Inaugural US GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Inaugural United States GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel managed to score the pole in the inaugural Grand Prix in Austin by using parts that were specially flown in the night before. Red Bull has been relentlessly developing the car to ensure Sebastian Vettel to win the drivers championship. In comparision his competitor for this years driver's championship title Fernando Alonso has been forced to depend on his individual brilliance as his Ferrari team has been lagging behind in this development race. Ferrari being a marque team with a huge motor racing history as well as sports car business is lagging behind Red Bull which is a soft drinks company. The humiliation for Ferrari can't be more. Considering the fact that in 2010, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stole the title from Fernando Alonso in the last race.

Lewis Hamilton, driving his penultimate race for McLaren gave a big fight to Sebastian Vettel but had to settle for second position scoring 1:35.766 s to Vettel's 1m 35. 657seconds.

Mark Webber of Red Bull came third and was allowed to retain his place though he missed a mandatory post qualifying weigh in.

Romain Grosjean outqualified his fancied team mate Kimi Raikkonen to score a 4th postion. However, he picks up a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. So Kimi Raikkonen will now start at 4th position.

Michael Schumacher - the God of Formula One - driving the penultimate race before his retirement, scored a strong sixth position. Due to Grosjean's penalty, he will now start at fifth position. His much younger teammate Nico Rosberg starts at a poor 17th position. As usual, Nico Rosberg was quick to jump to his defence and talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael. Nico Rosberg was faster than Michael in FP1 and FP3 and had never talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael Schumacher. However, he choose to give an excuse when he was 11 places lower than Michael Schumacher in Qualifying. This has been the story in every race when Micahel Schumacher is faster. On the other hand, Michael Schumacher being a self assured person doesn't even talk about equipment deficiency when his car breaks down or when that leads to his slower times.

Ferrari team mates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were 7th and 9th and will now start at 6th and 8th due to Romain Grosjean's grid penalty.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India, brought some good news for his team at a time when both the majority owners of Force India are having financial troubles, by qualifying in 8th place. His team mate Paul di Resta will start at 13th.

Pastor Maldonado of Williams will start at 10th position whereas his team mate Bruno Senna will start at 11th. Jenson Button of McLaren will start at a poor 12th position, separated by a massive ten positions from his teammate Lewis Hamilton who will start second. Since Hamilton is leaving McLaren after this season to join Mercedes, the McLaren team will be ruing the mistake they did by not giving in to the demands of Lewis Hamilton. Some of those sore points which led to Lewis Hamilton's moving away to Mercedes was the right to retain the winner's trophy. McLaren wanted to take away the trophy won by its drivers.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso gave a good account of himself by scoring the 14th position. He was followed by the Sauber's of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi at 15th and 16th.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was 18th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia scored 19th and 20th positions ahead of the two Caterham cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov. With Marussia now being ahead of Caterham in the driver's championship due to Timo Glock's 12th place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, and the Marussia showing more pace than the Caterham cars, it appears that Marussia will score the 10th place in the team championship. That should be worth about 20 million pounds and will come as a severe blow to the Caterham team.

The rear was brought up by Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan's car stopped with a problem. The HRT team is financially very weak and its management is hoping to sell the team outright. It is not sure if the HRT team can do a good job in the race, as there are some doubts about the parts being used. They have stopped development long time ago due to paucity of funds.

It would be good if an Indian company like Tata's can buy this F1 team outright and invest resources and turn it into a winning team. Narain and the Indian fans deserve it. 

Vettel's gamble fails, to start from back of the grid

Sebastian Vettel disqualified from Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying

Sebastian Vettel had stopped his car on the track after qualifying without bringing it back for inspection. It was said that he stopped it due to some undisclosed problem with the fuel pump. As we had mentioned http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/11/hamilton-storms-to-pole-in-abu-dhabi.html that this will invite an investigation, Sebastian Vettel was investigated and it was found that his Red bull car didn't have the mandatory 1 litre fuel. He was disqualified from the qualifying results and will start from the pitlane for the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

A FIA statement said that "The stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid."


In another development Sergio Perez was warned for blocking Bruno Senna, however, no penalty was given.

