Webber pips Hamilton to Spa pole

Mark Webber took pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix today. He pipped Lewis Hamilton, who was 2nd, ahead of Robert Kubica. Sebastian Vettel was 4th, while Fernando Alonso was caught out and is 10th. Here is the full report:

Mark Webber in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix

Q1

The weather was dry at the start of Q1, but the clouds looked threatening. This resulted in all of the drivers going out at the start, but not a single one of them set a lap. This is because Vitaly Petrov brought out the red flags after a minute and a half, by crashing before the Pouhon corner, as there was a small amount of standing water on the kerbs. His session was over, and he will start from the back of the grid.

When the session restarted, the cars all lined up again at the end of the pit lane, except for the Red Bulls, who held their cars in the pits while they made space for themselves on the track. However, on their warm-up laps, the rain started to fall, and a huge scramble emerged for position on track. Many drivers, especially Schumacher, were jostling for position in the middle of their flying laps, which ruined their time.

The rain fell harder, and a disaster occurred at Stavelot corner, where half the field ran off the track, spun or nearly collided. With so many dangerous incidents, the stewards soon announced they would be investigating the incidents. Within a few minutes, most of the field pitted again. Meanwhile, the Red Bulls, who struggled as they went out later on the wetter track, decided to stay out and switch to intermediates.

Vettel’s first lap was a 1.58, which was enough to put him into 3rd, but then he had to crawl back to the pits, to conserve his inters. Adrian Sutil then went 5th, and Jarno Trulli got 14th. Timo Glock, in the middle of all the previous chaos, was now up to 12th.

Heikki Kovalainen, on the other hand, chose to experiment with the slick tyres. Rosberg and Vettel noticed his improvement, and also went onto the dry tyres. Robert Kubica went fastest on the inters with a 1.56, before the session was yellow flagged after Kamui Kobayashi slipped and got stuck in the gravel track. To make matters worse for the Sauber team, Pedro de la Rosa swiftly ran off and hit the barriers.

After all the drama, there was still time for one set of flying laps. Nico Rosberg chopped a second off Kubica’s time while on slicks, while Michael Schumacher went 5th. Not many others went out again, so it was a quiet end to a chaotic session. Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock managed to get through to Q2. Meanwhile, both Saubers, Hispanias, Lucas di Grassi and Vitaly Petrov were eliminated.

Drivers knocked out in Q1:

18) Jarno Trulli

19) Kamui Kobayashi

20) Bruno Senna

21) Sakon Yamamoto

22) Pedro de la Rosa

23) Lucas di Grassi

24) Vitaly Petrov

Q2

The track had dried out by the time Q2 started. Again, another charge of cars out of the pit lane greeted the start of the session, as there was no guarantee of the rain staying away. Both McLaren drivers went out on a used set of soft tyres. 1.50.7 was the fastest lap so far, set by Lewis Hamilton.

Mistakes by Button and Alonso, followed by a spin from Liuzzi, showed that the track was still damp in places, most notably Stavelot. Schumacher ignored this danger, and went fastest with a 1.49. Felipe Massa, on the other hand, spun and nearly got stuck in the gravel track, in the same place as Kobayashi, but he managed to struggle his way out.

Heikki Kovalainen went out for the first time with only 5 minutes remaining. His main rival, Timo Glock, went 15th for Virgin. Jenson Button went fastest with a 1.47.4, showing the track was much drier. Sebastien Buemi went 7th, while Kovalainen was 15th. Lewis Hamilton then went a full second faster than Button to take top spot.

Adrian Sutil, the man tipped to surprise the field in a dry race scenario, went 5th. His team-mate Liuzzi could only manage 12th, and was out of Q2. In the dying seconds, the Williams drivers of Barrichello and Hulkenberg went 9th and 10th, while Schumacher and Rosberg were 11th and 12th. Michael’s 10-place grid penalty means that he will be starting 21st.

Drivers knocked out in Q2:

11) Michael Schumacher

12) Nico Rosberg

13) Jaime Alguersuari

14) Vitantonio Liuzzi

15) Sebastien Buemi

16) Heikki Kovalainen

17) Timo Glock

Q3

While the Ferraris and McLarens went out quickly, the Red Bulls, Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello opted to hold back. Lewis Hamilton, the first man out, was quite wild on his flying lap, but still set a 1.46.2. Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, and Fernando Alonso went 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Robert Kubica then went fastest, before Mark Webber topped all of them.

