It's exactly one year since I went to see my first F1 race at the Nurburgring. Last weekend's German grand prix also marked the halfway point of the current season, and I feel like it's time to sum up how the year's gone so far. 2011 was a year in which Red Bull were absolutely dominant, and it was a year in which we saw some phenomenal racing. While we more or less had the same winner and pole sitter in each race last year (one Sebastian Vettel), the races were so exciting that it almost didn't matter who was winning. This year, we've seen none of the dominance of any one team, however the racing has managed to become even more enthralling than last year.
At the opening round this year, we all expected Red Bull to continue their form of 2011. However, due to various rule changes it appeared as though the team were not quite as far in front this time around. Many people were also surprised by how different the cars looked - the introduction of the stepped noses on most of the cars prompted harsh comments around the aesthetics of the cars, although the McLaren team were perhaps rather smug on this front, having worked their way around having a step.
As ever, anticipation was high for Australia. A long break from F1 seems to have this effect on the fans as we rediscover what it is we love about the sport. The opening round also provides hints about how our favourite teams and drivers are likely to fare over the rest of the season. Once the famous five lights went out and the racing began in 2012, we started our season. The racing was much closer this year, and in the end it was the McLaren of Jenson Button who had the honour of taking home the first win.
With the scene set for the rest of the season, the next round in Malaysia would provide a hint as to whether McLaren's form in Australia was the start of a dominant season, or whether we'd see a range of top teams. A stunning race once again, it was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso who took the second win. This was somewhat of a surprise, given the speculation surrounding the Ferrari team at the start of the year. 2011 was perhaps a bit of a shocking season for the team, and many people wondered whether the team had simply lost their pace. So, Alsono's win could be regarded as one of the surprises of the season.
Race three in China was again stunning, and we saw a third different winner in 2012. However, rather than the winner coming from our usual top three teams (Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari), we saw Nico Rosberg take the win in the Mercedes. This was great news for the team, as we'd not seen the performance we expected since the team was re-branded from Brawn. After the third different winner from as many teams in as many races, many people began to wonder whether the trend would continue, and if so for how long?
The following week was the somewhat controversial race in Bahrain - a race that many people wished to be cancelled. I myself took a somewhat neutral standpoint, figuring that a sport cannot - and should not - be expected to sort out the problems within a country, and if all was safe for drivers, teams, staff and spectators that the race should go ahead. This is exactly what happened, and finally 2011's top team showed that they had regained some form, with Sebastian Vettel taking the win.
With Bahrain over, F1 returned to Europe to begin the mid-season. Spain was first up in May, and we again had a surprise. By this point, the top three teams had all had a win each, thus many people were expecting to see one of these teams take a second victory. However, an absolutely stunning drive by Pastor Maldonado led to Williams taking their first victory for a very long time. This made five winners from five teams in five races - a point which I think was great for the fans, although perhaps not so great for anyone trying to predict results. Thus, five races in and many believed that anything was possible in F1.
Monaco followed Spain, and this was again one of the most anticipated races of the season. The glamour of Monaco means that it's an absolute treat to watch. As with most street circuits though, there is very little overtaking, even with the DRS. However, given the circuit's nature, it's a treat to watch. Monaco also brought us our first team to secure its second win, with Red Bull's Mark Webber taking perhaps the most coveted win of the season. This made six different winners from six races: a feat that meant 2012 was already on its way to being a record season in F1.
Canada was the next race on the calendar, and after last year's madness with the rain we were all anticipating another thriller. However, given the number of winners so far, it was a race when most had given up predicting who would win. In the end, a second team secured their second victory: McLaren. However, we still had not bucked the trend of different winners, as it was Lewis Hamilton who took victory number seven. So, by seven races 2012 was officially record breaking, and the first season in F1 history to have so many different race winners in so few races.
prix in Valencia that held my attention. We also gained our first double winner of the season: Fernando Alonso - a winner that of course delighted the home fans.
This month, we also saw the British grand prix at Silverstone; a circuit which is full of history and considered a classic on the calendar. As the race was held in July, Britain did not disappoint and we had a traditional British summer: torrential rain so bad that people were actually turned away on qualifying day. Come Sunday however, we saw yet more magnificent racing and gained a second double winner of the season: Mark Webber.
