Fernando Alonso is fast becoming our favourite driver not going by the name of Mark Webber. His ability to continually put his car in a winning position—see Valencia and Malaysia—when the quality of his machinery has often not been deserving of such results is genuine Spanish grit. He has guts. We like that.
You may or may not share our view on Alonso, but we suspect you’ll enjoy the 100 photos of the European Grand Prix we have assembled on your behalf.
In a year where chaos theory seems to dictate who is winning races, Sebastian Vettel may be on the way to restoring order after putting his Red Bull on pole position at the European Grand Prix in Valencia overnight. His time of 1:38.086 was comfortable faster than Lewis Hamilton in P2 (McLaren, 1:38.410).
Spanish GP winner Pastor Maldonado qualified in P3 (Williams, 1:38.475) and reminded us that chaos theory could be ready to take over again should natural order fail to deliver.
Let’s forget about this weekend for a moment, though, and reflect on the sometimes smarmy, sometimes charming Sebastian Vettel. His pole position here is the 33rd of his career and puts him alongside two of the sports undisputed legends—four-time world champ Alain Prost and dual champion Jim Clark. It’s a bit like seeing the once in a lifetime Michael Schumacher all over again.
Now equal third on the all-time list of pole positions achieved in F1, Vettel has only Ayrton Senna (65) and Schumacher (68) to cross off the list. About to turn 25, Vettel has plenty of time ahead of him yet.
In 37% of races started Vettel has started from P1. That’s just behind Senna (40%) and ahead of Schumacher (23%). As Australians and unapologetic Mark Webber fans we sometimes hate Sebastian Vettel with a passion, but there is no denying he is well on the path to greatness.
Which brings us back to Mark Webber. He had a shocking qualifying effort and will start from P19. He had brake troubles in final practice and then a new and unrelated problem in quali. In his own words: “I had no DRS, which costs about 1.3 second per lap and made it difficult. The car’s put up a big fight today, we only managed to do four laps and three of those were in qualifying,” Webber explained.
“In the first qualifying session we did one lap on the harder tyre and then went out on the soft tyre to try and get through as it was so tight. The lap time actually wasn’t too bad considering we didn’t have DRS, but it doesn’t do anything to help the situation. We have a lot to do tomorrow. We were hoping to fix the DRS for Q2 but we didn’t make the cut; we should be able to fix it for tomorrow.â€
Once again Daniel Ricciardo managed to reach Q2, while teammate Jean-Eric Vergne just missed the cut in Q3. And again, Ricciardo was unable to progress any futher and the Toro Rosso pair will start tonight’s race from P17 and P18.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Since becoming the seventh individual winner from the opening seven races, we suspect Lewis Hamilton is still in seventh heaven and celebrating his 2012 Canadian Grand Prix victory. If you couldn’t manage the 4am start, here’s 90-odd photos from the race to show you what you missed out on.
If nothing else, the bright sunny conditions were a welcome contrast after last year’s epic downpour.
Sebastian Vettel and David Coulthard were on hand in Weehawken, New Jersey yesterday to preview the 5.14km street circuit which will be home to the 2013 Grand Prix of America.
So what’s this new track like then? After driving the course Sebastian Vettel gave it the thumbs up, saying: “The circuit is great. One section is a bit like Montreal with a long fast straight but it’s also quite up and down, which is a bit like Spa.
“New York is such a great city with a great energy. It will be great to have a Formula One race here—I think there will be some good bars to go to after the race!”
In an official statement Leo Hindery, GP of America promoter, said: “Sebastian got a very small taste of what racing around the Port Imperial course will be like but there’s no substitute for when he’ll be driving at just over 200 miles an hour.”
For now we only have a few still pictures and words, but hopefully a video of the course will be available soon.
“Catch me if you can!”
That’s the feeling you get from Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) after he smashed his rivals in qualifying for the Candian Grand Prix early this morning. Never far from the top of the timesheets during practice, Vettel saved his best for Q3 where his two flying laps were enough to land him his 32nd career pole position, now equal fifth on the all-time list.
Vettel’s best time (1:13.7840) was a comfortable three tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton (McLaren, 1:14.087) who just did enough to edge out Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:14.151).
Mark Webber (1:14.346) is close behind the leading trio and will start from P4. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo (P14) once again out qualified his teammate, Jean-Eric Verge (P20), and will be hoping he can put together a good race.
