March 15, 2014

Somewhere Mark Webber is smiling.




New rules, new names in the top ten.  Huge day for Red Bull, not just with Daniel Ricciardo's P2 after many thought they would never make the top ten, but also with  their young driver program:  Ricciardo, Kvyat, Vergne all in the top ten.

Ron Dennis too was beaming at Magnussen's row 2 result,  it's like he saw another young Lewis.

Not so good for some of the "old guys",  Vettel not making Q3 is shocking.  Seb can claim it was a software issue all he wants but when your teammate gets on the front row, that's just not going to wash with the fans.   I'm sure with new quiet engines, Vettel heard how the crowd felt about it in Melbourne.


Alonso and Ferrari made yet another inexplicable tire choice in Q3, going out on intermediates on a clearly flooded track.  Raikkonen, put it in the wall at the end of Q2 but he did not look to have the speed anyway.   Button also failed to make the final session.

For anyone thinking Newey blew it with the RB10, Ricciardo set his time on intermediates while Hamilton and Rosberg were on full wets.  That car has grip, if the engine runs, look out.

Tomorrow we;ll find out how much fuel consumption will play into this year's F1.



Pos  Driver             Team                  Time      Gap
 1.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m44.231s
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m44.548s  +0.317s
 3.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m44.595s  +0.364s
 4.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m45.745s  +1.514s
 5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m45.819s  +1.588s
 6.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m45.864s  +1.633s
 7.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m46.030s  +1.799s
 8.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m47.360s  +3.129s
 9.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m48.079s  +3.848s
10.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m48.147s  +3.916s*

Q3 cut-off: 1m44.331s       
11.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m44.437s  +2.173s
12.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m44.494s  +2.230s
13.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m44.668s  +2.404s
14.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m45.655s  +3.391s
15.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m45.867s  +3.603s
16.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m47.293s  +5.029s

Q2 cut-off: 1m34.274s      
17.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m34.293s  +4.118s
18.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m34.794s  +4.619s
19.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.117s  +4.942s
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m35.157s  +4.982s
21.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m36.993s  +6.818s
22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault

3 comments:

  1. Of course you guys realize that Seb is sandbagging? You realize that right? Don't you? He's letting the young Aussie have his day at his home GP. Its a gift. This is clearly a RBR publicity stunt. I could be wrong, but seems in recent years that these early races up to Spain you get a mix of winners, but come Monaco RBR and Seb put aside the BS and pretty much dominate the rest of the season. Of course this is a new season, with new rules, new tech etc., so we'll have to see if history repeats itself.

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  2. The crowd roaring both when Seb didn't make it through and then with Ricciardo getting up on podium was awesome.

    Most excited I've been during a qualifying round in a long time.

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  3. yeah, you must be delusional....

    ReplyDelete

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