FIA to examine how Massa was able to start ahead of himself in Spa

Posted on | September 2, 2010 | by | 93 Comments

There has been a lot of chat online and in the comments section of this site these past few days about Felipe Massa’s start in Spa.

The Brazilian parked his car ahead of the grid slot he was supposed to take up and thus gained a small advantage from it, certainly over a metre. The FIA’s detection devices didn’t pick it up and he ran his race as normal. Having started sixth on the grid, he was fifth on the first lap, one of the drivers able to take advantage of Mark Webber’s poor start.

What is supposed to happen is that when the car draws up to its grid slot and a tiny transponder in the floor, which is 800mm behind the front wheel centre line, sends a signal to a sensor in the tarmac. If the car isn’t within the tolerated range then the signal doesn’t work and the car is adjudged to have jumped the start, for which a drive through penalty is applied.

This isn’t something you should be able to get around, but clearly Massa’s car managed to do so, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

The FIA said today that it would hold an investigation into how it happened, “The problem was not brought to the attention of the FIA race director by either the marshals nor the automatic jump start system in time to be able to apply the appropriate penalty for jump starts,” said an FIA spokeswoman.

“As no further information or complaints were received before the publication of the official result on Sunday night, the classification of the Belgian Grand Prix will now remain unchanged.

“The FIA are investigating the causes of the apparent failures in communication with race control in order to ensure a repetition is not possible.”

What is interesting about this story is that it is another example of a piece of content produced by a fan and uploaded to You Tube, which has become a talking point for the mainstream F1 media and has brought about direct action from the sport.

Notwithstanding the views of the commercial rights holder, FOM, on user generated content from F1 races on You Tube, this week has seen two such incidents, with the Sebastian Vettel wing flex discussion also being inspired by fans.

Previously we have seen fan generated video feature in changes to safety car rules, such as after Fuji 2007.

This is as it should be and it is good to see that fans are able to have influence and that the sport is paying attention.

First view of Senna movie trailer

Posted on | September 2, 2010 | by | 84 Comments

You will recall I posted a while back on the feature film about Ayrton Senna being made by Working Title and Universal.

The first trailer for the film has come out in Japan and I’m posting it here so you can get a feel for the movie.

I’ve seen it twice, once quite early on when it was in development and then more recently I saw the almost finished version.

It is a fantastic film made by a very dedicated and meticulous crew. They tell the story of Senna, the man and the driver using actual footage and voice over from Senna himself and people who were close to him or worked with him.

The result is a very well crafted and balanced film which I think will delight fans who saw him race and will bring him a whole new generation of younger fans.

My F1 career started in 1990, when he was in his prime in and I had quite a few dealings with him; interviews, conversations and so on. He was an inspirational figure, gloriously talented, deep, intense and frighteningly competitive and this film captures all of that as well as his principles. It also captures the bitterness of his rivalries with other drivers and with political figures at the time.

There is plenty of amazing behind the scenes footage which I had never seen before.

I’m waiting to hear the release dates for the film – should be some time in the New Year in the UK – and the producers have promised me a special JA on F1 screening around launch time, just for fans from this site, with a Q&A afterwards which I will conduct with the film makers.

I can’t wait.

Schumacher competition winner

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | by | 23 Comments

Thanks to the many hundreds of you who entered the competition to predict where Michael Schumacher would start and finish the Belgian Grand Prix, after receiving a ten place grid drop for chopping Rubens Barrichello towards the wall in Hungary.

Many of you correctly predicted that he would start 21st after his 10 place penalty was applied, but few imagined that he would finish as high as 7th.

It could have been quite different. He was quite quick in qualifying and lost time behind Buemi in Q2, otherwise he might have started higher. And in the race, he got a great start and was quickly up to 14th place. Although he was passed in fine style by Vitaly Petrov, he got ahead of Nico Rosberg and would have finished 6th, only Rosberg repassed him shortly before the end.

The winner who was the first to correctly predict that Schumacher would start 21st and finish 7th was Martin Vincent. He’s been informed and we will send a personalised copy of my biography of Schumacher “The Edge of Greatness” to him.

Thanks again for playing, We’ll do it again soon.

Analysis of Red Bull wing flex before Vettel hit Button

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | by | 194 Comments

There has been a clip on the internet for the last 48 hours showing the on board shot from Sebastian Vettel’s car as he lost control and hit Jenson Button.

