Apr 10 2011

F1: Sepang

Once again I used up most of my good material yesterday for Qualifying, which is ok I guess since unless there are surprises or someone blows up or parks there’s just not a lot to talk about; and if you’re not going to cover all of Qualifying and cut it so you can carry your lame Scuderia Marlboro UPC suck up fest and repeat everything everybody knew 2 weeks ago there’s hardly any point at all.

Pick any random race from last year and you have almost exactly the same Starting Grid.  Michael Schumacher once again underperforms and Kamui Kobayashi does better than expected.  Everyone made the 107% limit so we start a field of 24.

As we approach the actual race there are 2 scenarios- rain and not rain.

If it doesn’t rain then the drivers and teams who waited in the pits until the last 2 and a half minutes of Qualifying (warm up and hot lap) may have done themselves a favor in terms of tire wear since Sepang is notoriously tough because of the heat and cornering.  On the other hand everyone might start a fresh set of Wets which will be exciting racing.  If dry they are predicting 3 or 4 pits.  The bottom 14 get a chance to start Hards (weather permitting) and run some tire strategy.  Right now the forecast is for temperatures in the high 80s, 70 – 80% humidity, and a 60% chance of scattered Thunderstorms (if there is lightning they Red Flag the race because it’s just not safe).

Nothing I’ve seen yet has changed my overall opinion, which is that it’s McLaren and Red Bull and everybody else.  Hamilton and Button will be running handcrafted Titanium underwings that they’re running their exhausts back to front over to improve downforce.  The exhaust direction is not unique, all the other teams are doing the same thing but their wings are Carbon Fiber.

Pretty tables and discussion below.

Once again the Q-Laps field gives an indication of tire and engine wear during qualifying.  If it rains, of course, tire strategy goes out the window.

Starting Grid

Grid Driver Team Q-Time Q-Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:34.9 12
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:35.0 19
3 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:35.2 17
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:35.2 15
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:35.8 14
6 Nick Heidfeld Renault 01:36.1 9
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:36.3 13
8 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:36.3 9
9 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 01:36.8 17
10 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 01:36.8 13
11 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:37.035 12
12 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:37.160 13
13 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:37.347 12
14 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:37.370 12
15 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:37.496 15
16 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:37.528 10
17 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:37.593 9
18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 01:38.3 8
19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 01:38.6 8
20 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 01:38.8 8
21 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:40.6 8
22 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 01:41.0 7
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 01:41.5 7
24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 01:42.6 7

Driver Standings

Rank Driver Team Points
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 25
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 18
3 Vitaly Petrov Renault 15
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 12
5 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 10
6 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 8
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 6
8 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 4
9 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2
10 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1

Constructor Standings

Rank Team Points
1 RBR-Renault 35
2 McLaren-Mercedes 26
3 Ferrari 18
4 Renault 15
5 STR-Ferrari 4
6 Force India-Mercedes 3

rustymancuso581

81 comments

Skip to comment form

  2. Nothing happened during practice that wasn’t totally superseded by Qualifying which was uneventful.

  5. Hope you got more out of it than I did.

  6. say it’s a matter of when, not if, they bring out the safety car; but the F1 official forecast is for no rain.

    It does look dark and gloomy.

  9. Ready to start.

  11. Schumacher moves to 6th.

  12. Vettel

    Heidfeld

    Hamilton

    Button

    Petrov

    Massa

    Alonso

    Schumacher

    Kobayashi

    Webber

  13. Typical.

  14. And thye are already losing pieces of the cars.

  15. We do this every race, click the tags for past coverage.

  17. seems to be a vulnerable part

  19. Tire wear already an issue.

  20. The bigger issue for Red Bull is they can’t control the recharge so it’s sucking power (like turning on your air conditioner) at random points.

  21. Vettel

    Hamilton

    Button

    Massa

    Alonso

    Petrov

    Schumacher

    Kobayashi

    Webber

  24. Webber pitted at the wrong time.

  28. Schumacher too.

  29. Petrov

    Vettel

    Kobayashi

    Hamiltom

    Buemi

    Button

    Alonso

    Heidfeld

    Massa

    Schumacher

  32. Racecast keeps locking up on me and they’re WRONG about Vettel’s pits.

  33. Vettel

    Hamilton

    Alonso

    Button

    Heidfeld

    Webber

    Massa

    Petrov

    di Resta

    Schumacher

  41. More UPC cheerleading.

  42. Vettel

    Massa

    Alonso

    Heidfeld

    Hamilton

    Petrov

    Button

    Webber

    Schumacher

    Kobayashi

  43. Hamilton back in 2nd.

  44. Next week China.

  47. Vettel

    Hamilton

    Button

    Alonso

    Webber

    Heidfeld

    Massa

    Kobayashi

    Schumacher

    Petrov

  48. had to finish an article for 2 and still need to find a rant. Too may distractions earlier and needed a nap badly

  49. He’s already used the Hards.

Load more

Comments have been disabled.