Nico Rosberg: Revenge of the Underdog

Nico Rosberg became a Formula 1 World Champion in Abu Dhabi,  It took him 11 seasons and 206 Grand Prix.

He did it the hard way, beating arguably the fastest driver of the moment, in the same car.

He did it after being beaten by Hamilton three years in a row.


He did it despite being the butt of jokes for his looks in the paddock (remember the Britney license?), being hammered by a lot of the motoring media as unworthy and "dirty",  criticized by the boss of the sport as too boring and painted as an entitled rich kid by his own teammate.  

Nico and Keke Rosberg.

"He grew up with jets and hotels, I slept on couches",  it was a famous dig by Hamilton towards his rival from their earliest days in karting.  Turns out one of this couches was at the Rosberg residence where he was often a guest in earlier, friendlier days.  
There is no doubt the Rosberg name opened doors and opportunities, but it must also be remembered Hamilton had Ron Dennis behind him since age 13 and that, after winning GP2,  he came into F1 at the top with Mclaren while Rosberg arrived at Williams when it was far from a top car.

At Mercedes, Rosberg was consistently faster than a Schumacher indeed past his prime, but still one of the top drivers ever to sit in a car.  Later,  Nico bested Hamilton on race wins in 2013.

In 2014 and 2015,  with the new turbo hybrid engines,  Hamilton beat him badly.
Tough losses, especially in '14.  A lesser driver might have gone the way of a Massa or Barrichello but Rosberg proved to be way more bulldog that Britney.  He may be a 10th off Hamilton's pace over a single lap but even his most rabid detractors have to acknowledge his remarkable consistency and resilience.

"Lewis is raw talent, Nico is hard work twenty four  hours a day, seven days a week" is a quote from Toto Wolff and in the end it's good for the sport to have different personalities, the jet setting social media star and the hard working family man,  both rewarded.   Kudos to Mercedes for trying to give both

Even Bernie made peace with it eventually and Nico didn't hold a grudge.   Perhaps even the Hamfosi can get past their prejudice and admit Nico drove a better season than Lewis this year rather than moan about it in perpetuity.

Bravo Nico,  now bring on 2017!

Rosberg takes final pole of 2015.

You might argue racing left a bit to be desired in 2015 but you cannot deny the 2015 Formula 1 cars are mighty things.

You don't think so?  Ride along with Nico Rosberg as he scores his sixth consecutive pole in Abu Dhabi, adding an exclamation point to Mercedes' almost complete domination this season.

Rosberg was almost 4/10th faster than his teammate, a huge margin considering they are in the same car.

Third place for Raikkonen who needs to end the season on a high and beat the other Finn who many had said should be in his Ferrari seat.

Ferrari needs Kimi to do well after their spectacular fail, telling Vettel to abort his  final lap in Q1 when it was obvious times were dropping like stones.   Anyone can screw up but that sort of thing looked like it had been eradicated from the Scuderia's pit wall.

Guess not,  as Lauda would say,  "it's bullshit!"

Vettel sings Happy Birthday.

Does this man know something we don't?

giroveloce.it

Because he sure is in a good mood despite a rather "non-headliny" Free Practice 2 in Abu Dhabi today.

Further analysis shows his long run pace to be suspiciously close to the two Mercedes.
Time for Toto to turn up the engines to 11? ( or is it 9.5...)

As for Seb,  maybe he couldn't care less about Instagram or those who accuse him of not caring about promoting the sport but, for sure,  he just gained another million fans.

Hamilton Doubles in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton, 2014 World Driving Champion.   It was in the cards ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi and Lewis did not let it slip through his fingers,   a deserved second championship for the British driver.

Many will say, as they did with Vettel and Schumacher before, that it was all car.  Yes, but it's not really Hamilton's fault everyone else was slow.  Nico was not slow and in the end Lewis beat him fair and square.

Given Mercedes' crushing domination it was always going to be between Hamilton and Rosberg for the win.  In fact Rosberg proved to be a more tenacious competition than anyone would have imagined at the  beginning of the season, he came close and surprised everyone by out qualifying Hamilton.

