QUALIFYING

A rain filled session saw Vettel break the pole streak of Mercedes. Another driver who excelled was Valtteri Bottas who managed to put his Willams in the 3rd grid slot. As for Kimi and Grosjean for that matter, qualifying proved once again how hard it is to heat the tires of the Lotus in cooler conditions. Kimi somehow made it into 9th – only to be dropped a place for being naughty by overtaking Webber in the pitlane.

THE RACE

Vettel takes off like a bat out of hell. And is leading with several seconds after a couple of laps. He led from start to finish and only made two small mistakes. Touched one of the walls with his rearwheel (could have ended his race, if it had hit harder) and a small excursion off track in turn 1. Other than that he was untouchable.

He lapped the entire field but 4 cars. If he had kept his initial pace, I am sure he would have come darn close to lapping all. You wouldn’t be wrong if you said that it seems like Red Bull has gotten a better hold of the tires now. If we see a similar scenario pan out in Silverstone, then hello 2011.

As for Mr. Raikkonen, he is not having a great start to his race. Almost right after the start, his brake pedal goes soft. That normally means a retirement right there. But somehow Kimi makes it work. My guess is that we will never know how titanic an effort and what a monstrous performance it really was for Kimi to keep the car in the points under those conditions. And still, on lap 12, he managed one of the best passes of the race on Ricciardo with a car that was far less than optimal.

To add insult to injury, he is informed of a fuel problem later on. The car is using more fuel than expected and he has to turn the engine down to save fuel. Not something that really enables you to fight for or even keep positions. And then there was the pitstop where he lost precious time due to problems with the jack. Here are Kimis comments on some of the problems: http://www.lotusf1team.com/breaking-records-of-no-interest-to.html?lang=en

What he didn’t mention – since he is a teamplayer – was the atrocious strategy chosen by Lotus in Canada. So Kimi was one of the few one stoppers. First of all, 1 stop doesnt help that much in Canada because the pitlane is very short. Stops were 5-6 seconds quicker than in Monaco for instance. Second, he started on the supersoft tire like everybody else who was 2- and 3-stopping. I mean, wtf?! If you decide to put him on a silly 1-stopper – at least put on the medium prime tire for a longer first stint! But no. I could elaborate more, but I won’t. It was stupid. End of.

So in conclusion, if this was Kimis worst weekend of the season, I will take it and I am glad it’s over. The Lotus E21 is not a big fan of the point and squirt nature of the Canada circuit. It excels in fast corners. And Silverstone has some great ones. So we have that to look forward to. It was a weekend to forget, yes. But they happen. After all, I prefer a race like this instead of a retirement. Speaking of, he has now matched Schumachers streak of 24 races with points scoring.

Alonso and Massa showed the great race pace of the Ferrari by climbing from 6th to 2nd and 16th to 8th respectively. Hamilton had a great fight with the Spaniard at the end, but was unable to keep 2nd. The Mercedes still a tad too hard on the tires on the longer runs.

I have to mention the atrocious behaviour that started when Eddie Jordan begun interviewing Vettel on the podium. The boos from the crowd were very loud, annoying and not to mention, disrespectful. Vettel ignored them professionally. And then it became clear who the culprits were. And I was not surprised. The booing faded into Alonso chants. “Alonso, Alonso” and so on. Like I said on Twitter, Alonso fans are proving their low IQ with this display.

And no wonder it’s fans of a driver that is found to be lacking a moral compass many times, that show this behaviour. I guess they belong together. Mind you, these are adults. Grown men. I have nothing but disgust for such a childish, stupid and juvenile behaviour. That is not how you behave. And there was no reason for it whatsoever. Shame on you. And Alonso did nothing to try and silence them. He could have, but didn’t. It was fans of the same driver that a few years back painted their face black and said they were “Hamilton fans”. Go figure.

FINAL WORDS AND EPITATH

I was fuming after the race. Fuming for seeing Lotus lose ground to other teams. Baffled by the idiotic strategy chosen for this race. Frustrated with the problems Kimi had to deal with along with errors on the pit lane. Now that James Allison is gone, I can see no reason why Kimi would stay at Lotus for 2014. The fact is that the Enstone team also have a known cash flow problem. And that is why they lose ground during the season.

I am grateful for Lotus luring Kimi back to F1. And that have given us some unforgettable moments. Kimi has once again cemented himself as the cream of the crop along with Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. And that would not have been possible without the Lotus comeback. But the Finn is not stupid. He knows what is up and which way the wind blows – so to speak. That is why I am absolute certain that he will not be with Lotus in 2014. The way I see it, he will either race with Red Bull or retire. And I clearly prefer the first option.

When Kimi saw the opportunity to switch to McLaren for 2002 during his first year with Sauber in 2001, he took it without looking back. He was grateful to Peter Sauber for taking him into F1, but also knew the importance of being in a top team with resources. Anyway, its my view. If you have another, feel free to leave a comment about it. And now to the worst part of the weekend.

After the race was done, we got the very sad news that a marshall had died from injuries he sustained while clearing the Sauber of Gutierrez from the track: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108014
Such a sad and unnecessary accident. Not what you have in mind when you volunteer for a job like this. My thoughts and prayers go to his family.

Be safe people.

Love,
Soren

“Look guys. This is how you wave goodbye to another championship.”

“Hi. Can I ask you a question? Why can’t I be loved like Kimi? I know I’m a complete idiot, but still?”

Someone suggested I should just post grid girls instead of a review. Well, here is one at least.

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Reblogged from Adam Cooper's F1 Blog:

This year had crashes, some action and an even more processed procession than usual.

QUALIFYING

Sometimes in Monaco, the qualifying is the most exciting bit as the outcome of the race is already decided there. Mercedes were expected to shine and shine they did. Rosberg in particular. He managed to top all practice sessions and came good in the dry/wet qualifying as well to take his 3rd pole position in a row. The gains Mercedes have made since 2012 is redonkulous.

On the other end of the scale we find crash master Grosjean who managed to mangle his car in not one, not two but all 3 practice sessions. Hello! The team only just got his car ready for qualifying where he had to make due with 13th. Kimi did much better, but not quite good enough for Monaco. 5th was all that was in the Lotus on Saturday. Both Bulls and Mercs ahead of him. Still, with a 1-stop very possible for the E21, perhaps there could be a podium in the cards.

THE RACE

Rosberg gets a horrible start but still keeps the lead thanks to the nature of Monaco. Had it been China, he would have been 3rd or 4th at turn 1. Kimi manages to keep Alonso behind him – also thanks to Monaco and the short run to turn 1. By some miracle, Grosjean makes it through the first corner and lap without incident. (That I know of). Alonso is feisty behind Kimi but cannot find a way through. Say what you will about Alonso, but the man knows the limits of Monaco and is very fair on the race track.

After a while the cars settle in somewhat. And I say somewhat because it quickly comes abundantly clear that one place the fickle Pirelli rubber doesn’t fit – is Monaco. It’s gets almost comical as you see the Mercedes cars conserving their tires and the cars behind having a lot more pace in hand, frantically trying to find a way to pass the car in front. Result, we get botches of car trains behind cars that are preserving tire life. So the field is a lot more bunched up than usual. This is sending chain effects down the order. Where faster cars that are nudging against the car in front are making themselves a target for an attack from the car behind.

Sidenote: It’s a sad sad sight to see the leader of the GP just slouching lazily through the swimming pool chicane. No drama or push. Just taking it as easy as possible. I think back to 2006. Alonso is leading the race and Kimi is right on his heels, chasing him down. And they both went through the same chicane at such speed that it took your breath away. Although the tires give some interesting races, the spectacle of the speed in Monaco is gone with the current rubber.

Pitstops happen and Kimi pits on lap 27, around the same time as the others and a lot earlier than I had thought. Its a good quick stop from Lotus. Alonso pits 2 laps later and is very close to jumping Kimi even though Kimi had the upper hand with the earlier stop. Possibly traffic on his out lap. But he stays ahead of the red car.

The next red car we see is the Ferrari of Massa in the barrier at Sainte Devote. An exact replica of his practice crash!
The crash in practice was down to driver error but Ferrari was adamant that the second one – although a complete copy of the first crash – was down to a car error. Let’s just say that I take everything coming out of the red camp with a grain of salt. Thankfully Massa is okay. But it may be time for him to hang up his helmet. Give Kobayashi the seat instead: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107732

Red Bull is quick to react and pits Sebastian just before the safety car comes out. With both Mercs unpitted, it could prove disastrous for them. They cannot drive faster than the pace time set for the SC period. What happens is that Hamilton drops back a pit to avoid a queue in the pitlane. However, that gap was enough for Vettel and Webber to jump Hamilton up to 2nd and 3rd place.

