The first test weekend at Jerez is now complete (4 days). There are some surprising names at the top. Kobayashi continues to impress and so does Heidfeld. And could this possibly be Rubens' big year? Or the return of Schumi to his winning ways? Red Bull was over a second and a half off the pace way back in 13/14.
1. Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 22.625s
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 23.168s Sun
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m 23.315s Sat
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m 23.442s
5. Vitaly Petrov Lotus Renault GP-Renault 1m 23.463s Sun
6. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 23.519s Sat
7. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 23.550s
8. Nick Heidfeld Lotus Renault GP-Renault 1m 23.657s
9. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m 23.858s Sun
10. Fernando Alonso Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 23.978s Sat
11. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m 24.008s Sat
12.Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m 24.057s
13. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m 24.177s
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m 24.243s Sat
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m 24.515s
16. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m 24.923s Sat
17. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m 25.194s Sat
18. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus-Renault 1m 25.454s Sun
19. Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus-Renault 1m 26.421s Sat
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m 26.501s
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m 26.598s Sun
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi Hispania-Cosworth 1m 27.044s Sat
23. Michael Schumacher Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 27.079s
24. Giorgio Mondini Hispania-Cosworth 1m 28.178s Sun
25. Daniel Ricciardo Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 28.329s Sun
26. Narain Karthikeyan Hispania-Cosworth 1m 28.393s
27. Riccardo Teixeira Team Lotus-Renault 1m 31.584s Sat
Even so, this thread has got lots of lurkers judging by the number of views.
If anyone wants to play a fantasy F1 game, register at zdkf1 and start your nickname with CFC. Deadline for predictions is 10pm on Thursday before each race.
Did anyone see the footage of Jensen button on mount panorama ? First time an f1 car has ever taken on the mountain and beat the lap record by 17 seconds.
Interestingly , Craig lowndes , v8 super car driver had his first try in an f1 car and was only 1 second behind which surprised me
Ok , I have signed up for zdkf1 and from what I can gather I have till 9.00am Friday morning Sydney time to make my selections. Is that correct ? I don't even get the practice sessions ?
Vettel cruised to an easy victory. This may portend a very boring championship with the best driver racing with the best team.
OTOH McLaren, Ferrari, and even Renault (represented by Vitaly Pertrov's brilliant performance to gain the podium) are not that far behind. Hamilton's car was also broken for the last quarter of the race with the front support for the under-tray broken after apparently hitting a curb to hard. Prior to that, he seemed to be threatening Vettel at least to some extent. I was surprised the FIA didn't disqualify Hamilton for wearing away too much of the under-tray.
Massa had a brilliant start after a dismal qualifying. He effectively ruined Button's race, who refused to give back the position after going way off-track to avoid contact trying to finally get by him. Button was finally given a drive-through penalty which put him too far behind to really be competitive.
Kobyashi showed more of his brilliance during qualifying, but both he and Perez were disqualified from 9th and 8th for "rear wing infringements".
Schumi disappointed again after not being able to gain 2/10ths of a second to get into Q3. A puncture at the start ruined his race. Teammate Rosberg was taken out by an extremely poor passing attempt by Barichello, who was later penalized by the officials.
The HRT-Cosworth team was still trying to assemble their new cars during practice. One car finally made a reconnaissance lap in the very last seconds of the last practice session. Both were excluded under the 107% qualifying rule from competing.
Malaysia was a very interesting race with lots of passes. Between the KERS, the movable rear wing, and the continuation of the two tire compounds, it looks like there will be a lot more passes this year than in the recent past. I'm sure everything would agree that this is a VERY GOOD THING.
But Vettel seems pretty damn unstoppable at this stage. This is now 5 wins in the last 6 races. Even with all the KERS problems, which caused his team to tell him not to use it in the last half of the race, he was still dominant.
Button was impressive merely because he ran such a steady unremarkable race. He was only 3.2 seconds behind Vettel at the finish for a very nice 2nd place, but much of that is likely due to Vettel cruising to victory. Even so, he was over 20 seconds ahead of Heidfeld at the finish.
Heidfeld showed that his poor Australia finish was due to being hit at the start. It is amazing he has had so many podiums without a win - an F1 record. Perhaps someday he can shake that monkey off his back. Renault is clearly a power to be reckoned with this year, so this might be the season he finally does it. Too bad Kubica is out. Otherwise, he would likely be making things at the front of the order even more interesting.
Webber's KERS apparently malfunctioned prior to the start of the race, which was why his start was so atrocious. Even so, he managed to battle back to finish 4th after falling way behind at the start.
Massa finished ahead of Alonso for a very nice 5th place, even without the 20 second penalty Alonso got for running into the back of Hamilton. But it also damaged Alonso's front wing and held him up for a number of laps trying to get by, so Massa really got lucky to do so.
Kobayashi continues to impress coming in 7th after starting 10th.
Hamilton finished 8th after he also got a 20 second penalty for blocking Alonso, which caused him to lose a spot to Kobayashi in the finish order. He looked like he was really going to be a force again after an excellent qualifying session that almost got him the pole, but Heidfeld getting past him at the start apparently screwed up a lot of McLaren's strategy.
Petrov was also running well before some bad pit stops and his accident that broke his steering column. I don't think I've ever seen an F1 car get that much air without coming into contact with the tires of another car or the aid of a wall.
if you missed seeing it, watch before F1 blocks this video as well:
Schumi had a brilliant start after another dismal qualifying. Rosberg keeps pulling one great lap out of his ass at the very last second during qualifying to outperform him.
And HRT-Cosworth made it under the 107% rule in their second outing to be able to race! Bravo!
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