Hamilton's 50th Pole in anti-climax qualifying

Hamilton Scores 50th Pole in Anti-climax Qualifying

The Australian F1 Grand Prix is the first race of the season. Today it was perhaps the most anti-climax start to a season as the Qualifying was bizarre.

Normally there is a mad race to start your last lap before the chequered flag is waved. Today there was no activity at all. Most of the drivers were eliminated. Ferrari decided that they can't better the timings and didn't come out again. There was no action. We had time to take a few winks, so to speak. Fans are asking what happened.

F1 was too complicated to understand with the frequent rule changes. The qualifying was one of the most followed aspects of the race. It used to be good to watch. Now, instead of fixing F1, they messed up with the one part of F1 which was ironically working and didn't need fixing.

They tried to create more action but forgot that these are real cars and not robots or puppet dancing. It is just terrible to watch. F1 authorities (Bernie are you listening? ) seem to be in a race to increase their stupidity quotient.

Rio Haryanto is penalised 3 grid slots for pit lane collision with Romain Grosjean in the Final Practice 3 today morning.

For the records, the following is the Qualifying results in Australian F1 Grand Prix 2016:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
5. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso
6. Felipe Massa, Williams
7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso
8. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
9. Sergio Perez, Force India
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren
13. Jenson Button, McLaren
14. Jolyon Palmer, Renault
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
17. Felipe Nasr, Sauber
18. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull
19. Romain Grosjean, Haas
20. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas
21. Rio Haryanto, Manor
22. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor

Mark Webber on Pole in Abu Dhabi

Mark Webber scores Pole in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Mark Webber of Red Bull in his last race at Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix became only the third person to score a pole position apart from Vettel and Hamilton, when Hamilton spun in the final sector and brought yellow flags. That was his 13^th pole position in F1 races.

Mark Webber’s team mate Sebastian Vettel who has already been coronated as the 2013 F1 champion in the Indian Grand Prix settled for 2^nd postion.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in P3. Hamilton would be surprised at his rare spin and had to be content with his P4 position.

Kimi Raikkonen, who had considered withdrawing from the Abu Dhabi race due to payment dispute with Lotus raced to a P5. He was followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber in P6.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus qualified in P7 followed by Felipe Massa of Ferrari in P8. Interestingly, Massa’s teammate Fernando Alonso of Ferrari couldn’t even qualify in the top ten. Alonso settled at P11.

Sergio Perez of McLaren qualified in P9 whereas his more experienced teammate former world champion Jenson Button could only qualify at P13.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso qualified in P10. Daniel will drive instead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull car next year. Daniel Ricciardo’s team mate Vergne qualified in P14.

We have to wait and see if Mark Webber faces another car failure or Red Bull decides to alter his strategy to give his teammate Sebastian Vettel the upper hand as it has done this entire season.

Final Standings in Abu Dhabi 2013 F1 Qualifying

1. Mark Webber        Red Bull

2. Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull

3. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes

4. Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes

5. Kimi Raikkonen     Lotus

6. Nico Hulkenberg   Sauber

7. Romain Grosjean   Lotus

8. Felipe Massa          Ferrari

9. Sergio Perez           McLaren

10. Daniel Ricciardo  Toro Rosso

11. Fernando Alonso Ferrari

12. Paul di Resta       Force India

13. Jenson Button     McLaren

14. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso

15. P. Maldonado      Williams

16. V. Bottas               Williams

17. E. Gutierrez          Sauber

18. Adrian Sutil         Force India

19. G. van der Garde Caterham

20. Jules Bianch         Marussia

21. Charles Pic           Caterham      

22. Max Chilton         Marussia

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

Narain Shines in the wet in Korean Grand Prix 2011

Narain Karthikeyan drove in the first practice FP1 in the Korean Grind Prix. He had replaced Vintanio Liuzzi. It rained heavily on friday in both the sessions with standing water on the track. Narain - who has proved his skills in the wet in the past securing a 2nd position in the wet FP2 in Japan in 2005 Formula 1 Grand Prix - was faster than the other HRT driver Daniel Ricciardo. In Formula 1 due to the difference in the cars, each drivers performance is measured against his team mate. So Narain did well.

However, Narain was not satisfied being faster than his team mate and said "I had never driven in Korea before and having to do so in such foul weather conditions was not ideal. This won't help me much with my preparation for the Indian Grand Prix, because it will surely be dry out there, but, nevertheless, it has been positive to be able to gather some data on wet conditions and I hope that helped the team out a little. Overall, I am satisfied with the job done today."

This shows that Narain is focused on doing a good job in the Indian Grand Prix. Even in adversity, when he has been dropped from the team to get the funds from Redbull, he seems to be having composure and preparing for his dream of driving infront of the home audience. Certainly, this is one quality that one should learn from him.