F1: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

As usual, you got the good stuff yesterday.  Today I’ll just ramble.

Overall Qualifying was more entertaining than it usually is.  Conditions were wet with rain in fits and a drying line at the end when they brought out the Softs.  If it rains again today many teams will be in trouble since you only get 3 sets of Inters for the weekend and you had to use them all during Practice and most of Qualifying.

Schumacher lost his wheel nut, no deeper explanation given yet.  Button walked back his rather harsh criticism of McLaren, he felt he had been called in too early but later said he lost track of the lap count and didn’t give it all he might have.  Senna did much better than expected despite a faulty KERS which is a big problem for Heidfeld, but also for Romain Grosjean who clinched his GP 2 title yesterday.  Hamilton’s contact with Maldonado after the end of Qualifying was resolved in favor of Hamilton with Maldonado suffering a 5 position penalty and Hamilton a mere reprimand.  All 4 drivers who failed the 107% rule were given passes to race.  So much for that rule.

As an aside, has anyone besides me noticed that there is much more media attention now that the season is almost finished?  Yesterday’s Evening Edition coverage came from all 3 wire services- AFP (11), Reuters (28), and AP (44).

What will we see today?  Well it kind of depends on the weather.  If Irene knocks out my power, internet, or cable I won’t see much, you’ll have to make your own fun.  It has rained all weekend at Spa and if it’s not dry enough for Softs I don’t know what the stewards will do (my Dad says they’d be idiots not to issue another set of Inters and Wets).  I note that as I write this during the start of the GP 2 preliminary you can see shadows, but there are clouds in the sky.

Other than that there are some fast guys at the back of the grid so there will be some off lead racing as people move up.  There have been no substantial changes to the cars except Renault who has been falling farther and farther behind Mercedes in the second tier group.

Scuderia Marlboro UPC has taken it’s engineering group off this year’s car and put it on next year’s machine.  ‘We must get off to a fast start!’ says Maranello.  They said that last year and the year before too.  The truth is that only 2 teams are strong enough to continue development for this year AND develop for next- McLaren and Red Bull (which is strong enough to support 2 teams).

The Driver’s Championship is all but decided.  Heidfeld’s mathematical chances were that he had to finish first and Vettel DNF for all the remaining races and everyone else is in pretty much the same boat.  The Constructor’s Championship would be closer if McLaren made better decisions and could ever finish 2 cars in the same race.

This is race 12 of 19, not halfway, and who knows, lightning could stri

Enjoy the rest of the season.  Speed coverage starts at 7:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

Starting Grid

Grid Driver Team Q-Time Q-Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:48.3 22
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:48.7 21
3 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:49.4 23
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:50.3 21
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 01:50.6 23
6 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 01:50.8 24
7 Bruno Senna Renault 01:51.1 24
8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:51.3 22
9 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 01:51.4 24
10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:52.3 23
11 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 02:04.7 18
12 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 02:04.8 18
13 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 02:05.2 15
14 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 02:07.3 17
15 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 02:07.8 12
16 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 02:08.4 15
17 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 02:07.8 8
18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 02:08.8 8
19 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 02:09.6 9
20 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 02:08.1 17
21 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 02:11.6 9
22 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 02:11.6 9
23 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 02:13.1 9
24 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1

Driver Standings

Rank Driver Team Points
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 234
2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 149
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 146
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 145
5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 134
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 70
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 48
8 Nick Heidfeld Renault 34
9 Vitaly Petrov Renault 32
10 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 32
11 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 27
12 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 18
13 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 12
14 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 10
15 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 8
16 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 8
17 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 4

Constructor Standings

Rank Team Points
1 RBR-Renault 383
2 McLaren-Mercedes 280
3 Ferrari 215
4 Mercedes 80
5 Renault 66
6 Sauber-Ferrari 35
7 Force India-Mercedes 26
8 STR-Ferrari 22
9 Williams-Cosworth 4
10 Lotus-Renault 0
11 HRT-Cosworth 0
12 Virgin-Cosworth 0

36 comments

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  1. Well, they all will, but his are particularly bad and he’ll have to pit early.

  2. Suspension damage.

  3. Glock and di Resta too.

  4. Vettel

    Rosberg

    Massa

    Hamilton

    Alonso

    Buemi

    Perez

    Webber

    Kobayashi

    Petrov

  5. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Rosberg

    Massa

    Vettel

    Kobayashi

    Petrov

    Sutil

    Webber

    di Resta

  6. Ugh.

    Safety Car out.

    Everyone pits.

  7. Alonso

    Webber

    Vettel

    Massa

    Rosberg

    Sutil

    Perez

    Petrov

    Schumacher

    Barrichello

  8. Vettel

    Alonso

    Vettel

    Rosberg

    Massa

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    Button

    Petrov

    Perez

  9. Vettel

    Alonso

    Webber

    Rosberg

    Massa

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    Button

    Petrov

    Perez

  10. Probably at the start.

  11. Vettel

    Alonso

    Webber

    Button

    Rosberg

    Massa

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    Petrov

    Maldonado

  12. Everybody pits.

  13. Button

    Webber

    Vettel

    Alonso

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    Rosberg

    Petrov

    Massa

    Barrichello

  14. Vettel

    Webber

    Alonso

    Button

    Rosberg

    Schumacher

    Sutil

    Petrov

    Maldonado

    Massa

  15. Vettel

    Webber

    Button

    Alonso

    Schumacher

    Rosberg

    Sutil

    Petrov

    Massa

    Maldonado

  16. Vettel

    Webber

    Button

    Alonso

    Schumacher

    Rosberg

    Sutil

    Massa

    Petrov

    Maldonado

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