Archive for April, 2010
Button wins Chinese GP in a thrilling McLaren 1-2
Apr 18th
Jensen enjoying his 2nd win of the season. Photo: EPA
Jensen button won a thrilling Chinese Gran Prix and Hamilton provided McLaren with their first 1-2 finish of the season.
The Drama started early when Alonso jumped the start and was later penalised. It wasn’t long before the rain hit and most of the top teams were quick to react by opting to switch to intermediate tyres. This soon proved to be the wrong decision
For Jensen it is his second win of the season and smart strategy in changeable weather conditions again proved to be the key to winning. Button chosing his tyres wisely, opted to stay out on slicks in light rain. It was the right choice, the rain was only short lived for the time being and all those teams who dashed in for inters were quickly forced to pit again to put slicks back on the cars.
This decission was the turning point of the race for many drivers. It was what handed Button the advantage and it was also a decission to change to inters which ruled out the chance of RedBull claiming a podium position. Jensen’s smooth driving style again became crutial in the later stages of the race where he was forced to look after the intermediate tyres to maintain his lead over Hamilton. It was a classy drive and a smart drive from Button.
Nico Rosberg ran wide on slicks later in the race which gifted P1 to Jensen. Had it not been for this incident there was every chanee Nico could have scored his first GrandPrix victory and the first for the ‘modern’ Mercedes team. Nico Rosberg then lost P2 to hamilton in the pit stop, having a slow in lap combined with Lewis doing a few well timed quick laps, the German was relegated to 3rd.
Sebastian and Mark made their way up from P9 and P10 in the later stages of the race, however Vettel was unable to pass Kubica to claim 5th position due to his tyre wear. Tyres were even more of an issue for Mark who lost a place to Petrov in the dying stages due to there being no tread left at all on the intermediate tyres. Mark had to settle for 8th position.
With Jensen now top of the table and Nico Rosberg 2nd in the standings it has thrown the championship predictions out the window. Not many bookmakers predicted the table to look the way it is currently.
“This win is very special” said Button at the post race press conference. Button ‘s win also hands McLaren the lead in the constructors championship and with 11 points now separating him from his team-mate, it has been a very important morale boost for Jensen who many felt would be racing in the shadow of Hamilton at McLaren.
The race Steward had a busy day with several incidents needing investigation. The first obviously was a drive-through for Fernando jumping the start, however it was a scrap between Hamilton and Vettel on the entry then also the exit to the pits which raised most eyebrows. Lewis Hamilton was released from his box, however wheel spin saw him exit into the path of Sebastian Vettel. Both drivers were side by side down the pitlane with Hamilton even running over other teams air gun hoses before finally darting in behind Vettel as they exited the pits.
Further controversy happened in the late stages of the race when Button bunched the pack up eady for a post-safety car restart which nearly caused a mass pile up, forces some driver to take avoiding action onto the grass. The cars were forced to slow so much that no doubt some driver had to engage their clutch. The restart went all bad for Webber who was forced off by Hamilton who ran wide defending his position with Vettel. Under new regulations you can pass on the restart from pitlane entry.
If Bernie wanted to make Formula1 more exciting, then he has succeded by charming the rain gods on a Sunday. Changeable weather conditions during the race proving to be the missing ingredient in the sport.
The final race standings from China are below:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1h44:42.163 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1.530 3. Rosberg Mercedes + 9.484 4. Alonso Ferrari + 11.869 5. Kubica Renault + 22.213 6. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 33.310 7. Petrov Renault + 47.600 8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 52.172 9. Massa Ferrari + 57.796 10. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:01.749 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:02.874 12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:03.665 13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.416 14. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap 15. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 16. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps 17. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
Vettel pips Webber to take Pole in China
Apr 18th
Sebastian Vettel - Photo: AFP
It was another RedBull 1-2 in qualifying in Malaysia with Sebastian Vettel edging out Webber to snatch pole during the dying seconds of Q3 while Alonso slipped to 3rd on the grid. Mark recorded the fastest lap of the session just as the chequered flag came down, he couldn’t have another shot. Nobody beat his time until Sebastian who had been struggling all weekend with slow sector1 times suddenly put in a purple sector1 time (quickest time of the session) and from there he maintained his pace to take pole and edge out Mark by less then 3/10ths for a second.
