Hungarian Grand Prix Review

So after the disapointment that the BBC will relax their coverage over the next few years as they couldn't comprehend spending £50m on F1. We will have to appreciate and saviour every race that they do over the rest of the season.

From 2013 we will only see 10 full races on the BBC. When the coverage started on Sunday the presenters were very sub-dued compared to normal. The big shock was no Martin Brundle on the grid walk, were they trying to adjust to the relaxed coverage and expecting Martin Brundle to go to Sky? With the DRS over the last corner and home straight everyone was wondering whether there would be a last gasp overtake on the last corner of the last lap, how dramatic would that have been. Maybe the Hungarians were thinking how they can make their track top the rest this season. We had to wait for the last lap for this to be fulfilled.

Vettel resumed normal service this weekend by being on pole position like normal & Hamilton continuing his good form by completing the front row. The big shock was Massa out qualifying Alonso for the first time this season. Also Daniel Riccardo not starting from last on the grid. That was taken up by D'ambrosio, and Buemi who had a 5 place penalty from last races incident with Heidfeld. The race looked wet from the start with most teams starting on the intermediate compound.

The race started intensely with both MClaren drivers next to each other and when Button tried to pass Hamilton, they actually made contact, but not enough contact to send one careering off the track. Hamilton managing to hold his team mate off.

Vettel this season has always struggled when pressured, we knew he had to show what a champion he is, by being able to soak up the pressure from Hamilton. Hamilton was trying to overtake the World Champion on several occasions over the first few laps. By lap four he had attempted 3 overtakes but ran out of track or Vettel managed to get his defensive strategy right to hold of the quick fire Brit. Hamilton's pressure paid off on lap 5 Vettel slipped out wide letting Hamilton to glide past him.

The weather was playing havoc early on with both Alonso, Vettel & Massa slipping off the track. Due to the wet track the teams decided to pit on the 13th lap, it all started to happen on lap 14 with Button overtaking Vettel & then Webber overtaking Alonso. Vettel shortly went off the track again in lap 15, for a guy who won his first grand prix in the rain & is deemed a wet race specialist he looked like he was struggling with the conditions.

Nick Hiedlfeld pit stop was horrific, came out of the pits on fire. He made an impressive star jump escape from his vehicle.

We really saw tyre wear to the extreme, drivers not being able to get grip and the tyres wearing out very quickly. You knew that this was going to be a race that Sauber would excel in with their two drivers who look after their tyres with the best of them but their progress failed to materialise. All the top drivers pitted for the second time around the 40 lap mark. There was suggestion that if you can make your tyres last the remaining 30 laps it will reap huge dividends.

Jenson Button is another one who can look after his tyres very well. He was in 2nd place behind Hamilton after 40 laps. As the rain started pouring down on lap 47 Button managed to pass Hamilton as Hamilton got stuck behind a Force India. Hamilton effectively lost his chance of winning when he spun his car around on lap 48 nearly hitting Di Resta in the process.

Hamilton proved everyone wrong when Button went off the track wide and his team mate happily snatching the lead from him. It was too much to concentrate on the two Mclaren's fighting over 1st position, just immediately after Button lost his position he came back at Hamilton and succesfully regained first place. It was like watching a boxing match with too many counter punches for the judges to count.

Hamilton got given a drive through penalty for the spin out on lap 48 ending Lewis's chances of a podium. Jenson Button was able to cruise around the last 15 laps to close out his second win of the season.

2011 Hungarian GP: Formula One Race Results

1 Jenson Button

2 Sebastian Vettel

3 Fernando Alonso

4 Lewis Hamilton

5 Mark Webber

6 Felipe Massa

7 Paul Di Resta

8 Sebastien Buemi

9 Nico Rosberg

10 Jaime Alguersuari

11 Kamui Kobayashi

12 Vitaly Petrov

13 Rubens Barrichello

14 Adrian Sutil

15 Sergio Perez

16 Pastor Maldonado

17 Timo Glock

18 Daniel Ricciardo

19 Jerome DAmbrosio

20 Vitantonio Liuzzi

Ret Heikki Kovalainen

Ret Michael Schumacher

Ret Nick Heidfeld

Ret Jarno Trulli

Driver of the day - Sebastian buemi (Jenson Button a close second)

Bad day at the office - Jérôme d'Ambosio (The spin out in the pit lane confirmed it)

German Grand Prix 2011 Review

It appeared to be all smiles for Mark Webber as he was sat on pole, with Hamilton in 2nd leaving Vettel unsure where he was starting, as it was the first time this season that he hasnt started on the front row. Someone probably had to show Vettel where position 3 on the grid actually was. The race started with a slight chance of rain, teams trying to call whether to start on wet or dry tyres. The rain wasn't heavy enough for any panic and all the teams starting on soft dry tyres. So all 24 drivers raring to go on the softest & quickest tyres, which left everyone to predict that Hamilton would overtake Mark Webber before turn 1, Hamilton didnt disapoint coming up the outside of the Australian. It was a mighty fight on turn 1 with Alonso & Massa overtaking Vettel too.

I do belive that the races are more exciting when Vettel is not in the lead as he just forges ahead when he is in the lead & nothing interfers him. Seeing Hamilton was in front with Alonso & Webber behind we knew we were going to be treated to plenty of hustling & bustling. Alonso was the first to make a mistake by sliding too wide on a corner & going onto the wet grass, luckily it didnt cost him a place. Paul Di Resta clashed into Heidfeld which was deemed as a fault from the German & then decided to try and come up the outside of Buemi, with Buemi not seeing him and edging him off the road to crash into a advertising board. Heidfeld doing an impressive jump through the air, so impressive I think his team-mate Petrov would have been proud. Heidfeld later got given a penalty which he couldnt accept as he was out of the race.

