Spanish GP – The Race

The King of Spain

Barcelona. Stunning city. But generally throws up a total borefest of a race. The Circuit de Catalunya doesn’t do overtaking or drama but if you’re fond of uneventful, processional races, then Barcelona will float your boat. For some inexplicable season, this track has been on the F1 calendar since 1991. Probably because everyone likes coming to Barcelona for a big party after the tedious long haul schleps to Shanghai and Sakhir (lets face they wouldn’t appear in too many top 10 places to visit before you die).

In the 22 races we’ve had in Barcelona, the winner has started from pole 18 times. Another 3 drivers have won from P2 on the grid meaning the only person who has won not starting from the front row is (but of course) the Great Michael Schumacher™ with a truly magnificent drive in torrential rain in 1996*. God I loved that season.

*(edit: before yesterday that is)

The Rainmeister, Barcelona 1996

It is hardly a spoiler of epic proportions to reveal that the winner did not come from the front two yesterday, given it was the two Mercedes who secured a front row lock out. So that means that the most predictable race on the calendar must have been a bit more feisty and interesting than normal? This is a good thing, no? Actually turns out the answer is no. Everyone (except for Ferrari and Kimi who doesn’t give a stuff) is slagging off the race to high heavens. In a variant of the usual Villain of F1 being a highly successful German driver, it is now apparently Pirelli who is Satan Incarnate.

Yesterday, we had a mind-blowing 82 pitstops. No safety cars involved. No wet weather. Just hundreds of tyres that degrade just by looking at them. Its pretty hard to think how to blog about this race without literally just listing who pitted on what lap. Pirelli would say its what they have been told to do (really though – was their brief to make tyres that start degrading after 4 laps?) but something needs to be done as literally you need a degree in astro-physics to be able to follow a Grand Prix these days. I don’t often agree with him but Paul Di Resta spoke for many when he asked from the cockpit “can anyone tell me what’s going on?”.

Tyres as ordered by the FIA

Anyway we kicked off with #MartinsGridWalk and Martin told us there was a carnival atmosphere at the track. Previously Martin has talked of the electric atmosphere at Shanghai so I take some of his enthusiasm with a pinch of salt. First up to be interviewed was The Nicest Racing Driver Of All Time, Rubens Barrichello. Or Rubinho, as the husband and me tend to call him ever since his two biggest fans in the whole world gatecrashed our dinner for two in Monaco (hey we knew how to live once) and proceeded to tell us how much they loved Rubinho (ad infinitum). Anyway lovely Rubinho now does a #RubensGridwalk (doesn’t everyone these days) which he said he found much more nerve-wracking than driving.

#RubensGridwalk

Martin then spoke to the man who runs Bernie’s bus and plays backgammon with Bernie. He was a man of few words (at least in front of a camera playing to millions of people) so that was a waste of time. Then Martin chatted to Paul Hembury from Pirelli who told us authoratively that it would be a 3 stop race. Sure about that, Paul?

To be honest it was the most boring gridwalk ever – none of the drivers wanted to be interviewed and we had to make do with Sebastien Loeb who I’m sure is very nice and all that but not really going to give us a great insight into F1. Still the next gridwalk will be in Monaco when A-listers will be sashaying down the grid and we get to see Martin interview a girlband he has never heard of. Oh and if we’re really unlucky, Geri Halliwell will be there too.

Geri effortlessly blending in with the petrolhead set

So the top ten lined up as follows:

1. Rosberg
2. Hamilton
3. Vettel
4. Raikkonen
5. Alonso
6. Grosjean
7. Webber
8. Perez
9. Massa (bumped down 3 places after qualifying)
10. Di Resta

Notable mention for Giedo van der Garde starting in the exalted position of 18^th place. Perhaps he is not the new Narain after all.

Time For the Start and Go Go Go…! Vettel muscled his way past Hamilton who locked up suddenly into 2^nd place and Alonso had a breathtaking start, not lifting off at all to force his way past Kimi and then Hamilton to move into 3^rd place. Rosberg got off the line well and maintained his lead ahead of the chasing pack. We knew it was only a matter of time but even I didn’t expect Nico to get a warning about preserving his tyres on lap 3. Next time round, I’m going to do a sweepstake as to what lap Mercedes will issue their first tyre warnings. Gallows humour yadda.

Button in an astonishingly awful 17^th place reported he couldn’t get any heat into his tyres and Hamilton was experiencing brake issues. He had now caused a little traffic jam of Kimi and Massa to build up behind him and on lap 7, Kimi finally got past the struggling Mercedes and then started driving kamikaze style, ie. sideways around the corners. You can bank on Kimi at least to make Barcelona more interesting.

Massa made his move on Hamilton on lap 8 and then came into the pits the following lap along with Sutil and the Hulk. Grosjean limped into the pits having suffering a dramatic suspension failure and all the front runners started to pit from lap 10. The front two of Rosberg and Vettel exited the pits into the path of a surging Fernando Alonso who forced his way between them and began putting immense pressure on the race leader which still (incredibly at lap 13) was Nico Rosberg.

Nico battling very hard to keep position

Alas for poor Nico, in the space of 3 laps, he was helpless to prevent Alonso, Vettel, Massa and Kimi passing him. Meanwhile slumming it further down the pack we saw Ricciardo pass Hamilton. Somehow its more embarrassing to see a team clinch pole position and just collapse in Every Single Race. At least when cars qualify in the relative ignominy of 14^th their total absence of race pace isn’t a surprise.

There was a change of underpants moment for Giedo van der Garde when he hysterically informed his team that he felt the wheels were going to come off his car. Literally. On lap 23, poor Giedo steered his 3 legged and ever so slightly lopsided car into the pits and it was race over.

Ooops, there goes Giedo’s wheel

Meanwhile there was barely a cigarette paper’s length between Vettel and Kimi but before we could work ourselves up into a frenzy (and the husband was starting to), Vettel naturally had to pit on lap 25 as did Kimi two laps later. Next up to pass Hamilton’s Mercedes was the Williams of Pastor Maldonado. And did Lewis not like that very much. As he pointed out to the team “I have just been overtaken by a Williams”. To be honest I’m way more distressed to think that Williams are now regarded as total shambles than I am at Lewis’s plight. To think Maldonado won this race last year. Claire Williams has one big job on her hands.

Anyhow it made for one of the more interesting vignettes of the race as Lewis re-took Maldonado. Cue an amusing aside from Brundle who said Maldonado should complain he has just been overtaken by a Mercedes. Then Lewis on being told to look after his tyres blurted out “I can’t drive any slower”. It’s a fair point.

A lot can change in 12 months

Halfway in the Spanish GP with Alonso leading, the chasing two of Vettel and Kimi were having a fierce battle for 2^nd place. Eventually Kimi passed Vettel in a sweeping move and almost immediately he opened up a huge gap to the Red Bull. It gives us all hope for the season ahead.

Both Ferrari’s pitted again on lap 36 for the third time just after A Moment in the pitlane where Hulkenberg had been released into the path of Vergne. That is what they call an Unsafe Release. Off to the naughty step for the Hulk. Then further catastrophe for poor Vergne. His tyre delaminated into a zillion pieces and he hauled his car into the pits before rejoining stone last.

