2011 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE (Valencia)

First off.... I would like to give a very proud congratulations to my better half for completing the KL Marathon. It is certainly quite a feat & without a doubt earn the the title 'better half'!

To give you an idea of the route, check out the map  & here are some of the photos taken.

Back to race, after quite an exhilarating Canadian GP, the Valencia GP was perhaps somewhat subdued but nevertheless, there was plenty of racing & the Ferraris are slowing inching towards both the Bulls & the McLarens. However, the legendary Ferrari Pit Crew is beginning to lose some of its shine.

Tires definitely played a big role given the heat in Valencia. Despite this, it should be noted that this is the first GP that ALL cars actually finished the race!

In the meantime, we're now coming towards mid-season & we can see some juggling of positions in our little league. Following are the results :

2011 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE (Valencia)
Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	57	39:36.2	1	25
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	57	+10.8 secs	4	18
3	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	57	+27.2 secs	2	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+46.1 secs	3	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	57	+51.7 secs	5	10
6	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+60.0 secs	6	8
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	+98.0 secs	7	6
8	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	18	4
9	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	56	+1 Lap	10	2
10	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	56	+1 Lap	9	1
11	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	16
12	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	56	+1 Lap	13
13	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	17
14	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	56	+1 Lap	12
15	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	56	+1 Lap	11
16	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	14
17	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	56	+1 Lap	8
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	56	+1 Lap	15
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	55	+2 Laps	19
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	55	+2 Laps	20
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	55	+2 Laps	21
22	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	55	+2 Laps	23
23	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	54	+3 Laps	22
24	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	54	+3 Laps	24

2011 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE (Valencia)
	Choice						Points	Previous	Total	Pos
TC	SV	25	MW	15	LH	12	52	340	392	1
DF	SV	25	LH	12	FA	18	55	322	377	2
NF	SV	25	FA	18	FM	10	53	314	367	3
R&SW	SV	25	FA	18	LH	12	55	307	362	4
EDS	SV	25	MW	15	FA	18	58	304	362	5
VF	SV	25	MW	15	FA	18	58	302	360	6
C&AL	SV	25	LH	12	JB	8	45	314	359	7
CCK	SV	25	MW	15	JB	8	48	285	333	8

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2011 (Montreal)

What a race this was!!!


Firstly, a great result for the Ferraris at least for qualifying. Getting 2nd & 3rd is the best they've been so far. But this would eventually be for nought given the circumstances that are to come in the race.

To begin with, as predicted, it rained, quite heavily I might add, at the start of the race. However, it was not heavy enough to delay the race at that point, so the race started with the safety car. When it was finally time for the safety car to go in, SV literally held up the whole field & then went full throttle. Then the rain started again & it was pretty heavy causing the race to be red-flagged. This then, is a repeat of what happened in Monaco, whereby cars will be set on the grid according to race position at the point in time. This also means that cars can be worked on & tires can be changed. This 'break' was a least about 2 hours before the race could start again.

When it did, the FIA instructed that all car must be fitted be wet tires. With weather such as this, incidents are expected & perhaps to some extend, it was no surprise to find LH involved in 2 incidents. The first was with MW & this was pretty much a racing incident. The 2nd was perhaps a bit crazy as it involved his team-mate & basically he tried to squeeze through a gap which was non-existent. This caused him to hit the wall & basically was going around the track thinking it was a puncture when in fact it was a suspension failure. Fortunately for JB, he escaped any major damage.

JB was involved in a couple of incidents, one of which was between him & FA. It's still a bit debatable if he was faultless, but the stewards believe it was a racing incident. Nevertheless, the last few laps were the most exciting I've ever watched in recent times. JB pitted with intermediates & basically plough through the field & eventually caught up with the fight for 2nd place between MS, KK & MW. The biggest 'surprise' was the rain-maestro himself, MS who did a fantastic job holding on the 2nd but the Mercedes was really no fight to any of the other cars in the straight. Coming back to JB, as we all know by now, he basically managed to work through this group & got to 2nd & was chasing on SV. At the last lap, SV made one small mistake & the rest as they say is history.

Quite a race & despite the long wait (total race is 4 hours!!), it was well worth the wait.

Since everyone pretty much chose the same people, the league didn't changed much, but here it is.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2011 (Monte Carlo)
Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	78	Winner	1	25
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	78	+1.1 secs	4	18
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+2.3 secs	2	15
4	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	78	+23.1 secs	3	12
5	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	78	+26.9 secs	12	10
6	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+27.2 secs	9	8
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	14	6
8	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	77	+1 Lap	15	4
9	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	77	+1 Lap	11	2
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	77	+1 Lap	16	1
11	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	76	+2 Lap	7
12	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	76	+2 Lap	13
13	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	76	+2 Lap	18
14	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	76	+2 Lap	17
15	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	75	+3 Lap	21
16	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	75	+3 Lap	23
17	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	74	+4 Lap	22
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	73	+5 Lap	8
Ret	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	67	+11 Lap	10
Ret	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	66	+12 Lap	19
Ret	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	32	+46 Laps	6
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	32	+46 Laps	5
Ret	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	30	+48 Laps	20
DNS	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2011 (Montreal)
	Choice						Points	Previous	Total	Pos
TC	SV	18	FA	0	MW	15	33	307	340	1
DF	SV	18	FA	0	LH	0	18	304	322	2
C&AL	SV	18	FA	0	LH	0	18	296	314	3
NF	SV	18	FA	0	LH	0	18	296	314	4
R&SW	SV	18	FA	0	FM	8	26	281	307	5
EDS	SV	18	FA	0	MW	15	33	271	304	6
VF	SV	18	FA	0	FM	8	26	276	302	7
CCK	SV	18	FA	0	LH	0	18	267	285	8