The restarts are not kind to the Lotus car. Being gentle on the tires usually means taking a bit more time in getting the pressure and temperature up to snuff. Alonso tries to take advantage, but sees that Raikkonen has got him covered at the hairpin and the chicane. Alonsos attempts leaves him vulnerable to Button who has a little go at the hairpin and nudges Alonsos rear wheel with his front wing. By some black magic or voodoo, Alonso avoids a puncture and keeps going.

The first real victim of this previously mentioned “bunching up” is Button. Perez practically does a hailmary on the inside of the Brit at the chicane, hoping he will yield. Button being the gentleman he is and probably more so because it’s the sister car, lets Perez have the pass. A good move but probably only made possible due to Button knowing the importance of bringing both cars home. Unfortunately this sets off something in Perez’ head.
Thinking that “this will be equally as easy with every other car. Because I am just that good.” But he wasn’t.

Next one in his sights is Alonso. He dives on the inside, hoping Alonso will be just as polite as Button. The Ferrari has to move out of the way to avoid contact. The stewards felt that was wrong and later ruled that Alonso had to let Perez pass. Which was the worst possible ruling in this case. Because it gave Perez a green light in his mind to keep doing the exact same move on everyone in front of him. I like seeing Alonso get passed as much as the next guy. But this was just wrong in my opinion. Sure, Perez had the inside and he made the turn. But the pass was not 100% complete. And it just nursed the wrong ego at the time and it could only end in tears..

Not much time to ponder on that before the race is downright red flagged. Grosjean? No? Ah. Maldonado. No need to explain. (I know Chilton was given the blame) Watch it again: http://youtu.be/v8kRxpge9fI
As it stands, Maldonado has not finished a single Monaco race in his F1 career. Well, the red flag gives everyone the opportunity to change tires and with that any chance of Kimi doing one less stop than his rivals is gone.

The race restarts behind the safety car and Alonso gives the place to Perez. Which means we have one loco red misted Mexican behind Kimi. Sutil does a succesful move on Jenson Button in the hairpin. Well executed. Sutil now trails Alonso.
What was not succesful was the Perez attempt on Kimi in the chicane after the tunnel. He does an insane dive, hopes Kimi gives way and overshoots completely. Forcing Kimi to take evasive action across the kerbs as well. And he was understandably not happy about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjLTmrCIeHg

Sutil gets it completely right again in the hairpin against Alonso and stabs 7th position in the neck. A cheeky move which paid off. Another result and effect of a car in front (in this case, Vettel) bunching everyone up while saving tires.

Next up we witness Romain Grosjean losing the very last ounce he had left of his mind as he tries to have surprise buttsecks with a Toro Rosso out of the tunnel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3DPg3zmHOE

The Toro Rosso is shy and fends him off, leaving carbon-fibre carnage strewn all over the chicane. The cost of spare parts that Grosjean has destroyed in Monaco alone, is now equivalent to the national product of Burkina Faso. Not good for a team that suffered a big financial loss in 2012. Boullier, wake up and smell the fromage. He is supposed to help Kimi, not work against him!

Yaaay, its the safety car again. Another silver Mercedes is leading the race. The 6 seconds lead that Rosberg had is wiped out. And Sergio Perez will have even more time to plot his madness. And sure enough, after the race was on again, the Mexican tries some idiotic half-brained banzai move on the inside of Kimi. The Lotus has defended that line by position ever since the SC went in. But does that deter Checo? Nope. He is not even alongside his
rearwheel when there is contact. He did not have the line or the position or anything that even remotely would give a sane person a reason to try a pass. The little #¤%& even has the audacity to lift his hand after the tangle. Not to mention putting the blame on Raikkonen after the race.

No Alonso-luck for Kimi as he has a puncture from his tire being raped by a McLaren front wing. He bunches everyone up and Button seizes the moment and gets past Alonso in the confusion. Well, we had a good run of 22 consecutive point scoring finishes. Only 2 more would have equalled the record. By the way, this is the second time Perez has been an idiot around Raikkonen in Monaco. Here is what he did last year from not going into the pits in a normal fashion: http://youtu.be/wBBcwK08Cew

Ok, new tires for Kimi. There is 7 laps to go and he is dead last in 16th, almost 10 seconds up to the car in 15th place. I start to drift and just wait for the race to be over. But what I forgot to count on was an angry Kimi shooting out of the pitlane with a vengeance. What the cameras didn’t show at the time was a display of brilliance and controlled rage. Icy cool rage. Showing all the pathetic pay drivers how things are done. Not by hail marys, banzai moves or surprise buttsecks. But by a well harnessed anger behind those marine blue eyes, converted into faultlessly executed overtaking. Here is a couple:

And with that he is suddenly and literally unbelievably in the points again. From 16th to 10th in 7 laps. 5 passes since Perez retired. Granted on fresh tires, but this is Monaco! Not a Tilke drome with a 4 lane highway track. Kimi on the Hunt. We need more of that anger in Canada but without him losing places. Yeah. That’d be great.

Here is a closer look at that last pass on Hulkenberg: http://youtu.be/XgXH4xehX_o
He hits the limiter way before he is even past him but he is so determined and brakes so late to just make it stick on the outside. Incredible. I like the fact that the BBC commentators were so puzzled to see Kimi in 10th at the end that they were adamant there had been an incident. Lol. Yea, there was. The Iceman unleashed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Rosberg crosses the line and deservedly wins the Monaco GP. Not a foot wrong all weekend. Very impressive. If they get a handle on the tire wear, then they will be a contender. What cast a bit of a shadow on the entire weekend for Mercedes was the 1000 km tire testing being done by the team after Barcelona: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107671

So Red Bull and Ferrari have lodged a complaint as the rules state that all teams must be offered a chance to do the test as well. Which they were not:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107733
So it is still unknown what the outcome of the controversy will be. But Rosbergs win is safe. The FIA have made the results official.

As for Kimi he keeps his record streak going. But what is worse is that he lost important ground to his rivals that he didn’t have to. If not for a halfwitted numbscull. Kimi suggested that someone may have to slap a bitch to make him learn. And perhaps he is right. Bitch slap suggestion here: http://goo.gl/ox7AS

My Race Rating is a 7 out of 10. 2 extra points gained only due to Kimis display of awesomeness in the end. I would have been happier with a 5th place though. But its all to play for in Canada. The track is typically tough on tires so lets hope it will play into the hands of the E21 and the tire whisperer.

Take care now, folks.
P.S. Do click on the follow button above if you haven’t yet. That way you will be informed of my posts directly. No hassle, I promise

Love,
Soren

Wanna hang out on the best darn Kimi group on Facebook? http://www.facebook.com/groups/kimifanclub/

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Bird, bird, bird. Bird is the word. I think his name is Sam.

Hello European season. Kimi is sitting pretty in 2nd place in the championship. But have Lotus kept up with the bigger teams in developing the car? Have some made a giant leap forward? The questions are always many once we get to Spain and the bigger updates gets fitted to the cars.

QUALIFYING

And qualifying usually tells all. But maybe not this year.. So much have been said about the tires and it’s not going to go away either. And when Nico Rosberg stuck the Mercedes on the pole and Hamilton 2nd as a Mercedes front row lockout, the questions were still not really answered. Have Mercedes got on top of their race pace problems? If not, then this will be the first Barcelona GP in a long long time that doesn’t have a front row winner.

Vettel on 3rd having used only mediums and Kimi lines up fourth having used most of the hard tires with only one fresh set remaining. So a different strategy is certainly shaping up. Alonso qualifies a surprising 5th after having shown tremendous speed in the practice sessions.

THE RACE

I wish Kimi had kept the outside line here.

Lights out and the cars scramble and joust down towards turn 1. Kimi gets an ok start and amazingly seems to keep Alonso behind him. But instead of trying the outside line around Hamilton he has to slightly lift which enables Alonso to make up 2 places from Kimi and Hamilton. He is a slippery weasel. Both off and on the track.

At this time it is all about getting past the Mercedes roadblocks. It baffles the mind the speed they have in qualifying – only to drop like proverbial stones once the race commences. You hear Christian Horner speak a lot of trash about the Pirellis but I think Ross Brawn is possibly even more unhappy with the nature of this years rubber.