We’re set for a cracking race, Lewis Hamilton has shown good speed throughout the weekend and could very well be the season’s seventh winner from seven races. To do so he’ll have to beat a supremely confident Sebastian Vettel, who is keen for redemption after throwing away last year’s epic race on the final lap.
Read what the first three qualifiers had to say in the post-quali press conference after the break, with thanks to the FIA.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, Ferrari]
Leading into the Canadian Grand Prix it’s no surprise Mark Webber was asked about the holey floor on his Red Bull RB8. In the time since Mark won the Monaco Grand Prix, the FIA has judged the ‘tyre squirt slots’ on the RB8 to be illegal, which has led to claims that Red Bull cheated their way to victory.
Until their latest ruling the FIA had previously approved the holes in the floor of the RB8; indeed that configuration of floor had been used in the previous three races, including Monaco.
According to Webber, Red Bull was planning to move away from the slots in any case. “We had some changes for Valencia anyway which included no hole, irrespective of the rule change,” he said.
But when asked if it was fair he won in Monaco with an illegal car Mark fired up. “In relation to winning races with an illegal car, I’m happy to be called lots of things and I’m happy to have criticism about my driving and lots of stuff, but I will not take criticism in that respect,” exclaimed Webber.
“It completely pisses me off to be honest, because the car has passed every single, every single technical regulation after the race. All of the teams that were against it did not make any protest after Monaco,” he added.
“The car passed the test after Bahrain, the car passed the test after Monaco and now there has been a clarification on the rule, and the rule now is different and we had a car that was legal for the first part of the season and now the rule has been changed and we will start again.”
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
As always nothing is ever certain in F1 and the floor used on the Red Bull RB8 at the Monaco Grand Prix, previously signed off by the FIA, has now been deemed illegal. Specifically, Red Bull had, for the last three races, incorporated small rectangular holes towards the rear of the floor designed to reduce ‘tyre squirt’ (shown in picture above).
What on earth is tyre squirt, we hear you ask. It’s explained quite well on the Scarbs F1 website; put simply the airflow around the rear tyres creates dirty air which disrupts the effectiveness of the rear diffuser. The holes used by Red Bull, referred to as tyre squirt slots, are designed to offset this effect and improve the quality of airflow to the diffuser and hence increase downforce.
Despite Red Bull introducing their fancy slots in Bahrain, three teams—Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes—spoke of a possible protest during the Monaco weekend. Eventually, they chose to keep quiet but the FIA Technical Working Group was asked for further clarification.
Having considered the Red Bull approach once again the FIA has now said the floor will have to be changed before the cars take to the track at next weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. Red Bull’s results from the previous three races will stand.
For their part, Red Bull say, via Helmut Marko, that the change won’t disrupt their preparatons. “We had not planned to use this floor in Montreal anyway,” Marko said. “We had prepared a different configuration using a flat version of the floor. Therefore we do not need to modify the cars in Canada.”
[Source: Autosport & Adam Cooper | Pic: XPBImages]
Hey, in case you missed it: MARK WEBBER WON THE MONACO GRAND PRIX!
We’re still pretty excited by the result and if you are too then we’ve got over 100 pics from the race to serve as a lasting memento.
Enjoy!
The sun has come up this morning, just like any other day, but starting the working week after an Australian has won the Monaco Grand Prix makes things a little easier. Well done to Mark Webber, we can barely wipe the smile off our faces here at AUSmotive HQ, so can only imagine the Webber clan just down the road are even happier.
Making the start to the day even better is word that no protest has been lodged against Red Bull. Earlier in the week Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes had expressed doubts that some holes in the floor of the RB8 may not be legal. However, the race results were confirmed last night after the time for protests had passed.
Red Bull’s Team Principal, Christian Horner said: “We are totally happy that our car fully complies with the regulations. We have obviously consulted with the FIA over it—we have had their opinion in writing confirming the interpretation, so it would be disappointing if there was a protest. But we are entirely happy that the car completely complies.”
So, make yourself a cup of coffee, get yourself a seat in the sun and read what Webber and his fellow drivers had to say after the race, with the full post-race press conference transcript we have for you after the break.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Mark Webber has driven a masterful race and hung on to record a hard fought win at the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix.
