May 07, 2011
F1 Quals: Turkey 2011
Uh-oh. Let's look at the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of Turkey:
Yep, our first Red Bull front-row lockout for 2011, but that's not what prompted the "uh-oh." No, that was brought on by how they accomplished the feat. Both Seb Vettel and Mark Webber did one run in Q3, looked at their times and said, "Nah, we're done. Come and get us." So while everybody else went out and burned another set of their allotment of soft tires trying to catch up to the Bullies, Vettel and Webber sat in the pits, sipping tea in the Red Bull motor home. I suspect they could have gone even faster, but just didn't bother. Pray for rain, race fans, pray for rain... otherwise this one could be really, really ugly. I mean, Nico Rosberg had the qualifying session of his life today, is sitting third on the grid, and he's still a half-second behind our polesitter, with one less set of fresh soft tires.
At the other end of the grid, we may have our first Steward's Decision coming, as Gandalf Kobayashi's fuel pump died on his out lap for Q1. He needed help to make it back to pits, being pushed by track marshals the last couple hundred yards, and obviously never made it back out. With no time set, he obviously didn't meet the 107% time, and is therefore prohibited from starting the race. However, Sauber can (and certainly will) go to the Stewards, say "technical difficulties, you know what our pace has been all weekend, let us in." I fully expect the Stewards to agree, but you never know.
So there we are. Race on Sunday, F1U! sometime thereafter. See you then!
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Yep, our first Red Bull front-row lockout for 2011, but that's not what prompted the "uh-oh." No, that was brought on by how they accomplished the feat. Both Seb Vettel and Mark Webber did one run in Q3, looked at their times and said, "Nah, we're done. Come and get us." So while everybody else went out and burned another set of their allotment of soft tires trying to catch up to the Bullies, Vettel and Webber sat in the pits, sipping tea in the Red Bull motor home. I suspect they could have gone even faster, but just didn't bother. Pray for rain, race fans, pray for rain... otherwise this one could be really, really ugly. I mean, Nico Rosberg had the qualifying session of his life today, is sitting third on the grid, and he's still a half-second behind our polesitter, with one less set of fresh soft tires.
At the other end of the grid, we may have our first Steward's Decision coming, as Gandalf Kobayashi's fuel pump died on his out lap for Q1. He needed help to make it back to pits, being pushed by track marshals the last couple hundred yards, and obviously never made it back out. With no time set, he obviously didn't meet the 107% time, and is therefore prohibited from starting the race. However, Sauber can (and certainly will) go to the Stewards, say "technical difficulties, you know what our pace has been all weekend, let us in." I fully expect the Stewards to agree, but you never know.
So there we are. Race on Sunday, F1U! sometime thereafter. See you then!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:31 AM
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A commentator on the BBC coverage mentioned that in this case, they will refer to Kobayashi's laps in free practice to confirm his pace. I am looking forward to fearless Kobayashi threading his way through the back of the pack on race day.
Posted by: RobertV at May 07, 2011 01:46 PM (VobXd)
2
Unsurprising, and entirely correct. However, these are the Race Stewards... people who take 20 laps to apply a drive-through penalty... so I have no predictions on what will actually happen.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 07, 2011 08:35 PM (n0k6M)
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