Free Practice 3 and Qualifying were both very different sessions, one was damp and uneventful, yet the other was packed full of drama, incidents and surprises. I will leave you to guess which one is which.
I have the low down and reviews of both FP3 and Qualifying below.
FP3
Free Practice 3 began with the typical damp conditions covering the track surface, causing a rather uneventful first part of the session. Rain began falling as the green light turned on for FP3 creating a waterlogged track, which no one felt like venturing out on to.
Drivers began emerging after the short, sharp shower had lowered with intensity and started putting in some banker laps, being extremely cautious. After those tentative laps, and with the full wet tyre fitted, most of the drivers ventured out to start setting times. Around 15 minutes before the end of the session, drivers fitted the intermediate tyres and benefiting from the higher grip levels, less spray, and a drying track, the lap times tumbled.
With the chequered flag out after the 1 hour session birthday boy Mark Webber topped the time sheets with a 2m08.988s. This time was around 18 seconds slower than his previous best time on Friday's dry running. Webber was celebrating not only his 35th birthday but the earlier news that he had signed an extension of 1 year onto his Red Bull Racing contract, securing his future for 2012. I gave the full outline of the story here.
Lewis Hamilton for Mclaren was second just 0.058 seconds slower than the Red Bull. Hamilton had earlier experience the torrential rain on his installation lap, after the Mclarens left it so late the track had been covered in rain. Behind Hamilton came a much improved Jaime Alguesuari as the Torro Rosso's had looked strong in the Wet and Intermediate conditions. Button in the other Mclaren was 4th 1.3 seconds behind Webber.
5th in the time sheets finished Sebastian Vettel, followed by his 'Sebastian Twin' Buemi. Rosberg, Sutil, Senna and Schumacher completed the top 10, who were separated by over 2 and a half seconds.
Scotland's Paul Di Resta finished 11th ahead of an inspired Kovalianen who seemingly loved the intermediate conditions. Following them came Maldonado, Kobayashi, Petrov, Barrichello and Perez.
Jarno Trulli in the Team Lotus finished 18th ahead of D'Ambrosio, Glock, Ricciardo and Liuzzi while Massa was 23rd after failing to put in a time on inters, and Alonso who did not even set a time at all. Ferrari chose the strategy to save tyres for Qualifying. Even the lead teams Mclaren and Red Bull opted to limit running of the Intermediate tyre with all of their drivers completing less than 10 laps.
Qualifying
Qualifying for the Belgain Grand Prix took an eventful turn, and possibly for the worse in some cases, as a number of incidents, surprises and typical 2011 season events took place. Read it all below.
Q1
The first qualifying session in 4 weeks took place under cloudy sky's but with the rain easing off, and a drying track, qualifying was set up to be very eventful. The two Torro Rosso's, Both Virgin Racing cars and both HRT machines lined up at the end of the pit lane, eager to use up the free track.
Many drivers followed but drama had already occurred not even 2 minutes into the 20 minute session. On the run down to rivage on a hurried out lap Michael Schumacher, celebrating his 20th anniversary of his debut this weekend, dropped his car on the way to rivage. It seemed the right rear wheel of his Merceds Gp car came off somehow, leaving him a passenger in the car as it veered right into the wall, all the way down the hill and into the gravel trap. This meant he finished with no time, leaving him 24th and last on the grid for tomorrows race.
After the yellow flags had disappeared, and the drivers slipping and sliding around on intermediate tyres, Alguesuari put in the first lap with a 2m.14.320 before team mate Buemi took over the rains, 3 seconds faster. The times tumbled down as the track evolved. As it settled down half way through the session Webber led the times with a time of 2m06.872 ahead of Button 3 tenths behind. The top 5 provisionally were Vettel, Sutil and Di Resta.
It had changed however by the end of the session, with Button topping the session with a 2m.01.813 ahead of Webber, his team mate Lewis Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. It was further back where the drama unfolded as Di Resta, on the bubble in 17th, had been called into the pits to abort his final lap. The team thought he was safe, but unaware that Kovalianen was benefiting from being last on the track and popped up into 16th, leaving Di Resta out in 18th.
