Pit-lane start for Webber in China

 

Red Bull have decided to start Mark Webber from the pit lane for Sunday’s 2013 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix. It follows Webber’s demotion to the back of the grid for a fuel rule infringement in qualifying.

A refuelling problem meant the Australian was forced to stop on track in Q2. Stewards then deleted his qualifying time - good for 14th on the grid - after they were unable to extract the obligatory one-litre fuel sample from his car following the session.

Faced with a charge through the field, Red Bull then opted to remove Webber’s RB9 from parc ferme - thus obliging him to start from the pit lane - in order to change its gearbox and revise its set-up to give him more straight-line speed and a better chance of overtaking rivals in the race.

 

Q&A: Saturday’s top-three in Portugal

 

Here’s what Rally de Portugal top-three Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen had to say before Sunday’s decisive stages.

Sebastien, first of all, how are you feeling?
SO: “Better and better. When I came here on Monday I really wasn’t sure if I could do the rally. I couldn’t find anything to help my illness, but I decided to try and see how it went. Luckily after the recce I started to feel a little bit better. For sure I started the rally on slow form but I've improved since then. It’s been similar with the car; I was not happy with the suspension set-up but we’ve improved it as the event has gone on.”

One day to go and a 34sec lead – is victory in the bag?
SO: “I wouldn’t say it was a comfortable lead. There is still a very long day to go tomorrow - especially with the long 52km stage to run twice - so a lot of things can still happen.”

What will you do to prepare for the Almodovar stage?
SO: “I’m hoping to get a good night’s sleep. That’s what I’ve missed most in the last couple of weeks.”

What tyres do you have left for Sunday’s stages?
SO: "Jari-Matti and I still have eight new tyres, so two more than Mikko. That’s not too bad but still it’s going to be tough in the second loop. We’ve seen this afternoon that after a loop of 80km we’ve finished with really damaged tyres. Tomorrow we have to do more than 70, so it’s going to be hard.”

Jari-Matti, We’ve seen a new confidence in your driving today. How are you feeling?
J-ML: "It’s been a good day and I’m very satisfied. We attacked a bit in the morning and got some really good stage times. In the afternoon I tried to save my tyres in what were quite demanding conditions. The main thing is I now start to understand the Polo and am building confidence in how you can push. I’m getting a really good feeling with the car. There are a couple of things I can still improve but the main thing is to be here fighting with these guys.”

How concerned are you about Mikko tomorrow?
J-ML: “I have 30 seconds to Sebastien in front and 30 seconds to Mikko behind so I’m stuck in the middle and I’ll try to stay there. Tomorrow will be a challenging day – especially with the 52km stage – and nothing is finished until you are at the finish. So I need to follow how Mikko is pushing and try to adjust my speed to suit.”

Is there any chance you can catch Sebastien tomorrow?
JML: “I would like to win for sure, but I need to be realistic too. I think you first need to achieve a podium and then you can really fight for the victory. In other words, don’t try to grab a huge piece from the first cake, because the second cake might be much nicer!”

Mikko, What’s your plan for tomorrow?
MH: “We will see. I’m 30 seconds behind Jari-Matti and it’s going to be tough for me in the morning. We don’t have enough new tyres for both loops tomorrow so in the morning I have to start with two used ones.”

How hard were you pushing today?
MH: “I tried, for sure. But maybe I was a little bit frustrated with the speed of the Volkswagens and overdriving - being too aggressive. That lost me some time I think. But okay, we’ve been trying. Now let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

Ogier charges clear in Portugal

Sebastien Ogier put the rest of the field over half a minute behind by the end of day two of the Rally of Portugal.

Despite comfortably leading the event following mistakes by main opposition Mads Ostberg and Dani Sordo, Ogier had no qualms about continuing to push, and was fastest on all three Saturday afternoon stages.

That put the Frenchman 34 seconds clear of Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, who lost a small amount of time with a puncture late on the final stage. That delay aside, Latvala was delighted with his strongest day in a Polo yet.

Mikko Hirvonen did his utmost in the third-placed Citroen, but ended the day 1m08s off the lead.

While two VWs dominated at the front, the third was tearing through the points positions.

Andreas Mikkelsen's recovery drive following his Friday issues brought him up to sixth, albeit helped by Michal Kosciuszko damaging his Mini and Martin Prokop's Ford encountering transmission problems.

The top five remains a long shot for Mikkelsen. Fourth-placed Evgeny Novikov is a comfortable three minutes clear, and his M-Sport team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah has so far stopped Mikkelsen getting any closer than a minute to his fifth position.

Robert Kubica's promising but difficult World Rally Championship debut ran into more problems on Saturday afternoon.

Despite Citroen hoping it had fixed his unique gearshift system at service, it failed again early on the first stage. Additional issues then led to Kubica parking on stage 10.

Leading positions after SS11:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time/Gap

1.  Sebastien Ogier     VW            2h36m55.1s

2.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW               + 34.8s

3.  Mikko Hirvonen      Citroen        + 1m08.5s

4.  Evgeny Novikov      M-Sport Ford   + 4m23.9s

5.  Nasser Al-Attiyah   M-Sport Ford   + 6m19.2s

6.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW             + 7m22.3s

7.  Dennis Kuipers      M-Sport Ford   + 8m29.0s 

8.  Esapekka Lappi      Skoda         + 10m49.3s

9.  Khalid Al Qassimi   Citroen       + 11m09.9s

10.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford    + 11m10.0s

Revitalised Sordo upbeat despite crash

Dani Sordo believes his new-found confidence at the wheel of the Citroen DS3 more than makes up for the disappointment of crashing out of the fight for victory on Rally de Portugal.

