F1 Quals: Singapore 2015

Well, this is new.  Here's the grid for the 2015 Grand Prix of Singapore:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:46.017	1:44.743	1:43.885
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:46.166	1:45.291	1:44.428
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.467	1:45.140	1:44.667
4	Kid Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:45.340	1:44.979	1:44.745
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:45.765	1:45.650	1:45.300
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:46.201	1:45.653	1:45.415
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:46.231	1:45.887	1:45.676
8	Embryo Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:46.483	1:45.635	1:45.798
9	Felipe Not Nasr Massa	Williams	1:46.879	1:45.701	1:46.077
10	Lettuce Grosjean	Lotus	1:46.860	1:45.805	1:46.413
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:46.669	1:46.305
12	HWIOAKAFernando Alonso	McLaren	1:46.600	1:46.328
13	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:46.576	1:46.385
14	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:46.465	1:46.894
15	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:46.891	1:47.019
16	Felipe Not Massa Nasr	Sauber	1:46.965
17	Sony Ericsson	Sauber	1:47.088
18	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:47.323
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:51.021
20	American Rossi	Manor	1:51.523

It isn't that this is the first time eight races that Lewis Hamilton isn't on pole.  It isn't that this is the first time in over a year that a Mercedes isn't on pole.  It's not even that this is the first Ferrari pole in three years, and their first pole in dry conditions in five.  It is about just how soundly the Silver Arrows were trounced.  It's not like "aw shucks, they just nipped us."  This is serious "we kicked your arse" stuff. 

Why did it happen?  Reports are that it's all down to tires.  Mercedes, for whatever reason, cannot get their rear tires to work around the Marina Bay circuit.  They get too hot too quickly, then cool down too far too fast.  They're never in the right temperature zone to provide any grip and as a result, they're "slow" around this turn-happy circuit.  Understand, the Mercs are still the fastest through the speed trap... it's not like their new engines are letting them down.  They had problems in Singapore last year, too, but still ran away with the race because their opponents were weaker.  With Ferrari's improvements, there probably would have been a fight for pole regardless, but nothing like this.

In other news of note, both McLarens made it to Q2, and HWIOAKAFernando Alonso probably was ticketed for a legitimate Q3 appearance when Carlos Sainz did Bad Things to his Toro Rosso, which brought out the yellow flags, which put paid to the Spaniard's hot lap.

And finally, American Alexander Rossi was a half-second behind teammate Will Stevens in matching Manors.  This doesn't sound good, until you realize that Stevens has been driving the car all season and this is really Rossi's first chance to put some serious laps in with it.  The cockpit is also something of a tight fit for the American... as in, "we need lard and shoehorns, stat!"  Hopefully they'll have that part fixed in time for Japan.  Oh, and Rossi desperately needs to work on his speaking skills.  In an interview with the Legendary Announce Team's Will Buxton right after Q1, the American Driver was less intelligible than Kimi "Mumbles" Raikkonen.  He was talking waaaay too fast.  Maybe adrenaline was to blame.

Race tomorrow.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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