Qualy weights show Vettel's true class

This time Vettel has a good chance of winning with his heavier fuel load and starting on pole. Lets just hope he doesn't throw it away to Barrichello by making a mistake on the first lap like in Turkey. Go Vettel!

Saturday 20th June 2009

Sebastian Vettel's pole position time around Silverstone become even more impressive once the FIA released the weights of the cars.

Vettel will start Sunday's British GP from the P1 slot on the grid after clocking a 1:19.509, which put him 0.347s ahead of Rubens Barrichello and an additional tenth quicker than his team-mate.

What's impressive, though, is fact that Vettel was carrying more fuel than both his rivals. And in fact, he is the heaviest of all ten drivers who took part in the pole position shoot-out.

Meanwhile, Webber will have to rely on raw pace to get ahead of Barrichello as the duo are on similar fuel strategies as is fourth-placed Jarno Trulli.

The lightest of the top ten was Kazuki Nakajima, which probably explains why he managed to qualify ahead of his Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg, who was almost 10kgs heavier.

Slotted in between the two Williams is Jenson Button, who is on a similar weight load to his team-mate.

Weights
01 Sebastian Vettel: 666.5 kg
02 Rubens Barrichello: 657.5 kg
03 Mark Webber: 659.5 kg
04 Jarno Trulli: 658 kg
05 Kazuki Nakajima: 652.5 kg
06 Jenson Button: 657.5 kg
07 Nico Rosberg: 661.5 kg
08 Timo Glock: 660 kg
09 Kimi Räikkönen: 654 kg
10 Fernando Alonso: 654 kg
11 Felipe Massa: 675 kg
12 Robert Kubica: 689.5 kg
13 Heikki Kovalainen: 695.5 kg
14 Nelson Piquet: 682.5 kg
15 Nick Heidfeld: 665.5 kg
16 Giancarlo Fisichella: 668 kg
17 Sébastien Bourdais: 687.5 kg
18 Adrian Sutil: 692 kg
19 Lewis Hamilton: 666 kg
20 Sébastien Buemi: 672.5 kg

Source : Planet F1

Qualy: Vettel pips the wrong Brawn to pole

Saturday 20th June 2009

Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for Sunday's British GP beating a BrawnGP driver, but it wasn't the one British fans were hoping for.

Vettel, who had the measure of his rivals for two of the weekend's three practice sessions, put his revised RB5 to good use on Saturday afternoon, taking pole position with a 1:19.509.

That put him ahead of Rubens Barrichello who finished 0.347s behind the German, while Button could only manage sixth place on his home grid. Mark Webber was third for Red Bull, finishing ahead of Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima.

Meanwhile, a huge accident for Adrian Sutil with 24s left on the clock in Q1 cost Lewis Hamilton any chance of making it through to the next session. He will start P19. Sutil, thankfully, escaped unhurt although his Force India was destroyed.

Qualifying 1
Following showers in the morning, conditions were still cloudy with sunny intervals and the possibility of the odd shower. The track temperature was only 25C with an ambient of 16C.

Adrian Sutil set the first sub 1:21 lap in the heavily revised Force India. His 1:20.860 was soon beaten by Bourdais, 1:20.590 and then steadily whittled down by Jarno Trulli on a three-lap stint - 1:19.915, 1:19.356 and finally 1:18.886.

The Red Bulls cast this aside, first Mark Webber set P1 with a 1:18.763 and then Vettel reduced it to a 1:18.685 before Webber reclaimed it with a 1:18.674.

Both Brawns looked unlikely to depose the Red Bulls but were running in the top ten, while the Mclarens looked ponderously slow.

Coming into the final three minutes of the session and the danger zone was: 11.Kubica, 12.Fisichella, 13.Bourdais, 14.Sutil, 15.Hamilton, 16.Raikkonen, 17.Heidfeld, 18.Massa, 19.Buemi, 20.Kovalainen

As the time ticked down Raikkonen put his Ferrari up into P6, Kovalainen could only manage P17 from the first lap of two, before elevating himself to a precarious P14 on the second. Nick Heidfeld managed to get himself into P12 and Lewis Hamilton was setting a faster time when the session was red-flagged.

Adrian Sutil's Force India had suffered brake failure turning into Abbey and run straight on into the barriers, the car spinning round and hitting backwards. The Force India was a major wreck and with just half a minute left on the clock it meant that no-one could improve their time from that point onward.

Kazuki Nakajima had just managed to set the fastest time with an impressive 1:18.530 and Jenson Button had hauled himself up to 5th, but Lewis Hamilton was stranded down in 19th place. So out went:

16.Fisichella
17.Bourdais
18.Sutil
19.Hamilton
20.Buemi

It was the third time in a row that the World Champion had exited in Q1 and was also a disappointment for the Force India team who had hoped to get at least one, if not both cars into Q2 having shown improved form in practice.

