When last we chatted about Hamilton’s prospects I was convinced he’d stay at McLaren and Mercedes wasn’t even on the chart. Why? Because they have a slow car, arguably 5th slowest out of 12 and some of the Sauber and Force India fans would contend lower than that.
What Mercedes does have is Ross Brawn (who also snagged Schumacher) and Nico Rosberg (Carting team mate) who are both very good friends.
I still don’t think this was a wise decision from a competitive standpoint, but the heart want’s what it wants and it’s not irrational at all for Hamilton to feel that McLaren’s track management mistakes were holding him back.
Schumacher was done anyway, he’s been driving like a man who just doesn’t care for the last two years. This leaves an opening at McLaren with no obvious (or rather- too many) contenders.
Well we finally have an explanation of why Scuderia Marlboro UPC sucked so bad these past few seasons, their wind tunnel is a piece of crap. Lotus is not going to get a chance to use their new wing, probably for the season, because there is just not enough track test time.
Hards and Softs, no Mediums. What this means is there will be a very distinct performance/durability gap between them. Pirelli is predicting a 3 stop race, but some teams may try for 2.
Schumacher penalized 20 positions for the collision at Marina Bay, Button and Hulkenberg lose 5 positions for a gearbox change. Vettel escapes with a mere reprimand for blocking Alonso. Hamilton qualified exceptionally poorly because he was behind the last lap crash of Raikkonen.
Suzuka is very fast, but doesn’t have a lot of passing opportunities. This race will likely be won or lost on tire strategy and pit stops unless there are mechanical failures or accidents.
Interactive Track
Suzuka
Official Sites
Pretty tables below.
Starting Grid
| Grid | Driver | Team | Q-Time | Q-Laps |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:30.8 | 11 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:31.1 | 15 |
| 3 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:31.7 | 16 |
| 4 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:31.9 | 20 |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:32.0 | 20 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:32.1 | 17 |
| 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1:32.2 | 18 |
| 8 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:31.3 | 14 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:32.3 | 17 |
| 10 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:32.293 | 12 |
| 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:32.327 | 14 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:32.512 | 11 |
| 13 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:32.625 | 16 |
| 14 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:32.954 | 14 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:32.272 | 12 |
| 16 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:33.368 | 14 |
| 17 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:33.405 | 8 |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:34.657 | 6 |
| 19 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:35.213 | 8 |
| 20 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:35.385 | 6 |
| 21 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:35.429 | 8 |
| 22 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:35.432 | 8 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:36.734 | 6 |
| 24 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:32.469 | 10 |
Driver Standings
| Rank | Driver | Team | Points |
| 1 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 194 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 165 |
| 3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 149 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 142 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 133 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 119 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 93 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 82 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 65 |
| 10 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 51 |
| 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 44 |
| 12 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 43 |
| 13 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 35 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 31 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 29 |
| 16 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 25 |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 8 |
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 6 |
Constructor Standings
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1 | Red Bull | 297 |
| 2 | McLaren | 261 |
| 3 | Ferrari | 245 |
| 4 | Lotus | 231 |
| 5 | Mercedes | 136 |
| 6 | Sauber | 101 |
| 7 | Force India | 75 |
| 8 | Williams | 54 |
| 9 | Toro Rosso | 14 |
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Vettel
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Typical.
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Needs air for his pneumatic valve lifters.
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Wing adjustment.
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for ignoring blue flags.
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