F1 Quals: Korea 2011

The usual three drivers were sitting on the interview stand, but all was not well.  One of them was in his normal good humor, but moods of the other two were substantially different.  But what caused this reaction?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of Korea:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.525	1:36.526	1:35.820
2	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:39.093	1:37.285	1:36.042
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.929	1:37.302	1:36.126
4	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:39.071	1:37.292	1:36.468
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:38.670	1:37.313	1:36.831
6	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:38.393	1:37.352	1:36.980
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.426	1:37.892	1:37.754
8	The Red Menace	Renault	1:38.378	1:38.186	1:38.124
9	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.549	1:38.254	No time
10	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.789	1:38.219	No time
11	DJ Squire	STR-Ferrari	1:39.392	1:38.315
12	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes	1:38.502	1:38.354
13	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:39.352	1:38.508
14	Gandalf Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:39.464	1:38.775
15	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:39.316	1:38.791
16	Behdin Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:39.436	1:39.189
17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:39.097	1:39.443
18	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:39.538
19	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Lotus-Renault	1:40.522
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:41.101
21	Tim O'Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:42.091
22	Custard d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:43.483
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:43.758
DNQ	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	No time
	Q1 107% Time		1:44.351

The streak is over!  For the first time this season, someone other than a Red Bull driver will be on pole on Sunday.  Of course Seb Vettel was more subdued than his normal smiling self; one would expect that under the circumstances.  Jenson Button had his normal smile in place, looking full pleased with the grid slot he held.  You'd expect Lewis Hamilton to be nigh on vibrating in place from joy and excitement, but to be honest, he looked more like Felipe Massa had just run over his dog... twice.  It was so obvious that the english-language interviewer asked him about it.  Hamilton's reply was a flat, nearly monotone "No, I'm happy.  I'm really happy."  One gets the feeling that Lewis can't wait for the season to be over.

The two Force India drivers elected to conserve their tires in Q3.  While it was probably the correct move strategically (it's not like they really stood to gain more than one position, after all), it's still kind of sad.  Farther down the grid, HRT's Daniel Ricciardo had a suspected water pump problem and never took to the track in Q1.  He'll race only at the grace of the stewards, and it's anybodies guess whether they'll allow it. 

I find that I'm less happy about the Red Bull pole run coming to an end than I expected.  I've been wanting someone to do it all season, but now that it's over, I'm a little disappointed.  It would have been cool to see Red Bull get all the poles in a season, something that's never happened before (the closest: McLaren took 15 of 16 in 1988 and 1989, and Williams did the same in 1992 and 1993).

For all the drama about the streak coming to an end, all in all this wasn't the most exciting Quals session ever.  But that's okay too, because as both Hamilton and Vettel said, "It's what happens during the race that counts."  I have this feeling that neither of them will win, and that Button will take his second race in a row.  Some drivers are saying that the race will require five pit stops per car, which seems impossible.  I guess we'll find out on Sunday!  Stay tuned, this one might be a doozy.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:54 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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