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!”

Friday May 11
First Practice Session: 4:00am
Second Practice Session: 8:00am

Saturday May 12
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday May 13
Race: 8:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 7:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com. All times eastern.

Last year’s winner: Sebastian Vettel

What to expect: We’re back after a three week break, and that means it’s time for the European/Canada leg of the season for the summer.

Teams had testing time last week, which should mean many teams will be sporting aerodynamic upgrades. With the season still wide open for this fifth race of the year, it’s hard to tell who will come out on top. Will it be a fifth different driver? Will Mark Webber finish fourth for the fifth time? Hopefully practice gives us a general idea of what to expect, but for now it truly is wide open.

American Alexander Rossi will get his first chance to drive in the first practice session for Caterham. Dani Clos will be driving for HRT in the first session also.

Ross Brawn, team principal for Mercedes, will miss out on the race due to illness on doctor’s orders. Get well soon, Ross!

Weather: Perfect for racing or at least watching it, I’d say…this forecast looks like quintessential European spring weather. Highs in the mid 70s, partly cloudy skies, and low chances for rain.

Tires: Pirelli has decided to use the soft and hard tires. This is a bit of a different strategy than usual, since tire compounds are usually in consecutive hardness order (like soft/medium, medium/hard, etc). This should suit the circuit better. Except I guess if you’re Michael Schumacher, the tires are scrambled or hard boiled.

DRS: There will be a single DRS zone at the Circuit de Catalunya. The activation zone will be down the start/finish straight, with the detection zone between turns 15 and 16. The DRS zone is 750 meters long, so expect to see some good fights.

One of the highlights of my trip to Paris last May was the Red Bull Racing themed storefront of a Pepe Jeans store in La Marais.

That storefront has now been outdone.

Red Bull Racing posted this ad on Facebook a couple hours ago and I hope Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber do not mind all the looking I’ve done from behind.

It’s a fantastic ad, especially considering when I clicked it there were comments from guys even saying they approved. Who wouldn’t?

That is all I have to say. I’ll let the above image and the video below do the talking:

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.

So, I thought I had posted on here that I was going to be on a ridiculous trip from Saturday to today, but apparently I did not.

I was on a ridiculous trip from Saturday to today. I just drove back from Tampa and I am trying not to fall asleep at the keyboard. I have a sunburn.

Remember how Red Bull and Ferrari were going to show up to the last test a day late and test on Monday? Turns out they can’t. March 5, the Monday in question, is part of the “blackout” period before the beginning of the season.

This also means that Lotus cannot get in any extra testing. They have fixed their suspension problem, by the way.

In not so happy fixing news, the new Marussia car did not pass its final crash test, and will miss all testing. HRT finally passed all their tests, and they hope to test for at least two days this weekend.

And since we are almost only 2 weeks away from the actual season, it’s time for Dumb Stuff Bernie Says!

As usual he’s out to get Melbourne to keep hosting the race, and instead make it a night race. Every. Year. He also says Mark Webber will be the one to have the best chance to oust Vettel. Apparently he missed three-quarters of Webber’s starts last season.

Tomorrow starts the final tests. It’s almost go time.

Michael Schumacher may have had the fastest time at the second day of testing in Jerez with a lap time of 1:18.561.

But once again, he’s in last year’s Mercedes just testing out the new tires. Nobody cares. Or apparently people do care, but once again I stress: it’s pre-season testing and it’s not even the car he’ll be driving come Australia.

Of the new, shiny, ugly 2012 cars, Mark Webber and the Red Bull RB8 were quickest. Webber’s fastest lap was 1:19.184. Webber ran 58 laps in the car.

Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso was the only other car to manage a lap under 80 seconds.

Pastor Maldonado was able to complete twice as many laps today for Williams.

BONUS: nobody has crashed so far! However, it was not a good day for Kimi.

Raikkonen went off into the gravel and damaged the car crossing back over the curbing. He also brought the gravel onto the track so practice was stopped to remove it. After some quick repairs, Kimi was back out and set a 5th fastest time.

Fellow Finn Heikki Kovalainen completed a whopping 78 laps today.

Jules Bianchi had his debut with Force India, driving 46 laps in the morning before Paul di Resta took over in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we’ll see Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in their teams’ new cars for the first time.

Drivers Championship? Check.

Constructors Championship? Double check.

Red Bull could just hit cruise control for the remaining three races of the season.

