F1 Quals: Germany 2010

The 1997 Grand Prix of Europe saw three drivers, Jacques Villeneuve, Slappy Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, set identical qualifying lap times of 1:21.072, the closest pole result in F1, and perhaps all of motorsport in general, history.  Why does this piece of trivia matter?

Let's look at the provisional grid for the Grand Prix of Germany:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:15.152	1:14.249	1:13.791
2	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:14.808	1:14.081	1:13.793
3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:15.216	1:14.478	1:14.290
4	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:15.334	1:14.340	1:14.347
5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.823	1:14.716	1:14.427
6	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.505	1:14.488	1:14.566
7	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:15.736	1:14.835	1:15.079
8	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.398	1:14.698	1:15.109
9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:16.178	1:15.018	1:15.179
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.387	1:14.943	1:15.339
11	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:16.084	1:15.026
12	Gandalf Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:15.951	1:15.084
13	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:16.521	1:15.307
14	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:16.220	1:15.467
15	Pete Rose	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:16.450	1:15.550
16	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:16.664	1:15.588
17	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:16.029	1:15.974
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:17.583
19	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Lotus-Cosworth	1:18.300
20	Timo Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:18.343
21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:18.592
22	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:18.952
23	Sakon Admiral Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	1:19.844
24	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	No time

Two milliseconds separate hometown hero Seb Vettel and Ferrari's HWMNBN.  Two-thousandth of a second.  My back-of-envelope calculations tell me that a car averaging 120mph per lap (note: I have no idea what the average lap speed is at Hockenheim) will move just over four inches in two milliseconds.

Four inches over a 2.842 mile long course.  That was the difference between pole position and second place, the second smallest gap in qualifying times in F1 history, behind only the aforementioned 1997 GP of Europe.  HWMNBN did not look particularly pleased sitting there during the post-Quals interview session, while Vettel had a smile broad enough that I was afraid the top of his head would fall off.

All the worries about a wet qualifying session ended up for naught, as there was even a bit of sunshine here and there on the track.  However, and this news brought a smile to my face, the weathermen are now predicting rain around the time the race is scheduled to begin.  Considering the times put up by everybody, it appears that the teams have gone with dry setups, and I think everybody was on the super-soft tires in Q3.  Certainly the top eight were.  I don't remember seeing Rosberg's tires, and Hulkenberg turned a total of one timed lap during Q3 and may not have even been on camera.

In other happenings during the Qualy session, Lucas di Grassi had a breakdown of some sort before he could take to the track.  Force India's Adrian Sutil had to change a gearbox before the session, so he'll be given a 5-spot grid penalty and will be starting 19th.  His teammate, Vitantonio Liuzzi, had a wicked crash in Q1 that brought out a red flag for eight minutes while debris was cleaned off the front straight.  Probably the surprise of the session, though, was the lousy performance of Team Mercedes.  Slappy didn't make it out of Q2 and his teammate Nico Rosberg just barely squeaked into Q3 (bumping Slappy out in the process).  Hockenheim was originally built as a test track for Mercedes, it's their home circuit, and the company always throws a big bash during race weekend.  Heck, the stadium section of the track is named "Mercedes" for heaven's sake.  A lot of red Teutonic faces today.

Race is tomorrow on Fox... and F1U! will be all over it.  See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:29 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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