Indian GP 2012 - Qualifying

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Results from Friday’s sessions are showing Red Bull domination but in reality Ferrari is much closer than anticipated. McLaren is next best but it looks like it’s not close enough to interfere with the Championship battle.

“He who qualify first controls the race” so it goes the old F1 saying, and Red Bull keeps working in that direction. The track surface was changing rapidly as the laps piled up getting faster all the time. Both Red Bull drivers set their fastest times at the end of the session using the option tyre – the yellow ‘soft’ compound- but Alonso’s third best time (6 tenths in arrears) was done earlier in primes –the silver ‘hard’ of the 2 available for this GP- while Ferrari was working on the mid-fuel stint simulation. All the changes introduced to the F2012 were in pursuit of QF performance and they seem to be in the right direction. Massa was caught by the difficult corner 10-11 combo and went off track (he was not the only one), leaving the team without important data for the rest of the session. 

From the 3 very different sectors Alonso is losing time (2 tenths) in the fast sweeps of sector 2 and the slower stop-and-go sector 3 (another 2 tenths+). Red Bull is short in top speed on the straights of sector 1 where Mercedes’ double DRS is supreme, but their goal is to get the front row on Saturday and defend from the lead on Sunday. The quickest way around circuits like this is to set-up the car with more downforce for the twisty sections, the problem is that top speed is compromised in the straights leaving the door open for overtaken, that’s why engineers prefer the lower-wing approach for higher speeds in straight line even by  making the car slower in the corners (and overall slower lap times) but since passing in the corners is not possible even with a faster car the lower downforce set up will keep you ahead in the straights. For Red Bull to make this opposite approach to work they most get the front row and have a good start to stay in front at the first corner. We shall see...

P1  VET (1.27.619) BUT  ALO  HAM  WEB  ROS  MAS  SCH  RIC  RAI  

P2- VET (1.26.221) WEB  ALO  ROS  RAI  HAM  BUT  HUL  GRO  SEN 

McLaren had problems on both car’s gearboxes, on top of that they are struggling to make the option tyres to work in qualifying trim, their drivers admitting Red Bull looks way ahead to be challenged.  Raikkonen’ s Lotus looks very strong in race configuration, but the Finn  concede the E30 can’t go any faster in single-lap set up. Mercedes’ top marks at the speed traps are deceiving, once the DRS is deactivated for the race they could be back to their old early tyre wear problems. 

It’s decision time: Cato – VET WEB  ALO

Good luck!

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