2011 Formula One Results **SPOILERS**

from autosport

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were handed 20-second penalties following the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

The McLaren driver, who endured a difficult race and finished in seventh position, was handed the penalty for making more than one move to defend his position when fighting with Alonso.

Ferrari driver Alonso was given the penalty after he made contact with Hamilton during their fight, the Spaniard damaging his front wing and having to pit to replace it.

Both were given post-race drive-troughs, meaning 20 seconds added to their final times.

The penalty has dropped Hamilton to eighth, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi taking seventh.

Alonso keeps sixth place

 

So after the race Ferrari makes a protest (I think that's how it went) so he and hamilton both got a 20 second penalty.

Alonso gets the penalty for ramming the back of Hamilton, but Hamilton got it for swerving more than allowed to stop Alonso from overtaking.

From a conspiracy theory point of view, Ferrari might have known that a 20 second penalty would have made no difference, where it cost Hamilton dearly.

 

Renault gives you wings.
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Interesting read

http://www.planetf1.com/race-features/6863569/The-Conclusions-From-Malaysia

 

The penalties in Sepang… a little analysis
April 11, 2011 by joesaward

There are a couple of reasons why I have not written about the penalties in Sepang, as yet. The major problem is that no-one had much information to go on at the time – and there were more important things to be considered. The decisions were made just before 8pm, more than two hours after the race ended. It took rather more time for the decisions to be published in the Media Center and elsewhere and so by the time this information arrived, the F1 paddock was not exactly packed full of people who could explain what had happened. People do not hang around in Sepang. It is hot and they want to go back to their hotels and have dinner. So, the journalists had little information to work on. Lewis Hamilton was reckoned to have “made more than one change of direction to defend a position”, which was a breach of Article 20.2 of the 2011 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations. Alonso was deemed to have caused a collision. The Stewards are sensible people and include the driver Emanuele Pirro, who raced in 37 Formula 1 races between 1989 and 1991 before a very successful career in sports cars, including five victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The stewards had access to all manner of data that is not available to the fans, including different video footage, and even GPS satellite positioning data. So what was it that they saw that led to the penalties?

The two men in question said the following things after the race.

Lewis Hamilton: “Today was just one of those days. It’s never satisfying to start second and finish seventh, but that’s racing. We just have to take it on the chin and move on from it. During the race my tyres kept dropping off; we pitted earlier than was optimal, and ran out of tyres at the end. I’d hoped to make the end of the race on a set of used Primes, but they didn’t last so we had to pit right at the end of the race. There were a lot of factors that made this afternoon very difficult: the delay at the pitstop, being chased by a couple of cars when I was trying to look after my tyres, and being hit from behind by Fernando. I think he got a bit too close, and, when he pulled out, he just clipped me with his wing and broke my car’s rear floor.”

Fernando Alonso: “We were not lucky: if the moveable rear wing had worked all the time, I could easily have passed Hamilton down the straight, but instead we had to fight hard. He defended very well and, unfortunately, we touched: that broke my wing and I had to come back into the pits to change it, thus losing any chance of getting to the podium. These things happen.”

Ferrari engineer Pat Fry confirmed that Alonso had had to fight with one hand behind his back, because the DRS, “which failed after a few laps because of a mechanical problem”.

The incident which caused Hamilton’s penalty was timed at 17.20 and the incident which caused Alonso’s penalty was timed at 17.22. Given the lap times involved one can say with some certainty that Hamilton’s penalty related to a move on lap 45, while Alonso’s penalty was linked to the collision on lap 46 that led him to pit at the end of the lap.

What my own lap chart (yes, I still do an old-fashioned manual chart) tells me is that the two cars collided on lap 46, when Alonso was chasing down Hamilton for third place. He had been on Prime (harder) tyres for just five laps, while Hamilton was on similar rubber, which he had been using for nine laps. Alonso thus had a tyre advantage. However, his rear wing DRS was not working so overtaking Hamilton was not going to be easy. The time sheets reveal that on lap 43 Hamilton lapped in 1m42.579s, and Alonso in 1m41.810, Fernando thus carved 0.769s off the gap on that lap and ended up just 1.3s behind his old rival. On lap 44 he sliced another 0.995s off the gap, which meant that they were just under three-tenths apart as they started the 45th lap. In terms of lap time, therefore, it is clear that Alonso was much faster than Hamilton. But could he overtake?