On lap 39, Alonso passed Kimi for the lead and with one stop each to go but with Alonso on much fresher tyres, the race was slipping away from Kimi. On lap 45, Kimi pitted for the final time and came out behind the leading Ferrari’s in 3^rd place.

If I may just quote my notes from this point in the race verbatim, they now say “Pretty boring phase. Everyone bored”.

One of Ferrari’s 8 pitstops of the race

On lap 50, Alonso (with a commanding lead) pitted and rejoined quite comfortably in the lead. Massa with a much smaller cushion over Kimi, pitted two laps later and slotted back in 3^rd place as expected. Meanwhile Jenson Button driving the worst McLaren we have seen for a very long time overtook Hamilton for 10^th place. I’m going to guess it wasn’t party central in the Mercedes garage later.

With the leading pack all sorted out and no real prospect of changing, there were a couple of interesting little battles unfolding between Rosberg desperately trying to cling onto 6^th place and seeing the unwelcome sight of Paul Di Resta bearing down on his exhaust with ten laps to go. Also Perez was rapidly closing in on Jenson Button who you may remember threw all his toys out of the pram after his team-mate’s antics in the previous race. And on lap 62, a not-at-all-coded-message from Checo’s race engineer “we can’t afford to damage the tyres too much trying to get past Jenson.” Those pesky tyres sure come in handy sometimes.

“Really its cool, it was all about the tyres. Of course we don’t have team orders here.”

And finally after 82 pitstops, the chequered flag fell and to the relief of many, the race came to an end.

Here are the results from the Spanish Grand Prix 2013:

1. Alonso – A masterclass of controlled brilliance to romp home victorious in his home race and put himself back in the title frame.
2. Raikkonen – Yet another podium for Mr Consistency to continue his superb run of form. That’s 22 straight points finishes now.
3. Massa – He is driving so much better this season and Ferrari will be delighted he took points off Vettel.
4. Vettel – A moderately lacklustre outing for Vettel who saw his lead in the championship cut to 4 points.
5. Webber – Who knew he was running that high? Or even running at all. Certainly not me though I may have dozed off a few times.
6. Nico Rosberg – Nothing short of Herculean to finish that high (Lewis Hamilton went from front row to 12^th place).

So what did we all really think of the race?

Now clearly 82 pitstops is just ridiculous. When all the drivers (bar Kimi) doing 4 stops a race, it inevitably disrupts the natural flow of things. We don’t get to see drivers tussling for position or the thrill of the chase as much as one or other driver will have to pull off into the pits every few laps. Tyre preservation has always been important in F1 but the degree to which it is dominating is ridiculous – drivers at the pinnacle of motorsport shouldn’t be complaining that they are having to drive too slow.

So do the tyres make much difference? Podium looks pretty reasonable to me.

BUT (there’s always a but), you can argue the cream does usually rise to the top. A podium of Alonso (the most complete driver and IMHO the finest driver currently in F1), Kimi (arguably the most naturally talented driver in F1) and Massa (who came within a whisker of the title a few years back and is reborn this season) looked like a fair reflection of the drivers’ abilities and their respective cars. As did the top 6. One of the skills of a truly great driver is to adapt to changing conditions and find a way to drive a bit smarter. In many ways Pirelli has made races more exciting by bunching the cars much closer together. Back in the pre-DRS and pre-Pirelli era, we had a LOT of one-stop processional races and F1 got serious amounts of flak. Remember the unbridled excitement of overtaking in the pitlane anyone?

Its Monaco baby.

But I’ve waffled on enough. Next time it is Monaco (SCREAM!!!) where the rule-book and form guide can be thrown into the bin as there is no track like it on earth.

Kimi for the win.

Spanish GP – Preview

The F1 roadshow hits Europe

Dear people who run F1 – please can you fix it (ooops is that now un-PC?) for the F1 calendar not to have a THREE WEEK break after only 2 races and then another THREE WEEK freaking break after the next 2 races. I desperately need a new F1 race in my life like now to help blot out the True Unmitigated Horror that is the (non) House Move from Hell*. I also think its quite important for Barcelona to come round so I can prove to the 5 year old that Sebastian Vettel isn’t really half-Darth Vader and nor is any other driver half-Darth Vader either. In all fairness, he sees this as an entirely positive thing but I’m not sure its very healthy in the long run. Under immense pressure (as it was by far THE most £££ option we considered) I have relented and booked a go-kart party for his 6^th birthday. I am ever so slightly nervous at just how competitive he will be on the day. Insert car crash joke here.

*re (non) House Move from Hell – looks like we’re now moving in June. Note to husband: your first job will be to ensure we have Sky F1 in time for the British Grand Prix.

But I digress. Aside from the frenzied round-the-clock work on upgrades and developments which we can expect to see unveiled at Barcelona this weekend, what else has been going on?

F1 is a dog eat dog world (well hopefully not literally)

I appear to have been deluged with a plethora of interviews with Lewis Hamilton. This is not necessarily a good thing. I feel quite indebted to McLaren for their control-freak ways in sparing us all these endless pontifications from Lewis over the years. Joyously his dog is in Barcelona for the race weekend. This won’t be mentioned at all (like several hundred times) during the build-up to the race.

So moving on quickly, James Allison, Technical Director at Lotus, is leaving and is currently on gardening leave (and is a no-show at Barcelona). His likely destination is Ferrari where he worked for 5 years back in the Golden Schumacher Age of 2000-2004. Lotus have announced a replacement in Nick Chester but the loss of Allison is a big blow.

The hottest signing in F1 (on so many levels)

And possibly EVEN WORSE for Lotus fans (who count their husband among their number), rumours are gathering apace that Kimi Raikkonen could be moving to Red Bull next season. Mark Webber is due to meet Dietrich Mateschitz next month for contract negotiations and I think we can predict how that one is going to go. Ba-ba-ba-byeeeee Mark. So Kimi and Seb in the same team. Good luck with that one Christian! Mind you as long as they don’t want to kill each other that’ll be an improvement on the current driver line up. Helpfully Lauda waded into the rumour-mill cesspit by saying “If I was Red Bull and wanted to change something with the drivers, then I would definitely go for Kimi.” This will further shatter the husband’s fragile nerves. The poor husband is already on Suicide Watch following the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. These are indeed Anxious Times in Power Towers.

Farewell to a legend

So here’s what I’m looking forward to seeing this weekend:

1. Upgrades – One thing’s for sure, Spain will see the biggest upgrade packages of the year for most of the teams and we could see some subtle changes to the pecking order. Or Sebastian Vettel could just zoom off into the distance. Dear god, please no.
2. Ferrari’s performance – This is a HUGELY important race for Alonso even aside from the fact it is his Home Race. In order to get his title challenge back on track, he needs to start gobbling into the ominously large lead of Vettel before its too late.
3. Lotus – Will Kimi continue where he left off before the 3 week break? He is looking like the dark horse in this year’s title challenge but will everyone else’s upgrades cancel out Lotus’ performance edge? Losing your technical director is not a good start.
4. McLaren – Will they emerge as a force this season after a raft of upgrades? My guess is no but we shall see.
5. Mercedes – After a surprisingly good start, they have announced their intention to deploy half their workforce to work on the 2014 car. Is this the point where the season starts falling off a cliff. Much like last year really.
6. Tyres – There will only be hard and medium tyre options in Spain and Pirelli have modified the hards to bring them close to the 2012 model.  Potentially bad news for Lotus (hopefully the husband has stopped reading by now).