The F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be exciting as Sebastian Vettel will try and hope to salvage some points after starting from the back of the grid and Alonso will try to maximise this opportunity to wipe out the 13 point deficit to Sebastian Vettel in the championship race. Since Sebastian Vettel will not start at third position, Mark Webber who starts at second position will not has to let Sebastian Vettel past him. However Mark Webber will try and fight for the race lead and when Fernando Alonso will overtake the other cars and move to the front, Webber will try to hold him up as much as possible. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, aggressive driver that he is, will try to win this race from pole. This may be one of the last few opportunities when he starts from the pole as in the next season he will be driving Mercedes, which has failed in the last three years to create a good car.

The 2012 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be interesting.

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Revised Starting Grid 2012

Grid Driver Team 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 2 Mark Webber Red Bull 3 Pastor Maldonado Williams 4 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 5 Jenson Button McLaren 6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 8 Felipe Massa Ferrari 9 Romain Grosjean Lotus 10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 11 Sergio Perez Sauber 12 Paul di Resta Force India 13 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 14 Bruno Senna Williams 15 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 18 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 19 Charles Pic Marussia 20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 21 Timo Glock Marussia 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 24 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull

Hamilton storms to Pole in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012

Lewis Hamilton who was competitive all weekend in his McLaren, stormed to the pole in F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012. His time of 1.40.630 was set earlier and others could not better it in their final runs. Mark Webber of Red Bull scored the P2 with a 1:40.978 followed by his teammate and Championship leader Sebastian Vettel at 1:41.073. Sebastian Vettel stopped his car in the track. It is to be seen if he is going to be penalised for that as by rule the cars should have enough fuel to come back for inspection.

Pastor Maldonado who was also competitive in his Williams was P4 with a time of 1:41.226. He was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at 1:41.260. Jenson Button of McLaren was P6 with a time of 1:41.290.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who is 13 points behind the championship leader Sebastian Vettel, will start at 7th position with a time of 1:41.582. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes complete the 4th row with Alonso.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari will start in the 5th row. He was 9th with a time of 1:41.723. Romain Grosjean of Lotus will give him company in the 5th row as he came 10th with a time of 1:41.778.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 11th, Sergio Perez of Sauber 12th and Paul di Resta of Force India was on 13th.

Michael Schumacher surprisingly failed to qualify for Q2 and came 14th. He admitted that he made an error and wanted to go for another run, but his team engineer told him that the checkered flag has already been waved and he could not go for another round. Michael Schumacher has to now depend on his fast starts during tomorrows race and beat some of the cars in the opening lap to have a good race.

Bruno Senna came in 15th. He was on the verge of being relegated in Q1 as he had Sergio Perez blocking him. This incident will be investigated. However, Bruno Senna simply could not match the pace of his team mate Pastor Maldonado who scored a brilliant P4.

Kobayashi who had scored a brilliant 4th position in the Japanese Grand Prix, is on the verge of losing his drive for next year as his performances are woeful to say the least. Today he qualified at P16. Daniel Ricciardo who hopes to retain his place in Toro Rosso next year scored P17.

The drivers who were knocked out in the Q1 were the usual suspects: Jean Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso, Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham, Charles Pic of Marussia, Vitaly Petrov of Caterham, Timo Glock of Marussia, Pedro de la Rosa of HRT and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan of HRT is driving in this circuit for the first time. It didn't help that HRT again made the decision to sit out Narain Karthikeyan in the first practice P1 on friday. Interestingly, HRT being a spanish team has never taken a third driver to drive the P1 in Pedro de la Rosa's place.

More information awaited regarding the Stewards verdict on the pending investigations about Romain Grosjean's unsafe release infront of Fernando Alonso and also Sergio Perez blocking Bruno Senna.

Vettel wins Indian Grand Prix 2012

Vettel wins Indian Grand Prix from Pole

Sebastian Vettel scored an easy win starting from Pole. He could ward off the challenge of Fernando Alonso who was 9.4 seconds behind. Mark Webber who started second, finished behind Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton tried to win the third place from Mark Webber but could not do so despite Webber having a KERS problem. Hamilton was 0.6 seconds behind Mark Webber. Hamilton's team mate Jenson Button came 5th and he set the fastest lap time on the 60th and last lap.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came 6th. Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was only 0.7 seconds behind Massa and finished at 7th. Raikkonen now doesn't have any hope for the drivers title. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished 8th, Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished 9th and Bruno Senna finished 10th.

