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Saturday, June 26, 2010

2010 EUROPE GP: VETTEL GRABS THE POLE FROM WEBBER

6:18 AM 2010 NEWS No comments

Sebastian Vettel will start from pole position for Sunday's European Grand Prix after the Red Bull driver edged out team-mate Mark Webber by just +0.075s in Saturday's qualifying session. Vettel set a quickest time of 1m37.587s in the dying minutes to finish ahead of his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa finished fifth quickest ahead of Robert Kubica and Jenson Button as the Williams duo of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg impressed with the eighth and ninth quickest times. Michael Schumacher's trials and tribulations continued as the seven-time world champion squeaked through Q1 on his final lap, his car pulling to one side after a problem with his power steering. But things got even worse for Mercedes in Q2 as Schumacher completed his worst qualifying of the season to finish down in 15th as team-mate Nico Rosberg fared marginally better in 12th.

P.  DRIVER           ТEAM                    Q1         Q2         Q3
1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:38.324   1:38.015   1:37.587
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:38.549   1:38.041   1:37.662
3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.697   1:38.158   1:37.969
4.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:38.472   1:38.179   1:38.075
5.  Massa          Ferrari               1:38.657   1:38.046   1:38.127
6.  Kubica         Renault               1:38.132   1:38.062   1:38.137
7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.360   1:38.399   1:38.210
8.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:38.843   1:38.523   1:38.428
9.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:38.449   1:38.326   1:38.428
10. Petrov         Renault               1:39.004   1:38.552   1:38.523
11. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:39.096   1:38.586
12. Rosberg        Mercedes              1:38.752   1:38.627
13. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:39.021   1:38.851
14. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:38.969   1:38.884
15. Schumacher     Mercedes              1:38.994   1:39.234
16. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.003   1:39.264
17. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:39.128   1:39.458
18. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.343
19. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.658
20. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.882
21. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.086
22. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.140
23. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:42.600
24. Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:42.850

2010 EUROPE GP: FRIDAY RESULTS

8:18 AM 2010 NEWS No comments

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the first free training on the track in Valencia, but it is noticeable that made relatively little laps, and he set the fastest time after F-duct system was build on his car, and system demonstrated its role in practice. Both McLaren cars kept their speed from previous races. Is this order a reflection of the lost time in testing of the new systems from Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault we will understand later. Kubica and Renault good as always. Massa ahead of Vetel, Webber, Schumacher, Alonso. Track was covered with dust and it seems that Bridgestone tyres will contribute to an exciting race.

P.  DRIVER          ТEAM                     TIME       GAP   LAPS
1.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:41.175            16
2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:41.339  + 0.164   19
3.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:41.383  + 0.208   21
4.  Kubica         Renault                 1:41.715  + 0.540   20
5.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:42.182  + 1.007   21
6.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:42.216  + 1.041   24
7.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:42.275  + 1.100   17
8.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:42.312  + 1.137   18
9.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:42.421  + 1.246   22
10. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:42.463  + 1.288   21
11. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:42.707  + 1.532   23
12. Petrov         Renault                 1:42.962  + 1.787   17
13. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:43.310  + 2.135   23
14. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:43.380  + 2.205   19
15. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:43.397  + 2.222   21
16. di Resta       Force India-Mercedes    1:43.437  + 2.262   18
17. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:43.729  + 2.554   21
18. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:44.183  + 3.008   21
19. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:44.491  + 3.316   21
20. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:45.653  + 4.478   23
21. Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:47.123  + 5.948   17
22. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:47.285  + 6.110   18
23. Klien          HRT-Cosworth            1:47.343  + 6.168   14
24. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:47.356  + 6.181   24

SECOND FREE PRACTICE

Fernando Alonso encourage hopes of the home crowd by setting the fastest time in second free training for the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Spanish driver, this time set in the last half hour and was faster just 0.056 seconds from Sebastian Vetel in second.

P.  DRIVER        ТEAM                   TIME       GAP    LAPS
1.  Alonso       Ferrari               1m39.283s            33
2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1m39.339s  + 0.056s  27
3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1m39.427s  + 0.144s  29
4.  Rosberg      Mercedes              1m39.650s  + 0.367s  22
5.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.749s  + 0.466s  24
6.  Kubica       Renault               1m39.880s  + 0.597s  28
7.  Massa        Ferrari               1m39.947s  + 0.664s  22
8.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m40.020s  + 0.737s  30
9.  Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.029s  + 0.746s  27
10. Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m40.174s  + 0.891s  33
11. Schumacher   Mercedes              1m40.287s  + 1.004s  24
12. Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  1m40.387s  + 1.104s  33
13. Petrov       Renault               1m40.618s  + 1.335s  29
14. Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari        1m40.906s  + 1.623s  34
15. de la Rosa   Sauber-Ferrari        1m40.945s  + 1.662s  30
16. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.115s  + 1.832s  35
17. Hulkenberg   Williams-Cosworth     1m41.371s  + 2.088s  30
18. Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.457s  + 2.174s  36
19. Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m42.467s  + 3.184s  31
20. Trulli       Lotus-Cosworth        1m42.993s  + 3.710s  30
21. Glock        Virgin-Cosworth       1m43.811s  + 4.528s  14
22. di Grassi    Virgin-Cosworth       1m43.854s  + 4.571s  27
23. Senna        HRT-Cosworth          1m44.095s  + 4.812s  24
24. Chandhok     HRT-Cosworth          1m44.566s  + 5.283s  21

Joan Villadelprat, the director of Epsilon Euskadi, is quite concerned about delay from FIA to anounce the name of the new F1 team that will race in 2011. Main problem is concerns about organization, leaving little time available for preparations.

"I'm optimistic but also concerned if announcement of the FIA will not arrive before the end of August. This means that whoever is chosen will have little time to create and develop the car and not fall too far behind, all we have to invest huge sums of money not knowing if these projects will come to life. The program made by my team has a solid foundation and we have made contacts with several Spanish and international companies who want to invest on us. What is sure is that our plans are not on short term basis, but tend to be long-term projects, becouse a team that hopes to enter F1 can not think of running one, two years. This kind of a project requires more than 100 million euros only as a starting point. I do not aprove Virgin's choice to fix their budget on 40 million because if you want to achieve great goals, you can not use so little resources on the development. Every year you always start from scratch " .