There have now been seven different winners in this completely crazy season of Formula 1. Lewis Hamilton finally got his first win at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Before the start though, there was one grid penalty…guess who. Pastor Maldonado needed a gearbox change thanks to the damage from his qualifying spin. He started 22nd because of it.

Sebastian Vettel led the race until the pit stops started.

There wasn’t much in the way of collisions or other problems…unless you are HRT. Neither car was able to finish, despite things looking good for de la Rosa this time around. Jean-Eric Vergne had to come through the pits for a drive-through after speeding in the pit lane.

This was also not a great race for Jenson Button, who continued to struggle, or Michael Schumacher, who had to retire after his DRS wing became stuck open. In a great turn of events, it wasn’t so bad for Romain Grosjean for once.

Felipe Massa looked to be doing much better than he has, until he spun around and ended up in 12th. It was a non-eventful race for him after that point.

Fernando Alonso looked to have it in the bag after Hamilton had to make another pit stop. Towards the end of the race, the Ferrari driver began to slow dramatically and ended up in fifth place. Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, and Sebastian Vettel were all able to get by him. Vettel’s chances to be on the podium were lost after his very late pit stop.

Tires once again played a massive role in the race, but thankfully the wear didn’t turn the race into a snorefest. There were some great battles, and Vettel’s pass on Alonso at the end was fantastic.

Results
01. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
02. Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1
03. Sergio Perez, Sauber
04. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
05. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
06. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
07. Mark Webber, Red Bull
08. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
09. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
10. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

» Continue reading “Seven Races, Seven Winners: Lewis Hamilton Wins In Montreal”

Friday June 8
First Practice Session: 10:00am
Second Practice Session: 2:00pm

Saturday June 9
Final Practice Session: 10:00am
Qualifying: 1:00pm

Sunday June 10
Race: 2:00pm

All times Eastern. This race begins SPEED’s absolutely annoying move to showing races on Fox, typically on a time delay after this one. You can watch the second practice session and the qualifying session on SPEED, and the other two practice sessions on their website. A pre-race show will be shown on SPEED before the race at 1:30, and also a post-race show at 4pm.

Last year’s winner: Jenson Button

What to expect: Organizers had to cancel the typical open house in the pit lane today thanks to threats from the immature student protestors in Montreal. Because if you can’t have your way, you should ruin the fun for everyone else…I learned to stop doing that when I was 5.

Anyway. Red Bull are now not allowed to use the floor their car has had for the past few races. It was declared legal to use in Monaco, but it had to be changed for this race. There was talk that they would lose their last win, but that’s kind of ridiculous when the car was deemed fine. Haters. You’re even making Mark Webber mad and you know what happens when you make Mark Webber mad…

McLaren hopes to get their butts into gear once again, considering the poor performance of Jenson Button lately.

Of course, there’s still no sign of who could possibly win this race, because it could entirely be a seventh different driver for the season. Cue continued arguments about whether or not this unpredictability is good for racing/fans/etc. I think since we’re all different people, we all just have to shut up and deal with it. Though personally I enjoy it, and I find it stupid that team principals and what have you, as in people who are not fans, try to tell us how we think.

Weather: The race should be nothing like last year, with temperatures for the weekend in the 70s. There’s a 60% chance right now for rain tomorrow.

Tires: Once again, the tires are softs and supersofts. Tire wear will be key, as the track is not exactly used by cars any other time of the year. As rubber is laid down during practice sessions, the track will progressively become faster.

DRS: There will be a single DRS zone in Montreal this year instead of the two zones last year. The one zone will be located from turn 11 until the final chicane. Word is the second zone on the start/finish line was removed because overtaking was way too easy last year.

Well duh, just ask the winner who went from last to first.

Tomorrow I think I’ll touch on how obnoxious it is to hear blase journalists and people like Alain Prost say the unpredictability and close racing is bad. GET. OVER. IT. Sorry we don’t all get to travel to Monaco and get paid for it. Jeez.

First of all, the two drivers involved in yesterday’s antics in practice ended up dead last on the grid. Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez ended up starting P23 and P24 respectively after gearbox changes.

Mark Webber managed to win from pole today in Monaco, as the rain everyone kept talking about never happened during the race.

One driver, Jean-Eric Vergne, did attempt the gamble on intermediates at the end of the race, which led to him falling out of the points positions.