Out where Di Resta, Trulli and Glock with D'Ambrosio, Luizzi and Ricciardo all out of the 107% rule. They will however most likely race due to dry weather forecast for Sunday. Schumacher finished 24th after not setting a time following his earlier incident.
Fastest: J Button 2m.01.813
Q2
The second qualifying session, this time 15 minutes long, and before the off Mclaren seemed to be cursed after presenter Jake Humphrey said "They've made a fair few mistakes in wet qualifying" and seemingly, another mistake occurred after Jenson Button was told to abort his last lap, and to not complete another, leaving him quickly dropping down the order.
Toro Rosso, Renault Lotus and Williams were eager to get some lap times in as the green light signaled the start of Q2. A sprinkling of rain during the break between Q1 and Q2 led to an extra challenge facing the drivers. Both Toro Rosso's began the times with a 2m.09 and 2m.10 respectively for Buemi and Alguesuari before Petrov joined them with a 2m.12 and Barrichello joining Jaime in the 2m.10 club.
Alonso was the first big shot to put in a time, with a disappointing 2m.09.208 followed by Button who was 2 seconds faster with a 2m.07.32. Everyone bar Kovalianen had completed a lap time when the Yellow flag, and then the Red flag came out. Sutil had been abit too greedy on the Kerb at the interior exit kerb of Eau Rouge, spinning the car into the barrier. He parked the car in a safe place, however with debris littering the track it was far too dangerous to continue.
Many driver at this point had just set out on second runs so had to drive back round and into the pit lane. With the red flag going out with 7 left, it was a mad dash to get a lap in afterwards. The session restarted with a long line of cars queuing to get out of the pitlane. At the front yet again came the Torro Rosso's, with Mclaren and Red Bull at the back.
The drivers backed off and sped forward to find space with all 17 cars out, it was a struggle for free air. The drivers were all on intermediate tyres with alot of spray still in the air but the track still evolving continuously. Many drivers began their first lap with just 4 minutes to spare. This left the majority of the field going for 3 lap runs at the most.
With the flag out it was Hamilton ahead of Webber, Vettel and Massa. Button and Massa had pitted but with Jenson Button in 5th, and Massa in 4th the gap began filling up. This left Button sliding down the order after aborting the final run. He later told Lee Mckenzie of bbc sport the team had told him to pit, thinking he was safe. This left him 13th.
Alonso, last over the line, went fastest with a 2m.02.768.
Out was Buemi, Kobayashi, Button, Barrichello, Sutil, Maldonado and Kovalianen.
An incident involving Hamilton and Maldonado occured just as the flag went out, they were going through the final chicane when Pastor ran wide, leaving Hamilton to have a free line up the inside. They touched with Maldonado not wanting to lose time behind Hamilton. They where both angry, however Pastor showed it to much as he turned into Hamilton's car as they ran side by side down the hill to Eau Rouge. Both cars where damaged and Lewis Hamilton's car had to be hastily repaired for Q3. It was a stupid and idiotic move by Maldonado which could have been solved a different, calmer and less expensive way. *
* after the time of posting, it was revealed Lewis Hamilton was reprimanded for the incident meanwhile Pastor Maldonado got a 5 place penalty, but it should of been a harsher punishment.
Fastest: F Alonso 2m.02.768
Q3
After such dramatic incidents in the last two qualifying sessions i think many viewers were out of breath. The green light for the last, 10 minute, session began with drivers braving it on Slick tyres. Within the first laps it was clear that you had to stay on the dry, thin, line. Alonso and Massa both had off track excursions on their out laps.
With half the session gone Webber led from Massa, Alonso, Vettel, Alguesuari, Senna and Perez. Meanwhile a quickly botch repaired Mclaren of Hamilton went fastest just after the 7 minute mark.
The Session finished with trading fastest times by Vettel and Hamilton, but Vettel's last run had it covered. Behind Hamilton was Webber, Massa, Rosberg and Alguesuari with his best qualifying performance to date. Senna was an impressive 7th with Alonso, Perez and Petrov behind.