Kimi makes a boudacious move on Hamilton into turn 10. That’s right. I said boudacious. Cause that’s what it was. He can then take up the hunt on the top 3, having lost some time at this point. He slowly catches the leaders but it does take a little more life out of the tires than if he had been further up ahead.

Surprisingly, Vettel is not making progress in getting past Rosberg for the lead. It emerged later that Red Bull were trying for a 3-stopper. This really hurt their pace more than needed. Especially considering they had a lot of fresh hards available. So Alonso pits early and gets the jump on Vettel after his stop. Ferrari clearly got their stop exactly right. Because Massa also got the jump on Kimi, having stopped 2 laps earlier.

Alonso gets past the race-pace struggling Mercedes. And effectively takes the lead of the race. Vettel, who is wrongly holding on to the 3 stop strategy, quickly loses ground to the Ferrari – even after passing Rosberg. Kimi also passes Rosberg on the main straight. Being the only man putting on the mediums again tells a story of a different strategy to the others.

Felipe baby is having a great race in 3rd place, but is no match for the tire whisperer who catches him rather quickly as his stint progresses. Massa has to pit for new rubber while Kimi flies by. Next target up ahead is the championship leader. He catches him and follows Vettel for one lap before the Red Bull concedes to another stop. Kimi loses a couple of seconds more while Alonso catches up on fresh rubber.

I spare a thought for Lewis Hamilton who is now battling with Toro Rossos and Williams. He is even passed by Maldonado in the Williams which promts a disgruntled radio message to his team. One of several this afternoon.

Kimi get a another set of medium tires slapped on. Which seems to hint of a 3-stopper. He is almost a full pitstop behind Alonso so he has to make some serious ground up. He is rapidly catching Vettel. Again. He loses a lot of time and a lot of life from his tires trying to get past his badminton-buddy. Kimi finally goes for a pass but Vettel gives him way too hard a time into turn 10-11. All the while, Alonso is unchallenged up in front. I cannot count the times where Kimis pace have been compromised by a so-so grid position.

Anyway, after Vettels rather stern defending he seems to make it a little bit easy for Kimi into turn 1 and Kimi takes 3rd place. I wonder if that came from the pit wall. Because Vettel really left the inside open for a looong time. Whatever reason, I am not complaining. Time to catch the number 2 Ferrari. Again. Fortunately, the Ferrari pits before Kimi completely catches up and prevents losing him even more time.

Alonso has just pitted however and easily catches up to Kimi on his fresh rubber. Kimi, ever the gentleman, doesn’t make it hard for Alonso and lets him pass without defending at all. I guess due to running on a completely different strategy. But I would still have liked to have seen a much bigger effort in keeping Alonso behind. It could have taken some life out of the Ferraris tires – just like his own struggles getting past people.

After this the race was pretty much settled. One stop left to do for the front runners. But with Alonso making a gap ahead, the positions were decided at this time. So after another stop for Kimi to the obligatory other compound, Alonso rolls across the line to the cheers of the bankrupt Spaniards. Kimi takes second while Massa completes the podium. Vettel keeps his championship lead with 4 th position but the fight is on.

FINAL WORDS

Can you spot the only Ferrari champion here?

Race rating? A 6 out of 10 for me.

Could Kimi have won the race? Only with a lot of ifs and buts. IF he had qualified better and/or made a better start, then yes. Possibly. Had he been in 2nd after the first corner and disposed of Rosberg quickly, then maybe. Or if he had made the start that Alonso did 2 years ago and shot to first place, then yes. I think he could have won by controlling his pace a lot better without losing time and tirelife behind others. But he didn’t and that is the reality we have. He got second place which is more than good enough for me. Especially since it seems that Lotus did not lose any ground after the major Europe updates.

In 2 weeks we have the Monaco GP coming up. A race where qualifying is more crucial than anywhere else. The good news is that Boullier has promised updates that will help the qualifying pace of the Lotus. Hungarian link:
http://www.f1-live.hu/f1-hirek/boullier-raikkonen-a-mi-emberunk-aki-hihetetlen/

Kimi always has something special around the principality. I remember him qualifying 2nd in 2009 with an absolute pile of shit. So lets hope he can take the fight for pole to those Mercs. Just 4 points off the championship lead. The hope is alive and well. This is Mr. consistency we are talking about here. Another win would really light things up. He has another one due. And it cannot come soon enough. Brace yourselves. The Ice age is coming.

Keepin’ it real,
Soren

“I wonder why they put me in the Caterham for the parade?”

Because index fingers are too mainstream.

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My Race Rating off the bat is an 9 out of 10. I have not been very good at putting that up
lately, so this way I have at least remembered that

QUALIFYING

A lot of promise and pace was shown from the Lotus in the practice sessions. But Q3 was a huge disappointment for Kimi (and his fans). The only driver unable to improve his Q2 time, he found himself in 9th. Boosted to 8th after Hamiltons gearbox penalty. It was not an impressive display and it left me void of all hope for the race. Yes, he came 2nd from 11th last year, but that was with some fresh soft tires to spare. This time around there were none of those left.

Mercedes on the other hand bagged another pole position. Thats two in a row and Rosberg taking the honors this time. I think the last time Mercedes as a team had two poles in a row was with Fangio and Moss, 55 years ago or something. See – thats some serious history repeating right there. Behind him, Vettel and Alonso lined up. Both Force Indias had an impressive qualifying session as well in 7th and 8th, 5th and 6th penalty corrected.

THE RACE

As the lights went out, Kimi had a much better start than China. Looking at the onboard however, there was still a whole lot of wheelspin. If that was down to the clutch setting still not being perfect or just an effect from being on the dirty side is unclear. He manages to keep his position through the first turns while Vettel is reclaiming his 2nd position from Fernando up ahead. And this was done in the turn 4, 5, 6, 7 combination.

And I will say this now. Tilke really nailed it in that section. Some great racing and overtaking were seen in those corners pretty much from the first lap to the last. As for the race as a whole: I don’t know how many races you have seen with scraps and close battles on nearly every lap, but this was my first. People are bitching about the DRS and the tires and whatnot. Sure, I get the arguments. I do. But grant me a favor. Go back and watch a race from 2008 from start to finish and tell me what you prefer. If you say 2008, you are lying.

All right. Kimi is up to 7th after Sutils puncture after touching with Massa, but is passed by Button down the main straight. Shortly after even Perez passes him and he is down to 9th. I call myself an optimist but when it comes to racing, sometimes the pessimist just take over and I was ready to turn off the TV by then. If not for the glorious battle at the front, I just might have. And what a numpty I would have been then.

Rosberg, who was seriously fast in qualifying is already struggling after a couple of laps and Vettel is all over him for the lead. The difference, of course, is about 160 kilos of fuel. Little Mercs don’t like that. They prefer to be light and fluffy. Being fueled to the brim, they clearly gnash on their tires in an alarming rate. And more so in Rosbergs case. Lap 3, turn 4. Rosberg defends the inside, but Vettel taking a better line and with so much more traction than the Mercedes, he takes the lead of the race. Again, I want to point out the firm move that Vettel made on the first lap on Alonso for 2nd place. All you people saying Vettel can’t overtake – just shut up.

Lap 5 was the start of Alonsos troubles. He is one of the people that I mentioned at the start. It was not his day. Rosbergs neither. Anyway, I see his DRS wing is open and apparently stuck in that position. Til now he has had front row seats to the battle for the lead and has just passed Rosberg and is poised to take up the hunt on Vettel. Instead he is called into the pits where some hi-tech measures were taken to correct the problem. Or perhaps it was just a couple of Italians banging on the wing to get it to close. Out he goes and tries the DRS – twang! Stuck again. Back in. Same sophisticated fix and sent on his way. This time with instructions not the use the wing for the rest of the race. Not the best scenario when you find yourself in 19th with a load of cars to pass. Thankfully for him, a strong headwind on the straight made the slipstream effect even bigger.

Meanwhile, Kimi is suddenly in the lead as everyone is pitting around him. Just briefly though, as Vettel soon catches and overtakes on new tires after his first stop. Clearly a 2-stopper for the Finn then. I guess the afternoon might not be so bad after all, I say to myself while reaching for a salty licorice. He stops a couple of laps later on lap 16 for the harder tire.