Qualifying2

The track temperature had crept up a degree for Q2 but not enough to suit the Brawns which thrive on warm tarmac.

Felipe Massa steered his Ferrari to the first P1 time of the session at 1:19.257 which was put into context by an early-running Mark Webber and a 1:18.638 set on hard tyres, followed by a superb1:18.209 which meant he wouldn't have to run again.

The time stood up until the very last seconds of the session, but with three minutes left the dropzone looked like this: 8.Glock, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Massa, 11.Button, 12.Kubica, 13.Piquet, 14.Heidfeld, 15.Kovalainen

Nelson Piquet Junior put a wheel on the grass at the exit of Woodcote and ruined a hot lap. Rosberg improved to P4, Kovalainen could only manage P13, Raikkonen jumped to P3 with the fastest first sector of the weekend, Massa could only manage P8, Button posted P7, Rubens improved to P3, Glock moved to P8.

Drivers had been fuelled for at least two hot laps and Button had slipped to P9 before regaining P8 and Alonso's last dash put him into P9. Felipe Massa had slipped to P11, but his subsequent lap was not quicker.

Then, at the very close, Sebastian Vettel showed who the fastest Red Bull runner was with the fastest lap of the GP weekend, a 1:18.119. So out went:
11.Massa
12.Kubica
13.Kovalainen
14.Piquet
15.Heidfeld

Massa will have been disappointed to make his exit, but his time was almost 0.4 shy of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's time.

Qualifying 3

Only three men had taken pole in 2009 and it looked likely that Mark Webber might make it four as the session kicked off.

Barrichello set provisional pole with a 1:21.417, Vettel easily beat it with a 1:20.863 while Jenson Button slotted into P2 (would this be one of Jenson's last minute rescues). Rubens re-took P1 with a 1:20.536 when he had more heat in his tyres second time round.

Vettel didn't have such a quantum improvement from lap to lap but he was able to reduce the P1 time to 1:20.404. Mark Webber had set a sluggish first lap good enough for only P7, but second time round he scorched to a 1:20.040 taking provisional pole by a massive 0.4 of a second.

So, after the first runs, the order was: Webber, Vettel, Barrichello, Rosberg, Button, Trulli, Alonso, Raikkonen, Glock, Nakajima.

Into the final runs (some one-lap, some two-lap) and Rubens was the first to get into the 1:19s with an exceptionally good 1:19.856, Vettel took P1 off him with a 1:19.509 but it looked likely that Mark Webber would continue his massive advantage. Trulli edged into P4, Rosberg to P5 and then Button re-established himself in P5.

Meanwhile Mark Webber had a disastrous first sector and instead of setting a 25.5 down to the Hangar Straight timing point, he put in a 26.1 - that lap was blown. His second hot lap suffered from his tyres going away and he could only manage a 1:19.868 good enough for P3.

Vettel had improved by 0.9 from lap to lap, Barrichello by 0.8 and Mark by just 0.15 and that was pole lost. At the very last moment Kazuki Nakajima rewarded Williams with a P5 start, demoting Button to P6 and beating his team-mate by 0.15 for a change.

The true picture will only be revealed when the fuel levels are revealed later this afternoon, but right now this looks like Red Bull's race to lose. When he gets it right Barrichello can be a stellar starter and BrawnGP will be hoping for a warmer race day to get their tyres working. There could still be fireworks at the front because Rubens will see it as a major opportunity to pull points back on Jenson Button.

FH

Times
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:19.509
02 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:19.856
03 M. Webber Red Bull 1:19.868
04 J. Trulli Toyota 1:20.091
05 K. Nakajima Williams 1:20.216
06 J. Button Brawn GP 1:20.289
07 N. Rosberg Williams 1:20.361
08 T. Glock Toyota 1:20.490
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:19.010
10 F. Alonso Renault 1:20.741
11 F. Massa Ferrari 1:18.927
12 R. Kubica BMW 1:19.308
13 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:19.353
14 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:19.392
15 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:19.448
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:19.802
17 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.898
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.909
19 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:19.917
20 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.236

Source : Planet F1

Lewis refuses to blame Sutil for dismal qualy

Saturday 20th June 2009

Lewis Hamilton is refusing to proclaim that he would have been on pole if it hadn't been for Adrian Sutil crash forcing him out of Q1 at Silverstone.

The McLaren driver, who was languishing down in 19th, was on a flying lap when Sutil crashed his Force India into the barriers at the Abbey chicane during Q1.

