james Allen

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Button heads tight Spanish GP field as Red Bull and Lotus challenge

It’s going to be a very closely contested Spanish Grand Prix, with McLaren looking like the pace setters but Red Bull and Mercedes there on qualifying pace and Lotus right right there on race pace, judging from today’s practice sessions.

Jenson Button set the fastest time in Friday’s second free practice session, ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull and Rosberg’s Mercedes, but it was the performance of the Lotus cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean (5th and 6th today), which caught the eye on the long runs. They both managed long runs on the soft Pirelli tyre which were both fast and consistent and hint at them challenging for the win on Sunday as they did in Bahrain. Lower temperatures are forecast for Sunday, so that could make things more difficult for them.

The high track temperatures certainly helped. It was 44 degrees for most of the afternoon, which suits the Lotus and they will be hoping that the temperatures stay high for Sunday.

There was a lot of expectation going into this weekend about the heavily revised Ferrari; the team have at least six major changes on the car this weekend, including a new nose, front wing details, turning vanes, sidepods, exhausts, rear wing and floor. Alonso was managing expectations yesterday in his press briefings, saying that this was only the first step to closing up the gap to the front runners, which had been around 1.2 to 1.5 seconds per lap. It’s likely that the gap will turn out to be around 0.9s, once we see the outright pace in qualifying. Alonso was only 14th today, as he had to abort his first lap on his soft tyre run and set the time on his second lap, when the tyres were past their best in sector three. Team mate Massa was 11th fastest on 1m 24.4s a second off the McLaren’s pace.

Lewis Hamilton also had a messy lap on new soft tyres, with lock ups, he set his fastest time on the second lap, so there’s more to come from him.

There are many changes and updates on the cars this weekend, as one would expect for the first European race of the season, especially after a three day test like the one in Mugello last week. Many of the updates we saw there are on the cars here, some are not, like the revised exhausts on the Williams and Caterham, which ran in Mugello but are not on the car here.

There’s a lot of emphasis across the board on the front wings, improving the air flow to the rest of the car and on exhaust positioning. There’s no sign yet of anyone copying the Mercedes double DRS system.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/05/bu...challenge/

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Hamilton on pole in Spain as rivals falter

Lewis Hamilton couldn’t believe his luck in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, as not only did he take a dominant pole position, but his main rivals for the win all tripped up in one way or another.

Tyres were again the dominant story, as teams tried all manner of curious strategies to give themselves the best chance in the race. Hamilton’s only issue was that he stopped out on the circuit on his slow down lap after taking the pole, which the stewards are looking into this evening.

Sebastian Vettel looked good in practice but really struggled for pace in qualifying and was forced to use up all his new soft tyres simply to make the cut into Q3. Once there he didn’t set a lap time so he could have a free choice of tyres for the start of the race.

Red Bull got the tactics all wrong with Mark Webber, who felt he had the car to get pole. He was left in the garage in the final stages of Q2 with a new set of soft tyres available, when he should have been out on track. The track improved by more than the team expected and others went faster, knocking Webber down to 12th spot.

Hamilton’s McLaren team mate Jenson Button set the fastest time in Friday practice but then lost the set up completely; he found his car hard to drive on Saturday, particularly on the hard tyre, complaining of rear instability all day and then of understeer in qualifying on the soft. He starts 11th.

As Hamilton took his third pole position of the season, the 22nd of his career and McLaren’s 150th in Formula 1, he was joined at the front of the grid by Williams’ Pastor Maldonado and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. The Williams looked good throughout practice on both types of tyre and an impressive Maldonado was fastest in Q2. Meanwhile the heavily updated Ferrari went well, in Alonso’s hands at least, setting a best time six tenths slower than Hamilton. Whether that is the true reflection of the step Ferrari has taken we will see tomorrow. Alonso finished almost a minute behind the winner in Bahrain. It will be interesting to see how much they have cut that by.