Rosberg continues his sad slippy slide down the order. And it gets him in a fighting mix with Button, Massa, Grosjean and Perez. This scrap goes on and on. Through two pitstops and beyond. Massa drops out of the fight due to two mysterious “punctures” as Pirelli insisted on calling them. Looked more like the tire coming apart to me. The word now is that it was debris. Romain slowly makes his way through the pack as well, clearly having found something in the car he had not before.

The thing that really hit me with this race, was the nature of the fights. It has always been that once you have been passed, its sayonara. The person ahead is gone. Not so here. We see Perez doing a great pass on Rosberg in the turn 5-6 left-right combination. Ok, awesome. And on the next lap, Rosberg does the exact same thing and retakes the position! Lolwut? Well, I ain’t complainin’. Eventually both McLarens gets past the Mercedes and this set the stage for a McLaren teammate battle that would last for half the race.

Best teammate fight I have ever seen. Mostly because of the period of time it went on. Back and forth. It was a bit rough at times as Button also made clear on the radio. However, he was able to dish out pretty good himself judging from this clip:

Whitmarsh’s words to Perez about using more elbows after China certainly worked. But perhaps he should also have said “Exept your teammate”. Well, he obviously didn’t. And for that, we the viewers, thank him

Another man on the up is Paul di Resta. Having a great race in the Force India. Going on a 2-stop strategy he was clearly in the hunt for a podium. Even passing the 3-stopping Grosjean at one point. The same could not be said for Mark Webber. He is looking more and more lost inside the Red Bull car. His teammate is half a minute ahead of him completely controlling the race and he can’t even keep up with a 2-stopping Lotus on old tires. Of course the driver of that Lotus may bear some significance to that. But still. Bottomline is – he sucks. In case I wasn’t clear. Webber underlines this fact by doing a violent signature “Webber-chop” right into the side of Rosberg in Turn 2. Oh bravo. Well done. You were thirsty for more after ramming the Toro Rosso in China? Why dost thou plague mine eyes with such foul crappiness??

Okay, on to better things. Kimi has just made his final pit stop and while setting the fastest lap of the race and overtaking Perez, he questions his team on the radio why they made him stop so early since the tires were still good. Epic. They do their best to calm down the allergy-plagued and clearly angered Iceman. And while doing so he overtakes the Mercedes of Hamilton in the final corner. Kimi doesn’t like to wait for DRS.. Ain’t nobody
got time fo dat! Kimi P2 after Grosjeans final stop.

A bit further down the order there is a great fight between Webber and Hamilton. Hamiltons car coming more and more alive as the race went on. He gets the pass in turn 4 – like taking candy from a very large whining baby. Webber does get him back and the fight went on to the final lap where Hamilton finally got the better of the Australian has-been. Enjoy it while you can:

Meanwhile, Alonso has passed Perez. But with the Mexican Slim brothers watching from the pitlane, he is not giving up without a fight. He literally muscles the Ferrari off the track after turn 4, keeps his foot down and takes the position. Superb racing! And this with a piece of the front wing missing. And if that wasn’t enough, he even catches and passes the Red Bull of Webber too. What a drive and way to answer his critics.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION

To round it off, Grosjean was catching Di Resta in 3rd by 1 second pr lap. Eventually he got the job done and suddenly we have another piece of history repeating itself. Vettel leading, with the 2 Lotus cars rounding off the top 3. Vettel crosses the line, completely untouchable today. Kimi a well deserved 2nd place, still very much in the hunt. Only 10 points behind Sebastian. Grosjean will be relieved with his 3rd place and can pat himself on the back. Which I am sure he will. Perhaps with a comment on how he was faster than Kimi. He likes to do that.
By the way, it is only the third time in F1 history that the podium has been the exact same 2 years in a row.

What a great and strange race. And I learned lesson learned to never doubt the Iceman. Vettel was clearly the man whom nothing could go wrong for in Bahrain. Now there is another 3 week break ahead of us. May I suggest filling it with some poetry? Maybe some Yeats? Take a trip to the park. Eat an Icecream and enjoy life. I’m out.

Love,
Soren

“This rosewater tastes horrible, but is doing wonders for my allergies!” *glugg*

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Otherwise the measures to protect Kimi will be too extreme:

QUALIFYING:

Let us just jump to the good stuff first. Then I will touch briefly on the bad stuff. Kimi wrestling a front row starting position out of the Lotus was nothing short of outstanding. P2 was probably all that was to get from the car. Confirmed also by Boullier who was very impressed with Kimis lap. The car was really struggling in the 2nd sector. Up to half a second slower than the best cars and rivals. Kimi knew this and he made up for it with a blinding first sector. 24.6 was mightily fast and was a big part of getting the P2. Especially since his sector 2 was 3 and 4 tenths slower than Alonso and Hamiltons S2. Even more impressive when Kimi was the very first to go onto the track in Q3, when the track improves a little bit after each car and is fastest at the very end..

The bad stuff is the semi-sad spectacle that qualifying has become. Almost 3/4 of Q1 had passed before the first car came onto the track. Same thing with the other sessions. Tire saving is the name of the game. And the icing on the cake was seeing a 3-time champion not even setting a time in Q3 and instead gambling on another tire strategy and saved rubber. Same with Button. He set a time but was just idling around the track half a minute slower than the rest. Understandable considering the current tires but F1 is still a travelling circus if you will. And people watch it mainly for the show. So I wonder what measures are in the pipeline to prevent this from happening in every quali session onwards.

THE RACE

The lights are coming on one by one and every fan are hoping all they can that “their” driver gets a great start. This time around that is not the case for Kimi. He suffers wheelspin and has to defend heavily from Rosberg. Both Ferraris gets by him and he slips down to 4th. I had already expected Alonso to jump him since he was on the cleaner side so just losing one more position with a crap start could have been a lot worse. Still, it did compromise his race a bit. As it turned out, the team had told him to go to another clutch setting on the warmup lap. Kimi had wondered why since he was happy with the current setting but applied. And that was that. Which is why you heard Mark Slade apologizing on the radio after the race.

A fairly clean first lap as the cars settle in to their positions. Mark Webber who started from the pit lane due to a penalty is called in on lap 1 to get the softs over with. On lap 5 Hamilton loses his lead not only to Alonso but Massa as well. In the same corner. Kimi almost makes the pass too. Hamiltons tires seriously fading, he makes his pit stop on lap 6. To my slight surprise, Kimi comes in for the mediums on the very next lap. So does Alonso. And its the usual story. Ferrari gains one free second just on the pitstop alone. Kimi just manages to crucially stay ahead of Mark Webber.

Gutierrez acts as karma payback for Sutil in China as he uses his Sauber to glass Sutils Force India from behind. Take that! Now your rear wing is weird. Go back to the pitlane and burst into flames. Yes, like that. A grid penalty for the next race, you say? Oh well. Worth it! Or not…

My work here is done..

Hamiltons early pitstop keeps him ahead of Kimi, so staying out any longer on the softs would have been a big mistake. As illustrated by Felipe Massa that pits the lap after and is therefore jumped by Kimi. But Alonso is served first. The top three are making their way up the order through the cars that are yet to pit. Kimi does a beautiful pass on Vergne on the outside in turn 1. Observers report Kimi braking noticably later than his rivals. His entry speed into that turn was immense. The Iceman earning his nickname.

Lap 15 we get served the douche of the day. Webber who dives straight into the side of Vergne and destroys his own front wing. Vettel has just come out of the pits behind his teammate and has front row seats to the lunacy. I could almost hear him grinning inside his helmet.

KIMI VS PEREZ

On lap 16 we have the Kimi-Perez incident. As much as I would like to slam Perez for the coming together I just can’t. I have watched the clash back and forth and Perez is only holding the racing line, nothing more. There is no defensive move or line taken in that turn 5-6 sequence. Perez is ahead and has the racing line. Kimi tries a far too ambitious move on the outside which I really haven’t seen work before. Perez is that much ahead, that there really is no reason for him to give room to the Lotus and Kimi was lucky to escape with just hole in the nose of the car and a few bits on the wing. So it’s not all bias here my friends.

Kimi gets past him in the DRS zone where he should have made the pass in the first place. Oh well, he was pretty much inch perfect in all his overtaking moves last year, so a little error will occur from time to time. With Kimi, it is thankfully a seldom occurance. Meanwhile, Webbers car loses its wheel Alonso style, Hungary 2009. Thankfully a slow corner so the cars around are able to dodge it. A weekend to forget for the Australian then. Perhaps it is time to move on to Porsche?

