Sebastian Vettel won his 11th race of the season, also attaining the fastest lap of the race to match his pole position and victory in the first great race in India. It was the first time Vettel has been able to score all three.

Despite all the dust and slow work that almost led to a cancellation, the event was a success, unless your name is Felipe Massa. Massa left Lewis Hamilton no room and the pair collided for the sixth time this season. Six. In seventeen races.

Massa was given a drive through penalty, and shortly afterwards hit a curb and broke his front suspension. No, that’s not a replay from qualifying, where it broke on the right…this time around he needs to break it on the left! And the first shot of Felipe after retiring? Him heading into the stewards’ office to complain about being penalized for closing the door on Hamilton.

Kamui Kobayashi was taken out by contact during the first lap, as was Jarno Trulli’s wing. He was able to continue on, 5 laps down from Vettel at the end, clearly making it worthwhile to have an experienced driver in over Karun Chandhok. Mark Webber again had a fine start, but he was no match for Jenson Button who quickly passed him before DRS was even enabled. Vettel was able to take off and easily cruise his way to a win, of course.

Though Massa-Hamilton was clearly the incident of the race, the fight for points between Toro Rosso and Sauber was a bit less explosive. Both teams are now tied in the constructor’s championship. Toro Rosso more than likely lost out on points when Sebastien Buemi’s engine blew. Jaime Alguersuari finished 8th, and Sergio Perez 10th.

Racing will be back in 2 weeks at Abu Dhabi, only two more races to go this season!

Results follow: » Continue reading “Indian GP Recap: Leave No Front Suspension Unbroken!”

Sebastian Vettel secured his 13th pole position of the season. After setting the time his engineer told him, “Prost, 13. Senna, 13. Vettel, 13.” Vettel beat his own pole position time at the end of Q3, with a fast 1:24.178 lap on the new Buddh International Circuit. This is also the 16th pole position of the year for Red Bull Racing.

There are so many grid penalties for this race. Besides Vitaly Petrov’s penalty from last race, and the penalties for driving fast through the yellow flags for Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, three more drivers have penalties. Narain Karthikeyan was given one for “impeding” (being slow) during qualifying, and Daniel Ricciardo and Timo Glock changed gearboxes.

Timo Glock also managed to not even set a time within the 107% rule in Q1, so he’ll be the one actually starting last. Q1, as always, knocked out the typical slow three teams plus somebody else. Of course “somebody else” was always going to get to move up a bit: Kamui Kobayashi starts higher thanks to his teammate Sergio Perez’s penalty.

Actual list of drivers knocked out in Q1 (18-24): Kobayashi, Kovalainen, Trulli, Karthikeyan, Ricciardo, D’Ambrosio, Glock

Actual grid for spots 18-24: Kovalainen, Trulli, Perez, D’Ambrosio, Ricciardo, Karthikeyan, Glock

In Q2, Toro Rosso showed their power as Renault continued to struggle. While Vitaly Petrov was fastest during Q1, he was knocked out this time. Both Williams cars were also knocked out, along with Paul di Resta.

Once again, Q3 turns dull with drivers saving tires: that would be both Toro Rosso cars and Adrian Sutil. This is incredibly boring for the fans, and either something needs to change with tires or penalties start getting awarded. You don’t want to run in Q3? Then you get to start like you were knocked out in Q2.

Anyway. Sebastian Vettel set a fast lap, which was good enough after Lewis Hamilton could not set a better one. That was not enough, as Vettel went fastest again, perhaps to give everyone a show with only 7 cars being out on track.

Felipe Massa’s front suspension broke over a curb towards the end of the session, leading him to call for changes to the curb. He will start sixth.

Because of Hamilton’s penalty, it will be a Red Bull 1-2, with Lewis starting 5th after his penalty.

This is the first time ever that all four Red Bull-owned cars are starting in the top 10. Owning an energy drink company and buying some racing teams truly pays off.

Provisional grid below the cut. This is the actual grid for tomorrow, complete with everybody’s penalties and not the one from qualifying. » Continue reading “Indian Grand Prix Qualifying: Lucky Number 13″

A perfect picture summary of the day's events.

Bruno Senna’s worst GP2 nightmare came to Formula 1 today when a dog was spotted on track. Thankfully for Senna, who lost his front wing hitting a dog in Istanbul a few years ago, practice was suspended until the dog was off the track.

