Schumacher crashes in Spanish Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher has crashed in the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

Fernando Alonso stole the lead frmo Pastor Maldonado, who was promoted to pole after Lewis Hamilton was denoted to the back of the grid Saturday, and the race showed a lot of interesting overtakings and close race. But on lap 13 Michael Schumacher, who was chasing down Maldonado´s team mate Bruno Senna for an overtaking down the straight, suddenly misjudged the braking point at smashed into the rear of the Williams racer.

Both cars retired, and Michael Schumacher was seen throwing away his steering wheel in anger, although he soon calmed down and his voice clearly sounded as though he knew it was his own fault.

At the moment, Maldonado is leading the race ahead of Alonso in second and Raikkonen in third.

Hamilton´s penalty too harsh

The controversial decision to relegate Lewis Hamilton to the back of the grid for Sunday´s Grand Prix race in Spain, has sent shock waves of disbelief and disgust through most parts of the media and the public.

On Saturday, the FIA stewards decided that Lewis Hamilton would be sent to the back of class fora fuel irregularity. The team was asked to provide a fuel sample to the scrutineers after qualifying, but Sam Michael told race director Charlie Whiting that the reason Hamilton´s car had stopped on track was due to a technical problem, force majeure. The case is not that there wasn´t sufficient fuel in the car, there were actually 1.3 litres of fuel, but the FIA did not buy the explanation. In short, they didn´t accept that explanation.

The team explained to Sky Sport´s Mark Huges, what went wrong:

“A tap on the team’s refuelling device was initially moved the wrong way by a mechanic, meaning the fuel was being sucked out rather than pumped in. Upon realising his error, he switched the tap to the correct setting, but with the seconds counting down to give Hamilton enough time to do the out-lap and begin his flying lap, the car was released with insufficient fuel.”

The decision has sent shock waves through the entire F1 community, some are pointing fingers at the FIA, some at McLaren and some, for whatever reason are saying it´s Hamilton´s fault. A poll on this blog yesterday clearly showed what people think of this situation.

51% of the poll takers believe that Hamilton losing the pole is ok, but the penalty is too severe. Some believe a five-grid penalty would suffice, some would just delete his pole time and use the previous time, which means Hamilton would start in sixth. Something that correlates well with a five-grid penalty.

27% believe that the penalty is right on the money and another 22% thinks the decision is wrong.

Hamilton´s penalty is too severe. He was punished for something that had nothing to do with him, but everything to do with the team and how they work. There are many things to be said on this subject, one is that the team could easily have spent those extra seconds in the garage, realising their mistake and adding a couple of litres, in order for Hamilton to complete a fast lap and return to the pits again, in order to provide an adequate fuel sample. Those extra litres would have very little effect on the laptime, seeing as Hamilton slashed half a second of the best previous time. A couple of extra litres would be a small price to pay.

Instead McLaren opted for rushing things, again, and insisting that there was a technical problem, which there wasn´t. Considering the enormous mistakes the team made for Button in China, and slow pit stops for Hamilton, as well as the terrible pit stops in Bahrain, the team, which has almost endless amounts of money and technical staff to work this out, decided to gamlbe instead. Wrong decision.

Official: Spanish races will alternate from 2013

Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed on Saturday evening, that the two Spanish events, Catalunya and Valencia, will alternate from next year.

Last year a local radio station in Spain reported that the Spanish Grand Prix could be moving to Valencia, the host fo the European Grand Prix, or perhaps alternate with a different race. That now seems to have come true, as Ecclestone confirmed to Reuters, that the two events will alternate. That means this year we´ll have both races, but from 2013, Catalunya will be absent from the calendar for the first time since 1991, and the European Grand Prix will be dropped as well.

The 20-race calendar we have this year, the most races ever, is seen as plenty and in order to make room for such races as New Jersey next year and Russia, from 2014, at least one race needed to be axed.

 

POLL: Is Hamilton´s penalty the right decision?

Lewis Hamilton has been denoted to the back of the grid for the race on Sunday in Spain.

