Archive for March, 2010
Melbourne Wrap-up
Mar 31st
Well I have only just got home from Melbourne and only just got back to a reliable internet connection. Apologies for the blog being qute ever since I left for the MelbGP, but the hotel I was staying in didn’t have an internet connection and I was also very pressed for time.
For the entire weekend there was a great atmosphere around Albert Park and the city. The crowd numbers were up on previous years and Melbourne seemed to be very welcoming of the event.
The local media here however made a very big deal out of Lewis Hamilton’s incident outside the track on Friday night. Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know by now that lewis was ‘egged’ on by fans to put on a show for them as he left the circuit in the Mercedes AMG C63. The fans cheered and Lewis gave them what that wanted. The police however didn’t appreciate it and immeediately pulled him over. Under the anti-hoon regulations that victoria has recently brought into place, they can confiscate and impound the cars of drivers caught hooning without any prior offenses. In light of recent media coverage regarding hoon behaviour on Victorian roads and the recent legislations, the Victorian police, really had no choice but to make an example of Leiws and as a result he was dealt the full hand of the law. Maybe if the incident didn’t take place infront of such a large group of fans, then the police might have dealt with the situation slightly differently.
Mercedes however are benefitting from the free publicity for their top of the line c-class. The car that Lewis was driving is now a sort after souvineer for mnay would be buyers. The car will sell to the highest bidder, well above the standard sale price for the vehicle. However in a wise PR move by Mercedes they have vowed to donate every dollar over the standard sale price the car fetches to charity. They have even named the charity as the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. None of this of course has anything to do with the actual action on the track.
Vettel after claiming Pole on Saturday
Qualifying on Saturday was an absolute nail biter and the Melbourne crowd were behind their man Mark Webber through all sessions. It was Sebastian Vettel however who stole the show form Webber in the dying stages of of Q3 and snatching pole, beating the long-standing Albert Park lap record that was set by Michael Schumacer in a Ferrari back in 2004. Vettel recorded an incredible 1:23.919, the record that Michael set up until Vettel’s qualifying lap was a 1:24.125. Both Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso also beat this record in Q3 when they recorded times in the low 1:24’s.
Going in to rhe race on Sunday we had a RedBull one-two on the grid with Ferrari of Alonso in P3. Mark Webber being on the front row next to his team-mate Sebastian Vetttel now has the best chance to date to win his home Gran Prix. However after a poor start he was relegated to 4th place by the first corner.
It ws evident this race was going to be a thriller in stark contrast to the 2010 season opener in Bahrain which has received much critisism as being a very boring event. The rain no doubt played a role in throwing the race wide open however it was smart pit strategy and a gamble by Button to come in early for slicks that proved to win the race for him. The McLarens intermediate tyres were wearing poorley and Button made a last minute decission to dive in for slicks rather staying out for the track to dry a little more and risk losing position on his badly worn inters’.
Button ran off he track in the first sector on the cold slicks and lost a large amount of time as a result, however he recovered to record the fastest 3rd sector of the race so far. His move now proving to be the right one almost all the teams besides the RedBulls all dived in to put on their slicks. RedBull however seemed to be looking after their inter’s very well and Vettel was still able to keep pace with button.
As the race went on, Vettel lost his lead due to another mechanical failure with the car. This time a front wheel failure due to incorrect fitment saw him run off the track under brakes at turn 13 on lap 26 and beach the car in the gravel trap. This handed a very substantial lead to button who went on to claim victory in Melbourne for the 2nd consecutive year.
Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton has a couple of scraps throughout the race and both times Webber ran off the track, the final time, with just 3 laps of the race left to go, Webber understeered into lewis when he failed to pullup due to lack of downforce running in the McLarens dirty air. This was the nail on the coffin for Mark who finished in ninth place. Mark later apologised to Lewis for the incident and no doubt both dirvers now want to put a disapointing race behind them and look forward to this weekend in Malaysia.
