F1 Quals: China 2014

If it's a Quals session, that must mean it's damp out there... only Bahrain this year hasn't had some form of rain during Quals.  So, who'd the rain help, who'd it hurt, and which Venezuelan Lotus driver is literally hated by his team?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2014 Grand Prix of China:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Shiv Hamilton	Mercedes	1:55.516	1:54.029	1:53.860
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:56.641	1:55.302	1:54.455
3	4Time Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:55.926	1:54.499	1:54.960
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:56.058	1:55.294	1:55.143
5	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:56.961	1:55.765	1:55.637
6	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:56.850	1:56.757	1:56.147
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:56.501	1:56.253	1:56.282
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.913	1:56.847	1:56.366
9	Jules Vergne	STR-Renault	1:57.477	1:56.584	1:56.773
10	Lettuce Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:58.411	1:56.407	1:57.079
11	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:58.279	1:56.860
12	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:57.783	1:56.963
13	Kid Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:57.261	1:57.289
14	Adrian F'n Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:58.138	1:57.393
15	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:57.369	1:57.675
16	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:58.362	1:58.264
17	Esteban!	Sauber-Ferrari	1:58.988
18	Gandalf Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:59.260
19	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:59.326
20	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	2:00.646
21	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	2:00.865
DNQ	Crashtor Maldozer	Lotus-Renault	No time
	Q1 107% Time		2:03.602

 Rosberg was all set to be second, at least, on his final run when the wet pavement reached up and sent him into a spin at the last corner... so surprisingly, Mercedes was hurt by the rain.  It certainly helped the Red Bulls, who are, apparently, 12mph slower than the Merc-powered cars on the long back straight.  The thinking is that they need rain to fight for pole, and it worked this time.  But look at those Williams lurking back there, and imagine them both finishing ahead of the energy drink team.

Meanwhile, who the heck knows what's going to happen with HWMNBN and Ferrari?  Is that the legit pace of the F14T, or is that all down to the Spaniard behind the wheel.  His Finnish counterpart was having problems with his steering and his downshifts, so his 11th might actually be GOOD.

Then there's the sad story of the Lotus mechanics and driver Crashtor Maldozer.  In P1, he nearly drove into a wall as he fiddled with a knob on his steering wheel.  As it was, he managed to only spin and humiliate himself.  In P2, he drove into the pit entry... and directly into the protective barrier on the outside of the pit turn, snapping his suspension like a stale pretzel.  "I crash," he called to the pit wall.  "Oh. (pause)  Okay," came the response like an audible facepalm.  In P3, his engine broke... it was probably his fault.  I don't know how, but it probably was.  I have a feeling that Lotus would be happy to jettison his awful, awful driving arse, but he's got 33 million reasons for them to let him stay.

Since he DNQ'd, he races at the approval of the Stewards.  Alas, they've decided to let him in.

Race in the very early morning... see you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:39 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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