It was a race full of errors with Vettel next to spin off the track leaving him sat there looking dismayed. It didnt end his race due to the wide run off areas around the track. It was another mechanical error for Jenson Button, the hydraulics broke down as he went over the apex of a corner, with his mechanics notifiying him to pull up in the pit lane. That was Jenson Button's first non-finish in Germany in 14 races. The real disapointment was Chandhock who finished last even behind Riccardo by more than 1 minute, he said before the race that this would be his first race using DRS, I think his credibility went considerabily down after todays showing. Nice guy but doesnt have enough to make it in the big time. Along with Chandhok the Germans had a nightmare too out there at their home track. Sutil did well to claim 6th place from a starting position of 8th, a very good race from the usually careless German.

With track temperature being so cold that the tyres didnt perform to their usual capabilities & the drivers couldnt get them warm enough to fully function at their potential. This meant that the strategies simply didn't come off by pitting early. Vettel was stuck down in 5th position & showed again he really struggled to overtake anybody who isnt a back-lapper. Massa & Vettel came into the pits on the penultimate lap together, with Red Bull giving Vettel a quick stop in order to leap frog Massa, who's Ferrari mechanics took a bit too long to get the Brazilian out of the pit lane. That effectively sealed Vettel fourth place. (Maybe Red Bull should pit Vettel whenever the driver in front pits giving him a chance to overtake as he cannot overtake at his own accord). Whilst Vettel came out of the pit lane Hamilton crossed the line to claim his second win of the season.

Alonso only just finished the race before his car broke down and had to hitch a lift with Webber to recreate Senna/Mansell moment with Alonso riding on Webber's car back to the pit lane!

Driver of the Day - Lewis Hamilton (Adrian Sutil was a close 2nd)

Bad day at the office - Sebastian Vettel (I suppose he's allowed to have one!)

Overtake of the day - Hamilton on Webber

Results

1 Lewis Hamilton

2 Fernando Alonso

3 Mark Webber

4 Sebastian Vettel

5 Felipe Massa

6 Adrian Sutil

7 Nico Rosberg

8 Michael Schumacher

9 Kamui Kobayashi

10 Vitaly Petrov

11 Sergio Perez

12 Jaime Alguersuari

13 Paul di Resta

14 Pastor Maldonado

15 Sebastien Buemi

16 Heikki Kovalainen

17 Timo Glock

18 Jerome d'Ambrosio

19 Daniel Ricciardo

20 Karun Chandhok

Ret Vitantonio Liuzzi

Ret Jenson Button

Ret Rubens Barrichello

Ret Nick Heidfeld

Silverstone GP Review

For the first time this season people weren't talking about Red Bull dominating the race, the pre-race build up was overshadowed by the diffuser row, in which all the teams had to attend and agree on a solution around the reduction in use of the controversial part. Ferrari were the licking their lips in anticipation as any reduction in the use of diffusers would help thme enomously as they do not use the part in their races. Red Bull & Renault were the teams to loose out the most. This made everyone think that maybe Red Bull could be beaten this weekend as they were going to loose half a second a lap due to the outcome of the meeting.

For the second time this season Sebastian Vettel was not on Pole, it was his team mate Mark Webber, with the Australian turning out to win 12 Months ago he was optimistic ahead of the race. Red Bull continued their 100% record of locking out the front row, Ferrari were right behind them. Hamilton had a shocking qualifying sesion to end up in 10th abeit it wasnt his fault but rather his mechanics for putting old tyres on, instead of new ones. You could say this will fuel his desire to leave even more as his team arent doing him any favours. Paul Di Resta was really the star of qualifying & he sat on the grid in 6th place looking for a slim chance of a podium finish.

As the red lights went out I sort of predicted as I do every week that Mark Webber will loose atleast one position before the first corner. He didnt disapoint with Vettel getting a better start that his team mate to overtake and claim the lead. Hamilton & Schumacher doing well off the grid to move up three places each, Hamilton 10th to 7th and Schumacher 13th to 10th. From the word go Hamilton looked really up for it after a few disasterous weeks. He moved up the field supremely well even without crashing into people. The same cannot be said for Paul Di Resta who although gained his best position this season decided he would go backwards, he may as well have put his car in reverse straight away. Loosing positions to Rosberg & Kobayashi quickly and then deicded to crash into Schumacher to knock his wing off. Schumacher was deemed at fault for the accident and he was given a 10 second drive through penalty meaning he had to not only drive through the pits without having any work done he had to sit in his pit for 10 seconds. This meant he lost a third of a lap on his rivals.

If it wasnt for Hamilton Silverstone would have been pretty dull for the first 30 laps. However we have to thanks the pit-lane machnaics for brightening up the race. First of all for letting Kobayashi go when traffic was coming down the pit-lane leading him to nearly crash, in which he paid a penalty for a 10 second drive through penalty similar to Schumacher. Red Bull made the next error when both Vettel & Alonso coming into the pits at the same time, with the Red Bull Mechanics taking ages to send Vettel back out meaning Alonso overtook the German in the pit lane. Force India decided to catch the contageous bug as well and try to put Sutil's tyres on Di Resta's car. The final cock-up of the day was MClaren & it was the biggest of the lot as it costs Jenson Button his race. The Mechanic needed to change bolt guns in order to get the front right tyre to stay on, however when he put his gun down the lollipop man gave the green light & Jenson obliged driving out of his pit with his wheel not on properly. Button noticed the error and pulled up just out of the pit lane ending his race.

