Just what we've been waiting for: (only thing lacking is proposed pit stops - I just found some!).. Carol * * * * planet f1 Lewis Hamilton may have questioned whether McLaren should have put more fuel in his car given his pace in qualifying but weights reveal he's not much lighter than the Red Bulls behind him. Hamilton claimed pole position by an impressive margin of almost seven-tenths of a second over Sebastian Vettel in Abu Dhabi on Saturday evening. However, what makes his pace even more remarkable is the fact that he's only 4.5kgs lighter than the Red Bull racer and only 1.5kgs lighter than Mark Webber. The McLaren driver, though, is heavier than the Brawn GP drivers, who qualified fourth and fifth with Rubens Barrichello leading Jenson Button. Jarno Trulli is next on the grid, slightly heavier than the Brawns and a good 6kgs up on Robert Kubica. Kubica's team-mate Nick Heidfeld together with Nico Rosberg are the heaviest of the top ten drivers, which will allow them to run longer in the opening stint, a strategy that has often been adopted by Rosberg's Williams team with success. Seb Buemi, the last of the top ten, comes in at 661.5kgs. Weights 01. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 658.5 - lap 17 02. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 663.0 - lap 19 03. Webber Red Bull-Renault 660.0 - lap 18 04. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 655.0 - lap 16 05. Button Brawn-Mercedes 657.0 - lap 17 06. Trulli Toyota 661.0 - lap 18 07. Kubica BMW-Sauber 654.5 - lap 15 08. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 664.0 - lap 19 09. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 665.0 - lap 19 10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 661.5 - lap 18 11. Raikkonen Ferrari 692.0* - lap 31 (ONE STOP FOR KIMI!!) 12. Kobayashi Toyota 694.3* - lap 32 13. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 697.0* - lap 33 14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 704.0* - lap 35 15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 696.5* - lap 32 16. Alonso Renault 708.3* - lap 37 17. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 695.0* - lap 32 18. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 696.0* - lap 32 19. Grosjean Renault 710.8* - lap 38 20. Fisichella Ferrari 692.5* - lap 31 * declared weights
Carol, Did Lewis make that ststement after the weights were published ? 655 didn't seem too light for Ross Brawn, and we know what he is like with tactics.. Red Bulls are going to have to put down course record pace on laps 18 and 19 to have any effect, otherwise Lewis could walk away with it.
The statement about having more fuel from Lewis was made during the interviews that immediately followed qualifying. At that point he wasn't aware of what fuel levels the other cars had, but figured with his gap they could have gone for a longer first stint. >8^) ER
Both Renaults are starting with enough fuel to go well beyond half way. Looks like they're planning on being as light as possible for the last part of the race. Should be interesting to see how it pans out.
not sure. The car was lacking pace all weekend and I'm not sure if an overnight miracle could save the day!