He said it’s definitely a problem that he saw the dog at the entrance to the paddock, and nobody did anything until it was a legitimate problem.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the first session, although later he was given a 3 grid spot penalty for setting his fastest lap while yellow flags were still waving near the site of Pastor Maldonado’s car, stopped because of engine troubles. Sergio Perez also received the same penalty for also setting his fastest lap while the yellow flag was out.

Hamilton fully accepts the penalty as his fault, as he had DRS enabled through there. Of course he has nobody to blame but himself, I love that he said “it was only me driving.” Sad he has to say that because DUH.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were second and third fastest, with Jenson Button and the two Mercedes drivers behind them over a second.

Besides dogs and penalties, the word of the weekend is dust. Please note that it is highly recommended to leave dust out of your F1 drinking games this weekend, for you will need your stomach pumped before the race even starts.

Sebastian Vettel thinks the track will be better by the time of the race as the cars clear the track, but the off line will be extremely dusty. Of course then, if a car goes off into a dusty part of the track, coming back on the racing line means dust is brought back on.

For the afternoon session, Felipe Massa was the fastest car on track. Pastor Maldonado again had issues, this time going off into the gravel. A red flag occurred thanks to Jerome D’Ambrosio putting his Virgin into a wall, and not a wandering dog this time around.

The Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher did horribly compared to the first session, finishing 19th and 21st respectively.

Vettel was once again second, followed by Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Mark Webber.

And on top of everything, the Metallica concert that coincides with race weekend was postponed due to “technical issues,” causing some people to get angry and start beating up on equipment. Sounds like for the most part everything has settled down though. There were also reports of fans waiting over 2 hours for a bus to come show up again to take them from the circuit after practice sessions were done.

Photo from Flickr user ccho.

Buddh International Circuit

Inaugural race schedule (all times eastern)
Friday October 28
First practice session: 12:30am
Second practice session: 4:30am, live on SPEED

Saturday October 29
Final practice session: 1:30am
Qualifying: 4:30am, live on SPEED

Sunday October 30
Race: 5:30am, pre-race at 4:30am on SPEED

First and third practice sessions available for live streaming on speedtv.com

The big story: Championships are settled, but this is still a huge weekend. So far, this new track is plagued with bats and rats, power outages, and plenty of dust. Despite all that, media and teams have had nothing but praise for the circuit, and once everyone gets started running, hopefully the bugs will all get worked out.

Needless to say, it bothers me that people are already saying it will be a disaster. Given the past 2 Sundays, this is ignorant, rude, and downright disrespectful when it’s clear those in charge of this event have all the interest in the world in putting on a show.

The tweets from both media and drivers so far have been second to no other race. Maybe only the comments on the love hotels in South Korea were better, but all the curry talk outdoes that.

This is a brand new track, and nobody has yet to really get a run on it, so practice will be the first time we all truly figure anything out. That’s the excitement of a new track, and it will be interesting to see how it does seeing as it is yet another Herman Tilke creation.

DRS Zone: There will be two zones at the Buddh International Circuit. The first zone will be after turn 16, down the pit straight, with the detection zone after turn 15. The other zone will be between turns 3 and 4, the other long straight, with the detection zone at the entry to turn 3.

Tires: The hard Pirelli tire will be the option tire, with the softs as the prime. This is a bit different than usual, when the harder compound is usually the prime. With more softs, the teams will be able to run them more and provide more feedback to Pirelli.

Weather: Hot and sunny with no chance for rain, exactly what you’d figure to have for weather in India.

Circuit layout thanks to Wikimedia Commons user Pyrope.

Although it was announced yesterday, this whole Team Lotus-Karun Chandhok issue got lost in my Grand Prix of America excitement. It does seem that Karun is taking it in stride today after initial disappointment.

Chandhok will not be racing this weekend in place of Heikki Kovalainen or Jarno Trulli. He will participate in Friday practice, so all is not lost for the Indian fans coming out to see him. He’s always come across as WAY more ecstatic about this race than Narain Karthikeyan, so reading through all his enthusiastic tweets and retweets since yesterday even makes me smile.

While he is frustrated, he still hoped everyone that comes out to see him at the brand new circuit has a great time. Chandhok has quite a high profile in India, and he has done well over 2 dozen interviews leading up to the start of the Grand Prix weekend!