The session threw up many surprises, most notably the level of track improvement. Normally from the start of the hour to the end the track improves by 0.3 seconds, with most of that in Q1. Today it kept on improving, to the tune of around 0.8 seconds. This is what caught out Webber and Red Bull, who thought that they had done enough with a 1m 22.9s lap.


The upside for Webber is that he starts 12th with a new set of soft tyres and three sets of hards for tomorrow’s race.

Hamilton, who had been the pace setter throughout the session, was the only driver in the final phase of qualifying to take two runs. He set his first “banker” lap on a set of scrubbed option tyres that he had previously used in the second part of qualifying. Although, he did leave his second run until very late and only decided to go for it, at the point when it looked like Pastor Maldonado was going to take pole for Williams.

Completing the second row of the grid is the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, the young Frenchman showing no hangover from his complete lack of track time in the morning’s final practice session (fuel pressure problem). He beat his team mate Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.04 seconds. The Lotus cars are sure to once again be a threat tomorrow as they have shown both long-stint pace and an ability to cope with the high levels of degradation in high temperatures.

In sixth position is Sergio Perez, the Sauber driver having a fairly quiet but impressive session. The sister Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi had got in to the final part of qualifying, however a hydraulic issue meant he could not compete in the shoot-out and will start from tenth position. The Sauber cars sandwich Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. Schumacher, like Vettel, chose to not complete a flying lap, thus allowing him the opportunity to pick his starting compound for tomorrow. However, Rosberg did opt to set a flying time using new tyres on the left hand side of his car and scrubbed tyres on the right side and he found himself 1.3 seconds off the pace of Hamilton at the climax of the session.

Behind the top twelve, which was completed by Button and Webber, the cars lined up in team order; barring two anomalies.

Behind the Force India pair, led by Paul Di Resta, and the two Toro Rosso cars, led by Jean-Eric Vergne was Felipe Massa. Massa could not find the gains from Ferrari’s many upgrades that Alonso managed; he was 0.6 slower than the Spaniard in the second phase of qualifying so he will begin the race in seventeenth. This is one place ahead of Bruno Senna, the second Williams driver looked to make his way into the top seventeen during the first part of qualifying, however a spin in to the gravel at turn 14 on his final lap abolished all hopes of making the cut.

Joining Senna at the tail end of the grid are the Caterham, Marussia and HRT cars. Vitaly Petrov and Charles Pic out-qualified their respective team mates for the first time this year as Narain Karthikeyan failed to beat the 107% time and may not be starting tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

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The FIA is likely to discuss with teams a review into the storage of fuel and the high voltage KERS systems as well as other potentially hazardous materials after a fire broke out in the Williams garage, an hour after the Spanish Grand Prix finished.

The Williams team was celebrating its first win since 2004, with Sir Frank Williams in the garage and team members as well as media present having just done a celebratory photograph.

The garage was quickly evacuated, but the fire took hold quickly and the garage was gutted. Thick plumes of acrid smoke poured out from the garage

Although no official statement has yet been released, Williams media staff confirmed that no-one had been seriously hurt; four Williams staff members were being treated. It’s believed one is for burns and the rest for smoke inhalation. Meanwhile four staff from the next door Caterham team also received attention, as did one Force India staff member, but were unhurt.

There is no word yet as to what caused the fire, but clearly something set off the fuel rig in the back of the garage and there was some speculation among informed sources from another team that it may have been related to the storage of the high voltage KERS, which has to have its own secure area in a garage. This has not been confirmed.
KERS and fuel storage could face review after fire in Williams garage
Senior figures from two teams said that a fresh look at safety procedures would likely follow this incident.

McLaren’s Jonathan Neale said that existing F1 team health and safety procedures involve a full report being filed on the garage set up at every Grand Prix and a list of how hazardous materials are stored. There is a comprehensive book on how to store fuel, for example, and an incident of this kind hasn’t been seen in Formula 1.

