News Azerbaijan Grand Prix Baku, 17-19 June.

[Notebook]

Lewis Hamilton ended a messy qualifying session at the Grand Prix of Europe with a crash, smashed suspension and 10th on the grid.

The world champion dominated practice but a string of errors ended with contact with the inside wall at Turn 11 as team-mate Nico Rosberg took pole.

Hamilton faces a fight in the race to limit the damage to his title bid.

Force India's Sergio Perez took second ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo but starts seventh after a penalty.

The Mexican's gearbox had to be changed after a crash at Turn 15 in final practice at the demanding, new 3.7-mile street circuit in the nation's capital Baku, which features F1's longest straight.

Ricciardo pipped Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel with his final lap - improving by 1.3 seconds over his first run in Q3. Vettel set the exact same time as the Australian, but will start behind him because he posted it later.

By Andrew Benson

Chief F1 writer in Baku, Azerbaijan
QUOTE]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36567285

 

[Trekkie]

too bad vertsappen starts 9th place

 

[Notebook]

Pos. Driver Team Qualifying One Qualifying Two Qualifying Three

1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:43.685  1:42.520  1:42.758
2 Sergio Perez Force India 1:44.462 1:43.939 1:43.515
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:44.570 1:44.141 1:43.966
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:45.062 1:44.461 1:43.966
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:44.936 1:44.533 1:44.269
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:45.494 1:44.696 1:44.483
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:44.694 1:44.687 1:44.717
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:44.706 1:44.477 1:45.246
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:44.939 1:44.387 1:45.570
10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:44.259 1:43.526 2:01.954
11 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:45.507 1:44.755
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:44.860 1:44.824
13 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso 1:44.827 1:45.000
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:45.525 1:45.270
15 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:45.300 1:45.349
16 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:45.549 1:46.048
17 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:45.665
18 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:45.750
19 Jenson Button McLaren 1:45.804
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:46.231
21 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:46.348
22 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:46.394

Last updated 18 June 2016 at 15:11

 

[BenSisko]

Seems like Hamilton couldn't get his groove on and screwed the pooch! Once again, the question for the day is what happened to Ferrari?

 

[ADSWNJ]

That's a pretty interesting track. Super tight round the castle area ... almost Monaco-like, and then opening out into some huge straights more like Monza. You have to run a very low downforce set-up for those straights, but the it really hurts the turn-ins on those 90 degree street-track corners.

I think we will have some "Alleys of Champions" drives down the run-offs in the race, like we saw in the quali.

As for Hamilton - my theory is that he hasn't done enough laps in the simulator, so he's playing iot more by gut feel. I would expect the Nico-bot has done precisely 1024 simulator laps, and tested all tire and track grip situations.

 

[indy91]

Hamilton did his share of laps in the Free Practice sessions and always was far ahead, so maybe it was simply different track conditions that didn't suit him. Rosberg in comparison had an amazing Q2 time, I could see him beating Hamilton in Q3 even if Hamilton hadn't struggled so much. Anyway, that all could be different again tomorrow and if Hamilton survives lap 1, he should be able to do a lot of overtaking.

The GP2 feature race was amazing, lots of (luckily minor) incidents, overtaking, drag races etc. I really hope F1 can deliver that and more.

 

[BenSisko]

Hamilton topped the times for FP 1, FP 2, & FP 3. I think it was a combination of a glitch with the setup. He seemed to be fighting with the car through all of quali.

 

[ADSWNJ]

Game on for the race ...

 

[Notebook]

Looks like fun especially for no. 9 & 10...Interesting circuit.

N.

 

[C3PO]

...Interesting circuit.

Some might even say brutal. I like it! :lol:

 

[GLS]

In racing news: Toyota just lost the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the last lap :facepalm:

 

[C3PO]

Woah! Magnussen's fighting spirit is in better shape than his tires. That radio coms ban is a joke.

 

[indy91]

Rather eventless Grand Prix. The two GP2 races made me believe we would get better racing, but the GP2 sprint race today also had a few boring laps with the cars spreading out over the track and then it was just Safety Cars generating more Safety Car phases.

Rosberg without fault and anyone challenging him, Red Bull disappointing and two World Champions (Hamilton and Räikkönen) having trouble with their wheel settings. As stupid as the extent of the radio ban is, I would kind of expect these two to know enough about their cars to fix the problems they had.

 

[ADSWNJ]

Agreed, indy. Apart from the drag-strip overtakes through start-finish (mainly on DRS advantage), there was very minimal action in that race. The radio ban is a stupid thing. Much preferred the pits calling for different strategy modes.

I hope 2017-spec cars bring more exciting racing.

p.s. Toyota (24h le Mans) smh ... so sad for them. Hope they had no swords in that pit.

 

[Notebook]

Nearly forgot:

Pos No Driver Laps Time/Retired Pts

1 6 Rosberg 51 1:32:52.366 25
2 5 Vettel 51 +16.696s 18
3 11 Perez 51 +25.241s 15
4 7 Räikkönen 51 +33.102s 12
5 44 Hamilton 51 +56.335s 10
6 77 Bottas 51 +60.886s 8
7 3 Ricciardo 51 +69.229s 6
8 33 Verstappen 51 +70.696s 4
9 27 Hulkenberg 51 +77.708s 2
10 19 Massa 51 +85.375s 1
11 22 Button 51 +104.817s 0
12 12 Nasr 50 +1 lap 0
13 8 Grosjean 50 +1 lap 0
14 20 Magnussen 50 +1 lap 0
15 30 Palmer 50 +1 lap 0
16 21 Gutierrez 50 +1 lap 0
17 9 Ericsson 50 +1 lap 0
18 88 Haryanto 49 +2 laps 0
NC 14 Alonso 42 DNF 0
NC 94 Wehrlein 39 DNF 0
NC 55 Sainz 31 DNF 0
NC 26 Kvyat 6 DNF 0

 

[Alfastar]

Agreed, indy. Apart from the drag-strip overtakes through start-finish (mainly on DRS advantage), there was very minimal action in that race. The radio ban is a stupid thing. Much preferred the pits calling for different strategy modes.

I hope 2017-spec cars bring more exciting racing.

p.s. Toyota (24h le Mans) smh ... so sad for them. Hope they had no swords in that pit.

This race would be known as the most exciting of this season...

I just hope in 2017 this track would being a lot more interesting. I think we did seen just like 10 overtakes over the whole race. Definitely not the most interesting race to talk about besides about Perez.

But well, the Austrian GP is less then 2 weeks away, and I surely bet that would being a lot more F1 worthy.