Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[Mr.S]

Wow that McLaren is hooked up. Hamilton fastest by 0.23 seconds so far from the Torro Rosso, Ferrari and Red Bulls. Despite those others having done short runs on the option tyre, with Hamilton doing his time on a five lap run on used hard tyres!

and WITHOUT using DRS!!!

He used DRS. I saw the full lap. I saw 3 runs of Mclaren,both for Button & Hamilton. Their quickest laps & the 2 runs before that & they had DRS open for all runs.

I wonder why. Red Bull,Mercedes,Mclaren all had DRS open. The only one I saw running with DRS closed was MS in his penultimate of last run after his quick lap & the Lotus almost bumped into him on the straight. DRS makes big difference.

[sriraj1031]

dont think lotus and redbull did any low fuel runs, or did they?

They did their equivalent of low fuel runs. How low is low?

Red Bull probably had a similar amount of fuel on board as McLaren. Webber did a single flying lap. Vettel made a mistake and ran wide on his flying lap so backed out and then did another. He was on the radio complaining about the tyres being all over the place and having no balance. Webber was one of the first to run the medium compound so the track probably rubbered in a bit after that, but I wouldn't see that explaining much of the difference.

Relative pace difference between hamiltons speed and lets say grosjean/kimi and vettel is too large to think all of them are running low fuels/quali setups

[raymondu999]

Mind you - Vettel's gap to Hamilton in FP1 was similar to the gap that was there in Melbourne

[spadeflush]

Both Mercedes around 1 second off the pace from McLaren, Red Bull and Lotus on the long runs. Carrying more fuel?Or unresolved tyre issues?

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... -times.pdf

[Mr.S]

Both Mercedes around 1 second off the pace from McLaren, Red Bull and Lotus on the long runs. Carrying more fuel?Or unresolved tyre issues?

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... -times.pdf

There is no idea who is carrying how much fuel. So impossible to tell. But it is pretty clear to say that Mclaren & Red Bull are faster than Mercedes on race pace. I dont know much Ferrari has fuel but Alonso's times are decent. Ferrari is not a dog. Just not in the same league as Mclaren or Red Bull.

Then you have a whole pack of cars -> Mercedes,Lotus,Ferrari,Williams,Toro Rosso,Sauber,Force India. Impossible to say who is where.


The very positive thing from Mercedes' point of view is the tyre degradation. Long Runs were very good tyre degradation wise. Dont how much it will translate into the race but Nico-MS did 11-12 laps consistenly in their last run. The track is going to rubber furthur & if they can put 14-15 laps on the hard tyres then Would be Excellent. I expect a 3 Stopper.

[raymondu999]

Forecasts for FP3 and the qualifying hour (4PM and 1PM, respectively)

[sriraj1031]

"Kimi's KERS was not playing ball for most of the second session which meant his pace was not fully representative. Those were today's nuisances, but the positives are that the E20 is working reasonably well. We have good base set-ups for both drivers. Tyre management looks OK despite the hot conditions. The pace of the car on high fuel loads looks promising." James allison after fp2 today

so it will good if 4 teams are fighting for pole and race win tomorrow, hope rain doesn't mess it up

[MGPW03]

My 2 cents.



Note:
1- Pit in and out laps are excluded from lap counts and averages.
2- Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Rosberg, Grosjean, Raikkonen & Hulkenberg - Only 1 Last Stint Included.
3- Vettel, Webbber, Alonso, Perez & Maldonado - Last 2 Stints Included.

[hollowBallistix]

Your 2 cents about what exactly ? I don't get it...

What are your times based on ? becasue Hamilton was doing 1:38's in both FP1 & FP2

[Blackout]

My 2 cents.



Note:
1- Pit in and out laps are excluded from lap counts and averages.
2- Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Rosberg, Grosjean, Raikkonen & Hulkenberg - Only 1 Last Stint Included.
3- Vettel, Webbber, Alonso, Perez & Maldonado - Last 2 Stints Included.

You can't include the 1:48 and 1:46 laps in the average...

[Mestrades]

These are linear regressions eliminating the anomalies of the best pilots stints in FP2.



I know it is not very representative (only need look at the stint of Maldonado). However it is clear that Schumy and Rosberg go together and that the degradation is similar to that of Button, albeit with worse times.

[raymondu999]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ZrrC3cDCs[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbuYc4UsDS4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO60y8Syo3Y[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8UKVFhVrLw[/youtube]

[CHT]

Your 2 cents about what exactly ? I don't get it...

What are your times based on ? becasue Hamilton was doing 1:38's in both FP1 & FP2

I believe MGPW03 is comparing race pace with heavy fuel load, rather then low fuel flying lap.

[chepoi]

My 2 cents.



Note:
1- Pit in and out laps are excluded from lap counts and averages.
2- Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Rosberg, Grosjean, Raikkonen & Hulkenberg - Only 1 Last Stint Included.
3- Vettel, Webbber, Alonso, Perez & Maldonado - Last 2 Stints Included.

if Lewis doing 1:44.790... how come lewis is the fastest in FP1 & FP2? biased? and i think we have to scrapped this data. not enough data.

maybe the correct word from this so called data is "Red Bull is better than Mclaren"

[chepoi]

Martin Whitmarsh told Georgie Thompson McLaren are looking to build on their performance in Melbourne.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpEKWJOx ... jnxsiYVnA=[/youtube]