2011 F1 Indian Grand Prix - Mercedes GP Preview

Originally Posted by Sticky

There it is

Perfect timing, another site just put theirs up and I think yours is better.

Thanks man. I've been sitting on it for a bit, it's been kinda hectic here and I finally get some free time to work on it.

Originally Posted by DavidV

Sure he is
But, in all honesty, MS is always good when everybody is new to a track.
Especially if there is no track data to start from, it really comes down to driver input to set up the car for maximum performance.
Another early alarm clock this weekend...

Yeah, Michael has certainly improved, especially in the last five races and has constantly outraced Nico. If it wasn't for Petrov the last race, he might have been able to finish infront of both Ferrari's. Mercedes is expected to bring some new parts and a new fuel blend to the race.

I've been reading that the teams have been squeezing as much data as they can from their simulators, but the sims can only prepare the team to an extent. Nothing like real world data.

my dad is going to be there, i have midterms so that sob wouldnt let me go.

Originally Posted by Kbahl21

my dad is going to be there, i have midterms so that sob wouldnt let me go.

His priorities are out of whack.

So MS screwed up qually. Barely making Q2, he was .8 seconds slower then Rosberg, which got him 12th place.
Rosberg, last of the timesetters, made 7th place.
Disappointing to still see teams not setting a fast lap in Q3, just to save tires.
Vettel has pole again, Hamilton got second, but will get a 3 place penalty, so Webber will start in slot 2, and Alonso will take 3rd place.
Surprisingly nice track.

And Red Bull broke the all time record with 16 pole positions in one season.
Off course, with 20 races the final number of this record can change, with 3 races to go it is gonna be a record pretty hard to beat with Vettel's performance in qualifying.

Qualifying report???

I can give you the provisional grid for tomorrow:

1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1
2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	2
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	3
4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	4
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	5
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6
8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	7
14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	8
18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	9
19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	10
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	11
15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	12
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	13
9	Bruno Senna	Renault	14
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	15
10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	16
16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	17
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	18
21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	19
17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	20
25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	21
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	22
22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	23
24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	24

Petrov penalised 5 grid spots for causing crash in Korea; Hamilton & Perez 3 spots for ignoring yellow flags in FP1; Ricciardo 5 spots for gearbox change; Karthikeyan 5 spots for blocking. Glock didn't meet 107% requirement, races at stewards' discretion.

Vettel and the pole... again and again.

Yes, and before his final run the top 4 were .1 second apart. In his final timed lap Vettel managed to find another .27 !

Sorry man, I'm working on it. I was out taking care of a bunch of stuff. I didn't even get a chance to watch it.

Rosberg and Schumacher qualified in seventh and 12th places respectively today during qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi. For Rosberg he completed one run in each of the sessions to save tires for the race. He will have one set of primes and two sets of the soft option tires.

Schumacher on the other hand had a difficult qualifying session, he had to switch to a set of super softs to make Q2 on his last lap. In Q2, he suffered from tyre vibrations and missed out on Q3 by 0.018s

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, the new crowned world champion ran away with his 13th pole position in the inaugrual Indian Grabd Prix. With this, he has now tied Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost for the most pole positions in a season.

Although Hamilton set the second fastest lap, he will start in fifth place after being hit by a penalty in friday's practise for speeding under yellow flag conditions. This means Mark Webber will start second, followed by Alonso, Jenson Button. Massa, who crashed on his final lap will start in sixth place. Sutil, Buemi, and Alguersuari round out the top 10.

From Michael’s perspective, his qualifying session didn’t go as expected:

“At first I hit some traffic, and then on my final run in Q2, there was again vibrations on the set of tyres which I used which was not helpful. Saying that, this certainly does not explain the time gap to Nico so we need to understand what the reason was for that and get on top of it.

As for the race tomorrow, this should work out better for me, and my aim undoubtedly is to score some points. I’m not really sure which side of the grid will be the better one, so I will just take it from there and try to gain as much as possible.”

After the qualifying session, Nico was pleased with the step forward but left he could have finished higher:

“In Q1, I hit a kerb quite heavily and damaged the floor which lost some of the car’s downforce for the rest of qualifying. I was on my quickest lap at the end of Q3 but unfortunately I had to slow down for the yellow flag after Felipe’s incident so that cost me some time.

I will push hard to gain places tomorrow and have a good race on this fantastic track. I’m guessing it will be an exciting race and the Indian people should be proud to have one of the best tracks in the world of motorsport now!”

Ross felt today was:

“An exciting and tense qualifying session. We got caught out a little in traffic on occasions which didn’t help as it was particularly close out there. It’s a shame that we didn’t get through to Q3 with Michael, and he was unhappy with his final set of tyres. Nico did a great job, especially considering that he was struggling a little with the car yesterday, so all credit to him and his team for getting the car in good shape for qualifying. Our runs on high fuel this weekend have been encouraging so we are looking forward to the race tomorrow at this impressive new track.”