The Indian Grand Prix 2012 didn't have much of first lap excitement as the usual suspects Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado and Kamui Kobayashi kept their cool. However, it was Jear-Eric Vergne who clipped Michael Schumacher's rear right tyres forcing him to pit. Since then it was an immensely forgettable race for Michael, as he was lapped in no time. Though he was setting comparable times as the top drivers, the time spent in slowly moving to the pits with a completely shredded rear tyre ensured that he couldn't move up. He was driving on 18th place and one lap down when he retired.

It is a sad race for Mercedes as well, as Nico Rosberg too finished outside the points. It would be interesting to hear Ross Brawn's excuses as he has been giving one excuse after the other in the last three years. To save his skin, he also ensured that Mercedes lured Lewis Hamilton to the team and forced Michael Schumacher to retire.

Narain Karthikeyan in the opening laps was told to mind his brakes, so he drove within himself. His teammate Pedro de la Rossa spinned and hit the barriers due to a brake problem. Narain finished at 21st position.

Final positions in Indian Grand Prix 2012:

1. Sebastian Vettel             Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso            Ferrari
3. Mark Webber                 Red Bull
4. Lewis Hamilton             McLaren
5. Jenson Button                McLaren
6. Felipe Massa                 Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen            Lotus
8. Nico Hulkenberg           Force India
9. Romain Grosjean          Lotus
10. Bruno Senna                Williams
11. Nico Rosber                Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta              Force India
13. Daniel Ricciardo        Toro Rosso
14. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber
15. Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams
17. Vitaly Petrov              Caterham
18. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham
19. Charles Pic                 Marussia
20. Timo Glock                Marussia
21. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT
22. Michael Schumacher Mercedes RETIRED (5 laps down)
      Pedro de la Rossa       HRT        (Accident) 18 laps down
      Sergio Perez               Sauber     RETIRED (40 laps down)


Sebastian Vettel's Indian Grand Prix win was the 4th win in a row for him. 

Vettel leads Redbull to 1-2 in Indian Grand Prix Qualifying

Vettel leads RedBull 1-2 in Indian Grand Prix 2012

Sebastian Vettel continued with his dominant run and scored the pole position which was barely 0.044 seconds than his team mate Mark Webber.

The second row is occupied by the McLaren drivers lead by Lewis Hamilton.

The third row now belongs to Ferrari drivers lead by Fernando Alonso.
Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was seventh followed by Sergio Perez of Sauber. Amul would be very happy sponsoring the Sauber team. Pastor Maldonado of Williams was 9th followed by Nico Rosberg who didn’t choose to make a run in Q3.

Michael Schumacher was the big casualty as he could not qualify for the Q3 and was only 14th fastest with a time of 1:26.574. He was more than half a second slower than his team mate Nico Rosberg. We are not sure why there was a such a big gap between the two. In the last few grand prix races it was Michael who was generally faster than Nico Rosberg. We hope tomorrow will be better for Michael Schumacher as this will be his last Indian Grand Prix.

A late run from Pastor Maldonado resulted in him going to the top spot in Q1. The Williams team gave a strong performance in the Indian Grand Prix.

Heikki Kovalainen breached his Caterham in the dying minutes of Q1. He was eliminated in the Q1 along with Jean-Eric Vergne 1:27.525, Vitaly Petrov 1:28.756, Timo Glock 1:29.613, Pedro de la Rosa (1:30.592), Narain Karthikeyan (1:30.593) and Charles Pic (1:30:662). The 107% time was 1:32.071 and hence all drivers qualified and we will see a full grid tomorrow.

Narain Karthikeyan excelled in the Indian Grand Prix and was just one thousandth of a second slower than his team mate. He qualified at P23 followed by Charles Pic of Marussia.