Sordo struggled to get comfortable in the DS3 on the opening three rounds of the season, and five weeks ago on Rally Mexico he finished more than six minutes behind winner Sebastien Ogier.
But the Spaniard’s form was revitalised when his team introduced a new stiffer car set-up in Portugal.
He was quickest on Thursday’s qualifying stage, took two stage wins on Friday and began Saturday’s competition just 4.4 seconds behind leader Ogier.
But Sordo’s quest for a maiden WRC victory came to an end on Saturday’s first test when he slid wide after a crest and clipped a tree with his right-hand rear wheel. He retired shortly after.
Back in service, however, Sordo insited there were plenty of positives to take from the rally.
“One good thing is we didn’t make a mistake for pushing too hard. We went out because I misunderstood a pace note," he explained.
"Before that the feeling in the car was incredible. We had lots of grip, could keep the car in the line all the time and the braking and traction were perfect. We showed good speed all the way from shakedown
 “Okay I’m disappointed for the team because everybody was motivated and excited, but I prefer to finish like this - not down in fourth or fifth like I did in Mexico. I feel bad, but on the other hand I feel good about the car and that’s important,” he added.

Qualifying analysis - strategy set to overcome speed?

 

Qualifying in China was a mixed bag, as so many drivers were intent on saving their fragile soft-compound Pirelli tyres. Thus, particularly in Q3, each did only one lap, and two opted to run on the mediums instead. The race will clearly be all about the postponement of tyre degradation, and the individual strategies that teams apply. We take a team-by-team look at the Saturday form book…

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 34.484s, P1
Nico Rosberg, 1m 34.861s, P4
Hamilton said he was really, really happy with his out lap and his qualifier, which kept him on top after he’d been fastest in Q1 and Q2. He also said that his margin over Raikkonen came as a surprise. Rosberg was unable to do his qualifying simulation in FP3 due to a hydraulic problem, so thought fourth was good in the circumstances.

Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 34.761s, P2
Romain Grosjean, 1m 35.364s, P6
Raikkonen said that though the upgrades brought here were only small, the car felt really good, but admitted that it lacked sheer downforce in the middle sector and could not have matched the Mercedes’ speed. Grosjean missed a lot of running time in FP3 because of undisclosed problems with his car, and was also late out for Q2, so in those circumstances, sixth overall was a real bonus.

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 1m 34.788s, P3
Felipe Massa, 1m 34.933s, P5
Alonso was pretty happy with his Ferrari all weekend and said it felt fine in Q3 especially. He believes he can fight for a podium, possibly more. Massa, too, was happy with the way his F138 behaved, albeit disappointed not to keep up his run of out-qualifying his team mate.

Toro Rosso
Daniel Ricciardo, 1m 35.998s, P7
Jean-Eric Vergne, 1m 37.199s, P16, will start P15
Ricciardo’s performance in Q2 came as a major surprise, not least to Force India. The Australian was delighted, especially as his last appearance in the top 10 was in Bahrain almost a year ago. Vergne was disappointed not to be able to run with his team mate, after the handling of his STR8 developed a problem in qualifying.

McLaren
Jenson Button, 2m 05.673s, P8
Sergio Perez, 1m 36.314s, P12
Button said that he was delighted to out-qualify both Red Bulls, even with a lap of over two minutes. The upgrades to the MP4-28 had not cured all of its problems, but they did alleviate them. He expects very high degradation for rivals who qualified on soft Pirellis that have already grained, and could be a dark horse after opting to qualify on the more durable mediums. Perez had been as quick as Button in FP3, but said he didn’t manage to find the pace when it mattered in Q2.

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, no Q3 time, P9
Mark Webber, 1m 36.679s, P14, will start P22
Qualifying was a disaster for Red Bull. First they failed to put sufficient fuel in Webber’s car; he posted what would stand up for 14th fastest time, then was told to park before getting back to the pits on his in lap. Then Vettel had brake problems and flat spotted one of his medium tyres in what was set to be his only timed run of Q3, and thus could not do better than ninth on the grid. Soon after that, Webber’s car was found to possess less than the mandatory litre of fuel, so he will start at the back of the grid. At the heart of the problems, Vettel admitted, was lack of pace.

Sauber
Nico Hulkenberg, no Q3 time, P10
Esteban Gutierrez, 1m 37.990s, P18, will start P17
Hulkenberg was very happy with the progress Sauber made thanks to updates and said that good balance had been a factor in his speed during Q2 which helped him to 10th on the grid. Gutierrez said that Shanghai is a very challenging circuit to learn and on which to squeeze out a strong lap first time out in Q1, and that he was disappointed not to have made Q2 as a result of pushing a bit too hard.

Force India
Paul di Resta, 1m 36.287s, P11
Adrian Sutil, 1m 36.405s, P13
Somewhere between FP3 and qualifying, Force India lost all their speed. A rise in temperature between the two sessions - from 32 degrees Celsius track and 25 ambient to 39 and 27 respectively - resulted in a loss of pace relative to their closest challengers, but with 11th on the grid Di Resta is best placed to make good use of his free choice on tyres, which could prove beneficial.

Williams
Pastor Maldonado, 1m 37.179s, P15, will start P14
Valtteri Bottas, 1m 37.769s, P17, will start P16
Williams showed signs of an upturn, but though both drivers said they got the best from their FW35s they could not better 14th and 16th places on the grid. Maldonado was 10th within seconds of the finish of Q2, only to be pushed down as others improved, and the fractions they gained were sufficient to make the difference.