Tuesday 19 April 2011

F1 Drivers Championship 19/4/2011

After three races of this season F1 there are three or four obvious contenders for the title, while there has also been a few surprise packages this season such as Paul Di Resta and Sergio Perez. So here is a look at how the Drivers Championship stands at this moment of time.


                               Championship leader Sebastian Vettel celebrating his win from pole in Australia.

Driver                                                     Team                                               Nationality                 Points              

1. Sebastian Vettel                       RBR-Renault                         German             68
2. Lewis Hamilton                        McLaren-Mercedes                British               47
3. Jenson Button                          McLaren-Mercedes                British               38  
4. Mark Webber                           RBR-Renault                          Australian         37
5. Fernando Alonso                      Ferrari                                  Spanish             26
6. Felipe Massa                            Ferrari                                  Brazilian           24
7. Vitaly Petrov                           Renault                                 Russian             17
8. Nick Heidfeld                          Renault                                 German            15
9. Nico Rosberg                           Mercedes                               German            10
10. Kamui Kobayashi                   Sauber-Ferrari                        Japanese          7
11. Michael Schumacher              Mercedes                               German            6
12. Sebastien Buemi                    STR-Ferrari                            Swiss                4
13. Adrian Sutil                           Force India-Mercedes             German            2
14. Paul Di Resta                         Force India-Mercedes             British              2
15. Jaime Alguersuari                 STR-Ferrari                             Spanish            0
16. Jarno Trulli                           Lotus-Renault                         Italian              0
17. Rubens Barrichello                Williams-Cosworth                  Brazilian           0
18. Jerome D'Ambrosio               Virgin-Cosworth                      Belgian             0
19. Heikki Kovalainen                  Lotus-Renault                        Finnish              0
20. Timo Glock                            Virgin-Cosworth                    German             0
21. Sergio Perez                          Sauber-Ferrari                       Mexican            0
22. Pastor Maldonado                  Williams-Cosworth                 Venezuelan       0  
23. Vitantonio Liuzzi                   HRT-Cosworth                        Italian               0
24. Narain Karthikeyan                HRT-Cosworth                        Indian               0


In this years F1 season there is a total of six drivers from Germany. And one of them (Sebastian Vettel of RBR-Renault) is leader of the drivers championship by 21 points.

Sunday 17 April 2011

F1-Chinese Grand Prix

                               The shanghai international circuit in China - the fourth track in the F1 calendar.

The second edition of the 18 editions is all about the Chinese Grand Prix and we at The captain's armband shall inform you of all the facts you need to know about the race.

It was a bad qualifying session for Mark Webber going out in qualifying 1 and eighteenth on the grid, however the other driver in Red Bull (Sebastian Vettel) put a 1.33.706 in to win pole position ahead of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Also Nico Rosberg was 4th on the grid, whilst his team-mate Michael Schumacher went out in qualifying 2 only managing 14th.

Sebastian Vettel didn't get off to the best of starts with Button and Hamilton passing him before turn 1, it was a very good start to the Grand Prix. Around 10 laps in, the top three of Button, Hamilton and Vettel were separated by just 1.2 seconds. 

The Facts
Fastest Lap: Mark Webber - 1.38.993 (in Lap 42 with an average speed of 198.232 mph).
Fastest pit stop: Mercedes (Michael Schumacher, 20.522).
Least pit stops and the highest finishing position: Sebastian Vettel with 2 (RBR-Renault).
Turns on the track: 16 turns.
Amount of drivers retired: 1 (Jaime Alguersuari).
Race distance: 305.066km.
Circuit Length: 5.451km.
Lap record: 1.32.238 - Michael Schumacher (2004).

The race was the best race of the season by a long way and the last ten laps of the race were exhilarating, at the beginning of lap 44 Sebastian Vettel was race leader with Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Massa and Webber all in the chasing pack. Vettel's tyres were 6 laps older than Hamilton's and Lewis was cutting the time drastically each and every lap, however none of this would of been possible if Hamilton didn't overtake as well as he did. Meanwhile Webber was eating ground up on both Rosberg and Massa. When he reached them he eased past them, now in 4th position. With a few laps to go Webber passed Button for third and Hamilton went first by passing Vettel. It was a brilliant race from Hamilton but also from Webber.

The new Pirelli's the cars have to use were very interesting forcing the teams to decide whether or not to go on a two or three stop race, and teams such as McLaren and Mercedes went for the three stops, they definitely chose the right option.

Top 10 final positions:
1. Lewis Hamilton (25 points).
2. Sebastian Vettel (18 points).
3. Mark Webber (15 points).
4. Jenson Button (12 points).
5. Nico Rosberg (10 points).
6. Felipe Massa (8 points).
7. Fernando Alonso (6 points).
8. Michael Schumacher (4 points).
9. Vitaly Petrov (2 points).
10. Kamui Kobayashi (1 point).

Coming soon will be facts on the F1 teams and drivers when there isn't any races on. 

Sunday 10 April 2011

F1-Malaysian Grand Prix

                 The Sepang race track in Kuala Lumpar, the host of the 2011 Malaysian Formula 1 grand prix.
After the first race of the 2011 F1 season we here at The captain's armband decided that we should give a group of facts on the Malaysian grand prix and how the race finished.

Sebastian Vettel finished pole in qualifying pipping Lewis Hamilton to the accolade whilst Nick Heidfeld qualified on the grid in 6th and Michael Schumacher was P11 on the grid.

After the first few corners Nick Heidfeld climbed four places into 2nd and further back in the field Michael Schumacher jumped three places to 8th. 

The Facts.
Fastest Lap: Mark Webber - 1.40.571 (in Lap 46 with an average speed of 198.415).
Fastest pit stop: RBR-Renault (Sebastian Vettel, 21.893).
Least pit stops and the highest finishing position: Kamui Kobayashi with 2 (Sauber).
Turns on the track: 15 turns.
Amount of drivers retired: 8 (Pastor Maldonado, Narain Karthikeyan, Rubens Barrichello, Sergio Perez, Jarno Trulli, Jerome D'Ambrosio, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Vitaly Petrov).
Race distance: 310.408km.
Circuit Length: 5.543km.
Lap record: 1.34.223 - JP Montoya (2004).

During the race Vettel lead for the majority and ended up winning by 5.6 seconds ahead of Jenson Button and further ahead of Nick Heidfeld in third. In the last five laps Lewis Hamilton dropped from 3rd to 8th, (overtaken by Heidfeld, went off the track and passed by Webber and had to pit meaning he came out behind Massa, Alonso and Petrov) whilst in eighth Petrov went off the track ahead of Hamilton and had to retire, leaving Hamilton in 7th. After the race, race control gave Hamilton and Alonso a twenty second penalty for a clash towards the end of the race.

Top 10 final positions:
1. Sebastian Vettel (25 points).
2. Jenson Button (18 points).
3. Nick Heidfeld (15 points).
4. Mark Webber (12 points).
5. Felipe Massa (10 points).
6. Fernando Alonso (8 points).
7. Kamui Kobayashi (6 points).
8. Lewis Hamilton (4 points).
9. Michael Schumacher (2 points).
10. Paul Di Resta (1 point).

Read The Captain's Armband next Sunday for information on the Chinese grand prix.