Italian GP in Monza : Free practice sessions.

After the dramatic F1 Belgian Gp, we head to the Italian GP, in Monza (or God’s personal race track). The two free practice sessions were largely dominated by Mercedes team, and Ferrari in the run. Mercedes had 1,2 for Rosberg first Hamilton, Ferrari 3rd, 4th, in favor to Raikkonen. In FP2, there was the same result for constructors except drivers exchanging places. Red Bull was a bit far in the ranks.

The two marking events of the day, were the return of Kevin Magnussen, after being cleared to drive, and Charlie Whiting, having “the talk” with the young Max Verstappen. The young Dutchman was criticized for his aggressive defense against Raikkonen, which was the theme of drivers debrief. Charlie Whiting gave the teenager a soft warning, telling him that what he did could have lead him to disqualification. Of course being a teenager, and being criticized by many of his colleagues, Verstappen prefers not to care, as Horner says.

The first free practice session was dominated by Mercedes F1 team, Roseberg scored 1:22.959, right behind him, was Lewis Hamilton, 2 tenths separating him from the lead. Ferrari was 3rd and 4th, advantage to Raikkonen. Ferrari is doing great results, and closing to Mercedes thanks to new upgrades on the power plant. New elements including a new internal combustion engine, new turbochargers, new MGU-H, new control electronics, and a anew energy store were used for the Italian GP, and with this Ferrari has used all of its 32 tokens of development. Next time Ferrari will bring an update, it may risk the penalty. In FP1 Raikkonen did a 1:24.074 and Vettel did 1:24.307 which is a bit more than a second away from Rosberg’s time. In FP2, Ferrari closed the gap to the lead. to just 4 tenths for Vettel and 6 tenths for Raikkonen.

Haas did benefit from Ferrari new power unit, with less changes, the results were impressive, 6th place for Grosjean, 1,804 off the lead and 9th for Gutierrez, 2 seconds off. The results for the FP2 were not as good, but the team is confident that the results tomorrow will be better. Force India’s Perez kept with the 5th place, done with super soft tires. Force India ran with three drivers : Perez (5th in FP1, 13th in FP2), Alfonso Celis (who is Force India’s reserve driver, who did an impressive 1éth position) and Nico Hulkenberg who ended the FP2 being 12th.

One other remarkable result, is this of McLaren–Honda. Even with difficulties for Alonso wit the gear box and the clutch, he finished in the top ten for the FP2, being a second and a half off the lead. Button looks forward to being a fourth time in Q3 tomorrow.

Massa, after announcing retirement at the end of this season, had his fair share of difficulties, with a boost problem in his Mercedes power unit. He could only achieve 14th and 11th place today. Ocon had a problem with his car which engendered a virtual safety car call.

Results of the two sessions are as below :

PRACTICE ONE TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m22.959s	–	37
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m23.162s	0.203s	36
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m24.047s	1.088s	16
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m24.307s	1.348s	17
5	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m24.650s	1.691s	32
6	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m24.763s	1.804s	17
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m24.785s	1.826s	37
8	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m24.982s	2.023s	25
9	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari	1m25.113s	2.154s	19
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m25.120s	2.161s	17
11	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1m25.351s	2.392s	23
12	Alfonso Celis	Force India/Mercedes	1m25.367s	2.408s	30
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m25.507s	2.548s	14
14	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m25.840s	2.881s	18
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m25.853s	2.894s	20
16	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m25.973s	3.014s	20
17	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m26.074s	3.115s	20
18	Esteban Ocon	Manor/Mercedes	1m26.391s	3.432s	30
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1m26.439s	3.480s	21
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	1m26.762s	3.803s	28
21	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m26.811s	3.852s	35
22	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1m26.956s	3.997s	32

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Practice Two timesheet
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:22.801
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, + 0.193
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, + 0.453
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, + 0.626
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, + 0.931
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, + 1.202
7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1.458
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, + 1.498
9. Romain Grosjean, Haas, + 1.715
10. Jenson Button, McLaren, + 1.748
11. Felipe Massa, Williams, + 1.755
12. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, + 1.786
13. Sergio Perez, Force India, + 1.852
14. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, + 1.873
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, + 2.180
16. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, + 2.282
17. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, + 2.439
18. Esteban Ocon, Manor, +2.474
19. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, + 2.754
20. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, + 2.813
21. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, + 2.842
22. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, + 3.032

 

 

Spa Francorchamps : Qualification

The qualification for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix was pretty intense today, marked by the high temperatures. Roseberg had the pole, with a 1:46.744 time, the 5th for him this season, beating Max Verstappen by a tenth and a half, Ferrari had a second row lock and fifth was Daniel Ricciardo, with a 1:47.216.