At this point Hamilton had made it up to 3rd Place behind Alonso & Vettel. Then on his radio he got the news no driver wants to hear, "Lewis you need to maintain your fuel in order to finish the race". Meaning he had to slow down in order to be able to last out the race. On public radio's this is always a bad thing to state to your driver, Webber & Massa hearing over the radio that they should attack Hamilton as he has to slow down. The MClaren driver allowing Webber to overtake him as he had no choice. It came down to the last 2 laps and the engineers told Hamilton he could now race at full pace again. Massa was right behind him at this point, it was a last lap shootout between Hamilton & Massa. It wasnt too long ago in Monaco that thesse two drivers had been side by side with each other (that one ended up with Massa going into the wall). This one ended up with Hamilton nudging Massa off the road luckily there was no wall for the Brazilian to crash into this time. Hamilton finished 0.0283 ahead of the Ferrari driver to claim a good 4th place.

Here are the race results:

1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari Winner
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +16.5 secs
3 Mark Webber Red Bull +16.9 secs
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren +28.9 secs
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari +29.0 secs
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +60.6 secs
7 Sergio Perez Sauber +65.5 secs
8 Nick Heidfeld Renault +75.5 secs
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +77.9 secs
10 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso +79.1 secs
11 Adrian Sutil Force India +79.7 secs
12 Vitaly Petrov Renault +80.6 secs
13 Rubens Barrichello Williams +1 Lap
14 Pastor Maldonado Williams +1 Lap
15 Paul di Resta Force India +1 Lap
16 Timo Glock Virgin Racing +2 Laps
17 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin Racing +2 Laps
18 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT +2 Laps
19 Daniel Ricciardo HRT +3 Laps
Ret Jenson Button McLaren +13 Laps
Ret Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso +27 Laps
Ret Kamui Kobayashi Sauber +29 Laps
Ret Jarno Trulli Lotus Oil leak
Ret Heikki Kovalainen Lotus Gearbox


Driver of the day - Lewis Hamilton

Rookie of the day - Sergio Perez

Chumps of the day - Pit Stop Mechanics

Bad day at the office- Paul Di Resta

Canadian Grand Prix Review

Apparently according to Martin Whitmarsh at McClaren there would be a 60% chance of it raining on race day. I don’t think anyone predicted that we would have as much rain as we did on Sunday. You could say it was a complete wash-out; it was raining heavily before they even lined up on the grid leading everyone to be allowed to change to wet tyres for the race. Martin Brundle spoke with the steward before the race and asked them not to start the race under a safety car.

His request was denied by the steward and rightly so, the safety car pulled away with all 24 drivers behind him, Alguersuari starting from the pit lane. The only notified absentee from the race was Perez who after crashing in Monaco decided he was not up for racing this weekend. That decision is highly commended as he gave up his chance to race as he knew he wouldn’t give 100% leaving De la Rosa to be reinstated to the driver’s seat. De La Rosa who famously got sacked by Sauber with 5 races to go last season gladly taking up the opportunity with his old employers. Sauber’s proper reserve driver being unavailable for some reason meaning De La Rosa who test drives for McClaren to swap overalls.

Once the safety car came in after doing the first 6 laps it looked like Lewis Hamilton was still in the same race mode as Monaco. He is an aggressive driver as we all know and this season out of the total number of overtakes we have seen this season he has performed 10% of them. On turn 1 after the safety car returned to the pit lane he caught the back of Mark Webber who was helpless as he span round facing the oncoming traffic. Only quick thinking and acting calm he quickly spun round the right way and headed back into the race way down the field. After Hamilton had taken out Webber he decided to make his team mate his next victim as on Lap 8 he came out of the corner hot on the heels of Button coming out of the corner onto the straight and trying to come on the outside of Button. The gap was tiny between his team mate and the wall. Button did not see Lewis coming up by his side and whilst the gap was small it didn’t help by Button slightly moving over to the outside of the track and sending Hamilton into the wall. Button yelped down the Radio “What is he doing?” followed by McClaren team telling Hamilton to retire from the race due to the damage caused. Button had a puncture and had to into the pit lane to change tyres. Whilst everything was happening involving Lewis Hamilton, the Pole sitter Vettel was up front and decided to try and persuade the stewards by saying on his radio “This track is un-drivable” prompting the stewards to call off the race. If the race had been stopped Vettel would have got 12.5 points with his rivals Alonso, Button and Hamilton getting 0. The Race was suspended for more than hour giving us Martin Brundle fans a chance for some fine commentary work just to fill the time. He came up with some glorious quotes and the bromance between him and David Couthard blossoming.

Martin Brundle Quotes

"Come on! Get that safety car into the pit lane!"

“Racecar spelt backwards is racecar.”

“'Bad day for Lewis Hamilton and a bad hair day for Rihanna”

"This idea smells brightly of noise."

"The stewards better cancel their flights home tonight, going to have a hell of a lot extra work"

After more than an hour of the drivers hanging around the rain finally stopped which was greeted by the fans that had persevered with the torrential rain. So it was the safety cars job to start the race on lap 26 and continue leading the race until lap 30. When the safety car went in on lap 30 Button was given a drive through penalty after driving too quickly behind the safety car which he took straight away and once he came out decided to crash into the back of Alonso leading him to go straight back into the pits. This meant after half the race he was now in last place. Button was one of the first drivers to switch to Intermediate tyres and that strategy paid off as the McClaren driver came out of the pits and drove out of his skin to move up the field. He was doing laps at a time of 1 min.17 seconds with the rest of the field doing 1min. 24 seconds. He moved past everyone gradually by the time he was on lap 65 of 70 he had now moved up to 5^th place behind Mark Webber. Whilst Jenson Button was busy Michael Schumacher was just as busy as he found himself at the top of the field. He was in 4^th position behind Vettel, Kobayashi and Massa, with the German deciding he wanted to roll back the years and pull out a stunning double overtake on Kobayashi and Massa. The Japanese driver and the Brazilian obviously getting to distracted with each other not to notice the veteran on the outside of them both. Sadly shortly after the overtake of the day both Button and Webber moving past him to deny the German a spot on the podium.

