The Suzuka Grid - how did they work it out?

[Brian_W_Lawrence]

I haven't read the regs. yet, but they apparently process any penalties in strict chronological order.
The final grid as published this morning is here: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/jpn09_race_grid.pdf

At the bottom of the page it refs. the FIA documents that relate to each penalty (or event).
The documents are numbered chronologically and are:

23 12.57 Liuzzi gearbox change -5
25 ??.?? Webber chassis change pitlane start
28 17.52 Alonso speeding -5
29 18.05 Barrichello speeding -5
30 18.07 Button speeding -5
31 18.08 Sutil speeding -5
35 19.18 Buemi impeding -5
---------
39 10.02 Kovalainen gearbox change -5
41 ??.?? Glock withdrawnThe last two were issued on Sunday.Taking them in order, Liuzzi 'qualified' 19th, so would be relegated to last, Webber moves
up from 20th to 19th.Webber now in 19th gets moved to pitlane (20th), Liuzzi back to 19th. These two are fine,
no problem with them.Alonso was first past Buemi's accident. He was 12th, so drops to 17th (KUB, GLO, ALG, FIS &
NAK all move up one place [12th-16th]).Barrichello was 5th so drops to 10th (HEI, BUT, RAI, KOV, BUE all move up 5th-9th).Button became 6th, so drops to 11th (RAI, KOV, BUE, BAR & ROS move up 6th-10th).Sutil was 4th so drops to 9th (HEI, RAI, KOV, BUE & BAR move up 4th-8th).Buemi became 7th so drops to 12th (BAR, SUT, ROS, BUT & KUB move up 7th-11th).Kovalainen became 6th so drops to 11th (BAR, SUT, ROS, BUT & KUB move up 6th-10th).Glock was still in 13th, so ALG, FIS, NAK, ALO, GRO, LIU & WEB move up 13th-19th.That leaves us with this grid:1 S Vettel
2 J Trulli
3 L Hamilton
4 N Heidfeld
5 K Räikkönen
6 R Barrichello
7 A Sutil
8 N Rosberg
9 J Button
10 R Kubica
11 H Kovalainen
12 S Buemi
13 J Alguersuari
14 G Fisichella
15 K Nakajima
16 F Alonso
17 R Grosjean
18 V Liuzzi
19 M WebberThe actual grid had Rosberg (7th) ahead of Sutil (8th), Kubica (9th) ahead of
Button (10th), and Alguersuari (12th) ahead of Buemi (13th).I thought of two things that might change it - firstly they knew on Saturday
that Glock's car needed to be rebuilt so that would mean he would join Webber
in the pitlane. Removing Glock earlier would move positions 13-20 up by one
which would actually put Grosjean ahead of Alonso - and that didn't happen.Secondly, suppose they processed Buemi before the four who 'ignored' the yellows?
Doing this would leave the same grid as above, with 3 pairs of drivers
seemingly transposed.

 

[Brian_W_Lawrence]

OK, I've had it explained to me!

They processed the five drivers in this order:

Alonso

Barrichello

Buemi

Button

Sutil

By doing Buemi in the middle they demoted Sutil, Button & Buemi by an extra place

and elevated Rosberg, Kubica & Alguersuari.

Don't ask me why!

[/color]

 

[Brogan]

I was confused about the grid.
It does seem as if some drivers were penalised more than others.

From what I've read, didn't they penalise 2 of the yellow flag offences, then Buemi, then the other 2?

It seems mad to do it that way if they did.

Surely Buemi offended first by impeding and then driving an unsafe car?
Then all the 4 drivers should have been processed one after the other.

 

[Brogan]

Too late
You posted as I was composing my answer.

As you say Brian, it makes no sense but apparently Buemi was only officially penalised after 2 drivers had ignored the yellows.

Surely that's something that needs to be addressed as it is hardly fair that 2 drivers receive different grid drops for the same offence committed at the same time?

 

[McZiderRed]

Before the race, some-one said (was it Ross Brawn or Button? ... aaarrghhh! I can't remember. It was early in the morning! ) in an interview, that they were OK with how the grid was reshuffled? From the outside though, the way they worked out the grid seems absolutely crazy, IMO.

 

[Brogan]

A conspiracy theorist would say it was done to make the championship a bit closer...

 

[Brian_W_Lawrence]

Before the race, some-one said (was it Ross Brawn or Button? ... aaarrghhh! I can't remember. It was early in the morning! ) in an interview, that they were OK with how the grid was reshuffled? From the outside though, the way they worked out the grid seems absolutely crazy, IMO.

James Allen says that Brawn have seen an FIA doc. that explains how it was done.

 

[GeoffP]

Before the race, some-one said (was it Ross Brawn or Button? ... aaarrghhh! I can't remember. It was early in the morning! ) in an interview, that they were OK with how the grid was reshuffled? From the outside though, the way they worked out the grid seems absolutely crazy, IMO.

James Allen says that Brawn have seen an FIA doc. that explains how it was done.

I've seen an equation that proves 1=0, I think they went to the same logic reservoir.

Personally I'd love to see the document that clarifies how Buemi's infringement fitted into the three second gap between the Brawns.

I don't know when I would say he should have been punished, maybe Q1 for driving an unsafe car back to the pits (seeing as how is was qualifying).

 

[fat jez]

They may have felt that Buemi's penalty shouldn't be applied until he arrived back in the pits with a damaged car, which would mean his penalty would come after Barichello and Button's penalties.

Don't agree with that if it is the case, just hypothesising.