But safety is taken very seriously by teams and the FIA and both sides are likely sit to down via the mechanism of the Sporting Working Group, which oversees operational activities, to review safety measure

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/05/ke...ms-garage/

[Alfaster-F1]

[maripi]

Ferrari in the horns of a dilemma

[Updated] Everyone who follows F1 knows that Ferrari have shown extraordinary level of support to Felipe Massa in the last two and a half years. The little Brazilian almost won the world title for them in 2008 and would have done if they hadn’t lost him a win in the Singapore GP by leaving the fuel hose attached at a pit stop.

After his accident in Hungary 2009 they again stood by him, helping him back into the car for 2010. But now, with such a tight field at the front in F1, the signs are that their patience is running out, highlighting the “drop off” in his performances.

In the 43 races since his ‘comeback’ in 2010 Massa has scored an average of six points per race and has been on the podium five times. There were no wins, but he did move over, on team orders, to let Alonso through in Germany in 2010, a race which he would otherwise probably have won.

In that same 43 race period Alonso has scored an average of 13.2 points per race. With seven wins.

On Sunday Massa came home 15th. Like Sebastian Vettel with whom he was fighting, he had to serve a drive through penalty for using DRS in a yellow flag zone, but Vettel (who also had to have a front wing change) finished 7th while Massa did not recover.

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali called this “unlucky” but also commented, “We expect Felipe to react and fight back..we absolutely need his points to also fight for the constructors’ championship.” Ferrari lie fourth in the constructors’ points table at the moment having finished a distant third in 2010 and 2011.

On the Ferrari website today they look at it like this. “As for an analysis of the Scuderia’s performance and its two drivers, Fernando has always maintained a very high level (67 points and second place in 2010, 51 and fifth place last year) while Felipe’s drop off has made itself felt. The Brazilian had picked up 49 points two years ago and 24 the following year, while so far this season he has just 2. In Montmelo, Felipe was very unlucky, both in the race and in qualifying, but everyone, he more than anyone, is expecting a change of gear starting right away with the Monaco Grand Prix, his second home race, given that he lives just a few hundred metres from what, as from next Sunday, will be transformed into the paddock for the sixth round of the 2012 championship.”

Ferrari are in a difficult situation. If a ready made replacement for Massa was clear, they might already have made a switch. The fact that there isn’t one keeps him there.

To improve its chances, it will need an established driver but it will be hard to get an established driver to move mid-season. Test driver Jules Bianchi is far from ready for a move like that and even Sergio Perez is too inexperienced to cope. It could ruin his career to make a move too soon.

What is making the situation all the more painful is that Lotus are scoring a lot of points and Mercedes have the potential to outscore Ferrari too. They could end up fighting for the drivers’ title with Alonso but finish up fifth in the Constructors’

Time to act, or time to support and try to turn it around for Massa, before replacing him with Webber or Perez or Di Resta or whoever next season?
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/05/fe...a-dilemma/

[maripi]

El español del Gran Premio fue un ejemplo perfecto de cómo una carrera puede ser ganada o perdida en el mejor de los márgenes y en una decisión de estrategia de bueno o malo. Pastor Maldonado venció a Fernando Alonso y ganó la carrera para Williams debido a una planificación y una buena estrategia llamar a la mitad del camino a través de la carrera, mientras que Kimi Lotus 'Raikkonen tenía otra vez el coche para ganar, pero era una fracción de su posición debido a la estrategia de carrera y las condiciones y terminó tercero.

Hubo varios momentos y decisiones clave que decidió el resultado de esta carrera. La principal de ellas fue el principio de la segunda parada de Maldonado. Pero hubo otro antes de la carrera había comenzado siquiera y se eliminó el favorito para el triunfo de la carrera


La carrera de Hamilton que perder
Lewis Hamilton debería haber ganado esta carrera cómoda para McLaren, con una ventaja de 0,6 segundos por vuelta en coche. Pero un error por parte del equipo McLaren cuando lo hizo su última vuelta en la calificación arruinó sus posibilidades.