An extatic Jensen Button was not expecting to win the AustralianGP again this year, the McLarens went in to this race down on form compared to Ferrari and RedBull, however it goes to prove that smart pit strategy again in variable weatehr conditions will make or break a race for you and sometimes you have to take a gamble to reap the reward. “It’s very special. It’s taken me a little while to be comfortable inside the car, but the team has been fantastic. I don’t know what to say – it’s very difficult to explain. I just feel I’m building in confidence.” Said Jensen.
Robert Kubica did a fantastic job in the Renault, handing the team their first pdium of the season. Robert put in a champion drive and stayed out of trouble to finish in second place behind Jensen. Filipe Massa had a reasonably torouble free run to finish 3rd for Ferrari who maintain a strong early lead on the constructors championship.
Red Bull now look ahead to Malaysia. It is the second consecutive race for the team with a driver on pole position not being able to convert pole into a win or at the very least a podium finish due to mechanical issues in the car.
Webber summed up his feelings after the race by updating his twitter status to read “It can only get better! Felt for our whole team looking forward to KL”
Below are the final results from round2 in Melbourne:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired |
| 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 58 | Winner |
| 2 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 58 | +12.0 secs |
| 3 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 58 | +14.4 secs |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 58 | +16.3 secs |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 58 | +16.6 secs |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 58 | +29.8 secs |
| 7 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 58 | +59.8 secs |
| 8 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 58 | +60.5 secs |
| 9 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 58 | +67.3 secs |
| 10 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 58 | +69.3 secs |
| 11 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 58 | +71.3 secs |
| 12 | Pedro de la Rosa | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 58 | +74.0 secs |
| 13 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 56 | +2 Laps |
| 14 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 53 | +5 Laps |
| Ret | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 41 | +17 Laps |
| Ret | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 26 | +32 Laps |
| Ret | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 25 | +33 Laps |
| Ret | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 9 | +49 Laps |
| Ret | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 9 | +49 Laps |
| Ret | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 4 | +54 Laps |
| Ret | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 0 | +58 Laps |
| Ret | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 0 | +58 Laps |
| Ret | Kamui Kobayashi | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 0 | +58 Laps |
| Ret | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 0 | +58 Laps |
Whincup and Button swap cars
Mar 23rd
It was a very special moment for reigning V8 Super Car Champion Jamie Whincup when he and reigning Formula1 world champion, Jensen button swapped car today in Melbourne as part of a promotion for Vodafone.
Button got to hop into the Team Vodafone reserve/passenger v8 Supercar while Jamie got to drive the 2008 McLaren that Lewis won the world championship in.
Jamie only had one word to describe the experience “unbelievable”. Jamie has not driven an open wheelers since 2002 when he raced formula fords. No doubt the McLaren MP4-23 was very different to anything he experienced in the Formula1 ford.
Due to works still being completed on the main straight, the drivers had to use there speed limiters as they passed the pits, however the could go full pace for the rest of the lap. Each driver did around 4 laps each.
For Jamie, his biggest concern was being able to successfully launch the F1 car without stalling it. A little push from the team assisted him in this feat. Jamie said taking off was the hardest part, but the F1 car did a lot of the work for him.
“It’s great that I knew the track and I’d done a few miles around here in the race car, but it gripped unbelievable. I was probably only using half of the brakes capacity. I should have been braking at the 100 metre mark, but I was braking at the 200 mark. I think I grained the tyre up a little bit, so I’m pretty proud of that! “ said Whincup
For Button who is a fan of the V8 Supercar series it was a great opportunity to sample the TeamVodoafone v8 supercar.
Jensen was surprised with the speed able to be carried through the corners in the V8 supercar “You can use more of the road! On the way into the fast left right, you can carry a lot of speed, but there’s not a lot of downforce. I ran off the tarmac and onto the astro turf,” he said.
Jamie however noted that it was very different using your right foot to brake in the VE Commodore. He went on to say “I’ll have to strengthen my right leg if I ever want to drive these again, or get the chance to drive these again. In the V8, you brake with your right leg, where as in our cars, it’s with your left. It’s quite difficult to get used to”.