Button was catching up on Vettel fast, it was unreal that he was chasing down the World Champion even after he went in the pit lane an incredible six times including the drive through penalty. Vettel felt the Englishman breathing down his neck and the pressure got too much as he slid off the track leaving most people in disbelief including Martin Brundle shouting "Vettel finally shows he's human!". Button took his chance calmly to round off a remarkable grand prix for both himself and us fans. The phrase used this season of “Doing a Webber” will never be used again as Button proved he could do even better however no-one will swap Webber with Button in this phrase as it will never been seen again!

The race finished at 10pm local time, a race that started off slowly but became the race people will wish happens every week. Roll on Valencia, they have got a busy two weeks ahead to try and top Montreal.

Driver of the day – It was Michael Schumacher until the 65^th lap but from then on this title belongs to Button.

Overtake of the day – Michael Schumacher’ double overtake on Kobayashi and Massa.

Villan of the day – Lewis Hamilton for second week in a row.

Special mention goes to the stewards for getting the track ready again after the torrential rain.

Monte Carlo GP Review

For me Monaco is right up there with Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina Circuit) in terms of exicitement and track layout.

There was a lot of talk about teams not being able to overtake and how important the qualifying session is as the track is so narrow. People forget that what Monaco misses in overtaking, is more than made up with in crashes and the practice and qualifying didn't disapoint. In practice Schumacher & Luizzi both crashing out, with Schumacher adding weight to the argument about DRS not being safe on the Monaco track by using the DRS on the home straight and not having enough time to turn into turn 1 and ending up into the St Devote barriers. Qualifying saw crashes to Rosberg and Perez. Rosberg looking helpless as he hit the apex and skidded into the barriers but managed to get back out with 8 minutes left on Q1. Perez had an awful crash coming out of the tunnel, oversteering the corner and gliding into the barrier and then skidded for a distance of 40 yards sideways on into the barrier. The crash was so bad and because of the location of the crash a red flag was raised suspending the session with 2mins 26 left on the clock. With all 9 drivers going out with the remaining 2 and a half minutes left to try and get a quick flying lap in it was always going to be a struggle to get a competitive time in to knock Vettel off pole. Hamilton getting fustrated at Massa for not letting him past on his flying lap, Hamilton not realising that everyone was trying to get a flying lap in before the time ended.The real surprise again was Maldonardo who obviously has got used to driving his Williams car qualifying in 8th although Monaco is his favourite circuit and has had a lot of practice on it during his GP2 days.

Due to Perez interupting the flow of the shootout all the racers lined up on the grid like this:

POS DRIVER

1. Sebastian Vettel

2. Jenson Button

3. Mark Webber

4. Fernando Alonso

5. Michael Schumacher

6. Felipe Massa

7. Lewis Hamilton

8. Nico Rosberg

9. Pastor Maldonado

10. Sergio Perez *

Q2

11. Vitaly Petrov

12. Rubens Barrichello

13. Kamui Kobayashi

14. Paul di Resta

15. Adrian Sutil

16. Nick Heidfeld

17. Sebastien Buemi

Q1

18. Heikki Kovalainen

19. Jarno Trulli

20. Jaime Alguersuari

21. Timo Glock

22. Jerome d'Ambrosio

23. Narain Karthikeyan **

24. Vitantonio Liuzzi **

* Perez was taken to hospital with concussion and a sprained thigh so did not take part in the race.

** Hispania did not post a competitive time

Martin Brundle and David Coultard were on form in the commentary box and you could experience the bromance between them.

Alonso joining the queue at the restart (after perez crash) Martin Burndle "Surely the most expensive traffic jam in the world"

"Oh that's close, I wouldn't like to measure that, how close?" says Coulthard. "About as thin as your wallet," quips Brundle.

The race couldnt have started on a much better scene, the sun was shining on the Monte Carlo streets, locals looking out onto the track from their balconies and of course Martin Brundle on the grid walk trying to cause mischief. He was trying to talk to a mixture of various people associated with F1 and some celebrities looking for some much need ego-gloating and PR time.

Twenty three grid places were filled, with the only driver missing being Perez all lined up soaking up the heat. The fives red lights lit up and disappeard before you blinked. Mark Webber obviously blinked too long with Fernando Alonso jumping in front of him like a Jack in the box. The Spaniard jumping from 4th to 3rd just behind Button and Vettel. Jenson Button had history on his mind when he knew the last 6 Monaco GP's the driver on 2nd place has lost his place to the driver sat parallel to him in third due to the amount of grip on the right hand side of the grid.

The slowest corner on the track "the hairpin" saw the most action on the track. Hamilton, Di Resta and Schumacher all trying to overtake on the inside of the hairpin with only Schumacher managing to pull it off succesfully. Hamilton and Di Resta squeezing through on the inside trying to pass another car but getting it all wrong and using the other car as a bumper car. Hamilton and Di Resta being given a drive through penalty each. Jenson Button was right up the front the whole race and they nearly made a monumental strategic error by being on the soft-soft-super soft tyre stratgey giving them no plan B. Vettel was on the soft-super soft-soft stratgey which gave him a plan B becuase he could stay on the 2 stop strategy and finish if required.

Mark Webber was looking good for the first few laps until his first pitstop of which Red Bull mechanics werent ready for him to come in catching them off guard which meant the Australian lost so much time and came out in 14th place. With any Monaco race you are expecting safety cars and the race was very subdued until the first crash started the ball rolling. The safety car coming out first as Schumacher breaking down by the pit lane coming to a sudden halt.