My problem is this. Team Lotus say they want to have an “experienced driver in place for their tenth place battle for the Constructor’s Championship.” Those other two teams in this “battle” are HRT and Virgin. How many of these teams have points? Zero. How many times is there an inaugural Indian Grand Prix? Once. It’s sadly not a matter of experience but a matter of luck for any of those 3 teams to make it into the points any time soon. And it’s sad that Chandhok has to sit out for this.

Of course, I’d love to see Team Lotus score some points. I hope they do, but I just highly doubt it. But nonetheless, it’s good to see Karun still doing the best ambassador work he can for his country’s first race. Totally jealous we won’t have that for next year.

Clearly the most important thing that matters right now is the official confirmation of the New Jersey race tomorrow afternoon. But for a guy with his job on the line, Adrian Sutil has got a few words for the media.

Sutil is clearly not into Vijay Mallya’s idea of waiting until December for driver lineup announcements when the rumors about Hulkenberg taking his seat are flying around in October. Sutil plans to talk with Mallya, though I’m sure he’ll just get the same answer: the current matter for the team is fighting for points with Toro Rosso and Sauber.

Narain Karthikeyan is psyching everyone up for this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix. The HRT reserve driver will be racing this weekend, surprisingly taking Vitantonio Liuzzi’s seat rather than Daniel Ricciardo’s. Narain says it’s going to be a great surprise for his fellow drivers, and for the Indian public. According to him, the casual observer in India expects him to do well but doesn’t quite understand that he’s at the back of the pack. Nevertheless, he figures it’ll be an enjoyable experience for everyone.

From the results on the Red Bull simulator, the Buddh International Circuit could be the second quickest circuit on the calendar this year. The track was designed by Herman Tilke, like most newer tracks. Karthikeyan doesn’t think it will have the same bore factor though, since there’s actually a bit of elevation changes.

Meanwhile, Mumbai is looking into plans to also build a circuit. While not specifically meant for Formula 1, the idea is to attract the “highest levels of car and motorcycle racing.”

Finally, while talking about motorcycle racing, motorsport lost another far too soon. Marco Simoncelli, an Italian MotoGP rider, was killed Sunday morning at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Marco lost his helmet as he went down, and two other riders were unable to avoid him. Thoughts go out to him and his family, along with the entire MotoGP group at this time.

Photo from Flickr user p_c_w.

First and foremost, let’s look at who has to pay up for errors at Singapore!

Renault was fined 7,500 Euros for a communication failure under the safety car. The team told Bruno Senna that he was behind Sergio Perez. He was indeed behind Perez on track, but in actuality Senna was a lap down from the Sauber driver. When Senna went in for the overtake after the safety car, he collided with Perez.

Team Lotus was fined 10,000 Euros for the unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen in the pit lane. Kovalainen nearly collided with race winner Sebastian Vettel.

Michael Schumacher received a slap on the wrist for his accident, which saw him go slightly airborne as he ran into the back of Sergio Perez’s car. Despite everyone running into poor Sergio, he finished the race and appeared NOT to lash out at anyone…unlike a certain Brazilian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJfg-vjEgA

Felipe Massa interrupted an interview Lewis Hamilton was doing by slapping and pulling on his rival’s arm while saying “well done, good job.” You can hear Lewis tell him “don’t touch me.” Massa now claims that he is “over it.” Note that his boss, team principal Stefano Domenicali, said in an interview that he believed the contact between Hamilton and Massa during the race was just a racing incident.

Next month’s Indian Grand Prix comes with a slightly ridiculous tax issues. There is some confusion on whether or not drivers will be taxed on their income, but it looks like India wants a seventy percent corporation tax on 1/19 on each team’s turnover. Organizers have claimed they would pay customs and taxes for the teams, but that has yet to be seen. The 70% tax is absolutely insane, though. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but let’s say it’s $19 million (seems way low), 1/19 is a million, and 70% is 700,000. That is just a bit ridiculous for these teams towards the back of the grid. There’s talk of boycotting the event, and I’d completely understand. India, that’s a bit greedy for an event you’ve yet to even hold.

Additionally, a couple weeks ago some press members and others related to the sport were having issues getting visas for visiting India. Journalists need journalist visas, and they cost more than the tourist visas, and for god’s sake, the director of communications for the FIA is unhappy. If things continue like this, this race is going to have the plug pulled on it faster than you can say Istanbul Park.

This article is in German but it is a collection of ugly Formula 1 cars in celebration that rule changes next year will bring us another wave of ugly cars. Hopefully this time around, the cars that are ugly due to their 1970s dates will not be back. There are some hideous things in here.