The clip was originally on You Tube, but has been taken down on the request of FOM. This is to protect the rights of the broadcasters, like BBC, RTL and La Sexta, who also have the online rights in their countries.

As a result the clip is available on the BBC website today and maybe on your local broadcaters’ site. Apologies for raising this if your local broadcaster doesn’t have it, but the point here is very valid. UK readers can see it here BBC F1 website

Fans and insiders alike have been interested to see the amount of deflection in the wing, despite the heavier flex tests the FIA carried out last weekend.

It looks like the wing rolls when one side of it comes clear of the wake from Button’s car. This isn’t surprising – one side of the wing is probably only getting about 50% of the air that the side outside of Button’s wake gets.

That difference in wing load one side to the other, combined with the deflection of the wing and the roll that creates will have made the car quite unstable, according to engineers I’ve discussed the video with. It is not necessarily the reason why Vettel lost control of the car, but it will not have made controlling the car any easier.

This has got me thinking – was this in any way also a contributing factor to the Webber accident in Valencia, Webber hitting Hamilton in Australia or the reason why Vettel crashed into Webber at Istanbul, all occasions when one of their cars has been moving out from the wake of another car? There may be nothing in it, but there are some similarities.

If that video clip has reached the FIA’s Charlie Whiting, he may well be thinking that the FIA needs to think about introducing an assymetric wing load test in addition to the new tests introduced in Spa.

No doubt rival teams, led I would imagine by an aggrieved McLaren, will be lobbying the FIA on the grounds of safety, to understand whether this wing flex may have contributed to Sunday’s accident.

Meanwhile all the teams are nervous about the new tests for flexible floor stays which come into force in Monza. Currently a load is placed on the centreline of the floor, but in Monza the FIA will place a load up to 100mm either side of the centreline. This means that many teams, not just Red Bull, will have to construct some compliance device to pass the test.

The concern then is the impact the floor takes from the kerbs in Monza, especially at the second chicane. It’s quite conceivable that some of these compliance devices may get damaged. And in extreme cases that could lead to a broken chassis.

There will be some late nights for the mechanics in Monza.

Photo: Darren Heath

Sebastian Vettel: The rights and wrongs of the “Crash Kid”

Posted on | August 31, 2010 | by | 268 Comments

In the aftermath of the Belgian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel has come in for a fair bit of criticism for putting himself out of contention once again and damaging his championship chances.

Spa was his third retirement of the season. He is now 31 points off the championship lead. He’s made things more difficult for himself, but with 150 points up for grabs, he can still recover.

He’s under the spotlight for a collision with Jenson Button, which put the world champion out of the race and he made five visits to the pits, including a drive through penalty. It was another messy day, when there was a clear podium to be had from his fourth place on the grid.

But he has also found support from some quarters, with some fans and pundits feeling that the penalty from the stewards was too harsh. Many of those who defend him point to his age, just 23.

But there is more to it than that.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh called him the “Crash Kid” after the race, which is clever and will almost certainly stick to him for a while, increasing the pressure. And it is the pressure, in my view, that is the issue here.

Vettel is very fast and as intelligent a driver as you will find on the grid, but he’s not handling the pressure well this year. In a Red Bull car which clearly deserves to win the title – Schumacher had the title wrapped up in July or August in the years when he had such a car – Vettel feels under pressure to get the job done, but has failed to impose himself on his team mate or secure the necessary race results.

There is no doubt his weak point, exacerbated by the pressure, is impetuousness. particularly in races, as we saw in Istanbul when he collided with his team mate, or Silverstone where he insisted on a pass at the start that was never going to come off. Ron Dennis used the word “impetuous” after the race,

“It seems Sebastian is just too impetuous,” says Dennis. “Look at the incident with his own team-mate (Istanbul), look at incidents that put him out of the race. It’s good to push, it’s good to be competitive, but there are so many historical lines in motorsport and the one that fits him more than anything is, ‘To finish first, first you have to finish.’

Red Bull boss Christian Horner is not afraid to confront this. He says that Vettel is aware of his growing reputation as an impetuous racer, but has the capacity to change that, “Nobody knows that better than Sebastian, he is a pretty mature individual,” said Horner. “He analyses his own performance very, very carefully and I am sure he will bounce back from this. He is a great racing driver, he is still a very young guy and it is easy to be very critical on somebody who is relatively inexperienced – but for sure he will learn a lot from what happened.”"

