Blimey. That was an eventful first practice Nice to see HRT-Cosworth oiling the first corner at the start of practice.
I said Webber would be back on it this weekend. They've fitted KERS to their car and somehow seem to have jumped ahead of McLaren in terms of tyre conservation. I think the Red Bull's will lock out the front row and then dominate the first half of the race. What happens after that when the heavens inevitably open is anyone's guess. Good to see the new wheel tethers doing their job on Petrov's car, that was a similar failure to Buemi's in China last year when both wheels went flying down the road ahead of him, but the wheel stayed firmly attached this time.
Ferrari still looks ****. Red Bull look like they will cruise to pole if dry. I am hoping for some rain.
Massa was 6th, so assuming he hasn't suddenly decided he's going to beat Alonso we should see Ferrari as the 3rd fastest constructor again. In changeable conditions thats not a bad place to be. Could be better, could be a lot worse (see McLaren 3 weeks ago )
Free practice 3 times: 1 L. Hamilton (ENG) 1:36.340 2 M. Webber (AUS) +00.290 3 J. Button (ENG) +00.422 4 N. Heidfeld (GER) +00.775 5 S. Vettel (GER) +00.835 6 F. Alonso (ESP) +00.944 7 V. Petrov (RUS) +00.957 8 F. Massa (BRA) +01.422 9 K. Kobayashi (JPN) +01.719 10 M. Schumacher (GER) +01.960 11 N. Rosberg (GER) +01.967 12 S. Perez (MEX) +02.108 13 A. Sutil (GER) +02.124 14 P. Maldonado (VEN) +02.257 15 S. Buemi (SUI) +02.325 16 R. Barrichello (BRA) +02.341 17 J. Alguersuari (ESP) +02.376 18 P. Di Resta (SCO) +02.524 19 H. Kovalainen (FIN) +02.920 20 J. Trulli (ITA) +03.359 21 J. d' Ambrosio (BEL) +04.875 22 T. Glock (GER) +05.074 23 V. Liuzzi (ITA) +06.807 24 N. Karthikeyan (IND) +07.043
Aha! just had the Red bulls the wrong way was wrong to think better of Schumi... I sence some finger eating from our Manny sunday afternoon
Nail biting I suppose, but im only grappling onto the fact he his the highest man on the track with fresher tyres, so that may pay off in his favor, and the fact he has the outside line.
Is there really any advantage to being on the outside line. The drivers were keeping it pinned against the pit wall on their timed laps to shorten the distance at the end of the lap, but at the beginning they keep left to give themselves a better line into turn one. Both sides should be pretty much even, it's not like Melbourne where the straight is bookended by two right-handers.
The inside line gathers crap-gravel, starting there must be a disadvantage because more grip is required at the start? I don't know, I always thought the outside line was better to get a better start..
Malaysia is one of only a handful of circuits though where there isn't really an outside line. The drivers move diagonally down the straight because the last corner is a left hander and the first corner is a right hander. Somewhere like Australia (and most other venues) start and finish with a right hander so the drivers keep to the left and a clear line develops. Starting on the right is probably preferable here because the grip is pretty much the same but it helps to have the inside line, I wouldn't be surprised if they switched it.
So after qualifying, who is the happiest? ââ¬Â¦that'll be the top brass at Red Bull who will be delighted at a clear pecking order emerging between their drivers, delaying any need to intervene for the time being. Of the leading protagonists then, Webber will be the most disappointed. This is a circuit where he has to top Vettel if he is to challenge Red Bull's inner desire to have him do a Massa(that's the only mention he warrants here). As far as I know Button had a reasonably clean lap and was not caught up in traffic. He did a super job and has placed the car where it probably is (on merit) in my opinion; behind the Red Bulls. I say this without bias or favour but what Hamilton did was virtually beyond the car's capability. - It might look daft in print but once again he seems to have reached a place out of the reach of mere mortals. Of course, none of this detracts from Vettel's achievement in the best car; fully deserving of Pole with a brilliant lap. Alonso looked untidy. His preference for understeer on turn-in does not suit this circuit; and I think it only fair to say that he finds it very difficult to alter his style. Thus, Ferrari have been out-performed by an emergent McLaren team and must be scratching a few heads. In my opinion, the root of the problem is not one of design. It is a philosophy which results in their drivers not working well as a team (in terms of development). Alonso wants to do it all himself but he actually needs a bit of help from a compliant patsy rather than a disillusioned, de-motivated foot-stool. 4th best are Mercedes but they have been routed by Lotus Renault with Petrov doing an industrial job and Heidfeld showing what he's worth. Schumacher in 11th place has the advantage of choice of set-up unavailable to Rosberg in 9th. Special mention for Kobayashi who did well to get the Sauber into the final shoot-out.
Oh yeah. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90580 That was written half an hour before I posted but I genuinely hadn't seen it. It was written after my first post though.
I don't think the understeer was Alonso's preference. Ferrari are lacking front end downforce and the problems haven't been sorted yet. Once again the Ferrari was difficult to handle regardless of the driver and given what we saw in Sepang Practice, Alonso did pretty well to only have a 0.9 deficit. Alonso is the best driver when it comes to altering his driving style. Hamilton said himself that if he has a perfect lap, he would have gotten pole. Hamilton lost time at the end of his lap while Vettel got it right when it really mattered. I don't know which car is faster, probably still Red Bull by a small margin, but I think Vettel was the better driver today.
No way Jose, surely not. Oh hold on we know what you think http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A83412362. Not true is it. Ferrari don't have a fast cat and Alonso can only just get it within 1 second. Never mind - he only starts to try half way through the season. At least he has DRS to help him past rookies so that his race isn't ruined.