So, last week in Germany brought us to the halfway point of the season. Once again, the racing was exciting, with overtakes and close battles galore. In the end our top-three finishers were Alonso, taking his third victory of the year; Button, whose second place brought him back up in the drivers' standings, hopefully to re-kindle his championship chances; and Raikkonen, who had managed to bring Lotus F1 home on the podium a number of times this year. However, these were not the drivers stood on the podium. Rather, Vettel took home second place, but had 20 seconds added to his time after a pass on Jenson was considered to be against the rules. So, even with the race over and done with, it's still hard to predict who gains which place!
In terms of the top three teams' performances, Ferrari were the big surprise of the year in my opinion. The speculation and talk at the start of the year set us up to expect a lower performance than we've actually seen. Alonso is currently 34 points ahead in the drivers' championship, and you'd be hard pushed to bet against his third championship at this point. During more recent races, we've also seen great performances from Felipe Massa - signs that Massa's maybe getting closer to his previous form before his accident in Hungary. Hopefully the rest of the season will make this clear.
Red Bull have shown none of their dominance, although consistently good performances have meant that they are still at the top of the constructors', if not the drivers' championship. Webber is currently Alonso's closest rival in the championship, with team-mate Vettel close behind. As we're only halfway through, it's to be expected that the team will push even harder to get back on top of the drivers' standings. Currently, Red Bull are at the centre of a row over engine mapping. While cleared to race in Germany, it's believed that the team have found another loophole in the regulations to be exploited. Whether the loophole is closed, or whether other teams simply try to emulate the team's discovery remains to be seen. It's certainly not the first technical row in which Red Bull have been involved, and I very much doubt it'll be the last.
McLaren showed impressive form at the start of the year, however recently things have slipped somewhat. Jenson's podium finish was surprising, and hopefully heralds the end of their underperformance of late. However, this is something we'll have to watch as the season progresses. Both drivers have had a large share of bad luck and performance issues, which is why both are slipping down the championship standings, and why Ferrari have overtaken second place in the constructors' championship.
A fourth team worth mentioning is Lotus. We've seen both Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean on the podium several times this year, hence Raikkonen's fourth place in the drivers' championship. This is a team which we've been expecting to win for quite some time now, and I'm fairly certain that we'll see one of their two drivers taking a victory before the season is out. The team itself is in fourth place in the constructors' championship, ahead of Mercedes.
So, overall we've seen a lot of credible performances, a lot of poor performances and everything in between this year. It's difficult to predict who will gain the ultimate victory of the championships by the end of the season, although this isn't necessarily a bad thing. This weekend, F1 heads off to Hungary before the month-long summer break. When we come back to the racing at the end of August, I'll be off to watch the race in person once again. It can't come soon enough!
Showing posts with label Valencia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valencia. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Monday, 25 June 2012
I Take it Back
Every race I seem to say this, but the 2012 season keeps delivering the excitement. As you could probably tell from my previous blog post (and probably from one or two others last year), Valencia is typically my least favourite race of the season. It seems to be one of those races which I tend to watch just for the completeness of the season, rather than for any actual racing action. Honestly, I usually find Valencia boring - and I stand by this fact for previous years of this grand prix. However, yesterday I was forced to concede my opinion, as Valencia was actually interesting.
Red Bull approached the race with some fairly major upgrades - this came through in qualifying for Sebastian Vettel, who once again snatched pole position at the street circuit (this in turn meaning that Seb has equalled the career total pole positions of Jim Clark and Alain Prost - not bad for someone only five years older than me!). However, Mark Webber did not fare as well at Valencia: technical issues meant he left the Saturday session in Q1, qualifying 19th. All in all, qualifying was a fairly standard affair, with the only surprises including Maldonado gaining third position in the Williams, and the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa falling out at Q2 - something which clearly did not amuse the boss Luca di Montezemolo. Lotus seemed to have a great qualifying by contrast, and indeed many predicted that we may see a Lotus on the podium, or indeed winning. One final noteworthy performance in qualifying included Heikki Kovalainen's performance in the Caterham. Once again, Heikki made it through to Q2, and ended up ahead of both Toro Rosso cars - perhaps signalling that the Caterham team may soon edge closer to the points finishes.
