Ted's convinced Vettel will win tomorrow: http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/8707228/ted's-notebook-spain-qualifying He also has some news on Roscoe that Manny's probably itching to hear.
Alonso and Perez could have field days overtaking tomorrow, they're first and third in the speed traps. Alonso's 13kph faster than Webber. 1. Alonso 2. Raikkonen 3. Vettel gap 4. Rosberg 5. Hamilton 6. Perez 7. di Resta 9. Sutil 10. Webber faffing around dnf. Massa with 1,241 tyre failures
If Pirelli are to be believed that requires 1,241 pieces of debris. please log in to view this image What did Grosjean do now?!
Must have hired in outside help. I hear Gutierrez is looking for a reason to be relevant... EDIT: BLS beat me to the insult.
Do think Alonso deserved a grid penalty for China because he crashed into Vettel at Malaysia? He was clearly at fault for causing a collision there. It's only the 6th and 7th pics below that Webber was being held up. Massa moves out of the way very quickly so I can't see him losing more than half a second. Webber probably lost a lot more time by pressing the DRS button too early on turn 9 exit than he did getting blocked by Massa. please log in to view this image
A collision's completely different to a block, it's a racing incident. Massa has no excuses for not checking his mirrors on an outlap, if you block someone it's a penalty. End of. And it's clear from those pictures that Webber's been badly compromised there.
Massa was unfortunate where Webber caught him but he should have gone wide and out the way. The Apex of a corner is not the place to sit when trying to stay out the way
Thankyou for your series of pictures, Forza. I believe you have some track experience yourself – probably enough to know that in this short sequence of shots, the differential in speed was huge? Even without video, it is clear that Webber's lap was severely compromised. Look at the pictures and ask yourself how much of a lift it would have caused you, personally. Then bear in mind what such a lift means in terms of an F1 car's lap time. Regardless of whether or not the next stage of qualifying was reached, you must surely acknowledge that this is not the point and should have no bearing on any penalty, since a rule was clearly breached?
This raises an interesting conundrum for me, especially after Martin Brundle pointed it out on twitter. If Rosberg has the measure of Hamilton this season, and arguably Schumacher had the measure of Rosberg last year...does that mean Schumacher's come-back wasn't as bad as was previously suggested? Granted his "not-crashing-into-the-back-of-people" management was markedly worse, but his actually pace perhaps wasn't too dissimilar to his first career? Hmmmm. Also, Pat Fry was taken ill with kidney stones, but apparently it's now been diagnosed as Appendicitis. I'd guess he'll be back for Monaco based on my limited medical knowledge, I remember being advised a two week lay-off when I had it. Granted I was significantly younger but I was up and about pretty much as normal after 4 days.
Schumi worked hard last year. It sadly went un-noticed. Monaco was a nice example. But his mistakes grabbed more attention. If he was younger it would not have happened.
No new mediums left for the top ten!? Vettel said he would "eat my hat", if somebody stops only twice today.
Looking at it, Vettel's got a good grid slot, and a decent car. Raikkonen, theoretically should be able to cover the race distance in the shortest possible time if he has clean air, judging by their long runs. Alonso has great starts, great straightline speed and a decent race car. Any one of those three could and should win it. So Rosberg will win. He'll break the 1 second to whoever's behind him by lap two and easily manage his tyres in clean air. I always write the winner off and I've written Rosberg off because of the Merc's tyre wear, therefore he will win. Rosberg winning from pole is the most mundane yet least expected result. Therefore it will happen. I'm certain of it.
Will Rosberg be told to swap places with Hamilton if it is viable, surely Hamilton needs the points to remain in solid contention.
Just found out that Sebastien Loeb is in the paddock, cool. Guess he's got a lot more free time nowadays.
