2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

[Dan360]

*Grabs computer, goes online to Formula1.com to check qualy results. Looks at the front page*

WAIT, WHAT??????????

Hahaha, same here.

So, I guess he was lucky to get the perfect conditions.

I'll check for the qualy highlights tomorrow.

 

[The Outlaw]

It was drying conditions though. Also, hulkenburg is a much faster qualifyer then racer. I want him to win though, especially after that lap. He put in his lap and I said Alonso will beat it, he didn't, Webber will beat it, he didn't, Hamilton will beat it, he didn't, come on now, Vettel will beat him, nope. Hulkenburg is then coming up the hill and goes a second faster, and this is a very short track.

I would love to see him win as well. I think he has great potential (up there with the other brillant youngsters Hamilton/Vettel) and is continuing to improve at an alarming rate. With that said I sure hope a quality team picks him up for next year - would be great to see him at Renault (in place of Petrov) along side Kubica.

Great job by Hulkenberg but I think if the other drivers had time for an extra lap they would beat his time as the track conditions were improving every lap. He was in the right place at the right time and he used it well.

He definitely used it well, although I don't think the fact that he was one of the last cars on the track really made the difference between getting pole and not getting it. Hulk only put his time in ~ a half lap after most of the others guys though. IMO that amount of time (say a half lap) wouldn't have meant a 1+ second advantage due to the circuit drying. Fair play to him as well, as Alonso probably could have qualied a bit higher (in front of Lewis at least) but seemed to have made a mistake which cost him several tenths on his last lap.

 

[Tornado]

Qualifying was pretty awesome. I wanna see if Hulkenburg can push out the same speed today in the race.

 

[Antti-san]

I know I'm a little late to the party, but congratulations to Hulkenberg for the impressive drive and the first pole position of his career! 👍 The start tomorrow should be interesting...

 

[Tornado]

It was drying conditions though.

Alonso finished his final lap about 10 seconds before Hulkenburg did.

 

[Enigma]

Great job by Hulkenberg but I think if the other drivers had time for an extra lap they would beat his time as the track conditions were improving every lap. He was in the right place at the right time and he used it well.

I don't think that's the case, Im pretty sure Nico's 2nd last lap was still 5 tenths quicker than Vettels final lap time.

 

[yeti]

I don't think that's the case, Im pretty sure Nico's 2nd last lap was still 5 tenths quicker than Vettels final lap time.

Pretty much correct - his last but one lap had Pole... his last lap beat it by a second...

C.

 

[Sureboss]

His penultimate lap was a tenth quicker.

Hulkenberg adapted to the conditions in Q3 better than anyone else.

 

[maximumattack]

I'll check for the qualy highlights tomorrow.

Why bother waiting until tomorrow, if you are in the UK you could just go here & fast forward to about 1.49.00 if you only wanted to watch Q3. 💡

 

[chromatic9]

Yeah he was just more braver than the rest in those part greasy/drying conditions. Parts of the track would've been like a dry lap and he put the hammer down. Really pleased for him.

Opportunity missed for Hamilton and others, they had more to lose too but the track was there. Expecting an awesome race.

 

[daan]

Why bother waiting until tomorrow, if you are in the UK you could just go here & fast forward to about 1.49.00 if you only wanted to watch Q3. 💡

Perhaps he doesn't have the time just now.

 

[Enigma]

His penultimate lap was a tenth quicker.

Hulkenberg adapted to the conditions in Q3 better than anyone else.

Correct, my mistake. Interesting how that lap would still have got him pole even though he done it before Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Webber completed their final laps on a drying track.

 

[maximumattack]

Perhaps he doesn't have the time just now.

Maybe not, I don't know.

I suggested it in case he or anyone else wasn't aware that the service was there.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I would love to see him win as well. I think he has great potential (up there with the other brillant youngsters Hamilton/Vettel) and is continuing to improve at an alarming rate. With that said I sure hope a quality team picks him up for next year - would be great to see him at Renault (in place of Petrov) along side Kubica.

I think Williams is the perfect team for him to mature in, especially with a team-mate as Barrichello. Because, after all, Barrichello is probably bar none the best team-mate to have to receive tips and tricks and to evolve your driving style.

I'm not so sure on The Hulk yet. His performance to grab pole was phenomenal, but other than that there's not so much as of yet which makes me to believe The Hulk is better than any other rookie this season. He still has his moments in which he seems ready to drive straight to hell and drag some opponents with him.

 

[Sureboss]

Correct, my mistake. Interesting how that lap would still have got him pole even though he done it before Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Webber completed their final laps on a drying track.

Completely mutes the suggestions about him having the best conditions imo.

That was such an incredible qualifying session. The race tomorrow could not be more interestingly poised.

 

[Matti_Dude]

He might not win tomorrow but he could still mix things up at the top. It's supposed to be a dry race tomorrow so the Red Bulls will be quick, but I think Nico will stand a good chance of holding them off if he gets away cleanly.

 

[Ardius]

Ah, its nice to finally see Williams at the top again, it has been far, far too long. I don't think anyone expects Hulk to win tomorrow but at the very least we can hope to see him hold on till the pit stops.

