F1 Quals: Bahrain 2013

So... Bahrain.  Not much to say about it.  Here's the provisional grid for the 2013 Grand Prix of Bahrain:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.364	1:32.867	1:32.330
2	Hannibal Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:33.327	1:32.746	1:32.584
3	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:32.878	1:33.316	1:32.667
4	Shiv Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.498	1:33.346	1:32.762
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:33.966	1:33.098	1:33.078
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:33.780	1:33.358	1:33.207
7	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:33.762	1:33.335	1:33.235
8	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.048	1:33.378	1:33.246
9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:33.827	1:33.146	1:33.327
10	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.071	1:33.702
11	Lettuce Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:33.498	1:33.762
12	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.310	1:33.914
13	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:34.120	1:33.974
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.409	1:33.976
15	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:34.425	1:34.105
16	Jules Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:34.314	1:34.284
17	Dob-dob Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:34.425
18	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.730
19	Charles ToothPic	Caterham-Renault	1:35.283
20	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1:36.178
21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1:36.304
22	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1:36.476
	Q1 107% Time		1:39.379

There are penalties all over the place here.  Webber has a three-spot penalty from last race.  Esteban Gutierrez gets a five-place penalty from last race, too.  Shiv Hamilton is taking a five-spot hit for a gearbox change.  The upshot of all of it is that Felipe Massa is promoted to 4th place, and he's the only car on the Hard tires.  THAT might be really important.

But probably not.  Pirelli has brought the Hard and the Medium rubber to the circuit this race.  The Medium compound has proven to be nearly as long-lasting as the Hard, but still gives a measurable bonus to traction.  Maybe Massa's going to try a 1-stop strategy? 

We'll find out Sunday morning.  See ya then for F1Update!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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