So, with qualifying decided it was time for race day - and I have to confess that I was still sceptical of an exciting race. Questions were raised as to whether we'd see an eighth winner, or if not then who would be our first double winner of 2012. At the start of the race, Sebastian pulled his usual trick of streaking away into the distance (of course, prompting smiles from myself), pursued by Hamilton and Romain Grosjean. Fernando Alonso, despite an abysmal qualifying session, managed a fantastic start in the race, and was soon closing in on the top runners. For a while, the race ran without too much close action (Vettel having pulled out a 20 second lead over Grosjean), however Jean Eric Vergne changed all of that by crashing into Heikki Kovalainen (later leading to him having a 10 place grid drop for Silverstone and a 25,000 Euro fine), prompting the safety car to intervene while the officials cleared the track of debris. After a while behind the safety car, the restart ran as normal, with Vettel again leaving the other runners in the dust.
While it seemed as though Vettel had the race in the bag, disaster later struck as his RB8 suddenly lost drive owing to a failed alternator. For the first time, we saw Vettel showing his frustration as he threw his gloves while walking away from the stricken car. However, in later interviews Seb claimed that while he was disappointed at losing the race win, he was encouraged by the car's pace - hopefully something we'll see at Silverstone.
Alonso had great luck at the safety car restart, managing to pass Grosjean after passing Hamilton earlier in the race. So, with Vettel out of the race, Alonso took the lead. Grosjean pursued Alonso closely for a few laps, when his luck also ran out with the same alternator problem as Vettel. No doubt Renault will be receiving some questions from both Red Bull and Lotus this week! Hamilton thus took over in the podium positions, and looked set to bag a great number of points. However, a collision caused by Maldonado meant that he too was forced out of the race.
So, with the top runners retiring, who was left to occupy the final spots on the podium behind Alonso? Well, those who predicted Lotus would be on the podium were correct, with Kimi Raikkonen taking over second place. While both Alonso and Raikkonen had amazing drives, perhaps my driver of the weekend has to go to the third place man: Michael Schumacher. Words cannot describe how great it is to see Michael back on the podium, and back where he belongs. After the huge amount of bad luck he's had this season, no doubt Schumi will relish this position and look forward to more podiums.
A final driver of note has to be Mark Webber. After qualifying 19th, the race didn't look like a promising prospect. However, as ever, Mark managed to pull something out of the bag and drive through the field to eventually finish fourth. Hopefully next time out Mark will have a better qualifying session and will too end up on the podium.
So, there we go. I take it back: Valencia was exciting. While I'm still not 100% convinced that the European grand prix should be held at this particular circuit every year, 2012 did show that the track wasn't completely a lost cause.
If you've not seen the race yet, I of course urge you to watch it - or at least catch highlights. While you're at it, it will be worth watching the GP2 races held at Valencia. If anything, these races were even more exciting than the F1, and it's great to watch the future F1 stars at work.
This weekend I'm heading off to the Goodwood
Red Bull approached the race with some fairly major upgrades - this came through in qualifying for Sebastian Vettel, who once again snatched pole position at the street circuit (this in turn meaning that Seb has equalled the career total pole positions of Jim Clark and Alain Prost - not bad for someone only five years older than me!). However, Mark Webber did not fare as well at Valencia: technical issues meant he left the Saturday session in Q1, qualifying 19th. All in all, qualifying was a fairly standard affair, with the only surprises including Maldonado gaining third position in the Williams, and the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa falling out at Q2 - something which clearly did not amuse the boss Luca di Montezemolo. Lotus seemed to have a great qualifying by contrast, and indeed many predicted that we may see a Lotus on the podium, or indeed winning. One final noteworthy performance in qualifying included Heikki Kovalainen's performance in the Caterham. Once again, Heikki made it through to Q2, and ended up ahead of both Toro Rosso cars - perhaps signalling that the Caterham team may soon edge closer to the points finishes.
So, with qualifying decided it was time for race day - and I have to confess that I was still sceptical of an exciting race. Questions were raised as to whether we'd see an eighth winner, or if not then who would be our first double winner of 2012. At the start of the race, Sebastian pulled his usual trick of streaking away into the distance (of course, prompting smiles from myself), pursued by Hamilton and Romain Grosjean. Fernando Alonso, despite an abysmal qualifying session, managed a fantastic start in the race, and was soon closing in on the top runners. For a while, the race ran without too much close action (Vettel having pulled out a 20 second lead over Grosjean), however Jean Eric Vergne changed all of that by crashing into Heikki Kovalainen (later leading to him having a 10 place grid drop for Silverstone and a 25,000 Euro fine), prompting the safety car to intervene while the officials cleared the track of debris. After a while behind the safety car, the restart ran as normal, with Vettel again leaving the other runners in the dust.