Both drivers said that it was a great experience for them. Jensen was not dispelling rumours of an opportunity for him to race at Bathurst in the future. He noted that once he retires from Formula1, driving in a race such as Bathurst will hopefully be a possibility for him.
Photos courtesy of Australian GrandPrix Corporation
Cameron McConville drives two-seater F1 car in Melbourne
Mar 22nd
It was an unusual sight on Sunday morning in Melbourne when a two-seater Formula1 Minardi took to the city streets ahead of the GP this weekend. The car was branded in the generic Australian GP livery as a promotion to market the event. Police escorted the car with only very minor disruptions to Sunday traffic. For race fans it was music to the ears and a rare opportunity to get so close to such a machine, however for a lot of the locals enjoying the park and rowing on the river, it may not have been appreciated as much.
The car was driven by V8 Supercar driver and occasional sports commentator Cameron McConville. One lucky competition winner had the honour of being the passanger.
Cameron is no stranger to F1 cars. In late 2008, after the F1 season finished, Cameron received one-on-one tuition from Jensen Button in the 2008 Honda F1 car. Cameron then was able to do a number of hotlaps in the Honda F1 car around their test track whilst under the watchful eye of Jensen Button and his teams engineers. Cameron infact was the last person to ever drive the Honda F1 car before it became BrawnGP ahead of the 2009 season.
The two-seater Minardi will lay the first race rubber on the circuit for the weekend when it opens the program on Thursday morning. The lucky competition winner gets to be a passenger for one flying lap at speed in the Minardi, including an in-lap and an out-lap around the Albert Park circuit.
Here is the official YouTube video of the Sunday morning drive from the event organisers channel:
What’s in store at Albert Park?
Mar 22nd
With the dramas of the ‘un-eventful’ season opener in Bahrain now yesterdays fish n chips wrapper, we look ahead to the AustralianGP which is now less 6 days away.
Melbourne has traditionally hosted the first round of the season so it will be interesting to see teams turning up to this track and for the first time having a clearer understanding of who the pace setters are heading into the weekend.
Lewis Hamilton has been quoted as saying that “The Red Bull is ridiculously faster than anyone else’s car,”
Downforce in Melbourne is very important with the most important corners being very slow speed yet at the same time there are large sweeping corners on the back straight taken at full throttle.
The reliabilty issues that plauged Sebastian during Bahrain will hopefully not be an issue in Melbourne. Sebastian dropped from a comfortable lead down to 4th place when a faulty spark plug caused issues for him and greatly reduced power. Sebastian will be using that same engine this weekend in Melbourne, however RedBull have made assurances the issue has been rectified and there is nothing wrong with the engine itself. Having siad that, the Renault engine is still down on power and was 10 km/h slower then the McLarens through the speed trap in Bahrain. With the speeds topping 300km/h at Albert Park, this hopefully won’t become an issue for RedBull.
The majority of the grid believe that the best two cars going into this weekend are the RedBulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
Mark will be under a lot of pressure to perform infront of his home-crowd. He has not had good luck in past seasons in Melbourne however with the local press already touting 2010 as ‘being his year’ at Albert park, there may be much disapointment if he doesn’t atleast claim a podium this weekend and with such a car beneath him, there should be no excuses not to perform.
The weather in Melbourne is always un-predicatable. We have seen the temperature on the race in recent years vary from the low 20′s (celcius) to the low-mid 40 degree temperatures.
The forecast is for a mixed dry and wet weekend. Possible showers on Saturday for Quali and whilst Sunday will start out fine, strong winds could also bring rain in the late afternoon. Temps will be in the mid-high 20′s on Saturday and it will push into 30 degrees celcius for the Sunday, so not a relatively hot weekend.
Melbourne has a very large Italian community and one of the largest Ferrari fan bases we see at any GP outside of Italy.
Fernando Alonso is who many fans have come to cheer on and the Red and Yellow will be out in force cheering for this man.