For Lewis, he did not have it all his way, he made a number of mistakes and fell short in qualifying but he always fought back on Sundays.   He had bad luck but also good luck, sometimes in the same race.  Hungary, for example, where an engine fire forced him to start from pit lane and a safety car helped him finish on the podium.   Or Brazil, where he spun off while chasing Rosberg but managed to keep it away from any barriers and with the engine running.

If I had any recriminations, it would be with the way the (mostly) British media followed Hamilton's lead and demonized Rosberg for presumed dirty tricks.   What was ridiculous in Monaco just became lousy after Spa.  Mercedes as a team were wrong to come down hard as they did on Rosberg, even Toto Wolff in hindsight admitted as much to the BBC,  ahead of the last race.   It was a blotch in an otherwise very well managed, complicated season for the Germans.   Was Hamilton wrong in whining about Nico's behavior, using his contract renewal and even his background in the media/psych war?  It's F1, win at all cost, no holds barred, that's the way it is.

So well done Lewis, congratulations and get a nice rest, hopefully next season you will have more than just Nico chasing you.  It will be much more fun for us to watch and for you to race!.

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Red Bull Busted....but.

Vettel and Ricciardo will have to start from the back after Red Bull had their qualifying results wiped for having a front wing that did not pass the FIA deflection test.

The team issued a statement to the effect that they accept the penalty but wonder why them.

Following the decision of the Stewards regarding the front wings on both our cars (Car 1 and Car 3), we are disappointed that we have been singled out for a front wing deflection test when it is clear that other teams are interpreting the rules in a similar fashion. 

The team accepts the decision of the Stewards and will start the race from the back of the grid

You'll understand where Red Bull is coming from when you see this clip of the Williams front wing from FP2.

Have a look at the double element visible between the bottom plank and the top left higher winglets.  It flexes multiple inches under load.

Did Alonso really sustain a 28G hit at Yas Marina?

It was one of the key episodes of the Abu Dhabi GP, Fernando Alonso's Ferrari had to take to the curbs to avoid contact with Jean Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso as he tried to beat Massa back onto the track after a pit stop.

Luis Garcia Abad/Twitter

It looked like a pretty rough ride but Alonso went on to finish the race setting fastest laps in the process and avoiding a penalty after Vergne admitted he had not seen him ad had not given him room.  After the race Fernando was giving interviews and seemed fine which explains the surprise then pictures popped up of him being taken to a  hospital strapped to a gurney like a salame.

What happened?  F1 regulations state that a driver must be checked out at a hospital is a g-force sensor alarm, installed in every chassis is triggered.   The sensor is there to alert medical personnel of the severity of an accident and is triggered at 18G.   Well placed journalists like the BBC's Andrew Benson reported the sensor had measured a whopping 28G.

28 G is a heck of a hit,  for reference what happens when when a pickup truck slams into a solid wall at 30 mph.  The Ferrari tub and Alonso's butt are very strong but perhaps the real figure was much lower as suggested by Autosprint who say the sensor came loose and registered a much higher energy spike.    

Ferrari has had no comment either way.

Shocker: Vettel Wins in Abu Dhabi

there's little to say about the race, Vettel won by over 30 seconds and everyone will be reduced to thanking about him doing donuts again as if that will solve F1 problems.

At least he did not get fast lap, Alonso ended the race with the option tires and got thew purple number on his way to P5.

Few incidents,  Kimi Raikkonen starting last ran into a Caterham in the first corner and broke his car.
Sutil and Maldonado got in a scrap, Sutil went off and gained two spots.   Displaying customary consistency the FIA gave no penalty.    The same governing body that gave Grosjean a penalty in Spa will also decide if Alonso should be penalized for not crashing into Vergne's Toro Rosso who was pushing him off the track.

Nicki Thiim is the 2013 Porsche Supercup Champion.