Hamilton's caused Massa to crash through the tunnel, their fight starting from the hairpin and continuing through the tunnel until Massa clipped the side wall. A few safety cars came and went until the biggest crash of the race happened on lap 71 where the leaders were trying overtake the back lappers when Algsusuari crashing into the back on Petrov right infront of Alonso and Hamilton which caused a big pile up. The leaders calmly passed through the ruckus leaving the Russian Petrov behind in pieces. The crash happened at such a key corner that the race had to be halted via a red flag being waved to all drivers due to the trouble of removing the remains of the renault car off the track.

All the drivers being lined up on the starting grid in the position they were in when Petrov crashed. Whilst people were watching the Monaco Grand Prix for the crashes and accidents the re-start did spoil the competition between Vettel, Alonso and Button. Alonso who thought he had a chance of winning the race would get a good chance on the re-start to jump Vettel knowing how quick he is off the start. It was a 6 lap shootout, with the last 72 laps counting for nothing.However the re-start was under safety car conditions which gave Vettel a huge advantage not having to worry about being overtaken for the first lap. Maldonardo up in 6th place and again Hamilton doing his best to wreck other drivers races. Hamilton crashing into Maldonardo by trying to drive on the inside of the Columbian. Maldonardo being left facing towards the barrier. The Columbian is starting to look promising after his shaky start.

Vettel finished the Monaco Grand Prix in P1 with Alonso and Button grabbing the Pole positions. Webber finishing 4th and Hamilton finishing down in 6th place behind Kobayashi in 5th. Hamilton is under investigation post race so keep and eye out on that situation

Driver of the day was Vettel with villian of the day being Hamilton. For me it was Hamilton's worse race of his career trying too hard, and not having enough patience.

Overall a fantastic race which started off slowly but grew into a race that filled its potential. Not much overtaking but a lot of crashes occurred creating a busy day for both the stewards and strategy teams.

See you all in Montreal in 2 weeks time!

Catalunya Review

Qualifying Review

Nick Heidfeld's car caught fire in practice meaning that he couldn't get his car ready for the start of qualifying. He had to take up last place on the grid for the race. Barrichello had a shocker of a qualifying session finishing in p19, both Barrichello & Williams haven't turned up this season. The same can be said to his team mate Maldonardo this season (who I thought was a ghost driver the amount of times he got shown on the BBC) however Moldonardo decided to put his racing shoes on this weekend. He surprised everyone by getting through to the shootout. It seemed to be the most tactical qualifying of the season as teams were deciding which tyres to use.

Everyone was on soft tyres to get the fastest time possible except for Force India and Michael Schumacher. Schumacher getting into the shootout and changing his tyres to the hard composite. Meaning he would settle for 10th as he was losing 2 seconds a lap off everyone else. Force India chose to change their tyres in session 2 to hard composite as they knew they weren't going to get into the shootout so they qualified down in 16th& 17th. But with hard tyres they knew they would have a slight advantage over the surrounding teams. Kovalainen finishing 15th was a great achievement for Lotus too but he was on the soft tyres so you always knew he was going to struggle holding off the Force India’s behind him in the race. It was expected that Red Bull would be fighting it out for pole and it went along with that trend. Sebastian Vettel having a KERs issue (as always) allowing Mark Webber to snatch pole from the young German. Vettel had to settle for second as he didn’t want to use unnecessary tyres in order to pip his team mate.

Qualifying results

1 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 2. Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 5.Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 6. Vitaly Petrov Renault 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 10.Michael Schumacher Mercedes 11. Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 13. Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 15. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 18. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 19. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 21.Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 23. Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 24.Nick Heidfeld Renault

Quotes from Qualifying

Martin Brundle to David Coultard - ‘Good thinking Batman’

Jake Humpreys – ‘There is no luck in formula one and there is no logic either’.

Race Review

Fernando Alonso may as well have pulled a rabbit out his hat whilst driving to the first corner. Nobody expected him to be in front after the first corner especially the two Red-Bulls. A brilliant start from the Spaniard allowed him to take the lead and lead for the first 18 laps until he pitted. Mark Webber was covering Vettel but didn’t expect to be fighting more than Vettel at the first corner allowing Alonso to slip up the blind side. Webber continuing to keep up the trend of getting over taken and losing his position before the first corner.

There was action at the back of the grid too with Heidfeld having to start at the back and take inspiration from Webber’s previous races which meant he had to do ‘a Webber’. He started off brightly and gradually moved up the field slowly. As he didn’t do any laps in qualifying he had lots of tyres to use up which gave him an advantage on people driving on old tyres. He supremely moved up the field and whilst not doing as well as Webber he did do amazingly well to get from 24th to finish 8th.
After Alonso pitted on lap 18, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel decided to slug it out at the front. However both were hindered by technical problems as Vettel’s DRS stopped working and Hamilton had problems with KERs. Which meant it would be a stalemate and Hamilton would have to pass the German using his talent alone, yet he couldn’t manage to muster it as Vettel defended his position well using KERs to cancel out the DRS of Hamilton. For all the hype about Alonso Fever at the start of the race he did well to get in front however he couldn’t keep up the pace however still did well to finish p5.

Sauber had a great day in Catalunya as both drivers finishing in the top 10. Perez proving why he was given a seat and matching the race he had in Melbourne. Kobayashi as standard getting into the top 10 too, which confirms he is the best newer driver on the grid. He is supremely consistent and bold which could see him get given a seat at either Renualt, Mercedes or even Ferrari next season.

Some racers had a horrid race along with Barrrichello who seemed to disappear in and out of the race as people must have thought he had gone home and watched the race on his couch. Rosberg was unproductive too when his DRS failed early on and had to stick behind his team mate all race as he couldn’t gather enough speed to overtake leaving him extremely frustrated. Massa had a very bad day at the office and was struggling around not really bothering anybody and then he just pulled up. It was later explained as gearbox issues. With Alonso signing a new 5 year deal at Ferrari he looks bewildered and it looks like his seat will be stolen by another driver next year with Hulkenburg or Kobyashi taking it.

