November 23, 2013

F1 Quals: Brazil 2013

Rain.  Rain is the great equalizer.  Rain mushes up the playing field, makes everything harder and slower.  Rain during Qualifying can put backmarkers on pole and champions into the wall.  Rain Is Good.

It rained during Quals today.  Here's the provisional grid for the 2013 Grand Prix of Brazil:

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 4Time Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:25.381 1:26.420 1:26.479
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.556 1:26.626 1:27.102
3 HWMNBN Ferrari 1:26.656 1:26.590 1:27.539
4 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:26.689 1:26.963 1:27.572
5 Shiv Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.342 1:26.698 1:27.677
6 Lettuce Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:26.453 1:26.161 1:27.737
7 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 1:27.209 1:27.078 1:28.052
8 Jules Vergne STR-Ferrari 1:27.124 1:27.363 1:28.081
9 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26.817 1:27.049 1:28.109
10 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1:26.071 1:27.441 1:29.582
11 Heikki Kovalaineninnie Lotus-Renault 1:26.266 1:27.456
12 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:26.275 1:27.798
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1:26.790 1:27.954
14 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.741 1:28.269
15 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.398 1:28.308
16 Adrian F'n Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:26.874 1:28.586
17 Fiddledeedee Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:27.367

18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.445

19 Charles ToothPic Caterham-Renault 1:27.843

20 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1:28.320

21 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1:28.366

22 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1:28.950


It rained, and it still doesn't matter.  In fact, it was only in the closing stages of Q3 that Rosberg cut the gap to Vettel to under a second.  Let me repeat that: Vettel was going to take pole by over a second.  In the rain.  Guess what it's going to do on raceday?  If you said "rain," you're right.  Hopefully not as much as we had today, when Q3 had to be delayed nearly 45 minutes, but rain. 

With the race on NBC, I wounder how they'd handle a major delay?  Guess we might just find out!  See ya at 10am Pond Time for the final Grand Prix of 2013.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:04 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Just, wow.

On one hand it makes a great "story" to have someone dominate the sport for a season (or two) like Vettel's doing. On the other, gods, it's gotta make for some dreary viewing, race by race.

I wonder what rules changes are in the pipeline to prevent something like this happening again. But then, how do you rules-lawyer away a combination of a brilliant driver at the top of his career and his relatively trusty steed?

Posted by: GreyDuck at November 23, 2013 05:35 PM (CUkqs)

2 Unsurprising, considering that Vettel's first win was in the wet in an inferior car.

I do wonder just what the point of having the full-wet tires is.  It seems that these days the FIA just goes from dry, to inters, to red flag.  When they finally allowed Q3 to start, the cars did go out on full wets for once, only to find immediately that the track was ready for inters.

Posted by: flatdarkmars at November 23, 2013 06:31 PM (a0ygh)

3 FDM, I suspect that if we get that sort of rain during the race, they'll keep going.  There's just no reason to run a Quals session in that sort of rain, though.

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 23, 2013 09:12 PM (Izt1u)

4 "With the race on NBC, I wounder how they'd handle a major delay?"
Cut to some boring sport, no doubt.
Oh, wait, that's the Olympics.

Posted by: RickC at November 23, 2013 09:27 PM (swpgw)

5 Duck Alert: Kill la Kill Episode 7, 14:39

Posted by: Mauser at November 23, 2013 10:56 PM (TJ7ih)

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