Because of the severity of the accident the session was red flag and the 24s remaining on the clock did not leave Hamilton - or anyone else - with enough time to put in an out lap and a flying lap.

Thus he dropped out of qualifying and will start P19 on the grid for his home race.

"I did the best I could today," said Hamilton. "I was pushing as hard as I could but our car is too slow. I gave it my all and there wasn't really much more I could have got from the car."

He also refused to blame Sutil's accident for his disappointing qualifying.

"I was pushing on that final lap - but it was nothing special. However, we live to fight another day and anything can happen in the race tomorrow.

"We'll keep pushing on and hopefully put on a good show for all the fans. The great thing is that I've had incredible support these past few days from the fans - they're the ones who are really helping me to get through it, so a big thank-you to all of them."

Meanwhile, team boss Martin Whitmarsh was left to lament Hamilton's lack of luck: "Lewis was a little unlucky to have his final quick-lap cut short by Sutil's accident.

"Today's result is not a surprise, but it demonstrates that we still have work to do to address MP4-24's weaknesses in high-speed corners.

"Nonetheless, we're already fully focused on the race tomorrow and mindful that we could still produce a strong result in front of the many thousands of passionate fans who will be cheering us on."

Source : Planet F1

British Grand Prix Preview

Wednesday 17th June 2009

If Simon Gillett, the developer of the Donington Circuit is to be believed, then this is the last British GP at Silverstone for at least the next 17 years. That's the length of the contract he's been given to run the F1 grand prix.

He may not have time on his side or the necessary investment, but what he can rely on is a big audience.

In Turkey at the last round they couldn't attract punters in with a £40 weekend pass and £200 grandstand seats. This weekend Silverstone will be full to bursting with punters paying £180 for a weekend pass alone. Which makes the prospect of taking this grand prix off the calendar a total nonsense. Just as it has been in Canada,

Montreal and Silverstone may not have circuit buildings that look like a Disney-inspired industrial estate, but they do have something far more relevant. Fans.

This weekend they'll be packing out the Northamptonshire circuit in the hope of a Jenson Button victory. However armed with typical British pragmatism they won't mind if he comes in the top three and maintains his championship challenge. Most of them will have despaired of Jenson ever getting into a top class car and this weekend will be more like a celebration of the season so far than a need to see him on the top step of the podium.

The former WWII bomber training base is similar to Turkey in that it has a lot of high speed corners, such as Copse, Becketts and Stowe, but it also has the fiddly Brooklands and Luffield complex making it far more of a compromise on set-up.

As we've seen from wins in Monaco and then Turkey, Brawn can do fiddly and high speed tracks, but can they do high-speed with fiddly? Certainly both BrawnGP drivers have an intimate knowledge of the track, Rubens having competed there since his F3 days and Button competing there since before he could produce any kind of ginger facial offence.

Rubens will be keen to get his starting mechanism sorted out having messed up royally in Istanbul. Hopefully by now he'll have gained a sense of proportion and remembered that he had a dog of a start in Australia, yet blinders in Barcelona and Monaco to balance that out

The Red Bulls will be up there vying for the front row and a Mark Webber win would probably go down almost as well as a Button victory. Webbo's been getting the better of his team mate of late and could even overhaul Vettel in the championship race this weekend.

Toyota should also be a force to contend with, along with the resurgent (though not as surgent as most people expected) Ferrari and BMW teams. It's unlikely to be such a fantastic weekend for the McLaren team and they've been doing their best to dampen down expectations.

Dampening down the circuit might be the best method of securing a Lewis Hamilton podium, but the long-range weather forecast is predicting a dry weekend, with all the rain being stored up for the following weekend's Glastonbury Festival.

Renault are in exactly the same position as McLaren and Fernando Alonso's continued presence in the team is a bit like Button in reverse. All that potential wasted in a below-average car.

F1 fans tend to get engrossed in the sport they love, and all the F1 vs FOTA machinations have tended to obscure the basic fault of motorsport compared to football, or rugby or tennis. My wife asked me why Jenson Button was so good all of a sudden seeing as he'd been in F1 since 2000; "Aah," I replied, "he's only just got a car that's good enough."

"So," she said with the kind of withering clarity I've had to endure for quite some time, "it's not the driver it's the car. How is that a sport?"

I could have given her a very long and complicated answer, but the easiest way out was, "yeah." Had we adopted Max Mosley's Idea-of-the-Year circa 2001 where drivers swap teams each race, then actually we could have more of a sport.

Under that regime the very best drivers would be fighting at the front all season long and we wouldn't have waited nine years to see Jenson Button arrive at his home grand prix leading the World Championship. Given that F1 is reluctant to give up its traditions lightly he better enjoy it while it lasts.

Source : Planet F1