Qualifying results of Indian Grand Prix 2012

1. Sebastian Vettel Redbull
2. Mark Webber Redbull
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
8. Sergio Perez Sauber
9. Pastor Maldonado Williams
10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus
12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India
13. Bruno Senna Williams
14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
16. Paul di Resta Force India
17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
21. Timo Glock Marussia
22. Pedro de la Rosa HRT
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT
24. Charles Pic Marussia

Red Bull scripts Vettel's victory in Korean Grand Prix 2012

Red Bull stage manages victory for Sebastian Vettel's in the Korean Grand Prix to catapult him into the driver's championship lead.

In the opening lap of the Korean Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who started on 2nd of the grid moved to the side of pole sitter Mark Webber and then pulled ahead without much resistance from Mark Webber and Webber watched the flanks and stopped Lewis Hamilton from attacking Vettel. A scripted move perfectly executed by the Red Bull drivers to give Sebastian Vettel the lead. In an relatively incident free race, Mark Webber finished second followed by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari finished at P4, Kimi Raikkonent of Lotus was 5th, followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India at 6th. Romain Grosjean of Lotus, managed his restrain his urge of causing mayhem in the first lap and finished 7th. In a fantastic race for Toro Rosso team, both their drivers drove from the back of the grid to finish in points - Jean Eric Vergne in 8th and Daniel Ricciardo in 9th. Lewis Hamilton who was struggling with tyre wear finished at 10th.

In what was an ugly demonstration of the Korean track's poor quality construction and materials used, the astro turf came off and got stuck in Lewis Hamilton's car slowing him down in the last few laps. However, he still managed to hold on to the 10th place keeping Sergio Perez at 0.3 seconds behind him.

In the opening lap of the race, Kamui Kobayashi did the Grosjean act of hitting other cars. Kamui Kobayashi's kamikaze act took out Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes in the first lap. Kobayashi was handed with a drive through penalty and later retired from the race. There was only one more retirement in the form of Pedro de la Rosa of HRT.

Sergio Perez, who is heading to McLaren next year in place of Lewis finished at P11 followed by Paul di Resta of Force India at P12. Mercedes had poor race pace and Michael Schumacher's car despite his race craft, could not finish within points. He finished at 13th position.

The sad pace of the Mercedes cars may have actually made Schumacher to wait till October to announce his decision and made Mercedes to sign up Lewis Hamilton and then forcing Michael Schumacher to retire.

Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna of Williams finished 14th and 15th. Vitaly Petrov led the two Caterhams to finish at 16th followed by Heikki Kovalainen at 17th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia finished at 18th and 19th. Narain Kathikeyan of HRT - India's lone F1 driver - finished at 20th position.

Mark Webber the Lead Bull in Korean Grand Prix

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 Qualifying was great for Red Bull as they scored a 1-2 position. However, it was Mark Webber who scored the Pole position for Red Bull instead of Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of failing to qualify for Q2 but could do so at the end qualifying at 16 in the Q1 to make the cutoff for Q2. He then scored P3 position in the final leg of qualifying.


Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P4 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at P5.

Felipe Massa was driving close to half a second of his illustrious team mate Fernando Alonso and it appears that Ferrari is going to retain Massa as that means there would not be any other young driver to challenge Alonso and hence harmony is maintained. He scored a P6.


Following Massa is the “first lap nut-case” Romain Grosjean of Lotus at P7. So the people who are in danger tomorrow of being shunted out in the opening lap are Massa, Kimi and Alonso.

McLaren’s Jenson Button failed to make it to Q3 as he qualified at P11. McLaren team might be thinking what they have lost, as Jenson Button as well as their recruit for 2013 Sergio Perez at P12 failed to make to the Q3. Also all other teams have both their drivers in Q3 except McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India made it to the Q3 at the expense of Jenson Button and scored a good P8 ahead of the two Mercedes cars.


Mercedes team would have breathed a sigh of relief as both their drivers made it to Q3. Michael Schumacher had a run earlier and put in a good time and was five thousandths of a second faster than Jenson Button who remained at P11. Nico Rosberg came in a P9 in the Q3 followed by Michael Schumacher at P10. This is after sometime that Rosberg has outqualified Michael in a qualifying.

Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg saved their tyres and elected to only choose a single run in the Q3.

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 qualifying started on a bad note for Narain Karthikeyan as he failed to start due to a brake problem. He will be able to drive on Sunday on the discretion of the stewards.

