-mate Webber had a lousy start and lost many positions. Both Ferraris had excellent starts. After the first corners Massa was second and Alonso third. Kimi in his Lotus had a dream start as well and during the first three laps the Iceman was able to gain three positions and make his way up to 4th place!
All the top drivers started the race with supersofts so the first stint was less than 10 laps for most drivers. The key to the victory was the pit-stop strategy. All the other top drivers had a three-stop strategy except Kimi at the wheel of his E21 who stopped only twice! Sutil in his Force India also had a different strategy as the German started the race with the medium compound and used the supersofts at the end of the race. Until the last stint it seemed to be a well-working strategy but on the closing laps the supersofts got blistered and Sutil lost many positions.
Alonso was able to get past Vettel in the second pit-stops. The Spaniard pitted a couple of laps later and got ahead of the German Red Bull ace. But one thing was very clear: Kimi was unstoppable today! He was able to manage his tyres in a perfect way and did only two stops today, which was the key to the victory. Tyre management is a huge advantage for Lotus. Alonso gave everything he could trying to catch the flying Finn at the end but Kimi was out of reach. The Iceman even made the fastest lap at the end of the race! Kimi took a sweeping victory today, Alonso finished 2nd and Vettel 3rd. Massa was 4th, Hamilton 5th and Webber 6th. Force India had a strong weekend: Sutil drove to the chequered flag in P7 and his team-mate Di Resta in P8. Button in his McLaren was able to score only two points by finishing 9th so McLaren is definitely struggling with their car!
Bottas´ race debut can be considered quite decent. The Finn finished 14th today with a car that is very difficult to drive. But Bottas made no mistakes and brought the car to the chequered flag unlike his team-mate Maldonado who made a mistake and went wide which lead to his retirement from the race. Rosberg also had an electrical failure in his car and he was out of the race as well.
lauantai 16. maaliskuuta 2013
Australian GP / Qualifying: The touch of the new season
Oh gosh how I had missed intense Formula 1 action during the off-season! I was absolutely overwhelmed with joy yesterday morning when I woke up to watch the very first free practice session of the year! No matter it was extremely early morníng in Finland, watching the new cars on track while having a large cup of coffee and some coffee flavoured ice-cream made my day absolutely perfect!
After the free practices I was convinced that Red Bull would be the team to beat in the qualifying! I had a vision in my head that if there was anybody who could possibly prevent the Red Bull duo from making it a front row lock-out it would be Kimi in his staggeringly fast E21! But when the qualifying got underway it definitely didn´t go to this plan of mine! The qually got a very unexpected turn due to heavy rain and Q2 and Q3 were delayed for tomorrow morning.
Q1 started in wet conditions after it had first been delayed three times. What a chaotic 20-minute session! The drivers started the session with full wets and when the track got drier they switched to intermediates. There were many offs in Q1. Hamilton didn´t have the best possible start to his career in Mercedes as the Briton was among the first ones to spin. He damaged his rear wing when hitting a barrier but luckily he was able to continue and set a time fast enough to make through Q1. Massa´s pace had looked very strong in the practices but he also went off in the slippery conditions and broke his front wing which had to be changed. All the rookies except Bottas had difficulties to keep their car between the white lines. Both Caterham drivers van der Garde and Pic spun and went off and the Mexican Sauber driver Gutierrez was unable to continue the qualifying after his crash. So the offs were not only due to lack of experience though I have to say I wasn´t surprised at all to see the Caterham drivers or Gutierrez to face difficulties!
Q1 was definitely a messy lottery. Rosberg in Mercedes managed to set the fastest time and topped the timesheets. Alonso was second fastest followed by Grosjean, Perez and Webber. Due to the hardcore conditions we didn´t see the true pace of drivers like Kimi and Vettel. 16 drivers made through Q1 and the Venezuelan Williams driver Maldonado was the first one to be knocked out of Q2. His team-mate Bottas made a strong and convincing debut and was the only rookie to make it in to Q2. Absolutely fantastic work from Valtteri! Especially as the FW35 was a very difficult car to drive as both drivers struggled with getting the tyre temperatures up.