Fastest: S Vettel 1m.48.298
To see all the times click here.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Spa continued to give us changeable conditions throughout the day and the results were expected, yet surprising all at once.
I have the low down and reviews of both FP3 and Qualifying below.
FP3
Free Practice 3 began with the typical damp conditions covering the track surface, causing a rather uneventful first part of the session. Rain began falling as the green light turned on for FP3 creating a waterlogged track, which no one felt like venturing out on to.
Drivers began emerging after the short, sharp shower had lowered with intensity and started putting in some banker laps, being extremely cautious. After those tentative laps, and with the full wet tyre fitted, most of the drivers ventured out to start setting times. Around 15 minutes before the end of the session, drivers fitted the intermediate tyres and benefiting from the higher grip levels, less spray, and a drying track, the lap times tumbled.
With the chequered flag out after the 1 hour session birthday boy Mark Webber topped the time sheets with a 2m08.988s. This time was around 18 seconds slower than his previous best time on Friday's dry running. Webber was celebrating not only his 35th birthday but the earlier news that he had signed an extension of 1 year onto his Red Bull Racing contract, securing his future for 2012. I gave the full outline of the story here.
Lewis Hamilton for Mclaren was second just 0.058 seconds slower than the Red Bull. Hamilton had earlier experience the torrential rain on his installation lap, after the Mclarens left it so late the track had been covered in rain. Behind Hamilton came a much improved Jaime Alguesuari as the Torro Rosso's had looked strong in the Wet and Intermediate conditions. Button in the other Mclaren was 4th 1.3 seconds behind Webber.
5th in the time sheets finished Sebastian Vettel, followed by his 'Sebastian Twin' Buemi. Rosberg, Sutil, Senna and Schumacher completed the top 10, who were separated by over 2 and a half seconds.
Scotland's Paul Di Resta finished 11th ahead of an inspired Kovalianen who seemingly loved the intermediate conditions. Following them came Maldonado, Kobayashi, Petrov, Barrichello and Perez.
Jarno Trulli in the Team Lotus finished 18th ahead of D'Ambrosio, Glock, Ricciardo and Liuzzi while Massa was 23rd after failing to put in a time on inters, and Alonso who did not even set a time at all. Ferrari chose the strategy to save tyres for Qualifying. Even the lead teams Mclaren and Red Bull opted to limit running of the Intermediate tyre with all of their drivers completing less than 10 laps.
Qualifying for the Belgain Grand Prix took an eventful turn, and possibly for the worse in some cases, as a number of incidents, surprises and typical 2011 season events took place. Read it all below.
Q1
The first qualifying session in 4 weeks took place under cloudy sky's but with the rain easing off, and a drying track, qualifying was set up to be very eventful. The two Torro Rosso's, Both Virgin Racing cars and both HRT machines lined up at the end of the pit lane, eager to use up the free track.
Many drivers followed but drama had already occurred not even 2 minutes into the 20 minute session. On the run down to rivage on a hurried out lap Michael Schumacher, celebrating his 20th anniversary of his debut this weekend, dropped his car on the way to rivage. It seemed the right rear wheel of his Merceds Gp car came off somehow, leaving him a passenger in the car as it veered right into the wall, all the way down the hill and into the gravel trap. This meant he finished with no time, leaving him 24th and last on the grid for tomorrows race.
After the yellow flags had disappeared, and the drivers slipping and sliding around on intermediate tyres, Alguesuari put in the first lap with a 2m.14.320 before team mate Buemi took over the rains, 3 seconds faster. The times tumbled down as the track evolved. As it settled down half way through the session Webber led the times with a time of 2m06.872 ahead of Button 3 tenths behind. The top 5 provisionally were Vettel, Sutil and Di Resta.
It had changed however by the end of the session, with Button topping the session with a 2m.01.813 ahead of Webber, his team mate Lewis Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. It was further back where the drama unfolded as Di Resta, on the bubble in 17th, had been called into the pits to abort his final lap. The team thought he was safe, but unaware that Kovalianen was benefiting from being last on the track and popped up into 16th, leaving Di Resta out in 18th.
