June 29, 2013

F1 Quals: Great Britain 2013

British weather didn't happen all over Silverstone today!  It was hardly a beautiful summer day, unless you think gray and cloudy and meh is beautiful, but it wasn't raining.  So what effect did having acceptable climactic conditions have on the F1 Circus?  Here's your provisional grid for the 2013 Grand Prix of Great Britain:

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Shiv Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.995 1:31.224 1:29.607
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.355 1:31.028 1:30.059
3 Hannibal Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:31.559 1:30.990 1:30.211
4 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:31.605 1:31.002 1:30.220
5 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:32.062 1:31.291 1:30.736
6 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 1:32.097 1:31.182 1:30.757
7 Adrian F'n Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:32.002 1:31.097 1:30.908
8 Lettuce Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:31.466 1:31.530 1:30.955
9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:31.400 1:31.592 1:30.962
10 HWMNBN Ferrari 1:32.266 1:31.387 1:30.979
11 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.979 1:31.649
12 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:32.241 1:31.779
13 Jules Vergne STR-Ferrari 1:32.105 1:31.785
14 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.953 1:32.082
15 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1:32.168 1:32.211
16 Bishop Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:32.512 1:32.359
17 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1:32.664

18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:32.666

19 Charles ToothPic Caterham-Renault 1:33.866

20 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1:34.108

21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1:35.481

22 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1:35.858


Q1 107% Time
1:37.364


Every fiber of my being wants to say that Force India has a chance at a podium tomorrow.  Paul di Resta is driving like the reincarnation of Jackie Stewart (who isn't dead, details details), Adrian F'n Sutil is driving like Adrian F'n Sutil, and the car is proving to be pretty good.  I want it to happen.  I want it to happen so badly I can practically taste it (though I think that's just the chicken tandoori I had for dinner last night). 

I just don't think it'll happen.  I can imagine a lot of scenarios where it DOES occur, but they're all kinda far-fetched: the Red Bull drivers collide with each other, Hamilton runs his tires bald then skids into the kittylitter trying to get to the pits, Raikkonen flatspots a tire and the vibration shatters his suspension, that sort of thing.  No, I just don't think FI is ready as a team to have a serious podium chance.  Soon... very soon, perhaps... but not yet.

I also don't expect to see the Mercedes teammates on the podium, either.  One of them, perhaps... Hamilton seems particularly driven this weekend, and his pole position breaks Rosberg's streak of four in a row.  I expect that the Red Bull Whaaaaaaaaambulance is warming up as we speak, getting ready to complain about how the Silver Arrows gained an unfair advantage with that tire test and the punishment didn't fit the crime and so on and so forth.  I've actually lost a lot of respect for the team recently; they really used to be a model team showing how to do it right.  Then they started to dork over Webber, now they've whined about this Mercedes/Pirelli thing so much that it has become embarrassing.  In the immortal words of just about every fan ever, "shut up and drive."

Which I expect Vettel will do.  Particularly with his chief competitor HWMNBN qualifying in 10th place, the World Champ has a golden opportunity to put the 2013 championship out of reach this weekend.

As an aside, I'm no longer surprised by McLaren's performance.  They just done goofed this year, and I'm assuming they've written off they year and are working towards 2014 and the new rules and engine.  As an another aside, Tooned is coming back this weekend, so we've got that to look forward to.  As an another aside altogether, the race will be shown LIVE on CNBC at 630am on Sunday.  Tune in, and we'll see you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:50 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 629 words, total size 17 kb.

1 Sadly, di Resta was underweight after qualifying.  Unless the team has a very persuasive excuse, he'll probably be sent to the back of the grid.

Should be interesting to see how Perez comes off in Tooned.

Posted by: flatdarkmars at June 29, 2013 12:16 PM (I55Es)

2 McLaren really has been miserable this year, and it doesn't seem to be something that they can tweak their way out of.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 29, 2013 03:33 PM (+rSRq)

3 di Resta was indeed underweight, by about three pounds.  Wow, what a mistake from Force India.  Kinda like I said, though... they're just not ready to be a podium team.  Podium teams don't make mistakes like that.

Posted by: Wonderduck at June 29, 2013 05:25 PM (rY5SD)

4 Have there BEEN any new episodes of Tooned?

Posted by: Mauser at June 29, 2013 10:54 PM (cZPoz)

5 >Podium teams don't make mistakes like that.

To be fair, both McLaren and Red Bull had exclusions from qualifying last year for lacking the necessary fuel volume.

Posted by: flatdarkmars at June 30, 2013 08:15 AM (I55Es)

6 FDM, fine: "Podium teams don't usually make mistakes like that."

Mauser, "Tooned is coming back this weekend" would suggest that, no, it's been off since last year.  Believe me, if it had come back before this weekend, I would have posted it... it's easy fodder.

Posted by: Wonderduck at June 30, 2013 08:34 AM (rY5SD)

7 Why must HWMNBN not be named?

Posted by: Anonymous Coward at June 30, 2013 11:03 AM (YsJ9z)

8

Because he's an asshole.

That goes back to when he was one of McLaren's drivers. The other driver was Hamilton in his rookie year. HWMNBN kept insisting that he should be the star, and that the team should order Hamilton to stay back and let HWMNBN win. (Hamilton was, in fact, having a tremendous rookie year and he damn near won the driver's championship.)

The team refused to do that and HWMNBN quit in a huff.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 30, 2013 11:53 AM (+rSRq)

9 To continue the story, he also revealed information that resulted in McLaren being fined $100million in StepneyGate... and gosh, it was just shortly after McLaren refused to name him #1 Driver that his information leaked out.

He just went on to cement his nickname with his benefiting from Crashgate and "Fernando is faster than you," though he'd earned it long before.

We here at F1Update! admire his ability and think he's probably the best driver on the grid right now.  He's proven, however, to be a jerk when he's not getting what he wants.

Posted by: Wonderduck at June 30, 2013 01:42 PM (rY5SD)

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