Danemark's Nicki Thiim won round 8 of the Porsche Supercup championship in Abu Dhabi and becomes the 2013 series champion. He did it in style, with a great move on the last lap of race when he let Carrera Cup Asia's champion Earl Bamber outbrake himself and run off the pavement.

Surely a win with a heavy heart for Thiim who dedicated the win to Sean Edwards. We applause Porsche for not giving in to the public pressure raised by an online petition demanding for the German manufacturer to give the championship to Edwards. We are guessing a racer like Sean would never have gone along with such a plan.

After the tragic accident in Australia there was a lot written online about it, some was good some was not as appropriate. Given the circumstances of the accident, we reached out to professional driver coaches for their thoughts. Ross Bentley, head of a group of extremely experienced professionals who publish the Speed Secrets newsletter, shared his thoughts on this difficult subject after the break

Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying: White Lines and Tea Trays.

Photo: Sahara Force India

The FIA made ominous pronouncements about penalizing drivers who go four off in qualifying. Many di and the FIA did nothing about it. Well done.

Not that they have not been busy checking things, Hulkenberg's Sauber and Raikkonen's Lotus both had their floor tested, Hulk passed, Kimi's tea tray moved more than allowed so he will start from the back.   A way for Lotus to save on contractual point bonuses?  No that would be crazy,  like ordering one of your drivers to crash intentionally....

Hamilton got hosed, literally. Rear suspension failure in Q3, means mechanics will have to fix it in parc ferme and hope they won't find any nasty surprises. For sure they will have to clean up all the fire extinguisher foam an over eager track marshall sprayed all over the car when he saw smoke coming from the brakes.

All this might make Ferrari's week end less miserable than it has been so far. In front of that gargantuan Ferrariworld exhibition center, to have a "no budget" Sauber kick your but with the same engine is just sad.

Speaking of sad, I don't think anyone was sad to see Webber take pole from an clearly bummed out Vettel. Unfortunately, Helmut Marko will insist on personally setting Webber's clutch tonight.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car               Time       Gap
 1.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault       1m39.957s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault       1m40.075s  +0.118s
 3.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes               1m40.419s  +0.462s
 4.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes               1m40.501s  +0.544s
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault          1m40.542s  +0.585s
 6.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari         1m40.576s  +0.619s
 7.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault          1m40.997s  +1.040s
 8.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                1m41.015s  +1.058s
 9.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes       1m41.068s  +1.111s
10.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.111s  +1.154s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m40.989s                                    Gap **
11.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                1m41.093s  +0.620s
12.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes   1m41.133s  +0.660s
13.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes       1m41.200s  +0.727s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.279s  +0.806s
15.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault       1m41.395s  +0.922s
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault       1m41.447s  +0.974s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m41.884s                                    Gap *
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.999s  +1.306s
18.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes   1m42.051s  +1.358s
19.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault       1m43.252s  +2.559s
20.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth      1m43.398s  +2.705s
21.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault       1m43.528s  +2.835s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth      1m44.198s  +3.505s

107% time: 1m47.741s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing.

Kimi Raikkonen, Yas Marina 2012

The last time a Lotus, in Black and Gold livery won a Grand Prix was in Detroit in 1987 with Ayrton Senna behind the wheel. On Sunday at Yas Marina, Kimi Raikkonen certainly "knew what he had to do" and did what Michael Schumacher with the might and budget of Mercedes behind him could not in two seasons of racing... and he almost smiled on the podium!

Quite a race, possibly the most exciting this season, a total surprise from this track usually pretty but boring. The Championship is closer now but not as close as as it could have been.

Vettel is the luckiest driver in F1?

Without taking anything away from his driving proficiency consider this:

oh, the cruel irony of Kimi winning in a dry country!

1.On Saturday Red Bull commit a technical infraction (which they lamely blame on Renault) in their zeal to put Vettel on pole. RBR have been setting their cars up so they are lacking in top speed but fast in the corners figuring Vettel can break away at the start and be out of DRS range in two laps. It's a strategy that has worked well for them as long as they are on pole.
With their time disqualified, they are allowed by the rules to start from pit lane meaning they could essentially rebuild the car overnight and completely change the setup. In my view this is an error in the regulations, if you commit an infraction, you should not be able to remedy an advantage, Vettel should have started 24th on the grid with the car in parc fermee mode like everyone else.