Out where Di Resta, Trulli and Glock with D'Ambrosio, Luizzi and Ricciardo all out of the 107% rule. They will however most likely race due to dry weather forecast for Sunday. Schumacher finished 24th after not setting a time following his earlier incident.
Fastest: J Button 2m.01.813
Q2
The second qualifying session, this time 15 minutes long, and before the off Mclaren seemed to be cursed after presenter Jake Humphrey said "They've made a fair few mistakes in wet qualifying" and seemingly, another mistake occurred after Jenson Button was told to abort his last lap, and to not complete another, leaving him quickly dropping down the order.
 |
| (c) Octane Photographic |
Toro Rosso, Renault Lotus and Williams were eager to get some lap times in as the green light signaled the start of Q2. A sprinkling of rain during the break between Q1 and Q2 led to an extra challenge facing the drivers. Both Toro Rosso's began the times with a 2m.09 and 2m.10 respectively for Buemi and Alguesuari before Petrov joined them with a 2m.12 and Barrichello joining Jaime in the 2m.10 club.
Alonso was the first big shot to put in a time, with a disappointing 2m.09.208 followed by Button who was 2 seconds faster with a 2m.07.32. Everyone bar Kovalianen had completed a lap time when the Yellow flag, and then the Red flag came out. Sutil had been abit too greedy on the Kerb at the interior exit kerb of Eau Rouge, spinning the car into the barrier. He parked the car in a safe place, however with debris littering the track it was far too dangerous to continue.
Many driver at this point had just set out on second runs so had to drive back round and into the pit lane. With the red flag going out with 7 left, it was a mad dash to get a lap in afterwards. The session restarted with a long line of cars queuing to get out of the pitlane. At the front yet again came the Torro Rosso's, with Mclaren and Red Bull at the back.
The drivers backed off and sped forward to find space with all 17 cars out, it was a struggle for free air. The drivers were all on intermediate tyres with alot of spray still in the air but the track still evolving continuously. Many drivers began their first lap with just 4 minutes to spare. This left the majority of the field going for 3 lap runs at the most.
With the flag out it was Hamilton ahead of Webber, Vettel and Massa. Button and Massa had pitted but with Jenson Button in 5th, and Massa in 4th the gap began filling up. This left Button sliding down the order after aborting the final run. He later told Lee Mckenzie of bbc sport the team had told him to pit, thinking he was safe. This left him 13th.
Alonso, last over the line, went fastest with a 2m.02.768.
Out was Buemi, Kobayashi, Button, Barrichello, Sutil, Maldonado and Kovalianen.
An incident involving Hamilton and Maldonado occured just as the flag went out, they were going through the final chicane when Pastor ran wide, leaving Hamilton to have a free line up the inside. They touched with Maldonado not wanting to lose time behind Hamilton. They where both angry, however Pastor showed it to much as he turned into Hamilton's car as they ran side by side down the hill to Eau Rouge. Both cars where damaged and Lewis Hamilton's car had to be hastily repaired for Q3. It was a stupid and idiotic move by Maldonado which could have been solved a different, calmer and less expensive way. *
* after the time of posting, it was revealed Lewis Hamilton was reprimanded for the incident meanwhile Pastor Maldonado got a 5 place penalty, but it should of been a harsher punishment.
Fastest: F Alonso 2m.02.768
Q3
After such dramatic incidents in the last two qualifying sessions i think many viewers were out of breath. The green light for the last, 10 minute, session began with drivers braving it on Slick tyres. Within the first laps it was clear that you had to stay on the dry, thin, line. Alonso and Massa both had off track excursions on their out laps.
With half the session gone Webber led from Massa, Alonso, Vettel, Alguesuari, Senna and Perez. Meanwhile a quickly botch repaired Mclaren of Hamilton went fastest just after the 7 minute mark.
The Session finished with trading fastest times by Vettel and Hamilton, but Vettel's last run had it covered. Behind Hamilton was Webber, Massa, Rosberg and Alguesuari with his best qualifying performance to date. Senna was an impressive 7th with Alonso, Perez and Petrov behind.
Fastest: S Vettel 1m.48.298
To see all the times click here.
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