Spanish GP Post Qualifying updates

For the first time this year Sebastian Vettel will not start from Pole. Mark Webber took Pole ahead of his team mate while Lewis Hamilton is the best among the non Red Bulls starting from third. The dominance of Red Bulls this year and particularly at this Grand Prix cannot be ignored. We are into the fifth Grand Prix of the year and Webber's qualifying time is a whole second ahead of Hamilton's time. If the Red Bulls get away to a clean start it might be that the rest of the teams would be fighting for third onwards.

Fernando Alonso qualified in fourth and he was might happy with his effort. While Massa struggled to eighth, Alonso split the McLarens. Ferrari brought a new rear wing which was deemed illegal by the FIA after Friday practice. The team had to revert to older spec rear wing from FP3 onwards. Alonso is now in a great position as Ferrari have been able to manage their tyres better during the race. Even better than Red Bull one might say. Alonso would be aiming for the podium at the very least.

For this race Pirelli's have brought a new hard tyre compound which isn't to the liking of many drivers. The problem mainly being that although more durable the difference in lap times between the hard and soft is more than 1.5 to seconds. Now for teams trying to solve their grip issues the harder tyre compounds the problem. Teams primarily chose to save their soft tyres as much as possible during qualifying. For qualifying and the race the teams are given a total of 6 sets of tyres (3 soft and 3 hard). With the most likely scenario of running on the hard tyre once during the race, teams chose to save an many new sets of softs as possible. Force India ran only the harder tyres during Q2 of qualifying. Nico Rosberg ran on an used set of softs for his Q3 flying lap. Michael Schumacher chose not to set a time in Q3 thereby he has a choice of tyres from which to start the race. In the case of Schumacher, he was forced into that situation due to a KERS problem on his car.

Update on Robert Kubica's condition

Monday, Feb 7th: As many of you would know that Robert Kubica driving a Skoda Fabia met with a serious accident at the Ronda de Andora rally. Kubica was airlifted to Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure. Kubica suffered multiple fractures to his right hand and leg. Also he has suffered from deep cuts to his fore arm.

Kubica underwent a 7 hour surgery at the hospital under the guidance of Igor Rossello, Director for the Regional Centre of Hand Surgery at San Paolo Hospital in Savona. Rossello said that Kubica's right forearm was cut in two places with lesions to the bones and tendons. A team of seven doctors split into two teams completed the operation. Rosello said that they did their best to rebuild the functionality of the right forearm.

As of now Kubica is placed under induced coma and will be woken up early in the morning. Another update is expected from the Lotus Renault F1 team at 9:30 am CET.

We wish Kubica a very speedy recovery

2011 Pre-Season Test 1 Day 1 at Valencia - Report

Prior to the start of the tests Red Bull Racing, Mercedes GP and Williams F1 unveiled their 2011 cars. Mercedes GP 2011 car, the MGP W02 looked remarkably different when compared to the 2010 car. The livelry had a shiner look unlike last year's dull look and also the nose of the car is quite similar to that of Ferrari and Red Bull.

Every year fans and teams alike watch out for innovations in F1. This year Renault F1's exhaust system is interesting - why because they are invisible. The exhaust outlets in the Renault F1 most likely emerge from the front of the car rather than the rear. More light on this should emerge as the tests progress. Renault are most likely trying out a variation of the blown diffuser by channeling the air from the front of the body work. Renault have said their car this year is daring and revolutionary.

For most part of the day Nico Hulkenberg topped the test times. Hulkenberg debuting for Force India drove their 2010 car. But later in the afternoon session Sebastian Vettel took the top honors setting the fastest time. Vettel completed a total of 93 laps in the RB7, sufficient mileage for a new car on day 1. Fernando Alonso completed the most laps on day 1 - 98 laps.

Nico Rosberg didn't have a good day and finished his effort for the day by causing a red flag after stopping his car along the start-finish straight. The German could only finish 15 laps in the day and finished last about 2 seconds off the pace of Narian Karthikeyan.

Karthikeyan was back in the cockpit of an F1 car after a gap of more than 4 years and Paul di Resta made his first appearance for Force India as race driver.

Michael Schumacher had a sampling of the new Pirelli tyres in the afternoon session. The former champion completed 15 laps and finished behind Vitaly Petrov in 9th.

McLaren chose to test with Gary Paffet in the 2010 car. McLaren, HRT and Force India were the teams running their last year cars.

Missing in action was Team Lotus. Team Lotus launched their car a day ago but weren't around for today.

Pos  Driver             Constructor         Time      Laps
1    Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull Racing     1:13:769  93
2    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India         1:13:938  71
3    Gary Paffett       McLaren             1:14:292  91
4    Paul di Resta      Force India         1:14:461  28
5    Fernando Alonso    Ferrari             1:14:553  98
6    Kamui Kobayashi    Sauber              1:15:621  68
7    Jerome D’Ambrosio  Virgin Racing       1:16:003  71
8    Vitaly Petrov      Lotus Renault       1:16:351  28
9    Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP         1:16:450  15
10   Jaime Alguersuari  Toro Rosso          1:17:214  20
11   Rubens Barrichello Williams            1:17:335  78
12   Narain Karthikeyan HRT                 1:18:020  45
13   Nico Rosberg       Mercedes GP         1:19:930  9