I’m sure he will too.

It’s not just about his age. Vettel is young, just turned 23, so he is the same age now as Lewis Hamilton was at the start of the 2008 season. He has more Grands Prix starts under his belt than Hamilton had then; Spa was Vettel’s 56th Grand Prix start where Hamilton had only 17 starts at the same age.

Hamilton made mistakes in his first two seasons in particular, such as crashing into Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane at Montreal. He was also involved in his fair share of controversies, like the accident behind the safety car in Fuji in 2008. However Hamilton won the world championship in that second season, having fought for and lost the title the year before. In that second season he had less pressure from his team mate, McLaren had put Heikki Kovalainen alongside him to replace Alonso, but he had the pressure of expectation on his shoulders, not least from his father, who always pushed him hard.

Vettel had the advantage over Hamilton of being able to serve an apprenticeship out of the spotlight, first as a well used Friday driver for BMW and then at the Toro Rosso team, with whom he competed in 2008. Alonso had the same thing with Minardi and then an up and coming Renault team. This is worth a lot; Hamilton was thrown straight in to a championship contesting car, with the strongest driver in the sport as his team mate. The only thing mitigating the pressure in that situation was that everyone expected Alonso to win the title, so he was able to push against that. Hamilton showed some impetuousness in those early years too, but not as much as Vettel.

If you look back, many champions have it. It was impetuousness that caused Mika Hakkinen to try to pass Michael Schumacher in Macau, there are countless examples from the early careers of Senna, Schumacher and others.

I think it’s a negative quality which is born out of a positive one, in the sense that great competitors, who feel they should be ahead of the man in front, want to impose themselves and feel they must do so. It’s the mentality of a champion.

It is this part of Vettel’s psyche which finds it so hard to deal with Webber’s competitiveness, for example. But it goes wrong when it’s deployed at the wrong moment, in the wrong way, as we have seen a few times now with Vettel.

He wants it all now, but he hasn’t yet learned to pick his moments.

Vettel is not as sure footed coming through the field and passing cars as Hamilton. They both had the same schooling in karting since the age of 8, but Vettel is less comfortable in close proximity to other cars. That is something he has to take into account when racing others. As a competitor, you are only as strong as your weaknesses.

Winning in F1 isn’t simple, it’s very complex and it takes a blend of the right car, the right team environment and the right mentality to pull it off. Alonso was considered F1’s most complete driver a year ago and yet his struggles at Ferrari, for example, show that he can make mistakes when there is a high emotional charge around him. That’s something he and his team need to put right.

I think Vettel has the raw quality to overcome his “Crash Kid” moniker and go on to be one of the top drivers. Hamilton had a difficult year last year and has come out of it an immeasurably stronger and more complete driver and person – he knows when and how to pick his moments and he has got the maximum out of every opportunity this year.

Vettel will be seasoned by these tough moments, take heart from the notion that anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and will step up a level in 2011. He is very grounded and has more F1 experience than Hamilton had at this age.

All that’s lacking now is the mental poise that comes from maturity.

Belgian GP – technical intrigues on Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull

Posted on | August 30, 2010 | by | 132 Comments

Formula 1 started up again at Spa Francorchamps after the summer break, which incorporated a compulsory two week factory shutdown.

Despite the lack of development time during this period, there were nevertheless some fascinating technical stories, including two significant upgrades on front running cars, which had been scheduled for the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

And there was also a more stringent test to ensure that front wings do not flex beyond what the amount allowed in the rules. Would this force Red Bull and Ferrari into changes and slow them down?

And we’ll also look at the difference between the wet set up and dry set up of the two Ferraris.

Flexi wing tests
After the heated debate in Germany and Hungary about the Red Bull front wing flexing to increase front downforce, a new more stringent test was introduced by the FIA. Red Bull passed the test.

The Red Bull wing at Spa featured fewer elements than the Hungary wing and observers say that it did not flex out on track as much as in Budapest. The team says that they have changed nothing in the wing apart from things they would normally do when moving from an ultra high downforce circuit like Hungary to a faster circuit like Spa. However senior composites technicians from the team’s Milton Keynes base, who do not normally attend Grands Prix, were noticed in the paddock, which means that something out of the ordinary was taking place. The theory is that the wing flexes outwards due to a sophisticated layering process of the carbon composite material.

