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

Someone other than Vettel is leading the Championship!

It may be strange to see, but for the first time since Abu Dhabi 2010 someone other than Sebastian Vettel is top of the Championship after Jenson Button won the Australian Grand Prix in commanding fashion with Vettel second and a folorn Hamilton falling foul of a safety car which allowed the German through.

Going into Malaysia it seems apparent that Mclaren have the strongest car as they were far and away the strongest team in Australia and it was only after having to fuel save for 90% of the race that let Red Bull get within distance, when Button and Hamilton were at full throttle for the first 8 laps, they pulled away at over a second a lap which provided a comfortable cushion even though it was wiped out by a safety car due to Vitaly Petrov breaking down on the main straight.

But the Australian Grand Prix raised more questions than it did provide answers, the only thing that we learned was that the not quite so new teams are still as bad as they were last season and Mclaren and Red Bull are the two fastest teams. Ferrari had a shocking qualifying but Fernando Alonso managed to drag it kicking and screaming into 5th place which suggests a better race pace compared to qualifying pace while beleaguered Felipe Massa trundled around in midfield like he was on a Sunday drive in the Australian parks.

lotus are the only team where a question mark still remains about the general competitiveness. Roman Grosjean qualified a remarkable third but was taken out early on by Maldando while returning champion Kimi Raikkonnen failed to get out of first qualifying but managed to fight through the field to finish a very strong seventh which suggests that they do have a strong car but need to ally qualifying with race pace if they are to take the fight to the top teams.

In 2011 Malaysia was a race full of pit stops due to the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres, and while the tyres this year are more conservative and stable, high degradation is still to be expecting and several pit stops are going to be the norm with an unpredictable weekend to come. The only thing to expect is the likelihood of a massive shower at some point during the weekend which would no doubt spice things up.

For Galahad's excellent circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/sepang-international-circuit/

 

[Brogan]

Do you mean the 2011 Malaysian GP?

If so, 207m before T15

 

[johnnoble1990]

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/2012...ying-race-discussion.4629/page-37#post-115827

I've posted what I've calculated to be the average lap pace at Australia. I posted it in Aussie GP thread, as I thought it was more relevant. It shows as most will suspect, Mclaren and Red Bull are ahead of the field, though with less traffic at the front, I reckon the gap is slightly exaggerated. Kimi in the Lotus in particular could be competitive out of traffic. Webber had a lot of traffic too, due to his bad start, so may be much closer than the pace suggests. In fact, he posted some very impressive laps prior to the safety car.

 

[johnnoble1990]

Same as last year as it seems.

That seems very smart. Last year DRS was spot on if I remember rightly. They perhaps could've made it easier, as it seems like tyres aren't going to provide as much overtaking by themselves as last year.

 

[Bushi]

Do you mean the 2011 Malaysian GP?

If so, 207m before T15

No i mean the one in Australia. Don't mean the trap aswell, but the highest speed that was recorded during the race.

 

[Bushi]

That seems very smart. Last year DRS was spot on if I remember rightly. They perhaps could've made it easier, as it seems like tyres aren't going to provide as much overtaking by themselves as last year.

Two DRS points would be a bit to easy at this track.

 

[johnnoble1990]

Two DRS points would be a bit to easy at this track.

I was thinking, make it longer, but have realised they can't.

 

[Brogan]

No i mean the one in Australia. Don't mean the trap aswell, but the highest speed that was recorded during the race.

Ricciardo at the finish line, 308.7kph

Hamilton at the trap, 313.8kph

 

[johnnoble1990]

Don't know if it is just me, but is anyone else impressed by Jean-Eric Vergne. He seemed so relaxed on the grid when talking to Martin. He is only 2 months older than myself, and I can't imagine how somebody can take something like this so in their stride at 21. He showed himself to be a realist too, pointing out to Martin that he genuinely didn't know what to expect from the race because it was all knew to him. He was very quick in the young driver test last year, and in the free practices he did. He's the only rookie in the top 9 teams.

Daniel Ricciardo was in many ways the opposite, but also impressive. He seemed extremely confident (bordering cocky), like he had been doing it for years, when really, we may as well consider him a rookie, because you probably gain as much F1 experience at Hispania, as GP2 drivers do in GP2.