The last twelve races in Spain have been won from pole which tells you that these races aren’t usually the Stuff of Legend. But it always feels good to be in Barcelona (even if I’m living the dream only vicariously from deepest, darkest Kent) as it means we’re back in Europe at historic tracks with races at sensible times.

The F1 season is really about to ignite. Hold on for the ride.

Gorgeous, beautiful Barcelona

Bahrain GP – The Race

Vettel back on top (did he ever leave?)

If you like plenty of wheel to wheel action in your F1 racing, then Bahrain would definitely have floated your boat. Strategy of course played a part but perhaps less so than in China where we saw a lot of drivers just driving ‘their own race’ and instead of fighting tooth and nail for position. Bahrain was a whole different ball game. After all the controversy surrounding team orders (and my big gripe of the season so far – that F1 teams have become way too conservative with how they marshal their drivers), it was enormously refreshing to see drivers (including team-mates – who knew?) scrapping to the (almost) death with each other. It was a bit like having a whole bunch of Nigel Mansells (what would be the collective noun for a group of Nigel Mansells!) out there driving around like lunatics for 90 minutes. Or maybe I have overdosed on Mario Kart.

Health warning: This picture may contain a lot of Mansell images

As I was home alone ALL weekend with the 2 year old and the 5 year old, all hope of watching the build-up was rapidly extinguished. I’m guessing it probably consisted of Simon Lazenby trying and tragically failing to fit in with the F1 set, Damon and Johnny chirping away about the good old days, a track guide, some faux-hilarious stunt with Natalie Pinkham and a couple of F1 drivers and about 75 Christian Horner interviews ad infinitum.

And so straight to #MartinsGridwalk which kicked off with a nice barbed remark from Martin about putting a request to the French embassy to talk to Romain Grosjean. Er don’t bother Martin, he’s hardly the Stephen Fry of drivers. Our first Random Celebrity at a Race was Nick Mason. Being a member of Pink Floyd, he was naturally posh and loaded but at least a bona fide petrolhead. Lets just give thanks that we were spared another Avram Grant interview.

Nick living the rock star fast car dream. What a cliché hey!

Then a quick chat with Mikey Muscles (is it compulsory for all race engineers to have bonkers names?) and Jenson Button. Alas no nipple tweaking today as Jenson was in serious mode. He said he was just going to do his own thing and see where he ended up. Well its fair to say Jenson’s race didn’t quite adhere to that plan. <Looks hard at Sergio Perez>

Not sure if the Crown Prince of Bahrain qualifies as a Random Celebrity at a Race. Probably not with it being his country and all that. He came across as quite a knowledgeable chap although lets side step those #awkward political issues rumbling in the background. He was hoping for a good race from Kimi. Weren’t we all.

Ross Brawn was in full philosopher mode saying we were all about to enter into the ‘land of the unknown’ and it would be tough for Mercedes to win though the wind might cause some welcome instability and blow some cars in front off the track. Or words to that effect. Rivalling Ross quite closely on the Socratic front was Stefano Domenicali who solemnly told Martin that winning was easy to say and difficult to do. Indeed.

Thinks to self: what would Confucius do?

Finally Martin had a word with Niki Lauda inadvertently breaking up the Austrian mafia meeting between himself and Helmut Marko. I’m starting to think The Sound of Music was the best PR job ever for Austria with singing nuns and mountains and cherubic children leaping around. Niki Lauda and Helmut Marko are deeply sinister figures in the F1 paddock. Quite some achievement when you think who else floats about the F1 scene.

So sorry for this inclusion. Don’t know what came over me!

And now for something a bit different. Its not that I didn’t enjoy the race but I had to watch it over 8 hours with massive disruptions AND the proverbial has been hitting the fan big time this week in Power Towers (I won’t bore you but the English conveyancing system totally SUCKS) AND it is already Wednesday so the Bahrain GP is a rapidly, fading memory in people’s minds. So I’m just going to rattle through the main talking points of the race!

The good news is if we are staying put in Power Towers, then I might just have to book a weekend away in Monza in early September to ease the pain. I *may* have done some preliminary research into weekends in Monza while Mr Eau Rouge was away in Geneva. Ahem.

So Bahrain. What happened?

The Race Winner: The Force is Strong 

Sebastian Vettel who has now moved across to the Dark Side – certainly according to F1 Racing based on its cover which the 5 year old thinks is the GREATEST THING EVER though I seem to remember making the same point in my Malaysia blog – won the Bahrain Grand Prix. Actually he didn’t only win the race but he utterly dominated from start to finish after passing Alonso and then the race leader, Rosberg, on lap 3. As Sebastian said with typical modesty “it was a faultless, seamless race from start to finish”. I have a horrible sense of foreboding as to how this season might go but it must be a million times worse to be in Mark Webber’s shoes.

The Podium Line-Up: A Title Challenger and a Rebirth

The two Lotus drivers completed the podium line-up – Kimi in 2^nd place (impressively from 8^th on the grid) and Grosjean in 3^rd. And quirkily it was exactly the same podium in exactly the same order as last year’s race. Shall we just call the 2014 race now and have done with it and then actually just add a far more interesting circuit to the calendar. Kimi bucked the perceived three stop wisdom by executing a two stop strategy to perfection. Not many drivers do passive-aggressive as well as Kimi on the track! His key move came when he passed Di Resta (who was also implementing a two stop strategy) on lap 34. Kimi is now 10 points off Vettel in the Championship but definitely within touching distance. Unless Ferrari get their act together pretty damn fast, it looks like the only man who might be able to stop Vettel will be Kimi. Coincidentally, Bahrain was Kimi’s 21^st consecutive points finish. And guess who hold the all-time record at 24?

You guessed it. The all-time consecutive points scorer in F1.

Grosjean seemed like a driver reborn this weekend and showed great pace after his first stop. He managed to pass Di Resta in the closing stages to snatch the final podium place (and deny Di Resta his first career podium). I have also come to the conclusion that I’d find it easier to understand Eric Bouillier if he spoke French (instead of his ‘Allo ‘Allo English) on the pit wall. I loved his interchanges with Crofty though but has anyone else noticed that Crofty pretty much always responds with ‘great’ or ‘excellent’ when chatting to team bosses during the race.

Team principal: “Well naturally we’re bitterly disappointed that [insert name of driver] hit a passing beaver and crashed on the final corner just as he was on the verge of his first ever race win…”

Crofty: “Brilliant, great, thanks for that.”

Finally a welcome return to form for Romain Grosjean

The Highest Placed British Driver 

Now I’ll admit I’ve been a bit critical of Paul Di Resta but <grits teeth> he drove extremely well to equal the best finish of his career in 4^th. He was on course for his first career podium until Grosjean overtook him with 5 laps to go. It remains to be seen whether he is the New David Coulthard or has some real talent worthy of a top drive. Certainly he rates himself highly but talk is cheap and won’t alone entice Luca di Montezemolo to open the Prancing Horse cheque-book. His team-mate, Adrian Sutil fared less well after colliding with Massa on the opening lap and failed to score any points. I fear Melbourne may turn out to be the high point of Sutil’s season?

Ferrari: Nightmare in Bahrain 

30 point lead. Man I’m good.

