Fernando Alonso set the fastest time (1.25.252) for this morning’s free practice session finishing 0.203 seconds ahead of his team mate Felipe Massa in second. Here is the full timing sheet for the Spanish F1 Grand Prix FP1 Results:
Category: Reviews
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Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Review: Vettel back to his best in Bahrain
As great a day as Saturday qualifying can sometimes be it never quite is a predictor of what’s to come in Sunday’s race. There are still some exceptions that make pole the imperative but Formula 1 2013 is whole lot more complex than the position you start in.
The expectation was for Ferrari, Red Bull and Lotus to duke it out for the first few rows of the grid but they hadn’t counted on Nico Rosberg to upset the status quo. The Mercedes driver stunned the F1 paddock as he swept his way to the second pole position of his career.
Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three but it was Force India that caused the further surprise on Saturday with Di Resta and Sutil lining up fifth and sixth behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton managed fourth but a gearbox penalty pushed him down to ninth.
Rosberg led the first two laps of the race but after falling prey to Vettel and Alonso wasn’t ever in contention for either step of the podium. Nevertheless, an extraordinary wheel-to-wheel fight between the top three ensued. Within mere inches of his each, at 200km/h the racing between Alonso, Vettel and Rosberg is as close as three F1 cars will ever get. There is no question why these drivers are considered the best in the world.
Ultimately, Vettel seized the lead of the race and never looked back. His three stop strategy worked to perfection and it was obvious the German had some pace in hand should it be needed. The reigning champion proved unbeatable and controlled his run to the chequered flag effortlessly.
Down the road drivers opted for differing strategies and it would eventually be Kimi Raikkonen, on a two stopper, who finished second. Raikkonen, compromised by an eighth place starting position, found himself stuck in traffic in the early part of the race. But even without these issues it seems unlikely that the Lotus driver would have been able to challenge Vettel at the front.
Clad with a brand new chassis for the Bahrain GP Romain Grosjean delivered his best race of 2013. An alternative strategy starting him on the harder compound tyres, wheel to wheel racing and clean overtaking had the Frenchman on the third step of the podium for only the fourth time in his Formula 1 career. It is rumoured that Lotus are running Grosjean’s contract on a three-race basis and the result in Bahrain will have loosened the leash slightly. The podium was a good step for Grosjean and should be celebrated but his focus should immediately turn to repeating if not bettering this result.
Force India faded slightly from their starting positions but Paul Di Resta kept the Indian team in the hunt for the podium until the closing stages of the race; but with his two-stop strategy was always going to be tough to hold off Grosjean on a fresh set of tyres.
Mark Webber and the two McLarens were involved in a duel throughout the race with the two teammates coming to blows on more than one occasion. Sergio Perez found his feet in the Bahrain GP and aggressively hustled teammate Button but the Brit gave as good as he got.
His eighth place finish may not look remarkable on paper but Fernando Alonso again drove a stunning race to salvage three points. The Spaniard stopped for new tyres on lap 7 but had to dive back into the pits on lap 9 when his DRS wing flap fixed in the open position. It left him way down the field, having to fight back without DRS. It can only be through sheer class and determination that Alonso salvaged anything at all.
Formula 1 in 2013 is all about strategy, about managing tyre degradation. But the reality is that F1 has always had a strategic element to it. Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped Red Bull from being Pirelli’s most vocal detractor. They maintain, as frontrunners, that they are being unfairly punished. However, with two wins from four races and both the leads of the drivers’ and constructors’ championship it seems that their argument has been shot to pieces.
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Chinese Formula One GP Review: Phenomenal Fernando rules China
Since the start of the Formula One season several teams have been particularly vocal in condemning the 2013 Pirelli tyres. As far as this upset lot were concerned tyres would dominate the Chinese grand prix headlines.
Instead it was Fernando Alonso that wrote his name into the headlines. A third place in Saturday’s qualifying session behind Raikkonen and polesitter Hamilton underlined the pace of the Ferrari and El Nano never looked back.
Lewis Hamilton maintained first off the starting grid as Kimi Raikkonen was overwhelmed by Alonso and Massa. As it was, Raikkonen’s start was compromised by a change to the starting sequence made by the team moments before the start. It wasn’t long before both Ferrari drivers were hounding the back of Hamilton’s Mercedes which ended with Hamilton simultaneously overtaken, on either side, on the entry to turn one.
The tyres were still an issue and the frontrunners got rid of the delicate soft tyres on after only six laps. It left them able to run to the flag using the more robust medium compound. In contrast, those who had opted to start on the medium tyre, Vettel, Button and Hulkenberg, were now running at the front-end. In a strategic move, Button and Vettel selected to not set a flying lap in the third session of qualifying; putting them out of sequence with the frontrunners.
Nevertheless, no sort of strategy manipulation was ever going to trip-up Fernando Alonso. Electric off the start and clinical when overtaking, it was from this point onwards where Fernando Alonso started to deliver a metronomic drive of the highest calibre. Whilst tyre life and levels of degradation certainly had an impact in the Chinese GP it had no influence on who the victor would be. Leading from the front Alonso was never under pressure from his pursuers in the shape of Raikkonen and Hamilton. By controlling his tyres and setting a ferocious and unmatchable pace he fashioned an extremely impressive path to his 31st victory.
