June 10, 2013

Vettel Gives The Finger In Canada

Sebastian Vettel dominates the 2013 Canadian GP in true old school Schumacher style.

RedBull Photo


Vettel lapping everyone up to sixth position did not make for the most entertaining race,  it was a real crushing performance from the first corner for Red Bull in Canada.




Photo: Brando Cairone
Half way though lap one Vettel had pulled a couple of seconds away from Hamilton and the rest of the pack and really, that was that, Red Bull was gone.      
Even with a crushing 20 second advantage Vettel did not stop pushing:  he was locking up at the hairpin where he had a close call with a Caterham, he went off all on his own at turn one.   One can only suppose he was bored or maybe the team asked him to slow down on that one.   

From the stands, at the hairpin it was interesting to see Vettel taking a totally different line from everyone else,  he would go deep and late slowing down more but minimizing the amount of time the fronts would be turning and scrubbing.    The Red Bull was visibly better than all others in traction.  One wonders if Pirelli added a little Taurine to the compounds to make Red Bull happy after all their griping of late.

Photo: Brando Cairone

Ferrari seemed to be the class of the field under braking and the team must be kicking themselves for their inability to get better starting positions in qualifying.  If not, Alonso will and should.     Fernando had his usual bulldog race coming from sixth on the grid to second but  he must be extremely frustrated he has to work that hard while Vettel seemingly cruises.

Hamilton had a good race in an obviously improved Mercedes.   Yes, they still lost tires but less so than before their (totally inconsequential, nothing to see here) Pirelli test.   The FIA verdict on the "test-gate" saga will be announced in the next two weeks, expect minor consequences.

The biggest disappointment of the race had to have been Lotus, totally off the radar and fighting in the midfield.   Maybe it was a matter of setup choice and ambient temperatures which were so different Sunday than they had been all week end.     A wet setup was what allowed Valtteri Bottas to earn a third spot on the grid for Williams Saturday but come raceway, ha was a sitting duck.


PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Canadian Grand Prix
Montreal, Canada;
70 laps; 305.270km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver                Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1h32m09.143
 2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                +   14.408s
 3.  Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               +   15.942s
 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       +   25.731s
 5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               + 1m09.725s
 6.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     +     1 lap
 7.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   +     1 lap
 8.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                +     1 lap
 9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          +     1 lap
10.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   +     1 lap
11.  Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes       +     1 lap
12.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       +     1 lap
13.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          +     1 lap
14.  Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       +     1 lap
15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     +    2 laps
16.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       +    2 laps
17.  Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth      +    2 laps
18.  Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault       +    2 laps
19.  Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth      +    3 laps
20.  Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         +    7 laps
Fastest lap: Webber, 1:16.182

Not classified/retirements:

Driver                Team                         On lap
Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari                45
Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault              43

World Championship standings, round 7:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        132        1.  Red Bull-Renault          201
 2.  Alonso         96        2.  Ferrari                   145
 3.  Raikkonen      88        3.  Mercedes                  134
 4.  Hamilton       77        4.  Lotus-Renault             114
 5.  Webber         69        5.  Force India-Mercedes       51
 6.  Rosberg        57        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           37
 7.  Massa          49        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         20
 8.  Di Resta       34        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5
 9.  Grosjean       26       
10.  Button         25       
11.  Sutil          17       
12.  Vergne         13       
13.  Perez          12       
14.  Ricciardo       7       
15.  Hulkenberg      5       
       
All timing unofficial

5 comments:

  1. With all the "we are aiming for 2014 to contend" talk coming out of Mercedes at the beginning of the year, is it possible they took part in that clandestine test knowing that any penalty levied against them would be overshadowed by them gaining that much more ground for next year? They've probably been more competitive this year than they thought they'd be but I'd be willing to bet they are still putting all of their chips on 2014.

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  2. Not a bad race to watch if you ignored seabass out front. Good stuff from Alonso, but frustrating to watch Raikkonen languish midfield.

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  3. Face it folks, by 2025 Seb will be F1's first ten time world champ. RESPECT....THE FINGER!!!

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  4. What a snoozefest! We were sitting at grand stand 12 and I felt like I could see the red Bulls having much better rear grip, especially in qualifying in the rain. They were just so much more planted.



    Also so sorry about the Axis Ferrari going out on Saturday. It seemed like it just couldn't catch any luck, first at the hairpin where someone "kamikazed" down the inside and then at wall of champions where it looked like 2 car out breaked themselves behind Gomez. I will add though that your team had the best livery by far!! Can't wait to catch the race again next year.

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  5. Well, it was all fixed by Sunday and CG had a blast slicing from 27th on the grid to 5th! And yes, no false modesty here, it WAS the best looking car on the grid! :)

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