The usual suspects were knocked out at the end of Q1, luckily this time Ferrari and McLaren made sure they stayed with the pack. There was nothing unexpected either about Q2, Michael Schumacher only just scrapped in to the top 10 to make it through to Q3, he maneged to go one better in Q3 and qualify 9th on the grid ahead of Adrian Sutil in the Force India.
Mercedes however are very pleased with Nico Rosberg putting his car on the second row of the grid in P4, just one place behind Alonso in the Ferrari and ahead of both the McLarens of Button and Hamilton. This put a very large smile on the faces of the Mercedes team members, it was no doubt a very important occasion for the team finally out-qualifying both of the McLarens. Mercedes tomorrow will be focussed on maintain their grid position and have a strong finish ahead of the McLarens and even a podium for Rosberg who has been consistently quicker then his 7-time world champion team-mate all season.
Massa is P7 behind the Mclarens, followed by Kubica in the Renault who was expecting to have a slightly better result but still happy.
The forecast for Sunday’s race is similar to last years Chinese Grand Prix….Wet. Rain is expected to fall during the day and afternoon but may be clearing towards the end of the race. Sebastian Vettel last year recorded his first win of the season during the rain affected race in China. The season up until then had be dominated by Brawn, but Vettel is a specialist in the wet. So it’s good news for RedBull who seem to dominate int he wet, once again they have locked out the front row but just a reverse in driver order from the last race.
Webber needs to work on his starts, especially in the wet conditions. There is ever chance he will be passed by Fernando Alonso at the first corner if he doesn’t have his wits about him. The RedBull team knows how important it is for Mark to start well and give his team mate a buffer to the Ferrari.
The full result from Q1, Q2 and Q3 are below:
| Pos. | # | Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1?36.317 | 1?35.280 | 1?34.558 |
| 2 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1?35.978 | 1?35.100 | 1?34.806 |
| 3 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1?35.987 | 1?35.235 | 1?34.913 |
| 4 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1?35.952 | 1?35.134 | 1?34.923 |
| 5 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1?36.122 | 1?35.443 | 1?34.979 |
| 6 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1?35.641 | 1?34.928 | 1?35.034 |
| 7 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1?36.076 | 1?35.290 | 1?35.180 |
| 8 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1?36.348 | 1?35.550 | 1?35.364 |
| 9 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1?36.484 | 1?35.715 | 1?35.646 |
| 10 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1?36.671 | 1?35.665 | 1?35.963 |
| 11 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1?36.664 | 1?35.748 | |
| 12 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1?36.618 | 1?36.047 | |
| 13 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1?36.844 | 1?36.149 | |
| 14 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1?37.031 | 1?36.311 | |
| 15 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1?37.044 | 1?36.422 | |
| 16 | 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1?37.049 | 1?36.647 | |
| 17 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1?37.050 | 1?37.020 | |
| 18 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1?37.161 | ||
| 19 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1?39.278 | ||
| 20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1?39.399 | ||
| 21 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1?39.520 | ||
| 22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1?39.783 | ||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1?40.469 | ||
| 24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1?40.578 |
Webber tops Final Practice in China
Apr 17th
Mark Webber recorded the fastest time in the 3rd and Final practice just a few hours prior to the Qualifying this afternoon.
The Ferrari’s, RedBull’s and McLarens all traded top times during the practice session. Webber and Hamilton both trading times till finally Mark recorded a time of 1:35.323 which was 2/10ths of a second quicker the Lewis Hamilton who managed a 1:35.564 in the McLaren. Vettel rounded out the top 3 in the other RedBull with a 1:35.691, just over 3/10′s of a second behind his team-mate.