Starting from pole position Webber got his Red Bull off the line cleanly and then pretty much led from start to finish. However, the race was anything but a procession with an ongoing threat of rain messing with tyre strategies and keeping drivers and fans on edge.
By not setting a time in the third period of qualifying Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) was able to start the race on the soft tyres, while those ahead of him were on the super softs used to qualify. This allowed Vettel to run much longer for his first stint during the race and gave him the lead after those ahead had stopped earlier.
As the teams kept an eye on the approaching rain it was thought Vettel’s lead would come in handy and push him right up the leaderboard if the drivers needed to come in for wet weather tyres. In the end the expected heavy rain failed to arrive and Vettel had to yield, but did well to resume in P4 where he remained for the rest of the race.
A light sprinkling of rain did fall with around 10 laps to go and Webber drove with great maturity to ultimately hold off Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG) by just 0.6 seconds, with Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) finishing third.
Webber becomes the first Australian to win the Monaco Grand Prix twice, following his win in 2010, and this is his eighth victory in F1. Keeping the category interesting, he’s also the sixth different race winner from six races in 2012.
It is worth noting there is a chance that some teams may protest the Red Bull victory after concerns were raised about the legality of the floor on the RB8 after qualifying. Let’s hope politics doesn’t strip Webber of a truly excellent result.
The final finishing order is listed below, along with updates to the drivers’ and constructors’ championship.
Finally, it could be interpreted, Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG) has justified his return to F1 by claiming a quasi-maiden pole position in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix overnight. As ever, the closing seconds of the third qualifying period contained the high drama and the fairy tales.
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG, 1:14.488) held provisional pole as the key drivers set off on their hope for glory. Who could beat Rosberg’s time? Not last year’s pole sitter and defending winner, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), who dragged his bottom lip to P10, failing to even set a time. Not Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:14.948), who suffered the indignity of being only one tenth faster than teammate Felipe Massa (1:15.049).
What about F1’s latest victor? We’re told Pastor Maldonado (Williams, 1:15.245) loves this place (he probably doesn’t any more, read on below). Alas, he’s just ahead of the bottom lip. Surely the all-conquering, but yet to actually win anything this year, Lotus cars could knock Rosberg off his perch? No, best they could manage was P5, Romain Grosjean (1:14.639), and P8, Kimi Raikkonen (1:15.199). Lewis Hamilton (McLaren, 1:14.583) popped in his head on the way to P4, to say, “Hey, I’m from McLaren, remember us.”
So that left the once, and possibly returning, great Michael Schumacher and Australia’s best mate Mark Webber to fight it out. The Aussie laid the first blow, displacing Rosberg (1:14.381). Yet, as soon as the cries of “Yes!” from Australian lounge rooms had died down, Schumacher dealt the killer blow (1:14.301) to claim yet another pole at Monaco, his fourth.
Sadly for Michael his use of Bruno Senna as a braking device in Barcelona achieved nothing more than another wasted race and a five spot grid penalty for the next race. It’s not quite shades of 2006 at Monaco, but Michael will start from P6 later tonight. Which means “our Mark” starts from P1. Last time he did that in Monaco he won the race. We can dream, can’t we.
Meanwhile, Maldonado has also had his knuckles whacked by race officials for an incident with Sergio Perez (Sauber) in Qualifying 1. The revised starting grid for tonight’s race can be seen here.
Michael, Mark and Nico share their thoughts in the post-qualifying press conference after the break, with thanks to the FIA.
[Pics: Mercedes AMG Petronas & Red Bull/Getty Images]
Red Bull Racing owner Dietrich Mateschitz has joined Michael Schumacher in critisising Pirelli’s 2012 tyres. He says the sport has become more interesting for fans, but the teams are struggling to come to grips (haha) with the new tyres.
Speaking to Autosport, Mateschitz said: “F1 is more exciting and more unpredictable than ever before. Obviously, caused by the rule changes before the season, the top teams moved closer together. I always had confidence in the potential of our RB8 and I still have, no doubt.
“But everyone has to learn F1 again. It has become a kind of lottery to find out the window in which a tyre works.
“And I do not believe this just happens on purpose to create more overtaking and tension in the races. I suppose no-one really understands these tyres.”
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Mercedes AMG Petronas]