Failing to deliver a sufficient fuel sample for the stewards, every car must produce at least 3 litres of fuel after the qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton has been sent to the back of the grid for Sunday´s race at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

That means pole is awarded to second place finisher Pastor Maldonado from Venezuela. The first for him.

So tell us what you think. Is the penalty right or is it wrong?

Breaking news: Hamilton stripped of pole

It was a brilliant run. In a last dash where every single corner was hit to perfection, Lewis Hamilton flew to take a commanding pole for the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. But he has been stripped of the P1 position due to fuel irregularities.

Not only was it the Briton´s 22nd pole position, it was also the team´s 150th pole. And what looked to be a dominating showcase of speed and performance, has turned into a disappointing and quite honestly, disgraceful demotion to the back of the grid.

No one is smiling at McLaren on Saturday evening, as McLaren has been stripped of it´s anniversary pole position and sent to the back of class for a fuel irregularity. Instead of celebrating, the stewards handed out a stiff penalty, promoting Pastor Maldonado to pole sitter. The steward´s statement reads:

“The stewards received a report from the race director (Charlie Whiting) which stated that during post-qualifying scrutineering a sample of fuel was required from car 4 (Hamilton).

“However, the car failed to return to the pits under its own power as required under article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One technical regulations. The stewards heard from the team representative, Mr Sam Michael, who stated that the car stopped on the circuit for reasons of force majeure.

“A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car, thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes.

“As the amount of fuel put into the car is under the complete control of the competitor, the stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure.

“The stewards determine that this is a breach of article 6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the qualifying session.

“The competitor is, however, allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.”

6.6 Fuel draining and sampling:

6.6.1 Competitors must provide a means of removing all fuel from the car.

6.6.2 Competitors must ensure that a one litre sample of fuel may be taken from the car at any time during the event.

Although the car belonging to Lewis Hamilton had in fact 1.3 litres of fuel in the tanks, FIA said that they didn´t accept the explanation first given to the governing body. On the slowing-down lap after setting the fastest lap, Lewis Hamilton stopped on track, and the team reported a technical problem. But that didn´t go down well. In 2010, the team were fined for a similar incident, Hamilton had pole as well.

Lewis Hamilton´s start to 2012 has been a bit low-key, after a turbulent 2011 where he was involved in several incidents which raised eyebrows for his driving style, not to mention his seemingly endless clashes and collisions with rival Felipe Massa. But the Briton has started this years campaign with pole in the first two races, followed by second place on the grid in Bahrain. With no wins so far this season, the dominant performance in Spain this afternoon was seen as a sign of something better to come. Now, Lewis will start from the back of the grid, while team mate Jenson Button moves one place up, to 10th. More importantly, it means that Pastor Maldonado will not start from pole, the first ever pole for a Venezuelan driver

Williams happy with progress

Pastor Maldonado took 2nd place in the battle for the coveted pole position, at Catalunya in Spain on Saturday.

The Williams team hasn´t won a race since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2004, when Juan Pablo Montoya finished a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Incidentally, it was Montoya´s final race for Williams, but since then a new South American driver has been hired.

Pastor Maldonado has had a poor start to the season, with just 4 points from as many races. Team mate Bruno Senna, on the other hand, has collected 14 points but after Saturday´s qualifying session, the shoe could be on the other foot.

Maldonado was clearly fast in the second qualifying session, as he sat on provisional pole. Then, in the all-important final shoot-out, he lost out to a superbly driving Lewis Hamilton, who bettered Maldonado´s time by a whopping half a second. But Maldonado is positive and slightly optimistic.

“We have been working so hard all year to understand these tyres and with the updates we have brought to this race we have made a very good step forward,” said Pastor Maldonado. “The car is very consistent and its race pace is good so I am really looking forward to the race tomorrow. There has been a really positive atmosphere in the team all season and this is a great result for them and Venezuela.”

Bruno Senna hit a kerb too fast during the Q1 session, and spun his car, ending up in starting position 18. But Senna thinks that he can score points, and he has one extra set of tyres for the race to make it happen.