Kimi has caught up with Hamilton but just can’t find a way past. The damage likely the cause of that. Luck has it, or the lack thereof, that they pit on the same lap, and emerge in the same position on lap 22. This happening, coupled with the damage to Kimis car, took away his chances of challenging Alonso for the win. And I believe there was a very real chance. At this point there were only 5 seconds between Kimi and Alonso after their stops. Lotus did the numbers after the race and said that the damage cost Kimi about 0,25 seconds per lap. So hypothetically – HAD Kimi not made the mistake with Perez and HAD he come out in front of Hamilton, then Alonso would have had to fight off Kimi to the end. Without a doubt. And Alonso might have failed to keep him behind too. It’s hard to say though as the Ferrari was very quick yesterday.

But – we live in the real world and not in the world of ifs and buts. And yet it is not that bad a place to be. I am getting ahead of myself, but all things considered, 2nd place is a cracking result. He still sits pretty in 2nd place in the standings, only 3 points behind Vettel. And we have Bahrain coming up. I want – scratch that, I NEED to see a Kimi-Vettel rematch. Hopefully for the lead and the win this time arround as well.

Allright, back to the race. As Kimi and Hamilton fight it out, Alonso increases his gap to them lap by lap. Vettel is running his own race and is leading at one point before Alonso passes him just before his pitstop. He then has a long 20 lap stint on mediums before a final short obligatory stint on the softs. And this is where, once again, Vettel provides some first class entertainment in the final stages of a race. Say what you will, but I’m not complaining. I will get to that.

Kimi, still being behind Lewis, pits on lap 34 to try and undercut Lewis. The Mercedes, not as good on tyres as the Lotus, is forced to stay out 3 laps longer. By the time the Mercedes pits, Raikkonen is comfortably ahead. And we get treated to a replay of another stunning pass by Kimi on the outside in turn one. “A world champions move” as Martin Brundle dubbed it.
Hamilton continues to put hard chase to the Lotus and Kimi calmly responds by keeping him just out of using the DRS. He dips under the one second gap a couple of times but Kimi ups the pace a little and gets him out of DRS range.

This goes on until just 2 laps before the end. Then Lewis has to switch his attention to behind him. Vettel has pitted for softs and is told by the Red Bull team that he is allowed to gun it. And gun it he does. He is about 14,5 seconds behind Hamilton after his stop with 5 laps to go. He gains about 3 seconds just on the next lap. And then 3 more. From thinking he was way too far behind to pose any threat, he is suddenly breathing down the neck of the Mercedes. It’s an awesome display and a welcome sight to see a car go absolutely flat out instead of conserving either the engine or the tyres. Thank you once again Vettel!

The German gets one chance on the final lap to take 3rd place from Hamilton but he just overshoots it and brakes too late into turn 11. This gives Hamilton enough of a gap on the back straight to stay ahead. Otherwise he would have been easy pickings for the charging bull. An exciting end to a very decent race. Alonso crosses the line to win it and Kimi follows after. Hamilton gets the final podium slot by the slimmest of margins from Vettel.
Again, great stuff.

FINAL WORDS

I know Alonso drove a great race and won. Kudos to that. But Kimi Raikkonen really stands out in how he soldiered on and raced a stricken car to 2nd position. Kimi definitely likes a strong front end and it must have been a real battle keeping the speed in that car. Especially on a track like Shanghai. But somehow he did. Now, we saw the true pace of the car in Australia. That will happen again in Bahrain, Im sure. The car is good. No doubt about it. So no wrong clutch decisions from the team and no rash overtaking maneuvers and the E21 will be the ghost of the mighty MP4-20 in the hands of the Iceman. Keep the faith, Raikkos. I’m out. Peace!

Love,
Soren

Wanna hang out on the best darn Kimi group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/kimifanclub/

I will show them how to get a podium from the pitl.. Crikey! My wheel!

Git back heah ya little peddla!

Wot a clackah. Marko, you will pay for thees!

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Reblogged from The Buxton Blog:

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Yep, you guessed it. It’s another opinion on the fallout from the Malaysian Grand Prix. I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to just blast something out in the immediate aftermath. I wanted to take the flights home to think about it.

I barely slept last night. Jetlag accounted for part of that. The rest was the final ten laps in Malaysia and, in particular, the podium ceremony, press conference and interviews that followed.

Read more… 2,303 more words

Lets start off with the big “talkie”. Webber and Vettel in 1st and 2nd was told to turn down the engine and conserve tires. But Vettel was not done racing. And for that, I salute him. He will of course recieve flak from that all over. But it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. Formula 1 is still racing, right? Or would you have rather seen a procession across the finish line like the Mercedes cars? With a much faster Rosberg keeping station behind Hamilton? No, sir. You would not. I give huge props to Vettel in showing exactly why he is a 3-time champion at 25. If a guy is faster – then he should go for the win. Not with dirty tricks – but with speed. And that should be commended.

Or should we salute Webber in saying: “Oh no, you cant do that Vettel. The team told you not to. I should have won :’(” Well, then drive faster dammit and prevent him from even getting close enough to pass. Oh wait, I forgot. All you can do is make your signature “Webber-chop” when someone faster tries to pass you. That’s not fair and it’s not racing in my book.

Webber had plenty of time seeing Vettel coming. It’s not like he was suddenly pounced with no time to turn his engine back up. 2 laps went by after Vettels stop before he was passed. It was clear that Webber drove like mad to keep him behind. In 2010 and 2012 we have all seen how much 7 points matter in the end. And that is why Vettel had to go for it. And it was 100% correct from a racing standpoint. No matter what the team said. Vettel, my hat is tipped. Keep it up.

Mark Webber is a proven hypocrite. Remember Silverstone 2011? Did he listen to teamorders then? No. He did not. So Mark, respectfully – shut up.
And the fact that he almost pushed Vettel into the wall should seriously be adressed. This is the same guy who squeezed his teammate into turn 1 in the championship deciding race in Brazil last year. This allowed his rival to pass him unscathed on the outside. Genius..
Here is the article where Mark admits ignoring teamorders: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93001

Webber has always done exactly what he wanted for years. Opposed team orders numerous times. Webber was praised by many for going against the “evil” Red Bull team orders in Silverstone 2011. But when Vettel does it for once to get a win, all hell breaks loose. Go figure.

Some people say its unsporting and compare Vettels behaviour to Alonsos. In fact, it could not be more different. In this case there is no broken seal on Webbers gearbox. There are no orders saying Webber should let Vettel by. We would hate that. Instead, Vettel gave it the beans and went for the win. Webber saw him coming. He defended in a ruthless manner. But to no avail. Racing and the best man won. Was it the “correct” thing to do? Should Vettel have stayed behind? Was he in the wrong from the team point of view? In a word, yes. But from a spectators view, I’m glad he didn’t. Result: Exciting racing and some delicious controversy

My bottomline is this: The true culprits in this affair is not really Vettel. No, it is Red Bull or any other team that does not let their team mates race when only 2/3 of the race is done. What Formula 1 fan wants that? Don’t we want racing to the finish line? I sure do.

KIMIS RACE

As for Kimi. From soaring high to stooping low. This race should just be forgotten as quickly as possible. Having shown great speed and promise in the practice sessions, the rain falling in Q3 marked the start of all his troubles. Unable to show as good a pace on a wet track, he qualified 7th. Ok, not too bad. We knew he could win from 7th. Hopes somewhat intact.

But a mysterious 3-grid penalty significantly dimmed any hopes. As of now, I still don’t know who instigated the blocking complaint against Rosberg. Because it wasn’t Mercedes according to Wolff. As the race start approached, so did the rain. And with Kimi being stuck behind slower cars, the race went downhill from there. It was rather painful to watch to be honest. And his 7th place finish would have been worse if Button had not retired. Maybe even worse if the Force Indias had been racing as well. So I will gracefully leave Kimis race here as it was a bit disappointing. He did lose a part of his front wing on the first lap and that would explain a lot of the problems in the race. And why he could not pass as easily as Grosjean. Interview about that here: http://www.lotusf1team.com/bumpy-ride-for-kimi-raikkonen-in.html

I will say that we saw some great racing from Kimi in his fights with Perez and Hulk. The Hulk being way too much on the choppy side, though. But Kimi always stays out of trouble somehow. If only he had gotten by them quicker. Oh well. Luckily there was other stuff that made this race entertaining, weird and controversial. Kimi is lucky to keep 2nd place in the championship. It may be too much to ask, but a dry weekend in China is requested.