Whilst Ferrari may not have the aero package the RedBull have, they do have reliability on their side and in a race like Melbounre which always claims casualaties and is always prone to safety car periods, reliabilty may win the day.
Most of the F1 teams are already in Melbourne, many of the dirvers flew in over this past weekend to adjust to the time-zone differnce and the change in timezone will put them in good stead for the malaysian GP the following weekend.
Albert Park is a street circuit only a few Kilometers from Melbournes CBD. The circuit is just over 5.3km’s in length and the lap record set in 2004 by Michael Schumacher of 1:24.125 still stands.
Michael has been a local crowd favourite at Albert Park ever since he won his first AustralianGP for Ferrari in 2000. There will be a very large legion of “schumi fans” out to see their man. We don’t expect him to break that lap record however, the MecredesGP team hasn’t had the pace of the Ferrari, RedBull or even the McLarens so far this season.
Lets go for a lap around Albert Park on-board with Michael Schumacher in 2004. This was his pole setting lap:
Alonso leads a Ferrari 1-2 for season opener
Mar 15th
Fernando Alonso finished his first ever race at Scuderi Ferrari in first place with team mate Filipe Massa finishing in P2. The duo gave Ferrari a fairy tale start to the 2010 season after a dismal 2009 for the team.
Sebastian Vettel was the only man who could rain on Ferrari’s parade. After qualifying on pole position for the race, Vettel stormed to the front and recored fastest lap after fastest lap. However in the late half of the race, Vettel suffered an exhaust failure and as a reault lost power. He spent the rest of the race nursing his car home, unable to hold off the Ferrari’s or the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, Vettel finished just off the podium in P4.
The exhaust failure for Vettel may be related to the team deciding to run the exhausts underneath the car this year rather then on-top. The possibility of the exhaust being damaged on the extremely bumpy Bahrain circuit should not be ruled out.
An elated Alonso said “There is no better way to start my relationship with the best tea in the world” he went on to say “we have only one the first race..” but clearly a on-two is a great start for the team.
Massa said the race was great for him and “The car was just perfect”
In the final 25 laps of the race, both Ferrari drivers were told to short shift and conserve fuel and look after the engines when it became clear they were running away with the victory.
Mark Webber had issues with oil surge through the first few corners and after a bad start, lost further time. Mark spent the rest of the race following Button in the McLaren without any chance of passing. Mark finished in a disapointing 8th position.
The race was not as exciting as fans had hoped, it became a bit of a procession, especially after Vettel’s problems it became a familiar sight with two Ferrari running away with the lead.
The full race results will be posted shortly
Vettel holds off Ferrari to take Pole.
Mar 14th
Sebastian Vettel has continued RedBull’s sucess from last season and proved the critics of the RB6 wrong by holding off Fernando Alonso and Filipe Massa in the Ferrari’s to take Pole Position at Bahrian. Vettel in claiming poe for the season opener has put himself in good stead to claim the first race win of the season, however with two Ferrari’s behind him, it won’t be easy andthe race-pace of the RedBull and the teams race strategy will be vital on Sunday.
During the post race press conference, Vettel was asked if he was suprised that he was able to take pole for Bahrain. He said: “A big surprise. I mean in winter testing no-one really knew where we were. Of course it was clear that there were four teams pretty strong, but close to each other. To be honest yesterday it was a very tough day for us and we had not as much running as we were hoping for. Another long night especially for the mechanics, not a lot of sleep, some tired faces, but everyone was still keen this morning to push. I knew we had a great car but first of all you have to get it together. I have to say practice this morning and qualifying went pretty smoothly. Obviously I am very, very happy to be on pole, so thanks to the team. As I said the boys didn’t get much sleep in the last month with a lot of testing in a short amount of time. To come here first time everyone really shows how strong they are and to be on top is definitely a very, very nice feeling.”