Having passed Rosberg to move into 2^nd place, alas poor Fernando Alonso’s victory chances crashed and burned after he developed a problem with his DRS activator which became stuck open. He had to come into the pits twice early on in the race and eventually the only option was for his mechanics to close his DRS (to avoid Alonso literally taking off from the track during the race). But in good news for racing purists, this meant that Alonso was unexpectedly thrown into the middle pack and we got to see some brilliant racing from him, notably a fantastic battle between him and Perez towards the end of the race.

Poor old Massa didn’t have much more luck sustaining a broken front wing early on and two right rear punctures during the race. And ominously, Vettel already leads Alonso by 30 points in the championship. I’m guessing that tensions will be starting to rise at Maranello. The next few races are Crunch Time.

The Vettel and Webber sponsored Vicious Team-Mate Battle of the Day

Jenson and Sergio clearly missed the Multi 21 brief as well!

And talking of titanic battles, they didn’t come much dirtier and fiercer than the one at McLaren between Button and Perez. It was straight out of the Nigel Mansell School of Aggressive Driving – cars touching, banging wheels at high speed etc. From around the middle of the race, they were having a phenomenal scrap for position and huge kudos to McLaren for not pressing the Red Bull and Mercedes Panic Button and imposing unnecessary team orders. It was quite strange to hear Button for once sounding so agitated over the radio and freaking out that Perez was moving across on him and should be calmed down. Truth of the matter, Jenson, is that Perez was simply just faster than you. Perez finished 6^th  (after taking Webber on the final lap) and Button in 10^th place so clearly the rocket that Martin Whitmarsh inserted had the desired effect on Sergio! After those scintillating performances early on last season back in the history of forever, it was great to see Sergio getting his mojo back. Holding off a driver with supreme racecraft like Alonso is no mean feat! It felt like he was racing with confidence again and as if he had nothing to lose. More please.

Silver Arrows: Can’t take the heat

And what of our pole-sitter? It was fair to say no one expected Nico would cruise to victory but it was equally fair to say that we expected him to be loosely in contention for a podium place. But it all went so terribly wrong. Within the first few laps, he had to watch all the front runners pass him but like a bloodied and half-beaten boxer he never gave up the fight for position (particularly with Button and Perez). But finishing 9^th after clinching pole must be a crushing disappointment. It’s a funny old car the Mercedes. Not as obviously crud as last year’s but nonetheless very mercurial and off the pace on race day. I’ve known cars to be brilliantly fast (and claim poles) and then be hopelessly unreliable in races (the Lotuses and Ferrari’s of old spring to mind). But its very strange to have a fast car over one lap which then can’t stay on the pace for a few laps. The Mercedes clearly chows tyres (Rosberg was forced to do 4 stops in Bahrain – compare and contrast with 2 stops for Kimi and Di Resta) and likes cold weather (so quick tenner on Silverstone then if its another mudbath!).

Hamilton had a reversal of fortunes from qualifying and climbed through the field to take 5^th. After an atrocious first lap, he struggled in the early stages but came alive in the second half of the race where he engaged in thrillingly close combat with Webber before managing to pass him on the final lap.

Mixed fortunes (again) for the Mercedes drivers

So here are the results from the Bahrain Grand Prix of 2013:

1. Vettel
2. Raikkonen
3. Grosjean – And it is to Grosjean that I give my Driver of the Day. He came into the race under a lot of pressure from fans and the media that I think had really affected his confidence. He started 11^th and showed real maturity to finish on the podium through some brilliant clean on-track racing.
4. Di Resta
5. Hamilton
6. Perez
7. Webber
8. Alonso
9. Rosberg
10. Button

And now F1’s coming home. The season-defining European leg of the season begins at the next race in Barcelona on 12 May. It was at last year’s race where Maldonado claimed a sensational victory for Williams. Twelve months sure is a long time in Formula 1. Will Alonso get his season back on track at his home Grand Prix or will Vettel grind everyone into submission as he did in Bahrain? Or will Kimi put in another cool as you like performance to close the gap in the title race?

Keeping Sebastian firmly in his sights

Four races down and all to play for.

Bahrain GP – Qualifying

The fastest man in Bahrain!

Is it that time already? Although I’ve been abandoned by Mr Eau Rouge (who is toiling away at a conference and not at all sunning himself on the shores of Lake Geneva), I’m going to attempt to live blog this thing*. I mean what could possibly go wrong, home at alone at the mercy of two small children. So lets do it.

*Obviously live-blogging was one thing and getting a full 10 minutes to finesse my stream of consciousness blog post and whack in a few photos was a step too far with two feral children on the loose. But I really typed as I watched so I’m going to call it a live blog all the same. Bear with me!

Welcome to Bahrain! Obviously I’ll skip through the build-up to qualifying proper though its been merrily playing to itself for the last hour – but hey its something to catch up on later when the kids are in bed and I’m sitting down to my saddo evening dinner for one.

So round 4 of the F1 season takes us to the Sakhir Circuit – and in previous years the race has been won 4 times from pole position (not that this race tends to be a borefest…much). Anyone could snatch pole – Red Bull, Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen for Lotus (obviously they have totally discounted Grosjean!).

The Sakhir Circuit (yup the most interesting picture I could find)

So far this weekend, Force India is looking faster than McLaren (ouch) and Alonso had a clumsy spin this morning. The panoramic overhead shots don’t do the Bahrain track any favours – what a desolate, arid, depressing place with literally just two people sitting in the grandstands. Can’t we just lose quietly lose this race and reinstate one of the old great tracks onto the calendar. I have a reasonably long list if Bernie is interested.

Gutierrez, then Webber and then Hamilton will have their penalties applied in order. Time for a quick update on the rebuild job on Lewis Hamilton’s car (what…what…what rebuild??!!) after his big blow out in final practice. A new gearbox has been fitted (ah hence the penalty) – and it turns out he had a tyre delamination but not a suspension failure. Still a quick change of underpants was probably required.

Oooops didn’t realise that Q1 has got underway – but we all know how these things work. Sweet F.A. for around 10 minutes then a frantic burst of activity. But shock horror, 3 whole cars (Vergne, Hulkenberg and Gutierrez) have actually set a time with 12 minutes to go. Martin suggested putting a camera in Ricciardo’s crash helmet to see if he smiles all the time while on track. Er ok. Its pretty fair to say Daniel Ricciardo is universally loved. But then I remember everyone eulogizing similarly about Vettel back in the Toro Rosso days and the early Red Bull days before he crossed over to the Dark Side.

A slightly freaked Giedo van der Garde just radioed in to say he could feel something moving around in his cockpit. Brundle (he of the Old School ‘just sellotape your car up and get back on track’) didn’t sound very sympathetic saying you can get all sorts like screwdrivers etc left in cars.

Giedo van der Garde having a mildly eventful qualifying (what was in the cockpit…did we ever discover?!)

Then an incandescent Paul Di Resta radioed into his team to s**t all over them for not giving him enough information…“its really not good enough”. I’m sorry but I’ve got to put it out there. I really can’t bear Paul Di Resta. Does he ever stop whinging and ranting for a single race? Get a grip of yourself man, you’re hardly A List in the world of F1. He will probably now get pole just to spite me.

Ah Gerhard Berger is here! We like Gerhard a lot. My favourite Berger story ever is the time he threw Ayrton Senna’s new carbon fibre briefcase out of a helicopter to prove it wasn’t indestructible. Crazeeeee days man. But we digress and oh yes, Q1 is still going on.