The new test involved double the load being placed on the wing, so now it was now 100kg. As the severity of the new test is arbitrary, there has been a considerable amount of lobbying of the FIA technical people by Red Bull and Ferrari on the one hand and McLaren and Mercedes on the other.

The outcome from Spa was that McLaren and Mercedes were both privately unsatisfied that the test was stringent enough, while observing that the Red Bull wing flexed less than it had in Budapest, when out on track. The car was much closer to the performance of its rivals than it had been in Budapest, but there are several possible explanations for that, including the weather and the fact that the wing has significantly fewer flaps and thus is creating less downforce anyway.

Rivals suspect that the flexibility of the floor stay may be a larger contributing factor to Red Bull’s speed and have successfully lobbied the FIA to introduce a more stringent test for Monza.

As Monza is a low downforce, power circuit and Red Bull’s deficiency is in engine power, they are likely to be at a disadvantage there anyway and it will be tricky to draw many conclusions on what effect these new tests have had. We should see any differences more clearly in Singapore and particularly Suzuka.

New Ferrari diffuser
Ferrari had a significant upgrade to its diffuser in Spa. The team introduced an exhaust- blown diffuser for the first time in Valencia, copying the idea which Red Bull had revived this year. The concept uses the gas pressure of the exhaust passing through the diffuser to gain more downforce.

The blown diffuser is a complex piece to get right and Ferrari’s strategy was to introduce a basic model and get it working quickly, learn from it and then introduce a more sophisticated one at Spa. This strategy seems to have worked quite well, the team did not lose time in getting it working as McLaren did, for example.

The new diffuser is similar in concept to solutions on the Renault and McLaren. There is a very large hole, made legal by two longitudinal fences which run the length of it. The lower channel of the central section of the diffuser, has a slightly different top profile, whose outer edges now are rounded downwards.

There were also small changes to the bottom tips of the rear wing, which echo Red Bull.

For qualifying and the race, held in changeable weather conditions, Ferrari ran two different specifications of rear wing. Fernando Alonso ran a slightly higher downforce wing, which was therefore more of a wet set up, while Felipe Massa ran the lower downforce example. Massa’s was the newer design and it featured different end plates with curved gills similar to Red Bull, no slot between elements and a smaller main wing element.

Performance wise the differences were subtle but still noticeable. On the fastest laps in qualifying, Massa’s car was 2 km/h faster through the speed trap than Alonso’s and was a tenth of a second slower through the middle sector of the lap, which is a good indictor of downforce.

Both wings incorporate the drag reducing F Duct device, which showed its greatest advantage of the season so far around Spa. With the need for high downforce in the middle sector and good straight line speed on the two long straights in sectors one and two, cars equipped with F ducts could have it both ways and the device was worth half a second per lap here, a huge amount by F1 standards for a single component.

Next time out on the high speed Monza circuit it is likely that the teams will not use the F Duct. As the elements of the rear wing will be so small, it’s hard to incorporate the device and the performance gain is small in any case.

Renault F Duct
With so much to gain from running an F Duct at Spa, it was the perfect time for Renault to introduce their version. This being round 13 of 19 races, it comes quite late, by the standards of a top team. McLaren pioneered the idea at the start of the season, Sauber had one soon after and Ferrari and Force India soon followed. It’s another complex piece of engineering, involving fluidic switches, which channel and switch on air flows.

Renault has been rebuilding its aerodynamic capacity after the difficulties of 2009 and has focussed on perfecting other areas of the car, like front wings and blown diffusers before trying out its F Duct. The strategy has worked and the car has been steadily improving, as shown by Vitaly Petrov’s season best results in Budapest. So the half second gain from the F Duct at Spa put Robert Kubica right in the hunt at the front of the field. He both qualified and finished in third place.

In common with most systems where the F Duct concept is an add-on, rather than designed into the monocoque like McLaren, the drivers activate the system using their left hand.

Belgian GP – Who was your driver of the day?

Posted on | August 29, 2010 | by | 135 Comments

We had some strong performances and some races to forget today. So who was your driver of the day?

Lewis Hamilton
Brilliant final lap in qualifying to improve despite the track getting wet. Got the jump on pole sitter Mark Webber and lead from start-to-finish for only the second time in his career after the 2007 Hungarian GP. Survived a scary trip through the gravel traps at the end when the team insisted on leaving him out on slicks in the rain. Used the McLaren’s excellent mechanical grip to its full potential in changing conditions.