The first corner of the first lap was chaotic, with Romain Grosjean spinning out and causing a safety car to be brought out so his car could be removed from the track. It was the only time the safety car was needed all race.

Maldonado made his win in Spain look like a total fluke this weekend as he hit the wall on the first lap, taking himself out of the race before it even started.

Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa both had to retire after being involved in these incidents. De la Rosa’s wing was taken out in Maldonado’s crash, and Kobayashi went airborne in the Grosjean incident, and later had to retire because of suspension damage.

Michael Schumacher was also involved in the Romain Grosjean incident, but was able to continue on until problems with fuel pressure took him out of the race.

Jenson Button and McLaren’s woes continued. Button could not get around Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham. Button eventually had to retire towards the end of the race after a spin in his attempts to pass the Finn.

Kovalainen was almost in the points, but lost a few places after an incident with Sergio Perez, who also had a horrible day. Perez impeded Kimi Raikkonen on his way to the pits, causing Raikkonen to lose a position. Perez was given a drive through penalty for the late turn towards the pits.

Sebastian Vettel led the race for a good amount of time as he started on the soft tire. Red Bull were hoping for rain, which never came, but Vettel was able to maintain fourth place.

Lewis Hamilton didn’t enjoy himself much either, after complaining something hit his head near the pit boards, and also whining about not being kept up to date about drivers pitting. Both Fernando Alonso and Vettel were able to come back out of the pits ahead of Hamilton.

Webber makes an unprecedented sixth different winner in as many races. He is also one of the few drivers to win at Monaco from pole. This is however, the second win for Red Bull this season, so they easily have the lead in the Constructor’s Championship now.

Next race is in Montreal, which means I won’t fall asleep towards the end. Although I didn’t miss much of anything, it seems. Webber was able to hold on to his lead, despite having a train of cars behind him. Nico Rosberg was also on the podium once again, joined by Alonso.

Results after the cut: » Continue reading “Mark Webber Wins Monaco GP, Becomes Sixth Different Winner This Season”

Let me just say there’s nothing like waking up and finding out the Pastor Maldonado of last season is back and purposely crashing into people.

Maldonado hit Sergio Perez, barely giving him any room, during final practice. Maldonado eventually also just crashed out of the practice session. He has a ten grid spot penalty for the race, joining Michael Schumacher’s five spot for his incident last race.

So, not surprising that not even 5 minutes into Q1, Sergio Perez crashed out of qualifying. Perez looked completely unable to steer his car.

Drivers had to switch onto the supersoft tires, as the usual cars who qualify in the top ten were way down the charts, not even meeting the 107% rule! But all was well in the end, unless you were in a McLaren.

Knocked out in Q1: Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa, Charles Pic, Narain Karthikeyan, Sergio Perez

Many cars started off on the supersofts for Q2. Jean-Eric Vergne lost his car and took off his front wing, knocking it under the front of his car. He limped his car back to the pits, probably ruining many a fast lap for cars that had to pass him.

With under 3 minutes left, Felipe Massa pulled off a time under 1 minute, 15 seconds, finally dethroning Nico Rosberg’s time. With that time, it was the first Q3 appearance of Massa this season. Finally.

Kimi Raikkonen barely squeaked through to Q3, but Jenson Button failed to make it out of Q2. Button joins the Force Indias, Toro Rossos, Kamui Kobayashi, and Bruno Senna. That’s two races in a row where Button has failed to get out of Q2.

Knocked out in Q2: Nico Hulkenberg, Kamui Kobayashi, Jenson Button, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne

During Q3, more cars posted times in the 1:14 range. All cars were out on track for the last 90 seconds.

Mark Webber looked to be taking pole, and then Michael Schumacher went fastest.

…And while he held up a finger to indicate his number one status, and his engineer said pole position!…you’ve got that five grid spot penalty.

So, Schumacher will start sixth, and Mark Webber is actually on pole. That makes two races in a row where the driver who actually qualifies for first doesn’t start first. You are all terrible people.

Starting grid with two current grid penalties (hopefully no more come along):
01. Mark Webber, Red Bull
02. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
03. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
04. Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1
05. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
06. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
07. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
08. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
09. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India (was not in Q3, starts P10 because of Maldonado’s penalty)
» Continue reading “Mark Webber On Pole Because Grid Penalties Are Awesome!”

Nico Rosberg got off to an early lead, especially with everyone held up by Michael Schumacher. Thankfully pit stops kept the race from looking like a Schumi train.