Drivers of the day

Lewis Hamilton
Nick Heidfeld
Sergio Perez

Villains of the day

McClaren Overall Designers, Lewis’s overalls looked like the child who designed the Conservative party logo had designed them.

Rubens Barrichello

Martin Brundle – hates me to say it as he is such a great commentator but he moaned about the Catalnya track too much you thought he despised it.

Next Race is Monaco in 4 days time. See you all there!

Instanbul F1 Review

After a small hiatus over the last three weeks F1 finally returned to hopefully carry on where Shanghai left off. Fans were so enthralled be Shanghai there was a sense of excitment overload, especially if every race this season matched its predecessor. After all the build up Qualifying took place and was over in a flash. I felt sorry for Kobayashi who in qualifying didnt even make it round the first lap due to mechanical errors so had to take up the last position on the grid. ( I could imagine there was a party in the Hispania garage at that point). Vettel had a mixed qualifying session in which he crashed his car into the barrier so badly that the engineers were working overtime to get his car driveable again. They managed to get the car up and running but took up most of the young germans remaining time. This meant he only had 7 laps worth of the session left. Mind you watching Vettel this season you could sense he only needs one lap to appear up the top of the leader board. He used all 7 laps before the time ran out and guess where he ended up, Yep on Pole. Familiar ground for the young german this season. The star of Qualifying was Rosberg who upset McClaren and Red Bull by geting amongst them and qualifying 3rd. And a quick note on Michael Schumacher who after 20 years in the sport learned something new about his car which his engineer kindly pointed out that he was using one of his paddles wrong.

So the complete grid after qualifying looked like this:

1. Sebastian Vettel 2. Mark Webber 3. Nico Rosberg 4. Lewis Hamilton 5. Fernando Alonso 6. Jenson Button 7. Vitaly Petrov 8. Michael Schumacher 9. Nick Heidfeld 10. Felipe Massa 11. Rubens Barrichello 12. Adrian Sutil 13. Paul di Resta 14. Pastor Maldonado 15. Sergio Perez 16. Sebastien Buemi 17. Jaime Alguersuari 18. Heikki Kovalainen 19. Jarno Trulli 20. Tonio Liuzzi 21. Timo Glock 22. Narain Karthikeyan 23. Jerome d’Ambrosio 24. Kamui Kobayashi.

So 23 drivers lined up on the grid ready for the race (Glock did not start), for the first time this season 95% of the grid was as predicted with no real surprises. Although Webber must have found his position unfamiliar as he is not normally on front row this season. However he kept up his trend of not making the first corner without being overtaken. Rosberg kindly snuck up beside him and snatched 2nd place from him, to be fair it was like watching candy being taken from a child. McClaren's Hamilton and Button start together and after last year with the two Red Bulls crashing together the McClarens thought it would be fun to see if we can see how competitive we can get without crashing into each other. Button and Hamilton were overtaking each other several times luckily for Martin Whitmarsh not coming together and ending up in a heap alongside the tarmac.

The star of the show this weekend was not a driver but was the pit-stops. 73 in all during the race partly due to the prielli tyres and partly due to drivers covering each other. There were some real horror shows on display too, no matter how hard they practice it seems you cannot get it perfect all the time. Hamilton and his McClaren team in the thick of it nearly crashing twice in the pitlane. Coincidently it was the Ferrari's who were getting in his way. First of all Massa trying to get out of the pit lane too quick and not looking in his mirrors to see Hamilton right along side him. Then the McClaren team not being able to get the nut in place on the tyres which cost Hamilton an extra 20 seconds. His lollipop collegue did well to stop Hamilton from going as you could see he was fustrated but the lollipop guy didnt let him out of the pit as there was traffic coming in. Time and time again this season we have seen the outcome of if you do more pit stops the more succcesful you are. Button and Buemi fell foul of this rule when they tried the 3 stop rule but were being overtaken by all the people who have done 4 stops. Michael Schumacher had an afternoon to forget, being overtaken alot and not being very productive. The fustration got the better of him as every time the camera was on him he was getting overtaken and for once he even admitted he was in the wrong when he collided with Petrov.
Alonso had a great race to claim a podium position, although the McClaren's did hand it to him on a plate with their poor strategies. The real star driver who had his 'Do a Webber' moment starting from last on the grid to pick up a point by finishing 10th. A solid drive from the bold and daring driver. He drives like he has nothing to lose every week so it didnt daunt him one bit and he moved up to field in timely fashion and got his strategy spot on.

Stars of the day - Kobayashi and the Pit-Stops.
Villan of the day - Michael Schumacher

Final race finishing positions:

01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:30:17.558
02. Mark Webber Red Bull +8.807
03. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +10.075
04. Lewis Hamilton McLaren + 40.232
05. Nico Rosberg Mercedes + 47.539
06. Jenson Button McLaren + 59.431
07. Nick Heidfeld Renault + 1:00.857
08. Vitaly Petrov Renault + 1:08.168
09. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso + 1:09.300
10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber + 1:18.000
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari + 1:19.800
12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes + 1:25.400
13. Adrian Sutil Force India + 1 lap
14. Sergio Perez Sauber + 1 lap
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams + 1 lap
16. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams + 1 lap
18. Jarno Trulli Lotus + 1 lap
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus + 2 laps
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin + 2 laps
21. Narain Karthikeyan HRT + 3 laps
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT + 5 laps

Retirements

Paul Di Resta - 44 laps
Timo Glock - DNS

Next race is in Spain: It is the home race of Fernando Alonso. Prepare for Fernando Fever!

See you all in two weeks!

