Saturday, June 30, 2012

Narain Karthikeyan to sit out in First Practice in Silverstone

Narain Karthikeyan to sit out in First Practice in Silverstone

The HRT team has revealed that Narain Karthikeyan will sit out in the First Practice in Silverstone. Instead of Narain, the reserve driver Dani Clos will drive in the First Practice.

Dani Clos has had another outing with the HRT car at Narain's expense in the First Practice in Barcelona where he was couple of seconds slower than Pedro de La Rosa. Pedro had a best time of 1:29.107 in the FP1 in Barcelona where as Dani Clos could only score 1:31.618 ie. a massive 2.511 seconds slower.

For details of FP1 in Barcelona: http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/spanish-grand-prix-glory-lap-by-alonso.html

Dani Clos was obviously very happy to get this opportunity. He is quoted as saying "The work we are carrying out with the team is positive and I think that I can make a good contribution. I will be able to run in better conditions than in Barcelona because the car was new back then and I had to carry out various aero tests. Now I've got a new opportunity, not to prove anything but to work with the team and evolve as much as we can."

HRT car being largely underdeveloped, Narain needs more track time. Unfortunately, the financially struggling HRT team continues to give more track time to Dani Clos to get some more sponsorship.

Drivers Championship Standings after Valencia

Drivers' Championship Standings after European Grand Prix 2012

Pastor Maldonado hit Lewis Hamilton who was running second in the race with one and half laps before the end of the race to put him in the barriers and push him down the order in the drivers championship. With the win, Fernando Alonso has regained the lead from Lewis Hamilton.

Mark Webber jumped to number two position when he scored 4th in European Grand Prix in Valencia circuit. Kimi Raikkonen closed in on Nico Rosberg and is just 2 points behind him at 73.

Michael Schumacher moved to 13th position with 17 points. He had earlier scored 5 DNF's (Did Not Finish) out of 7 races and hence was languishing at 2 points. We expect Schumacher to make rapid strides now that his ill luck appears to be behind him.



Valencia
Ranking Driver Team Points
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 111
2 Mark Webber Red Bull 91
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 88
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 85
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 75
6 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 73
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus 53
8 Jenson Button McLaren 49
9 Sergio Perez Sauber 39
10 Pastor Maldonado Williams  29
11 Paul de Resta Force India 27
12 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 21
13 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 17
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 17
15 Bruno Senna Williams  16
16 Felipe Massa Ferrari 11
17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 4
18 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 2
19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 0
20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 0
21 Timo Glock Marussia 0
22 Charles Pic Marussia 0
23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 0
24 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 0

Sunday, June 24, 2012

First podium for Schumacher, Alonso wins to lead championship

First Podium for Schumacher after his return to F1 racing


Fernando Alonso wins for the second time this season. In an eventful race in the Spanish Grand Prix 2012 at Valencia today, Fernando Alonso won the race, followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus. Michael Schumacher of Mercedes scored a podium for the first time since his come back in 2010.

Mark Webber who started at 19th, drove an incredible race to finish at 4th position just 0.9 seconds behind Michael Schumacher. Webber's team mate Sebastian Vettel who started in Pole retired in lap 24. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 6.3 seconds behind Webber and scored teh 5th position. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes scored the 6th position. Paul di Resta of Force India came in 7th. Jenson Button of McLaren came in 8th followed by Sergio Perez of Sauber in 9th and Pastor Maldonado of Williams in 10th.

On Lap 56, Maldonado made contact with Lewis Hamilton who was at that time on 2nd position pushing Hamilton to the barriers. The resulting incident pushing Maldonado to the back and he ended at 10th position. The incident will be investigated later.


There were accidents galore in the race.
In the lap 9, Charles Pic of Marussia lost a portion of his front wing when he hit the rear of Narain Karthikeyan's HRT car. Kobayashi had hit Senna resulting in Senna to pit with a tyre puncture. This incident will be investigated later. On Lap 28 Vergne and Kovalainen made contact. On Lap 34 Massa and Kobayashi had made contact resulting in Massa getting a tyre puncture.

UPDATE:
The Stewards handed Pastor Maldonado a 20 second post race penalty for the collision with Lewis Hamilton. Maldonado had spun and rejoined the track clumsily hitting Hamilton thereby putting him into the wall. The stewards deemed that Maldonado had failed to rejoin the track in a safe manner. This post race penalty promoted Bruno Senna of Williams into the 10th place. Daniel Ricciardo moved upto 11th place from the 12th.

Similarly, Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber and Jean-Eric Vergne of Torro Rosso were investigated by the stewards. Kobayashi has been handed a five place grid penalty for the next race in Silverstone due to his collision with Massa. Vergne got a 10 place grid slot penalty for his collision with Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham. The collision was deemed serious and a fine of 25,000 euros was slapped on him too.

Michael Schumacher of Mercedes was also investigated following a complaint by Red Bull that his DRS flap was open during yellow flag period. Mark Webber who was tailing him had complained over radio that Schumacher's DRS flap was open. Red Bull had immediately lodged a complaint. However, on the basis of investigation, the stewards had determined that Michael Schumacher had sufficiently slowed down and hence  there was no penalty. So Mark Webber's dream of inheriting a 3rd place finish went up in smoke.