Ayrton and Gerhard

Meanwhile 3 minutes to do and its Alonso, Rosberg, Grosjean, Di Resta (boo), Massa and Kimi at the top end. And Hamilton STILL hasn’t set a time – he had a problem in the middle of his lap and it looks like he backed out of his lap. OH BUT HANG ON needless panic averted as Lewis goes 5^th. I think the commentary team need to get a grip along with Di Resta.

And in the Dropzone of Doom are (17) Maldonado (apparently a Williams car has fallen at Q1 every single qualifying of this year) (18) Gutierrez (19) Pic (20) Bianchi (21) Van Der Garde and (22) Chilton. Williams really have gone backwards this year. As a longtime Williams fan (despite the cruel and brutal treatment of Damon Hill…I’m still relatively bitter) its desperately sad to see.

Ah talking of which, I’ve now been joined on the sofa by the 5 year old as the Sky team discuss the fall-out of Q1. “Oh”, he says, “there’s Damon Hill…did he drive when you were young?”. Was I still young then? Anyway, swiftly moving on.

A very freshfaced Damon Hill (I was definitely young at this point in time!)

So time for Q2 and thoughts are turning to the actual pole time – the feeling is it will be the low 1.32s or the late 1.31s. And apparently its not sand at the side of the track, its Beige Painted Concrete. And that, ladies and gentlemen, tells you all you need to know about Sakhir.

With a few minutes to go, Rosberg does a truly stonking lap to go fastest by 0.5 seconds which even merits a flicker of approval on the inscrutable face of Ross Brawn. And Webber manages to insert himself between Rosberg and Alonso – I really would love Mark to have a good qualifying though the poor old sod still has a grid penalty to come.

With a minute to go, Sutil, Button and Kimi are back out on flying laps. Where will they end up? All perilously hovering close to/in the dropzone so this lap will be crucial. Sutil goes 7^th, Button goes 9^th and Kimi goes 4^th shoving Grosjean out of the top ten.

So dumped out of Q2 are the following: (11) Grosjean (12) Perez (13) Ricciardo (14) Hulkenberg (15) Bottas (16) Vergne. Of those six, Grosjean and Hulkenberg are a real surprise. Perez should be but isn’t if you know what I mean. All a bit puzzling what’s going on with Grosjean this season. But after all the flak he got last year, I wonder if he’s driving within himself. Loved Damon’s comment in post-Q2 analysis about him getting unhelpful advice from Alain Prost. Its safe to say Prost isn’t without an opinion on most things.

Ah a word from Eric Bouillier (who has the thickest French accent I’ve EVER heard – think the resistance woman from ‘Allo ‘Allo ‘listen very carefully, I shall say zis only once’ and you’re there). A couple of titbits of news hot off the press. Pirelli have signed a 5 year deal and Bahrain might be a night race next year. Hmmmm. I am not a fan of night races, certainly based on the mind-numbing tedium of most Singapore races.

I shall say ‘zis only once

And Q3 gets underway pretty quickly for once with Nico setting a blisteringly fast time of 1.32.543 (0.8 seconds faster than Di Resta) and Hamilton on his first run can’t quite match his team-mate’s time. And nor can Alonso who slots into 2^nd place just ahead of Lewis. So top 4 (and indeed the only 4 cars to venture out) are Nico, Alonso, Hamilton and Di Resta. All the rest presumably are saving their tyres/playing the long game/sending tweets/punching their team-mate etc.

Then BIG excitement, Ferrari have come out on the hard tyre. That’s a bit different. And we have TEN cars on track. Prepare to have your brains fried for the last 1 minute of qualifying. <reaches for valium>

And we are following Mark Webber as he makes various mistakes and lock-ups which brings sighs of despair from Martin Brundle. Webber anyway manages to go 4^th and Di Resta can’t match that on his next flying lap. Kimi meanwhile has only gone 7^th…what?!? <sobs into my third black coffee of the day> Here comes Nico with Vettel in hot pursuit. And Nico STAYS on pole with an even faster time, Vettel goes 2^nd and it all comes down to Alonso but he has made a mistake and peels off into the pits. Alonso stays 3^rd. Button alone of the top ten fails to set a time and comes into the pits.

So we have a second Mercedes pole in a row. And it’s the first back-to-back pole for Mercedes since Moss and Fangio in 1955 (note to David Coulthard – that’ll be JUAN MANUEL FANGIO, the FIVE time F1 world champion).

Moss and Fangio – Mercedes team-mates

Well assorted Sky F1 presenters and commentary team, you didn’t call that one remotely right for pole. You load of doofuses. The top ten tomorrow looks like this*

1. Rosberg
2. Vettel
3. Alonso
4. Hamilton *but with 5 place penalty
5. Webber *but with 3 place penalty
6. Massa – will start on the hard tyre
7. Di Resta
8. Sutil
9. Raikkonen
10. Button – didn’t set a time so could start on hard tyre (I so bet he will)

Well that was a turn up for the books. Will Nico’s luck change on race day tomorrow? Will we have our 4^th different winner in 4 races? That’s me done and I’m outta here until tomorrow!

Chinese GP – The Race

Chinese GP of 2013 – you either loved it or hated it

In the world of Formula 1 you often get races that are universally hailed as thrilling (or epic to use the 5 year old’s terminology) or on occasions races that are interminably dull. But it is very rare that a particular race is considered by some to be exciting and by others to be a borefest. The Chinese GP of 2013 is one of those marmite races. It seems like people either loved it or hated it. So what was the deal in Shanghai? What went right and what went wrong?

Well cards on the table time. I actually really enjoyed that race and believe me I don’t often think that about races in China (see ‘interminably dull’ comment above). Yes admittedly my brain was fried by the ridiculous number of pitstops and we wouldn’t want to make the tyres any bigger an issue otherwise F1 could end up being a succession of pitstops with a bit of racing thrown in. But this weekend in China, we saw some tremendous racing, lots of incidents, crashes, a flying wheel and two cars fighting to the death for a podium spot at the finish line.

Tyres – too much of a good thing?

After the cringeworthy qualifying coverage on the Beeb, I re-defected to Sky. As the 2 year old considerately had adopted Chinese time, I was able to immerse myself in the full, unexpurgated build up. But as time is money and I have precious little of both, I’ll rapidly fast-forward to #MartinsGridWalk as is customary.

Martin told us there was ‘tremendous excitement’ down on the grid and the atmosphere was electric. Either he talks a good talk (which of course he does) or he really was supersonically excited. It appeared looking at the stands that huge swathes of Chinese F1 fans had adopted Kimi Raikkonen as one of their own. Always been a bit sceptical about the natural appetite of China for F1 but credit where its due. Kimi is a real old school racer and not the obvious choice (say compared to the metronomical win machine that is Vettel). Damnit, maybe Bernie was onto something after all taking the magic of F1 to new audiences (though I suspect the incidental benefit of China and India having the largest populations in the world might have just crossed his mind and that of his accountant).

Kimi-mania!

First up an interview with Vettel (a rarity on the grid since he became super arrogant successful and focused on winning races). Clearly His People have a strategy for convincing the F1 populace at large that Seb is an all-round nice guy again. Presumably another Top Gear appearance is in the offing. Seb told us it was a long race and a lot can happen and could Martin ask the drivers in front to pit early. The old jokester! The lovely Tanja Bauer from SKY Deutschland hoved into view to piggy-back off the interview. There is no better double-act in F1 than Martin and Tanja. In my mind they are the F1 equivalent of Tim and Dawn from The Office.

