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

The 2012 season is down to the final quarter with just five races remaining.

McLaren seem to have run out of steam and barring an incredible run of results, coupled with some misfortune for the other front runners, it looks like they won't be taking any silverware home with them this year. Again.

Alonso has enjoyed an incredible stint at the front for the previous eight races since the European GP.
What's more incredible is that includes two non-scoring races, thanks mainly to his rivals messing up, all too frequently.

That looks to be coming to an end though as Red Bull seem to have rediscovered their form from last year and barring mistakes, Vettel should pass him at Korea to take the lead in the WDC.
In fact, it's hard to see past Vettel and Red Bull for both championships now, which would make it three in a row for both.

Which means it's all about the runner up places now.
Second place could go to any one of five different drivers: Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Webber, and Button.

A decent result for Massa finally saw him break clear of the bottom group of points scorers; jumping PĂ©rez into ninth place, who ironically managed to take himself out trying to overtake the driver he's replacing at McLaren next year.
As Brundle would say, "he ran out of talent".

Can Kobayashi repeat his podium and improve his prospects for next year?

Can Grosjean get past the first corner without hitting anyone?

All these questions and more will be answered in a little under six days.

Last year's podium consisted of Vettel, Hamilton and Webber and it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see that repeated this year.

Circuit details and stat's here: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/korean-international-circuit/
 
Hamilton? Only joking!!
Heard an interview with Kimi asking him has he done much simulator work to learn the track & his reply was along the lines of 'none, I get in the car & drive, that's how I learn the track'... you just have to :goodday: to the man.
 
There was a discussion in FP2 about whether it was fair for the driver to take a 5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change as most drivers if not all get through more than 4 gearboxes in a season anyway and wouldn't it be better to have the same rules that apply to engines, none of the drivers were mentioned by name it was just a general discussion, and guess what?

Some numpty tweeted in saying that the fans weren't thick they could understand the rule and it was only being discussed because Jenson Button took a hit last weekend, :rolleyes: :givemestrength: quite rightly Crofty was miffed by this and said so..

FFS Not everything in F1 is discussed because of one driver or another.
 
There was also some discussion over why Vergne was penalised and Vettel not for the same offence. It was said that because of the yellows Vettel might not have been expecting anyone to be trying for a fastest lap but it was also pointed out that he should know that there were drivers who were only having one run late on. There was also speculation that the start could have been quite different since Webber would ahve been on the dry side with better traction and Alonso would probably have been in front of Perez.

But what happened cannot be altered by hindsight or any wishful thinking.
 
Especially as Jenson could actually take a free gearbox this weekend if he chose to, so that would be two gearboxes in one week and the second one without a penalty, he has chosen not to because he wants a fresh one for the last race of the season so clock up three gear boxes used in the last six races of the year out of the four you are allowed, the last one doing one race and then being scrapped, I ask you where is the money being saved with this rule....?
 
Lewis Hamilton getting all the problems at McLaren again....but just escapes thanks to ............My bad..........from Bruno....
 
The drivers may appear to be the face/s of the team, but they're the only ones who get points for the team so penalising them with a grid drop penalizes the team.
 
If there's not going to be a pileup at the start taking out many of the contenders. Luckily Grosjean starts outside the top five.
 
Interesting slip of the tongue from Christian Horner, when speaking of the DRS zone he started to call it the "Double DRS Zone". Shows just how important their Double DRS system is to their cars renaissance. McLaren are probably still considering whether or not it is worth the effort for just one tenth a lap in the race, completely missing the fact that it is worth half a second in qualifying! :crazy:
 
Il_leone, here's a list of all those starting from 11th on the grid so far this season, and their finishing positions:

Melbourne VER 11th
Sepang MAL Ret (classified 19th)
Shanghai VET 5th
Sakhir RAI 2nd
Barcelona WEB 11th
Monaco KOB Ret (classified 21st)
Montreal KOB 9th
Valencia ALO 1st
Silverstone ROS 15th
Hockenheim RIC 13th
Hungaroring WEB 8th
Spa HUL 4th
Monza WEB Ret (classified 20th)
Singapore HUL 14th
Suzuka DIR 12th
Yeongam BUT ?
 
In other words in the 15 races so far, nine of those who started 11th on the grid have finished there or lower (including three retirements) and six have finished higher, notably Alonso winning at Valencia.
 
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