Saturday 23 August 2014

Belgian Qualifying: Akin to paint drying...

This may have been the most boring qualifying session of the season so far. It was especially frustrating because the rain, that had been pouring down in a deluge before the session started, seemed like it would really mix things up. It didn't. My hopes rose, near the end of Q2, when it looked like Sebastian Vettel might be knocked out. He wasn't. Rosberg and Hamilton were lonely at the front of the order again, fighting it out for the pole position spot. In the top ten shootout they were a clear two seconds ahead of the rest of the field and utterly dominant.

Unfortunately, there is not much more to say about the qualifying. There were relatively few incidents, save a few drivers going too hot in to a couple of the corners, in the wet conditions. It would be fair to say that it was immensely impressive when, during the first few minutes of Q1, Hamilton ran very wide, on the penultimate corner, and still managed to put in the fastest lap. Rosberg outperformed his teammate (and rival?) in the top ten shootout, but finally Lewis gets to race Nico from the front again, instead of playing catchup.

One thing that created a little entertainment, on the BBC at least, was Eddie Jordan's usual trick of taking a collection of random words and throwing them together in no particular order. Every time Eddie Jordan takes up his role of pundit on the BBC, he manages to talk total nonsense and does it in a nonsensical way. It's no wonder you can see David Coulthard visibly despairing of his colleague. The Belgian Grand Prix, in Spa, is one of the best grands prix in the world, so I have no doubt that the race will be a spectacle, rain or no rain. So let's put the lacklustre qualies behind us.

The Grid:
PosNoDriverTeamQ1Q2Q3Laps
16Nico RosbergMercedes2:07.1302:06.7232:05.59122
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes2:07.2802:06.6092:05.81922
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault2:10.1052:08.8682:07.71724
414Fernando AlonsoFerrari2:10.1972:08.4502:07.78621
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing-Renault2:10.0892:08.9892:07.91121
677Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes2:09.2502:08.4512:08.04923
720Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes2:11.0812:08.9012:08.67922
87Kimi RäikkönenFerrari2:09.8852:08.6462:08.78021
919Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes2:08.4032:08.8332:09.17820
1022Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes2:10.5292:09.2722:09.77622
1126Daniil KvyatSTR-Renault2:10.4452:09.37716
1225Jean-Eric VergneSTR-Renault2:09.8112:09.80513
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes2:10.6662:10.08416
1499Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari2:11.0512:10.23817
158Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault2:10.8982:11.08716
1617Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari2:11.0512:12.47014
1713Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault2:11.2619
1827Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes2:11.2678
194Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari2:12.5668
2021Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari2:13.4144
2145Andre LottererCaterham-Renault2:13.4699
229Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault2:14.4389