Bahrain Qualifying... Wasn't expecting THAT German...

Ahh..... the warm glow that is having F1 back again. Mmmmmmm. Nice.

And in about 19 hours we move up a gear to the race itself. But that's tomorrow. In the meantime, we had qualifying earlier and it was pretty interesting...

First of all, I just became a Chandhok fan. Poor guy - He'd never even driven the car before, the seat didn't fit and I'm surprised he didn't have the handbook out, reading the little notice about not going over 50mph for the first 1000 miles, and trying to work out where the volume control was for the stereo. In the end, he was about 10 seconds off the pace. Sounds a lot, but when you consider his last drive in an F1 car was a test last year, that's darn good. Nice one Karun.

A slight whinge - The graphics have changed this year and they seem to have opted for a slanty style of showing positions. I think it slopes the wrong way, boys. A bit counter-intuitive (did I just type that? Sorry). Sort it out.

As for the rest of quali, well, it was a bit concerning to see the Saubers a long way off the pace (they looked better than that in testing) but great to see Sutil in the Force India in the top 10, and he's gone for the harder tyres, which might well help him tomorrow.

The great Schunami everyone seemed to be anticipating didn't wipe out even his team mate, and whilst 4th and 8th for Hamilton & Button (oooo... why do those names seem so familiar?) wasn't exactly bad, they must be disappointed. Rosberg did well for 5th (and I bet he feels smug!) and Massa must be a happy bunny to have out-qualified Alonso.

Vettel got pole though in Lucious Liz and very convincing it was too. Let's face it, I wasn't expecting that. Were you?

Still, I told Jean in the bakers this morning that Alonso would win the race, so we'll just have to wait and see if I'm right.

F1 is back. Yay!

Oh, and if you're waiting for the FF1 Team selections, they'll be out later tonight. Mrs Hamilbutton has abandoned me for the night, so I'll be at the laptop...

(NP: New through my letterbox yesterday, Mika's "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" album. I'm liking it...)

Comments

Malaysian Grand Prix - Vettel hot, but not bothered

Malaysia. It's always hot, and it always rains. Except the 2nd part is no longer true (unless you count the drizzly bit around lap 14). Saturday's qualifying session had highlighted the fact that Red Bull and McLaren seemed well matched on pace, but also that Ferrari were struggling. Whilst Vettel bagged another pole, followed by Hamilton, Webber and Button, Alonso was only 5th, and Massa 7th, with Nick Heidfeld an excellent 6th on the grid between the two red cars. At this point, I would like to break momentarily for a small rant: How many times do I have to say Heidfeld is good? Why wasn't he given a top drive years ago? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! ARE YOU BLIND!!!?? Ahem. The Hispanias somehow managed to a) turn up b) remember to bring cars c) get both of them on the track d) actually get both of them within 107%. Pretty remarkable really. Oh, and it didn't rain. Race day looked a more likely candidate for a drop of the wet stuff. The start was exciting, with

I know I'll regret this...

For @Feisty_Onion @BroughtonLass @LizWestmorland Me... before the grumpiness set in. Have a great weekend.

Senna bags Willy drive?

The great thing about F1 rumours is that they change every 5 minutes. Just last week it was looking like Barrichello might be back in at Williams, as new engines, tech staff and a general reshuffle would mean they needed someone who actually knew what they were doing in an F1 car. Which rules out Maldonado, obviously. Now it looks like Senna might be about to get a seat with the team where his Uncle lost his life. I'm sure Bruno's mum must be delighted. I don't hold with all this superstitious mumbo-jumbo though, and with the extraordinary level of safety in modern F1 cars, Bruno should be pretty safe. There is one significant problem with Williams signing him though - and this is going to be a bit unpopular I suspect - Bruno isn't very good. Yes, he put in a couple of reasonable performances with Renault, but Nick Heidfeld (ah... Nick and his lovely beard...) would have been able to do likewise, has he not been dropped. And then they dropped Senna too. Thi

grumpyf1

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