There were plenty of cars leaving the circuit and driving across grass and tarmac, but none of the incidents were anywhere near heart-in-mouth moments. In fact, the most exciting moment in Q1 came when Gutierrez failed to make it in to Q2, which officially becomes the most depressing sentence I've had to write in one of my post-qualifying blogs. The most depressing sentence to be 'spoken' was probably from the BBC's Tom Clarkson who said "[...] we're getting a bit more drizzle coming down now, and it's, as I say, only drizzle, I don't know if its going to affect the conditions out on the track that much [...]". I can tell you Tom, that no it didn't.It was the usual suspects that were caught underachieving in Q2, with both McLarens failing to make it in to the final top ten shoot out, along with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikonnen. Williams picked up where they left off in Bahrain, bagging a satisfying sixth and seventh. The only real moment of excitement came in the closing seconds of the Q3 shoot out, when Rosberg had a speculative spin through the final corner. It was an easy mistake to make, since a number of drivers had previously experienced hairy moments through there. However, its interesting to note that his teammate was already on pole and his spin resulted in yellow flags, which slowed their competitors down on their final fast laps. I don't think I need to say anymore.
I suppose that on a positive note, the qualifying wasn't abandoned or postponed because of the 'drizzle', but that said it really was a hellishly boring event. Maybe we should all recall that qualifying in Bahrain was relatively tedious as well, and yet it set us up for a fabulous spectacle. Fingers crossed.
The Grid:
