Biggest upset of the session! Where did Kubica come from?!

BMW

After Q2 it was quite clear he would make it into Q3. I'm just dissapointed that he made a mistake in Q3, he could have been 7th

track can get slower in 20 minutes but bot over 0,5 second slower...

ambient temps were same, the cloud can throw shadow and drop track temps but it does not drop times so much

the cars in Q3 were just adjusted in setup to take 160kg of fuel on board, so they got slower

also driver had to remember they will start race on that tyre set so they could run them like in Q3

the FIA/FOM/FOTA again discover the way to ruin Q3 as the fastest q session

He's in ninth, so at least he's on the racing line.

Really?

I know you meant Q1, just making fun...

I wouldn't worry too much, I think Robert will move up a few places at the start and then attack towards the end of the race.

Good job Renault and Robert, i didnt´expect them in Q3

RK admitted he nearly lost car in T16 and then he pushed hard to recover time. He blocked and flat spotted right front tyre, so he expects problems with vibrations early in the race

Well I think the good thing is the car is competitive with the likes of McLaren and Merc atm, it's within striking distance.

Given we weren't expected to be on P1, it's a strong start I think.

Kubica is just sooooooooo good!

That is going to suck.

Maybe he can do something on the lap before start. Renault is better heavy as Kubica said, so tomorrow might be a nice afernoon. I'm just afraid of Sutil behind . Overall we have to say that Renault has done good job, they're better than expected.

Look on the bright side everyone - Robert will use up the worse tyres on the first stint and can then use the better tyres for the rest, chasing down those who push their tyres too hard at the end of the race. The Renault is good on heavy fuel and so even with a slight flat spot he can work with it - hey, what's to say pitting early wouldn't be a good idea? It could work! We don't know! We'll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.

Pitting early is distaster as you will end up behind all Q2 drivers with slower pace. You will have 1/2 laps window of fresh tyres to pass them and if you fail then you are stucked untill they do their stop.

So, they're rather possitive for tomorrow .

PS. Where have you been barteks

http://translate.google.pl/translate?js=y&...l=en&swap=1

They had some electronic problem with steering wheel and will request FIA to change one tire, because of safety.

Renault & McLaren have to modify their multilayer diffusers for Australian GP in order to meet FIA requirements:

http://en.espnf1.com/bahrain/motorsport/st...tml?CMP=OTC-RSS


@Lord_Shaitan, it was a busy week for me I'm surprised you noticed my absence here.

FFS, FIA again changes the rules after the season starts. Brilliant.

Not that I didn't expect something like that. After all it's Fia1, not Formula1.

what a f*cking bastards.
Anyone knows how serious modifications do they need?

Kubica did much better than I expected. I was figuring the Renault was near the back-end of the midfielders after winter testing. Kubica saying he expected 7th says that they seem to have a solid car.

to Kubica and the Renault team.

So, will he manage to overtake one (or both) of the WDC right before him? Will he manage to defend against Sutil on harder tyres?
I'm so excited about the first GP, like a little child on his birthday

Hi-Res of diffuser:
http://img159.imagevenue.com/img.php?image..._122_186lo.jpg#

Great Thanks

A short Q-Times analysis from my side:
Ferrari and Red Bull, that are the strongest ones, without any doubts, and I don't think that anybody considered that Renault could match them in terms of pace. But similar McLaren and Mercedes (besides some smaller notes about struggling Mercedes) nobody would say yesterday and during the winter that Renault could be a threat for them. The most popular opinion was, that there will be the known TOP 4, and Renault, Williams and Sauber would fight for the BOTR (best of the rest) title.
So lets look how is Renault looking in the BOTR clasification (so with Williams and Sauber) in terms of pace in low fuel qualy runs (I took the Q2 times, becaue the Q3 times were slower, and Kubice had an incident on 16th corner):

11 Robert Kubica Renault 1:54.963
9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:55.330
10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:55.857
12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:56.167 (Q1 time)
22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.237
23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.270
12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:56.619

Taking into account, that Vitaly made an mistake, and his pace is like in Q1 about 1:56.167, then its looking like Renault has for now the pest pace on low fuel. And that's positive

And now lets look at the Q2 times in the McLaren/Mercedes/Renault group:

Nico Rosberg Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 1:54.682
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:54.707
Robert Kubica Renault 1:54.963
Michael Schumacher Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 1:55.105
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.168
Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:56.167 (Q1 time)

Vitaly a total rookie, the pay driver in a possible little slower car than Kubica (no "snorkel" ) is only 1s slower than the actual WDC, Kubica is faster than two WDC's in McL/MB and slower than the other ones in McL/MB, for me it looks like that the pace of Renault, McLaren and Mercedes is pretty similar in low fuel qualy runs for now.

