F1-Blog

And who says the current qualify system is boring…

Well me most of the time, however it produced a spanking Quali for Japan, however the weather helped out.

Before the start of the session it looked like it was not going to happen, the clouds where so low the safety helicopter could not fly. However Charlie Whiting obviously decided that the drivers could be ambulanced over road to hospitals if there was an need to.

Session one saw a fair few of the drivers struggling, however as the session progressed the times came tumbling down, obviously the track condition was improving, and the drivers getting used to the track.

There was an issue though, Lewis Hamilton was only in 18th in his McLaren, and it looked like he was struggling. Not the case it turns out, he popped a fast lap in towards the end of the session (in fact with no time in the session left), and made it into Q2.

Italian GP

The Italian GP was quite a standard affair this year, one of the few races this season that did not live up to it’s possibilities.

Fernando Alonso lead from the first corner all the way to the end of the race, making it look easy. Lewis Hamilton followed him home, for a 1-2 for McLaren.

The best race on the track was with Honda and Williams battling it out between Button and Rosberg in the first part of the GP.

Lewis showed his steel by overtaking Kimi Raikkonen after he was relegated to third when he exited from his second pit stop. The move took part at the first chicane, and was one of his best moves of the season. He braked massively late, and took Kimi on the inside into the chicane.

This was because the Finn only pitted the once during the race, and during the second stint of his race, Lewis Hamilton just could not match the pace of his team leader.

European GP

I’m a bit late in posting this, but hey, by now everyone knows what happened.

For those that don’t, here is a brief roundup.

The race started under the warning of rain, Markus Winkelhock was the only one to start on the intermediate tyres, all the rest of the grid started on the dry weather rubber.

Rain came, as predicted, and Winkelhock lead the read by a good margin for a time, however in that time 6 cars came off the road at the first corner (Button, Hamilton, Sutil, Speed, Rosberg and Liuzzi). Kimi Raikkonen attempted to enter the pits, but the car understeered and he missed the pit enterance and had to do another lap in the rain.

The safety car came out, and everyone that had not pitted did so, also Lewis Hamilton stayed in the stranded McLaren, keeping the engine running, as he was considered to be in a dangerous position, was craned back to the track and allowed to rejoin the race, now in last position. The race was then red flagged

Kimi get’s 2 in a row

Lewis Hamilton could not manage to convert his Pole position into a win today. Kimi Raikkonen however did show that the Ferrari was at least half a second quicker than the two McLaren’s in race conditions.

Lewis blocked Kimi into the first corner, and then lead the field into his first stop, however Kimi pressured Lewis all the way.

The Ferrari had two laps more fuel than the Lewis McLaren, and made that count while Lewis was pitting (where he made his first race mistake, when he preempted the lollypop man. Well done to the fuel rig guy, keeping the fuel flowing eve with the car moving), coming out in the lead after his stop. The surprise however was that Fernando Alonso stayed out longer than either of the two cars in front of him, and in the second stint he ran in first, however he only took on a short load of fuel in his stop.

Hamilton on top at home

Lewis Hamilton has taken the pole position for the British GP with a stunning last minute lap.

The Ferrari’s have looked quick all weekend up until Qualifying where they seemed to be sandbagging a little bit in Q1 and Q2.

Alonso was the first to set a time in the Q3 session, with a 1:20.410 looking like a decent time with fuel on board.

Massa and Raikkonen however came out all guns blazing in Q3, and took the fight to the McLaren’s, Massa siting in second, Raikkonen in third and Hamilton in fourth.

With just seconds to go Alonso raised the bar on the three cars behind him by setting a 1:20.147, next over the line was Massa with a 1:20.265. Raikkonen was then the next man through, setting the fastest time with a great lap of 1:20.099, even if he ran wide in front of the Woodcote stands.