At the end of the day I´m not completely sure if the decision of delaying the two final sessions for tomorrow was down to the amount of water on the track or the descending twilight but anyway, the Q2 will get underway at 2 am Finnish time! Rain isn´t expected tomorrow but in terms of weather forecasts you never know what´s really going to happen.
To me it seems that Red Bull and Lotus are the strongest teams at the moment. I´ve been positively surprised by Mercedes´ performance! They have been fast in the winter tests also before but now they have looked extremely competitive in the free practices as well. Ferrari is in a good position as well. McLaren has caught my eye in a disappointing sense. They seem to be struggling with their new car and unable to understand either the behaviour of the car or the new Pirelli tyres. The pecking order of the midfield is hard to tell. In terms of the backmarkers to me it seems that Marussia have been able to develop their car whilst Caterham´s performance has got worse than last year. They should have signed Heikki for this season instead of the paydrivers! Heikki´s experience in developping the car would have been priceless, something that two unexperienced drivers can´t bring to the team no matter what kind of money loads they bring!
After the free practices I was convinced that Red Bull would be the team to beat in the qualifying! I had a vision in my head that if there was anybody who could possibly prevent the Red Bull duo from making it a front row lock-out it would be Kimi in his staggeringly fast E21! But when the qualifying got underway it definitely didn´t go to this plan of mine! The qually got a very unexpected turn due to heavy rain and Q2 and Q3 were delayed for tomorrow morning.
Q1 started in wet conditions after it had first been delayed three times. What a chaotic 20-minute session! The drivers started the session with full wets and when the track got drier they switched to intermediates. There were many offs in Q1. Hamilton didn´t have the best possible start to his career in Mercedes as the Briton was among the first ones to spin. He damaged his rear wing when hitting a barrier but luckily he was able to continue and set a time fast enough to make through Q1. Massa´s pace had looked very strong in the practices but he also went off in the slippery conditions and broke his front wing which had to be changed. All the rookies except Bottas had difficulties to keep their car between the white lines. Both Caterham drivers van der Garde and Pic spun and went off and the Mexican Sauber driver Gutierrez was unable to continue the qualifying after his crash. So the offs were not only due to lack of experience though I have to say I wasn´t surprised at all to see the Caterham drivers or Gutierrez to face difficulties!
Q1 was definitely a messy lottery. Rosberg in Mercedes managed to set the fastest time and topped the timesheets. Alonso was second fastest followed by Grosjean, Perez and Webber. Due to the hardcore conditions we didn´t see the true pace of drivers like Kimi and Vettel. 16 drivers made through Q1 and the Venezuelan Williams driver Maldonado was the first one to be knocked out of Q2. His team-mate Bottas made a strong and convincing debut and was the only rookie to make it in to Q2. Absolutely fantastic work from Valtteri! Especially as the FW35 was a very difficult car to drive as both drivers struggled with getting the tyre temperatures up.
At the end of the day I´m not completely sure if the decision of delaying the two final sessions for tomorrow was down to the amount of water on the track or the descending twilight but anyway, the Q2 will get underway at 2 am Finnish time! Rain isn´t expected tomorrow but in terms of weather forecasts you never know what´s really going to happen.
To me it seems that Red Bull and Lotus are the strongest teams at the moment. I´ve been positively surprised by Mercedes´ performance! They have been fast in the winter tests also before but now they have looked extremely competitive in the free practices as well. Ferrari is in a good position as well. McLaren has caught my eye in a disappointing sense. They seem to be struggling with their new car and unable to understand either the behaviour of the car or the new Pirelli tyres. The pecking order of the midfield is hard to tell. In terms of the backmarkers to me it seems that Marussia have been able to develop their car whilst Caterham´s performance has got worse than last year. They should have signed Heikki for this season instead of the paydrivers! Heikki´s experience in developping the car would have been priceless, something that two unexperienced drivers can´t bring to the team no matter what kind of money loads they bring!
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