2. Formula 1 has had what, 99% reliability? 7 cars did not finish Sunday, De La Rosa had to start behind Vettel. Grosjean had a flat on the fist lap, Di Resta had a flat as did Senna. Two Toro Rosso simply moved over and Massa, that fool, managed to lose his head and spin. Perez had a flat and a drive though. Webber moved over. That's 13 cars out of the way and left only Button Alonso and Raikkonen once you take away all the moving chicanes. Add safety cars at favorable times and his getting away with hitting cars and Styrofoam signs, passing off the track and making two blocking moves and Vettel's comeback looks less epic.

Still, you need luck and you need skill,  Webber had a pretty lame race with the same car.  Vettel, as much of a bulldog as Alonso is even if blessed with a better car at the moment, did not "settle" for fourth when he easily could have, he attacked Button.


Who deserves to win the Championship more, Alonso or Vettel?   Tough one, it's Red Bull's to lose but I'm suspecting most racers would say Alonso because he's fighting as the underdog.

But enough about those two, it's Raikkonen and Lotus' day. Super happy for them and Kimi of course, was just vintage Kimi wasn't he?

"Just leave me alone, I know what I'm doing".

Awesome!

Hamilton at the front, Vettel at the back

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

Was Vettel's tire melted by his exhaust in Abu Dhabi?

That is the scenario raised by Italy's Autosprint. Autosprint is Italy's premiere motorsport magazine, published since 1961 and in my experience almost always on target.

If a manufacturing defect can be ruled out since the tire was used for qualifying and no debris or shards were found by anyone in turn 1 at Yas Marina, the cause had to be something else.

"Launch Start Cycle" would be the culprit, a procedure that takes advantage of the hot exhaust blowing on the rear tires sidewalls to bring them up to temperature better. In Abu Dhabi something went wrong and the sidewalls became overheated. A wrong sequence, incorrect engine map, external circumstances, that is not known but one thing is certain, Red Bull was quite cagey about the cause and especially about showing its removed floor pan to TV cameras.

This scenario is given more credibility with today's announcement by Pirelli that no structural failure was found on the Red Bull's tire.

It's ironic, Autosprint points out, that those same exhausts which have been the key to Red Bull's advantage this season were also the cause of their of their first retirement.

(Autosprint) .

Vettel fails, Massa flails, Alonso digs but Hamilton wins

(photos by Mark Farouk for Axis)

Lewis Hamilton had the lead of the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix handed to him after just two corners when Vettel's right rear tire very mysteriously deflated and German skidded off the track. Hamilton made the most of it running a perfect race hounded by an Alonso ready to capitalize on any tiny error Lewis might make. He made none. Lewis even smiled after the race and dedicated the win to his mom...how sweet. British F1 coverage seems to be in full Dr.Phil mode right now, all happy bubbles and therapy. I wish they'd man up a bit.

Alonso made a brilliant start ripping past Webber and Button on the fist lap. He came close to threatening Hamilton on the second pit stop overlap but then once on the harder tire, he could not overcome the Ferrari 150's well known issues.

Lackluster races from Webber who once again wen backwards at the start and Massa, inexplicably confirmed by Ferrari for 2012.

Stunning performance, not in a good way, by Pastor "Chavez Chicane" Maldonado who was literally a moving chicane out there. Big fail from Toro Rosso too, all and all a bad week end for the Red Bull Empire, which is not a bad thing for F1 in general at this point!



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"Maybe I helped him understand his speed"

I thought the most interesting bit of the 2011 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying happened during the press conference. Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button both went into a bit of detail about what it takes to put together the perfect lap at Yas Marina. I really wish there was a platform for these guys to talk more about what they do on a technical level, I'm sick of hearing generalities and canned statements, I want to hear about turn in, camber, how to set a differential, line...