So thats 5 years in a row of singular surprise results/events (Button/Hungary 2006, Sato/Canada 2007, Vettel/Italy 2008, Fisichella/Belgium 2009).

The championship is still well alive too.

Offtopic: And since when was I a premium member? This is almost as shocking as the pole position!

 

[The Outlaw]

I think Williams is the perfect team for him to mature in, especially with a team-mate as Barrichello. Because, after all, Barrichello is probably bar none the best team-mate to have to receive tips and tricks and to evolve your driving style.

I'm not so sure on The Hulk yet. His performance to grab pole was phenomenal, but other than that there's not so much as of yet which makes me to believe The Hulk is better than any other rookie this season. He still has his moments in which he seems ready to drive straight to hell and drag some opponents with him.

Well, IMO he's certainly performed better than Petrov (the only other certified "rookie" in the established teams) and has shown far greater improvement over the course of the season, which is probably the most important thing (to make steady improvement) when you are a rookie in F1 . As of late (especially today) he's also become much more of a threat to Barichello in terms of pace and extracting the best possible result out of the car. With this said, I feel that most of Hulkenburg's performances of late have been on the complete opposite spectrum compared to the other rookie, Petrov.

 

[Ardius]

Although Petrov did well today, but his issue lately is his raceday performance...he keeps dropping it when under pressure, he was ahead of Kubica (albeit due to strategy) at Korea until he binned it.

I think Petrov has done well enough for a rookie and has earnt a seat in F1 2011. However, the problem is does he deserve the Renault seat when they have much higher aspirations? Renault could well have been challenging Mercedes this year if they had had someone like Glock or Kovalainen in Petrov's seat. Thats the problem.

Petrov would be well placed at Toro Rosso or Force India, he has done enough to earn that in my opinion, he has shown flashes of speed and ability and simply needs some time to refine. Maybe Hispania should give him a call for the Lada money?

 

[Dan360]

Why bother waiting until tomorrow, if you are in the UK you could just go here & fast forward to about 1.49.00 if you only wanted to watch Q3. 💡

I'm on my phone, and it doesn't support iPlayer. Instead, I read the live text feed on BBC, just to get a rough idea of qualifying. Besides, the best bits will be covered tomorrow, in the pre-race coverage.

I want to see that Hulkenburg lap, even though I understand that it was just a quick 'dry lap'. Following his pole, he said, "...follow the dry areas of the track." So I guess the racing line wasn't completly dry, when others set their hot laps.

 

[Aldo]

Bloody nora! The one qually I miss and it turns out to be the most interesting...
I need to see this sometime before the race starts on iPlayer.

 

[maximumattack]

I'm on my phone, and it doesn't support iPlayer. Instead, I read the live text feed on BBC, just to get a rough idea of qualifying. Besides, the best bits will be covered tomorrow, in the pre-race coverage.

I want to see that Hulkenburg lap, even though I understand that it was just a quick 'dry lap'. Following his pole, he said, "...follow the dry areas of the track." So I guess the racing line wasn't completly dry, when others set their hot laps.

Ah right, I see.

Hulkenburg drove his car really well to get pole, it didn't look like it was very easy to do going by the in car footage, which I'm sure they will show you in the build up tomorrow. The racing line isn't completely dry by the look of it & also the way he's wrestling the steering wheel on the way out of some of the corners shows that he must have had a few twitchy bum moments on the way round.

Everyone was pretty much on track at the same time, so it wasn't a case of him having any sort of track advantage. He had a better drive than everyone else & as a result has found himself at the front of the grid for the start tomorrow.

I think the race is going to be exciting from the start, I'm really looking forward to it.

The in car pole lap is here if anyone wants to see it 👍

(UK only though)

 

[happycorey]

Sounds like Hulkenburg really showed his talent and skill today to grab pole 👍

Glad to see Alonso 5th

 

[Robin]

It would be nice to see Hulkenberg at least have a podium finish tomorrow, unfortunately he choose the wrong part of the year to pull this off!

 

[The Outlaw]

Why does it matter? A podium is a podium (and worth the same amount of points) and has the same impact on the championship standings regardless of when or where it is achieved.

 

[Dan360]

I've watched the video, and the first thing I noticed was Hulkenburg had soft tires on his pole lap. How about the other top ten drivers?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I doubt anyone went on the hards, so soft tires.

 

[malex722]

Really pleased to see Hulkenberg on pole, its always good to see a new name at the top. Unfortunately for him I dont think he'll be able to keep it up for the race, Id be surprised if he's still in a podium position 3 laps in to be honest.

 

[Ardius]

It would be nice to see Hulkenberg at least have a podium finish tomorrow, unfortunately he choose the wrong part of the year to pull this off!

Surely this was the best time to do this? Especially when there are question marks over your race seat? Its better to end the year on a high than start well and end badly, it suggests the future is bright.
Look what it did for Fisichella, he now has a very cushy job he would otherwise never have had.

 

[MarkWebber]

Relieved Webber and Vettel both secured a top 3 result with their final laps And doubly relieved Alonso had a slightly disappointing session. Hope Webber can hold off Hamilton off the line, to maintain at least a 2 place buffer over Alonso.