F1 Quals: Canada 2012

First let me extend apologies for the delay.  F1U! Central has been without internet since 11am and it's only just come back.  There was a brief power outage, presumably caused by the heat, and while everything else restarted (or was off for so little time that the outage wasn't noticed), some vital piece of electronica did not.

Now then, to the joys of F1.  Here's the provisional grid for the 2012 Grand Prix of Canada:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:14.661	1:14.187	1:13.784
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.891	1:14.371	1:14.087
3	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:14.916	1:14.314	1:14.151
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:14.956	1:14.479	1:14.346
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:15.098	1:14.568	1:14.411
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:15.194	1:14.641	1:14.465
7	Lettuce Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:15.163	1:14.627	1:14.645
8	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:15.019	1:14.639	1:14.705
9	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes	1:14.892	1:14.480	1:14.812
10	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.799	1:14.680	1:15.182
11	Gandalf Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:15.101	1:14.688
12	Mumbles Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:14.995	1:14.734
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:15.106	1:14.748
14	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:15.552	1:15.078
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:15.326	1:15.156
16	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:14.995	1:15.170
17	Mar Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:14.979	1:15.231
18	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Caterham-Renault	1:16.263
19	The Red Menace	Caterham-Renault	1:16.482
20	Jules Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:16.602
21	Pete Rose	HRT-Cosworth	1:17.492
22	Tim O'Glockenspiel	Marussia-Cosworth	1:17.901
23	Charles ToothPic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:18.255
24	Narain Kittylitter	HRT-Cosworth	1:18.330
	Q1 107% Time		1:19.887

Fastest in all three sessions of Qualifying, it's clear Mr Vettel was on something of a mission today.  Accomplished, I presume, though I suspect he has plans for Sunday as well.  One gets the feeling that the team needed this.  They had been receiving flak for the past week as the RB8's floor had been ruled illegal after Monaco (no penalty, change before Montreal), and just the other day their wheel hubs had been found to be against the rules (something about them being aerodynamic aids and helping to cool the brakes, change immediately or risk exclusion).  One could imagine Red Bull was feeling somewhat... abused... going into today. 

Other than that, Jenson Button used all his super-soft tires just to get into Q3, including one set that he flat-spotted so badly they're completely unusable.  Expect him to go forever on the soft tires he's currently on.  He got to Q3 only by the (lack-of-)grace of Mer Maldonado.  The Williams driver was on a very hot lap at the end of Q2... indeed, he looked to be faster than Vettel... until he reached the Wall of Champions.  What followed was a broken rear suspension and a looping, spinning save of the highest level, bringing the FW34 to a halt without any more damage. 

As much as it pains me to admit, Ferrari looks very quick this weekend.  I don't know if they'll have anything for Vettel or not, but I'd expect to see HWMNBN on the podium at the end of the race.

F1U!, as mentioned before, will be delayed while I am attending a birthday party in Chicago.  Again, if someone wants to volunteer to do the Update! this race, let me know in the comments.  Otherwise, the Update! will be along when it's done... probably Monday night.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:04 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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