(photos via: motorionline.it)

Along those lines, I was reading Red Bulletin, who published a special Vettel edition highlighting some of the important people in his career and development. Tantalizing was the piece from Giorgio Ascanelli:

"
"Maybe I helped him understand his speed”
Giorgio ‘THE EDUCATOR’ Ascanelli technical director, scuderia Toro Rosso.

Nobody made Vettel. I certainly did not make him! He made himself. But at the 2008 european gp, in Valencia, something significant happened. Sebastian was driving for us that year, of course, and it was a funny weekend. There were a few new things on the car and the circuit were new for everybody.
I believed it was fundamental that Sebastian learned the circuit, more than anything else. In morning practice, he was the fastest driver, for the first time.

Then in the afternoon I noticed a lap which was extraordinary: with worn tyres and a heavy fuel load, he was still extremely fast.
When we spoke about the lap and looked at the data he wasn’t quite sure how he had done this, so I told him to go away and think about it.

Then the next day, Saturday, he came in and we chatted and he told me “I know what I did.” But I didn’t ask him exactly what that was. That’s for him to know. It’s his secret of being fast, if you like.
I just wanted him to think about the process of his driving and register it, mentally.

Something else that we gave him as a team, was that we gave him our complete trust when he came to us and that enabled him to trust us, too.
His first race for us was at the Hungarian gp, and that’s not an easy track. He made a mistake in qualifying and immediately said, “I made a mistake.” normally the racing driver’s book of excuses is longer than War and peace, so this was refreshing.
In general I don’t find it hard to be unpleasant, but it was hard to be unpleasant to Sebastian.
And he was always thinking, which allowed for a discussion about performance and not an argument"




Yeah, we'll never know their ultimate speed secrets but I sure would like to know more than we get now. I'm less and less interested about their family melodramas, I'm more into understanding exactly why Massa is almost always a half second behind Alonso in the same car. Or even how Ricciardo is kicking Liuzzi's butt.

Check out more on Red Bulletin, there are essays by Guillaume Roquelin, Mario Theissen, Riccardo Adami, Christian Horner and Gerd Noack, the man who first spotted Vettel as a eight (yeah, eight) year old karter at the Schumacher owned track in Kerpen. Fascinating stuff

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Abu Dhabi 2010: Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Last year, Yas Marina saw Fernando Alonso's championship dreams die behind Vitaly Petrov's Renault. Before DRS, nobody did much passing and when Ferrari made a silly strategy error, Alonso was doomed and Sebastian Vettel completed his comeback to win the 2010 drivers championship.

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Pirelli Test video

Start of testing for the 2011 F1 season is only about two weeks away already, but here is some footage from a recent Pirelli test in Abu Dhabi.



Pirelli also conducted some wet weather tests whcih, in the middle of the desert required some special equipment... chack it out after the jump

The real reason Ferrari's strategy failed in Abu Dhabi, revealed:

They are still Italians... WLF!

CG is more conspiratorial, he believes she was on Red Bull's payroll :)
(Grand Prix Diary.com)

Postcard from Abu Dhabi

Axis reader Mark Farouk sent some great pictures he shot to share with you, Thanks!



end of post

Weltmeister Vettel, Ferrari snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

Congratulation to Sebastian Vettel, the fastest driver in the fastest car and now the youngest ever F1 Champion. Nobody gave him much of a chance but the stars aligned and the 2010 F1 championship script could not have been better if it had been written in Hollywood, all that was missing was Vettel and Webber picking up quarters with their tires on the streets of Abu Dhabi.

Really, it should never have been so close: while Alonso made a remarkable comeback towards the end of the season he would be the first to admit luck helped, Red Bull's various problems with crashes and mechanicals handing points over to Ferrari. Today though it was Ferrari who returned the favor.

Interesting that this championship was in some ways decided because of a safety car. That SLS was a good investment for Mercedes, we saw a lot of it this past season and in the final race it set up the crucial decision point for Ferrari and Red Bull.