The fragrant Tanja!

Showing he wasn’t adverse to doing the same (but with less smouldering chemistry), Martin inserted himself into an interview with David Coulthard and Ricciardo who had of course qualified in a brilliant 7^th spot.  There were then a couple of failed attempts to interview Grosjean (he only now talks to Canal+ before races) and Rosberg (prior booking with German TV). So as a last resort, Brundle sauntered over to Bernie who lets face it would be much better value than most drivers and their predictable, bland soundbites. Bernie said he didn’t have a clue who would win (Bernie should have checked out my qualifying blog!) and in response to Martin’s comments on the somewhat lacklustre qualifiying (big hand for Brundle for asking the difficult question there) Bernie said he would be looking to tweak qualifying. Good.

Avram – not a very good football manager but friend of some of The Most Powerful People on Earth!

Then we had our first Random Celebrity at a Race of the season and it was the lesser spotted Avram Grant. It was his first time at a Grand Prix and it was impressive but different to football. Thanks Avram. And mercifully we were done with the Gridwalk.

Just time for Crofty to make a thoroughly odd reference to Chaucer and it was time for the start and Go Go Go at the Chinese Grand Prix! And it was a very clean start for everyone. Both Ferrari’s leapfrogged Kimi, and Nico Rosberg squeezed past Grosjean. We were barely into the 2^nd lap before Sutil nearly put his team-mate, Di Resta, off the track (that’ll be an interesting team debrief later) and it was time for the first pitstop of the race – the honour coming to Mark Webber who had started from the back of the grid.

Even in the early stages of the race, Lewis Hamilton was struggling to hang onto his lead and could not fend off the faster cars of Alonso and Massa. Vettel meanwhile was working his way through the field having passed Vettel and Hulkenberg. The Mercedes tyres situation was so dire that the team actually stacked them in the pits to give them new sets of tyres ASAP.

Mercedes pitstop – first of many…

Gutierrez decided to accelerate his Sauber into the back of Sutil who had to bring his car and broken rear wing (ouch) into the pits where the brakes promptly caught fire. Its been pretty much downhill for poor Adrian Sutil since the dizzying heights of leading the Australian GP. Gutierrez has since been rightly penalised with a 5 place grid penalty for Bahrain.

Sutil was on fire. Not in a good way.

Time for our first round of pitstops (ie. for everyone except the already-pitted Mercedes cars and those on the medium compounds, Button and the Hulk) by laps 7 and 8. The main change afterwards was that Kimi was now running ahead of Massa. By lap 14, the race leader was Hulkenberg who had yet to pit. As Marty B said the Hulk has formed a habit of leading different Grand Prix in different cars. I wonder whether Martin Whitmarsh wakes up screaming in the dead of night remembering he could have signed Hulkenberg but instead went for Perez.

Hulkenberg embellishing the old CV nicely once again

Vettel was inconveniently stuck behind the Hulk for a few laps and got the ‘box box’ call (we all know its a very unsubtle code for ‘pit’ so why don’t they just say ‘pit’) so Sauber hauled in the Hulk as well. Red Bull executed one of their lightning fast stops and Vettel rejoined ahead of the Hulk but in a POTENTIAL FLASHPOINT INCIDENT Vettel was right behind Mark Webber.

Alas for all those (me for one) hoping to see a right old ding-dong between the two Red Bull team-mates, Webber got all tangled up with Jean-Eric Vergne before anyone could say ‘multi 21’ and had to take his damaged car into the pits. So that spoilt all our fun.

“Oh strewth, its not Seb”

Then Kimi had a coming together with Perez which politely could be described as a rather over-ambitious overtaking move on the outside and bluntly could be summed up as Kimi crashing into the back of an admittedly slowish Perez. Anyhow we had another Angry Kimi moment. All this outpouring of emotion (by Kimi standards) would make anyone think that Kimi himself might have half an eye on a title challenge this season. Kimi lost the end of the nose of his car but didn’t seem bothered and nor did the Oracle that is Martin Brundle (the husband was having a minor nervous breakdown but I tend to trust Martin more!) so a podium finish was potentially still on the cards.

Kimi showing us all that repairing damaged cars is for wimps

Poor Webber’s weekend went from pretty rubbish to An Abject Total Disaster. As he was coasting around the track, he was told to abort the race and then his wheel went flying off, bouncing across the track into the path of amongst others, Sebastian Vettel. Insert witty Twitter caption pictures here (actually I can’t be bothered!). Could anything else go wrong for Mark? Yes of course it could. We heard that the stewards were investigating his incident with Vergne – the upshot of which is a 3 place grid penalty for Mark Webber going into Bahrain.

Yes, its Mark’s car losing a wheel.

By lap 18, Button (Tyre Preserver Extraordinaire) was leading the race with Alonso breathing down his neck. Massa and Rosberg pitted again on lap 20 and then while Alonso scorched past Button one lap later, we had a Do Not Adjust Your Sets Moment as Rosberg pitted again. Two pitstops in two laps is not good. And sure enough Nico was forced to retire from the race with suspension problems. Its safe to say he is getting ALL of Schumacher’s terrible luck from last season. I would say his luck has to change but then I remember the rest of Schumacher’s final season.

Button – give him a set of tyres and he’ll look after them as if they were his own children

Finally on lap 24, Button pitted (along with Alonso) and he rejoined the track just ahead of his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton. And at the all-important halfway point of the race (according to Bernie, this was when we would start to have an inkling of who would finish where) the front order was shaking out thus: 1. Alonso 2. Vettel 3. Hulkenberg 4. Hamilton and 5. Button (the front two and the last two having literally just swapped positions on track).

On lap 30, the Hulk pitted and Hamilton was catching Vettel until he (Seb) pitted two laps later. The next laps saw pitstops from Kimi, Massa and the Hulk (again – for reasons I forget) and Hamilton. By lap 40, the pack was slightly shuffled at the front although Alonso was still leading the race, followed by 2. Vettel 3. Button 4. Kimi 5. Ricciardo and 6. Hamilton

We were told that 6 cars were being investigated for illegal use of DRS along with the 2 other cars that were already being investigated for illegal use of DRS. That’s pretty much everyone except for Lewis Hamilton as a friend on Twitter pointed out to me (but I’m not biting!). On lap 42, Alonso finally pitted and rejoined behind Vettel but not for long as he rapidly dispatched him on the following lap. A couple of laps later, Kimi took Button and he was absolutely flying in the proverbial Finn sense of the word. Button bravely held off Hamilton for a few laps but simply could not keep the much faster Mercedes behind him for long. On lap 50, Button had to come into the pits again and re-emerged in 6^th place. Not on paper a stellar position but considering the abject mediocrity of the McLaren this season, Button was having an impressive race.

Clipboard time

Lap 52 saw Vettel come into the pits and he slotted back into 4^th place and was absolutely flying. Despite the on-track hazards of Caterham’s and Marussia’s (I like to think of them as Mario Kart style banana skins), he was rapidly hauling in Lewis to set up a thrilling battle to the finish. And it was a grandstand finish as Hamilton just crossed the line a mere 0.2 seconds ahead of Vettel.