While it seemed as though Vettel had the race in the bag, disaster later struck as his RB8 suddenly lost drive owing to a failed alternator. For the first time, we saw Vettel showing his frustration as he threw his gloves while walking away from the stricken car. However, in later interviews Seb claimed that while he was disappointed at losing the race win, he was encouraged by the car's pace - hopefully something we'll see at Silverstone.
Alonso had great luck at the safety car restart, managing to pass Grosjean after passing Hamilton earlier in the race. So, with Vettel out of the race, Alonso took the lead. Grosjean pursued Alonso closely for a few laps, when his luck also ran out with the same alternator problem as Vettel. No doubt Renault will be receiving some questions from both Red Bull and Lotus this week! Hamilton thus took over in the podium positions, and looked set to bag a great number of points. However, a collision caused by Maldonado meant that he too was forced out of the race.
So, with the top runners retiring, who was left to occupy the final spots on the podium behind Alonso? Well, those who predicted Lotus would be on the podium were correct, with Kimi Raikkonen taking over second place. While both Alonso and Raikkonen had amazing drives, perhaps my driver of the weekend has to go to the third place man: Michael Schumacher. Words cannot describe how great it is to see Michael back on the podium, and back where he belongs. After the huge amount of bad luck he's had this season, no doubt Schumi will relish this position and look forward to more podiums.
A final driver of note has to be Mark Webber. After qualifying 19th, the race didn't look like a promising prospect. However, as ever, Mark managed to pull something out of the bag and drive through the field to eventually finish fourth. Hopefully next time out Mark will have a better qualifying session and will too end up on the podium.
So, there we go. I take it back: Valencia was exciting. While I'm still not 100% convinced that the European grand prix should be held at this particular circuit every year, 2012 did show that the track wasn't completely a lost cause.
If you've not seen the race yet, I of course urge you to watch it - or at least catch highlights. While you're at it, it will be worth watching the GP2 races held at Valencia. If anything, these races were even more exciting than the F1, and it's great to watch the future F1 stars at work.
This weekend I'm heading off to the Goodwood
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Distinctly Underwhelming
This post might strike many of you as a little odd coming from me, but stick with it. This weekend sees the European grand prix from Valencia. Up until a few years ago, the European grand prix traditionally moved to different circuits - with the Nurburgring in 2007 being one of my favourite races. However, this particular race has now apparently settled on the street circuit of Valencia.
When you think of street circuits, the most prominent in the mind is Monaco. While there is arguably not much overtaking at Monaco (or indeed any street circuit) owing to the narrow race track, Monaco is nonetheless a spectacle to watch. The speed of the cars in such a circuit is inherently exciting, and with Monaco you get much more of a sense of the atmosphere of the race even if you're not in attendance yourself. However, Valencia is a circuit which often leaves me disappointed, and as such I'm not especially excited about the prospect of a race this weekend.
Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Valencia is that nothing really ever happens there. The cars go round for qualifying, then I feel like we watch a warm-up lap for the entire race duration. Ok, now and again you see incidents - with Mark Webber's take off after hitting Heikki Kovalainen's then-Lotus being one of the most dramatic I've seen - however I don't feel that we should be watching races for the crashes, and we should get a chance to see racing. This simply doesn't happen at Valencia in my mind. There is a balance with street circuits as to the thrill of watching cars on the edge and getting enough chance to overtake and race. In all honesty, Valencia fails to hit either of these marks in my opinion.
Maybe I'm being overly harsh, however there are simply some races that don't excite me. What annoys me also with Valencia is the fact that the race is the European grand prix, yet it stays at the same circuit. I feel that the old way of moving the race every year was a much better way to host a European race. Instead, we're left with two Spanish grand prix every year. While I have nothing against this, I'd like to see the race at Valencia have some sort of appeal to the fans, and if this is not possible then perhaps Bernie Ecclestone should consider changing the circuit for the European race. A while ago, there were rumours that the return of the French grand prix would mean that the Belgian grand prix would have to alternate. Considering that Spa is one of the legends of the season, would not a more appealing solution be to remove Valencia from the calendar and keep the French and Belgian grand prix every year? That way we have one race in each of the countries, and we maintain the most enthralling circuits.