Debido a un error de recarga de combustible, el coche de Hamilton no tenía suficiente combustible en el mismo para completar la vuelta y ser legal en el extremo. El jefe del equipo, Martin Whitmarsh, ha admitido que él debería haber dicho a Lewis Hamilton, a abandonar su vuelta rápida, ya que el equipo se dio cuenta entonces de que no había puesto suficiente combustible en su coche. De haberlo hecho Hamilton habría comenzado la carrera desde el 6 º lugar, con un tiempo establecido anteriormente en la Q3. En lugar de McLaren no actuó, Hamilton completó la primera vuelta, cambió el motor y entonces el equipo trató de argumentar de fuerza mayor para el error. El comisarios de la FIA lo mandó a la parte de atrás de la parrilla desde donde octavo fue el mejor resultado posible.

Hamilton hizo cuatro posiciones en la salida del 24 en la parrilla y consiguió que sus neumáticos para los últimos 14 vueltas en el primer stint, el más largo de cualquier favorito. Él había subido al cuarto lugar, cuando se detuvo y se reunió en el puesto 14. Él hizo su manera a través del campo con una combinación de adelanta y una estrategia de dos paradas lo que significa que hizo 21 vueltas en su segundo juego de neumáticos y 31 en el último set, ambos de los cuales eran el compuesto duro. Él perdió el tiempo en el segundo stint detrás de Massa, de lo contrario un mejor resultado que podría haber sido posible. Se puso por delante de Massa cuando el brasileño sirvió una pena de drive-through en la vuelta 29 para el uso de DRS en una zona de bandera amarilla.

Mediante la ampliación de los períodos, Hamilton fue capaz de recuperar posiciones cuando los tres tapones de hecho su última parada y mantuvo los neumáticos vivos durante 31 vueltas, perdiendo sólo un lugar al final de Vettel y casi conseguir uno detrás de Rosberg. Fue un viaje muy bien, pero él y McLaren saben que su primera victoria de la temporada fue allí para ser tomada este fin de semana, de haber tomado una decisión diferente en el calor del momento en la clasificación.

Conseguir la derecha de la planificación
En los entrenamientos del viernes, con temperaturas de la pista por encima de 40 grados, los neumáticos blandos ha funcionado bien como un neumático de carrera. Sin embargo expectativa antes del fin de semana fue que las temperaturas sería más baja en día de la carrera que el resto del fin de semana.

Esto llevó a algunos equipos para planificar para salvar a tres nuevos juegos de neumáticos duros para la carrera, ya que éstos tienen un menor rango de temperatura de trabajo de los blandos y por lo tanto entrar en su cuenta en esas condiciones. Esta resultó ser la cosa correcta a hacer, la pista estaba a 44 grados el sábado y este bajó a 32 grados el domingo y el duro era el neumático más rápido. Williams y Maldonado hizo esto, Ferrari sólo tenía dos juegos nuevos para Alonso. Red Bull también fue uno de los equipos para salvar a tres sets.

Sin embargo el plan no funcionó para ellos, ya que no tienen el ritmo en la calificación o la carrera. Sebastian Vettel se vio obligado a utilizar todos los neumáticos de sus suaves sólo para pasar a la parte final de la clasificación. Esto significaba que no tenía nuevos conjuntos de materias primas agrícolas para una carrera en la Q3 y sólo fue octavo en la parrilla. Ambos coches se requiere un cambio del alerón delantero durante la carrera, el equipo se combina con una parada de neumáticos, pero no era el momento ideal tácticamente. Vettel también tuvo un 'drive through' por lo que hizo bien en terminar por delante de los McLaren en el 6 º lugar.


