photo credit: Flickr/Sara Terrones

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”

photo credit: Flickr/Vi Khoa Duong

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!”

Circuit de Monaco (image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Thursday May 24
First Practice Session: 4:00am
Second Practice Session: 8:00am

Saturday May 26
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday May 27
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: It’s the most wonderful time of the F1 season!

The Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 make one of the best weekends in racing. Grands Prix have taken place in Monaco since 1929, and the glitz and glamour of this F1 weekend are well known.

Well, Monte Carlo is pretty glamourous anyway.

The chicane where Sergio Perez crashed last year has been changed. The tarmac has been slightly lowered and the barrier has been moved back 15 meters.

With tire degradation playing such a major role in races lately, it’s hard to tell who could have the best chances this weekend. Lotus hopes to continue improving, and Pastor Maldonado and Williams would love to win again. We could easily see a sixth different winner, though!

Weather: It looks like it’s going to be rainy, sadly. The chance of rain is highest on Thursday, with storms, which could make practice sessions difficult. There’s also a 60% chance of rain on Saturday and 50% on Sunday. This could always change, but we might be seeing a wet qualifying session and race, or possibly just wet qualifying, or hopefully no rain.

Tires: This weekend will be the debut of the supersoft tires for the season. The other compound will be the soft tires. And with the weather, there might actually be no debut of supersoft tires. In other interesting tire news, Paul Hembery has said Pirelli is ready at any time to supply teams with Q3 only tires if they would like.

DRS: The drivers are not allowed to use DRS in the tunnel during practice and qualifying. The DRS zone for the race will be the start-finish straight.

photo credit: Flickr/Rich Jones

The cause of the fire in the Williams’ garage yesterday remains somewhat unknown. There are some reports that say the KERS unit from Bruno Senna’s car exploded, and the fuel in the area ignited. Spanish police are working with the team.

One crew member remains in the hospital with burns, but should be returning home to the UK to continue treatment soon. Two other crew members were released today after being treated for smoke inhalation.

Frank Williams says the response from personnel of other teams was overwhelming and showed a great spirit of cooperation in the paddock.

Then there’s the team that needs to really work on internal cooperation: McLaren. Martin Whitmarsh said today he regrets not telling Lewis Hamilton to abandon his pole position lap. Whitmarsh had known there wasn’t enough fuel in the car on that final lap, and instead of telling Hamilton to return to the garage, had him finish and stop on track.

Whitmarsh also said he did not expect such a harsh penalty, and that no matter how much fuel would have been left in the car, he was embarrassed by the entire situation.

Better luck next time, McLaren.

photo credit: Flickr/Mypoorbrain

Pastor Maldonado managed to pull off a win at Circuit de Catalunya today, despite Fernando Alonso’s best efforts to win his home Grand Prix. Alonso took the lead in the first corner, but was not able to hold on to it.

Maldonado is the first Venezuelan winner of a Formula 1 Grand Prix, and this is also Williams’ first win since 2004.

Sadly, it has not been that great of a day after all for Williams. About 90 minutes after the race ended, fuel exploded causing a fire, and several team members from Williams, Caterham, and Force India had to be treated for burns and smoke inhalation.

The race also did not go so well for Bruno Senna. Michael Schumacher crashed right into the back of him around turn 1. Senna had moved over in what looked like a block, but the stewards apparently didn’t find that to be the case. Schumacher has been given a five spot grid penalty for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Kimi Raikkonen finished third, although he was right on Alonso’s tail at the end of the race. Romain Grosjean finished fourth, and Kamui Kobayashi stormed his way to fifth, which included a brilliant pass on Jenson Button.

Sebastian Vettel managed to finish sixth, despite being handed a drive-through penalty for failing to slow down for yellow flags near the Schumacher-Senna incident. Felipe Massa also received the penalty for failing to slow, but he only managed to finish 15th.

Lewis Hamilton, who had to start at the back of the grid after being excluded from qualifying, finished in the points in 8th, and one place ahead of his teammate.

Results
01. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
02. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
03. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus
04. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
05. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
06. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
07. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
08. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
09. Jenson Button, McLaren
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India

» Continue reading “Pastor Maldonado Wins Spanish GP”

photo credit: flickr/xn44

Seriously. Maldonado. P2.

