F1 Quals: Bahrain 2010!

So the first qualifying session of the 2010 season is in the books, and while some things have changed, the results sure look the same.  Let's take a look at the grid:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1				Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:55.029				1:53.883	1:54.101
2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:55.313				1:54.331	1:54.242
3	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:54.612				1:54.172	1:54.608
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:55.341				1:54.707	1:55.217
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	1:55.463				1:54.682	1:55.241
6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:55.298				1:54.318	1:55.284
7	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	1:55.593				1:55.105	1:55.524
8	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:55.715				1:55.168	1:55.672
9	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:55.511				1:54.963	1:55.885
10	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.213				1:54.996	1:56.309
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:55.969				1:55.330
12	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.628				1:55.653
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:56.375				1:55.857
14	Pete Rose	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:56.428				1:56.237
15	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:56.189				1:56.265
16	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:56.541				1:56.270
17	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:56.167				1:56.619
18	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:57.071
19	Timo Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:59.728
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:59.852
21	Heikki Kovalaininninninnie	Lotus-Cosworth	2:00.313
22	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	2:00.587
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	2:03.240
24	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	2:04.904

A bunch of new rules changes that we need to talk about before we get around to discussing the grid.  First off, all qualifying sessions are now done on low fuel.  Prior to this year, teams had to declare how much gas they'd start with in the race, and carry that in Q3.  Since there's no refuelling in-race now, everybody gets the same amount of gas (more or less).  Another switch is that the cars in Q3 have to start the race on the tires with which they set their fast lap.  In other words, if they used (say) soft tires to qualify, that very same set must be on the car to begin the race.  Finally, teams are limited to 11 sets of dry tires for the entire weekend, and can only use six sets during the race itself, three of each compound. 

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's look at how the cars'll line up for the race!  No shock at the top of the grid, what with Seb Vettel and Luscious Liz on the pole.  Perhaps a small surprise in Massa beating his teammate, HWMNBN, particularly considering the rumors that Felipe is a little twitchy being back in the cockpit.  No surprise at all is that Nico Rosberg handily beat his teammate, Slappy Schumacher.  Schumi's been unhappy with his car all weekend, and has been right around 8th on the timesheets the whole time.  World Champion Jenson Button must be disappointed to be picking up right where he left off last season with a lukewarm qualifying session.  His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, is probably also disappointed, despite ending up fourth on the grid... he always expects to be on pole when he's got a halfway decent car under him.  And a big 'attaboy' to Force India for their 10th-12th qualys.  I'm amazed, but we might have to consider them halfway serious contenders!

Really, though, we need to give the techies at HRT a round of applause.  Despite a major gearbox problem that prevented Karun Chandhok from getting any track time in the three practice sessions, the team pulled an overnighter to get the car in running order.  Of course, Chandhok ended up 24th, but he got seven laps under his belt, each one faster than the one before it.  His first flying lap was 2:11, and taking six seconds off the time is pretty good.  Okay, yes, he's nearly 11 seconds off the pace, but good job anyways!  None of the new teams could be considered quick, however.  Actually, "quick" isn't in their vocabulary... yet.

So here we go!  The first race is right around the corner, and I can't wait!  See you tomorrow!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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