Maldonado gana Alonso través de la estrategia

Los coches están tan cerca de este año, ganar es todo acerca de salir al frente de la manada desde el principio, ya que Vettel hizo en Bahrein y Rosberg hizo en China.

La carrera se peleó una vez más entre los dos coches en la primera fila de la parrilla. Sin embargo, España era sólo la segunda vez en cinco carreras (el otro era Malasia), donde el coche que conduce la primera vuelta no van a ganar la carrera. Esto fue todo a la estrategia. Williams cree que tenía una ventaja sobre Ferrari ritmo y se espera el reto de la victoria que venir de Lotus. Sin embargo, ellos sabían que eran vulnerables a las excelentes salidas de Alonso. Maldonado, debidamente perdió el principio hasta el piloto de Ferrari y Alonso tenía el ritmo suficiente en los dos primeros períodos de la carrera que Maldonado no fue capaz de acercarse lo suficiente como para atacar.

Es importante destacar que, sin embargo, la Williams tuvo una mejor vida útil del neumático al final de los períodos y al final de la segunda etapa, Maldonado cerró sobre Alonso, de más de tres segundos a la mitad. Williams le enfrentó a dos vueltas antes de Alonso para la segunda parada y Ferrari permitió que su conductor a mantenerse al margen, y llegas a tener un tráfico más lento. Esto es algo que han permitido que suceda antes.

La llamada a probar el lado inferior (picaduras antes de oponente y con ritmo de neumáticos nuevos para salir adelante cuando se detiene) fue hecho por el jefe de Williams de la estrategia de Mark Barnett. Trajo Maldonado en la vuelta 24, cuando fue de 1,5 segundos por detrás de Alonso. Después de haber salvado a los juegos de neumáticos duros nuevos, Barnett calcula que tendría entonces la vida de los neumáticos para hacer 42 vueltas con una parada más para que sin perder el ritmo al final.

Fue ejecutada brillantemente, su en-vuelta fue 0,4 s más rápido que Alonso, la parada era sólo 0.2secs más lento que Ferrari, pero fundamentalmente de los nuevos neumáticos duros a su vuelta de lanzamiento fue de 2,6 segundos más rápido y la primera vuelta también fue un segundo más rápido . Con Alonso perder el tiempo detrás de Pic, Maldonado había hecho lo suficiente para tomar la iniciativa de la Ferrari cuando se detuvo para vueltas más tarde que el Williams

Sin embargo, como Alonso presionó a su paso para quedarse con él en el tramo final, tenemos un ejemplo gráfico de cómo seguir a otro coche acelera hasta la degradación de los neumáticos, Alonso no fue capaz de quedarse con Maldonado hasta el final, ya que el la degradación causada por correr en el tráfico fue más grave que se ejecuta en el aire claro. Los neumáticos de Alonso había hecho tres vueltas en la calificación, por lo que tenían la misma edad más o menos como Maldonado.


Lotus y McLaren - lo que podría haber sido

A pesar de que tenía el coche más rápido en las simulaciones de carrera de práctica en la tarde del viernes, fueron tercero y cuarto en la parrilla y la vuelta más rápida de la carrera el domingo por más de un segundo, Lotus no ganó. ¿Por qué no?

La temperatura tiene algo que ver con ella, la caída de hasta 32 grados en el día de la carrera tomó la ventaja frente a su velocidad (tan fino son los márgenes de ahora). También cometió un error la estrategia en la primera parada, poniendo los coches en un conjunto de neumáticos blandos usados, en lugar de los recalcitrantes. Ellos empujaron a los períodos a cabo para asegurarse de que tendría una oportunidad al final. A medida que las temperaturas se elevaron hacia el final de la carrera pudimos ver lo que el Lotus podía hacer. El Lotus marcado la vuelta rápida de la carrera, más de un segundo más rápido que el coche más cercano. Último stint de Raikkonen fue de 18 vueltas, 23 vueltas, Alonso de Maldonado de 25 vueltas. Alonso era vulnerable a los ataques de Raikkonen en las últimas vueltas, pero se quedó sin vueltas. Tal vez si hubiera dejado una vuelta antes que él habría pasado Alonso por un segundo al final.