However, one of the front wheels on Schumacher’s car was not properly attached and he was soon out of the race after his pit stop.

At the start, Jenson Button zoomed ahead to P3 at the start of the race. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel continued to fall further behind everyone.

Massa had the lead as he hadn’t pitted, so Nico Rosberg once again regained his lead with both McLarens behind him.

Each round of pit stops brought on excitement. Kimi Raikkonen easily won in the first round when he just flew by Daniel Ricciardo on cold tires, and even battled for position with Lewis Hamilton down the pit lane.

Sergio Perez tried to hold off Lewis Hamilton about halfway through the race, but repeatedly locked up his tires and needed to pit.

And then there was a 5 car battle for fifth place…because of Felipe Massa. Mark Webber, bored with everything, attempted a take off with his car and had it up on the back two wheels. Thankfully he did not get flipping.

Leaders kept switching. Jenson. Nico. Lewis. Jenson. Nico. Lewis. And once again there’s a screwed up pit stop, this time for Jenson Button and he joined the Massa train to the vortex of boring.

But while SPEED was in commercials, Massa pitted, or just vanished; not sure, they never said.  (Just kidding, he was down in 14th at the time.)

But that didn’t make the fight for second through ninth any less competitive. If you just looked at the front of this race for anything, you would be incredibly bored. But when the other points positions got moving, they really got moving.

Grosjean, Maldonado, and Perez had a crazy fight that eventually was ruined by Alonso. Or, he just won it all because he’s Alonso…although he was only back there because he went off (which SPEED never showed).

Webber and Hamilton battled for 5th place, but Webber held it. Vettel nabbed second from Raikkonen, and Raikkonen went off, losing third place to Jenson Button with Hamilton right behind him.

AND BASICALLY I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING BECAUSE RAIKKONEN JUST ENDED UP EIGHTH. FROM SECOND.

And someone he just tumbled the hell down to 12th with both Saubers nearly hitting him going by. The team blamed the marbles but that does not make any sense.

Jenson took second place from Sebastian with four laps to go. Vettel ended up losing positions to Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber as well.

Rosberg’s win was the first for Mercedes in forever but obviously they didn’t have a team for a lot of that time, blah blah blah.

Only one car didn’t finish the race, and nobody crashed into each other badly! Hooray!

» Continue reading “Chinese GP Recap: Nico Rosberg Finally Wins A Race”

The car that looked to be struggling came out on top in a race that included nearly an hour wait while it poured down rain. Fernando Alonso won a very exciting race, while teammate Felipe Massa once again is nowhere near a points position…hmm…

It started to rain about 15 minutes before the race started, so teams put their cars onto intermediate tires. Around lap 5, after Romain Grosjean beached his Lotus in gravel, teams started switching to full wets. On the first lap, Michael Schumacher, Romain Grosjean, and Bruno Senna spun.

And once everyone was on wets, there was lightning and thunder, which means safety car on lap 7. Jean-Eric Vergne stayed on the inters, however.

Basically if anything happened, you couldn’t exactly even see it.

Lap 9: once the safety car got boring as hell, it was time to just red flag the race for the time being. And because the Canadian GP was so awesome last year, the FIA decided to ruin all the fun so races can only be 4 hours long.

This race was already bumped up to 4pm local time from 5pm after the 2009 fiasco, and I just don’t get it. Do they not understand tropical climates? Here in Atlanta, especially during the summer, pop up storms are not uncommon…so obviously when you’re 3 degrees north of the equator, they’re more frequent and year round.

This is two times in four years. All it really needs is just to be moved up at least an hour more.

Rant over. I am a cranky person who has to be up until past 7am because of this and I only took a nap for an hour earlier.

So red flag. What’s exciting during a red flag? People in grandstands doing the wave, a bird standing in the grass looking ticked off, ice cream discussions, farmers market jokes after teams set up canopies over the cars.

Finally, it was announced the race would restart at 5:15 with parade laps behind the safety car to get a dry line going.

Pedro de la Rosa received a drive through penalty for team personnel on track right before the restart.

Lap 13: Safety car in, some cars went in to switch to intermediates, including Jenson Button, while Lewis Hamilton stayed out.

Cars on the inters were faster, so cars that stayed on the wets started coming in…but not Sergio Perez, who took the lead as cars swapped positions for a good two laps. Lewis Hamilton pitted, and McLaren royally screwed up the pit stop.

