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

Valencia........

Even Abu Dhabi and Bahrain are more exciting in comparison. Valencia is the only grand prix on the calendar that I genuinley do not look forward to. It's dull, boring and hasn't provided an interesting race at all since its inception on the F1 calendar in 2008. Thankfully it won't be a regular feature in the future as it will be alternating with Barcelona in the future.

Going into the Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton is back as the Championship leader after becoming the 7th driver to win in 7 races with victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. After missing out on the podium in recent races he was back with vengeance after fighting back from starting second and being third with 10 laps to go but thanks to fresher tyres he made easy work of Vettel and Alonso in the latter laps who fell away after a gamble to one stop failed. In the end Roman Grosjean and Sergio Perez finished on the podium and it is testament to the unpredictably of 2012 that it wasn't the first time either of them have been on the podium this season.

From race to race no team has been consistently at the very front, in Spain it was Williams, in Monaco it was Red Bull and in Canada it was McLaren. Both Ferrari and Lotus have probably been the most consistent package over recent weeks but not enough to win races with podium places the highest they can manage, but considering the start to the season Ferrari made, that probably isn't a bad thing and Alonso is only 2 points off the championship leader with world champion Vettel just one point behind in third.

It's a complete reversal of 2011 as this time last year Hamilton left Canada with a world of problems after a DNF which involved a collision with team mate Button who went on to win one of the best races of his career passing Vettel on the last lap. But 12 months later Hamilton won the race with Button finishing a lapped 16th. What's worse for the 2009 champion is that was on merit as well and not down to any car failures or pit problems, it marks a horrid fall from grace after winning the opening race in Melbourne and an early run of podiums but now he is struggling to even get into Q3 and convert that into points finishes. Button appears clueless as to where the problem lies and it may not be a short term fix as the car isn't slow as Hamilton is currently proving. It could be already over as far as Button's title hopes are concerned as he is currently 43 points behind Hamilton and has roughly half the points total.

It is also interesting to note that Button was further behind the leader last season and he was second in the championship, while at the moment he lies in 8th behind both Lotus drivers who are the only front running drivers yet to win a race (excluding Schumacher) and having come close in Bahrain and Spain they will want to be the next winners and take the total to 8 winners in 8 races and with both Raikkonen and Grosjean closely matched it's hard to say who is the more likely. But it's Grosjean's form which is the most surprising, a lot of people questioned why he was given the driver role given the way he was outperformed in 2009 and a lot of people said he would be outraced by the returning Finn, but after 7 races he is only 2 points behind and that is despite several first lap incidents where he has been the innocent part in some cases but not others (Malaysia). With the pendulum swinging from race to race it is hard to predict who will have the upper hand in the Spanish heat.

For Galahad's brilliant circuit write up - http://cliptheapex.com/pages/valencia-street-circuit/

 

[KekeTheKing]

Telling, and supremely disturbing no-FIAt-please

When everybody in the paddock knows that a certain driver will unabashedly drive his car into another's, then I think it is a clear testimonial to the fact that the driver in question needs a severe sanction or he will continue to make these egregious maneuvers. (He has not received this sanction....)

And when the driver who is 100% at fault is adamant that it was the other guys fault, you realize what kind of person you're dealing with. Someone who will never learn, and will continue to be a menace to every other driver in the field.

 

[Slyboogy]

WOOW!!! What a race! Didn't think I would be able to stay up for this race as I was very tired from work, but I managed it! Was annoyed by Sky though! 5 laps from the end, some sort of issue stopped the recording, had to watch the rest on the BBC iplayer, and navigating through the whole race on the iPod was a nightmare .

What didn't the race have?! It had overtaking, incidents, crashes, cars dropping out, even cars dropping out from the lead! Reminded me of the late 90s!

It's about time Valencia delivered! With these rules, are we now regretting it alternating with Catalunya, rather than Catalunya getting dropped altogether? Hm...better not get ahead of myself.

Anyway, first of all, that is a real shame for Vettel, reminded me a bit off Korea 2010, where he did everything right, only for the car to let him down. Shame for Grosjean too, wasn't that fast in clean air as he thought he would be after he dispatched Hamilton though. Similar problems causing the Renault engines to stop after safety car....coincidence?

Alonso was great, but also very lucky. Lucky from the start, then with safety car, Hamilton's pitstop, then Grosjean and Vettel retiring, a lot of luck eh? Ferrari clearly knew they had the pace this weekend, espcially after they tried to do one less run in Q2 compared to everyone else, only to be knocked out. But despite that luck, he made some great overtakes, as usual, driving like a man posessed, no one seems to have pointed it out, but I'm sure he had fresh set of tyres kicking around which must have helped his cause. His first stint was amazing.