Button and Alonso hold the next two quickest times just ahead of both the Mercedes drivers. Nico was just quicker then Michael with a 1:35.913
The conditions for Qualifying are predicated to be very similar to those experienced in practice 3.
Clearly RedBull and McLaren once again are the pace setters this weekend. With Quali now less then 2 hours away, no doubt Mark is keen to record his second pole for the season.
Shanghai predicted to be wet again in 2010
Apr 14th
Just like last years race which was one of the wettest races of 2009, the conditions this weekend in Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix are looking like they’ll be similar to last years conditions.
Of course the wet conditions for the race last year provided RedBull with their first 1-2 victory of 2009.
A dry Quali’ on Saturday and a wet Sunday is what all the general forecasts seem to be saying for this weekend, however showers may be clearing in the late afternoon to early evening on Sunday, this means we may even see a half wet, half dry race.
With RedBull now officially the wet weather specialists they finally turned a strong qualifying result into a strong race finish after their 1-2 in Malaysia. We should expect to see more of the same from the team.
Ferrari have said their engines are fine and that this weekend both cars will be using the same engines they used during round1 in Bahrain which was the most successful race of the season for Ferrari.
McLaren have admitted making aero modifications to their car going in to the Chinese GP and expect to be ‘with’ RedBull in qualifying.
Mercedes, Torro Rosso, Renault and Williams are all having a great mid-pack scrap with each other. These teams were super competitive in KL and we expect to see loads more bold moves from the mid pack who argueabely provided us with the most exciting racing during the Malaysian GP.
We are now starting to see a clear breakdown this season of the top runners (Ferrari, RedBull and Mclaren) the mid-pack and the new teams who are running at the back of the pack. There are great scraps within each pack.
The backmarkers, HRT, Virgin and Lotus are comming off the back of a very successful race with atleast one of their cars (and in HRT’s case both cars) finishing the race. No doubt in China these teams will be focused on reliability and aim to finish the Gran Prix again.
It’s now less then 4 days till lights out in China. We can’t wait and we will be bringing you a quali update on Saturday.
Be sure to follow our live commentary page during the race on Sunday for lap by lap ‘tweeting from @F1LiveTweets
image courtesy of guardian.co.ukVettel wins in Malaysia while RedBull dominate with a 1-2 Finish
Apr 4th
Sebastian Vettel leading Mark Webber for the RedBull on-Two - Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Sebastian Vettel lead from turn 1 at Sepang and never looked back to claim his first win of the season and gave RedBull the 1-2 finish that they so desperately wanted and expected to get earlier then round 3 this year.
Mark Webber was on pole for the race, however he had wheel spin off the line and didn’t fight too hard to cover his line as Vettel passed him into the braking area. Mark had a beter run into turn 2 and fought back a little bit but in the end Vetel had the drive and maintained his lead. From then on it was pretty much a processional race with Vettel, Webber and Rosberg leading the pack for the rest of the afternoon.
“I had a good start and got the tow from Mark, I took the chance I had in Turn 1, said Vettel … We had a magnificent car and the key was to pace yourself. It’s a good result after two races where we didn’t finish where we want to be.”
The rain that was predicted for this race never eventuated. It was the first dry afternoon all weekend and it meant that the conditions for the drivers were extreemely difficult and hot. It also meant there were no safety car periods and teams such as McLaren and Ferrari who were hoping for changeable weather to make their way up the grid weren’t able to make the gains they possibly would have hoped had the rain fallen.
Nico Rosberg had a trouble free race and just had to follow the RedBull procession from start to finish. P3 for Rosberg never really seemed to be under any threat and all he had to do was to steer the car home to claim the final place on the podium.
Hamilton and Mass did a great job climbing up form the back of the grid to finish 6th and 7th and claim some needed points for the team. However it was both their team-mates who provided entertainment in the dying stages of the race.