“It was a disappointing qualifying for me and I had back luck with traffic when on the soft tyre. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow if I want to score any points but I have had good races from the back before and our car is looking competitive this weekend.”

 

Karthikeyan cleared to race

HRT´s Narain Karthikeyan have received permission from the stewards in Spain to race on Sunday, despite losing out to the 107% rule.

The Indian driver will be happy to have heard the news, that the stewards have given him permission to race in the Spanish GP tomorrow. Karthikeyan finished more than 8 seconds off the pace, after he had to stop the car. The stewards then decided that his results in the final free practice this morning, was sufficient in order to show what he could have done in a qualifying session.

“We were going to go on the second set of tyres but we discovered some problems and due to safety concerns, not only for myself but the others, we decided that the best thing was to not go back out,” explained Karthikeyan. He only managed to set a time in the third free practice, the one the stewards looked at.

“It seems like my bad luck continues to follow me this weekend and, although I’m disappointed about that, there’s nothing else I can do but keep giving it my best shot.”

Hamilton takes commanding pole in Spain

Lewis Hamilton smashed the laptimes today, as he soared to his 22nd pole position in his career, and McLarens 150th.

It was tight, it was exciting , it was brilliant. A qualifying session that I have rarely seen before. Let´s start from the back.

Charles Pic managed to finish ahead of veteran Timo Glock again, winning the internal team battle at Marussia. And over at Caterham, Vitaly Petrov finally managed to put his car ahead of Heikki Kovalainen.

In Q2 there were a few surprises as well, as Hamilton set a fastest lap with 5 minutes to go. Not surprising really, but then it happened. Vettel was 5th at that moment, and he pushed Daniel Ricciardo out of the top ten. Then came Nico Hulkenberg shotting from 17th to 8th and Nico Rosberg came from 11th, improving to 6th. That meant an early shower to Jenson Button, who will start 11th tomorrow and Mark Webber as well. Suddenly, Sergio Perez improved to 2nd, but out of nowhere came a Williams driver with a mission. Pastor Maldonado took provisional pole ahead of Hamilton and Grosjean in 3rd. Schumacher managed to just hang on to the last spot to make it into the final shoot-out.

As Q3 started with Kobayashi sitting in the pits, due to a stoppage on the track after Q2, most of the drivers stayed in their garages for quite some time, but with four minutes to go, the engines roared to life. Lewis Hamilton P1, but is soon followed by Nico Rosberg in 2nd and Maldonado. What could the Williams driver do, after a stellar performance in Q2?

One minute to go and Alonso started his hot lap, setting the fastest lap, much to the happiness of the Spanish crowds. As Kimi Raikkonen comes 2nd, a collective gasp is heard on the grand stand. Can Alonso stay on pole? Perez was next to set a final time and his time was the third best, Alonso still safe. Then Grosjean and he was faster than Perez. Alonso still on pole. And out of the blue came Maldonado, who completely stole the pole away from Alonso ina simply brilliant display of speed. And as the Venezuelan driver knew that he would probably end up in either 1st, 2nd or 3rd, Hamilton cane around the final corner and took a commanding pole, smashing the times and claimed the third pole of the season.

If one looks at the performance of the individual drivers, comparig team mate to team tmate, it´s rather strange to see how far down the grid Bruno Senna is, when Pastor Maldonado is P2. Granted, the spin at Turn 12 didn´t help at all, but a little less speed on the kerbs and he might have made it into Q2. Maldonado is looking more and more like the driver to beat, leaving Senna as a big question mark.

Also over at Ferrari, Alonso qualified 3rd, but Felipe Massa only managed 17th, after finishing 14th in the first session.

So the starting grid for the Spanish Grand Prix, looks like this:

1.  Hamilton

2.  Maldonado

3.  Alonso

4.  Grosjean

5.  Raikkonen

6.  Perez

7.  Rosberg

8.  Vettel

9.  Schumacher

10. Kobayashi