Raikkonen I thought was unlucky, and unsually unaggressive. Had a great start, but only to be blocked off by a demolition derby driver (Pastor Maldonado), thus losing several places, from 4th, down to 7th, when it looked like if he could have went right into 3rd by the first corner. After there, it was a uphill struggle, the Lotus car for some reason didn't have top speed like it did at the start of the season. Drivers placing their cars on the inside, meant the Finn had to always do his overtaking around the outside, which is no mean feat, causing him to be a bit tentative. If he hadn't gotten blocked off at the start, I think it was likely he would have won, or at least put in a challenge for the win.

Schumacher's podium came as a surprise, but it was a nice surprise. After having the worst luck this season, he got lucky to finish on the podium after not looking like scoring any points, helped by the safety car, but Mercedes got their strategy right, and the old dog fought well to finally get a podium place ever since his return, it was only a matter of time, it should have come much earlier on in the season. Started on the prime tyres to get that out of the way, it looked as if it wasn't going to work, as he, Perez and Vergne were just falling behind, but Schumacher managed to come through, to get the final place on the podium.

The podium reminded me of the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the old dogs at the top

Webber managed to salvage fourth after starting 19th, like Schumacher. Didn't really make up many places at the start, looked as if points weren't going to be on the cards, but the last stint like Schumacher's is what elevated him up the field, behind Schumacher the whole race, to salvage 4th from nowhere, and with two championship contenders failing to score, must be a great bonus for him.

I thought Hulkenberg drove fantastically, kept Alonso at bay for several laps, despite brake issues, been bit unlucky this season, but managed to to stay out of trouble and grab a handful of points. Hasn't been the easiest season for him, was hassling Raikkonen after the Finn got a bad start, pace wasn't as great as many made it out to be, but still he came through to claim his highest finish in F1 (I think).

Rosberg I thought was very fortunate to get any points, was poor all race. Started 6th, fell back to 11th and didn't do much throughout the race, pace was poor, until the end where he started setting fastest laps. Pipped by many as the dark horse for the race, well he was more like a dark donkey at the start. If the following: Vettel, Grosjean, Kobayashi, Hamilton, Maldonado didn't have their problems, he would have finished outside the points. But the late charge was impressive, was surprised how he managed to get 6th, just the way it goes.

Paul di Resta was hyping himself up for the race, only to finish 7th, poor strategy by the Force India guys, the one stopper was more of a hinderance than anything else, like Rosberg, was lucky to finish in 7th, infact, I'm not going to write about the guys from 8th onwards, as they were very fortunate to see the points.

Many expected Sauber to do well in this race, if Senna didn't chop Kobayashi, then they would have challenged for the podium, but it wasn't to be, instead, Kobayshi got involved in another collision taking himself out of the points totally. Perez was lucky to salvage 9th after starting 15th, very poor weekend for him when compared to his team-mate's qualifying and race pace.

Button was just horrendous, his team-mate in the same car was fighting for the podium, while Button was just lurking around outside the top 10 for most of the race, looked like he was back judging by his practice form, but he wasn't. Very big slump in the middle of the season for him.

Hamilton seems to have found a new enemy this year, no, not Maldonado, more like his pit crew, It probably cost him a position altogether, and the coming together with Maldonado might have not have even came about.

As for Maldonado, the guy was just horrendous this race, pushing people off the track at any oppurtunity, but when it happens to him, he has the cheek to complain? But to be fair to him, we did see many cars going side by side into that corner, with the outside car giving the other space, was the first time in that race, that I saw a driver getting pushed off at the track there. But there's a run off area there, use it, you would have passed him soon anyway!

It still angers me when drivers defend so hard when it's a lost cause, why bother?! Bruno Senna seems to do it a hell of a lot, it's most likely going to cause a collision, just stop it, there's no need.

As for the championship, now that Alonso has bit of a lead, I think he has probably won it, when he was up there when others had problems he was in the championship hunt, now that his car is up there, I think that's it. The only person who I can see challenging him is probably Vettel. Red Bull have brought several upgrades, Vettel seems strong, same can't be said about McLaren, Hamilton just has to do what Alonso did at the start of the season, make the most of it until McLaren can fight for wins. Webber just picks up points, but I don't think he has it like the other three. Despite all that, Alonso is due a DNF, or a non points scoring finish, 20 races in a row he's finished in the points, DNF time, oh how that will open up the championship again!

Had a lot to write about, rambled on too much, apologies.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

It is such a shame that the three best car-driver packages on the day and of the weekend DNF'd through no fault of their own. The saving grace is that the fourth, fifth and sixth best driver-car packages replaced them on the podium, and in the correct order.