Button was caught by Alonso at the end and there was a fierce battle for position. Alonso looked to take Button several times but in the end wasn’t able to make up the pace out of the corners due to a problem with the car on the downshift which set Alonso up badly for a quick exit. The final couple of laps however proved disaterous for Alonso as the Ferrari’s engine gave up and blew, forcing Alonso to retire from the race.
Jaime Alguersuari put in a superstar drive and scored points for finishing in ninth place. He had some great on-track battles with Hulkenberg and Petrov. Jamie showed that he has loads of potential and is able to perform very well under pressure.
Lotus are happy with one of their cars finishing the race. Jarno Trulli finished the race in last place for Lotus, but it was a good result for the team to finish the race in front of a home crowd. The result however was upstaged by Hispania Racing (HRT) who managed to get both their cars to the finish to claim 15th and 16th place just ahead of the Lotus.
Massa’s lead in the championship after round3 is just 2 points clear of Sebastian Vettel who is in equal 2nd place int he championship with Alonso, both drivers are on 37 points.
The final race classifications as well as championship standings are below:
Pos Driver Team Gap
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 4.8s
3. Rosberg Mercedes + 13.5s
4. Kubica Renault + 18.5s
5. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 21.0s
6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 23.4s
7. Massa Ferrari + 27.0s
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 37.9s
9. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m10.6s
10. Hulkenberg Williams + 1m13.3s
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m18.9s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Alonso Ferrari + 2 laps
14. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
15. Chandhok Hispania-Cosworth + 3 laps
16. Senna Hispania-Cosworth + 4 laps
17. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 5 laps
Not classified/retirements:
Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 46 laps
Petrov Renault 32 laps
Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 laps
Schumacher Mercedes 9 laps
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 8 laps
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2 laps
De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 0 laps
World Championship standings, round 3:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Massa 39 1. Ferrari 76
2. Vettel 37 2. McLaren-Mercedes 66
3. Alonso 37 3. Red Bull-Renault 61
4. Button 35 4. Mercedes 44
5. Rosberg 35 5. Renault 20
6. Hamilton 31 6. Force India-Mercedes 18
7. Kubica 30 7. Williams-Cosworth 6
8. Webber 24 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2
9. Sutil 10
10. Schumacher 9
11. Liuzzi 8
12. Barrichello 5
13. Alguersuari 2
14. Hulkenberg 1
Webber on pole in a thrilling rain affected Malaysian Qualifying
Apr 3rd
Mark Webber on Pole for Sunday's Malaysian GP - Photo: AFP
A sensational Qualifying session ahead of Sunday’s race saw both Ferrari’s of Alonso and Massa and also the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton failing to make it into Q2 .
Light rain started falling in the early stages of Q1, the teams who put in laps early benefited. Unfortunately for Ferrari, they waited to long into the session to go out on track and by the time their cars were sent out, they were lapping well under the target time. McLaren also had the same problem, however Jensen Button set a good enough time to put him through till Q2, but aquapolaned off the wet track after he set his lap and was unabled to rejoin the track, relegating him to the bottom of Q2 and qualifying in 17th position.
Lewis Hamilton separates both the Ferraris of Alonso in p19 and Massa in p21. This is the worst qualifying result for Ferrari and McLaren all season.
Q2 saw most drivers start on Intermediate tyres. The rain had eased and the track. Adrian Sutil was the early pace setter but was quickly upstaged by Schumacher, Kubica and Hulkenberg. As the track dried it became clear the inters were needed to set good pace. Vettel pitted for inters and as a result he was able to respond with the quickest lap time of the session. Webber finished Q2 in 7th place, after struggling to show similar pace to Vettel, however it was Michael Schumacher who got lucky and only just held on the the final position, closing out the top 10 to go in to Q3.
As the lights went green for Q3, there was a very long line of traffic. Everyone was keen to get out early and set a good time before the rain got even heavier. The rain did get very heavy and the session was red flagged before anybody had a chance to set a time. This meant there would be only just over 7 minutes left in the session when it is restarted.