The critics have sighted that during testing, the RedBull had the pace, however not in lone race stint and race style simulations, that title seemed to belong to the Ferrari’s and the McLarens. RedBull have always been critisised for reliablity and in-particular a weak Renaul engine which is down on Power compared to the Ferrari and Mercedes engines. This point proved itself in Bahrain when Button’s McLaren was 9km/h quicker then Vettel through the speed trap.
Alonso appeared to have pace early on and looked set to take P2, however in the dying seconds of quali, team-mate Filipe Massa, on his first Quali since returning to the sport, pipped him off by less then .2 of a second.
Rosberg should be happy with his effort in beating 7-time world champion team mate Michael in order to take 5th spot on the grid, just ahead of the other RedBull of Webber in P6.
As expecting the two HRT’s of Senna and Chandhook finished 2nd last and last palce respectively. Chandhook was more then 10 seconds slower the Vettels pole time, no doubt there will be chaos during the race, with such a massive time difference just over a single lap in quali, it won’t be long befroe the HRT’s start to become lapped.
BAHRAIN GP – QUALIFYING RESULTS:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:55.029 1:53.883 1:54.101
2. Massa Ferrari 1:55.313 1:54.331 1:54.242
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:54.612 1:54.172 1:54.608
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.341 1:54.707 1:55.217
5. Rosberg Mercedes 1:55.463 1:54.682 1:55.241
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:55.298 1:54.318 1:55.284
7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:55.593 1:55.105 1:55.524
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.715 1:55.168 1:55.672
9. Kubica Renault 1:55.511 1:54.963 1:55.885
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:55.213 1:54.996 1:56.309
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:55.969 1:55.330
12. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:55.628 1:55.653
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:56.375 1:55.857
14. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.428 1:56.237
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:56.189 1:56.265
16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.541 1:56.270
17. Petrov Renault 1:56.167 1:56.619
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:57.071
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:59.728
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:59.852
21. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 2:00.313
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2:00.587
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 2:03.240
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 2:04.904
Karun Chandhok to partner Senna at HRT
Mar 5th
The newly renamed Hispania Racing Team or HRT (formerly Campos Meta) announced their second driver as Karun Chandhok as the revealed their 2010 car on Thursday in Spain.
The 26 year old from India will partner Bruno Senna at HRT. Chad has had a lot of experience racing in GP2 and has shown some respectable form throughout the last few years.
HRT Team Principal Colin Kolles who spoke at the PR event said: “I am very pleased to use the Murcia site to officially unveil our car livery today. We also complete the driver’s team line-up with the Indian Karun Chandhok at the wheel of the car for our first ever season.”.
The Cosworth powered, Lola built HRT will have it’s first ever run during Friday free practice in Bahrain for the start of the 2010 season.
USF1 Shutdown
Mar 3rd
Well a certain F1 factory for sale in Charlotte no longer comes with a paying tennant if reports from Autosport are true.
According to Autosport, they have been informed by ‘high level sources’ that USF1 has been shutdown.
Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson were reportedly not present at the factory when the announcement was made to the remaining staff. This was done by production manager Dave Skog who told staff to take an un-paid leave yet are still technically employed by the team.
Whilst there is still no official comfirmation from the team, it appears the phone lines at the factory have been disconnected.
Stefan Grand Prix in the meantime look set to take USF1′s spot on the grid and have been anticipating such an event now since earlier in the year and as a result have been making preparations to be present at the first round in Bahrain.
Early rumours that the team has applied to postpone it’s entry till 2011 have not yet been confirmed or denied, but it appears that is no longer an option for the team. We will keep following this story as it develops.
USF1 to postpone Formula1 entry till 2011
Mar 1st
USF1 according to SpeedTV has petitioned the FIA to defer the team’s entry into Formula1 until 2011.
The team principals of the USF1 have offered to pay a surety bond as proof of their intentions to race next year estimated to be well in seven figures.
No reports yet on what this means for campos meta.
We will be following the reports and as this story breaks report it.
Barcelona wraps up with McLaren, Ferrari & Red Bull all contenders
Mar 1st
Another dry day in Barcelona on Sunday marked the final day official pre-season testing in Barcelona and it was a day full of the top teams all trading top times whilst drivers worked on final setup of the cars.