And now the optimistic part:
Looking at the armchair specialist technical indications, it's looking like Renault have better pace in heavy cars, because they should be simply lighter on the start.
Looking at the statements, Robert said, that the new parts bring mainly improvements on high fuel pace, and not so on low fuel.
It looks like, that Renault should be have the better "high fuel" pace than McLaren and Mercedes, and if that's not a very big suprise then what is it?
I'am expecting a very positive start from Kubica, and hope that his tyre issue won't be crucial.
But once again, tomorrow will prove, if my teories are right, or only BS

Let's look at the negatives from today:

-their diffuser got banned
-petrov is basically a piquet at this point
-they are over one second behind red bull and ferrari
-they are about .3 seconds behind mclaren and mercedes
-it's clear they lack downforce, particularly in the front

for this race
-flat spotted tire for kub
-broken differential button on steering wheel for kub
-the above or a mistake caused kub at least 2 spots in qual
-petrov's qual already tells me that he is not of the caliber of hamilton/kubica/rosberg/vettel

positives:

race hasn't happened yet so who knows about race pace

What's the supposed to mean? Piquet was someone who wasn't just useless behind the wheel, he always shifted blame for his mistakes. Petrov made a mistake in turn nine that cost him half a second - he went in too quick - and if he hadn't, he would have been much higher up the order than 17th, and this is his first race. In Piquet's first race, he was eliminated in Q1 and started second-last. Give Petrov some time. After all, he did improve his best lap by over two seconds between FP1 and FP2.

Good reply to my over-optimistic post

A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.

I am hopeful for today... Robert has overcome worse to get good results (Spa 2009, Interlagos 2009)

Come on... you are making a mountain out of a mole-hill... There is no evidence that Petrov has slower car than Kubica. And there is no evidence that this inlet isn't for cooling.

New tyre for Robert: http://f1.pl/Artykul.82+M51c2a035131.0.html

FIA approved thier request.

Hopefully they will change steering wheel too:) is it possible?

That's a good news for Renault.

Good to hear. Robert can make the most of Renault's seemingly excellent heavy fuel pace

Soft Tyre should make 18-20 laps:
http://www.autohebdo.fr/f1/f1/article-25-2...eure-strategie-

It's hard to imagine for me, but maby they are right. Just look at this: http://twitpic.com/18a2yz

R30 is a very very good car, for now there isnt a TOP4, there is a TOP2: RB and Ferrari, almost always the cars so much in the front in quali(by almost a sec) were also in front in the race, so Mclaren and Mercedes are waaay behind, who is front at the beginning will win the Championship, even if you catch em later on, the difference in points will be too big(like Alonso in 2005, Button last year), so its gonna be between RB and Ferrari this year.

Then there is the fight for the 3rd spot, we're in, together with Mclaren, Mercedes and prolly force India. In Q2 where almost every1 went the fastest we were 2-3 tenths off Rosberg and Hamilton, the best of Mercedes and Mclaren.We could have done better as i monitored Roberts laps, he did a 1.54.9 on the first lap of a 3 laps stint, then he went slower, maybe to preserve tyres, having 2 more laps in the tank he could have done a 1.54.7 same result as Rosberg and Mercedes! And quali is our biggest weakness!! We are in GOOD shape.

I think we can fight for the 3rd as a Constructor and 5th spot in quali and in the race, if notting happens with the the Big2. And we all know what Robert did with the 3rd best car in 2008 ;)

@Metal, everything can happen. Don't write off whole season, because there wasn't any race yet.

This year will be much much diffrent than last year. As you said this year are two main competitors at the moment - even if they will be in front, they will split points bettwen them - so this year we won't have domination a la Brawn. Also no team will drop development like it was in 2009. Tittle isn't settled yet.

Bahrain track is very long so diffrences between teams can be bigger. My recipe is: just wait.



Ok, it's less than half an hour. My bet is Kubica will end 6th/7th.

huh

1h 21min at the moment.

yeah yeah my bad, just realized while watching Little Manhattan

Diffusers rumors in case of Renault might be BS. Nothing is questioned by FIA as of now. So good news!

http://twitter.com/rf1paddockpass/status/10464582540

Check reply to rentonB:

http://twitter.com/rf1paddockpass

error is all I see there

there are at least 8 cars with better race pace on the grid. If he is lucky, and there are many dnf's, maybe. But unlikely.

yeah, me too, but:

@rf1paddockpass What about the diffusers can you share something about this with us?

@rentonB Nothing to report at our end on this David. The FIA hasn't contacted us on the matter.

6th if we are lucky.

7th is realistic: Kubica in front of Schumacher and Button

Mercedes and Mclaren have a better pace??? What makes u say that? Have you read my last post?

if you compare Mercedes' solution in here

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/b...-clarification/

and Renault's in exclellent picture posted in post # 3474 you can see Merc solution is way more extreme. Actually it's completely different than Renault. I don't think any big change would be needed for Renault.

Renault fuel consumption advantage has been minimized by other engine suppliers. Info from most reliable polish F1 journalist.