 

[The Artist.....]

It's very difficult to argue that alonso wasn't the second best car/driver package. Ok, so he got ahead of hamilton through the pit stops, but alonso was faster through the course of the race!

 

[F1 Shift.net]

The Ferrari race pace has been as good, if not better than any of the other top teams. Maybe Red Bull proved in Valencia they are back, but the Ferrari is right there. Well, maybe the Ferrari isn't quite there, but with Alonso behind the wheel, it is...

 

[Jos the Boss]

Rosberg I thought was very fortunate to get any points, was poor all race. Started 6th, fell back to 11th and didn't do much throughout the race, pace was poor, until the end where he started setting fastest laps

Disagree, he had good pace in the first stint and lasted longest on the options, he got unfortunate on the safety car restart but I think he couldn't get heat into his tyres, Schumacher passed him on the exit of T25 and then he was swamped

 

[Slyboogy]

Doesn't change my opinion.

Started 6th, fell back to 11th, finished 6th.

Team-mate started 12th, fell back to 13th, and finished 3rd.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

It's very difficult to argue that alonso wasn't the second best car/driver package. Ok, so he got ahead of hamilton through the pit stops, but alonso was faster through the course of the race!

So you think Alonso/Ferrari was a better package than Grosjean/Lotus and Vettel/Red Bull, alternators aside?

 

[The Artist.....]

I'd suggest that vettel was streets ahead of everyone... Alonso and grosjean were probably on a level... Hamilton was some way behind. Certainly, there's no way I would rank Hamilton/mclaren higher than alonso/ferrari this weekend!

 

[Jos the Boss]

Senna hit Schumacher at Turn 1 and lost a small piece of his front wing, not relevant to anything, just saying!

 

[snowy]

It still angers me when drivers defend so hard when it's a lost cause, why bother?! Bruno Senna seems to do it a hell of a lot, it's most likely going to cause a collision, just stop it, there's no need.

Ayton Senna vs Nigel Mansell Monaco 1992.
It is possible for a driver in a slower car to hold off a far superior car and for two drivers to contest a motor race with vigour, courage and respect. Backing out of a move that is doomed to failure is part of race craft. Lewis underestimated Felipe Massa's resolve last year a number of times, clearly Maldonado shouldn't have underestimated Lewis's resolve.

......

Running wide on the exit of corners on worn out tyres is quite common and not always intentional, especially if you entered the corner from a defensive inside line.

 

[RickD]

Ayton Senna vs Nigel Mansell Monaco 1992.
.

That says it all, a place that is even harder to overtake than Valencia..

 

[Slyboogy]

My point wasn't towards Lewis Hamilton defending, I found his defence to be fine, it's more so those on worn tyres out of position fighting for no purpose, you'll go faster not fighting the guy and lettin him through rather than being dangerous in your defence.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

He wasn't dangerous in his defence, though. Maldonado was dangerous in his attack. Granted, Lewis could have avoided that danger but there should be no place in Formula One for dangerous drivers. It's dangerous enough as it is without allowing lunatics in the cars.

 

[Slyboogy]

I wasn't talking about Lewis Hamilton, I don't see where the misunderstanding is coming from.

I initially meant Bruno Senna who tends do it several times, and a few others. I didn't blame Hamilton at all in his defence, infact I said it was fine.

 

[The Artist.....]

In your opinion....

Many would argue that jinking to the left in the braking zone; and then running the other car off the track could be perceived as dangerous too! And before you accuse me of favouritism, button's defence against Schumacher was overly aggressive and potentially dangerous!

 

[teabagyokel]

For those who think 2012 Formula One is a lottery, there is a lottery within F1 this year. Yes, its the:

WHO WILL BE HIT BY A WILLIAMS-RENAULT RAFFLE?

Always produces a winner...

 

[The Pits]

I'm fairly sure that we will all be hit by one of them by Brazil...

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Very simple misunderstanding Slyboogy. My apologies. An incident packed race. To be honest, Senna is pretty anonymous for me now. I defended him for a while saying that he deserved time to prove himself and I think he's proved himself as an also-ran. It's a shame. I like him and hoped he would do well. He just doesn't seem to have all that it takes. I saw the crash and thought, "Oh well", and then pretty much forgot about it. It wasn't an aggressive or dangerous move, in my opinion, more careless. I wouldn't have handed out any penalties there. Seemed little more or less than 50-50. A racing incident. The stewards however, saw more than we did. Apparently there was a different view which we didn't have privvy to and so it's hard to judge and the likelihood is that I'm wrong.

 

[teabagyokel]

Just from another thread I saw this:

Just look at the sheer speed Sebastian Vettel had in that opening stint...