Mark Webber
Celebrated his 34th birthday not with a Great Victory, but with a Great Escape. Webber recovered from a bad start, which dropped him to seventh place to finish second. But it means that as polesitters Red Bull have only won three from 12 poles. It’s Webber’s best finish on this track. Showed the consistency and calm that wins championships, especially when so many title rivals had bad days.

Robert Kubica
The Pole did a great job to qualify and finish third. It could have been second but for a late mistake in the pits. Renault made a big step forward this weekend with the new F Duct system and Kubica got the most from the car.

Felipe Massa
Still struggling with the demotivating blow of being told he’s number two at Ferrari now, he had a strong day, when his team mate made mistakes and ultimately crashed. Massa outperformed Alonso in qualifying and the race and that will put a small smile on his face.

Adrian Sutil
Another fine drive by the German in the Force India car. Fifth equals his best result of the season. They are now a regular solid points scoring team and Sutil got the most from what was a pretty competitive package this weekend.

Michael Schumacher,
Fought his way up to 14th from 21st at the start and finished seventh. However he hit Rosberg on his way past early on and then got some payback later in the race, when Rosberg repassed him and put the great man on the grass. Fantastic stuff!

All Photos: Darren Heath

Hamilton wins action packed Belgian Grand Prix

Posted on | August 29, 2010 | by | 260 Comments

Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps, in a lights to flag victory, having started second on the grid. It was Hamilton’s third win of the season and the 14th of his F1 career. He retook the championship lead.

Mark Webber was second and Robert Kubica third. Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil both had strong days in difficult conditions finishing fourth and fifth.

Hamilton survived a major scare on lap 35, when his team insisted he stay out on slicks as the rain began to fall more heavily. It was reminiscent of China in 2007 when he slid off into the gravel trap.

The win was based on several factors; McLaren’s superior grip on a damp track on slick tyres, his impressive final lap in qualifying where he improved despite rain coming down and a better start than pole sitter Mark Webber.

It was a bad day for three title contenders; Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button. Vettel and Button collided, putting Button out of the race and Vettel was given a drive through penalty as a result. He later got a puncture. Alonso was involved in an early collision, then made a bad tyre call and finally crashed out of the race. He is now a long way behind in the points table.

The race started in dry conditions, although there had been a brief rain shower an hour before the start and another short burst on the startline only as the cars formed up. It was enough to make the getaway slippery and this caught Webber out and gave Hamilton the advantage.

Prior to this race Red Bull had only won three of the races they started from pole position out of 11 races and Webber bogged down at the start, allowing Hamilton to take the lead, ahead of Kubica and Button. Webber fell to seventh place. At the end of the first lap, rain was falling on the Bus Stop chicane area and the cars all lost control, including the five leading cars. Button got ahead of Kubica.

Rubens Barrichello’s 300th Grand Prix start ended after one lap, as he went off and tangled with Fernando Alonso. “I wasn’t expecting it to be fully wet and on the hard tyres I went straight into Alonso. I’m really sorry,” said Barrichello.

The Ferrari driver dived straight into the pits for intermediate tyres and when the safety car came out this looked like it might have been an inspired call, but the leaders all stayed out on the slicks and the rain abated. Alonso had to pit again on lap 5 for slick tyres. He had said that the one who gambles will win, but this one didn’t pay off.

At the restart, Button challenged Hamilton, while Vettel took advantage of a mistake by Kubica to steal third place. But he sustained some front wing damage in the process.

Starting from 21st place on the grid after his penalty, Michael Schumacher was up to P12 in the early laps, only two places behind Nico Rosberg. Vitaly Petrov also got a great start from the back of the grid to lie 11th in the early stages.

As the race settled down, Hamilton was using the sure-footedness of the McLaren on a damp track to pull away from Button and Vettel. Alonso scythed through the field, up to 14th by lap 10.

Petrov made a bold pass on Rosberg on lap 12 and Schumacher followed him through, knocking a piece of Rosberg’s front wing off in the process!

As Button struggled to compensate for the damaged front wing, Vettel drew close and made several attacks and a queue formed behind him with Kubica, Webber and Massa in it. Teams were being told that more rain was due, so tried to prolong tyre stops in order to try to catch the rain. But the soft tyres were fading fast on the front runners.

On lap 17 Vettel made a mistake, losing control of his car under braking for the Bus Stop chicane, slewing right into Button’s car piercing the radiator with his nose. Button was out on the spot, while Vettel pitted for a new set of hard tyres and a new nose cone. He was handed a drive through penalty for causing an avoidable accident.