With an HRT in his way, Jenson Button’s front wing was damaged, so the screw up didn’t really matter. And in the end, Fernando Alonso took the lead from Perez.

Jenson Button at the back of the pack started setting fastest laps, maybe looking like he did in Montreal last summer….only several laps later to say he has no grip. Things never really improved for him.

The only thing interesting with cars still on inters was the battle for fourth among Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel was able to pass Rosberg with DRS, as was Raikkonen on the next lap.

And on lap 24, Fernando Alonso said it’s raining in turn 4. Jenson Button needed to pit for a new set of tires again.  Alonso continued to set fastest laps from the lead.

Rosberg started dropping dramatically down the grid, and eventually pitted when 16th to get new tires.

With the track drying, it started to get iffy for continuing on intermediates, but of course more rain was expected on track. (Note: it never showed up, of course.)

Sergio Perez started to reel in Alonso, setting fastest lap nearly every time around. It was absolutely fantastic, he started lapping a second quicker than Alonso’s Ferrari. And meanwhile in P17, Massa nearly drove Button off track several times.

Toro Rosso put Daniel Ricciardo on medium slicks, while Jenson Button’s engineer said rain was approaching. Ricciardo’s time was quick, which led to Massa being put on the medium tire too…and then on Button’s radio it was time for slicks too.

Can you say strategic nightmare?

On lap 40, Alonso went in for slicks while Perez stayed out. Ricciardo set the fastest lap. Perez went in on lap 41 for hard tires, and came back out just behind Alonso.

On lap 48, Vettel had a puncture, but was close enough to the pit entrance. And what happened? Karthikeyan again has no concept of space for cars faster than him.

On lap 49, Perez was right behind Alonso. And then Perez took a bit of an off and lost all the time he gained, probably thanks to an engineer having to distract him from just going.  It was no problem for Alonso from there.

With two laps to go, Pastor Maldonado continued to have a horrible time trying to finish as his engine overheated. And on the last lap, Vettel is told to pit…and then stay out…and then yell at him to stop because it’s an emergency.

And thankfully the checkered flag flew…2 hours, 48 minutes after the start.

So..I said Sergio was the drive of the day last race, and he sure as hell is the drive of the day this time around. If only his engineer hadn’t come on over the radio!

» Continue reading “Fernando Alonso Wins The Bizarre Grand Prix of Malaysia”

Q1: Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets in the final practice session, with Red Bull and Lotus right behind, and Ferrari not so much.
Early in the first session, fastest times were exchanged among Mercedes, McLaren, and Lotus drivers. AT the very end, Mark Webber took the top spot from Michael Schumacher. HRT actually is within the 107% rule.
Knocked out, P18-24: Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso; Vitaly Petrov, Caterham; Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham; Timo Glock, Marussia; Charles Pic, Marussia; Pedro de la Rosa, HRT; Narain Karthikeyan, HRT
Q2: After five minutes, only Kimi Raikkonen and the Saubers had posted any times. And then Pastor Maldonado went into the gravel and damaged his car. Raikkonen held onto the time on top followed by both McLaren drivers, both Red Bull drivers, and both Mercedes drivers.

Knocked out, P11-17: Pastor Maldonado, Williams; Felipe Massa, Ferrari; Bruno Senna, Williams; Paul di Resta, Force India; Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso, Nico Hulkenberg, Force India; Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber

Q3: Kimi Raikkonen headed out first, followed by Mark Webber. Jenson Button and then Lewis Hamilton were fastest of all. Lewis stayed on top the entire time, with Michael Schumacher starting third. Sebastian Vettel could only manage sixth. Both Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen receive 5 grid spot penalties, so Vettel will actually start fifth.

1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1:36.219
2. Jenson Button, 1:36.368
3. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes: 1:36.391
4. Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1:36.461
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus: 1:36.461 *
6. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1:36.634
7. Romain Grosjean, Lotus: 1:36.658
8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes: 1:36.664
9. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari: 1:37.566
10. Sergio Perez, Sauber: 1:37.698 » Continue reading “Malaysian GP Qualifying: McLaren Starting 1-2 Yet Again”

First race of the season over!

Jenson Button passed teammate Lewis Hamilton right around the first turn and held on to the race lead from then on.