Rubens Barrichello beat Nico Hulkenberg to 7th, then Adrian Sutil split the two. While rain started to fall, Fernando Alonso was left in huge trouble, as he was in 9th, and track conditions were deteriorating quite a bit. Mark Webber’s time seemed to be unbeatable, seeing as the track wouldn’t support another driver’s challenge for pole. Despite this, both of the McLarens improved their times.

However, nobody was able to knock Webber off top spot, so he deservedly takes pole position. But knowing Spa (heavy rain forecast for tomorrow), anything can happen in the race…

Full times from qualifying:

Pos.		Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1		Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1′57.352	1′47.253	1′45.778
2		Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1′56.706	1′46.211	1′45.863
3		Robert Kubica	Renault	1′56.041	1′47.320	1′46.100
4		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1′58.487	1′47.245	1′46.127
5		Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1′57.981	1′46.790	1′46.206
6		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1′58.323	1′47.322	1′46.314
7		Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1′55.757	1′47.797	1′46.602
8		Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1′58.730	1′47.292	1′46.659
9		Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1′55.442	1′47.821	1′47.053
10		Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1′57.023	1′47.544	1′47.441
11		Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1′56.313	1′47.874
12		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1′54.826	1′47.885
13		Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1′58.944	1′48.267
14		Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	2′01.102	1′48.680
15		Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2′00.386	1′49.209
16		Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	2′01.343	1′50.980
17		Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2′01.316	1′52.049
18		Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	2′01.491
19		Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	2′02.284
20		Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	2′03.612
21		Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	2′03.941
22		Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	2′05.294
23		Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	2′18.154
24		Vitaly Petrov	Renault

Notes: Michael Schumacher will start 21st after a 10-place grid penalty for his move on Barrichello in Hungary.

Sebastien Buemi has been docked 3 places for impeding Nico Rosberg and Timo Glock.

Timo Glock has been given a 5-place penalty for holding up Sakon Yamamoto (!).

Nico Rosberg has been given a 5-place penalty, because of  a gearbox change.

Amazingly, this leaves Heikki Kovalainen in 13th place on the grid.

Alonso continues to lead through Belgian FP2

Fernando Alonso topped the second practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix today, as the rapidly drying track allowed some fast laps at the end. He was only one tenth ahead of Adrian Sutil, who in turn was just ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

The session started with the usual Spa conditions, with the track still requiring extreme wet tyres. However, soon enough the sun started to appear, and intermidiates were swiftly attached to the cars. Later on, Jaime Alguersuari was the first to try slick tyres, and his first lap time was 3 seconds faster than his previous ones on the inters.

However, as the track was still slippy, it was sure to catch out a few drivers. Vitantonio Liuzzi spun at Rivage, while Timo Glock crashed after only 3 laps, at the next corner.

Adrian Sutil was leading for most of the session, before a very strange red flag emerged. Charlie Whiting was dispatched in the course car, to ensure that no fans were standing in a dangerous zone. It is believed that a group of kids climbed over a debris barrier at Rivage (Turn 8). This was a disaster for some drivers, as it ruined 10 of the 15 dry minutes of the session that they had.

When the session restarted, all the cars were queued up to take one last set of flying laps. The two Ferraris went out together, but Alonso pulled away from Massa by 0.6 seconds in the middle sector. This allowed Fernando to take the fastest lap of the session, a 1.49.032, to beat Adrian Sutil.

Robert Kubica was 4th, Felipe Massa 5th, and Sebastian Vettel 6th. Rubens Barrichello was again 9th, and Vitantonio Liuzzi struggled again down in 16th. The slowest of the non-new teams was actually Mark Webber, who was 2.6 seconds off the fastest time. The Lotuses were back on form, with Kovalainen and Trulli fastest of the new teams.

Lucas di Grassi was 21st, Senna 22nd, while Sakon Yamamoto was only 0.3 seconds behind his team-mate in 23rd.