Final Positions in European Grand Prix 2012 after penalties

Grid Position Driver Team Points Gap
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 25
2 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 18 6.421
3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 15 12.639
4 Mark Webber Redbull 12 13.628
5 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 10 19.993
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 8 21.176
7 Paul de Resta Force India 6 22.866
8 Jenson Button McLaren 4 24.653
9 Sergio Perez Sauber 2 27.777
10 Bruno Senna Williams  1 35.961
11 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 0 37.041
12 Pastor Maldonado Williams  0 54.63
13 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 0 1'15.871
14 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 0 1'34.654
15 Charles Pic Marussia 0 1'36.551
16 Felipe Massa Ferrari 0 1 Lap
17 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 0 1 Lap
18 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 0 1 Lap
19 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 0  2 Lap
Retired
Romain Grosjean Lotus Retired 40 laps
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Retired 33 laps
Kamui Kobayashi Sauber Retired 33 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso Retired 26 laps
Not Started
24 Timo Glock Marussia 0 1Lap








Saturday, June 23, 2012

Vettel scores pole in European Grand Prix 2012

Vettel on Pole in European Grand Prix 2012

Sebastian Vettel scored pole position in the European Grand Prix in the Valencia circuit today. In the qualifying which saw some of the big names missing to qualify for the Q3, Vettel chose to do one run towards the dying minutes and clinched the pole position. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren came second. Pastor Maldonado of Williams came third. Lotus which was widely believed to score the pole position will have its drivers start at 4th and 5th with Romain Grosjean beating his teammate Kimi Raikkonen by a mere 0.008 seconds. Nico Rosberg came 6th. Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber came on 7th.

Fernando Alonso came 11th folowed by Michael Schumacher on 12th position. The big surprise was the Force India cars with both of its drivers within the top 10. Nico Hulkenberg came in 8th, followed by Jenson  Button of McLaren in 9th and Paul di Resta of Force India in 10th.

Another big surprise was Mark Webber who was 19th. So Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham was 16th and could qualify for the Q2.

Both the HRTs ie. Pedro de La Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of India came in ahead of the Marusia of Charles Pic. Timo Glock of Marussia could not run and will be able to race tomorrow on the discretion of the stewards.


Sl. Driver Team Time Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull  1:38.086 15 laps
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren  1:38.410 17 laps
3 Pastor Maldonado Williams   1:38.475 21 laps
4 Romain Grosjean Lotus  1:38.505 16 laps
5 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus  1:38.513 16 laps
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:38.623 17 laps
7 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber  1:38.741 12 laps
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India  1:38.752 19 laps
9 Jenson Button McLaren  1:38.801 16 laps
10 Paul di Resta Force India  1:38.992 18 laps
11 Fernando Alonso Ferrari  1:38.707 14 laps
12 Michael Schumacher Mercedes  1:38.770 12 laps
17 Felipe Massa Ferrari  1:38.780 14 laps
14 Bruno Senna Williams   1:39.207 15 laps
15 Sergio Perez Sauber  1:39.358 14 laps
16 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham  1:40.295 11 laps
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso  1:40.358 12 laps
18 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso  1:40.203 9 laps
19 Mark Webber Red Bull  1:40.395 7 laps
20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham  1:40.457 8 laps
21 Pedro de la Rosa HRT  1:42.171 7 laps
22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT  1:42.527 8 laps
23 Charles Pic Marussia  1:42.675 10 laps
24 Timo Glock Marussia
Q1 107% Time  1:45.742




Friday, June 22, 2012

F1 Drivers Championship after Montreal


F1 Drivers Championship standings after Canadian Grand Prix 2012

Lewis Hamilton after his splendid win in the Canadian Grand Prix 2012 has jumped to lead the race for the F1 Drivers Championship. He has 88 points and has a slender lead of 2 points over his nearest rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel of Redbull is third with 85 points. Mark Webber is fourth at 79 points.

The drivers championship is very tightly fought this year as the previous seven races has got seven different winners. So this year it has become important to not only just win but get some points scoring positions as ultimately the total number of points counts. A single retirement is going to hurt badly.

Coming to retirements, the Mercedes car of Michael Schumacher has seen five retirements out of Seven races. Michael is driving like never before and unfortunately, his 2 points and 18th position in the grid is probably the lowest he has ever been.