Roseberg and Verstappen times were posted in the first runs, the Mercedes and Red Bull driver did an astonishing fast lap each but couldn’t improve on the last runs. Verstappen becomes the youngest man ever to be on a front row. He is doing a stunning season so far, with a win already in his pocket. He goes on aggressive defense, and doesn’t give a quarter when attacking, so we maybe looking at his second win tomorrow. Behind him with a new diffuser, and 4 Spa wins, is Ferrari‘s Ice man, who was first in the FP3 session, and beating his team mate by two tenths of a second. Raikkonen maybe interested in another win, especially that the coast is clear, and there is just a Mercedes in front of him.

Raikkonen didn’t have a good first run, going off the track at Stavolet, the car went sideways, but he did not lose control, which made him cut on his lap time and go directly to the pits, on his fast lap he improved on his time, and posted a 1:46.910. It was his best time for the day. He outqualified Sebastian Vettel, by two tenth of a second, strategy will play tomorrow. Raikkonen has more points in the championship than Vettel, but the German has a more aggressive driving. He also has one of the best race starts, so, if everything goes well for him, he can see to skip the two drivers in the first line and go for the win.

Jenson Button who is racing in his 15th Spa Grand Prix edition, posted the 9th time. His team mate faced many difficulties, and was racing Hamilton backwards to the last place, he ended up having it. Alonso did not post a qualification time, he was the only driver to do so. McLaren–Honda is still on the struggle, after more than a year back to F1.

All eyes were on Hamilton, with a 55 grid place penalty, after two MGU-H and turbo unit failure, a third replacement, he stand on the before last position. He did a slow enough lap to keep him in the 107% time. Hamilton was eliminated in the Q1, he did 1:50.033, it kept him in the race, a race on which there are many gambles. Note that he has a 19 points advantage on the F1 world championship to his team mate.

The Force India team had a strong qualification session, the two drivers finished 6th and 7th, with the best time going to Sergio Perez. The race tomorrow could be in his advantage, being the driver who knows best how to manage his tyres and makes them last longer.

Deception for Williams, with the 8th time for Valteri Bottas and 10th time for Felipe Massa. Massa had a misfire in his outing lap, he wasn’t satisfied with the regulated tyre pressure, and it is going to be another long night for the Williams team if they want to have a decent race tomorrow.

This is the provisional grid for Tomorrow, of course, drivers like Gutierrez, Hamilton, Alonso and Ericsson will have grid penalties to serve, the advantage was to Mercedes power units, despite being the longest circuit in the F1 calendar, it had two long straight, and mainly fast turns. Ferrari had the advantage in the second sector, which has more turns to be dealt with.

Acura NSX

Good news kept on coming from the Detroit Auto Show, car makes really brought their A game to the show. Ford impressed everyone with the coming back of the Ford GT, and it is not the only one with a good comeback, Acura has something to say too, and has brought the NSX back to life.

The NSX was first seen in 1990, its main goal was to compete against the Italian giant, Ferrari, and it proved itself good. It had the supercar spirit, was reliable, also made in Japan, it did a good job. With the newest Acura, Honda is planning to come back in the supercars game, to rewrite its name in history. The first time ever for the concept to be revealed was two years ago, in this same auto show, a year later, Honda gave a glimpse about its interior, and now, they offer the whole package. Honda representatives said that they will be taking orders starting August, at 150k$ the piece.

What you will notice first, it is that the NSX has really evolved, in shape and in spirit. The new NSX is 5.1 inches wider, has an 11.0 inches longer wheelbase and is one inch higher, it surely has been drinking its milk. It looks futuristic, aggressive, ready to devour the tarmac anytime. It comes with a twin-turbocharged DOHC V6 , coupled to three electric motors. The V6 sits in the rear of the car, the electric motors mounted, one rear-drive, and two front-drives. The engines are all coupled to a 9-speed dual-clutch transmission. While on hybrid, the three electric motors send extra torque to the wheels, thanks to Honda’s program Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-wheel-drive system. The V6 engine needs more air, hence the big vents in the sides.

The body is made of Aluminium, high-strength steel, carbon-fiber and other advanced elements, so it is expected to be lightweight. But no, the extra engines, and gadgets, lift the car weight up to 3500 pounds, which is 500 more compared to the older NSX. In the front, the five-block headlamps have left place to skinny rows of six LED’s which are underscored by a thin strip of LED DRL’s. It has new designed ducts. Body panels are made from aluminium. And in the rear, the car has a thin bar of LED lamps. The NSX sits on 19-inch wheels in the front and 20-inch in the rear, that hide six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers carbon-ceramic brakes.

The interior doesn’t get less good treating, it follows the same philosophy as the older NSX “Human Support Cockpit”. It offers to the driver exceptional control, visibility and packaging. The interior is comfortable, has two tones, red and black. Elements used are aluminum (for the structural components) and leather, to cover the whole deal. The car has a TFT instruments cluster, that allows the driver to better control his car, and to chose the drive modes according to his tastes. There are four driving modes : Quiet, Sport, Sport+, and Track.

So, NSX, the car long waited for by car fans, wont be sold until August, until then, people at Honda will be working on fixing fewer details, even on buffing the engines up.