So here are the results from the Chinese Grand Prix 2013:

1. Alonso – A brilliant strategic victory from Alonso and Ferrari.
2. Raikkonen – A great return to form after Melbourne.
3. Hamilton – Two podiums in two races. WAY better than Mercedes/Lewis could have hoped.
4. Vettel – From 9^th on the grid, anyone else would be reasonably happy with that result. But this is Seb.
5. Button – Enormously impressive drive to justify the 2 stop gamble. Not many other drivers could have done the same.
6. Massa – Not a drive to grab the headlines. But hey someone had to be 6^th.

The Ferrari family celebrating a great team effort

With barely time to draw breath, we’re off to Bahrain and predictably a bunch of MPs have called for the race to be cancelled due to unrest in the Gulf state (although for 99% of the last year, we’ve heard squat diddly about Bahrain!). And of even greater interest than the news that NO soft tyres will be used in Bahrain this coming weekend are the rather touching images of Alonso and Webber’s bromantic dinner à deux in Dubai.

Well done that man Fernando. If anyone needed a beer it was Mark Webber!

I’m being abandoned this weekend by the husband and will be at the mercy of small children. Not sure if that makes it easier or harder to blog as I might be a Woman on the Edge but at least there is a Grand Prix to save me!

Chinese GP – Qualifying

1-2-3 on the grid tomorrow

So at the end of qualifying, I asked the husband what he would give it out of 10 and he said “3…if that”. Because bizarrely I have some time on my hands (mainly due to the fact it NEVER seems to stop raining outside), I nonetheless decided to shoot off a quick blog. And believe me it will be quick as there was naff all action on track for most of the qualifying hour.

As this was the first race that the BBC was covering live in 2013, I decided to tune in and see how the newly united trio of Suzi Perry, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan (whose grand return had even been triumphantly trailered on the BBC Sport website) fared. Well in a nutshell, not too well. Although the matey joshing and banter got a mite tedious at times between Jake, DC and Eddie, there was an undeniable chemistry and warm rapport between them. Early days and all that but the dynamic between the presenters now feels quite stilted and oddly tense. I like Suzi Perry a lot and respect her petrolhead credentials but something isn’t working.

The new BBC line-up

Previously on F1, we had all that nasty business with team orders. Disobeyed by the Official New Villain in Formula 1, Sebastian Vettel, and followed to the letter by Nico Rosberg. So naturally we began with a montage of racing moments involving the use of team orders back in the Olden Days featuring:

Mansell and Patrese, 1992

1992, Williams: Patrese letting team-mate Mansell through to win the French GP – pretty unnecessary given Mansell already had a commanding lead in the title race and his closest challenger was er Patrese.

1997, Williams/McLaren: Villenueve letting Hakkinen and DC through to secure a 1-2 at Jerez – Villeneuve with his damaged car (yes we all know why) was being caught by both McLarens. But with a world title at stake it made sense in a way although I feel a bit uncomfortable about inter-team orders .

2002, Ferrari: Barrichello letting Schumacher through to win the Austrian GP – documented ad infinitum and not Ferrari’s finest hour.

2008, Renault: Piquet crashing to order to bring out the safety car and assist Alonso in winning the Singapore GP – even now a quite unbelievable and shocking turn of events.

And with the montage guys working overtime we had another load of footage from the Olden Days where team mates refused to obey team orders. And who better to be dispatched to investigate these murky waters than Eddie Jordan. He brought up his own episode as team boss at Jordan where he ordered Ralf Schumacher to hold station behind Damon Hill at the Belgian GP in 1998 to which I would make 3 immediate points:

1. They were on the verge of a precious FIRST win for Jordan (and a 1-2 to boot) so really to jeopardise that would have been insane.
2. The conditions were horrific and the race had seen numerous large crashes already.
3. Ralf (bless him) wasn’t exactly known for having the supreme car control or prowess in the rain as his brother so any overtaking move would have been ahem risky.

Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher in Spa 1998

Anyway since Malaysia, Vettel has been at pains to diffuse the row and mend fences. HANG ON…apparently he hasn’t. Apparently he would do it all over again and felt Mark didn’t deserve to win anyway. Way to make friends and gain influence Seb (actually he probably has lots of influence but few friends). He certainly has upset Eddie Jordan who declared in dramatic, disapproving tones that Seb was a “changed man” and had become much more arrogant. Furthermore (but I must stress I have heard this from no other source than Eddie Jordan!) the rumour is that Seb has been taking phone calls and advice from none other than the biggest villain of all time, MICHAEL SCHUMACHER. I might have known they’d try and blame Schuey somehow. Curses myself for ever deciding to watch F1 on the BBC.

Still lets crack on with qualifying. Precisely nothing, nada, rien happened for the first 10 minutes of Q1 and with 8 minutes remaining we had a great moment of excitement when someone – can’t even remember who – finally set a time.

And fast-forwarding to the relevant part as to who was in the Drop Zone of Doom, the bottom end of the grid looked like this: 17) Valtteri Bottas 18) Esteban Gutierrez 19) Jules Bianchi 20) Max Chilton 21) Charles Pic 22) Giedo van der Garde.

Q2 was marginally more exciting in that Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of the weekend so far. He was told over the radio that he was 0.5 seconds faster than his team-mate. I’m keeping a very close eye on driver relations at Mercedes. The road is long etc.

Meanwhile Webber running at P8 suddenly stopped on track and he was OUT of qualifying. It appeared he had a fuel pressure problem and they needed to quarantine ‘fuel bowsers’. BOWSERS?!?! Is this a technical term, or more Red Bull code? Every race is an education.

Bowser is the culprit apparently for Webber’s fuel issues

Poor old Marky Mark ended up being demoted to the back of the grid as his car was under-fuelled. All Christian Horner must have wanted was an incident-free race weekend and there is controversy even before the race is underway. You couldn’t make it up.

Webber having (another) totally rubbish day at the office

Dumped out in Q2 were: Paul di Resta, Sergio Perez, Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber, Pastor Maldonado and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Quite stunningly Daniel Ricciardo had made it through to the Top Ten Shoot-out which even elicited a ‘wow’ from Jenson Button when told over the radio. The Hulk deserves an honourable mention for scraping into Q3 as well (compare and contrast with his team-mate, Esteban Gutierrez, languishing in 18^th place). The three fastest drivers incidentally from Q2 were Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel.

Daniel Ricciardo – suits a Red Bull hat doesn’t he…!

Time for the Final Showdown and we all had to sit and twiddle our thumbs for an eternity before the cars all shot out like rats down a drainpipe with 3 minutes to go. The BIG point to note was that Vettel and Button were on the medium tyre compounds and all the others cars were on soft. This basically meant that Vettel and Button were sacrificing qualifying for race advantage.

Kimi Raikkonen was the first driver to set a time and had a blisteringly fast lap to put himself right up there in contention for pole. Nico Rosberg could not match his time and slotted himself into 2^nd place until Hamilton and Alonso came out on track to do their flying laps. Hamilton seized pole and Alonso secured 3^rd place – a mere 0.02 seconds was the difference between being on the front row and starting from the 2^nd row).