You can enjoy Skys segment on Kimi ice racing in Russia instead. I respect Natalie Pinkham a whole lot more after this bit. She is a dream interviewer compared to that Lee McKenzie. But Natalie – ixnay on the question about Finns having a good connection with the Russians :/ Eeshh.. Read some history, will you. Kimi was polite to laugh it off. At 4:35:

HIGHLIGHTS

5. Alonso/Ferraris retarded decision to stay out with a broken front wing.
That was not clever. Funny as heck. But not clever at all. Encore!

4. Hamilton “visiting” his old team in the pitstops.
You can take Hamilton out of McLaren but you cannot take McLaren out of Hamilton?

3. The teambattle between the Mercedes cars.
Rosberg once again a lot faster than a teammate he was predicted to struggle against. It is still early days. But Nico is good and probably underestimated.

2. The racing between the Red Bulls.
Already covered in the first paragraphs. But oh boy it was close to a rerun of Turkey 2010. Can you imagine?? Lol.

It’s the podium of the clenched mouths.

1. The angry podium. A furious Webber and a sheepish Hamilton.
And so the scorned rubberface was angry. And chose not to spray champagne on his teammate. Because “that’ll teach him!” For he thought he had been so horribly wronged. After all – he himself doth always abide the teams orders.. And the Mercedes driver did look upon his shoes and gave an awkward nod towards his team. And that concluded the angriest podium ever.

Yea, I’m done. Take it easy, people. I am renovating the nursery so I gotta be on my way

Love,
Soren

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BFFs <3

Kimi is leading by miles. This is looking good. Can it be? The very first race? All of a sudden the red car goes wide at turn 1 and I start yelling at the TV. What are you doing?! Wake up! Apparently that is what his team did as well. To no avail as his radio had stopped working. Thankfully Kimi recovers. Turns out that he was leading with such ease that he dozed off for a second and hence the slight off. But he crossed the finish line in P1
and the rest is history.

That was 6 years ago. And now we are back. In 2013. With a bang. And the wet dream of every Kimi fan has come to pass by seeing him clinch the win in the opening race. Some say that the more things change, the more things stay the same. And in this instance it’s the fact that when Kimi wins in Australia, he thinks it’s easy: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106110

I have trouble believing that, but it’s what the man said. So lets delve into that enormous bag of goodies and see what we find.

QUALIFYING

Winter testing was so-so for Lotus. Kimi had not even done a race simulation yet, due to tech problems and illness. Some amends were made on Friday but Saturday rained out so the final shootout was reserved for Sunday morning. Vettel bags Pole position in familiar (and superior) style and the groan from the masses grew louder as another Red Bull dominant year was feared. As for me? I like Vettel, so if Kimi can’t take the win, then I will
take a Vettel win any day. He is head and shoulders above his teammate in one-lap pace and races.

I should win this race…

The conditions were tricky to say the least. A wet but drying and increasingly faster track is as hard as it gets. I dont want to spend too much time going over qualifying but Lewis getting 3rd slot after the bulls was impressive. Massa got the better of Alonso in 4th and 5th. And we have Kimi and Grosjean down in 7th and 8th. Huh. Well, its a heck of a lot better than last year is what I said to myself. Perhaps he could get a podium if all
works well, was my hope.

THE RACE

My pulse is racing as the lights go on, one by one. I suddenly get a horrible thought. Kimi could be taken out by someone in 10 seconds from now! What the heck, brain? Shut up! As I fight my pessimistic side, the lights go out and I strain to see how Kimi fares. Oh no, thats a shitty start! FFFFUUUUUUU! Wait a minute… Isn’t it Grosjeans helmet that is white on top now and Kimis that is black? Argh, it is! FFFFFUUUUU! What’s with the switchy of helmet colors FFS!!

But hey, that not a bad start. Not bad at all! He surged past a couple of cars on the outside but has to slot in behind Hamilton at turn 1. 5th place and Kimi is looking hungry behind Hamilton. He attempts to get past him in turn 13 and 14. Great dicing. On lap 2 he gets it done on the outside of the Mercedes. Props to Lewis for leaving da space. 4th place.

To my surprise, Vettel is not doing his usual pull away at the front. Also to my surprise, Massa is still ahead of his teammate. Alonso gets a good run after turn 12, but Massa doesn’t give any favors away and defends to keep his 2nd place. It’s a pipedream, Massa. A fata morgana. But I respect you for still keeping the faith. Always interesting to see how the red team will make the ol’ switcheroo.

Anyway. The number 1 car has 2 Ferraris up his gearbox. Kimi a little further adrift, but chugging away at the gap between them. They all have the supersoft tires on their cars and they are wearing fast. Vettel is the first to pit for mediums on lap 7. The following lap its the number 2 guy at Ferrari that dives into the pits. By lap 9, Kimi has completely caught up with Alonso and they pit at the same time only meters apart! The expertise in the Ferrari stall shows immediately as Alonso gains a full second on that stop alone.

Exit the pits and that one second has already given Alonso a huge advantage in his fight with Kimi. He comes out ahead of Maldonado and Kimi behind. Not good. However, Maldonado senses an Icy chill on the back of his neck and it causes him to run off in turn 1. “Kiitos”, says Kimi and passes the Williams with ease. The margins in his favor for once.

Lap 12 sees Kimi pull another ballsy move. He comes up on Perez with worn tires. The general concensus is that you don’t pass cars in the extremely quick left-right combination of turn 11 and 12. Kimi says, “Screw your consensus. Ain’t nobody got time for that.” as he makes the pass leaving me holding my breath once again.

Up ahead, the silver arrows are leading the race not having stopped yet. With comeback Stabby-boy Sutil an interesting 3rd. (For the uninformed, Sutil stabbed Genii boss, Eric Lux in the neck with a broken glass in a nightclub in 2011. The story is he only wanted to throw the contents of the glass in his face but ended up glassing him instead.) Sutil is on mediums and does not have to pit his Force India for a while. As the Mercedes car make their pit stops one after another, we have Sutil genuinely leading a race after having been away for a year. Not too stabby.. er. I mean shabby.

What is even more surprising is that when Vettel catches up with the Force India, he is not only unable to pass him but after a few laps, Sutil even breaks the DRS from the Red Bull.. Vettels mediums were worn so they have the same amount of laps on them as Sutils. The Ferraris have newer rubber on and is keeping well in DRS range, yet not having enough speed to make a pass.

This allows Kimi to close the gap that he had gradually lost after his pit stop. Up until then I was somewhat downhearted seeing Kimi lose ground to the Ferraris after new rubber was put on. It was only later that I realized he was being a clever little fox, keeping those mediums alive while maintaining a reasonable pace. I just don’t think I could do that in the same situation. I would be like “I know I gotta save the tires, but look, they are getting away from me! Screw this, Im pushing to catch up!” And I would have wasted any potential later advantage. But Kimi was not kidding. He really knows what he is doing, except he doesn’t make a big fuss about it. Smooth steering inputs, metronomic-like consistency, undistracted and determined he stuck with the program.

Lap 20 and Ferrari and Santander has had enough of seeing their golden goose (which has yet to lay a golden egg) being stuck behind Felipe baby. So they pit him and leave Massa out for 3 more laps instead of just one. And that gives Alonso enough of an advantage to jump his teammate. He does crucially manage to jump Vettel as well who pitted one lap later. And the race is very much on. Vettel gets out behind Sutil but an incredibly late
braking effort on the next lap gets him past his fellow German. Great move! Strange, since everyone knows he cant pass people.

Ok, lets see. We now have our protagonist leading the race. Albeit on pretty worn tires. And I’m thinking, that’s pretty cool. But you gotta pit him soon, Lotus. He is losing a lot of time to those on fresher rubber! But Kimi stays out. And stays out. The times are respectable but not quite as fast as his rivals that are catching up. Just as I am about to go on Twitter to unleash some hate towards the Lotus team, it finally dawns on me: He is 2-stopping. The s.o.b. was going for a 2-stopper all along! And Alonso and co all have to stop again. That means.. no. Could there really be a chance?