He was P1 until Lewis set a blistering fast lap. He was also the fastest in the first two sessions of qualifying! Meanwhile his poor Williams teammate, Bruno Senna, could only manage P18 after a spin into the gravel in Q1.

Lewis Hamilton may not even actually start on pole for the third time this season. I’ve held off on writing this because it’s still on the stewards. His McLaren stopped on track and did not return to parc ferme under its own power as is required by the regulations.

A liter of fuel must also be on board for sampling purposes, and it is considered unacceptable for a driver to just stop in order to save the fuel. It could mean that Hamilton had less fuel on board than the other cars in Q3, and therefore he would have an advantage over them.

McLaren was previously penalized for stopping on track after qualifying to save fuel. A team must be able to prove there was actually a technical problem.

In Q1, Narain Karthikeyan failed to set a time within the 107% rule, but will be allowed to race because he set better times during practice.

I’ve already mentioned that Senna’s spin ended his hopes for getting out of Q1, and all the usual suspects were also knocked out.

Q2 was full of surprises. Starting 11th and 12th? Jenson Button and Mark Webber. Felipe Massa will start 17th. Both Toro Rosso and Force India cars were also knocked out.

Q3 featured a last minute battle for the top spot. Sebastian Vettel set the first top lap, but will only start 8th in the end. Although, according to the timing he didn’t set a time. Michael Schumacher will start behind him, alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

Entire grid (for now)
01. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
02. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
03. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
04. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
05. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus
06. Sergio Perez, Sauber
07. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
08. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
09. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
10. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber

» Continue reading “Lewis Hamilton And Pastor Maldonado On Front Row For Spanish GP”

photo credit: Flickr/Jose Mª Izquierdo Galiot

Williams chairman Adam Parr will be leaving the team effective this Friday. Frank Williams, obvious founder of a team named Williams, had said Parr would be his natural successor.

Parr will be replaced by Nick Rose. It is not immediately known what Parr will do next but he did say he wants to spend more time with his family.

There is speculation that Ecclestone wanted Parr out as part of the creation of a new Concorde Agreement. Parr is a business man with no background in racing. Most would probably not consider that a problem, considering Parr’s ridiculously awesome work to get such backing out of Venezuela.

But it doesn’t seem to make sense considering the team’s good showing so far this season, which is why the speculation kind of makes sense…I suppose we may never know.

Sauber is hoping their podium finish will attract financial backing. The team does not have much backing, which also leads to many, many jokes about money saving measures. (I have to give it up to I believe it was redbullf1spy for tweeting “does Sauber make Perez pay for his own tires?” regarding the way Perez can make the things last.)

Pat Fry, technical chief at Ferrari, says the win on Sunday does not ease up the work the team still has with the F2012. There are still big gains that need to be made on the car before they can consider themselves to be championship contenders.

Bruno Senna feels like pressure has been lifted after his excellent finish at Sepang. Who could blame him? If it wasn’t for Sergio Perez’s fantastic drive, I think more people would be talking about him. But of course, that’s silly of me to expect since there’s still a legion of fools out there who think he’s just in F1 because of his name.

Note: he has skill that actually does not just come from having an uncle named Ayrton Senna.

Join me tomorrow if something exciting happens, as I have to report to jury duty, and actually if anyone involved in Formula 1 even sneezes, it’d be far more exciting.

photo credit: Flickr/Vi Khoa Duong

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”

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

(photo credit: Flickr/jiteshjagadish)

Fernando Alonso posted the fastest time this morning with a 1:18.877. Insert some kind of discounting of it because it’s testing here. But come on, you know it makes Ferrari feel a lot better about their car after less-than-stellar showings earlier in the week.

Of course, the afternoon was a setback as hydraulic issues limited afternoon running for the team.

Overall, the typical frontrunners have been on top, although Lotus and Toro Rosso are showing tons of progress. It is of course hard to gauge anything about the upcoming season from testing, since every team has a different focus of what to work on throughout the four day period.

Red Bull had some electrical gremlins at work today. In the end he was able to complete 50 laps today with a third fastest time of 1:19.606.

» Continue reading “Ferrari Fastest As Jerez Testing Concludes”