Inicia son una parte vital de la estrategia de carrera y vimos la experiencia de Raikkonen en el nerviosismo de Grosjean en la salida. A pesar de que el joven iba por delante en la parrilla, Raikkonen se adelantó en la primera vuelta y Grosjean cayó detrás de Rosberg, cuyo ritmo era mucho más lento y así lo sostuvo. El francés perdió 8 segundos en los primeros 9 vueltas. Peor aún, Mercedes enfrentó a Rosberg por primera vez como un movimiento defensivo por delante y se quedó en el segundo stint, así que Grosjean tuvo que pasar a la pista.

La primera victoria para Lotus de este año seguramente no es muy lejos.

CARRERA DE HISTORIA

Este es el gráfico de Historia de la Carrera del GP español, proporcionado amablemente por el Williams F1 Team. El cuadro principal uso es para mostrar la posición en pista y también las diferencias entre los coches. La línea de cero se ve mejor como un "fantasma" de coches, que está marcando el tiempo medio de vuelta del ganador (su tiempo de carrera, dividido por 66 vueltas) y se puede ver cómo evolucionan los tiempos por vuelta en relación a la misma. Tenga en cuenta el ritmo con respecto a los líderes de Lotus en el tramo final, por ejemplo, cuando las temperaturas subieron, y que marcó la vuelta rápida de la carrera.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/05/ho...rand-prix/

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Hamilton considers why McLaren’s race pace doesn’t match qualifying

Lewis Hamilton has been speaking today about McLaren’s race performances and the mismatch with their qualifying performances, which has been one of the mysteries of this 2012 season.

Hamilton has qualified on the front row five times in five races, although in China he had a gearbox penalty and in Barcelona he was demoted to the back of the grid for a fuel load irregularity. And yet the race pace hasn’t matched up to the qualifying pace and it’s left them chasing the game on Sundays. Of course pit stop errors have played their part in him not achieving better results, but it’s been noticeable that the pace hasn’t been as expected on race day, regardless of the pit stop problems.

“Of course looking at the qualifying results we’ve had for the five races we would have loved to have finished further up and we definitely need to improve to make sure we stay where we are or we move forwards,” he said. “We’ve started high up and finished a little bit further behind from where we started so we’ve gone backwards a little bit in most of the races, but we’re working very hard to make sure that doesn’t continue.”

Although the finger of blame has been pointed at the inconsistent behaviour of all the teams on the Pirelli tyres this year, with Hamilton’s team-mate Jenson Button in particular complaining a lot during races about the handling, another explanation doing the rounds among engineers in the pitlane is that fuel consumption may have something to do with it. With higher fuel consumption comes a need to carry a bit more fuel and this extra weight slows the car down by around 0.35 seconds per lap for every 10 extra kilos carried.

The banning this season of off throttle blown diffusers (where fuel is dumped into the cylinder even when the driver lifted off the throttle for corners, to create exhaust gas pressure for aerodynamic gains) the amount of fuel being used by the teams has reduced up to a point. But there are suggestions that the Mercedes engine is still using more fuel than others and this accounts for the drop off in performance on race day. As the grid is so tight, even a few tenths of a second per lap makes quite a difference.

Nico Rosberg has also yet to finish a race higher than his starting position.

If this is part of the problem, it should be less of a difference in Monaco, where the fuel load is one of the lowest of the season, as there is so little full throttle running.


http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/05/ha...ualifying/

Track position is king in Monaco, which is why qualifying well here is so important.

[Alfaster-F1]

[maripi]

Webber doubles up in Monaco to become sixth winner in first six races

Mark Webber made history today becoming the sixth different winner in the first six races of the season; something that has never happened before in F1.