Lap 34, Kimi pits. 23 laps to go. Alonso is 14 seconds ahead. To make it clear of Kimi after his stop, he needs at least 23 seconds. Not a chance as the Ferrari driver pits on lap 39. 7 seconds is the gap down to Alonso after his stop. But Kimi is not leading. Amazingly, we have Sutil leading the race once again. Mostly due to his different tire strategy but also by an impressive pace in his comeback race. Kudos.

Kimi does eventually catch up to the dolphin lovin’ pianist and makes an awesome pass:

Sutil defends his position in turn 13 and Kimi takes him on the inside on the next corner. Having carried more speed from a better exit. NOW Kimi is leading the race! 14 laps to go and the gap is down to 4 seconds.. Is Alonso catching him? Are the tires on the Lotus gone? Not likely. Kimi responds and helped by some traffic the gap is up to about 8 seconds after a couple of laps. Only now do I dare to dream of a win. Whitmarsh is being interviewed and while he is impressed by Kimi he believes the final 10 laps will be tough for the Finn.

Well, if they were tough it didn’t look like it. Everytime Alonso makes a slight push, there is a response. In the final couple of laps, the Iceman even sets the fastest lap of the race. The 38th of his career. Even as he crosses the finish line and raises his hand in triumph, I can hardly believe my eyes. It has been a display in speed, racecraft and smarts. Props to the Lotus team for a great strategy and a great car. Perfectly executed from Mr. Raikkonen. He did not set a foot wrong in the entire race. I admit I am a Kimi fan. Everyone knows that. But this was downright masterful. Nothing else to say. His Abu Dhabi win last year was great. Emotional. But he caught a break with Hamiltons retirement. This on the other hand was all Kimi. Just look at his teammate finishing in 10th position. One of his most impressive wins in my opinion.

FINAL WORDS

I have not much to add really. I am still a loss for words. I’m drained from lack of sleep and being on a high all day. But I just had to put my thoughts to paper so to speak. And here is my 2 cents on Kimi and this years car and tires.

Kimi has always been a very smooth driver. Eje Elgh of the Swedish F1 broadcast called Kimi the greatest natural talent that Formula One has ever seen. And he is an old school racer so he should know. Kimis smoothness has been his Achilles heel at times though. Tires need heat to perform their best. And smoother drivers have a harder time working heat into them than aggressive drivers. This obviously affects qualifying. It was a problem last year as well. Although not as bad as in 2008. This year however, things could favor Kimis style for once. Pirelli have made tires of a softer compound to force more pitstops. They are also a lot grippier than last year and crucially – heats up a lot quicker.

This is what I am hoping will bring Kimi the starting positions he needs to mount a serious challenge this year. The pace of the Lotus E21 appears to be very real. And it looks to have hit a sweet spot in tire management. But we will know more in Malaysia as Melbourne is a green track and temps were pretty low. The Red Bull will be back to fight another day I’m sure.

Anyways. My blog is back. And I aim to make a review for every race. Aim, mind you. Turns out that my lovely wife is pregnant and we are expecting a daughter this August. For this I blame the long off-season and winter No, we are as happy as can be, but my point is that I might miss one or two reviews due to external circumstances. But this could be a good one people. Stay tuned to follow Kimis glorious 2013 onslaught!

Peace!
Soren

Ah. Real champagne. Not that fruity Bahrain crap.

I guess I better spray a little… GAH! Dafuq?! -LOL, isn’t it fun Kimi?

Weee.. Look Kimi, a waterfall! -Stop it you blithering idiot. I got it in my eyes. Its a darn waste.

Look, I will show you. First we say cheers. -Ok. Like this?

Yea. And then you take a manly chug like this. -Oh I see. Teach me, master.

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QUALIFYING

Kimis weekend was compromised from the get go. FP1 was hampered by an ignition coil, meaning he got about half the running time as the rest of the field. FP2 was good, but the final practice session was halted pretty much right away when his engine blew to smithereens. So hardly any time to work on qualifying setups, and that showed. At least it happened in practice and Lotus are able to swap to one of his other used engines without penalty.

The quali session had mixed conditions and proved very tricky. Especially for Grosjean in the other Lotus. Well, that was not down to conditions really. More to general stupidity. Q1 and the frenchman comes up on Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT on the main straight. And for some bizarre reason he thinks he can overtake on the inside of the long left bender. Everyone and his boss knows that is used as an apex to minimize turning. But Romain goes for it – and contact. Parts fly and qualifying is effectively over for the other Lotus.

Kimi gets to Q3, whereas the Ferrari drivers just scrapes through in 9th and 10th. He opts for one run in the final session and that was only good enough for 9th. Later bumped up to 8th because of Maldonados penalty. Maldonado now being the lucky owner of a dubious record. The most penalized driver in a season. Ever. Congrats Maldonadon’t!

Up ahead, things are mixing up for the championship. Hamilton bags another pole position. With 7, he has the most of the season. Could have been 8 if not for the penalty in Spain. Vettel on 2nd then? Not so. Button goes well around Interlagos and slots in behind his teammate. Webber also gets the better of his teammate in 3rd. Vettel makes a mistake on his first run in Q3 and probably plays it a little safe in his final run, not to ruin that
as well. Still, better than his mainrival Alonso back in 7th.

THE RACE

So the stage is set for a real thriller! In 2010, the difference was 15 points between the two. Now its 13. Another smaller drama for Kimi fans would be if Kimi could keep his 3rd place in the WDC (even if he himself says it doesnt matter) and if he can possibly finish every single lap of a race season. He has already broken the record for most completed laps in a season. Well, enough chit chat. The cars are lined up and it has just started to
drizzle. Oh boy..

Lights out and what is that I see? Is Webber actually pushing Vettel a little? He most certainly is.. There is a time and a place, Webber. And that was more than half a season ago, before you were completely obliterated by your teammate. Again. Because of this, Vettel has to lift for Webber before turn 1 and go cautious in the Senna S and thus slips down to 7th while Alonso has another rocket start and takes 5th. Applause for Vettels
teammate. The biggest douche in the entire lineup.

Down in turn 4 all hell breaks loose. Kimi is having the mother of all lockups behind Vettel and is merely centimeters from plowing into the back of him and taking him out of the race. That would have put me in a peculiar situation, wouldnt it? Luckily, we are talking about Kimi Raikkonen here. The man that seems to be made of reflexes. Here is what pretty much every other driver would have done: Held their foot down on the brakes and rammed the car in front. What Kimi does is release his brakes a fraction of a second before impact so the wheels get rolling again – and thus are able to jerk the car away from impact. Just miliseconds before disaster. No superlative is big enough for that acheivement. That was downright masterful.

There is no time to marvel at that because the sum of all fears has happened before my eyes. Vettel backwards in the middle of the pack with debris and cars all around. I could have broken down and cried at that moment. However, I am not Felipe Massa, so instead I let out a roar of “NOOOOO!!!” which makes my wife jump about 2 feet in the air from the sofa. By some miracle, Vettel gets going again. Watching the replays makes me wonder how that car was able to roll, let alone race. I send my thank yous and proceed watching with my heart beating out of my chest. That was lap 1. How will I survive 70 more laps of this?

Kine has landed safely back on the sofa.

It doesnt help seeing Webber racing like a numbscull and letting Alonso slip up into 3rd position. By the way, this was enabled by some great driving from Massa. Behaving exactly like a teammate should under these circumstances. I realize that with these positions, Alonso is world champion and I get horrid visions of an off season filled with “mm yes, best driver won. mm yes. quite.”

That can’t be good..

Vettel is not one to give up without a fight. The team informs him of his stricken car and turns his engine down to prevent overheating. Not the best of odds from the very back of the grid. Nothing to do but grit your teeth and get on with it.

And he does. While Webber keeps displaying abysmal racing, losing positions, Vettel is charging up through the grid. Up ahead, Alonso starts making some mistakes. By going wide in turn 1, Nico Hulkenberg slips into 3rd position and all of a sudden Vettel is world champion again as it stands.

As I am paying attention to the championship battle, my heart nearly stops as I see a Lotus heading for the wall with tremendous speed. Oh, its just Grosjean. Nevermind.
Au revoir big pants.

Webber spins and now he is the Red Bull at the backend of the grid as Vettel is up to 8th position on lap 8. With a stricken car. Brilliant! The team is nervous and pleads with Vettel to consider that it is a long race. The rain increases and it prompts most of the front running cars to pit for intermediates. Button and Hulkenberg in front opted not to. Hulkenberg has excelled before in these conditions and on this track. Remember his pole
position in 2010. And he is gaining on Button at this point. Sensationally he makes a pass on Button for the lead and does it beautifully. Great stuff!

