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Pastor Maldonado has secured the first Venezuelan F1 victory ever and the first Williams win since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2004. Home driver Fernando Alonso finished in second place after a race long battle while Kimi Raikkonen finished a close third.
This was the first race where no one made it through Q1 on the primes, so it's the first race you should be really surprised at. In the other races they simply didn't need that extra set of prime tyres so it was worth the shot.Speedster wrote:Why do drivers continue to use a set of prime tires in qualifying, that's always surprising me. Or do they do a last bit of set-up work for the conditions in the first stint of Q1?
Because otherwise it would just be a waste of tires, as the options will (almost) always be faster over a single lap and they have three sets of them, one for each quali session. They are pretty much useless in the race anyway.
Yup, it was reported that Marc Gene had talked about it on Spanish TV during the race.radosav wrote:fernando's used tyres are not 'used', they are run in constant speed during free practice so that surface of the tyre changes( i don't know details) and to have better characteristics when they are used in race.
I think it may be because they want to have a set of unused options for the race. That was not nessasary in Spain, but all other races (I may be wrong) they ended up using a set of options during the race (not the quali options, another pair in addition). But I agree with the notion that may change as teams figure better the sweet spot for the primes and want all new sets of primes for the race and just use the options for the three quali sessions.Speedster wrote:Why do drivers continue to use a set of prime tires in qualifying, that's always surprising me. Or do they do a last bit of set-up work for the conditions in the first stint of Q1?
Because otherwise it would just be a waste of tires, as the options will (almost) always be faster over a single lap and they have three sets of them, one for each quali session. They are pretty much useless in the race anyway.
James Allen wrote the following in his strategy analysis:captainmorgan wrote:Not sure if this should go in the Barcelona thread...
Would Alonso have won if Pic hadnt held him up for half a lap?
I think Pic did contribute the the process but not much and without that Maldonado would have undercut Alonso anyway.The call to try the undercut (pitting earlier than opponent and using pace of new tyres to get ahead when he stops) was made by Williams’ head of strategy Mark Barnett. He brought Maldonado in on lap 24 when he was 1.5 seconds behind Alonso. Having saved the sets of new hard tyres, Barnett calculated that he would then have the tyre life to do 42 laps with one more stop to make without losing pace at the end.
It was brilliantly executed; his in-lap was 0.4s faster than Alonso’s, the stop was only 0.2secs slower than Ferrari’s, but crucially on new hard tyres his out-lap was 2.6 seconds faster and the first flying lap was also a second faster. With Alonso losing time behind Pic, Maldonado had done enough to take the lead from the Ferrari when it stopped to laps later than the Williams
Yes, Maldonado put in a brilliant drive, but he couldn't have passed Alonso on track.captainmorgan wrote:Not sure if this should go in the Barcelona thread...
Would Alonso have won if Pic hadnt held him up for half a lap?
I didn't observe that – at the start of the final stint, Alonso seemed over a second a lap faster than Maldonado – though he could well have been taking too much out of the tyres.raymondu999 wrote:Pierce - he couldn't, but even without Pic, Maldonado (being on fresher rubber) was quicker than Alonso anyways. Even if Alonso had clear track ahead - he couldn't have made up the few seconds of deficit.
+1nipo wrote:Honestly all this talk about victories getting de-valued because it's all down to a lottery is really - ridiculous...
Some years when one or two teams dominate you think other drivers don't have a chance to show what they are made of.
Now I think their "chance" has come and all of a sudden we are unhappy because we somehow want to see a "good driver-car package" standing out?
I struggle to understand.
I only know that, yes, seems drivers and teams have reported back saying "it looks like it's down to who manages the tires better over a weekend". Fine. Ain't it nice to be able to have teams challenged consistently every weekend?
In particular, drivers are now getting more chances to fight at the front, to show what they are made of, and see if they can take a win when circumstances come to them to give them a little bit of pace advantage.
I just could not have hoped for more...
So to me, it's a great win by Pastor and by Nico too. It's a great season and I cannot wait to see what Kimi/Lotus can do!
+2! If only the 5/6 should win the lets reduce size of the grid to three teams, TV and grandstand demand will rocket!!Mestrades wrote:+1nipo wrote:Honestly all this talk about victories getting de-valued because it's all down to a lottery is really - ridiculous...
Some years when one or two teams dominate you think other drivers don't have a chance to show what they are made of.
Now I think their "chance" has come and all of a sudden we are unhappy because we somehow want to see a "good driver-car package" standing out?
I struggle to understand.
I only know that, yes, seems drivers and teams have reported back saying "it looks like it's down to who manages the tires better over a weekend". Fine. Ain't it nice to be able to have teams challenged consistently every weekend?
In particular, drivers are now getting more chances to fight at the front, to show what they are made of, and see if they can take a win when circumstances come to them to give them a little bit of pace advantage.
I just could not have hoped for more...
So to me, it's a great win by Pastor and by Nico too. It's a great season and I cannot wait to see what Kimi/Lotus can do!