The Chequered Flag is the blog for motorsport fans! Whether it’s single seaters or tin-tops the ‘Flag aims to bring all the big news and views on what happens on and off the track.
Finally, the safety car rules have been changed for the upcoming Formula One season.
The outgoing rules were nothing short of farcical. Designed to ‘slow’ people down from racing back to the pits; it caused more harm than good. Many a good race for a driver was ruined by having to come to the pits while it was ‘closed’. The penalty for which was another trip down pit-lane under race conditions.
Not that it actually stopped mayhem from happening on track. Canada and Singapore still live in the mind for pit-road antics that happened while under the safety car period.
The new rules for safety cars state that once the safety car is deployed, drivers will be warned. Depending on track position and the area of the accident, drivers will be given a maximum speed that they can maintain back to the pits. The pit-lane will remain open.
Goodbye to a farcical rule. While well intentioned, it was clearly not thought out. It is a shame that it took this long to implement. After Melbourne, we all saw the problem. Eleven months later, the solution is found.
That’s exactly where Lewis Hamilton was today. He was untouchable throughout the three qualifying sections and took a dominant pole position.
Judging by the timings, Lewis is making a killing in that last sector. Over the course of qualifying the Ferrari’s, Kubica and Kovalainen could match him in sectors one and two. But Lewis in sector three was something to behold. You can’t see it, but it’s there.
Sector three consists of a hairpin, the long back straight, a chicane and a short sprint to the line. By most tracks, that is nothing of a sector. So for Hamilton to pull off on average three tenths of a second advantage is something to behold. He said beforehand that he could take that chicane better than anyone else. He proved that today. The gap he has over the rest of the field is something we haven’t seen since the days of Schumacher.
Kubica popped up out of nowhere to join him on the front row. Raikkonen and Alonso take up row two, a great effort from the Spaniard. Be interesting to see how he is on fuel tomorrow. Another star man of the day was Rosberg with fifth, with Massa beside him. Kovalainen ended up a disappointing seventh with Heidfeld eight. Barrichello kept his nose down and snuck in unawares to secure ninth whilst Webber finished out the top ten. The Aussie didn’t run in Q3 due to damage on his in-lap.
The condition of the track could be a major concern tomorrow. While track break-up is not abnormal, it is during a qualifying session. Trulli and Webber saw the track fall away from them and on some of the on-board shots we saw around the hair-pin, drivers were taking it very tight. All eyes will be on the organisers to see how to sort it. The last thing F1 needs is another track scandal in North America. It might not come to that severity but drivers were taking it extremely easy out there today.
After Bahrain, it was a double-header of Stateside racing. Television scheduling over here saw the NASCAR live with IRL shown afterwards. Useful thing the IRL not being live, given the rain delays incurred.
Carl Edwards notched up his third win of the season at Texas. The #99 featured in the battle for the lead throughout and took his opportunity when presented. The revitalised Jimmie Johnson came home in second position, given credence to the talk that his team have overcome recent difficulties. The same cannot be said for team-mate Jeff Gordon who had an unbalanced car from the first day of the weekend. Gordon struggled heavily before spinning out trying to stay on the lead lap. Dale Earnhardt Junior started from pole but NASCAR’s most popular driver faded as the day went on.
Kyle Busch put last week’s troubles behind him to finish third, bringing momentum back to his Chase charge. It was a good day for Gibbs with Hamlin and Stewart finishing fifth and seventh respectively. The every present Richard Childress team who announced this week they would be expanding to a fourth car next year had all their drivers in the top eleven. The NASCAR circuit moves on to Phoenix on Saturday night.
PC's Driver of the Day: Carl Edwards. Over the last few weeks the likeable native of Missouri has had to deal with the shadow of his 100 point penalty after victory at Las Vegas. The #99 team has come out fighting since and got justly rewarded. It's a reminder to the rest of the field that he means business.
COT Proves a Point
It may have his critics, but the Car Of Tomorrow, or Car Of Today, or whatever people fancy calling it now proved its worth during qualifying for the race at Texas.
Rookie Michael McDowell who is piloting the #00 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing survived a massive, massive shunt during his qualifying stint. I heard about it but I didn’t actually see it till the pre-race show now. Personally I was surprised that he got out of it unscathed after such a smash. It’s a perfect example of how far car safety has come over the last few years. Not only did McDowell get out of the car safely, but he will be competing today in the race.
Below is a video of the actual crash he had.
IRL Round-Up
At the same time the second round of the IRL season was run at St. Petersburg. The first race off the ovals promised to close up the gap for the ex-Champ Car drivers and the addition of rain spiced things up. Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver Graham Rahal, son of Champ Car legend Bobby, came through to become the youngest winner in open wheelers. This was also Rahal’s first IRL start having missed out at Homestead due to lack of parts to repair his damaged racer. Even before the rain the street course showed that the discrepancy between the two groups of drivers will not be a factor. Champ Car converts Will Power and Justin Wilson both qualified in the top three. The rain brought out the strategic minds and Rahal pipped the vastly experienced Castroneves after eking out his fuel mileage to the flag.
It was only a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ Hamilton was going to win his first race. And like when you are waiting for a bus, when the first comes a few more come after it in succession. In Hamilton’s case he followed up his victory in the action packed Canadian grand prix with victory at Indy a week later.
Straight out of the box it was easy to see that Lewis had taking to Formula One like a duck to water. He’s given his world champion team-mate the run-around on a number of occasions earlier in the year and seeing him on the top step was only going to be a matter of time. When all those around him in Canada lost their head, he kept his. Like the parting of the Red Sea, as all those around him fell to pieces with silly mistakes, such as Massa running the red light at the end of the pit lane along with unavoidable instances of needing to pit when the pit lane was closed for Alonso – all that was required of Hamilton was to keep it on the island (literally) and bring the car home. Heidfeld’s BMW and Wurz’s Williams produced two great drives but were never going to challenge the McLaren for raw pace. At this stage in the season the front two teams are still a long way ahead in terms of race pace.
In a race full of incident we were witness to the strength of today’s Formula One crash test procedures. Robert Kubica was a passenger in a massive shunt heading down to the hairpin that saw him like a ping pong ball across the track, narrowly missing the parked Torro Rosso and everyone else before coming to a rest. Despite original statements claiming broken bones the Pole got away with just a concussion and a sprain. A fine example of how far car safety has come. His desire to jump straight back in and go driving a week later at Indy was admirable even though he had to sit it out on medical grounds. A safe bet given Indy’s history with high speed crashes, something Ralf Schumacher can attest to.
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