July 04, 2015
F1 Quals: Great Britain 2015
About as perfect of a summer's day as you could ever hope for in England welcomed the Blundering Herd to Silverstone today. Low 70s and brilliant sunshine made for perfect track conditions. The only fly in the ointment was a rather stiff and gusting breeze that made for interesting handling problems for these cars, delicately balanced between grip and control... or kittylitter and tears. Here's the provisional grid for the 2015 Grand Prix of Great Britain:
We had a rash of qualifying laps thrown out all day, thanks to the Stewards cracking down on exceeding the track limits. Turns 9 and 18 were the main sources of offense, and it came close to costing Seb Vettel progression to Q2. Something like 11 drivers had lap times disallowed, some multiple times (Pastor Maldonado, we're looking at you...).
Other than that, however, it was very close to being a bog-standard Quals session. Only the mild surprise of having Williams lock out Row Two is somewhat different. This really is the sort of track that fits the Williams chassis to a T: medium downforce with fast, fast sweeping corners. As the FW37 appears to have a problem with downforce acquisition, not being limited in comparison to the other teams at this track plays right into their hands. Throw in the Mercedes power unit, and you've got the recipe for a nice finish tomorrow.
Not "race winning", but nice. Ain't nobody beating the Mercs tomorrow, and my guess is that only a RPG is going to stop Lewis Hamilton from winning his home race again.
Race on Sunday morning... we'll see you sometime thereafter with the F1U!
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:33.796 | 1:33.068 | 1:32.248 |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:33.475 | 1:32.737 | 1:32.361 |
| 3 | Felipe Not Nasr Massa | Williams | 1:34.542 | 1:33.707 | 1:33.085 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:34.171 | 1:33.020 | 1:33.149 |
| 5 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:33.426 | 1:33.911 | 1:33.379 |
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:33.562 | 1:33.641 | 1:33.547 |
| 7 | Kid Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:34.422 | 1:33.520 | 1:33.636 |
| 8 | Edward James Olmos | Toro Rosso | 1:34.641 | 1:34.071 | 1:33.649 |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:34.594 | 1:33.693 | 1:33.673 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:34.272 | 1:33.749 | 1:33.943 |
| 11 | Sergio Aragones | Force India | 1:34.250 | 1:34.268 | |
| 12 | Lettuce Grosjean | Lotus | 1:34.646 | 1:34.430 | |
| 13 | Embryo Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:34.819 | 1:34.502 | |
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:34.877 | 1:34.511 | |
| 15 | Sony Ericsson | Sauber | 1:34.643 | 1:34.868 | |
| 16 | Felipe Not Massa Nasr | Sauber | 1:34.888 | ||
| 17 | OFTDHWRHN | McLaren | 1:34.959 | ||
| 18 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:35.207 | ||
| 19 | Will Stevens | Marussia | 1:37.364 | ||
| 20 | Roberto Merhi | Marussia | 1:39.377 |
We had a rash of qualifying laps thrown out all day, thanks to the Stewards cracking down on exceeding the track limits. Turns 9 and 18 were the main sources of offense, and it came close to costing Seb Vettel progression to Q2. Something like 11 drivers had lap times disallowed, some multiple times (Pastor Maldonado, we're looking at you...).
Other than that, however, it was very close to being a bog-standard Quals session. Only the mild surprise of having Williams lock out Row Two is somewhat different. This really is the sort of track that fits the Williams chassis to a T: medium downforce with fast, fast sweeping corners. As the FW37 appears to have a problem with downforce acquisition, not being limited in comparison to the other teams at this track plays right into their hands. Throw in the Mercedes power unit, and you've got the recipe for a nice finish tomorrow.
Not "race winning", but nice. Ain't nobody beating the Mercs tomorrow, and my guess is that only a RPG is going to stop Lewis Hamilton from winning his home race again.
Race on Sunday morning... we'll see you sometime thereafter with the F1U!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
02:00 PM
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1
What the heck is a "virtual safety car"?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 05, 2015 07:03 AM (+rSRq)
2
Instead of waking Berndt Maylander up from his nap, what is, in effect, a full-course yellow flag is called out. Drivers must reduce speed drastically and station-keep.
It's an intermediate step between a single yellow flag (for a dead car that's come to a halt near an extraction point, for example), and Berndt Maylander (for a major wreck that requires tow trucks).
I'm not a huge fan of the concept, but they don't ask me.
It's an intermediate step between a single yellow flag (for a dead car that's come to a halt near an extraction point, for example), and Berndt Maylander (for a major wreck that requires tow trucks).
I'm not a huge fan of the concept, but they don't ask me.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 05, 2015 01:09 PM (jGQR+)
3
I was wakened this morning about 5 by a cramp in my left leg (ouch!) and got up for a while. When I checked the F1 site the race had just started, so I stayed up for it all (watching the graphic representation of the race status and the live blog. Based on what I saw it was a pretty good race, and I'm looking forward to your writeup.
At least it wasn't "Hamilton sprints away from the start and no one ever sees him again" like so many others have been. Yawn.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 05, 2015 01:18 PM (+rSRq)
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