F1 Quals: Bahrain 2016

The circuit changes, the names change, the positions change, but one thing stays inviolate: the new qualifying format still stinks on ice.  Here's a look at the provisional grid for the 2016 Grand Prix of Bahrain:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.391	1:30.039	1:29.493
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:31.325	1:30.535	1:29.570
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:31.636	1:30.409	1:30.012
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:31.685	1:30.559	1:30.244
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:31.403	1:31.122	1:30.854
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:31.672	1:30.931	1:31.153
7	Felipe Not Nasr Massa	Williams	1:32.045	1:31.374	1:31.155
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:31.987	1:31.604	1:31.620
9	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas	1:32.005	1:31.756
10	Embryo Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:31.888	1:31.772
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:31.716	1:31.816
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:32.472	1:31.934
13	Esteban!	Haas	1:32.118	1:31.945
14	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:31.976	1:31.998
15	Kid Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:32.559	1:32.241
16	Blaise Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:32.806
17	Sony Ericsson	Sauber	1:32.840
18	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:32.911
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:33.181
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:33.438
21	Rio Rollins Tachibana	Manor	1:34.190
22	Felipe Not Massa Nasr	Sauber	1:34.388

Once again we saw huge swaths of time with no or few cars on track.  The last five minutes of Q2, for example, saw one car run one lap... and the preceding four minutes was essentially a car on a FIA scale for a mandatory weigh-in.  That was all that was going on.  The last few minutes of Q3 was totally dead.  Any excitement was moved back, when Hamilton jumped himself from fourth to pole... but that happened in the middle of the session, instead of right at the end of a drama-filled Q3.  It's ridiculous.

Lewis Hamilton is on pole, and his lap is nearly a half-second faster than the race lap record set in 2004... and that was set in the V10 era, with practically unlimited aero downforce gizmos and stickier tires.

Haas continues their amazing start to the season, with Lettuce Grosjean ending up in ninth... widely considered the best spot to be if you can't be in the first couple of rows.  In ninth, you get tire choice for the race; eighth and above, you have to use the same tire compound as you had in Q2. 

The rest of Quals went more or less to script.  Renault is having difficulties figuring out the correct way to "stage" their cars for the 90second elimination thing, but otherwise?  Perez got hit by that, too.. .

The Toro Rosso twins are going to pissed at each other all season, aren't they?  That'll be fun!

Race in the mid-morning... see ya then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:44 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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