Kimi Raikkonen’s pace was slightly hindered by nose and front-wing damage after an incident with somewhat wild Sergio Perez. Bruised and battered Raikkonen still managed to hold off Lewis Hamilton for a fine second place. Eighteen points closes the gap to championship leader Sebastian Vettel to three points. By finishing nineteen of the last twenty races in points scoring positions Raikkonen has proven his near bulletproof consistency – a highly prized commodity in any championship fight.
Lewis Hamilton lacked the pace required to challenge for victory though Mercedes will be thrilled with his performance. But the final step of the podium very almost wasn’t his as Sebastian Vettel’s alternative strategy nearly paid off. Armed with a new set of soft tyres the Red Bull destroyed the fourteen second gap to Hamilton in a mere four laps.
Despite Vettel’s late charge and fourth place finish, Red Bull’s indifferent record at the Chinese GP continued. For Mark Webber it started with a fuel-pressure glitch that dropped him out of qualifying on Saturday. Red Bull’s choice to change the gearbox and ratios on Webber’s car meant the Australian had to start from the pitlane; but would do so with a car better equipped at overtaking. It made no difference however as Webber’s Red Bull sustained damage in clash with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne. Still not the worst of it, Webber was forced into retirement as his right rear tyre made a break for it and rolled across the track. What would injury be without insult? For his part in the Vergne incident Webber was given a three-place grid penalty for next week’s Bahrain GP.
Jenson Button finished a solid fifth ahead of Felipe Massa whose pace dropped off after the first round of stops. Daniel Ricciardo delivered a great drive and brought the Toro Rosso home in seventh ahead of Di Resta, Grosjean and Hulkenberg.
There may have been twenty-two drivers on the Shanghai circuit but Fernando Alonso was in a class of his own.
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Australian F1 GP Review: Raikkonen Devastating Down Under
For ten days before the Formula 1 paddock arrived Melbourne had been experiencing a heat wave of record breaking proportions. But the heavens well and truly opened just before Saturday’s qualifying session.
Thanks to Mother Nature only the first part of qualifying was completed and the rest postponed to Sunday morning. The pace of Red Bull sent an ominous message as the team locked out the front row and Sebastian Vettel racked up pole position number thirty.
Lewis Hamilton slotted his Mercedes into third place as McLaren barely made the final part of qualifying with Jenson Button. A noteworthy session from Felipe Massa saw the Brazillian out-qualify his teammate Fernando Alonso.
The major talking point however, as expected, was the tyres. Jenson Button worryingly said that his set of supersoft tyres was completely shredded after only three laps of qualifying. It wasn’t just talk from JB either as five laps into the grand prix the McLaren pulled into the pits for a new set of medium tyres. It compounded a miserable start to the season for Button and Perez who eventually finished ninth and eleventh with what looks like a fundamentally slow car.
Mark Webber followed suit a lap later but the frontrunners seemed able to push the performance of the supersofts slightly further. Under pressure from the two Ferrari’s, Vettel pitted on lap 8 followed by Massa (lap 9), Alonso and Raikkonen (lap 10).
Lotus ended pre-season testing with several reliability issues and little to show for four days running. Seventh and eighth on the grid suggested that the same problems over one lap were still there. But Raikkonen had said that he was happy with the car and that reliability wasn’t a concern. He was right.
A seventh place starting position only slightly delayed the prodigious progress Kimi Raikkonen would make throughout the race. He first dispatched Lewis Hamilton around the outside of turn 13 and set off after the two Ferrari’s and leader Vettel. Nevertheless, the first round of pitstops cropped up before the Finn could advance any further. However, it was the 23 lap stint on the medium tyres where the Finn came alive.
Raikkonen delivered a sublime stint of driving and was able to stretch the performance of the tyres while simultaneously keeping up the pace. By the time he made his second and final stop of the race, Raikkonen had built up a fifteen second gap over now second placed Fernando Alonso. The first few laps after Alonso’s pitstops were substantially quicker than Raikkonen’s but the Lotus driver, seemingly always in control, had the capacity to up his pace whenever he pleased. And just to ensure a straightforward run to the flag the Iceman put in the fastest lap of the race and extended his gap to twelve seconds.
Sebastian Vettel, unable to replicate his qualifying pace, managed the third step of the podium. The triple world champion was still happy to finish in the top three and believes that there is no need to worry about the pace of their rivals.
Felipe Massa secured fourth place ahead of a struggling Lewis Hamilton. The Brit initially planned on a two-stopper but the tyre hungry Mercedes forced the team to opt for plan B and a three-stop strategy. Another difficult day on his home track relegated Webber to sixth as the Aussie struggled with a KERS issue throughout the race. Adrian Sutil’s return could scarcely have gone better with a solid seventh ahead of teammate di Resta and Jenson Button. Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten some one minute and twenty-two seconds adrift of his race winning teammate.
If Raikkonen’s performance appeared effortless from the outside it’s because it was; Raikkonen called it one of the easiest victories of his career. Coincidentally, six of the last ten Australian GP race winners have gone on to win the world championship.
After four tedious months of waiting the Malaysian GP follows immediately on the back of Oz. The Sepang circuit will be a bigger test of car design and will provide more opportunity for DRS passes with its two long straights. The weather in these parts tend to vary quite a bit too; from monsoon levels of rain to boiling hot temperatures in the region of 40 degrees.