F1 Quals: Korea 2010

With overcast skies casting a dull flat light over the Korea International Circuit, the track looks quite different, but will it drive any differently?  That's what we're here to find out!  The provisional grid for the first ever Grand Prix of Korea:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:37.123	1:36.074	1:35.585
2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:37.373	1:36.039	1:35.659
3	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:37.144	1:36.287	1:35.766
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.113	1:36.197	1:36.062
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:37.708	1:36.791	1:36.535
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:37.515	1:36.169	1:36.571
7	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.123	1:37.064	1:36.731
8	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:37.703	1:37.179	1:36.824
9	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:37.980	1:37.077	1:36.950
10	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:38.257	1:37.511	1:36.998
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:38.115	1:37.620
12	Gandalf Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:38.429	1:37.643
13	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:38.171	1:37.715
14	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.572	1:37.783
15	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:38.174	1:37.799
16	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:38.583	1:37.853
17	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:38.621	1:38.594
18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.955
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:40.521
20	Timo Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:40.748
21	Heikki Kovalaineninninnie	Lotus-Cosworth	1:41.768
22	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:42.325
23	DJ DNF	HRT-Cosworth	1:42.444
24	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:43.283

In some ways, one almost has to feel badly for HWMNBN.  The Ferrari is far and away the best balanced of the cars around this circuit.  The Red Bulls are fastest around the twisty bits, but are nearly six mph slower than the McLaren on the straights.  The McLaren is supreme in Section 1 (the three straights), but aren't quite as nimble as the Red Bulls through the rest of the layout. 

The Ferrari isn't as fast as the McLaren through the speed trap, and not as spry through the fiddlybits, but it's just behind the leaders in both categories.  Normally, that'd be more than good enough to take a pole position, but today the Red Bulls ripped off ridiculously fast laps after the Q3 timer had expired (but they still counted as the laps started with time remaining).  The crushing bit for HWMNBN had to be that Vettel and Webber set their laps just after he claimed pole with the fastest time of the weekend... at least, to that point.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was seen shaking his head in the garage... he's almost a half-second slower than Vettel and has got to be thinking his chances for the World Championship are almost completely gone now.  Button's situation is even worse now, and he pretty much needs a miracle to occur for him to repeat as Champ.  Maybe a huge pileup going into Turn 1 that claims the first three rows.

It appears that the driver's pleas did not fall on deaf ears.  Turn 16 has been modified a smidge so it isn't launching cars into the stratosphere anymore, which is a very good thing.  They did something to Turn 18 as well, so it no longer kicks a mushroom cloud of dust onto the circuit every time a car runs over the curbs.  These are good things, but the Legendary Announce Team reported that the concrete curbs at some other places around the track are beginning to collapse.  Sounds like a busy day is in store for the track crew.  At least the asphalt isn't ripping up as was predicted... supposedly they used a special quick-curing asphalt.  It only takes a few days to solidify, but is more slippery than normal.  Fair tradeoff, I think.

So we're looking at a three-horse race tomorrow, I think.  Can the Ferrari build up enough time on the straights to defeat the Red Bull advantage on the curves?  For that's what it comes down to... and that's Team McLaren's only hope as well.

We'll see you here sometime after the race with the F1U!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:57 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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