Times from FP2:

Pos.		Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1		Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1′49.032		25
2		Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1′49.157	0.125	17
3		Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1′49.248	0.216	14
4		Robert Kubica	Renault	1′49.282	0.250	20
5		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1′49.588	0.556	23
6		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1′49.689	0.657	19
7		Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1′49.755	0.723	20
8		Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1′50.081	1.049	27
9		Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1′50.128	1.096	22
10		Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1′50.200	1.168	24
11		Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1′50.251	1.219	24
12		Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1′50.341	1.309	23
13		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1′50.382	1.350	21
14		Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1′50.682	1.650	25
15		Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1′50.831	1.799	20
16		Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1′51.520	2.488	17
17		Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1′51.523	2.491	25
18		Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1′51.636	2.604	19
19		Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1′53.480	4.448	15
20		Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1′53.639	4.607	21
21		Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1′54.325	5.293	17
22		Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1′55.751	6.719	24
23		Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	1′56.039	7.007	21
24		Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2′03.179	14.147	3

Alonso leads soaked first session in Spa

Fernando Alonso topped the first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, but it was the weather that made the most news today. The track was already saturated, then more heavy rain made the track very difficult to drive. Because of this, no driver got below the two-minute mark.

Fernando Alonso in FP1 at Spa today

Alonso’s best time, a 2.00.797, was 0.8 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton in 2nd place, although he only went out for 7 laps. Robert Kubica was 3rd for Reanult, running their new F-duct. The Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber were 4th and 7th. Adrian Sutil was 5th while Jenson Button was 6th, having done only 6 laps.

Rubens Barrichello, celebrating his 300th Grand Prix entry with a special message on the car, was 9th behind Kamui Kobayashi. Michael Schumacher completed the top 10. Felipe Massa was a disappointing 11th, 2.8 seconds slower than his team-mate.

Vitaly Petrov struggled in 17th, while Sebastien Buemi was only 0.017 seconds faster than Timo Glock, although he was suffering gearbox trouble throughout the session, and only did 6 laps. Behind Glock in 19th was Lucas di Grassi. Trulli and Kovalainen were off the pace in 21st and 23rd. Meanwhile, Sakon Yamamoto was last, 1o seconds slower than Alonso, and an unbelievable 2.8 seconds off Bruno Senna’s time.

Times from FP1:

Pos.		Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1		Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2′00.797		17
2		Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	2′01.567	0.770	7
3		Robert Kubica	Renault	2′02.081	1.284	14
4		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	2′02.450	1.653	11
5		Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2′02.646	1.849	14
6		Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2′02.913	2.116	6
7		Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	2′02.926	2.129	11
8		Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	2′03.401	2.604	17
9		Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	2′03.424	2.627	7
10		Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2′03.489	2.692	9
11		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2′03.601	2.804	17
12		Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	2′03.649	2.852	17
13		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	2′03.654	2.857	6
14		Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	2′03.851	3.054	17
15		Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	2′04.145	3.348	12
16		Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2′04.250	3.453	16
17		Vitaly Petrov	Renault	2′04.690	3.893	15
18		Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2′05.680	4.883	6
19		Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2′05.697	4.900	18
20		Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	2′06.695	5.898	14
21		Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	2′07.189	6.392	15
22		Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	2′07.737	6.940	13
23		Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	2′07.955	7.158	15
24		Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	2′10.507	9.710	18

Barrichello celebrates 300 Grands Prix

As Rubens Barrichello stars his 300th Grand Prix this weekend, the Williams team decided to commemorate his achievement. At an event in Spa-Francorchamps today, he was presented with a medal from Bernie Ecclestone, a poster showing his years in Formula 1, and a specially made Williams bike.

He was later shown a video of his career to date, and burst into tears.

Here are just a few stats from his amazing career, starting way back in 1993:

• To date, he has scored 637 Formula 1 points.
• At the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix, he became the youngest ever pole position driver, at 22 years and 97 days.
• Earlier that year, he had became the second youngest driver on the podium, at the Pacific Grand Prix, at 21 years and 329 days, only a week older than the former record holder, Bruce McLaren.
• It took him 123 races to take his first victory, at Hockenheim in 2000. At that same race, he went to 3rd in the ranking of “Wins from farthest back on the grid”, as he started 18th.
• In the 2004 season, he took 14 podiums out of 18 races. The only drivers who have ever beaten this are Michael Schumacher (2001,2002,2004), Fernando Alonso (2005) and Alain Prost (1988).
• He has finished 134 races in the points, a record only beaten by Michael Schumacher.
• He has led at least 1 lap of 51 different Grands Prix.
• He currently holds the record for longest time between first and last podium positions. His first podium was in the 1994 Pacific GP, and his last (to date) was Italy last year.