For Norbert:

“Nico did a good job today and a good qualifying strategy from our team with just one run in Q3 to save tyres for the race. Michael missed getting into the top ten by 0.018s and the gap to P8 was less than two-tenths which shows how intense the battle is. Our target tomorrow is to achieve the best possible result behind the top three teams and hopefully finish in the top six rankings which we achieved three times in the last five races. The new circuit and facilities here in Greater Noida are very impressive and it is very positive for Formula One to be present in such a vibrant country full of passion and friendliness.”

Full Qualifying Results

	Driver	Teams	Time
1	S Vettel (GER)	Red Bull	1'24.178
2	M Webber (AUS)	Red Bull	1'24.508
3	F Alonso (ESP)	Ferrari	1'24.519
4	J Button (GBR)	McLaren	1'24.950
5	LC Hamilton (GBR)	McLaren	1'24.474
6	F Massa (BRA)	Ferrari	1'25.122
7	N Rosberg (GER)	Mercedes-Benz	1'25.451
8	A Sutil (GER)	Force India	1'26.140
9	S Buemi (SUI)	Toro Rosso	1'26.161
10	J Alguersuari (ESP)	Toro Rosso	1'26.319
11	M Schumacher (GER)	Mercedes-Benz	1'26.337
12	P di Resta (GBR)	Force India	1'26.503
13	P Maldonado (VEN)	Williams	1'26.537
14	B Senna (BRA)	Renault	1'26.651
15	RG Barrichello (BRA)	Williams	1'27.247
16	V Petrov (RUS)	Renault	1'26.319
17	K Kobayashi (JPN)	Sauber	1'27.876
18	H Kovalainen (FIN)	Lotus	1'28.565
19	J Trulli (ITA)	Lotus	1'28.752
20	S Perez (MEX)	Sauber	1'27.562
21	J d'Ambrosio (BEL)	Virgin	1'30.866
22	T Glock (GER)	Virgin	1'34.046
23	D Ricciardo (AUS)	HRT	1'30.216
24	KRN Karthikeyan (IND)	HRT	1'30.238

@Sticky

Article is up!

Originally Posted by Scourge82

For Rosberg he completed one run in each of the first two sessions and opted not to run in the third and final session to save tires for the race. He will have one set of primes and two sets of the soft option tires.

??? He did run i Q3. His time was 1:25.451

Thanks man, The articles i read made it seem he didn't run in Q3. I edited my post

You are welcome.
No need to download the qualification, it was not really that intense.
Let's hope the race will be more exiting.
It should provide lots of overtaking with 2 DRS zones.

Originally Posted by Scourge82

Sorry man, I'm working on it. I was out taking care of a bunch of stuff. I didn't even get a chance to watch it.

No worries, up on the front page. Thanks!

Mid race standings:

	1	Vettel		Red Bull	33	1
	2	Button		McLaren	33	1
	3	Webber		Red Bull	33	1
	4	Alonso		Ferrari	33	1
	5	Rosberg		Mercedes-Benz	33	1
	6	Schumacher		Mercedes-Benz	33	1
	7	Hamilton		McLaren	33	2
	8	Alguersuari		Toro Rosso	33	1
	9	Sutil		Force India	33	1
	10	Perez		Sauber	33	1
	11	Petrov		Renault	33	2
	12	Senna		Renault	33	1
	13	Kovalainen		Lotus	33	1
	14	di Resta		Force India	33	2
	15	Massa		Ferrari	33	3
	16	Ricciardo		HRT	33	2
	17	Barrichello		Williams	33	1
	18	Karthikeyan		HRT	33	1
	19	d'Ambrosio		Virgin	33	1
	20	Trulli		Lotus	33	2
		Buemi		Toro Rosso	27	1
		Maldonado		Williams	13	0
		Glock		Virgin	3	2
		Kobayashi		Sauber	1	0

Massa is out of the race with suspension failure after hitting a curb. Schumacher is catching Rosberg and cut the distance from 6 secs to 2.8. As usual, Vettel is tearing it up.

Schumacher is able to get the undercut with pit stops and is now ahead of Rosberg in P5, 7 laps to go!

Race Results: Article to follow after the Mercedes GP interview

	1	Vettel		Red Bull	60	2
	2	Button		McLaren	60	2
	3	Alonso		Ferrari	60	2
	4	Webber		Red Bull	60	2
	5	Schumacher		Mercedes-Benz	60	2
	6	Rosberg		Mercedes-Benz	60	2
	7	Hamilton		McLaren	60	3
	8	Alguersuari		Toro Rosso	59	2
	9	Sutil		Force India	59	2
	10	Perez		Sauber	59	2
	11	Petrov		Renault	59	2
	12	Senna		Renault	59	2
	13	di Resta		Force India	59	3
	14	Kovalainen		Lotus	58	2
	15	Barrichello		Williams	58	2
	16	d'Ambrosio		Virgin	56	2
	17	Karthikeyan		HRT	56	2
	18	Ricciardo		HRT	56	3
	19	Trulli		Lotus	55	3
		Massa		Ferrari	35	3
		Buemi		Toro Rosso	27	1
		Maldonado		Williams	13	0
		Glock		Virgin	3	2
		Kobayashi		Sauber	1	0