The whole grid this year is filled with exciting talent, you could talk for days on each one.

 

[Slyboogy]

The two year difference between Ricciardo and Vergne could e the difference in attitude plus the few races Ricciardo had last season.

I thought Vergne was impressive, and was unlucky to get a point as Di Resta and Ricciardo I think where helped a lot by the safety car, but he did also have a bit of an off.

Plus I think that Toro Rosso car is quite good.

 

[tranquility2k9]

"Lewis Hamilton says post-race analysis has helped him pinpoint why he slipped back in the Australian Grand Prix, leaving him in a far more optimistic frame of mind heading into Malaysia." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98230

Looks like Hamilton has found answers as to why he didn't have the race pace in Australia. Looks like Jenson just got his tyres "switched on" quicker. That seems strange to me as Lewis always gets his tyres switched on for qualifying more quickly than Jenson but then it might be a different thing for the race.

 

[johnnoble1990]

Makes sense. Whether or not Lewis struggles with tyres at end of stints is open to debate, but I've never seen him lacking pace at the start of a stint like he did in the opening laps of Australia. In the 2nd stint, Lewis and Jenson were almost identical, and post-SC Lewis was in traffic, but still only 0.2 seconds a lap off Jenson

 

[Bill Boddy]

From the start in Oz Button was straight up to speed, I presume because the car balance was right for a full load of fuel and he got the tyres straight up to temperature. The first few laps from the FIA race timing were:

Button Hamilton
17:05:07 17:05:08
1:33.414 1:34.297
1:33.350 1:33.566
1:33.101 1:33.347
1:32.984 1:33.446
1:33.117 1:33.380

Afaik the long time for the first lap is due to the timing starting at the 15 minutes to go point.

 

[teabagyokel]

Afaik the long time for the first lap is due to the timing starting at the 15 minutes to go point.

It is difficult to understand the possible motives for doing that...

 

[johnnoble1990]

I think a lot of the damage was done in that first lap too, wasn't it. Just like Vettel last year. Perhaps this trend of the front guy pulling away is exactly because of that. It is easier to get your tyres where you want them without anybody in front of you.

 

[johnnoble1990]

It is difficult to understand the possible motives for doing that...

It is a tad annoying that, because it leaves us without any first lap data. Do we know of anywhere we can get replacements for it? Or is the first lap actually lap 2?

 

[steveg]

Glad they now know what the problem was. Still a bit weary of Red Bull at Sepang though with its high speed corners - the battle will probably be in the middle sector - if Hami manages to get pole here then really will start to drool about the car.

 

[Bushi]

Ricciardo at the finish line, 308.7kph

Hamilton at the trap, 313.8kph

Do you also know them from merc and RB?

 

[johnnoble1990]

I think if Mercedes get a better balance between Quali and Race pace, they may also be a threat. The length of their 7th gear they must've needed to take advantage of super DRS. They are perhaps better off using it as an excuse for heaping max downforce on their car, as they'll make up for the extra drag with the DRS. Alternatively, the long back and home straights will help them take more advantage of their system.

 

[Bill Boddy]

It is a tad annoying that, because it leaves us without any first lap data. Do we know of anywhere we can get replacements for it? Or is the first lap actually lap 2?

I feel pretty sure that lap 2 is what it says it is since the last lap in the pdf is shown as lap 58. I agree completely that the time for the first lap is silly, maybe we should all put in a complaint to the FIA. They seem to be a reasonable, obliging set of folk.

 

[Wombcat]

I think if Mercedes get a better balance between Quali and Race pace, they may also be a threat. The length of their 7th gear they must've needed to take advantage of super DRS. They are perhaps better off using it as an excuse for heaping max downforce on their car, as they'll make up for the extra drag with the DRS. Alternatively, the long back and home straights will help them take more advantage of their system.

The thing with DRS is that most likely you're not going to use it for a large part of the race. And then the extra drag from the max downforce will seriously hamper their straightline speed.

IMO the reason for the difference in speed by Mercedes is their DRS. In quali it's super effective, because you can use it anytime you want. In the race it's not so effective, you can only use it in the DRS zones if you're less than 1 second behind the car in front of you.