Final Qualifying Positions for Korean Grand Prix

1. Mark Webber
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Felipe Massa
7. Romain Gorsjean
8. Nico Hulkenberg
9. Nico Rosberg
10. Michael Schumacher
11. Jenson Button
12. Sergio Perez
13. Kamui Kobayashi
14. Paul di Resta
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Daniel Ricciardo
17. Jean-Eric Vergne
18. Bruno Senna
19. Vitaly Petrov
20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Charles Pic
22. Timo Glock
23. Pedro de la Rosa
24. Narain Karthikeyan (no time)

First Lady Principal of Formula One

Formula One gets its First Woman Team Principal

Monisha Kaltenborn, an Indian by birth, is the first Lady to be a Principal of a Formula One team. In the high technology, motor racing battlefield, assuming the role of principal is not an easy job, especially when the Principal is not just for show.

Monisha Kaltenborn, 41,  has been given one third of the stake by its owner Peter Sauber.

A Sauber team statement said "we decided a long time ago that Monisha would take over from me, but we left the timing open. Now is a good time for both of us, so this is the right moment to pass on the baton. After all, there have been a number of races that I haven't been able to attend - most recently the Japanese Grand Prix, where the team put in an excellent performance."

The statement further added "I am in no doubt that Monisha has all the necessary skills to be an outstanding team principal, and I am equally certain she will ensure that the values underpinning the company live on. That is very important to me."

This is a significant event and the way she has quietly transformed the Sauber team is for all to see, as its young and erratic drivers have been in more podium positions than the Mercedes drivers in this season. Fernando Alonso, recently said about Michael Schumacher's competitiveness by saying that if Michael Schumacher had been driving Sauber's car, then he would have won three races by now. It is sad that Michael Schumacher and Sauber could not agree on a partnership next year else Schumacher would have been wining races for them.

Monisha Kaltenborn being an Indian by birth had first joined Sauber in 2000 and to run their legal department and had weaved her way upto the role of CEO in 2010. She immediately connected with sponsors in India before the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in 2011 and companies like Amul went on to sponsor them for other races as well. She will have a massive impact on Formula 1 in the years to come. All the best Manisha! India is proud of you.

Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix as Lewis retires

Sebastian Vettel wins as Lewis retires in Singapore Grand Prix

The Formula One Singapore Grand Prix saw many crashes and accidents, but the race started without mayhem as Grosjean kept his cool after coming back from a one race ban. Lewis Hamilton started from pole and retained his position. Pastor Maldonado who started in second position was passed by Sebastian Vettel as well as Jenson Button, still he retained his cool and didn’t press the destruction button.

Still there was an incident at the back of the grid where the two Caterham driver’s collided.

There was no surprise element, as both the Mercedes cars which didn’t run on the Q3 in the qualifying also choose the Super soft tyres. Michael Schumacher was told to cool his car while his teammate overtook him.

Lewis Hamilton was unfortunate that his gearbox broke down and he had to retire.  Narain Karthikeyan who was the last person to go for his pitstop amazingly running 20 laps in his supersoft tyres, hit the barriers on lap 33 and his front right wheel came off forcing a safety car to be deployed. Immediately all the drivers who hadn’t done their pitstops choose to do so. Alonso had earlier taken his pit stop, so was Raikkonen. So they choose to stay out during the safety car period. Niko Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez didn’t choose to make their pit stops and they were the only ones to have done one stop after the safety car was taken out.

It was sad for Narain as Tata Tea had just choosen to sponsor HRT car for the Singapore as well as the Indian Grand Prix.

During the safety car period, in lap 37, Pastor Maldonado was told by his Williams team that his car had a problem and he needs to stop the car. This resulted in the both the front runners retiring from the race.

Disaster stuck again for Michael Schumacher as in lap 41 he ran into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso. So interestingly Michael Schumacher has never got any points in Singapore. The safety car was redeployed. Did Schumacher get his braking wrong like last year or was it a problem with his brakes as he locked up. Fortunately, there was no animosity displayed between Schumacher and Jean-Eric Vergne as they both patted each others back. This looks like Schumacher’s fault and this incident will be investigated after the race by stewards. It is surprising that the God of Formula One, Michael Schumacher has ran into the back of another driver twice in Singapore Grand Prix.