Ranking Driver Team Points
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 88
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 86
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 85
4 Mark Webber Red Bull 79
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 67
6 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 55
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus 53
8 Jenson Button McLaren 45
9 Sergio Perez Sauber 37
10 Pastor Maldonado Williams  29
11 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 21
12 Paul de Resta Force India 21
13 Bruno Senna Williams  15
14 Felipe Massa Ferrari 11
15 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 7
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 4
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 2
18 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 2
19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 0
20 Timo Glock Marussia 0
21 Charles Pic Marussia 0
22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 0
23 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 0
24 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 0

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Hamilton Wins in Montreal: 7th winner in 7 races

Lewis Hamilton wins Canadian Grand Prix 2012 and becomes the 7th winner in as many Formula One races this season. He easily overtook Fernando Alonso who had gambled with a one stopping strategy. In fact Alonso was struggling so much with his tyres that Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez passed him for a podium position. Romain Grosjean scored the second position. Vettel too overtook Alonso in the last lap and came 4th. So Alonso had to settle for 5th place.

Nico Rosberg came 6th, Mark Webber 7th, Kimi Raikkonen 8th, Kamui Kobayashi 9th and Felipe Massa came 10th.

Mercedes Again Fails Michael Schumacher. Michael Schumacher who always has fantastic outings in Montreal was left dissapointed as his Mercedes failed yet again. This time it was a DRS failure which continuously remained open.

Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de La Rosa of HRT and Timo Glock were the other drivers who retired. 

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Sebastian Vettel scores pole in Canadian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettels scores pole in Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying

Ahead of the Qualifying, the hub caps of RedBull cars were deemed to be illegal however, that didn't prevent him from scoring the pole position with a 1:13.784. He was the only one to go below 1:14 seconds. Giving him company in the first row was Lewis Hamilton of McLaren at 1:14.087

Michael Schumacher was driving fast but something happened in the second sector where he was seen raising his left hand and scored a P9 position.

Alonso and Webber will start in the second row in the grid followed by Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa. Romain Grosjean and Paul di Resta will start in the 4th row.

The surprise performance in the Q1 in qualifying came from Pedro de La Rosa of HRT. He was widely believed to be trounced by Narain Karthikeyan. However, Pedro was 1:17.492 out qualifying Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia as well as his team mate Narain Karthikeyan who came 24th with a time of 1:18.330 ie. 0.838 seconds slower. Interestingly the HRT cars recorded a very fast straight line times.


Maldonado had scored the fastest time in the sector 1 while trying to make into the Q3, but he pushed too hard and banged his car and it was all over for him. He scored 1:15.231 and had to settle for 17th position. Bruno Senna scored a 1:15.170. The extremely erratic Romain Grosjean who has been banging wheels with other drives this season has proved to be a good qualifier. He scored a seventh fastest time to qualify into the Q3. However, his Lotus team mate and former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for P12  with a time of 1:14.734

Qualifying Times and Grid Position:


Sl. Driver Team Time Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull  1:13.784 16 laps
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren  1:14.087 22 laps
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari  1:14.151 23 laps
4 Mark Webber Red Bull  1:14.346 19 laps
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:14.411 25 laps
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari  1:14.465 24 laps
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus  1:14.645 28 laps
8 Paul di Resta Force India  1:14.705 22 laps
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes  1:14.812 18 laps
10 Jenson Button McLaren  1:15.182 24 laps
11 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber  1:14.688 21 laps
12 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus  1:14.734 22 laps
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India  1:14.748 18 laps
14 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso  1:15.078 21 laps
15 Sergio Perez Sauber  1:15.156 21 laps
16 Bruno Senna Williams   1:15.170 20 laps
17 Pastor Maldonado Williams   1:15.231 21 laps
18 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham  1:16.263 12 laps
19 Vitaly Petrov Caterham  1:16.482 10 laps
20 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso  1:16.602 12 laps
21 Pedro de la Rosa HRT  1:17.492 8 laps
22 Timo Glock Marussia  1:17.901 10 laps
23 Charles Pic Marussia  1:18.255 9 laps
24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT  1:18.330 9 laps
Q1 107% Time  1:19.887


Friday, June 8, 2012

F1 Drivers Championship Results after Monaco

F1 Drivers Championship Standings after Monaco Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari has snatched the lead in the drivers championship from Sebastian Vettel after the Monaco Grand Prix. Fernando is leading the table with 76 points. Vettel is now second at 73 along with his team mate Mark Webber. Mark Webber by virtue of the 25 points gained from winning the Monaco Grand Prix is for the first time in more than a year and half is tied on points with his team mate Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton who is plagued by some amazingly sloppy work by his team McLaren, is on fourth at 63 points. Nico Rosberg is on 59. Michael Schumacher despite his terrific drive to the pole has been languishing in the 18th position at 2 points. We hope that the stewards start penalising errant drivers like Romain Grosjean who hit Michael when he was up to No. 3 position in the Monaco Race.



Ranking Driver Team Points
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 76
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 73
3 Mark Webber Red Bull 73
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 63
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 59
6 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 51
7 Jenson Button McLaren 45
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus 35
9 Pastor Maldonado Williams  29
10 Sergio Perez Sauber 22
11 Paul de Resta Force India 21
12 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 19
13 Bruno Senna Williams  15
14 Felipe Massa Ferrari 10
15 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 7
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 4
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 2
18 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 2
19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 0
20 Timo Glock Marussia 0
21 Charles Pic Marussia 0
22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 0
23 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 0
24 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 0