The 45th lap saw their times increase, as happens when drivers are fighting for position. Lewis recorded a 1m43.781s and Fernando a 1m43.721s. At the end of the lap the gap was 0.237s. Next time around Hamilton’s lap time was a 1m43.841s, a tenth slower than the previous one. Alonso pitted with a broken front wing. After that Lewis’s lap times were consistent at 1m43.770s, 1m43.617s, 1m43.587s and 1m43.556s. Damage to his car was minimal given this progression.

The stewards’ decisions are interesting for two reasons. The decision made against Alonso was the result of “a report from the Race Director”. The Stewards considered the evidence, determined that a breach of the regulations has been commited by Alonso when he caused a collision with Hamilton. That was simple enough.

In the case of Hamilton there was no mention of any report from Race Director Charlie Whiting, which means that the Stewards were probably acting because of a complaint from Ferrari as Whiting obviously did not think anything had been done wrong. The Stewards looked at the evidence and must have concluded that Ferrari was right enough about a move by Hamilton to warrant a sanction. However, it is clear from the wording that the manoeuvre would have gone without any action if someone outside Race Control had not raised the issue.

The other point to consider is that Whiting did not consider the collision to have been sufficiently serious to warrant an investigation during the race, so he must therefore have looked at it again later and decided to report the incident to the Stewards. What was that he saw that led him to take action? Did he, perhaps, suspect that Alonso ran into Hamilton deliberately, hoping to cut the McLaren driver’s rear tyre and that the move backfired and he damaged his front wing?

There is no doubt that the Stewards would have looked at Hamilton’s technical traces to make sure that he did not back off in an effort to catch out Alonso. Clearly there was no suggestion of such a thing, which begs the question, why was there an accident?

We do not know the answers to these questions and it is unlikely that we ever will, at least not “on the record”. It is easy to sit at home and blame the Stewards, but they have a great deal more information than those with a cup of tea, some biscuits and an opinion.

I do not know the answer but i will make discreet inquiries as and when that is possible…

 

yeah...I know...ridiculous comment.

 

another day, more screw ups!

Qual

Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:35.674 1:34.776 1:33.706 14
2 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:35.924 1:34.662 1:34.421 13
3 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.091 1:34.486 1:34.463 11
4 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.272 1:35.850 1:34.670 19
5 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.389 1:35.165 1:35.119 18
6 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.478 1:35.437 1:35.145 18
7 19 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:36.133 1:35.563 1:36.158 16
8 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:35.702 1:35.858 1:36.190 17
9 18 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:36.110 1:35.500 1:36.203 16
10 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:35.370 1:35.149 no time 11
11 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:36.092 1:35.874 14
12 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:36.046 1:36.053 16
13 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:36.147 1:36.236 11
14 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:35.508 1:36.457 16
15 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:35.911 1:36.465 15
16 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:35.910 1:36.611 11
17 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:36.121 1:36.956 17
18 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:36.468 8
19 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:37.894 7
20 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:38.318 10
21 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.119 8
22 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.708 8
23 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1:40.212 9
24 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:40.445 9
Q1 107% Time 1:41.941

 

Fantastic race.
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From James Allen.

Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s stranglehold on F1 this season in a thrilling Grand Prix which featured the Holy Grail of a pass for the lead in closing stages of the race.

It was Hamilton’s first win since September last year and the fifteenth of his 74 race career.

And it wasn’t because of the DRS wing, the pass Hamilton pulled on Sebastian Vettel happened in Turn 7, one of the faster corners on the track, when Vettel least expected it and it came about because of differences of strategy.



Hamilton and Button go at it (McLaren)

Hamilton had learned from his problems in Sepang, saving a new set of soft tyres for the race and it played its part, his strategy planning began on Saturday.

