F1 Abu Dhabi Qualifying Sat 2 Nov 2013 23:30 AEDT ONE HD

[gary]

Coverage of the qualifying session for Abu Dhabi begins this Saturday 2 Nov 2013
starting on ONE HD at 23:30 AEDT.

Note that coverage of the race itself on Sunday is on TEN starting at 23:30 AEDT.

The weather is predictably fine and hot and is forecast to be 36C.

I checked online whether it ever rains in the UAE at this time of year.
In October, the mean total rainfall is 0.0mm. In November, it can reach a
comparative drenching of 1.8mm with a mean total of 0.2 rain days.

Despite the near zero probability of the wet weather tyres ever coming out,
last year's race there was arguably the best of the season. I watched
that race again last weekend.

If anything could happen in that race it did.

Vettel started from the pits. A few cars left the track at the start upon reaching the first corner.

On lap 9, when Karthikeyan had a problem and braked heavy, Rosberg launched right over
the top of him before impacting into the barriers.

During the subsequent Safety Car period, Ricciardo was warming his tyres and
weaved and braked catching Vettel by surprise who was warming his tyres by doing
burnouts. To avoid going up the back of the Toro Rosso, Vettel swerved off the track,
took out the foam DRS sign and damaged his front wing, which saw him back in the
pits and back again toward the rear of the pack.

The German was furious over the radio but had conveniently forgotten that in 2007
when he was a young Toro Rosso driver, that he had rear-ended Mark Webber
in the Red Bull during a Safety Car period which denied Webber a chance at the
podium and possibly denied Vettel's first opportunity to get up on there too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHDTefmirJo

Hamilton had been doing a fabulous job in the lead when on lap 20 his car lost power.

Whilst attempting to overtake Maldonado on a corner, Webber got shunted off the
track but managed to keep the engine going to rejoin the race.

Another incident involved Webber and Massa which saw Webber run off the track,
rejoin and Massa spin 180 degrees after his left rear bounced over the curb.

When Perez tried to overtake Grosjean, he ran wide, left the track and when he
came back on again, hit Grosjean who then took out Mark Webber. The Safety Car
came out again.

There was also the famous Kimi Räikkönen "Just leave me alone I know
what I am doing" call which later became immortalized on T-shirts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcbhNISAIF4

Incredibly, haven had to work his way up from the back of the pack twice,
Vettel managed to come third. I am not sure what the record is for the most
number of cars overtaken in a race is.

[Bart]

Yawn! Another boring race, Red Bull out in front again, the real race going on behind them. When the governing body finally cracks down on all the rule bending and twisting and making them race the car they started with at the beginning of the year, maybe it might be worth sitting up late to watch. Until then.....meh.

[simmo]

Well that was worthwhile. Well done Webber, so cool to see him on pole. Interesting post quali interview. Ricci in Q3 again.

Should make an interesting race tomorrow. I'm not sure how the starting grid goes. If Webber starts ahead but on the outside he might have trouble with Seb on the inside at the first corner.

And what has happened to Ferrari? I mentioned that Alonso looked shakey in second but they have some problems.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

I didn't see the interview here in Spain but it was a good quali.

Abu Dhabi is one of those tracks where if he can beat Seb to the first turn then he could lead the whole race.

[gary]

Good morning guys.

Fabulous last lap by Mark!

He had been getting fastest first sectors, fastest second sectors and then in the
twisting last sector he would drop a few tenths. That little extra wing and modified
technique paid off.

ALO struggled so much with the Ferrari. The cockpit camera views made it
look very twitchy.

Great job by RIC, especially in Q2 when he was 6th compared to MAS 10th and ALO 11th.
All with Ferrari engines.

[Exfso (Peter)]

I noticed the expression on the spoilt brats face after Mark knocked him off in Q3. Priceless I reckon. Might be a good driver, but has a lot of growing up to do. It will be very interesting to see how Vettel and Dan go together, I doubt very much whether Dan will take too much crud.

On a slightly different note, Kimi not being paid all year, that is a bit rough if it is true, he must be down to his last couple of million euros, the mind boggles.

[gary]

BBC's Andrew Benson reports that Kimi Raikkonen has been disqualified from the
qualifying session because his car failed a front-floor deflection test.

The floor has to be rigid in testing as part of the formula otherwise it is deemed
that it might provide an aerodynamic advantage.

Race stewards rejected Lotus's claim that the part had been damaged when the
car went over a curb.

Lotus can now either choose to start from the back of the grid or from the pit lane.

Story here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24791401

Official F1 web site story here -
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin.../11/15198.html

[simmo]

That's tuff luck for Kim.