Shanghai Grand Prix Review

I came to the conclusion that Malaysia was a great race but China was in a different league. It had twists, turns, overtaking and controversy plus some great drives from lots of drivers sadly not Renault's Petrov and Heidfield who had two great weeks only to waste an opportunity to build on them. They kind of had a weekend to forget starting in qualifying when Petrov actually hindered his team mate by breaking down right as Heidfield was about to put in his only chance of a flying lap. It didnt pick up for them in the race either, both finishing outside of the top 10.

After Saturdays qualifying which saw an unxpected number of young drivers in the top 10 shootout knocking out experienced drivers like Barrichello, Schumacher, and Webber.

Webber got it all wrong on Saturday picking the wrong tyres and paying the ultimate price by only managing to qualify in 18th place. Alguersuari qualified in his best posiiton if the season along with Buemi qualifying in 7th and 9th respectively.
It was all building up to an exciting race as you knew the experienced drivers had all the work to do to get past the rookies. Hamilton left it late starting on race day. When every other driver was preparing on the grid, Hamilton was still in the garage with his team panicking trying to get the engine to tick over. They came to conclusion that somehow the engine had flooded. The time was counting down and fast for Hamilton. He managed to get out onto the track just in time, another 35 seconds more and he would have had to start from the pit lane. After doing all the hard work to qualify on the second row to have to start from the pit lane would have be devastating for Hamilton and would not have helped his title credentials. However he did roll out of the garage with seconds to spare to mount a challenge next to Rosberg.
Vettel was hoping to continue his good form of leading the field for the 109 out of the 114 laps so far this season. However he would not make it 110 for a while as both McClaren's wanted to fight it out at the front for a change. Button getting a better start than Vettel and Hamilton moving past him on the first corner left the young German down in third place and having to hold of a strong challenge from Rosberg.

I nominated Mark Webber for the driver of the day in Malaysia but that drive was nothing compared to his drive in China. This was the drive of his life!

Starting from p18 he was just hoping to get into the points atleast and probably would have settled for 2 points at the end of the day. He drove calmly and effieciently using his well managed tyres and knowing he was on different tyres than everyone else he could last longer than the surrounding cars. A tactic that didnt pay off in qualifying reeped rewards on race day.

Although it didnt happen straight away as he still found himself at p17 after 15 laps. Both Webber and Schumacher started near the back of the field but both moving up the field throughout the race. But it was the Australian who waited for the right moment to overtake Schumacher and continue to ride up the ranks.

As lap 50 clocked over Webber found himself in 7th place and went into the pit for fresh tyres knowing that he needed a new set soft tyres to catch the podium potentials up and he only had 6 laps to do it in. He had to overtake Rosberg which he did with no trouble at all which took him onto the tail of Button.

Button's race engineer said over the radio that Webber was catching him up fast and on his tail which led David Coulthard to say the quote of the day "The only way he could have said that any scarier was if he said it in the dark". Webber obviously obliged and overtook Button with sufficient ease. Webber must have thought he was dreaming as he had gradually moved up 15 places from his starting position to end of on the podium.
Buttons day was one to forget not only loosing a place on the podium he looked so certain to take but he also looked a total wally when he went into the the pit being followed by Vettel only to stop in the wrong pit. Holding Vettel up in the process and not doing his dignity any favours.

Whilst Button was busy embarrassing himself his McClaren team mate Hamilton drove well all day to put Malyasia behind him, and also put any early doubters that he is not mentally up for it to shove a simple message in their face "He wants to win more than anyone". It showed when just when he went up to the podium he has a few moments to console himself, he has a human side after all after most f1 pundits comparing him to a machine.

Vettel said in the press conference after the race "I was the only driver with two stops on the podium". After three races the teams now know that two stops is not the right strategy with the tyres degrading so quickly. Mark has proved that over the last two races the more you pit the better.

It all added up to a great race in which I can recall atleast 6 drivers being in the lead throughout the race. All the "No Overtaking" talk was truly stamped out.

Driver of the Day: Mark Webber again!
Wally of the day: Jenson Button

We have Turkey next in 3 weeks time, it is gonna be a long 3 weeks for me without the thought of F1 entertaining me on the weekend. Luckily we have the highlights of China to remind us to fill the void.

Shanghai 2011 Preview

As Shanghai is only a day away now, I thought I would give you a preview in what we are expecting from the race and things to look out for.

The Shanghai circuit is known for several things mainly because it has the longest straight on the f1 calender and it is built on a swamp. We could also have rain which will bring a different dimension to the normal race. (Lets hope the track doesnt sinK!) A whole lap is 3.38 miles of which Schumacher (in his prime) holds the lap record - no doubt Vettel will again be trying to out do his German Compatriot to break this record. I'd imagine he has a long list of records to break, most of them held by Michael. He will be crossing them off as he goes on in his career. The biggest two obviously are championship wins and race wins.

Obviously there will two factors stopping Vettel from winning this race (Kers and the long straight). McClaren who struggled with straight line pace in Malaysia have had a few days to make their car quick on the long straight. If they get this right they have every chance of grabbing a one-two in Shanghai. McClaren has won two of the last three races here (Lewis in 2008 and Jenson in 2010). Vettel won it in 2009 when it rained so RedBull will be one of the teams hoping for torrential rain this weekend to hinder the pace of McClaren.

There is a rumour flying around the pit lane that Christian Horner and Adrien Newey have actually got Kers running. "They had it running in Malaysia however they wanted to see how fast they were without it and if they actually needed it". But I dont think this is actually true watching the Mark Webber start in Malaysia.

The thing I havent mentioned in my blog yet is Hispania, they didnt race in Melbourne as they didnt qualify within 107% of the fastest lap time. Not surprising when they tested their car for the first time in the second practice session. However things did look bright when they managed to get inside the 107% of Vettel's time in Malaysia so they were allowed to race. This is a huge step for them as last year in their debut season they were actaully worried whether they would actually be able to finish the lap never alone aim for a time.

