April 02, 2016
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:
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!
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
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1
Seems significant that Haas is solidly in the second tier for their first two races. Also, what exactly happened to Perez?
Posted by: Ben at April 02, 2016 05:33 PM (ECUyd)
2
Hopefully Grosjean will start the race on medium tires and lead some laps after the leaders pit. Not really meaningful but it would be fun to see nonetheless.
Posted by: flatdarkmars at April 02, 2016 08:10 PM (vYV43)
3
Ben, the question is "will Haas manage to stay in the midpack as the season rolls on?" It's often the case that a smaller team might do well in the beginning of the year, but as development costs climb during the season, they slide backwards, unable to throw as much money at the problem as the big guys.
Haas is a great story, and doing what they've done to date should make it a successful season for them (I'm sure they want more, though!), but let's see what occurs when they hit the European leg.
Perez was on a flying lap when the 90 second elimination timer ran out on him, thus rendering the lap null and void. It's the same thing that happened to both Haas cars in Australia: they got the timing wrong.
Haas is a great story, and doing what they've done to date should make it a successful season for them (I'm sure they want more, though!), but let's see what occurs when they hit the European leg.
Perez was on a flying lap when the 90 second elimination timer ran out on him, thus rendering the lap null and void. It's the same thing that happened to both Haas cars in Australia: they got the timing wrong.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 02, 2016 10:23 PM (KiM/Y)
4
I managed to get up this morning just in time to watch this on the F1 "Live Timing" web page, and I'm looking forward to your writeup.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 03, 2016 03:32 PM (+rSRq)
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