I understand that any sport is not necessarily enthralling all of the time. However, the consistency of Valencia's processional approach would signal to me that its place in F1 should be reconsidered. Of course, being a die-hard fan I will still watch the race this weekend - and who knows, maybe the magic of the 2012 season will spice the race up a little - however if this race retains its usual theme then I honestly think that something should change. The current trend in F1 to discuss money saving options might do well to look at how appealing fans find the races, and perhaps a neat cost cutting measure would be to do away with Valencia. I honestly hope that this weekend my opinions will change about this race. Street circuits should be something to look forward to - not something that is openly criticised. However, unless we get proper racing and overtaking this weekend, I'm afraid that Valencia will remain my least favourite race of the year.
When you think of street circuits, the most prominent in the mind is Monaco. While there is arguably not much overtaking at Monaco (or indeed any street circuit) owing to the narrow race track, Monaco is nonetheless a spectacle to watch. The speed of the cars in such a circuit is inherently exciting, and with Monaco you get much more of a sense of the atmosphere of the race even if you're not in attendance yourself. However, Valencia is a circuit which often leaves me disappointed, and as such I'm not especially excited about the prospect of a race this weekend.
Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Valencia is that nothing really ever happens there. The cars go round for qualifying, then I feel like we watch a warm-up lap for the entire race duration. Ok, now and again you see incidents - with Mark Webber's take off after hitting Heikki Kovalainen's then-Lotus being one of the most dramatic I've seen - however I don't feel that we should be watching races for the crashes, and we should get a chance to see racing. This simply doesn't happen at Valencia in my mind. There is a balance with street circuits as to the thrill of watching cars on the edge and getting enough chance to overtake and race. In all honesty, Valencia fails to hit either of these marks in my opinion.
Maybe I'm being overly harsh, however there are simply some races that don't excite me. What annoys me also with Valencia is the fact that the race is the European grand prix, yet it stays at the same circuit. I feel that the old way of moving the race every year was a much better way to host a European race. Instead, we're left with two Spanish grand prix every year. While I have nothing against this, I'd like to see the race at Valencia have some sort of appeal to the fans, and if this is not possible then perhaps Bernie Ecclestone should consider changing the circuit for the European race. A while ago, there were rumours that the return of the French grand prix would mean that the Belgian grand prix would have to alternate. Considering that Spa is one of the legends of the season, would not a more appealing solution be to remove Valencia from the calendar and keep the French and Belgian grand prix every year? That way we have one race in each of the countries, and we maintain the most enthralling circuits.
I understand that any sport is not necessarily enthralling all of the time. However, the consistency of Valencia's processional approach would signal to me that its place in F1 should be reconsidered. Of course, being a die-hard fan I will still watch the race this weekend - and who knows, maybe the magic of the 2012 season will spice the race up a little - however if this race retains its usual theme then I honestly think that something should change. The current trend in F1 to discuss money saving options might do well to look at how appealing fans find the races, and perhaps a neat cost cutting measure would be to do away with Valencia. I honestly hope that this weekend my opinions will change about this race. Street circuits should be something to look forward to - not something that is openly criticised. However, unless we get proper racing and overtaking this weekend, I'm afraid that Valencia will remain my least favourite race of the year.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
The Trend Continues
A while ago, Jenson Button was quoted as saying that he didn't think the fact that the first six races of the season brought six different winners was a good thing. In fact, Jenson believed that having such variability was off-putting to us fans. Well, he'd be disappointed with the race we saw in Canada - a race that brought us our seventh different winner of seven different races!
Canada is always an interesting circuit. The infamous 'wall of champions' on the main straight has claimed many victims over the year - last year catching out Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the final practice session. Luckily last year this didn't seem to affect Seb too much, as he went on to grab pole position. This year, it was Heikki Kovalainen who suffered during the practices, although this incident happened on Friday practice, and sadly didn't lead to a Caterham pole! Pastor Maldonado however was caught by the wall during qualifying, and although he did his best to try and complete his lap with only three wheels, this was clearly a strategy that didn't pay off.
I think we can say that we had a pretty exciting qualifying session overall. It was a genuine mystery as to who would grab pole position. Red Bull had earlier suffered controversy once again over the holes in their car. Last race, a hole in the floor at the rear of the car was controversial, and between the races was deemed illegal - even though Red Bull had previously asked for clarification and were deemed legal. F1 in the last few years is a bit notorious for its sudden changes of mind on aerodynamics (in fact, I'd argue that this is perhaps the more off-putting to fans, rather than having different winners). So, in Canada another controversy arose with the Red Bull holes. This time, holes in the hub were deemed illegal for providing an aerodynamic advantage, and had to be changed before qualifying on Saturday - but whether this would disadvantage the drivers is another story.
