Grand Prix 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So here we go then! The winner as ABBA said, takes it all (well at least, takes it all into the final round in the middle east at any rate). The loser on the other hand is out of it and at what better track to sort the men from the boys than Brazil. It also looks like it could be a wet weekend which should add even more spice to the mix. Remember last year and the confusion that was the wet/dry qualification and how Button silenced a few of his critics with a storming drive to finally put his name on the title?

Who will be the driver that leaves his mark on this weekend? I know for a lot of people it would be great to see a Mark on the top step and this is a track where the RBR cars know how to win.

Expect to see the Brazilian drivers such as Massa and Barichello put in some impressive performances. Barichello has led at this track on several occasions including a couple of stunning drives with both Stewart and Jordan. With an improved Williams under him, can he upset the top 10?

Turn one, for me, is one of the finest corners at any track. Make a mistake and you have an unforgiving pit wall on your left and to the right you become a passenger as your car sails across a grass strip and into a tyre wall. The lucky drivers manage to hold it all together to struggle to bring the car back on line just after turn two. Getting away cleanly at the start is so important here and I fully expect to see several cars taking to the outside of the circuit and going on that country drive.

There isn't much more I can add. The whole focus of the weekend will be on the first couple of rows but it's been shown in the past that with a good, balanced car and unpredictable weather, a driver can come through from almost anywhere on the grid to stand on the podium. All I can say is, Bring it on...........

 

[snowy]

Which means the silly parc fermé rules will now dictate whether they go for a rubbish qualifying with a dry setup or compromise their race with a wet setup.

"parc fermé" is a French hard cheese, is it not?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Which means the silly parc fermé rules will now dictate whether they go for a rubbish qualifying with a dry setup or compromise their race with a wet setup.

"parc fermé" is a French hard cheese, is it not?

Made in the Northern Pyrenees!

 

[teabagyokel]

Love Practice, gives that tantalising prospect of a Kubica victory all the time. And if anyone deserves a Grand Prix win this year...

 

[Boyle]

OK, who else had Hulkenberg for pole? Great to see Williams back up there and putting a cat well and truly amongst the pigeons.

 

[Brogan]

Unbelievable!

It will be interesting to see if he's on a wet setup, which may compromise his race.

Great for Nico and Williams though and should make for an interesting 1st corner.

 

[tooncheese]

That could well be the best pole lap since senna at monaco (cant remember the year). Hate to be a bit depressing, but he may have and seup more biased to wet, and if he isnt mugged at the first few turns the title contenders will leapfrog him at the pitstops. Nice job nico

 

[Enja]

Good job by Hulkenberg, that puts a spanner in the works.

Can't see him holding onto a podium tomorrow I'm afraid.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Brogan said:
It will be interesting to see if he's on a wet setup, which may compromise his race.

Unless it rains

 

[Speshal]

Blimey time

The spanner is well amongst the pigeons, could well be an interesting drag into the first corner.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

What side of the track is pole on?

 

[snowy]

The right side, I believe.

With the rain there shouldn't be that much of a difference in grip off the line, so P2, 4 and 6 may well benefit by being on the inside into turn one.

I don't think The Incredible Hulk could have set that time with a wet set up. It's the championship contenders who need to worry they almost certainly hedged their bets and went for setups with wet qualifying in mind, fearing the likes of Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button.

 

[Brogan]

Apparently Hamilton is on a completely wet setup so if it is dry tomorrow he's not going to be able to fend off the cars around him.

 

[FB]

Brilliant for Williams, brilliant for Hulkenberg and brilliant for F1. I don't care if Hulk is on pole because of wet qualie I think moments like this are what I watch F1 for. I only hope Nico can run a few laps in the lead before the Red Bulls swallow him up.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

It seems that Snowy has it exactly right; here is an extract from Emlyn Hughes' Brazilian weather forecast on the Autosport website:

Sat 19:41
Nico Hulkenberg made light work of the heavy weather at Interlagos to claim a sensational pole position for tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix as Williams opted for a fully dry set-up while others surprisingly added downforce to their cars.

Qualifying delivered the last of this weekend's rain and conditions will now begin to improve as the band of heavy showers moves away to the north-east of Brazil.

Overnight, the clouds will continue to break and race day will begin dry and reasonably sunny with a few clouds around. The trend will continue as the grand prix approaches and it is set to be a dry race with clear skies in prospect.

This makes perfect sense when you think about it, as the Hulk's best times were set on slicks on a dry(ish) track, so you would expect a dry set-up to have done better than a wet one.

But Hamilton, in his post-race interview with Lee Mckenzie, said that he thought his car had good race pace and that he would be in a good position to take the fight to his rivals tomorrow. So was he fibbing, or was he on a dry set-up today too? He also said that he had been held up towards the end of his last run, as if to suggest that he might otherwise have been able to challenge Hulkenberg, or at least the Red Bulls.

 

[FB]

LH from the F1.com website:

On the other hand, on my final lap, I got a bit held up in the final corner when someone was backing-up ahead of me, which was frustrating. But the car didn’t feel too bad - it wasn’t spectacularly good in the wet, but it felt a lot better in the dry at the end of Q3. For tomorrow, I think we’ve got good race pace and good end-of-straight speed; so, yes, I think we’re in a good position. We’re definitely still in the world championship fight. I’m confident that I’ll be able to battle my way forwards from fourth position on the grid, because we’re all close at the front.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/11/11481.h

 

[fat jez]

It's amazing what the threat of losing your race seat can do for a driver's qualifying performance. That aside, I am very pleased to see a Williams at the sharp end of the grid.

 

[Brogan]

That's very interesting.
So a dry set up was better in those conditions than one with more downforce?

 

[Muddytalker]

That's very interesting.
So a dry set up was better in those conditions than one with more downforce?

Dry line, dry tyres, dry set up - Makes sense to me, and I'm surprised the expert team on BBC1 didn't pick up on it. How would gambling a wet set-up with slicks/a drying track make a car that has been around 2 sec a lap slower than the best suddenly 1 second quicker?

It looks to me like the sly old foxes at Williams have pulled a fast one on the Nervous Nerys' who are busy fending off each other's moves, simply by throwing away the PC simulation models and applying a bit of old-fashioned racecraft.

 

[Brogan]

Well even in the last minute of Q3 we saw cars going wide and slithering around corners so I'm still amazed that the extra downforce on the cars with wet set ups didn't help with regards to that.

Just goes to show just how unpredictable F1 can be sometimes.

 

[Muddytalker]

Well even in the last minute of Q3 we saw cars going wide and slithering around corners so I'm still amazed that the extra downforce on the cars with wet set ups didn't help with regards to that.

Just goes to show just how unpredictable F1 can be sometimes.

True; The question is, with Nico on the right set up for the race whilst others are compromised, can he fend them off?