In an extremely close finish, the Australian polesitter won by a margin of 0.6 seconds over Nico Rosberg, his fellow front row starter, with Fernando Alonso moving from 5th on the grid to 3rd at the finish. He takes sole control of the drivers’ world championship table. Sebastian Vettel who went from 9th to 4th.

Improved qualifying has been a key to Webber’s improved performance this season and his pole here, while unexpected, was crucial to his success here. He inherited it from Schumacher after he took his five place penalty, but had been quick enough to challenge and take the opportunity.

“I’m very happy it’s good to win here fair and square from the pole position,” he said. “Consistency is noce but wins are what wins championship. If you get a chance, as I did today, you need to grab it with both arms and anything else. This is the weakest car we’ve had in the last three years here but it was enough to win.”

Webber said it was only on the last lap that he believed he would win for the second time.

It was a race that had a surprising twist on what we have come to expect this year, with the new Pirelli tyres holding out longer than expected to allow the drivers to make just one stop. The leading drivers had expected to make another stop further on in the race, however Sebastian Vettel proved in the first stint that the harder prime tyre could withstand the final fourty laps and he was able to leap-frog Lewis Hamilton during his stop to take fourth position.

The winding characteristics of the circuit meant that overtaking was scarce, and up until the final ten laps the race was uneventful with the threat of heavy rain never coming to fruition. In that final part of the Grand Prix the top three cars were joined by Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa to make for an exciting climax as the cars made their way through traffic, but the cars finished in that order.

Webber made a perfect start and controlled the race throughout, only losing the lead to his late stopping team mate. Behind him there was chaos at the first corner as Romain Grosjean was forced into the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and spun across the track at the first turn. The remainder of the grid managed to take avoiding action, except for Kamui Kobayashi who hit the Lotus and they both retired from the Grand Prix.

Behind Webber and Rosberg, Hamilton initially led the chasers and sat comfortably in third, but a very quick in-lap from Alonso allowed him to exit the pits ahead of the Briton after staying out an extra lap. Hamilton dropped back further when Vettel eventually stopped and the two came very close on the pit-exit, with Vettel coming out on top. Vettel’s pace on worn soft tyres was astonishing and as the leaders struggled to warm up their new soft tyres after the stops, he was able to get himself into the game.

Ironically, the warm up issue also meant that had he known, Alonso could have won the race by staying out a few laps longer before stopping. This would have got him ahead of Webber and Rosberg. But no-one would have predicted it or gambled on it.

Felipe Massa had his strongest showing of the season, matching the pace of those in front and pressuring his team mate early in the race. He ended the race only five seconds behind Webber making for one of the closest finishes in Grand Prix history.

The second group of the race was led by Paul Di Resta, the Force India driver getting the better of his team mate to collect a decent haul of points for the Silverstone squad, albeit thirty-five seconds behind Massa.

Bruno Senna completed the points scorers and made up for a poor qualifying, he was one of the main gainers during the first lap incident. Further back Heikki Kovalainen had a race long battle with Jenson Button and they came very close on more then one occasion as Button became frustrated and spun trying to overtake the Caterham driver. Button soon retired and will be happy to see the end of a miserable weekend. For Kovalainen however he will have given his team a lot of confidence, showing a lot of competitiveness throughout the weekend.

Button was one of many non-finishers, after Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, Pedro De La Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi retired on the opening lap Michael Schumacher also failed to make the finish due to a fuel pump issue. The fastest qualifier yesterday still has only two points this season and has been extremely unfortunate with reliability.

Rosberg was magnanimous after the race; “Mark drove a very good race, in control of the race and of me and there wasn’t much I could do,” he said.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/05/we...six-races/

[maripi]

How is Alonso leading the championship with that car and what happens next?
Fernando Alonso sits on top of the drivers’ standings this morning after his third place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix.