“I had damage on the wing, which gave me massive understeer,” said Button. “I thought I was doing a good job of keeping my position. I don’t know what Sebastian was doing. It’s a massive blow for my championship. He didn’t do it on purpose, but it puts me on the back foot now. I’m pretty down.”

With six races to go and Hamilton in the ascendent, he may have realised that the time for the team to back Hamilton for the championship was closing in.

This all put Kubica up to second place, Weber third, Massa fourth and Sutil 5th. Schumacher was sixth and Alonso up to ninth.

Sutil was the first of the leaders to pit on lap 22 for slick tyres, followed by Webber. Kubica responded a lap later and was able to rejoin ahead of the Red Bull driver.

Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 25 and rejoined in the lead. Meanwhile on lap 27, Vettel passed Liuzzi at the chicane and sustained a puncture in the process.

On lap 34 the rain started to fall, but the leaders were reluctant to pit until it was clearly wet enough for intermediates. Hamilton went off the road deep into the gravel kissed the tyre barrier but managed to rejoin. Most of the runners pitted, but the top three delayed it until lap 35. Renault had a slow stop and this allowed Webber to pass him in the pits. Kubica missed his marks and the mechanics had to reposition.

Alonso crashed out as the rain fell more heavily, losing grip on the painted kerbs and slamming into the barriers. This brought out a second safety car. There was a final three lap dash to the flag, in which Rosberg paid back Schumacher for his earlier move by putting him on the grass. Schumacher finished seventh, having started 21st on the grid.

Trulli spun off and was extremely lucky not to be skewered by a host of cars around him.

BELGIAN GRAND PRIX, Spa Francorchamps, 44 laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h29m04.268s
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault +1.571
3. Kubica Renault +3.493
4. Massa Ferrari +8.264
5. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +9.094
6. Rosberg Mercedes +12.359
7. Schumacher Mercedes +15.548
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari +16.678
9. Petrov Renault +23.851
10. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari +29.457
11. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes +34.831
12. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari +36.019
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari +39.895
14. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
15. Vettel Red Bull-Renault +1 lap
16. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth +1 lap
17. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth +1 lap
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth +1 lap
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth +1 lap
20. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth +2 laps

Hamilton and Button show McLaren’s edge in the wet

Posted on | August 28, 2010 | by | 57 Comments

Red Bull got their 12th pole position in 13 races today, but behind that headline is an interesting story which gives McLaren some encouragement for the Grand Prix, particularly if it is wet, as it has been every day this weekend.

I spoke with Mark Webber after the qualifying session and he seemed to be more impressed with Lewis Hamilton’s improvement of four tenths of a second at the end of the session when the track was wet, than he was with his own pole position. Asking engineers from other teams they share that sense of wonder at Hamilton’s final lap. And given that it boosted him to the front row of the grid it may turn out to be an important moment in the championship story. Button too was able to improve in the final run, but not by as much as Hamilton.

McLaren have shown all weekend that they have the fastest car when the track is damp, something we also saw in China, but here it is noticeable that the McLaren is more sure footed on intermediate tyres and on slicks on a damp track.

Hamilton was fastest in the first two parts of qualifying. In Q1 most times were set on the intermediate tyre, although Webber set his on slicks. In Q2 the track was therefore ten seconds faster, but still the McLaren had the edge. Only in Q3 when it dried further and the track was another half second faster again did the Red Bull have the edge.

This could prove quite significant in the race tomorrow if, as expected, the rain continues to come in bursts as it has all weekend.
“They were better than us in Shanghai, “said Webber. “Obviously that was a very consistent condition, it was generally pretty wet. Many things have changed since then in terms of how cars have been developed.”

As far as qualifying was concerned, Hamilton did a 1m 46.2 on his first run, at the same time as Webber did the pole lap of 1m 45.7. Then the rain fell on the first corner and yet Hamilton still managed to go four tenths of a second faster on his final run. Team mate Button managed to find two tenths of a second on his final run. At the same time Vettel was 3/10ths slower.

Interestingly Webber and Hamilton were also first and second in final practice on Saturday morning and by a similar margin – a tenth of a second.