All the times were very close, with the top 8 times all being within less then 1 second of each other. Massa, Hamilton and Webber traded top time throu-out the day, with the fastest man in the end being Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren with a 1:20.472. Hamilton spent a lot of time behind the wheel, notching up over 130 laps. Mark Webber was second fastest and did less then half the laps of Hamilton. He showed that RedBull has a very fast car this year when he recored a 1:20.496.
Massa was 3rd quickest just infront of Force India’s Adrian Suttil. Red Bull were the only team who had both their drivers for this year in the top 5. Sebastian Vettel was 5th quickest with a 1:20.667. Sebastian managed to do around 10 more laps in the car then Mark Webber managed. Sebastian’s fellow countryman and seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher recorded 1:20.745 in the MercedesGP car to claim the 6th fastest time of the day.
Most teams were doing race distance simulations through the day and spending a lot of time measuring tyre wear.
RedBull allowed webber and Vettel to share the drives during the day due to both drivers having less time behind the wheel throughout testing, so they didn’t complete the same race distance simulations some othe teams did. None the less both of their drivers were on the pace placing in the top five.
With McLaren, RedBull, Ferrari and Mercedes all within a second of each other and holding out the top 5 spots on the timesheets. It appears the predictions that the title race this year could be a tight 4-way battle between said teams could prove to be true.
Massa emerged posative and said “We wanted a competitive car and I think we’ve achieved our goal. It’s difficult to say who worked best. Today the time sheet says Hamilton, but we’re all very close together, it’s just tenths of a second.” He did however mention that whilst they were very strong, he felt at this point they weren’t the strongest and needed to improve, but was very happy to be in the group of front runners.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher said “The four testing days here in Barcelona have helped us to make significant progress with the MGP W01 and I am feeling quite confident for the start of the season. It is always difficult to read too much into testing but knowing our programme, it is fair to say that the times did not always reflect the true picture. We have worked through many set-up and development evaluations this week and gained valuable information to study before Bahrain. We are heading the first race with a good feeling and we know that we will have our upgrades there. But most of all we know that our prospects for even the first races are looking very reasonable now.”
So at the end of the day, what do the times really mean? Well it is hard to judge, but the pace of the Ferrari’s, the McLarens, the RedBull’s and even Mercedes has been consitent thorugh-out the pre-season testing.
Massas is less then confident that his team will be the team to beat going into this season, however they have done more race-distance simulation and varying fuel load runs and varying tyre choice stints then other teams and they are still at the pointy end of the timesheets. Their car has also been very strong without many technical problems. They seem to have the pace and it appears that Ferrari are going to be one of the fastest teams in 2010, that cobined with obvioius reliability means the team should be a very strong title contender.
RedBull have had the apce, but not the ditance, meaning they have spent the least amount of time on the track compared to the otehr front runners. Engine reliability is also an issue for the team. They have the apce but could be let down by reliability.
McLaren were quickest over testing and have two very strong drivers. That combined with the reliability they have shown could mean that they are the team to rain on Ferrari’s parade and could also snatch the title this year.
Mercedes are also up their rounding out the top 4 teams. They have shown good strong pace at times, then also shown their pace can be a bit inconsitent. The team won last years championship and may not have done enough development on their 2010 package to fight with McLaren and Ferrari.
Time will tell however, with just 11 days left now till the first Friday practice in Bahrain, the teams have no more time for on-track testing. Will the practice sheets in Bahrain be reflective of Barcelona? most likely, yes.
A summary of the quickest laps from the final day in Barcelona are as follows:
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:20.472 134
2. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:20.496 61
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.539 114
4. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:20.611 100
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:20.667 76
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:20.745 123
7. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:20.870 84
8. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber 1:20.911 67
9. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1:22.135 88
10. Robert Kubica Renault 1:23.175 107
11. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1:25.251 65
12. Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing 1:26.160 49