There were several injuries to cars around the first corner, including Bruno Senna, who was able to continue, and Nico Hulkenberg, who was not. Shortly afterward, his teammate Pastor Maldonado took out Romain Grosjean, who had started so well.

Michael Schumacher lost control of his car and dropped out of the race.

Both Caterhams went out around the same time. Vitaly Petrov stopped on the front straightaway and brought out a safety car. Shortly after, Heikki Kovalainen came in with steering problems.

Hamilton had held on to second until this point, when Sebastian Vettel got in front of him. Hamilton was not able to gain enough time on Vettel even with DRS and KERS.

That was not the end of all the fun.

With ten laps left, Felipe Massa completely screwed up Bruno Senna’s Williams. Senna was somehow able to get his car back out, but Massa’s had to be put in the garage..which took them a bit of time for some reason. Race control is going to investigate the ~incident~ after the race.

On the last lap, Maldonado completely lost it and hit the wall, definitely destroying some other drivers’ points finishes, namely Nico Rosberg, who ended up finishing outside the points paying positions.

Sergio Perez started 22nd, but finished 8th, making him definitely the drive of the day. This time it’d be great if that awesome race isn’t negated.

1. Jenson Button, McLaren
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
4. Mark Webber, Red Bull
5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
6. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus
8. Sergio Perez, Sauber
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
10. Paul di Resta, Force India
11. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso
12. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
13. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
14. Timo Glock, Marussia
15. Charles Pic, Marussia
16. Bruno Senna, Williams
Not classified: Felipe Massa (accident damage), Heikki Kovalainen (steering), Vitaly Petrov, Michael Schumacher, Romain Grosjean (accident damage), Nico Hulkenberg

Q1: Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa both failed to qualifying with the 107% rule. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t belong on the grid, but I’m not Charlie Whiting.

Kimi Raikkonen did not make it out of Q1. He was timed to cross the line for a hot lap just as the clock hit zero, but a slight off meant no such luck. Both Catherham and Marussia cars did not make it either.

Several drivers set fast laps, including ones you would not expect: both Williams were on top, Jean-Eric Vergne in his Toro Rosso (second fastest time in the end), and Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber in the end. Felipe Massa barely made it out of the session.

Knocked out, P18-22: Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus; Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham; Vitaly Petrov, Caterham; Timo Glock, Marussia; Charles Pic, Marussia

Q2: The McLaren cars quickly took the top two spots in the second session.

Fernando Alonso beached his car in the gravel after putting a wheel in the grass…causing a red flag with just under 8 1/2 minutes left.

Once time got started again, the two Mercedes took the top spots.

Both Ferraris were knocked out.

Knocked out, P11-17: Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso; Fernando Alonso, Ferrari; Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber; Bruno Senna, Williams; Paul di Resta, Force India; Felipe Massa, Ferrari; Sergio Perez, Sauber.

Q3: No idea how I am supposed to sleep after this one. What looked to be a set 1-2 for McLaren first looked like it wasn’t going to happen, as Schumacher and Grosjean both took P2. But in the end, McLaren held it.

1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1:24.922
2. Jenson Button, McLaren: 1:25.074
3. Romain Grosjean, Lotus: 1:25.302
4. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes: 1:25.336
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1:25.651
6. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1:25.668
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes: 1:25.688
8. Pastor Maldonado, Williams: 1:25.908
9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India: 1:26.451
10. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso: no Q3 time set » Continue reading “Qualifying Recap: McLaren 1-2 For First Race Of The Season”

During the first practice session, McLaren ruled the field with a 1-2 finish.

Meanwhile, Felipe Massa finished with a trip to the gravel after he touched the grass.

The grass was wet. Surprise!

The session started off a bit damp, but teams finally started to head out on intermediates as the track dried out. Finally with about 30 minutes left, teams started switching to slicks and times were set.

Mercedes looked to be fastest of all thanks to the rear wing design, but McLaren ended up on top. Jenson Button was the fastest of the two, with Lewis Hamilton just .245 seconds behind. Michael Schumacher was third fastest, with Nico Rosberg ending up down in sixth in the end.

Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, .8 seconds off Button’s pace…and far quicker than teammate Massa’s 18th fastest time.

Mark Webber was fifth quickest, with reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel only pulling off the 11th fastest time of the morning.

Things did not go very well for HRT, with both Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rossa unable to set any time. Karthikeyan tried, completing 3 laps overall, but the engine overheated on him out on track.

Full times and results here.