There is a lot of talk this evening about Hamilton being in a great position to attack Webber on the long straight after Eau Rouge at the start tomorrow. I’ve spoken to some engineers about this and there is no doubt that the tow down that straight is worth a lot, as much as 2/10ths of a second. But Hamilton is only one kilometre per hour faster through the speed trap than Webber, so it’s not as clear cut as you might think. Once through that phase and into the second sector of the lap, Webber will be able to open up a few tenths of a second gap and settle into his stride. The Red Bull seems to be 0.4s faster in that sector, which is heavily downforce dependent, than the McLaren.
“I don’t think tomorrow’s Grand Prix will be won and lost on the first lap. I’m expecting Lewis to be pretty close but it’s nothing unusual, we’ve been there before and we will try to do our best, ” said Webber.

The performance of Robert Kubica in the Renault is interesting. Although the times today have to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt, as they are dependent on what time they were set and how the track was at that time, there is no doubt that running the F Duct has really lifted Renault’s performance.

Here the engineers tell me that it is worth half a second per lap, probably the most of any track, so that is the gain Renault has made this weekend and it’s got Kubica in the game.

A final note on Michael Schumacher. I’m told he went for a wet set up today in qualifying, which accounts for why he was quick in Q1. He hit traffic in Q2, which dumped him out of the top ten, but if his gamble on rain tomorrow is correct he will be worth watching as he comes through the field from the back of the grid.

Webber on pole in difficult Belgian Grand Prix qualifying

Posted on | August 28, 2010 | by | 65 Comments

Mark Webber took pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica on a day when changeable conditions and sudden rain showers made it very hard to predict when the track would be at its fastest.

It was Webber’s fifth pole position of the season and the 12th from 13 races for Red Bull.
“We knew the first lap would be important. The weather has been so on and off. I was happy with the lap and it was enough for pole,” said Webber. “It was tense times when the track is like that. It was one of those days when it could go wrong.”

The Red Bull lived up to predictions that it would be vastly superior in the middle sector of the lap here at Spa, it was half a second faster than the next fastest car.

Rain for the final runs looked to have spoiled any chance for drivers to improve, but Lewis Hamilton still managed to find time and climbed to second on the grid.

At the start of qualifying the track was dry enough for slick tyres, but Vitaly Petrov found some dampness and crashed into the barriers, a mistake he made earlier in the season in qualifying. The session was red flagged and Petrov had set no time. After his strong performance in Budapest this was a real fall from grace for the Russian.

The stoppage used up vital dry track time. And the rain fell as the cars did their out laps, but everyone carried on and tried to do a lap on slick tyres. There were spins, including Adrian Sutil. Button and Hamilton did very strong laps, but Sebastian Vettel delayed his departure from the pits and didn’t quite make it in the window when the track was fast, so he was 17th, only one place away from missing the cut for Q2. He went out on intermediates and got himself up to 3rd place.

In the closing stages of Q1, De la Rosa and Kobayashi tried their luck on slick tyres and went off the track, Mark Webber also took a risk by going out on slicks, while Alonso and Kubica both set fast times on intermediates. It was rather an unnecessary gamble at the time by Webber, but he survived and set a competitive time.

With Petrov, Kobayashi and De La Rosa out, this gave Timo Glock and Heikki Kovalainen the chance to make it through to Q2.

The cars went out on slick tyres for Q2, but there was still quite a bit of water on the track in Turn 14, which sent Button and Massa off the track, but they rejoined. Schumacher excelled in these mixed conditions on the harder tyre. The track was improving all the time and was obviously going to be fastest at the end of the session. Sadly for Schumacher he hit traffic when the track was fastest and missed the cut. He qualified 11th but will start 21st due to his ten place penalty.

Team mate Rosberg qualified 12th, but will start 17th due to a five place gearbox change penalty. Also missing the cut for Q3 were Alguersuari, Liuzzi, Buemi, Kovalainen and Glock.

Lewis Hamilton was very impressive in the changeable conditions of Q1 and Q2, with two laps fast enough to beat the next fastest runner.

In Q3 the speed of the Red Bull in the middle sector was clear, he was half a second faster than the McLarens in that sector alone. After the first runs, Webber was fastest, being the last of the front runners to set their time. He was ahead of Kubica and Vettel. Meanwhile Alonso could only manage 9th.

The rain then started falling around the first sector, just as the cars went out for their final runs, but a few drivers still managed to improve their lap times, including Hamilton who went up to second place and Button who went fifth. Alonso could not improve and ended up 10th.

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