F1 Quals: Italy 2016

Oh, hey, hi there, wow look at the time, will ya?  Almost like I lost track of the clock or something and next time I look up, whoa but it's late!  Quals was over ages ago, what were you doing, you crazy duck you!  Honestly, the answer is "nothing of consequence."  Sorry about that... not that we're missing anything, really... here's the provisional grid for the 2016 Grand Prix of Italy:

Pos	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:21.854	1:21.498	1:21.135
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:22.497	1:21.809	1:21.613
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:23.077	1:22.275	1:21.972
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:23.217	1:22.568	1:22.065
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Mercedes	1:23.264	1:22.499	1:22.388
6	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:23.158	1:22.638	1:22.389
7	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	1:23.229	1:22.857	1:22.411
8	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:23.439	1:22.922	1:22.814
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India Mercedes	1:23.259	1:22.951	1:22.836
10	Esteban!	Haas Ferrari	1:23.386	1:22.856	1:23.184
11	Felipe Massa (Ret.)	Williams Mercedes	1:23.489	1:22.967
12	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:23.421	1:23.092
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	1:23.783	1:23.273
14	Pascal's Wager	MRT Mercedes	1:23.760	1:23.315
15	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	1:23.666	1:23.399
16	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1:23.661	1:23.496
17	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1:23.825
18	Felipe Not MassaNasr	Sauber Ferrari	1:23.956
19	Sony Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:24.087
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:24.230
21	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:24.436
NC	False Esteban!	MRT Mercedes	DNF

First, the important stuff.  Esteban! has brought Haas their first appearance in Q3, and by a goodly margin at the time to boot... he was 7th in Q2, for heaven's sake.  Of course he couldn't do anything in Q3 when it absolutely mattered, because that's when the BIG teams get serious, but it's still quite a nice sight, don'tchathink?  On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, Manor's False Esteban! had engine problems in third practice.  The team thought they had it fixed, but when he went out in Q1 to set a time, he made it all the way to the end of the front straight before it died again.  Disappointing, considering where his teammate ended up.

Now for less amusing news:  two drivers announced their retirements this week.  Felipe Massa is hanging up his helmet after the season.  He racked up 11 wins and 41 podiums for three teams in his 15-year career, the highlight (or lowlight, depending on how you look at it) was 2008, when he nearly won the Driver's Championship, only to have it snatched from him on the last turn of the last lap of the last race of the season.  The following year, he was very nearly killed when he took a damper spring to the helmet in Hungary.  He never regained his winning ways after that, but still proved to be a viable racer worthy of respect on the track.

The other driver to retire is Jenson Button.  Actually, he's only "stepping down from his race seat" for 2017 while continuing to work for McLaren.  He's not against driving again in 2018 however.  His 17-year career included 15 wins, 50 podiums and one Driver's Championship, for BrawnGP in 2009.  Interestingly, his was the last single championship we've had for quite some time... Mercedes now, Red Bull before that, then BrawnGP, McLaren, and Ferrari had one year runs, preceded by Renault.  Before them were the Red years of Ferrari and Schumacher.  I've always considered Button to be the type of driver that can get the most out of a good car and make it great, but can't outdrive a mediocre or bad car.  No shame in that, and there are very few drivers that have accomplished what he's done.  He'll retire as having participated in the second-most F1 races ever, behind only Rubens Barrichello.

Race is in the morning, see ya then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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