I did see in the slow-mos there are large bumps in parts of the kerbing that the front wing was skimming. From one of these the damage possibly? He must be pretty bummed after all the team problems and now this. Tough nut to crack but and I'll reckon he'll be fired up and cut through the pack to come eighth at a guess? Anybody else?

[gary]

Originally Posted by simmo

That's tuff luck for Kim.

I did see in the slow-mos there are large bumps in parts of the kerbing that the front wing was skimming. From one of these the damage possibly? He must be pretty bummed after all the team problems and now this. Tough nut to crack but and I'll reckon he'll be fired up and cut through the pack to come eighth at a guess? Anybody else?

Hi Simmo,

Vettel started from the pit lane last year and ended third.
Räikkönen started at P4 and won it. So anything is possible.

I just hope we get to see Webber have a good start and stay in the lead.
He was at P2 last year but got swamped right at the start.

[gary]

See the partial eclipse in Abu Dhabi!

Full eclipse down at Lake Turkana in Kenya.

[gary]

The BBC reports that Fernando Alonso has been given an all-clear on his back after
a precautionary check requested by the FIA had him visit the hospital.

When he came out of the pits last night and had to avoid Vergne, he bounced over the
kerbs. There are alarms in the car that trigger if forces exceed 18G and apparently
he experienced vertical impact forces of 28G.

Originally Posted by Fernanso Alonso as reported by Andrew Benson, BBC

"I still have all my teeth," Alonso joked after the race, in which he finished fifth. "The back is obviously a little bit painful because it was a big hit.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident.

Story here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24798485

[gts055 (Mark)]

Hii Gary, I did see the brief pan of the camera to the setting sun showing a crescent shaped bite at the horizon side of the sun. I looked in amazement thinking that looks like a partial eclipse, and then heard on the news today of the event in Kenya. I wonder if the camera operator at the track was aware of the partial eclipse. Mark

[simmo]

Any news on Ricciardo. It seemed he lost a lot of positions at the start and went backwards quite a bit for the first few laps. There was no coverage or commentary of what happened to him.

[gary]

Originally Posted by gts055

Hii Gary, I did see the brief pan of the camera to the setting sun showing a crescent shaped bite at the horizon side of the sun. I looked in amazement thinking that looks like a partial eclipse, and then heard on the news today of the event in Kenya. I wonder if the camera operator at the track was aware of the partial eclipse. Mark

Hi Mark,

It would have been pretty widely reported in that part of the world and if the
camera operator had picked up one of the morning papers at the hotel, I am
sure they would have realized what was happening. But obviously Martin Brundle
and Jonathan Legard didn't pick up on it.

It was only when the sunset scene flashed on the screen and knowing that it was New Moon,
I then remembered that one which would only have about 15 seconds of
totality was to take place at Lake Turkana in Kenya in November.

I drove up to Lake Turkana in the mid-90's and it is spectacular drive up through
the desert heading up toward the border of Sudan and Ethiopia. A lot of the
earliest hominid remains have been found in that region. A real cradle of humanity
and it feels it.

When I drove up it was a bit of a hairy place for security and there had been some
clashes between a couple of the local tribes and some killings only the day before.

Plus you could potentially encounter heavily armed shifta (bandits) coming over from
the northern borders as well.

After a briefing at a roadblock by the local constabulary, I remember running
the gauntlet up there sometimes with the pedal planted fully to the metal. It is a long
lonely stretch of road and I remember once the disconcerting view of another vehicle
looming closer in the rear view mirror despite trying to outrun them. Eventually
they zoomed past in a more powerful turbo 4WD and it was a relief that they
were simply some innocent party using the same security strategy of hoofing it
up there.

After the shooting in the mall in Nairobi a few weeks back, those who went up to
Lake Turkana to see the eclipse would have certainly wanted to make security a
high priority.

[gary]

Originally Posted by simmo

Any news on Ricciardo. It seemed he lost a lot of positions at the start and went backwards quite a bit for the first few laps. There was no coverage or commentary of what happened to him.

Hi Simmo,

Despite Daniel being ninth on the grid, he had a really poor start, lost position
before turn one and in the chaos found himself jammed up in the group that
had been behind him. He said that from then his race was pretty much over.

[gary]

As a postscript to the Abu Dhabi race, Alonso did get a sore back from going over
the kerbs and is on anti-inflammatory drugs but will race in Texas this weekend.

Raikkonen's back continues to give him trouble so he is having it operated on
in Salzburg this Thursday and will not race the final two races of the season.

Massa has signed up to join Williams next year.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Reference Kimi, I reckon the fact that he has reportedly not been paid all season may have a helluva lot to do with the fact he is not finishing the season off. Would be using the back as a possible excuse IMO, I know he does have back issues...but I do smell a rat