My Predictions for Shanghai

- If it rains, put your house on Vettel winning
- If it doesnt rain I think McClaren are set for a one-two
- Renault to put in a strong finish again
- Kobayashi and Perez to finish in the top 10
- Paul Di Resta to finish ahead of Sutil
- Schumacher to qualify for the shoot out
- Maldonado will not finish again

Things to look out for

- Having been impressed by Petrov's flying through the air - will Sutil look to better that attempt this weekend?
- The effect of DRS on the long straight, will teams be able to overtake then be overtaken by the same person on the same straight?
- Will the 25th & 26th starting positons be empty on race day?
- Will Buemi's car fall apart again?
- Will Maldonado actually get a mention on the BBC coverage?

I am looking forward to another exciting race! Coverage starts at 1.00pm on Saturday for Qualifying and 7.00am on Sunday for the race (GMT +1)

See you there!

2011 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix Review

Hi All

I have started to blog about the new F1 season and will keep you up to date with all the races of the 2011. As the Melbourne Grand Prix was non eventful I decided to start with the Malaisian Grand Prix this weekend.

First of all congratualations Nick Hedfeld this weekend and Welcome back to the big time. Being one of the only few Renault fan's left (after Piquet/Briatore-gate) I was devastated for Kubica when he crashed pre-season and injured himself badly. I truly believe he is right up there with Alonso in terms of all round driving ability. As you often saw last season when he finishes comfortably so far in front of Petrov (although it has yet to be decided whether it is an actual achievement to finish so far ahead of Petrov). Heidfeld has a lot to live up to. Now that Petrov and Heidfeld have had consectutive podiums finishes in the first two races as delighted as I am, the euphoria that I should be experiencing is slightly overshadowed by the fact that if Kubica was racing there is a chance that he could really be chasing Vettel and Hamilton down and getting amongst them like a bee in a bonnet.

The Driver of the day along with Heidfeld was Webber, I am not a huge fan of Webber I think people have taken a shine to him since the 'handbags/ not bad for a number two driver' situation with Vettel last season. As soon as he started you knew he was going to have a fight on his hands without the KERS. Everyone just shot past him at the start - it was like he may as well have had an anchor attached to his car. After Petrov and Heidfeld passed most of the front runners on the outside of the first corner including Alonso and Webber, it left Webber down in nineth place which left Horner and his strategy team needing to think of a plan B fast. Webber continued to get let down by Lady luck especially when the pit strategies didnt come off properly with the timing as he came out behind traffic, which wasn't in the plan at all. Having to do four pit stops did help Webber as the new tyres gave him so much speed as the Pireli tyres wore away so quickly. The rest of the field decided to favour the extra 20 seconds from not taking an extra pit stop but were losing speed by running on worn tyres allowing Webber to catch up even without KERS.Lady luck did later return the favour for Webber when Hamilton careered off the track so far that Webber didnt have much trouble passing him into 4th Place. She obviously got tired of trying to ruin his race and grant him fortune for all his hard work.

It was a tough weekend for Alonso and Hamilton who both incurred penalties after the race. Hamilton should be feeling more annoyed as he actually lost a position due to the penalty where as Alonso didnt. You can see why Hamilton was annoyed for getting penalised for changing direction twice to defend his position along the home straight /first corner because he was the only one punished for breaching the rule as some of the other drivers also commited the offense including Vettel on the first lap. Alonso was penalised for causing an accident when he crashed into the back of Hamilton which was undeniably careless but nothing more however this wasn't the start of Hamilton's collapse, as bad tyre management from Hamilton/McLaren meant he struggled to keep a consistent out and out pace.

Alot of opinions have been floating around about both KERS and DRS which have been implemented to increase overtaking opportunities. I couldnt help noticing that DRS was pretty pointless as drivers were taking it in turns to overtake each other at exactly the same place each lap. The battle between Kobayashi and Schumacher created a lot of overtaking manuvers being made between them but it soon became mundane as it became almost predicatable. However you cannot deny Kobayashi is exciting to watch, he is bold and brave although I do have my concerns over his positions when he is defending and also his pit strategies (I will blame the Sauber team for this though).

Of course RedBull drove pretty much the whole race without the use of KERS and were effectively carrying the extra weight with no advantage being gained from it. Christian Horner has a choice to make, it is not a huge decision but with the help of Adrian Newey he should decide whether to try and make KERS work and risk carrying pointless extra weight around for the next few races or scrap the idea and decide to make the car lighter without carrying KERS. Personally i would go for the latter and try and get KERS working. Although Vettel doesnt need it as he has enough talent to shave seconds off lap times not needing KERS, which other teams would create by having KERS. I believe Webber would need KERS in order to atleast maintain his positon he qualifies in and make it to the first corner without being overtaken as his starts aren't the best on the grid.

On a non racing topic it has been raised that Martin Brundle is taking a reserved role at BBC and now doesnt feature in the build up and post race coverage as much as he should be doing. He no longer does the starting grid walk interacting with the drivers minutes before they turn on race mode. Although he has taken over Jonathon Legard as the leading commentator during the race for the BBC people still feel he should be out doin all the interviews and chatting with Eddie, David and Jake pre and after the race. As much as I love listening to Martin talk endlessley about F1 I feel it would be asking a lot for him to do. However it does mean that whenever he does come onto air it makes it more special.

All in all there were a lot to talk about which is slowly drawing away attention from what Eddie Jordan is wearing at the race meetings.

It is only 4 days until we start all over again in Shanghai, China where hopefully there will be more talking points and the race will be just as exciting as it was in Malaysia.

See you in Shanghai!