In what proved to be more exciting than last year's Abu Dhabi GP, the 6 hr wait between the end of qualifying and the official decision to have Sebastian Vettel's red Bull start from pit lane because of a fuel violation was punctuated by a relentless twitter war between all the journalist present, and not, eager to give the news first. Amusingly a blogger won.
The sequence of events for Red Bull at the end of Q3 was identical to what had happened to Lewis Hamilton earlier in the season, including the frantic call from pit wall to shut down immediately.It's interesting Red Bull would feel under such pressure to put Vettel on pole to take such a risk. Certainly confirms views that Red Bulls can only win if they can start in clear air.
Vettel will get a chance to show his stuff tomorrow and climb back into the points, tall order considering it's expected to be a one stop race. Alonso has to keep cool, he can let Hamilton go has to weigh how much to risk vs gain with Maldonado and of course keep an eye on Raikkonen who is still in the championship.
We as fans get a championship potentially going right down to the wire and somewhere Bernie is smiling.
Vettel now starts from Pit Lane.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.630s
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.978s + 0.348
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m41.073s + 0.443
4. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m41.226s + 0.596
5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m41.260s + 0.630
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m41.290s + 0.660
7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m41.582s + 0.952
8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m41.603s + 0.973
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m41.723s + 1.093
10. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m41.778s + 1.148 Q2 cut-off time: 1m41.907s Gap ** 11. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m42.019s + 1.118 12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m42.084s + 1.183 13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m42.218s + 1.317 14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m42.289s + 1.388 15. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m42.330s + 1.429 16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m42.606s + 1.705 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.765s + 1.864 Q1 cut-off time: 1m43.582s Gap * 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m44.058s + 2.561 19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m44.956s + 3.459 20. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m45.089s + 3.592 21. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m45.151s + 3.654 22. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m45.426s + 3.929 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m45.766s + 4.269 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m46.382s + 4.885 107% time: 1m48.601s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2
Now we get to see if Vettel can overtake...
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Here I was thinking tonight's race was going to be another Korea, we may see some of the best racing all year tonight.
DeleteDifferent set of event's to Lewis in Barcelona, in that case McLaren knew they were short on fuel so they told Lewis to stop to ensure that they had the 1litre sample. In this case, Renault advised Red Bull to stop due to an engine (fuel pressure) related problem which the stewards accepted was a 'force majure'. Unfortunately when they got the car back to the pits the stewards could not get 1litre out of the car so it was automatically disqualified.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know if there are smoke and mirrors going on but it would be very strange for Red Bull to take the risk of purposely under-fuelling the car at this stage of the championship.
Makes some ammends for Alonso being taken out at Spa.
Red Bull have taken the option to start from the pit lane to allow the chance to make changes to setup for the race.