May 11, 2013

Silver Arrows Streak, Button and Alonso Freak.

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Dr. Z looked happy, Lauda looked happy, Rosberg and Hamilton looked happy, three poles in a row will do that to a team.

Who did not look so happy were Mr. Montezemolo and Señor Alonso, surely disappointed  all the new aero bits on the F138 amounted to a hill of beans in qualifying.  Alonso let loose some fairly harsh criticism of his own team's tendency to talk much and conclude little.


But unhappiest has to be Jenson Button who failed to even make Q3, unlike Perez.  On  radio transmissions you could just sense his frustration, maybe even more.   Jenson must be wondering what the heck happened and how did Lewis know...   (interesting rumor about Mclaren getting a free supply of Honda engines in the future, wonder if this plays into Woking's current difficulties in some way)



The race should be interesting:

-Will Raikkonen go two stop vs the three stops from most of the other top guys?
-Can the Mercs keep Vettel behind and not let him streak away?
-Circuit de Catalunya is notoriously difficult to pass on but there are two DRS zones, will they help?
-Will the Mercs have race pace?
-Alonso a factor for the win or yet another dour fight for points?




Pos Driver                Team/Car              Time      Gap
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m20.718s
 2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m20.972s  + 0.254s
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m21.054s  + 0.336s
 4. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m21.177s  + 0.459s
 5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m21.218s  + 0.500s
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m21.219s  + 0.501s
 7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m21.308s  + 0.590s
 8. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m21.570s  + 0.852s
 9. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m22.069s  + 1.351s
10. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m22.233s  + 1.515s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m22.019s                                       Gap **
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m22.127s  + 1.126s
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m22.166s  + 1.165s
13. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m22.346s  + 1.345s
14. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m23.166s  + 2.165s
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m22.389s  + 1.388s
16. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m22.793s  + 1.792s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m23.218s                                       Gap *
17. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m23.260s  + 1.532s
18. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m23.318s  + 1.590s
19. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m24.661s  + 2.933s
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m24.713s  + 2.985s
21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m24.996s  + 3.268s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m25.070s  + 3.342s

107% time: 1m27.448s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

UPDATE: Massa and Gutierrez have been given three place penalties for blocking.  Ridiculous as neither action caused the blocked driver to fail to advance (Gutierrez on Button in Q1 and Massa on Webber in Q2).



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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSaturday, May 11, 2013 12:06:00 PM

    Those Ferrari's have been rocket ships off the line recently (last year too), especially Alonso. Top 3 after they round the uphill wouldn't surprise me.

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  2. AnonymousSaturday, May 11, 2013 4:52:00 PM

    it doesn't matter even breaking rules doesn't change outcome, rules are rules and blocking is blocking. if they are not punished, they will continue to block and hope it doesn't change outcome, then it will become ridiculous to control.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stephen R.Sunday, May 12, 2013 12:48:00 AM

    At first I agreed that the penalty for the blocking was ridiculous, but upon further reflection I feel they are justified. Case in point: what if a driver is blocked, and has his hot lap ruined. The blocked driver then has to come in, put on a second fresh set of tires in order to make it to the next session. From the outside it would look like the block did not hurt anyone, but one driver was forced to use a set of tires needlessly. In order to prevent this situation, the FIA must punish blocking, even if it does not prevent a driver from advancing.

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