Ferrari fell right into Red Bull's trap when they chose to shadow Webber who stopped after only 12 laps. Maybe I'm giving Horner and Co. too much credit but whatever the case, the Ferrari pit wall made a colossal, incredible mistake giving up track position to cars that had already made their tire stop under the safety car and putting Alonso behind Petrov, who put in his best drive of the season, for 40 laps.

The Yas Marina track may be pretty to look at and very wide but nobody can pass. Kubica, one of the few who actually passed another car, stayed in front of Hamilton for laps on end with the Mclaren able to move up only when the Renault stopped for tires. Alonso was pretty frustrated with Petrov on the cool down lap but, as he had to admit after he himself cooled down, that's racing.




Great season from Red Bull, well deserved championship win for Vettel who never gave up, never gave an inch and showed why the team is built around him. Vettel has been driving since he was three years old and was put under contract by RedBull at age nine, a fourteen year investment by a company that fourteen years ago was not even in F1. Red Bull steered Sebastian through junior formulas including that great formula 1 petri dish that was Formula BMW. A massive investment that has paid out big in 2010, well done.
A shame for Webber, a bit like Massa two years ago, this year was likely his best shot.

In the short window between the hype for "the best season ever" and the beginning of the next, I would hope F1 thinks long and hard as to why we still have races won and lost in qualifying, you have mandatory tire stops but soft tires that can last almost a whole race and brand new tracks where two of the best passers in the game, Hamilton and Alonso, can't make a move on a car slowing them down. Food for thought.

A final jeer to the commentators at SpeedTV who trotted out that offensive accusation of FIA steward Emanuele Pirro being there ready to cheat for Ferrari. I think it's time for new blood there, as evidenced by the great job newcomer Will Buxton did all season long.


(BBC, RTL, SKY)


end of post

Stage is set for F1 finale

Nightmare scenario for Webber who will be starting not just behind Alonso but Button as well. While Alonso just needs to shadow Webber to win the title, Vettel and Hamilton both need to win and hope others have problems so expect fireworks from those two if they get close.

Webber was the only only one of the contenders who did not better his time on the last try. Alonso, who was fifth as he began his final lap with 3 seconds to spare, managed to find a crucial 3/10ths that put him ahead of Button and on the "clean" side of the grid, right behind Vettel.

Tomorrow should be great fun.

Pos  Driver       Car                  Q1         Q2         Q3
1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault     1m40.318s  1m39.874s  1m39.394s
2.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes     1m40.335s  1m40.119s  1m39.425s
3.  Alonso       Ferrari              1m40.170s  1m40.311s  1m39.792s
4.  Button       McLaren-Mercedes     1m40.877s  1m40.014s  1m39.823s
5.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault     1m40.690s  1m40.074s  1m39.925s
6.  Massa        Ferrari              1m40.942s  1m40.323s  1m40.202s
7.  Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth    1m40.904s  1m40.476s  1m40.203s
8.  Schumacher   Mercedes             1m41.222s  1m40.452s  1m40.516s
9.  Rosberg      Mercedes             1m40.231s  1m40.060s  1m40.589s
10.  Petrov       Renault              1m41.018s  1m40.658s  1m40.901s
11.  Kubica       Renault              1m41.336s  1m40.780s
12.  Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari       1m41.045s  1m40.783s
13.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari  1m41.473s  1m40.914s
14.  Heidfeld     Sauber-Ferrari       1m41.409s  1m41.113s
15.  Hulkenberg   Williams-Cosworth    1m41.015s  1m41.418s
16.  Liuzzi       Force India-Ferrari  1m41.681s  1m41.642s
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m41.707s  1m41.738s
18.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m41.824s
19.  Trulli       Lotus-Cosworth       1m43.516s
20.  Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth       1m43.712s
21.  Glock        Virgin-Cosworth      1m44.095s
22.  di Grassi    Virgin-Cosworth      1m44.510s
23.  Senna        Hispania-Cosworth    1m45.085s
24.  Klien        Hispania-Cosworth    1m45.296s

All timing unofficial

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