Hamilton was perhaps one of the more favourited drivers for pole position in Canada - the circuit which granted him his first win. Q1 saw the Caterhams of Petrov and Kovalainen out-qualify the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne - quite an achievement for the team! Q2 was fairly straightforward, with the usual suspects (McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, the Lotus of Grosjean and the Force India of Paul di Resta) making it through to Q3. So, with the final part of quali to go, we were still no closer to understanding who would be on pole. Vettel set an early time in the low 1:14s, and took pole. However, the McLaren of Hamilton was still in with a good shot, as was the Ferrari of Alonso. Button seemed to opt for a race-strategy, choosing the soft (rather than super-soft) tyres, leading to him finishing in 10th. With the first runs out of the way, the leaders came back out for their final qualifying lap and we got our answer of who was fastest. While fantastic times were set by Alonso and Hamilton, Vettel took his 33rd pole of his career, with a 1:13.7! So, despite the controversy of their car, it looked as though Red Bull had the advantage in Canada.
Race day was another exciting affair - something we're all getting quite used to now. In the early stages of the race, Vettel did his usual trick of flying off into the distance at the start. However, he was swiftly followed by Hamilton and Alonso. When the first round of pit stops came up, there was a lot of switching around at the front. Hamilton took the lead after Vettel pitted, only to be replaced by Alonso after his own pit stop. With the top three still Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel, we could expect a fair amount of close racing. However, the leaders tended to bide their time during the second stint -possibly waiting for clues on each others' strategies. Tyre degradation was such that Hamilton was forced to make a second stop, although on the team radio he did ask whether Alonso and Vettel would also take second stops. As he was assured of the second stops of his rivals, Hamilton pitted. However, it seemed that Alonso and Vettel did not want to stop, having gained the advantage over Hamilton at last.
With this fact in mind, the team were back on the radio to Lewis and asked him to push as much as he could. Of course, the circuit of Montreal is much more suited to the McLaren of Lewis than it is to the Red Bull of Sebastian, and with much fresher tyres the move on Vettel was easily made. This prompted Vettel to pit himself, and eventually Sebastian finished the race in fourth place. With Vettel out of the way, Hamilton only had to pass Alonso - often easier said than done. However, the gamble of Ferrari to only one-stop did not pay off, and the pass was easily done with the aid of newer tyres and DRS. Hamilton thus became our seventh winner.
Things went from bad to worse for Alonso however, as due to his crippled tyres he was passed not only by Hamilton, but by Lotus's Grosjean and Sauber's Perez - people who had otherwise had fairly uneventful races! Now that Vettel was also on fresher tyres, Alonso was easily passed by the Red Bull, and Alonso eventually finished fifth. All of this in the final five laps of the race!
Someone else who has been suffering with a bout of bad luck is Michael Schumacher. Although he managed to qualify in the top 10 once again, SchumacherDRS failed in the open position - something which isn't meant to happen at all! I'm really hoping that Schumi's luck starts to pick up, as he has been showing more promise lately after his pole position a few races back.
Massa was driving an amazing race at the start, however a spin on lap six meant that his amazing form wasn't continued into a higher result. He did, however, recover from his spin to finish 10th. It seems as though Massa is having a second chance at the season, and hopefully we'll see more improvements from him as the season goes on.
So, overall another fantastic race. The next time out is at Valencia - surprisingly one of the races I rarely look forward to, largely because nothing ever really happens. However, the way the season's been going we could see a change in this trend, and maybe we'll end up with an eighth winner! The week after Valencia I am also happy to report that I will be attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed! So, expect a very long update when I return.
Canada is always an interesting circuit. The infamous 'wall of champions' on the main straight has claimed many victims over the year - last year catching out Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the final practice session. Luckily last year this didn't seem to affect Seb too much, as he went on to grab pole position. This year, it was Heikki Kovalainen who suffered during the practices, although this incident happened on Friday practice, and sadly didn't lead to a Caterham pole! Pastor Maldonado however was caught by the wall during qualifying, and although he did his best to try and complete his lap with only three wheels, this was clearly a strategy that didn't pay off.