When the session was finally restarted, the rain had stopped falling, however there was a lot of standing water. Nobody hung around in the pit garage very long, with only 7 mins left, all the remaining 10 cars went out quickly. With the standing water on parts of the track all the cars except for Mark Webber elected to use full wets.
Sutil and Hulkenberg again proved to be quick in the wet with early pace as Mark Webber struggled on his out lap on cold intermediate tyres. However on Marks first flying lap his sectors were suddenly very quick and in no time he posted the quickest time of the session. He stayed out for a second flying lap and bettered his pole time by 1.1 seconds. It was obvious that nobody on full wets was able to break Webbers time, his gamble on inters paid off. Team principal Christian Horner confirmed that the decision to use inters was Webber’s own.
Mark Webber is joined on the front row by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes and Marks RedBull team mate just behind in P3. RedBull once again dominating the qualifying for the seccond race in a row. However whether or not RedBull’s qualifying performance is able to be translated into a similar finish in the race is yet to be seen this season.
With more rain forecast for tomorrow’s race, it will come done to tyre strategy and cautious and consistent driving to win the race. Many teams will be analysing closely the performance of the inters vs the full wets in the constantly changing Malaysian conditions.
The final Qualifying times from all sessions is below:
| Pos | No | Driver | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | 6 | Mark Webber | 01:51.89 | 01:48.21 | 01:49.33 |
| 2 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | 01:52.56 | 01:47.42 | 01:50.67 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | 01:47.63 | 01:46.83 | 01:50.79 |
| 4 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | 01:49.48 | 01:47.09 | 01:50.91 |
| 5 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | 01:49.66 | 01:47.35 | 01:51.00 |
| 6 | 11 | Robert Kubica | 01:46.28 | 01:46.95 | 01:51.05 |
| 7 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | 01:50.30 | 01:48.37 | 01:51.51 |
| 8 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | 01:52.24 | 01:48.40 | 01:51.72 |
| 9 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | 01:48.47 | 01:47.79 | 01:51.77 |
| 10 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 01:49.92 | 01:48.24 | 01:52.25 |
| 11 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | 01:47.95 | 01:48.76 | |
| 12 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | 01:47.15 | 01:48.77 | |
| 13 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | 01:48.95 | 01:49.21 | |
| 14 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | 01:48.66 | 01:49.46 | |
| 15 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | 01:52.88 | 01:52.27 | |
| 16 | 24 | Timo Glock | 01:52.40 | 01:52.52 | |
| 17 | 1 | Jenson Button | 01:52.21 | no time | |
| 18 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | 01:52.88 | ||
| 19 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | 01:53.04 | ||
| 20 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 01:53.05 | ||
| 21 | 7 | Felipe Massa | 01:53.28 | ||
| 22 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | 01:56.30 | ||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | 01:57.27 | ||
| 24 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | 01:59.98 |
Malaysian GP practice3 over, set for a wet qualifying
Apr 3rd
Well Webber and Vettel again look set for a great Qualifying showdown coming first and 3rd respectively in the final practice session on Saturday.
Webber did a time of 1:33.542, Hamilton 2nd with a 1:33.559 and Vettel 3rd with a 1:33.587
With bad weather predicted for Quali these most likely will be the quickest times we see today. If the monsoonal rains we experience during last years race return for qualifying, there are rumours it may even be post-poned till Sunday.
With less then 1.5 ours left till the Q1 begins, the weather is already looking pretty grim
Below are the top 10 times from 3rd and final practice today:
| 1 | 6 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:33.542 | ||
| 2 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:33.559 | ||
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:33.587 | ||
| 4 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:33.751 | ||
| 5 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1:33.992 | ||
| 6 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1:34.090 | ||
| 7 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:34.113 | ||
| 8 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:34.174 | ||
| 9 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:34.540 | ||
| 10 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1:34.549 |