Towards the end there were some competitive times posted by Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button as they knew that the race will not run its full 61 laps as according to rules the race can run only for a maximum of two hours. However, Button couldn't sustain the pace and Vettel won a comfortably.

Bruno Senna who was running in at 10^th position told his team that he has a loss of power and stopped his car barely a minute before the finish.

Final Result of F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2012

1.     Sebastian Vettel

2.     Jenson Button

3.     Fernando Alonso

4.     Paul di Resta

5.     Nico Rosberg

6.     Kimi Raikkonen

7.     Romain Grosjean

8.     Felipe Massa

9.     Daniel Ricciardo

10. Mark Webber

11. Serzio Perez

12. Timo Glock

13. Kamui Kobayashi

14. Niko Hulkenberg

15. Heikki Kovalainen

16. Charles Pic

17. Pedro de la Rosa

18. Bruno Senna

19. Vitaly Petrov

Retirements in Singapore Grand Prix 2012

Michael Schumacher – Lap 41

Jean-Eric Vergne – Lap 41

Pastor Maldonado – Lap 37

Narain Karthikeyan – Lap 33

Lewis Hamilton – Lap 23

                                            

Singapore Pole for Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton scores pole in Singapore Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton blitzed to the pole position in F1 Singapore Grand Prix with a time of 1m:46.362s. He was nearly half a second faster than the second placed Pastor Maldonado. Maldonado has been erratic and has picked up a spate of penalties this season, however, he has shown speed as well and have won a race this year. No one had imagined that the williams team, after their pathetic showing last year, will be in the front row.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who had dominated the friday practice sessions was third followed by Jenson Button of McLaren.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who has completely outplayed his team mate Felipe Massa, came in at 5th with a time of 1m 47.216s. Force India's Paul di Resta scored a 1m 47.241s to join Alonso in the 3rd row.

Mark Webber came in at 7th position with a time of 1m 47.475s followed by Romain Grosjean who came back to racing after serving a one race ban. Grosjean scored a 1m 47.788s.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes didn't drive a single lap in the Q3 will start at 9th and 10th position for the Sunday race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India will start at 11th followed by Kimi Raikkonen at 12th.

India's Narain Karthikeyan again beat his team mate Pedro de La Rosa in qualifying and they scored the 23rd and 24th place.

Will Lewis Hamilton score another victory in the night race at Singapore? Will the Mercedes drivers Schumacher and Rosberg get any advantage due to not running in Q3? Apart from having an extra set of tyres to use in the race, not driving in the qualifying also means that they can decide to choose either of the tyre compounds ie. either the soft or the super soft tyres during the opening. According to the rule, anyone driving in the Q3 would be forced to use the same type of tyres which they used for qualifying. Will this give a bigger advantage to Mercedes?

Tomorrow's Singapore Grand Prix F1 race will certainly be interesting.

Grosjean banned for 1 race and fined 50k Euros

Grosjean Banned for One race and Fined 50k Euros

As we had hoped, FIA took notice of the egregious blunder by Romain Grosjean of Lotus during the Belgian Grand Prix (http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/09/button-wins-from-pole-in-belgian-grand.html ) and handed him a one race ban and fined him 50,000 euros. Ideally he should have been banned for the remainder of the season, however, FIA decided to hand him only a one race ban. We hope that this will instill some sense in the minds of the young Romain Grosjean and he will introspect enough and come back as a better driver.

The FIA statement said "The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others. The stewards note the team conceded the action of the driver was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement. Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty."

Romain Grosjean was the chief culprit in triggering the accident and it led to removal of championship leader Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez's race was taken out. Kamui Kobayashi suffered a lot of damages and could race without points and finished in the 13th place in the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.

FIA has allowed Lotus to use another F1 driver in place of Romain Grosjean. It is to be seen if they allow their reserve driver Jerome D'Ambrosio to race or get someone else from outside. Though Jerome D'Ambrosio is the reserve driver, he never impressed during his stint with Marussia racing. Lotus is yet to announce who will replace Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean will miss the F1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Motor racing fans should thank FIA for their tough action in banning Grosjean for causing serious crash in the Belgian Grand Prix 2012.