Varying strategy and resulting overtakes was the story of the race and what made it such a thriller, as the new style racing really hit its stride. Drivers who went for three stops found that their tyres had life in them in the closing stages and they were able to make up places.

There were complaints after Malaysia that the DRS wing had made overtaking too easy, but here there were many passes which were not in the DRS zone, particularly from Hamilton and Webber, who recovered from 18th on the grid to finish on the podium, proving he is always at his best when chips are down. He might have beaten Vettel if he had not lost so much time in the first stint on hard tyres, where he actually lost a place to Sergio Perez.

KERS played its part in the overtakes, but this race was all about Pirelli tyres creating the spectacle.

Hamilton’s race wasn’t without its dramas. Before the start he had a drama on his car as the engine had flooded. The mechanics managed to get him onto the grid with less than a minute to spare before the pit lane closed. Hamilton was able to put it behind him and settle into the race as normal.

At the start Vettel got away slowly, his revs dropped and he bogged down, allowing Button and Hamilton to pass him. Vettel’s KERS worked fine, but he’d lost momentum. He managed to fight off Rosberg.

Behind them Massa again outperformed Alonso off the start line and got ahead, while the Force India cars again had strong starts, picking up places. Di Resta was 7th at the end of the first lap and Sutil 8th.

Di Resta reported some problems with the rear end of his car and a queue formed behind him.

The Mercedes drivers stopped earlier than their rivals, Rosberg came in on lap 14, indicating a three stop strategy. The leaders bunched up behind Button approaching their stops, Vettel passed Hamilton and then pitted, following Button in. At this point three stops was an option for Vettel. Button made a mistake, driving into the Red Bull pit box, losing around three seconds in the process. The team had expected him in the lap before, but he was a lap late.

So Vettel jumped Button and as they emerged, Vettel had gone from behind the McLarens to in front. But they were all behind Rosberg.

Also making great progress was Felipe Massa who passed Hamilton before the stops and then held fourth position ahead of him. Alonso missed out, being kept out a lap longer and rejoining seventh behind Michael Schumacher. He got separated from Massa at this point.

The pair had a great scrap during the second stint, Alonso finally getting past on lap 25. Schumacher pitted straight afterwards.

Button was the first of the front runners to make a second stop, followed by Rosberg and Hamilton. Vettel stayed out having committed to a two stop plan, which turned out to be the wrong choice. The Ferraris had also committed to two stops, which was a shame for Massa, who had good pace in this race and even passed the race winner at one point. Nevertheless he restored his reputation by finishing 14 seconds ahead of Alonso.

From those second stops onwards it was all about how the differing strategies would play out. Everyone is still learning about the new Pirelli tyres and how best to use them and today showed how finely balanced the decisions are.

There were so many highlights to the race and some sublime overtakes. Hamilton was faster than Button generally during this race and was forced to overtake his team mate on lap 36. Button gave him room, as Hamilton was in a determined mood.

Webber came through the field very rapidly, his team pitting him in order to give him some clear air to push in. Once the third stops were made it was clear that the three stop plan was starting to come into its own. Webber passed Alonso for sixth, then took Massa, Alonso and finally Button.

Meanwhile Hamilton closed on the leader Vettel, who made it as hard for him as he could, particularly in the DRS zone into Turn 14. But Hamilton was an irresistable force and he went past mid way through the following lap, as Vettel struggled for grip on his tyres which were seven laps older than Hamilton’s.

“The strategy we came up with into qualifying seemed to help,” said an emotional Hamilton. “Quite a few things came together; the pit stops, the car felt great. I tried to keep my tyres. The guys at the front had to do quite a bit of overtaking. I wasn’t worried, (about the problem before the start) it was important to stay as calm as possible.”

One final note; Heikki Kovalainen finished 16th for Lotus, ahead of Perez and Maldonado, marking the first time since the team arrived in F1 last season that one of the new teams has battled with established team cars. Trulli’s fastest race lap was only 3/10ths slower than Maldonado’s set in similar circumstances on new tyres in the closing stages.


http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/04/hamilton-beats-vettel-to-win-thrilling-chinese-grand-prix/