After the pitstops, Vettel has caught up with Webber and after a couple of laps, Webber finally gives the position to his teammate. This to applause from the Red Bull garage. However, the shift to intermediates has not worked out. The track is too dry and they are overheating so they have to pit once again. Kimi was sadly one of the people that opted for rain tires. As a result, he is in 12th position after his second stop. Quickly advancing
to 10th.

Because of this, Alonso is a full minute behind Hulkenberg and Button. And we hear him complaining on the radio that there is a lot of debris on the track. And suddenly the Safety Car comes out. Hmm… Granted, there was debris on the track. But still. Nice way to eradicate that huge lead. When the restart gets underway, I have another jaw drop. Webber is trying to overtake his teammate after the restart into turn 1. Of course he
botches it and runs wide. But why Webber, why? That is not what you need to do now? Race your teammate who is trying to win a championship. Are you kidding me?? The inferiority complex is strong with this one.

What he should have been doing was mixing it up at the front – and crucially staying ahead of Alonso. But that is something he has failed to do pretty much all season long. So why start now I guess. Well, you get no respect from me. Thats for sure. Here is a good article by Mark Hughes. He is too kind on Webber, but saying pretty much what I have underlined several times this season. That he is a pretty crappy teammate:
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/22058/8288795/With-a-little-help-from-your-mate

The race settles in a bit after that. Alonso is 4th, Vettel is 6th behind Kobayashi – eventually slipping to 7th behind Massa. And yet obviously champion if it stays like this. But what is this? Kimi gets a run on di Resta but the Force India is mighty quick on the main straight. And Kimi has to try and outbrake him instead. Not easy on a slippery track and he unfortunately runs wide and concedes 2 positions down to 12th. He gets by him
later though as di Resta spins on lap 38.

The good thing about this happening is that it lead to a fantastic scrap between two champions. Kimi is hot on the heels of Schumacher and gets a tow down the straight and it is the closest wheel to wheel action I can recall having ever seen! Literally centimeters apart they dice it out through the Senna S. I jump to my feet in excitement and yell in pure ecstacy! Now that is how you race! Woo-hoo! Poetry. Fair and precise by Schumacher. Ballsy, hard and fair by Kimi. I take everything back about you being too nice in wheel to wheel in Korea. All of it. All hail the Iceman in his awesome comeback season! Yes, its only for 10th position, but that is some damn good racing! BOO-YAH! Michael, you will be missed for moments like these.

Overtake of the race? Check for Kimi. Comical relief moment of the race? Chalk that one up for Raikkonen as well, as he goes on a lovely excursion off track after he ran wide at Juncao. The first thing I thought when I saw that was: “Thats it. Kimi has had enough of this shit. He is gonna park it right there and find a lawn chair.” Seriously. I did. But then he nimbly spins around and goes back. And then I got what he was trying to do. Its a part of the old track that has been closed off. But you could use the escape route and reenter the track up ahead. Kimis luck would have it that there was a gate there – and it was closed. That incident lost him so much time that it led to him being lapped and thus finishing every single race lap this season. But one. Oh well.

Vettel is still playing it safe behind Kobayashi. Up ahead, Hulkenberg is doing a stellar job keeping the McLarens behind him. However, Hamilton now in 2nd is closing in. After a drying period, the rain is picking up again. And people are starting to spin here and there. Not helped by pretty worn tires all over. Sadly, Hulkenberg is one of them and Hamilton pounces and retakes the lead that he held earlier in the race. Was that the end of a potential fairy tale story?

Just as I had calmed my nerves a bit, Hulkenberg gets feisty and tries a move on Hamilton in turn 1. The slippery track catches him out and smacks him into the front wheel of the McLaren. Hamiltons car is done and Alonso moves into 3rd position and the championship lead as Vettel has to make an extra stop for intermediates! At this point I am ready to leave the room. But Alonso also has to pit and Vettel moves up through the field as others pit and suddenly he is the championship leader again. My poor nerves. Hulkenberg gets a drive-through for his clash with Hamilton. Very harsh in my opinion.

Less than 10 laps to go and Massa gives way for Alonso to take 2nd place. Massa has driven a fantastic race. A lot more pace than Alonso. He practically has to ease off to let Alonso catch up. Ferrari does the only thing they can and hopes for fate to step in and take care of the rest. Vettels stricken car could potentially fail at any moment. Not to mention that it is starting to get very wet. Worse than before. Vettel is 7th and that is good enough to win it all. With 1 point. If something happens to Button though, Alonso is back in the lead of the championship. The nailbiting is intense. At least for me.

Good guy Schumacher doesnt make it hard for Vettel and he slips into 6th position. The race laps dwindle down. Button is a lonely figure up ahead – 21 seconds ahead of Alonso. Kimi is in 11th and out of the points for the first time since China. But that changes on the second to last lap as Di Resta crashes heavily from 9th and Kimi moves into 10th. But more importantly at this stage, the race will finish under the safety car and I slowly realize that Vettel and Red Bull has done it again and snatched the title from Fernandos hands! Huge and well-deserved congratulations to him.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What is there to say. It was a wild race. And it has truly been an epic season. Kimis comeback has been a shattering success. I wont go too much into that now as I may do a season recap during the off-season. Just to pass the time a little

I really think McLaren and Hamilton could have won this championship. But reliability issues mostly put a stop to that. I cannot remember the last time I saw such a fast and yet unreliable McLaren car. Oh wait. I can. 2005. Through the course of the season the silver car has been the fastest and yet flawed. Kimi knows all too well how that feels. And I cant help sympathize with Hamilton as he now goes to Mercedes. I highly doubt their car will evolve into a regular race winner next year. You never know of course. But 2014 could be another story.

But getting back to the race. I didnt mention it at first but Vettel made a mistake with Senna. He cut across in a sharper angle than normal and it could just as well have cost him the championship. Lady luck shined upon the Red Bull team as it did in 2010. And I suspect that in 2013, the RB9 will be another race winning car from the Milton Keynes based team. Anyway – Vettel did it. He became the youngest 3-time champion ever. And that is now forever out of reach for Alonso. 4th youngest too is out of reach. And 5th. And so on. But not for Vettel. Who can stop him? I like him. Personally, the only driver I would want to stop Vettel is Kimi. So Im obviously hoping for that next year.

Alonso has not been faster than Massa in the last two races. Is Massa really coming back into form? We know he can be seriously quick. The question is, will he be allowed to? If he is, then he has to from the very first race next season. I suspect that if Alonso gets ahead of him with just a single point, then its back to the waterboy role again. I am really starting to root for Massa. It would be a sunshine story if he could upset the inter-team balance of Ferrari by sheer performance. I fear it wont happen. Or rather – it wont be allowed to happen. But one can dream.

Aww…

So – who was the last Ferrari champion? Oh right. That freakishly fast Finnish guy that was put to pasture for money and team politics. Well, at least it paid off for them. Or wait a second.. It didnt. Sure, they had some great wins and drives. But their trophy closet is still filled with those trophys from 07 and 08. The following years are filled with air. Luckily they have the legendary, best car developer in their stall. Going on 3-4 years now. But – shouldnt that have come into effect a long time ago? Especially considering that Massa is being used as a test mule for parts for Alonsos car? Hmm, thats odd? Well, best of luck to you. It may all change next year. As Alonso once said: “As long as the car is not red, I wish you the best!” No wait, that was.. Yea: “As long as the car is not red, I wish you the best!”

Kimi and Lotus. He got them 4th place in the championship. He has brought them more publicity than they could ever dream of. He helped them land sponsors. Coca-Cola the latest huge name in the pot. That and the added money for the good WCC position will come in handy for developing the 2013 car. We can only hope that they will put them to good use. And hopefully be able to challenge for wins regularly. That would be great. Because if that is possible, then Kimi will challenge for the championship as well. And a unique natural talent like Kimi deserves an opportunity like that. Plus, he is a good guy.

Now, I will take a well-deserved break from blogging. Except for perhaps the odd post as I mentioned. I hope you have enjoyed my unabated bias through the 2012 season. Take care my dear readers and friends. Peace!

Love,
Soren

Images © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, Andrew Ferraro, Red Bull/Paul Gilham, Getty Images/XPB Images, @PHOTO4, motorionline.com

Do not hesitate to contact me if you need any of these photos taken down for any reason.