Here are some photos from today’s event:

Rubens Barrichello receives a medal from Bernie Ecclestone

He later bursts into tears after watching a video of his career

A poster of Rubens Barrichello's career

Rubens and some of the other F1 drivers

Belgium 2009 flashback: Fisichella uses the force

Before everyone’s favourite race of the year, the focus was yet again on Jenson Button, whose lead of the championship had slipped to only 18 points. He hadn’t scored a podium since Turkey, and was being pressurised more and more from Barrichello, Webber and Vettel. Oddly enough, only one former winner of the Belgian Grand Prix was racing here in 2009, a certain Kimi Raikkonen.

Throughout Friday and Saturday practice, there wasn’t much out of the ordinary, apart from Mark Webber suffering Red Bull’s third engine failure in a week. With absolutely no warning, the established backmarker, Force India, slammed themselves into pole position with Giancarlo Fisichella. Their low-downforce package had suddenly emerged as a contender in Spa-Francorchamps’s sweeping track, and now the formbook was on its head for the best race of the year.

Only one predictable event happened, and that was Luca Badoer, who crashed in Q1, bringing out the yellow flags at the end of the session and ruining other drivers’ laps. Jenson Button suffered awful form in Q2, and ended up 14th. Meanwhile, Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld got Toyota and BMW Sauber into the top three.

Raikkonen uses the run-off area to gain several places

As the race began, Rubens Barrichello destroyed his race within seconds, as he almost stalled his car – again. This left him at the back, and stuck behind the backmarkers. Kimi Raikkonen showed he had absolutely no intention of using the conventional track, as he sailed around the run-off area at La Source, questionably gaining several positions in the process. Adrian Sutil, who was sluggish in qualifying and was 11th, took off part of his front wing in a tangle.

Worse was to come at the Les Combes corner. Raikkonen, who had just swiftly disposed of Robert Kubica in 2nd, ran slightly wide, and the BMW Sauber driver clipped his front wing against the Ferrari. Further back, rookie Romain Grosjean hit the back of Jenson Button, who spun 180 degrees and collided with Grosjean again. Lewis Hamilton backed off, and was hit by another rookie, Jaime Alguersuari, who had lost control after a seperate crash. All four cars were eliminated on the spot, and the safety car was deployed, as cars were streamed all over Les Combes.

Hamilton and Alguersuari crash at Les Combes

After Lap 4, the safety car pitted, and Fisichella was faced with a problem. His strategy was to get away cleanly at the start, and within the first lap get far away enough from Raikkonen to avoid his KERS system. However, the safety car restart had bunched up the field, and now Kimi was within striking range to launch a move within the next lap. Giancarlo tried his best, but at the restart Raikkonen was right behind him as they approached Eau Rouge, and easily got past using his KERS on the straight.

Further back, Rubens Barrichello was recovering from his disastrous start. He out-braked Badoer with no difficulty to get into 13th position. Adrian Sutil invented a new overtaking spot, as he sailed past Luca by using the run-off area at Pouhon. The Ferrari driver was again completely off the pace, and was a second a lap slower later on.

Toyota had got themselves in a good position for the Belgian GP, with Trulli and Glock 2nd and 7th on the grid. But, a mistake with the fuel rig at Glock’s pit stop, combined with a heavy fuel load, dropped him well down the order, while Trulli retired after the first set of stops. Yet again, Toyota had thrown away a good result.

Up at the front, Raikkonen couldn’t get away from Fisichella, who was stuck to the back of the Ferrari’s gearbox. The only thing keeping him behind was Kimi’s KERS system, which disabled the Force India’s better straight-line speed. They both pitted at the same time on Lap 14, and seemed to take on the same amount of fuel. Kimi stayed on the harder tyre, while Fisi switched to softs.