Christian Horner says that won’t be happening, as he aims to see Mark Webber finish in the points second to Sebastian Vettel. Mark is currently fourth, 13 points behind second place Jenson Button.

Honestly, this wouldn’t even have to be a goal if poor Webber had some better starts! He definitely redeemed himself this weekend by not losing any positions at the start. Horner hopes Webber could even win one of these final races.

On the technical side, Adrian Newey says there are possibilities for upgrades to the current Red Bull chassis…on one condition: these developments cannot give other teams any insight into the team’s 2012 development.

Newey says the focus is obviously on the future car, and the exhaust positioning regulation change is the worst kink they’ll have to work around.

In other news…

- Ferrari say they will not block the Lotus Renault to Lotus/Team Lotus to Caterham name change. They just ask that this name changing crap gets clarified in the future. Also, like everyone else in the world, they would like to see the FIA lay out some kind of framework for name changes that also prevents a team from being able to change their name every time the month changes.

- Team Lotus have yet to provide confirmation or even a “sorry, dude, maybe next time” to Karun Chandok regarding the Indian Grand Prix. Chandok hopes to be able to drive in the inaugural race in his home country, but Tony Fernandes has not let him know either way yet. Here’s hoping you kick out Jarno Trulli of that seat as usual, Karun, but for a whole weekend instead!

- Because I never really wrote a complete post-race story, I didn’t mention that Vitaly Petrov will be receiving a 10 grid spot penalty at the next race for his collision with Michael Schumacher. Additionally, HRT were fined for an unsafe release after Daniel Ricciardo’s pit stop.

Photo from Flickr user First Stop Tires

One point at October 9th’s Japanese Grand Prix is all Sebastian Vettel needs to secure his second consecutive world championship. Vettel had no problem driving away to victory at the Singapore Grand Prix today, sometimes increasing the gap to second place by over a second per lap…until a safety car.

The Singapore GP has never been run without a safety car period, and it looked to be inevitable after a fight for position between Nico Rosberg and Sergio Perez. Rosberg passed Perez, and his teammate Michael Schumacher was right on the back of the Sauber, before getting slightly airborne and crashing into a wall.

Vettel was able to take off again after the safety car period ended, and cruised away. He only came somewhat close to losing his lead while passing through some traffic, where his gap to second place Jenson Button dropped to under 4 seconds. Vettel lapped all the way up to 7th place before the finish.

Of course, he also came somewhat close to losing everything when he was nearly hit by Heikki Kovalainen in the pit lane.

Lewis Hamilton managed to finish fifth, despite many pit stops and a drive through penalty for a collision with Felipe Massa. Hamilton damaged his front wing and punctured one of Massa’s tires. Massa managed to finish 9th.

Mark Webber finished third after yet another horrible start. He had not one, but two awesome passes on Fernando Alonso. This is the first time at Marina Bay that Alonso has not finished on the podium, instead coming in fourth.

Force India had an excellent race with both cars finishing in the points. Paul di Resta finished 6th and Adrian Sutil in 8th.

Jaime Alguersuari put his car into a wall with two laps remaining. It was an awkward spot, which would have required a safety car had it not been towards the end.

Also managing to retire before the end: Timo Glock, who managed to pull his car off to one of the side roads, and Jarno Trulli, who had an engine failure.

Poor Lotus Renault has not had the best of times recently. The Team Lotus car of Heikki Kovalainen managed to split their drivers, with Bruno Senna finishing 15th and Vitaly Petrov finishing 17th. Earlier this season, LRGP was on the podium, hell, I am still waiting to remove Nick Heidfeld’s name from tenth place in the championship points, and Petrov still has 34 himself.

Final thoughts: The Massa-Hamilton verbal battle is going to continue now, since Hamilton went in to pass Massa yesterday during qualifying. The incident today definitely won’t help that, plus the fact that Hamilton managed to finish four places ahead of the Brazilian.  Well turns out it’s gotten physical. Massa shoved Hamilton while Hamilton was doing an interview and had been asked if he could see Massa’s point, according to Will Buxton.

Suzuka is going to totally be another Red Bull-dominating race as the track completely suits their cars. It would have to take a collision for Vettel to not secure the championship in two weeks. Also it is going to be an amazing weekend of racing, with the Bathurst 1000 taking place in Australia before the Japanese Grand Prix.

Final results under the cut.

» Continue reading “One More Point! Vettel Cruises To Another Victory at Singapore”