But it is more than surprising that Alonso is in this position, given how poor the Ferrari car was in pre-season testing and the early season races. So how has it happened? Consistency has certainly been the key for Alonso who, along with Hamilton is the only driver to have scored points in every race so far. But there’s more to it than that. The tyres play their part in this story, inevitably, the misfortunes of others have their part to play too.

Alonso’s lowest scoring race was China, where he finished only 9th, but he’s been on the podium three times, one of them a win in Malaysia and where no better result has been possible, he’s managed to pick up a fifth and a seventh place.

In contrast his rivals have been more erratic: Webber and Vettel have both had a non points finish, Button has had three non finishes. Hamilton has scored in every race, with three third places early on, but then pit stop and operational issues hit him in the last three races as well as a lack of pace on race day.

Key factors in their favour are that Ferrari has consistently the best starts and the best pit stops of any team at the moment. Alonso has made up many places at the start: 13 places in the first five races and another one on Sunday in Monaco, Massa has made up 23 in total. They’ve had to do this because the Ferrari hasn’t qualified very well; going into the Monaco GP on Sunday Alonso was averaging only 8th on the supergrid, which aggregates all the drivers’ qualifying times – behind the Red Bulls, McLarens, Mercedes and Grosjean.

This is the key area where Ferrari need to improve in the second half of the season, as the leading teams will get on top of the tyre issues and we’ll start to see a more consistent picture in races. To consolidate his position Ferrari need to give Alonso a car that will qualify more strongly.

“If you are fighting for pole position, and even on pole position, then the race is totally different,” said team boss Stefano Domenicali after the race. “This is something we need to keep focusing on to make sure things are going in the right direction. In terms of the pure performance of the car, we had a very difficult start. We have a situation where we are not happy and where we want to improve the car because we have seen other cars at the moment have pole positions, and we do not. So that has to be a target for the team.”

Alonso revealed how he has been approaching each weekend, “We wanted to be ahead of Hamilton and Vettel this weekend and we did it,” he said post race. “In this championship, at every race you have to concentrate on different drivers and next time we’ll need to keep ahead of Webber. We’re on top of the table; if you’d said that to me after Melbourne, I’d never have believed it. We have to keep improving the car because we are not yet the fastest. The next two weeks will be very important.”

Ferrari has clearly improved the car a lot in traction out of low speed corners, which helped in Barcelona and Monaco and will help out of the chicanes and hairpins of Montreal. However another key weak point is straight line speed and this is not straight forward to fix.

Ferrari has a major update coming for Montreal, and their history in recent years shows that they’ve often taken a significant upturn around June. The 2010 campaign, for example, started slowly but from Canada onwards Alonso won races and was in the championship hunt.

This time round he’s already ahead on points and, if Ferrari repeat their progress of 2010, he must be considered the favourite for the title.

While the other top teams are putting on updates to find more speed and then having to take them off again because the priority is to set the car up first to extract the best from the tyres, Ferrari seems to have a good way with the tyres, particularly at the end of the stints; Alonso again made up a place, on Hamilton, in Monaco thanks to pace at the end of the stint.

It was noticeable also that of the front runners, who were struggling to get the new soft tyres warmed up after the pit stop on Sunday, Alonso’s tyres were working several laps earlier than Webber and Rosberg. He acknowledged this after the race.

Expert observers at the weekend noted that Alonso had the right technique for driving the Pirelli supersofts, which can get easily damaged by spinning the wheels on corner exit. Alonso seemed to have appreciated that and was getting the cars straight before hitting the throttle, thus looking after them better.

Hindsight shows that he could have jumped Webber and Rosberg at the pit stop by staying out a couple of laps longer on his supersofts. And then with his superior tyre warm up, he would have driven away from them in the lead in the second part of the race for what would have been a dominant win.

But as he said afterwards, no-one would have predicted those tyre warm up issues, so Ferrari cannot consider it a mistake or a win that got away.