Kimi clinching 2nd place in qualifying

Vettel didn’t manage to set a lap time as he locked up and spun so starts down in 9^th place. Button was suddenly rushed out (McLaren admitted their strategy was to do the opposite of Red Bull once they both went down the medium tyre route) and managed to sneak into 8^th place with Daniel Ricciardo hugely impressing after a brilliant qualifying performance. The front end of the grid lines up tomorrow as follows:

1) Lewis Hamilton 2) Kimi Raikkonen 3) Fernando Alonso 4) Nico Rosberg 5) Felipe Massa 6) Romain Grosjean 7) Daniel Ricciardo 8) Jenson Button 9) Sebastian Vettel 10) Nico Hulkenberg.

Not a vintage qualifying but a tantalisingly mixed-up grid. My ones to watch are Kimi, Button and Vettel with (oooooh this is SO tricky) Alonso to win.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today…

Ayrton Senna at Donington 1993 – arguably the finest race win of his career

Trying to decide on Senna’s finest drive is no easy task. Although his F1 career was tragically cut short it is nonetheless littered with truly sublime performances. But in my very humble opinion, the European Grand Prix of 1993 (held at Donington Park) showcased Senna’s prodigious talent at its very best.

The start of the 1993 season saw a whole host of driver line-up changes. Williams had recruited Senna’s arch nemesis, Alain Prost, the previous year for the upcoming season but had neglected to inform their incumbent star driver, Nigel Mansell, of that fact. Our Nigel promptly got the hump (as was his wont) and packed his bags for Indy Cars. And perhaps slightly to his own surprise, Damon Hill found himself partnering the 3 time world champion in the best car on the grid by a country mile.

Tazio Nuvolari on his way to victory at Donington Park in 1938

Donington Park was hosting its first Grand Prix since the legendary Tazio Nuvolari’s win 55 years earlier in the state-sponsored Auto Union car (that would be the…er…Nazi Germany state – amazing to think less than 12 months later the world would be at war). And true to form the Great British Weather was absolutely abysmal for what was only the 3^rd race of the season. Honours in the first two races had gone to Prost in Kyalami (I would dearly love to see this track restored to the F1 calendar) and Senna in his home race at Interlagos. I don’t think they did a #MartinsGridwalk in those days not least because Martin Brundle was still plying his trade in a Ligier and back in those simple days no one knew what the hashtag button was for.

Martin Brundle getting to grips with the circuit

There was no blogging then just good old fashioned sports reports buried in the back of newspapers or motorsport magazines. But if there had been a blog (and if ever a race deserved a blog it was this one!) it might have looked a little like this.

The two Williams cars had secured a front row lock out in qualifying and the top end of the grid comprised Prost, Hill, Schumacher, Senna, Wendlinger and Andretti. The race started in damp conditions and on wets so there were no kamikaze antics right at the start. Schumacher’s blocking tactics on Senna led to Wendlinger unexpectedly leaping into 3^rd spot. And then it was time for the Senna masterclass to begin. As they say, it was Show Time.

As they started…

Ayrton Senna started scything through the field with almost robotic brilliance. First he passed Michael Schumacher on the 3^rd corner, then he audaciously took Karl Wendlinger on the outside of the Craner Curves. Then he passed Damon Hill for P2 at Coppice. Until finally all that remained in his sights (as surely he was destined to be) was Alain Prost. At the Melbourne Hairpin, Senna seized the lead of the race from Prost. In the space of a single lap he had moved from 5^th to 1^st solely through a sequence of sublime overtaking manoeuvres.

Senna making his move on Prost to take the lead

Meanwhile, Schumacher in the Benetton had squeezed past Wendlinger who then fell into the clutches of Andretti (the Grosjean of his day, or the Di Cesaris of his day if you’re as old as the husband). The inevitable result was that Andretti crashed into Wendlinger bringing both their races to an early conclusion. Meanwhile, new team-mates Prost and Hill were scrapping pretty hard for position while trading a succession of fastest laps.

Karl Wendlinger

Suddenly the track began to dry and everyone rushed into the pits for slicks. JJ Lehto driving for the brand new Sauber team was in 5^th place before he retired with handling problems on lap 14. A few laps later, Berger had to park his Ferrari in the pits with suspension problems. And already at this early stage of the race, Senna had begun metronomically lapping backmarkers.

Just to liven things up again, it started raining and the majority of drivers pitted for wets. Schumacher stayed out but the gamble didn’t come off as he spun out of the race on lap 23 (Mark Blundell quickly followed suit in his Ligier). The two Williams drivers pitted for wets right away as Senna tore round the track like a man possessed extracting every last nanosecond of track time out of his slicks.

As the track began to dry out, Senna’s lead started evaporating. Everyone pitted once more. A lightning quick Williams pitstop and a McLaren pit disaster (some things never change hey) conspired to shuffle the leading pack. After all the pitstops, the leading six were 1. Prost, 2. Senna, 3. Hill, 4. Barrichello, 5. Warwick and 6. Herbert (holy maloney – three Brits in the top six must have sent the Beeb off the Murray Walker Giddometer back in the day).

And then the rain began to fall again and this time Senna gambled on staying out on slicks while the two Williams cars pitted for wets. Senna started opening up a commanding lead by brilliantly managing his car. On slicks! In the rain! He even managed to set the fastest lap of the race so far on a track that was still wet. Only Johnny Herbert (nice guy Johnny, who’d have thought it) proved troublesome to lap and Senna indicated his annoyance in a fairly direct fashion as he went by. After ten-ish laps of watching the race slowly slip through their fingers, both Williams chucked in the towel and came into the pits for yet another change of tyres. Prost then stalled in the pits (I may have cheered at the time, but only very quietly as Mr Eau Rouge Snr was a big Prost fan…never got it myself personally) and when Prost rejoined he was down to 4^th place and a lap behind. Game over.

Johnny Herbert driving for the beleaguered Team Lotus in 1993

In only the 3^rd race of his F1 career, Rubens Barrichello racing for Jordan was having a blinder but in this maddest of races he was lapped by Senna while running in 2^nd place – and as Senna went by he gave his fellow countryman a friendly little wave. Senna was now the ONLY person on the lead lap. Incredibly, he had lapped everyone else on track. Poor Rubens eventually had to pit twice more before then retiring with fuel pressure problems. But this race showed that Senna wasn’t the only Brazilian in F1 who relished wet weather conditions. It was a long time coming but when Rubens won his first Grand Prix at Hockenheim in 2000 quite spectacularly coming from 18^th on the grid to take victory, it was tellingly in wet weather conditions.

Rubens Barrichello leading the chasing pack

As the race drew to a conclusion, Damon Hill was starting to reel in Senna but only in the sense that he managed to unlap himself! Eventually Senna won by 1 minute 23.199 seconds ahead of Hill (lets just take a moment to marvel at that winning margin) who in turn was 35 seconds ahead of Prost, followed by Herbert, Patrese and Barbazza (I’d so completely forgotten about him I had to wikipedia him – despite the creditable 6th place in Donington, Minardi dumped him later in the season after 8 races!).

It was arguably Senna’s finest hour – to drive on slicks under wet conditions for most of the race and totally outclass a hugely talented F1 field was truly magnificent. Here is Murray Walker sharing his memories of this legendary race.

Sky Sports F1 will be screening a 30 minute highlight show of the race at Donington tonight at 7pm. If you’ve never seen this race you must must must watch it. And even if you’ve seen it before, just sit back and relive the master at work all over again.

A race that has passed into legend