Grand Prix 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So it all comes down to the final race. The prancing horse versus the charging bull. The passionate Catalan versus the efficient German. Red versus Blue. Enough of the clichés, Vettel has a 13 point lead over Alonso going in to the race between the lakes so only has to finish in front of the Spaniard to claim his third title in a row. All the pressure will be on Ferrari and Alonso to give the Spaniard his third title and they probably need something to go wrong at Red Bull to stand any chance of winning, if their pace in the USA was anything to go by.

After his victory in the USA Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to leave McLaren on a high note. Lotus, surely, would love a second victory in 2012 but as fast as the car is it can't compete with the top 3 teams. Felipe Massa is starting to regain some of his old form and will, without doubt, be required to ride shotgun to Alonso. Mark Webber will be looking to win again at Interlagos but I doubt Vettel will suffer similar "brake" problems as he had last year.

The constructors championship is all sown up with Red Bull champions again. McLaren could steal 2nd place from Ferrari but a stronger performance from Jenson Button is needed in Brazil. Last year he was 3rd, two McLaren men in the top 4 could win them a few extra millions from FOM.

The final factor to build in is the weather. Brazil is notorious for changeable weather conditions and a sprinkling of rain could turn things Alonso's way. So tune next Sunday for the final event of 2012, but before then feel free to express your opinions below and don't forget to check out the circuit write up.

http://cliptheapex.com/pages/autodromo-jose-carlos-pace-interlagos/

 

[Brogan]

I don't see it like that at all.
Senna didn't lock up and he wasn't going wide, just following the line around the corner.

 

[Mephistopheles]

That's how I saw it as well Brogan

 

[Brogan]

Obviously the stewards saw neither driver at fault, or at least that's what they want everyone to believe, but for there to not even be an investigation is highly unusual.

 

[The Artist.....]

Brogan,

The cynic in me thought:
"Maybe the stewards gave the Hulk a penalty later in the race to compensate for the fact that they hadn't given Vettel one earlier in the race - as a direct penalty to Vettel might have looked harsh whilst he was competing for the championship, but the penalty to the Hulk had the quality that it meant that Alonso was moved further up the order!"

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Pretty poor race from Vettel and significantly poorer than his title rival but over the course of the season Vettel and Red Bull have got the job done and so fair play to them. I had a feeling he would choke under the pressure this weekend as he had been looking very cagey and he most certainly did. Thankfully for him, the gods were there to help out and give him the Heimlich Manoeuvre, though, and he used his final extra-life to good effect.

Congrats to Vettel, Newey, Horner, Rocky and all the other guys that made Vettel's championship. A team to be reckoned with on all occasions.

 

[Josh]

I think he stayed remarkably calm after his first lap incident, I haven't seen much choking from Vettel this weekend. Care to expand?

 

[Fenderman]

All choking aside. I have been disecting the clip ZakspeedYakspeed posted and it is proving to be very interesting indeed. I will post it shortly as a PDF because frame by frame it tells us a lot about both Vettel's and Maldonado's charges into the contact. I'm having to slice it up in quite a primitive way due to the Cromagnon laptop I'm having to work with, so please bear with me.

 

[Brogan]

Well he certainly didn't qualify as high as he would have normally and that was one of, if not the worst starts I have seen him make.

The pressure undoubtedly affected him last weekend.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

The fact he had that incident was a pretty big sign of choking. His mistakes in qualli were a good sign of choking. Him holding his head in his hands after quali looking in despair was a good sign of choking. I completely agree with you regarding his composure after his crash and I alluded to that in my post.

 

[Brogan]

He should just be thankful he didn't have a mysterious gearbox software glitch, rather than a double collision

 

[Josh]

Oh right, I misunderstood you ExtremeNinja . Thanks for explaining

 

[mnmracer]

Let's see here:

Qualifying

• Vettel qualifies 0.1s and 1 place just behind his team-mate
• Alonso qualifies 0.3s and qualifies 3 places behind his team-mate

Mistakes

• Vettel is involved in 1 racing incident in the middle of the pack in turn 4.
• Alonso runs off the track twice in clean air.

Team mate

• Vettel's team mate squeezed him at the start, let him by once but did little for Vettel's competition.
  Vettel was had the race pace over Webber, despite a broken floor.
• Alonso's team created gaps left and right for Alonso, and let him past 3 times.
  Massa had the race pace over Alonso.

Race pace

• Vettel fights his way back from 22nd to 6th, than 17th to 4th and again 11th to 6th, despite a broken radio, despite a broken floor and despite two botched pit stops.
• Alonso spend his time in 4th until HAM-HUL promoted him to 2nd.

 

[Jen]

Haven't come across the word 'choking' since the bad old days.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Well, nobody wants to go back there, Jen, so why don't we just stay here?

 

[teabagyokel]

Let's have less baiting here please.

 

[mnmracer]

Very simple when you're ignoring 8/10 of the equation.
Vettel's race was not turn 3, as Alonso's race was not turn 1, twice.

Your whole argument is based on 1 turn in a 1065 turn race.
Surely you don't think basing Alonso's season based on Korea is fair?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

You only have to crash your car on one corner for it all to be over. Vettel was very lucky that his accident didn't end up worse. It wasn't skill that stopped his suspension breaking but it was a poor piece of driving that nearly killed his championship chances. Anyway, that's my point and I have made it. I don't want to be drawn out on it either and I respect your right to disagree.

 

[Irishgreen]

Vettel is a deserving WDC IMO but he was a very lucky boy yesterday.

 

[Quintessentially]

^ As he has been on a number of occasions this season but well done to him. He worked his way back up and i was surprised to see him in the top ten a few laps after spinning. Surely Toro Rosso only run two cars (joke)? Overall I think Alonso deserved it more but Vettel has been pretty solid when he's needed to and is way too efficient in the Redbull. Next year should be interesting but I'd be surprised if Redbull don't carry over their dominance. Maybe Charlie can find more things to ban. Fastest driver on the grid is off to drive a banger next season and unless Nasa agree to sort out Ferrari's simulator I'm struggling to see where the challenge will come from.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

Brogan

Senna didn't lock up and he wasn't going wide, just following the line around the corner, except that he less than half a car length alongside SV when SV (on the racing line) took the racing line into the corner...

I believe Senna would have run wide out of that corner... he was carrying way too much speed to crib it around on the left...

Perhaps Bruno simply did what Uncle Ayrton did all of his career... I think it was Martin Brundle who said Senna would put his car in a position that gave you the choice of either running into him or avoiding him...

Clearly SV was nervous at the start and who wouldn't be ... 2008 was a long time ago to be mid pack racing around an F1 circuit... these kiddies nowadays have such short attention spans maybe he thought he was in a Toro Rosso braking so early for a lot of the corners on that first lap...