More pit-lane drama occurred, after Mark Webber was released straight into the path of Nick Heidfeld, who swerved to within centimetres of the pit lane wall to avoid a collision. He was swiftly issued a drive-through penalty, and dropped to 9th. Before he served the penalty, Barrichello (who hadn’t made his stop) made a brave dive around the outside at Blanchimont. Meanwhile, after suffering wheel damage on the first lap, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire after his first stop.

On Lap 31, Raikkonen and Fisichella pitted for the second time. No positions were changed between the two, but Sebastian Vettel leap-frogged Robert Kubica 4 laps later. He actually began to catch Kimi and Fisi, but he was so far back he decided to turn down his engine revs to secure 3rd.

Raikkonen held off Fisichella until the very end

With the top 3 settled, as long as Kimi held Giancarlo back with his KERS, the focus moved to the points-scorers. The BMW’s of Kubica and Heidfeld were 4th and 5th, while Kovalainen’s 6th place was being challenged by Barrichello. He could have got past, until Rubens’ engine began spewing oil and smoke in the last few laps. He coaxed his car to the chequered flag, and impressively held off Nico Rosberg to the finish.

With all of this settled, the undisputed king of Spa, Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line first, but not without being chased all the way to the flag by Fisichella. In hindsight, more fuel at his first stop could well have given Giancarlo the win, but Force India’s first points and podium was enough to celebrate for one day. After Rubens Barrichello pitted after the finish, his engine cover soon caught fire, with all of the boiling oil.

Rubens Barrichello's engine cover catches fire in the pit lane

Adrian Sutil must have been disappointed out of the points, but Luca Badoer was even more concerned. With Ferrari fans mocking him with banners and flags after his dismal drive in Valencia, his last-position finish sealed his fate, and he was surely going to be replaced for Ferrari’s home race at Monza, otherwise he would have been murdered by the Tifosi. Rumours instantly floated around that Fisichella was being asked to fill in for Badoer for the rest of the season.

Fisichella, Raikkonen and Vettel celebrate on the podium

So after a race in which the formbook was thrown out the window, attention soon moved to the Italian Grand Prix. But, throughout the paddock, rumours began to surface that fired Renault driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, had one more thing to say…

Yamamoto remains in Chandhok’s seat for Belgium

Sakon Yamamoto will continue to replace Karun Chandhok at Spa

It has emerged today that Sakon Yamamoto will continue to take Karun Chandhok’s seat at the Hispania team for the Belgium Grand Prix, as the team tries to stay afloat on the Japanese driver’s sponsors. While there was initial hope that Karun could return after the summer break, today’s statement by the team has quashed those rumours.

Since Silverstone, Yamamoto has been occupying the race seats of Chandhok and once Senna. With this news, it is clear that Yamamoto will probably be racing at the very back for most of the rest of this season.

While I’m on about Yamamoto, I found an interesting stat on him: He has never scored a pole position in his entire motorsport career. Also, the last time he won a race was back in 2005, in the Super GT (Japanese Touring Car) championship, and he has only won one other race in his life.

Extreme gap in tyre compounds for German GP

Bridgestone F1 tyres

Bridgestone have announced that they are to bring a 2-step gap in the tyre compounds in the tyres that they will bring to the German Grand Prix, in an effort to mix up tyre strategies. Following the Canadian GP, the Japanese company had said that they would be more radical with their tyre compound choices.

For the race in Hockenheim, Bridgestone are to bring the super-soft and hard tyres, meaning that there will be a 2-step difference in tyre compounds, the first time that this has been done this season. Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone’s head of motorsport tyre development, said that the characteristics of the Hockenheim circuit allowed this extreme tyre variation to go ahead.

However, for the next 4 races after this, there will only be 1 gap between tyre compounds. In Hungary, the super-softs and mediums will be used, and similarly for Singapore. The soft and hard tyres will be used for Belgium and Italy.. Hamashima explained these choices:

"The Hungaroring requires a softer allocation as finding grip is 
always a target there. Spa and Monza are high speed tests for 
cars and tyres, needing a harder allocation because of the heat 
durability requirements. Singapore is a high-speed street course 
where the softer allocation is suited."

Personally, I think that a 2-step difference is dangerous, as performance in the cars will vary wildly across the race. What do you think? Is this a step too far to “improve the show”, or is a simple and effective way of spicing up the racing?