Belgian Grand Prix Revised Grid

Belgian Grand Prix Revised Grid 2012

There have been many penalties and it required the Grid positions to be revised.

There were two penalties for Gear box change handed over to Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber. Nico Rosberg qualified at P18 and dropped down 5 places due to the gear box change and will now start at 23rd.

Mark Webber qualified at 7th and due to the Gearbox change will now start at P12 just ahead of Michael Schumacher.

Pastor Maldonado had qualified at P3. However he was penalised for blocking Nico Hulkenberg during Q1. So Maldonado will now start at 6th just before Lewis Hamilton. This makes it interesting as Kimi Raikkonen who had qualified at P4 will now start at P3 and from the cleaner side of the grid. All eyes will be on him, as he has traditionally done well in Spa. Can he race ahead and beat Button and Kobayashi and get the first win this year?

The Revised Grid for the Belgian Grand Prix 2012 is as follows:

1. Jenson Button, McLaren
2. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus
4. Sergio Perez, Sauber
5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
6. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
7. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
8. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
9. Paul di Resta, Force India
10. Sebastian Vettel, Redbull
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
12. Mark Webber, Redbull
13. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
14. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
15. Jean-Eric Vergne, Torro Rosso
16. Daniel Ricciardo, Torro Rosso
17. Bruno Senna, Williams
18. Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham
19. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham
20. Timo Glock, Marussia
21. Pedro de la Rosa, HRT
22. Charles Pic, Marussia
23. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
24. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT

The Belgian Grand Prix 2012 should be exciting to watch. 

Pole for Jenson Button in Belgian Grand Prix

Pole for Jenson Button in 2012 Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying

This 2012 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying will be remembered for a long time as most of the players went in unprepared. First of all this was the first Grand Prix after the month long break. And in the practice sessions on Friday, there was hardly any practice due to rains. So most of the teams got hardly any time to fine tune their setups. So as expected there were many hiccups.

Michael Schumacher who considers the spa track as his living room, could only score P13 with a time of 1:49.081 in the Q2 and hence could not qualify for the top ten shoot out in the Q1. Sebastian Vettel could only score P11 with a time of 1:48.792 .

Jenson Button scored the Pole in the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying with a time of 1:47.573. He was followed by Kamui Kobayashi with 1:47.871. Pastor Maldonado scored P3 with 1:47.893. Kimi Raikkonen was P4 with 1:48.205. Sergio Perez was P5 follwoed by Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber at P7, Lewis Hamilton P8, Romain Grosjean P9 and Paul di Resta P10. 

Mark Webber's 5 place grid penalty means he will start at 12th position before Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton will start at P7.

12. Nico Hulkenberg        1:48.855

13. Michael Schumacher 1:49.081

14. Felipe Massa              1:49.147

15. Jean Eric Vergne        1:49.354

16. Daniel Ricciardo        1:49.543

17: Bruno Senna               1:50.088

Both Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber will incur 5 place grid penalties due to gearbox change.

All the backmarkers as usual started first to set a time with their soft tires before the traffic started in Q1. Narain Karthikeyan lost the backend of his car but did well to recover.

First casualty in the Q1:

Nico Rosberg scored a painfully slow time of 1:50.181 to come 18^th despite driving the maximum 10 laps by any driver in Q1. Rosberg will drop down 5 places due to the grid penalty for gear box change. The other drivers who didn’t make the cut were

19. Heikki Kovalainen 1:51.739

20. Vitaly Petrov 1:51.967

21. Timo Glock 1:52.336

22. Pedro de la Rosa 1:53.030

23. Charles Pic 1:53.493

24. Narain Karthikeyan 1:54.989

The 107% time was 1:56.622 which all the drivers comfortably achieved.

The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix is going to be interesting. Can Kimi, who has done well in Spa race away from P4 during the start and take the win? What will Michael Schumacher do from 13th position given that he has a phenomenal start? Will his love affair with the Spa circuit continue? This and many more will be revealed when the race happens tomorrow? Will Jenson Button win from pole in Belgian Grand Prix? With so many questions, the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix is definitely going to keep people hooked.