I think we can say that we had a pretty exciting qualifying session overall. It was a genuine mystery as to who would grab pole position. Red Bull had earlier suffered controversy once again over the holes in their car. Last race, a hole in the floor at the rear of the car was controversial, and between the races was deemed illegal - even though Red Bull had previously asked for clarification and were deemed legal. F1 in the last few years is a bit notorious for its sudden changes of mind on aerodynamics (in fact, I'd argue that this is perhaps the more off-putting to fans, rather than having different winners). So, in Canada another controversy arose with the Red Bull holes. This time, holes in the hub were deemed illegal for providing an aerodynamic advantage, and had to be changed before qualifying on Saturday - but whether this would disadvantage the drivers is another story.
Hamilton was perhaps one of the more favourited drivers for pole position in Canada - the circuit which granted him his first win. Q1 saw the Caterhams of Petrov and Kovalainen out-qualify the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne - quite an achievement for the team! Q2 was fairly straightforward, with the usual suspects (McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, the Lotus of Grosjean and the Force India of Paul di Resta) making it through to Q3. So, with the final part of quali to go, we were still no closer to understanding who would be on pole. Vettel set an early time in the low 1:14s, and took pole. However, the McLaren of Hamilton was still in with a good shot, as was the Ferrari of Alonso. Button seemed to opt for a race-strategy, choosing the soft (rather than super-soft) tyres, leading to him finishing in 10th. With the first runs out of the way, the leaders came back out for their final qualifying lap and we got our answer of who was fastest. While fantastic times were set by Alonso and Hamilton, Vettel took his 33rd pole of his career, with a 1:13.7! So, despite the controversy of their car, it looked as though Red Bull had the advantage in Canada.
Race day was another exciting affair - something we're all getting quite used to now. In the early stages of the race, Vettel did his usual trick of flying off into the distance at the start. However, he was swiftly followed by Hamilton and Alonso. When the first round of pit stops came up, there was a lot of switching around at the front. Hamilton took the lead after Vettel pitted, only to be replaced by Alonso after his own pit stop. With the top three still Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel, we could expect a fair amount of close racing. However, the leaders tended to bide their time during the second stint -possibly waiting for clues on each others' strategies. Tyre degradation was such that Hamilton was forced to make a second stop, although on the team radio he did ask whether Alonso and Vettel would also take second stops. As he was assured of the second stops of his rivals, Hamilton pitted. However, it seemed that Alonso and Vettel did not want to stop, having gained the advantage over Hamilton at last.
With this fact in mind, the team were back on the radio to Lewis and asked him to push as much as he could. Of course, the circuit of Montreal is much more suited to the McLaren of Lewis than it is to the Red Bull of Sebastian, and with much fresher tyres the move on Vettel was easily made. This prompted Vettel to pit himself, and eventually Sebastian finished the race in fourth place. With Vettel out of the way, Hamilton only had to pass Alonso - often easier said than done. However, the gamble of Ferrari to only one-stop did not pay off, and the pass was easily done with the aid of newer tyres and DRS. Hamilton thus became our seventh winner.
Things went from bad to worse for Alonso however, as due to his crippled tyres he was passed not only by Hamilton, but by Lotus's Grosjean and Sauber's Perez - people who had otherwise had fairly uneventful races! Now that Vettel was also on fresher tyres, Alonso was easily passed by the Red Bull, and Alonso eventually finished fifth. All of this in the final five laps of the race!
Someone else who has been suffering with a bout of bad luck is Michael Schumacher. Although he managed to qualify in the top 10 once again, SchumacherDRS failed in the open position - something which isn't meant to happen at all! I'm really hoping that Schumi's luck starts to pick up, as he has been showing more promise lately after his pole position a few races back.
Massa was driving an amazing race at the start, however a spin on lap six meant that his amazing form wasn't continued into a higher result. He did, however, recover from his spin to finish 10th. It seems as though Massa is having a second chance at the season, and hopefully we'll see more improvements from him as the season goes on.
So, overall another fantastic race. The next time out is at Valencia - surprisingly one of the races I rarely look forward to, largely because nothing ever really happens. However, the way the season's been going we could see a change in this trend, and maybe we'll end up with an eighth winner! The week after Valencia I am also happy to report that I will be attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed! So, expect a very long update when I return.
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